White Shirts....Yellow Britches...

I won't finish the rest of the chant but you can better believe I was screaming my little heart out on Saturday as Elle and I watched our Ole Miss Rebels barely beat the LSU tigers!! It's a good thing Elle is deaf because if she wasn't already - she would have been after that football game! Elle was decked out in her most current red and blue - courtesy of Aunt Eldy and Uncle Matt. I think if we lived in Mississippi, Elle's wardrobe would be mostly Ole Miss paraphernalia...we live in Texas and she wears a new Ole Miss outfit every Saturday. It's a good thing football season is almost over because I don't know that they make too many more Ole Miss outfits that we don't already own. I guess we're moving to custom orders next! Speaking of custom orders, a friend of a friend has her own monogramming business and if I do say so myself - i am in love with all things monogrammed. So is my mom - which shocks me that Elle doesn't have too many things sporting her adorable initials. You can check out My Little Pumpkin Designs here! I'm such a huge fan of all things homemade. God has blessed all you talented people out there and I am just amazed at the creativity and gifts you have! Like my friend Shannon - I wish I had 1/10 the talent she has - she just never ceases to amaze me! Shannon donated a painting for the Wee Dream silent auction. The custom painting brought in over $100.00 and I can't wait to see what she creates for the lucky winners!! I happen to be best friends with the winner's daughter - so I'm pretty sure I will get to see the Shannon Jex original!

I spent the morning helping my friends get ready for a baby shower for our wonderful far away friend from Alaska. Technically, she from here but as her blog says..."Home is Where the Army Sends You"...so right now, Alaska is home! We had a lot to celebrate - not only getting a chance to see her but also getting a chance to celebrate the little baby boy that is coming in March. This baby shower meant so much to all of us because K and her hubs have been trying to get pregnant for a very long time. When it finally happened, thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, K's hubby was in Afghanistan. The Lord works in the most mysterious and gracious ways because a position became available back home in Alaska - her hubs interviewed for it - and got it! So instead of being deployed up until the due date, he is now getting to enjoy being with his beautiful wife while they welcome their first child. The day I found out about K's pregnancy - I had to pull over because I was crying so hard. I cry a lot these days - but mostly from things that touch my heart and this truly does. I am so thrilled for them and they are going to be the best parent's to their little Alaskan Army baby! It was so much fun to get to visit with everyone and see people I haven't seen in a long time. Never in a million years would I picture my beautiful friend living in Alaska with her Army hubs...but I guess all that fresh air has done them good because she was beautiful...and (of course) glowing!! I have 3 friends that are all expecting in the month of March - and this was the first of many more showers for all my girls (and the soon to be little girl and 2 little boys)!

Our little giraffe...her shirt has giraffes and hippos on it! Reggie was in love with Elle's socks...

Elle re started her occupational therapy on Animal Print Friday. She really wasn't too interested in taking the bottle - or eating baby food. She was super busy though...talking and wiggling the entire time we were there. I gave her a bottle the evening before while she was distracted in her exersaucer - and she took 30cc. Of course - a lot ended up on her face - but that was the most she has ever taken.

We are back with our wonderful therapist from pre surgery and she gave me a lot of exercises to do with Elle to strengthen her mouth/lips. I hate being so dependent on the feeding tube and I wish that Elle would take a bottle - or breast feed - but she just doesn't seem to want to do either one. I know that it will be in God's perfect timing as to when or if she ever takes a bottle. She is a very perceptive little girl and she now associates the feeding tube with being fed. She knows that when the milk goes into the feeding tube - it's time for her to eat. We sign "eat" and "milk" and "hungry"to her before each feed and I think she is now starting to recognize those signs. Her face lights up when you sign "eat" to her. This isn't shocking if you have ever seen her chunky monkey legs...she's a little chunk!

Elle working on tummy time - she loves tags so we tempt her with tags to get her to lift up her head!

Tomorrow Elle will be 8 months old. It's quite fitting that Thanksgiving is only a few short days away because we have so much to be thankful for. Angie emailed me on Saturday to tell us that she was sending us a check for a huge sum of money from the Wee Dream Foundation. It couldn't come at a more perfect time because I found out on Thursday that my company is dropping health insurance. Elle is covered under my insurance. Thankfully, we can add her to Lee's and the coverage is just about the same. So it's really not that big of an ordeal - but with new insurance, comes more bills and more ways of figuring out the system. It was nice with our current plan because I had a case manager I could call at a moment's notice and ask her all sorts of questions. When you spend as much time in the hospital as we have - you get personal service from the insurance company! I am really not looking forward to having to re-fill out all the paperwork from all our doctor's with our new insurance information on it. Oh well - guess this mean I should probably aim to be a few minutes early to all our appointments!!

We have a busy week this week with a few appointments before Thanksgiving. Lee and I still are on the fence about what to do about Thanksgiving but we are leaning towards staying here and keeping Elle away from large groups of people. My family is huge and so is Lee's and it still makes us both so nervous to even think about her getting sick. I know all our family really wants to see her in person and not in a photo but right now, the risk is just too great. She gets her second set of flu and rsv shots at the beginning of December so after that, I think we will both feel a little more comfortable taking her to Christmas celebrations with the families. It is still mind boggling that it is already Thanksgiving!!