Happy Girl

From July 2009

From July 2009

From July 2009

From July 2009

Ellie's First Fair and Pig Show!

Ellie and her cousin, Bodee playing at Grandma and Grandpa Weber's House!

From July 2009

Well, Ellie and I had a wonderful time at the North Iowa Fair! Although the trip is always too short! I was super nervous about flying with Ellie by myself, but she was such a good girl that is actually made it a lot easier. It was great seeing family and experiencing the hog shows again! Although, I was super sad because the fair just isn't the same. Numbers for the shows were down, the amount of open class vegetable exhibits were down...it was just depressing. Hopefully the fairs will revive again SOON! That's an experience I grew up with that I just cannot see die!

From July 2009

From July 2009

From July 2009

My nephews, Cedric, Garett and Kahle, and my niece, Amelia showed pigs in the Open Hog Show. Grandpa had been keeping them at his farm just for them! Garett and Amelia even got to show in the Championship Drive! Amelia won the Grand Champion trophy! It was fun! We haven't had good pigs in a long time - probably since Micah and I were showing together. I did get to help Amelia show because her pig was being a little wild. Can't believe my showing years were almost 10 years ago! Crazy! What's Ellie up to these days: 1. She's still scooting, but has mastered the push backwards to sit up all by myself. It's pretty cute. 2. She eats banana puffs. It's so weird and amazing to see her feed herself and use the four teeth she has (ok, and gums) 3. She's getting to where she pulls herself up in her crib and even did at Aunt Wendy's on the couch - for the remote! Imagine that! 4. She's eating babyfood three times a day with mom and dad at the table...and a lot of it too..well, a lot for Ellie! 5. She loves to wave her arms up and down and we call it her little dance! 6. Still adjusting to the new crib - just a new "look" when she goes to sleep. 7. She stares at you at first if she doesn't know you. Don't worry though, Daddy got the stare when we got back from Iowa. He said 4 days was clearly too long to be away.

All your prayer warriors... please pray for Avery

We'd really appreciate prayers for Avery Mae Durst (born at 30 weeks last night and has some complications)...my sister's best friend's little baby....please pray! Welcome to the world Avery!

Ellie's got a brand new...Doctor!

Well, we finally found a pediatrician we like. Dr.Audrey was recommended to us by Dr.Duff actually. They did their residency in Oklahoma together. So it was nice to have that connection. She's great. We had a doctor consultation with her to get to know her and talk about Ellie's health history. She obviously has handled a few preemies in her day and of course knew all the language we were speaking! Asked about all of her potential issues. She said they would actually set up follow up appts through their office - cardiologist, ophthalmologist, and even a pulmonologist just to see if Ellie would need a second season for Synagis during RSV season. She also said she could assist us in getting ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) set up here where she would qualify for it until age 3 (through the major developmental things like crawling, walking). This is a continuation of what Jeannette (our occupational therapist) helped us with before - although I think it'll be run a bit differently. The commute to her office is about 10 minutes although it depends on traffic! It is closer to the "hospital district"...so not used to a city with more than one hospital to choose from! It's close to the Ronald McDonald House too! Oh, and this place actually is open for sick kids on Saturday/Sunday and there is no charge to call a triage nurse! Even though we all know my sister, Wendy is our personal triage nurse :) Love ya Wen! :) All in all, we were both happy in choosing Dr. Audrey as Ellie's pediatrician! We've scheduled her 1 year well-check...weird! We pray we don't have to actually see Dr. Audrey until then!

Barnyard Buddies

Even before Ellie was born, we had decided to do a barnyard theme for a "nursery" someday...we thought it was good for a boy or girl! 7hyghb (that was Ellie's typing by the say) And even though she is still sharing a room with us, we do finally have enough room for a crib and cute bedding. We sure got a lot of use out of the pack n play that's for sure! So Ben and I celebrated our 4th anniversary yesterday! Wahoo! But what did we end up doing for the evening? Ben came home a little early with flowers! What a great surprise! I did make some Oregano Chicken for a nice dinner. But the rest of the night we set up the crib! Oh how things change once you have a little one. It was fun though...Ellie just kept staring at her crib and had a hard time going to sleep! She kept getting her legs stuck between the bars and would flip to her tummy! Here are some cute pictures. I put the blanket in there too for the pictures! (Of course I had to have a bedding set with a PIG!) Oh, and speaking of PIGS...Ellie and I are going on a spontaneous trip back to Iowa for the North Iowa Fair! YAY! We're so excited to see my Iowa family!

From July 2009

From July 2009

From July 2009

Texas Transitions

Well, I wish I could say wow...we're doing so well and LOVE it here...but I'm just not quite there yet. Transitions are hard. We had such a great support network in Manhattan and it's just hard to move to a new place where you have to start all over again. This transition has been hard being so far away from family! This transition is hard because it's so different than anything Ben and I were used to before. We only knew the "college" bubble, and now we're in the working/stay at home mom world. It's not bad, it's just a tough transition. I remember when life was so crazy our last semester finishing up our Master's degrees and working - longing for the time to get a break and for life to slow down. AND now that I'm here...I'm wondering if it's just a tad too slow! I am trying to be more ok with the place that God has us now, and take joy in the pace of life that is a little slower. (However, not much longer as Ellie is becoming quite mobile these days - not crawling yet, but still). I'm just doing a lot of things that are quite frankly new to me. I've clearly never stayed at home before full-time. I've always been in a work/class atmosphere where quite honestly it was naturally easy for me to make friends. Things are getting better. We have met more people than just the Anderson's now (although we do love you dearly! :) Yippee! We actually ventured toward Dallas and met up with Lee, an old college friend on Friday night (which was a super nice reward after standing in line for 2.5 hours to get our driver's license, not even kidding!). Saturday we went to a fellowship dinner with some people from Trinity Chapel. So that was great too! I've met two other moms in the apartment complex and we're going to start hanging out more. And then another friend of a friend, actually relative, and I are getting together today (with our kiddos) for lunch and she's going to show me where the Ronald McDonald House in Fort Worth is....as well as the hospital district...which I pray we never have to use! I have another consultation with a pediatrician (this one Dr.Duff recommended I guess from med school/residency or something) tomorrow. Hopefully I'll feel better about this one than the last. The last place they charged $ for even calling the triage nurse after hours! Not cool in my book! All in all, things are looking brighter...but just moving and transitions are HARD!

Fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House August 15

Team Gramkow will be traveling to Kansas on the August 15th weekend for Ellie's NICU follow-up appt at Stormont Vail on Friday, August 14 and THEN... we'll be speaking at the Denim to Diamonds Annual Fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House of NE Kansas in Topeka, KS at the Crown Plaza Hotel. If anyone wants tickets ($50 a ticket...remember it's a fundraiser!) let me know!!!! *Had to post another photo!* Here's Ellie deep in thought!

From July 2009

Yummy Green Beans!

From July 2009

I completely forgot to post about how our little Ellie is just growing and changing so fast! She's eating solids these days! She's not a huge fan of rice cereal anymore however. So far we've tried green beans, peas, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, oh, and some oatmeal cereal. Some days are better than others, but if I've learned anything from Ellie's eating struggles before, it's "just take it one day at a time" and she's still queen of pursing her lips closed when she's done! She's eating about 6 oz. per feeding, so that's pretty good. We're trying the sippy cup, but she just likes to chew on it for now!

From July 2009

She's also doing the "ooh" face and will lick her lips when she's hungry. Again - getting really good at communicating! Although the little smiling girl wants attention all the time. She's mastered the smiling to be the center of attention. We took her to church yesterday and then tried Sunday school afterward and she was a good girl the whole time. She smiled and would chime in when she wanted to say something! Scooting - YES! Ellie hasn't crawled yet, but boy she's a good scooter! She can cover some great length on the floor these days by rolling over and scooting! She can roll from her back to her belly and will go the opposite as well. She also sits up on her own very well! I don't even use the back up pillow anymore! She's also gotten very good at reaching in front of her while sitting up and then to her tummy to get the toy! The last few days, Ben and I have been in amazement because she's just growing up so fast! So expressive and becoming so mobile! She turned 10 months this week! Happy 10 month Birthday princess! Oh, and look at my cute dress I got from Gma Gramkow!

From June 2009

Gma & Gpa came to visit for the 4th holiday and we spent one day touring the historic stockyards! Ellie saw her 1st Texas cattle drive. Although we were a little disappointed there were only about 7 longhorn cattle in the drive. Oh well, guess it couldn't be "totally" like it used to be!

From July 2009