Happy 4th of July!

We are thankful for so much this 4th of July. I remember last year's 4th as we were disappointed to have to celebrate 4th of July without Ella. This year we were so excited to celebrate the 4th as a complete family! This is Ella's first 4th as an American citizen!!!

We had a great day, filled with love, thankfulness, and fun! Here's how we spent our 4th of July 09:

We started off our day taking a little trip to St. Louis to welcome the Outman Family home from Ethiopia with their twin boys! It was great to see Phelix and Phisher for the first time! They are absolutely precious!

While the girls went to St. Louis, the boys stayed home and went to the fireworks store (the highlight of the summer!) to purchase some more fireworks.

After we met the Outmans, we stopped at the mall for some quick shopping and lunch, and then we headed home!

Then we were off to a family friend's house to swim, play, eat dinner, enjoy homemade ice cream, and shoot off fireworks! There were 3 families and 13 kids (ages 1-16). All the kids played together great and had a ball shooting off and watching the fireworks!

We had a great day, FULL of fun! Happy 4th everyone!

Ella Cuteness!

Well now that I have told you how we have spent our summer so far... I believe it's time for some Ella cuteness and updates!

Ella is now 19 months old, and weighs in at 19 lbs. (just realized that her weight and age are the same :) She is cute, silly, and so sweet! She has a spunky personality and loves to be in the middle of whatever is happening. Her hair is getting so long and VERY curly... we all just love it! 

She is talking a TON... she says mom, momma, daddy, Sarah, John, James, Grace, Joe, up, out, baby, please, thank you, uh-oh, kitty (she loves to chase the kittens around), more, love you!, bubble, hey, no no, yeah, yes, ... and she is learning new words hourly. She also likes to growl. Her favorite thing to say is JOOOEEEEEEE... She loves to play with Joe and yells his name all the time.

Some of her tricks/funny things she does include:

she says CHEESE!!! whenever I turn my camera on

she will feed us and then say OW! when we bite it off her hand (just like Daddy always does to her)

she says YEA!!! and claps whenever she or someone else does something she wanted

she gives hugs and kisses on cue and she will come over and hug/kiss you all the time!

she will plug her nose and stick her head under water when she is in the pool... she loves to swim in the pool!

she follows Joe everywhere... They are partners in crime!

enjoy some Ella cuteness!

Bathing Beauty!

She is so silly!

Ella fell asleep in her chair at the kitchen table! She was sound asleep... too cute!

(above & below)

Have a great day!

Shari

Sweet, Sweet Summertime!

I've been a very bad blogger, but I promise, once I get caught up, I will be a much better at updating y'all on our latest happenings!

We are totally lovin life in the Stroup household! Being a family of eight is so much fun- never a dull moment in this house. We are having a great summer! Lots of staying up late, watching movies, swimming in our new pool, baseball games for the older boys, dance practice for the older girls, hanning out, building forts with the little kids, and going to the lake every chance we get!......and of course trips to Andy's Frozen Custard to get a little treat on a hot day!! That's what it's all about, right?

Starting off with the trip to the hospital and ending with the latest happenings, here are a few pics of what we have been up to:

(above) Ella's night at the hospital. Although she had an IV in her hand and an oxygen monitor taped to her toe, she still smiled for a picture! (and YES she even wears a bow at the hospital!!!)

Ella hung out with Bianca and Solie at our annual church picnic! She loves little Solie!

On June 5, James celebrated his 11th birthday at a local Japanese restaurant where they cook your food right in front of you!!!

On the same weekend as James birthday (much to James's dismay) the older girls, Anna Grace and Sarah, had a dance recital! They did amazing!

Anna Grace was a flower girl in our pastor's daughter Stephanie's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and we wish the best for Stephanie and Mike!!!

We went over to a neighbors house for a Father's Day Cookout. Ella enjoyed her ice-cream cone poolside!

Our little(st) bathing beauty! Ella loves the pool! She likes to swim around with the older kids holding her. She will even plug her nose and stick her face under water!!!! She will be swimming in no time!

Just last week we went to the lake! We left the little kids at home and enjoyed a nice (worry free) time of skiing, wake-boarding, and tubing!

Our beautiful little Guatemalan Princesa!

Welcome Home Video

I know, this video is about 8 months late, but better late than never, right? Sarah, my oldest, just made this video of our pick-up trip to get Ella. She did it all by herself and showed it to me this morning. I love it! It made me cry. It reminds me of the day when I held Ella and knew I never had to let her go. Gotcha Day is such a miraculous, surreal day. It was a day that I will never forget.

Well, enough talking... here's the video! I hope you like it!

(it's not the best quality... I had to change the format because it wouldn't upload from iMovie)

I promise that I will post recent pics of Ella! She is growing so fast. She gets cuter and sillier each day!

Home

Ella and Shari are home. The steroids really helped and she is feeling a lot better. Thanks for your prayers!

Please Pray for Little Ella

***UPDATE*** This is Sarah again. I just got back from the hospital (I stayed to help mom with Ella). The results from the CT scan are in. There is no abscess between her spine and jaw area. That is really good news because Ella was really hungry and she couldn't eat until we knew if she had to go into emergency surgery or not. Ella is doing really good. The IV is kicking in and she is a lot more active and is smiling! Her croup is still kinda bad, but the steroids are helping a lot. There was a major difference in how she felt within the three hours that I was there! Ella and Mom will be home tomorrow morning.

Thanks for your prayers! We really appreciate them!

Hey ya'll! This is Sarah here (Ella's oldest sister). I wanted to ask you to pray for Ella. She has had really bad croup the past few days, and my mom took her to the hospital today. They did some x-rays and found something in around her spine. The doctors decided to keep her in the hospital for the night so they could watch her and make sure everything is okay. 

She just had a CT scan (I am not sure how to spell that :) done and they are going to put her on an IV to get some steroids into her. Hopefully everything goes well and the CT scan reports are fine!

Please pray for Ella to get better soon because she just feels terrible. Please pray for my mom because she is going to stay overnight with her. And please pray for our family, especially Grace and Joe (the little ones), because its hard not having mom home.

Thanks for you prayers! I will post pictures tonight hopefully after we go visit her at the hospital!

Long Time, No Post

Hey everyone! It's been so long since we have posted anything. A lot has happened and we can't wait to show ya'll some pictures. Ella has grown so much! We will post pictures in the next few days! 

Have a great week,

The Stroup Family