Painted Horses

Today we painted horses

Madie's horse is named Heer-y-en (?)

Ellie's is named Sparkle

Madie's Christmas Party

Mrs. Lowery decided to order Sonic kids meals for all of her chickens and then they all decorated cupcakes.  Their book exchange was "hot potato" exhange.  The kiddos L.O.V.E.D. it.  Madie got a Fancy Nancy book.

Ellie's Christmas Party

Mrs. Bockhaus had a breakfast themed party and did a "right/left" book exchange.  Sweet Ellie ended up with Pinkalicious.  =) I got to meet Shaye Shaye's mom and Brianna's mom for the first time.

Aunt KK and Cousin Cass

One of the worst things about living up here is being so far away from the Brumfield part of the family. We were lucky enough to have Aunt KK an cousin Cass come spend the better part of the past week with us. They arrived late Monday night and left Thursday night. And even though Cass says we did "nothing" it was a pretty adventuresome week. Thursday alone involved a trip to Build a Bear, a trolley ride and a carousel ride -or- according to Madie, we went to a bears house, rode a train and rode a horse.

Over the river and through the woods.....

..... To MiMi's house we go

It's Parade Time

It's a parade at MiMi & Poppie's house.

Mini Me

I finally talked her into wearing my hair jazz.

Pawpaw and Madie

This is from our fair visit - October 2011. Madie's first visit with her "fast, big girl racehorse- Regan". And this is when Madie and PawPaw became as thick as thieves, bonding over Regan.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas my beautiful babies. I hope all of your wishes come true now and forever more. You are my reason.

HoHo on a ChooChoo

Every year, on the Saturday before Christmas, District One fire station drives Santa through the neighborhood on a fire truck. It is a tradition we LOVE. And while the faces on the street have changed over the years, the Hardy's remain constant.

Santa! We love that guy!!!

My little helper

Ellie's first Christmas candy - popcorn balls!!!

3 bags of popped popcorn
1 stick of butter
1 16 oz bag of marshmallows
1 cup of packed brown sugar

Melt butter, marshmallows and brown sugar for 2 minutes in microwave. Stir and return to microwave for 1 minute. Pour over popcorn. Roll into balls and add sprinkles.

Spring 2011

My friend, D - no uh, took these in the Spring at Norton Art Gallery. We made beautiful babies. That is - Jay and I made beautiful babies. Not me and DeAnn. ;-)

I saw these dresses in a shop when I went in to pick up a baby gift for a friend. I immediately fell in love with them, but really didn't want to pay that much, especially since the girls wear uniforms to school and our "church clothes" are way more casual than this. But when I went back to pick up the gift, I had Madie with me. Wouldn't you know she spotted that dress on the rack. And they had two - one in each girl's size. =) So Madie tried it on. And fell so very far in love with it. She showed everyone in the store and twirled from one side to the other. Of course we bought them. And of course when we got home - Ellie HATED them. So much so that I had to make her try them on to see if it fit. And then she hid behind the table and wouldn't let me see her in it. Thankfully, when I explained how much I loved the dresses and how much the pictures would me to me, my sweet souled girl agreed to take beautiful pictures for me. And she did. <3

First Grade!

The girls started first grade this past week.  Wow.  Time really does fly by way faster than you ever could imagine.  And how did I get old enough to be the mother of first graders?  Once again, I feel like we hit the teacher jack pot.  Ellie is very excited about her teacher -- Mrs. Bockhaus.  And Madie's teacher is the only first grade teacher we knew -- Mrs. Lowery.

Oh, how right she is.

Tonight while Ellie was helping me do the dishes, she said "y'all are so lucky to have me."  And, wow, she was right.

EKG

Sweet Madie had an EKG today -- ordered by Dr. Rice.  As always, she was a trooper and amazed me with her toughness.

CT Results

Madie had a CT scan Thursday morning. 

and when I met Dr. Rice Thursday afternoon he said that it looked like she might be missing a half of a turn of her cochleas but that he would wait for the neurological radiologist to be sure -- he would call me Friday. Long story short, my phone died (as in I had to get a new one, not because of a low battery) Friday afternoon. And of course he called while it was non-functioning. He left a voicemail saying that the radiologist said "there was nothing to be concerned about." I'm assuming this means she was not missing part of her cochleas. Of course he was out of the office today.

He wants to run some blood work to rule out some common syndromes. Less to have an effect on how we manage her loss, but more to give us a heads up for other potential problems. Two of the more common syndromes have renal or thyroid problems.

He also wants her to start the process of being admitted to Children's Hospital in Little Rock. Not because he thinks she needs services right now, but so that if she does need them in the future we'll already have a relationship established with the clinic.

loss #2

In September we took Madie to see her audiologist, Mr. Glen, because we were concerned that she was not hearing at the level she should.  He tested her in the sound booth, and she did have a 20 decibel loss in both ears.  After a quick tympanogram, we found out she had fluid in both ears so we were off to Mid City and Dr. Ritch.  Our sweet baby girl had double ear infections and had not once complained about the pain.  We did a 10 day round of antibiotics, a 7 day steroid, and a decongestant/anti-histamine.  After a month, we went back to Dr. Ritch and there was still fluid in her ears.  This brought on a trip to an ENT, Dr. Watkins, who said we didn't need any more treatment, just time.

In December, we were ready for our return test to Mr. Glen.   When we sat down in his office, he asked me what I thought was going on.  My response:  better than she was in September, but not where she was in April (her last "normal" appointment).  And sometimes, it just sucks to be right.  Madie had, for the first time since her original diagnosis in 2006, lost more hearing.  We decided, since she only had one more day of school before Christmas break, not to adjust her hearing aids.  In January, we saw Mr. Glen so he could retest her, just to make sure it wasn't a false negative and we got the same results.  So he adjusted her hearing aids accordingly and she still hears at the level she did before -- she was back to her normal.  We followed that appointment with one to a new ENT -- Dr. Rice.

It was a tough decision to decide to switch ENT's.  Even though our previous one came very highly recommended by several people in the know, we had never felt completely comfortable with him.  Not so with Dr. Rice.  Finally, I feel like we're going to get some answers or at the very least we have someone willing to search for them.  He was explaining that he wanted Madie to have an MRI and a CT scan but that we might be in for a fight with our insurance.  His exact words were "but I feel like when you have one so young with so much at stake, you should leave no stone unturned."  It was wonderful to hear that.  W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L.

So tomorrow day one in our search.  I love these twins.

no chickens for you!

I think convincing your kiddos that there are no monsters under their bed is a rite of passage for all parents; however, spending 10 minutes trying to convince Ellie that there are no chickens outside of her window is a little much to ask for.

I love these twins.

no cartwheels to check for broken arms...

The day before school started back after Christmas break, Ellie was playing a rousing game of Refrigerator (a cross between Freeze Tag and Red Rover) at Eastwood when Tatum accidentally pushed her down.  Being the tiny bit of a drama queen that our sweet Ellie is, we didn't know how bad she was hurt.  The next morning she was still in pain so we were off to Mid City.  And what do you know, my sweet baby had what Dr. Hobson called a buckle fracture.  We've got a month in an ace bandage/splint with no p.e. or 'nastics.  Luckily we didn't make her turn a cartwheel just to see if it was really broken.  =)  I love these twins. 

two families of twins come together

I'm a twin.  (I had a twin brother that was still born.)
I have a brother and sister who are twins.  (Allison and Colter -- Katie really is the odd ball.)
Jay's mom is a twin.  (Melinda and Melissa.)
He has twin sisters. (Patricia and Patience)
My great grandfather was a twin.
And his great grandmother was a twin.
All fraternal boy/girl twins on my side.
And identical girl twins on his side.

I love these twins.

and here we go....

this is what it's all about.

these twins - that I love.  <3