Christmas pictures

we had a wonderful Christmas this year, here are a few picture of the day:)

lilly was all about opening the presents...

on the other hand there was max who was all about the paper!!!
lilly got the puppy she had been asking for!!! she was so excited santa had the puppy in a box with holes cut out of the side and the puppy was making so much noise in the box... she opened the lid and nick asked what is it lilly? she responded in a whisper "it's mines... it's mines... it's mines puppy!!!" she was so happy:) even though you may not be able to tell by the picture:)

max and daddy.

max on the rocking horse... he really did great!!! he knew he needed to hold on tight especially when lilly came by to give him a big push:)

my two sweet peas.
the step 2 roller coaster was a big hit.

lilly and grandpa elrick.

look how happy he is:)

max with he's God parents aunt jessie and uncle ben.

grandma and grandpa elrick

lilly and her big cousin riley.

max with great aunt jenny.

all nine elrick grand kids with grandma and grandpa:)... it's really hard to get a nice picture with that many little kids.... someones always crying.

grandma and grandpa pingel with lilly and max. lilly and cousin jacqui all dressed up.

grandpa clark and max.

Merry Christmas.

i wanted to say Merry Christmas to all our new and old friends,

to think how many more life long friends we have been blessed with over this last year....

it truly is a Merry Christmas!!!

the right road:)

max is on the road to recovery:)

last night went a hundred times better then two nights ago. he only needed one treatment in the middle of the night. the medication must really be helping... and i can't forget about all the prayers from our friends and family, thank you they made a huge difference.

max relaxing in his rocking chair:)

max and me had a first.

very early this morning max and me had a first... i had my first 911 call for a child and he had his first trip to the hospital in an ambulance.

i want to it start off, max is okay.

last night at 1:20ish i woke up with what i thought was lilly screaming a very high pitched scream and then heard max crying a tiny cry. i followed the noise to max's room, it was dark i couldn't see but i thought lilly had to be in his crib with him... but she wasn't it was just max hunched over making those sounds. i picked him up and realized he was having trouble breathing, he was trashing his head and arms all around. he bumped his mouth on my collarbone and then his lip started to bleed. he then tried to cry harder but wasn't able to because he couldn't breath. i ran into our room and said to nick "he can't breath, he can't breath what do we do!!!" he ran downstairs and called 911. i placed him on our bed to take a closer look at him,.. he just laid there, he didn't move... just laid there and tried to breath, he started to turn pail in color.
we had a nebulizer from last winter when max had a cold, the 911 responder told us to start him on a treatment and help would be here soon. i was shocked in about 3 minutes the police were in our house and in 7 or so the paramedics were here. the nebulizer treatment helped but he still was struggling and they wanted to take him right to Theda's ER. i had nick call my mom and dad who live 3 minutes away to come and watch lilly (who was still sleeping). i road with max in the ambulance, nick met us right there when we got out(he had to be driving way faster then us). they gave him a steroid shot and another nebulizer treatment. he had a chest x-ray that came back clear for pneumonia. 5 hrs later they told us he has a server case of croup.

if your not aware with a diagnosis of Down syndrome there are many, many, many truly wonderful things, but a one of the small negative things can be thinner veins, canals and airways. so this is part of the reason why max had such a scary reaction, the other part is that he is so young, three and under the dr. said seem to have worse reactions.

i can say that my sister has gone through an experience like this where my nephew was having trouble breathing,... and i can say one of the wonderful things i have learned by having max in my life is that you really don't know what other people are going through until you lived it(makes you less judgemental). i know now a little of how she felt. the fear for your child's life. it's strange, it's a strong powerful feeling of absolute helplessness. at least that is the best way i can explain it.

sitting in the ER waiting i told nick how lucky i feel,(you my be thinking, lucky? she is in the ER!) i told him i feel lucky because i know of so many other families that are here so much more often, might be for feeding tubes or heart issues, we really are lucky.

max seems do be doing much better today. he is on steroid medication and nebulizer treatments 4 times a day.

the dr. said that with croup it acts up at night more then in the day, so please say a little pray for max tonight:)

oh one more other first for max... in between typing this max found his way up 5 steps before turning back to see if i was still there:) time to get up the baby gate:)

new header:)

if you didn't notice my new header, it's the newest picture taken by the great Dana Kilgas, from Log Home Studio !!! here is a sneak peak at a few of the pictures we had taken:)

i love this one!! max standing on his own:)

oh and right now she has a great deal going on

1/2 price photo shoot $30!!!!

1/2 price prints

Santa Claus online:)

hi everyone i just saw this link from another blogging mom:) it is a link straight to Santa Claus, it's super cute and lilly just loved it. i'm sure your kids will to:)

click here to speak with Santa.

max.

new gap model:)

a few strange things went on yesterday, and it all started when lilly woke up. on a normal day i pick out what she is going to wear, but yesterday was different. she hopped out of bed and started looking through her clothes,...

lilly: nope, nope, ... this... not this mom, not this, oh perfect!

she then wanted to put everything on herself, found a hat, and then...

lilly: take my picture mom.
(and started to say or sing something that i really at the time had no idea what she was talking about.)

when nick got home and we were watching tv the gap commercial came on (not sure if you have seen it, the one where there are 6 or 7 little girls sing and dancing.) lilly started jumping up and down...

lilly: look, look, daddy its me. (with a huge smile)

then started dancing and sing the song...

lilly: retired, retired, officially retired.... how cute are these boots!

my little girl is growing up:) here is the picture she made me take early in the morning. you can't see but she had to have a striped sweater under her striped fleece.

i know its not the clearest picture, at the time i didn't think i was going to be sharing it with you all:)

wordless wednesday

Saint Nick!!!

Saint Nick came last night, and brought lilly and max two new books:) the last month or so lilly has been crawling out of her bed and coming down stairs by nick and i... but last night since she knew she needed to stay in her bed for Saint Nick to come... she did:) it was great nick and i had time to talk and watch our tv shows. the only down side of it was lilly got up nice and early this morning:) max was super tired and i felt a little bad because i woke him up... but he had to be there to see what Saint Nick brought :)

max posing for the first picture:)
lilly with her first present

max with his.

what a good big sis lilly is... reading max's book to him:)

max's first hair grab for the day.

lilly's first scolding max for the day.

he just laughs at her:(

max's second hair pull for the day.

lilly decided to move.

so did max:)

i think this picture is so funny, it shows how upset she was with him.

please take a close look at her left hand.

she gently moved (pushed) him to the floor.

max's third hair pull for the day.

lilly is so good with him, when most kids would react by yelling or hitting... lilly just grabs his hand and speaks loud "MAX ...LET... GO"!

she has the no look hand block down.

max waving hi to me:)

now waving hi to daddy:)

max sliding off the hearth.

through all the hair pulling she still wants to be right next to her little brother:)

maybe with a little extra space between:)

hope everyone had a great day...

we did:)