Miller had his first taste of spaghetti the other night. The pictures speak for themselves.







Needless to say, he loved it!


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Potty Training Update:

Ella is potty trained! Once she made up her mind, she was done. Besides the first day and a half, it was relatively painless.

Merry Christmas from The Lee's

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Progress Report

Honestly, I thought this report was going to be very grim. There was absolutely no luck yesterday. Up until yesterday, Ella has loved sitting on the potty. But now that she actually has to do something on it, she hates it! Every time the timer went off yesterday Ella cried, "Mommy I don't want to tt on the big girl potty. I am all done with big girl panties." I tried to push lots of fluids yesterday so that she would have to go more, but it was like she knew. She refused to drink anything, even a Capri Sun, which she never gets at home. When we first started, Ella's reward was one M&M for dry panties and two for tt. When I realized this was a matter of will against will, Ella was no longer allowed to watch TV and her reward for going on the potty was the whole bag of M&M's (minature bag). Anyone who knows Ella well knows that she loves chocolate and she loves to watch The Wiggles and Strawberry Shortcake. When neither of those worked for bribery, I knew this was going to be a little more difficult than I had expected.

I would say yesterday was a complete failure! Today started out the same, except for the fact that Ella drank a lot this morning which I believe is what helped! We had four accidents before lunch time, two of which were literally seconds before the timer went off. After lunch we were playing downstairs when the timer went off. So, we tried a new bathroom. I don't know exactly what did the trick, a new location, sitting on the toilet for 10 minutes, or Ella's overwhelming desire for M&M's and Strawberry Shortcake. Whatever it was, I do not care. Ella finally went!!!! And she knew she could go more and so she did. As soon as she finished she jumped off the toilet and yelled "now I can have the whole bag and watch Strawberry Shortcake!" over and over. Big success! And it happened two more times with only one minor accident which ended with going on the potty! Hopefully we will have the same success after naptime!

Here is a picture of Ella watching Strawberry Shortcake. Look how enthralled she is!

Tomorrow is the Day

Well it is finally here, tomorrow is the day that we start potty training (and I chose the word we on purpose because it is going to be training Ella just as much as me). Just wondering if anyone has any last minute tips that I cannot live without. I am sure that there will be more than one funny story from our adventures over the next few days.

Well, Maybe Not So Random Illnesses

I cannot believe it has been a week since my last post about random illnesses. In a way it seems like yesterday and in a way it seems like forever ago! Our house has been one sad little house! Miller's fever turned out to be that his ear infection never went away and it spread to both ears. The day I took Miller in Ella had a fever and felt terrible, so Dr. Whitaker looked at her and sure enough she had an ear infection as well. Usually that is an easy cure for her, but she got so sick that night. I think it was because her fever got so high. I have never seen Ella that sick, it was pitiful. She really just started eating yesterday, but she is definitely on the mend! Poor Miller on the other hand is just now getting the brunt of it. When we went in on Wednesday Dr. Whitaker was amazed that it had not affected his breathing. I think we got excited a little too soon. He started having breathing problems the next day and we have now been to the doctor two more times. It is just going to take time for it to pass through his little system. All in all, this is not a big deal. Miller and Ella are fine. I say all this just to ask for your prayers over our family. Most of you know that Murray is the pastor of a church plant that we just started last fall. I really believe that this is one way that Satan attacks our family. Please pray for healing for our children and protection from the Evil One! These illnesses have really not been anything major, but they are just little things that can wear Murray and me down. Murray just finished preaching through Ephesians and ended with The Armor of God. He reminded us that we are in a battle with the enemy and we must actively stand guard against the attacks of Satan. Please pray for strength for our family! We know you all have been praying and so appreciate it! Please do not stop!

3 in a Row

The number of Sundays I have missed. This morning in all of my self pity, I was thinking this was definitely the most Sundays I have missed in a row (growing up the rule was we did not do anything on Saturday night that kept us from church on Sunday) and then I remembered when Miller was born and then had RSV we were home for four Sundays in a Row. But that was something major, I did not seem as bad because had just come home from the hospital one Sunday and then the next two we were in the hospital again then the next Sunday we were ordered to stay home for protection. So that was a little easier to understand. But now, it is just little random illnesses keeping us away. Three weeks ago, I was miserable with a cold. Last week Ella woke up with some random throw up bug that lasted about 8 hours, but late Sunday afternoon (after sleeping 4 hours on the floor - I never blogged about that because I am still feeling like a bad mom for letting her sleep on the floor, but I did not want to wake her up) she was perfectly fine! Then this week Miller woke up with a stupid cold!

Now I will say that Murray and I have both had a cold, but I thought that Miller was in the clear because evidently two weeks ago he got the beginnings of the cold and it immediately turned into an ear infection (we did not even know he was sick, he just had 101 degree fever). The ear infection was relatively painless just about 5-10 hours of a whinny baby. But Miller has been on antibiotics for 10 days, so one would think he would not get sick. He finished his medicine Thursday and I did not think another thing about it. We had a great weekend with my mom here. Then last night as I was getting Miller ready for bed, I thought, he felt a little warm. I reluctantly took his temp because I knew if he had a fever we should not go to church the next morning. But, my good mom instincts won out and I took his temp and sure enough, back up to 100! I was so mad! He was perfect, happy, smiling, laughing, chasing Ella, but 100 degrees! What in the world. I gave him Tylenol and 30 minutes later he was back down to 99. I am just going to be honest (and I am sorry to anyone from church who reads this and had babies) but I went to be thinking if he does not have a fever in the morning we are going to church! I have missed too much and I long to be there, no more sick babies!!!

So I got up, in confidence got dressed, made Miller's bottle and walked into his room with him standing, bouncing in his bed laughing. So, of course I think he is fine. After I get him up and turn on the lights we go and get his clothes out of the closet and he is as happy as can be. I lay him down on his changing table and we are just singing and laughing and then I notice his eye. Covered in junk! His eyelashes matted together. Then he coughs this awful cough. I called Murray in and he declares that we are staying home.

So, off Murray and Ella go to church. Then my mom leaves. And it is just Miller and me at home. He is perfectly happy and looks perfectly healthy, just has a junky, slightly red, eye and a congested cough. When I put Miller down for his nap I was feeling very sorry for myself. I decided I was going to go get in my warm bed, feel sorry for myself and take a nap! But of course I could not fall asleep because it was 9 o'clock in the morning! So, I got out of my warm bed, made a cup of coffee and sat down and listened to one of the sermons I had missed. It is amazing what the Lord did to my heart when I gave up my childlike pouting and focused on him! Of course the Lord desires for us to be in worship with the body of believers, but sometimes we have sick kids and we have to stay home. But that cannot keep me from worshipping!

I sit hear, comforted by God's word, knowing that His plans are better than mine and He knows perfectly how to care for my children.

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I will shamelessly plug Murray's sermons online. Maybe I am a little biased, but I think that Murray is an excellent preacher. Almost all of his sermons are online. His two sermons on tithing (Nov 16 & 23) are the best I have heard. Click here to listen to sermons.

Oh Christmas Tree

We have a wonderful christmas tree family tradition. We usually go to get our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving (had to be delayed until Monday this year bc of a little throw up bug). We stop and get egg nog then come home, put on Willie Nelson Christmas drink our egg nog and decorate the tree! This year Ella stayed for all of the decorating. I think we put up all the decorations in record time this year (one time through Willie Nelson Christmas and two times through Bing Crosby's Christmas). I think it is because we did not have many strands of lights and we were not going back out to the store. I have been known to put 20 strands on the tree. This year I think it was only 8 or 9.

Ella and Murray picking out the perfect tree

The Lee Family 2008 Christmas Tree

Miller was not left out of all the festivities, he and Ella had a good game of chase/wrestle in christmas pj's.

Cheers!

Oh, Ella loves Egg Nog!

Ella did a great job putting on the ornaments this year. Although she kept wanting to put them on and then take them off again.

Murray putting the Angel on the tree! Oh I love our house decorated for Christmas!

11 Months Old

It is so hard to believe that Miller is 11 months old. Murray and I were talking a couple of weeks ago and we agreed that we both think of Miller still as about 5 months old. It is so hard to believe that he is not a baby anymore but a little cruiser! And boy can he move. He is so fast and into everything!

I took these pictures with his lion bc Miller loves his lion! If he is upset we can give him his lion and everything is better.

The last picture looks a little random, but it is a game and Miller and Ella play. They crawl around with their stuffed animal and then fall down and burry their head in the animal. Miller started it and Ella thinks it is hilarious. They die laughing playing this game together every day.