Ada's Artwork!

In her art and crafts class today, their assignment was to draw pictures of themselves and their friends. This picture is of Ada and her friend "Ava with the yellow hair". Her new teachers were very impressed with her art skills. They were also impressed that she could write her name.

I thought you would all like to see this...and yes, I am keeping this one for our fridge.

Happy Aniversary to us!

Adam and I went to French Lick, IN, this past weekend to celebrate 4 years of marriage. Have you ever heard of French Lick, IN? Us either! We are so glad that this is where we threw the dart for our pasted together "romantic" weekend. We had low expectations and fewer hopes on the success of this weekend. We were just hoping that the joke of heading to the middle of now where Indiana would be enough to keep us laughing the whole time. We did do some research and knew that there was a designed single track mountain bike trail that Adam really wanted to do and I wanted to tour the two historic resorts there. We just didn't realize that there wasn't much besides that there! If you life golf or gambling, then there is a few courses and one of the hotels has a casino. There is a scenic railway and if we had time I would have wanted to do that, but we will save that for next time. Adam gave me roses and my very own bike for our anniversary, so the big perk was that I was able to join him on his bike. We had a wonderful time! I fell once, and I have a sore backside and elbow, but other than that, I'm fine. We fell in love with French Lick, IN, and hope to return soon. We just had a great time! Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for keeping Ada for us! If you want to see the history of the Resorts, go to http://www.frenchlick.com

The Official New Orleans Recap

We had a wonderful time in New Orleans for Sally's wedding. There was lots of good eating, to include the introduction to a real muffaletta for Adam, and enjoying Cafe Du Monde first hand. The pool was fun at the hotel and of course, the company was the best. The wedding was delightful and we all had a great time. We found out that our little Ada is a real party goer. Once she got use to the music and had a little cake in her, she was ready to dance with the best, and not so best of all them. I think she was on a mission to dance with everyone there and I'm almost certain that besides the DJ she reached her goal. Ada and Sally became best friends. Ada thought being that close to a real princess was the most fascinating thing ever.

As we gather more pictures, because there were a lot, I will post some as they come. These are from the photographer's website, that is why it has his web address on them. We will order some of these, but if you see one that you want a copy of, let me know and we will get an extra copy.

Ada and the Doctor

Dear All,

Well we just got back from the hospital and all is well for now. She still has reflux but has been down graded to a 1 and 2. (She started off as 4 and 5, 5 is the worst you can get) So, this means she is responding well with the medicine and will continue taking it daily as directed.  She is "growing out" of this, but shows signs of possible permanent damage to her ureters (the tube that connect her kidney's to her bladder) that may need surgery to fix. Right now, we are scheduled to recheck her kidneys via ultrasound in 9 months, assuming that we get the same great results from a few weeks ago, she will have her bladder checked nine months from then. So, we won't have to go through what we did this morning for another 18 months! Yippee!! Dr. Hill thinks that because she has made such drastic improvements from what she started off as 3 years ago, he thinks that she might out grow the reflux, but is concerned that the damage to her ureters may not heal properly thus requiring further treatment to repair. Once again, she is not done with this battle, but is doing very well with her treatment.

As for this morning, she did very well. The "funny" gas was a hoot to watch with her. The hospital has staff who's sole purpose in life is to come in and distract kids during procedures like this. Kim, our entertainer for the morning, must have blown a million bubbles in the hour we were back there. Ada just giggled the whole time. She didn't like the nose piece but responded to the mask that the "gas doctor" had to hold over her face. She giggled, talked and laughed the whole time. She got fussy when they inserted and removed the catheter, but we were expecting that. She did experience pain afterward. The doctor said it was bladder irritation from inflating her bladder so large, but it would pass. That was great news, but at the time, not helpful due to the fact she was screaming and there was nothing we could do to comfort her. Luckily, the trip from the hospital to the doctor's office across the street wrapped up in her strawberry shortcake blanket and 3 suckers later, her spirits started to improve. She will still be sensitive for the rest of the day, but by tomorrow there should be no issues. Right now, she is fighting a nap and is singing at the top of her lungs, so I would say she is recovering back to normal quite well.

I think here shortly we are all going to take a nap, 6 am came early this morning for all of us.

I hope all are doing well!
XOXOXO,
Adam, Liz and Princess Ada

New Orleans!

We had a wonderful time in New Orleans this past weekend! As I gather all the pictures and organize them I will add them to page along with the full story of our events, but I just wanted to go ahead and share this photo of Ada. She has a blast at the "Princess Party"!

Ready, Set, Tumble!

Ada has started her gymnastics class. She will take this class every Tuesday till the first week of August. She loved it! I stayed and watched her along with all the other "gym moms" who were quite willing to tell me about all the great things she will learn how to do. She is taking this class from a real gymnasium that trains girls for Nationals and Olympic tryouts so she is learning from the best. Thankfully, her preK-3 class does not involve the strenuous work ethics of the older girls, and is only about having fun and learning the simple steps. I think Ada's favorite part was when she was able to jump into the "pit". This was on the other side of the gym from me so I had a hard time taking pictures but it was quite exciting to watch due to the fact that Ada disappeared below ground. There is the long springy runway they got to run as fast as they could down then jump into the "pit" that was filled with foam. The first little girl ran her heart out then came to abrupt stop at the end and refused to jump, her teacher threw her in, once the little girl climbed out and Ada saw that she was in fact alive, well, Ada thought this thing was great. She took off down the runway and into the deep unknown she went. A few seconds later she was climbing out ready to skip over all her classmates to try it again. Needless to say, she has asked several times about when she will be able to jump into the "pit" again. I'm so glad we got her into this class because I think she really loves it!

Memorial Day Weekend!

Adam has been working in the western panhandle of Florida this past week so Ada and I decided on Thursday to take advantage of this and head to the beach to see him! We had a wonderful time. Ada shares the love for the water like Adam and the two of them were building sandcastles, spotting fish, chasing seagulls, and jumping waves all weekend. We attempted to go to the beach in the mornings while the sun was not so hot and the afternoons in pool at the hotel. We stopped by the Air Force Armament Museum to see all the "momma, daddy and Ada" airplanes. It was really cool. Adam and I both had a sweet spot for the C130, but that is to be expected. We ate a lot of good food and saw some really big boats and had a wonderful mini-vacation. We came back to "da-land" on Sunday and Adam had Monday, Memorial Day, off so we headed over to Moss Rock here in Hoover for a bit of climbing and hiking. We all had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

WHOA! Where has the time gone?

Wow! These past few months have just gone by so fast! There has been so much going on! Since my last post in February (Sorry!) we have celebrated both Adam's and Ada's birthday, we took Ada to the aquarium in Atlanta, she loved it. I finished school earlier this month, it was a long hard semester and I'm thankful it's over. Adam has been working out of AL since February so Ada and I have temperately moved south to spend more time with him! I'm taking the summer off from school and we have enrolled Ada into lots of activities here in AL. She will start gymnastics in a few weeks and then swim classes later in the summer. This summer we have several traveling trips scheduled, first big one being New Orleans mid June for my cousin's Sally's wedding. I can't wait! I think Adam and Ada will enjoy the big easy!
Well, here are a few pictures of things that have happen over the last few months! More to come, I promise! HaHa!

Adam Broke his leg!

Ada's Birthday at her school.

Ada's Birthday manicure! She loved it!

Easter Hunt 2011

Lollipop fishing!

Our little Easter Bunny

My Mother's day present!

At the Baseball game!

We found Ada a summer job at Old Navy! HaHa! She did this all on her own and Adam got the picture! Our little comedian!

Ada's 3 year old pictures!

We had Ada's 3 year old pictures taken a few weeks ago. I think they came out great. She didn't want her picture taken at first, but then she came around. I think we ended up with a few good ones. Here are a sample of the top ones. If you want one, email me and I'll get it in the mail!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New year!!

I apologize for the two month hiatus that I have not intentionally take from the blog. There has been a lot going on in these last few months that have kept all of us very busy. So here is what happen the last few months.

Ada went to Birmingham, AL, to Grandpa and Grandma Martin's house while we set up the Christmas tree stand here in Knoxville. She had a great time playing with all the kids there.

We did manage to get the tree stand up and running. Lamar, Adam's Dad, came up from Atlanta several times to help. David Allen, Adam's son, come over from North Carolina for about a week to help out and visit. It was good to have all three generations in one place. This only happen about every three to four years.

 
Ada and I made cookies for Santa this year. She was very interested in Santa and the reindeer, but once she figured out that she was going to have to wait for them to come, she did not think that was so much fun.

The next morning she forgot all about waiting for Santa and was quite happy that he had came. She asked if he was coming again that night.

We spent New Years at Grandmother's and Bug's house where we also celebrated Spencer's 1st birthday. Ada and Spencer got along great, well as long as Uncle Tommy knew that he was there to play with Ada!

It has been snowing for over a week now. Earlier this week we decided to get out of the house and drive up to Frozen Head State Park to explore the snow and get out of the house. Even though Adam broke his leg on December 14th, it was Adam's idea to go for a "hike". We really didn't do much other than walk around on the "smooth" areas. We did come across several hikers and their dogs so that was fun to talk to them. They all seem to understand Adam's cabin fever with the broken leg and the need to get out smell the fresh air. Yet, still due to Adam's leg, we did not venture to far from the parking lot. There was a playground and Ada made good use of it. It was nice to be out in nature for a bit. It was very pretty up there and we hope to make it back next year and do a little snow-shoeing.

The next few months are going to be hectic but manageable. I start school today, in about two hours. Adam is still on the recovery from his leg but so far things are going great. We hope once it heals than things will start to get back to normal for all of us. Ada will go back to school full time next week and that will be great for all of us. She has missed her friends and is eager to get back to them.