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YIKES! I cannot believe that Emmalee is celebrating her 3rd birthday today!
Itty bitty peanut who wore preemie clothes forever is gone and has been replaced by a beautiful intelligent curly-haired little girl!
What says Happy Birthday better than surgery? Miss Emmalee will be having surgery tomorrow to remove her tonsils and adenoids Even though it’s “minor common” surgery, it is still scary and we are all anxiety ridden. Any thoughts and prayers sent her way would be greatly appreciated! Hopefully these surgeries will help her become a much happier and not sick child!
So what if it’s January 2nd, it’s always Christmas for me! Plus, I’m way behind in my blogging! Still need to blog Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.…I may or may not get those up since it’s now 2012!!
*Beware* there are LOTSA photos below!!
Last year Kelly informed our family of her wish to have the entire family wear matching pajamas and take a family photo. Last year was our first year …. this year we did much better in the camera timing!
Alex decided she wanted our family to add another new family tradition. This one was a little bit wonky…perfect for my family! Alex came up with the ugliest ornament contest. Let me tell you, there were some U.G.L.Y ornaments. Some were handmade while others were store bought. Others were true ornaments and some were made into ornaments. We’ll just say, my family knows ugly…see for yourself!
….and that completes the Benson Family’s 2011 Christmas!
Still looking for the perfect gift for someone on your Christmas list? Want it to be original? Personalized? Completely designed by you? Affordable? Be quick and easy with a professional look?!
Thanks to Easy Canvas Prints, I already have one Christmas gift crossed off my list! I received an 8”x10” canvas print for my cousin Jaime, made out of one of her favorite photos of herself and Emmalee!
Original & Personalized:Anyone can go to the mall and buy a meaningless gift, but you can amaze your loved one with an original canvas print of a favorite photograph and/or memory that will last a lifetime!
Completely Designed by You: Upon uploading your image to the Easy Canvas Prints site, you can completely personalize your canvas!
Size: Pick a size between 8”x8” and 24”x36? or order a custom size!
Thickness: Choose if you want your canvas to be thinner (3/4” wrap) or thicker (1.5” wrap)
Display Options: Choose if you want your canvas to be hung on the wall or sat on a table
Border Options:
Color Effects: Choose if you want to change your color photo into Black & White or Sepia!
Easy Canvas Prints will even do RETOUCHING of photos!
MINOR Retouching:
MAJOR Retouching:
Affordable: The prices for each canvas are beyond reasonable! I don’t think I could find another equivalent present for my family in the same amazing quality and design, cheaper then Easy Canvas Prints!
Quick & Easy with a Professional Look: I was blown away at how user friendly theEasy Canvas Printssite was! Once I found the perfect photo (that was the hard part!), it took just minutes to complete and design my Easy Canvas Prints canvas with the the step-by-step design process!
Now it’s your chance to WIN your very own 8”x10” Easy Canvas Prints canvas!
Disclosure: I was given a free 8”x10” Easy Canvas Prints canvas in order to review their product. My opinion and review above is completely and 100% my own.
The time has finally come to share which Shutterfly Christmas Card was chosen to be the Fields’ 2011 Card!
….and the WINNER IS….
For the privacy of the girls and at the respect of their parents, the girls faces have been blurred out. However, you can still see how adorable this card is!!
How adorable is this Christmas Card?? LOVE IT!
If you still are in need of ordering your holiday cards … be sure to check out Shutterfly! They have hundreds of original cards and not to mention the great deals they have!!
A couple of weeks ago I got a membership to our local YMCA along with my cousin Jaime and her girls. The best part of the membership is the open swim!! Maddie is a little fish and always has been, Emmalee however HATES being in a pool and swimming…or so we thought.
I’ll admit it, I’m evil. I have been known to try to make her like the water, dragging her in with me and trying to get her to enjoy it. Always ended in lots of tears and a very angry Emmalee. At the last Toys & Togs Sale Emma got a Nemo floatie and she loves anything Nemo, so Jaime thought there was a chance that Emma might swim. Still unsure we decided to give it a try.
Once she got her swim suit on, her Nemo swim diaper (again very exciting lol) and her Nemo floatie she was more than ready to swim! As I walked out of the locker room with her towards the pool, I was waiting for her to start screaming, but it never came!! She LOVED it! At first she was a bit scared and clung tight to my neck, but by the end of the time she was floating on her own and jumping in!! She surprised both Jaime and I – not to mention herself! She spent the afternoon saying “I go swimming“. I can see this becoming a new fun activity for her!! She’s so stinkin’ cute!! I can’t wait to take her back again!!
Madison loved the water too and was her normal fish self. She spent the entire open pool swimming around the pool by herself! We can’t wait for summer to actually get here so we can start playing in the triplets outdoor pool! Sadly, summer won’t be here for awhile, so for now we’ll have to live with the indoor heated YMCA pool!
Hope you all have a wonderfully special Easter Sunday!! Since we have church in the morning and the weather is supposed to be yucky tomorrow, we did an Easter Egg hunt for Madison, Emmalee and Alex this afternoon. We had a beautiful day, I think we may have hit 70*? Okay, maybe that’s wishful thinking, but still beautiful none-the-less. I NEVER remember being able to have an Easter Egg Hunt outside before in my life! So today was a first!
You may be wondering why my nearly 18-year-old sister, Alex was participating with the little girls in the Easter Egg Hunt. Simple. She complains. A Lot! Apparently she was jealous that Kelly and I got Easter Egg Hunts & Baskets until we were at least 20, and the last couple of years the Easter Bunny has gotten lazy! So the Easter Bunny made a special early trip to make sure Alex got some Easter Luvin’!
After church tomorrow, my family is getting back together for a traditional Easter Dinner, so Easter will continue for us tomorrow too!!
Happy Easter!
Photographers: I’m still playing with my new camera. Does anyone know of any online classes or good tutorials to teach me how to take real photos? Or even how to do more editing? I’m really interested, but am so overwhelmed I don’t know where to start!!
You’d never know from these photos that this little girl was super sick! When I first arrived at Children’s to visit, Emma and Jaime had already been there for nearly 5 hours. Emma was exhausted and all she did was cry and chew on her blankie. It was so sad.
Why was Emma in the ER? Her pediatrician feared that her intestines had become intertwined. If that was the case she would need emergency surgery to fix her intestines. However, after a painful (for all of us) IV insertion and x-rays, Emma’s medicine and fluids finally kicked in and she was a different child! I finally got the okay to pull out the camera and take some photos, where she turned into the Emma we all know and love!
How cute is she?? She turned a total 180 when her medicine and IV fluids kicked in!!
Emma’s last test was keeping Gatorade down. She was supposed to get 5cc every 5minutes from a syringe, after the first 5cc, she started demanding “MORE, MORE, Juice”. After that there was no holding her back!
Don’t believe me that she wanted more juice so badly…see for yourself!
Gotta love the diapered hospital gown!
After she had her Gatorade she was a new woman…she wanted to take off and go for a walk up and down the halls of the hospital. Yes, bare feet, diaper, gown, IV boarded arm, and all. The doctors and nurses would ooh and ahh over how adorable she was when she’d go walking by and tell them “hi”!
Oh my favorite part was after every procedure and test, that clearly she disliked and hurt, she would turn to the doctor/nurse/assistant and say [in tears] “thank you!” That right there, won the hearts of all the hospital staff. She may have only been there a short time, but I think she became a favorite (okay I might be a little biased!).
In the end they ruled out problems with her intestines. Her lungs were clear, so no pneumonia. The final diagnosis was a nasty virus, that’s running it’s course.
I think the hospital visit jump started Emmalee’s immune system, because today she was much better. Exhausted, but an on the mend baby!
Even though it’s “minor common” surgery, it is still scary and we are all anxiety ridden. Any thoughts and prayers sent her way would be greatly appreciated! Hopefully these surgeries will help her become a much happier and not sick child!
