Where have I been?!?

It has been awhile! I decided this morning that I'm going to try and do a little catching up around here. I still go back and read my blog posts from my other girls, so I really want to keep that up for Eliza. I have her life strewn across several different places, so I want to try and get them in one place. I also have the other girls stuff to catch up on as well.
I think I'm going to do more of a bullet-type update for the general stuff and then break Eliza's stuff down into separate, monthly posts.

* The girls started school on August 20th. Ella started 3rd, Evie started 1st, and Emory started 3 year olds. The morning went smoothly and there weren't any tears. Eliza also had her 2 month well check that morning.
* I started watching my 2 youngest nephews shortly after that. Emory and Bryson are about 2 months apart & Harrison and Eliza are about 4 months apart. What was I thinking?!?
* Ella had a violin recital in September. Her school's PTA paid for all of the 3rd graders to take 10 lessons from the local symphony. I think she really enjoyed it.

* October 7th, Emory turned 4! It just doesn't seem possible. Cinderella is her favorite princess at the moment, and the re-release of the movie came at the perfect time!

* October 19th - Evie lost her 4th tooth.

And Emory had her 4 year well-check. Her 4 year stats:
Weight: 37 pounds
Height: 39 inches
She got 3 shots and was such a trooper!

* On the 20th, we did our annual family trip to the Pumpkin patch!

* October 23rd, Emory complained that her back was itching. I looked at her back and it just looked like she had 2 bug bites. Around dinner time, she was hysterical wanting me to scratch her back because it itched so badly. Right before bed, she'd broken out all over her back, down her sides, around to her tummy and her neck. I bathed her and put some anti-itch creme on her. She immediately went to sleep. She woke up around midnight and climbed in my bed; she was scratching her neck & scalp like crazy. When she woke up the next morning, her face was swollen and also broken out so off we went to the doctor. By the time we got to her office, the rash was everywhere!
Our ped. was stumped! She said that it was presenting like hives but she couldn't pinpoint what was causing them. She hadn't eaten anything new or different, I hadn't changed our laundry detergent or bath soap, we were stumped. While checking her over, she noticed that her throat was red, so she called for a strep test. Her rapid strep came back positive! She said that the rash wasn't like any strep rash she'd ever seen, so she still thought it was hives. Poor Em!

* Halloween 2012 - The girls decided they wanted to be Princesses this year. Ella chose Rapunzel, Evie chose Belle, and Emory chose Cinderella. In keeping with the theme, I chose Snow White for Eliza. They loved their costumes and got a lot of candy!
This picture is from our mock Halloween. Things were so hectic & someone had taken the memory card of the camera, so I only got a crappy picture on my iPod. "Snow white" was sleeping so I still need to take a better picture of her.

So there's an abbreviated update on the girls. We have been keeping pretty busy with school. Ella is struggling a good deal with math and that has become a daily battle. Evie seems to be flourishing in 1st grade. She's reading and writing rather well. Emory is just Emory. She's full of attitude, sass, and she has quite a devilish streak too. And sweet Eliza just takes it all in stride.