It's a go!

It looks like we'll be heading to Billings today after all. The roads look okay and the weather should behave. It's Ellie's first trip to the "Big City". Here we go!

Happy 80th Birthday, Great-Grandpa Rolan!
We love you.

She did it!!

Eliana finally, for the first time today, took her pacifier out of her mouth, then put it back in. She's been pulling it out for some time now, but today is the first time she was able to put it back. Woohoooo!

She's also been rolling over onto her stomach for a few days now (finally not getting her arm stuck under her anymore!) and it's so cute to see her "swimming" on the floor. Tummy time is easier now, too, since she rolls herself over and plays and chews on things.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Well, with a few inches of snow on the ground, more to come, and a high of 5 degrees today, it seems that WINTER has finally arrived. We're at -2 degrees right now, and everything is absolutely beautiful covered with a fresh blanket of snow. I've almost got all the Christmas decorations up, and it's starting to feel like the holidays. We're supposed to drive to Billings tonight for Grandpa's 80th birthday dinner, so we'll have to see at noon what the weather is planning on doing. I guess if the weather/roads are bad we won't be going. We'll see. Well, here's a picture of our rosy-cheeked girl in pink. Have a great Tuesday!!

Ellie and Lily

On Sunday night we had Kendra and Zack and their 2 year old daughter Lily over for dinner. Ellie and Lily were great together. Lily kept wanting to hug and kiss Ellie, and when she talked, Ellie giggled. Ellie loves to be around little girls. It's cute.

Ellie's first email

Eliana sent her first email today. =) Well, I sent it, but she typed this little note to her daddy:

m,,999999iggggggg\p.$,kl
[oilllZ;/'.....;/..//////./ RFCCF]]]]E

Eliana says "hi". =)

4 month checkup

Well, in all of the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving, I forgot to blog about Ellie's 4 month checkup! Everything looks really good - she's healthy, happy, and well adjusted. Dr. Benda's words? "She looks FABULOUS." Music to a mommy's ears.

So here are the stats:

weight: 11 lb 4 oz (25th percentile)
length: 24 in (50th percentile)
head circumference: 16 in (50th percentile)

It DOES appear that she's teething, based on her symptoms and behavior. So... Dr. Benda's only real instructions this time around are that if she wakes up during the night (as she has a couple of times in the recent past), DON'T feed her. She's not waking up because she's hungry - her gums just probably hurt. Just try to get her back to sleep so that she doesn't form a habit of waking up to be fed in the middle of the night again. After having her sleep all night for 3 months now, I certainly don't want that to be broken!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Uncle Eric, Great-grandpa Rolan, Gayle, Grandad (Terry), Grammee (Wenda), Elizabeth, Eliana, and Leif.

Great-grandpa and Gayle with Ellie


Deep frying the turkey (and yes, that IS Leif wearing shorts in the snow.)


Into the fryer!


Leif and Ellie

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Leif's family - the whole family was here! Great-grandpa Rolan and Eric got to hold Eliana for the first time, and Gayle got to see her for the first time. We had enough food to feed an army. I made a ham and a turkey breast ahead of time, plus all the side dishes (and four pies!) and Terry was given a 17 lb. turkey from his workplace. The men were in charge of frying the turkey, which went off without a hitch and tasted delicious, and we had a wonderful time eating (though I'm always saddened by how little I manage to eat before I'm full on Thanksgiving) and fellowshipping. We have tons of leftovers (Mmmmm...) - well, what would you expect after serving 20 lbs of turkey, plus ham, for 7 people??

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. We have so much to be thankful for and this year in particular we feel blessed to have a beautiful, healthy baby girl, family with whom to celebrate the holidays, a job for Leif that allows me to stay home to raise our daughter, salvation, and life abundant. Thank you, Father, for all you have given.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (Let the Christmas season begin!)

Virtual Open House

Since our basement is finished now, I thought we could give everyone a little peak at what it looks like. We still need to put some art on the walls, but it's pretty much done!

Teething?

For the past couple days Ellie has been really clingy, fussy, drooly, and has been gnawing on everything. And today she's got a bit of a runny nose. She doesn't seem sick (no cough, sneezing, etc.) - maybe she's teething? Dr. Benda said to look for it starting around 4 months and she'll be 4 months on Sunday. I can't feel any teeth in her gums, but she sure is interested in chewing on anything that gets near her mouth! (Especially the side of her swing. Silly girl!)

She's growing up *sniff* *sniff*

Last night Ellie held her own bottle for the first time. Our little girl is growing up.

The outfit from "Grandma" Bennie

Sitting Up

Attempt #4

I've tried to post three times over the last few days and my computer has freaked out and shut off. So I'm trying again. This time I won't post any pictures and we'll see how it goes.

Things are good. I haven't had a whole lot to say lately, but we're good. Ellie's more interested in playing with toys and she's more observant every day. I was able to get an exersaucer for her at a garage sale (woohoo!) and she likes being in that. Her feet can touch the ground in that one, so she stands up for a second, then loses her balance and falls back into the seat, then repeats the process. As I said, she likes observing the world around her and is no longer happy to stare at the ceiling. So... she likes to sit up a lot. Thankfully, though she can't sit up by herself yet, she can sit with the help of the boppy around her to support her back and she's very happy that way. Yay! I'm finding that the more interested she gets in things, the harder it is to find stuff for her to do... She's not content to lay in her bouncy seat all day anymore!

We went to the Children's Museum again Tuesday and Ellie enjoyed watching the other kids. We read a couple books, played with a toy or two, but mostly just watched all the activity. Then, since we were in town anyway, we headed to the mall to get a couple things and walk around. In Joann's (because you just can't take a trip to the mall without visiting the craft store...) I met another mom with a baby and we got to talking and found out we live just a couple streets from eachother! She's a stay-at-home-mom, too, and scrapbooks, so we might try to get together and craft sometime. It's funny how having a baby means you talk to many people that you wouldn't otherwise. Most of the time it's good, but there are the occasional scary people who come over and talk to your baby as you try to quickly, but not rudely, run away before they reach out and touch. =) Friends can touch my baby. Strangers? That's a little weird.

Ellie is finally getting big enough to wear some of the clothes we were given at showers and I'm loving it! She is so cute in all these adorable, pink, frilly and fuzzy outfits. I wasn't sure about the pink before she was born, but now that I see her in it - bring it on! She is definitely a pink girl, which I never thought I'd have. Funny how things change.

Okay. We'll see if this posts, then I'll try a couple picture posts and we'll see how it goes. Hopefully there will be a picture of Ellie in her fuzzy pink outfit from "Grandma" Bennie and one of her sitting up assisted by the boppy. Here goes!

Get out and VOTE!

If you haven't voted yet - go do it! My neighbor Stephanie and I swapped kids while the other voted. It was a good deal. Plus, by going in the middle of the day (2:30ish) we were able to avoid the before work, after work, and lunchtime rushes. Yay!

This morning Eliana and I went to the children's museum for a playgroup. We have several friends who meet there every Tuesday. I have been waiting until Eliana is old enough before we joined the group. But while we were in Texas I noticed how much Ellie loved being around other kids and how much she just liked watching them. So we went today and had fun. She just looked around and took everything in. There were even a couple little things she took interest in playing with. We got a membership to the museum, so hopefully we'll be making this a weekly outing. Something to do outside the house now that it's getting colder and a way for her to get a little more kid interaction. And some time for me to get a little more adult interaction with the other moms. =)

Giggles!

I was talking on the phone to my mom today and I put it on speaker phone so Ellie could talk too. She was being silly so I roared at her and she giggled. I managed to get some of the giggling on video (yay!), and it went on for some time. This is the first time she's giggled for me!! Very exciting.

A peek into the future...

It amazes me that in the next year and a half Eliana will go from what she is now to this. We had Kendra and Zack over for dinner on Saturday night. We hadn't seen them since August, and in that time their daughter Lily has gone from being a baby to a little girl. She's not yet two and it absolutely stuns me that our little girl, too, will change that quickly. Wow.

Eliana Squealing

This is from a few weeks ago, but we finally got it saved to my computer. Ellie was just in the happiest mood one day and she was squealing like crazy. It was too cute. (The video is a little stretched because I had to rotate it and it got a little distorted. I guess it's better than watching it sideways, though.)

Some Favorites...

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Texas...

Ellie helping Mommy unpack.

Ellie got to ride in a real pram while we were in Texas. One of Mommom's friends let us borrow it. We even took it on a walk with us one evening. Now I can officially say that my daughter has ridden in a bouncing baby buggy!

Story time with Poppy. Ellie loves being read to and my dad bought this book before we were even expecting Ellie, knowing that one day he would be able to read it to his grandchild. It is a new copy of The Bible Time Nursery Rhyme Book that he read to me when I was a little girl.

Play time with Mommom. I think the look on my mom's face says it all.

Grins for Mommy. Ellie loves having her diaper changed and she's always full of smiles and grins when it happens. (She is NOT fond of having her clothes changed, however...)

That's the smile of a baby being spoiled by her grandparents. She loved every minute of it, and so did they.

And this is Ellie with "Grandma" Benny. Benny is my mom's dear friend who doesn't have any grandkids of her own, so we're glad to let her claim Ellie.

Hee hee! Ellie grew some hair while we were in Texas! Well, she really did grow some more hair, but we just couldn't resist getting her a little wig when we saw one. She wore it home to meet Daddy at the airport. Surprise!

Angie gave Ellie some new books while we were down there and "Barnyard Dance" by Sandra Boynton was Ellie's favorite. We also got to spend time with Charlotte and Alyse a few times. This is me reading to Ellie and Alyse while Charlotte looks on. We had a room full of people (Mom, Dad, Charlotte, Alyse, Michelle, Josh, Rebecca, Matt, and Robert), so I felt very silly reading a silly book aloud. Sandra Boynton does have delightfully silly books. Our other favorite (also thanks to Angie) is The Belly Button Book.

Hybrid Benefits...

Just about anyone who knows us knows we LOVE our Prius. And now I have one more reason to love it. According to this article, hybrid cars will have reserved parking close to the building at the new Bozeman Library, scheduled to open this month. Sure you get more exercise from parking away from the building, but when the temperatures drop well below zero and you're heading to the library's baby story time with a wee one... I am one thankful Prius owner.