Reading to Ellie

Another Fall Hike Picture

Mommy and Ellie, all dressed up for hiking in mid-30 degree weather. Beautiful foliage, crisp air, snow covered mountains, not too many people on the trails... I love September in Montana.

Ellie's New Favorite Food

Pepperoni.

Yes, when she wouldn't eat strawberries, cheese, crackers, hot dogs, or anything else I offered her for lunch today, I gave up and got myself some turkey pepperoni to munch on. On the off chance that she'd eat it I offered her a piece. Not only did it make it all the way down her throat (as opposed to chewed up and spit out... ew.) but it's ingestion was followed by "Please" both signed AND said. She's eaten about 10 pepperoni slices now.

Crazy kid.

Jinx

Recently Elizabeth posted about how Ellie totes around and eats from a container of animal crackers. Specifically she said, "[Ellie] has yet to make a mess in this whole cookie process. That's pretty much the only reason she gets away with it." As if on cue, the youngster lost the lid and, separately, dumped crackers all over.

It looks like the self-service cookie jar is now closed.

Fall at the Falls

We hiked to Grotto Falls on Sunday on the spur of the moment. It was a rainy, cloudy weekend, but we decided to go anyway. We had a great time! Hyalite was beautiful with autumn colors. I've been hesitant to do anything outdoors with Ellie lately because she's been rather cranky when confined to the car for any length of time. She was really pretty good for the duration of the hike despite being cold, confined, and pelted by sleet. She loves the trees and the mountain streams. She spent a good deal of the hike saying "yellow, yellow" when we'd encounter golden fall foliage.

Everyone's Got a Little Monster Inside

We've been waiting for Ellie to have a particularly horrible day to post this picture. Well, she's had bad days, as we all do, but none has been particularly monstrous. As this picture is getting rather old, I figure it's time.

We love you, kiddo, even when you let your inner monster out.

Some Days Ellie Needs Cookes.

Some days Ellie needs cookies. And on those days she lets me know by pulling the giant Costco-sized container of animal crackers off the pantry shelf and carrying it into whichever room I happen to be in.
Then she sits down near me, making sure that I can see her, and unscrews the lid, then reaches in and takes a cookie.
She shoves it into her mouth,

and makes an exaggerated "MMMMMM!" sound.


Usually she puts the lid on the cookie container until she wants another, then opens it up and the process starts over. It's pretty funny to watch. First because the container is half the size that she is, yet she can carry it all over the house. Second because she knows how to get them for herself, yet feels that she MUST eat them in my presence. And third because she has yet to make a mess in this whole cookie process. That's pretty much the only reason she gets away with it. That and because she so cute when she does it.

Another visit from the Wickland Grandparents

On Saturday we saw the Wickland Grandparents twice as they drove out to look at a used car. They were disappointed with the car, but pretty happy to see Ellie. See was pretty happy to see them, too.

Ellie and Uncle Rob

Elizabeth's Uncle Rob came out to MT for a week long fishing trip at the beginning of September. We haven't seen him since our wedding nearly 7 years ago, so it was wonderful to have the chance to visit with him again! It was also Ellie's first chance to meet her Great Uncle Rob and, though she pretended to be shy and didn't really want him to hold her, she like him. We didn't get too many pictures of them together, but we did take a few on the day before he left. We tried to get a nice posed picture of Uncle Rob holding Ellie, but she wouldn't hear of it. Oh, and the cute little outfit Ellie's wearing in the picture? One of the many Aunt Judy (Uncle Rob's wife) sent us before Ellie was born! They are all cute as can be and she is finally wearing 18 month clothes so we can put her in them!

Dressed for a Montana Fall!

Isn't this the cutest little outfit from Mommom?? It's perfect for a chilly Fall morning here in MT! This morning Ellie got to play outside for a little bit before we went into town and she loved every minute of it.


Look at her run! She has been a bundle of energy all day and is running around the house pushing a laundry basket right now! Tomorrow will be our first trip to the Children's Museum since she learned how to run, so I'm sure she will have fun joining the other kids as they chase eachother around.

Look at that belly!!

The other night Eliana signaled that she was done eating not by signing "all done" as she usually does, but by gleefully patting her hugely full belly. Then she walked around, sticking it out as if to show off that she'd eaten us out of house and home for the night. Leif was trying to get pictures of her rotund profile and said something to the effect of "Ellie, stick out your belly!"... that brought no end to the silliness. This is her "I'm being silly" (though not so cute) cheesy grin.

Mommy's Little Helper

The other day I was mopping the kitchen floor and Ellie decided that she would "help" me. And by help I mean that she held onto the mop handle with both hands while I tried to move it back and forth. She held on and giggled for the whole kitchen. I'm not sure how clean the floor got, but she got a kick out of it.

Ellie and Granddad

On Saturday, Leif's parents came out to watch Ellie for an evening to give Leif and Elizabeth a much needed chance to go for a childless date.
This month marks the 4.5 year mark for our time in Bozeman. While we were out we talked with two groups of people we knew. It's a nice feeling to know people here.

Leif's parents stayed overnight and spent the next morning with us.

It was a nice visit.

Sock season

Yes, I think sock season has arrived. It's 50 degrees outside at 10 am and I'm chilly. So long, sandals.... it was nice knowing you.

The flu.

It's been a long time since Leif or I had the flu. Or it had been until yesterday. Apparently, Ellie picked up a bug in the nursery when I went to Bible study on Friday. Saturday night and Sunday afternoon she threw up, but that seemed to be the most of it. By yesterday, though, she had passed it on to Leif. He called me to come pick him up from work at 1:30 because he was sick. By 5:00 last night, I was sick, too. Bleck. Thankfully it seems to be a 24 hour bug and we are all but back to normal. I am looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight.

Early September

Early September is one of my favorite times of year here. The weather starts to cool down (highs in the 70's - woohoo!) and the sunsets are beautiful. Last night Eliana was playing outside and Leif took these shots of her. She's dressed up in her outfit from Mommom and moccasins from Grandma Bennie and is dressed just right for a Montana Fall.

Reunion (part 2)

On Sunday afternoon we headed out to Lake Cherokee to continue the reunion. Thanks to Trey we had the use of a lake house and boat that was just perfect for the afternoon! We ordered Bodacious barbecue (and a LOT of it) and sat around reminiscing and looking at senior books and pictures and going out on the boat. The wee ones were there that day, too, so we got to see each others kiddos, which was a lot of fun! Charlotte and Andrew have two kids:

Rob has a 13 month old daughter:

(so do I!)

and Jacqueline has FOUR kids! 9,6, and 20 months. The 20 month old twins were there for a short while, but then went home with Grandma for the rest of the afternoon. Yeah, I didn't get a family picture of them, but here's one of Jackie on the boat:

Class Reunion (part 1)

My 10 year high school reunion was this past weekend in Texas. I graduated from a small Christian school, so there were only 16 people in our graduating class. Even so, 8 of us (plus spouses and a couple teachers) got together on Saturday night at Posado's for the reunion. We had a great time, and it was good to see some people that I haven't seen for 10 years. In attendance were Charlotte, Bethani, Jessi, Jacqueline, Jeff, Trey, and Rob.

Since I left Leif in MT and Andrew had other plans that evening, Charlotte was my date for the dinner. We've been best friends since we were 4 years old and attended school together from kindergarten through college. I got to see her more on this trip than on any other. It's always fun.

The girls. We kicked the guys out of the picture and took one with just us girls. Me, Bethani, Jacqueline, Jessi, and Charlotte.

And somewhere I have a very similar picture of the three of us at graduation 10 years ago. I need to dig that out and look at them side by side sometime.

Bottle Free Day

Yesterday was the first time Eliana went an entire day without a bottle. She drank milk and water from her sippy cups and didn't seem to suffer any worse for the wear. In fact, she didn't seem to need a bottle at all during the day, including before bed. So we just didn't give her one. We'll see if she's done for good, but we at least got the first bottle free day out of the way.

She's a musician at heart!

Aside from playing the piano, singing, and dancing, Eliana also likes to play the harmonica. Here she is, playing her premiere performance in Longview, TX.... Eliana!