Bunny Butt

I have been thinking that Elli has no interest in rolling over. Then, on Thursday, I checked on her and see this! She is sucking her thumb which saved her from completely rolling over. Oh man, when she woke up, she screamed and screamed and it was the first time she clutched to my neck for dear life!

Playing Cards with Grandma

Grandma and Grandpa Houge left for Minnesota...so sad. We had a great time, though, playing cards, laughing about Chuck's one liners and just hanging out. Thank you, Lois, for sewing my bridesmaid dress! Elliana got used to them being here and is pretty bored without them.

Photos from KS

Mike, the kind smart guy that he is, just downloaded pics from this weekend and sent them to me! Thank you Mike! As you can see, Auntie Cranky (also known as Deloris--her shirt reads, 'cranky') came to visit Elliana, even Grandma couldn't get Elli to stop sucking her thumb and Bethany and Abby got to meet their first girl cousin! Elli sure liked them and liked Grandma talking to her!

Elli Hates the Brown Palace

Paul got an invitation to a dinner at the Brown Palace, one of the fanciest places in Denver. Because Elliana is NOT into bottles right now, we had to get permission to bring her. Normally she is a jewel, laid back and just hangs out when we eat. Oh no, not last night. She screamed the whole night! Here we are at this fancy hotel all dressed up surrounded by hundreds of adults who left their kids at home and Elli cries the whole night through. We took turns scarfing down the gourmet meal and got out of there before Denver's mayor spoke to give the rest of the group a break from her. Not quite the night we had been looking forward to!

Kansas Fun

I took all of the pictures this week with Dad and Mom's camera and forgot to download them to the computer! ahhhh! Here is her valentine outfit, though. Anyways, we had a wonderful long weekend in Kansas. Mom and Dad spoiled us with amazing food and loving on Elliana. For Valentines Day, they babysat the cousins while Mike and Tina and us enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Granite Slab. Elli liked watching her cousins run around. We really enjoyed all of the card games we got to play, too! This weekend reminds me of what a miracle Elliana is. As I introduced her to Judy Banz I was reminded of how the Lord had laid on her heart to share with me that God was going to give us a birth child. 2 years later, Elli is here! I saw so many of dad and mom's friends who supported us and prayed for us during those long years of waiting. We are especially blessed to have family so encouraging as well.

Grandpa and Grandma Houge

Grandpa and Grandma are here for a few days as they head back to Minnesota from Arizona. Elliana loves to watch Grandma all day long. A little quark about our Christmas cactus (pictured above) is that it only blooms when they visit. So of course, when they arrived it was at its peak blooms. Weird.

Photo Shoot with Rafael

While we were in the mountains this weekend, Rafael took many pics of Elliana (over 700!). Here are a few...thanks Rafa! He even took some pics with Elli in the dress I wore when I was 3 months!

Condo Weekend...Ahhh Colorado

Ok, all weekend I kept saying how much I love living in Colorado! We were so excited to be invited to spend the weekend with Sloan, Christina, Kevin and Rafa at Sloan's friend's cabin. We had a blast downhill and cross country skiing, playing nerts, eating amazing food (Kevin made a salad with 22 ingredients!), learning salsa dancing from Rafa, touring the ice sculptures in Breckenridge and encouraging each other in Christ. I cannot believe we got that all in in 4 days! It was truly wonderful!