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!

I Need Help!

In the hospital, the nurses said Elli has a strong sucking reflex and she probably sucked her thumb in the womb. So I have been trying my hardest to get her to take a pacifier, but no luck. She thinks it's a fun game. She has been sucking her wrist, her sleeves and fist...and today I walked in on this---she is sucking her thumb!! What do I do? Any suggestions out there?!

All Dressed Up, Yet Tired

Elli is all dressed up to go to church (thank you Staci for the cute outfit), but extremely tired. She normally takes a 4 hour nap in the morning and didn't like that our church switched from Friday evenings to Sunday mornings during her nap.

First Play Date

Friday Elliana had her first play date with Finn. They pretty much stared at each other, but their moms had fun drinking tea and eating chocolate pie. fyi, the second pic is right before a diaper explosion which required a new outfit.