Visiting Family and Friends in Kansas!

Last week was such a blast! Paul was supposed to go to DC for a conference and it was Elli and I's last hoorah before she turned 2 when we have to buy 2 plane tickets instead of just 1. So we headed to Kansas and she enjoyed her cousins, grandpa and grandma and her friend, Will. Bethany and Abby are so good to her and Elli just adores them. We got to meet Julia and Will for a day at Emporia zoo and the coolest toddler playground I have ever seen. That was a treat for all! And Grandpa and Grandma....well we'll just say that the first night back home in Texas, Elli screamed and screamed for them until I called them and she got to say good-night to them. It makes me sad she lives so far from both her grandparents...she loves them so much!

Colors?!

This morning I asked Elli what outfit she wanted to wear and she pointed to her pink dress and said, "pink" then pointed to her black and white dress and said, "black", then her green shirt, "gree" What?! Where did she learn colors? She is growing up too fast!

Papa Houge (she calls Grandma and Grandpa "Papa")

The last 12 days we have been enjoying our days with "G-pa and G-ma" Houge! We have had a ball doing....Octoberfests x 2, LBJ farm, Toyota tour, touring Castroville and Boerne and Fredericksburg, cheering for our high school football team (our neighbor is the coach and Texas h.s. football can be compared to other states' college football...it's like no other), glass shops/factories, central market, celebrated birthdays and spent "cool" mornings on the patio. Whew, I think I missed a lot of things as well! Needless to say, we did a lot and Elli loves her grandparents! They made her this stained glass night light for her birthday, too!

More Vikram Happiness!

Many of you know, we have had some major headaches lately with finding out that we probably will not be able to get him until early spring of next year due to change in the process/India court systems. Anyways, what had me in tears many days lately was the fact that immigration had lost our paperwork and we had to "prove" that we had sent it all otherwise, well, not a happy ending. Today, a nice lady from immigration called me and said she got our paperwork completed and we will get our immigration forms soon!! Miracle!! It doesn't speed up our process at all, it's was just a huge mountain that suddenly came in our path and we had to drive over...but it looks as though we passed over this mountain at least! Thanks, everyone, for your prayers! I was so excited when I got off the phone, that Elli is running around the house saying "happy, happy!"

New Pics of Vikram!

Don't ya want to squeeze his cheeks?! He is even wearing blue! This wait to pick him up is crazy tough!! I just want to tickle those chubby rolls and hear him giggle.

One Year Ago...

Wow, she has grown so much! Her friend, Mia, gave her the same outfit she had last year, so had to get "yearly pics".

Elli and Jackie...in San Antonio

My close friend and Colorado room mate, Jackie visited us this weekend. Elli knew Jackie was special from the moment we picked her up from the airport. The whole way home Elli said, "hot dawg!". On Friday we went to the zoo for the first time and Elli's storybooks came alive. She loves making the sounds of animals and "talked" to all of the animals. I think we had just as much fun watching her. She loves butterflies and makes the sign for it and just loved to point at them (pictured). We also had a blast going to the Riverwalk with Jackie, having prayer times in the morning, S'mores by candlelight (it really works!) and we got to go to Ross Parsley's first church service in Austin---so cool! Needless to say it was a rockin' weekend and Elli misses her Godparent, Jackie.