Thanksgiving and Peek-A-Boo

I decided to take a little break from the video countdown to talk about how excited I am for this week and the upcoming month.

I am very excited for this week. Caleb only has to work on Monday and Tuesday so we get to be together for 5 straight days! Woo Hoo!

We're going to Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving to be with Caleb's side of the family. We leave tomorrow night. Caleb's brother Josh, and his wife Shamree just bought their first home. We're really looking forward to seeing it and spending time with all of Caleb's family. Plus, Elliana doesn't see her cousins on that side of the family as much so it will be fun to watch her play with them.

Josh and Shamree closed on their first home the same day that my sister Courtney and her husband Jeremy did. What are the chances? Needless to say, Caleb and I are trying really hard not to have home-envy right now. ;-)

I love, love, love Thanksgiving and I can't wait to watch Elliana as she tries all of the yummy Thanksgiving food. I'm loving the fact that she can eat just about everything we do now.

We're going to spend Friday decorating our house for Christmas! I can't believe that time of year is here already and I am SOOOO excited! I can't wait to play Christmas music in my house 24/7 for the next month.

It's also going to be so much fun to see Christmas through Ellie's eyes this year. I also think it's going to be a huge challenge to keep her away from the Christmas tree. Ha! That should be interesting.

Also, my sister Jenn is finishing up my Christmas blog design and I can't wait to see that.

Then, on Saturday, my sisters, Mom, and I are going to get together to bake and cook a bunch of Christmas candies, cookies, and other food for our Holiday recipe exchange. Make sure to check it out when you get a chance. It will be fun to see what everyone enjoys making most during the Holidays.

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I am thankful for God's word and how he is true and faithful to us over and over again, for his mercy, grace, and forgiveness, for my wonderful husband, for Elliana and the miracle gift she is to us, for my sisters, my parents, my parents-in-law, my brothers and sister-in-law, my nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, cousins, healthy grandparents, for our health, for our home, the fact that I can be home full-time, for Caleb's job, for this beautiful state, etc. I could go on and on. God has given us so much and I am so very thankful for all of it.

On a side note, here is another video we took of Elliana last night (I know, I've become obsessed with taking videos of her). The funny thing is, we did not show her how to do this. We were eating dinner and she just started playing peek-a-boo with Caleb clear out of the blue.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.


Happy Thanksgiving and have a wonderful week.

Video Countdown 3 and 6 Weeks

Since I didn't start blogging until Ellie was almost 8 months old, and since she's in the last month of her first year of life :(, I've decided I'm going to show old videos of her.

I thought this would be a fun way to countdown to her first birthday and to see how much she has grown and changed in just one short year.

I can't promise that these first two videos are all that exciting. You know how newborn babies are, they don't do very much.

Here is Elliana at 3 weeks old:


Here she is at 6 weeks old:



I can't believe how much she's changed, and I almost can't believe that she's the same baby.

Elliana at 11 Months

I am very sad to write this post because it reminds me that we are already in the last month of Elliana's first year of life. The months seem to be going faster and faster.



Elliana, this is your life at 11 months old:

~I don't know exactly what you weigh, but I would guess that you are just a little over 16 pounds now.

~You are still wearing 6-9 month clothing. Although I think you will be wearing 9-12 month clothing soon.

~You have two bottom teeth. It looks like you have a few teeth almost poking through the top.

~Your eyes are still blue.

~Your hair is coming in fast now and it's looking dark blond/ light brown.

~Your hair is just barely long enough that I can put a bow in it now!

~Your nap schedule still varies day to day.

~You are crawling so quickly and you still get into EVERYTHING!

~You can stand for a long time on your own now. You have started cruising really well.

~You are still using everything in sight to pull yourself up. You use chairs, couches, cabinets, the bathtub, walls, and even Mommy or Daddy's legs.

~You'll play everywhere and anywhere.

~You're not really interested in toys right now. You are such an explorer and you just love to explore. You still really like the laundry basket. Only now you use the laundry basket to get you around by pushing it to walk.



~Lately, your favorite thing to do is to pull everything out of drawers and cabinets. You love to pull clothes out of drawers, and pots and pans and Tupperware out of the kitchen cabinets. You keep me busy cleaning after you. :)

~You LOVE your baths!

~You still LOVE to eat!

~You feed yourself really well now. You eat almost everything we do, with a few exceptions.

~You still have a very happy, bubbly personality and you smile at everyone you make eye contact with. You make everyone around you smile.

~You love to clap and you're learning to wave at people.





~You babble all the time and you can say "Mama, Dad-da, uh-oh, and Hi".

~Your current nicknames are Ellie, Missy, Baby, and Kid-o.

We love you Ellie, and we love watching you grow! Happy 11 months!

State Wrap Up

I've had so many thoughts in my head since State that I had to put it on the blog.

Our experience was so thrilling and so heartbreaking at the same time. There's really a positive and a negative way to look at how the season ended.

On the positive side, the team made it to the championship match!! They have never made it that far before! Overall, they took 2nd in State. That's nothing to be ashamed of.

When I look back at the season, this team has so much to be proud of.

I think about how well they played each match during the regular season, how they won each match so effortlessly.

I think about how they were District Champions and how they swept their way into Regionals.

Then I think about Regionals and how they earned the right to host and how they beat every team again making them Regional Champions too.

Then I think about State, and how on Friday, they beat both teams in just 3 games. On Saturday, in the semi-finals, they played amazingly well, and won a game when they were down 21-12. Who does that? Who wins a game when they're down 21-12?

I think the highlight of the season for me was the semi-finals match. Again, it was incredible to watch!!

On the negative side, they didn't play their best game, even close to their best game in the championship match. I think they were a little star-struck, nervous, and jittery. They lost the championship match in 3 games. :(

It's so hard not to think about how the match could have played out if the team had played their very best. The team they lost to was good, they were very good, but so were we.

We were so close we could taste it.

I've never been depressed about sports or a game (or in this case, a match)... until now. I've never cheered so loud. I had never before lost an appetite from nervousness or been so nervous that I was shaking. I had never cried over a game or match before. I did all of these things this weekend. I was so emotionally invested in this team.

If you've ever been this close to a championship before, you know how it stings. How you keep playing the game (the match) over and over again in your head. You keep asking yourself how it ended the way it did.

I know Caleb loved this team and he will miss the Seniors dearly. I know how much time and emotion he has invested in this team, and that he is feeling everything I am, only 100 times more.

I also know that eventually, in time, the sting and the emotions will wear off and we will look back at this season as a great one!

Ready For State!

My sisters and I had so much fun making shirts yesterday for the State tournament this weekend.

I thought I would show you what we made.

Here is Elliana's Shirt:



Here is my shirt (Courtney's shirt is almost exactly the same):



And here is Elliana modeling her shirt (I had way too much fun taking pictures of her this morning):





We're going to leave for Denver tonight and we'll be with Caleb's team all day tomorrow and Saturday. I'm so excited and nervous to watch them. We're hoping that they're going to play REALLY well!

GO COUGARS!