Video Countdown 8 and 12 Weeks

In the midst of all of this holiday craziness, I keep having to remind myself that I have a birthday party to plan for little miss Elliana.

Poor girl, I can totally relate. December birthdays really get overlooked ;-).

Anyway, I thought I should continue with the video countdown to Ellie's first birthday.

Here she is at 8 1/2 weeks old:


This is a cute video with Elliana and my niece Reagan. This is when their personalities really started to show. Here is Elliana at 14 weeks old and Reagan at 12 weeks old:


Aren't they cute?!

What A Day!

My sisters Jenn, Courtney, Alli, our mom, our friend Annie, and I spent all day yesterday cooking and baking for our Holiday recipe exchange.

Who knew a day of cooking and baking could be so exhausting?!

As tiring as it was, we also had so much fun and ended up with many delicious holiday recipes. We can't wait to share them with you.

Here is a sneak peek at what we made:



Don't forget to check out the Holiday recipe exchange tomorrow!

Deck The Halls

The Christmas season is officially here! Yay!!!

Thanks to my sister Jenn, my blog design now reflects this. Didn't she do a great job?!

I LOVE this design. This is exactly what I picture when I think about Christmas. It makes me feel all warm and cozy just looking at it. It also makes me want to go and sit by our fireplace and drink some eggnog or hot apple cider.

We're going to spend the day as a family decorating for Christmas and listening to Christmas music. It's going to be a good day.

The most wonderful time of the year is here! Bring it on.

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!

They Did It Again!

Oh my, we had one crazy, busy, fun weekend.

I wanted to start with the very exciting news that Caleb's team is officially going to STATE this coming weekend!

Saturday they hosted Regionals at their school and they won against all 3 teams again.

The last match was the most exciting! Each game in the last match was very close and all the fans were on the edge of their seats the entire time. I could barely stand it. My heart was beating so fast!

After a long, nail biting match the fans stormed the court. The high school boys hoisted Caleb up high and celebrated (very loudly) for a long time. It was great!

I don't have any pictures from this weekend. I wish I did, but I'm so bad at bringing my camera along with me.

So, this Wednesday, Courtney and I are going to make some shirts for her, Elliana and me. Then Thursday night we're off to Denver for the State tournament. I'm very nervous and excited for this weekend.

I know this is a huge subject change, but I can't believe the Holiday season is almost here! Where did the last year go?

I always love the Holidays. I love seeing old friends, getting together with family, all the yummy food, the decorations, etc. Doesn't everything look more beautiful at Christmas?

My sister Jenn, is working on a Christmas blog design for me and I can't wait to see it!

I'm one of those people that will not listen to Christmas music or decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I know some people think that's crazy, but I think Thanksgiving gets overlooked otherwise, and I love Thanksgiving almost as much as Christmas. :)

The sisters and I are going to be doing a Holiday recipe exchange on our recipe blog. Check it out, it should be a lot of fun!

I better get going. Have a wonderful week!

District Champions!

Before dating Caleb, I was CLUELESS about sports, and honestly, I couldn't have cared less.

Since dating and marrying him, he has gotten me to not only understand sports, but to actually love a few of them.

Probably the sport I've become the most passionate about is Volleyball. Simply because he coaches the girls Varsity team at his school. I've watched him spend so much time and emotion on his team year after year that eventually, his passion became my own.

I wouldn't consider myself as someone who brags very much, but since I'm not bragging about myself, I thought it would be okay. ;-)

Caleb and his volleyball team played Districts last Friday and they seriously KICKED BUTT!! I was/ am SOOOO proud of them!

I also have to mention that Caleb got coach of the year in his league! Again, SO proud! :)





Let me give a brief explanation as to how Friday played out (I'll try to keep it brief).

There were 4 teams at Districts and each team had to play all 3 of the other teams. The top 2 teams got to go on to Regionals (and then hopefully eventually State), and the other 2 teams were finished for the season.

The first team to win 3 games against the other team wins the match. So, in some cases, a match can go to 5 games. To win a game, you have to be the first team to 25 points. The winning team also has to win the game by at least 2 points.

Caleb's team played and won against all 3 teams and didn't even give up one game, not ONE! All of the other matches between the other teams went to 4 0r 5 games. And Caleb's team won most of their games by WAY more than 2 points!





So, since Caleb's team is District Champions, they get to host Regionals at their school this coming weekend. Caleb is so excited and nervous at the same time. I'm feeling the same way.

I can't wait to watch them play again this weekend. GO COUGARS!