Fall Activities

Things are still going as well as ever for the Roggia
family in Virginia. We are keeping busy and having fun.
Adam only has a couple weeks worth of classes left for
his first semester of DPT school, then a full month off! YAY!
I know I say this a lot, but Ellie seems to be getting crazier
by the day. She keeps us laughing more than we ever thought
possible. She is just really funny, and really smart, and
really wacky. She's gotten at least two more teeth lately,
so a total of 8 that we know of for now. She was over 26 lbs
at the doctor last week and is 14 months old. Yay Ellie!

She loves to do things by herself. She got mad when I tried to
help her with the relatively huge rake the other day. She
did a pretty good job on her own though.

These are just some of my favorite shots I got of her that
same day while we were playing around in the yard.

She had to put on the oven mitt the other night so
that she could help with the cookies. She's a hard worker.
And of course, Tucker was right there by her side... usually
hoping for a chance to steal any snacks she might have.

The hard work paid off with some super-yummy cookies.

She has been all over poor Tucker lately. He tries to be patient,
most of the time. But she just loves to pull on him, follow him,
hug him, tackle him, tease him.... etc. She just cracks up anytime
she sees that she can make him mad. She lives in the danger zone.

This was from this today. I don't know how she gets so
dirty like this, so quickly. It's kinda crazy sometimes... but
it suits her, so who am I to question such matters?

Some other quick stories...
A couple of Sundays ago, Grandpa gave the prayer in
Sunday School, and as soon as everyone said "amen" and
he headed back toward us, Ellie looked at him proudly and
started clapping for him. Our classmates nearby were quite
entertained by that. GO PRAYING!
Also, when Ellie is poopy now, she will answer us yes by
grabbing her diaper. So we say, "ok, let's go change," and
she leads us from whatever room we are in, all the way to her
room, grabs a diaper, and sits or lays in her usual changing spot.
Funny little girl.

Happy Happy Birthday, Grandma Dear!

We were happy to celebrate Grandma Garner's birthday
this past Monday. We love her to death and are lucky to
have her around... super cool lady that she is.

Ellie liked helping Grandma with the candles.

And I got to make Grandma's favorite...
German Chocolate Cake!

She got some fun gifts, and we had a good
little celebration.

But then she had to decide who she wanted on her special birthday
plate..... decisions, decisions... she wanted both...

Adam thought he made a cooler Vampire than Edward...
but since he wasn't on a plate....

...someone had to win.... oh, Edward...

Halloween!

After a few attempts at costume shopping,
we decided the the most appropriate and adorable
thing for Ellie to be was a monster.... a cute, squishy,
pink, crazy monster. She pulled it off well.

She was pretty dang cute walking around
in the puffy thing.

And Grandma was the only other good sport
who dressed up.... the cutest Mary Poppins EVER,
if you ask me.

Quick Ellie moment: At the ward party, she wanted
someone to walk around with her the whole time.
As Adam took his turn, she decided she needed to stop
at every trash can and put the lids back on them.
She is definitely a character. But Dad was a good sport.
Hopefully people didn't mind the slight inconvenience.

Ellie's first trick-or-treating stash. She did pretty well,
considering we only took her to 4 houses along our street.

We couldn't get her to say much to people, but they all
thought she was cute anyway, so it worked.

She is still carrying around her pumpkin of candy.

She was posing with Gramps, but then dropped (or threw) her
monster head on the floor and went into her "uh-oh" pose.

But then found her head again.

Enjoying the fruits of her labors.

Random Catch Up

This collection of pictures is a little bit scattered in theme,
but I have been needing to catch up with things lately...
so oh well... enjoy anyway.

This collage shows what happens when Ellie is....
well... Ellie. Sometimes she just gets into her wacky
mood and starts rolling around the floor and acting crazy.
She was moving around and being silly like this for about
30 minutes on this particular occasion. She is so odd.
I love it.

Ellie has been showing some affinity for baby dolls and stuffed
animals, so I bought her one while we were at Target the
other day. She was so excited that as soon as we got to the
car and I was buckling her up, she reached for the box that had
the doll and kept saying "deese, deese.... tantyou..." So I got
the doll out and took this picture from the front seat without
looking and was very entertained to see that she was even
sharing her sippy cup with the baby. Now if only she could
be so sweet with real kids.

We made pretty pumpkin sugar cookies, and Ellie was
obsessed with eating the cookie dough. Yummm.

This is what happens when Ellie is left alone with
Daddy for too long. Yay hair gel!

For some reason, this picture won't stay rotated... but anyway.
I have to say thanks for my Dad for one of the dates Adam and
I got to go on recently. He managed to get us free tickets to see
the Caps one Saturday night. Adam and I had a blast at our first
NHL game, and Ellie was happy to stay home with her favorite
babysitters. The Caps even won in a cool shootout!

Thanks for the great date nights, Mom and Dad!

Crazy Ellie

Ellie gets hooked and addicted to games very quickly.
In this, she was dipping her hand in a cup of water, then
clapping and splashing us. As soon as she saw our reactions,
she was hooked. What a goof!

Work Hard, Play Harder

Ellie loves to use the dumbbells she got for her birthday.
She does it with us most nights.... pushups, weights, etc.
She grunts and works as hard as she can.

Then she does some laps with Dad and Tucker.

And takes a rest afterward with Grandpa and her dolly. I
think she thought it was cool to have her shirt off like grandpa.
Even the doll got into the workout, apparently.

In this picture, she had finished breakfast a few minutes before,
and would normally be begging me to get her out of the chair...
but since Imagination Movers was on, she just sat there... entranced.
They are her FAVORITE!

Hanging out with Dad... and reaching for the camera, of course.

We were trying to take pictures to send with a card to
her Great Grandma Roggia, and Ellie decided to put this
pumpkin bucket on her head... strange child.

Blowing kisses.

This is a very "Adam" face. It made me laugh.

Chillin on the trampoline outside.

"Uh-oh". Anytime Ellie drops things or thinks something is wrong,
she immediately puts her hands up on her head like this. Sometimes
I turn around in the car to ask her where her toy is that she had
(and of course threw down), and this sign is the instant
answer... she's funny.

Being silly... on the trampoline still... it is, after all, her all-time
favorite place to be.

Ellie, Tucker, and I go to the parks around here a lot.
I'm not sure what she's doing, but Tucker is very good at
following her around and staying close. Good guard dog.... till
he spazzes at the sight of another dog.

I feel like she's plotting something evil....

Walking tall... she pretty much walks ALL the time now.

Tucker had fun playing some fetch. I wanted to get better
shots of him, but it's hard to be the one throwing the ball AND
taking the pictures.

Ellie likes to play with Tucker's tongue when he's tired and panting.
Good thing they are so patient with each other (even if they
are not patient with anyone else).

Silly poses.

Ellie then decided that all she wanted to do was push the
stroller in circles. Tucker tried to do his duty and stay near her
and the stroller...

Even thought it meant he had to keep moving around...

But then she would crash into him and CRACK UP!...
so he eventually gave up and came over to sit by me instead.

She thought pushing the stroller was hilarious.

I couldn't get enough of her silly faces. Note the leash around her
neck. That's one of her favorite games lately. Anything long and thin
goes over her head and around her neck, then she takes it off, then
puts it on, and does it over and over... or just likes walking around
with it on....... who knows what how her mind works.

Too cute.

And too busy to stop for a pic with mom.... she's never been
one for kisses, but she is a good hugger, so at least we get
those frequently. Crazy child. We love her to death. She
is ALWAYS making us laugh.

Ellie updates and shenanigans

Ellie is 13 months old... but seems to think that
she's an adult. Maybe because she lives in a house
surrounded by adults who she thinks she controls.
Anyway, she's doing really well.... still has the same
hilarious and spicy personality she was born with,
and keeps us working hard to keep up.

She loves to rock. She stops and bangs her
head or dances to almost all music. She loves
to wear guitars. There was a rock concert on TV
the other night, and she immediate grabbed a
guitar and made me help her put it on.

Talking with Tucker. She talks ALL THE TIME. Sometimes
it's just jibjab, but she actually knows a lot of words anymore.
she knows mama, dada, grandpa, grandma, tucker, tank,
this (or deese! to get things), thank you (says it all the time...
so cute!), drink, all done, night-night, bye-bye, good job,
uh-oh, ooooh wow, and countless others that she will
say or repeat for me when she's in the right mood.
It's crazy! (I know that was long, but it's more
for me to keep record better).

She likes playing with full-size basketballs and footballs
a lot lately.

Ellie is a water addict. The sprinkler was on, and
it took her all of about 20 seconds of freedom to end
up completely soaked.

And she walks! She started really walking a lot
right before Jake left. She doesn't do it all the time
yet, but gets better and better. She can stand up
and walk across the whole room if there aren't
too many dogs and things to trip over.