Ellie, my Ellie

It has been so refreshing to have our Ellie back to her spunky,
happy self. Whatever yucky virus she caught a couple of weeks
ago seemed to really take it out of her... and make her somewhat
unpleasant to be around. But we have our Ellie whole again...
so we are thrilled.

She's been cheesing it up for some photos lately... which I love.
Here she is showing how gentle and loving she is with her Tank.

Prayer skills.... she does so well during prayer time...
usually. She folds her arms, and will often even bow her
head for the whole thing. Such a good little girl.

Despite her toughness and love for cars and balls, she
is definitely still a girl. She loves to carry purses... they have
to be on her shoulder like Mama and Grandma.

Sadly, I cutoff her baby's head in the picture, but I still
thought it was cute that she was walking around, adjusting
her purse and holding her baby. She loves loves loves babies,
especially real ones when she gets the chance to be around them

Ellie also loves to cuddle with her Dad. She gives him
the longest hugs sometimes when he gets home from school.
We love our Dada.

So I wasn't kidding about the highchair thing in the last post.
Ever since she spent 2 weeks with cousins who don't use them,
she has refused to even be put in it. So we got this cheap booster
seat for Ellie to sit at the big table, in the big chairs... and she loves
it. She actually asks to be in it.... hopefully it will last a while.

Ellie also loves to hang out by the water cooler. She
finds a cup and puts it on the tray then asks me to fill
it up for her. I'm just happy it gets her to drink water.

Yesterday, I was doing dishes and listening to music while Ellie
played around, of course pulling out all the pizza pans and things
that she always plays with.... then I looked down after a while to
find her laying down calmly next to Tucker on the floor... of course
she got out of the cute position when she saw the camera, but I liked
it anyway.

Another adorable cheesy grin as she enjoyed one of
her favorite snacks... rice krispy treats.... yum!
Hurray for a fun and happy girl.

Christmas and Savannah

Yes, this is my daughter... and yes, she does this
sort of thing regularly.
So, in addition to slacking on the blog for the last month
or so, I've also been slacking in taking pictures as well.
There have just been too many sicknesses and busy events
keeping me either occupied or just plain exhausted.
But anyway, we really did have a wonderful Christmas
and vacation, so here goes a quick recap:

Ellie got new baby dolls (she loves babies), 3 Musketeers
candies (in the stocking), cute clothes and toys, Imagination
Movers dvd's, and too many other wonderful things.
She made out pretty well... thanks to her wonderful
family and relatives. She enjoyed Christmas
a great deal this year.

Ellie and I posed in our Christmas pajamas....
(a classic tradition for Christmas Eve).

Ellie did some extra poses for me... so cute!

Adam modeled the super-cute hat that his
sister, Joy, made. We got wonderful things from all
of our family members! Thanks to all! We'll be
sending pictures and cards soon when we get
some new pics printed..... I mostly promise!

Ellie posing again in a Christmas outfit.

The mandatory Christmas dress. Probably the
cutest little girl in church that week... but maybe
I'm biased.

Ellie and Tank. She always makes me take her upstairs to say
hello to Tank in the mornings. She loves her big gentle bear.

We also had a birthday! My wonderful husband turned 25 this
month. He has some bad luck, in that his birthday landed on a day
when 70% of all the relatives and friends present were sick and
spending their evenings with buckets (including myself). So
we celebrated a day late.... but it doesn't change our love for Adam!

Following some fun family events and a promotion of Ellie's
Grandpa Garner to Colonel (now both her Gramps are Colonels!),
we all took a trip down to Savannah and had a good time. Ellie
had a blast with her cousins. Above, they were taking turns
being thrown onto the bed by Grandma and Grandpa.

Ellie loves trying to be a big kid. She now refuses
to sit in a high chair. Joy.

We ate a giant, delicious pizza at Sweet Melissa's in Downtown
Savannah. Ellie liked playing with Grandpa, and she loved the
loud rock station they played at the pizza place. In the lower
picture, she was totally rockin' out to some Fleetwood Mac.

Adam and Ellie in front of the Savannah bridge.

A quick couple pose. We were sure to stop and get samples at
all the candy shops on River Street downtown... gotta love it.

Unfortunately, we were not lucky enough to be there during
warm weather, but we had fun anyway.

This is the beautiful beach house we stayed in
on Tybee Island.

Ellie had her first beach experience. Too bad it
was so cold because she really seemed to love it.

She loved running from the waves with Grandpa.

Forcing Ellie to pose for a family picture.

Looking like a cute tourist.

It was a wonderful trip. We had lots of other people's
cameras taking pictures, so hopefully we can post
some more fun ones when we get our copies of the photos.

SNOW........

We got POUNDED with snow last weekend. It was a little
ridiculous. I think it ended up right around 2 feet... kinda
crazy. Below, you will find our car... somewhere in that
mass of white.

I took Ellie out to the deck for a little while
when it stopped coming down... but just ended up
taking silly pictures... she wasn't that interested
in playing with the snow yet.

But she did look cute in her coat.

The snow was WAY tall next to her.

Our winter wonderland...

The mountain of snow that was our yard after some shoveling.

Ellie likes to sit at the big table. This time she was holding
baby and decided to share her cheetoes. In the picture, she is
making smacking noises with her lips while the baby eats.

Just playing around in her room.

She was in the recliner with her head resting like this on the
armrest, watching (as always), Madagascar 2.

Looking cute in her little dress coat before church
a couple of weeks ago. She's too adorable.

This picture is a bit out of order. Here she is enjoying
Grandpa's birthday cake from a few weeks ago.

She had to be with him in the candle action.

She gave him lots of love for his birthday, as she
always does. She's a little Grandpa addict.
We had a wonderful time celebrating with him.

Just sittin' in the window. She looks so big
to me in this photo. Can't believe how grown
up she gets all the time. Such a fun girl.
She did have a doctor's appointment on the 11th, and
weighed over 27.5 lbs! She is good and healthy and
keeps us working hard. Her latest this is prayers.
She folds her little arms and bows her head... but
still says "all done" instead of amen... then claps
when we're done. She's a funny one.

My Daughter, The Bully

I am afraid that Ellie is still a little inept at playing with other
toddlers thus far. She does pretty well playing with kids who
are a little older than her, but the little ones at church usually
just end up getting bullied. She was just casually walking by one
little boy and just yanked him down to the floor by his sweater
and kept walking. Poor little kid. Then she made another boy
cry by forcing his pacifier out of his mouth, just to toss it away.
Those two moments were within about 2 minutes of each other.
Needless to say, I didn't get to stay in that Relief Society class.
Our little wild child needs to learn to be gentle. I try to teach her
all the time, but no matter what method I use to teach her, she
always laughs like it's a joke and just keeps being as rough as
she always is.... we are in for it (or at least the other toddlers
at church are)... yikes! But anyway.....

I just thought Ellie looked really cute in this little Bolivian hat.
Holding her baby, who she also abuses frequently,
in between the hugs.

"Oh... what a convenient and comfy place to......

.... GO INSANE!!!!"
(She threw herself around like that nonstop for like 5 minutes.)

The usual morning kisses from her buddy, Tex.

I don't think I would survive if there were 3 Ellies.

Ellie and Tucker both love to cuddle with Adam when they
get the opportunity.

Yes, a tree fell on our house. There was a bad storm last weekend,
a big crash in the night that shook the house, and this is what
we found... along with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling by
its electrical wires.

We discovered that Ellie LOVES pears. She scarfed
this one down pretty fast.

This is how I got ready for church yesterday. I sat
Ellie on the recliner, with her absolute favorite movie
showing... Madagascar 2.... she was there for about 45
minutes, watching intently as I got things ready. It was nice.

She's also recently discovered the joy of little portable
dvd players. She likes to touch it and point at things while
she watches (some Penguins of Madagascar episodes, of course).

Which leads to Ellie's favorite kind of reading... Madagascar
movie cases. She doesn't like to sit and listen to people
read books for more than a minute... but she will search
through numerous dvd's until she finds a Madagascar case and
then studies it for long, long periods of time... flips it over,
and even opens it to look inside.
She's such a little weirdo. We love her!

Too much me...

I truly do not enjoy putting up pictures or blog things about
myself.... but I guess as long as it's not too often, I'll be able
to get through it. I did have a fun week. The first picture is out
of order, but oh well... it was a last minute addition.

I'm not usually one for all the effects, but the picture was a little
out of focus, and this made it better... plus, Adam was directing
the editing process and thought this would be cool. He said,
"You look heroic, intense, and focused."

Just a fun shot of Ellie reading and sipping a smoothie. We still
can't get her to do animal noises (except a dog bark), but she
likes to point to the animals and hear us do the noises.

Thank heavens she has not learned or had the guts to climb
all the way out the doggy-door yet, but she does love to open
it and drop things outside or tease the dogs who wait patiently
for her to move before jumping through the door.

An extremely rare, peaceful moment between the two wild boys.

Ellie adores playing rough with Grandpa.

Notice the cute little scabs and scratches on her face...
she did a total face plant on the sidewalk last weekend, but
she already looks much better. She crashes all the time...
but luckily she's pretty tough.

This is Ellie hanging out at the race on Thanksgiving morning.
She likes watching the runners and crowds, and clapping along.

She gave me a good pep talk before the race.

Just a few random shots. It was a great race. Over 2700
people were competing, even a guy in a Wheaties cereal box.
I surprised myself by finishing in 24:49, which means I kept
a pace that I didn't even know I could keep. It was a great
way to start the holiday. I'm lucky I have such an amazing coach
for a husband!

Ellie loved all the amazing Turkey-Day food. Her
absolute favorites were green bean casserole and
pistachio jello salad... and Grandma's rolls, of course.

Then it was on to birthday festivities for me. Yes, I am now
officially a whopping 23 years old. Bring it on.

My two favoritest people were right by my side.

We had some yummy cake (as if all the pies from the day before
weren't enough), and I got some wonderful gifts from my
wonderful family. Thanks to everyone!

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...