Keeping Busy

Hard to believe it, but our crazy little girl is 18 months old!
Actually, she has been for more than 2 weeks; I'm just slow
with posting. But anyway, at her check-up, I was simply told
that she is tall and heavy... so there's your growth update.
She's actually right around 30 lbs, but I don't know her height.
Tall enough to seem bigger than most the kids her age or
older in nursery... average to tall I guess at this point.
But yes, she has been going to nursery, the full two hours
even. I'm working in primary, so I don't get to see or hear
much of how she does, but Adam says he can hear her yelling
every now and then (just regular yelling, not crying). And
we have great nursery leaders, so it appears she does great
and has fun playing with different toys and doing activities.
Such a big girl.

We didn't really do anything for her 18 month birthday,
so I gave her some balloons to play with. Ellie LOVES balloons.

Ellie also seems to love all batters and doughs. On this night,
she was my bowl clean-up crew for banana bread. But she loves
cookie dough too, and even plain old bread dough for rolls. It's
all good to Ellie.

Aside from occasional rain days, the weather has
been pretty nice and warm most of the last couple
weeks. But sometimes when we try to drive to a cool
park that is farther away, this is all we get... but naps
are good too. I won't complain.

But most the time, we do get to play lots. Ellie and I get
plenty of exercise on all our walks and runs and climbing.

She usually likes to just walk around at the parks and
check things out, climb, or throw rocks and things, but she's
becoming more willing to actually play on the equipment
lately, which has been fun. She LOVES slides now.

We even got to do a picnic with Daddy at the park one evening.
Ellie loved the idea of having a blanket out in the park. She
enjoyed relaxing in her favorite place (OUTSIDE!)...
for a little while at least.

Ellie enjoyed our treats when she wasn't
busy running around.......

.......Or playing rough with Daddy. She has
always loved to wrestle and get tossed around.
I guess it's because Adam taught her from a very
young age... they have a lot of fun together.

Hiking the field.

Hugging the picnic blanket.

Along with the sunshine and park trips, of course
there is a lot of backyard time on the trampoline. Ellie
loves it out there. She jumps around and watches the
dogs wrestle on the yard below.

Ellie thought it was hilarious that Tex was sleeping in a
laundry basket one morning... so I told her he was going
night-night, and she gave him a kiss. She can be so sweet
when she wants to be.

So Ellie doesn't sleep in her crib.... she prefers the big bed all
to herself. But she does like to play in her crib with her babies.
They always have to be lined up just right, next to her in the
crib, then every blanket in sight has to be placed perfectly
over them all, while they watch movies and she reads them a
Twilight book... that's my girl.

The verdict is in...

The quick, but big news...

We're having a boy!

Adam, Ellie, and I are pleased to announce today's latest
news, that we are expecting this cute baby boy to
join our family this summer. The due date is July 30th, so I
am 21 weeks along. Everything at the ultrasound went well
and he seemed perfectly healthy, maybe overly healthy since
he wouldn't stop flipping and kicking and shaking his head and
limbs all over the place (Yay... we get ANOTHER crazy one)!
Anyway, we are extremely excited, and interested to see if
he looks as much like a Roggia as he did in the ultrasound.
We totally thought he looked just like Adam and Grandpa
Roggia, but since he's only half done, I guess we shouldn't
get too far ahead of ourselves. :)

Our Historic Spring Break

Ellie and I were lucky enough to have Daddy home

with us EVERY DAY last week for his Spring Break.

It was so much fun to have him around. Ellie got EXTRA

attached to him as has been giving him LOADS of extra

hugs and kisses ever since. I love it. SO anyway, we chilled

together most of the week, but decided to take a day trip on

Friday and drive up to Gettysburg. It was a lot of fun. Ellie

liked walking around the museum (and sitting on all of the

different benches along the way... "sit down... sit down"...

I can still hear it). Anyway, then we took a driving tour of

the battlefields. It was beautiful and very awe-inspiring.

My handsome husband posing on a battlefield.

Then a quick peek at the belly that's been growing.

We didn't get a ton of pictures or wander much since
Ellie spent the whole driving tour like this.

The old buildings and houses were beautiful. There were
monuments everywhere, and I was lucky to have Adam teach
me about the battles and sequences of events along the way as
I drove. This cemetery in the picture is actually where Lincoln
stood to give the Gettysburg Address... very cool.

Then we stopped to eat our lunch in an empty
parking lot. Adam sat on the ground behind the car,

While Ellie and I sat in the back to stay a little sheltered from the wind.

Until Ellie decided to climb out and put on a total
show for us. She was just dancing and jabbering and
being a complete goofball. She loves to show off and make
people laugh and clap for her.

See what I mean?

That's our Ellie.

She ate most of her lunch on the way home. She
loved having her own little tray of food to hold.
It was a great trip.

Some Randomness

Just some random shots from a week or 2 ago, to help catch up.

I promise she started with a spoon, but it would seem

that yogurt tastes better off of dirty fingers... yummm.

Sometimes Ellie just refuses to lay down for her nap, so I
occasionally resort to putting her with her babies in the recliner
with a movie turned down low... she usually falls asleep pretty
quickly if she's tired. Always has to have her babies though.

Ellie's traditional outside position. She's got to
have strong legs with as much as she squats like this.
Her favorite activity with the snow piles is poking it
and moving it around with sticks.

Giving me a goofy smile because of the sunlight.

Ellie's first Peep. If this is what Spring is about, count her in!