ELLIANA'S FIRST HALLOWEEN!!!!

Happy Late Halloween! I hope you all had a great Halloween. Todd and I really enjoyed dressing up Elliana in a cute peapod outfit this year. It was actually perfect since we passed out candy at our church on Saturday outside. She was so warm and toasty in her outfit and she was adorable! Todd and I dressed up as farmers and showed off Elli proudly- since she is our little harvest.

This is before I realized Todd had put Elli's hat on backwards-- poor Todd, he is still learning how to put clothes on correctly. Elliana is obviously a little put out by the backwards hat too!

Here is our happy girl! She was all smiles as she often is so happy to be doing anything as long as she gets to look at Mommy! So interesting note about the awesomeness of this mommy-- I bought this peapod costume before we were even pregnant! I saw it on sale and knew it was too cute to pass up. Todd was a little distressed when I came home with it since he was sure it wouldn't even fit our baby at the right time-- but low and behold-- Mommy was awesomely right! It was perfect!

Tyson and Diana and their kids dressed up as superheros. Diana was wonderwoman and Sawyer was the Flash! They all looked awesome! Sorry we didn't get pics of Diana and Sawyer though.

We got to go to a fun party and enjoyed the Halloween festivities. It is so fun to be a mommy!

Witch Cupcakes

To celebrate October and Halloween, Todd and I invited some friends and family over to make Witch cupcakes! It involved green icing, icecream cones, twizzlers, mike and ikes, chocolate chips, sprinkles, and a whole lot of creative fun! It was a bit crazy at times and I think all the kids left with a definite sugar high.

Little Logan could barely finish his without eating it first-- I think he ate a few other people's too! Is anybody suprised? Not me.

Lexi thought that a witch was not enough-- I believe this was Princess Fiona from Shrek! Pretty good huh!

Our friends the DeAndas were a great addition to the fun!

Todd and I were really proud of our creations! I will admit that it was Todd's idea to put the twizzlers on the witches hat, I thought up mike and ike hair!

Elli really wasn't interested in eating the cupcakes (luckily!) but her foot sure was tasty!

Lorena came over with her kids too. Camden made two witches and he ate a lot of icing!

Logie chowing down!

FUN TIMES!

Weekend in CT

A couple of weekends ago, we headed up to CT to spend the three-day weekend with Sarena, Adam, and the rest of the CT Sharp clan. It was THE worst car trip we have ever had on the way up, but even with that in mind, it was a wonderful and worthwhile trip.

Just quick note about the trip up ... We left at the peak of rush hour traffic. We went 13 miles in the first hour and in the first three hours, we averaged 30 miles per hour. If that wasn't enough, we hit three major traffic accidents on the way up. The last one we came across at 1:00am in the morning and it stopped all traffic on the freeway. For over an hour, we didn't move. Finally, I did some creative driving (i.e., driving the wrong way on the on-ramps), and using the GPS, we were able to use back roads to skip four onward exits before we were able to get back onto the freeway past the accident (we suspect it was an overturned semi). Anyway, we got to bed that night at 4am. It was a rough drive. Luckily, Elliana was fantastic throughout the whole drive; she slept through most of it.

And we had an awesome time while we were up there. We had one of the most laid back, relaxed Saturdays ever. We went to one of Jared's soccer games and watched him knock in a goal. Then we went on a picnic. Afterwards, we took a nap on the grass (which we hadn't done in forever). That afternoon, Heather and I saw our first lacrosse game ever, and it was awesome. Trevor was playing, and he did great! He basically led his team from a huge deficit to comeback and win in the last moments. He scored three goals and flattened most of the other team.

On the way home, Adam and I stretched our legs with a little 6 or so mile jaunt. About one mile from the house, we got stopped by a cop and told to take another route home due to some downed power lines, which would have added another 6-7 miles on our run. It was getting dark and cold, and I was already pretty exhausted (Adam was just starting to break a sweat). We tried to persuade him to let us go ahead; it wouldn't have been hard for us to just walk around the downed lines. But he wouldn't budge. It just so happened, though, that Sarena pulled up in a car right at that moment. Talk about listening to and heeding inspiration!

Sunday we spent some time hiking, playing games, and wrestling.

Elli was in heaven! I held her for a total of about 30 minutes because her cousins and her aunt and uncle were all vying to hold her. She loved it!

It was a short but wonderful trip, and we can't wait until Thanksgiving when we all get back together again.

Roller Derby Madness

A friend of mine invited Heather, Elliana, and me to go to a women's roller derby match. Since it was such a sub-culturally unique thing to do and we will likely never have the chance to go to another roller derby match again, we decided to go. And it did not disappoint.

There were no clotheslines or full-on tackles, but there was some serious hip- and shoulder-checks. The event consisted of two games, the first being a 30 minute exhibition match, and the second being a full 60 minute game.

To give a little bit of an introduction to the sport to the few who don't follow it, two teams compete on a flat track roughly the size of a local rollerskating rink. Each team is composed of two types of players: one offensive player known as the jammer, and the rest of the team (typically 4-5 players) known as blockers. The jammer scores points by lapping all of the other team's players. The other players try to prevent this by using any part of their body from their mid-thigh to their shoulders to hit, obstruct, and otherwise flatten the jammer. It's very fun to watch, and some of those girls deliver body checks that would make the NHL proud. It was flat-out awesome!

One other fun thing to note: all of the names of the teams and players are based on puns. Once a girl makes it onto a team, she either comes up with or is given a roller derby name. Some of the names we saw included Ovary Reaction, Green Eggs and Wham, Condoleezza Slice, Velocityraptor, Lois Slain, and Beelzebubba. Our friends, one of which used to play in the New York city roller derby league, gave Elli an honorary roller derby name: Baby Ruthless. Awesome, huh!

The teams we saw compete included Scare Force One, Cherry Blossom Bombshells, Rollergirl Allstars, and the DC Demoncats. We definitely recommend you guys go to a match if you ever get the chance.

Oh yeah, one last fantastic tidbit from the game. For the half time show, a man dressed up as Captain America and a woman dressed up as the lady Flash did a roller skating duet to R&B music. It was without a doubt almost spectacular, but mostly disturbing. : )

Return of Cowgirl Elli! Plus Beret, Angel, and Bunny Elli Too!

Elliana has been so adorable lately, we felt it would be a dis-service to you all not to post a few pictures of her so that you can all see. Last entry, Heather posted some pics of her in the cowgirl outfit that her sister Laura had given us. My mom and dad, living in San Antonio, had also given us an adorable outfit. So without further ado, I present the return of the Elli the Cowgirl!

Isn't she about the most precious and adorable thing ever!

Here's another couple of pics of her in her French beret. She's starting to be able to sit up on her own ... kind of ... but most of the time she falls over pretty quickly.

Before

After

This is Angel Elli. I just think she looks angelic in these pics. This dress was given to us by a friend, whose grandmother had made it by hand.

Finally, here is Bunny Elli. A friend from England sent this to us not long after Elliana was born. We think she is adorable in it and are so thrilled that she finally fits in it. If you look closely at her hat, it has a bunny on it.