Four Months Old!

Elliona is growing fast! I am excited for her to grow and develop but on the other hand, I want to stop it all and keep her young and cuddly!  At her 4 month checkup she weighed 13 lbs. 9 Oz. and had grown to a hight of 24 1/2 inches. She is at the 60th percentile for wieght and height in her age category!
Some things she can do now:

• Loves to smile and gab with us! She will also imitate our sounds. Grandpa Peterson started growling to her and she loves to try and growl back! She even seems to expect it from him every time she sees him.
• Loves to sit up or stand (with our support of course!) so that she can see the world from a different view.
• She is constantly exploring the world around her. She has started to grab and reach for things, only to put them straight into her mouth. When we had her sit on the grass tonight to see how she would like it, I tossed some blades of grass on her, and she decided to taste them. She also seems to like glasses, Grandpa Peterson and Kevin have both had thier glasses stolen by miss grabby hands!
• She always has either her hand/s in her mouth or she is grabbing and playing with her feet.
• Hates the pacifier, Loves her fingers! (yeah, not looking forward to trying to break that habit!)
• She does NOT like bottles! I have been really lazy and not practiced with her for a couple of months and now she screams like bloody murder whenever I try to feed her some pumped milk.
• She sleeps really well through the night (7-10 hours) and has since she was about 2m old. Every now and again she will wake through the night, but it is seldom!
• She HATES tummy time, she will scream almost the entire time! UPDATE: well the day after I wrote this blog post, she decided she knew how to roll over and she does it almost without even realizing it now. She no longer seems to hate it because she knows she can change the situation.
• Sometimes we catch her asleep with her eyes open. She also recently started sleeping with her hands up behind her ears.
• Every day is one huge battle wherein the drool and spit up win. I try to keep up with it, but in the end, all is wet!
• Hates having her pictures taken! We always have to take a ton just to get a couple that turn out great (and maybe THAT is why she hates it!).
• Her laugh sounds like a gulp or a squeal, doesn't quite have the ha, ha down. UPDATE: again, a day after I originally wrote this post, she decided to giggle and laugh for us, and her laugh is ADORABLE!
• She LOVES to stare at and talk with her Daddy! I don't think she knows what to think of the beard though! (she always turns away when he goes to kiss her).
• She is now growing her hair back. She was getting pretty bare in the back even though she still had really long locks on top-all of which has now gone wavy. Random fact...whenever we put it in a ponytail, she looks like Pebbles Flinstone.
• She likes music, sometimes to the point of major distraction if mommy is trying to feed her with music or noise going on in the background.
• She still has a on/off switch. One minute she will be smiling and cooing and the next-screaming! And then back again.
• She is SO DARN CUTE!!!

We are all feeling really blessed to have her in our lives. It is consistently amazing how much our lives have been changed and enhanced just by looking after and smiling at our girl!

Elliona's Blessing Day!

Elliona was blessed on May 9. It was the perfect first mothers day for me! I am sad that some were not able to attend as it was held on such a revered day. However, many family members and friends were still able to come and share our special day. Kevins mom, Marchelle, offered to make her blessing dress and she did a wonderful job, it was beautiful! I was able to crochet her a blessing blanket and had fun with that.

Elliona recieved many wonderful spiritual blessings and gifts, we are all excited to watch her grow up. It turned out to be a couple of tough days for Elliona, she was not used to so much interuption, noise, and change. She was very tired the whole weekend and as such, very fussy! We had a hard time taking all the pictures and I think we even missed out on some.  However, here are some of the family and friends that were able to come!

All the Men and A Little Lady!

The Sellers Clan

Grandma Sellers with Elliona

#1 Granddaughter

The Peterson Clan

The Beginings of Our Very Own Clan!

I thought a slideshow would be good to show off all the fun times that day, there were some pretty goofy photos and some really nice ones, here goes!

We also took some more formal pictures of Elli in her blessing gown and blanket. Again, Kevin's mom made her dress and I crocheted her a blanket, they both turned out great! Here are some of my favorite pictures that Alisha took.

Oh, What A Cutie!

We were able to take some photos of Elliona when she was 6 weeks old. Here are some that I really liked. Thank you Alisha for all your help! This was the photo shoot that we used for her baby announcement as well.

More Pictures from the Hospital

Random Hospital Photos

I finally got all the pictures downloaded from the hospital. Here are some more pics from Elliona's birthday. This slide show has pictures of Elliona, I will also be posting pictures of Kevin and I with Elli and also pictures of Elliona with other members in the family. I wasn't able to get a picture of everyone with her, but here are some random photos. If anyone has extra pics they want to send my way- it would be great!

 

Precious Moments with Daddy!

I wanted to write a little about Kevin with Elliona. He was able to bond with her much sooner than I was. When she was in the nursery getting checked and cleaned up there were some really touching moments between them. Whenever Elliona started screaming because of her new life experiance, Kevin would place his hand over her chest and she would turn toward him and calm right down! Even now, I think that she calms down better with him than me! What a great Dad!

Elliona's Littlest Parts

I had fun putting this little collage together of all her cutest little body parts!

Caught Red-Handed!

KEVIN-the accused has been charged with letting mom sleep in. FINE: priceless!

Date Confusion!

This blogging is all a new experience for me, some of you know me as being technolically challenged! As you can probably see, my dates are all out of order, but I'll get better as I go along. I look forward to sharing our new family experiences with all of you!

Great Friends Come to Visit in March!

Karen, Katinia and I enjoyed a great day of visiting, we went to lunch at the Olive garden! Elliona was about two weeks old, it was amazing how much of the time we spent was caring for Elli... I guess I will have to get used to it!

Before Baby Elliona!

Anniversary

In January, Kevin and I celebrated our 4rth year wedding anniversary! Its hard to believe we have been together that long, it seems like yesterday! We've had some great memories and our love is only getting stronger! Kevin surprized me with flowers, I know, I know... you always get flowers for your anniversary right? Well, when Kevin remembers to buy me flowers... its a welcome surprize! I was about 7 months pregnant in these photos.

Caryn and Carie's 30th Birthday

Caryn and I also celebrated our 30th birthday on the 27th. I still feel young but that 3-0 really puts a damper on it! We had a large family party at my uncle Micheals house. He also celebrates a birthday this month so we combined them.

Family Pet

On a more disstressing side of things we suffered two great losses in the family when our family pet, Katy, died and again when my grandmother Fern passed away at the end of January. Katy was old, we've had her for about 15-16 years. On a side note: we had just bought her this bed for Christmas, she loved it. She only got to use it for about two weeks before she passed on. She was a great family pet and we all miss her. We still keep feeling like she is here, even imagining her here, only to realize she is not and then missing her all the more.

Grandma Fern

 My Grandma and I were close, I remember a lot of memories from when I lived with her in Idaho. I had the opportunity to live with her for four years and eventually met and dated Kevin there. Well, when Kevin and I moved into my parents house last fall, I helped to take care of her as my parents were now housing her. She was not doing so well anymore and could not be left alone. She suffered from alzheimers and diabetis and in the end, her kidneys and bladder totally gave out on her. It was hard to see the pain and loss that was there when all I could remember was what she was like when I knew her in Idaho, she was almost a totally different person. Grandma had a great veiw on service for others and practicality in life. She had a tendency to say things bluntly and not be sorry for it! We were all a little bit relieved when she passed on, she was no longer enjoying life or even living it really. Her body kind of gave up on her in the end and we know that she is in a better place now, a place where she no longer has to suffer the pains of life. Here are some of the pictures taken. These are my sisters and I, we sang 'Jesus Lover of My Soul', as you can see, I was emotional. These are the flowers that the grandchildren put together, very colorful and lively.

Aunt Julie's Visit

My Aunt Julie came all the way from colorado to bring over some furnature for my sisters and some baby things for Elliona. I was only about three weeks away from having her in this picture. Julie stayed for a week and we all celebrated her 50th birthday! It was a lot of fun! We look forward to another visit in May!

Valentines Day

We were invited to join a group of 8 couples for a valentines day date. It centered around the theme of the Amazing race, it was great fun and a lot of laughs! These photos were taken when I was 8 months pregnant, I am glad that this is no longer the case!