All good things must come to an end eventually, I suppose. Sigh. Brenda and Bug flew home today. As much as I would have loved to have them stick around for another month, they have family and friends in California who miss them. And they have changes on the horizon and they needed to go home and get cracking on making those changes happen.

Not to mention that Heather flew to California today to meet them at the airport and spend a few days helping them move, and I imagine she would have been pretty ticked at me if they didn’t show up when they were supposed to. Heh. And of course we have a sweet new baby to distract us, and an upcoming visit from my good friend Erin to look forward to. So we all have things to look forward to and keep us busy to distract us from being sad.

But of course we’ll miss them anyway. We already do.

I don’t know what we would have done without Brenda and Bug these past few weeks. In addition to helping us out with cleaning and cooking while she was here, Brenda did most of the work organizing the baby’s room and then new downstairs office, including figuring out where to put all the craft supplies, moving furniture, and hanging pictures on the walls. She even helped Troy paint the master bedroom while I was the hospital after having Elliora.

Having friends like them here made the last month of my pregnancy not only more bearable mentally and easier physically, but actually fun. Annalie had her best friend to play with and fight with and play with some more; she and Bug have spent so much time together they’re almost like sisters in the way they relate to each other, which is great practice for Annalie, no? And I had a friend to hang out with while we grocery-shopped, took the kids to the park, crafted, painted pottery, watched Veronica Mars, or just sat around messing around on our laptops and drinking coffee. Sometimes we had heart-to-heart talks, sometimes we just goofed around, and always we laughed a lot. I’ve never had a sister, but I imagine that’s what it might be like. Brenda is that kind of friend and I’m so blessed to have her.

Thanks again for everything, Hugh. (I finally remembered our inside joke!) You COOK.

p.s. New banner by Brenda, of course, based around an inside joke with her and Sonja and Madge, mostly. Isn’t it pretty?

Sorry, no birth story yet or anything. It’s late and this is my last night at the hospital where someone will whisk my baby away to the nursery between feedings so I am going to bed pronto. But I thought you might like a few photos to tide you over.

Can you tell how exhausted I was? I found a three-hour labor was much more wearing than a ten-hour labor. I was still shaky with adrenaline this morning, and I feel like I spent all day in a sit-up marathon, after spending the day before that moving heavy furniture without remembering to lift with my legs.

But of course she’s worth it.

Elliora already has at least two adoring fans. Annalie and Bug were both totally taken with her and wanted to hold her as much as we would let them.

Elliora so far has been a super content baby, a champion nurser, and is happy as long as someone is snuggling her.

My mom spent the day hanging out with us at the hospital while Troy and Brenda took the girls back home and painted the master bedroom. Yes, you read that right. They decided there was no time like the present to get that done! They rocked it and finished both coats in one day. Thanks again for doing that, T & B!

Annalie told me today, “Wow, you sure are lucky, Mom! You used to have just one great kid, and now you have TWO!”

My mom said, “I think the word you’re looking for is blessed, Annalie. You guys are all very blessed.”

Yep. We really are. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments and emails! We love you right back.

Edited 12:06am

Ha! I see Brenda had the same idea I did, to post a few photos. She beat me by a few minutes. Great minds think alike. As she mentioned yesterday, I had a personal goal to post every day in November, and I figure missing one day because I was having a baby is a pretty good excuse. And Brenda was mad with power at having my admin login and password sweet enough to post the next day for me too, so I didn’t have to worry about it. But I wanted to finish up the month with a post of my own, so I did. And hey, we even picked mostly different photos to show you! You can see more photos in Brenda’s Flickr set Happy Birthday Elliora and in my Flickr set Elliora’s Birth Day.

I know Bethany could blog her own post. They do have wifi in the hospital and I know she’s been online commenting and reading emails. But I’m going to abuse my power as guest poster one more time and share some photos from our visit today. It was really special, as expected.

I caught a little movie. I’m sorry about the rustling noise. That was just my wrist strap scraping over the speaker.

It was a great visit. We all got to hold Elliora and feel her tiny wriggling body wrapped up tightly in a little bundle so lightly in our arms

She’s such a cutie. Just like her big sister.