Aarons 1st birthday

kiddos playin
Leah out at the lot during excavating

Slow progress

Hello, this is Eli. Today is Aaron's 1st birthday and everyone is sleeping it away. I've been on the night shift for the last few days and have not gotten much sleep at all lately. This morning I slept about 4 hours then went out to the house to start laying the underfloor for the tile, then ran to get the kids from daycare and right to the tub so they would be ready for a little birthday party. Well, after the tub they both fell asleep so I should join them but I thought I'd get a quick post on here. The house has stalled out the last month or so, it was going pretty smoothly with Phil and dad doing the plumbing( thanks again) and me doing the gopher work and some landscaping. Our hvac guy is a little slow but he is a freind of mine so I cant complain, once he is done it should take off pretty well. Yesterday the insulators showed up and insulated the basement and the upstairs which looks really nice they do great work. Oh the garage doors were put on tuesday I think? which is great because our neighbor said people would stop and walk in and check it out..aarrgg small town nosy people,,sorry pet peave it's like a soap opera or telephone game when anything new happens. ummm next week the sheetrockers are going to show up, and hopefully I can start laying tile soon unless I decide to check myself in at St. Peter

Well, I'm gonna try to catch a wink before everyone wakes up quick----

Isn't this a cute one?

Leah and Hollie with their mustache's that they got from the quarter machine in Wal-Mart!!!

I liked how they are both making the same face!

My little cutie!

Leah standing next to her snowman

Aaron and Leah's first sink bath. It works pretty good!

Sam and Leah enjoying some pizza

The birthday boy!

Leah showing off her My Little Pony from the Theobalds. Thanks, guys!

Gus enjoying his cake

Sam and Leah had a blast jumping on the bed.

Mid air shot

Aaron scootin himself around

I'm back!

Yummmm, rice cereal!

New Years at Jon & Alex's

Here's Leah negotiating with Childress to get a new QB

Hello! I finally am getting around to posting on this thing. Aaron has popped his first tooth and some more may be coming in. We will (hopefully) be able to have his 6 month appt tomorrow so we'll see how big he's getting.

Leah is doing pretty good. She is in love with coloring at the moment. She especially loves markers. I think this is because she can draw on her hands, arms, or whatever body part she feels that needs some color. She painted her big toes blue the other day. Let me tell you, I'm so glad that they have washable markers.

Eli got home from work early today so he picked Leah up from daycare so she could have some daddy time. They got McDonalds and they played outside in the snow. When I pulled up after work, he was pulling her around the yard on the shovel! Her sled is buried somewhere in our storage shed so he improvised. It worked pretty good! She had a blast. Then I looked out the window and he had started to dig her a little fort in one of the snowdrifts. I think he had to bribe her to come in. She loved it!

So, Eli has been working a day job in Worthington for awhile and it has been heaven. He's home in the evenings and he's said more than once that he feels like he has a "normal" life right now! So, we're just sitting here watching Robots and making some steaks and potatoes. It feels so nice to be able just to hang out together at home!!!

Aaron's Baptism

Aaron wore my dad's baptism gown. It was a little girly, but very special and he looked adorable as ever!

Aaron did very good through the baptism. He was busy smiling at his aunties, wiggling around, and just being a happy little boy.

His sponsors are Rachel and Gen.

The pizza party afterwards at Jakes.

The kids had fun dancing to Joe and Annie's McDonalds happy meal toys!

Apple Orchard

On Saturday Leah and I went to an apple orchard in Sioux Falls with her cousins. It was a fun time and I can't wait until Aaron is old enough to enjoy these things! They had lots of activities for the kids and the weather was perfect. They had a animal barn but we only checked out the ducks at first. We walked around a bit to check everything out and then spotted a face painting booth. The boys didn't want their face painted so Leah was the lone ranger to get her done. She was so cute and sat so good for the girl. When she was all finished she gave her a big mirror to look at it (a star with a rainbow). Leah was posing and smiling and looking all cute! We then decided to go on a hayride and hunt for pumpkins. They had horses pulling the hayracks and the pumpkin patch was huge! We found our pumpkins, rode back and paid for them, and then brought them to the vehicle. After a snack of hot dogs and chips, the kids went on a pony ride. Leah picked a pony named Sue and ended up being a little scared. She started out ok but after they got going, she started laying down on the saddle and asked to get off. Oh well. After the pony ride, we checked out the inflatable tents. They had four of them and if you bought a wristband, you could play for as long as you wanted. It's a good thing we did this last because they didn't want to leave. It was so fun to watch them. They had a blast and it tuckered them out. There was a little meltdown when we had to leave, but Leah and Isaiah slept most of the way home.

Pictures are below. They got out of order but you'll get the jist of it!

Leah squeezing out of the end of one of the inflatable tunnels.

Leah really liked this jumping gym.

This is on the hayride to get our pumpkins. I look like I need to lose about ten pounds in the face!!

They found their pumpkins!

Leah did really good at climbing up to the big slide.

Isaiah and Leah going down another huge slide.

Another slide! This one is at the jumping gym. That's how they get out.

This is at McDonalds in Pipestone before we went to the orchard. Aaron looks a little uncomfortable!!

Isaiah wanted to hold Aaron so bad. He likes his cousin!

This is when we first got to the orchard.

They had hay bales stacked up for the kids to run and play on.

My favorite part--face painting! Leah picked out a star with a rainbow. She sat really good and actually didn't mess with it for a whole hour or so!!

Ok, this is from a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember why Eli made her a tinfoil hat but I think we were grilling or something.

Some more from McDonalds.