Months 7 & 8 and the Christmas Tree

Well, only a little over a month late with this one...:) Better than I am doing on scrapbooks! 

 Here is our big guy at 7 months. My neighbor and friend made him those cute shoes he is wearing!

 Grandma Beda got him these pajamas...I think this was the only time he wore them because he was just too big! (they were size 12 month!)

Here Elisha was trying to crawl to the fireplace and this box was in his way. Instead of trying to find a way around it he decided to go over and got stuck...he wasn't too upset about it and we all got a good laugh!

 8 Months old on Dec. 26th! He is still a happy guy and his brother makes him laugh the hardest!

 Elisha got a puppy for Christmas! He loves it when Abel makes it bark.

 This is on our way to get our Christmas tree. We went after church, so both the boys got a good nap in the car.

 We hiked around for about an hour and then on our way back to the car stumbled upon the "perfect" tree!

 I was carrying Elisha in the Ergo, so this is the cute face I got to look at during the hike!

 Diaper change in the trunk!

 My beautiful baby!

 Dad and Elisha watching Mom and Abel decorate the tree. 

 All done! Abel likes to turn off the living room lights and see the pretty tree lights. 

 Abel is still a pretty good photographer!

 Elisha doing some crawling! He still likes to army crawl, but does know how to get up on his hands and knees. He is also starting to pull up on things occasionally.

 Carhart twins! They then went out to do manly work outside:)

And one more of Elisha! He is eating more and more table foods. He doesn't mind the textures so much anymore. I think his favorite food is banana, although he just had some ham and sweet potato and didn't turn down seconds!

Christmas in California

Merry Christmas!

 We had a very quite and uneventful Christmas. For Christmas Eve we had carol singing at church. When we came home the boys each got to open a present. For Christmas Day we had church in the morning, came home and Abel opened another present. We decided to try doing the 12 days of Christmas this year. He gets to open one present each day (after our devotion time) until Epiphany. It is actually working out really well. He is enjoying each present that he gets and is still getting to enjoy Christmas for a bit longer than we would have otherwise. We had a nice day with Dad actually being home with us (!!). So, here are some pictures from Christmas!

 Elisha opening his first present on Christmas Eve!

 Abel got a cool truck and trailer on Christmas Eve

 This is our 3rd Christmas in Bishop! The longest we have been anywhere since we got married!!

 Christmas Day at Our Savior Lutheran Church

 The boys! 

 The boys again!

 Elisha showing off his cool outfit after church:)

 Isn't he cute!!

 Dad and Abel putting together a fire truck with the new lego set from G&G Gullixson. They had a great time together! 

We hope you all had a very blessed Christmas and ask God to Bless you in the New Year too!

Birthday!

My little Abel!!

One year old!

2 years old!

3 years old!

4 years old!!

 Abel is quite the little man now. He is very inquisitive, can be very thoughtful, and loves to do things like Dad. He is a great big brother and I can't believe how blessed we are to have him as our son! What a precious treasure he is to us!

 This is the first of 3 (!!!!) birthday cakes this year. I made this one for our celebration at church.

 Abel got a Thomas the Train track (electric) from his friend Rayne (who is the daughter of one of the members at church) He was pretty excited!

 Elisha was put in the box so that Abel could set it up and play right away...he didn't mind at all!

 There's Thomas! Dad built a tunnel (among other things) for Thomas and Abel.

 Cake number 2! Happy Birthday Abel!

 For his birthday we went bowling. It was something he has been asking to do for quite a while. However, when we got there some people were playing the video games and all he wanted to do was play those. We coaxed him through one game and then played video games...

 Dad didn't mind too much either. He loves a good game of Big Buck Hunter!

 Abel also requested to go to Schatt's bakery for a cookie. We got him a cookie and then hit the day old bread rack and got a loaf of bread, 2 packages of rolls, and Abel's cookie for under $3.00!

 This is cake #3! We were going to have a birthday party the weekend of his actual birthday, but both boys had been sick previously, so we moved it to the following week (which meant I made the 3rd cake). We put 4 candles on one side and reused the 3 and 2 from previous birthdays for Samuel's side. So, after we sang to Abel we turned the cake around and sang to Samuel too!

Enjoying cake and hot chocolate (and then we sent them home!!:)

6 Months!

On the 26th Elisha turned 6 months old! Half a year seems like a LONG time, but it has gone very quickly!
He celebrated that night by sleeping from 8pm to 4:15am without waking up! It was the best way to celebrate ever (can you tell what I am going to be asking for for my birthday?:)

 He's still our happy boy! 

 That look is going to be trouble in a year or two...

 This one is for Isaac J. He picked out that shirt for Elisha. It fits! Thanks Isaac!!

 Owen and Elisha...Owen is really great with him. Elisha pulls on his ear, grabs fur, even found some whiskers once. He was really excited over the tail, but I stopped him before he grabbed it. Owen has that look on his face whenever Elisha is grabbing at him. What a patient dog (he knows that Elisha is the messiest eater, so they are best friends, whatever it takes....).

 We went to a pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. We went on a hay ride. The little girl with us is Annie. She is our newest godchild. She is about 1/2 year younger than Abel. They are pretty good friends.

 They had a place where you could try to rope a bull. Dad was trying his hardest to teach Abel and Abel did catch something...it just wasn't the bull.

 He finally got it!! He had to take it for a ride too. :)

 We went hiking last weekend at South Lake. Annie and her mom Nicole came along with us. It was a bit colder than we had anticipated, but it was a great hike. Abel loves hiking and did a wonderful job!

 We took a little break and enjoyed the scenery!

 This is where we usually go walking. There is some L.A. owned land about a block from our house and you can walk in their fields. So, we often take the dog out and let him run around. A horse ranch owns part of the property, so you can see some pretty horses every once in a while. These mountains are the Sierra Nevada's. (Don't you want to come and visit us now??:)

Dad, Abel, and Owen. 

Hope everyone has a Happy Reformation!