A little bit of everything

Here are some pictures of what has been going on around here. Elisha has a lot of new tricks (waving, clapping and standing).  Samuel has started another job. He is tutoring elementary school kids in various subjects. He is liking it so far. Abel is growing up...naps are few and far between now days. He is also getting closer and closer to reading. I am pretty much the same as always, but have been enjoying some new adventures in the kitchen. Here are the pictures! 

 Elisha has a car now...he can go backwards on it. Abel likes to push him on it as well, but that usually ends in tears for one or both of them (either Elisha falls off or Abel gets told to not push to fast or both) :)

This is the cool train track town Samuel made for Abel. This was his gift for the 11th day of Christmas. It is built on the top bunk in his room. This way he can play whenever he wants without worrying about Elisha getting the small pieces. 

 Conductor Abel playing trains before church. 

 This was the 12th day of Christmas present. Dad found all those tools at a yard sale this summer (for only 80 cents total!). Abel loves to help Dad with projects and now he has his own tools!

 Elisha and Owen both wanted to be by the fire. Owen was in the way, so Elisha crawled over him! We have a VERY patient dog!

 This is a picture of the first time Elisha pulled himself up. He now pulls himself up on to everything. The other day he somehow managed to pull himself up to standing by the sliding glass door and then couldn't figure out how to get down...it was pretty funny.

We went for a bike ride and a picnic the other day. Thankfully, Dad pulled this heavy load (but it is a cute load...).

 Having our picnic at the park. It wasn't too bad outside, despite the snow on the other side of the creek.

 Don't know what he is looking at, but it must have been interesting...

 My favorite boys in the whole world! Aren't they a handsome bunch?

 Elisha playing in the front year. 

And my Abel playing trucks in the dirt. He was building roads and race tracks. 

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!!:)