11 Months and Easter

 Elisha is now 11 months old! Time is certainly flying! This is the same shirt that Abel wore for his 11 month picture! They look completely different, and yet, they have similar qualities too (ie both very cute:).

Abel now:)

 "Horse" riding! Despite Elisha's face, he really liked it (especially when the horse goes fast).

Happy boy!

 He did an Easter Egg hunt the town put on, he found two! 

 Another egg hunt, he kept finding the real eggs and squishing them! 

 Found some more!

 Abel on the hunt...

 Eyeing another egg...he got quite a few on his own.

 Abel's booty. We have shared a lot of these (and there were only 5 kids at this one, everyone had this many!)

 Dying eggs together

 All done...he was pretty happy with them

 Easter family picture

 My precious boys!

 Playing around while waiting for Easter brunch

 Finding eggs at home...Dad is REALLY good at hiding eggs, it took him awhile to find them all!

 Found another! Notice the sword? He has been Zorro the past few days and needed to "patch his sword in" before we went out. 

 Found one Dad!

 The basket!

I had to laugh at this one because they have almost the same expression! 

10 months old!

Elisha is 10 months old today! I can't believe I will have a one year old in just 2 months...He was kind enough to sleep through the night for the first time ever just 2 nights ago! It was very welcome. He is still a happy kid. He still adores his big brother (he follows him around and wants to play with whatever he is playing with). Elisha says, "D" (in a high pitch voice) for Dad and dog (he really likes our dog too...). He also says "Mama" however, it doesn't really refer to me. It mainly means "Feed me". In his mind I'm sure food and mama are pretty closely related, so I'm not too offended:)

 The boys got some magnetic gears and have had fun playing while I am working in the kitchen.

 Here is my beautiful red hear, blue eyed baby boy! :)

 10 months old today!

 Brothers 

I wanted a picture of Elisha standing by himself (he can do it for about 15-20 sec before he sits down) but he wasn't too happy about doing it...:) 

On Guard!

Abel is beginning to read more and more. Here he is sharing a book with Elisha! 

Here is Elisha at 9 months...obviously I couldn't get one "perfect" shot, so you get 3.

Elisha has discovered the piano. He loves to crawl over to it, pull himself up, and bang away! He really likes to play if someone else is practicing. Abel has just started lessons. I am going to teach him the best I can and when he gets to much for me I am hoping we can find someone in the area to teach. He is really interested and we thought he might as well start!

My Mom and Sister came for a visit at the beginning of Feb. They stayed 8 days. We had a great time!
I don't think Abel was happy about sharing Grandma with Elisha...

But Elisha sure loved the cuddles!

Aunt Lydia and Elisha hanging out!

Elisha with the dagger...Pirates was played most of the time they were here. Abel loves Pirates of Penzance...so not only was their sword fighting, but most of it was done while singing!

On Guard!!

Here are the pirates in their boat. Elisha is actually pretty good at sword fighting with Abel!

To avoid sleepless nights, Abel bunked with Grandma and Elisha took Abel's room. Abel and Grandma had a lot of fun having sleepovers and telling stories and playing in the mornings. I'm sure Grandma would have liked a  little more sleep, but they had fun.:)

Of course we went to Schatt's Bakkery! Abel only gets to ride these when Grandma comes with her quarters.

More sword fighting!

Grandma attempting to snuggle our very non-snuggle baby.

Our last day together. We were so happy they came to visit us. It is always nice to have some company. Abel and Elisha went through some attention withdrawal when they left (ie they both cried all the way home from the airport...).

Now we are getting back to our "normal" routine. Samuel has taken a tutoring job, which means a lot of evenings away. So, we are adjusting to a new "normal". The weather has been great though, which means a lot of time outside to play and ride bikes!

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.