John is 2

Today our baby is officially 2 years old. He has been working on the terrible 2's for a couple of weeks, but has finally reached the age to say that he is in it. We had a fun party with friends and family and it turned out to be a beautiful day. It is a wonderful living in Colorado when your birthday is in February and you get to play outside! We are excited for the next couple of years to see him developing into a full blown kid. He and Nettie are enjoying playing with each other and are starting to do so more often. We hope everyone is having a great February so far!

Is it February already???

Picture 1: Our happy boy
Picture 2: Nettie puts on her own lip gloss
Picture 3: Don't they love each other!

Here we are in the second month of 2009 already. So far, 2009 has been filled with fun travels, and events. January started with a date night for Ben and Tiffany. Our New Year tradition has become an at home date, and this year, Nettie started to understand that when January 1 came, it would be 2009. She like to tell everyone she saw this and each day would say "today is the 5th day of 2009". Thankfully, that only lasted about a week. We baptized our niece Lily on the 11th. It was a beautiful service and an enjoyable time with both families. I traveled to Oklahoma over Martin Luther King weekend to visit my friends Chris and Jen and meet their new baby Alyssa. It was a great trip and it was so much fun to spend that much time with a little baby. It also made me appreciate how far we have come since those days. Ben enjoyed his alone time with the kids, although he was happy to have me return home. Due to me getting strep, we had to skip our annual trip to the mountains with Ben's family. It was sad to miss the weekend, although the quiet weekend was a great way to get better.

Now, we are in February. The month has started busy with Ben traveling to Davenport to visit his Dad for a couple of days. We all miss him, but it sounds like he is getting a lot of stuff done while he is there. We will be celebrating John's 2nd birthday at the end of the month, hard to believe our baby is 2, but he is acting it! He is also starting to talk more and definitely lets you know when he doesn't like something. John loves to build things with legos and blocks, but his favorite this to do is paint or draw. If he has a pen and a piece of paper, her can busy himself for at least 30 minutes. It is fun to watch him just sit and draw.

Nettie is also getting used to having a brother that no longer leaves her stuff alone. He is in to all of her stuff and will do anything he can to get it away from her. We are all learning to deal with this and the best way to keep them from attacking each other. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it is interesting. Nettie is loving school and is currently working on reading. It is fun to read books with her and watch her figure out words. She also loves to play games and dress up.