Uncle George

My grandpa has a younger brother named George. Both my kids know that Uncle George is Poppie's younger brother, and that he is a wonderful man. That doesn't however stop the fear that seems to come over them whenever he is around. I can remember as a child being completely petrified of this man. He would want a hug or to tell me he loved me, and I would hide behind my Mom cowering, you can ask anyone in our family to verify this fact. This fear has been passed to both of my children, although I have been working with both of them to realize that he is truly great. Last weekend we spent the day with my Auntie Cis learning how to make green chile and later Uncle Goerge joined us. As you can see in the picture above John is not too sure about this man who is holding him and WOULD NOT smile for the camera while in his arms. Hopefully, they out grow this fear before too long, of course all Uncle George has to do is bring a truck around and he will be John's best friend.

Quick Update

Just a quick update about the last few weeks....
1. John had his 2 year appointment. Thanks to him being Constipated he is finally back on the chart for weight!!!! OF course once his issue was fixed, we are sure that he will fall back below the 3% mark. Oh well, he is healthy and happy.
2. John is getting 2 teeth, which means we only have 6 more to go! He should have them all by the time he is 3. He is handling these 2 better than the others.
3. John is now talking up a storm. He repeats everything we say and loves to have Nettie help him learn new words.
4. Nettie is doing great. She is spending time in the Kindergarten class at her school and loves it! She is working on reading and writing at her own pace right now.
5. Nettie has asked to play soccer this spring. Her school has a coach that comes once a week and we are having a hard time finding a league she can play in so we may have her learn at school.
6. Nettie is reading Charlottes web with Mommie and Daddy right now and is enjoying it for the most part. Some chapters can be a little long:)
7. Ben and I are doing well. We are ready for the summer and have been enjoying the warmer weather that Colorado has been experiencing lately. Work has been busy for both of us, but we both prefer to be busy.
8. We are counting down the days until we go to Mexico for a friend's wedding in April.

I hope that everyone is doing well. I will try to add pictures next time.

A boy and his dress

In the spirit of John always wanting to be like his big sister, he decided to dress up the other night. Now, his Dad didn't want this picture taken, but I figured, he looks so proud and he promptly said 10 minutes later "OFF!"

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.

Wintertime

I love Winter, and I am lucky enough to live in a place that just as I am getting tired of it, it warms up, and just as I am ready for it, it is here! It has been a little cold the last few weeks and I am ready for one of those great Colorado winter days were it reaches 60 degrees, hopefully we will get that this week. To get past the cold this year, we have (for the first time in 4 years) started using our wood-burning stove to heat the house. This is not a normal stove, it is an insert to our fireplace. It has a blower on it that warms the entire main floor of the house. Our house, which is usually about 65 degrees is suddenly around 70-75 degrees. I love having a fireplace! I am also excited to see what this does to our electric bill since the furnace doesn't come on when we have a good fire going.

On a side note, the kids are having a great time post Christmas. They are enjoying all the new toys, books and games. More books and games than toys, thankfully it seemed a good year for those things. Now we are all just working on the sharing side of life! John has started copying everything that Nettie is doing which is cute to us, sometimes cute to Nettie. She enjoys having a new playmate that will run around the house after her since Mom and Dad are not that fun.

Merry Christmas!

It is amazing that we are halfway through the day. The kids have enjoyed Christmas this year, Nettie fully understanding what Santa Claus is all about. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful Holiday!