Riding elephants...or horses

Aaron's parents are in India serving a mission. They recently took a trip and had the opportunity to ride an elephant. They sent us this video.

I was watching it with Noah...

Me: Noah, come see Grandma and Grandpa

Noah: Whoa, that's a really big horse

Party!!

Brody has his first taste of cake at his party. I thought he would go nuts with it, but he was so hesitant. Maybe because he had ten people watching him. He would pick up little pieces and slowly put them in his mouth. He spit the frosting out as soon as he tasted it.

Brody let Noah, Ethan, and Abbie all help him open his presents and play with them too...

Happy Birthday, Brody!!

My little Bean turned one on Saturday. He is our little love baby, and is so sweet. I can't believe how fast the year went and I am so sad to say that I really don't remember much of it. Months three to nine of Brody's life are a blur...due to exhaustion I'm sure. Brody is a wonderful little boy. He loves to be held and to be read to. He is very sensitive and usually very happy. He does have a little bit of a temper when things don't go his way. I can't imagine having his wonderful spirit in my life.

He loves to cuddle, and is especially fond of his Daddy lately. So much for having a Mommy's boy, huh?

Aaron calls Brody the Hamburgler because he loves hamburgers. Normally, Brody likes to throw his food rather than eating it, but with hamburgers he can't get enough. On his birthday he ate his, and part of Noah's. It was crazy.

Nope, Brody isn't crawling yet. Three weeks ago he started scooting on his bum, but that is the extent of his movement. Check back in six months and maybe he will be walking.

I practice crawling with him every day, trying to entice him with toys and food. This is usually the outcome.

Hungry, Hungry, Hippo

I have never known any child that enjoys playing with his food as much at Noah. He pokes holes in his bread, puts his chicken in his milk, and feeds his waffles to his hippo. After the hippo had finished his breakfast Noah said the hippo had a dirty mouth and proceeded to lick off the jam. I promise, I don't lick my kids to clean them off.

Yeah for having Daddy home!!

It is amazing the miracles that happen when Daddy is home for an extended period of time. Aaron has been off for a week, and had another week off. It is great to have him home. Noah keeps saying, "Don't go to work anymore." So I have been trying to get Brody to take a sippy cup for months. I try every day with every different kind of cup available, filled with every type of liquid available. Tonight, Brody couldn't get enough of drinking for Aaron's cup, so Aaron decided to try a sippy cup...low and behold...Brody drinks and drinks and drinks.

Oh, and no matter how I try, I can never make a fort as cool as Daddy can. Noah was so excited about this one. He had been asking Aaron to build a house for him all day. Needless to say, life is much more fun with Aaron home.

Christmas

Christmas was great this year. I don't think I have been that excited since I was a kid. I had a hard time sleeping for three days leading up to it. I couldn't wait to see Noah's face when he saw all the presents. He didn't quite get the whole Santa thing, but he sure was excited to get so many new toys. Brody, of course, was more interested in the wrapping paper. He played with this green shiny piece for 10 minutes, laughing and squealing the entire time. If you look closely at the last picture Noah's face is classic. He is so excited about his rocketship. Christmas has become more magical now that I have kids.

Here is Praying...

to more sleep at night for everyone. Brody got tubes in his ears this morning. We had to be there at 6:30 and Brody was so excited that he decided to stay up most of the night and then be completely done with sleeping by 4 am.

Everything went really well and really fast. The nurse said they usually take kids' vital signs before they completely wake up from the anesthesia, but Brody was screaming before they could even get him into the recovery room. He was so angry. Every time the nurse looked at him he would scream.

Hopefully the tubes will help Brody feel more comfortable at night, hopefully he will be able to sleep more consistently, hopefully...