The kids

Here are some latest pictures of the kids.  I am still trying to figure out Blogger from my phone so hopefully this will look ok ...

Here is Jesse just looking adorable playing outside.  This is after his latest haircut.  More on that later.


Here are Esther and Jesse playing in the carport.  This is one of their favorite things to do.  I take a big bowl of water outside and they play with little cups and toys.  Both of them love it - and end up soaked.


Tyler and Jesse reading some library books together.  I love this picture. 


Esther being cute.



Some sibling affection.  They both like to have their picture taken together like this.


Tyler and Esther having a moment...


Esther and Jesse in the little inflatable pool we put in the backyard.  It's not that big but Jesse still didn't like it!  Maybe it's the cold temperature because he sure loves bath time.  Or maybe it's just still too big.  Esther was trying to help him enjoy it but was not very successful.


And here is Jesse's haircut.  This is actually on our kitchen table and Tyler is cutting his hair!  I think he did a great job, especially considering this was his first attempt, he didn't have real hair-cutting scissors, and Jesse wouldn't sit still!  It was really short compared to how long it was, so it took a little time to get used to but now I think Jesse looks adorable.  And it's convenient since Jesse has developed a habit of rubbing food into is hair at most meals.




Our other news lately is that Tyler's brother Elika is now staying with us, and his wife and two little girls will arrive on Thursday.  It's about to be a houseful!  We are looking forward to meeting these members of the family and letting the kids play together.  Then their older son, Hezekiah, will arrive in a few weeks.  So hopefully pictures of the new additions will be up soon.

Also, I hit the halfway mark in the pregnancy a few days ago.  That is exciting although it still feels so far away.  That's ok, though, since we're really not ready and I'm sure Baby isn't ready either.  Esther talks to the baby and plays Christmas songs to my belly since I told her that the baby would be here at Christmas time.  And Jesse will even pat my belly and give it kisses.  But he then pulls up his shirt and pats his belly, so maybe he thinks he has a baby too.  ;)  I'm voting for a Thanksgiving birth so we have plenty of time to enjoy the Christmas season with the new little one.  We'll see!

Chattanooga trip

So a couple weekends ago, we woke up and decided we had to get out of town! Kind of silly but really exciting to have a couple of days of family vacation. We picked Chattanooga because it was close and had a bunch of fun things to do. We went to the aquarium, the Imax theater, the children's hands-on museum, walked by the river to look at the boats, swam at the hotel, rode an old trolley, and visited an organic farm. So fun!

Esther looking at stingrays at the Tennessee Aquarium.  You were supposed to be able to touch them, but they didn't come close enough for her to reach.

 Discovered that Jesse became very unhappy when he was left in the stroller while we all looked at something exciting. So we took him out to see a lot more than we had planned ...

We got to see a lot of fun exhibits.  I think the penguins were my favorite.  They had a baby penguin and some mother/father pairs sitting on nests of eggs.

But maybe the coolest was the butterfly garden.  It was a greenhouse type room full of beautiful flowers and butterflies!  One finally landed on us, and Esther got to hold it.  She was so excited. I have to admit, I was excited to hold a butterfly too.

Then we went to the Children's Museum.  Esther enjoyed pretending she was a doctor in the doll "clinic" and playing in the giant bee hive/honeycomb.  Jesse enjoyed the water tables and driving the toddler sized car.  Then there's me and Jesse playing with tinker toys, which Tyler enjoyed most of all.

We stayed the second night at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel.  We used Hotwire, so we didn't actually get to pick but it turned out to be a fun experience.  The lobby area was the original train station and we slept in a room on the actual train.  Odd, but fun.  Esther is playing with an old phone booth and standing on one of the train cars.

There were also beautiful grounds to explore, and a huge model train display that Tyler loved.  And this is where we rode the old trolley, but no pictures of that.

Then we stopped at a small organic farm.  We saw baby chickens, baby cows, and lots of pigs.  The older cows and sheep were off in a pasture so we missed them.  We explored the milking station and and berry garden.  Very inspiring.  Maybe one day we will have something like this!

Oh, a few more details with no pictures ... at the Imax theater, while we were waiting to be seated, Esther tried to befriend a little girl.  The girl dismissed her, but then her brother came over and said Esther could play with him.  Well, from that moment, he was absolutely taken with Esther.  He stayed with her until time to go into the theater, and then he wanted her to sit with him.  Parents declined, but he waved to her when he got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the movie and then found her after the movie.  Wow.  If we lived near each other, I'd have them over for a play date ... or maybe not.  ;)

Also, while we were looking at the boats a family of ducks swam right over to us.  There was a father, mother, and six ducklings.  This was especially fun because we had just read the book "Make Way for Ducklings" so Esther called them Mr. and Mrs. Mallard!  I loved it, and Esther was excited to see the book come to life.

That was our trip ... a nice mini-vacation.  : )

Wow a Blogger App!

Thanks to Mary Beaver I now know there is a Blogger app! Having a smart phone gets better and better.

So now I can do quick posts, although I feel like I have a lot to catch up on. But here are a few quick pictures ...

Christmas 2011

Now we are up to Christmas 2011!  Here are some pictures of Christmas in our camper home:

 Fancy Christmas Eve church outfits and stockings...

Esther was super excited about lolipops in her stocking!



                   New Hats!

First finger foods - organic baby puffs! Though we have since switched to the more economical Cheerios.

  

Christmas morning:

Christmas pajamas 

Jesse was surprisingly great at unwrapping presents!

 



And Esther sure loved it! 

We had a smaller-scale Christmas in the camper.  Our tree, for example, was purchased for $3 at a local flea market.  It was too tall for the space we had, so Tyler chopped off the top and the bottom with his reciprocating saw!  But it looked perfect anyway.  Esther and I made ornaments, and Tyler helped her decorate them.  We also made Christmas cookies with lots of red and green sprinkles.  Esther is already excited about a sugar cookie Christmas tradition.  Esther's favorite gift seems to have been the child sized shopping cart, and Jesse's the Little Tykes piano in the picture.

On Christmas Eve afternoon, we went to Aunt Rie's and spent some time with a lot of family - some people we knew and some we didn't.  It was fun getting to know this part of the extended family and they welcomed us right in.  Have cute babies helps with that!  Then we attended a Christmas Eve service at Lighthouse Worship Center.  Tyler and I reminisced about the last Christmas Eve which was the first time we heard Esther say "I love you" and "I love Jesus."  How she has grown!  It was a quiet but very enjoyable Christmas.  I can't wait til the next one!