Lots of snow and a bit of cabin fever.

The boys had so much fun in the snow!  Erik saw all the pictures and noticed there were none with Anya and me.  So, he decided to take some of us.

Santa and Elmo..... Christmas.

Elijah asked for a Bakugan (he got a little stage fright and forgot to ask for anything else) and Levi was just freaked out!  Thank goodness Elmo was there!!  Although Levi was a bit shy he did let Elmo hold him long enough for a picture. 

Elijah lost his first tooth!

Elijah lost his tooth at school and it came home in an envelope with his name on it!

Updated pictures of the boys

Levi and Elijah over the summer/fall.

Ahhh, it's been almost a year since an update.......

...and we have an addition to the family, her name is Anya. The boys love her and she is the only one with blue eyes!

Lots of Family visiting!

This Christmas was awesome with family coming from Missouri, California and just north of the beltway in Maryland. We all gathered at Mimi and Bubba's house. From Missouri: Jennie, Sue Ellen and J.T., from California: Lynn and her boy friend Matthew and from Maryland: John David, Jessica and Isabella. It was a blast and lots of Memories were had! Erik's mom Becky came for Christmas Day and the day after for Elijah's birthday. Sue Ellen made all of Grandma's old cookies and said that she had to call 1-800 Heaven a couple of times to clarify some of the recipes.

One cute thing Elijah said that I will always remember was when "Cousin Jennie" asked him what his birthday meant and he said, "My birthday means family getting together." I thought that was really sweet coming from a just-turned-5-year-old!

Levi thoroughly enjoyed his first Christmas (mostly watching his big bro tear thorough gift wrap and play with his toys)!

The family all enjoyed meeting Matthew (even though things got kind of hairy when he and Lynn first arrived) Erik especially enjoyed the chance to rock out the night before they left. Next time, we'll try to hook Matthew up with some instruments that stay in tune.

Santa Boys

made a return to Geochaching!!!!

We finally got the boys out for some Geocaching fun. Nine years ago at River Bend park in Great Falls we found our first Geochache box with our close friends Sandi and Kurt. We kept it up for a few years, but stopped when we started having children. We called ourselves the "the blind mice" since we didn't use a GPS, just used the clues and we were remarkably successful. Yesterday out of the blue Erik and Kurt said, "let's see if there is a Geocache behind the house." And yes, in fact there are tons of them close by the house. We went out in search of the treasure and promply found it (well, Kurt promptly found it) without a GPS (as always ;-P). Booyah! Blind mice back in action!

Me first teeth...look!

Mimi Hopper and Grammy Bishop with Levi.

Mimi Hopper
&
Grammy Bishop

Family fall picture

Thank you Mimi and Bubba for getting our family picture for the second year in a row! You have lots of patience! Love you!

Halloween 08

Elijah insisted on being an owl for Halloween. I looked and looked and this was the only one I could find! He was happy to be the only owl in the neighborhood parade.

Faith and the Election

I'm not a big fan of posting things political on the family blog, but here is a nice article by Mark Driscoll addressing faith and the election.

http://www.theresurgence.com/in_god_we_do_not_trust

- Erik

It's our Anniversary, anniversary...8 years, September 23

Baby sitting Lauren.

Elijah felt like such a big boy watching his brother while I watched Lauren. Her Mommy and Daddy went to back to school night and let us take care of her. She is such a good baby and fussed for about 1 minute that whole hour. She finally went to sleep and when her parents came home...she woke up to Abby and Lock welcoming them back.

The fam

Our first whole family shots! Thanks Marcie!

Umbrella

Levi had his first ride in his brother's old umbrella stroller! I can't believe he's already old enough to sit in there! He loved looking around at everything!

Awesome neighborhood!

Summers in the neighborhood are always filled with fun and excitement! It's so nice that all the kids get along so well!

First smiles at 7 am!

Elijah loves his brother's smiles first thing in the morning! It's their special time together. This morning Elijah actually had to wake his brother up. Every morning Elijah gets the stool and climbs into bed with Levi. They both enjoy this ritual and I love watching it!

Baseball game with the Callery's

Sure it ended with a Nats loss (surprise!), but we had a load of fun! Not bad for one of only two nights my cousins were in town.

Elijah or Levi?

Elijah at 3 months old. Are we latent twins or what?

Oh..... did it...I rolled over!

I have finally figured this out. It's easier to rest on my elbows when I'm on my tummy!! I can only take a few mins of this though!

Hangin' with the SandraKurtAmbers...

Va Tech boys...starting them off early.

Auntie Susan is starting them off right!!

First hike with Lock

Everything was going well until lock decides he needs to relieve himself in our car on the way to the park. The park is no more than 5 to 10 mins from our house. Not only did he pee he also took an nice huge crap! We got it all cleaned up and we were ready for the hike. Halo Lock's friend went with us along with Jacob and Satako. We were taking our relaxing walk through the woods with dogs following and trailing behind us when all of a sudden Lock took off....he was gone and all we could hear were his faint howl barks getting farther and farther away. We all took off in different directions to try and retrieve him. Erik, Jacob and Halo went through the brush while Satako, Elijah and I walked back the trail the way we started. Erik was the Hero and found lock all muddy and wet. Take two........Finally all of us met up again and finished our walk.
We got home and promptly gave the dogs a bath.