I think it goes without saying that I have the cutest baby ever!!! And it's all Daddy's fault.

Daniel's First Birthday

Daniel's birthday was on February 16 and it was a fun a time. The cake is always the highlight. We go from clean baby...

to the first sample of frosting...

...ahhhhh....FROSTING! A sweet drug!

Perhaps this will do better off the plate...

...And the rest is history.

Here are more views of Christmas. We got a live tree this year and it added such a homey touch! The boys enjoyed their presents. Jonas was particularly attached to his bike helmet and alphabet puzzle. Daniel was just generally happy.

Christmas

Every year my mom puts on a Christmas assembly at the school she works at. And every year is an opportunity for our family to get together and sing. This year was fun because it was the first time performing for many of the grandchildren, including Jonas and his 2 closest cousins Tayson and Landon (all born within 7 months of each other). They sang "I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas" and I was very proud Jonas.... even if you can only understand a few words.

Happy Circle

Jonas loves for us to draw for him, and everything has to have a happy face in it; shapes, letters and animals (cows being his favorite happy animal). After an evening when he just wouldn't go to sleep I entered his room, prepared to be upset and found his drawing board with this picture on it. I was thrown off that he had actually drawn something by himself, and that it was recognizable as a happy circle. Needless to say, my frustration was quickly turned around to endless praise toward my rising artist.

SNOW!

Boise gave us lots of snow over the holidays and I finally got the chance to take the boys out to play. Jonas had so much fun and regardless of his increasingly pink nose and cheeks, he did not want to go back inside. On this day the snow was powder and didn't make effective snowballs, but he kept trying to throw them at me anyway.

I wanted Daniel to enjoy the weather too, so I wrapped him in a plastic shopping bag and sat him down on a trash bag so he could stay dry. He didn't dare move in the foreign environment, but was pleased as punch, nonetheless.

Holy Hair!

Ah, the wispy blonde locks my sons have. Here is Daniel with some ecstatic bed head and Jonas before a hair cut.

Halloween

So while I am making my journey back in time to catch up with my blogging, I couldn't pass up Halloween. I had a great epiphany and couldn't shake it. Our chocoholic Jonas would be a Hershey bar, our chubby Daniel would be a marshmallow and my honey and I would be... well... graham crackers. Put us all together to make a s'more! We took the boys trunk-or-treating. Daniel fell ill, but Jonas loved the idea of getting candy and remembered to say his thank yous. I was very pleased with how the costumes turned out when people would see us approach and ask "so where's the marshmallow?" Can't wait for next Halloween. The ideas are already swarming. :)

Of course, we can't leave Daniel out of the equation. A few months ago I went in to get him out of his crib and he was just standing there laughing at his new trick. When eating at the table, he loves to kick his feet up and rock back in his chair. It's too bad that "four on the floor" means nothing to a 6 month old. He loves to get into everything... movies, kleenex, kitchen cupboards.

Here is Jonas enjoying a meal with his bears, making sure Fuzzy is strapped into his seat, talking on my pink Mary Kay phone, wearing his car box as a backpack and just being cute.

Jonas had his 2nd birthday on Sept. 7 and thoroughly enjoyed his cake, his new bike and a giant lollipop... among other things.

At the vehement prompting from many of you, I am updating our blog. A lot has happened since September which I will attempt to update. At the end of September we moved into a new, bigger apartment. We LOVE it and it will give us room to grow until we are out of college. In our old place Jonas kept crawling into Daniel's crib in their shared room causing none of us to get any sleep... with few exceptions.

Our Happy Family

We got family pictures done last week. Here are some of the results.

The Jonas Fish

This illustrates a typical trip to Grandma's pool. I can't wait to see how he does next summer...

At the Beach

A few weeks ago, we took a trip out to Black Canyon in Emmett with my friend Melanie. Jonas is quite the fish and had no problem swimming around in the lake, but he was unsure about the sand and refused to walk on it at first. After seeing some children playing with a bucket and shovels, his curiosity got the best of him and he took a few steps into the unknown to join in the fun. Needless to say, by the end of the day Jonas had NO problem getting some sand in between his toes.