Lately....

Although it's been fairly quiet in the Helderhood, that doesn't mean the camera wasn't busy! Here are some pictures of what the camera has caught the last few weeks....

My two monkeys. I love Keziah's beautiful smile in the first picture, and I love Lincoln's cheeky grin in the second. Now to combine the two would be great!!

Doesn't he look so lonely in his crib all by himself? He throws everything out of his crib every single time he is in bed.

Looks like he is pretty proud of himself in figuring out this new trick of dumping everything out!

We've erased all toys off their lists for this year and put instead: Tupperware.

Nathan took last week off. Somewhat. It sure is hard to stay out of the office when it's on the same property as your house!! But he tried. On Monday and Tuesday we snuck out, just the two of us, to Erie, Pennsylvannia. We like to shop there (last time was 5 years ago) due to NO TAXES. I know, you pay for the gas to get there, but it is so fun to buy something at $19.99 and the cashier says, "That'll be $19.99, please." When you have to pay 13% on pretty much everything here, shopping there was thrilling!!!!

Keziah and Lincoln stayed with Uncle Jay and Aunt Jenn. We didn't drop them off until after 3 in the afternoon, but here is Keziah, all ready and packed to go to Kathryn's house by 8:30 that morning. Do you think she was a little excited??! :o)

This is what happens to Lincoln when he becomes a little too vocal at the table. But don't feel too sorry for him.....see the next picture...

"You still think I'm cute, don't you, Mom?"

We've also enjoyed having some friends over to play with. Here is Lincoln's friend, who is 6 months older. These two are learning to play together.

And here is Keziah's friend. Doesn't it look like they are having fun? Keziah was so thrilled to have Eden over. We don't get to see too much of her friends as a lot of them are now in kindergarten.

And lastly, we spent some time visiting with two very special people. My oma and Nathan's oma. We can never spend enough time with these two matriarchs!! Both of them are in their 80s, just a few years separating them. We thank God for them and pray that He will continue to bless them with health as we enter the cold season (this prayer is also for my other Oma who lives in BC. Distance sucks sometimes....wish we could visit her more often).

Tree House!!

The other day I was in the familyroom reading my book folding laundry, when I hear:

"Mom! Don't come yet! My treehouse is not finished!!"

Oh. Okay. Needless to say my curiosity was piqued as I was pretty sure the last time I checked, there wasn't a tree growing in our house. I kept on reading, er, folding, until my curiosity got the better of me. And so I checked. And this is what I found:

This first picture is of our front hall. Our front door is never used and so I had made this into their little toyroom. Believe it or not, it is looking a little empty of toys and blue/green floor mats. Where could they be??:

Here she is, slaving away, moving all her toys and buckets into her treehouse:

And here you have it: her "treehouse"

What's the matter? Can't see the tree?? C'mon people!! Work on that imagination!!! :o) She saw the long hallway as her treehouse and they actually played "in" it for quite some time. Hey, whatever works, right??! They had a blast so that's what counts.

Her mean ol' mother did make her clean it up again at the end of the day to transform it back into our hallway:

The next day she wanted to build it again. I said no. I know...cruel, eh? Trampling all over a 3 year old's world of imagination. But I did build her a fort using the table. She quite liked that.

Peek a boo!!

Dress Up

Despite what I think about Halloween (which you can read here) we still love to dress up and have fun!! So the day after Halloween, we went to Value Village to scoop up some sweet costumes at 50% off. And now our dress-up box is a little fuller. This is what we found:

A unicorn:

An adorable zebra:

and a cow:

We didn't buy any costumes for Lincoln. But that's okay. You don't need much to look like a clown anyway!!

Lincoln - 10 Months Old!!

So our little man is 10 months old already. It was November last year that we found out we were chosen for him. So lots of memories are scurrying across our minds this month! And lots of prayers of thanksgiving. Lincoln has finally slowed down in his weight gain. Although he is a big boy, he only gained 11 ounces in 2 months. So he is now 22 lbs and 11 ounces. It's all that crawling and walking around furniture that is keeping him "trim" :o)

He has figured out that playing with these toys is so much more fun outside of the exersaucer than in it

A new friend :o)

Now that he is pulling himself up to everything, nothing is safe!! He has an incredible reach and is able to pull off everything from the table (love the tippy toes!)

His hair is coming in nicely, with small little wispy curls on top and by his ears.

He takes eating very seriously :o)

He is SUCH a ham boy! Maybe carpentry in his future?

One time he was awfully quiet, so I decided to investigate. This is where I found him! He had plunked himself in the middle of a toy box!

He learned to drink from a straw this month. This is great!!! That means bottles are almost out the door (don't mind the pink bib.....it happens when the girl is born first!)!

Peek-a-boo!!

"Hmmmm, I see something I want to grab!!"

I absolutely LOVE football. I think I may finally have a partner to watch it with me!! Hopefully he takes to hockey as well. Well, once the NHL decides to play again.

If there is a ball around, he'll be sure to find it!

Although I haven't really spent a lot of time reading with him (not like with my firstborn), I do catch him often flipping through books.

And finally, all dressed and ready for church! I guess it's kind of hard to smile when you've got something choking around the neck.

So there you have it. A little update on this blessing we have received from the Lord. He is such a happy little guy. He is busy in the fact that he is crawling and walking around everything, but he does it all with such a happy and carefree disposition. We are so thankful that God chose us to be his parents and for him to be our son.

Vitamin D, Anyone?

Depending on where you live, you might be Vitamin D deficient. I know I am because we haven't seen the sun in 6 days!! It did peek out for about 1/2 an hour on Tuesday, but since last week Friday, it has been quite rainy and cloudy. It was like this even before Hurricane Sandy affected us, and she has come and gone and it is still cloudy and wet. If you are anything like me, you feel the dreariness of it all.

So, knowing that we all may be feeling a little sun-deprived, I thought I'd share some bright sunny pictures from last week. Last week it was beautiful. And warm. Like 25 degrees warm!! We took full advantage of it by walking in town a number of times, ending up at the park.

Enjoy getting your fill of Vitamin D!! :o)

Mischievous monkey, this one. But oh so happy!

"Kez! Come down this one!! I'll catch you!!"

Behind bars. Crime, you ask? For stealing hearts.

"Look what I can do!"

There. That's better. But I do hope we get to see and feel the sun soon!! We've had so much rain that it looks like spring out there! I was driving to a friend's house the other day and saw so many fields flooded and creeks overflowing. But that is nothing compared to what others are dealing with after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on those living on the East Coast and in the Caribbean. We pray for all those affected by this storm.