Christmas Photos

So I know I'm rather a slacker but here are a few pictures of Christmas time.

Our finished gingerbread houses.

Daddy roofing his and my house.

Aunt Marianne with her house and Seth.

The boys enjoying bubble wrap--the best part of Christmas packages. Thanks Nate and Kelly.

Washington, D.C Trip

First of all, I would like to again thank my mom's cousin for letting us stay with her while we were in D.C.



We loved being able to go on this trip and spend time together as a family seeing the sights. We rode on the Metro which Benjamin LOVED doing. We went to the National Air and Space Museum which was a blast for all of the boys!



Then we went to the capital and ate snacks on the steps. We went to the Library of Congress then stopped all too briefly (for me at least) at the Botanical Gardens on our way back to the Air and Space Museum for lunch (they had a McDonald's inside).

After lunch, we walked past the National Archives on our way to the White House (this was when Seth took his nap--in the Mei Tai on Daddy's back. And, yes, I did provide more support for his head after I took the picture).

Benjamin and Daddy at the White House. This was one thing Benjamin had been really excited to see--we had been talking about it for a while before our trip. Since Seth was asleep, we didn't try to get him in the picture.

We continued walking, but we rested more often since Benjamin's feet were getting tired (though we walked over ten miles that day, Benjamin did great!!).

Seth woke up on the way to Lincoln, and (after a brief walk to get his wiggles out) we put him back on my back. We walked back to the Washington Monument and took a few pictures (it was getting dark) before heading back to a Metro stop and catching a train.

We enjoyed our trip so much; Benjamin has even been planning another trip back!

Family Photos

Sorry that it has been so long since I posted. Justin got a job, and I started graduate school full-time. Yesterday in between sessions of General Conference, we went to the park by Aunt Marianne's house, and she took lots of pictures! I've picked a few to post that I really enjoyed. I haven't posted the one we picked for our Christmas cards, so be watching for your card in a couple of months (if your address has changed from last year, please let me know!). By the way though you can't see it in the photos, Seth has two new teeth in the front on top--a total of four!


This one encapsulates the relationship between Benjamin and Seth. They love each other and love playing a mock "rough and tumble" (Benjamin is remarkably gentle and also tolerant of what Seth does to him!).



This was one of our silly pictures. We love being a family!

This is one of several darling pictures of Seth and Justin on the swings. Seth loves his daddy!!

Marianne took some photos of just Justin and me as well. We are still very much in love!!

Here is all of us on the swings! It was hard to get Seth to smile and look at the camera--luckily Benjamin was in a cooperative mood so we didn't have to worry about that (he loves being at a park anyway!).

Five Year Anniversary

Justin and I have been married for five years today! My sister Emily is visiting and watched the boys last night so Justin and I could go out. We went to the temple and really appreciated the peace we always find there. It always helps remind us why we are here, that the Lord loves us, and that the stresses of the world aren't as important as they seem.

With all the uncertainty that is part of life, it is wonderful to know that our little family can be together forever. Justin, I love you and am so happy that we get to spend the rest of our lives and eternity together. Happy fifth anniversary!

Tomatoes!

Sorry my pictures are backwards. These are the forty-one quarts Marianne, Justin, and I did on Saturday. Justin and I did forty-threeish quarts and a couple of pints on Monday to finish up the two hundred pounds we got from the farmer's market.

Here was our first batch ready to lower into the canner.

Here was the first batch cooking (again sorry about the backwards pictures).

Here is Seth fascinated by the tomatoes! He kept wanting to pick them up and squeeze them or drop them. He even half tossed a glass jar across the kitchen--luckily it didn't break!

We had A LOT of tomatoes! Eight boxes at about 25 lbs. a box. Marianne wanted a bushel and we decided that three bushels would keep us in tomatoes all year (total guess--we'll see!).

Thanks to Marianne for helping can and remembering how to do it. Thanks to Mom for the canning advice/instructions. Thanks to Justin for remembering how his mom did it. And a big thanks to Kay Durr, Marianne's mother-in-law, for letting us borrow her canner and bottle grip.

We did it! Our first independent canning experience was a big success! Only one bottle didn't seal!

Seth Walking!!

For the last week or so, Seth has been starting to take steps independently. Now he is starting to put more steps together and his balance is quickly improving. Today (I'm surprised myself that I got this posted the day I took it) he walked all the way across the living room and I got a video of it! He is also starting to say some words--bread, water (wa), all done, all gone and the other day he said Ben!

Enjoy!

Seth's Birthday! (Plus a surprise at the end!)

Happy first birthday to Seth!! (Just a notice, this is post number four today--I am trying to get caught up. Don't miss anything!) I wanted to decorate Seth's cake even though he won't remember it. So I made a Winnie the Pooh cake--I feel I did a pretty good job considering I don't have cake decorating tools.
At the moment he thinks it is cool and wants to get it but that might just be because he can't have it right now (see later pics).

Thanks to Aunt Marianne for taking so many pictures! We enjoyed having you and Uncle Eric at Seth's party!

We decided at the last minute to inflate a few balloons we had lying around. Here is Benjamin trying to hold them all.

Sorry for no b-day song video--blogger is taking forever to upload things and this post was already large to begin with.

"Mom, my hand is sticky--clean it off please!!"

"Okay, I'll try it if you insist." (This was after he had been picking it up and dropping it for a few minutes without wanting to taste it.)

"Hmm...this is an interesting toy with lots of different colors."

Needless to say, Seth didn't really eat any cake. He'd just had dinner and was tired and ready to go to bed...not the best timing for a completely new food!

Justin and I got Seth a classic Winnie the Pooh. He loves Benjamin's Pooh and LOVES his new one!

We have a whole series of photos of him enjoying with ecstatic grins and smiles his new Pooh!

Here he is with all of his presents--the football from Benjamin, the books from Grandma Jorgensen, and the shirt and bowl from Aunt Marianne and Uncle Eric.

Here Seth is reading his books--including turning the pages himself!!

Seth had a great birthday and loved the attention he got from everyone all day long, especially the often repeated birthday song! He didn't have any teeth on his birthday but now (five days later) one has finally peeked through his gums!! YEAH!!!

Seth Climbing the Stairs

Seth has learned how to climb the stairs and does quite well. We are still working on going down safely. He doesn't want to turn around and go down backwards--he'd rather try head first! (Luckily I've prevented him or caught him.) When I do get him to go down a stair or two backwards, he suddenly decides he'd rather go up--that is the way he is facing after all!

He has learned to climb much faster since this video. He can make it up the stairs in 30 seconds. If I turn my back for a moment and have forgotten to put up the gate, he can be three-quarters of the way up before I turn back around, notice he's missing and go after him. He loves climbing!

Reminiscing--Iowa

Well, we've been in North Carolina for a month and a half now, but I found some photos of the boys at the ped mall playground outside of the library in Iowa City.

Next time we are at the park near our house I will take the camera and take pictures!

Benjamin's Fourth Birthday

Happy Birthday to Benjamin--a little over a month ago. We were still staying with Marianne and Eric and had a really fun time. We didn't know where our cake candles were so we used Aunt Marianne's tea candles. Below is the video of us singing to Benjamin.




Here is Benjamin on his big wheel--the present from Mom and Dad. Aunt Marianne and Uncle Eric got him some wind-up flashlights that he loves to play with.

For his birthday, we went to a nearby lake and rented paddle boats and paddled around. We all had a really fun time--though Aunt Marianne's boat was rather defective and hard to paddle, especially by herself!

Seth didn't really like the lifejacket at first but got used to it and had fun sitting on Mom's lap, feeling the breeze and playing bumper boats with Aunt Marianne and Benjamin!

We had a really fun time on the lake with Aunt Marianne--Thanks for suggesting it! Benjamin had a great birthday and is so excited to be four years old!!