Tune your Guitar strings and Watch out!

Geoffrey with his Guitar Hero - Zachy! He is so cute! He uses this racket and strums the strings and everything! We have bought him a guitar for his birthday, but I kind of hate to give it to him. I bet he will still pull this out at times and play!

Here's Gwen's new two little teeth!

Geoffrey took Nathan's brush, wet his hair down, and styled it the other day. Then, he ran in and said, "Look Dad!"

Go Gators! Whohoo!

My handsome boy!

&

Beautiful girl!

Well, lately we have just been trying to live life and enjoy it, even when

it is stressful and the winter is just going on and on and on. Honestly, I don't think that this winter is bad, but for some reason I have been extremely eager for summer to come this year. I just can't wait to get out in the sunshine!

The children are growing too fast as usual!! Gwen just recently recieved her first two teeth and I belive four more will follow soon. She is crawling quite conventionally as of yesterday. We have been calling her an inchworm for the last two or so weeks because she would move her knees and feet up then lay on her tummy, reach, and get up again. She soon got her arms working with her knees, but she still kept laying down to get a few more inches out of her efforts. It was quite effective really. She was going everywhere! Like I said though, she is now crawing like crazy all over and has even mastered the sitting position out of the crawl and has moved right in to pulling up on her walker! If I am not careful she'll be walking before St. Pattie's Day! Lol. Hopefully not . . .

Geoffrey is doing great too! Although, I believe he is getting bored of winter. We both love to be outside and out and about. Since we just have one car, nice weather really helps. I am going to have to take an extra effort to do some new crafts and games with him in these last few weeks of winter. He loves to learn and so it is hard to keep him occupied when he constantly likes to do new things, or help me with things that he is not totally ready to do. I do appreciate his efforts though!

Nathan is trying to keep up with work and school. It is challenging at times but he is doing great! He is a great husband and makes sure to spend time with the children and I.

This year we are focusing on our food storage. We hope to be able to get a decent one built up. If anyone has any helpful tips or hints please let us know!

Where has the Time Gone?

I cannot believe that I haven't posted since October! We have been so busy! Ever since Halloween the time has just flown by. We have been greatly blessed to have seen many friends and family over the last few months though!

The children and I went to see Grandma and Pawpaw for two weeks at the very begginning of November. On our way, we were able to spend Halloween with my friend Bree. It was a lot of fun to see her and catch up a bit (although it seems you never have quite enough time!). I didn't even have the chance to get a picture of her daughter and Gwen, who are a month apart, because Nathan had the camera, but hopefully there will be other chances! Thank you for a great time!

While we were preparing to go to Pawpaw's Nathan was busy in Florida packing up his mom so that she could move close to us in Idaho. So, when we arrived in Missouri Nathan, Frank, and their mom were at my parents house getting some rest so they could finish the rest of the trip. It was great to be able to see them for a short time before they set off on their way. My dad had made Geoffrey a rocking horse for Christmas, and Nathan was able to take it home with him, after Geoffrey was able to ride him for a bit, of course.

We had a great time in Missouri! We were able to see many loved family members and friends too. It was still warm enough that Geoffrey was even able to go on a prized ride on the lawn mower with his Pawpaw! However, we did learn that Two weeks is a long time for a two-year old to be away from his Daddy and a routine.

Geoffrey and his Stocking.

We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with our family here in Idaho. On Christmas morning we had Eleven people at our house! It was so much fun. You can imagine the mess we made! I think we almost lost Gwen a couple of times in all the wrapping paper ;). We had a great time, and we were able to meet Nathan's sister's boyfriend from England. We haven't been together for Christmas the last two years, so it was great to be able to spend quality time with the family! Geoffrey and his trampoline from Santa.

Santa said it was a bit rough putting this together, but it was definately worth all of his trouble!!

This was the first year that Geoffrey was really into Santa Clause so it was definately a great time for us a parents. I do hope that we can find a way to keep our home more Christ centered around Christmas time. We tried to help Geoffrey understand the similarities between Christ and Santa. I am sure that we will find more and more ways to focus our time on Christ as the years go by.

Gwen loved her gifts! Here she is laughing at her bouncy Tigger from Grandma and Pawpaw Jones.

The Lord has truly blessed us in our righteous efforts this past year, and I hope that we may continue to be working toward those things that will bring our family closer together and enable to be an aid to others.

Hannah and Gwen

Our friends Esther and Nathan came by with their little girl to visit for a bit before they went home after the Holidays. It was soo good to see them! These two blue eyed babes are about two months apart. Cute!

Here is Aunt Kimmie holding Jessie and Gwen on Christmas! These lil' gals are six months apart! They will be so fun as they grow up together!

Snow, Corn, and School Oh My!

HeLLo! I know that our blog is usually pics of our children, but they are cute, and we just don't have an overly excited life so I hope you enjoy it!

Well, we do have a few updates though. When we took this picture(below) of Geoffrey last week, he kept saying he wanted to play in the snow. I thought, or hoped, that that time would still be a little ways away, but alas it snowed this week in Rexburg! I swear that it gets earlier every year. Usually the first snow is on Halloween! But Geoffrey does love the snow. He woke us up Sunday morning saying, "Its snowing!" It was actually the most beautiful surreal snow I have ever seen. The flakes were pretty big and were falling sooooo slowly. I felt like I was in a dream.

Nathan started his first graduate school course a week ago. He is doing great. We have all had to get used to a more structured schedule, but I kind of like it! We have been busy though, putting away all of the food that we were able to harvest before the cold weather set in. I still have corn sitting in the dining room ready to be shucked, blanched and frozen. Hopefully I will get to that tomorrow! My sister-in-law and I have learned a lot about canning this year. We were able to can salsa, peaches, and apples. It has been a lot of fun, and we learn more and more as we go.

Geoffrey and Gwen continue to grow so fast! They are completely loveable and a bucket of laughs! It is so fun to see how much they love eachother. Geoffrey especially amazes me every day. He wants to do everything we do.

I have to admit. The cure to any illness, grouchiness, or selfish pity pary is to look at these precious babes, to hear their laughter, and see them smile. I LOVE IT!!

One of Geoffrey's many hilarious faces! (He does this on purpose . . . it is rare, but sooo funny.)

This is also the debut of Gwen's new Cow. We call her "cowey." Very original, I know;) I love the complete washability of TY stuffed animals. They are the best.

Summer Fun

Well, I did this post on Sunday with lots of writing and telling of our summer, but it was mostly erased ... it disappeared anyway. So, this one will be short and sweet. We have had a great summer. It has been filled with a few adventures: a new little one, a new apartment, fun times with family and friends, and potty training! We moved closer to the park and have been enjoying it while the beautiful summer weather lasts! We hope you are all doing well and enjoying times with your loved ones! Here are a few pics of our little guy and gal!

This one is a quicky. I love having fun with Geoffrey. As a father, the older he gets, the more rough and tumble fun he gets. Sometimes he likes to crawl up on the bed when I am lying there and play "horsey". Now his version of horsey is just mounting me and jumping up and down on my back. You should see the air he gets as he launches off of me back. He almost knocks the breath out of me when he lands.

Well, this time the gags on him. Mwahahahaha! I found some Disney stickers. Geoffrey likes Disney stickers. He asked me for one. So I gave him one. I put it right in the square of his back! Hahahahaha! Here is the video showing his feble attempts at removing it. It is hilarious. Erica doesn't like it when I do that. She says I am giving him a complex. I reply "Whats the fun in life without a few genuine complexes?".

2 Weeks and SO fun!

I love Sundays because I get to put really cute dresses on Gwen. I guess I could dress her up any day, but it is much more fun when you have a reason and a nice place to go. We got dressed today for church, but she and I didn't make it in the end. I thought she looked darling any way.

Here are the many faces of Gwen.

Aww . . . the sleepy pose.

Well, I think she is yawning . . . or she's asking for more food . . . nope yawning. Whew, sleepy.

Look at those big eyes! They are so dark! Betcha wouldn't believe they're blue.

Angry, frustrated, hungry . . . and still completely lovable!

A minute of happiness.

Of course, Geoffrey had to have his pose of the day too! He loves trying on Nathan's different hats and ball caps. The most recent fav is his wide brim army hat. He thinks it is a ton of fun. He looks great in it too. We caught him sneaking on to the bed military style this afternoon.

Autumn Gwen Asbell

Dear readers. We thought we would show you some pictures of the baby. This time the pictures were rather effortless to take. What really takes effort is trying to make Erica look stoned like she did in the first set of pictures we put on here. She is usually quite beautiful. Something about pushing out a 7 pound 11 ounce basketball makes your hair and eyes droop. Sheesh.

Note exhibit A. Erica looking tired after pushing out the basketball.

"Exhibit A"

Erica has earned the "Iron Mommy" award for her pregnancy. She was able to give birth without any drugs or epiderals or whatever. She had her teeth clenched so tight I thought she was going to shatter her teeth. It was crazy. I was holding her hand at the time and trying to encourage her. Luckily she bore down with her teeth instead of my hand. I would have been left with nothing but a stub. Gwen was so suprised to see her mom looking so crazy and wild she looked stunned.

<====Exhibit "B" Baby looking stunned.

On an intersting note, you can see a pink bow glued to her head by K-Y Jelly. I picked that out. The other color (purple) is in the back. That was picked out by the nurses in the nursery. They thouht that the pink and purple would look really good together. I'm a guy and have no clue about little girl babies and such. So I deferred to their choice. Erica agrees with them that the bow color choice looked good. On a serious note, I am overjoyed to have little Autumn Gwen join our family. I love her and promise to love and protect her for as long as she is in my stewardship and forever. One look into those beautiful eyes and seeing her desperately trying to suck on her hand, I turn into a puddle. She is a lovely addition to our eternal family.

Erica and I are excited to take her home tommorow. Monday is the start of a new week. Monday follows the patterns of new beginnings. We are excited and yet cautious with such a young one in our care again. We know many hard nights are ahead of us and little sleep is going to ensue. But as we see her and Geoffrey grow up over time we will look back and see what a little thing it is to give up so much of us to them.

Geoffrey already loves his little sister, though we don't think he quite understands what this new family arangement means yet. I am amazed at how much our hearts have grown for these two children that we have. One little boy, the absolute bundle of curiousity and joy, and one little girl, the tiny swaddled gift of God. How can one be hapier than we are now?