Geoffrey Is TWO OLD!

On April 12th Geoffrey turned two years old! Shortly before, March 28th - April 4th, he and I went to Missouri to visit his Grandma and Papa. Of course, we had to have a get together with the fam, so we had an early birthday party! It was a lot of fun! We had cupcakes, some with fruit punch icing, and ice cream and just enjoyed eachothers company. The fruit punch icing did have a PUNCH; Geoffrey liked it!

Geoffrey also enjoyed opening the gifts that he was given. He recieved some really fun toys! Cars and trucks of all different sizes, a bus, and an awesome quilt from his grandma with airplanes on it for his big-boy bed!

We moved him to a twin size bed recently, and he loves it! He transitioned a lot faster than we thought! Like most things with Geoffrey when he wants to do something he just does it!

To explain the TWO OLD, we taught Geoffrey to say "Two" when he was asked how old he was. Shortly after we started this, he would come into the room and say that he was "Two old!" instead of "I'm two years old." It was too cute.

Spring a Ling

Remember the days when you would ask your father and mother to take you to the local park to play on your plastic fortress? Well here is Geoffrey enjoying a good taste of Spring on the slippery slope of the slide. He went over and over again. I think Maresa lost 8 pounds running up and down the stairs with him. Good job Maresa!

We all had a fun time at the park. Besides we had to pay Geoffrey somehow. He spent hours and hours in the field picking wheat for our food storage. Man he had a hard time sealing those buckets until his dad gave him a rubber mallet. Worst mistake of my life. There are holes everywhere. Ok maybe I am making this up a little bit. We Asbells are known for a little embellishment. But seriously we are trying to follow the Lord's admonitions through modern day prophets to prepare against a time of need. So we bought 150 lbs of red wheat this month to get us started.

Erica quickly went out and spent some dough (haha wheat...dough...haha) on a wheat grinder to allow us to make yummy homemade bread. It is healthier for us anyway. A might bit tastier too. We also started a garden of sorts in a tray. We have tomatoes, spices, herbs, peppers, lettuce, and brocolli to name a few. It's fun to watch them grow. Kinda like watching paint dry. But a lot tastier than those paint chips.

So as you can see by the following comparison photos that Spring has deffinately sprung. Two bears have left the cave and can be seen around town. Both seem rather fuzzy.

Our little girl is growing and growing!

We are so excited to have another addition to our family soon. After three months of ultrasounds, in spite our little one's modesty, we finally found out in March that we will be having a little sister for Geoffrey to love, cuddle, tickle and pick on.

Geoffrey has been able to be around his cousin Jessica, who is now four months old, a lot since we moved back to Idaho, and he is so good to her! He loves her and it shows through his actions and concern for her well-being. We hope that he loves his sister just as much! Only time will tell. And speaking of time . . . just about five more weeks until she is due! We are trying to get everything together for her arrival! Thank goodness for handme downs and wonderful family members who are very thoughtful!

My pregnancy has been great so far, and we hope that it will continue to go well. It truly has been a blessing with working, moving and taking care of Geoffrey to have had such good health these past few months. She is definately an active baby, and it will be fun to see her personality evolve.

Puttin the Hizzy in the Hood. Whatever that means.

Here is a shot of our new pad. Oh yeah the sweet goodness of the ubiquitous condo. I think this place has a good deal of room, even if I can't hold a camera strait when taking a photo. It feels a little weird to be back in Rexburg Idaho. For the first time in my life I will have a garage. I just can't wait to use that little clicker and open and close the giant door. So sweetie you can see what you are getting yourself in to when you get here on Wednesday. Have fun!

Don't worry about the hole in the floor. It is supposed to be there. It goes to our crawl space. There is quite a bit of storage space under there! I was thouroughly suprised.

Halloween

Geoffrey was dressed up as a lion for Halloween. In this video, Geoffrey is munching on a donut. Not just any donut mind you. It was one of those classic white powdered donuts of goodness that we all remember gorging ourselves on when we were children. You know you remember that nasty film that gets in your mouth when you are done, and that overpowering sense of satisfaction whiping the powdered sugar from your mouth. MMMMMMmmmmmm......

Geoffrey was at a game where you eat a donut off of a string without touching it. Erica was running the game at the church's trunk or treat. He didn't play at all. He just ran up and grabbed the donut violently ripping it off of the string and devoured it. I laughed when I saw it. Thought I would get out the old camera and show the rest of the world. So watch and enjoy a bit of white donut nastalgia.

Geoffrey and I are speinding more and more time together ever since Erica got a job at Target. We are doing well this fall and having lots of fun. I am still teaching Seminary in the mornings. It is difficult sometimes to wake up that early but the kids make it worth it.

Our jobs have us really busy. It gets hard sometimes to see each other and have a date night. I am looking for another job with better pay to try and bring Erica back into the home. I also am planning to start graduate school shortly. There are a couple of good programs here in Missouri. I look forward to trying to get into one that is in Rolla, Missouri. It is not too far from here.

Geoffrey is learning new words and their meanings more and more every day! He loves to play jokes on his dada. He also loves his paw paw (Richard Jones, his grandfather).

Where we are now

Welcome friends and family. We are now living in Osage Beach, Missouri.

Nathan has a job working for Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks. He is currently working as the research and coordination manager (oooh fancy title) and as a residential coach lead. To give you a better idea of what his job is, he is an administrative assistant to the clinical director, doing payroll, scheduling, and any other ninja tasks the powers that be tell him to do. He just applied to graduate school to get his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.

Erica is staying at home taking care of Geoffrey. She is also taking classes to become a medical transcriptionist. She already has a bachelors in Social Work and soon will surpass her hubby in her formal education!

Geoffrey is cutting five teeth at once right now. He also just got over a dual ear infection. That was not very fun for any of us! He is growing like a weed. He sings, dances, says a lot of words, and runs everywhere. It is hard to keep him out of our cabinets.

Enjoy a few recent pictures. We hope you are all well and that the blessings of the Lord are with you.