New Camera

So, we got a fancy new camera, but we're still figuring out how to use it. Here are two of my favorite pics. (of grady)

26 YEARS!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best dad and husband ever! We love you!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ!"

Food!

Abel is now officially 6 months and has been eating "big boy food" for about 2 weeks. It's not his favorite but we are working on it. The video below is of his first encounter with real food - yuck!

Green Day Pics (by popular demand)

Uncle Trent

We had the joy of hosting our supper club this past Sat. Uncle Trent got to have a little male bonding time with some of the younger men in our group. He did a great job balancing the two of them on his knees without making either cry :-)

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I wish weather was always this good.

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A heavy weight

On Tuesday Abel went to the Doctor for his 4 month check up. Our little guy is quite happy and healthy. He weighs 16lb 15oz and is 25.9in long both of these put him in the 75%. He also got 4 shots, which he wasn't too happy about. We continue to enjoy our sweet little man. He is talking laughing and smiling more and more. i have a fun video of his "talking" that i will try to post soon. Praise God for healthy baby.

Tank Update

So, it's been a while since I've posted a tank update. A lot has changed since last time. My tank seems to excel at growing Xenia and Macro Algae. I think this is a sign that I have crappy water. My tank also excels at growing what I consider to be a pest...Vermetid Snails. I do enjoy my tank. It probably needs better lighting a more dispursed flow, but oh well. Here it is. So far I have 3 types of Acropora, some Montipora, some Green star polyps, a ricordia, a trumpet coral, some zoanthids, and some Xenia. I also got a mushroom and some kind of monti in some sand from a friend.

The following pics are just of the pests, the vermetid snails. They aren't like normal snails that crawl around. The fasten themselves to surfaces then create spiraling tubes.

Vermetids (they look like tubes)

more vermetids

and more

Cute!

My Two Favorite Boys

Dad and Abel hugging on Christmas Eve

Dad and Abel playing with great-grandpa

Dad and Abel gaming (gotta teach him early)

Dad and Abel having fun

Growing so quickly!

Well...James is downstairs playing a video game and Abel is sleeping so i thought now might be a good time to finally update the blog. as you can see in the pic Abel continues to grow. he is almost 4 months old, and praise the Lord he is sleeping 8 to 9 hours at night consistently. he loves to smile in the morning and is quite the finger sucker. currently his favorite "toys" are his play mat and bouncy chair. Christ has given us great joy in our sweet son and for this we are infinity grateful.

Mountains!

This past weekend, James took Abel and me on a wonderful mountain getaway. We stayed at the Ridgecrest Conference Center and spent our Sat. hiking around Chimney Rock. The Lord had prepared a beautiful landscape for us to enjoy. Abel was a champ and enjoyed hiking with dad in the Bejorn and the sling. Here are some pics for your viewing enjoyment :-)

So, I had to blog this too.

Ok, time for bed, but I just wanted to blog this one too.

So Old!

Abel is two months old. The time is flying by and he's getting so big. October was a fun month. Here are some of the highlights.

Two of Abel's cousin's Brody and Camden.

My dad and I pretending we're working on this beetle (we did end up pulling the motor and putting it in the roadster)

Dad and I looking very cool.

Sonya and I at Ben and Anna's wedding.

A big "bedangle" cpu cooler I got for my PC (6.99 after rebate).

Weekend Fun

My dad has been working on making a roadster out of an early 70's VW beetle. This weekend we pulled good motor out of a different bug and put it in his roadster. Dad was so excited he got everything going so that we could take it out for a spin on Sunday. It's a lot of fun to ride in.

The many faces of our sweet Abel

SAD - this one breaks dad's heart everytime

HAPPY :-)

SUPPRISED!

Our sweet boy SLEEPING - this is how most of his time is spent :-)

Pictures! One Month Old

Abel is now offically one month old - where has the time gone? We had a big week last week. Abel got to go to his first horse show, see some friends, and go to church.

Abel went to church yeterday for the second time - he was great, he pretty much slept through the entire service, sorry Dr. Davis, guess the sermon wasn't quite exciting enough :-) Abel did wake up afterwards to let his grand-grandmother hold him (we will work on his priorities)

After church all three of us got to have a wonderful lunch outside at El Rodeo (abel loves mexican :-)

family photo

Sneak Peak at Abel's Nursery

i am pretty sure that Abel has the best room in the house. we are so thankful for everyone who helped make our nursery wonderful, we hope that many more children will be able to enjoy it. i, of course, will be enjoying our new comfy chair for many years :-)

abel's first words

Abel had jaundice when he was born which made him very sleepy and also necessitated him having some phototherapy - here is what he thought about the whole ordeal.

TWO WEEKS OLD!

We can't believe it, our sweet little Abel is 2 weeks old as of yesterday. the Lord continues to show us grace upon grace with him. he is healthy and is gaining weight like a champ (he eats every 3 hours) Abel sleeps most of the time, but has started to have some awake (fussy :-) time in the evenings, evidently this is normal. james and i are doing well. i feel better and better everyday, we are even going to try to go to church tonight (our biggest outing so far ;-) We will do our best to keep you updated on Abel. We love him so much and are thankful that the Lord saw it fit to give us such a sweet and beautiful little boy.

Our lives have changed!

Abel Has Come!!!
On Tuesday night Sonya and I had our baby boy. He came to us around 3 weeks early via c-section at 6:55pm after the wise guidance of our doctors. He weighed 7lbs 5oz. We went in for appointment on Tuesday at 10:20 and by about noon they said "head over to the hospital now," so we did. Praise God everything went great and Sonya and the baby are both healthy and adjusting to new life.For all my guy friends, I just want to point out, I hope after the first night with little sleep you look this great and have a little bit of this to show off: