Aaron Joseph

 I'll post more later, but here's a few pictures of our new little boy :)

 He was born on December 26, 2013 - missing Christmas day by 3 minutes! He weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 and 3/4 inches long. He has blond hair and is very beautiful :)

 The girls came to see him yesterday and were pretty excited to have a baby of our own!

 Anna has socks on her hand to imitate her cousin Daniel who is only a couple weeks old...Esther thought he was heavy...

 A new big sister!

 We plan to call the baby Aaron and my husband is willing to be called Brother Aaron, Uncle Aaron, Pastor Aaron, Daddy, Sweetheart...depending on your relationship to him - or you can call the baby Aaron Joseph.  We had three different names that we couldn't decide between - but we wanted the firstborn son to have Aaron in his name somewhere, and we wanted Joseph because he's our Christmas baby, but we don't like Joe as a nickname, so it had to go in the middle and there you have it!

Grandma with the baby - more coming another day....

Early December

 We went to a pastor and families Christmas get-together. I'm not really sure how to crop pictures with our computer, but this one turned out pretty well except for Esther's expression...

 We got to go see the girls brand-new cousin :) Now they want to name our coming baby Daniel, but don't worry - we won't!

 I like holding newborns too!

 We had a bit of an ice storm the second weekend of December - we didn't loose power, but some people near us did.

 Speaking of new babies, we've been slowly preparing for whenever he or she gets here - we needed a new car seat, so the girls were excited to help Aaron get it all ready to go to the van.

 They were also excited to help decorate the tree...eventually, we had to let them sit on the couch while we did the breakable balls.

 We used our purple balls instead of the red this year just for something different and I like how it turned out - at least we're enjoying it :)

 I didn't do a lot of decorating b/c I don't want to have a lot to take down this year, but we put up our favorite things - the girls love watching the fiber optic angel and looking in the "piano shop".

 Hanging out under the communion table after Wednesday night church -

 Last Sunday was the children's program - Aaron was the narrator -

 The girls did the angel parts - Esther didn't say anything, but she sang the songs with everyone and did a great job :)

 I normally forget to take pictures at church, but Aaron's parents came that Sunday and so Grandma S. got a bunch of cute ones with our camera....

 The girls loved the manger:)

 Esther and Anna -

 Esther and Anna with Grandma -

 Esther -

 Posing by kissing Mommy on the cheek :)

 Anna would kiss me too, but not slow enough to be caught on camera -

 Anna -

 All (5) of us!

 We're also not using our old bassinet this time, but the girls have been having a blast using it for a "boat" and taking turns laying in it and putting other stuff on top!

We had a choir get-together tonight, and I made an old favorite, veggie pizza - which I actually don't know if I've made since I've been married, and tried two new recipes - Lime bars and Napolean (sp?) Cremes (with pistachio pudding) - I thought the greens would look Christmasy....

Have a Merry Christmas!

Fall 2013 - Sightseeing with Silas

 We really enjoyed the time Silas was able to spend with us - in fact, we (and the church people) decided we wouldn't mind keeping him :) I had a Dr. appointment while he was here, so we took him along with us...He took this picture of Anna in the van - and a bunch of others! Hopefully he'll post more sometime, but here are some of the ones with us in them.

 Aaron and the girls sometimes go to the park while I'm in the dr. office - they brought bread to feed the ducks, but a flock of pigeons came too -

 Silas caught one of them -

 Aaron pushing the girls on swings at the playground -

 The Parthenon replica -

 Aaron, Esther, Anna, and Uncle Silas

 Then we parked downtown and went for a walk -

 This is Bicentennial Park - We didn't even know it existed, but it's pretty interesting and since we didn't have time to see everything, hope to go back someday.

 Reading about our state -

 Walking on a huge map of TN -

 We decided to go up to the capitol building - Many, many steps! I guess it's the highest hill in the city. Silas helped carry Anna when I got too tired -

 Aaron taking a turn with Anna -

 There were several different places to take pictures at different heights -

 We walked around the building and saw what there was to see -

 Such as this statue of Sgt. York -

 The front of the capitol building - we decided to stay and take the tour and it was well worth it!

 Silas above the city -

 Inside the building -

 The House of Representatives -

 These last two were the only ones I took -

The girls quickly found a cubbyhole to hang out in behind this statue (which we had to explain was not an idol!). They almost fell asleep during the tour, but the rest of us learned a lot of neat things!

OK - this is the last fall 2013 post - I believe there are 9 in all, so if you go all the was back to the corn maze pictures, before the Hermitage ones, before the birthday ones...you've seen them all!

The new baby is due Dec. 30 and I just had a check up today - everything seems to be measuring right, the heartbeat is good, but no signs of it being anytime soon. Thankfully - I have quite a list of things to get done before it's born...like Christmas cards...although I think I'll try to pack for the hospital soon, just in case!

It got up around 70 degrees yesterday, but it's supposed to be cold and freezing rain this weekend, so we'll see - we have a lot of things going on this week, so hopefully the bad weather will skip us. We'll actually be here for Christmas this year - it'll be the first on in MN I've ever missed, but am looking forward to a relatively quiet month before the new baby arrives...

If you remember, please keep us in your prayers!