Some funny stories

For those of you who have spent any time around Isaac you know that he is completely obsessed with tractors. The other night we had supper at Burger King before youth group and while Zach was waiting for our food, Isaac and I were listening to the music playing. For those who know country, Jason Aldean's song Big Green Tractor was playing and I was singing to Isaac..."take me for a ride on your big green tractor." Isaac proceeds to yell "NO! BIG GREEN JOHNNY POPPER TRACTOR!" Zach looks over at us from across the restaurant with a look of "what was that about?" I was laughing hysterically. Isaac got a DVD for Christmas all about John Deere Tractors and the Johnny Popper is the earliest model they have. Every tractor is a Johnny Popper in his eyes. :)

Isaac will be 3 in a couple of months and he understands everything. We went to Chili's the other night to celebrate my birthday a week early and when we were leaving Isaac wanted to put Zach's money clip in his coat pocket. Not the outside coat pocket but the inside coat pocket. He then told us that he was keeping the money and he would pay in the future. He rode home with our money in his pocket! We'd better enroll him in a Dave Ramsey class quick!

Well I suppose I should write a little about Caleb. He is busy backing around the living room, stealing Isaac's toys. He is a funny little boy with an amazing reach! He lays out for a toy and then backs up until he reaches sitting position again. He usually ends up sitting on a toy or two and has tried to sit on the wall or couch a few times. Caleb still will not roll over, although I know he can. He has found himself in a few predicaments, like underneath Isaac's rocking chair or stuck in the corner by the TV and toybox. My favorite thing to watch is Caleb on the kitchen floor. His master plan of backing up to sitting position doesn't work because he can't get any traction so he just ends up sliding and sliding, crying because he can't do what he wants. :) In the past 2 days we have seen signs that he will be crawling soon. He gets about two "steps" in and then falls on his belly.

Okay, quick update on the surgery I had last month. Recovery has been extremely slow and until this past weekend I couldn't bend my leg more than 90 degrees. The doctor decided to send me to physical therapy and the exercises he gave me seem to be helping. It is still slow but there is definitely progress and I think I will be back to normal again some day. I will remember this if I happen to need this done again. Not while I have small children!

Sorry no pictures with this post, I just wanted to give an update and share our funny stories! Hopefully we can do this more often and post pictures when we can.

Caleb's Mobile

There have been a couple of new things happening with Caleb lately. He has started to move around when we set him down. He can go from sitting up to his tummy, then he can move backward and in circles. He has just started to push himself up into sitting position from the backwards moving. He hasn't started crawling yet, but he is getting close, should be soon. Not sure what Isaac thinks of this. Just tonight Caleb moved over to Isaac's box of tractors and took one out. Isaac said, "Caleb stop taking my stuff" and proceeded to move the box away from Caleb. Should be fun once Caleb starts crawling. Below is a picture of Caleb trying to move around.

Caleb has also been teething a lot lately, which means he isn't sleeping quite as well. We think the front top ones are trying to come in. He has the bottom two in already. Below is a good picture of Caleb's two toothed smile.
The last couple of weeks have been crazy around the house. Regina had surgery to remove a bone spur from just above her right knee on January 28th. It was causing her problems in bending her knee. So, I got to stay home and take care of her and the boys for a few days. Regina is starting to walk around but the knee is a little stiff still. I am thankful that she is able to help out again with the boys. We have a follow up appointment in Iowa City on February 10th (we make sure we wear all our Iowa State Cyclone gear). Below is a good picture of the boys in our living room.

Happy New Year

Its a new year. It has been a busy couple of months with visiting family and the holidays. Below are a few pictures from the holidays:

Caleb with his great grandpa.

Isaac and Caleb with their Aunt Lacy.

Isaac and Caleb with their Grandma Erickson.

Isaac after helping mom and dad make Christmas treats. He liked the chocolate.

Isaac helping dad put the star on the Christmas tree.

Isaac with his Grandpa Beerends.

Caleb opening his presents with mommy.

6 Months Old

Today Caleb is 6 months old! Time has sure gone fast! We went to Des Moines last Friday and took his 6 month photos in time for the holiday season. Caleb is so different than Isaac when it comes to pictures, he doesn't cry and he smiles from ear to ear. Isaac is still professional camera shy as I had to drag him into the room in order to have his picture taken with Caleb! Caleb is a flirt, such a ladies man! The photographer told him he was a cutie and he just smiled bigger! We had a hard time choosing the pictures we wanted because they were just so good! Here a just a few of the best:

We didn't take a lot of individuals of Isaac but here is one of his best photos. Isaac doesn't cry anymore but pictures are difficult because he refuses to stand still! A lot of the pictures ended up being of Isaac jumping in the air.

Here are my two boys in front of the Christmas scene. They are so cute!

6 months means Caleb is now closer to being 1 year old than he is to being a newborn. I was just looking through pictures for scrapbooking this morning and remembering the day of his birth. I remember it so vividly yet it seems like such a long time ago. Caleb has had double ear infection the past 10 days. We started with just one ear infected, got antibiotics and a week later we went in for a recheck and he had it in the other ear. How do you get ear infection when you've been on antibiotics??? Anyway, at that appointment he weighed 18 pounds. I'm interested to see what his stats are at his 6 month appointment. Caleb is now rolling to his stomach but hasn't quite figured out how to get back over. That usually makes him angry! He hasn't cut any teeth yet but he is chewing on everything so it probably won't be long.

We are headed north this Thanksgiving. Zach's parents bought a hotel stay in Rochester for Friday and Saturday night so we are excited to take Isaac swimming and do a little Christmas shopping. Zach's sister will be home from Portland so we are going to do our Christmas exchange early. Then Zach and I took Monday off so we will be putting up Christmas decorations and recuperating from traveling! We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Caleb's Dedication

This Sunday we had Caleb's dedication at church. We chose Caleb's name from the story in the Bible where the 12 spies were sent into the Promise Land to scout the land. When the 12 spies returned only Caleb and Joshua believed and had faith that God would give them the land. The rest of the spies were afraid the people living in the land would defeat them. The verse that we read was Numbers 14:24 where God is talking to Moses and says - "But my servant Caleb is different from the others. He has remained loyal to me, and I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will receive their full share of the land." Our prayer for Caleb is that he would remain loyal to God and he would have faith that God can do the impossible.

We had a lot family here this weekend for the dedication. Below are some pictures of our family, the Erickson family, and the Beerends family.

Halloween

I've been meaning to get these Halloween photos up on the blog for a little while. So hear they are. Caleb was a puppy and Isaac was a tiger.


In the morning we took the kids to the square. They had some activities and trick-or-treating around the square. It was alright and I think Isaac enjoyed it. Below is a picture of Caleb in the car on the way there.


After naps in the afternoon, we went to the Blank Park Zoo. They have something called Night Eyes for Halloween. It was fun. You walked through the zoo and collected some candy and they had games and things for the kids to do as well. The tiger was out walking around so we got some pictures of Isaac with the tiger.

The tiger came right up to the window at one point. Isaac and mommy were checking him out.

Later, mommy found Caleb trying to steal daddy's candy. Caleb had his hand in the candy bag.

Caleb finding out he was caught. Candy stealer.

Isaac doing what he likes best.

Pumpkin Carving

This weekend Grandpa and Grandma Erickson came down for Friday and Saturday. The boys enjoyed some time playing with them. They brought tractor books for Isaac which he loves. They were John Deere advertising pamphlets but Isaac likes to look at the pictures. Below are some pictures of the boys in matching outfits that we bought them.

Isaac poked Caleb in the eye and Regina got the picture. He will pay for that later. On Saturday we went and bought some pumpkins to carve and we carved it up on Saturday evening. Below are the pictures of Isaac helping clean the pumpkin out and the final result.

On Sunday Grandpa and Grandma Beerends came to babysit the boys while Regina and I went to our church's membership meeting. The boys enjoyed play time with them as well. This weekend the boys got their share of grandparent's time.