Aaron is 11 months old

I can't believe how time has flown by. In just a month we will be celebrating Aaron's first birthday. He is loosing his baby look and turning into a toddler. I can't believe its been 11 months. You are starting to see his personality come out more and more. He knows what he wants and where he wants to go. He recently has started to scream to get your attention and let you know he wants something, or that he isn't happy. Hopefully we can discourage this quickly. He is also getting around on his own more. He still does his army crawl, but now he gets on his hands and knees. That helps him a lot in his quest to pull to stand. His favorite thing now is to cruise furniture and walk. He reaches for your hands, takes 2 fingers and is off. He can walk really fast, especially if someone is chasing him. He love peek-a-boo and to be chased. His top two teeth are so close to coming out. FINALLY. He has had his bottom teeth since October and just now the top 2 are coming. Which I guess is a good thing since I am still nursing. I am actually weening him, which is going well, except for the fact he won't drink formula or whole milk. I definitely can tell he is eating more since I have cut down on some feedings (nursing) but I really think he should drink milk. Hopefully that will come. Aaron is also going through a little separation anxiety. The past couple of weeks I have been called out of bible studies, MOPS, and church because he is hysterical. Of course he is fine once I get him. Hopefully this phase will end soon. He does fine when he is with people he knows, which I am very thankful for. Well, there is a little update on Aaron. Caleb and I are doing well. We are ready for busy season to be over, but other than Caleb working a ton and Aaron and I missing him, we are doing well.

To blog or not to blog???

Well, that is my question to the 5 of you that read our blog. I am trying to decide if I want to keep doing it. I know I haven't done the best job with it, so now I am wondering if it is worth it. That is where you come in. If I get enough people to admit they stalk our family and want me to keep it up, I will. I will even try to be more consistent (1-2 times a week is all I will commit to at this point). I am slightly obsessed with stalking friends by reading their blogs, instead of writing on ours. Maybe by the end of the week I will make a decision. Let me know what you think.

Caleb and I

I am trying really hard to keep our blog a little more updated. I have done pretty good with pictures of Aaron recently, but realized, I haven't talked about Caleb and I at all. So, here is a little bit about what we are up to.

Caleb: BUSY SEASON. That tells it all. Busy season has started, it hasn't been fun, but not too bad. He has been doing a lot of traveling, but the end is in sight. He was in Pittsburgh for 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas (coming home on weekends). Last week he was is Roxboro, NC (a small little town with nothing going on). He will be there for most of this week as well. We are hoping and praying that he will be back Wednesday, but I am not holding my breath. In a couple of weeks, he might be going down to Atlanta for a few days. If he does, Aaron and I are thinking about going with him and I will visit family and family friends and enjoy all the cool things to do down there. After that there are no trips planned, but he will still have long hours until mid March. We are looking forward to then.

Brooke: I am loving being at home with Aaron. I am so thankful for the opportunity. He is growing so fast, and keeping me on my toes. I will post more soon about all his abilities. Most of my day is full of activities in regards to being a mom. I am very thankful that the holiday season is over and things can get back to normal. As normal as they can with Caleb being gone and Aaron being sick. One thing that I have been working on is refinishing our master bedroom furniture and redecorating. For some reason, we have put off decorating our room to last. I will not do that again. Our bedroom suite was my grandmother's and we are very thankful for the free furniture. But it wasn't our style. We didn't like the color, it had a redish tent to it, and we especially did not like the old hardware and the pine cone decoration on it. So, a few weeks ago, I decided to redo it. I was hoping to knock it out in a few days. Well, weeks later, I am almost done. It was a little more of a project than I expected. I puttied (word??) in the pinecones, painted it dark brown, and put on new hardware. Here is some pictures of the work in progress. I will post pictures of our newly decorated room and new furniture as soon as it is completely finished. Hopefully by the end of the week.

the mess in our garage. After the first coat of paint. I forgot to get a before picture.

All the drawers

The mirror before being painted. You can see the old color. I tore apart the mirror as it sat on the dresser and had ugly shelves.

Visit with Great-Grandmother

Rocking with Grandmother, getting ready for bed. I'm glad Grandmother enjoyed this, because it is rare for Aaron to let you rock him.

Walking and playing with Grandmother's help.

Let It Snow!!!

Aaron looking out at the snow from the comfort of our warm home!!!

Going for a "sled" ride in the snow

Bundled up trying to keep warm

Random Pics

Someone looks like he is up to something.

Emptying the books off the bookshelf.

Going, Going, Gone!!!

Reading is fun too.

Working on pulling to stand. He can do it sometimes.

Christmas in GA

I realized that I forgot to post pictures of our trip to GA to visit my grandmother. So, here they are. We had a good time visiting and Aaron was spoiled rotten. He especially loved his Christmas present from Grandmother which was a LeapFrog Table that has all sorts of song on it and English and Spanish singing. It did not take him anytime at all to figure it all out. Still to date his favorite part is turning the page of the book.

Grandmother in her new house.

Aaron learning to walk.

Family Christmas Dinner.

Playing with his new toy. What fun.