Grandpa's request

My dad seems to think that Noah has been getting more face time here on the good ol' family blog (although Eli did dominate the August and September posts and he never complained then about Noah missing out). So, just for you Dad, here are some cute photos of our little Eli.

School, Motherhood, and Babies

Life moves on. I've survived my first couple of weeks of grad school (even though most of my classes this week have been canceled due to the crazy ice). Amanda has proven now more than ever that she is a capable mother. I took the above picture while I was working on some school stuff shortly after Amanda had finished putting Noah and Eli down. She amazes me at every turn.

Here is Amanda feeding Noah while getting him to laugh. It cracks me up.

Noah is almost able to sit up on his own.

Eli started to get tired of Noah acting like an older brother.

I don't think Eli was expecting to get his photo taken here.

Well put

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo. This is just such a cool video. It's of a girl at Harvard. She does such a good job answering some tough questions about our religion. I especially like what she says about women in the church. I love being a member of the LDS church and would not be who I am today without it.

Ice, ice baby

I've never lived in a place that gets freezing rain but man is it cuh-ray-zee! It is definitely a winter wonderland out there. Everything is covered in several layers of ice and snow. Two trees in the courtyard behind our apartment building split in half and Aaron even saw a guy skiing at the park. We even took the boys out for a little walk in the snow. I don't think they enjoyed it as much as we thought they might. Oh well...

Our big lil' boys

Eli

Last week we took Eli in for a kidney ultrasound and some lab work. The ultrasound showed that his left kidney has been growing but his right kidney has pretty much stayed the same size since the last ultrasound in September. This is basically what we expected. His left kidney is growing and compensating for the failure of his right kidney, which will never really grow and function. But his labs came back great, even after we took him off Bicitra (medicine that helped with the pH level in his blood). All in all, he is growing and doing great! He is about 26 inches long and last weighed 13 pounds 14 ounces. He is a big jabber-mouth and loves sucking his thumb. He seems to have forgotten how to roll from his belly to his back but can almost roll from his back to his belly. He holds his head up really well now, looking less like a bobble-head doll every day. He smiles, laughs, and squeals with excitement all the time. He's just a cute lil' guy.

Noah

Noah is a happy lil' baby. He is full of smiles all the time. He eats like a champ. He opens his mouth real big whenever he sees his spoon and always eats every last bite of his cereal. He smiles the entire time he's being fed which can make eating pretty complicated and messy. He loves blowing raspberries and spit-bubbles. His new favorite feat is rolling over onto his belly. This is actually an annoying feat for me and Aaron because he has not yet mastered rolling back over. It seems like every time I blink my eyes he is back kicking and flailing on his tummy wanting to be turned over. I think we have finally figured out the whole sleeping thing (thanks to Dr. Weissbluth). The boys go down to sleep usually around 6pm and don't get up until 6 or 7am. They have never cried at night longer than an hour and usually only wake up once during the night. In fact, Eli slept 2 nights in a row last week and we were scolded by his kidney doctor. Apparantly 12 hours without eating is too long for him. Naps are a bit more complicated but we have been working on getting them to fall asleep on their own in their cribs to take a nap. Hopefully we'll have it down by the end of next week.

Cute babies!

Here are a few pictures of the boys. Aren't they just adorable?

Starting from top left and going clockwise: Noah, Eli, Eli, Eli, Noah, Noah, Eli

Food

Here's a video of Noah and Eli eating rice cereal for the first time.

My Little Brother

We buried my little brother Joe yesterday. It's been hard, but I know I'll see him again. Here's something I put together to remember him by.

I've never been more grateful for eternal families.

Funeral information

Aaron's brother Joe died Saturday morning in a motorcycle accident. A viewing for immediate family will be held on Thursday from 3-5pm at Purdy & Walters funeral home in Everett, Washington. Purdy & Walters with Cassidy of Everett 1702 Pacific Avenue Everett, WA 98201 (425) 252-2191 There will be an open viewing on Friday from 10-11am at the LDS chapel in Everett. The funeral will be held at 11am followed by lunch and an open mic for those who would like to publicly remember Joe. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 110 50th St. SW Everett, WA 98203 Pat & Deb Duke 2510 Maple St. Everett, WA 98201

Uncle Mike

Uncle Mike is now officially here and will be staying with us for awhile. We are trying to convince him to move here and go to UK, but if he doesn't, at least I'll have some help around here when Aaron starts school next week. Last night I was a little worried about the kind of helper he would be... But he was great today. He was officially initiated into babycare when Aaron forced him to change Eli's poopy diaper. He also took care of 2 screaming babies while Aaron and I set up the nursery with the new crib. What a good uncle!

2 cribs

We finally decided it was time for us to purchase our 2nd crib. We were hoping that the boys would be able to sleep with one another but soon discovered that they kicked each other way to much - actually it was usually Eli kicking Noah. So Noah has been sleeping in the crib and Eli has been sleeping in the bottom of the pack and play. I can't imagine that the pack and play is all that comfortable and started feeling pretty bad for the poor little guy. Luckily, we received some money as a gift and decided to buy a crib. I found a pretty good deal on craigslist. It is definitely not as nice as the one we got at our baby shower, but it will work.

Baby blessings

Yesterday was the big day. The blessings went great. Aaron was a little nervous since he had to give 2 blessings in front of the entire congregation but he did just fine. A sister in our ward recorded the blessings down for us and they are really good. I am glad that we will be able to give them to the boys when they are older. We had lots of family in town. Aaron's parents and brothers came, my parents came, plus several of our friends came. After sacrament meeting we all headed over to my place for lunch. We watched football, played Catch Phrase, fumed over the UK/Louisville basketball game, and played some Little Big Planet. All in all, it was a great day.