Otto Turns 2!

Otto's birthday was September 1, 2008. It was Labor Day! I remember waking up at 6 am and turning to Brian and saying, "I think I am in labor on Labor Day!" Otto arrived that evening! I thought I would share a picture from the day after - the day of pics are just a bit alien in nature so I spared you those. :)

We started the day with a trip to Sunergos for a hot coco and a visit with Papa!

Dairy Queen ice cream cake with Papa's decorating - Otto loved it! We asked him what he wanted on his cake and he said "boat!!!"

After everyone left the kitchen Eli grabbed the icing for one more squeeze....

pizza... Otto's favorite!

Celebrating Eli and Otto's birthdays with Grandpa Dave and Grandma Kay and the relatives on Brian's side up in MN!

Boat!

We have sooo enjoyed going out on the boat this summer. Taylorsville Lake has been our weekend hangout for the past couple months. I hope we have a little boating time left before it gets too cold.

nosey nosey.

Eli likes to swim to the shore and look in the rocks for bugs and other creatures.

I like to just float around on the tube. I did get attacked by a fish the last time... three bites at me (ouch!!!) so I decided to switch to the mattress so I wouldn't get bit... well that silly fish then jumped out of the water and into my lap!!! Ahhhh! I almost dropped Otto in the drink.

We had lots of fun swimming and cannon ball jumping with the Eric, Danielle and their boys Judah and Levi.

Resting...

Otto is a little cuddle bug.... soooo sweet.

Eli Snapping Pics

Here are a few pictures that Eli has taken over the past month. He loves to grab my camera and take pictures of whatever suits him at the moment.... usually Otto or himself or just random pics - most of the pictures he gets of me are with my head cut off (which always reminds me of those Charlie Brown cartoons "mwa mwa mwa"). Enjoy.

Self shot.

Oh wow, I have a head here and it is not a close up of my backside (as many are... delete, delete, delete). I was feeling pretty ill in the pic, but I did my best to smile for the little guy.

The compost pile... ewwww.

What I love about this is that he will take a picture of his mouth and then flip the camera around really fast to try and see the inside of his mouth. It is pretty funny to watch.

mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa

Bubble Wrap

Otto brought me this large piece of bubble wrap and he wanted to wear it like a coat... so we did our best. I think he was pretty happy with it in the end.

He is Growing Up...

Our little bird now has his feathers! We have been trying to visit him every other weekend. He is really a sweet bird that just about anyone can hold and pet. We are excited to bring him home soon. The bird breeder is thinking we can take him home in about a month.

Eli Turns 4!

Birthdays are special times for little boys turning 4! Eli had a fun birthday that began with having a few friends over for play time in his new sprinkler then lunch and cup cakes! Later in the evening we celebrated as a family and had Stephanie and Tim join us for dinner and cake.... a cake with a pink scorpion that is... (Eli's request of course).

Notice the nice sticker collection.... Grandma Debby and Grandpa Gary sent those and they all ended up on Eli's shirt.

Here's the cake. We decided that it was an earthy rustic birthday cake this year - it cracked, but that just made for a place for the scorpion to be crawling out of.

A birthday surprise - we caught a cicada killer!!! We added it to Eli's bug collection.

Tim and Stephanie

Otto found the cup cakes....