November gone??

We were blessed with my two brothers and their families visiting us the weekend before Thanksgiving. We all were super excited to spend some time with them. Thank you so much for making the effort to come, dear brothers and sisters! It happened to be Hadden's 1st birthday over the weekend, so we even got to share in that! We also got to visit Caleb's wife's family for thanksgiving in Michigan. (Try and have pics to come.) The Southerns were so gracious and hospitable. It was truly a celebration! It was nice to have a bit more time to be with Caleb and Becca and for ConLai to become comfortable around them.


ConLai's cute new outfit from Gram-O and A. Dhana - thank you!
Amidst the fun, Anthony has been working super hard on the bathroom. He finally finished all the tile (not shown in pic) and just has grouting left. He has done such a great job, taking time to make sure he does things right. I think he's a great handy-man. Completely unlike our cleany ConLai, Hadden dug right into the cake. He had no problem getting his hands dirty to complete the job. ConLai was quite disturbed when Hadden would reach over and get frosting on her chair. He's a great lil' brother/cousin. :)
Hadden was incredibly smart in figuring out how to open presents.

For the first time since being here, we made the climb to the top of the Sears Tower. It was fun to see the city from above and to venture onto "the Ledge"....a window box that sticks out from the building. The kids had no fear in going right up to the window.
The newlyweds.... :)
And you wonder where Diek gets his expressions from?? :) We love you Alicia.

Birthday Pictures

ConLai really enjoyed opening her b-day presents this year. It is especially fun to watch her open gifts of clothes and hear her say "wow" at every new piece of clothing. She is definitely a little girl who likes clothes and shoes and I (Anthony) don't know what I'm going to do being outnumbered 3-1 here in a few months. Thank you so much for sending gifts to make ConLai's b-day special.

Bathroom Remodel

We are in the process of remodeling the bathroom so I thought I'd share a few pictures. These were taken at the end of the demolition stage. Thankfully we now have walls and don't have to look at cobwebs anymore. I was toying with the idea of re plumbing the toilet into the living room but Ronda didn't like that idea. A friend was helping me remodel and was kind enough to pose for the one picture. We are getting closer to tiling the tub surround. We will be grateful to take showers again as we have been limited to baths for a few months now. It is a good experience for us getting a taste of what remodeling a home would actually be like. Although I enjoy the work and learning new things I am tired of the mess and the in between stage.

Thank you Great Grandma for this cute little apron.

ConLai is quite girly and enjoys trying to put her clothes on. Well, she found a pair of Daddy's that looked like they might fit on her head. (Don't worry they were freshly washed.)

You would think the beach would be fun....but that sand is scary.

Cousin Kenan and ConLai riding bike.

Cousin Diek doin' the pushin'.

Cousin Diek being a sweetheart and holding ConLai's hand.

Terribly Sorry.

For those two people who actually look at this I want to apologize for not updating this for months. We moved into a new apartment in April and have not had access to this webpage since then. We have internet but it is on our landlords server and they have a filter program that blocks access to blogs and other such things. I'm not complaining just explaining the facts. Web filters are great things in order to keep us pure before God and each-other. We will hopefully get things figured out soon and be able to post more pictures throughout the school year. It also didn't help that our camera broke and we were without a camera for a couple months of this time as well. Thank you Caleb for providing us with a great camera to take more pictures.

ConLai is growing up fast and enjoying being a toddler. Her latest favorite thing is to play outside(thats the farm blood in her coming out). In fact "outside" is probably her favorite word to say. She says it so perfectly and with a little bit of pity in her voice that her Daddy has trouble resisting her demands to go out and play. Her second favorite word to say is "hot". Unfortunatly she considers almost everything in the world "hot" and this causes some problems with her behavior, especially when trying to get her to eat food. Despite the sinful nature we see coming out sometimes we love her very much and she brings much joy into our lives with her smile and laugh.

Hope all is well with whoever is choosing to read this. We will be in Montana soon (Aug. 5-18) and hope to see a lot of our families while we are there.

Chicago Auto Show

Last Saturday some friends invited us to go to the Chicago Auto Show with them. It was fun to spend time with them and see all the new cars. Their son Isaiah is 22 months and loved seeing all the cars and trucks. I (Anthony) enjoyed seeing all the new cars too, especially the new 4-door Jeeps. ConLai and I sat inside a new Mustang just to see what it would feel like. I was wishing the motorcycle was really mine as well. The new Stingray Corvette also looked very sweet with the massive quadruple exhaust.

Tonight ConLai went and grabbed a pillow for Ronda since she was laying on the floor. Then she grabbed the other pillow and laid down next to her mom. She is definitly understanding a lot more these days.

Also, if you could remember to pray for us this next month that would be great. I am going on a Spring break trip through Moody to Oklahoma and will be gone for almost two weeks in March. I have a lot to prepare before then and it will not be easy for us to be apart for so long. Ronda's Mom will be here with Ronda for part of the time so that is a big help. On the trip will be ministering to smaller Native American churches during the week and doing a youth camp over the weekend. It should be a lot of fun and a chance to do a lot of challenging things. I will probably be teaching Sunday School as well as preaching a couple times and sharing my testimony. We would really appreciate your prayers during this time.