Hmmmm...

Can you believe spring is so close?? With a touch of summer a week ago, we are left in the cold gasping for warm air. Oh but it will come, turning winter into a memory, just as the heart turns from cold hard winter to the blossoming and budding of new life through the touch of Jesus.
So here we are still in the warm house attempting to find things to occupy, crawling under the couch being one of them (enjoy the video at the end) and cuddle time with Daddy which never fails. Though we did venture out to watch the Moody basketball team, especially Jason LaLonde (in the center) And where does ConLai get her fashion sense from??

Bellybutton!!

Videos

The Happenings of Late January

Well it's only been a couple weeks between posts this time. Thats definitly an improvement from 2 months but still not quite up to par I suppose. We have had a busy couple weeks as most of you probably have. Between work, school, and church there isn't a whole lot of time left for other things but we managed to squeeze some things in. Landon, Mindy and Abby stopped by for a night on their way home from Ohio. It was great to see them since it we don't get to very often. ConLai and Abby had lots of fun playing together.

Also, it has been snowing quite a bit this month and we were able to take ConLai out into the small yard behind our apartment building and play in the snow for a little while. It took her a bit to get used to it but after that she had lots of fun.

Another fun thing Ronda and ConLai were able to do was go to the Museum of Science and Industry with some friends from church. I (Anthony) wasn't able to go along because I had homework that was pressing. From what I heard they had a lot of fun. The friends from church have two young kids as well. Ben is 2.5 and Moriah is 7 months. ConLai especially enjoyed the exhibit which featured lots of balls and something to do with water. The amazing thing was that the museum visit was totally free. This particular museum had free admission the entire month of January.

ConLai has been doing some other new things lately that she seems to enjoy very much. She loves to take baths and would probably take one morning and night if she had her way. Recently she has been using an old water bottle as a toy in the tub and constantly dumping water on herself with it. She also has lots of fun playing with the spices from our spice rack. She takes the spices off the shelf and brings them to us so we can take the lids of and she can smell them. The daredevil in her likes to spin around and around in our arms. I'm a wuss and can't do it with her more than twice so Ronda usually has to do most of the spinning. The two videos were taken with our camera so sorry for the choppiness. And most recently ConLai had a fever for a couple days which required a trip to the doctor. She has recovered and seems to be back to her normal smiley and cheerful self. A quick glance at the pictures and it might seem that we are hoping she becomes a chef but we are just letting her play with the things she seems to like best. The video's aren't uploading properly so I will try and put them in a new post

More pics...

Rare postings and lacking in pictures

We have failed miserably in the blog groupie - not keeping up our postings. So here we shall try again. We had a beautiful Christmas, spending time with both the Olferts and the Linds.

The Olferts~

We celebrated both the birth of Hadden, the newest grandchild, and the welcoming of Becca Southern, Caleb's fiance, into our family. Dad and Mom O were so gracious in picking us up in Minn and taking us the rest of the way to Billings in sub....sub...zero weather. It was a blessing to be able to see all the family as Landon and Mindy and Dhana came down for Christmas and later Caleb.

The Linds~

It was a peaceful and quiet Christmas with Dad and Mom L at their house. We were able to travel to WY for a day to see Anthony's brothers and their families. We even got to build a snowfort! Steve and Bonnie came back a few days later and we were fortunate to see them for a few days too.

We are so thankful for our families, we hope to instill in ConLai the same love and grace our families had for us.

So....we just realized that we have no pictures of Christmas...we'll have to go beg Grandma for her precious frozen moments.

Wait! ...don't leave yet. We do have pics of ConLai's 1 year photos a friend of a friend took for us. Her name is Marianne Bach. She is a student at Moody and does a phenomenal job at photography. Please forgive us for the lack of phototaking at Christmas, hopefully the shots that Marianne took will win you (I have a feeling they will.)

The Fun Begins!

ConLai has "stepped" into new territory this week. She has entered the walking world. She's not quite on track to be the next Allyson Felix,but she is at least starting to take real steps between two people. Several times this week ConLai has taken 3-5 steps when going from one person to another. She still prefers crawling but it won't be long. By the time most of you see her at Christmas she will probably be sprinting her first 100 meter hurdles! ConLai is also turning out to be a very balanced girl, in her dad's opinion. She enjoys watching basketball and football with her dad. She also likes to put anything that will fit on her wrist as a bracelet.

Leaves and Kisses

Not sleeping, but helping vacuum.

Some new things ConLai's up to:

~waving bye-bye

~blowing kisses
~took a baby step

~says da-da, sometimes ma-ma

~eating table food

~signing please and hot

Anthony and ConLai went outside on Wednesday while the weather prevailed, and she was delighted with the leaves, the warm breeze and the sunshine! ConLai has also been finding new delight in her toybox, realizing she fits INSIDE it! She continues to charm with her full faced smile, but…

Oh to discover she's not a perfect child! She has been showing the true colors we're all born with--not sharing, refusing to listen and obey and whining when she doesn't get what she wants.

Sounds familiar. Was that ME that wanted to add to MY plentiful wardrobe when there are others who need it more? Was that not ME who refused to let an obnoxious driver in front of me even though I as I did it, I knew I was being PRIDEFUL and REVENGEFUL? Was that ME that WHINED when I didn't get something I wanted?

How wonderful to have a LOVING FATHER who GRACIOUSLY FORGIVES His children who really are like the children we discipline and love.