Family Time

Kaleb starting to feed himself.

Kaleb starting to feed himself.

Crawling through tunnel at Children's Museum

Kaleb crawling over the bridge. Troy underneath.

Kaleb Driving a Tractor.

Kaleb giving Daddy a massage.

Kaleb being silly.

Ekenstam's on Christmas Day!

Kaleb trying to get his present open. He knows there is something inside.

Aaron, Anna, Erich opening a present from the Christmas Eve Elf.

Sally and Kaleb playing the Piano.

The Ekenstam Family

The Shurtleff Family

Individual Pies made for each child from Uncle Ben!

Merry Christmas To All!

Everones Stockings hung by the chimney with care.

Our whole family was able to get together this Christmas and spend sometime together. It was fun to see everyone and to see the cousins interact. Kaleb was quite the bully to the two cousins younger then him and I can't say I liked that and I am sure they didn't like it to much either. Well we tried to keep him in line and Sally was our big helper. Kaleb and Sally were buddies over Christmas. It was great because she was old enough to keep and eye on him and play with him, but she looked like she had fun doing it. While everyone was here we pretty much just hung out at the parents, but we did make it to the children's museum. That was of course fun for everyone. It is amazing how quickly a family grows as you will see in some of the pics. Jenny and Xing's family visited us from Massachuettes. Rachel and Troy came to visit from Utah and Ben flew in from California so you can see how it is not easy to all get together. We were also able to be with Erich's family at Christmas time. It was fun to have Kerstin and Sean visit from Iowa. They were not able to stay long, but we enjoyed all being together and Kaleb loved seeing his aunt and uncle.

Random Pics!

Pictures of Kaleb and I at the Washington Square with my

Parents. They had a Christmas Sing-a-long, Carriage Rides,

and Santa and Mrs. Claus. As you can see Kaleb was a little

Scared.

Kaleb's First Balloon. He loved it!

Playgroup.

Again some time has passed since my last posting, but that seems to be the normal on my blog. Well Christmas is fastly approaching, only a week away. Kaleb is constantly amazed with all the different Christmas decorations and of course is loving all the treats that come along with this time of year. Our family is excited to all be together this year. My parents will be having 17 people at their house and luckily we can go visit daily. I can't believe our family has gotten this big and I am sure will keep growing.

Erich is finishing up this semester and has his last two finals tomorrow. I am sure he is glad to have another semester under his belt and we are excited to see him a little more of the this holiday break. He is also finishing his last weeks at FedEx. He will be starting at Caterpillar and doing different internships with them while he finishes school. He is looking forward to new experiences with them. Well Hear are some old and recent pics.

Kaleb's 18 mos. appt.

He is still growing fast and has turned into a tall and lanky boy.

Ht: 33 1/2 in (95%)

Wt:23 1/2 lbs(15%)

He is doing well and is changing so fast. He is saying quite a few words now: mama, dada, ball, no,juice, oatmeal, bye bye, hi, light, shoe, baby, woof woof, cracker, cookie, oh wow, Jesus.

Kaleb and I went to a Halloween party last wednesday so that he could get dressed up since he is still pretty little and I will probably only take him to a couple house on Halloween. Here are a couple of pics.

Kaleb and Mommy!

Kaleb Dancing!

Kaleb Dancing again. They were doing a candy walk and everytime the music came on he would dance and when it would stop he would want to get a piece of cany out of his pumpkin. It was cute.

Welcome Home!

Well my younger brother Aaron returned from his mission this past week. We were excited to see him and hear all the great stories about his mission. It sounds like it was a great experience. We got to the airport and the plane was delayed so we hung out in the airport for a little bit. Kaleb had fun stomping the leaves since there was a court yard in the airport.
I can't believe Aaron is my younger brother, but I can no longer call him my little brother. He has gotten so tall.

MOVING ON UP!

We are buying a new home. We are so excited. We sold our Condo and are in the processes of packing up all our stuff to move into our new home next week. We can't wait. I am excited for Kaleb to have a yard to play in and much more room inside to play. Well obviously the house is what has been keeping us busy lately and getting ready to move, but we also were able to go to the Illinois State Fair last week. Of course it rained on us almost the whole time we were there, but it was still lots of fun. Kaleb enjoyed seeing the animals and petting the baby animals. They also had a little play area for young kids so we had fun playing the different games and with the toys. Here are a few pictures, enjoy.

New Family Picture

Popcorn Popper!

I think we all remember the great popcorn popper. Here Kaleb is playing with his new toy and enjoying himself, but he is constantly running into things and is slowing learning how to turn around.

WOW! It has been a long Time

Well it has been a very long time since I last posted anything. I think the last time was Kaleb's Birthday. Well obviously with him lots has changed. He has started walking. It has been really exciting. He is all over the place and never wants to sit still. He has completely given up crawling. It was crazy one day whenever he would fall he would just start crawling, but then all of the sudden it was only walking. So now we have a toddler on our hands. It has been so hot here in Illinois the last couple of days Kaleb has been living in a diaper while we are at home. It seems like if I put clothes on him he is just sweating all the time. We have also been playing in the pool. Kaleb loves the water, but I admit I haven't gotten any pictures of us in the pool yet. I will. Here is Kaleb playing in his float, though.

Kaleb is making his silly face in the picture with dad. He is Continually saying "Oh" and we finally caught him in the act. Kaleb also enjoys going around, behind, through almost everything so we got him a little tunnel a couple of months ago and this is him playing inside.

Well other then that our summer is going well. Erich is keeping busy with work and taking summer classes. He is constantly busy with homework. We are also getting ready to see his brother on Friday who is coming home from Brazil which is were he served a two year mission for our church. We can't believe he is already coming home. The time flew by and can't wait to see him and for him to see Kaleb. He will meet him for the first time. We know Kaleb will love his Uncle Geoff. Hopefully I will be posting more often so see you soon.

Kaleb's First Birthday

Happy Birthday To Kaleb The Big #1! Well Kaleb had a great birthday. We were able to celebrate with both sets of Grandparents. Kaleb of course enjoyed the Cake and Ice Cream and even helped a little in opening his presents. Here are a couple of pictures from his birthday. Enjoy!

One Year Check-Up:

Height: 31" (95%)
Weight: 21 lbs (40%)
Head: 45 cm (40%)


Kaleb had his one year check-up today and is doing great. It looks like as of now he is tall for his age, but I don't that will last long. He had a good birthday Wednesday the 25th, but has to wait until Saturday to celebrate his birthday since dad has school and work during the week there wasn't much we could do. I will post another blog after his little celebration so everyone can see the pictures.

Random Pictures:

A day at the Park Kaleb, Erich and I had a fun time swinging, sliding and playing with the grass. Everything is new for Kaleb so it has taken a couple of times being put in the grass for him to like it.

Nine Month Check-up

Kaleb had his nine month Check-up last month. We were about a month late, but anyway he is doing well and growing strong. We are trying to keep up.

Height: 29in (75%)
Weight: 21 lbs (75%)

Random Pics:

I have been really bad about keeping the blog updated lately, so here are some pictures of us in Galena for the weekend with my parents and then some pictures at home.
Kaleb Swimming in the Tub at the Hotel. He
Loves the Water.

Kaleb in front of a giant Catfish at the Mississippi
River Museum.


Kaleb Wrestling a Gator.


Just Playing in his High-Chair


Being Rolled-Up like a burrito in the blanket
his great aunt LouAnn made for him.