A million pictures is worth how many words?

Here in Minnesota the 10,000 lakes are finally beginning to thaw.  The ducks and geese that have been patiently waiting on ice are relieved, almost as much as we are.  We are loving Spring!  Ira especially is enjoying going on walks and hanging out on our porch.  We're in the process of finding some good parks.

 These are kind of out of order, but below was Ira's first time on our porch.  I set him out there and heard a lively monologue, so I grabbed the camera.  I think half the time he was trying to see how big he could make his mouth.  Ira's really excited about Spring.  

 Ira trying to catch jellyfish at the Mall of America's Aquarium.  We had a blast there with the Durants. 

 Conference weekend with the Larsens and Durants!  When are we going to create our family village so we can all hang out all the time?  

 Sunday Session with some of the cousins.  We had about a million pictures of the boys and awards go to Paul: most zombie-like, and diverse expressions; Steven: most consistently charming...in a Disney Prince kind of way; Liam: best acrobatics; and Eamon: most flexible. 

 No one choked on marbles.  Hurray!

 In other news, Ira transitioned from finally tolerating a hat for Carolyn's awesome tea party...

to loving hats, and wanting to wear bowls on his head...

 ....to getting an angel food cake pan stuck on his head, or rather around his neck.  

 Not the most pleasant experience of the last week.  Now he hates hats again.  sigh...

Love you guys!

Sharon

Library Visit

We went to the library and while we were looking at books we let Ira explore a little bit, this is where we found him.

Spring Thaw

Thought I would put a quick update out. We're starting to get to know the area better. We visited the Minnesota Institute of Art and found the library. We were all sick for a week, but it was nice to have an excuse to stay in for a weekend since the weather was cold.  Now we are finally starting to get some slightly warmer temperatures and the snow has begun to retreat allowing us to get out and explore some of the trails around our neighborhood. It's nice living in a neighborhood that is pedestrian friendly. While on a walk around a small lake we saw some beavers coming up on the ice to bask in the sun.  We're also getting to know the ward better.  I got called as an Elder's Quorum teacher, and Sharon is a nursery worker.  She says that Ira seems so small compared to all the other kids in there, but usually fends for himself well.

We put a little video together of some of the things Ira enjoys doing at this stage of his life. They mostly involve crawling into small dark spaces and surprising us. He's pretty cute. Enjoy the video below.

Apple Photo Shoot

I got the camera out and tried to get some pictures of Ira in the beautiful sunlight this weekend. I need to brush up on getting the settings right to capture the light, most of them ended up a little overexposed. I decided to see what I could do with Picasa's online photo editing software, picnik. I was impressed with the range and flexibility they give you for editing with their free version. I'm too cheap right now to pay for their premier offering. Here is what I ended up with, you can see the originals in our 2011 album.

The number one comment we get on Ira is along the lines of, 'His eyes are so beautiful and blue'.

 I love the apple juice drool rolling off the bottom of his chin.

New things Ira has been doing:

- Babbling long strings of sounds that are almost sound like words.

- Relaxing in his high chair when we feed him with one leg up.

- Walking whenever he can, he's really getting the hang of it.

- Putting food in containers, like bowls, then holding a fork or spoon and smashing the food in the bowl.

- Getting more teeth

Laughing Babies

Sharon says she is embarrassed at how funny she thinks this is. One laughing baby is enough to bring a smile to my face. However, four laughing babies make me laugh out loud with them. Enjoy.