4 and Counting

Last week Annika and I celebrated our fourth year of marriage, and what better way to reflect on our wonderful time together than to look back on a few pictures of us together over the years. Enjoy!






What fun! We can't wait to see what's in store for us in the next four years (and beyond)!

Is This the Real Life, or Is This Just Fantasy?

Aksel's had a charmed existence thus far; each weekend of his life, he's had visitors traveling from far and wide to come see him, hold him, and ogle his every move.

This weekend, Annika's sister, Jessica, had a belated wedding reception in Jamestown for the family that could not make it to her Chicago wedding. Joining her were her husband, Ryan, as well as Aksel's aunt Erica. Even Slater and Meriam had company, as cousin Cody joined them on their journey.

As always, we loved having the visitors!

We've been trying to prepare the little guy to let him know that it will just be us this weekend, but maybe there's someone around that will find some time to keep him company.

Changes

We stare at Aksel so much that we hardly notice any changes to his appearance. However, we then see pictures from his first days and realize how much more active he is and how chubby (read: healthy) he is now! He likes to interact with us much more, and he's easily amused by us being silly with him- we loves his smiles. As well, he seems to enjoy being read to, but he doesn't like to hear his book about chameleons; he'd far prefer Squishy Turtle or Brown Bear Brown Bear. I think he prefers fiction over non-fiction, but that's understandable.

So, the first picture is 5 minutes after birth, and the second is a picture of him yesterday (both taken on my phone). I'm sure the Chicago family will be amazed at how different he is than when they last saw him.

Aunt Laura Comes to Visit (and Kari and Jonathan too)!

We love having visitors, and this weekend, we had one all weekend (Laura) and two others stop by on Saturday (Jonathan and Kari). Aksel likes having visitors most of all since it means he'll be in somebody's arms the whole time!

Aksel sure took a liking to Laura; he gazed upon her and smiled as she read him books.







Lukas enjoyed having Jonathan here; as Annika, Kari, and Laura visited craft fairs and apple orchards, the men were able to talk football, play Wii, and drink beer- talk about a dream Saturday!