Update (minus photos because I can't get my camera to upload on the computer...)

I wrote this post like 5 days ago and have been waiting to post it until I added pictures. Well, I've tried to upload all the recent pictures from our camera like 43 times today and it's not working so you're getting a post without pictures. Sorry! I'll post some when I can get the camera to work.
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Where has the time gone? I did not mean to abandon this blog for over 2 months but apparently I did. Life has been full for the Krueger's. Though I'm pretty sure it's full for everyone.

We are doing so well, praise God! He continues to faithfully shower us with kindnesses. Though our time together as a family is more limited now than ever due to Ben's work, we continue to thank Him for providing a job for Ben here so we could move out here and be a part of our church. Through the faithful care of many that we now call "friends" we have seen God refine us and sanctify us more than ever. We are humbled that He called us to this area to be recipients of such wonderful care, good counsel, and faithful friendships. Because of the work He continues to do in us we are experiencing a more loving marriage, more compassionate & consistent parenting, and an increased desire to see the Gospel go out and transform others. We wouldn't trade what God's been doing in us (even though it meant LOTS of hard, not fun trials) for the world. With that said, we still miss our Iowa friends and family, small towns, big yards, and ice cream shops that you can ride your bike to in 10 minutes instead of drive to (aka sit in traffic) in 15 :)

Now what you've all been waiting for--an update on the boys!

Caleb is 2 1/2 now. He is tall, I have no idea how tall, but he towers over all of his similar aged friends by 3 inches at least. He weighs around 37 pounds. Wears 3T's and 4T's depending on what it is and has a size 8 shoe. He is BUSY! He loves outside more than anything and will frequently pray to ask God to make it stop raining when it is raining. He could swing in his swing all day if you'd let him. But if you won't, he's just as happy to play in his sandbox. While in the sandbox you will find him pretending to be on a building site with his trucks OR making pizza or some other food with various sand toys that we have in there. His love for all things equipment continues as well as his obsession with lawn mowers. He can tell you all of the parts of a lawn mower and I seriously think he can hear people 3 miles away when they start their lawn mower.

Caleb's love for books continues. He will stop everything to read. He especially loves it when we read from one of his Bible story books. We are praying that this love, especially for God's word, will continue all of his life. He has a keen ability to make connections between texts that astounds me every time. This has been true all his life. At 10 months old during play pen time he had a stack of books in there and when I came back he had 3 of the books opened and sitting there--they were all opened up to a page with an owl on them. It freaked me out then but it excites me now. I am teaching him signs that we used when I taught to show me (or more politely interrupt!) that he has a connection. It's fun.

Caleb is still good with a scissors but not so awesome with crayons or pencils. We're STILL working on trying to draw circles but that's been a tough one for him. He knows most of his letter sounds and names. Numbers not so much. He can count to 20 but usually needs help with one of the teens, usually 15 or 17. And he spell his name like this "C-A-E-B". Close. We're still working. He has troubles with some sounds and gets frustrated when we try to practice them (unless he's swinging--the neighbors probably think we're crazy having speech lessons in the swing outside EVERYTIME!) He struggles with /j/ /l/ /r/ /s/ /v/ /y/ /z/, especially when they come at the beginning of words.

During the day, Caleb will most likely be found pretending that an object is something else and that we are somebody else. His imagination is awesome. However, it sometimes plays itself out at rotten times. For example at lunch, "Mom, this plate is a pancake. This fork if a fwipper. I'm going to fwip it over now. Don't touch it; it's hot." We're working on that, too!

Did I tell you that he is potty trained. I mean, did I tell you that he was potty trained. I mean, did I tell you that he is currently potty training again :) At the beginning of March he totally trained himself in like 3 days. He always told us, never had accidents, and even would stay dry all day and night. It was a blessing handed to us straight from the Lord. We couldn't believe it. After a bout with a horrible flu that took out the entire male population in our house, we sort of back tracked. Anyway, long story short, he was potty trained, experienced a brief regression (that made his mother crazy!) and is now back on his way to independence again. Praise the Lord!

Now for Elliott! Elliott is just shy of 9 months. I have no idea how long he is either but will update you after our next appointment (Saturday). The last time he was at the doctor, probably a month ago, he weighed 16.5 pounds. He wears mostly 6-9 month clothes (probably because that's what size Caleb's clothes were for this season) but still fits into most of his 3-6 month stuff. He wears size 2 diapers. He is full of new tricks everyday. He started crawling in April and man is he fast. He gets where he wants to go and he gets there quickly. Shortly after he started crawling he started pulling himself up on everything. Last night as I was cleaning the kitchen and he was playing in the toy room, the big guys ventured upstairs. I heard a pitter patter and decided to go check and he was up 2 stairs on his own. Uh oh! Gotta keep 2 eyes on him all the time now! And just today he stood in the middle of the room by himself for like 10 seconds. I thought I was going to fall over in shock, but then he did ;)

Elliott is still hit or miss with eating and sleeping, much to our dismay. He is against all things green and for all things orange. Unfortunately he spits up a lot when he eats peaches so we avoid those and he projectile vomits bananas even though he loves them. So he basically eats the same thing everyday. Breakfast--oatmeal and applesauce. Lunch--carrots & barley. Supper--sweet potatoes & prunes or pears. I still offer a multitude of other fruits and vegetables but usually end up dumping them down the drain since he refuses to eat them. He is quite skillful at feeding himself and prefers sweet potato puffs (he could take or leave any other kind of puff you give him), cheerios, kix, watermelon, and crackers. He would eat an entire sleeve of crackers if you let him I think. Today he ate a rice cake and you would have thought I'd given him a chocolate cupcake or something the way his eyes lit up when I gave him more. He may or may not have tasted popsicles at this point and he may or may not LOVE them so much that he'll bolt across the room and pull on your pants until you pick him up so he can snag a lick. At this point I am still avoiding milk in my diet for Elliott's tummy's sake but with much urging from Ben, I will be starting to add it back in and see if he can handle it.

As far as sleep goes, we had some ROUGH nights a few months ago trying to get him to sleep through the night. The training paid off and he started to sleep much better. Though he still has some nights of crying, he more frequently sleeps peacefully all night! He typically goes from 8pm-6am and wakes up. I feed him and he goes back to sleep until 8 or 8:30. Then he takes a 1.5-2 hour morning nap and a similar afternoon nap. On the nights he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will usually just wake up once and cry for what seems like forever. Sigh. Someday, right?

Elliott's favorite toys are Caleb's. A ride-on choo choo train toy is his favorite. It has a lot of bells and whistles. He also prefers to chew on shoes as a past time. Don't worry, you don't have to take them off your feet. He doesn't mind just chewing on 'em right there while you're wearing them. He is infatuated with his pacifiers. Though we usually keep them in his bed, if he sees one while he's somewhere crawling around he will smile, laugh, grab it and then insert it into his mouth. Today he actually stole the neighbor girls out of her mouth and put it in his. He hyperventilates and shakes with excitement if you open ANY door in the house because he thinks he gets to go out. He, too, likes to swing but also loves to just crawl around in the grass or play with Caleb's outside toys. He thinks it's a blast to throw sand (and hasn't tried to eat it yet) and has eaten at least one dandelion. Apparently they're not poisonous. He's still alive.

Some of my favorite things Elliott does include tilting his head to the side and batting his eyes when you say, "Be sweet, Elliott!" At first I was horrified that he had a terrible tick or something because he started doing in ALL THE TIME when I was feeding him sweet potatoes. Then I realized it was because I kept saying sweet. Too funny! He also likes to wave "hi" and does it in 2 different ways--actually waving and also opening and shutting his fist. He is saying these sounds now: dada, nana, yaya, gaga and my personal favorite, eye yi yi! They don't mean anything at this point. We're working on signing more and he is pretty consistently doing it after being prompted. Othertimes he will continue to scream in anger or bang on his tray. We're never at a loss of things to work on here :)

For some reason my children are really affected by the whole stranger danger thing. Caleb went through the stage too. Because Elliott's personality is so different, I didn't think he would but he totally is. He has a bottom lip that an ostrich could perch on before he lets out a scream. Caleb was pretty much a momma's boy but not Elliott. His allegiance is to his daddy. He gets SO excited when he sees Ben. Will stop whatever he is doing, literally chuckle, and sprint crawl to Ben. If I am holding him and Daddy comes into sight, he throws himself out of my arms towards Ben. I can only imagine that this is a pleasant thing to come home to each night after a long day's work. Then, if Ben has the audacity to say, put him down so he could eat his supper, there are many tears.

And these boys that I've just blabbed about, well they love each other so much too! Caleb could drop kick Elliott and Elliott would laugh. Similarly, Caleb watches out for Elliott and includes him all the time. He is the first person he either says hello to in the morning or asks about if he's not with me. May they always be the best of friends!

We so enjoy these two little guys and praise God for them. They are SUCH a blessing. I cannot imagine life any different now. I take that back, I can imagine some visitors. Whose up for a visit to our house?