earthsedge

We had a fun time celebrating Aidan’s birthday. He woke up at 4am on the big day, shot out of bed, and said, “Two is coming! Presents is coming!” He talked for about ten minutes about all his expectations for the day, which included his cousins coming over, eating a ‘coco’ treat, and having uncle Brock sing a song! Now that it’s all over, I’m not sure he understands that he is now TWO years old; if you ask him how old he is, he will usually answer ‘one’ or ‘four’. But he definitely enjoyed the day:

Becka made this great tractor cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Opening presents.

Aidan is quite fascinated by all the Christmas lights. We took him for a drive tonight to look for some. I took this picture on our phone and thought it was pretty cool. Dueling candy canes. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Hmm…I was hoping to do more blogging but haven’t felt very inspired lately. My days have been filled with reading and writing, and although it gets to be monotonous at times, I can’t complain. In fact, if I could figure out a way to make money doing this, well, that would be my kind of job! Being home in Illinois is always a restful time for us, and after five years, I think we finally figured out how much we need it. I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for returning to Amsterdam, where I’m sure we will once again be swept away by the speed of life.

Amsterdam. We leave January 8th, which is right around the corner. It’s both exciting and strange to imagine being back there. We arrive on a Saturday morning and the FIS starts the next Monday-just enough time to put air in our tires and hit the ground pedaling. I’m  really hoping it will get cold enough this year for the canals to freeze. Hypothetically, you could ice skate all over the city…or even the country.

We spent this weekend in Kentucky visiting some friends. I forgot to bring a camera, but when we got home it was snowing and Aidan was eager to play in it (pic below). We are all excited for his birthday…Becka is planning to make a tractor cake. And I’m looking forward to seeing his reaction when he opens his presents. Let’s just say there’s one or two things with wheels!

A fox wandered into the back yard yesterday. We’ve seen him around before, but this is the first time I was able to get a decent picture. He came right up to the porch, killed a mouse, and continued on his way.