Crisis averted.

DaaaDAAAA!

Thats what Tony hears screamed every day as he walks in the door getting home from work. Elijah just cant get enough of his daddy and Im sure evelyn will be the same way as she gets older. He is an awesome father and the best husband! Every other day he is bringing things home from work that he got for free or cheap that he thinks elijah will love. Just yesterday he brought home one of these that he got for 4 bucks. It spins in place and it wasnt in the house for five seconds before elijah had hidden himself inside of it.
Tony has become adjusted to my constant use of the word Cute while shopping for kids clothes and sometimes uses the word himself. He has become fluent in baby talk and baby supply lingo (i.e. diapees and wipees). I know he loves being a father and the kiddos couldnt have a better role model.







Love you Dadaa!

And on a side note, Happy Fathers Day Papa Mickey! We love you!

From minnesota to DC

Home again, home again.

Aaand to continue details from our vacation, after our visit in Minnesota, we continued on to DC where my family lives! We had so much fun going going going. When we first arrived, we went straight from the airport to Julie and Marks place since they live close to the airport and were leaving on a trip the next day! Glad we got to share some burgers and shakes before they left.

Elijah had mucho fun with his cousin Lizzie

Papa Mickey received lots of attention as well, with elijah drinking his shake and sitting in his lap and falling asleep while watching Avatar one night. Yes, avatar. And we love Jen and Aj's new house! jealous. And I am still waiting on pictures of their new kitten...

But anyways, there are about a brazillion pictures here, so I will continue by just labeling whats going on or where we are in the pics.

We went to lots of memorials and monuments when we drove into DC for the day.

FDR memorial:

Tribute to soup kitchens: still at FDR memorial...Tony was hungry

Korean War memorial

In the Lincoln memorial, looking at the Washington monument!

Lincoln memorial

The Air and Space Museum! Please note elijah's NASA shirt

Elijah really fell asleep like this after all the fun in DC.

Hanging out with Lizzie at the farm and at Papa Mickey's

We took videos too but I will do that tomorrow, this post was just too full of pictures and its more fun to break it up a little so you guys have fresh stuff to see and read later!

Trip to MN

We just got back last night from our summer vacation! We went to MN first to visit Tony fam and attend his cousin Kialee's graduation! We had so much fun seeing everyone and showing off new little Evie and crazy Elijah. Elijah probably had the most fun with all the attention and laughs he got from eager family onlookers. He danced and passed around the microphone to everyone sitting in the circle in the garage, you might call him the MC for the night. We stayed at the Black Bear casino and promptly lost twenty dollars on the slot machines. I never liked those machines anyways.


Here is elijah flying to MN! He chartered his own plane.





































We scanned the room one last time before packing up....

Here he is being the center of attention












Elijah found his calling when he discovered basketball at Aunt Wendy's house



He also discovered that he is an excellent golfer






Since we were so close to Lake Superior for the graduation, tony and I drove up to see the sights for a bit. Tony was the captain for a little while






We were both really excited to see a light house

After the graduation, we went back down to st paul where we stayed with Aunt Tammy and got to hang out with Kelly and the kids! Elijah loved playing with all of them. We took a walk to a pond where we fed ducks and saw turtles.

Tony was in charge of watching Evie and elijah for awhile...

Warming up I guess.

Sometimes, Elijah walks in place for a few seconds before actually walking forward.

New ish things

Exciting things are happening around the Koens household. Elijah has been picking up on words like craazay, although most of them end up sounding the same in Elijah language. At least he is trying instead of just ignoring us like he used to do. We have been working alot on animal sounds lately.

His favorite to say is Arf arf. His versions of animal sound go kind of like this; cat says maa, dog says af aff, duck says cack, frog says RREB BEHH, snake says ttthhhsssss and bird says thee th tht thth th.

he's pretty awesome.

Evie learned how to roll herself over! She actually started doing this a few weeks ago, but it took me this long to remember to film it. Elijah celebrated with a dance.

With our upcoming trip, we are trying to make things as easy as possible for all of us to travel around. We came across this travel bed for babies at our beloved Target! its pretty much just a little contained area for baby to sleep or play in on the go. It folds flat and fits into a suitcase. can you say perrrfeectt. Naturally, this was the first thing to happen as soon as it hit the floor.

Eventually, we got to test it out for reals and she loves it! slept all day in it.

We cant wait to go on our vacay

I should try this on Tony...

We went to Gateway mall the other day, which is a pretty fun outdoor mall. A reason to go there especially in the warm weather is the big fountain they have which squirts out water into the air at random points. In the summer, kids will literally come in their bathing suits just to play in the fountain. Unfortunately, we were not smart enough (this time) to put elijah in a bathing suit or even bring a change of clothes!

By the end of playing, we just decided to get elijah a new pair of pants and socks from the kids store across the way and Tony dried his shoes under the hand dryer in the bathroom.

But anyways, elijah learned how to say 'cheese' when getting his picture taken. Here is a good 'cheese'

Here is a strained 'cheese'

Evie is a cute snuggly baby

And finally, why does this always seem to happen when I take them on a walk?