Holidays are here

Traveling to Colorado for Thanksgiving and all the fun holiday activities have delayed a blog entry! We had a wonderful week in Boulder for Thanksgiving - almost 30 for dinner at Lindsey and Clays! Check out the pictures!

Fall in Auburn

We had a wonderful fall weekend in Auburn for the homecoming football game and a shower for Lori and Brannon. We had so much fun getting together with some of our collage friends and watching the kids play together! Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Halloween

It rained here Halloween weekend so we had a fun time taking pictures of the kids dressed up with no place to go! Aunt Melissa gave Elle the cutest lion costume! It is so funny how much more fun the parents had seeing the kids dressed up than the kids had actually wearing the costumes! It was an exciting indoor weekend at the Gerdas.

I can feed myself

These days Elle wants to do many things by herself, good things like feeding herself and bad things like running in the street! Things are so exciting here with everything a new learning experience for Elle! She is saying (some of) her ABCs, counting to three and saying really cute things like "Bless you" when anyone sneezes (or burps!).

The Pumpkin Patch & Baby Dedication

We had a memorable weekend! Saturday, Elle went to her first Pumpkin Farm and had fun checking out all the pumpkins even though it was a little chilly! Then, today we had a beautiful afternoon at our church celebrating Elle's Baby Dedication! It was a very poignant event, with great live music, pictures of the kids and an important message. The dedication is the first in many steps on a path to raise Elle to have a relationship with Jesus. It was a very touching event and especially wonderful that Monica, Joe, Jensen, YaYa, Melissa and Drew joined us! It was a beautiful day!

Another Beach Trip

Last weekend Monica, Jensen, Elle and I drove down to Seaside, FL to spend a long weekend with Jim and Judi! It was such a wonderful weekend of playing at the beach, relaxing during the kids naps and eating great food! The scariest part, driving 7 hours each way with two super active children, actually turned out fine! Both kids did great... we were shocked! :) Here are some pictures from the wonderful weekend.

Orlando

What a weekend! While Andy was in Europe watching the famous soccer games, Elle and I took a plane trip to Orlando to visit Trish, Claude, Gray and new baby, Mac! We had such an awesome time catching up and watching the girls play together! We even made time to go to the Children's Museum, which was a blast! Thanks, Trish and Claude, for hosting such a great weekend! Check out the pics of all the fun!

The Beach

We had a great weekend at St.Simons beach! Ginny and Wayne were married and the wedding was wonderful! Elle spent most time on the dance floor! She had a blast! Here are some pics!

17 Months Old

Elle has one month before she is a year and a half. The summer went by very fast and it is exciting that fall is upon us! We are looking forward to AU football games, fall foods and cooler weather! Here are a couple pictures of things we have been doing lately: eating spaghetti, playing with her favorite baby doll, first new walking shoes, playing with Jensen and Kate... having a great time!

Baby Boy Twins

On Thursday, we got to meet Aidan and Kellan, the Crutchfield baby boy twins! They are so super sweet! It was fun to hold those little sweet babies but they are growing fast! Kelly is doing great and it was a blast to have dinner and spend time together!

Happy Birthday to Andy!

So it has been about a month since our last post! We have a good excuse - Elle and Cara were in Colorado for three weeks and Andy was there for the middle 9 days. It was a wonderful trip - we spent the middle week in Estes Park, CO! It was so fun to hike and eat and just hang out with the entire family (about 22 total) in the beautiful mountains!

Elle is now 16 months old and she is learning something new everyday so each day is very exciting! She says many words (our favorites: black beans, good girl, Sara, shoes, mouth, ear, night-night) and she can repeat most of the letters of the alphabet when we go through it. The big news is that she is now walking like a champ! Before Estes she would take a step here or there but then in the cabin in Estes (with carpeting unlike our house) she just took off walking fast and has not stopped since!

She loves to dance and swim and we have been doing a lot of that this summer! Here are some fun pictures from the past couple of weeks. The latest is from our Birthday celebration tonight for Andy's Birthday - Happy 32nd Birthday, Andy!!

Summer Time!

It has been a little too long since our last update because of our wonderful Seattle & Portland trip! Elle had a wonderful 9 days with Papa Swan and GMom (Elle calls them "Papa" and "G"). We missed her so much but we had a much needed adults only vacation filled with adventures, lots of sleep and delicious food! We did the Seattle Rock 'N' Roll 1/2 Marathon and it was a beautiful route and tons of fun! We raised $8600 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so it was a very meaningful event. In Seattle we visited Leigh and Deb and then Ando hosted us in Portland! What a great trip!

Here are a couple of pics of our trip and an updated pic of Elle - 15 months old! She is a talker! Her vocab: doggie, mama, dada, papa, YaYa, G, quack-quack (when she sees a duck), cheese, teeth, puppy, uh-oh, shoes, baby, poopy, black beans (her first two words together and one of her favorite foods)... and probably a couple others that I am forgetting! And she has not walked by herself yet; she is only walking with a helping hand. She is crawling VERY fast and going up and down the stairs like a pro!

Great Visits!

Gram, Uncle Jim & Aunt Judi came to visit last weekend and it was so much fun! It was so cool to see Gram with her two great grandchildren, Elle and Jensen! Gram, thanks for flying all this way to see us!

Uncle Ronnie visited Atlanta and it was great to spend time together at Melissa and Drew's house! He will be going to Iraq later this month so we loved spending time with him with before he leaves. We love you, Uncle Ronnie!

Beach & First Haircut

Last weekend for Memorial Day, Cara went to Destin, FL with her AU girlfriends and Andy and Elle spent the weekend in St.Simons with the Barfield family! Both parties had an excellent time! Cara enjoyed relaxing and catching up with her friends while the Barfields loved watching Elle enjoy the sand, the ocean waves, the beach club pool and the playground! It was a wonderful long weekend!

Elle had her first haircut today. She was so good and she was cracking us up with how serious she was about the entire affair. She loves her new cut... although I doubt anyone can tell that we did anything!

Phil visits!

We had a great week last week with Phil and Brooke here! We visited Zoo Atlanta and a couple of our favorite restaurants and just spent time hanging out! Here are some favorite pictures!

Teeth & Spaghetti

Elle is 13 months today! Here are some baby updates:
Elle has 6 teeth now - two on top and four on the bottom. She has added "ball" to her word list for a total of 5 words. She does not seem to want to walk although she enjoys holding our hands to walk but only when we initiate it (we are very happy since she is active enough crawling!). She loves most all foods (see spaghetti pic) which is such a blessing! She is now drinking milk after no longer nursing this month... She hated cows milk at first so this is a huge step. And she is allergic to eggs, which we discovered because of a nasty reaction to her Birthday cake! So things are exciting in the Barfield house! Andy and I are training for the Seattle half marathon at the end of June so we are getting in some serious mileage! We did 8 miles on Sunday! YAH!

Love to you!

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had an amazing Easter!

We had a wonderful weekend! It was a beautiful time with family and to celebrate what Jesus went through for us to have life.

Buckhead Church had an amazing Friday night service that we attended.

Here are some pics from our weekend. Love to you all!

Happy Birthday to Elle

Wow - has it really been a year? It does not seem possible but Elle has been a part of our family for one whole year!!

We celebrated with a party with family, friends and neighbors on Saturday night! It was a party for the parents - a celebration that we made it through the first year! :) It was a wonderful time to hang out with many loved ones! Elle loved the cake - she ate lots of it and got it on every part of her body!

We have been doing a lot of celebrating; PapaSwan and GMom are here from Colorado and we had a family dinner with YaYa, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Drew on Thursday night. It is so fun to have all the family together!

Here are some pictures from the fun weekend!

Baby Jensen has arrived!

It has been an exciting week! Monica and Joe had their first baby, Jensen James Gerda on March 17th just after 2 pm! He is a healthy baby - born 22 inches long and 8 lbs, 12 oz. We are so excited he is here!

11 Months Old

Time is moving fast! We cannot believe we are so close to celebrating Elle's first Birthday!

Here are pictures of some recent fun times with YaYa and at home.

Elle has a total of three teeth now and seems on the brink of walking but she is such a fast crawler that walking may not be on her radar!

We are back!

Hello!

After an unplanned blogging break because of crashed computer, buying a new computer and then visiting Colorado... we are back!

Elle and I spent last week in Boulder visiting the family! Andy was bummed he could not join us because of work!

Here are some pics of us in Colorado!

Superbowl Sunday

Happy Superbowl Sunday to all!

We had a wonderful weekend! I hope you did too!

Elle played at the park in our neighborhood today for the first time. She loved the swing! She loved when we pushed her really high and she cried when I took her out of the swing. It is her new favorite game!

Elle also loved bathtime and she cries when bathtime is over too! Here are pictures of Elle in the tub and at the park!

Happy MLK Day!

I hope eveyone is having a great MLK Day - on the eve of such an exciting week! We are all smiles in this house anticipating such a historical and beautiful week of celebration! Go Obama!

Here are some pictures from last week and this week.

Have an amazing day!

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful trip to Chautuaqua, NY - Grandma's house - for the holidays! Christmas and New Years with the Swanson family was a BLAST! Elle was sick much of the time (so were Mom and Dad!) but we still had fun! We celebrated Monica's baby with a Swanson Girls Shower! It was a great week of celebration, relaxation, fun in the snow and lots of food! We already miss everyone!

Happy New Year!!