So I know that I already posted some pics of Ephraim eating solids for the first time but I gotta post more because his expressions crack me up so much. He's hilarious! He always looks like I just stuck a lemon in his mouth when I feed him. It's funny because whenever I hold him while I'm eating he's always lunging forward trying intensely to reach my plate so I thought he would love solids but I guess not. Still, its fun seeing all his faces.
















































Ah, no food, just toys














Nathan and I were in charge of decorations for the ward Christmas Dinner and with a lot of help from others we hung up these little flowery puffballs in the gym. It looked a lot better in real life. We were very proud of the results and I'm glad its over now. It was a little stressful. Thank goodness for my sister Julie. All the decorations wouldn't have looked near as great if she hadn't swooped in and helped out. She even changed Benny's poopy diaper in the middle of all of it. Blessed saint!















Uncle Ben!!!















Daddy and naked babies!! Ephraim kinda looks like he has a gorilla chest in this picture.

So it's officially the Christmas season and I decided to try and make some effort to make it look Chirstmas-like around our house. Before I was married, I loved to think of all the cool family traditions I would have in my family and how fun all the holidays would be and now here I am with a family and I haven't done a really good job of setting up family traditions so I thought I better get on the ball so I don't regret it later. Since I'm half German, I really wanted to have a German tradition in there, so this Christmas we're doing the advent wreath. We've done it in past Christmases but only half-heartedly and kinds last minute type of thing. I'm trying this year to prepare for and plan it better. For this tradition, we have a wreath with five candles in it (it's on the fireplace in one of the pictures)and starting on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, we light a candle and gather round it while we sing Christmas songs and read Christmas stories and eat treats. We do this each Sunday, lighting one more candle each time and then we light the last and middle candle on Christmas eve. During one of these advents we also write a gift we want to give to Jesus on a piece of paper (like, "I will be better at giving to others") and then put it in a little container and then we can open it next Christmas and decide if we did a good job or not. So for the first advent, I made these German cookies for the treat and they turned out pretty good but man are they are real mess to make so I'm pretty sure they'll only be a once-a-year thing. We're doing the advent calender this year but it's been kinda hard on Benny. He was really happy about opening the first chocolate of the month but he didn't understand that he had to wait till the next day to get another chocolate so he'll sometimes go over and point to the advent calender and say "more". It's cute, and it gives me something to look forward to for the next day, to see him pick out his chocolate. I was thinking about starting that one Christmas tradition where Santa puts something in the kids shoes but I'm not sure what to put in the shoes and it kinda sounds like stockings. Anyways, Christmas is still in work in progress, but I'm way excited!

Ephraim is eating solids now. This was his first time and I don't think he liked it that much.


















































Big brother tried to get in there with Ephraim














Great Grandma gave this chair to Benny but we use it too
















Both Bens together















Benny doesn't seem too concerned














Christmas decor































The German cookies I made
















Benny loves helping Oma with dishes














Benny is wearing four or five layers of pajamas and can't even put his arms down. He loves doing that

Miracle of Miracles, wonders of wonders, It snowed!! It's not even Thanksgiving yet and we already got a large amount of snow. I'm really excited this year about the snow because this is the first winter Benny can actually walk and run and jump in the snow and it will be so fun watching him play in it!! He's not really that used to it yet. I took him out in it this morning and it was cute watching him lift his little legs up high every time he had to take a step in the snow. It came up to about his thighs. He seemed to enjoy it because it was so new and different and he even laughed when I threw a snowball at him. I hope we'll be able to go sledding soon. Can't wait!!




















































Benny's coat makes a nice head warmer































Nathan helped my brother make a movie and here they are in costume

Nathan got accepted to BYU-I!! He hasn't found out about Provo yet. I guess they haven't made their decision yet, but anyways here's some pics to show what's been going on.

















Ephraim learned how to roll!! Look at that proud face!

















Everybody down! I got a baby and I know how to use him!

















Daddy is never alone when he is studying.
















Kinda scary I guess
















He was surrounded by dragons on every side!
















I found a little laundry gnome in my laundry!
















Ephraim is so ready for solids
















yummm, books

This is our beautiful and gorgeous Ephraim. I'm bananas for him. Man, I love having babies. I'm excited for our family to expand more. He's just begun to smile and giggle and it's too cute. He's also began to realize that he has hands and you can see his little mind working hard to try and control them and try to grasp on to things. One of the pictures shows that really well with his eyes concentrating really hard on his hands. The first three months were really hard trying to adjust to two kids but I feel like I got the hang of things pretty well now. Of course, I do still live right next to my mom so I get quite a bit of help still. I won't be quite on my own until Nathan graduates and we move to Rexburg. Speaking of which, he only has two more quarters before he's done, so he'll graduate by Spring, yea!! He's going to apply this week for BYU-I and we're going to start finding him a whole bunch of scholarships. I read the Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" book and read an inspiring story about a girl who applied for a whole bunch of scholarships and was able to make it through college debt free! So now that has become our goal too. I was able to graduate from CBC just a couple of days before I had Ephraim and both my families were so nice and threw me a little graduation party. Nathan also completed our garden over the summer and we were able to harvest the first fruits of our labor, zucchini and tomatoes. So we've had our fair share of zucchini bread and BLTs. Anyways, life is good.

I'm back!!! Nathan and I got out of the hospital today and it feels so good to be home again and sleeping in my own bed. One thing for sure, I will never see Benny the same way again. Before he was small and petite but now he is so tall and huge. I never noticed it before. He is practically grown up and he feels so thick and strong in my arms. Nathan and I really enjoyed our time in the hospital because it was some great one on one time with our new son. For those of you who don't know, we named him Ephraim John Robles. We can't get over how completely different looking he is from his brother. We think this one has more "Kerr" in him than Benny. We just love everything about him. He looks like a cute little old man and we love watching his face wrinkle up. He has a very mellow personality so far, more so than Benny. The first thing the doctors said when he came out was, "What a big baby"! He is one pound heavier than his brother and a 1/2 inch longer. We were really surprised he was a boy because we were all expecting a girl, especially Nathan, who managed to convince everyone else too. It was fun to be surprised like that. I'm just so happy that it is all over with and my body can start to heal itself. The second time around wasn't as bad because I knew what to expect. After 27 hours of labor and 15 barf bags later, a C-section starts to look really really good. The whole time, I was thinking how blessed I was to live in these modern medical times where the baby and I could be monitored so closely and I could receive pain relief and at the end of it all a surgery by confident and experienced professionals. I shudder to think of what would have happened to Benny, Ephraim, and me if I hadn't lived in these times. It truly is a miracle. All the knowledge and medical equipment we enjoy are a blessing from God.
Anyways, sorry no pictures, but they will be coming soon. I'm just happy that me and my son are alive!!

Here I am, catching up on all the stuff that has happened. This little event happened a couple of weeks ago but I'm posting about it just now, so here it is.....

So Nathan entered two of his art pieces in the CBC student art gallery this year. One was of a snake that he made out of bullet slugs and shells and the other was of a T.V. that he constructed with wire men he glued all around the frame. He worked like crazy on both of them, staying up till the morning hours or even staying up all night and not sleeping some nights. It was crazy. Then today we attended the award ceremony and to his surprise he won first place in sculpture!!!!! It was for the T.V. We were so excited! It's a cash reward too, so Nathan is already making money with his art. He's amazing. I'm really proud of how well he is doing in school. He decided to get an AA with an emphasis in art so it will take him a little longer than we originally planned for him to get his AA but we don't mind hanging around longer. We love it here. We were also happy to find out that he received two scholarships to help him out this year. Like I said, he's one amazing guy. We've been blessed a whole lot since we've come here. We've been given so much help and support, it's amazing.

his cool bullet snake















posing by his award-winning piece














a closer look at the base

Back in the swing of things

Hey everybody! School started up again, and everything is going good. This is by far the most challenging quarter for me. Lots of homework to keep me on my toes but nothing stressful. I try and make sure I only do homework after Benny is asleep so that it doesn't take away time from him, because people are always saying kids grow up too fast and then you regret not spending more time with them. I'm determined not to regret anything like that. I'm also realizing more and more how little time left I have with just him. One of my favorite things to do is take naps with Benny and I know I won't be able to do that anymore with him once the new baby comes. Today we got to sleep a whole 2 1/2 hours together. Those are my kind of naps, really long. I'll miss them. One thing about pregnancy, is its hard to tell what weight is gained because I'm pregnant and what weight is gained because I'm not really exercising right now or being too careful with foods. Do my legs feel bigger because of baby or because I haven't ran in awhile? oh well, I'll find out soon enough.
Nathan has been working a lot on our garden but it is still a pretty slow process. We are so excited about it though. If we somehow won a lot of money, we could easily blow a bunch of it on cool garden accessories. Still haven't got to the planting part yet.
Also, on Friday, Nathan and I, and Cody and Jillian got to go on a fun day trip to Levenworth together without the chillins, before they leave for Utah. The weather was perfect and it was great fun. We got to look at all the cool stuff there. I almost regretted not buying these really cool puzzle boxes they sell there but I know I'll go back again someday. Then we ate out on the way home and the food was super good because I was so hungry. Good times.





lots of father-son moments
working in the garden together















chillin on the couch together















eating popcorn together














helping me clean the fridge















nap time! so cute














sleeping and eating, not a good combo