The love between these two is strong. They have snuggled one another for the past… hm, 13 years? These are especially fun if you can view them in quick succession. 🙂 Emma and Allyson have long been great lovers. The tenderness and affection of a favorite pet is a treasure. And my brain goes, “Hmm, now there’s another argument against Evolution… Why should there be pleasure between animals and people, if we’ve all be assembled by a mere chance collision and combination of particles?”

I know, looks violent… just a yawn, though. 🙂 If you watch quickly from bottom to top, it’s a bit like Emma is eating Ally’s head. We’ve always thought she would do precisely that if she was bigger.

Emma says, “If I were bigger, I would eat you!”

The lack of recent blog posts is a testament to the busyness of life these days. I think I’ve also been less caught up in the idea of sharing any and every thing that’s going on in my life. My heart goes through seasons of openness. The combination of busy and guarded makes for a desperate decrease in blogging production.

Today I am sharing a collection of recent photos. The photos of the boy we’ve gained, and who will on Monday take my name as his own, and photos of the boy we’re losing, who I may never see again beyond April of this year. There are a few from the recent Texas trip, as well. Enjoy!

Vacation Pics

Her boots… she is in love with them. I am in love with her.

On the train

At Grandpa Doug and Grandma Ruthie’s house

Grandpa Doug in his truck

Getting as much of the chocolate Sonic shake as possible (it was a COLD shake!)

With silly cousins

At the airport for his first time!

I’ve decided to post separately about the loss of Logan in our lives. Please see the next post for some thoughts on his going away.

Yes, I am a super-dork. I am participating in Pay-It-Forward, as found on Sarabeth’s Post over at the Clarke blog.

Enter if you dare by being of the first 3 commenters who fulfills the following requirements:

Here it is:

Those 3 commenters must fulfill the following requirements:

1. You must also participate in Pay It Forward on your blog, making this same offer to 3 other people.

2. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 3 people *sometime* in 2011.

Let the hilarity ensue!

Aiden and I went to get some wood from a friend on Sunday. We took the “new” truck, set out across town, gloves forgotten. No matter, it was father/son time and we always enjoy our jaunts together. Our friend had lots and lots of wood, because he heats his wife’s over-the-garage office space with an old wood stove. He even has some wood lying around that is getting ready for NEXT year!

I’m encouraged by the love and kindness of friends from church. Instead of paying hundreds for firewood, we got father/son time and a chance to fellowship with our friend in Christ…not to mention my wife is super happy with the new firewood!

We didn’t escape the weekend without paying any money, though, as we woke up to no hot water Monday morning. $730 later we had a new water heater. Same day service! How’d we find the guy to do it same day, you ask? Another friend from church referred us to him. : )

Most days we eat breakfast at home, and I have the joy of preparing that family meal. In fact, Aiden knows what day it is by what we have for breakfast! Leah comes over on the first “Oatmeal Day,” and we go to church after the second “Smoothie-Toast Day,” and Daddy is truly home for the weekend on “Tantake (how he says it) Day.”

This week, I’ve been early to the office for business reasons, so I have left before the household is awake. Consequently, I haven’t been getting that normal, healthy breakfast. Today, the office had that common holiday treat of the Triple-Popcorn Tin. And this was no ordinary T-P-T, this has the HIGH quality stuff! So, naturally, I nabbed some bowls full of grainy goodness for breakfast!

Uh…, happy holidays?

What’s your favorite holiday gift food treat?

There’s this little guy in my life named Aiden. Soon, he will be more than just a little boy. He will be my son. I find myself waiting in quiet anticipation for the moment he is legally mine. We are already past the point of no return with him, in our hearts and in our lives. We made a choice, as many parents of biological children do, to parent.

The challenges of parenthood are many. I find that I am my greatest obstacle to success as a parent. Even at 35, I struggle with selfishness, pride, and a critical spirit. It’s so easy to tell Allyson over the phone that "he’s just 3, cut him a break." It’s another thing to respond to him in love when he persistently questions with no regard for my personal space. Ha! What an attitude of entitlement I have! All of that must be put to death!

Here are a few photos of our trip to Dairy Queen a few weeks ago. We battled through weeks of unbearably bad behavior on his part, and felt at the time that we’d never see the end of it. I think the end of that time has come. He still has three-year-old moments (as do I at times!), but he is beyond the crazy Mommy-torture that had us throwing our hands in the air. He gets rewarded with a single sticker for a good nap time, and after 5 stickers to fill a row on his nap chart, he earns a treat. We’ve been doing ice cream, but now have added other options, such as a small gift.

Yup, coming home… to the VollerHAUS. Allyson and I have decided to consolidate our domains and join forces at vollerhaus.com — There is a tiny something at http://www.vollerhaus.com, but right now it’s just a gateway to get to our blogs.

Reasons for the switch:
1. Since my company, Leapwise Media, provides web hosting, we get our hosting free of charge. Also, centralizing the sites under one domain makes for easier maintenance.
2. I am a WordPress developer, and Allyson’s blog was over at Typepad. Typepad is a restrictive option compared to WordPress, and we were able to import all of her old posts and comments with ease.
3. Unified family front — Our blogs have been separate over the years (nothing really "wrong" with that) and we just wanted them to snuggle up a bit on the web…. so close now… /chad — /allyson — hee hee.

Hope the adjustment of your RSS feeds hasn’t thrown you too much for a loop… 🙂

– Chad