Holidays

We've had good days here... busy of course, but full of family time. My parents have been here for a week and a half and will be here until Monday--we are loving every minute. We had a nice Christmas Day here at our house with Jim's dad, Jim's grandma and our neighbors. Then on the weekend we went out to Jim's dad's to be with all of his family. Now we are recuperating! Auntie Marilyn came for the night last night and we are expecting company on Thursday night through Saturday night... Some of us have colds, Reese had serious dental work done, and we have a crazy busy week next week (so, what am I doing on the computer???).

What happens when we leave the kids alone with Opa and Oma!

Carsten posing and requesting a picture--he then runs over the camera to see the picture.

Opa and Reese building...

We had to have a superhero for lunch!

Grandma Erma

Papa and Reese

Jim and JoAnn at lunch on Christmas Day.

Our gluten-free gingerbread house--good thing too because Reese kept gnawing on the corners of the roof!

Oma, Carsten, and the resident knight.

Some Catching Up...

We have snow! The boys wanted to go out immediately following breakfast this morning...

Papa came over on Saturday and the boys (mostly Reese) made some gifts with Papa's help. Reese helped cut out the wood and then sand it... Carsten mainly made faces at the dust blowing in his face and he was not pleased with all the noise...

We went to eat at a restaurant and the kids got meals with toys. I love this restaurant's toys because they are actually useful and pretty neat. This day's toy was locally made play dough with a cookie cutter. In the car on the way home Reese asked me if it had wheat in it... whoops. We came home and googled gluten free play dough--voila! We'd be lost without the internet folks...

Gingerbread... 'tis the season

Gingerbread sounded really good today so I googled gluten free gingerbread men... I found one that we had the ingredients for (and had Jim stop at the store on the way home for more ingredients). They turned out really great! Reese enjoyed helping make, mix, roll, cut-out, and decorate the men and Carsten helped daddy decorate a few. The recipe is here. We didn't have corn syrup so we substituted molasses and agave nectar instead (idea I stole from another recipe--I'm not that smart).
We aren't suffering without wheat over here, oh, and you must decorate gingerbread men in your underwear for them to be just right!

Odds and Ends...

Our two boys have this thing of jumping to the table as soon as it is set. We can not set it a minute early or they sit there for the half hour, hour, whatever... Thanksgiving was no different--they sat there for 20 minutes or so... These are from Thanksgiving at Opa and Oma's house.

Oma lets her two grandsons do just about anything they desire. This night's desire was to fill the sink to the brim and then play in it. She allowed all the soap they wanted and water seriously to the top of the sink... pure joy!

At Opa and Oma's House...

Having fun...

Fun with Oma...

We've been having fun with Oma... We leave tomorrow to go to Opa and Oma's house and the boys are quite excited. Need to be packing, but wanted to put up this fun picture of Oma and her boys.

Busy Days...

Well... Jim has been gone the past couple of days to a seminar. He got home last night and then this morning we scurried to a wedding. The wedding was for Jim's cousin, Charlie and his bride, Chelsae. Carsten started complaining that his stomach hurt, so we didn't end up staying for much after the wedding. Tomorrow Jim has a Weight Watcher's seminar and then Oma and Alicia come on Monday... busy, busy days around here...
I didn't get pictures, but last night we started *Friday Night Fun Night* at our house. This means that the boys get to sleep in our room on Friday nights... it was Carsten's first FNFN. We used to do FNFN with Reese, but when Carsten was little it was too hard, so here we go...

Papa just had to get our boys up in an old tractor for a picture...

Moment to remember...

The littlest one bites his tongue and says, "ziss it, ziss it"... I bend over and kiss it and it's deemed, "bedder". We are in the kiss the wound stage with the little one even though the older one is chanting in the background, "kisses don't do anything!"

Our Characters...

We went for the frugal costumes this year... Reese had me sew a lightening bolt and the letters S & R on a red shirt and he added his trusty cape to become Super Reese...
Carsten had a firefighter coat and hat so we added black pants and voila...
Fun times... we went to a friend's house for a little play date and then to a carnival and added a little trick or treating in at the end.

Carsten ran across the room the other night and couldn't stop in time so he crashed the side of his face into the counter. He ended up with a little black eye and a scab to match his birth mark on the other side!

A day off...

The boys and I snuck off for the day and went to the coast to be with some of our *other* parents. Jim and JoAnn are there for the week and so we joined them for the afternoon. We left behind a dirty house, loads of laundry, and most all our worries.

Super Hero Reese has to have his cape...

Fall is in the air...

Carsten riding along the "bumpy ride" with Papa...

...so we had to go to the pumpkin patch. Jim and Papa met us there before lunch and we rode the hay ride out to get our pumpkins and spent some time deciding on the perfect pumpkins. Carsten was very quiet and took it all in and Reese was excited to see it all again. Reese's plan for next year is to grow our own pumpkins with the seeds from this year's pumpkins.

Carsten's famous new look... raised eyebrows and goofy grin.

Our kids' favorite activity every year at the pumpkin patch is the duck race. You pump water down a trough and the duck dumps into a barrel at the other end and then you do it all over again!