3 Year Old Devastation

THIS caused a major loss of sanity to my 3 year old... No amount of consoling, explaining, snow dancing, or love helped... He wanted him back.

Po Skates...

We are too poor to afford skates, so our boys have come up with these... they slide real nice on carpet!


My three charges today...

The snow was calling their names...

We have snow! For a little while anyway. The boys could not wait to go out in it and then had a great time. I need to find snow gloves for Carsten as his hands got quite icy in his little fleece mittens. Reese stayed warm and dry. They made a snowman, snow angels, and threw snowballs. Jim went out with them and they couldn't have been happier. Our snow will melt soon, but we enjoyed it while it was here.

Kisses for our snowman...

Carsten's favorite trick--putting snow on his own head.

Reese just waiting to get hit by a snowball from daddy.

Reese trying out the snow angel thing...

The boys and their snowman/snow firefighter.

Stayin' Home Blog

My sister-in-law, Alicia, and I have started another blog. We obviously don't have enough to do! If you'd like to check it out it is Stayin' Home. It is for moms to communicate about the ins and outs of staying at home with the kids. We hope that we can share money saving tips, child rearing advice, funny antidotes, and emotional support when the going gets tough. All are welcome to comment and be contributors even though the emphasis is on staying at home.
If you'd like to be a contributor please just comment on this blog, Alicia's blog, or the new Stayin' Home blog.

My little Superhero

The other day when I had nothing better to do--hah--Reese wanted me to make him a superhero cape. One of our friends, thanks JoAnn, has a cape and now he wanted one of his own. Daddy has been explaining what a superhero is and what they do and how they are pretend, but, Reese is determined to be one. Without a TV his imagination is running wild--the only superheros he has seen are on plates, cups, backpacks, books, etc. The look he has must be a requirement as is the cape.

A Full Weekend...

We got the harebrained idea to run to IKEA on Saturday when Jim got home from work. We thought of it and 10 minutes later were on the road. Carsten's nap happened in the car. We were going for kitchen ideas and to see if we liked their kitchens enough to just get one there. Conclusion? We loved two of them! We also found some flooring that we like since a hardwood floor is no longer in the budget. It was fun to get out (since I've been somewhat isolated with MRSA--doing tons better for those interested)... We ate dinner there, bought a few fun things, then headed home.
Sunday was busy and the picture above is on the way home Sunday. Carsten was listening to the LeapFrog pad thing and he just nodded off...

A Cherry Picker, a Saw, and Some Trees--Entertainment!

The boys have been watching these guys work all morning (and, yes they are standing on the window sill above the couch). The men are trimming trees around the power lines. Reese is also listening to a story...

Cooking...

Cooking is not one of my favorites and my mom put it bluntly that I'm not a tremendous cook. She meant that I don't like to cook often and she was teasing, but I really don't love cooking. My MIL got a cookbook for me (kind of--I stole it in one of those gift exchange deals) Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It is all about how you can sneak vegetables into normal food and no one is the wiser, but hopefully they are healthier. The really good part about this is that I am in the group of people that don't love vegetables, so I benefit as well as the kids. We've cooked four of the recipes so far and I'm working on my stockpile of pureed vegetables to put into our food. We like it! Last night we had turkey burgers with pureed cauliflower in them and then brownies with pureed spinach and carrots. The brownies had 1/2 cup of pureed spinach and 1/2 cup of pureed carrots, which ends up to be quite a bit (spinach really cooks down and then when you puree it, it becomes a lot of spinach in a little half cup). You bake them in an 8x8 pan, so you are getting quite a bit of veggies in your dessert! I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone with vegetable problems, or even it you don't, something different.
Disclaimer... This is not an advertisement, just something very cool that I found that works for our family!

Stuff...

We have *stuff* going on here... yucky stuff... It appears we are a breeding grounds for MRSA... I am the current victim and I'm telling you it is not pleasant. Ughhh. Jim has had two episodes and we think that each of the boys have had a case each. Grossness. We do everything they tell us to keep from getting it, but somehow we are spreading it around. Our doctor is consulting with an infectious diseases doctor (yikes) today to make a plan so we can rid ourselves of the *disease*. Just thought I'd document the fun times we are having... Don't you want to have us over???

Also thought you'd like to see our cute boys...


Carsten sporting his new haircut... I love my boys with short hair! Carsten has a cold this week... not bad yet and hopefully we can cut it short.

This is Reese's "farmer hat" as he calls it. We got it very cheap last year and he loves it. Daddy is not so sure.

This picture is for Grandma Keri and family who sent the boys these fun shirts. Reese loves his and pretends to play sports while he is wearing it... He'll ask you what number you are while he *plays*...

Haven't Given Up Yet...

Well, we haven't totally given up blogging although I'm sure some of you are wondering! We have had fairly uneventful days here and I won't bore you with the details... rather mundane things going on... (laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc.).
We did have a fun weekend with our good friends, Bob and Nana. Callie was home as well, so good times there. It snowed while we were there and the boys couldn't have been happier.
We came home and went to Papa and Grandma Paula's for Christmas day... the boys got some fun things and we had a relaxing day. Jim got sick on Christmas day--sore throat (swollen tonsil stuff), fever, headache... this lasted until just this weekend. Yikes. Thankfully no one else has gotten it.
On Saturday we went back out to Papa and Grandma Paula's to celebrate with Papa's family. This was not the relaxing celebration we had earlier in the week! Lots of people and the kids were a little overwhelmed. Fun to be with family though.
Last night we were with friends and we did not stay up until midnight... our neighbors did wake up up with fireworks though... :)
Happy New Year!

Carsten starting in on presents at Grandma Paula's and Papa's on Christmas day...

Reese and his new fishing pole... he bugged Papa to take him fishing the rest of the day.

Grandma Erma on Christmas day...

Paula on Christmas day...

Reese told Bob that he "needed" a snow shovel when he went out in the snow... Bob obliged.

Two little marshmallows...

Reese had no mercy with his brother and kept throwing snow at him. Carsten couldn't get his hands to work in his gloves to make a snowball and then couldn't aim to get it at Reese...

The boys were playing on the computer while we packed things up...