A really great weekend...

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

Mud, Oh Glorious Mud...

The other day Reese wanted to go outside and play with Sarge, the neighborhood cat, and so I let him. He went out in his socks, but was soon asking for his boots as Sarge was leaving the porch and Reese wanted to follow. Not too much more time and Carsten was asking for his boots and wanting to join the fun outside. I didn't think too much about what they were doing and puttered around inside. I would glance outside every couple of minutes and check on the boys, but they were just following Sarge around and playing with their shovels and outside toys.

I checked again on they boys as Jim was coming home soon for lunch and I was going to the dentist. I saw Reese frantically waving his arms, so I opened the door. He yelled that he and Carsten were stuck. And sure enough, they were stuck--in the mud. What to do? I was dressed somewhat nicely for a stay at home mom--still a denim skirt, but with a white sweater and white tights. I contemplated leaving them until Jim arrived, but that could have been another 10-20 minutes... I put on my trusty boots and trudged out to the mud bog. I was pretty sure I could end up stuck as well and so I was giggling and wondering what we must look like to the neighbor (who sits and watches our backyard for a pastime).

I grabbed Reese's boot by the strap and the strap immediately broke... I had to heft their boots out and I had to help Carsten the whole way up the little hill as his boots were absolutely caked in mud. The whole time I was chanting, "don't touch Mommy, don't touch Mommy...". I managed to make it to the top and to the porch with only a few spots of mud! The boys stripped and we fled indoors. While I was at the dentist Jim washed the boots and the patio (hence the fairly clean boots in the picture above). I should mention the kids haven't been back out since and not because of me--they haven't even asked!

Been forever...

It's been some time... I feel like Rae--I used to think all the time what to say and put on the blog and took special pictures just for it and maybe I'll get back there, but for now we've had so much going on that I'm not there (blogland).

We went to the coast for a weekend and didn't take any pictures except for the this one of Carsten on the way there. I had woken him up from a nap to go and he was cold so he was all snugly in his car seat. We had a gift certificate for a hotel so we went over and went to the aquarium, had some beach time, saw some friends, and enjoyed the coast...

We had special company at the beginning of the year, Lee and Dellas. Dellas played his harmonica for Reese and Reese tried to imitate him.

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...