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!

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Reese has shown quite a bit of interest in writing and reading lately. So, former teacher that I am I've grabbed the opportunity and we are practicing all things writing and reading. He likes to figure out that the light switch at the doctor's office says, "on" and "off"... Quite fun, although now he can decode some of what Jim and I spell to each other--have to be careful. I love seeing the wheels turn...

Celiac

Funny, I don't know why I haven't posted about this before, but Reese has Celiac Disease.
I think a part of it has to do with just trying to keep him from being labeled or for him to think of it as a hardship on us. We try as much as we can to not draw attention to him needing to be gluten free. I've had to stop myself from making comments about the price of gluten free items or that we can't buy something because we just spent so much on his food.
We found out in August after about a year of trying a dairy free diet. His symptoms seemed to get better without dairy, but then worsened again. Our family doctor is also an acupuncturist and practices different kinds of Chinese medicine. She had his blood tested and it came back positive for Celiac Disease. About four weeks ago she started treating him with NAET which you can read about... long process, long story. We are very hopeful and he is doing well with it so far.
Reese feels much better on a gluten free diet, obviously, and if he has to stay that way the rest of his life it won't be the worst thing. We have found that we are all eating healthier--it is much easier to all go gluten free than to make two meals every mealtime.
So, I feel like lately I've been pulled in many directions. We've moved, we're settling in, I have to be very diligent about R's diet (reading every label and then reading it again because I'm not always sure what I am looking for) and pretty much learning how to cook all over again--and I wasn't a tremendous cook to start with.
I could write so much more about all this--people being understanding, people not being understanding, trying to keep him from being hurt (emotional as well as his gut), needing to be an expert on gluten free and not coming close... needing to get all this off my chest...

Enjoying the dirt...

Our contractor did some digging the other day and two little boys had the time of their lives. We've also been adopted by a cat, Sarge, and so he had a good time with them too. The cat is great--de-clawed and awesome with kids, and the perfect set-up since we don't have to feed him or let him in the house!

Moving, New House, New Pets, etc...

A picture of the kitchen to tide everyone over until I can take pictures of the rest. Oma was here for three weeks to help us and I did not get one picture with her in it... actually didn't take any pictures at all. We are getting settled so I'll have to make sure and keep the camera handy again.

Moving day... it went pretty smoothly and we were all moved in one day.

Well, we have moved into our new home. It is not complete yet, still under construction, but definitely livable. This is our second week in it and it is starting to feel like "home"--Carsten does still call it the property, but slips a few times and says we are home.
We are also the proud owners of two pet rats. Yes, rats. Reese adores them and can usually be found holding one of them and talking to them.
I would give a few more updates, but our master closet just got finished yesterday and I'm dying to move into it... so off I go to get some more boxes unpacked!