Wordless Wednesday - Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat Village

Each year, Scott's school hosts a trick or treat village for the community. Karsten enjoys hearing about 'daddy's students', so this seemed like the perfect chance for him to meet some of the students and see where Scott works.

The cowboy roaming the halls of the school, looking for the next trick or treat station.


The itsy bitsy spider station was one of Karsten's favorites because of this tower. You put a marble at the top of the tower and each one of the 'leaves' in the tower makes a slightly different tone as the ball rolls down.  He would have gladly skipped any candy at this station if he could have rolled the marble down that tower a few more times.




Finished trick or treating!


After riding around in the stroller, this little cow was anxious to get down and cruise around the furniture.  No steps yet, but he's getting super close!


I love that his cow costume had a little tail.  Too cute.


Scott's coworkers and students even snapped a couple of family pictures for us.

Another rockin' gift

You may remember that when Karsten turned one, my dad built him a beautiful rocking horse.  When we had Liam, my parents warned us that he was planning to make another rocking horse for Liam.  We protested, claimed they could share and that we wouldn't have anywhere to put another horse.

As you can see below, I lost that battle.  In retrospect, I'm glad I did because Liam is enjoying riding HIS horse and anytime Liam is on his horse, Karsten has to be on his horse.


I'm not sure who was more excited - Chuck to show Liam his present or Liam to see what we were so excited about!


Liam got the hang of the horse right away and immediately tried to climb onto the base of the horse!


Liam's horse is on the right and Karsten's is on the left.  The wood for each horse is almost opposite.  Karsten's horse has an oak body and walnut saddle and rockers.  Liam's horse has a walnut body and oat saddle and rockers. Aren't they beautiful?


Liam needed a little spotting to make sure he didn't slide right off of the horse.  After a few minutes, he was getting the hang of rocking and started moving forward and back.


Figuring out how to make the horse move!


This is pretty fun!


My boys and their horses!  I can't believe how grown up Liam looks in this picture!


Look mom, no hands!


See how close the horses are?  Anytime we moved Liam's horse, it was imperative that Karsten's horse remain RIGHT next to him.


BIG thank you to my parents for the beautiful rocking horses.  The boys will love them and enjoy them for many many years to come.

More craftiness

I've mentioned a few times that I'm trying to convince my mom to start selling her adorable clothes and bibs for little boys.  Check out the latest creation - these Halloween bibs are adorable! So what do you think - more cute clothing options for boys are needed, right?!







Karsten wanted to have my mom get into his tent with him, just like Scott's mom had.  What lucky boys we have - they got to see both sets of grandparents in one weekend.

All in the family

Like me, Karsten seems predisposed to respitory issues anytime he gets sick.  I had hoped that Liam would miss out on this, but it's not looking hopeful.

Both boys have had that nasty respiratory bug that's been going around. Karsten went to the doctor on Tuesday and she recommended that he start taking breathing treatments to get his cough under control.  Liam hadn't been coughing as much or as deeply as Karsten was, but he had a rough night on Thursday. I thought he had developed an ear infection.  Nope, I was wrong.

I took him to the walk in hours at our doctor's office on Friday morning and after listening to his chest, the doctor decided he needed a breathing treatment in the office.  If you've never had to give a breathing treatment to a baby - you're a lucky person.  They hate it - the sound is scary, they don't like the mask on their face and they don't want to sit still for 10 minutes.

Liam screamed so much during his breathing treatment that we had two different nurses plus the doctor come in to check on us. The nurse reminded me that at least he was getting the medicine in his lungs with all of the deep breaths he was taking while screaming.  :)

So, now we have matching nebulizer masks for their breathing treatments.  The nebulizer is getting a workout this week - hopefully this is not a sign of how our winter is going to go!

Annual Fall Hayride

Each year, Kenna, Cheri and Jon host a wonderful hayride at their farm.  Karsten gets so excited to go to the farm, and we always have a fantastic time.  Since the boys had been under the weather all week, we weren't sure if they would be able to go, but they rallied toward the end of the week and were feeling better.

When you visit the farm, you have to feed the cows!  Cheri gave us a bag of carrots to feed to the cows and Kenna bravely stuck her arm in with a carrot for the cow.  When her hand came back black and slimy, I knew Karsten would have no part in feeding the cows.  He does not like to get dirty - at all.  He was happy to watch her feed the cows, but he wouldn't get much closer than what you see here.


Cute little Elam checked out the cows then he was off to see what else he could explore.


Liam fell asleep on the way to the farm, thus the sleepy - I just woke up look.


He was a bit more awake by the time we made our way to the swings.


Liam and Eden swinging.


Happy Fall from me and my boys!  Aren't their shirts cute - another creation from my mom!  Soon I am going to convince her that she needs to sell these!


After a wonderful potluck dinner with Jon's famous chili, it was time for everyone's favorite part of the day - the hayride.  Elam got to check out the tractor before it was time to go.


Jenn's family - how cute are they!


Jenn tried to get Karsten to look at her, but he was far more interested in playing with his hat.  Sigh.  :)


But we got a good smile out of him, so I'm a happy camper.


Wow, how my expectations of family pictures have changed.  I used to strive for everyone looking at the camera and smiling. Now, I'm happy with everyone looking at the camera with their eyes open.  I'll consider this a win even though Karsten looks less than enthused and Liam looks as though he could fall asleep at any minute.


Amy and adorable Jillian


Elam having fun on the hayride.


Perfect end to the night - SMORES!  Of course, since Karsten doesn't like to get dirty, and melted marshmallows are super sticky, he ate his marshmallow un-roasted then ate his graham crackers. Hey - whatever works, right?

Slushy Popsicles

When we got Karsten's popsicle out of the freezer after dinner, we were alarmed to see it was half melted.  A quick check of a few other things in the freezer showed that either the freezer door had been left open or there was something wrong with the fridge. We assumed the door was left open and tried not to worry about it.

While we cleaned up dinner and got the boys ready for bed, I thought about the freezer and realized that the door couldn't have been left open, because we were able to fill everyone's glasses up with water before dinner.  If the freezer door had been open, the water dispenser wouldn't have worked.  With that realization, we checked the fridge side and found that it was warmer than normal as well.

Then, we had that sinking feeling you get when you realize a appliance was failing.  Do we try to fix it or do we replace it?  After some research into what the problem could be, we determined it was likely the compressor which meant that we should probably just buy a new one.  

Remember how I said that Linda and Leland were here to watch the boys?  The fridge going out just made their job more difficult since they now had to run down to the basement fridge anytime they needed anything. We're good hosts, aren't we?

I spent my lunch break on Thursday at a local appliance store and Lowe's in order to learn all about fridges. Scott stopped at Nebraska Furniture Mart on his way home and over dinner we discussed our options.  After the boys went to bed, Scott and I went out and looked at the options again and decided what we wanted.  I went back to the appliance store during my lunch break on Friday and bought a fridge.  They told me it couldn't be delivered until Tuesday, but after some discussion and explaining that I couldn't buy it unless it was delivered today or Saturday, they were able to figure out how to work the deliver schedule to fit us in. WHEW!

Thankfully Linda and Leland were here for the fridge delivery and when I got home from work, there was a shiny new fridge in my kitchen. Now shhh, don't tell the stove or the washer/dryer that the fridge is new.  We don't want them to get any ideas about going out.  

Pumpkin carving

We were excited that Linda and Leland would be here to help with our pumpkin carving. Karsten diligently worked with Scott to draw a picture on the pumpkin.






I think Scott will have some creative license with this drawing.


Let the cutting begin.


Pumpkin carving is serious business, folks!


What is all of that stuff in the pumpkin?


We couldn't get Karsten to stick his hand inside the pumpkin.  I don't blame him, I didn't ever enjoy doing that either.


Scott dug the guts of the pumpkin out while we watched and Linda tried to keep Karsten from throwing everything on the floor.  It was a tough job.


We gave Liam a wooden spoon to keep him busy, then of course Karsten wanted one. Then we had a drum serenade while Scott carved the pumpkin.


We gave Liam a piece of pumpkin to play with but he tried to eat it, so we had to end that fun.


Liam was willing to dig into the pumpkin guts, but he was more interested in sticking his hand in and throwing whatever he was able to grab.


Checking out the finished masterpiece!


Liam was done with the pumpkin carving, so Linda helped him practice his walking.  He's getting better every day!