Now and Then

My mom made Big Bro and Lil Bro shirts like these when Liam was born. With the recent round of Christmas shirt creations that you've been seeing on the boys, she made a new set of brother shirts!  I love the colors!  Hopefully they'll be able to wear these for a while - Liam grew out of his old shirt way too quickly!

I can't believe how much they both have changed in one short year.  Karsten has officially lost the baby look and now looks like a little boy!

Karsten was trying to get Liam to come sit on his lap. He thought if he just pulled him over then Liam would sit down - not so much!




Is this frisbee a hat?


This is a new look we're seeing a lot of - not quite a smile, but he's more willing to look at the camera.


Getting to be such a big boy.

'Little' Brother

While Liam is the little brother, I think there will come a day when he's bigger than Karsten. Karsten likes to lay down and let Liam crawl over him.  As Liam walks more, this game has evolved to Liam flopping down on top of Karsten then they both giggle.


If we're awarding points - I'd say 'point Liam!' for this round!

Our 'farm'

We had a few more Christmas decorations to get out, and the boys nativity set was one of the final decorations.  Karsten spotted the box when he woke up that morning, and asked if he could set up his farm set.  I was confused, but then I realized he thought it was a farm because of the hay and animals. We explained the nativity and he said "OH, an 'ativity set."

He was excited to play with it


Karsten called the angel on top of the nativity a fairy.  He was willing to share some of the nativity pieces with Liam; however, the camel stayed in Karsten's hand for most of the night.  A few times we found the camel perched on top of the nativity instead of the angel/fairy.


Playing together


We put the tree up the other day; however, the boys hadn't put their ornaments on it yet.  We get them each an ornament every year that is related to something they have been interested in the prior year.  Karsten is hanging up his See N Say ornament that he got for his first Christmas.


Liam was checking out what ornaments he might want to play with.  For the most part he leaves the tree alone; however, we have had one ornament casualty.


Karsten showing me an ornament of when he was a baby.


My boys - all done decorating!

Christmas Countdown

Pinterest strikes again - I pinned several advent and Christmas countdown calendar ideas.  I've also pinned some fun Christmas activities for the boys. I decided to merge two ideas I found into a countdown calendar and activity.

I cut a bunch of 3x3 felt squares to make pockets where I would put a piece of paper with the activity for that day.  On the tree, I intended to have felt ornaments that the boys would be able to move around to decorate the tree.  You'll note that I said 'intended to have'....those cute ornaments that lived in my head never quite made it to fruition.  :)  Maybe next year...

The project in progress.


I cut numbers out of black card stock using my Silhouette and stuck those to each little pocket.  I was so excited for Karsten to see the tree when he woke up the next day.  Do you think he was excited or wondered what it was all about?  Nope, his first comment was that he couldn't really see the purple and green pockets.  SIGH. :)  Let the countdown begin!

Wordless Wednesday - Growing Up

excuse the poor quality - darn cell phones are not fast enough

Darn Teeth

This little guy is working hard on getting in his molars - not one or two, but all four.  Poor lil guy. Once they're in, that will make 12 teeth! He's been a trooper, but we've had several moments (and nights) like this.

Holiday decorations

We took advantage of the beautiful weather on Sunday to put up our Christmas decorations.  We put the boys down for their naps, then Scott and I ran around like crazy people trying to get as much done as possible before they woke up.

This little one decided to take a shorter nap, so he watched Scott finish hanging Christmas lights outside.






I think he is saying 'Comon' mom, let me go outside.'


When Karsten woke up, I suggested we go outside and play for a bit so I could take some pictures of them.


Karsten spotted the candy cane that hadn't yet found it's home, and decided it needed to be in pictures with them.  Liam decided that he did NOT want to have his picture taken.


I love this one - Karsten made him laugh, so he was giggling but still had tears running down his face.


Serious look


The leaf pile was tons of fun to play in.  I *may* have suggested that he throw the leaves in the air because I thought it would be a cute picture.  Not completely what I had envisioned, but fun, nonetheless.




Liam was more interested in watching Karsten play in the leaves than he was with looking at my camera.


If only he wouldn't eat the leaves, he could play too!


A few more, just 'cause he's cute. :)




It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here - how about at your house?

Early celebration

When we were together for Thanksgiving, we had an early celebration for Taylor and Leland's birthdays.  Taylor's birthday is in early December and Leland's is at the end of December.

The cake - it was Hot Wheels for Taylor and farming for Leland.


Singing to the birthday boys!

Construction Site

We apparently missed the beginning of a fun new Thanksgiving weekend tradition last year - the creation of gingerbread houses!  This year, Kelli was 'Pinspired' to create a rice crispie village.

There was lots of measuring involved to determine the perfect size of house. Every village needs one big house, right?


Walls were cut and installed, a roof was carefully built, then the house was adorned with all sorts of tempting candy.


Once the house was done, they spotted a structural issue with the roof.  Apparently, rice crispies can't span a long space AND hold the weight of Sprees.


There was some structural repair done, but sadly, the roof caved in.


Despite the challenges, the rice crispie village was fun project - and the little pieces I sampled tasted yummy as well!

Llama Llama

I'm going to be jumping around in my blog posts as I try (really) hard to get caught up.  When I get this far behind, it's a bit overwhelming! Be sure to periodically check earlier dates to see posts you might miss.

We went to Linda and Leland's for Thanksgiving and had a great weekend.  Karsten LOVED playing with his cousins Trent and Taylor.  He followed them around everywhere and they were great with him, especially Trent!

Despite the chilly weather, we walked over to see the Llamas.  It's become a required stop on our visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Bundled up and ready to go!


Karsten and Taylor both wanted to push Liam on our walk.  It was a highly contentious role so we settled on Karsten pushing for part of the way and Taylor pushing for the other part.  Since Karsten isn't a huge fan of sharing, that lead to some crying and fit throwing in the middle of our walk when it was Taylor's turn.  Thankfully, Scott's calm demeanor diffused that situation and Karsten was able to find 'nice Karsten' and continue our walk.
 

Hello Llamas!  They weren't so sure about us, so the ones that were outside the fence immediately ran away.


Whoa...what are those big things!


The boys really wanted the llamas to eat hay (or straw?) out of their hands, but the llamas had other plans.


Karsten enjoyed watching them from afar - he didn't want to get too close.


My boys!  Karsten wanted to push Liam back to Grandma's house, but Scott had to help on the gravel road.  Without Scott's help, I had visions of Liam flying out of the stroller as Karsten gave him a big push to get over the ruts.


Until next time llama llama!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving started the best way possible - the kids playing in their PJs and having fun together.


Trent was so good with Liam!


Trent and Taylor got dressed and went outside to play, so of course Karsten wanted to go along.  He had been talking about riding the red tractor and Papa was more than happy to help him!




Then we headed over to Genny and Leonard's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  This was the last picture I took before the battery on my camera died .  


Taylor and Liam playing.


Genny had some fun blocks for Liam to play with.  I'm not sure what he liked more - stacking the blocks, dumping them out or throwing them.




He's getting better at walking each day, but a little help is always a good thing!




Look who is ready to eat!


The whole family!


Our little turkeys


After the boys had a nap, they had energy to play trucks.  The crane truck was a hit with all the boys  I think it was played with constantly the entire time we were there.


Watching a quick game before it was time to go to bed.


Trent volunteered to read a story to Karsten.


Then Liam got to hear a story.


How cute is this?