Helper

Over Christmas break, Liam wanted to help with anything that was being cooked.  He would push his stool (aka 'tool') over to the counter and says help (aka 'haaap haaap').

We enjoyed having his help, but he has no fear of hot things, sharp things or liquids of any kind.  This makes cooking with him an adventure.


Can you believe this innocent little face can be mischevious and get into everything?


He'll also grab whatever he can reach and take a bite.  I applaud the adventerous spirit, we just have to make sure there isn't anything within reach that he shouldn't eat.


He's such a cute helper!  Please excuse the slightly blurry pictures - I was trying out my 50mm lens and I don't quite have the dept of field down.  There is a place in this picture that's in focus, but unfortunately, it's not his face!


Today, this was the meal he was helping with.  My mom got this Mickey Mouse cookie cutter when we were in Disney World and pancakes seemed like the perfect place to break it in!

Quick Roadtrip

It's becoming a tradition to have a quick, one day road trip to Lincoln to visit my great uncle Charlie.  We always have a nice visit and it's good to see him, Uncle Dave, Peg and Cami.  We usually see my cousin Brett as well; however, she and her new husband were on their belated honeymoon.  We'll look forward to catching up with them next time.

After lunch, we had family pictures.  Charlie was patient as we rotated in and out to have various picture combinations with him.

Uncle Dave, Chuck and Uncle Charlie


My dad's side of the family (aka us!) with Uncle Charlie.


Uncle Dave's side of the family with Uncle Charlie.


Our family (sans Michael and Brett)


Uncle Charlie with the boys - what a great picture!  Thanks to Peg for the picture suggestion!


Four generations - Uncle Charlie, my dad, me and the boys!


Chuck and Uncle Dave didn't really want to take individual pictures with Uncle Charlie, but I thought it would be nice for them to each have a picture with him.  They'll thank me someday, right? :)




After lunch, we went up to Uncle Charlie's apartment to visit for a bit before we left.  The boys were walk/running down the hallway to his apartment and Karsten thought he had made it to the apartment so he reached up and opened a door - the problem was that it wasn't Uncle Charlie's apartment.  Scott quickly said 'No Karsten, shut the door, shut the door!' and Karsten ran away.  Later I asked him if he saw anyone when he opened the door and he said 'a man, he looked at me'.  Ha - that guy definetely wasn't expecting a little blond boy to pop into his apartment!

While we were chatting, Karsten told him that we were going back to Disney World someday and he could come with us.  How sweet is he?

Finally, it was time to hit the road and head home. The boys had already had a long day and we were lucky they did great in the car and at Uncle Charlie's.  Liam fell asleep in the car before we had even left Lincoln. No such luck with Karsten, he played the ipad, 'read' some books, took pictures out the window with his camera and played with his transformer dinosaur.

Scott and I have become addicted to QuikTrip iced tea since giving up Diet Dr Pepper earlier this year.  We intentionally planned our gas stop on the way home so we could stop at a QT.  While Scott pumped gas, I ran inside to get drinks.  He said 'get the bigger ones than normal'.  As I filled up the cups, I looked at them and realized I got the SUPER big glasses, not the big glasses he meant. These cups were ridiculously large and Scott burst out laughing when he saw me carrying them out to the car.


It was a fun day - we'll look forward to doing it again next year!

Let the birthday parties begin

Karsten's now at the age where his friends from school are having birthday parties for all their friends.  We went to his first party yesterday, and I think he had a good time.

His friend Justin had a Circus theme party complete with games, popcorn and cotton candy.  The kids had fun with all sorts of activities.


Karsten and his friend Briggs posing as muscle men.  There was even a face painter painting masterpieces on the kids faces.  Karsten is NOT a fan of having his face painted, so we passed on that.


The birthday boy, Justin, has the white painted face in the red shirt to the left of Karsten.  I think all the kids had a great time!

Big Boy Bed

We've been putting off moving Karsten from his toddler bed into a big boy bed.  We had planned to get a new mattress for our room, put our mattress in the guest room and put the guest mattress in Karsten's room.  Christmas break seemed like the perfect time to play musical beds and make this happen.

Karsten was so excited.  He wanted to help build the bed, but after the headboard nearly fell on him, we sent them off to play in another room.  We didn't make any other changes to his room, for now he's thrilled with a new bed and Mario sheets (thanks Grandma!).  At some point, we'll talk to Grandma about ideas for a new quilt which may lead to some other changes on the walls.


Much to Karsten's chagrin, Liam is a big fan of the new bed as well.  I see a future of sleepovers together in this bed.


Just chillin', enjoying the new bed.  You may think it's bedtime since they're in their PJs - nope, during Christmas break, we enjoyed several PJ days and this was one of them!

Frozen!

Karsten's school was closed today, but Gail was still open, so we decided to have a 'date' with Karsten. We went to an early movie to see Frozen, then went to lunch.  He was a big fan of these lego men in the lobby of the theater.  This may be the next movie we see!


After the movie, we asked him what we thought and he said 'Good, but kind of long'.  Ha - that it was.  But, I thought it was great!  I loved Olaf, the snowman - I think he'll be a hit!

Construction

The day after Christmas, the boys were anxious to get out the toys that we didn't want to open at my parents house.  First up on the list - the new train sets.

Scott warned me that the sets may be too big for the table we intended to put them on.  I was convinced that he could come up with a design that would allow everything to fit.


Turns out it was a bit of a challenge to build a monster train setup when you had two tiny engineers trying to drive their trains around.


We learned that we really needed to construct two separate tracks that intertwine because the boys are never happy with how fast or slow the other one is driving.


I think this will provide loads of entertainment for the boys!

We mustache you...

...did you have a very Merry Christmas?



'cause we did.


We spent lots of time together.


We laughed a lot!


We were silly.


We celebrated the season.


Did I mention we had fun?


Oh, it wasn't all fun and games.  We had a little drama from time to time, but who doesn't?


Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Day!

The boys had a rough night sleeping - they were too excited for Christmas!  Liam woke up at 2 and 4am, then Karsten woke up at 5am - it sure felt like a short night for us!  Finally, around 6:30am, we all went downstairs to see if Santa had arrived and if he enjoyed his cookies.  There were only cookie crumbs left and the reindeer seem to have enjoyed their food.

Karsten was excited to see that Santa had brought him all of the Ninja turtles he asked for - and their hideout (aka a bus looking thing).


Karsten played with his toys and Liam wandered off to find food.  He was excited to see a whole bag of grapes sitting on the counter.


Opening the Ninja turtle hideout so the Ninja turtles had somewhere to play!


After his grapes, Liam realized that Santa left him some chocolate.  He was determined to get into it!


After a yummy breakfast of egg casserole and coffee cake, it was time to open all of our presents.

The boys love playing in the bath, so when I saw this submarine that floats or sinks AND scoops water, I knew it was meant to be ours.


Karsten's Ninja turtle hat from my parents was a bit hit!


We got the boys a big Thomas the Train set to share.  I thought they were pretty adorable opening it together in their matching PJs.


 

Karsten was claiming which train cars were his and which were Liam's.


Karsten is still a big Mario and Luigi fan, so he was excited for this Mario Brothers Checkers game we got him.


When Liam says 'Mine, Mine, Mine', he sounds like the seagulls from Finding Nemo.  When we were at Disney World, we saw a seagull display that said 'Mine, Mine, Mine' like Liam and it cracked us up.  Chuck saw a 'Mine, Mine, Mine' mug at Disney World and got such a kick out of it.  I meant to purchase one for him before we left Disney; however, I completely forgot.  When I got home I checked the Disney site and it didn't have it.  Luckily, there is a phone number you can call and a group at Disney will go into the park and purchase items to ship to you.  SCORE!  He was very surprised!


After all the presents, it was time to watch the Disney World Christmas parade.


Having some snacks while watching the parade.


Karsten talked Papa into playing checkers with him.


The boys had fun playing with their new puzzles from grandma and grandpa.  The puzzle pieces have tracks on them that a train and dinosaur can drive on.


After all of that fun and the early morning, the boys were ready for a nap shortly after lunch.  They were so sleepy that we had to wake them up - this was the aftermath of some crabby, sleepy boys trying to wake up. After some time cuddling with daddy, both boys were in good moods again just in time for Christmas dinner.


After dinner, Liam wanted to help grandma with dishes.  They ended up creating a fun game where they dipped his plastic dinosaur in the dishwater bubbles, then they laughed and laughed.


Look Mommy, the dinosaur took a bath!


It was a fun Christmas day - hope you all had a wonderful time with your friends and family as well!