Our turkey

We made this turkey last year and he's holding up well.  Each day during November we put a new feather in him for something we're thankful for.

Worn out

I think someone is worn out from a fun weekend with his cousins and Grandma and Grandpa!

I'm K-State - You're KU

As Scott and I loaded the car to head home, the boys were playing outside with Grandma and Grandpa.  We had been watching the K-State game earlier, and Karsten had been playing football with Trent, Taylor and David, so football was on his mind.  On one of my trips out to the car, I heard him yell 'I'm K-State, you're KU - you can't catch me!' then off he ran.  When he got to the driveway, he said 'K-STATE WINS!'


He convinced Grandpa to chase him as well.


We thought this would wear him out even more so he would sleep on the way home - no such luck!

Trains

Liam spent a lot of his time at Grandma and Granpa's house playing with this train.  He would occasionally stop playing long enough to give someone else a turn; however, he was never too happy about it.  We could always tell when Karsten tried to play with the train because we would hear Liam yell NOO MINE.  

In case the big train wasn't enough, he kept his other Thomas trains close.


Our little conductor hard at work!

Early Birthdays

Taylor and Leland's birthdays are in December, so we celebrated on Friday night. As soon as we arrived on Wednesday night, Karsten was ready to give Taylor his present.  I half expected him to give it to him one morning before we got up - thankfully he refrained!

Leland, like most grandparents, are tough to shop for, so finding something they will like is like a needle in a haystack.  Linda found this cool windchime with John Deere tractors for Liam - I think it was a hit!


Taylor also loved his present from Linda - he wore this cool superman fleece blanket for the rest of the evening.


Then, Karsten finally got his wish and Taylor opened his present from us.  I think Karsten was excited to see what all of the pieces in that bag and box would become.




Happy Birthday Taylor and Leland - we hope you have wonderful birthdays!

Decorating Team

Last year, everyone helped Linda and Leland put up their Christmas decorations and since it was so much fun, it became a tradition!

While it looks like Liam was trying to eat the tree, he was really just dancing along with the singing penguins and pretending to sing.  He carried this all over the house with him then would plop down in front of it and watch them dance and sway back and forth.


Unpacking the famous ornaments - Scott and Kelli always battle to see who's childhood ornament will get a higher position on the tree.  The jockeying for tree real estate continues until the last minute when we walk out of the house to head home.  This year, Kelli moved her ornament up the tree while Scott was loading the car; however, she left first, so Scott moved his ornament up before we left.  The rest of us just watch and do not contribute to the battle.


All the grandsons decorating together.


Liam didn't like that the balls had 'hats' on them, so he pulled them all off and handed them to grandma in two pieces.  VERY helpful, right?


It's a family effort!


Liam also enjoyed the talking bear.


Our attempt at getting everyone to smile and look at the camera. Better luck next year!

Happy Thanksgiving

Karsten was so excited to play with Trent and Taylor, he woke up bright and early on Thanksgiving to get started.  Since Karsten was up, Liam got up as well.  Luckily, Grandma is an early riser too, so she had some quality time with all four grandsons while the rest of us enjoyed sleeping in.  That sure is a holiday perk - we got up and around in time for the Macy's parade.  Perfect timing!

Lately, when anyone gets a kleenex, Liam sniffs his nose and says 'me, me!'.  After he wiped his nose, he carefully stuffed the kleenex in his pocket - it was too funny, I had never seen him do that before!


Gobble, Gobble - Happy Thanksgiving!


Linda and Scott were in charge of carving the turkey - it was delicious!


Jenny brought her famous stuffing as well as peas and noodles.  The peas and noodles were a tradition in Leland's family for many years and once we had them, we loved them as well and request them every year!  We've tried to replicate Jenny's stuffing here at home but it didn't turn out quite as well - we'll try again now that we know what to tweak.


Leonard helped Liam build a tower of blocks.


After dinner, the adults all relaxed while the kids played.  It's so much fun to watch Karsten play with Trent and Taylor, they're going to have so much fun together in the years to come!

Wordless Wednesday - Cousin Fun

Quiet

Scott and I were getting dinner ready and all of a sudden we realized it was too quiet.  There were no trucks racing around the kitchen, no screeches because someone had someone elses toy and no laughter or talking.  I looked around and found this adorable brother moment.

Haircut in PJs

This week was pajama week at Karsten's school - he thought it was crazy that he got to wear his pajamas to school.  I'll admit that I 'may' have thought about just putting him to bed in the PJs that he was going to wear to school the next day.  But, alas, I felt guilty about that idea, so he wore clean PJs to school.  :)

We had a haircut scheduled for the boys that night and until I met Scott at Sheer Madness, I hadn't put two and two together that he would be wearing his PJs to his haircut and to dinner.  One of his new favorite phrases is 'this is awesome', and I think he said that a few times.

Wearing his awesome PJs, dirving the four wheeler and watching TV while waiting for his haircut to get started.


Our stylin' little turkey after getting his hair cut.  No PJs for him, just an adorable turkey shirt that my mom made!

Deck the halls

Normally I'm a firm believer that Christmas decorations should not go up until after Thanksgiving. However, since Thanksgiving falls so close to Christmas this year, we decided to put our decorations up this weekend. I had grand plans to get a lot of decorations up while the boys napped.  You guessed it - those plans were a recipe for non-existent nap time.

Liam liked to help put ornaments on the tree but he didn't quite have the hang of how to work the hooks.  He would push the ornament into the branches and hope it stayed there.


It was cool to watch Karsten see all of his old ornaments, get excited and tell us about them.


He was a good helper and hung ornaments high and low all over the tree.


The year we got married, we got a 'Our First Christmas' picture frame ornament as a gift, and we decided to continue the tradition with a photo ornament each year.  12 years later, it's fun to look back at how we've changed over the years. Looking at these ornaments is one of my favorite parts of decorating the tree each year.


The finished product!  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Donde esta guajolote

We're always asking Karsten about what he learned at school today and he'll often say he doesn't remember.  The other night he started counting in spanish, then he started singing this song for us. He's been holding out on us and not sharing all these cool things he's learning!  He said that 'Ahora' taught him this at school.  Translation - senora. :)

Hello Mr. Turkey

Hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving song Karsten learned at school as much as we do!

Lunch

Before Grandma and Papa headed home, we went to church, Toys R Us and to our favorite mexican restaurant for lunch.  We wanted to check out some Thomas sets for Liam and were happy to have two additional pairs of hands to help us wrangle the boys in a toy store!

I've always liked chips and salsa; however, now that we have kids, there is a new reason to like it - there is food at the table immediately when we arrive with hungry boys.  Karsten and Grandma played tic tac toe while we waited for our lunch to arrive, and Karsten taught Grandma about his version of the game.  It's a tricky version - he always wins!


While they were playing tic tac toe, Liam started to quietly pile all of the chips in front of him.  We're not sure why, but he would take a chip from the bowl and carefully place it on his placemat.  Luckily, he didn't protest when we at his chips.


It was a good end to a fun weekend with Grandma and Grandpa!

Birthday train

We got Liam this train set for his birthday and I think Scott and Karsten are enjoying it as much as Liam.

Scott helped put it together


And he had good helpers.




The train is a hit - I think more trains will be on Liam's Christmas list!

Let's Celebrate!

The boys had a fun morning playing with Grandma and Papa which helped Scott and I get ready for Liam's birthday party.  Liam opened his presents from Grandma and Papa and then played trains for the rest of the morning.  He's becoming quite the train fan!  Karsten would say 'Liam, can I play with that train' and in a sweet voice, Liam would say 'Noooo' as he grabbed the train away.  Luckily, Karsten settled for playing with his name train.


I put out one of Liam's presents before the party and he decided he wanted to open it... right then. I couldn't think of a good reason why that was a bad idea, so we let him open it.  Better to spread out the opening so he could play with toys more when he wasn't overwhelmed with all the great new toys!


I tried all day to get a picture of him smiling in his birthday shirt that my mom made.  The little stinker has been watching his big brother and is now a master at not looking at my camera.  I think this is still pretty cute.


Last night I realized I hadn't planned any decorations for the party, so my Silhouette and I made this cute little sign.


We had Liam's favorite things for dinner - hot dogs, homemade mac and cheese and green beans.  He ate it all and asked for 'mo'.


Karsten and Eden are so cute sitting in these chairs and talking. They're in their own little world.


I am in love with Karsten's cake.  I used All Occasion Cakes and could nolt have been happier with the results.  I found this adorable Thomas birhday train (see his hat!) and one of his cars was a light up birthday cake.


How cool is this - didn't she do amazing?


Family picture time! Trent and Taylor did a great job making Karsten smile and they got Liam to look at the camera.  I'll consider this a win!


When we sang to Liam, he froze and stood there smiling.  He wasn't so sure why everyone was watching him and singing, but I think he liked it.


Another shot of the cake, this time with a candle.


The birthday boy!


He was excited and ready to blow out his candle!


After the candle was out, he said 'mo mo mo, me!'


So we lit the candle again and this time Karsten helped blow out the candle!


Enjoying his cake!


Then it was present time.  I think present time is tough for little guys because they want to play with the presents as soon as they are open and don't understand why we keep trying to give them other presents to open.  He wanted this airplane out as soon as he saw it.


Grandma made him this beautiful quilt!


I love the colors in this quilt!





Posing on the new quilt!  He was playing with his new card from Jenn and family on the quilt - I'd say he liked it!


Unfortunately, Gaga wasn't able to be here for Liam's party, but she sent him a box full of fun presents with adorable Disney wrapping paper.  We had fun pointing out Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse before we opened it.


Karsten has one of these giant Thomas pillows and loves it.  Liam has never gotten to play with it because Karsten won't let him close to it.  :)  He'll have fun with one of his very own!


I wanted to get pics of the birthday boy with the grandparents, but it didn't work out quite like I had planned (shocker!). This was the best I got with everyone's eyes open.


But I love this one of my mom and Liam.


I had much better luck with this one - everyone is smiling!


Our adorable birthday boy - I hope you had a wonderful party, Liam!


Kissing his train - why?  Not so sure, but it was pretty darn cute!