Two

Liam is embracing the terrible twos.  I almost hate to use that phrase because he really isn't 'terrible' - he's just testing his boundaries and asserting his independance.  Oh, and assert he does.  There's no doubt that this little guy had a mind of his own.  He's not afraid to tell us NOO or rip off a bib when he's convinced he's too big of a boy to wear one.

This little tongue makes a few more appearances than I would care to see.  I think this was around the age Karsten started sticking his tongue out when he disagreed with something.  And, just like we did with Karsten, we'll discourage it and tell him that it's not nice to stick your tongue out at people.  And when that doesn't work, we'll use timeout for a minute to help give him time to cool down.


He's also done things that Karsten never did.  We said we were going to measure the boys to mark their height on the giant ruler.  I turned away for a minute and Liam had gotten out the permanent marker (aka predator marker per Karsten) and drew on the counter, the wood drawer and counter edging and even the fridge.  SIGH.  Guess we need to work on where markers go - ON PAPER!

In case you were wondering, an eraser will get permanent marker out of wood without removing the finish, a wet rag got it off the counter and Norwex cleaning paste got the marker off the fridge.


For every frustrating moment where there is permanent marker on the fridge or a melting two year old who doesn't want anything, there are plenty of sweet moments with hugs and kisses that make everything better.

Happy Birthday Kansas

Today was Kansas' birthday - she is 153 years old!  Karsten's school encouraged everyone to wear their favorite Kansas gear to celebrate.  So, we all proudly sported our K-State gear!

We should have planned ahead and had a cake for Kansas, but alas we didn't.  So, it was just like any other night with dinner, playtime then bed.

Liam loves to play trains.  Will he say train?  NO WAY.  He'll say 'vrmmm vrmmm' and sometimes 'Toot toot'.  I think he's being stubborn!


I know that shocks you, right?


Karsten actually smiled for a picture with me!  I told him I would wear the lego flower in my hair if he did.  I think it's a nice accessory, don't you?


Balloons provide endless fun at our house - how about you?


I love to listen to those giggles.


Karsten was very insistent that Liam did not touch his lego guy.  I made the mistake of calling it a tower - it is most certainly NOT a tower! :)  Up to this point, the boys haven't been huge Lego fans - perhaps there will be more Lego entertainment in our future!

K-State Chefs

When Liam and I got home, Scott and Karsten were in the kitchen cooking dinner in their matching K-State pullovers.  Apparently the house was cold when they got home, so Scott put his pullover on and Karsten wanted to be just like daddy.

He also thought he was pretty cool that he got to use an actual knife (yes, really) to help daddy cut the vegetables.


Chopping mozzerella for the orzo with roasted peppers and eggplant salad. There may have been one for him, one for the bowl.  He really did a great job.  Scott had to tell him to use the other side of the knife once, but heck, Scott still has to tell me that sometimes. :)


Looks like he may have seen this done a time or two!  I love that he enjoys helping in the kitchen, hopefully he will grow up to be a good cook just like his daddy.


Liam wanted to 'haaaal' so he pushed up his stool and he played with the tongs while Karsten and Scott worked.  Everyone was happy!

Homemade!

We've been getting more adventerous with the items we try to make, and tortillas has been on my list for a while.  After reading the laundry list of things in the tortillas we buy and seeing that online recipes had only four ingredients, Scott was on board to give it a try.

We had some ripe avocados so we decided to try guacamole and make it a mexican meal. We may have munched on the guac a bit while we cooked the tortillas, so about half of it made it to the dinner table.  It was delicious!!

Things we learned with the tortillas - there's a reason people use tortilla presses to make them flat and round, it's harder than it looks.  Also, don't flatten too many before you're ready to cook them because they'll stick to your counter.  The verdict - these spoiled me for storebought tortillas.  I told Scott I'm going to put tacos on the menu once a week to have these tortillas.  We'll keep the other tortillas around for quesadillas and days when we have a time crunch; however, these are a new favorite (and they're delish with the guac).

Next up, we're thinking homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs.  Anyone have any favorite recipes - there are so many versions out there, we're not sure which would be best!

Scrapbook Extravaganza

Once a year, Jenn's church has a Scrapbooking Extravaganza event.  This year it had a new format and ran for 24 consecutive hours.  I think most of us headed home by 1 or 2am; however, it was nice to have the option to stay as long as we wanted.

We used to scrapbook together once a month, then the store we scapped at closed so we went to Archivers to scrapbook.  Now, Archivers is closing - where the heck are we going to scrapbook (and catch up) each month?!!

Jenn is showcasing the caffeine that helped her be one of the last ones there on Friday night!

Ironically, my daily tear off calendar had a wonderful quote for this weekend.  It said 'You know you've got the greatest friends when the only time they make you cry is when you're laughing too hard'.  

I snagged this pic from Jenn's Facebook page - the top pic is our group shot. We had 10 people in our group - tons of fun!  Amy is showing off her gargantuan adhesive gun that had a monsterous jam, Kelli was a fabulous waitress bringing us all dessert on Saturday at lunch (don't you LOVE her shirt - I NEED one of those!), and the requisite pic of Jenn and I.

Welcome Kylie!

I was so excited to visit Jill and meet her new little girl, Kylie Jo.  She was born on January 9th, and I wasn't able to come visit her until she was almost two weeks old due to all of the ick that we'd had our house.  I wanted to make sure we were completely germ free before I went to see her.

She does not look like a woman who just gave birth two weeks ago - she looks fantastic!


Kylie is so tiny, 6lbs 11oz when she was born - holding her was so different than my boys.  She was precious and it was great to finally meet her in person!

Wordless Wednesday - Movie before bed

Backwards day, err month

When Karsten's school sent home the January newsletter, I saw an item saying that kids could wear their shirts backwards for the month of January. I didn't think much of it, then a few days later he came home with his shirt on backwards.

That night, he put his PJ shirt on backwards, then his PJ pants on backwards. Looks like this backwards shirt thing is here to stay for a bit.  This picture cracked me up because Karsten has on the same shirt as Liam, but you would never know it since his shirt is backwards.


Now both snowmans are looking at us, but Karsten is not.


This was fun for a few days but I'm kinda ready for backwards month to be over!!

Lunch date

Since Scott works so far away from my office, we don't often get to have lunch dates.  When he has a day off, like Martin Luther King Day, we always try to have lunch together.  Jenn and I had just tried this new sushi restaurant near my office; however, we only tried the lunch special, not any of their specialty rolls.

The sushi was delicious and they get bonus points for the presentation on a ship. It's dangerous knowing this is so close to my office and I could easily get carry out on my way home.  Hmmmm.


Ironically, we also saw Jenn there with one of her coworkers.  Guess we both were impressed and were anxious to try it again!

A night out

Each year, my employer puts on a holiday party for all associates.  We can bring a guest and enjoy an evening with food, drinks, casino games, dancing or chatting.  It's always a fun evening and a good opportunity to see and chat with coworkers outside of work.

We're lucky that my parents could come over to watch the boys for our night out.  Karsten has been wanting to spend the night at grandma and grandpa's; however, since he had been sick recently, we thought it would be best for him to sleep in his own bed to get a good night sleep.  This is what the boys were doing when we left - I'm pretty sure they could care less that we were leaving.


Getting this picture was a comedy of errors.  We first had our picture taken on a white backdrop, but when we went to pick it up, we were nowhere to be found.  I realized that I probably faded into the background, so we went to this background to have our picture retaken.  Somehow, our picture didn't get printed at this station either.  We talked to the gal running the printer and she was able to find our picture and reprint it.  Not the best picture of us, but at least we have one!

Puzzle Pro

Karsten is becoming quite the puzzle pro.  He is getting the confidence he needs to work on them by himself and not requiring our help to put the puzzles together.

He was SO excited the first time he put this Cars puzzle together!  We were so proud of him!




I AM smiling mom!

See those bright blue pants he has on?  Those are his backup pants from school - he wore them when he was Jake when we went to Disney World.  Apparently someone bumped the table at lunch and water spilled on Karsten's pants - since he can not stand to be wet, he changed into these.  Turns out he's grown a bit since October - these looked like high water pants on him now!


And, since he likes to do whatever his big brother is doing, Liam likes to try to put together these cute puzzles that Scott's mom got the boys for Christmas!

Not again...

Karsten went to bed last night worn out and wth a runny nose.  At 10pm, we heard the horrible croupy barking cough and the high pitched stridor sound.  We went upstairs to check on him and in that short time he was having a coughing fit and gasping for air.  We steamed up the bathroom to see if that would help, but no luck.  He aways gets scared when this happens (can't say that I blame him), so he starts to cry.  That makes things worse and then he has the stridor sound each time he breathes in.

Scott loaded him up and took him to the ER to get a steriod breathing treatment.  Shortly after their arrival, he was getting the breathing treatment and the stridor sound had mostly stopped.  Thankfully, he was able to get some sleep that night when he got home.

When he woke up, he still had some of the stridor sound and horrible barky cough.  He's never had that issue before (unfortunately, we're becoming pros with croup), so we called his doctor and they said to come right in.  She prescribed another steriod and by the end of the day it had taken care of the stridor and he was able to breathe and talk normally.

Is this the end of the sickness?  Fingers crossed?

Wordless Wednesday - Fun moments

Tacos and Ice Cream

We went to our favorite mexican restaurant tonight after getting the boys hair cut. We used to get both boys an enchilada, but they seemed to prefer eating whatever we had.  So, now Liam gets a shrimp taco and Karsten gets a cheese or chicken enchilada...along with plenty of chips and salsa.

Since the boys were good getting their hair cut (and because we love fried ice cream), we got a bowl to share.  This is Karsten 'smiling' at Scott - silly boy!


Liam got his own kid sized ice cream when the server brought it by mistake.  I think the chocolate all over his face shows that he enjoyed it!

Gears

Karsten was feeling better today and much to Liam's joy, he wanted to play!

Not a great start

We're not off to a healthy start for 2014.  Only nine days in and Karsten has a stomach bug.  Poor little guy was worn out.  Luckily, it started on Wednesday night and by Friday, he was feeling better.  Unfortunately, I caught the bug on Saturday - luckily, Liam and Scott escaped it!  Let's hope we're helathy from here on out!

Family pictures

While I'm catching up on blogging, I realized that I never posted the great family pictures we had taken with Scott's family over Thanksgiving.  We lucked into nice weather - the temps were in the upper 50's and no rain.  We were lucky!

We started with the family picture because that can be the hardest to wrangle everyone!  Our boys are not smiling, but they're looking at the camera.  But other than that, I think this turned out great!


The other 'must have' picture was grandma and grandpa with their grandsons.  We got some smiles out of this one - thank goodness no one took a picture of us jumping around like fools behind the photographer.


There's some good smiles!


I think I need Trent and Taylor to come to all of our photo sessions and help get the boys to smile - they did a great job!


Our boys tried to get Trent and Taylor to smile.


Then the boys got a break and they ran around while there were a few 'grown up' pictures.


How cute are they?  I can't believe they're so grown up - I feel like they were just our boys ages!


These boys are pretty cute too.


I think this is one of my favorites from the session.


These four are going to have lots of fun growing up together - lots of adventures, lots of secrets, lots of memories!


One more of grandma and grandpa with the boys!


The boys had fun playing on the merry go round.


Love those smiles!


Great family picture!


Great smile from Taylor!


We wanted to get a picture of Liam and Karsten on Scott's old tractor.  The boys had other ideas that did not include looking at the camera and smiling.


Liam found a stick and was way more interested in digging holes in the sand than having his picture taken.


We got Karsten to smile but Liam still wanted to dig in the sand and not look at the camera?


Why couldn't my boys pose like this - adorable!


He looks so grown up!


When we were done, the boys found this big pile of leaves and jumped in.


The photographer also captured this sweet moment when we were 'done' with our session.