Merry Christmas

Homemade Lefsa

After the thanksgiving feast, we set out to make our very first batch of Lefsa ever. We traditionally have lefsa during the holidays, but this year we made our own.

After all our hard work, we enjoyed our own freshly made Lefsa and it was worth it! A special thanks to my aunties and my mom for all of my Swedish traditions.

Room for one more. . .

Today, still one day until Thanksgiving we decorated the house for Christmas.  The kids loved getting out all the decorations.  This isn't our normal plan, but we had the time.  Plus our wreath was delivered, which certified my belief that we had room to celebrate one more. . . holiday.  

This year as we are giving thanks for all of our friends and family, we'll have already begun to celebrate Christmas.   It feels like we have remembered how special it is to just spend this time laughing and enjoying time with others.  And we will keep that spirit alive into Christmas.  

Make-up

As my daughter and I are walking through the department store she spots the make-up counter. She gets these big eyes and runs towards the all the displays of make-up. Here I am diligently following her as she moving from one display to the next, repeating "We don't touch" as her eyes see all the make-up sitting open and waiting for her little fingers.

I shouldn't be surprised by this but I still don't know where it came from. I remember when she was just a year old she had a complete melt down in The Limited store when I said that she couldn't get the purse with the huge diamonds on it. Or the time that I would purposely go in the doors at Macy's that would not take us by the jewelry or purses for fear that she would want to live in those isle forever.  

I do have hope it that it won't be her only interest.  Last time we were at the store she loved looking at the sparkly christmas trees, but then the next isle she spotted the tools and we had to go take a look!  

Happy Halloween

Comfy shoes

Yes, it was one of those mornings! You know that kind where nothing is going smoothly. It's all taking more time. More time to get dressed (two outfits for my daughter), more time for my son to try on 3 pairs of shoes including taking off his socks to put on flip flops. All this and I still wasn't dressed for work or had my hair done.

Once we were all in the car, I breathed and thought it was all over. As I stepped out of the car to get the kids out for daycare, I thought "Wow, what comfy shoes." Then I looked down and I had my crocs on! I think the crocs are not classified as business casual. So away I went back home to get on my dress shoes.

Humble

Being a parent is humbling. Children repeat what you say, they challenge what you teach them, and they stretch you to think about life in a whole other way. We try as parents to protect and shelter them from the world. Giving them experiences a little at a time, like handing them one M&M at time versus the whole bag of M&Ms.



But given our best attempts they will also experience life differently or faster than you. I was thinking that this would happen when the kids get older. One of these defining moments for me was when I was in college and left to explore Great Britain, France and Australia. These were places that my parents had not yet experience. I remember feeling so excited to go on my adventure to these places.



But the other day the kids spent the weekend with Grandpa and Grammy. When we picked them up and our son was so excited to tell me that he drove the Bobcat all by himself. We've encourage our kids to be independent. But now my son was driving a bobcat all by himself a whole year before I did at a young age. My son was so proud to tell us of his new adventure. I am humbled.

No boundries

I remember my daughter wanting to pee like her brother outside at the beginning of the summer. We'll apparently she has been pondering how to pee like boys.

The other morning I found her on the toilet.  She had her knees on the seat, facing the toilet, hanging on to the sink and peeing.  I immediately started to laugh.  I asked her what made her do that.  She simply stated that she was peeing like her brother.  

 

Brocolli

Broccoli at last! I can't believe that we grew Broccoli. It was so easy. I'm not the most attentive person to the vegetable garden. While we water it once a week, it doesn't receive very much more attention than that. But as I found out from my green thumb gardener next door, broccoli continues to grow after you harvest your first head. So now we'll have broccoli until late fall. Which is great because Mya and I eat the broccoli right from the garden.

But the real kuddos goes to my dad. As I think our above ground garden is playing a much bigger part to the success of our garden. His idea is to have used Bobcat tracks to hold the garden. The tracks when laid on their side are big black rubber circles. This helps to hold in the heat, water and keep the wildlife at bay.




We covered these tracks with bamboo shades from you home improvement store for pennies.

Ta Da, a Vegetable Garden!

In your shoes

Is there a noodle inside your egg?

My daughter had asked at dinner "What is this?". I said "Egg Noddles."

Then she proceeded to take her hands and pretend to break a egg while repeating "How break noodle?"



I'll admit I was confused by this. Then I understood her. She was asking how do you break open an egg and to get a noodle:-) I love looking at the world through her eyes.

Burning Nose

Burning nose! What how does that happen?



We were all sitting around the bonfire. Garrett was roasting a marshmallow at Nana's and Papa house, one of his favorite past times. When I see him take the burning marshmallow out of the fire pit. The next thing I know is that a little piece of marshmallow must have got stuck to his nose when he was blowing out the marshmallow.

The poor thing had got a fragment of burning marshmallow on his nose. We were discussing the event the next day and had said that a burning marshmallow had caused his ouchy. Garrett correct us by saying it was because of his burning nose:-)

In just over a week there is no evidence that there was a burning nose!

We were tubing. . .

We thought we'd try our hand at going down the river one more time. This time we took the kiddos and floated down the river on a raft. It was a much shorter ride (2.5 hours).

We all sat on a 'blow up mattress' like raft. (it's made to go down the river and not 'pop' when you hit a branch in the water). The grandparents live on the river so it was fun to tell the kids to look for Nana and Popa's house. The kids loved it!

The trip was just long enough as Mya feel asleep on my lap with less than 10 minutes until we landed in Nana and Popa's back yard:-)

Louis and Clark Adventure

We just got back from a Louis and Clark Adventure. We started down a beautiful river in our canoes. It's a river untouched by bridges or roads or houses . We were looking forward to marveling at the nature around us. We did see birds, turtles, eagles and fish.

We've been down this river before. We've leisurely canoed down the river laughing with friends, swimming, and enjoying a beverage of choice. But what we misjudged was the WIND. The wind was so FIERCE that the only way to move towards our destination, i.e. campsite, was to PADDLE like crazy. We thought, or prayed, that it would end so we could enjoy a leisurely ride down the river. But the wind gust continued and the waves repeatedly banged against our little canoe. By the time we reached our campsite, we had paddled 20 miles against the WIND for 8 hours straight! This was not the relaxing weekend we had hoped for, but it was an adventure that we will never forget.

Pumpkin Pie in July

Yep, that's right. I had Pumpkin Pie in July. It was delicious, homemade (by my mother) and I enjoyed in on my birthday.

It's probably not what you think of eating in July. But when I think of the fall I start dreaming of pumpkin pie, or pumpkin pie blizzard or pumpkin pie coffee. No I'm not ready for fall yet, but it was a great moment to savor on my birthday.

Happy 4th of July

Deer Park

A new experience for the kids, a Deer Park.

Dairy days

June was Dairy month. So we headed to the nation capital on Dairy, Wisconsin. We hit up the Creamery and got our fill of ice cream. Then headed the next day to a real dairy farm for a filling breakfast. The kids loved seeing and touching the all the Farm Animals.

Who is out at the bars.

Two quick stories from evenings out at the bars.

A girl ran through the bar with just a towel on yelling that she'd just been robbed. As we left the bar she was outside with cops and the guy that had robber her!

A squirrel (guy dressed up as one) drove a mini 4 wheeler through a bar. Everyone stopped to see the show, then returned to their conversations like this was normal! I guess he had just come from a Squirrels Unlimited meeting.


Prior to this I hadn't been out for quite a while, but I don't remember seeing this before!

Summer, Summer, Summertime

Boys and their toys

The Bridge

The bridge is done. My husband put this together. Well, the kids too. They helped dad for the entire project. We finally have a bridge from our deck to land.

Now, let the fun begin! The kids have already found out how it helps to take out their toys from the garage to the deck and then back again.

Nail polish remover, anyone?

I put nail polish on my daughter, an activity that she loves. Then she wanted me to put some on my nails. Usually I don't wear nail polish but thought that it would be fun.

Well, it turned into three weeks of wearing nail polish. This is only because I was either too tired, too lazy, or forgot to go get nail polish remover. Because of course I had ran out.

So everyday I'd check my nails. If they didn't 'pass' I'd grab the bottle of nail polish and quickly run new nail polish over my nails. I continued this for three weeks!

I'm now stocked with nail polish and will probably have this bottle for the next 3 years, as I had the old bottle that long!

Tick on you?

This morning it saw it from far away and I did not even have my glasses on! It was a TICK on Mya.

As I looked closer I realized it was attached to her leg. Then the commotion starts. Mya started calling over and over for me to remove it, I tried to settle her down. But at the same time i did not know how to remove it. Garrett tried to help, but just added to the commotion.

Then, like a good Mom I looked online to find out what to do:) That came up with conflicting advice. Finally after talking with my husband, friend and the Dr. I took the tweezers and with one feel swoop I was able to remove the whole tick.

Now that you are itching yourself, go and verify that you don't have any on you!

Dum Dum

Yesterday, we gave Mya a dum dum sucker and she ate half of it.

I just looked at it, thinking who ever eats half of a dum dum! It's the littlest, tiniest sucker ever made and she only ate half of it.

But today we took her to the doctor and she's at 20% for overall weight! Yea for us, this was up from her last appointment where she lost weight. She is so indepentent so getting her this far was such a battle.

Next step is to work on her eating the whole sucker!

Forts

The other day I said to my husband "I do not know why we bought a bed and sheet for Garrett."

For the last 2 weeks he has slept in a fort in his room. The fort is made of his comforter over the end of his bed and his toy box. He has been sleeping inside the fort in his sleeping bag on the floor every night!

I guess he misses camping!

No evolution

The other day my daughter walks into the bathroom and stand right in front of the toilet; just like her older brother does when he has to go pee. She looks up at me, smiles and goes to sit on her little potty chair.

I know what she's thinking. If I could, I would. I agree that is would be easier to pee like guys. But instead I smile and think why has the toilet not evolved into a cooler/easier bathroom accessory?

The other side of the fence. We were out hiking at a local nature park. When my son, G, says he has to go potty. Well, we were no where close to a potty. So my husband takes him by a bush and tells him to go potty outside. G looks up, giggles with glee and pees. He is so excited to be able to pee outside standing up.

Blond-ish

I happened. I saw this one really blond hair on the top of my head. But what made me look closer, was it was a short hair that stood up on it's very own.

Then I realized, to my surprise, that was blond-ish. It reflected color and was thick. . . it was Gray! So with one swift movement I removed any evidence that it was there. Now I JUST have blond highlights.

Wisconsin Dells

We survived our first car trip to the Wisconsin Dells, and probably not the last. We all enjoyed the two water parks, cabana, Buffalo Phil's, Knuckleheads, Paul Bunyan breakfast and a night in a condo complete with a hot tub.

All around the kids were waterlogged and well fed. We especially enjoyed the Paul Bunyan breakfast where we sat at a huge table, we didn't order and the food was brought to us in less than 5 minute with unlimited helping. This is was the perfect place for family's. No squabbling over what to order, or feeling guilty that I didn't order the right amount of food for a 2 and a 4 year old. Plus no waiting for food!

After being in the water for 3 days in a row we headed home. All of us were exhausted. Well most of us were. Our daughter on the other hand talked for the entire ride home, yes for a full 4 hours!

Spring into Painting

Yes, I admit I had the spring bug. It came on full force. I wanted a new start, even if I still have snow on the ground.

I went to the paint store, brought home several samples. Of course my husband looked at the colors and asked why I got so many of the same samples! They were different:-)

Then I went to town and painted over two weekday nights. (Yes, I did say I had the spring bug!)
But it looks so nice and I feel I have a new start. So if you're debating on taking on your next project, go ahead let the spring bug take hold. You will definitely be rewarded.

Three Little Boys

What do you get with Three Little Boys?

The other evening we went to a friends house for a 'movie night.' The kids were so excited to see each other that they played instead. Which still worked well for us moms, because we had a chance to talk.

Then as we are ready to go the three little boys got really silly. They pretended to 'toot' on each other. Each time, their pretend toots got louder and the laughter more.

My first response is mouth open gasp! Why is my son doing this? Why is so funny? Why do they think this is funny at the age of 4. I thought this would happen, maybe, at the age of 11. But as they continued and we tried to calm them down all I could think is I have a lot to learn about raising a little boy.

Preschool - The First Day

Garrett was all brave this morning when we got to Preschool. But I had to bring Mya with us because her daycare was closed. I was only in there for about 5 minutes and the teacher politely told Garrett to say goodbye to his Mom. I guessed that was my clue to leave :-) But getting Mya out was a different story.

As we were trying to leave Mya starts to cry, then wail, then cry out Garrett's name over and over. I finally took her into the bathroom and told her she had to be brave for Garrett. Of course all I wanted to do was to cry with her and call out Garrett's name.

I did call at lunch time and he was doing great. By the end of the day he was still enjoying his time, despite the fact that another friend bit his finger!

Cinderelly

Cinderelly - We have been inidated by Cinderelly. We were just at a little girls Birthday Party and Cinderella showed up. The kids were so excited.

I have to say I'm not a huge princess fan. I don't want my daughter thinking that's all she can achieve in life. (this is thanks to my mom influence) But I did get caught up in the moment with a Cinderella at the house.

Waterpark

We got out of the cold and went to the Water Park Of America. We had a blast.
(Go to http://www.momtalk.com/ to sign up for two free tickets. )

The biggest adventure we had was braving the large family raft ride. As we walked up 10 stories, I was thinking maybe this isn't such a great idea. But as we got to the top we looked out the windows and saw the snow on the cold tundra. That gave us the incentive to jump into warm water and go down on the raft. Mya had big scared eyes on the way down, but she didn't cry. When we got to the bottom Garrett jumped out and headed for the stairs, ready for round 2. Mya was just happy to get off the ride.

After that we enjoyed the different levels of the kids area. They had little slides, big slides, fast slides and multiple sprayers of water. Plus a surfing area. See picture above as Garrett body boarded with the lifegaurd.

Later that night at home, we were talking about our day. We asked Mya if she went on the big family raft ride. She blurted out "I have to!" How hilarious.

Converse

The kids and I were walking into the gas station. In front of me the kids were having a real conversation.

It was one of those times that it hits you that you have two kids and they are not babies anymore. They are growing up, they do not need Mom or Dad for everything. Here they are in front of me walking and having a conversation independent of me.

A bobcat? No

The other day we're driving in the car and my daughter says "Bobcat" [as in a brand of skid loader]. But as we get closer she realizes it not a Bobcat, and she says "Oh, it a loader."

I'm still amazed by what she, a two year-old, is aware of. Her grandpa owns dump trucks, bobcats and backhoes. So I shouldn't be suprised, but . . .

Let's go

Yesterday morning I was running late. I tried on 10 different outfits. This whole time the kids are playing nicely in the living room. But I kept on saying "Let's go kids, we have to get our boots and jackets on." Meanwhile I'm running between my downstairs laundry room and my bedroom trying to find clothes to wear.


Then when I'm finally ready, I realize that I'm late! So what do I say, sternly, "Let's go kids, we have to get our books and jackets on."

What I realize is that I was saying those things to myself. I was the one who needed to get going. So, from now on I'm going to try to only say things once to the kids and only when it's needed.

Tales from fishing

Fishing tales usually involve how big the fish were or how tough they were to catch or even where the secret spot was when they caught the fish. Whether you are on the lake in the summer or on a frozen sheet of ice in the middle of the winter there are always tales to be told.

This tale is from our first family ice fishing outing. First off, we drove our vechicle out on the ice. It's a strange but exciting feeling to be out in the middle of a frozen lake with your truck. Then we drilled holes into the ice, the ice was about 2ft deep. Whola, drop a line and start fishing. We caught serveral little sunny's. While the kids had a blast running on the frozen lake, seeing the ice shacks, and catching fish. The fun didn't stop there.

We put our daughter in the truck to warm up her fingers, she instisted on not wearing her warm gloves. When her hands weren't getting warmer, my husband started the truck to get some heat in there.

To our surprise, she locked herself in the truck. Yep the keys, the key clicker and our daughter were stuck inside the truck. So for about 20 minutes we all tried to get her to press the unlock button. She is only 2 years old, but I still think she had an idea of how to unlock the doors. I think she had way more fun with Mom and Dad, as she was our focus for that entire 20 minutes. Atlast, she unlocked the doors and we all went back to ice fishing.

Without me

This morning, I woke up my son.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation.

I say, "Let's put your clothes on."
My son says "Where are we going?"
I say "We are going to daycare."
My son says "I don't want to go yet."
I say "Honey, the car is running. (It's cold here) Do you know where the car is going?"
My son says matter-of-factly "To daycare without me."

I just started to chuckle!
I love how kids are so true to their feelings.

Taking a break

I've been taking a break, not in relaxing. It seems that after all the fun of holidays are now over I'm still reluctant to get moving, but in the same moment bored with 'taking a break'. Until I realized the reason for it. . . My daughter is potty training. While this is truly an exciting milestone. It leaves me to spend the majority of the time on an outing revolving around a RESTROOM.

This is how it goes: before we leave the house we use the bathroom, then we get to the place and we use the restroom, then when we are the middle of shopping/playing and one child has the need to find the restroom, finally before we leave we go the restroom. The whole idea grosses me out, two little kids that need to use the restroom and whole restroom trickling with germs! Plus, it's the middle of the winter. So I'm carrying coats, mittens, hats, diaper bag, and my purse. Where do you put all that when you are in the restroom?

With two little kids in tow, one potty trained and the other on the verge I'm more apt to sit at home. I'll let you know when I'm ready for an outing that involves more than a restroom.