Merry Christmas 2011!!

We didn't get to make our usual trip to California this year, so we made Christmas at home, just us. It was definitely sad at moments - missing the rest of the family - but mostly it was really fun making great memories with the kids.

Earlier in the week we tried our hand at making Christmas cookies. I am no baker, so it was interesting! It all worked out quite well, and I must say they were delicious! Gregory enjoyed helping at every stage and did all the sprinkles himself. He really let his creativity shine!



We decked our halls and even though we didn't get a white Christmas, it felt quite homey and festive. Well what Christmas tree and mountain of presents doesn't feel festive? Gregory could barely wait until dawn broke before getting started on the unwrapping! Many thanks to all those that sent gifts - each and every one is truly appreciated! Your thoughtfulness made us all feel so special!


Hope you all had as lovely a Christmas as we had!

Four Months in Pictures

I'm not even going to try to make excuses for why I don't update this blog more often. Sorry, I wish I could to better, but its pretty low on the priority list. Its not that I don't want to share pictures, its just that I barely get any computer time at all these days. Not to mention, we forget to take pictures most of the time too. The kids move too fast, and most of them turn out blurry anyway!

So, without further ado, here's what we have for summer and fall!

My garden! Deer ate the beets and chard, but thankfully a lot of that grew back. The summer was too late and not hot enough to make very many decent tomatoes, but we got plenty of cherry tomatoes. Asher ate every last one of them - he wouldn't let anyone else have any! The squash and zucchini didn't produce, but we did get plenty of little carrots and green beans. I learned a lot and will do things differently next year, for sure!


A great picture from Dan's birthday. I love how even the dog is smiling!

From 2011-07-28

Gregory painted his face at the Children's Museum

From 2011-08-04

From 2011-08-04

We found a wonderful bike for Gregory on Craigslist! He loves it and is able to ride it all the way to the park and back - still with training wheels but he is getting better and better. When he started he could barely figure out how to pedal, or steer, let alone both together. So he has really come a long way! I bet next summer the training wheels will come off pretty quickly. Of course, Asher has to do everything big brother does, and doesn't like to miss out on any fun!


Asher took his first steps in California back in July, but it took him until about the first of October to really start walking! Of course, he is still climbing everything, and now running around too. Here are some pics of him enjoying his food. He loves to use his utensils and eats almost anything you offer. He often eats more than Gregory at any given meal! Now he is doing a lot more communicating, using signs, nodding yes and no, and even saying some words, so he likes to tell us what he wants and doesn't want. He is obsessed with apples and repeats "apple, apple, apple" when he sees one. Its so fun to know some of his thoughts! He clearly understands everything we say, and we can get a lot of information from him by asking yes or no questions. Maybe I should get some video of that, he is so cute!


We have a simply enormous oak tree in the front yard, and 3 more in the back. The amount of raking is kind of ridiculous. I think Dan and Gregory must have filled over 50 yard waste bags through the course of the season. At least they had fun, and the weather was mild. It didn't really turn cold until Thanksgiving!


Fall is apple season, especially in the midwest, and there are a plethora of harvest activities. We took the boys to this orchard festival, where they had all kinds of fun. Train rides, face painting, places to climb, haystacks to jump off of, a musician and kids musical instruments, apple cider, hot dogs, apple donuts, etc. etc.!


I was a doula for several births this fall, but I did get a chance to escape to Omaha for a few days in between clients. Wow it was so awesome to see those dear friends again! Then we took off for 10 days to California for Uncle Benny and Tita Liz's wedding. Asher instantly took to Grandpa Nick, and was glued to him whenever he was around! It was so cute! His hair was getting pretty long - lots of lovely baby curls - but with the wedding coming up, we decided it was time to tidy it up, so I gave him his first haircut. If anyone recalls the disaster that was Gregory's first haircut, you'll understand that I insisted on doing it myself and made sure he kept some of those sweet curls!


The wedding was held at Las Rocas Resort in Rosarito, Mexico. We loved the old charm of the hotel and had a great suite. The weather was a little chillier that we would have hoped for, but we still had a great time. Just a little less swimming that we thought. The food was amazing, and thankfully no one got sick, which was one of Dan's biggest concerns. In fact, the Lobster dinner we had the night before the wedding was one of the best meals we've ever experienced! The fresh tortillas were absolutely huge and the soup was amazing. Not to mention the fresh lobster, and margaritas! Everyone looked beautiful for the wedding, of course, especially Liz! It was truly a weekend full of fun!


After the wedding we had a few days to hang out, and had planned on mostly helping Ben and Liz move into their new home. But my Grandma Juanita's condition quickly deteriorated and she passed away on Monday, October 17th. Plans changed and it was decided that Asher and I would stay through the weekend to be with the family and attend the funeral, and Dan and Gregory would return to Minnesota as planned. It was sad to realize that Grandma was gone and wouldn't be with us for the holidays, to play games and share emails online, or to visit with. She was a month shy of her 90th birthday. But she was blessed by a relatively quick and painless end to her long and productive life, and she gave us all the gift of being able to be together a little longer and share our memories of her. Cousin Sarah and her little son Alex came out, as did several other family members that hadn't been able to come for the wedding. We shared many meals and many hours enjoying each other, playing with the kids, and helping to organize Grandma's belongings. Claire, Sarah, and I took the little ones to the pumpkin patch, where they had a great time. Asher even insisted on going down the giant slide, and he loved it. Alex wasn't too sure about the carousel, though!


After a red-eye flight home, the rest of October disappeared with me being gone to a 4-day birth! We had a couple of normal weeks in the beginning of November, then took off again. This time to North Dakota for 10 days, for Auntie Kim and Uncle Troy's wedding and Thanksgiving. Kim's wedding was lovely, but somehow I didn't manage to get our camera out for that at all! Thank goodness for photo sharing on Facebook! The week of Thanksgiving didn't go as smoothly, though. Asher suffered a dislocated elbow on Tuesday and we were in the doctor's office for several hours. There, we all caught lots of wonderful germs. By Weds night, Asher was vomiting everywhere. Dan and I took turns going to family Thanksgiving dinners. Poor little Ash! He and I also ended up with a sinus infection from that lovely doctor's office too. Ah well, we still had fun! Grandma Bonnie and the boys played and played. They even went over to the Hogan Pioneer Farm on Thanksgiving morning and rode horses and visited their 1-day old puppies! Then on Saturday morning we were all feeling decent enough to go visit Santa and go for a covered wagon ride in Mandan with the Hogan cousins.


Finally headed home and looking forward to nesting in now that the weather has actally turned cold. When we got home, we found out that we had been exposed to the chicken pox, so we waited a few days and sure enough, Gregory broke out in spots on Tuesday. First one, the next day 10, the next day maybe 20-30, now they are pretty much all over, but its not a terrible case. He sure feels just fine - it hasn't really slowed him down at all. Asher amazingly doesn't have them, but that is not unheard of in kids who are breastfeeding - the mom's immunity gets passed to them so they don't get it. I guess we'll have to get him his own pox when he's older! Lots of kids came by to catch them from us - its definitely best to try to get them over with before kindergarten and we do have a lot of preschool age friends! Of course, then I came down with the stomach flu on Thursday night - we are hoping our little friends didn't catch that as well! So here I sit with extra time to update the blog - because I'm too sick to get up and do anything else! Ah well, I figure we are getting all our winter sickness out of the way at once and can look forward to several healthy months. That's the plan, anyway! We'll be staying home for Christmas this year - a rarity since we always go to California. But after 2 wedding trips there this year, its not in the budget. Still, it will be kind of special to have our own Christmas here at home. We've already got some decorations up inside, and will hopefully feel up to getting a tree and putting up outside lights this weekend. Pictures to come, I suppose! Hopefully I won't wait until April to put them on the blog!