Picture Post

This post is going to be predominantly pictures with little explanation. One of our favorite things is when my sister and her children come to visit. Ethan LOVES playing with the Christiansens, he especially loves to follow Crede around. Well, the first thing that happened when they got here is Sofi pooped through her clothes for the 2nd time that day, which means Nik had nothing clean to put her in. Lucky for Sofi, I had a pair of jammies that were too small for Ethan that I hadn't put away yet. The funny thing is that they were exactly like the ones he was already wearing! So we have Sofi dressing like a boy and Ethan utterly confused.

The next thing that happened were the older kids (Beck, Kaiya, and Crede) found Ethans Christmas present. 

Last night, two things happened. Kurt came home early and took the family sledding for family home evening! It was SO much fun!!! Also, Ethan grew out of his slippers, so he got new ones. He loves his floppy slippers.

Sweet Kisses

The video is not very clear since it was taken from my phone, but when we went to see Grandpa,  Ethan just ran over to this picture and did this. I scrambled to get my phone out and had to ask him to do it for the recording,

but we were both surprised and touched as he had run up out of nowhere and did this. Cute little guy.

Kurt

Gritchy Lady

So my wonderful husband and I go and see his grampa at the assisted living place a few times a month. He's a funny old man who always tells us how he and his wife had dogs all their married life, but he hates cats cuz they won't play with you like a dog will. 'good puppy, good puppy. I like you'. (that is said as the dog licks all over his face) Well, lately I have brought my music with me and I will put on a mini amateur piano concert for him. He loves it! You wouldn't believe the response I get, I feel like an absolute rock star! All the residence suddenly come out of their rooms with their walkers and wheel chairs just to sit and listen. So we went up today, and I brought grampa out and started playing again. This was only our third time doing this, but I was already out of songs to play. So I started playing the song Waterfall by Jon Schmidt. I was playing quieter than normal, 1- the piano wasn't that great and 2- I didn't want to scare grampa. Then this cute old lady comes creeping down the hallway and said something to grampa, he didn't hear her and so he says: "what?" Then she yells "TOO LOUD!!!!"

   

I felt dumb. I didn't play any more songs after that... she kinda scared me.... gritchy old lady.

Oh Memories

These past few weeks I have been reminiscing about the good ole high school days and all the fun they were. I hated school, and I typically slept through 1st hour. Aside from spanish and seminary, there was really nothing there that interested me. My favorite thing about high school were all the different people and cliques. You have the jocks, the punks, the cowboys that always hung around the stairs just east of the commons area and spit on people who came up the stairs (needless to say, those stairs were pretty unused). Then there's the cheerleaders, the caprielles, the valedictorians, the druggies, and the goths.  My friends and I were considered the 'norm', or at least that is what one of the goths told me one day. 

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I found it fascinating to watch all of these different people and how they interacted with each other, or for some, the lack of interaction. Looking back, I am surprised at how much everyone wanted to be accepted, even the renegades and rebels who did things to make people cringe, still wanted that acceptance and approval, even if it was being an approved punk. Everyone wanted their place. I remember one of the punks who was told that he couldn't wear his studded pants to school anymore. After explaining that he didn't have anything else, this administrator told him that he still couldn't wear those pants. So the next day, he came to school in his underwear!!! He was arrested (of course) but he was the most popular unpopular kid at school the rest of the year. 

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Lately I have made new friends with a lot of the people that I went to high school with. Now that we all realized how lame it was to separate ourselves because of our status, reputation, and financial situation, we have come to realize that we all have more in common than we thought possible. I hope that we instill in our children the importance of accepting everyone, regardless of their background. 

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I have also rekindled relationships with people that I was good friends with, but because of misunderstandings and miscommunications, we lost touch with each other. That has been the most rewarding of all, to be able to talk out differences that we may have had, and then truly put it behind us.  I love my Kurty, and I would have and will follow him anywhere and everywhere he goes, but it was difficult to move and leave everything I knew and loved behind. If anyone is put in that same situation and has to move down this way, leaving your previous life behind you, know that you will at least know one person. Here are to memories, past and future!

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(I will post pictures later, after I raid my moms computer)

Smarty Pants

I was marveling today at how intelligent my little boy is!  He is 15.5 months and he knows 20 words, 6 animal sounds or actions, and 5 body parts. Plus, he knows how to whistle... seriously. At this moment he is pouring milk all over himself and laughing his head off.

 So, just to keep track so I don't forget:

Words

 (keep in mind that these are not perfectly pronounced, but they are consistently the same thing that sounds close to the word, ie: bottle = baba)

1. up

2. down

3. bottle

4. drink

5. more

6. mama

7. dada

8. dog

9. please

10. thank you

11. bite (this is a new one today)

12. sock

13. help

14. yes

15. this

16. light

17. hat

18. Jesus

19. hot

20. again

Playing ninja. His dad put this head sock on him and he left it on the rest of the night.

Animals Sounds

1. kitty

2. lion

3. snake

4. fish

5. woodpecker (he hits his forhead against yours)

6. lizard (sticks his tongue in and out)

Playing horsie

Body Parts

1. tongue

2. nose

3. ear

4. belly and belly button (when you ask for the button he gets tickled)

5. eye (he won't point to his own, he points to mama's)

This is a permanent home decoration for us. I plug this fan in every time I cook, otherwise the fire alarm ends up going off.

Anyway, my boys a genius, I know...  I'm not biased or anything. :)  Children are truly amazing, to think that just 4 months ago he couldn't even walk and now he's almost running and pulling things around. And 4 months or so before that he was completely immobile! Incredible!

Great News!!!

Kurt just auditioned to be in a choir that is singing Carmina Burana and he made it!!! He and his father will be singing in a choir lead by Craig Jessop!

Palachinki

My family has requested the crepe recipe from my dear mother in law and her Czech heritage.  There really isn't a super exact recipe, but here goes.

1 egg

3/4 cup (ish) flour

milk

You add the milk until it is a pretty runny consistency. Then you ladle into a frying pan and kinda swirl it around (make sure the pan has been pre-heated with med-low heat)  then flip it when it's a golden brown.  

On the inside you put melted butter, lemon juice, and powdered sugar. Then you roll it up and pour syrup on top. Yummy!