Birthday Time

It was a low-key birthday at the Stahl house this year but still special. :) I got to "sleep in" until 6:20 when Lorelei was totally awake and did remember to tell me Happy Birthday after her dad had reminded her at about 6 before he left. Then when she walked out of her room she said, "Where your birthday Mom?" :) Since "birthday" equates decorations and piles of presents as far as she knows. :) Our big outing was the walk to the slide where the kids had more fun than usual and eventually even let me get a picture! Then Brad brought home a birthday cake and balloons and they were very happy to sing to me. :) My favorite would have to be our yummy steaks, potatoes and corn at 9 pm without listening to any sweet or unsweet voices. :) They were SO delicious and I'm thankful for a husband who will go grill in the cold and the dark for a special birthday dinner. :) So blessed to have both wonderful friends from so many places and family and extended family who sent greetings! Thanks to all of you!

Our Visitors

Time went by too fast while Grandma and Grandpa were here. We enjoyed just having a relaxing visit and staying close to home with lots of playing time...well we did go out quite a bit...to eat! :) What a great time the kids had having two extra people to play, cuddle, read...everything! And what a treat for Brad and I to get a break (even a coffee date!) from the kids and cooking and cleaning! We were all spoiled, loved every minute and are so very thankful they came to visit. Miss you already Grandma and Grandpa!

Our Sunday. Grandma and Grandpa amazingly survived our not-your-typical-Lutheran church without heart meds and then treated us to The Cheesecake Factory. After our afternoon coffee date we enjoyed roasting some marshmallows! Brad went to roast Makin's and instead of waiting he just went and grabbed one out of the bag. Who needs roasted? :)


I am always amazed at how happy and content our kids are when playing with grandparents. They have some kind of magical powers I think. :) What a blessing and how special they all are!



And our final night we met Brad on his way home at On The Boarder. So much fun! Makin even used the tortilla for his favorite peek-a-boo, and I finally remembered to get a three generations picture of the boys!

My new favorite Lorelei quote...Makin has started going "bbbbb" for "Brrr" and was saying that as we got into the car (yes it is cold now!) and Lorelei said, "It brrrrry outside isn't it May?" Pretty sure "brrry outside" is going to be my new favorite saying. :)

And just one from today that is also post-able....Brad was threatening to give away Lorelei's toys if she didn't clean up and said "Then I'll just take them to Goodwill." And Lorelei replied, "To Little Bill?" :)

We are very glad (although also very sad) that we will see Grandma and Grandpa soon when the come back in January for Makin's surgery. Won't be so much fun for us, but Lorelei will be well taken care of. :) Thanks for a great visit!

Relaxing Black Friday

No shopping this year!!! (My sister is probably growling at me after reading that for dragging her last year!) I have decided it will just depend on the sale whether or not I brave the crowds, and this year was not one of those years.

We spent the day playing, watching the Husker game, getting out a few decorations and the tree up but finding out we need new lights, resting :), and then topping it off with going to see a choreographed Christmas lights show at Frisco square. And in case the walker has you wondering, just remember Grandma got a new knee one month ago, so the kids are getting a big kick out of helping her get lots of exercise with her walker. :) Ah what fun it is to have two extra sets of hands to keep these kids entertained!

Our Thanksgiving

We are so thankful for our many, many blessings. Our Thankful tree was full of leaves and we saved them to see how her leaves next year compare. :) We are very excited that Grandma and Grandpa are here to celebrate with us and stay for some fun after too. We spent our Thanksgiving day relaxing after a previous very busy day of baking like crazy. Wednesday we got to play with the grandparents for a while after they arrived and then went out for a quick supper.

Keeping Grandma and Grandpa Busy Right Away!

Thursday we just lounged around and watched the parade before heading over to Bob and Di's for a late lunch. And sooo delicious! It was wonderful having extra family to spend the day with. Karen (Di's daughter in-law) and I took the kids to a nearby playground which also had a pond a few of us later explored. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and everyone had such a great time!





And these sisters have not spent Thanksgiving together in 40+ years! They didn't really care, but I thought it was pretty exciting to have them together for a holiday again. ;) And the one of Makin and the dog...they were having a stare off for that roll...hilarious! :)

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Little Bit of L and M

Had been jotting down a few notes and thought this would be a good time to share them! A few Lorelei quotes...

"I wear hood. I in the arctic." (To go outside with her winter coat.)

"Mom, you just passed post office." (As drove past it and that was where we needed to go...need caffeine!!!)

"Ugh!" (That would be her growling in frustration. And boy has that one gotten bad...and of course she learned it from the pro, yours truly...now we are both working on not growling. :) )

"Mommy. Use your inside voice."

She has a renewed love for her toy camera...but picks up some more nasty mom habits where I get to hear myself..."Say cheese! No, you move. It blurry. Sit still. Do it again. See?" Not always those all at once, but you get the idea. I am getting very good at standing still for the princess camera.

And this little man seems to be growing up fast as usual! When you take his picture...even pretend, he will now smile (sometimes) and say, "eeeee" for "cheese." He will also hold the toy camera to take our picture and tells us, "eeeee." :)

He believes silverware must be used at ALL times. Toast...trail mix...

He applauds everything. He finally got his first good bit of pizza the other night and after he ate it, he applauded it. :) Guess we have another pizza lover in the family!

We happened to catch a few minutes of Dancing With The Stars (have not watched at all this season) and he twirled around like the dancers on the TV and then when they ended with arms up, he threw his arms up in the air. :) He really has good rhythm in general and loves to move to the beat.

When you ask him a question like "What should you eat?" or "Which book should we read?" He says "Hmmm" with his finger to his mouth.

He gets Lorelei's bat, pics up the ball and hands it to us to pitch it to him. Then he usually ends up hitting it around like a golf ball when he can't hit the pitch. :)

Ah and the biggest craze lately. Anytime he gets in trouble, can hear a tone in my voice or I give him "the look" he cocks his head to the side like "you can't be mad at ME mom!?" OH man I am still working very hard not to laugh every time.

And had to share this one of the two of them. Our community "playground" is what I just call "the slide" since that's all it is. However, we have taken several walks over to the slide lately with the nice cool weather. Many times after afternoon nap. They only last 5-15 minutes there, but its nice to get some extra fresh air each day. They LOVE going down the slide together.

And as for the two of them...mostly sweetness together. They adore each other and Lorelei still looks out for her little brother and will speak up for him...and can even reach to hand him something in the car now! Very rarely they will play together, but it is starting to happen! Absolutely love it.

Community Support

Through a new friend Berkley, who is part of MOPS but I knew already through another Jenn from Concordia, I found out about a very special and brave little boy. She shared with me a couple of months ago that a little boy on her son's football team, Grayson, had just been diagnosed with leukemia. Five years old. A family friend (I think) does a blog www.whenskiesaregray.com if you would like to read more about their story and what they are going through. Grab a box of Kleenex though. It has given me many reminders to just love, hug my kids and be thankful that they are healthy.

This Sunday we went to a community fundraiser or Grayson's family. Many friends helped have a little shop set up and there were door prizes, face painting, balloon animal making and best of all, cupcakes! Boy were they good too!

We just ask that you keep Grayson and his family in your prayers.

Roasting Marshmallows

Second cold night...had to roast some marshmallows. They were soooo excited.

First Fire

In our fireplace! :)

Jammin Out

Wooden spoons make the best drum sticks you know? :)

Thanksgiving Mix

Each item in the mix has a different meaning for Thanksgiving we talked about while making it. So far she really likes to just eat the candy corns though. :)

In Love

With her first-ever snow globe!

She was fascinated with them at Hobby Lobby last week, and I thought my trip to Heather's was a great chance to get her a special surprise as long as she was good for her dad.

She keeps on saying "I love this Mommy. Thank you Mommy." Loves loves it.

Apologies for the picture...using this cell phone camera will make me appreciate ours even more. And I did not plan to take one, but I have already heard twice, "Take my picture Mommy." So here it is. :)

Broken Camera

And yes, I am going nuts! I finally realized after months of using it and getting frustrated that the flash never worked...it clicked that it was broken! And of course...the clicking in my brain didn't happen until right before the holidays! Anyway...crossing my fingers they get it fixed by Thanksgiving and hoping to use Grandma's while they are here if it isn't. Took a few pictures the day before I mailed it off to be fixed that I will post throughout the next couple of weeks to keep my readers sane, so at least you will have a few. :)

And this is the first of a few pictures we will spread throughout the next couple of weeks...and we'll see if we can upload from my phone too...maybe! :)

Sister Weekend

One of the great things about our move to Texas is living closer to all our family, and Heather is extra lucky since she is the closest! :) It was great to get to spend some sister time together, espcially since I have hardly gotten to visit with her since all of her medical craziness over the last few months... but its looking like she is finally getting better and sure hope it keeps it up and she continues to heal more quickly :)

We had originally planned a girls weekend with Amanda too, but decided to do that one in the spring instead...and so excited for that weekend away to look forward to!

It was a much-needed break to recharge my mommy batteries. We drank margaritas, ate OUT (realized how restaurant deprived I have been lately) shopped and watched Gilmore Girls. I even got to paint my toe nails and carry a purse without snacks! (Its the little things these days!) :)

Brad seemed to survive his weekend with the kids pretty well, but got an even bigger job when Lorelei woke up sick Sunday morning. He is such a trooper and seemed so glad to get some time with them to himself all weekend, although he was quite worn out! :) Lorelei is feeling better today.

So thankful for my sister to be my company for a weekend off, and Brad to let me have one! :)

The Step

Makin can finally step up and down from the patio without holding onto something! Before this he would just use a chair to get up and sit to get down, but so glad for this moment to come. :) Climbing on things is getting more and more tempting for him, and he is almost able to get up the "rock wall" to go down his little slide himself too. Learning pretty quickly...not sure I'm ready for this guy to be a climber!

November Finally Feels Like Fall

I'm going to blame the hot weather and lack of leaves changing colors on the fact that have done zero fall crafts until now...so after realizing that, Thanksgiving has launched me into full teacher mode and I am attempting to make up for lost time.

This means this week has been filled with a trip to Hobby Lobby for brown construction paper (why don't they have normal brown in packages???) and Brad helping me with a, "What Are You Thankful For?" tree, which then needed to be laminated at Mardel so we wouldn't have to do it every year! :) Thankful lamination is very cheap and so easy to run and do at this store. Then the kids also had fun at the train table.





On another note, we are keeping with our Tuesday story time each week and loving it. We also met a new friend there (how easy it is to meet people when your daughters start talking!) and have done some play dates with them. Aubry is 5 so there is a bit of the age difference, but they still have fun together. Aubry also has a younger sister, Morgan, who is almost 2, but about the same size as Makin. :) Anyway, we decided to meet up and head to Old Navy for their winter coats half price for Lorelei and the kids had fun with the winter hats while we were shopping. They have SO many fun ones this year. And Makin will probably complain the entire time he is wearing a hat, but had to get him one that he could not take off. He gave me a pretty dirty look. Boy does he look cute in hats though. :)

Makin and I got some great time just the two of us while Lorelei took a bit of a longer nap...much needed! Daylight savings has really thrown for these two for a loop!

So thankful for having all of these toys that Lorelei got at his age for him to enjoy! He seems to have gotten the hang of going forward pretty quickly, but also mostly just walks along instead of sitting and going, so still needs some extra practice. :)










Lorelei was very excited to put her leaves on the tree for the first time. She ended up doing 4 right away. My favorite is that she is thankful for apples and then she drew an apple family of four. :)

The day or two before I asked her what she was thankful for (mind you, sitting in Makin's room, no where near any food or having these for supper) and she said, "Jesus!...and tacos!" :)

Hoping to make sure and help Lorelei really get into Thanksgiving...and less than two weeks left! And can't wait for our visit from Grandma and Grandpa!!! :)

Simple Weekend

Well, I'm apparently still being taught a lesson in patience, as I continue to have big "To Do" lists each weekend, and we are lucky to get half the things done...but one thing we did get partially done was getting more of the garage organized. We had one big box that was still sitting there to unpack, and in it was the beloved slide that has been missing for nearly a year now. And this was the highlight of the weekend. Makin would just laugh and squeal in delight after going down the slide. I think it helps he can land on grass instead of boards on the balcony...or maybe its just because he's a boy. :) They had lots of fun, although now it is more working on keeping them nice to each other while they try and share it. :) We were very thankful for something old keeping them entertained this weekend! :)

The picture of the two of them we are singing "Here We Go Go Go On An Adventure" from Cat In The Hat. :)



And the time change + donut and candy at church...well lets just say Brad and I got to have a lunch date as both kids took a nap asap after getting home from church. They had a very late lunch and Makin insisted on using a fork. Lately he is big on silverware and I guess its good to let him get used to using it. Just another thing to take away for a few weeks in January...but will just deal with that when it happens. Oh and of course, sour cream was a huge it. :)




And another highlight of the weekend was realizing Makin knows many body parts! :) I mean, we have known he understands pretty much everything we are saying, but it seems like a whole other moment when you say "mouth" and they point to their mouth, etc. So far we know he knows mouth, nose, eyes, ears, feet and tummy/belly. :) And boy is it hard to quiz him when big sister likes to distract. :) Oh well!

Watchin Airplanes

"I'm just sittin right here watching airplanes. Take off, and fly..." :) Pretty sure most of our readers don't listen to country, but this song keeps going through my brain on our many afternoons spent watching airplanes. :) We are close enough to the airport we see lots of traffic in the afternoons and both kids love it. Makin especially! Lorelei and I like to talk about where they are going...usually deciding on the Disney World to see Mickey and Goofy option. :) Love spending these afternoons with them.

Happy Halloween!

A day late from Kitty and Superman! :)

Our day was not as fun-filled as I would have liked, but we did eat Halloween mac and cheese for lunch. :)



In the evening, we made up for it with lots of fun! :)


And this is what the two kiddo's looked like trick-or treating!

Funny thing about Makin's costume...I wanted him to be a lion this year, but every time I tried one on he immediately started crying and pulling the hood off. So, we had to go with something that did not go on the head. He was a very cute little Superman, but hoping next year he will be okay with some head wear! :)





We headed over to Josie's 3rd birthday party! The highlight was the face painter getting them all decked out for Halloween!

Sorry for the blurry pic, but just had to show how much Josie loves Makin. When they came by the house the other day we heard Addy yell, "Lorelei!" and then Josie followed with, "Makin!" Our little super-hero had some black marks on his forehead from Minnie Mouse giving him little nose rubs. :)

And of course, yummy cupcakes!

The group heading out to trick or treat.

The first three kids I don't know...they are neighbors, then Brynn Lee is Cinderella and we will probably have play-dates with her sometime, her mom and dad also went to Concordia and enjoy getting to visit with them too, then Noah, Lorelei, Matthew, Addy, Mia (Noah, Matthew and Mia are siblings, another friend we sort-of know, and Lorelei loves Mia when she gets to play with her) and then Josie...and guess who forgot she was holding Makin so didn't get him in the pic!? :)


Makin trick or treating...and this is about 30 seconds of him walking and that was about all the walking he did. And I did not bring a stroller. Why did I think a 1 year old would walk the whole way when it was almost his bed time? Things you learn... And the biggest thrill of the night was not the candy...it was the dogs!!! People taking their dogs trick or treating or people who had dogs in/at their house. Both kids were elated. Jenn Wormer (we now have two Jens to keep track of!) got her first real dose of Lorelei's doggie craziness and said, "Wow. I have never seen anyone love animals so much in my whole life!" :) Yep, that's our girl!

Brad stayed home and got some much needed rest after work, before later joining our neighbors on the curb passing out candy. Glad he was there to get a chance to chat with them. Apparently the kids don't make the effort to walk up the hill that is our street, so they bring the candy down to the curb! Thinking next year we may grill hot dogs while we pass out candy! :)

And of course our Lorelei quotes of the night...

As I was putting her shoes on to leave she asked why she had to wear shoes and I said my usual, "Why do you think?" And she replied, "Because we could step on glass...or rocks...or dog poop!" :)

Coughing on the drive home while enjoying a sucker...followed by, "I took too big a lick!" :)