Birthday Fun

My birthday this year involved pancakes made for me for breakfast followed by a trip out shopping kid-free with my sister. (Which also involved coffee and custard!) Then when we got home Brad had slaved away on cheesy potatoes and a cake, so we had my favorite meal followed by cake. (And Brad got an even greater appreciation for his multi-tasking wife. ;) I'm not sure he has ever spent so many consecutive hours in a kitchen.) Even Google knew it was my birthday. ;)

Thanks for the extra-special day Brad and Heather!

Showing Aunt Heather "Our" Zoo

Fearlessly walking the rope bridge in the rainforest! :)

Aunt Heather is a zoo buff like myself, so we couldn't have her here and not make sure she got to the Omaha Zoo, since she had never been. Brad worked from the restaurant that overlooked the rainforest, so we all enjoyed the trip and Brad fit in a little fun too.

It was chilly, but still doable to walk to even the buildings a good distance away from the entrance, as well as make a trek for Makin's beloved giraffes (all the way across to the other side!) so was a great day for the zoo for sure!

Our Monkeys Hangin Out

Enjoying Lunch Overlooking The Rainforest

Loving The Aquarium

I think she thinks this is WAY more fun than me dragging her to Black Friday sales...but hey I'm still loving those $5 comfy pants... ;)

Thanksgiving 2013

We were excited to have Heather visit us over her Thanksgiving weekend this year. We have been missing her visits as we got to see her a lot when we lived closer. :)

We watched the parade while eating cinamon scones.

Lorelei said her favorite part was the turkey flapping his wings. Makin's favorite was the one with the trucks.

Heather prepared a chicken to roast since I discovered last year turkey and I don't get along. The chicken turned out great. :)

We chatted with Uncle AJ on the phone and skype and then called Grandma and Grandpa and chatted a while on Skype as well. One of Brad's cousins even brought in a kitty from outside for Lorelei to see! :)

Just had to throw in our group shot from 2010, the last time Heather visited us for Thanksgiving. :) Time flies!

Brad and Heather said they would be up for getting some work done on decorating for Christmas since we had a couple of busy days planned ahead I was not sure when I would get it done. We got the tree up and then worked on the ornaments the next few days with the kids. As you can see we are an amusing decorating group.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Helping Mommy

I wholeheartedly agree that chores are important for kids. So, SO important. I just haven't made the super-cute chore charts I have planned from Pinterest yet! So, my kids don't have to do them each day right now...and in reality not until after January at this rate! I always feel horribly guilty when I spent an entire day cleaning. I like to set aside time each day for at least 20-30 minutes uninterrupted playtime with them, and on days like this (preparing for visitors/a holiday) it just doesn't happen. It makes me feel so much better when they ask me what they can do to help, and are so HAPPY when they help with jobs around the house.

So, I guess character-building days brought on by chores are good for them too, even though we'd all rather be doing something a bit more fun. ;)

Also...if any of you other moms have any advice for better balance with the cleaning to be done around the house and a schedule that works for you, let me know! :)

Dino Art, Popcorn, and Sweet Moments

Just had to share one of Lorelei's drawings, especially for Uncle A.J. She loves the long-neck dinosaurs! :)

We are converted to popping fresh pop corn! No more of the microwave stuff for us! (Well, we do have to finish what we have in the pantry...) I had been toying with the idea since our family loves popcorn so much, this is cost effective and much healthier, so we tried popping our own and are hooked. :)

Just one of those times where I love that I am there for so many everyday moments for my kiddos. I love that Lorelei is content to color on the counter while I do dishes after she wakes up from a short nap.

(Right after this she got a workbook in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa and then did several pages before the "littles" aka Makin and Drue woke up. She was SOOO excited to get that book. Thank you! :)  And we have loved our new Thanksgiving books Nana and Papa!!!)

Bouncing At The Y

One Saturday a month the YMCA has bounce houses set up for the kids in the afternoon. We had early nap and then met friends for some bouncing. They closed up earlier than they were supposed to so the kids did not get in nearly enough bounce time, but it was definitely the highlight of their weekend. (Makin is totally game for bouncing now. I did have to go with him down the huge slide, though.)

First Snow Of The Season

All day Thursday the kids were excitedly looking out the window for the predicted snow.

They were thrilled that there was enough snow to play the next morning and were asking to go out the second they got up, even though it was still dark. You can probably tell the sun is barely up in this picture. :)

They made snow angels and then mostly played with the construction trucks in the snow. I told them it was too cold and early for me so they were on their own. Just snuck a few pics from the window. They stayed out at least 30 minutes so I was impressed, especially with Makin who isn't as much of a snow fan as his big sis. Oh what fun they will have when we get a big snow! :)

Mid-November Hodge Podge

We finally put some leaves we found to use and made some window decorations. :) I just put laminating paper over them after they finished (no blue tape left) and hung them in the middle.

Some notable moments with Lorelei...the shoes thing has been going on a while and I forgot to post it and now finally took a picture so I'd remember. This is how she likes to wear her shoes. Intentionally X instead of the way they usually go. Bottom right is her proud of her bottle of anti bacterial she got at Family Night for learning 5 Bible verses. Its fun to see how proud she was of earning it and thinking of where she will get germs on her hands so she can use it. :) The top picture was on U day and we totally did not realize she wore a unicorn shirt on U day until she saw it in her book.

Old Man Winter is about to rear his ugly head. We have been thankful for weather mostly in the mid to upper 50s this week. I wanted to make sure we got outside as much as we could before we have months of not wanting to get out at all.

She looked old to me a lot this day so had to take a pic. :) Growing so fast!

We made a trip to Omaha to get going on Christmas shopping. Lorelei doesn't have much of a list so I wanted her to look around something other than Walmart to get some ideas. We also met up with Alea, and of course enjoyed the play area at the mall and Barnes and Noble.

We spent as much of the day outside as we could on Wednesday. Two trips to the park. Lots of playing in the dirt and got about all the sports equipment out we could find. Football seemed pretty picture-worthy this time around. It is funny to watch these two with their version of tackle football. :) The top right pic Makin is showing Lorelei how to hold the ball for him to kick.

Small Changes

My plan was to start a home-sitting business as soon as we moved to Columbus. With the timing of our move, school was starting right away so most of my contacts had already found someone. We decided to wait it out and just watch children of people through connections. Last week we met with a family we knew when we were here 6 years ago who helped launch 1C. They need someone to watch their daughter twice a week because the grandparents who usually watch her are having some medical issues. So, this may be only a couple of months or may be longer, but for the next couple of months we now have a little girl named Drue joining us on Mondays and Wednesdays. (We also are finalizing plans for two girls to start mid-January. Their mom is a teacher so we will still have school breaks and they will leave around four, which I love!)

I'm not a big fan of change, but I'm trying to let this settle without being a basket case. Both kids had a few moments of meltdowns on Drue's first day, so there is definitely going to be a bit of transition period needed for all of us to get used to it. I'm thankful that we have a sweet girl with great manners for the kids to play with. I'm thankful that we can have a month and a half of getting used to twice a week before we have more kids a full five days each week. I'm thankful that I have had three and a half months of settling in and just enjoying my two kids all to myself before anyone started.


On Monday, while Drue was still there Lorelei decided she wanted to add a thankful leaf to our tree. She was thankful for Drue. When I asked Makin his best parts of the day he said, "golfing and playing with Drue." Regardless of my worries on how this will change us and affect them, they are embracing it and being such troopers on sharing their toys and their mommy. :)

Lor's picture. And yes, Drue has red hair in real life too. :)

This And That

Lorelei

This girl has amazing coloring stamina. The day I took this picture she colored for a full hour in the morning (with about a 10 min break for breakfast) and then almost another full hour that afternoon.

Although we still have plenty of,  "Seriously? You are five...haven't you grown out of that?" moments around here, I have some "awe" moments too. Mostly having to do with her being a big sister. One I have really noticed is how she is being much sweeter about Makin's art work. This is not his strongest area, not to mention the two year difference it makes in coloring abilities, so she was a little harsh a while back. Now she excitedly compliments his pictures and talks about how much she likes them. So nice when you can see they are listening sometimes!

She was up in her tree and bonked her head when she stood up. (no tall ceilings here!) I said jokingly, "You hit your head on a cloud. (since the ceiling is white I say they are clouds above our tree) Kinda a hard cloud huh?"  She replied, "It must be frozen!" :)

She has a made up word for bummer/shucks kind of saying. Instead she says, "Boomers!" I just realized both my kids have their own made up words for this...

She likes to throw in "Dun Dun Dunnnn!" occasionally and not always correctly. Example: "Somebody is having bad manners...dun dun dunnn, Makin!"

"Mommy, my hands are just as colorful as this paper!" (marker all over them)

I explained I knew how to lift the hay-bale we got for our fall decorations out of the trunk and onto the porch because I am a farm girl. For days/weeks after that every time I did something she thought was cool or tough she would say, "Because you are a farm girl?"

She was picking out a pair of stick-on earrings for a trip to the mall. "Which ones look mall-ee?" :)

For some reason she compares everything to a shark. As _____________ (insert words like hungry, careful, fast) as a shark. No idea where that came from.

Lorelei was asking about people who were still asleep on the other side of the world. I gave her the only example I know, my friend, Luke. I explained he lived in Japan...
L: Japan!?! That means he will never grow up!
Me: (looking at her incredulously) Can you explain that?
L: Daddy said Japan will never grow up.
Me: Do you mean Peter Pan?
L: Yeah. He lives there.
***Brad would like a disclaimer that he did, in fact, tell her Never Never Land was where Peter Pan lives. ;)

(Playing Coffee Shop)
L: I'm letting him have coffee, even though he is two.
Me: But you know he is going to be "Aahhh!" crazy.
L: Well, you know, different mommies have different rules!

Makin

(Just love this pic of Makin. Our sporty smartie. :) )

Me: Makin Bradley!
M: Mommy Stahl!

"Lorelei, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
(And then they usually play their made up game they call the oopsies game.)

(At the library looking at the fish.)
M: Mommy, that fish talking to me.
Me: Oh yeah? What's he saying?
M: I don't know. I don't speak fish.

He has made up words he says that are similar to the meaning "Ah, man" Or "Bummer"
It is usually either "Gokeys" ore "Gahkeys".

I cracked up over three different things he said in the span of about 5 minutes while I was getting him ready for family pictures:
"Is this churchy and pictury?"
(We were listening to their Bible verse song to practice and it was "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.") "I don't know my evil song."
"I look spiffy."

He loves to be right. Happy to point it out to you every chance he gets. "I was wite!"

His current favorite big word is ginormous.

We may have been boosting his ego just a tad too much...now when you ask him, "How do you know that?!" He replies simply, "Cuz I smart." :)

(Lorelei crying because he hit her with something...)
"But it's not bleeding..."

I was reading The Bernstein Bears Bad Habit and asked the kids if they thought they had any bad habits. Makin quickly said, "Yes. Getting into trouble."

(Picking out a muffin.) "Is it the chocolate chipiest?"

We Love Leaves In The Fall

Some New Friends

So this is a bit out of order, I forgot about these pics because they were on my phone.

This was on Thursday last week. :)

Through yet another Concordia connection, we have had a couple of fun play dates with the Walls. Lorelei and Stephanie are the two older girls, and although Stephanie is in first grade, if we meet up with them the girls stick together. Benjamin is the same age as Lorelei. He ends up playing with both sets of kiddos. They also have Elijah who is two. This particular day the kids came walking out for a pretend wedding.

I have been reminded lately of how social Miss L is and am definitely going to focus more on making sure we have time with friends her own age. They are very happy to have some friend time!

Library and Leaf Time With Daddy

I was gone for 24 hours for a Women's Retreat Friday night and most of Saturday. Brad did a wonderful job taking care of the kids while I was gone. The library has activities once a month so Brad took them for the first time. They loved introducing him to Mr. H and enjoying the various projects.

He also shopped for rakes and after they got home they loved raking leaves together, jumping into the pile and throwing them at each other. They all had such a fun time! :)

Early November Activities

The Park

So gorgeous here in the fall. They loved riding bikes and getting sandbox and playground time too!

Letters And Geography

We were covering N and O this week when learning our letters...so I decided we needed to learn about two of our favorite states. :) Was so fun looking up info from each state and teaching the kids about it. They had never had Kool Aid which was invented in Nebraska, so we had to make our first batch and give it a try. :)

Did you know the first shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma!?! I didn't! :) Oklahoma has the best state rock. The rose rock. :) I looked it up and Lorelei looked at the pictures online to draw her own. You can also see that she wrote "rose rock" on her own. :) Also had to sneak in a chance to watch a video clip with songs from the movie Oklahoma! :)

Warm Treats

I haven't made hot chocolate yet, so the kids have enjoyed apple cider if they want a warm drink. They also discovered they like oatmeal! Yay!

Proud Mom

I am loving how good the kids are at keeping themselves busy while I do chores. I still hear plenty "play with me" each day, but we are getting a good balance of both. I was doing something in the kitchen and just loved how nice both kids were keeping occupied without a peep. Later that day they had the hallway covered with blankets and pillows for their animal beds. I couldn't walk, but don't care when they are playing so nicely! They are also doing a great job learning their letters. :)

Happy Sunday

Happiness...

Brother and sister coloring together so sweetly.

Taking a walk to church with plenty of fall leaves to crunch.

Playing at the playground on the way home.

Hugs from kiddos.

Pretty great way to spend a Sunday morning. :)

Moose Day!

I really want to have a fun theme day once a week...and Fridays just seem like a good fit since Fridays are supposed to be extra fun right? I'm not sure I will do this every week, but hoping so!

When I started planning my first Friday Theme Day and I kinda forgot how the day after Halloween feels for a mom...I really just wanted to lay down and do nothing, but it was still a really fun day.. :)

I had a list of the activities I had planned for the day. During breakfast the kids helped me decide the order of our activities. First, we played "Duck, Duck, Moose." Each child happens to have a stuffed moose, so they joined us in the game as well...you need as many players as you can get!

Next we looked up facts about moose, including listening to the sounds they make, since that was one of the questions Lorelei asked. I was not very educated on moose, so I thought I would share a few of the fun facts we found during our research.

Moose eat leaves, twigs, pond weed (summers), bark and pine cones (winter). They have a good sense of smell and can find plants under the snow. Its hard to describe the sound...something like a cow and a bear? :) They can weigh 1,800 lbs and have the largest antlers in the world. They are good swimmers, can swim for miles and can even stay under water for 30 seconds. Baby moose can outrun a person at only 5 days old.

Your Welcome.


We then read our moose books in the top of the tree, including one of my favorites, If You Give A Moose A Muffin. Muffins were baking while we read, so we got to eat our muffins while we read our favorite.

Our Moose Books

We then did a few activities to go with the book. First we made puppets similar to the book (moose and mouse). Zero sewing I might add. :) Love my hot glue gun. Then we drew and painted scenery for our puppet show (just like in the book of course) and then the kids put on a puppet show. For lunch we had moose sandwiches (thank you pinterest).

We made our own version of Moose Munch for snack that afternoon. It was pretty yummy! :) We also attempted a craft but Makin didn't want to do it because it involved putting paint on his hands. :) So, it was just a Lorelei moose craft.

Loved Moose Day! :)