Christmas 2011



Bing and Britta came down to celebrate Christmas with us.  We had a wonderful Danish Christmas Eve dinner followed by a festive church service.  We all gathered in the morning to unwrap Christmas presents!

Oliver opens up his new truck from Auntie.

Oliver has been having fun with Brooke's toys all his life.  This was the time to break into the world of trucks, power tools, and sports balls.  He was in HEAVEN!

Oliver knew where to go with his tools!  He spent lots of time fixing the pantry door that he watched his Daddy build!

Even Brooke got into the action!

Grandpa John helped open some toys.

Brooke has been very involved in art lately, so many of her toys had to do with coloring, painting and stamping.  She got right to work!

We took a short morning trip to Leavenworth.

The McCabe family in the Bavarian Village!

It's been an exciting week with company, presents and lots of laughter.  Time to take a break and watch some "Dragon Tales".



Our family.  Oliver is now 19 months and Brooke is almost 3 1/2 years old!

The kids LOVE their Grandma Britta!

Britta came down to babysit for us while we had a busy weekend for our local symphony.  Then she went home, worked and turned around to come back down again!

Inside Play

Getting everyone to smile at the same time is still challenging!

As the temperature outside dropped and the kids got colds, we have spent quite a bit of time inside.  There has been hardly any snow in December, so we are going to be so excited to enjoy that part of winter in January and February (hopefully!).

Brooke dances with her Olivia doll.

Brooke has been enjoying playing dress up with her various tutu's and other fashion items.  Then she dances around the living room like a ballerina.

After Thanksgiving, the Elf on the Shelf arrived and made each morning an Elf hunt!  Once in a while, he did silly things like make "snow" angels!

We definitely got messy.  The finger paints came out this day and the kids had a great time!

Brooke's picture was orderly...

and Oliver's was not!

It's sure getting colder as we near the end of November!  We tried to get the kids out for a few adventures.  It's sure not as easy as in the summer sun!  Oliver loved chasing "E-E" (Kitty).  I'm not sure that Kitty enjoyed it as much as him.

We went on a big walk over to the neighbor's house to feed the horses.  The kids were all bundled up in the winter finest!

He's in there somewhere!

Brooke was brave with the horses, even giving them a pat!  She had a big smile on her face the whole time!

Brooke wanted Grandpa Bing to go on ALL the adventures.  Here he is helping Oliver find his way through the "forest".

A treasure!  Must bring it home to show Grandma Britta!

Big Horn Sheep

We headed north to Gpa and Gma Chalmers' house on Thanksgiving.  We were lucky enough to spot these big horn sheep along the way!

They were munching away and didn't seem to mind us one bit!

This one was exciting to watch as he easily maneuvered his way around the rock cliff.

As we drove by, they scurried up on the railroad tracks.  How cool was that!

Crafty Mom

I've been having fun making little fabric flowers.  Brooke is a nice model for me too!

Creativity First!

I remember hating fuzzy sticks when I was young.  I'm not sure why!  I bought a pack and forced myself to play with them.  The kids love making flowers, designs, and glasses!

Such funny kids!

Our house is a complete mess right now.  Toys everywhere, paper, stickers, and random things line the floor and the counters.  Kent has been out of the house for about a week with a music conference and busy evenings with the band and I have been either "single-Mommying" it or laying around with the stomach flu.  Yuck!  Things are looking up though.  We plan on cleaning today and having a great Thanksgiving!

The house will get messy and clean, but the most important time is time spent with our children.  For me, I love to see them grow musically and artistically.  I've been super happy to see Brooke's love for painting and "three-dimensional" art!  My favorite watercolor was the one on the bottom which is a flower, grass and the sun!

And I really like this one.  The bugs walking on the grass with the stars and a flying bug in the sky.  So cute!

First Snow

Fun in the Snow

The Many Faces of Oliver

We had Oliver's 18 month check-up today.  It was a great one, with a very healthy boy!  We are very thankful for our wonderful pediatrician that is gentle, kind, knowledgeable and understanding.  Oliver passed with flying colors.  Both his weight (26 lbs. 6 oz, 57%) and height (48%) were in average ranges.  His head is HUGE.  Yep, big noggin.  It's way above the charts 100%+.  But he said there is nothing to worry about!

Some things about Oliver.  He loves to see how things work.  His favorite explorations are the dishwasher, toilet, sink, shower, and the ultimate... the food processor.  His fascination with tools started with Kent's pantry project.  Ever since he has been saying, "Daddy, Boom Boom!".  I was so happy to hear that verbally he is doing great.  With around 70 words right now he is just trailing his jabbering sister at 18 months (80-90).  Mr. Eisert was very pleased because the average is around 20 words!  He definitely is not as articulate, lots of vowels.  But it's a great start.

Oliver and Brooke are like two peas in a pod.  Great friends.  They spend almost all their time with each other and there is this amazing connection between them.  It's hard to describe with words!

Brooke thinks Oliver is hilarious, and he loves showing off.  What a great combo!  Oliver has lots of spunk and constantly amazes me with his STRONG spirit.  He definitely is strong willed and willing to express himself verbally (VERY LOUDLY) so you know exactly what he wants.

We just love this boy to pieces!

Happy Halloween!  These three adorable kids got lots of attention last night walking the streets of our small town.  Brooke's friend Riley joined us as Tigger.  The girls were brave enough to go up and knock on doors and say, "Trick or Treat!".  It's hard to believe they are old enough to do this!

It got pretty chilly so it was so nice to wear these warm costumes.  We were thinking it might be smart to invest in some adult sized costumes so we can stay warm too!

It was exciting for Brooke to go through her candy.  She chose to eat a small sucker and she loved every lick!

Visit

Grandpa Bing and Grandma Britta made a quick trip to our house.  The kids were SUPER excited!  They made the best of their short stay by playing... and playing... and playing with the kids!  Everyone had a great time.

A few stories were read, but most of the time the kids were pretty high energy!

We made a quick trip to Smallwoods for some bumblebee swinging and exploring.  We even got to see the pumpkin shooter!

Great weekend!

The sweet calm not-moving side of Oliver, not commonly seen!

It rained all night and then we got beautiful clearing in the clouds so we headed out for some leaf throwing and puddle jumping (and coffee drinking...).

Yellow EVERYWHERE!

Yep, Oliver got quite wet!

We had a bunch of fun!