Holiday happenings

2010 is winding down!!  The end of our year has been busy with outings and celebrations.  We hosted 16 adults and 6 kids for an "orphan" thanksgiving with Aunt Kate/Uncle Kelly (+friends), some of our neighbors, coworkers, and friends.  It was a feast made by MANY hands, so I didn't have to do all the cooking (thanks for the BBQ Turkey, Roy!)  Check out my table all decorated..looks nice huh?

The following weekend we had the MOD North Holiday Party and we ventured downtown to Denver for the Parade of Lights with a few friends, which Soren was really into.  He especially enjoyed the music; Christmas carols are big for him this season, since he's learned a bunch at pre-school while practicing for their Christmas pageant (coming up on Wednesday!)  

We are starting to get ready to travel back to the Midwest for Christmas for the first time in 4 years.  Looking forward to celebrating Christ's birth with Grandma Blueberry and Grandpa Bob, as well, as three Aunts and Cousin Lucas.  There's nothing like extended family at the holidays, if you ask me.  Minneapolis just got hit with a big blizzard...yay for a white Christmas!  Then we'll be going up to Echo Point to visit Grandpa Tom and Brenda for a few days after Christmas.

With football season wrapping up, the Badgers are headed to the Rose Bowl on New Years Day!!  We can't wait to watch the game.  Soren was watching football the other day with Matt, and he said: 'Daddy, is this game "Go Badgers", "Go Packers", or "Go Buffs"'?  How's that for team spirit?  Now we just have to teach him each team's colors...

He's certainly into Santa this year.  He was very specific with his wish list, and told Santa no less than three times when we visited him at the mall.  Anders just likes ringing the jingle bells and watching the dancing moose we have the sings Jingle Bell Rock.  He's a guy who loves a good beat!

Lovin' Logic

Two of the things I love about Soren are his 3-yr-old logic and sense of time.  He tells me his toe hurts and I ask him why, only to find out it's because he ate too much.  Or he'll tell me that he can chew gum because he has a baby brother.  And of course "Anders can't be a big boy, because he's a baby".  Sometimes he tries to entice me into giving him things.  "Mommy, if I pick up my toys, then I can have a treat.....right?"  Or, he'll worry about things causing other things, which apparently are related somehow in his little brain: "If I walk in the street, then I will ride my scooter in the street really fast away from all the cars."  Huh?

Last week when he asked me what day it was, I said it was Thursday.  He said, "I don't want it to be Thursday, why can't you make it be Tuesday, mommy"?  This is presumably because preschool show-and-tell is Tuesdays, and not Thursdays.  He loves to know what day is is, what season it is, and when the next Holiday will be.  But as all you parents know, you can't tell a preschooler what is coming too far in advance, or he'll bug you about it constantly.

Visits from our beloved MN friends

Oh how we love visitors!  It rocks that we live in a place where friends want to come visit.  We were so blessed to have two of my dear high school friends come spend some time enjoying Colorado fall with us this September.

First Alix, who has traveled to so many exotic and remote places around the globe, came out to do some hiking with me in Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as check out a bit of Denver and Boulder.  We really enjoyed reconnecting on our two hikes, talking about family, sustainability, and social justice issues as we hiked the high alpine Ute Trail (8 miles roundtrip) on Saturday and through the woods and up some rock scrambles to the alpine Sky Pond on Sunday (10 miles roundtrip).  Alix jumped right into some hard hikes at altitudes over 10,000 feet...impressive!

Then Anders' friend Bryce came to hike with him (transported by Becca and Luke Ludwig).  Anders and Bryce are 4 days apart, but both happy, mobile, and cuddly little guys who cheerfully but assertively took each other's toys, cups, and paci's all weekend.


We all went up and stayed at a friends' condo in Frisco, which allowed us do to some hikes out of Breckenridge.  We did Mohawk Lakes (6 miles roundtrip) as a group, then the guys did Mayflower Gulch on Sunday without moms and babies.  Becca and I strolled our cuties into town and enjoyed hot drinks while exploring the main street of Frisco.  She also took me out to a super yummy dinner in Breck Saturday night where we discussed some of the issues of being wives and moms.  Thank you Becca!


Looking forward to our next visitors, Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Al, next weekend...

Things that just make me laugh about my boys

Soren has said some things lately that Matt and I just crack up over.  Like just now I heard him upstairs in his bathroom going for it, grunting, etc...and it ended with "whoa, that's some big poops! (flush)"

The other day we got a Halloween box from Grandma Blueberry which included, among other things, some fake teeth to put in a pumpkin jack-o-lantern.  When Soren asked what they were, I said they were pumpkin teeth, to which he replied "but mom, I already have teeth!"

Last weekend when he was playing outside with some neighbor kids in our cul-de-sac we heard the doorbell ring.  Matt answered to find Soren, pants around his ankles, matter-of-factly asking "can you help me pull up my pants?  I just went pee in the grass."






A couple weeks ago I took Soren to his first college football game, when the CU Buffalos played Hawaii.  We went with his best little buddy from church, Brock, and his mom Christin, because one of Matt's friends on the football team had given him free tickets but Matt was off hiking that day!  It was exciting and energizing (even though kickoff was at 1, so we sacrificed naps that day ;-) but after about one quarter, they asked, "when do we get to see the buffalos play??"  Lucky for them, the mascot Ralphie is a real buffalo... Ralphie runs, and I mean RUNS around the field at halftime, which thrilled Soren and Brock!  

When I'm a daddy

Soren likes to talk about what he's going to do when "he is a daddy".  Today he told me that when he's a daddy, he will always use the word "awesome", and never use the word "cool".  Because awesome is a way cooler word, I suppose.  Also to come, when he's a daddy:

• he'll be able to ride his bike
• he'll be the strongest boy on the earth
• he'll marry me
• he won't wear any dresses, only shirts and shorts and pajammies
• he'll climb all those mountains (the ones we can see when we drive around town)

Oh patience, where art thou?

I think patience might be the trait in others I most admire.  Maybe it's because mine is so lacking, at least in certain contexts.  After a long week with the boys needing me emotionally & physically...constantly...I just seem to be on edge.  Case and point: it's Friday night, I overreacted just now to Matt, and now I'm stressing about my 30th birthday party which is supposed to start in an hour.  It's my party - it's supposed to be fun, not stressful!  But Soren didn't nap today and he is whiny now - I just lost my patience and after asking him nicely twice, yelled at him for playing on the floor in the kitchen right under the oven where I was frantically trying to finish dinner (although now I'm doing better, because he's upstairs in the bath singing a Katy Perry song, which I find hilarious).

I want to be more patient.  I can be with my friends, and with random people.  But for some reason my family always gets the short end of the stick with my patience.  Luckily Anders is so cute and smiley these days, he usually puts me back in a good mood.  He has a "limp-crawl" - his right knee never touches the ground.  He crawls with his left knee and right foot (like a half bear-crawl)...so distinctive and cute.  When he sees me across the room he lights up and starts booking it toward me, giggling, with his lopsided crawl and it warms my heart. 

Off to celebrate the big 3-0!

Welcome to our blogging beginnings...

Hello friends and family (and random people who stumble across our blog, if that ever happens)...

I've been resistant to starting a blog for awhile now...as if I need one more thing to do!!  BUT, I have been learning lately how much God values memories.  He tells his followers to "remember" quite often in scripture.  Sadly, my memory went out with the placenta (plus I was already a little space-brained to begin with, according to my mom).  So I want to capture things - even just a few small things - about our family as we grow and change, for us and others to remember.  I like short and sweet, so don't expect a frequent or long updates...sorry.


So, the boys.  There are a bunch of them in my house - as Soren puts it: a daddy, a big boy, and a baby.  They are as different as they are amazing.  The daddy (Matt ;-) is in his third year as an Assistant Professor at CU-Boulder, working hard and passionate about what he does.  Praise God, how many people can say that?  Daddy is active - besides his bike commute home from work he gets to play pick up basketball on the weekend and organize hikes for guys around the neighborhood.  He's a great daddy who plays with the kids after he gets home from work and gives mommy breaks on the weekends too.

The big boy (Soren) frequents playgroups, parks, birthday parties, "Kidshore" (the kids care at Lakeshore Athletic Club where I work), and attends Tues/Thurs morning pre-school @ Mount Hope Lutheran Preschool.  I'm convinced he learns nothing at preschool (not that I mind at age 3) because whenever I ask him what he did at school it's always "play outside" or "eat my snacks and lunch".  When I asked the teachers how he was doing they said he was sweet and smart but always very concerned about the next time he got to consume food.  They can't believe that he finishes the lunches I pack, which are twice the size of the other kids' lunches.  Sheesh!!!  No wonder he weighs 45 lbs.  This ginormous redhead is very much into trains, planes, cars, sports, animals of the large wild predator type...all the usual 3-yr-old boy things.  He potty trained back in June up at Grandpa's cabin and has been a champ at the potty ever since.  He's even night trained! He got to go to his first college basketball game when the CU Buffalos played Hawaii the weekend before last...what a ball he has with his friend Brock, another 3-yr-old we go to church with.

The baby (Anders) is always on the move...he was sitting up at 6 months, crawling by 8, and pulling up to standing/cruising on the furniture @ 8.5 months.  He is social too, playing by himself for only a few moments before crawling in search of mommy or his beloved older brother (who slyly takes any toy Anders wants to play with, saying "he was all done with that").  And even though his toys are constantly usurped, Anders would rather play than eat, so feeding is a bit of a challenge.  I make him organic baby food from all varieties of fresh fruits, veggies, lentils, and grains - but so far his favorite is store-bought yo-baby yogurt...sigh!  He also likes berries, like his bro and dad.  Anders smiles a bunch - and now has three teeth to show off when he does.  The childcare workers at my health club love him...they always get excited when he comes, and he's been chosen as the featured baby of the month for September!