Hurt lip

Last night Rylan fell off his chair at the table and hurt his lip and gums. He is doing well today but was pretty upset over it last night.

My growing Carsten

 Well my little Carsten is not so little anymore. He is crawling all over the place and is now pulling himself up on the furniture or in the bath or on anything that you can possibly think to pull yourself up on! He has his two top teeth now also which you can see in the third picture! He is growing and changing ever so fast!

From sitting

To standing up

To being very proud of himself (notice the two top teeth!)

Millions of peaches, peaches for free

This week we were given some fruit for free from a local farmer. We could all have as much as we wanted. We got a bushel of peaches and pears! Now what to do with all that fruit?? Well I am pureeing a large amount of it for Carsten then freezing it. Some of it we will simply eat fresh and the rest we plan to cut and freeze for smoothies. We were given a class on canning, but since you have to add sweetener of some sort and you have to cook the fruit (rendering it nutritionally useless), we decided not to do that.

I spent all day long in the kitchen. First I baked two loaves of wheat bread. It was a long process of kneeding, rising, punching, rising, kneeding, rsising, baking! They turned out great. Then I spent several hours peeling peaches, pureeing peaches, cutting peaches, etc. I even baked a peach pie!

We got invited over to a friend's house from our Sunday group. We went there for supper (ya, I know, but that is what everyone calls it here!) and then we played a game called "Carcassonne." It was a really fun game. We ate peach pie ala mode with coffee (decaf of course). Then in the middle of the game they made homemade kettle corn and apple cider...yumm! Rylan played with their three kids and Carsten slept happily in their pack n play. What a fun evening, but late. We did not get home until 11:30 and Rylan was still awake! Needless to say he was a bit crabby this morning. We really hit it off with this couple and we are excited to spend more time with them in the future.

Under the Sea

Last week was "under sea" week at preschool. Here are the crafts that Rylan made. (Not sure why the picture is this direction, it won't load any other way!)

Rylan got a special treat last night- a lollipop that looks like a bunny face. This was from papa and nana and he finally got to enjoy it.

The scoop

So the guys event got canceled due to the rain :( I decided to still have the girls over since I had already made the plans. Jeff needed to catch up on some reading for class, so he had no problem staying upstairs!

Two of the girls from our class came over. It made for a nice intimate group setting. We all shared our love stories so that was fun to hear! Tonight we are having a welcome BBQ that was supposed to take place the first week of school but has been postponed due to the rain (it has been raining every week since we moved here).

Relationships are slowly developing, but the key is that they are developing! I am thankful for that.

Rylan is doing excellent in class! Yeah for that. And Carsten...well those two top teeth are fighting to stay under the surface, but any day they will be popping out. He is scooting, rolling, army crawling and any other move he can think of to get where he wants to go. It is a slow process (thankfully!!) but he is managing to move. Still not really "crawling" quite yet.

Normal is setting in here. And that's the scoop for now!

Honey-mom

Jeff and I often use the term "honey" for each other or even for Rylan. This morning as I was making waffles Rylan said to me, "honey, honey, honey-mom, honey-mom!" It sounded so funny to hear him call me that. He does not miss a thing around our house. We certainly have to be careful of the things we say in front of him.

Tonight Jeff is going to a local event with the guys so after the boys go to bed I invited all the girls from our class over. Hopefully most of them will be able to come. It will be a good time to get to know them all a little better.

Night out

This week started out great. Jeff and I both felt refreshed by Sunday afternoon after spending time with our Father and some of our new friends! We had a potluck with them which was a lot of fun and it gave us the chance to spend more time getting to know people.

Then Monday we were back into the routine again. Classes really started this week now that orientation is finally over. We are really enjoying them all so far. Then on Monday night I had the chance to go out with some ladies from our Sunday fellowship group. First we met at one of the ladies' houses for a time of going before our Father and then we met up with even more women at a restaurant in the town that is about 20 minutes from here. I had a great time. I really needed to get out and have some girl time :)

Last night was a long night...Rylan has a cold and was up for a good part of the night with a fever. He seems to be doing a little better today, but I had to stay home with both the boys. Think of him today, I am hoping he will be able to go back to class tomorrow.

Carsten's top two teeth are finally just about to break through. I think one tiny piece is actually through already, but you can clearly see the two teeth. Hopefully just a few more days of pain for him and then we can have our content and happy little Carsten back!

The boys have been enjoying playing with bubbles these past few days. Here there are in the kitchen. Daddy was keeping them entertained until it was bath and then bedtime.

It looks like Carsten is eating a bubble in this picture! You can see how we try to do anything to keep him happy in the evening such as removing everything except for his diaper- and 1 sock apparently!
He is happy as a clam here because it was dinner time...one of his favorite times of the day!

Butterfly and rainy day

As promised here is a picture of Rylan with the butterfly he made in class. He was very proud of it!

Carsten got dressed up this Sunday in an outfit that used to be Rylan's! So cute!

The rain was pouring down the other day so Jeff took Rylan outside to run around in it. This was the face he gave me when he was done. Did he enjoy it?? You be the judge!

Week two under way

Week two is under way and going well. Rylan is having a great week so far! His behavior at home has been fabulous and he has been getting good reports from class as well. He made a butterfly today in class and was very proud of it. I will post a picture of it tomorrow! Carsten is still having a rough time. He is just fussy all day long. We are at our wits end with him because we just don't know what to do for him.

This week we have been in class with just our own classmates. Last week it was all the students combined (first year and second year). There are only 12 of us in the first year class. It has been good to start to get to know them all better. We are still in orientation so we are looking forward to getting past that and into some new stuff!

We started P90x tonight and wow...that is a tough workout. I am sweating bullets and my arms are about to fall off! Hopefully we will see some good results in the near future. It feels good to be getting back into shape and eating healthy!!

First week

Our first week of school has ended well. Rylan had a great day in class- I believe only once or twice in time out- big improvement! No potty accidents- another big improvement! Yeah. Carsten did not have a great day, but he was not too fussy either.

So we are getting into the swing of things and a new routine for our family. I am feeling just a bit lonely as I have not really connected yet with anyone. I know it will just take some time, but I am anxious to have some new friends! Missing my friends from CA, my other friends scattered about the US and of course my family. Yet at the same time I love where we are at and the things we are already learning.

Better :)

Yesterday and today went better for both of the boys. They put Rylan into the preschool class and he seemed to not only enjoy it, but he had no behavior issues while he was in there. During the second half of the morning, the toddlers and preschoolers combine, so he had a few issues but they said just right before the day was over. We were relieved! Today the phone rang during class and we both shook our heads- turned out he had an accident that required new clothing and they only had pants for him not a shirt. I can handle those kind of phone calls!

Carsten has done better also. I started sending him with some fruit to eat about midway through class and they say he is loving it! Today he had bananas and pears, yum:) I still think he is getting his 2 top teeth, so hopefully they will come in soon. He is also working on crawling. He gets up on his knees and rocks, but has yet to figure out how to actually move. (I am in no hurry!)

From sitting

To tummy

To rocking on his knees

Rylan playing in our "backyard." He insisted on wearing his helmet to ride his bike- after he went swimming in our neighbors kiddy pool!