Pictures from the last few weeks

Here are some pictures that show what we have been up to the past few weeks:

 We went for a hike on campus recently. This was Carsten's first experience in the backpack and he loved it. He could see everything from that high up on daddy's back!

 Rylan and I made sugar cookies together and decorated them. Rylan helped with the entire process...making the dough, rolling out the cookies, cutting the shapes, decorating them and of course eating some!

 Carsten has this new idea that if he has the "right" clothes on that means he will get to go outside. So he will bring us any hat, jacket, shoes, etc that he can find and ask us to put it on him. Here is has on Rylan's jacket and hat!

 We went to Michigan for Easter to visit with Jeff's aunt, uncle and cousin. Rylan got to dye hard boiled eggs for the first time. He thought it was pretty neat.

 We did an egg hunt on Easter morning, but Carsten was running a fever for most of the day, so he did not enjoy it as much as he would have otherwise. He mainly just wanted to be held.

Rylan on the other hand thought the egg hunt was fantastic. The only problem was that instead of quickly looking for more eggs, he wanted to open each one and eat what was inside of it!

The last few weeks...

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. Last week we had normal classes each day and then extra classes for a few of the afternoons. We also had guests over for dinner a few of those nights which made for an overall busy week. It was a great week though as we got a lot of our questions answered about future plans, etc. We are excited to say the least! We also have a clear direction at this point which is awesome!

Then this past week was filled with classes about child education, safety and homeschooling. We found it to be a very insightful week and it got us really excited about homeschooling. We are starting to look at some curriculum options even though we still have a few years until Ry starts kindergarten. There was even a homeschooling workshop one of the afternoons which allowed for more detailed information. Again this week was filled with guests in our home for meals. It is nice to be able to open our home to the people who travel up here to share information with us.

The boys are both doing great. Ry has had no new issues in childcare and we are grateful for that. They have implemented some new ideas to help break up the free-play time that usually leads to aggressive behavior in many of the children. We are thankful for the staff's willingness to work with us to make some changes to help with Rylan's behavior. Carsten is also doing well. He has been happy everyday in nursery, although he seems to be getting a little bored in there. All the other babies still take a morning nap which leaves him by himself to play each day. He is officially walking now which has been fun for all of us to watch...including Rylan who thinks it is pretty cool that his brother can walk. There should be a video of him walking within a few days.

Rylan is really wanting to help more and more around the house, so his newest thing is helping me do the dishes. If he hears me start the water he brings a chair over and asks if he can help do the dishes. It makes more work for me, but I know he loves it and it is teaching him some valuable lessons! Here is a picture from the other day:

Ultrasound picture of Logan

Here is a profile picture of Logan. You can see that his mouth is open- we could see him opening and closing it on the ultrasound! You can also see his heart which is the dark circle on his chest. It is exciting for us to be adding another little boy to our family! We imagine it will be a rowdy, but really fun house! Never a dull moment.

Rylan had a hard time excepting that he was not having a sister, but a brother. He kept telling the technician that it was a girl! He seems to be excited now and has gotten over the fact of not having a sister.

It's a...

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I am excited to just know either way. On one hand a girl would be awesome since we obviously only have boys, but on the other hand I am comfortable with raising boys so another one would be fun as well! Either way we are excited to welcome another baby to our family in a few months. We are taking Rylan with us to the ultrasound tomorrow so that he can find out with us whether he is having a brother or a sister.

This is all assuming that the baby cooperates and that the technician will actually tell us (it is a big issue here and they often won't), so we shall see...

Scratch Week

Last week we had demonstrations each afternoon about cooking from scratch. 

Monday we learned how to make tortillas, waffles and crepes.
Tuesday we learned how to make English muffins, bread, cinnamon rolls and Hungarian burgers.
Wednesday was just an overview on this current week where we have been required to cook from scratch.
Thursday we learned how to make chicken pot pie, granola, biscuits and salad dressing.
Friday we learned how to make pie crust and several different types of pies, both savory and sweet.

And of course we got to eat the many things we learned how to make. Many of these things, I make on a regular basis, but some of it was new to me. So this week we are required to cook from scratch. This means we are not allowed to use anything prepackaged, frozen (except meat) or any milk (you must use powdered). We also are not allowed to use any of our appliances which includes things like coffee makers, microwaves, hand mixers, blenders, etc. Again many of these items we already don't use, so it has not been too much of a problem.

A couple of things I have had to make include English muffins and tortillas. I decided to try whole wheat English muffins and they did not really turn out to well. My tortillas were great though and fun to make. Rylan even helped me. He has always been interested in helping me cook and that interest has only peaked over time. Here are a few pictures of us making tortillas:

So they weren't the most round tortillas...

You can see that my "baby bump" is collecting flour!

Spring break in Wisconsin

We had a wonderful week in Wisconsin. We were able to visit some of our friends in Waukesha for a few days, fellowship with our Sunday group from Milwaukee and then we were able to spend a few days in the Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at a hotel there that had an indoor water park and theme park. Rylan loved both places. Carsten had fun, but not to the extent that Rylan did. Here are some photos from the trip: