Playing in the kiddie pool

This past week we have had incredible weather for this time of year in Canada. It has been in the 80s! So the kids had fun outside in the kiddie pool with our neighbors yesterday. They all stripped down to their underwear and had a blast. Here are a few pictures of the fun and a few other photos as well. Logan is finally sitting up on his own so he is now able to join the boys for bath time!

This is for Auntie JuJu- thanks for the bibs!

Trip to Wisconsin

After getting over a week of our entire family getting sick, we were able to take a break from classes and head down to Wisconsin for a few days. My parents and two youngest brothers met us there which was such a treat! It had been 15 months since we had seen my parents and over a year and half since we had seen my brothers. None of them had ever met Logan before. Rylan and Carsten had so much fun being loved on 24-7. The day that we had to say goodbye was hard. Rylan was crying and told us, "today was not a good day." When asked why he said, "because Papa and Nana had to leave, so it was not a good day." He was really sad. Carsten was sad as well and continues to ask each day where nana and papa are. We are definitely looking forward to this summer when we will be reunited with both of our families for an extended period of time. Here are some pictures from the trip!

A hearty breakfast at McDonald's!

Bowling for Rylan's birthday

Riding a virtual rollercoaster at Chuck E Cheese

Taking a tour at the Jelly Belly Factory

Video of Carsten trying to say a rhyme

Here is a video of Carsten trying to say a rhyme that Rylan learned in preschool. Carsten has never been taught the rhyme, he just hears Rylan saying it. The actual rhyme is (according to Rylan):

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Once I caught a fish alive

6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Then I let him go again

Why did you let him go?

Because he bite my finger so

Which finger did he bite?

This little finger on my right

By the way, links that show up after you view this video are not from us. YouTube automatically puts videos there, but they are not our videos! Just wanted to be clear on that!

Video of boys circling table

The boys love to run around our table. Here you can see that Carsten still has a bit of a limp, but it is getting much better. Sorry for his attire (or lack there of), it was almost bedtime!

Last few weeks

These past few weeks seem to have flown by. We have not really done anything extra, but we seem to have been busy. We have been spending some good time together as a couple, as a family and with many of our Canadian friends. We have gotten together with several different couples for game nights, meals and lots of good conversation. It has been neat for us to see the relationships we have developed in our community finally getting to a deeper level. It just shows us that no matter where we live someday we will have to put in a lot of time and energy to really get to know people. What a fun process to go through, although it does make saying goodbye that much harder!

The kids are all doing well. Carsten is still walking with a slight limp, but is doing much better. We have had an interesting winter this year with not all that much snow. As you will see in the following pictures the first few have little to no snow and the next few have a lot. They were all taken this week!

So happy to be able to ride a bike again!

Always happy to be outside riding his bike!

Racing down the hill

Showing off his jumping skills!

And climbing skills!

First time riding a snowmobile!

Waiting his turn to ride the snowmobile

Happy feet

Thank you for thinking of Carsten! Today his cast was removed. He was so excited to get it off. Jeff is the one who took him and he said Carsten just kept rubbing his leg and looking at it. Now he wants to walk everywhere he can! It is fun to see him up and about again.

Two happy little feet!

The other day Logan was playing with a toy and he got it stuck on his face. Here are a few photos that show what happened. It was pretty funny to see!

Not sure what to do...

Trying hard to get the toy off...

Happy that the toy is gone!

Video of Carsten walking again