Take a moment...

This Blog was written by a friend of mine and Barnabas' from church. Please take a moment to look at it. Derek (our friend) worked with Andrei in Turkmenistan while he was in the Peace Corps. Check out the blog and pray for Andrei. If you feel led you can take further action listed on the blog. Thanks for you time on this.

Derek's Blog about his friend Andrei

So I don't Bore You to Death

I have decided to start another blog. Its about this simplicity thing we are trying to flesh out. So if you are interested and you want to keep up on the journey you can go to:

http://thenotsosimpleroadtosimplicity.blogspot.com/

The Simple Life

Yes more about the lack of TV in our lives. A friend of mine commeted on the last post as to the where abouts of our television. We are starting a voyage into "simplicity". Barn and I haven't been real fans of the marketing to our kids on the television (and truth be told the marketing to us either). So we decided to "unplug" the marketing. We use barn's monitor as a screen to watch DVD's and such but thats it. We will still netflix and watch some of our favorite shows and get movies for the kids.

I am reading a book called "Living Simply With Children". Its a good read but hard. I can see how I have been sold to get things that I really don't need. It's also hard to kinda go against the "flow" of typical American life too. I'm not real good at that, heres hoping I get better! ;)

There are many "layers" to simplifying or downshifting as it has been called. Some people take it as far as not buying anything new except for food and toiletries and not using cell phones and internet and such. I don't think we will go that far. So for the past few days we have been playing board games and reading. Its been fun. But I do realize how much I miss my friend the TV. He was company. But the silence is nice too.

I will keep you updated on how it all goes!

Here are some links if you are in the mood to check it out more. Oh and yeah some of it is kinda out there but we are going to do like we do with water mellon. Eat the good stuff and spit out the seeds.

www.simpleliving.net

www.newdream.org

living simply with children (the book I'm reading)

Cute Stuff

Well we are living life with out a TV. I miss my good friend Mr. Television. He helped me keep my sanity during the witching hour in which I make dinner and wish Barnabas home. Its like kids know "Hey! Mom is stressed and cooking, it will be a bit before Dad gets home lets get crazy!" So my friend Mr. "T" would mellow the children by telling them stories of Curious George. But now they chase each other about running into the kitchen doing laps around the kitchen island screaming while Zeke squeezes him self into small spaces and gets stuck.

Long intro to say we have started family games. I was sitting with the kids this morning and we were playing "Memory" when the questions started. Here is a brief snippet:

Asa: "Mom?"

"Yes Asa?"

Asa: Will there be toys in heaven?"

"Yeah, I'm sure there will be."

Asa: "Oh. Will there be coffee in heaven?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Asa: "How about food? Will there be food?"

"Yep. The good stuff too. In heaven you will get to eat pizza with cheese on it."

Asa: "Cool. Will there be toys in heaven?"

"Yep."

Asa: "Do you think they will have games there too?"

"Yeah, I think they will."

Asa: : Ok. Hey look 2 air planes!" He says as he decides to continue with the game.

Stories...

Our batteries have died on our camera and my next big shopping trip to Target is tomorrow. But I do have some funny stories to tell! Here you go...

Just Say No...
So I got my hair cut. Its not too crazy just got the back trimmed up a bit. It kinda has a 1930's look to it. I like it. I think it's cute. Anyway, Barnabas gets home from his work meeting and I ask him what he thinks. Here is how the conversation went (about an hour after he gets home):

Me: "So, what do you think of my hair?"

(10-15 second pause while he looks at my hair)

Barnabas: "Well...it's. (pause) It's not styled right?"

Me: "Well, no. But this is close to how it's going to look." (I am grinning internally because I think its kinda funny to watch him flounder).

Barnabas: "It's...yeah. Yeah. I mean, It's....it's not fixed right? I mean this isn't how it's going to look, right?"

(I just sit there and look at him, waiting.)

Barnabas: "I like it. Yeah because....yeah. It will be styled and yeah, it will be cute."


First Steps
Zeke has finally taken his first steps! He had been playing on our rocking chair and would stand up on it trying to get it to rock. He doesn't walk but man he can climb! So I had told him "no" and to sit down and all he does is grin and try shaking the rocking chair. So I go get him place him standing in the middle of the floor as I turn the rocker around. I take a step back and with out even thinking he takes 2 steps then falls! We all cheer and set him up to walk again. It takes a couple tries but he takes 4 in a row then drops to the floor. We all cheer. He is pretty impressed with himself. We stand him up and he stands there looking at us. He gets that little mischievous twinkle in his eye and drops to the floor! He slaps both hands on the floor throws his head back and lets out a huge belly laugh! He is laughing so hard that his eyes begin to water! He thinks he is so funny. We try to stand him up and again he drops to the floor and rolls on the floor laughing! Where did I get this boy from?

Christmas Countdown
So now that we have the Christmas Tree up which leads to this question every morning and after every nap "Mom is it Christmas today?". After about a week of this it got a bit old. So I decided to make and "Advent Chain". The kids and I cut red and green strips of paper and wrote fun activities on them. Then we glued them in circles linked to each other (hence "chain"). So now everyday there is a wee activity for the kids to do. Like today it was a dance party so the turned on the tunes and boogied down Zeke even joined in! I wish I knew how to post video! He is quite the rump shaker!

Camping!

Grace has this new thing of wanting to go camping. Well, being in the middle of a capital city and not to mention the crazy cold weather camping won't be happening anytime soon. So she and Zeke improvised!

Yo Adrian!!!!!

There is some phantom eye swelling bug going around. Zeke's eye looked like this (and worse at a couple points) for 2 days. Then Asa got it. His only lasted one day though. But it went away on its own. Odd.

Its funny how different Dads are from Mom's

Barn was home alone with the kids when this dishwasher sitting party took place!

He Loves TV!

How scary is this?

Happy Thanksgiving!

The apps on their way to empty.
Cece hanging out with our sick and cranky Zeke. He got better just in time for everyone to head home, Turns out he had Roseola! Poor kid!
Grace made the pumpkin and turkey for decorations!
Me and 2 of my favorite men standing at the table.

This year I hosted my first Thanksgiving. It was a great time! The food was amazing. My Dad made the turkey and my mother-in-law made pies. The menu run down: Appetizers of olive tapanade, itty bitty sandwiches , and a relish tray. Main meal of garlic rubbed turkey and sides of maple sweet potatoes, garlic dill carrots, polenta with mushroom ragu, green beans with bacon, mashed potatoes, corn stuffing, and cranbberry compote. To finish off the dinner there was homemade Pecan, pumpkin and apple cranberry pies with coffee or apple cider.

The one snafu was that the buns had egg and milk in them. Asa got pretty sick. But on the upside not as sick as he has gotten in the past. There was no need for the epi-pen or the ER! It was my fault. I got the rolls that Barnabas' mom will usually get for Thanksgiving forgetting that Asa had never had them since he just recently grew out of his wheat allergy. Well we know for next time! I felt really bad and Asa hugged my leg and said "It's OK Mom, I don't feel too sick." (that was after he threw up though).

We all had a great time and decided that this may be the new tradition (with out trying to poison Asa of course!)

More Party Pictures!

Asa Blowing out the candles.
Presents!
I wish we could do sound with pictures. Asa screamed out "this is just what Ive always wanted!" with every gift!
And somehow these photos got out of order. Here is my good friend Paula and I are cutting up that beautiful castle cake!

Asa had a great time at his birthday party. As I tucked him into bed that night he said "Thank you mommy for the best birthday party ever!"

Finally Asa's 4th Birthday!

Asa and his "kinght" buddy Tommy from ECFE.
My good friend Jen made Asa this great castle cake!
Princess Lily and her Queen mother Julia (Tommy's mom too!)
Annika, her sister Raya and Grace making crowns.
Tommy and Asa attacking the great big couch dragon! Thank goodness these great knights saved us from this hideous monster!

Asa had a "Knight" Birthday party in November. Yes his birthday is October but that month had so many things scheduled that it couldn't be fit in. It was a costume party the girls came as princesses and the boys were knights!

The Best Flowergirl

The ceremony. My cousin Jessica married Craig Kalkbrenner. Lucky man.
The bride-to-be and her favorite girl in the world!
She did a wonderful job and enjoyed herself just as much.


Grace was so proud to be the flower girl at my cousin Jessica's wedding. On her way to the church she told me "Mom, today is my special day!" She also said "Ya know mom Im getting pretty good at this flower girl thing. I bet I could get a job doing it." You see this was her second wedding as a flower girl, the first was Uncle Jed and Auntie Molly's wedding. And this next fall she will be again for my sister Maria! Maybe I could rent her out......hmmmm.

Ramdom Cute Pictures

He is bottle free these days. These are rather old photos but cute none the less!
Grace was playing mom and was putting Zeke to bed.
Just plain ol' cute.

Always ready for a picture!

Mystery of the Missing Cardreader Solved!

I was on the phone with my mom on Sunday discussing why the birthday pictures weren't up on the blog yet. I told her about the missing cardreader and then there was silence. "Wait" she said. "Is it silver and it has an end that looks like it plugs into a computer?" "Yes." I reply surprised she knew what I was talking about (my mom is pretty slow to warm to computers let alone their gadgets and such). "THATS WHAT THAT IS!" She yells to my dad.

Yeah. Somehow the last time they were here she packed up the cardreader and took it to Duluth with her! I have no idea how it happened and neither does she. But its there and when it gets here I will post Asa's birthday photos along with Grace the most beautiful flower girl in the world!

Oh, and yes for all of you who know my mom and her cleaning "issues", since she didn't know what it was she was going to throw it away! Good thing I caught her in time!

A Really Good Reason...

We have misplaced our card reader! Otherwise I would be putting cute captions on all of the pictures from Asa's "Knight" birhtday party! But no here I sit with really great pictures and no way to share them! So frustrating.

Feeding time

These pictures are from dinner last night (pasta) and breakfast (blueberry pancakes) this morning. My Mom tells me I had the same etiquette as a child. ;)

The Cut

Here is Grace right after she cut her bangs. I couldn't find the pictures but finally here they are!

And the tooth Fairy Gets a 2 for 1 deal!

Yep thats 2 teeth down one to go! Her top front tooth is loose now too! She is so happy that she is turning into a big kids now. Meanwhile Im missing my little butt scooter who refused to walk until 15 months old! Sigh. Time moves so quickly.

The motovation was that Grace found out that the tooth fairy was running a Polly Pocket special! If you leave her a 2 teeth you get a Polly and your favorite treat! She laid down and said "Ok let's do it Mom!" My daughter knows better than to pass up a special!

Just Like Dad

Barnabas was cleaning the porch windows the ohter day (his experience as a window washer in the past comes in so handy!). And the boys were watching him work. A couple days later this is what I found on the front porch!

The New Plan

Asa got his birhtday present from Uncle Jed and Auntie Molly today. You can't tell buy the picture but he is very excited about it (his new favorite thing is to do the opposite of what you ask...gotta love 3! Thank goodness 4 will be here soon!).

He now has a new plan for his life...professional baseball forget Bob the Builder!! This is day one with the hat, I am going to keep count of how many consecutive days he wears it and post that later! Zeke got a miniture version of the hat but he has yet to keep it on long enough to get a picture (but when I do you will find it here!).

The Things you Let the Third Child Do....

Visiting 1890

Not sure if they like the horses or not.
The boys are ready for school!
Such beautiful kids! They must have an amazing mother!
Grace gets to try the fiddle!
Love of the horses has been decided by the time we left.

On Labor day we went to "Murphy's Landing" in Shakopee. It's a little town set to be in the 1890's, all the folks are in period clothing and the houses are open for touring. It was a great time. Here are the pictures from our mini trip!

Good O'l Games

Race of the raw egg!

They never did fall off the spoon!

The funny part about this game (the pan toss) is that Asa was afraid of the pans the first go round but he did manage to to play the next time around (2 hours later). On the way home Nanny (Barb, Barnabas' mom) asked him why he was so afraid. He said "Because the pans were talking and had arms and I thought they were going to grab me." Seemed logical to him.