Quotes! And a Trip to WI.

I have a list of quotes on my phone that have been waiting for awhile to be put on here.

At preschool they tasted green apples, red apples, and apple cider and voted on what they liked best. Then they made a chart and it said that Tyler chose apple cider. So I asked about it in the car.
Me: Which kind of apple snack did you like the best?
Tyler: All of them.
Me: But which one did you say was your favorite?
Tyler: I liked three but they would only let me say one. I was super grumpy about that.

Carl had a day off work - I think maybe for Labor Day?
Tyler's response to that: My boss doesn't ever let me have a day of not working.

Tyler (completely random): Will Grandma and Grandpa and my friends be in Philippi when I go there?
Me: When are you planning on going there?
Tyler: I don't know. Probably when I'm a firefighter. I will bring a suitcase and a fire extinguisher. And a hammer like we chop wood with. Because fire fighters use those too. I will go there in the future when I am all grown up for the rest of my life.

Tyler: When am I going to be four and a half? I have been four and a quarter for ten years!

Tyler: My work is in Africa. I just drive there on work days. My work is to protect the animals there because they don't have any hard bones. So I just go over there to protect them. So I live all the way over in Africa. Is that all the way across the world? Which way is Africa? South? Right? Left?

Tyler and Carsten were building a cathedral with their wooden blocks. Carsten was having a hard time saying cathedral, so Tyler helped him pronounce it "correctly".

Tyler: Carsten, can you say can? Like garbage can. Can you say garbage can? Now can you say can? Ok. Now say canthoodrule.

Me: You are getting to be such an amazing climber Carsten!
Carsten: Yeah. I am. (Bursts out laughing.) You are so confused!
Me: I'm confused?
Carsten: Yeah. You are confused. You are confused because I am not a Carsten. I am a camel!

We don't let Tyler watch Ninja Turtles (I know, we're so mean!), but he sees them everywhere and for some reason he thinks they are so cool and he really wants to watch it.

Tyler: I really want to watch Ninja Turtles.
Me: What makes you want to watch them so much?
Tyler: Because I love Ninja Turtles!
Me: Why do you love them?
Tyler: Because I have to love them because I'm supposed to love my enemies.

Every single week when I pick Carsten up after MOPS/Bible Study:
Me: How was Super Bible Club?
Carsten: It was good! Nobody hurt me!
Another child hit him on the first day and he still thinks about it every single week.

Carsten says funny things all the time. But so much of what he says is funny because of how he says it and I just can't write it out. These are a couple of my favorite things he says right now though. His answer to almost anything is, "Just because."

Almost everyday when he is in bed this conversation happens and it's my favorite thing ever.
Carsten: Mommy, I need you!
Me (going into his room): What do you need?
Carsten: I need you!
Me: Why do you need me?
Carsten: Just because. I need you to sleep with me. I want to snuggle with you.

On a completely different note, a few weeks ago we went to Appleton for a friend's baby shower and to see Carl's grandma. I've been wanting to post a couple pictures ever since. So I'm going to now. :-)

We spent some time visiting Gerda at her rehab center.

And we made sure we had some time to enjoy the pool at our hotel. And we learned that Aria is basically a fish. She was in the water for well over an hour and she never stopped kicking, splashing and squealing! Of course the boys loved every second too. They are both getting so much more comfortable in the water and had a great time swimming and jumping in.

Happy Pumpkin Day

We were trying to figure out what to do for Halloween that would be fun for the kids yet would protect them from the scary parts of it. They have both been pretty sensitive to it this year. October was kind of a hard month for them because everywhere we go had skeleton and monster decorations. There is a house across the street that is a little out of control for Halloween. Tyler and Carsten call it the yucky house. Stores and most other places have creepy decorations out. A hotel we stayed in was so scary that Carsten didn't want to walk through it. And we even went to a house for a play date that was decorated so much that Tyler asked to go home and Carsten started crying when we walked up on the porch. Afterwards Tyler asked me to leave them home with Daddy next time I go there! Both of them started having bad dreams at night. Carsten started being scared to take naps in his room by himself. And Tyler told me one day that all that yucky stuff makes his insides feel dark and bad. :-( It breaks my heart to hear that because as hard as we try to protect them from it, it's just everywhere. 

All of that to say, we wanted to avoid places that might have scary costumes or decorations. We got to spend the morning carving our pumpkins and went to a costume birthday party in the afternoon, which was really fun. We talked about going to the mall with friends - but their baby decided to finally enter the world the night before (yay! :-)). So we ended up staying home, getting a pumpkin shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and trick-or-treating at just a few of our neighbors' houses. It ended up being really fun! Full of fun memories and family time. 

Cleaning the pumpkins!

The finished product! They each chose the shapes what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. Can you tell that they are all the same shapes, just opposite? They love to be alike. :-)

My sweet little king.

And my handsome "train driver."

Cute little pumpkin.

She made a pretty adorable pea pod. She giggled and squealed the entire time we were walking around outside. She may have loved trick-or-treating more than anyone else.

Ready to go!

The much anticipated pumpkin pizza!

We tried both of the boys' old costumes on Aria. The bee really didn't fit her enough to use it. But it was cute!

This was Tyler when he wore it.

And this was Carsten in his. Hello, identical babies!