How to Survive This Crazy Weather

 

I don't like skipping posts or writing out of order. Because I'm a perfectionist like that. But I'm going to do it just this once because I don't have time to sort through my hundreds of Christmas pictures tonight. I'll try to get to that tomorrow.

 

I'm not sure exactly how cold it got yesterday. But I know that the night before it said the low would be -29. -53 with windchill. I've never seen those numbers on a thermometer. I never really wanted to either. Crazy! So clearly we did not go anywhere. All schools in Minnesota were canceled, along with most other things.

 

This how we spent our cold, cold, day:

 

First of all, we thanked God over and over for our warm house, working heater, fireplace and blankets! We were warm, cozy and barely even knew it was that cold out.

 

We played "roll the ball."

We did lots of puzzles.

We ate snacks and watched a movie.

Apparently we redecorated the Christmas tree?

We made...

...cornflake balls!

We decorated not one, not two, but ten gingerbread boys!

And did lots of playing. Carsten was so tired out after his busy day of crawling all over the house, that he fell asleep well I was making dinner and we couldn't even get him up to eat it!

 



Today wasn't as cold, but it was still cold enough for MOPS to get canceled so we were home again. Today we had hot chocolate, read lots of books, built towers, did more art projects, played hide-the-basketball, and Carsten decided to try to climb stairs. Thankfully he's a little too short and couldn't get his leg up. I'm not ready for that yet!

The Best Time of the Year...

This year I was so excited to experience Christmas with two little boys. There's something about a baby's first Christmas that is just so much fun. And I knew this was going to be a really fun year with Tyler. The first year he would "get" Christmas and what it is all about. And that being said, it was really important to me that our focus was on the true meaning. That every single day we talked about Jesus and what his birth, his life and his death mean to us. I had a lot of ideas. I did some Pinterest searching and came up with some of my own and had way too many to actually do. So here are the three things I narrowed it down to. And they were great. I think they will be forever traditions at our house for the month of December.

Advent Candle:
After dinner every night we lit our candle(s) and read a Bible story that led up to the birth of Jesus. Then Tyler got to blow them out at the end. His favorite part, of course.

Names of God:
This one didn't quite get started. I got the idea from someone else's blog just a day or two before December 1 and they took awhile to make. So I still hung them, but that's kind of all. Next year we will draw one each night (December 1-25) and read the verse that goes with it before we hang it up.

Christmas Jar:
This was a fun one. We wrote out 25 fun family activities on craft sticks and put them in the jar. This was to make sure we were really focusing our time and attention on our family even in the midst of the busy and craziness that comes with Christmas. Tyler got to draw one every morning. They said things like make Christmas cookies, make a Christmas card for some one, drive around on a Christmas light hunt, make hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie... So much fun! But next year I'm going to assign them to a day so the kids are surprised, but I have a little control over what gets drawn. Rookie mistake.

This was the night he drew, 'Have a picnic by the fireplace.'

 

It has been so much fun creating new traditions as a family. And we all loved the ones we started this year. And I hope the boys will have great memories of them someday. :-)



Sweet Sayings. And Some Sassy Ones.

Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year! We're a little behind here right now and I have lots to catch up on. Christmas posts will come, but for now, I just have some quotes to get down.

A few days before my family came for Christmas I parked the car and got out to open Tyler's door, and noticed that Carsten had fallen asleep. I think I made a little bit of a pouty face and said, "Oh, no, he fell asleep!" Tyler immediately said, "It's ok Mommy. Don't be sad. We're going to celebrate Christmas with everyone we love."

Tyler woke up from his nap and caught me looking online for Christmas presents for Carsten. I didn't want him to feel left out, so I asked him what he thought he might like for Christmas. He said, "A Savior. We have a Savior already. He's right here!" And he went and got Baby Jesus from the Nativity Scene.

At Target he looked at the cashier and said, "You have a Savior." And then went on to tell her about God and Jesus in Heaven. And Noah too. Noah makes an appearance in every Bible story that Tyler tells.

For over a month now he has been singing Christmas songs at the top of his lungs everywhere we go. All the time. It's so cute. It's loud. But it's so cute. And he has brought joy to a lot of people in stores. I love how a loud, sometimes slightly off key song can bring instant smiles to people's faces! His favorites to sing are The Little Drummer Boy and Angels We Have Heard on High.

We have the Little People Nativity Scene and it is easily the best toy purchase we've made. After we got it out I told the story to him while acting it out with the Little People and he loved it. Now he loves to do the story himself. A lot of the time he loses focus or gets distracted part way through. And he says so many cute things when he does it. But my favorite is how he starts every time. He gets the angel and Mary and has the angel say, "It's ok, Mary. Don't be afraid, there's a baby in your tummy!"

And then there's the sassy.

It took almost a week after all of our Christmas festivities for Tyler to get back to normal. He was not exactly on his best behavior. On Tuesday I decided we needed to get out of the house despite the cold so we went to the mall play place and Target. The mall was fun. Target was not so much. It was a rough trip. He tested every limit he could think of and then some. Afterwards when I finally got his coat on him and we were headed outside he told me he wanted to take a nap because, "I'm just really tired out from disobeying!"

Seven!

Carsten was seven months old last week! This boy. He is becoming more and more of a little mover, army crawling and rolling around the floor. He is very determined and he will get where he wants to go. Usually where he wants to go is wherever his ball happens to be rolling.

We swear he tries to sing Angles We Have Heard on High. Sometimes he does it on his own, but he almost always joins in when Tyler is singing the Gloria part. It's ridiculously adorable to hear them singing it together. And loud.

He is a little ball of love and sunshine. He loves to snuggle and be close to his mommy (which I love!) We were out of town last weekend so I was on an air mattress with Tyler and he was in the pack & play. He wouldn't sleep unless I was reaching over into his bed and holding his hand. It was sweet, but not very comfortable!

We still think he has a fairly easy going personality, but he is becoming more and more opinionated. When he doesn't like something, he will passionately let you know it. And if he wants something, he will passionately let you know it.

He is working on his first tooth! But it's not going well for him. It's really bothering him, so I hope it is over soon.

Apparently month seven is the month of sick babies and tired mamas at our house. When Tyler was seven months old he was sick so I waited to take his pictures and then forgot until it was closer to eight months. This month Carsten was sick too and I almost forgot again. They were just a few days late.

Seven Month Sweetie Pie!

Tyler decided to stand in front to make sure he didn't fall off. He told him he was being dangerous. Which he kind of was. I had to take the pictures with one arm out and ready to catch him when he kept trying to dive off.

Tyler tries to make him smile. And it always works. Just not usually in the right direction. :-)

Nose kisses!

Tyler's turn! He set up the blanket and pillows and got already. I guess this would be his 32 month picture.

Carsten, we love watching you learn and move and grow. You are amazing and we love each day we get with you!

Thankfulness

Thanksgiving is such a great reminder to be grateful for what we have. We have a verse of the week chalk board in our kitchen - something I bought in July and finally just got hung a few weeks ago. Anyway, our verse right now is Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1. Just spending time teaching Tyler this verse has been a great reminder for me to constantly give thanks for all that we have. And to remember, that even in the hard stuff, God is good!

We truly have much to be thankful for. Yesterday we drove to WI to visit Carl's parents. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and Tyler had a blast running around with who he kept calling either, "Gamma, Gampa Hagen," or "Gamma, Gampa and Wayne." One of his favorite games lately has been Red Light, Green Light and he loved running circles through their house playing it last night.

This year I am especially thankful for two healthy little boys. Over the past five months, we have had many doctor and physical therapy appointments for Carsten. At least weekly, if not more. And I know I've said this before, but you just don't always think about what other people in this world are going through if you don't know them. But when you go to a specialty health care center all the time, it's just a great reminder to be grateful for our health. There are so many kids going in and out of that place with really serious issues. Carsten's was not serious. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't serious. It could be easily fixed, and as of Wednesday, it is fixed! He finished physical therapy three weeks ago and he was done with the helmet Wednesday. The doctor said that the small amount of correction that is left will probably fix itself faster on it's own than with the helmet. We are so glad to be done with it! But I won't lie to you, it was good protection. Several people told us they actually missed the helmet when they were done with it. And I thought they were crazy. But I get it now. Yesterday we were sitting at the table and he leaned forward and banged his head on the table. It looked intentional. But it hurt. With the helmet, things like that didn't phase him a bit! I don't actually miss the helmet though. We just might need to put padding on the table and gymnastics mats on the floors. :-)

Anyway, yesterday was our first full helmet free day. They gave us the mold of his head that the helmet was originally made from. It is truly incredible to hold it up to his head now and see where he started and where he is now. Thankful.

I have missed his cute little head, I just want to cuddle his little face up to me all the time! I still keep looking at him and thinking, "Oh no! We forgot to put his helmet back on!" I'm still getting used to him without it I guess. :-)

Tis the Season

I normally really don't like it when Christmas stuff starts going up before Thanksgiving. I love Christmas time. I really do. But I also love Thanksgiving and don't like when it gets skipped over. But for some reason, this year I was really excited. And we normally set everything up the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I don't think that would have worked. So Sunday, Christmas arrived at the Hagen house.

I think part of my excitement is for Tyler to be able to experience and truly understand Christmas this year. But our house is a little confused. We have a Christmas tree up in one room, and a turkey with thankful feathers and other fall decorations in our kitchen. Today Tyler pulled out a Christmas shirt that's been in the bottom of his drawer. He has never worn it or pulled it out. But today he took it out and said, "I have to wear my Christmas shirt now. It's Christmas time!" I had to convince him to save it until Friday. I just couldn't let him wear it out in public before Thanksgiving.

I always look forward to the day we set up our tree. We always set it up, makes Crepes, and watch a Christmas movie. We skipped the movie this time and will still do that on Friday. But our tree is up! There is nothing like the coziness of white lights all around the house.

Not the best picture, but I love it because it was not posed. They  both put their arms around each other all on their own!

We've always bought one ornament with the year on it every Christmas. Last year Tyler chose and this year we decided they can each pick their own.

Tyler chose a One Fish, Two Fish book ornament.

Carsent didn't so much choose his own, but it's a Baby's First Christmas ornament.

Tyler loved his Crepes! And he really wanted to eat it by the tree.

Until he needed more. Who doesn't eat Crepes with safety goggles and tools?

And this is my favorite part. The Little People Navitivy Scene. I especially love the tow truck parked by the stable. :-)

Little Grown Up

Personally, I would love for my little boys to stay little forever. I don't want them to ever get too big for hugs and kisses and snuggles. But it is pretty cute to see little kids doing grown up things.

A few weeks ago Carl decided to teach Tyler to play Chess. Yeah, I thought it was crazy too. :-) But Tyler loved it! It was hilarious to listen to them playing. I would hear Carl say things like, "Wow, that was a great move! I didn't even know you could do that." Ever since then every once in awhile Tyler will ask me if he can play Chess again. Today at dinner he asked and we could not figure out what he was saying. Probably because asking to play Chess is not what we're expecting our two year old to talk about. Finally he was getting exasperated and said, "Daddy's game!"

So they played again. And it was adorable again. He's learning the names of all the different pieces and loved collecting all of Carl's pieces. :-)

They're having so much fun.

 

Last time Carsten was sitting with them while they played. It must have been too distracting for Tyler, because this time he asked to play, "without you."

 



 So we found other fun things to do. He's getting so big!