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!

Our Pumpkin Week

We had such a fun week. On Wednesday Tyler had his first school program - they did a parade in their costumes and each class sang a few songs. It was so cute. 

While I was taking a picture of Tyler the Preschool director walked up and said, "I was looking for my king!" It was too cute.

Their program was adorable.

Then they went back to their classes for their Harvest parties. And I took Carsten and Aria out for a Starbucks date.

On Thursday they woke up and asked for face paint. 

They were the cutest and most ferocious little lions.

On Thursday we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

And on Friday they got dressed up and we went to the zoo for some trick-or-treating fun.

Aria loved the fish!

Carsten kept asking Tyler to hold his hand. They were so sweet.

After we got home and Carsten and Aria were napping Tyler asked for another face paint make-over.

So meet Captain Tyler!

Eight Months (and Seven!)

I sort of feel like fall didn't happen this year. Shouldn't I still have time to go to an orchard and pick apples? It snowed yesterday for crying out loud! :-) Anyway, I was way behind on here when Aria turned seven months. So here are a few (few? Ok, many) pictures from seven and eight months.

She already seems so little in these pictures!

She giggled hysterically through her eight month pictures. It was hard to get good ones because she was too happy. She was all over the place. And there are a lot of them because I failed miserably at narrowing them down. :-)

 

Out Takes (There were many.):

She discovered her headband for these pictures and would not leave it alone.

She also wanted to jump off her chair.

I promise I was ready to catch her at all times. And she did not fall. :-)

At eight months Aria is crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on things and getting into everything. Her favorite room to sneak into is the bathroom. She hasn't noticed the toilet yet, thankfully, because she gets to the bathtub first and is determined to try to climb in. Her favorite thing is her shoes. She plays with them and carries them all around the house. She chews on them and snuggles with them. And one of the two things that always makes her mad is having a shoe taken away from her.

The other thing is being given food. Until a couple weeks ago putting her in her high chair automatically made her upset. The list of foods she liked and didn't like was about like this.

Dislikes: Sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, carrots, pears, apples, oatmeal, bananas, blueberries, avocado, pasta... And anything else she's had that I can't think of.

Likes: Puffs and baby crackers. And apparently carrots with quinoa mixed in?

She wasn't spitting it out or crying at the sight of it anymore. But she was really just kind of tolerating it and not eating much. She's a little better (maybe?) with things like avocados and bananas that are a little chunky. Finally, today she tried peaches and after her first bite she actually started laughing. So two and a half months after starting food, she officially likes one kind of baby food. Crazy girl. She does love her puffs and yogurt melts though. She even signs "more" for them. I think she's just holding out for the good stuff. Like chocolate. She's going to have to wait awhile though. :-)

We just love this girl. She is so sweet and so fun!