Snowy Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was a little crazy this year, with all of the lovely wintery weather. We spent Christmas with Jarred's family and also spent a lot of time at home just the 4 of us! My parents were not able to come up because the roads just weren't very good.

We got a Wii as our family gift, Ethan loves it. He is really good at golf and bowling! He also got a fun fishing game and we all like Mario Kart too. We spent quite a bit of time playing that. Ethan also got a sled from Grandpa John. So on Christmas Day Jarred pulled him behind the 4-wheeler (slowly) up and down Grandpa's driveway. That seemed to be the highlight of his Christmas Day! He loves playing out in the snow, and making paths with his trucks and cars.

Carson liked the sled too!

All ready for church on Christmas Eve.

Ethan with all of the Wii stuff.

Carson had fun ripping the paper off his gifts and playing with it. He also tried to sneak some of it into his mouth of course. He was sick a few days before Christmas with a fever, cough and runny nose. But he bounced back quick, thankfully.

Unfortunately the weekend didn't come to a very good end. My Grandpa Poppe passed away on Sunday night. We will miss you Grandpa.

Christmas Program

Ethan had his Christmas program last Friday. The theme was "Starry Night". The kids sang 6 songs, the boys were dressed as shepards and the girls angels. Ethan did great! He stood still for the most part. Some of the kids were turning around, talking to eachother and messing around. It was pretty entertaining. The best part was when they sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas". I only caught the last part on video but Ethan really got into it with the arm actions as you can see.

Singing up front.

Ethan the shepard.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! While it would be OK to be snowed in with this weather we are supposedly getting, it makes it hard for everyone to see their families. So I hope the snow holds off for safe travels.

Here is a picture of Ethan and Carson just for fun. The last 3 posts have been about Ethan and I haven't taken to many pictures of Carson (sorry bud!)

Backgrounds!

Thanks to Sara I finally found some fun backgrounds for my blog!  I have been wanting to do this, and searched...but found nothing.  It was making me mad, because you would think that someone who went to SCHOOL for web programming might be able to figure something like this out.  Well, now that I know how to change the backgrounds and where to find them, I can have fun with it!  You will probably find the background changing often.  :)  Tomorrow I will put up a post about Ethan's Christmas program, it was cute!

Birthday Party

This post is a little past due, but Ethan had a really fun time at his birthday party!  We went to the WOW Zone.  What a fun place!  Five of his friends came to his party and they bowled, ate pizza and cake, opened presents and played video games.  It all went really well. Thanks to everyone who came!

Silly Boys!

It's a big task to get everyone to smile nice.  :)

5 Years Old.

Golden Birthday

Tomorrow our tractor obsessed, sport fanatic, matchbox car crashing, animal lover, sensitve, outdoor adventurer, sometimes stubborn but loving little boy........will be 5 years old!  Ethan, you are growing up fast.  You are learning so much everyday.  Right now you are completley daddy's boy, you would be attached to his hip if you could!  He is so happy that you love farming so much, and hopefully the two of you will do it together someday.  I think you are going to turn out to be pretty good at sports too!  Which is so exciting.  Daddy and I can't wait to watch you play sports.  Next fall you will go to kindegarten, but we won't get into that.  Right now we will just let you be the fun care-free little boy that you are.  We love you!  Happy 5th Birthday.

Here are some pictures from the last 5 years.

Coming home from the hospital

A little over a year old

18 months old with Rosho!

2 years old with his favorite little dog!

3 years old!

4 years old...

...and just a week away from being 5.

All is well

Carson had his tubes put in yesterday, and it all went perfectly!  His surgery was at 7:30 and we were home by 8:30.  He slept all day and was pretty darn happy after his afternoon nap.  They suctioned fluid off of his left ear, so that may have been affecting his mood at times.  I hope it was all worth it!  Here is a picture I took on my cell phone of him before they wheeled him into surgery. 

The nurses all thought he was pretty cute, he was smiling away at them.  It was a little bit hard watching him go into the surgical room, but I didn't cry knowing that it would be short and quick.  But I can't imagine sending a baby/child into a more serious and long surgery!  Yikes.

Ethan has his big 5th birthday on Saturday!  I will post more on that tomorrow!

Buddies

Last weekend Margo & Owen came to hang out with us for the afternoon.  Carson & Owen played together so good, it was the cutest thing to watch them.  Besides the fact that Carson is going through a hitting stage and he smacked Owen over the head a few times.  (sorry Owen!)  As most of you know, Margo and I have known eachother forever and somehow survived being college roomates.  :)  I just love the fact that we now get together to watch our kids play. 

Don't they just look SO innocent? 

They both thought it was funny to put bowls on their heads!

We were laughing watching Owen push Carson back & forth...they were both laughing too, wish I would have caught it on video!

He loves his tractors!

Ethan spent a lot of time in the tractor & combine this fall.  I mean A LOT!  I can't believe that kid can sit out there for as long as he does, there were a few Saturdays where he was out there for 12 hours!  Everyday when I picked him up from pre-school, he would ask if daddy was in the field.  But he only got to go out there if he was good at school.  Then when he gets home from the tractor, he plays with his little tractors and combines on the kitchen floor.  He is not happy if Carson messes up his "field"!  I think we have a little farmer on our hands.  Daddy & Grandpa John should be proud.  :)

And he always had to make sure to put on his "work" clothes, which are any of his jeans that have holes in them.  We bought him work boots this year too.

Little ears

This little munchkin...

...is having tubes put in his ears on December 2nd!  We hope this helps so he doesn't have to deal with those icky ear infections anymore.  The doctor said there is still a chance he can get ear infections, but they won't be as bad.  They would prescribe us drops instead of antiobiotics to clear up the infection.   No more pink stuff in our refirgerator for Carson.  Yeah!

My boys

Can you believe they are both looking at the camera?  I can't remember what bribe we used to get Ethan to smile and Carson doesn't look thrilled....but at least he is looking!  :)

The next big task will be to get a good Christmas picture.  I better start now!

Busy weekend!

I was a little bit concerned that we were going to miss out on Halloween and birthday party fun, but everything turned out great.

Ethan was sick on Thursday & Friday.  It didn't come as a big surprise because almost his entire pre-school class was out.  He had a low grade fever and just felt crummy.  He was bummed because he had to miss his school party on Friday.  But we did go up to the St. Clair school on Friday night with Sara & Aubrey.  It was a little crazy there!  Ethan was still a little out of it, so he didn't have as much fun as I had hoped.  Saturday night Grandpa Ron and Andrea took Ethan trick or treating in Janesville, he got a TON of candy!  Carson and I stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house, it was very cold. 

Sunday was Carson's big first birthday party!  Thanks to everyone who came.  Carson got some nice new clothes and fun toys.  Which his big brother seems to also enjoy.  :) 

I love planning and having parties at my house, but they always seem like such a whirlwind.  I spend tons of time cleaning and planning, and then it is over so fast.  But, all that matters is that everyone has a good time and we get to spend time with family and friends!

Happy 1st Birthday Carson!

Happy birthday to my sweet baby boy!  I can't believe it has been a year.  It seems like yesterday that Grandma Renee and Auntie Shannon were calling and texting me multiple times per day as I was impatiently waiting for you to arrive.   Then when you did get here we had so many happy visitors come and see you in the hospital.  Your brother was excited to meet you.  Now it's you that is excited to see your big brother everyday, he always makes you smile.  He loves you so much, even though he can be a little to rough sometimes.  :)  You are growing up so fast, starting to walk all around.  Your favorite things to play with are balls, blocks, and Ethan's toys.  You sure like your bottle and pacifier, it may be a few months before we get those away from you.  But that's okay, you are only 1....still our little baby.  Mommy and Daddy love you Carson.  Happy Birthday.

Only a few hours old...

The big 1 year old...

Please pray

On the right you will see a button with a picture of a little baby that says "praying for Stellan".  I read his mom's blog everyday, I don't know them...but their story has been on the news in the past and was on the Cribsheet blog that I read.  Stellan has a heart condition and has been sick ever since he was born.  Ironically, he has the same birthday as Carson.  Right now Stellan is in the hospital not doing so well, so his family could use some extra thoughts and prayers.  If you have some time, click on that button and checkout the blog. It's all just so sad.  It reminds me to be extremely thankful that my family is healthy.

Here fishy, fishy

We went down to Grandpa and Grandma Poppe's this last weekend.  On Saturday Grandpa took Ethan fishing at the campground.  They caught 9 really good sized crappies!  Plus some little ones that they threw back.  Ethan was so excited.  Next time we are down there we will get to eat them.  Ethan says he wants to eat them, but I wonder if he really will? 

Carson is walking!

Carson has been taking little steps for the past few weeks. On Saturday he finally walked across the living room! It was very exciting. He was pretty proud of himself. But what he really likes to do is push his toy fire engine around...I think he likes this because he enjoys slamming it into the wall. After a little more practice, he will be walking everywhere. Go Carson!

Two posts in one day is pretty good for me! :)

Soccer in the snow?

Only in Minnesota do we play soccer when it's 20 some degrees out and there is a dusting of snow on the ground!

Ethan's last day of soccer was a little chilly to say the least. I made fun of Jarred because he was going to wear snow boats. WELL, I guess I was wrong because my toes were completely frozen by the end of his game. The kids didn't seem to mind to much, they were all bundled up and still had fun playing their game! You could tell by the end that they were getting a little cold.

Watching that video just makes me feel cold.

Have a happy Monday! :)

Off to the pumpkin patch....

....okay, so it was just a roadside pumpkin stand. But there were lots of them and Ethan had fun picking out his pumpkins while his brother tasted a pumpkin!

Maybe if it ever warms up, we will get to go to a REAL pumpkin patch!

The sun is shining!

The weather for the last week is not what I had in mind for FALL! It has been miserable, especially when there is an almost 5 year old in the house who has a lot of energy and needs to get outside! Otherwise his mommy may go crazy. :) So, I hope the sun can stay out today until after work...because we need to be outside!

Taking pictures of the boys is definitely not easy anymore. Carson won't sit still and it takes a lot of convincing (and bribing!) to get Ethan to act normal and not stick his tongue out or close his eyes. Although it does make for some funny pictures sometimes.

Saturday is Ethan's last soccer game. I just hope the crappy weather can hold off so that they get to play. Ethan has missed 2 weeks because of being sick and the weather.

The cute little blue eyed boy from above has decided for the past 4 or 5 nights that he wants to be awake from 3-5 a.m.! I think when he was sick with his last ear infection he got a little to use to being picked up in the middle of the night. I hope we can break this soon, because it makes for

a long day at work!

It's been an exciting week of MN sports. Ethan says GO VIKINGS & TWINS!

Mama's Boy

Happy 11 month birthday to Carson! I can't believe he is going to be 1 in just a month. Time to start planning the party! I have a feeling he will be walking all around very shortly, he is already brave enough to take a few steps. I am pretty sure his first word was "mama". Which fits, because he is a mama's boy!!!!!! :)

Soccer!

Ethan had his first day of soccer on Saturday. He loved it. He looked so grown up in his cute soccer uniform. There are 6 kids on the team. They start with a 1/2 hour practice and then they have a game. They take turns playing 3 on 3 with the other team. It's so funny watching those kids run around in a pack chasing the ball. They have a hard time keeping their hands off the ball because they want to stop it or pick it up and throw it. Ethan had 2 goals...one for his team and one for the other team! ha. He is already asking when he gets to play again.