Our Tree and Santa

Here are the boys....with Santa in Madison, and in front of our Christmas tree this year. Awww...

Tractor Men

This year the boys are taking their pedal tractors that Michael restored for them to the tractor show in Edgar. They are so excited to go! My favorite parts at the show are the tractors, the long rows of flea market tables, the deep-fried cheese curds, and ice cream. I'll have to run it off later so I don't add more poundage to my midsection. Ugh.

Can you tell which one was crabby this morning? :)

Ha!

Morning Snuggles

(Taken with my phone)

Big Enough to Ride

Last Sunday Austin was invited to a birthday party at a hotel oasis, and I took Ethan to partake in the swim part (okay'd by the birthday boy's mom). After Ethan saw the kids go down the waterslide he was begging....he isn't 48" tall, like the sign said he needed to be, that I know. I took his hand anyway, and we marched up the red stairs, and met the attendant before the last flight to the top. I asked Is he too little to go down the slide? He's my child that has fear of nothing. Can he go down? She sat, looking down, and was silent. Do you know if he's 48 inches tall? I knew he wasn't....I have no idea...he has no fear... I assured her...He's my little kamakazie...so she said sure, let him try and we'll see how it goes. Well....that was the beginning of him on an endless circle of stairs and waterslide. He had so much fun, he didn't want to get off!

Swings

Every spring/summer I enjoy listening to the cranes sing in the field adjacent to our house. Music to my ears. I've loved their songs since high school, when I went on the same biology field trip to the International Crane Foundation all 3 times it was offered to students. Someday I want to take the boys there. Soon. (The quality isn't great; I had to keep my distance and I had a 24-70mm lens on).

The weather has been unseasonably warm, so we've enjoyed time after school running around barefoot, swinging, walking, and playing with sticks.

Ethan's Free. (Three, that is!)

Ethan turned 3 on December 22nd.

He LOVES Peppa Pig...hence the pig family on his cake. The figures came the 21st in the mail, from the UK. Just in the nick of time. I made his cake this year....and it turned out pretty well. Everyone was pooping rainbows the next day. Kidding about that. Maybe.

We gathered a small crowd here at our home and celebrated him. He's a kamakazie, not afraid of anything, and a snuggly little boy. He'll get up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed between Mike and I, or the other night he crawled up into Austin's bed and snuggled with him. He crawls on the countertops to get my candy from the cupboards that I can't hide from him anymore. He responds to "dame un beso" which I love, and loves to drive Mario Kart on the wii so he can run into the cows. He hollers "tractor" whenever we pass one while we're driving in the car. He loves building things with the Magna-tiles and Brio train sets....and is a little helper around the house when I'm cleaning or putting things away.

That's Ethan!

We love him so!!

Polaroid Dump

Halloween Friends

Halloween Day trick-or-treating with good friends.

Trick-or-Treat | Round 1

In our city Trick-or-Treating isn't until Halloween Monday evening...but where I grew up, 42 minutes from here, it was tonight. So, I gathered up the boys' costumes, and headed back home for a few hours. It started off well; the mist was bearable. But by the time we got around the block, it was getting uncomfortable and the boys had enough.

"No more houses...." they each told me.

And that was OK! Because we're doing it all over again Monday night with their friends.

It was fun seeing the neighborhood again where I grew up; seeing my former neighbors as they answered their doors to my boys, not me, holding out their bags asking for candy, prompted sometimes by their mama ..."What do you say?", or "Make sure you say 'Thank you!'", or "This time..nice and loud - yell: Trick-or-Treat!" My gosh, it was like déjà vu...it seems like yesterday my brother and I were running up and down the driveways to get to as many houses that we could...I still remember the vinyl pants and the plastic face masks. You were lucky to make it home without the crotch ripping open!

It was fun to catch up with the neighbors that answered their doors. We briefly chatted about what their kids (my neighborhood friends) were doing now that we're all older, married, with kids...I was disappointed that a few houses didn't have their porch light on signaling they were giving out candy - I wanted to say 'hi' and get an update on them and their kids.

Maybe next year?

Here are the two munchkins all dressed up at Grandma and Granddad's house...awwww!

Happy Hallow's Eve!

Rainy Fun Day

I rushed out of school after bus duty today and picked up the boys for an outing. We headed to a local farm for the Conference Cross Country Meet. The boys came with me last week; the sunshine and dry weather was perfect. Today...it rained all day, but luckily the rain stopped a few hours before the meet. We donned our puddle boots, and had umbrellas to ward off the rain. It worked, since it didn't rain on us at all. Plus, I was excited to try out a new camera strap I got yesterday. It doesn't use the typical eyeholes on the top of the camera, rather the tripod mount.  Talk about a quick draw of the camera! It worked pretty slick.

Brothers' Bond

"Like branches on a tree we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one. 
Each of our lives will always be a special part of the other." -Author Unknown

Like Summer

'Round these parts lately it has been more like summer. The temps are 10-15 degrees above average...and not a soul complains. Who would complain when Mommy Nature throws us some good weather? So we've been relishing...

The "Blue Truck" is officially done.

An opportunity and the mood to pose for his mother...

Austin's photography...

Austin's gymnastics...

And Ethan...just being Ethan!

Happy Friday!

Ethan :: Toes to the Sky

The Fair

The Fair was in town the last week in late August/early September. Austin and Ryan had to go on the race cars again this year...they each went on about 5 rides inbetween rainshowers.

Of course we strolled through the buildings and saw the animals...

Had cotton candy...

And on the way out, we stopped to see the tractors and farm implements on display....the kids love climbing on them...

...and of course jumping off of them!

How about 'dem apples?

This year we have, I believe, four trees bearing apples. And we don't spray or net the trees...they just get to do their own thing. And this year, on the one tree where the boys were picking from, the fruit isn't that buggy, and the apples are tart and delicious.

So Austin picked his apple.

Then Ethan had to naturally pick his own (can't you hear it now..."Me do it"), so Austin picked Ethan up and he got his own apple.

Enger Park

This past Sunday we were in Duluth, MN and drove up to Enger Park. The park is just....beautiful. Green. Fresh. Colorful. Alive.
A photographer's dream!