Tale of the Fish Crackers.....

The other day I gave Karsten some Fish Crackers to snack on. Sammy was in the other room, but after coming in the kitchen, the following events took place......

"MMmm Sammy, look at my fish crackers! Don't they look yummy?!"

"Those do look yummy! Why don't you share with me?"

"No, these are just to good to share!"

"Step Away From the Fish Crackers Now!"

Mission not accomplished :(

HA HA!

Back to eating!

Three Amigos...

I think Grant was outside playing, but the other boys insisted I take a photo of all 3 of them.

Samuel

I took some shots of Sammy the other day while he was being mischievous. He gets into more stuff than any of the other boys. This week alone we have caught him dropping tons of soap into the toilet to make bubbles and also trying to flush legos down! We can't take our eyes off him for a second!

What a Ham! Sam the Ham!
Dimples!

Yes, that is a lego in mid-air off to the right. He was not building, but rather destroying the castle we had built!

Karsten...

Here are some pics of "Midsize Karsten"...he is sneaking up on 2 soon! What a big boy!

Blast from the Past..

So my camera arrived yesterday, and I hadn't bought a card for it yet. Tonight I realized that our camcorder took the same card, so I took it out to "borrow it". I downloaded the card, thinking nothing was on it--and now I'm glad I did. I found some good ones :) Enjoy! Luke and Grant prior to pumpkin carving. Monmouth, Oregon Oct 2004
Grant is 3 here, and Luke is 4

Let me choke you to show you how much I love you brother!

Silly faces!

Cuddle Bugs...

Yes! You can see my tonsils!

The boys enjoy the new giant flat screen high definition experience

These are pics of the boys we took the other night while they were watching Animal planet.
As you can tell, Karsten is one of the BIG boys.

New Truck

My new truck has a hands free feature that can play iPods and MP3s by voice command. On our drive home from Ralph's house Sara was reading the owner's manual and she plugged in her iPod to my dashboard. The next thing I know Sara is yelling at my dashboard to play certain songs and I told her to a: Stop yelling and b: That's not how it works. Then all of a sudden my dashboard started talking back to Sara and asks her which Johnny Cash songs she wants to play. What the? A talking dashboard? The dashboard displayed the song and artist that was playing. You can tell the "Dashboard" (Powered by Microsoft) by album or artist what you want to hear. The iPod is disabled while plugged into the car so that you don't fiddle with the iPod and crash. You have to use voice commands or controls on your steering wheel. This feature almost had the opposite effect on me because when the dashboard started talking I almost swerved into the ditch from the surprise! It can also do hands-free stuff with my phone.

The big boys (Luke and Grant) were good the whole way too, 2 hours each way. They were playing their new Nintendo DS Lites. They did not see any of the Texas country side the whole way, but they didn't whine about the long drive either. On the way back Sara showed Luke how to reach new levels on the Zelda game, a family bonding moment. Yes Sara plays it at night and uses the internet to research solutions to sticking points in the game, Luke thinks she is a "Pinball Wizard".

My last truck just and a V-8 engine and a bed...boring!

Buddies

The other day Grant and Karsten played really well together. It's not often Grant cuddles with anyone, let alone the little guy, so I'm glad I got these shots!

Karsten the Other Reindeer

Luke the Builder...

While Grant was out playing football with his buddies, Luke decided to stay inside and build an elaborate dinosaur vs. army guys battle (in the broken dresser I haven't fixed yet). He was so proud of it, I had to take photos, but they don't do it justice. He had every detail covered: The t-rex attacking the tanks, the helicopter "hanging" from the dresser complete with an army guy hanging out, gun ready, and aimed at dinosaur. He used the drawer rails and had rows of army men lined up. There was an erupting volcano, and so many details. Karsten has already thrown a ball at it, so we don't expect it to last much longer.

Christmas Morning....

Christmas Buddies
Get outta my way man! It's Mine!!!!!

So many gifts, so little time! See Joe's new tv in the background.

"Whoa! Are these all for Me?"

We ended up videotaping most of the morning, but did get a few shots. Its very hard to control 4 boys in a heap of gifts! The boys were really excited, and loved exchanging with each other. When we were wrapping gifts for each other on Christmas Eve (I didn't think they could keep a secret) Luke asked me, "Isn't this waiting until the last minute? You know, like my homework projects?" Ha ha! Joe really made out this year with a brand new truck (yes, it only took 2 years to pick the right one out!) and a plasma tv (which we are all enjoying). He spoiled me with a brand new iron (that I begged for!) and a Digital SLR camera (which is on its way--still shipping). The boys got many many many clothes and toys, Sammy loves his trains, Karsten loves his monster bowling, and Luke and Grant love their nintendo DS lites. Luke also got RoboRaptor from Santa, and we have discovered that Sammy is absolutely terrified by it. He is horrified and it is so sad to see him so scared.