We had a makeover...

Sooo, what do you think of our new look? Thank you Melissa for your help!

And many thanks to Aunt Ash for loading our Christmas pictures and movies. Karsten spent a few days at Mimi and Papas after the rest of us went back home. We just picked Karsten up this afternoon. For any of you who have talked to us the past month, you know of Karsten's recent obsession with The Polar Express movie. Well, I guess Karsten didn't want to get in the car to come home, so Ashley convinced him to get in the car by telling him they were going to the North Pole! She LIED to my child! So, I met them half way...Karsten gets in the car and immediately asks if we're going to the North Pole?..... Tonight? After Morgan wakes up?... When? And he continued to ask the WHOLE way home. So now what do I say, Ashley??

A funny side note....they did start heading to the North Pole when they took a detour (AKA wrong turn) heading up the wrong highway! But, Mimi, don't feel too bad. When we got into town I took the wrong exit heading South instead of East which took us a good 5 miles in the wrong direction. I'm not used to driving home in the dark...uh, huh...

Another try at jingle bells.

Merry Christmas to All!

Look how adorable little Morgan looks. She was crawling towards her stocking because she was so excited that santa had come!
Heres a picture of the proud Mimi and Papa. Morgan got her first little cell phone before the age of 1, sounds about right for kids these days does't it?
Karsten gladly helped Morgan open all of her presents. For some reason she seemed to enjoy the paper and all the packaging more than the actual toys.
Karsten opened quite a few presents for himself as well. He had so many toys that he didn't know what to do. He was so excited about all of his trucks and he played for about an hour in the tub with the seado policeman that he got from his aunt amber and his uncle jon (although he claimed that all of his gifts were from uncle Fal).

jingle Bells

This is karsten's wonderful rendition of jingle bells. I hope that you can hear it. He is quite the little performer!

Gingerbread Houses

Karsten's gingerbread house. Isn't it cute how he put the three wise men in the fire trucks.

Christmas Time

Karsten just loved this train exhibit. He is obsessed with trains, you know, and with The Polar Express. He has already watched it three times since being at Mimi and Papa's house, and he can basically quote the whole movie!

Karsten and Morgan enjoyed a little bath time together!

Trip to the Northwest

We detoured to Coeur D'Alene for an afternoon.
In Seattle we went crabbing at Salt Water State Park. Here are some pictures of the kids with their crabs.

Karsten's First RACE

Some of my friends were running in a race that started up the street at a local park. They had a little race for the kids and Karsten was all excited about it (actually I talked it up so he'd be excited). The only problem was Theron was out of town... so Karsten, Morgan and I ran our first race together! I knew the race was on the road so there would be plenty of room for our wide load. Here are the kids all bundled up after the race..

The most exciting was Karsten running in his FIRST RACE!! It was 150 yards...a down to the cone and back race. He needed moral support so I ran with him. On the way back I noticed he kept yelling something but I couldn't tell what until about the 4th time he said it. Thanks to Uncle Kenny...he kept repeating in a deep, competitive voice, "Give me knuckles, give me knuckles, give me knuckles...." I thought it was pretty funny. So here is a picture of Karsten with his ribbon and the best attempt I could get on camera of his "give me knuckles" fist. (By the way, he was a little hesitant in starting so he got last place...not to say he isn't fast, but he's just a wimp). He did his carb loading after the race. He ate a huge Panera Bagel and then we got home and he ate half of mine too!

Our Halloween Tradition

Little Ms. Morgan sat in a pumpkin...wondering what in the heck is mommy doing?... some of you may remember when Karsten was a baby we took a picture with him and his friend Liv in a pumpkin and it was the cutest thing...well, I guess we'll have to make it a tradition. So here is little Ms. Morgan the pumpkin princess.

...and here is Karsten for old time sake. He thought the pumpkin tasted pretty good! Poor Morgan was too big for her pumpkin so she didn't have a chance to try a lick.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We went trick-or-treating tonight and had so much fun. Karsten's buddy, Max, came along..Mr. Thomas the Train. He had a little problem getting up the steps and hills to everyone's front door. After his second crash he took off his engine and became Superman (notice his sweatshirt). Here are some pictures from the evening... Hope everyone had a fun night too!

Shhhh...Baby Morgan is sleeping

This girl is a LIGHT sleeper...but I'll attempt to post some more pictures for Autie Ambo and hope the bambino doesn't awake. We'll start with pictures to prove that Morgan loves to put everything in her mouth...

Then, moving on to Morgans first haircut. Her bangs have been in her eyes for months. We finally cut them last Sunday, but now they wont stay back in her barretts. So here is a picture of her getting her hair cut. I don't think I have any after pictures yet to show off my beautician skills-ha ha.

On to Mr. "Karstoney"...We went to a local "members only" farm here that was open to the public a few weeks ago. They had a childrens garden, lots of animals and things for kids to do. Karsten's favorite thing was the tractors. The keys were actually in the tractor, so it was quite scarey to sit on there with him in the driver seat:

The kids got mini pumpkins at the Kings Island (amusement park) pumpkin patch. We got to ride the train out to the pumpkin patch singing, "one little, two little, three little pumpkins...."

And last for this evening is proof that the little lady is a converted thumb sucker....It is absolutely wonderful. She almost never cries at naptime or bedtime and I love it! She has consistently been sleeping through the night for a month or two now. Last week we had the first cold night so I put her down in a warm sleeper instead of her usual onesie. The sleeper was too big and I didn't fold the sleeves up enough. Well she woke up crying so I went in to check on her....she lost her hand up in the sleeve of her PJs and couldn't find her thumb! So tramatic. I pulled her hand out, in when the thumb and the crying stopped immediately. NICE!

Sneak peak at Halloween!

Karsten knew what he wanted to be for Halloween...Morgan doesn't care. So, here are some sneak peak pictures of our little creatures. Karsten is a fireman/fire chief. Our neighbor is a fireman. The day we bought the costume Karsten wore it ALL day long. He saw our neighbor outside and went to show him. Our neighbor then went and got all his fireman clothes, hat, flashlight, etc and showed them to Karsten. Karsten thought it was soo cool!

Morgan is a purple dragon...at least it's purple. I wasn't quite sure this was her, especially when I saw a very femine and cute mermaid costume. But, when we tried it on I couldn't resist (plus it was a $4 find at the end of last season).