Mooching in the Mud

A few weeks ago, during one of my not-so-bright moments, I gave Noah a bucket of water, so he could dump it on the dirt outside and make more mud. What was I thinking? Now we have this (rather) permanent mud spot RIGHT outside our front door and Noah is tempted to play in it EVERY time we leave the house or come back. It is bad enough to have one (even bigger) a few feet away but at least he would forget about that one every once in a while.













I have realized after three years of being a mom that it is not my kids who can't handle being inside all day, it is me. I hate it. I am not patient, creative, or calm enough to entertain my kids in the house for more than a couple of hours at a time. Then I need to go outside, breathe some fresh air, and run around. No matter what weather. Luckily, Noah and Max enjoy it as well.


Our own version of mud football. This ball is usually bright white.


Noah and I are always on the lookout for puddles. We love puddles. The bigger, the better. The other day we had a pretty big one right in our parking lot. We set up Noah's bike so that the rear wheel did not touch the ground and he did some "puddle spinning". It was so much fun. He just kept going and going. He said he was training.










In case you are wondering what happened to his wooden bike - it broke. He went down a steep hill without breaking (much), flipped over the handle bars, and fell hard. I was right behind him and consider it a miracle that he got away without a concussion, broken bones, or worse. The front fork broke away from the rest of the bike. Oops. We picked up the pieces and have been able to glue it back together by now. We'll see how that works. In the meantime, Noah rides this Huffy (Karl pulled out of the dumpster) and his scooter.

So 2 days later, Noah was riding his scooter to the library. The scooter does not do as well, though, over snow and ice, and so he fell again and the handle smashed into his face right next to his eye. This picture does not do it justice. His eye is pretty swollen and rather black. More battle wounds for Noah.

Yes, more fun puddles.
No, I did not take these pictures all on the same day. Noah just happens to wear this outfit all day every day. Outside and inside.









Clean up. I am really tired of it. Where is the mud room/garage/yard I so desperately need? Maybe next week we'll stay inside. Probably not.


If you are American, you might not want to look at this next picture.
If you are German, no worries.

Happy Birthday

Liebe Tante Emily,

Wir wünschen Dir von ganzem Herzen einen wunderschönen Geburtstag. Wir hoffen, es wird ein besonders toller Tag für Dich.

Ich, Max, vermisse jemandem, der mich den ganzen Tag auf dem Arm hält und knuddelt. Ich würde Dir gern meine zwei neuen Zähne zeigen und meine neuen Tricks vorführen. Ich freu mich schon auf Dezember.


Ich, Noah, vermisse Dich auch sehr. Niemand kann so gut mit mir Pizza backen wie Du. Und auf dem Beanberg bin ich jetzt oft ganz allein, den hab ich gern mit Dir geteilt. Wir hatten echt viel Spaß. Ich freu mich auch schon auf Dezember und vor allem auf meinen neuen Cousin oder Cousine. Hoffentlich Cousin, ich mag Jungs besser als Mädchen.


Viel Freude, Spaß, Gottes Segen, eine einfache Schwangerschaft, schöne Geburt und ein gesundes Baby wünschen wir Dir für Dein 27. Lebensjahr.

In Liebe,
Karl, Sarah, Noah und Max

Day Off

Karl gave me a great Birthday present. A coupon. But not just any old coupon. A coupon for 4 Saturdays off. That means I get to do anything I want to do for however long I want to do it. Karl knows me well. It is the best present ever.

So a few Saturdays ago, I decided to go cross-country skiing by myself. I had planned on going to Soldier Hollow because I love that place but they were actually hosting the Junior Winter Olympics and I did not quite fit in. So I went to Sundance instead and it was gorgeous as well.


I ended up skiing for 2.5 hours and I loved every minute of it. I really enjoy skate skiing and wish I was better at it. One of those sports you should pick up as a child if you want to get really good at it. But back then I preferred downhill and thought cross-country was boring. I wish I would have known better. Actually, if we had the money, I would probably still be skiing downhill quite a bit. But we don't.

That same morning, Karl was getting a little jealous, I guess. He suggested that we could all go up there, but he would take care of the kids and pull them in the Chariot. I said: "No way!!"
I really love my family but I also really love having a break every once in a while. I did not want to deal with getting them (and all their gear) ready, entertaining them in the car while driving there, and then worrying about them having fun up there. Because when I take some time off, I don't like to worry about them one bit. And I usually don't. I don't even think of them (much).


Last Saturday, Soldier Hollow gave out free passes as part of the Heber Valley WinterFest. Thanks to our friends, Anna and Nate, we heard about it late Friday night and changed our plans from snowshoeing without kids to skiing with kids. Max was pretty sick anyway and I would have felt bad leaving him with Karl's mom. But I guess I did not feel bad schlepping him up there, making him take his nap in the Chariot, and having him play in the snow. Oh well, he is better now.

Karl had already gotten a really long run in that morning and so he volunteered to pull the Chariot. That means he had to do classic while I got to do skating. I am not a big fan of classic. It feels more like hiking to me whereas skating feels like running. Karl says, it's because I don't know how to classic ski very well. I disagree.

Either way I had a fantastic time. It was one of those times where you want to scream at the top of your lungs because you feel so exhilarated to be out in nature and to be exercising. You feel free and happy. The Cherry Chubs know what I am talking about. I wish you could have been there.

Noah improved is skiing skills as well and then we had a bog bowl of chili and some yummy corn bread at Anna and Nate's house.

I love my life.

Our little chub

One lovely evening this little chub was so cute that I had to take some pictures before giving him a bath.

I love his double chin, floppy cheeks, and wide eyes.


He's got some pretty nice rolls, as well.


Max loves sitting up in the tub trying to catch the running water with his hands. So many fun and new things to explore.


Noah keeps asking why his skin is so soft and I don't really have an answer. Just really soft and nice baby skin.

I also tried to get a picture of his first tooth but it did not work very well. He is not quite ready to show it to the world yet.

I love our little guy.

Parking Lot Duathlon

No back yard, no front yard, not living on a quiet street, so we play on the side walk and in the parking lot. It can be really fun and entertaining, as you see here.



If you think Noah looks tired, you are right. He rode his bike home from preschool today, played at the snow-covered park, and at this point, has already done about 50 laps around the car. Go, Noah!

The girl is Noah's friend Allison from our complex. She comes over on nice days and knocks on our door to see if Noah can play. She is 6, bilingual as well, and (when she is not telling Noah what to do or how to do it) they play together pretty well.

PS: Noah is doing this training out of his own free will.

Legos

Noah fell in love with Legos. It happened when his cousins were playing with them at Grandma's house and he watched what cool things they were building.

Here he is building a rather cool thing himself.


Unfortunately and sadly, I can't remember what it is. But, I think it is awesome.


He also built this ATV all by himself and had lots of fun with it.

Now I wish I would have gotten him Legos for his birthday or Christmas but I had no idea he would be so much into it already. To be honest, I thought it was too little still. But seeing how it entertains him for a (relatively) long time, we borrowed some from Grandma Becky. Mick has quite the collection and still plays with them. When he leaves on his mission next month, we might borrow some more. Unless he carefully locks away everything he calls his own, like Andee did. Then we are in trouble. But today he took a few minutes and shared his Lego expertise with Noah. Now, instead of thinking Mick is scary, Noah thinks he is super cool.

He is in his room right now, supposed to be sleeping but playing with his Lego dudes. 'Dudes' is what we call these little guys.

In case you are wondering, he can be a knight and play with Legos at the same time. I still put that costume on him about 5 times a day. I am really tired of it.

Time to turn off Noah's light. Wish me luck.

Horses

We love having a membership to Thanksgiving Point. Thank you so much, Becky. It is further than I usually like to drive, but it is always well worth the trip.

This time the weather was actually pretty nice and there was hardly any wind, so we spend most of our time at Farm Country.

My knight was very excited to be riding a real horse. He got lucky and in addition to a few ponies, they had our favorite big white horse.



Then we went on to feed this cute foal and his (rather greedy) mother.


After visiting all the other animals, we warmed up in the Dinosaur Museum. We only played in the water/wet sand (building dams) and in the dry sand (digging for fossils). Those are the only two areas Noah really cares about. That is fine with me. Max and I just get to hang out and play while Noah is busy.

Thank you Jen, Eric, and Rubie for joining us this time. We are so excited you got a membership as well. Fun times ahead...

Sitting up

I made it! I can sit up all my myself. Now I can better watch Noah play and see what is going on around me.

Here I am still practicing in a toy box. I like the box much better than the Bumbo thingy I told you about earlier. Don't ask me why but I do. Maybe 'cause I can grab things better and grabbing things is what I like to do.











But, as you can see, I don't need the box or the Bumbo anymore. I am big now.





Ok, gotta go. I am busy figuring out the crawling thing.

Hoppe Reiter

It was snowing all night and the snow plow is clearing the parking lot. Noah is not quite as obsessed with it as last year, but almost. It was taking a really long time, though, so Noah got bored and came up with this little trick.