First Christmas Concert

Kobe just had his first christmas concert on thursday.  It was so exciting and adorable (yes, mommy's tears of joy were flowing)!  Kobe was a perfect angel, we were expecting him to get up in front of everyone and be shy (like at the pumpkin parade), but he did great, singing, and even doing a lot of the hand movements.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Krass we got front row seats!  Those teachers are amazing to get 18 three/four year olds to sing for even a 7 1/2 minute program.  We are looking forward to next year's 9 1/2 minute program!  :)

Our Sweetest Kobe

Kobe has been such a sweetheart lately, I just had to share a few of his "sayings".  He's been telling me "mommy, thank you for making such a nice supper", or "mommy I really like the christmas decorations, they look really nice", or he'll tell us "you did a great job with that".  While we were hanging the ornaments on the tree, he was into "this one is so sweet" , "Mommy, isn't this one sweet", or "Oh, sweet", over and over, about a million times, no exaggerating, about every ornament, troy and I had to hide our giggles.  He had preschool earlier that day, obviously someone at school says the phrase "sweet" all the time!  

One more to share quickly - mommy started a new tradition, St Nick, for those who don't know, you put your shoes out at night before you go to bed, St Nick comes and fills them (growing up, we always got ornaments, but I'm going to do christmas PJ's).  So we put the shoes out, and the next morning, Troy went to get Kobe out of bed, and he said "daddy, I don't need many presents, I already have a lot of toys, santa should bring you and mommy presents instead".  Isn't he the sweetest?  He will still say these things when he's a teenager, right?

16 ft Christmas tree

Unfortunately this year, for the first time in 10+ years, we didn't get to carry on our tradition of cutting a christmas tree down together as a family.  Since the boys had been sick with flu/colds daddy took on the load all by himself.  Being the daddy he is, he found the biggest tree he could (attendents at the tree farm vouched it was the biggest they'd sold all year), and loaded it all himself.  Yes, it is actually 16 feet, and yes, we really had to use a 2 story ladder to decorate it.  Brennan didn't know what to think when we brought this huge thing into the house, but so far he's just ignored it (he did enjoy walking through the ladder though).  Kobe really got into decorating the tree this year, not only the ones on the bottom, but insisted on climbing the ladder to hang some as well (all 5 on one branch of course)!  There's nothing better to put you into the christmas spirit than the smell of a fresh cut tree!

Brennan's new things

Okay, I promise this is the last one, and I will try to keep updated in the future!

Brennan's latest thing is to climb into something like a basket or in this case a toy container.  He's pretty proud of himself.  For the first year Brennan's tongue was constantly hanging out of his mouth (not sure how it never dried out), but now his new thing, when he thinks he has an audience, is to stick his tongue out and swish it side to side.  It's the cutest, course he's at the stage where he'll do anything you'll laugh at, again, and again, and again - it never get's old to him, so look out!  :)  Seriously, look at the time, I've got to get to bed!

Krass Christmas

Last weekend (yes, after hosting thanksgiving) we traveled out to Green Bay area to celebrate christmas with the Krass's.  Brennan decided to nap only a half hour in that 5 hour car ride.  Nice!  Kobe actually traveled very well.  We traveled to my aunt lynn's house and joined their family in a thanksgiving celebration, and then headed closer to Green Bay to have christmas with my other family (thanksgiving and christmas in the same day, can it get any better?).  Here is a picture of Kobe and Brennan's Great Grandma and Grandpa Krass.  It was nice to finally visit their new home in Wisconsin.  One christmas down, 6 to go (yes, six more, really!).

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful thanksgiving 2008 - we are all so blessed in our families with many more blessings than we could even list.  We thank our God every day for giving us everything we need and so much more.  The youngs actually hosted thanksgiving this year for Heidi's side.  Daddy Troy cooked up a 22 lb turkey (yes, that's a pound more than brennan's weight!), and mommy made a lot of other food.  Of course we had enough left over we could feed a whole village in Africa.  If only we could overnight some to them.  Please, Lord, give them even just an ounce of our richness.  :)

Winter Swimming

Wow, we've gone swimming 3 times in 2 weeks, that's more than in the summer (unless you count a pool with 4 inches of water).  This pic was taken at auntie Dea's hotel in downtown Mpls when we went to visit her while she was in work training (thanks Wells Fargo).  The following week we stayed with daddy in a hotel in Red Wing, the Best Western Suites - part of their pool was outside, it was really neat, you can swim right out, that's crazy in the winter!  That same week we took a trip to Green Bay for our first christmas, and swam in another pool.  The boys both loved it, although brennan got upset because he couldn't understand why mommy wouldn't let go of him in the water.  Brennan pretends he's swimming now in the bathtub, he lays on his belly and kicks his legs.

Picnics for the boys

Kobe and Brennan have really started playing well together.  Mommy is starting to wonder what she will do with her time.  The boys just disappear and often play so nicely (course there's always the times when someone is screaming for mommy).  Often times I'll go downstairs and peek around the corner, and this is what I see - it just melts your heart!  The bond between them is a gift from above!

Family ZOO trip!

Mommy, Brennan, and Kobe enjoy lots of time at the zoo, but we're always wishing daddy could join us.  Finally we found a weekend to go in November.  We loved showing and sharing all our favorites at the zoo with daddy.  It was a super cold day, but we still had to show daddy the new BEAR exhibit - of course the bears were sleeping!  Guess there'll have to be a next time!

Why two rooms?

Seriously, why do we have two separate beds and two separate bed rooms, they look quite comfy, you think?  Kobe was elated when I said he could crawl in the crib with brennan!  Mom, is that you?  Only daddy lets us do stuff like this!

I do have to apologize to those of you whom are on the email list and are about to get bombarded, it's been a month since I've blogged (daddy's been doing God's work as his boss calls it, for the Norm Coleman recount, and has been out of town with the computer for 3 weeks!).  We are sooo glad to have daddy home, although he leaves again next week, this time for DC.  :(

2008 First SNOW!!!

Yes, on Friday we had our first snow that actually covered the ground.  Kobe was sooo excited when he woke up and saw what was outside (he's been asking when we're getting snow)!  We ended up going outside that morning, even though mommy had 2 extra little ones.  Good thing we did, because that afternoon, the snow was gone!  Kobe loved it, he was trying to shovel all the snow off the grass (the streets and sidewalks were bare), and also had fun riding his trike and getting the wheels stuck with snow!  Brennan wasn't too interested, he grabbed his tractor and took off riding like any other day.  Mommy finally convinced him to check out the snow, so he got busy taking handfuls from one side of the driveway, walking across, and throwing it the other side (this could take awhile)!!  Brennan was NOT interested in wearing mittens!  This could make winter challenging!  :)

Winter in Minnesota!

Mommy is NOT ready for winter!  It went from 76 on monday to a high of 35 on friday!  We usually try to get outside after supper, to move around, but sometimes in the winter we hang out in our unfinished basement instead!  Just sharing a couple pics of some of the fun ideas the boys come up with!  I'm sure the ideas will get crazier as the winter goes on!  I love having little boys!

Kobe's FIRST tractor ride!

Kobe always talks big about taking a ride on "Grandpa with the tractors" John Deere tractors.  Every time we get to their house, or near the tractor, he would decide, no, I'll do it next time.  We even called daddy to ask if he could ride on the 4 wheeler, and once daddy said yes, then he decided it was too loud. :)  Last weekend we went to my parents, so daddy could concentrate on the campaign.  On Sunday Kobe took a ride with Grandma to see Grandpa combining (and bring him lunch).  With no hesitation, Kobe climbed right into the combine, and as you can tell from the picture, it's definitely bigger than a 4-wheeler!  Kobe and grandma rode around the corn field for awhile with grandpa, Kobe had a blast, he keeps talking about the corn that you could see through the window (it's how my dad knows the box is full, and needs to unload).  My little boy's getting bigger and braver!

Halloween 2008

Oh, my goodness, I've fallen so far behind on updating the blog!   Halloween was great - Papa Murphy's aren't the only ones that can make a pumpkin pizza!  We had a great night, it was so beautiful out, perfect for the kids, especially with Brennan being so little.  We first went out trick or treating through our neighborhood, the first couple houses allowed Brennan to grab his own candy (big mistake), from then on, he would try to grab his own candy at every house, and he wouldn't let anyone put anything in his bag (they had to hand the candy to him), or even touch his candy bag!  He even carried his bag the whole way, even after it got full, mommy tried to help him out, but he refused, it was serious business!!  I'm not sure why he was so excited about it, since he's never had candy, I'm sure it's because he reads Kobe's reaction to things and likes to copy him.  Kobe was great, it is so fun now, that he really understands what's going on!  After our neighborhood we drove over to The Kline's house (congressman John Kline) to trick or treat there, we knew Vicky would love to see the boys, and we stopped by Auntie Shewie's new home!  It was a full, fun evening!!  We also had over 50 trick or treaters, mommy is soooo excited (not quite the 100 she used to have, but better then the 5 or 10 we had the last few years)!

A Pumpkin Parade?

Yesterday, Brennan and mommy got the honor of seeing Kobe march in his pumpkin parade at his preschool.  It was adorable - they were all given the same instructions for making the costume, but each one was unique in their own way!  Kobe was pretty shy (although he should be used to parades after this summer), and afterward, his girlfriend, Samantha had to come over and have her picture taken with him too (the sunday school teacher said they are two peas in a pod)!  We are very impressed with his preschool, it's every good thing we had heard it was and more!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Last night we carved our halloween pumpkins.  I was so sure I finally had a boy that would dive right in, but I was wrong, brennan didn't want to have anything to do with the slimy stuff (even though earlier in the day he picked up a live grasshopper).  Boy did daddy and Kobe have a challenge, Kobe's pumpkin was so hard, they actually had to use a hammer and scraping tool to cut it!  It was like we were trying to carve a ceramic pumpkin!!!  God always gives us something to keep life interesting!

At the Pumpkin Patch

Today we did our annual stop at Pahl's Nursery to pick out pumpkins and take in the festivities.  Kobe loved pulling brennan in the wagon, and had a blast running through the straw maze.  Brennan was content sitting in the wagon, but also enjoyed looking at pumpkins and finding the ceramic animals in the straw maze (he's my animal lover).  Mommy and Daddy just loved watching our boys!

Veggie Tales LIVE!!

Last night Kobe and mommy got the wonderful opportunity to see Veggie Tales Live at our church in lakeville.  Kobe had a really fun time, we both really enjoyed singing along to the songs we know so well from our Veggie Tales CD's auntie shewie gave Kobe for christmas a few years back - they are Kobe's favorite CD's.  The concert was a great reminder that "God made you special", each in our own unique way, we don't need to try to be like anyone else, God loves us just the way he created us!  

How FUN is a desk!

So we brought home a desk this weekend that used to be Troy's brother Tom's, and set it up in our loft area.  It is the best new toy - we literally have to pull Brennan kicking and screaming from it when it is time for bed!  The boys love filling the drawers with their things and themselves!  I'm a little scared to fill it with my stuff (files, pens, papers) with the vision of finding everything pulled out and thrown about so they can fit themselves and their stuff back in into the drawers!!

Trip to the apple orchard

On Sunday we took a trip to the apple orchard with some friends.  The kids got to play in a mound of hay, go through a shrub maze, and we all got a hayride out to the orchard.  Unfortunately the apples had been hit by hail earlier, but the kids didn't care, they loved picking apples, and Brennan loved eating them!!

Brennan watches a movie

So I was really good with Kobe about playing Baby Einstein movies when he was little - I decided to give it a try with Brennan, plus the hour before supper is always tough, we're ALL ready for daddy to come home.  So I gave this a try - Brennan was so excited, he crawled up on the couch right next to Kobe.  Poor Kobe wanted a little space, so he moved down to the end of the couch - Brennan got up and moved down right next to Kobe, Kobe got up and moved to the other end, Brennan followed, he was determined to sit next to his brother!  It's so cute to see their relationship grow.  

Another bday party for Kobe

And last but not least we had Kobe's family birthday party.  Kobe himself said that morning, "mommy I don't need any more presents, I already have enough toys".   But he of course was overjoyed with the pile of presents that were opened that day.  We're so blessed to have most of our relatives close - although we miss you aunt lori and uncle rick.  Kobe had a "beep beep" cake as you can see in the pictures, another one of mommy's masterpieces.