Getting to know Grandma and Grandpa Huebel

My Mom loves holding babies.  She usually ends up putting them to sleep.  She will hold a sleeping baby all day.  I let her do this with John and he was my worst sleeper.  I blame her even though I know John would have been that way no matter what.  I've eased up on my "you will not hold my sleeping baby" policy since I know in the beginning all they do is sleep.  Anders did have some awake moments when my parents were here for his baptism.

When Grandma and Grandpa Visit

While my parents were in town for Anders' baptism they had to do all the fun things grandparents do.  They went to the park, got the boys ice cream, made cookies, read books, wrestled and got lots of hugs and kisses. 

At the park

 

Making cookies

I think this is everyone's favorite part.

 Gus now gets to claim the tricycle since John got a big boy bike.  John's having a hard time giving up his bike, but Gus has no problem letting John know it is his.

Playing baseball.  John's learning how to watch the ball, but this requires more concentration then he feels the game is worth.

 I'm not sure what was going on here, but this looks like a fight in the making.

I'm sure all of my kids will grow to be wonderful piano players...if they feel like it.

The visits are always too short.  The boys just love getting spoiled by their grandparents.  For a few weeks after each visit I hear "Grandma would let me do it"  even though I know Grandma wouldn't. 

Wagons

Kids just love wagons.  Whether pulling each other or the various treasures they have found, a wagon always brings enjoyment for the boys and a little solitude for me...until they start to fight over who gets to pull or start knocking each other out.  My parents got us a wagon when Anders was born.  This is a wonderful thing to have at the zoo or any other outside activity.  The wagon came in a big box and had to be put together.  My dad had two little "helpers".  The wagon instructions should read 'Takes 15 minutes to assemble alone or 1 1/2 hours with two little helpers.

Here is one little helper.

 The boys were just playing in the wagon while my dad read the instructions.  They loved exploring the seats that go up and down and slide around.

 All done!

The boys also got new helmets for their bikes.  It is important to mention that the helmets were for the bikes and not the wagon.  But, the boys wanted to have all their new gear at once.  They made my parents take them to the park in the wagon with their helmets.  They probably looked like ultra helicopter grandparents.

On the way back home Gus fell asleep.  Doesn't his head look GIGANTIC?

Yes, We Still Have Anders

I have been so busy with two other kids, a husband and moving that I haven't done my usual monthly blogs about the newest Fiene.  Anders is doing really well and fitting right in.  He is a great baby.  He always chooses to be fussy when I can't get to him right away, so by the time I get over to him he has already stopped fussing and has fallen asleep or is just content.  He LOVES to eat.  I'm not sure if he is really that hungry, or if that is his way of getting as much one on one time with me as possible.  We took him to the doctors office the week before we moved and he had gained 4 lbs in 4 weeks!  Right now he is 23 inches long and 13 lbs 3 oz.

This was when he was still able to wear 0-3 months.  Yes, you read right.  My "little" boy is barely 2 months old and is filling out 3-6 month clothes.

He has been sleeping pretty well.  He is the only one of my boys who has maintained the proper sleep schedule.

His brothers just love him.  But, Anders already knows to keep his eye on them.

The Adventures of August

Gus notices everything.  Most people think Gus is 2 years old and while that could be because he tells them he is 2, it is also just because he is a big kid and tries to do anything and everything his big brother does.  Sometimes Usually this works to my disadvantage as Gus watches John throw a fit, move chairs to get things on the counter or play with the remotes.  But Gus has watched several times as John has been put into his room for time out.  I never thought John being put in timeout would help me out with Gus.  Gus has started screaming--this high pitched, earsplitting scream.  I just can't stand when he screams.  Last week it just got to be too much for me and I decided that he needed to go to his room.  I walked him to his room and told him to stay until I told him to come out.  I didn't really expect him to stay.  I always had to put up a baby gate to keep John in his room.  But, to my surprise, he stayed put until I told him he could come out.

Gus has also become somewhat of a bully.  He will randomly walk into a room and hit John.  I'm sure this is all just payback for everything John has done to him.  John will usually hit back or scream.  One day I came out of the bathroom and saw Gus standing in his room screaming and crying.  I asked him what was wrong and he said "room, room"  while pointing at John.  I looked at John and he said, "Well, Gus hit me so I sent him to his room."  The amazing thing here is not that John sent Gus to his room, but the Gus actually listened!

Gus often gets into my closet and rifles through my shoes.  He's getting to be pretty good at walking around in my heels.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas y'all!

This is as good as it gets.

The Tales of John

John loved trick or treating.  I think his favorite part about trick or treating was ringing the doorbell.  John would run from house to house trying to be the first one there to ring the doorbell.  He even skipped getting candy at a house in order to reach the next house first.  I'm sure next year will be about the candy.  While he didn't care how much candy he got, he did care about the quality.  At one house, after saying "trick or treat" he said, "Can I have the chocolate one?"  That's my boy.

The boys love eating downstairs in the playroom.  I don't allow food down there very often because we will inevitably get ants.  One night we had dinner down there and we were bringing all of the dishes upstairs when I heard my mom tell John to pick up the handful of french fries that had fallen on the floor and put them in the garbage can.  To this John replied, "My mouth is a garbage can."

John is having such a good time at school.  He is learning to raise his hand and wait his turn...such hard things to learn.  At his Halloween party his teacher was telling the kids what they would be eating for snack that day, like eyeballs (grapes), bones (pretzels), and cartilage (cheese).  After the food was passed out some of the kids weren't eating their grapes so the teacher reminded them all to eat their eyeballs.  John pretended to eat his actual eyeballs and then said, "Miss Joyce, Miss Joyce, I just can't see a thing now."  I'm sure his Kindergarten teacher will just love him.

Moving -Phase 1-

A little over a week ago we moved out of our house in Denver.  For those of you who don't know, Hans got a call to be the pastor of River of Life in Channahon, IL.  So, just a couple of weeks after giving birth to Anders, I started packing up our house.  Hans and I were in Denver for 2 1/2 years and I can't even believe how much stuff we collected over that time.  Every time I thought I was close to being done I would find another drawer or shelf that hadn't been packed.  This move was by far my worst and most unorganized.  So, instead of the one box I usually have labeled "miscellaneous"  I have about 20 of them this time.  Unpacking will be so much fun!

Aside from my lack of organization this time it also took HOURS to load everything into the two PACKRAT containers.  These containers were 16x8x8 and even though I had two we still didn't get everything to fit.  My poor dryer didn't make the cut, but it was on its way out anyways.  We started loading around 11 and finally finished loading, cleaning, patching and painting walls around 6:30.  I can't thank our wonderful friends enough for all of their help.  There is no way we could have done this without them.  I was too busy shoving stuff into various boxes and freaked out about not being organized that I didn't take any pictures.  Never fear, Jan was there!  That woman doesn't go anywhere without a camera.  She took pictures of our move and the restaurant we went to after a busy day of hard labor.

After we moved out of the house we stayed the night with our dear friends, the Meliuses.  We are sure going to miss all of our friends.  The next day we headed to Texas and stayed for about a week.  As if I wasn't far enough behind in my blogging as it is, I now have more pictures to upload and look through.  I'll get to them all someday...before Anders moves out of the house.

Right now I'm sitting in the hotel room we will call home for the next 10 days.  After this we will be staying with some new friends until we close on a house.  I did give a heads up to these new friends just how "fun" my boys can be.  We will see how long they let us stay before coming down with something horribly contagious and telling us it is better that we stay elsewhere.  So, this ends phase 1 -leaving Denver.  I guess this means we are entering phase 2 -the in-between...I don't think I'm going to like this phase very much.

While I'm very sad to have left my good friends and the place where Gus and Anders were born, I'm excited to see what is in store for us.  Tomorrow we meet our new church family and I am very excited to get to know each and every one of them.

Thanksgiving

We spent our Thanksgiving with some great friends.  Since I'm unbelievably busy at the moment I'm going to cheat and have you check out Jan's blog.  I'm pretty sure I brought my camera, but I haven't had time to look at any pictures.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I'll be able to blog some more after all my worldly possessions are packed and loaded in PODS. We have just four more days until we move and head to Texas for a week.  **For all you Texans, Hans will be preaching at Messiah on the 12th.  He is a wonderful preacher. I should know, I have to listen to him every week.  Services are at 8 and 10:45, we would love to see you there.

Westlands Park

We have lived in Colorado for about 2 1/2 years now and we just discovered this park.  Westlands Park is a wonderful place.  I can't believe we didn't find it earlier.  My mom, the resourceful one, was checking out different websites of things to do in Denver and this park came up on the search.  The boys love parks of any kind.  If you are ever in the Denver area you should check it out.  It has various climbing structures, cool slides and playscapes for all ages.

 This is the coolest climbing wall I have ever seen.

Hans and John decided to race.  Hans decided to cheat.

And in the end Hans still lost.

 

After the park we went to get ice cream...because that is what kids do with their grandparents.

Gus likes to start from the bottom and work his way up.  Saving the best for last, I guess.

A Picture Day with Jan

When I was in the hospital having Anders the boys stayed with our good friends, Jan and  Jared.  I was upset that John was missing his first school pictures, so Jan decided to do a little photo shoot with the boys.  I love when Jan takes pictures of the boys.  She is a wonderful photographer.

Taking pictures can get a bit tiring.

Thank you, Jan for all of the wonderful pictures!

Anders' Baptism

Anders was baptized into Christ on Reformation Sunday, October 31st.  We were so very happy that both sets of godparents could be here for the happy occasion.  We took lots of pictures to mark the special day and by the time we were done I think everyone felt like we just finished taking wedding photos.  Sorry to everyone that had to smile through countless amounts of pictures.

 The whole group

Jake and Ashley are godparents

Mark and Kathy are also godparents. 

Grandma and Grandpa Huebel

Our little family.  It's Gus' naptime, can you tell?

See what I mean when I say we felt like we just took wedding photos?  This was just the tip of the iceberg.

Hans and I were so excited to get the boys suits for this special occasion.

Don't they look cute? And a bit mischievous?

After the service we had everyone over for lunch and entertainment...that entertainment being the boys.  John was so excited to be getting so much attention that he just crashed.  This was before any trick or treating.

It was such a busy day that even Superman had a hard time keeping his eyes open.