A good swing....

Sometimes you just need a good high swing. Gunnar can go higher than any pint size kid I've ever seen. He can pump til he's blue in the face and all the while I am pushing Anders...he (Anders) is yelling "highur Mommy, HIGHUR!!!!"

Tis the Season..

I cannot tell a lie. My parents confessed they threw a party when they went to their last "kids concert!" Five kids and all those concerts! Sunday night we sat through two of them. Audra has moved up to grades 1-5 concert and our eyes were peeling by the end!!!!! I think I remember my dad grading papers during our band concerts and Chris' reply to me remembering that was "do ya blame him?!" Thanks mom and dad for coming and sitting and smiling and congratulating! Pay backs.....don't worry!! We're getting em!

December 1st....Happy Birthday to...

eeekks. It's already a week later. But Happy Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Lee who came over for some of Colette's homemade Blackberry Cobbler and to my sister-in-law miles away in Boston!! Here is to good in-laws!!!!!!! I have the best (Dennis too:)

Wherever you go....

Brothers! Anders follows Gunnar around like a little weeble/wobble. He says "where goin' Gunnar? What doin' Gunnar?" Sometimes this amuses Gunnar.....other times.....NOT so much! this was a lot like me and Dana growing up. Sometimes it gave him great pleasure to be my teacher/ my leader. Other times it pained him to see me coming! I guess this is part of growing up with siblings. We learn about our world, about relationships and about life through the eyes of our siblings.

Swedish Flicka

Is that a Scandanavian face or what?
Simone (3) and Anders were quite the pair. He frightened her ever so slightly so every time he came around her she would say "my ..." whatever it was. Anders (in his true parrot form) would mimic what she was saying....only louder....'MY CUP!" which would frighten her even more. This would go on until one of us intervened and sometimes we let it go on just for the pure enjoyment of watching this little "mis-dialogue!"

Anders

This was Anders picking up a very heavy log to put in the fire outside. He strained his little body but to no avail.... made for a good shot!

A 20 lb Turkey to remember!

Thanksgiving is such a day of smells! The turkey coming out of the oven, fresh yeast rolls baking, cranberry pie, stuffing made with cornbread. We worked hard to put it all on the table. Kirsten and I sat with our tea the next day and admitted we had taken on the role of our mothers. After all that work I looked over at Gunnar's plate to see he'd eaten 3 rolls and left everything EVERYTHING else on his plate as he proudly announced...."I'm done mom!" ugh!