January 2011 - Continued

Our favorite thing that we did in January was taking a trip to Great Wolf Lodge with my parents and my sister's family! Grandpa and Grandma rented a 15 passenger van so we could all ride together and the whole weekend was TONS of fun!!

Reuben was so excited he couldn't even nap...
until about 10 minutes before we arrived.

The backseat boys!

Reuben checking out the cabin he and Levi got to share.

The best part - the waterpark!!

Happy New Year - January 2011

Continuing on with my blog re-cap...

Levi & Reuben during a moment of brotherly love

The boys' first trip to the public museum.

Even Matt took a turn on the big bike!

Me Be TWO!!

Today was Reuben's 2nd Birthday! He was quite excited and when we asked him who's birthday it was, we heard "My mon-key cake day!" Tonight we celebrated with cake and ice cream and had lots of fun.

The birthday boy - I can't believe he's two already!

Sitting with Grandpa and Meleah (for just a minute)

Levi made his own "card" for Reuben this year (it was a set of drawings he did) and wrote most of the note on the envelope: LOVE LEVI - DEAR RUBN - I LOVE YOU

Checking out his new dump truck, quilt and bike (below)!

A monkey cake for our little monkey!

Levi thought we needed the lights out for singing

Happy Birthday Reuben - We love you!!

Happy Halloween!

The boys had plenty of opportunities to wear their costumes this year! We started on Friday night at my parent's house and then on Saturday we went to a church "Trunk-or-Treat", as well as some trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Here are some pictures from our Halloween activities:

Levi was The Cat in the Hat
Reuben was the Fish (from The Cat in the Hat)

The fish in his fishbowl

Gotta love that cat!

Trunk-or-Treating with Larry the Cucumber (Henry) and Bob the Tomato (Meleah)

Matt & I joined in the fun on Saturday
(Thing 1 & Thing 2)

Another picture of the Dr. Seuss Family

The fish minus his fishbowl

Off to some more houses!

Trick or Treat!!

Thing 1 got a little creative with his costume!

Carrying on Traditions

When I was growing up, my mom always made applesauce in the fall. About 5 years ago, I asked my mom to teach me how to make applesauce, so I could carry on the tradition with my own family. Last year was the first time I made a few batches entirely on my own (no help from mom) and I tried canning it - my first attempt at canning anything. It went well enough that this past weekend, my sister and I got 3 bushels of apples for making and canning applesauce. We started around 4 PM on Saturday and finished up around 11:30 PM. We ended up with 49 quarts of canned applesauce and roughly 10 quarts to freeze or eat fresh.

We had two very interested "helpers" this year!

Levi was very focused when he got his turn at the masher machine!

Even Reuben took a turn crankin' out some sauce!

Indian Summer

The weather the past week or so has been absolutely gorgeous! In spite of our colds, we've been trying to get out and enjoy the nice weather while it's here. After lunch today, the boys and I headed outside to play for a bit before nap time.

Here are some of the pictures I managed to take in and around our backyard (my subjects were more interested in playing than posing!):






The boys don't like to pose together, but I love their similar looks of disgust in this one!

He's such a...Monkey!

We've called him our little monkey since he was a baby.

He climbs up and on everything.

His room is in the process of being decorated with a monkey theme.

He was Curious George for Halloween last year.

Can you see the resemblance?

Curious, like Curious George!

Tonight, Angie and I braved the ArtPrize crowds and headed downtown with the kids to the Children's Museum to check out the Curious George exhibit before it left. The kids seemed to have a good time and they didn't really want to stop and smile for pictures.




I got the best smiles at the space ship display:

We did get to see some of the ArtPrize entries while we were downtown - including this set of elephant sculptures right outside the museum. We'll definitely have to head back downtown to check out some more of ArtPrize!