Struggle and Surprise

Sunday was one of those terrible days you just want to forget. Then yesterday was a stress. I had my postpartum appointment and hadn't asked anyone to watch the kids for me. Travis thought he might finish with his morning patient in time to go with me and take care of the kids. Then he calls me 25 minutes after his patient was supposed to be there. "He'll be here in 20 minutes." Great. Thankfully, the guy only has 5 teeth and Travis was able to be done in time for me to be 5 minutes late. SO worth it.

We did get to go out to lunch then, which is always nice, but that was really only because I had to squeeze in a trip to the WIC office still and I needed fed kids to help with the happy factor. Anyone who knows about the WIC office knows this trip wasn't to be relished. There's lots of waiting and lots of getting up and down, packing Emmett back and forth and dragging Avery and Carson along. Meanwhile Carson hadn't really eaten at lunch, he was overdue for his nap and I discovered he was flushed and felt a titch warm. Yipee. (Thankfully, today he seems fine) After WIC I had to fill the gas tank and I froze as it SNOWED on me! (Okay, so I said that yesterday, but it fits with theme of the post)

So, knowing my stress, how sweet was Travis to come home with these:



And because I love the little curls in the centers of Gerbera daisies:

Snow and Calico Bean Soup

Snow. Today. And thus commences the seven month Milwaukee sentence. (That's right, here the first snow is often in October and the last in April! *sigh*)

To make me feel better, here's a hearty recipe to warm you...

I'm not that big into chili - or maybe I'm just really picky since I've had some fabulous chilies before - but if I want a hearty bean soup/stew, this is where it's at!

Calico Bean Soup
1 28oz. can pork & beans
5 16oz. cans your choice of other beans (ie. great northern/white, kidney, chick pea, garbonzo, black, pinto, etc.)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 tsp. garlic powder)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp oregano
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. brown sugar
6 slices bacon

Cook and crumble bacon, set aside. Brown hamburger in the bacon pan. In separate bowl, make a sauce of the garlic, spices, vinegar, ketchup and brown sugar. Mix all ingredients in large casserole and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

For a soup don't drain the beans, for a casserole drain them.

Personally, I bake it for the casserole version and let it just simmer on the stove for the soup version (I'm too scared to pull a full soupy dish out of the oven). I prefer the soup version.

The great thing about the recipe is it's very forgiving. You don't have to be finicky with the measuring, it's a great one to just throw together. Plus you can add and subtract as you see fit. I think I usually add more of the seasoning to it (but I also usually go for for a full 2 lbs of hamburger and lots more bacon...)

Enjoy!

Best Friends

While my Mom and Mother-in-law were here helping after Emmett was born, not only did I have my camera in hand way more than normal because family was visiting, but sitting on the couch so much to recover meant even more opportunity to take pictures.

So of course that's why there have been so many posts. It was nice to get so many pictures of the boys just doing their every day play since the everyday often gets lost. So here are some of these silly guys that didn't make it into other posts.

They're always running after each other and tickling:
Just sitting on the couch together, Avery nicely sharing his blanket (I just love Carson's eyes):
Sharing joy in their new baby brother:
Here, my Mom was pushing Carson back and forth in a toy bucket:
Avery wanted to get pushed but we told him he was too big. He was determined though and before we knew it he was removing Carson!
That wasn't okay, but a compromise to everyone's liking was achieved when Grandma Benjamin let Avery push Carson instead:
More running and tickling captured by Grandma Hunsaker:
And now that we're fitting three across in the back of the Explorer, Avery and Carson have been having a blast sitting by each other (so far!). Here, Avery is entertaining Carson by "eating" his fingers:
This last one is just from a few days ago when they randomly decided to lay on Avery's blanket together:

I love that these two are best friends. It's the most amazing and joyful thing seeing Carson old enough that they can really play together! And they play so well together and have so much fun! When Avery sometimes accidentally hurts Carson, it's the sweetest thing that often Carson looks to Avery for a hug and words of comfort because he knows his big brother will give him them (like in the last picture).
Avery and Carson, I love you!

Happy Birthday Grandma Cabe!

Today is the birthday of my amazing Grandma Cabe!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of her from 1947. So glamorous!

And she has to be the sweetest person in existence. This picture is with my Mom and Avery and Carson back in April:

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Sleepers

After I finished up on the computer last night I had to take a picture of these two who had been like this for about 15 minutes...
Then when I checked on the boys I found Avery with his pillow on his chest.
Between this and Carson the other day (Crib Sprawl), these boys make for a house full of silly sleepers!

6 weeks old

Today Emmett is 6 weeks old, and since I didn't get a current picture up of him along with the announcement when he was a month old, here's one I just took yesterday:
AND he's been smiling LOTS for about a week. It's so cute! Here's sort of a picture of his smile:

Carson Dressing

I can't believe I forgot to post this with A New Style (the one on Carson's dressing skills). Oh, and that's a pajama shirt...

First Primary Program

Today was Avery's first Primary Program! He also got to wear (half) of his first full 3 piece suit too for the first time. Inevitably, if anything is bought as a full outfit, the legs are too long. So instead he wore the slacks from a previous vest suit that the shirt is now too small for him.

For his line he basically had to answer what would be making a good choice in Heavenly Father's eyes.

When originally asked the question Avery's response was:

"[I am making a good choice] when I play nicely with Emmett and Carson and Monkey and Mommy and Daddy"

Monkey being his best stuffed friend.

For the program he said, "I am making a good choice when I play nicely with Carson and Emmett and Mommy and Daddy and Monkey and Grandma and then the other Grandma" except you couldn't understand "play nicely" so it just sounded like a random list. Still, he did great!

After the program, one of the guys in the ward told Travis Avery's line was the best because it included something about a monkey.

Fall Fun

Today was another beautiful Saturday, although it did feel like Fall unlike last Saturday. I had to get pictures of the boys playing in the leaves at some point, so it was definitely the day to get that done!
How beautiful are these colors!? This is the first shot I took stepping straight out of the car!
How cute are my boys!
Okay, so this face isn't so cute, but I had to share it...
Leaf angel:
Avery loved throwing the leaves:
Carson was very proud of the big stick he found:
Avery was trying to roll down the "hill" that couldn't have had more than a 2 degree slope:
I almost didn't catch this shot, but I turned and found Carson hugging a tree. Obviously this has layers of humor...
After laughing and asking Carson if he hugged the tree, he had to show me again and Avery had to show me he could to:
Avery was very pleased with his dandelion find, had to have a picture of it, and would not let it go. (To be fair, I think it really was the only one left out there!)
For some reason Carson really liked laying down on the ground:
And he kept doing it...
Again...
And again...
Checking out the camera...
I like this shot because I think it looks like Avery's going to catch that leaf rather than the shot being of him having just tossed a handful:
Again, this looks more like a "catch" shot - but check out that extension. Future wide receiver?
The boys loved when Daddy shook the branch to make the leaves fall:
Carson also enjoyed being held up in the leaves to bat at them:
And look! I actually exist in some pictures! Too bad the one shot where the boys are looking I'm not:
Getting tickled (actually, I think this was when Avery thought it would be a good idea to try and poke me in the eye...)
We had lots of fun!
Emmett slept the whole time, so mostly Travis stayed in the car with him. I'm sad now though that I didn't bring him out, carrier and all, and at least stick a leaf in his lap for a picture! Sorry Emmett!

Dancin' Fools

I don't know how many people are into watching more than a bit of other peoples home movies, so this is definitely a post for the Grandmas!

My boys LOVE to dance. Especially Carson. They even like to dance together. I was catching up with the show Dancing with the Stars and the boys were having at it, so I videoed some of it. They both somewhat try to emulate the dancing they see, but if it's just music they're listening to the freestyle can be pretty entertaining. There is one clip of that at the end.

Avery and Carson do a lift:


If you're familiar with Dancing with the Stars, you know Bruno is an animated judge. That piques Carson's interest and he often likes to listen to him and he'll even try to talk like him. Some of that is at the end of this clip:


Since I was fast forwarding through commercials and there was no music, I guess Avery had to make the music for them:


Here the boys dance solo, Carson makes himself dizzy and Avery tries the splits!


Here's Carson gettin' his groove on to some music in the movie Cars. For some unknown reason Avery decided to conduct this music instead of dance to it.

Crib Sprawl

Look how I found Carson asleep tonight! Not only is his leg out, but his big toe is too!
And check out what's stuck to his diaper (a velcro piece to a soft book):
Oh, and yes, I do give him pants for bed too. As seen in the previous post A New Style, Carson likes to remove clothing, but has difficulty getting them back on, so his pants had been shoved in a corner.

Holy Hill

Yesterday was a gorgeous Saturday, probably the last one we'll have that was shorts weather, so we went up to Holy Hill. Holy Hill is the highest elevation in SE Wisconsin and it has a Catholic church at the top and I guess is a shrine to Mary. A really beautiful place.
On our way there, you could see the church towers:
The color was so pretty getting to actually see it on hillsides (since it's so flat around Milwaukee):
One such hill on the way there actually boasted a Wisconsin style ski slope. Which, as you can see, is extremely funny:
Here's inside the big chapel:
Ans this is a view from outside the big chapel:
Below the church is a walk through the wooded hillside with "stations" that have statuary depicting Jesus.
Here's the boys taking a break on a bench.
Carson headed down the hill towards a set of stairs ahead of us, so Avery went down to bring him back up. Miraculously, Carson allowed his hand to be held and to be pulled back up!
Behind Avery at the top of these stairs you can see one of the statues These stairs in the middle of all the trees were really pretty and made for some nice photographs:
Avery being silly sitting on some rocks:
The one and only picture of Travis and Emmett (that's more than there are of me!):
At one point as I was walking down the hill I happened to look back up toward the church and in just that spot the cross at the top of one tower happened to appear in a window between all the trees:
Along the pathway was an occasional light. I was feeling a Narnia moment with this one, even tho it's not the right style lamp post:
At the bottom of the hill is this pretty arch:
What a beautiful walk on a beautiful day!!