A quick rundown

To me it seems the summer break went by way too fast, to Elizabeth it was more of a countdown before the boys would be off to preschool. We made several fun trips, but often forgot to take pictures. So here is a quick glimpse at the last few months of our lives:

General Conference Weekend

Friday we asked one of the Young Women in the ward to watch our children so we could go out with the Schaefers, Hanks and Clarks. We celebrated Jen and Harry's 15th anniversary. Happy anniversary, guys! It was really fun to go out by "ourselves", that is with other adults instead of 4 kids.

We are always a little hesitant to call in a young girl to watch our kids. Those 3 boys can be more than a handful and if Sophie is not in the mood... but our baby-sitter did a fantastic job, the kids really took a liking to her. They had a pillow fight, watched Brother Bear and played "freeze dance". I won't reveal her name on here, because we will be using her again and I don't want her price to go up... ;)

After a few errands Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend was pretty much spent in pajamas, watching General Conference, playing with the kids and snacking. General Conference is always such a relaxing and refreshing weekend. It seems to last forever, you listen to great talks, realize a few things you really need to work on and just get to spend family time together. We usually don't make the little kids watch much of the sessions with us, but Sophie joins us for the Sunday morning session. This time to our surprise she insisted on watching the Sunday afternoon session with us, too. Might be because she got to sit in our bedroom and practice her new found "sewing" skills on her American Girl Doll in peace and quiet!

We finished the weekend with what's almost become a tradition for us on General Conference weekend: Brotzeit! If you don't know what it is, you've missed out on a great and easy meal! It's a traditional Bavarian meal or snack and literally means "bread time". It usually consists of fresh bread, cold cuts, cheeses and whatever else can be consumed without having to spend half an hour at the stove! Everything is served on big platters and baskets and then everybody gets to fix their own sandwich/meal/plate. Then you just sit around the table, enjoy your meal and swap stories. Back in Germany my parents would often have relatives over and we'd spend hours sitting around the dinner table.

Our little ones usually have Elizabeth fix theirs or at least load up their plate with the pieces to make their own creation. This time it was Alex's turn to make his first sandwich by himself!

If you can't tell, it's a piece of cheddar, than a cracker, piece of bologna, another cracker, some Baguette and you probably guessed it: Another piece of cracker!

As they say in Bavaria: Brotzeit ist die schönste Zeit! Bread time is the best time!

To keep you laughing

Haven't had much time for blogging lately, so here are two posts by Aunt Ruth about our silly kids to keep you entertained in the meantime! Here are some of my favorites:

Maryann: "Max, how old do you think Aunt Ruth is?"
Max: "Uh, eighteen?"
Me: "How old is Aunt Maryann?"
Max: "Uh, fourteen and a half."
Me: "You think I am older than her?"
Max: "Are you ten?"

...When Alex requested another call to his mommy later on, Maryann told him he already talked with his mommy to which he smiled big and said, "Call Daddy!"

They spent the weekend at Aunt Ruth and Maryann's house and had a blast. Just between you and me, I didn't miss them nearly as much as Elizabeth did, but I'm still glad we got them back!

Just another Saturday

In the morning all three boys had a birthday party to go to. It was Adam, their playgroup buddy. Max insisted on helping Elizabeth wrap up the presents, but he didn't want her to write his name on them and who they were from. Somehow he was hoping that way he could keep them.... Of course his Mommy tried to make him feel better by telling him the best presents to give are the ones you'd like to keep.

I don't think it worked.

I had bought the boys some Disney shirts. They were so excited when they came in yesterday. They wore some of them all afternoon and insisted to wear some of them to the party today. As you can see they are much better than I in naming all the characters, well at least Henry is:

While the boys were at the party, Elizabeth, Sophie and I went to the Avenue for some shopping. We didn't really find anything, except for Sophie who scored several nice clip-on earrings. We did enjoy some delicious pizza at the new pizzeria in town, called Bia's Pizza Kitchen. It was scrumptdeliciousus (my spell checker just went crazy). So far that's about the closest we have found to real Italian pizza here in the US. If you haven't been there yet, you need to check them out. They are in the Avenues in Peachtree City, where the Atlanta Fish Company used to be. I even have to admit that was my second time this week! ;)

Don't tell my cardiologist, but it was actually my second time this week! I had a Chicken BBQ Calzone on Wednesday for lunch and today Elizabeth and I shared a Steak Fajita pizza. Sophie had a little Cheese Calzone. We all walked out with smiles on our faces and full tummies!

In the afternoon I took the boys for a golf-cart ride, one of our favorite past-times here in Peachtree City. Of course we made a pit stop at one of the playgrounds. The boys had a fun time and naturally little Alex just had to follow wherever his two brothers went.

That little guy is scared of nothing!

Here he is climbing up (by himself of course, as he insisted stubbornly on me not helping him at all) a six foot tall slide. This was after he almost fell of while sliding down and landing kind of hard sidewas at the bottom of the slide, after one of his shoes caught one of the sides. Undeterred he went right back for another slide:

For dinner Elizabeth made her delicious German pancakes and some homemade biscuits. We all love them, but as you can see Alex truly enjoyed them to his little hearts content. I want to make sure though that I point out though that they started out looking much more enticing before Alex got his hands on them (literally)!

Food is so much more of an experience involving all your senses when you're a toddler. Who needs silverware when you have two fully functioning little hands to use? Luckily it was bath night anyways.

Buzz is having a party

Sophie is a great big sister. Here she's helped the boys decorate their room (note the fan) and they're celebrating Buzz Lightyear's birthday:

This all started with Elizabeth saying that we won't have a birthday again this year in our family until hers in September, so Henry decided that was just too long a wait for another birthday party.

Valentine's Party

We celebrated Valentine's during playgroup at our house. The kids made cards for their parents and swapped some with each other. Of course we ate lots of sweets! It was a lot of fun and 2 hours was the perfect time.

It's snowing!!

We noticed a little after 3pm it was snowing.!The boys wanted to go outside and catch snowflakes on their tongues. The kids put on their slippers, jackets, and smiles and ran outside. Sophie had a friend over and they were excited about showing the boys the snow.

I was taking some video and I noticed Henry laying on the driveway. I thought, "Oh no, I hope he doesn't try to make a snow angel." Henry sat up and said,"Mommy, I'm not sliding!" I just had to get a picture, so Max decided to join him.

Max had gotten his magnifying glass out to see the snow and then decided to use some dark construction paper, he likes to analyse things.

Alex didn't care about the snow, we were outside and that meant he could play baseball. He usually grabs the T-ball stand, the bucket of balls and the bat, sets everything up and goes for it. He's so fun to watch.

BIG Families

Allison and Erik, friends of ours, just had super cute twin girls a few months ago (see photo). Her story about "A Day in the Life of....ME!" made me remember that hectic first year with our boys. Multiples somehow add up to much more work then the sum of them. I still don't know how Elizabeth made it through that first year of not only taking care of the two of them plus Sophie, but nursing them too (which is what Allision is doing, plus she has 2 older kids). I just remember getting woken up by Elizabeth to get the other baby, while she was nursing one, picking one up, snuggling with him in the bed in a half slumber until she was ready for him. I certainly have rosier memories than Elizabeth, although I know she misses that baby stage to a degree.

That's probably why Elizabeth and I really enjoy watching the Gosselin family in Jon & Kate plus 8 on TLC. If you've never seen the show, you can catch reruns on Discovery Health. They started out with twins and then wanted "just one more" but ended up with sextuplets! Fortunately they are all healthy, but their house sure is a mad zoo! Kate is super organized and Jon is very laid back, at least it seems that way and it's fun watching the kids with all their different personalities. A lot of times their interactions with one another remind us of our kids and ourselves. Watching Jon & Kate dealing with all the daily struggles helps reminding us that 4 kids really ain't that bad (right Elizabeth?)...

New Year's

We spent the evening at Brad and Sherri Ellermeiers' house. They had invited a bunch of young families over for an early New Year's celebration. Max and Henry love playing with their son Gabe.

After arriving 45 minutes too early (thanks to Elizabeth), quite a few families started showing up. Their large playroom soon was filled and kids started spilling out all over their house. Lots of fun, snacks, punch and laughter and as far as we know nothing got broken (at least not by our kids).

At 8:00 PM we had an early countdown and as you can see in the photos the kids had a blast along with their parents!

Thanks Brad and Sherri for a New Year's evening the kids will remember for a long time to come!

Der Nikolaus war da! (Nikolaus was here!)

St Nikolaus stopped by last night and dropped off some goodies for the kids. It's an old German Tradition (roll over for a link on wikipedia explaining that Nikolaus is actually the base for our modern day Santa Claus! I didn't know that.) for children to put a boot outside their door. The next morning they will find candies, fruit and sometimes a small present. He pretty much looks just like Santa and Henry calls him "Santa's Little Brother". Unfortunately Sophie was already off to school when we took these photos. Max and Henry were quite happy with their presents and candy, but as you can see Alex not so much. Max got a Woody toy, Henry got a Buzz Lightyear and Alex got several small toy cars, but he really wanted a Buzz Lightyear toy, too! I tell you what, that little boy has gotten more of an attitude lately than the rest of them combined! Aunt Maryann christened him "King Alex" on our vacation and for a good reason. If he isn't happy, he will make sure EVERYBODY knows.

Max is happy.Henry is happy.Alex? Not so much. It looks like he's thinking:
"What the heck is this? I'm not a baby anymore!"So "King Alex" throws down his toy cars and walks away mad.

No toilet paper!!....Henry!

So I am in the bathroom and I realize too late that there is no toilet paper. I knew Henry was putting his pj's on so I called him.

I said, "Henry, can you get me some toilet paper out of the closet with all the towels and washrags? You know, the linen closet?" He said, "Oh, the one with the little door?" "Yes Henry, can you go get me some?"

I wait and wait, when I think he must have forgotten about me, I called him. He came running with an excited look, "Mommy, Santa doesn't need to bring us any Planet Heroes because we already have some!!!"

I quickly think of possible senarios and come up with only one. Henry proceeds to show me a secret place that I know all to well!

He had gone into my closet, moved some clothes on the rack and threw some down, yanked open a "little door" and saw all the Christmas presents. I had purchased them a month ago to make sure they would not be sold out. Henry then has to run down the stairs to tell Max, who wants to see the stash!

I nixed that and thought Max would not have done that because he doesn't like dark places. The next day Max asked me where the light was for the "little door"!

Now, Aunt Maryann said I needed to find a better hiding place, why would I need to do that when that was the "perfect" hiding place??!! Why did't I make sure there was toilet paper before I went into the bathroom, isn't that a rule or something?

Sunday Evening

Max built a Gyrocopter Airplane.Henry let of steam by running around like crazy.

Alex was getting sick.

Trunk or Treat

We went to our Ward's yearly "Trunk or Treat". Elizabeth brought some White Chilli for a Potluck Chilli Cook-Off.

Henry & Max: BFF

Alex dressed as a farmer saying "Hi" to the camera

Sorry, but this is the best photo I was able to get for Sophie:
Sabrina the Teenage Witch

We will be official dog owners today!

Well, when we came home yesterday from Alabama, we found a message on the asnwering machine. We have been chosen as the new family for "Sassy", a greyhound/collie mix. We'll have to talk about the name, cause I just don't like it at all!

We found her through the Newnan Humane Society and Ms. Connie, the dog's foster mom will bring her to our house tonight. Sassy and Ms. Connie had come by Saturday morning, to introduce us to her as well as inspect our home to make sure it fits the dog's needs. We liked that Sassy is easy going, laid back and just very low key.

Elizabeth and I are excited, but also a little apprehensive. Neither of us ever owned a dog. Sophie and Max are excited as well, Henry not so much and Alex loves all animals anyways.

Here is a link to her page on Petfinder.

herb

One of those days

I'm moving slow today since we got back late last night from Alabama. I still need to take a shower and unpack. It is 10am, the boys are asking for anything but breakfast food...teddy grahams, ritz bitz, starburst, nutella bread (which Max decided he didn't want, Henry then ate it, and Max then wanted it, and wouldn't you know I had used the last for that one bread!), and gummy worms.

When I finally decided they couldn't want anything else, Henry started whinning for ice cold water. I said, "Henry, why are you being such a whiny whiny?" He then projected his voice, "Because I get what I want!"

I know that I should care that I am being manipulated by a 3 1/2 year old, and that I am the adult. Right now though, I just want some peace and quiet. I have crumbled snacks on the familyroom floor which I will need to vacuum, and I should drink some water because I am getting a headache. Instead, I am at the computer enjoying the relative quiet.

Now they are back to whining, that didn't last long!

elizabeth

New photos

Elizabeth took the kids to Meredith Foster's to get some pictures taken.

Here are the results.

You can click on each photo to see a bigger version.