Steffen's First Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! (Those are Steffen's little feet- Gobble, Gobble! ;-)We celebrated this year with Bryan's family. They came over to our house and we all enjoyed a lot of food and some really great weather. The kids got to play outside almost all day.

Steffen was a very good baby, although he made sure that he got his "feasts" every two hours as usual. He weighs 13 pounds now, but he's still working on that third chin. He's quite the Mama's Boy. I haven't had one quite so insistent at such a young age about being held by Mommy. I'm not complaining! I know by now that it will be no time at all before he'll be following Daddy all over the place with barely a thought as to what Mommy might be doing. So I'll enjoy this brief time when he only has eyes for me!

Lost Maples

Well, fall is here! This really is my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler weather, Thanksgiving, and the beautiful colors. Unfortunately, we don't get a lot of leaf change around here in Texas. BUT, we do have Lost Maples.

Lost Maples is a state park that has trees that just look gorgeous during the fall. We took the kids there this past Sunday. We went with our friends who have 5 kids, so there were 11 kids under 9, and it was great fun! There's a pretty good 7 mile hike that you can do, but we opted for the shorter, but still scenic, trail.

Even the trip out there was pretty. The sun was shining and the hills were fun for the kids who are far too accustomed to flat terrain. We even passed a ranch with buffalo! I wasn't able to grab a picture of that, so you'll have to take my word for it.

The kids had a great time, especially since their friends were there. They explored, ran up and down the path, and threw rocks in the streams. Nathan went home wet up to his neck.



Carsten was real trooper. We had the backpack for him to ride in, but he was only in it for about 10 minutes. He walked (or, more accurately, marched) the entire way. He was just about asleep on his feet by the end of the trail, but he kept going!

Justin, for his part, had to be sure to get a good taste of the water.

We enjoy doing things like this with the little people. Enjoying God's creation together just makes us feel blessed to be a family.

Carsten's Birthday

Carsten turned 2! With a new baby in the house, it would have been far too easy to miss his special day, but I was determined that he should have a party too. His favorite stuffed animal is his Eli the Elephant, so we thought we'd do a circus type theme.


Even though I've gotten pretty proficient at the birthday party thing, for some reason, everything I did for this one was a disaster. I guess nursing every two hours just gets in the way of accomplishing anything. Anyway, after finally throwing away two cakes, I settled on cupcakes with sprinkles. And, to keep things easy, we just had hot dogs and chips. I made several salads to assuage my guilt over the unhealthy fare. Seventeen people cancelled on the day of the party (which was probably a good thing, except that once you've done the preparation, a smaller group doesn't really make a difference.) Oh, and I had to take Steffen to the doctor for a check-up in the morning, and I got a speeding ticket...

Anyway, we did have a great time, and we actually got to talk to some people since there were fewer there. Carsten, for his part, wasn't to sure about the whole thing. He's the only one of our kids who doesn't like to be in the spotlight. It was so funny! He was excruciatingly embarrassed when we sang happy birthday to him. And then, when he touched the candle instead of blowing it out, we all laughed. That completed his embarrassment. He refused to blow out the candle.

When we went to get him to unwrap his gifts, he hid in the corner of the dining room.
He did like running around outside with all of his little friends, though. That part was great. And once the gifts were unwrapped, he enjoyed playing with them.