Is He Color Blind?

Eli is determined not to learn his colors. When I hold up two objects that are identical, except for color, he always guesses that the color is yellow- unless one of the objects really is yellow, then he usually throws out orange as his guess. It's almost like he won't learn them on purpose, because we are always mentioning and pointing out things of like colors. He likes to keep us on our toes.

I Love to Hear What They'll Say Next

German has the greatest ideas! He frequently suggests smart ways of doing things (like teaching Joshua how to get the refried beans out of the can "the way my mom does it") or asks us fabulous questions. Tonight he asked, "Dad, when I turn to be 7 will you get me a man's toolbox?"

Such a Happy Boy...

Scotland loves to smile and laugh. He gives some of the greatest hugs. We all love having this boy in our family. This picture is of him feeding himself his oatmeal cereal, since he rarely lets me feed him anymore.

Sick Little Eli

Poor guy! I won't go into too many details, but the poor guy started vomiting in the car and was stuck in his car seat and couldn't lean forward to get out of the mess- so sad. Then I got him all cleaned up and he had another incident, followed by a few more as the evening progressed. I only mention all that to explain these photos of the boy. He kept telling us that he "didn't want to burp anymore." Like we had some control over the matter! He spent much of the evening sitting in the kitchen sink with his hands over his mouth, to keep in whatever might need to come out. Such a sweet boy!

What to do When Mom Steps Out of the House

I went out the other night for a little 'mom-time' and came back to find all three boys in bed and the house picked up - what a nice husband I have. I was shown this picture and an accompanying video of the boys and their slide. It reminded me of The Cat in the Hat. (Remember? Thing 1 and Thing 2 come in and make the mess, but they miraculously have it all cleaned up before mom steps in the door!)

A Few Thoughts...

1. Sorry, still no post-worthy footage of Scot crawling, but don't worry mom, I'm working on it.

2. We had our first discussion at the dinner table about chicken being made from an actual chicken and how it used to be alive doing chicken things. German asked what we thought was a great question, "Why does the chicken not say 'ouch' when we eat it?"

3. A suggestion: Find yourself 3-4 friends who have similar family sizes and food preferences as you and form a dinner swap/group. Three friends and I spent an afternoon together doing our usual thing- talking, visiting, disciplining children, etc, except that we each brought 4x the amount of ingredients for a recipe and then we prepared those meals and divided them out. I went home having spent the afternoon with friends and carrying four meals ready to be placed in my freezer- that was very fulfilling.

Scotland is a Crawler!

Our boy has been on his knees for about a month now, but has only been able to move by turning and rolling - until tonight! Scot totally skipped the army crawl and just started moving tonight. He turned 7 months yesterday and has proved to be our earliest crawler!

German Listens to EVERYTHING!

This is our family dog, Tool Box. I posted this picture, because it's rare to get a photo of German and his real smile!
Apparently, Joshua told the boys the story of Adam and Eve one night as they were going to bed. Then the other day German was working on one of his Duplo creations and this is what he made:

Please note: Adam- the repairman, Eve- with her baby, the bushes, and the "apple tree" all contained in the Garden of Eden. Funny boy.

Children's Museum of Phoenix

I'm not sure that they realized that the construction work was not an exhibit, but boy did we spend a lot of time watching the men work!


Finally, now they can do the shopping.


German driving Eli through a "trikewash".

Painting the castle.

So, I thought the Mesa youth museum was great (and it is), but this far surpassed my expectations. I would buy a membership, but I'm cheap and will instead hope for a free culture pass from the library.

I had to drag my children from each station, all the while convincing them that the next room would be just as cool. I thought we'd stay a couple of hours, but we ended up staying until almost closing time. These boys have some great imaginations. Scot loved the little baby areas and was a great baby the entire day.

Sadly, I was lonely. I watched as all these other mothers were there with their pals, and I mingled with the grandmas that were coerced into bringing their grandchildren. Friends, you were missed!

A Sunday Afternoon and a Bag of Pretzels

All I have to say is that I have one determined husband! This project was accomplished using only his teeth - seriously, no knives were used in the creation of this work of art. Impressive.

German turns 4!

We had a rip-roarin' good time at German's Fourth Birthday Cowboy Bash. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Hallberg's Christmas gifts for the boys we had the party pretty well planned. We made paper bag vests with sheriff badges, then we had some tough horse races, lassoed a calf, went to the shooting range, and had a bean eating contest. We finished the party off with some chili and ice cream sandwiches. My favorite game was the shooting range- we had set up some cans with strings attached and placed them at a distance on a box, then when the kids would make their bullet firing sound a dad would pull the string on one of the cans to make it fall. The kids were amazed at how their gun could do that, until Emily figured it out!

I was pretty excited when G said he wanted a cowboy party because I had purchased these ice cream sandwich molds at Williams-Sonoma years ago on clearance and I finally had reason to use them. Joshua mostly made them- he got excited each time one would come out perfectly. (Sorry N's that you didn't make it into any of the photos.)

My Ideal Winter...

I used to hate January.

This blog background is the perfect page for my ideal winter: everything looks wintery and gives you the feeling that you need a blanket and hot chocolate, but then you go outside and you're in AZ! I can appreciate feeling cold and snuggly, but let me tell you it sure was fun at the park yesterday feeding the ducks and walking around in shorts. A few weeks in UT/ID every Christmas is a good fill and reminds me why I now love January.

Merry Christmas!

We're currently half way through our vacation and have had a packed few days already. We were able to spend a day with our good friends the Louds and meet their new daughter, Aubrey. Our Josh's sure enjoyed hanging out and playing with the boys in the snow.

Santa came to visit at Grandpa and Grandma Hallberg's house on Christmas Eve. Scotland sat on his lap and just stared up at him in awe and wonder. All the other little ones screamed and cried!

The boys sure loved playing with their cousins, probably more than all their new toys. In fact on Christmas Eve I tucked in the boys and told them to think about Christmas presents and stockings and German's response was, "But will Payton be here in the morning?"

Scot had his first "meal" and loved it! He eats the stuff up.

The kids had fun, but the adults also had a good time, mostly after the children were all asleep! We stayed up way too late playing cards and eating crab!

Happy 5 Year Anniversary To Us

My husband is awesome! I got home Thursday night (the 17th) from a church activity and Joshua asked, "Do you think you could find someone to watch the boys over night and all day Saturday?" He had booked us flights to San Diego, set up a cool hotel room at a hotel that was formerly a bank, and reserved us a table at a fancy restaurant.

Thanks to Tiffany and Treasure for their help with the boys - start planning your weekend get-a-ways now! These were some of the most needed and appreciated 26 hours of relief ever!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Glue-gunning the gingerbread house ahead of time was a great idea!

Eli lasted about 7 minutes.

German lasted about 20 minutes.

I think I could really get into gingerbread house decorating.

Crazy Boyz

These boys never cease to amaze me. German and Eli love to play together. Their current mischief involves a lot of dirt, water, and bath toys. But hey, boys will be boys!

Scot is learning to sit up and can almost support himself completely. He loves to play with toys, by mostly putting them into his mouth. He can also get up on his hands and knees and practices rocking back and forth. He is such a joy!

Eli - Our Big 2 Year Old

We had a fun birthday celebration for Eli with some of our Arizona friends. Eli insisted upon a "backetball cake" for his "burtday."

Has it Really Been Over a Month?

So I missed Halloween... The boys (and their parents) were pretty cute pirates, but those photos have been removed from the memory card and are now safely digitally preserved on our non-internet computer- sorry folks.

Thanksgiving was great. My parents, sister Annie and her husband Dennis, and little brother Adam drove down south and we spent 5 days together in the beautiful weather that Arizona is famous for. We feasted, Black-Friday shopped, walked downtown Scottsdale, walked a mall (just because it's a Hallberg thing to do), did some crafts, and of course - watched a lot of football.

I would never claim to be a master chef or even a great cook, but I will take some credit for making an awesome looking Apple Pie - it even tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself!

Scot

Scotland is doing great! He's really a perfect baby. He's been sleeping through the night now for quite some time, he never spits up, and he's generally very happy. He has his spouts of fussy time, but I can't complain. This week he's started playing with toys and using his hands more - he tried to grab my taco last night! His brothers continue to love him and shower him with a lot of attention.

For the record, he's not always in a seat, these just seem to be the moments when the camera's out!

German's Soccer Class

The last day of German's soccer class was this week and they got to wear their costumes to class. German was really excited because another friend was also a pirate. German had a lot of fun with these friends during their 10 week class, but I think his highlights will be playing dodgeball (actually throwing balls at Coach Adam) and getting a sticker at the end of each class, or maybe standing on coach's foot in order to reach the drinking fountain.