* Lots of hugs and kisses between these two.

* Cutest lion you ever did see. I knew we would get mileage out of these costumes.

* Swords. Shields. Knights. Soldiers. Horses. Capes. Crowns. And then there is a gun, which Noah calls a camera.

* More Lego guys. The TV has been successfully turned off since Remembrance Day, in the hopes that it would motivate Noah to poop on the toilet. He misses the television dearly.

* Cold, long wintry nights mean curling up in the living room with all the blankets and having story time.

* Finally! Mom & Dad have their 35th wedding anniversary album. So happy with how it turned out.

* French Toast with syrup and heavy cream. A special Sunday brunch. I’m gaining weight just thinking about it!

* Oma L. is very tech savvy with her ipod touch. Both boys were enamored by this fun toy.

* At least as many spats between these two as hugs and kisses.

Post #23 of Personal Project 52 weeks.

* Coffee. Black. Art has been on my case for some time now to ditch the International Delight Hazelnut Creamer. And I confess I was a little attached to the stuff. But we are very budget-conscious these days and my $5/week habit (shameful isn’t it? One of those big bottles each week!) was a top priority. Art bribed me with the promise of GOOD coffee. The hazelnut vanilla flavored beans from Costco. I was skeptical at first. But it turns out that I love this coffee. Plus I drink less of it. We will see how long a bag of beans lasts. And it’s only been 2 weeks and I’m already drinking the regular coffee black. I still think I’d order a double-double at Timmy’s tho.

* My little man loves the bath. Particularly drinking the bath water… I love his eyelashes, his chubby hands and his little nose buried in the cup. He climbs in the bath every single time someone is using it. He showers with me in the morning and then baths with Noah at night. During the day, he constantly asks to wash his hands (he rubs them together and starts to sing the ABCs – he makes it to the letter “g”).

* Our yard was insane. I can’t even believe how many leaves there are.

* Extreme shopping. Coupon shopping. My first attempt. I was nervous and slightly embarrassed. I did get some good deals but it took a lot of time and effort. You should see my stack of coupons. Some of the coupons didn’t work so I had to walk away without those items. The main point was to get diapers for cheap/free. And while they were not free, I did get them for very cheap.

* We live under a sycamore tree. I love this tree. Noah calls the leaves “Canada” which I thought was pretty observant. He is obsessed with anything with the Canada flag.

* Reading the kids Bible.

* Noah’s favorite story is…. Take a guess… Noah’s Ark! It is absolutely hilarious to hear him tell Bible stories: Moses and the staff turned to a snake, Noah’s Ark. I can’t wait until we get to Jonah! God the Father of Abraham, Isaac and… Austin.

* There was a photo where they are touching tongues. I couldn’t decide if it was cute or gross. Cute to me. But I’m wearing mommy goggles.

* Mattias’ outside uniform includes: green rubber boots, navy blue splash / snow pants (a size too small) and one of his plethora of sweatshirts. Sometimes he gets to wear his puff vest as well. But he starts crying when he sees it because it bundles him up like a penguin. And poor guy if he falls over. I find it hilarious. In a loving way.

Post #22 of Personal Project 52 weeks.

* Pumpkin patch’ed it with the prenatal group. A four year tradition. Noah loved it. And I actually brought my camera and USED it. Normally when I go out with the boys, I can barely manage to keep up with them never-mind the memory making aspect. Mattias remained in the stroller most of the time.

* Llama. Shortly after I took the photo, the voice of the tour guide on the train at the zoo rang in my ears. “Don’t get too close because the Llama can spit up to 12 feet.” That would have been pleasant.

* Noah picking out a pumpkin. In the farthest corner of the field. Of course.

* Mr. Lion and Mr. Giraffe. Noah was so excited about his costume. Thrilled. He spent at least 2 hours a day wearing the costume in the days leading up to Halloween. Much of that time was spent roaring and growling and crawling around the house.

* Enjoying a nap. Actually Noah has been having longer naps again. I am such a chicken when it comes to waking him up early from his naps because it is so utterly painful. The drama. Often he is crying / wailing / screaming for over an hour if he is woken up prematurely. Sometimes as long as 2 hours. It’s normal but still painful. So the goal is to keep him awake. Every day.

* Mattias did really well with the trick-or-treating. He joined Noah in walking from house to house and he loved to knock on each of the doors.

* Me and my boys at the patch. Thank Christine!

* There was an old gumball machine at the petting zoo full of food for the goats. I refused to pay 25 cents so that Noah could feed them. Not to worry. Noah parked himself by the gumball machine and every single person gave him some of their grain. Those goats loved him. I was truly astounded at his interest in the animals. I will need to find some petting zoos near our house to visit.

* If you visit Alder Acres, there is a very good chance that you’ll see farmer Anderson booting around in his John Deere at some point. Noah had an eye for the JD and quickly made friends with the farmer. Favorite question: “what are you doing?”. Followed by “why?” and a host of other questions.

Post #21 of Personal Project 52 weeks.

Okay, so 2 weeks ago I didn’t post. I didn’t post because I only took 1 photo. Well actually I took 4 photos of the same subject. Because what (digital) photographer takes only one photo of something? I might add that I actually did take a fair number of photos this week, just for others.

So here are the highlights and thoughts of the Second Week of October:

* It was Thanksgiving… which we celebrated by being thankful. Thankful for the countless blessings that we enjoy from God’s hand.

* One of the blessings: We were able to witness the Grand Opening of our church.

* There was an incident with a rat. The carcass appeared in our backyard and Noah thought it was the coolest thing ever. It gave me the heebie-jeebies as I carefully shoveled it into the garbage can. And no, I did not take a photo. Although I did consider it. For the blog.

* Mattias’ favorite word is “no”. Said more like “NNNNNNNNNNO!!!!”. Some might say that he’s just trying to say his brother’s name. However, “Noah” is actually Mattias’ OTHER favorite word: pronounced OAH. Funny how he can’t put it together yet.

* The single photo I took was of a butternut squash potato gratin recipe. Apparently I like to subject family members to experimental recipes. We had a lovely 1-week-late Thanksgiving potluck with the Louwerse clan and I decided to bring something potato. Something tried-and-true would have been sensible. Sensible? Sensible doesn’t come naturally to me. So there I was making potato gratin for 15, taking elements from several different recipes, substituting like crazy and not measuring anything. I was vaguely aware that this could go horribly wrong. But it turned out fine. And I will make this again in a heartbeat. The sensible in me, decided to make a mini ramekin to test out. Or maybe it was my stomach growling. The butternut squash added a delightful creaminess without all the calories. I used whole milk instead of heavy cream. Just a wee bit of butter. I always like a crunchy potato edge. Yum.

And on to the next week!

* Playing in the leaves.

* Flour & sugar. Baking is just so very fall-like. Cinnamon buns. Pizza bread. Marshmallow / chocolate / caramel / graham cracker crumb thingies that Noah picked out from the cover of an old Kraft magazine to make. He gets excited about baking because it’s a guarantee to have lots of sugar and chocolate.

* Mattias is steady on his feet and pretty much running. He falls a lot more than Noah did but it doesn’t bother him.

* Ever year, we head to this location on 272nd when the color of the trees are JUST right. It’s a tree-lined, barbed fenced, fully overgrown driveway entrance to a field. It’s perfect! The past number of years, we’ve tried the self timer photos but this year (since we recently had amazing family photos taken), we just let the kids play in the leaves and snapped some photos.

* Noah really tired at super time. Fell asleep on Art’s knee.

* It’s not sharp which is unfortunate, but I love it!

* Mattias loves to check out what’s baking in the oven. He is the epitome of toddler. He toddles around all day. Checking out this and checking out that. Playing for 5 minutes and then off to explore something else. He is most fussy when he wakes up in the morning and after his nap and during the ‘witching hour’. But for the most part, he just toddles around all day. Happy and secure in his environment.

~ K