Saturday Morning

What else is there to do on a Saturday morning, besides lay on the couch and watch College GameDay with your Dad?

Boy do I love these two!!

Goofing Off

What kind of new tricks could this cute, bright eyed boy be up to?

Well, trying to stand on his head of course!

He was doing this all day yesterday, and he would just wait for me to notice and then start giggling!

He is such a goofy boy, but super cute too!

New Toy

I discovered last week why Karter wanted to pull all the laundry out of the basket so badly...

...he just wanted to fill it up with his toys...

...and push it around the living room. It is his new favorite toy!

New Toy

Bottomless Pit

When Karter was sick for a week, his diet consisted of nothing but crackers, toast and water/Gatorade. For the past week and a half, he has been making up for the calories he missed out on...plus a whole lot more!! These days he never seems to get full.

He eats three big meals a day and a lot of snacks in between. On this particular day he had an entire NutriGrain bar and a cup of applesauce as a snack. For a snack on our recent trip to KC, he ate an entire grilled turkey and cheese one day. He is a big eater lately.

He also drinks milk like it is his job!! When he was sick he wasn't suppose to have milk for a whole week (we caved after about 5 days) and he wasn't happy about it, so now he drinks as much as possible just in case we deprive him of it again! I'm sure he will even out when this little growth spurt is over, but in the mean time we are left wondering about our grocery bills when he is a teenager!!

Here is a little video of Karter feeding himself lunch the other day...don't worry, we've stopped giving him his lunch in our good dishes!

Labor Day Weekend Trip

For the long weekend, we loaded up our family and headed south to Kansas City, MO to visit Kristoffer's brother, Kamaron, and his wife, Anique. We made it into town around lunch time on Saturday, and were eager to start our tour of KC.

Anique had to work on Saturday, so Kamaron was our tour guide. We started off with a stop by Hallmark, to check out where he works.

It was neat for us to check out Hallmark's headquarters, because we have only been to Target and 3M...and Hallmark is completely different than both of those.

As with any company, Hallmark is very proud of their company and have Gold Crowns just about everywhere. These are pretty neat looking chandeliers!

Next we stopped by the Crown Center and checked out a cool art exhibit where everything was made of Lego's.

Next on our walking tour of downtown was Union Station. It is such a big and beautiful building that you can just imagine back in the day was booming with travelers.

Karter enjoyed being able to get out of his carrier for awhile and stretch his legs. Of course, his favorite part was pointing out all the trains he saw!

This was just some random thing by the farmers market we went to, but it was too cute not to post!

After exploring downtown, we went to visit Anique at work, The Arabia Steamboat Museum.
She just recently started working at the museum as a tour guide and we were all anxious to hear the story.

We had a little bit of time to kill before our tour, so Karterman started acting goofy with a coon skin cap!

Anique is a fantastic tour guide and the story is so fascinating, but I don't want to share much for those of you who have yet to see the museum in person!

The tour was too much for Karterman and he passed out!

The amount of things that were found on the Arabia is fascinating, here is just a small section of the dinnerware that was found.

We both thought the craziest thing was the amount of shoes that were discovered.

No trip to KC is complete without some Kansas City BBQ. Kamaron said the best place for BBQ is Oklahoma Joe's and the original is in a gas station. We tried to eat at the original, but the line out the door made us want to try a different place. You know it has to be good when the line is that long!

Luckily for us, there is a second location. This one is a little bigger and more of a sit down restaurant, and located a little further out in the suburbs in Olathe, Kansas. We still had to wait in line for probably 20 minutes, but was hands down the best BBQ we have ever had!

We stayed in a hotel just a few miles away from their apartment, and our Sunday started off with my boys watching SportsCenter in bed!

Kamaron and Anique fixed us a delicious breakfast and then it was off to church. They have already found a new church home and have started to make a lot of friends there. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how most of the service was, because I spent most of it in the nursery with a restless Karter!

Sunday after church we went to the church's annual picnic. It was at a very nice park not far from their apartment, and Karter loved playing frisbee with Uncle Kamaron! We spent Sunday afternoon relaxing at their place and then went out for pizza and ice cream.

On Monday Anique had to work again, and we wanted to see a few more things before we left, so Kamaron took us down to The Plaza to walk around a little bit.

Karter was such a trooper all weekend and was completely worn out by the end of the trip. Unfortunately for us, he didn't sleep very much on the way home, but he is making up for the lack of sleep today! We had such a great trip, spending time with Kamaron and Anique. Thank you so much for having us!

Two Things

It is no secret that Karter and I love to go to the zoo, this summer we have taken advantage of our annual membership and have gone every couple of weeks. The fun thing about the zoo is that you never know what the animals are going to be doing that day. This week we went with our good friend Martha, and saw something we hadn't ever seen before....the tigers close up! Every other time we have been there the tigers have been lounging off somewhere in the shade and we couldn't get a very good look at them. This was a rare treat to see them so close up. It was kind of creepy too, because the male tiger just kept pacing back and forth. Karterman loved watching them though!

Earlier this week when I posted about the garden, apparently I left something out! My gardener was not pleased that I left out our most plentiful crop, the raspberries. Last month we enjoyed eating fresh raspberries and our freezer is stocked with over 10 quart for us to enjoy all winter. With some of our frozen berries we have already made scones and sauce for ice cream, next we are hoping to make a pie!

Streaker

In an effort to help the rash on Karterman's bum heal, his doctor reccommended letting him air dry after bathtime to make sure he is really dry. He loves the freedom of running around without any clothes on.

One day this week, while he was enjoying his freedom, we noticed how big his tummy is! He is stretched out in this picture, but the first one you can see his little pop belly! It is super cute, and we think it is normal!

Dinnertime Cutie

Tonight, we had mashed potatoes and gravy for supper (including green beans, fresh tomatoes, and pork chops). YUMMY!! As you can see from the photos above, Karter especially liked the mashed potatoes and gravy - especially since he got his own bowl and spoon to eat with!! He ate all by himself tonight, a task which he continues to improve on each day...

Isn't he cute with half of his supper on his face?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Kristoffer spent many hours this past spring planning and working on the garden. This is his third year of having a garden, and since the past two seasons didn't produce much, he was determined to make this year a success.

He worked hard and planted jalapenos, zucchini, lettuce, basil, dill, cilantro and LOTS of tomatoes. This year, everything except for the lettuce have produced plenty for us and then some!

Zucchini was the first thing that Kristoffer was able to harvest, and I think that he was pretty excited to have some produce!

A few weeks ago, he was able to harvest some jalapenos and he tried out this recipe...boy were these little beauties delicious!!

We now have tomatoes coming out of our ears and with Kristoffer being the adventurous chef that he is, he concocted this delicious tomato soup for dinner on Saturday to use some of them. He combined all kinds of fresh produce...tomatoes, basil, zucchini and green onions...and it all came together amazingly! This was the best tomato soup I have ever eaten. I even pitched in a little and made some homemade croutons to top it off!

Congratulations on a plentiful garden, Kristoffer!