Halloween

Here's some of the obligatory cute Halloween photos, yes, I did do the 'crafty mom thing' and made their costumes, but I have a new sewing machine that I love!

Carter has been wearing his penguin costume all month, Isaac barely tolerated the monkey outfit, so I didn't even make the hat part...

Cousin Haley (crazy cat lady) and Carter - Haley was wonderful in helping Carter have a fabulous first trick or treating experience!

The two boys
What a good looking family! By the way, I spent so long on the boys' costumes, it was about 20 minutes before we were leaving and I realized Lars and I didn't have costumes, amazing what we can come up with by just going through our closets....

Summer of fun

Here's some random photos from our summer as the fall begins here in Vermont.....

Lars let me go out to Jackson Hole with 8 other ladies for a fun-filled relaxing week of hiking, canoeing, hiking, running, hiking, and relaxing on the deck with a beer..... here's some photos of our beautiful hike to Lake of the Crags (which we didn't reach, since we had to get back down in time for a friend's flight)

Beth Naylor enjoying the view....
Beth and JJ in the Red Rocks.
Bath time in the double sink!
Carter decorating the cake we made for Papa's 35th birthday.  We made him a scavenger hunt as well, Carter was excited and hid under the table the whole time, waiting for papa to find him!
Cousins Malcolm and Maura playing at Shelburne Farms
A rare moment of sweetness between brothers at Shelburne Farms
Carter documenting mama trying to wash the cat in tomato juice after a direct hit from a skunk.  Note: cats do not like being bathed....
Carter's first fishing experience at Green River Reservoir with Papa and Jon.  Jon caught a fish when they went out on the canoe, I guess Carter's only response was that he stopped fishing after that.  Seems he didn't realize what he was actually doing....

Carter helping to canoe at Green River
Isaac's first canoe trip - he tolerated it.. can't say he really enjoyed it, but I think it was more that he hated the life jacket....



We are enjoying a beautiful week - September may be my favorite month - warm days, cool nights, BBQs, corn, watermelon, and the apple orchard just opened for apple picking! A real sign of fall.  A few trees are starting to turn....

Here's a last image of summertime fun:

Garden!

This is my first time ever growing a garden and we have been enjoying the fruits of our labor!  Carter and I planted pole beans, bush beans, beets, carrots, basil and tomatoes from seed.  Here are some photos from our garden about a month ago, yum yum!

Carter checking out the beets he pulled up
Bush beans!
Our two raised beds (with our firewood in the background)
Beet greens and carrots last month
Oh, and Christina and Andy karaoking at their engagement party in Michigan!

Summer Fun

Woah, lots has happened in the past month or so, but don't worry, I won't bore you with the details, but merely provide some highlights.... Carter is officially potty-trained (daytime only) and has been going to a week long summer camp at his new preschool, which I LOVE! Poker Hill school in Underhill http://pokerhillschool.org - come on, they have a zip line for the kids in the playground, and sheep, horses, bunnies, turtles, frogs, gerbils, etc, who wouldn't love it?  

Isaac is officially a terror - but a cute one!  He is sleeping 10-12 hours straight at night, but has become a master crawler, pulls himself to standing and can free stand for several seconds!  He loves to climb the stairs and eat everything in sight (including dirt, quarters, and stale cheerios he finds on the floor).

We spent the fourth of July in Michigan, enjoying our extended family and a sunny time on Lake Michigan.  Carter loved riding the jet ski!

We then spent 3 days in Putney (southern VT for you flatlanders) with 30 of Lars' closest high school buddies and their growing families - lots of fun to be had!

Looking forward to much more fun this summer.

Here's my story to end this one with :

On the way home from Poker Hill today - Carter was having a melt down over something, I can't remember what, but he was crying and crying.  The windows were cracked open, and I closed them to turn on the air conditioning.  Carter's scream escalated into an all out shriek.  I assumed it was because he didn't want me to close the windows, so I said in the stern voice "CARTER!! NO THANK YOU!!!" The poor kid was choking on his sobs, but then said "can you put the window down, please?" He was still screaming, but heck, he said 'please'.  So I put the window down.  Only then did he tell me that I had closed the tips of his fingers in the window! I pulled over, saw the red dents in his fingertips and his heaving chest and felt so bad.... The poor boy was sitting there with his fingers closed in the window and he still said please... gotta love him.

One of my favorite Carterisms is that he jumps up and down whenever he gets really excited, as you can see here!
Getting serious about the kids race around the tent...
Debbie Dunklee reading to the next generation, Silas, Carter, Maya and Keenan 
Is Carter having fun? Not really sure on that one...
Lovin' the jet ski in Charlevoix...
I rode on this thing (what is it? a giant banana?) when I was a kid....

Massachusetts!

We had a fun filled weekend in Massachusetts recently.  We got to spend time with our Jackson Hole friends Jessica and Jeremy and their two kids, Christina (4) and Trevor (2).  They have a great house on the lake with an awesome swing that provided lots of photo ops.  We then had a beautiful wedding of Lars' cousin, Justin.  I was great to be surrounded by great friends and our extended Mock family for the weekend.  Lots of fun had by all.  I'd write more, but I have a rare morning alone (!?) at home - the kids are at grandma's.  She took them for an overnight last night so Lars and I could go out for our anniversary.  We went to a fabulous restaurant in Waterbury, The Hen of the Wood.  If you are in the area and have some money to blow, check it out.  So this morning, I've been frantically cleaning, cooking, and, oh of course, relaxing and watching some cheesy reality TV. Hope you are all enjoying your start of summer!  We are attempting our hand at gardening and have beets, carrots and beans sprouting in our garden.  I recently transplanted some of our tomato plants but not sure they are going to make it - the leaves have mysteriously turned white on many of them.  My research shows it my be transplant shock or some such thing - I never 'hardened' them to the outdoors and it has been chilly and windy.  We'll see, they seem to be doing better today and I snipped off the really wilted white leaves....
We attempted to get all four kids on the couch - 3 out of 4 ain't bad....
Mamas and their babes

Christina flying high!
Jeremy and Christina having fun
Just as fun for the adults!
Justin and Jennifer's wedding
My favorite shot of Lars and Carter
We just planted a plum tree - here's our first shot of the two boys, I hope to take one every spring as the boys and the tree (hopefully) grow up!
Carter's growing up already, he loves to shave... 

Videos

Here's some recent video clips - Carter's "what country is that accent from" motorboat rendition, then our favorite party trick, Carter doing the robot..... enjoy!

Then there was our recent family trip to Chicago.  We visited a cool diner called the Choo Choo that had a little electric train that circled a track around the perimeter of the bar.  The train would pull your food and stopped at your booth.  Carter was in love.  There was a little train that he and Isaac rode.  Seconds after I stopped recording this video, Isaac pitched forward and got a nice shiner on his forehead.  You'll probably watch the video and wonder, "why would she let her 3 year old hold up the 8 month old on that train?" I guess I'll never learn.... 

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm never usually one for the 'Hallmark Holidays', but I'm taking full advantage of this one.  Funny how all I really want for mother's day is to NOT be a mother for a few hours.....

Lars has been wonderful so far today - he took care of Isaac all night, his usual brief wake up call at 9pm lasted for 2 hours, then Lars got him at 5am and let me sleep in till 6:30 when Carter woke up.  He then took Carter downstairs and made me breakfast, delivering it with an almost disgusted look of "I know you won't get out of bed today until I do this for you, so here it is..." Then he dealt with Carter, who wasn't wearing a diaper and proceeded to poop down his pants, coating his legs as well.  I guess Carter, covered in said poop, then thought more poop was coming, sat on his little potty, covering that with poop as well.  And while Lars was then trying to clean the little potty over the composting toilet, dropped the little potty down and had to go into the composter unit to retrieve the potty, now even more covered with poop.... Then Carter decided that, even though every Sunday he goes with Lars to play in the gym while Lars plays basketball, that this Sunday, he was definitely NOT going to go with him, and surely not going to wear any pants... He did eventually go, but he was wearing green alligator pj pants with his too tight blue moose pj top, one knee high red spiderman sock and one too small white sock.  All this before 8 am.  I bet Lars can't wait for mother's day to be over!

We spent last weekend with a rented mini-loader, hauling trees out of the woods and flattening out our yard.  We then spent all day bringing up loads of topsoil, raking it out, then spreading grass seed and covering the whole mess with hay in hopes that we would have a wonderful yard to play in by summer.  Well, it proceeded to rain all week and now our "yard" consists of clumps of hay floating around in puddles... ahh well, maybe someday.

Isaac getting ready to crawl.... time to baby proof again!

I read some where that when you have a second child, the older one regresses, uses baby talk, wants to play with the younger ones toys..... haven't seen any of that around here....

What a difference a week makes....

I am slowly returning to the wonderful world of sleep!  Seems Isaac has finally learned how to get some shut-eye.  I've been hesitant to jinx myself by writing anything, but for the past week, we've finally gotten to the point where sleeping 10 hours straight is the norm rather than the exception.  How wonderful it feels to sleep uninterrupted for hours on end! I'm a new person....

We have been having fun enjoying the onset of spring.  This is one of my favorite times of the year - it's been warm enough to play outside, yet none of the dreaded bugs have appeared (besides the ants, which always makes Carter yell "Ant! Ant! Get it mama!" You'd think it was going to eat his toes off.  We've spent lots of time outdoors, playing in the sand pit that I built him last week, walking to the Johnnie Brook almost daily and throwing lots of rocks.  Isaac is getting really good at scooting, almost imperceptibly, on his bottom.  I put him near the fridge last night while making dinner, and five minutes later, he had moved 4 feet and was tugging on my pant leg.  Not sure how he does it, just seems to be an inch at a time....

Other exciting news is that Carter, at 3 1/2, has finally peed on the potty for the first time! The amazing part was, he did it while no one was looking.  We had started the bath water and Lars went downstairs to get something, when he neared the bathroom door, we noticed Carter sitting on the little potty, so he slowly backed away and waited, and Carter came out holding the potty and said, "Look papa! I peed!"  Figures he was going to do it on his own time - all the m&ms, potty charts, bribes, and days of taking away his diapers didn't do it, he just had to decide to do it on his own.  So for all the moms out there, thinking their kid may never get potty trained, take heart, they'll do it when they're ready.....

Here's some photos of our latest photo shoot, trying to keep the Michigan spirit alive in the Green Mountain State!  Now just got to get the kids to stop moving long enough to look at the camera...

Carter took this shot of his baby brother.

The sand pit Carter and I built!

Hodgepodge

Hmm, so I guess hodgepodge really is a word, or at least the spell-checker didn't pick up on it.  What's in this hodgepodge.... well, I've officially, or at least temporarily, started back working at the Health Center.  Crazy thing is, I have actually been enjoying it! Maybe it's because I get to get out of the house and have some time to focus on myself (while trying to help out as many people per hour as I can!).  I am only doing 2 half days a week for a total of 10 or so hours, and the kids are both going to grandma's house (which they love).  I asked Carter if he likes going to Grandma's or Playcare (his old daycare center) better - he responded immediately "Grandma's!"  When I asked why, he said "because she has toys with batteries!" Ahhh well.  

I'm planning on only working for the next 2 months and then taking most of the summer off.  It's too darn nice to work during the summer - beaches, gardens.... We are trying our hand at vegetable gardening for the first time this summer.  I am soooo excited because we have started tomato plants inside and they have sprouted already!  I have never successfully grown anything, in fact, I can barely keep already living plants alive, so this is quite a feat!  We've also purchased blueberry bushes for the yard and a plum tree! Now we just need to figure out how to get some topsoil and a yard to play in....

Here's some photos, cause I know the photos are more fun then my grammatically incorrect ramblings....

Carter coming down the water slide in Jackson Hole, pure excitement...
Don't move or I'll come after you with my drill.  I'm serious
Isaac and Maude Walker staring.... and staring.....
Had to include this one to prove to people that his eyes aren't always THAT big...
Painting easter eggs...
Isaac and Papa
Carter wanted to take a bath where Isaac took his - I couldn't say no...