Christmas Day

Christmas was especially fun for us this year because this was the first year that Carter really "got" the whole Santa thing. He helped put out cookies before bed, asked a million questions about the chimney, and knew that Santa wouldn't come until he and his brother were asleep. He even told Kyle at bed time "Come on Kyle, we have to go to bed so Santa can come." When they got up Christmas morning Carter went right over to the table to see if the cookies were gone and to make sure Santa didn't take his froggy cup home with him. ;-) We had fun watching them open their gifts and play with their new toys. Carter wanted to call and thank everyone who sent him gifts as soon as we were done. We were all very blessed this year and grateful for all that we have, and all of our wonderful friends and family. Happy New Year to everyone!

Sleepy Kyle on the "Quad" that Santa brought him.

He wouldn't get off of it for the longest time.

Not even to open more presents.

Carter got a big boy bike form Santa. Very Cool!

And Mommy and Daddy got him his Poling Fish,

(with a little help from auntie Carroll.)

Our Beau Dog sun bathing on a beautiful Christmas Morning.

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve we went to Gregg's older brother Chris's house. We spent the evening with him, his wife Penny, and their girls Courtney and Ashley. Gregg's younger brother Jeff was also there with his wife Cindy and their son Jackson as well as Cindy's dad Tom. It was a great night. The boys love playing with their cousins and were so excited about going all day. It was really nice to hang out with family and talk and eat and just enjoy the holiday. Thank you Chris and Penny for opening your home and sharing such a wonderful evening.

Cindy, Me, and Penny

Carter opening a gift from Courtney and Ashley.



Courtney and Ashley made each of the boys one of these
beautiful blankets. Carter and Kyle use them all the time,
they love them. :-)


Even though Kyle loved his "tuck" (truck) blanket,
he thought the box it came in was a lot more fun!

A Family Dinner

A couple of weeks ago the Blaufuss Family got together to wish Gregg's Mom Kathy and Step dad Art fair well and good luck on their newest adventure. Kathy and Art are moving to Florida to live on a beautiful boat that they recently purchased and sail the great loop. It's been a dream of Arts for quite some time, and now that he has retired (well semi-retired actually,) they have the opportunity to do so. They will be gone for about a year flying back to visit periodically as their 3 new grandchildren are born this coming year. We will miss them, but wish them luck and lots of fun!

The Blaufuss Crew

Kyle spending some quality time with Grandpa before bed.

Carter was so tired, but unwilling to leave

Grandpa and Grandma B to go to bed.

Carter and Grandma B playing before bed.

A First Look

Here is a first look at our little girl. And yes, we are without a doubt having a baby girl. This was from about 6 weeks ago. I think she looks like she's smiling a little bit.

She moves around a lot, more than I remember the boys moving at this stage. She does not like the little heartbeat monitor they use at the doctor and always kicks it while they are trying to count her heart rate. It makes me laugh. Unless she is asleep during my appointment it usually takes my doctor a few tries if she can get it at all.

A few people have been asking for a picture of me, so here I am at about 30 weeks. I am feeling pretty good. The morning sickness finally went away at about 5 1/2 months, though I still have bouts of queasiness every now and again. I am also starting to get tired out a little quicker during the day so I am looking forward to the nesting energy that usually comes the last few weeks. I haven't really been craving anything unusual. Eggs and cottage cheese were big the first trimester, and peanut butter and jelly always sounds good. Apple juice is the only thing I crave that I don't normally care for. Nothing like the cravings I had with the boys. We haven't settled on a name just yet, but we still have some time for that. Carter calls her "baby girl", (creative I know) and he thinks we should name her Gregory. Overall we are doing pretty good, and just can't wait to meet her. :-)

We are "Papoose" free...

Yes we are papoose free. What the heck is a "Papoose" you say? It's what Carter has always called his pacifier, and in our family it stuck. Well it was finally time to take them away for good, so Saturday we took the boys to the Build-A-Bear Workshop. At Build-A-Bear you choose a stuffed animal and basically build it from scratch, stuff it, and take it home. On the way there I told the boys that we would be putting a special treasure inside their teddy bears. Carter had been there before and couldn't wait. As soon as we got there he chose a bear and Kyle got a frog. We waited in line and when it was our turn to stuff their new toys I pulled out the pacifiers. Carter was first, and understandably a little reluctant but he let us put them in the bear. We put one in one of the bears hands and another in the bears foot so that Carter could feel that they were there. We put all of Kyles in his frog next. On the way home we had a few tears when they realized that their papooses weren't coming out of the toys but rest of the day went relatively smooth. That night was rough to say the least. They both had to be rocked to sleep, (Kyle wouldn't go down until 11:30), they each woke up twice for about an hour, and I almost gave in at 5:00AM due to sleep deprivation. But with Gregg's help and support we all made it through that first night. That was the worst of it. Other than being tiered, Sunday was very normal and Sunday night the boys went down with hardly a fight and slept just fine. By Monday neither one asked for a papoose even once and we had a perfectly normal bedtime routine. I am so happy to say we finally did it, and despite all my fears we all survived.

Carters Bear and Kyles Frog.

Look, no papoose in that mouth!

Fall Fun

Fall is my favorite seasons. Right now our yard is full of beautiful colorful leaves. The boys took the opportunity this weekend to play in them while Gregg was doing some yard work. They were so cute throwing them up in the air over their heads. They played for hours until Gregg finally got all of the yard work done and the leaves all raked up. Poor Gregg probably did twice the raking that he would have done if they weren't out there, but who could get mad at them when they were having such fun. Kyle got so tired that he took a 4 hour nap after that. I think we're going to do this every weekend. ;-)

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. Gregg's brother Chris came over with his wife Penny and their daughters Courtney and Ashley. Gregg's mom Kathy was here this year as well. Carter had so much fun playing with the girls all day that he fell asleep right before dinner. He woke up in time to fill up before dessert though. His favorite part was the cranberry sauce and the yams. Kyle loved ALL of the food, especially dessert. We all had a lot of good food and a lot of fun!

Here is Kyle enjoying dinner.

Here he is really enjoying his apple pie!


Gregg and Carter also enjoying pie.

Uncle Chris gave lots of pony rides!

Kyle put on Ashley's coat and the boys

wanted me to take their picture.

Family Photo

Like most busy families we do a family picture one time a year. We did this years picture last week with the help of my good friend Nicole. We got up really early so that we could get everyone ready, pick up Nicole, and get the picture before nap time. We drove out to the field where we like to walk the dogs and the boys were really excited. That is until Carter saw the camera and Kyle saw that he wasn't going to get to run free. Gregg spent most of the time tickling and entertaining Kyle, while I tried to keep Carter from hiding his head in my chest, and poor Nicole tried to get even one normal picture. Finally after several different poses and attempts we sat down on a blanket. I asked Carter if he could see the elephant that was hiding in the trees behind Nicole. That worked! He forgot all about hiding from the camera and focused on finding the elephant. He even thought he saw it a couple of times. In the end we were able to get a few good shots, and I remembered why we only do this once a year.

"Don't even think about taking my picture!"

Carter pointing to the elephant.

Definitely Daddies Boy