Shalom Aleichem

So.... I have been going crazy lately because Hayden has been singing a song while clapping and jumping and falling and I had no idea what it was. I seriously have been going nuts. It sounds like shine down shine meeeeee while clapping then a huge jump in the air and falling flat on his back. I kept thinking what are they teaching him at PDO?
Today Hayden was singing a wiggles song I knew and then started singing the song I didn't know. So long story short I figured out the song. It is the Jewish song from the wiggles and at the end of the song Anthony falls in the sand. I was sooo happy to figure this out.
So this adds to my case that Hayden has a Jewish dialect. He says ice cream and it sounds like ice crhhheemmm. Hard to type the Jewish throat scratch sound. And he loves to sing in Jewish.
I also call him my little Jamacian because at time he has a Jamacian accent because he says "shut de door."
So I guess he has a lot of crazy dialects and I am sure once he catches on to what he is doing more will come out.
Silly!

Christmas Recipes

I just got an email from my mom with tons of links to Christmas Candy recipes. I went to the site and there are a ton of recipes for cakes, cookies, candies, etc. You may remember an email last year going around with hundreds of cookie recipes. Thought I would post the link so you all could start gearing up for the holiday baking. MMMMM yummy!
Hayden and I made our first batch of pumpkin bars tonight. He loved the frosting, but skipped out on the cake as he called it. Surprise surprise.

http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/

Pictures

I learned from Sara K to snap my fingers above my head when taking a picture to get Hayden's attention. Hayden likes to copy or mock me when I do it. :)

Here are a couple of random shots. We ordered a card for the camera and it should be here soon. With the current card we get about 10 shots before it is full, so it is a process to dump the pictures after every 10 shots.

Haircut

I finally decided to get Hayden's haircut. I was combing through the tangles in the back, and he said "Ouch mommy, I don't like it." I figured my 2 options were 1) get detangler 2) get a haircut.
I figured that I don't need to get my son detangler, so I decided on a haircut.

Pictures to come....... ooooo the suspense.
We are ordering a card for our new/used camera. Unless my mom figures how to send me pictures. :)

Camera

We got a huge box in the mail from Germany. In true Aunt Ingrid style it had Christmas gifts wrapped for Hayden. She is the queen of planing ahead.
It also contained some yummy smelling fall candles that made my day, her old camera and many other odds and ends. Lets just say that Hayden will have a "new" coat from now until he is five.
Now I can actually get some pictures taken. I am excited about that!

Drive to the Mississippi

Joey got ahead on his homework, so he decided we should take a family day and drive to the river and look at the leaves. Joey's life goal is to travel every highway in Iowa. So we took roads there and back that we have not taken before. Joey was excited to highlight a lot of new roads on his Iowa map. We took the Grant Wood scenic byway from Anamosa to Bellevue. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny and cool day. We stopped in Maquoketa for a picnic lunch at a park with a huge wooden playground. We all had a blast climbing and exploring.

We stopped at the welcome center in Saboula, IA and enjoyed some hot cider. It was in an old schoolhouse and Hayden loved climbing in the old desks. The ladies at the center gave Hayden a pencil so he could write on some paper at the desk while Joey and I took a ton of literature. We hope to do a lot more exploring in Iowa next spring/summer.

Then we traveled across the river so Joey could see an airport he flew to long ago. We stopped at a biker shop on the way back into Iowa. Hayden got to sit on a Harley in the parking lot, and the man started the bike so Hayden could "feel the power". Hayden was in heaven.

On our way home we stopped to visit the Ciesielskis. Hayden had lots of fun playing with Noah and feeding the horses and donkeys. He ran full speed the whole time we were there. We had a great time chatting and checking out all of the work they are doing to the farm.

Hayden loved the car ride. He got to see a lot of tractors in the field harvesting. He kept shouting out "look, combine" when he would see one. Then as we passed it he would ask to see it again every time.

It was a long great family day. It was sooo nice to spend it together. It has been a long time since we had a whole day together. Joey has 4 classes left and will be done by June. I am so excited there is an end in sight. Even though he told me today he is going to get his masters next.

Rorek Kent

I am soooo happy to announce the arrival of my Nephew Rorek! What a great German name huh?!
Ingrid called at 6:00 am and said she just had Rorek 15 minutes earlier. I didn't even get any of the details, it was a quick call. Everyone is fine and it happened so fast that she didn't even have time for an epidural.
I will update with the stats when I get them!!!!

STATS
October 16th
1:15 pm Stuttgart time, 6:15 our time.
8lbs. 4oz.
20 inches long.

Be careful what you pray for....

So lately I have been praying for more energy. Ummmm lets just say that my prayer has been answered above and beyond!!! I have not stopped cleaning for at least a week. Today I was literally pacing around searching for a drawer that hasn't been cleaned out.

I am going to have to find new ways to expel my energy now. Or stop procrastinating and tackle the basement! :)

Termites and Time Outs

It has been eventful here.

Last week Joey found white bugs by the back garage. After some inspection by a termite company they confirmed that we had termites. So needless to say I was freaking out imagining our garage falling down and eventually our house with termite destruction. Fortunately the termite mad acted like it was no big deal and calmed my nerves. When we moved into the house the previous owners treated the garage and house preventively for termites.

Fortunately/unfortunately the termite dude didn't treat the garage properly, so they came in and treated it for free. Yay for us. Otherwise it would of been an $800 bill. Yikes. Needless to say I was panicking about the bill as much as the termites.

On Tuesday we had our first MOPS meeting. I loved it and was excited after the meeting. It turns out that Hayden had an eventful time with the kids as well. When I walked in the room he was sitting in a chair in the corner. Then I heard one of the shepards asking the director who the mother of this child was. Uh ohhhh. Turns out he hit 3 kids and had 3 time outs. Needless to say I was embarrassed. I was glad that they put Hayden in time out.

Well when I got home the director of MOPS called because she was next to me when the shepard was talking to me. The director said she wanted to address some concerns she had. I immediately thought oh my gosh they are going to kick us out of MOPS. Well it turns out the she thought that the shephard talked harsh to me and she felt that they delt harsh with Hayden. I didn't even think anything about it.

Sooooo. Hopefully the little stinker learns to play nice, or they may just kick us out! He hasn't had any issues in PDO, so maybe/hopefully he was just having an off day! Argh!!!!

You did it mommy....whoot whoot

Hayden is quite the encourager and supporter lately. You can often find Hayden behind you when you are doing a task and clapping while saying "good job mommy, you did it." He picked up the whoot whoot thing from Grandma M. After she was down watching him last Saturday, I noticed he said whoot whoot and throws his hands up in the air every time he put one of his puzzles together. I called mom to see if he learned it from her and she said she must of done it when he completed a puzzle. It is funny what they pick up.
I do find it hilarious when I pull into a parking spot and put the car in park and hear from the back "good job Mommy, you did it" accompanied by clapping.

Busy weekend

We got a lot accomplished this weekend. Yesterday and today I was on my feet from 8 am to 8pm. I moved all of my clothes to the big closet upstairs, Joey's into our bedroom closet, and Hayden's from the hall into his room. We also reorganized his toys. I am trying to get most of his toys out of the living room.

We put locks on the front of Hayden's dresser to keep him from climbing up it. So far it has worked. Yippee! The next step would of been removing the dresser from his room.

I organized drawers and organized and sorted through all of my jewelery. I hung a towel bar in my new closet to hang my necklaces and bracelets. I got that idea from our Minnesota visit. I filed papers in the filing cabinet, most of which were in a box next to the filing cabinet for about 3 years. I also organized and cleaned the whole upstairs. I got rid of a lot more of my clothes, and we sorted through Joey's "memories". I now have a ton of stuff to give away, consign, and throw away. Man it feels good!!!

I helped Joey disassemble and clean his carburetor for his motorcycle. Joey and I worked so well as a team we thought we could go into business together. Between his electrical skills and my mechanical ability we compliment each other perfectly when it comes to automotive fixes.

We rearranged our bedroom and did a lot of other organizing and cleaning. We are trying to get rid of things. We are feeling the need to de-clutter and simplify, which seems to be the theme lately from blogs I read and from my friends!
Tomorrow Hayden has PDO and Tuesday we have MOPS.

Apple Pie

I attempted making my first pie from scratch tonight. Let's just say if it was entered into a competition, it would of won the ugliest pie. Fortunately it tasted 1,000 times better than it looked. We are still cameraless, so no pictures of the pretty pie. I used Grandma Paricka's pie recipe, and when Joey had a slice he said "this tastes like my grandmas" so I must of done something right.
Nancy gave us a dozen apples she got from an orchard, so I think I am going to attempt making an apple crisp next.

Mid Week Check In

Hayden stayed home from PDO because he has a cough and slept in until 9:30 on Monday. He is acting fine, but has a nasty occasional cough. We ran some errands, and picked up lunch to enjoy at the park. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time eating and playing.
Today we took Benny to the vet for a haircut and his checkup. Hayden was wondering where Benny went all day and was very excited to pick him up at 5. Hayden was a little hesitant when I let Benny out of his carrier because he looked a lot different! We give Benny a lion cut, so a lot of his hair was missing. Once Hayden got over the shock of Benny's look, he couldn't get enough of him!
Tonight Joey's parents stopped over. We visited a while, and then went to Loenardos for pizza. It was a great evening and nice to spend time together.
Hayden has PDO tomorrow, and we are looking forward to a beautiful weekend. Hopefully it isn't the last before it turns frigid.

Birthday Parties and Oktoberfest

We had a great weekend.
Wednesday I went to Irish Democrat to celebrate Kari's birthday. It was a great evening out with the girls.
Friday Hayden and I helped Jerry celebrate his 2nd birthday. Jerry had a John Deere themed party. Hayden had a blast playing and eating cake at 11am. Lomen came to town at about 8pm. We had pizza and like usual stayed up way to late chatting and watching a movie.
Saturday my mom came to town to finish up a scrapbook for my sister, and the new little one on it's way. Joey and Lomen took Hayden to the park to fly a kite and play, so we could have uninterrupted time working on the book. Hayden was pooped when they got home and went right down for his nap.
We left for the Amanas shortly after for our annual Oktoberfest celebration. My mom stayed to watch Hayden for us so we could have an evening out. We met the Blake family and were excited to bring Lomen to our annual celebration. We ran into Joey's coworker Matt. He owns a part of Millstream brewery and just got done judging the home brew competition. They had a ton of beer left and invited us to try some out. We had a blast sitting in the back garage of the brewery and testing a ton of home brews! We meet a lot of fun people and laughed for hours! It was nice to have an evening out. We are already looking forward to going next year. Now Lomen is in for making it an annual event, and Kari and the crew will be joining us next year as well. Anyone else who wants to join in let us know!!!
Today we hung around the house. Hayden has a cough and was a little cranky all day. He just finished up his last dose of antibiotics, so I am hoping his cough will be gone tomorrow and he will be his happy "busy" self.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, because in an attempt to fix the button on the camera it is now completely broken. Joey is going to take it to work to see if he can fix it. Hopefully he can, or we will have to round up our old camera, if we can find it! :)