For Grandma

This is way behind but...July 9 marked 5 years since my sweet Grandma passed away.  After she passed, the family members received various belongings of hers.  I chose this pan because I have so many memories of her delicious, perfect-every-time cinnamon rolls baked in this pan.  Honestly, I don't know how she did it and she made it look easy.  I have tried to duplicate her cinnamon roll recipe, and believe me, it is not easy!  I wanted to do something to honor her after these 5 years, and, knowing I would surely butcher the cinnamon rolls, decided to bake a "cookie cake" (as Luke calls it) in her pan.  They were delicious!  And yes, pretty much every single kitchen item she owned was permanently marked "Henry Nisly" and "HN" to ensure she never lost any items at a potluck!

 I'll always miss you, Grandma!

Boys and Their Cars

The other day, I cleaned out my purse.  It's a bigger purse, but not huge or anything.  I found 19 cars in it.  19!!!  I don't even know how they all got in there.  I had been thinking for a while that my purse was heavy but wasn't sure why.  Guess I better get used to it....

....because the verdict is in and we are having another BOY!!!!!!  The boys are very excited!

What We've Been Up To...

So, I've been gone for awhile.  Pregnancy appears to have that affect on me, sorry about that.  However, we have been pretty busy around here.  Here's some of the stuff we've been up to lately:

Being superheros

Going on relaxing drives

Going to the zoo

Celebrating Mother's Day (ahem, over a month ago)

Figuring out creative ways to share our toys...

 and superhero style

washing our modes of transportation

helping Daddy with a pretty exciting building project (finished pictures to come!)

celebrating Daddys by feeding the ducks at the park

enduring torture...

 made slightly better with a sucker

and watching the baby grow!!!

Kids Kids Kids

Children are hard work a blessing.  I love my children with every ounce of my being, but that doesn't mean they don't drive me crazy sometimes!  You know the drill...days where they fight with each other from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed, the moments when you pick up your child only to have him promptly wipe his nose on the clean shirt you just put on, when your toddler "washes" his hands in the toilet for the 100th time (right after you just washed his hands or gave him a bath), the days you spend accomplishing nothing except trying to keep up with the major messes your children make.  Ahhh children.  I will confess, I have spent moments fantasizing about checking into a hotel room alone just to enjoy uninterrupted showers, bathroom breaks, peace and quiet, and of course sleep until my heart is content.  You may read that and think I am crazy, but I would dare to guess most normal mothers have thought of that from time to time.  And yet, even in those moments of wanting to pull my hair out, I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I love my children, and they bring me joy that I know I wouldn't be able to experience in any other way on this earth.  Luke, my conscientious one, who is so eager to learn new things and explore his world.  He says things every day that totally crack me up.  And Adam, my adventurous toddler, whose hilarious facial expressions and spunky personality light up my days.  I wouldn't even want to imagine one day without them.  As much as I love and adore my husband, we know our marriage/family would not be as fulfilling or complete without children.  Truly, children are very hard work, but a total blessing from the Lord.  Which is why...we are excited to announce that we are adding more craziness and joy to our family!!  We are expecting #3 October 16!!! 

This is not the greatest picture, since it was so early.  I was only 8 weeks along in this picture, and am now nearly 16 weeks.  We will be finding out the gender in about 4 weeks and can't wait!

Snow Fun

Even though it's technically spring and we are on spring break, it is pretty bitter cold outside these days with traces of snow left from this weekend's storm.  It inspired me to finally post pictures from the big storm we had last month.  I mean BIG!  Well, big for Kansas anyway.  I already forgot how many inches we got, but I think it was around 14.  The boys were so excited!  When we went out, it was still too wet to make a snowman, but the boys were very satisfied just digging in it with their shovels.

 A few days later the boys wanted to go out yet again, but by that time, the thrill of getting everyone all bundled up was gone for me.  So I compromised and brought the snow in to them.  I couldn't believe how much of a hit it was!  They played for probably a solid hour (way longer than if we would have gone outside!).  Who knew that a bin of snow, cups, and a few kitchen utensils could be so much fun.  It made me feel better about being too lazy to bundle them up to send them outside!

 Happy Spring everyone!

Cuttin' Wood

Chad's parents have a wood burning stove to help heat their home, and it's Eigsti men tradition to go out several times a year and cut wood.  Even Chad's grandpa, well along in his 80's still enjoys helping, though he wasn't along this time.  This was a special day though, because it was the first time that Luke got to help.  He even took along his toy chainsaw, just in case.  He was a trooper, because it was pretty chilly outside that day!

Luke's Birthday

Well, since we already had the big birthday party, Luke's birthday was a pretty low key event.  But we still had ice cream to celebrate, of course!  I don't know where 4 years has gone, but it's flown.  This boy keeps us on our toes, and always has.  He remembers everything, learns quickly, and loves his preschool.  He loves to play games, loves Lightning McQueen, loves being outside riding his bike, and still loves all things tractors/farming.  He is such a bright little guy and can be so considerate of others.  Happy Birthday, big boy!

 Since he's pretty into playing games, we got him this great game for his birthday called Spot It.  To play, you have to try to find which picture on your card matches the card on the deck before your opponent finds their match.  While we were playing:

Luke: This one matches!  But what does it say? 

Me: What do you think it says?

Luke: without prompting, sounds out each letter like 4 or 5 times, then gets this excited look on his face and declares, "STOP!  It says stop!"

Me: looking at him with disbelief that he just read a word by himself!

We do not practice that or work on that at all!  Guess Word World is coming in handy?!  He is so interested in letters, rhyming, and all of that pre-literacy stuff.  I'm not complaining!

New Bench

I've mentioned before that my hubby has mad skillz, and here is his latest creation!  We've been needing a bench by our back entryway for a while now, and my biggest preference was that it would have storage...and be pretty, of course.  Voila!  Isn't it beautiful!?!  I've been eyeing that fabric at Hobby Lobby for years, trying to figure out where I could use it (the options were minimal since I myself am in no way crafty).  I love it!

 And now my lovely assistant will demonstrate its storage capabilities:

 Look at all that storage space!  I have the best husband ever.

The Birthday Bash

Today we had a little party to celebrate both of these adorable boys' birthdays.  We kept it in the family, but since all aunts and uncles were out of town, it was a grandparents' party!

 Adam's basketball cake

 Luke's baseball cake (Can you tell that's what it's supposed to be?  Luke requested a baseball, but I was in the mood for strawberry cake, so just tried to be creative!)  When I was picking the design for his shirt, I asked him if he wanted a baseball on his shirt too.  To which he replied, "hmmm, I'll take a tractor."  He's gotta cover all of his favorite things I guess!

 The birthday crew

 4 generations of Eigsti men!

 Great Grandpa and Grandma Eigsti

 Grandpa and Grandma

 Mimi and Papa

 Happy Birthday boys!