A Mitten Sock

Owen lost a sock at daycare.  He needed to wear something home in this cold weather.  Check out what he wore.

 

Owen wore his mitten home on his foot.  I then forgot about it until we were playing later that night and I saw something funny sticking out from his foot.  Oh yeah, the mitten!  Good thing we had an extra mitten.  :)

Our First Christmas Cookie

Yum yum, Chase and Owen like Christmas cookies.  They had their own big tree cookie last week and LOVED it.  I thought I would be able to take 1/2 of the cookie away-that they would get sick of it-yeah right.  When I tried to take part of it they ran from me. 

 

Chase examines his tree cookie

 

Owen takes a big bite out of his first Christmas cookie

Chase is really loving his cookie

This picture is of Owen and Chase racing to Jeff because he announced he had more cookies for them!

I LOVE this picture-Chase's mouth is plum full of cookie-a green one, can you tell?

Remnants of cookie and sprinkles lace Owen's mouth

The boys have big mouth-fulls of cookie, Chase's on his left side, Owen's on his right.  Too cute

The Berger Schedule

With two little ones the exact same age things at the Berger house can be interesting.  Jeff gets up with them every morning at 5am. They won’t let him set them down, they follow Jeff around the house, they both need to be changed (sometimes twice), and he prepares breakfast #1 for them (raisins, craisins, a cracker- a light meal). An hour and 45 minutes later I come down after getting ready, and Jeff goes up to shower while I prepare breakfast #2 for Chase and Owen.  This is typically left over fruit and cereal-which they love.  The cereal is intended to feed the 3 of us, but it typically just feeds the two of them!  I try to get them cleaned up before they throw the unwanted food on the floor.   20-30 minutes later Jeff comes back down, if I haven’t gotten them dressed already, Jeff dresses the boys with me and he inhales a bowl of cereal while I wash trays and cups.  Typically there is a boy in Jeff’s lap while the other boy whines at my feet while I wash dishes.  We put their coats and shoes on, and we buckle them in the car. I leave with the boys, and while Jeff trips over all the scattered toys, he picks up the 3 pounds of food that they threw on the floor.  This is just the morning.

On a different note-the boys STILL love to suck their thumbs. Chase has been into his more in the past few weeks than ever before.  

Chase likes to suck his thumb

Chase

Chase again, from a different angle.

 

Owen

"Help"

During my snow day I decided to wrap a few presents.  Chase and Owen provided some "help".  I use the word "help" loosly, given the fact the room became more of a disaster than it would have been if I had been alone.  They did provide me entertainment and joy, however.  They took wrapping paper out and tore it in half while still on the roll, they threw bows and ribbon all over the room and flattened my bows.  They terrorized the bathroom.  Good thing Daddy wasn't home for this!

Owen looks suspicous.

 

What happened here?

 

The culprit is identified-check out that guilty expression.  Priceless

 

Chase and Owen survey the mess of t.p. toys, ribbons, and empty gift wrapping tubes.

The Best Snow Day EVER

We played "boo" in the crib



Chase wears his moose pjs with the moose on the feet while playing Play Doh.




Owen asks "What is it?" With his hands. He's talking about the garland blowing outside the door.

We read.

We read a lot.

Chase asks "what is it?" about the garland you can see in the window.


We played play doh and sang songs about our head.


We had blowing snow! School was canceled! Jeff and I high-fived. I got to cuddle with the boys all day. We stayed in our jammies and had a great time. It was the best snow day ever and just what I needed-time with my babies. Here are some pictures of what we did. The most fun was watching the garland on the outside of our house blow across the window. For some reason this was really amazing to the boys.

Words

Chase and Owen are making some progress on their words.  They've started imitating animal noises we make.  Tonight Owen was barking and I think he said "out" several times when I was taking him out of the bathtub.  For "I dropped it" they say "dots", with the /s/ drawn out. 

I got out our nativity scene and Jeff taught them to pet the sheep.  Now they want to go see the sheep and pet them all the time.  Funny kids we have. 

Chase and Owen share pretty well.  If one of them has a cup of water he will hand it to his brother if asked, or if the brother grunts at him.  Chase will typically give up his blanky for Owen, which is very sweet.  Chase shares more often.

A Dirty Look

Chase has become king of Dirty Looks.  He somehow figured out how we must look when we say "no" and has copied it.  It's hilarious.  He now does it when Owen yells at him for trying to take his toy.  It's so hard not to laugh when he gives the scowl.  We have to look away and walk away so we don't let him know how funny it is. 

Hubba Bubba

Do you like Hubba Bubba bubble gum?

Owen does.

Yes, it's true.  My child got a hold of my gum (don't ask why I had it), held it in his little hand on the way home from daycare and proceeded to eat through the outer wrapper into the gum.  He pulled out the piece of gum and was happily chewing it, when at a stop light, I smelled fruit.  "It can't be," I thought.  I undid my seat belt, looked in the back at a wide eyed Owen chomping away on a huge piece of gum.  AAAAHHH.  I pulled into the nearest parking lot, threw the car into park, ran to the back and dug that huge wad of gum, wrapper and all, out of his little mouth.  I got bit, too.  I did take a short moment to watch him enjoy his gum, before tearing it out.  It was pretty cute-he was so happy chomping away, enjoying the flavor.  Funny thing was, he didn't even cry when I took his gum away.  Lesson learned. Kids will eat through anything to get to what they want.

Thanksgiving 2009

We drove to my parents for Thanksgiving.  Boy was the van nice.  I sat in the back most of the way, the boys were much happier that way, and it was actually comfortable.  My Dad got the boys balloons, knowing they are their favorite.  We had a great meal, although Chase and Owen didn't eat any of it.  Stinkers.  They did eat pie, of course, later in the night.  Jeff and I got out of the house and spent some time in Sioux Falls shopping and having lunch.  Chase and Owen had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa.  They chased the cats outside, took a wagon ride to the bridge, nodded off on the wagon ride home, played cars, read, and laughed.  It was a great Thanksgiving with so much to be thankful for.

Chase and Owen eat while the rest of us get the food on the table.

 

Owen likes his balloon

Owen wears his cute cow shirt

Chase is happy with his balloon

 

Oh goody a balloon!

Grandma shows Owen and Chase the pretty sunset

Grandma reads and snuggles

I Know, I Know . . .

it's been a long time.  I apologize.  We've been busy and sick.  Here's the scoop:

Chase and Owen got their first hair cuts about 2 weeks ago.  Their hair was getting too long in the back and was hanging way over their ears. 

 

Chase before his first haircut

 

His long hair hanging over his ears and a big curl at the back.

Chase's post haircut look-so trim and cute.

 

Owen's fuzzy hair hanging down in the back

                                                             Owen's big curl in the back

 

Owen's hair all trimmed up

Another, "I will never . . . "

Along with saying I'd never get a minivan, I also said I would never get a fake Christmas tree.  Well, I'm learning that I should never say, "I will never . . . "

We got our first artificial Christmas tree last night.  It's a beautiful 7.5' full Frazier fur.  I'm trying to make it sound better than it is. The truth of the matter is, it's still fake.  We were debating about putting up a tree this year.  I wanted too, Jeff didn't, due to the little monsters that tear our house apart.  Jeff said he'd do a tree if we went artificial and I obliged.  I LOVE Christmas trees!  Love, love love. I used to sit, as a little girl, in our living room, in the dark, when all others had gone to bed, and look at the tree sparkle and wonder and dream.  I love the ornaments, simple and ornate.  I love lots of lights.  I even love a little tinsel now and then.

Also, as a little girl we had an angel at the top of our tree.  It was a beautiful little thing and my sister and I loved to put the angel on the tree.  Since having my own tree I have had a star that never stays on, always tips over and just looks dumb.  So, last night, I got my angel.  She is beautiful, has a gentle face, a beautiful gown and has fiber optics.  Weird, I know.  I don't think we'll be using the fiber optics. :) 

Now I can sit with my husband by my side, a baby tucked under each arm and stare at our tree and think of Jesus, who made this season possible.

But first-THANKSGIVING! :)  ha ha.  We normally don't put our tree up this early.

Please

Chase and Owen learned to sign "please" last night.  I was sooooo happy!  We have helium balloons in the house and they were on the ceiling. Owen was pointing and grunting that he wanted one.  I said, "say please" and signed it.  Sure enough he did it right after me!  I was shocked.  Needless to say, he got the balloon he wanted!  Not long after Chase decided he wanted a balloon too.  I did the same thing with him and he said "please" too!  yipee.  I WILL have polite boys.  :)

A Beautiful November Day

Owen finds an Oak leaf.

We've had just beautiful weather here in MN.  It's been about 50 each day and boy that makes for fun backyard play.  We went to the backyard on Saturday to explore.  The boys would have loved to have been in my garden digging in the dirt, but we didn't allow that.  Instead they found leaves, looked around, got poked by sticks and just had fun.  I loved the soft fall light of the day and had to grab my camera.

Chase puts his ball down for a moment to pick up a leaf.

 

Chase uses his hands in a favorite expression to ask, "Where is it?"

                                                                                                 Jeff and Owen

Chase and Jeff

 

Jeff and Susie