Calvin’s 1st Birthday

Calvin turned one on the 14th.  It has been a year of upheaval and I often regret that I wasn't able to enjoy his first year more.  There were many good moments but many stressful ones too.  Even his birth was hard to process although I don't diminish the experience of those who have gone through much worse and don't end up with a good out come of a healthy child.  If you recall, he came two weeks early, ended up in the NICU for five days and he was supposed to be a girl.  We even had the name of a girl filled out on the birth certificate form.  Right after the shock of a lifetime when he came out as a boy, his breathing was not right and he ended up being whisked to he NICU and I barely got to hold him for several days.  

But, here we are a year and a move and a job change later.  He spent months crying most of the time due to ear related problems (which resolved themselves right before we finally went to a long awaited ENT appointment) and I was almost always alone with the four kids when we were finishing the school year before moving.  As summer turned to fall he became a very enjoyable baby and now he is a typical house destroying, stair climbing, food throwing one year old.  These pictures seem like a long time ago.  

This was the first time the older kids got to see Calvin through the nursery window.  

This was when he got to have his oxygen removed.  The nose tube is the feeding tube.  

This was taken before we left the hospital. 

This was during the early days in the NICU when he was under an oxygen tent.  We still have his stuffed monkey pacifier that you can see in the corner.  I will probably save it forever. 

This was when I got to feed him for the first time the night before he was discharged. 

This was taken right after he was born when we got to hold him in the NICU.  I didn't get to hold him for a few days after that.  

I love this picture.  Ben came in from the bus after school and he didn't know we were home yet.  It was his last day of school before Christmas break.  

Here I am, driving the two of us home from the hospital!  It felt pretty strange to just walk out of there alone and drive myself home with a new baby.  But that's life when you have three other kids at home. 

Now, fast forward:

What a sweet little baby!  He is very close to walking but not there yet, he likes to eat most things you put in front of him, he can climb up the stairs so quick you miss it until you hear him banging around up there and he is starting to like books and brings them to me to read to him. He is the fourth boy to wear this first birthday shirt.  He grabs at everything as you can see in the picture above where he is trying to get the candle flame.  He has completely ransacked the bottom half of the Christmas tree but I'm just embracing it because I know next year will be a different story and maybe I will indeed miss baby antics around the house.  MAYBE.  Happy birthday Calvin Harold.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Christmas is coming fast.  We have made it through three Christmas programs (elementary school, and church) football playoffs (Frisco again!) and we have managed to fit in some fun extra festivities which the kids kind of missed out on last year due to Calvin being born early.  Speaking of that, Calvin turned one six days ago.  I will post about that next.  He deserves a 1st birthday post like the rest of them got!  

So, first things first, Tessa had her preschool program on December 8.  We had to (gasp) miss a playoff game for it.  She was so excited though.  It was part of a larger celebration for the community and we spent the day doing crafts, seeing Santa and watching a tree lighting at dark.  

She accessorized all by herself with her pearl sash.  She also held her little purse the whole time and managed to do the hand motions to the songs while working around it.  

It was almost as exciting as that snooze-fest blowout of playoff game would have been!  

Christmas buddies!

Also, she won a drawing and received this foam puzzle North Pole kit which I got to assemble after she ripped it open and spread it all over the table before I even had my shoes off at the door.  

Next, Ben's school music program.  First we got to listen to the fifth grade and sixth grade bands and Milo, tactless as he is, was covering his ears the whole time.  I'd like to see him do better!

Here he is in his dress clothes.  We had to buy a new red shirt and pants that didn't look like capris.  

Next, the Sunday School program.  It was a traditional nativity play featuring many of the same costumes that were used when I was a kid and possibly even when my dad was a kid.  However, the costumes Ben and Tessa wore have been added the last few years.  

Tessa was a stable animal (sheep) and Ben was a Roman soldier.  Also, I got to get involved as the piano player!  The woman who played for many years died last year a few days before the program and the church organist filled in.  I was asked and I said yes and I pulled it off! I played seven classic Christmas hymns and also helped coach the soloists during the rehearsals.

After a few weeks of very cold weather it has been more temperate and I have been sending the kids outside.  They built this snowman over the weekend and luckily we have black rocks in our landscaping.  The poor thing melted by the evening.

After trying for two years and not making it we finally saw the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train!  It only stops on their rail lines so we drove to a small town in Minnesota to catch it.  It was quite a sight.  

It barely looks like it could be real in the pictures.  It is hard to tell from the pictures but there was a huge crowd.  One of the cars opens up to a stage and there is a short Christmas concert.  It was kind of hard to drag the stroller around in the snow.  Hopefully next year we won't have to worry about that anymore!  

Last year we took the kids to see Santa the night of December 13, before Justin went out to play darts.  I had a feeling something was happening and I ended up heading to the hospital later that night and Calving was born the next day!  He missed the annual Santa picture by one day.  So, although it isn't his first Christmas here is his first Santa photo.  

I'd say it is one of the better ones we have done.  No crying, half smiling.  Success.  

Last year, one of the activities I did manage to do with the kids while I was uncomfortably pregnant and home alone because Justin was working on cleaning up an oil spill for work was making popcorn strings with the kids to put on the tree.  They have been asking so I finally set it up for them.  The delay was because I needed a tray for my microwave air popper so I could make popcorn without oil or salt. 

Even Milo managed a few sticks with a needle although I did most of his chain.

I don't plaster it all over social media because it's not that interesting but we do have the controversial Elf on the Shelf in the house.  Lucky for me our new house has a lot of shelves which makes it pretty easy to move it around.  Earlier this week Ben set up this crazy elf trap with a lego airplane dangling from a ceiling vent over Allan's cat tent.  The elf fell for it!

Five more days...five more days...five more days...

My Attempt at Ethnic Baking

So, this post was drafted on November 27.  And it's now December 3.  I try, I try.  Christmas festivities are happening here.  The tree is up, many decorations are strewn around the house and it looks pretty disastrous but oh well.  As much as I want it to be, this isn't a magazine or an episode of Fixer Upper.

The week before Thanksgiving I got this crazy whim.  We all crave our favorite ethnic treats and dishes around the holidays.  As for me, I want lefse, spritz cookies, krumkake and...rosettes.  It's been awhile since I've seen a rosette.  My grandma on my dad's side use to buy them from a bakery for Christmas.  If a Norwegian grandma is buying it from a bakery you know it a challenge to make.  But, I have a set of rosette irons I bought with a gift certificate I got for a shower gift to use at my hometown drug store.  They have been moved around many times since we got married in 2007 and when I encounter them I always think...I should try that some day.

So, I went and  lost my mind.

I read recipes and researched and decided to try to heat a big pan of oil and fry some batter even though every indication showed that this is difficult, takes practice and makes your house smell bad.  

It was a mess from the start.  First, the batter slid off the irons and left half cooked strings floating in the dish.  So I adjusted the temperature for the irons and it stuck.  And I managed to make some that were the correct shape. 

But they were not crispy like I remembered.  Also you can see there are burnt edges on many of them.  Pretty soon the house smelled horrible.  Then it was full of smoke.  I question whether the smoke alarms work because it was so bad.  My eyes were burning.  It turned out oil had dripped on the burner and also little pieces of loose batter were floating in the oil and being incinerated.  Wow.  It was bad.  I finally turned off the heat and opened all the windows.  

Hey, it was my first try...

I sprinkled on some sugar and ate a lot of batter.  I later watched a few youtube videos and got some advice from my social media friends.  It turns out the temperature of the oil is very important, the burnt edges were from the irons touching the pan and people prefer to make these anywhere but their own house (garage, lake cabin, etc.) A lot of people said their older male relatives were the main rosette makers in their families which was interesting.  

So, my Thanksgiving treat was a bust and I ended up making a nice batch of spritz cookies.  Allan was happy to have someone home when he woke up on Thanksgiving.  Sadly, he has spent most holidays alone!  I'm sure he's resentful about it...

We headed to Grand Forks for the day.  Justin told Ben to take Milo downstairs and get some clothes on.  Milo is an expert and undressing himself but not as proficient at dressing.  I was so happy when I went down there and Ben had got them both dressed and he picked matching shirts for them!  

It was their matching 4th of July shirts but still...impressive.  The picture above is the two of them circling their Christmas list in a toy catalogue.  A time honored tradition.  It's not the same as the JCPenney catalogue or the Sears one but this is our world now.  

I intend to do a longer post with Christmas decorations soon but here are a few preview photos.  

She's so ready!

The Friday after Thanksgiving Justin had to work and I made Ben help me remove all the rotten pumpkins from our property while the other kids hung out with their cousins at the farm.  Then I set up a modest Christmas light display.  It was above freezing that day so I knew I had to act fast.  

This is all we can handle right now.  Love it or leave it!

Happy Birthday Tessa

Tessa turned 5 yesterday.  I remembered all day what I was doing five years ago.  I was supposed to get induced first thing in the morning and got delayed because they were too busy.  I remember watching high school football on TV, making lunch for Ben, and taking a nap to prepare for a late night if I was able to go to the hospital that day.  They called at 3 p.m. and we pretty much ran out the door to the hospital and I was in the gown 20 minutes later.  And five hours later we had a baby girl!

This year Tessa has realized that other kids have big friend parties and, although we hadn't planned on a friend party, she kept talking about what we were doing for her birthday party and what theme she was having and when it would be.  I felt bad so two days before I invited a few girls from her preschool over.  She had six friends come over for two hours on Thursday evening.  I said not to bring gifts but she got a few presents and the girls played dress up, frosted cookies and sang karaoke and generally ransacked her bedroom and thus, she had her first friend party.

Check out Tessa's cookies floating in a pool of sprinkles.



There was a lot of...excess...once the cookies were packed to bring home so I let the girls eat them with a spoon.

Setting standards low starting in 2018...

Yesterday we planned to go out to eat in Grand Forks for supper at her restaurant of choice (Chinese...yeahhhh!) but their was a sleet storm earlier that day and the roads were really bad so I turned back and Justin brought pizza home.  Grandma and Grandpa came over and we had some cake and opened presents.

Four smiles!  Almost perfect!

Calvin was locked in on me in this whole series of pictures.  Oh, the devotion of a baby!

Tessa got some nice presents including a mermaid tail swimming suit (thank you Amazon), some LOL Surprise dolls (this is a trendy thing we will look back on and thing WTH?) and this Disney Princess collection from Grandma.  

I was really excited to give her this sequin pillow.

The sequin flip to gold.

Here is the mermaid tail.

I took some pics of her wearing it in the tub but the scumminess of the bathtub is too embarrassing to show on the internet.

Oh, my little bald baby.  I would love to have one more chance to hold her as a baby and rub her fuzzy head and listen to her innocent little attitude filled phrases like "I be right back!" and "I need five" (that was what she used to say when she wanted a lot of something but didn't understand numbers yet."

These were taken on her first and second birthday.  Due to the bald head she looks almost exactly the same.  Happy birthday little girl. 

Leaf Season

At our last house we only had one tree (yes one!) on our property.  There were shrubs and landscape bushes on the surrounding properties but we only had one tree.  It dropped its leaves at its base and then they almost immediately blew away (down the hill and onto our neighbors' properties...sorry guys!)  Our new house and street is very leafy.  Leafy is an understatement.  The leaves were ankle deep in the back yard and in the front the gutters on the street were clogged with leaves before the street sweeper came.

I haven't spent a lot of time on leaf management in my life.  We used to make a half effort at raking when I was a kid but usually ended up mulching them up with the lawn mower.  In college we used to have to rake the yard at our sorority house which was generally a fun group activity where neighboring fraternity friends would show up to help.  The greek houses used to save their leaves in garbage bags for future use pranking other houses.  So mature!  It was always fun to wake up to a pile of leaves on your front step.

Justin is very good at leaf management.  We took care of it on Sunday afternoon with the help of the kids.  Haha...but Ben actually was kind of helpful.

Look at these pictures!  You can hardly tell there were leaves there at all!

You can see the depth of the coverage inside the garden plot fence in the background.  

When it was finished we had filled two pickup boxes full.  And believe me...they were heavy, wet leaves.  

We finished just in time because it is now snowing!  An election day snowfall.  I can't wait to watch the news people on TV tonight as they all freak out over demographics and election results.  It won't be as fun as a presidential year but I still look forward to it.  North Dakota is in the spotlight this year and one of my old childhood friends is running for a local office.  It will be exciting.