Gone Stale

Wow it's been awhile. I guess we've been too busy making memories to blog about them. Sorry to say but you've missed out on some exciting adventures: Easter, CO poisoning, ER visits, our Florida vacation, many of Rainer's milestones, cute Vonn sayings. Well I'll try to put you up to date. Looking at these pictures from just a couple months ago I realize how much the boys have changed already.
Vonn continues to make progress on his reading. We are working on two consonants together. He loves to go to primary at church. Today he sang in sacrament meeting with the primary for the first time. He was involved in a little sunbeam skirmish during the song but no one was injured and Vonn did not start it. He knew the chorus really well and we're quite proud of him. He continues to astound us with his fantastic memory (i think he gets that from his mom). His new favorite animal has quickly changed from frogs to lobsters. Hot dogs or "hot frogs" as he called them were a favorite meal for awhile until dad vetoed them from our menu. To be fair he only vetoed them because mom wouldn't buy hot dog buns. Who eats hot dogs in buns? We always just had them with pork and beans and if someone really wanted a bun you put them in a piece of bread. Dad did not appreciate those suggestions. Vonn likes having Rudy and Steven out for a visit. Rudy is now the official favorite uncle.
Rainer has grown so much. He walks and talks quite well. He has a huge list of words. The most frequently used are "uh oh" "stuck" "truck" "look" "light" and "milk", of course they sound like "uh oh" "istuck" "uck" "ook" "ight" and "muk". He is newly interested in drawing, climbing on the table, wearing dishcltohs on his head, and running away from mom.

Randomly cute

A picture from April. I just love that hair!

Doing yard work in April.

Vonn helping Dad work on the house in May.

Rainer driving his cheese around in his truck. He was so good at closing the tailgate after loading up the cheese (May).

Florida

We got to go to Florida this spring. The boys were excited to ride the jet. Vonn was entertained for quite awhile with the safety brochures. I was a little nervous when he would point to a picture and ask "what's this?": "Er people getting in crash position.... er trying to sit safe for an emergency," "Uh the plane landing on the water," "the plane landing on a mountain?," "Fire on the plane." Well I tried to tone it down and make it less scary. He didn't seem apprehensive about it. We had a lot of fun. We went to the beach a lot. That little curled up ball is Vonn snoozing. Neither Rainer nor Vonn were keen on the water. They had fun playing in the sand. Rainer hated the rinsing off part though.

We got to go up to Cape Canaveral and see the shuttle. In fact due to mission requirements we got to see 2 shuttles! Thanks to some savvy natives we got the tip on how to view the shuttles without having to fork over a ton of cash. We also saw some crabs at the beach by the Cape.

We had a good time visiting family. We got to be there when Hans received his mission call, an unexpected blessing. We also were there when Little Bruce called home from his mission, so we got to talk to him. We got to see everyone but Mike and his family and Little Bruce. Oh and we stayed in this fancy beachside resort, highly recommended. The inland accomodations were nice too (though they didn't give us breakfast in bed like the beachside hotel). Here's my brothers playing around.
P.S. ok i know everyone swapped photos. Don't think we were holding out on you. We just were busy and haven't gotten around to sending out our batch. one day they may surprise you.

Why we miss Hans

The boys sure had fun with Hans. Though now I no longer wonder why my house was always trashed after Hans left.
The second picture might seem an odd selection for this category but allow me to explain. We'd gone on our first bike ride of the season (note proper safety gear). Hans had gone with and had of course turned our vernal jaunt into a combat training exercise. To top it off, when asked to take a picture for our scrapbook he shot it through his legs so we had to look at his rump. Ah well, we'll always remember it fondly. Not his rump, the bike ride.

Easter

Easter was wonderful. Rainer got his first bite of chocolate and quickly his second, and third, and fourth, and so on. He really likes chocolate. I love this second picture. Vonn got this race car bunny in his basket. It took him awhile to eat it. Rainer followed Vonn around trying to sink his teeth into it. Vonn kept it out of harm's way for a long time until one small slip of attention and... well the second picture was the result. Don't feel too bad for Vonn though. Rainer's Easter candy lasted much longer than Vonn's. Vonn realizezd if Rainer "shared" he could get extra treats. I found him so angelically "sharing" Rainer's Cadbury cream egg. I had to take this last picture of it. He would hold it for Rainer to take a bite and then give himself a bite, back and forth. I figured Rainer didn't really need it and they were sharing so well.

"When I have grown a foot or two"

Crazy huh? At least I think that is Hans in the top picture; if it isn't it's close enough. Does he look like a missionary to you? Well he got his papers all ready; now he just has to finish his interviews with proper ecclesiastical authorities and submit them.

Things my mother taught me

Back in the day when I was just a chillun I learned a valuable lesson from my mom. My little sister had connected all these plastics straws together so that they spanned the living room (try it- it's a lot of straws). When my mom returned home I feared a terrible repercussions. To my surprise and relief my mom just snapped a picture. Later I overheard her discussing the incident with someone and she remarked that she figured she could either laugh about it or get mad and she decided not to get mad. When Vonn decided to make a tower out of our packing tape I remembered that invaluable lesson from my mom so I had Matt take a picture. Of course then I had to laboriously rewind the packin tape and I did get a little frustrated but look at Vonn's proud face- it was definitely worth it to take the picture and laugh about it. Oh and I have one small confession for my mom. I was the one who taught Tanya how to assemble the straws together that fateful day, BUT it was totally her initiative to put ALL the straws together.

Notes from Home

Vonn is learning to read! It is amazing to see all our efforts pay off. He can read phonetically regular words and a few sight words. I write little stories and illustrate them so he can read. For example one story goes along these lines: "A big jet. The jet is wet. Dad is wet. Dad can get on the jet. Sam is wet. Sam can get on the jet. The wet jet can not go up. Vonn is wet. Can Vonn get on the jet? Vonn can not get on the jet." And so on. Sam is a popular character in our little stories because he has a phonetically regular name. If you want to be a hero in our reading primers you'll just have to change your name so it is easy to sound out. Vonn is a great help. He loves to help us feed uncle bruce's horses. He lifts half-flakes of hay and carries them to the horses. He calls them his friends and is always asking what the horses are saying. Vonn is learning the primary songs. He does a great job on "I lived in heaven." Sometimes I'll hear him singing to himself as he plays. He also makes up songs and sings them to himself as well. Vonn really likes to be in charge of the treat for family home evening. When he is in charge he makes popcorn (that is he helps dad make the popcorn). Vonn loves to help his dad fix things. In fact the other day he told me, "Mom's don't fix somethings just dads do." Vonn is quite the funny fellow. He told his primary teacher "My favorite vegetable is chocolate." I always love to hear his ideas and see how he is figuring out this world.

At the end of January we gave Rainer some crackers. It seems like the solid foods thing was always touch and go. Sometimes he'd like stuff then a week later he didn't. Once he started eating crackers and feeding himself he was all into solid food (in so many ways). He started feeding himself with his spoon in February and he quickly mastered the fork as well. When he is done eating he throws his bowl and utensils and any remaining food all over the floor. He has been known to toss stuff up to 5 feet away from his high chair! We have to watch him or he helps himself to Vonn's food as well. Rainer loves to help unload the dishwasher. As soon as you open it he dashes over to help load/unload. Rainer also loves bath time. If he hears the water running in the bathroom he scampers over and demands to be let in (even if you are just washing your hands). Rainer took his first step this week. He'd been standing and climbing on things but he wouldn't really try to walk without our help. On Wednesday he was sitting in the middle of the floor then he stood up all by himself and took a step and half over to the couch. I was pretty shocked. He is also quite the climber. He likes to push bins or chairs up to the widows and stand on them so he can look out. He has also bee found standing on top of Vonn's little table. One day I heard the water running in the bathroom and found that Rainer had climbed the step stool and managed to turn on the faucet! He is building up quite the vocabulary. I think his favorite thing to say is "ook!" (look) while pointing at something. He also says "ight" (light), mama, dad, go, "ca" (car), "ba" (ball), and "iss" (this- I think). He is quite communicative. He has started to grind his teeth- now that they finally made an appearance. In the past 2 months he got his first tooth quickly followed by his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Rainer is a very cheerful fellow. He is usually chuckling at something. He's also very handsome. Complete strangers stop us to tell us how cute he is- even college aged males have stopped me in the grocery store to comment on how he is such a cute baby. We sure enjoy having him in our family.

"Two boys"

It's so much fun to see my boys playing together. Vonn always reminds me that I have 2 boys (just in case I lost count I guess). It's so handy having 2 boys. As you can see they are already helping around the house moving the furniture. They are also great playmates. Here they are playing blocks. The last set of pictures is Astronaut Vonn giving us a family home evening briefing. On the right are things that makes us sad (note the red sad face to indicate this category); on the left are things that make us happy (note the blue happy face). Rainer had to add his own two cents as well.

The End (Sort of)

Before we left Newport (oh I forgot to mention that's where we were staying on the coast) we went down to the docks to check out the sea lions and crab boats. Vonn found this waterfall all by himself. I tried to get some pictures of the moss encrusted trees on our way back towards Portland. That is one thing I found fascinating about Oregon: the moss. It is everywhere. It grows on sidewalks and stairs; it envelopes the trees, it burdens the roofs. I did note that there was a reduction in the moss levels along the coast but I'm not sure if I just wasn't paying attention or if it is a fact. I'm putting together a theory about the salinity of the air but it's really just bogus. Still it was interesting. Matt let me stop by a covered bridge. It strikes me as a thing my mom would do. So it reminded me of her. Plus I liked it. The people who restored this bridge (what with all that moss do you think wood would actually last 90+ years?) had a neat little inspirational story about how they saved this bridge, one of the oldest in Oregon, from demolition by the county government. It was a neat little road side stop. We also visited the Evergreen Air museum. I'll leave that post in Matt's capable hands. Otherwise those interested would only get something like this: "We went to the Air museum. There were a lot of airplanes. A lot of planes. And.... Rainer fell asleep and Jenn and I hung out with the boys. Definitely a lot of planes." We stopped by Powell's famous bookstore. At least so they claim. It takes up a blcok and in some places it is 3 stories high. It is a little overwhelming. They have old books next to new books- a great idea in my mind. We only got to shop for a couple hours and then we were racing against Rainer's biological clock. We wanted to get some tar behind us before 8 PM rolled around. We made it to the Dalles. Sorry I mean The Dalles. We stayed in a nice little place. They had the best continental breakfast ever. Well not that I'm really all that experienced but you could make your own waffles! Then we had one big push to home. I estimated we'd make it home by 7:39 PM and Matt guess 7:44 PM (or something ridiculously off like that). We arrived at 7:38 PM. Rainer jadn't adjusted for standard time or maybe it was the timezone change but whatever the case he treated us to a long tirade that last 30 minutes or so. But we made it home! A freezing house and no hot water (water heater and furncae all in vacation mode) but it was home and it sure beat every posh hotel and swank condo out there. Thanks to grandma for sending us on such a fun adventure. Thanks to Auntie Jenn for taking time off to hang with the boys. It was great fun. We hope to do it again (but not any time too soon).