Dinner in honor of Opa

The clan

the boys putting Opa's quarters in their piggy banks

reading Der Struwwelpeter

Today would have been my grandpa's 88th birthday. So in honor of him we had my grandma over for dinner and dessert. We had one of his favorite things which was cucumber slices with salt. I made meatloaf and some sides and we ended with some cheesecake. The boys danced around after dinner and then we got them in their jammies. I had Oma read to them Der Struwwelpeter, a traditional German fairytale. I loved these stories when I was little but it has been awhile since I have read them. They are probably not age appropriate for our boys but I got a great laugh out of it and I think my grandma did too. She read some in German and then translated it to English. The boys seemed to enjoy it, and I am pretty sure they will never suck their thumbs. (In "Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher" (The Story of the Thumb-Sucker), a mother warns her son not to suck his thumb. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors.) We ended the night with Goodnight Moon, a prayer and some hugs! We love you and miss you Opa!

speeding by

I just wanted to document what most of our lunches look like. This is it. Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches, cheese, carrots and some type of fruit. This is what the kids ask for and want on most days. Once a week we have something else like mac and cheese or we will occasionally have a ham and cheese sandwich. Usually they want this and I am happy to oblige.

callan playing in/dumping over the legos

TA DA!!! this is the house I made. carter helped *add* some things to it, such as the outdoor steps. :)

one day last week he said "i want to lay down mom." so he went into our room, got under the covers and took an hour long nap. I guess he knows when he is tired.

The days are speeding by! I can't believe it is Monday again already. I am really getting sad because every week that passes means that my baby is that much closer to being one! Can you believe it? No more bottles, no more nursing, no more formula, no more baby food, and soon no more binky. I can't believe I am moving out of his stage of my life for good! This year went by *so* fast. Anyway, Carter made it through his first week of preschool and he is really enjoying it. We have gotten several art projects he made, and he even came home with a certificate that said "I got caught being good". It was for using good manners. Those kinds of things make Chad and I so happy. Knowing that your child is using the things you have taught them when you are not around. He really likes his new teacher and goes in the classroom without hesitation now. When he came home today he went into his room, took off his shoes, put them away and hung up his backpack. All without even being asked. That is enough to bring tears to my eyes. He is growing up so fast. I have also caught him helping Callan and keeping him from trouble. He will either try and move him or if he can't he will call me. He also has been enjoying helping out even more. After the garage sale we had bins and things to bring back to the basement and he told Chad he really wanted to help, and he did. He takes pride in helping us with things that usually the adults do. He also carried in, and put away a decent amount of groceries. He also asks to help clean up after a meal and finds a place to put his milk away, throws things away and brings over the dishes. I really do see a future where the kids are helping out now. Camden has been enjoying his time as the big brother while Carter is at preschool. The house is nice and quiet and Camden just does his own thing, quietly. Amazing! He has been more into imaginary play lately and has really been able to engage with Carter during imaginary play. I often find them playing games on their beds with their stuffed animals as the bad guys and their blankets are tents. I love listening to them talk back and fourth. They have both being using the word hilarious but it comes out as "hil-a-rus". Callan has had a rough week. You wouldn't really know it unless you looked in his mouth. He has had both his top front teeth come in and he has really white gums in two other places as well. He has been fussy at times but mainly keeps his hand in his mouth at all times, or any other thing he can fit in there. Poor guy. He should have a few more teeth in the next couple of days.
We have been spending our time out side a lot lately and when we are not doing that we have all worked on our lego building skills. enjoy the few pictures!

Preschool Begins

Carter Brian Scribner

the traditional pose by the garage

all of the boys joined in on the picture taking fun

sitting out front of the school

standing by his hook ready to hang up his backpack

the door to his class
showing chad the frogsgetting his name tag on that he picked out

This morning we took Carter to his first day of preschool. He was excited but a little apprehensive. He was ready to go back but had a new room and new teacher. Mrs. Brown is his teacher this year and she seems very nice. He is the most excited about the frogs in the classroom and was happy he was able to show his dad this morning. The morning went nice and there were no tears from Carter! He gave us a smile and said bye, but needed one more quick hug. I will be picking him up in a few minutes and I hope that his day went well and he got to meet some new friends!

Overdue update

the boysmy sweet baby standing in his crib

found himself in a predicament

carter showing off his writing skills (this took all my patience to get him to do this)
(I wrote the top one so he can see all the letters and then he wrote underneath it)
(this is also pre dumb and dumber hair cut. i miss his long hair)

This is what his hair looked like after the hair cutFriends: Lucas, Camden, Carter holding Callan, Peyton holding Colten and Addyson
(7 kids 6 and under)

"people all over the world, join hands for the scribner train"

all the neighbor kids
Camden, Ethan, Carter, Emma, Jackson, Carson

my little crawler

playing at the neighbors

parachute fun!

my sweet cam

who knows what all those boys are doing

camden and jackson discussing life

What have we been doing you ask? a lot! That is my excuse for not doing a general update. We have mainly been busy playing and getting ready for the upcoming school year. We have had some amazingly beautiful evenings that have allowed all of the neighborhood kids to play. Even on the hot nights we have still been playing. The kids have missed each other. If I haven't said it before, we *love* our neighbors! We have been *so* blessed by our neighborhood and love that we all have kids at similar ages that love to play. It is also nice that the adults get along great too! We also have great conversation and lots of laughs. We even planned a game night (for the adults) next week! I can't wait for that. We have also had trips to the children's museum, the farmers market, play dates, and time with cousins. Chad and I took the kids out to eat one night and out for ice cream another night. They have had some quality grandma and grandpa time from both sides as well. We are still going to the YMCA every morning where the kids get to have time with other kids and play in the "school bus". (a climbing structure) Today we went to meet Carter's teacher Mrs. Brown and see his new preschool room. Wednesday is the big day and I think he is getting excited. He saw the frogs in the classroom which were a big hit. I still think he is apprehensive about going for fear he will miss the *fun* we have at home, but I don't think it will take long for him to adjust.
Our Carter seems to be a lot more grown up lately. He is helping more and more and enjoying his responsibility. He vacuumed the living room for me the other day and cleaned up Camden's water spill without being asked. He help Chad dust and did the fan in his room by himself. He has been talking about kindergarten a lot lately because he wants to go just like Will, Xander and Grace. I also realized that what we say to him really does sink in sometimes. As I was buckling the kids into the car the other day he randomly said "Opa is in heaven, right mom?" I said yes. "because he died right?" "that is right Carter." Also after about 1,457 times of asking the kids to please say "please" when asking us to change the song or the volume on the radio in the car, Carter is now consistently saying please without prompting! Yay for a parenting break through! Our no TV(or very very little TV) policy is working wonders! Not only has Carter stopped bugging us day in and day out to watch TV, quiet time at our house has become a great time. I see he play independently without any one bothering him. He is using his imagination and I think he really enjoys it. He even lays down in the living room or down stairs and will fall asleep for part of the time. He has also been bugging me for another baby just like Callan. Sorry kid, not gonna happen. I have also been talking about my friend Sarah's baby, Gabriella, a lot and both him and Camden call her Gab-la-lella.
Camden is still Camden. If I have never mentioned it before, Camden is the slowest human being on the planet. It doesn't matter if you were leading him to Candy Land. This kid would still move crazy slow. It is actually kind of amazing to watch this kid walk. He looks around and takes in everything around him. He is in his own little world. There is absolutely no hurry bone in that kids body. But he must be taking in quite a bit because his vocabulary just keeps amazing me. He is asking more and more questions and of course "why" is still a big one. He also likes to repeat himself until you acknowledge him. We are working on more independence with him and making him do things on his own. We tend to do a lot for him because it is quicker. We still offer up the potty to him but he insists on being in a diaper. Lord help us!
Callan is changing minute to minute. I just did a post on him so I don't have a lot to update with. He is cruising furniture a lot more now and I believe he said his first word of "bye bye". He says "ma, ma, ma" but I am not sure it is intentional yet. He will also put his open hand up to his mouth and make a "ba, ba, ba" sound while clapping his hand against his mouth. He *loves* this. Especially when his brothers join in. He also allows them to clap their hand on his mouth. He also enjoys dumping out baskets of toys and even putting them back into the basket. He can open every drawer and cupboard and pinches his fingers 682 times a day. I am really starting to miss having a *baby* and try and soak up all his sweet little cuddles before he turns into my walking toddler. He really is a sweet, sweet baby. I am sad that the baby days are numbered. Maybe I should take Carter up on having another baby? Nah.

Chuck-e-cheese

2 v 2 on the air hockey game

Mason, Al, Shawn, Chad and Callan

Aunalie, Camden, Carter and Noah

our family eating

I enjoyed the one token sketches

he did not understand what was going on

Callan eating Mason

On Saturday we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for Al, Karen and Shawn's birthday. We let the kids play for about an hour before ate. Camden got on a few rides, but spent most of his time climbing in the play structure. Him and Aunalie stayed in there for at least a half an hour. Carter was overwhelmed, but became a pro at ski ball. I think all of the kids had a good time. We ate pizza and cupcakes, and then played for a little while longer. All of our kids were exhausted and they all took 2 hour naps, including Carter! It was a fun birthday get together.

11 months

Callan is 11 months today! What an exciting month this has been. Our little man as learned to *really* crawl, pull himself up, and even cruise furniture! In the last week he has started to take steps when standing at an object which means we are one step closer to a walking toddler. He also knows how to crawl the real way. He still prefers his method of army crawling, we started calling him private Callan. This boy can go anywhere and get into anything! He also crawled up the stairs a few weeks ago. I heard Carter saying "come on, you can do it!" and when I walked over Callan was at the top of the stairs. Luckily it went well, but we now have to gate the bottom of the stairs. He has started to empty drawers of all of their contents, and even sabotage the other boys when they are picking up toys. He gabbers a lot now and even screams to be heard at times. Not one of our favorite things. He is eating almost anything now despite only having two teeth. He eats a lot of what we eat and has tolerated it pretty well. You can tell he is less interested in us feeding him. His favorite thing to do right now is pull the books off the book case, or attempt to make his way into the laundry room. (to get the ever enchanting dog bowls) He cries when we close the door and he is right there. Poor kid. Over all he is very happy and smiles a lot. Especially for his brothers. He loves them to pieces! I promise I will post a general update soon.

Goodbye Opa

Gerhard in his navy uniform

On Friday, August 5th, my grandpa passed away. We said goodbye Tuesday at the funeral that was full of friends and family. It was a great day remembering what an amazing person my grandpa was. I met people that worked with him years ago that said what great person he was to work with and how he had touched their lives. He really was a great example of hard work and dedication. I am proud do be his granddaughter. He will be missed! We love you Opa!

Carter turns 4

With his new bike

happy birthday sweet boy!

getting the candy

the spread

watching the video

the cake

all of the party favors and decorations

Last weekend our little boy turned four! It is amazing to us how old he is. It does not feel like it has been four years already! Anyway we went with a Cars 2 theme for his birthday. I made a race track cake and we had race track food that included, corn dogs, tastee burgers, pretzels and nachos with cheese, popcorn and little smokies. We added some fruit and veggies in their also. We had buckets filled with pop and beer and ate out of red food baskets. The food turned out good and I think everyone enjoyed it. We had the traditional birthday video and pinata. This time Will pulled the right string the first time and so it didn't last very long. No one seemed to mind and filled their treat bags with candy. I made Carter a shirt with his choice of Cars characters and he choose Guido. The hardest part of the party was making the cake. It took me way too many hours. Plus we almost didn't get it in the fridge. Carter loved the cake and was even more excited to play with the cars on there. On the morning of his birthday he woke up to a brand new bike in the living room which he was really happy about. Over all I think he had a great birthday. I am still working on being able to get his fourth year video up on the blog.

Dentist Visit

waiting in the waiting room

watching cars while he waits

getting his teeth cleaned

brushing the kangaroos teeth

the dentist checking out his teeth

I forgot to take pictures of Carter at his first dentist appointment so I did it on his second. He really likes the video games in the waiting room and he likes to brush the kangaroos teeth. He does a really good job in the chair and feels like a pretty big boy. He is not a huge fan of the taste of the fluoride or the polish but he tolerates it. The dentist says his teeth look great to keep doing what we are doing.