Jumping, Riding, Walking, Running & Driving

I think we have some good pictures (and video) from our weekend! Karl, Micah and I took it easy on Saturday. Matt and my dad rode the Metro (commuter train) down to Santa Clarita to meet my sister. They then drove to Cal Lutheran to pick up my brother. This was the farthest Matt has been away from us! Right after my dad asked if he could take Matt on the train I panicked! Karl thought it was a good idea. Good for both Matt and myself! Matt had a great time! He carried his train ticket in his pocket all day. I packed all his things in his Elmo back pack. He looked so cute carrying it! I am so glad we let him go.
This morning Karl and I took turns running. We then meet our friends, the Schneiders, and drove down the "musical road." I'll explain! Honda recently filmed a commercial a few miles from our house. They cut grooves into the road so when you drive over it plays the "William Tell Overture." It sounds crazy but it is really cool. We drove it 4 times today and pulled off to the side to hear other cars do it! Apparently there are only 3 "musical roads" in the world. Finally, something cool in the Antelope Valley!! We then went to downtown Lancaster to a street fair. The kids got to see and talk to some policemen that were really nice to them. They let the kids sit on their motorcycles and in the squad car and turn on the sirens and lights! Matt LOVED it! We also let the kids go in the bounce house. Matt also loves bouncers! Micah forgets he is just a baby and wanted in on the jumping so lucky mom got to go in with Micah and the other kids while Karl and Bill hit the beer tent!! After naps today, which were awesome because of the busy morning, we took Matt and Micah to the college parking lot to ride trikes and walk. Check out the video! The boys rode and walked or over a half hour!! Karl barbecued hamburgers and Boca burgers tonight for dinner! It was a great weekend!

The 4 Busy Stutelbergs

The kiddos are in bed and I have a glass of wine and a bowl of pretzels...time for some blogging. Any grammar and spelling errors in this post will be blamed on the wine!
We have been keeping busy the past couple weeks. I tried to post pictures from all the major events! This first picture is from a few weeks ago when the A.V. Fair was in town. Karl, Jon, and Bill (family friend) went to see a concert and Louise, Dawn, and I hosted Romper Room for our 5 kids! Luke's face says it all! We kept control and had a fun time with all the kids until bath time when we had 5 kids running around the house naked!
The second picture is from Labor Day weekend. Bill and Dawn hosted their second annual Schneider Slip N Slide Completion. I am so proud to say my husband won and holds the record of sliding 51ft 6in. I don't have the talent that Karl has and came in second for the women. It was pretty fun but the next day Karl and I were laughing because we were so sore!!
On Labor Day we went to Fox Air Field with the kids. There is a little coffee shop and we let the kids play on the grass and look at the planes while we enjoyed some coffee.
I am so glad I carry a camera in my purse otherwise I wouldn't have captured the last picture. We pulled into Costco and I looked back at the boys and Matt had put on the glasses and was just chilling out in his car seat. For a minute I didn't know if he was awake or asleep!

Matt is very much a two year old!! Disciplining has been my biggest challenge so far as a mom! Some days, like today, I'm not sure how effective I am! This evening we were playing outside after dinner and I told Matt is was time to go inside for a bath and he said "Nope, I don't think so. Bye Mommy!" Then he jumped on his ride on car and started "driving" away! AHHHH Micah is a sweet little boy who really observes his brother! Immediately after Matt puts a toy down Micah crawls over to it and tries to mimic what Matt was doing. I'm not going to be able to hold Micah back at Matt's gymnastics class much longer! He wants so badly to jump on the trampoline and climb through the obstacle course!
We put an offer in on a home in Quartz Hill about 2 weeks ago. It is a short sale so it could take a long time once the bank approves the offer. I'm not going to post pictures or go into too much detail because there is only a 50% chance we will get the house.
I hope everyone is well and has a good weekend!

Prescott, AZ

Wow, only one post so far in August. Yikes, I am getting lazy with the blog!
The last big event was our trip to Arizona for the Schmid family reunion. Karl, the boys and I drove to Vegas the weekend of Aug 2nd. Karl had to come home on Sunday to work the first part of the week. The boys and I stayed in Vegas with Karl's mom and Brad and drove to Prescott, AZ with them on Mon (8/4) morning. We spent the week with Karl's family. Erin was there all week which was a HUGE help to me! Karl's grandpa, Jack, started hospice about 4 weeks ago. It was nice that Karl's family was all able to come and spend some special time with Jack.
We stayed in a cabin about 20 minutes outside Prescott in the mountains. Highlights of the trip, besides spending time with family, were Matt "helping" Uncle Doug play the guitar, dancing and singing on the porch after dinner, going to the zoo, and taking train ride. We told Matt he was riding on Thomas the Train. He loved that idea and had a blast spotting the "prickly cacti" from the outdoor viewing car.
Less than a week after returning home John (Karl's uncle) and his wife Linnea came for the afternoon. They live in Chicago and were vacationing in CA for a few weeks. We had a fun afternoon with them at the park and barbecuing for dinner.
The past few weeks we have been enjoying our quiet time at home! This weekend my sister and I hosted a game night for my brother and his friends. We wanted him to have the opportunity to celebrate leaving for college. Everyone had a great time playing game and eating ice cream! Matt didn't go to bed until almost 10:00 because he was having fun eating ice cream with "CC's friends!" Micah slept through the whole thing!
Today Karl and I met with a Realtor to begin our house search. It is exciting and scary at the same time! Our goal is to buy in the fall. We are fairly picky and know what we are looking for so hopefully there is something out there that matches what we want!
As you can see life isn't slowing down in the Stutelberg home! We are so blessed! Have a good weekend!

Gymnastics

Luke has joined us for gymnastics this summer! Jon came to class on Thurs and took some photos. Matt loves to swing from the bar, sit on the horse, "jump for Jesus" on the trampoline, and participate in explore time. This week's explore time was themed Hawaii! We put scarves on Matt and Luke like hula skirts and tried to get them to dance. Matt is doing better and better at gymnastics. He getting good and walking accross the balance beam and is getting quick at the obsticle courses!Karl, Bill, and I ran in a 3 mile cross country relay on Thurs evening. Dawn watched the kids while I ran the first mile. I was motivated to run fast becuase I knew she was manning 4 kids (5 really because she is pregnant!) There were 49 teams and we came in 11th!! Yeah, go team!!

The boys and I are spending the week at the Schmid family reunion. Karl is working until Wed then will drive out to Prescott to join us for the rest of the week.

I'll post pictures of the reunion when we return! Have a good week.

Colorado Trip

We have had a busy week! My sister and I loaded up the boys and drove to Colorado to see our grandma. We rented a van and were able to put all three boys in the second row. We drove to Vegas on Sunday (7/20) in the morning and spent the day with Jeanette and Brad. After dinner and baths we loaded the boys back into the van and drove to Cedar City for the night. The next morning we drove the remaining 6 hours to Grand Junction CO! We had a great time at the cabin. We gave the cabin and my grandma a workout! Grandma cooked us some great meals and we had a wonderful visit. Overall the trip was fun although there were moments when Louise and I thought we were crazy!! Micah had a hard time in the car, Matt was being very much a "2 year old" in public places and Luke was a handful at the cabin! The pictures are from the country club pool, and in the car. I think Micah's face sums up the trip!! We got home on Friday (7/25). This past weekend was filled with fun.
We spent a lot of family time together. Karl missed us and
we really missed him! We played in the backyard and went to a Jethawks baseball game. Matt loves Kaboom the mascot! I got a "get out of jail pass" and spent 2 hours on Sunday at Barnes and Noble with a coffee and book ALONE!! We are driving to Vegas again this weekend. The boys and I are staying to drive with Jeanette to the Schmid family reunion for the week. Karl will come home to work part of the week then meet us in Prescott, AZ for the end of the reunion.

Micah and Matt go Green

We made the switch to cloth diapers in the Stutelberg house! Matt is showing off his new AIO (all in one) diaper and Micah is modeling his cloth diaper with fancy diaper cover! This change has so many benefits! Not only are we saving money but the environment as well. Two great lessons to demonstrate to the boys! I didn't have a chance to post last weekend so I will give a quick summary! We went on a family hike on Sunday. We did a short 2 mile hike then had a picnic. It didn't feel like a "short hike" carrying little boys on our backs! We went to church on Saturday evening. It is more relaxed then and seems to work good with our weekend schedules. We will probably go on Sunday morning this week because we spent this evening (Sat) at my sister's. We took the boys swimming this afternoon. Matt loves to be thrown around in the water with Karl and Micah is fearless!! Matt is able to "monkey walk" along the side of the pool!
Micah officially waved "bye bye" this week on Monday (7/7) and is now on the move! He stared commando crawling this week and is so proud when he makes it to one of his toys!
Tomorrow Karl and I plan to take turns running in the morning then go to church. I have temporarily lost my running buddy, Dawn, because she just told me she is pregnant! Congrats to her family! Karl said he would write me up a training program to keep me motivated! I would still like to run and 1/2 marathon this year and now the hardest part will be to stay focused and motivated!

Have a great remainder of the weekend!

Matt's Song

Matt has a new favorite song. We saw it on Sesame Street this morning! He was excited about the guitar and the subject of the song!!
We just got home from the water park. We meet Louise and Luke there this morning. There is a great toddler play area. I think Micah enjoys it more that Matt! We played in the water for about an hour then had a picnic lunch under a tree. Matt and Micah were asleep before we got out of the parking lot! They both transferred into their beds and are napping soundly!!

Pictures from Minnesota

We spent the last week in MN visiting Karl's dad and step mom. It was a great trip and we all had a blast! We left on Saturday, June 21 and got home on Sunday June 29. The week went so fast! Now we need to recover and relax after our vacation!
Matt and Micah did great on the plane. Matt was so excited to go on the airplane and his eyes were huge as we took off!
Matt had been sick before we left and unfortunately had a minor relapse the first two days we were in MN. He was feeling better by Tues.
Tom, Andra, Karl, the boys and I went to Gull Lake for 2 nights on Tuesday. Gull Lake is about 3 hours North of Minneapolis. We had a cabin at a great resort on the lake. Karl and his dad had fun swimming and we all played in the sand, swam, and roasted marshmallows. Besides the mosquitoes, which we were told were not bad, it was a great time with beautiful weather!
Other trip highlights were the Como Zoo and Karl and Tom attending a Twin's game. Tom and Andra put on an open house so extended family could stop by and see the boys. We were also able to see some friends we met in Vegas who now live in Wisconsin. Jason, Karrisa, and their daughter Elizabeth drove out to see us. The last time we saw them was almost 3 years ago when we didn't have any kids...now there are 3!!
Our last morning in MN Karl and I ran an awesome 9 mile run to Lake Harriet. Tom, Andra and the boys met us at the lake and we went to the park and then breakfast. It was a great way to end the trip.
Tom and Andra, thank you so much for the wonderful time!
Check out the slide show below...move your mouse to the top of the box to adjust the speed or the bottom to view individual pictures. Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day in Ventura, CA

For Father's Day we spent the morning in Ventura, CA at the beach (Marina Park). It is a great beach with a jungle gym and grassy area right near by. We went with the Fitch's and the Schneider's so there was a total of 5 kids under 4 years old. We set up our beach sun tent compliments of Grandpa & Grandma Stutelberg and spend most of the time digging holes and making sand castles. We also flew some kites, played on the swings and slides, and had a picnic lunch. Matt was scared of the waves so we didn't go in the water. He also wasn't feeling to good (he is still not himself). Micah loved watching all the kids play in the sand. Both the boys fell asleep instantly on the way home. We had dinner at the Crane's which made for a busy Father's Day.

Cherry Picking

We went to Leona Valley to pick cherries this morning. The weather was beautiful! We went with my brother and met a friend's family there. Matt had a great time picking cherries. We gave him his own bucket and let him go! The only rules were to look for snakes (there was a large King snake roaming around the orchard for awhile until it was caught) and to have help if he wanted to eat some cherries! After picking cherries we grilled burgers and let the kids play.
Thank you to everyone who has been thinking and praying for my dad. He is doing MUCH better. He continues to take it easy but is up and moving around now. Hopefully in a few days he will be 100%!