Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to every dad!

Karl got a really cool tie from the boys (thanks for sending it, Tom.) The boys decorated it with crayons and then I ironed it to seal the "design." Matt drew crosses and a muffin on the tie. Micah added some very artistic scribbles! Karl went for a long run this afternoon and we then had dinner at my sister's home. Louise and I put together a dinner of ribs, salad, and sauteed veggies for our dad, Karl and Jon.
Tonight Micah wanted to sleep with Matt. I took this picture about 3 minutes ago after tucking my 3 boys into bed! I don't really think Micah will fall asleep in bed with Matt. In fact, I hear a bit of babbling and playing now! We will see though!
I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Camping in Los Padres National Forest

I was feeling left out last week because my sister and her family were in Yosemite for their annual family trip. Jon's family goes each year and when they come back they always rave about how awesome it is! I meant to make reservations in the fall so we could join them although forgot and thus we were left at home! Poor us...not really! Karl and I decided to plan a few small camping trips this summer. We both feel it is so good for the kids to be outdoors and in nature. We also love the family time! On a whim we drove to the Los Padres National Forest outside of Santa Barbara on Saturday. We were lucky to find a campsite! Close to the campground was a stream that the kids had a great time exploring. We then did all the usual camping things and hit the beach on the way home. Various times during the trip Matt said, "Mommy and Daddy, I just love camping!" It is interesting to see the boy's personalities and how different they are. Matt loved sitting around the campfire and talking and hanging out in the tent and Micah wanted to hike, explore and play in the dirt with his trucks. Occationally Karl and I would have to split up and one of us would hang back and chat about the birds, trees and life in general with Matt while the other would explore with Micah. Even with their different personalities they are playing more and more with each other. It just warms my heart to see them play with eachother. It is usually a short lived feeling because inevidably one of them will wack the the other on the head with a toy or try to steal the other's toy!
This little trip was in preparation for a 4 day camping trip up north in Mammoth Lakes, CA in mid July.
Enjoy the pics. The last one is of the boy's faces after an ice cream treat in Ventura. Matt said he wanted purple ice cream! Lucky kid because they had purple and blue cotton candy ice cream. Gross!!

Popper on Lukes's Head!

Matt and Luke discovered a new game! We bought this popper trinket after the train ride we took in Henderson, NV. There was a little gift shop and Karl picked up the little popper as a souvenir for the boys. It is a plastic cup and when you invert it and place it on a hard surface it pops up into the air. Matt discovered it would pop on Luke's head!! I hope this little video captures a fraction of how funny it is! Look at Luke's face!

Memorial Weekend

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I really have no excuse this time other than we have been very busy!! I think the best way to summarize the highlights of the past month are in pictures!!
We were in Vegas last weekend for Brayden's baptism. It was another "quick and busy" Vegas weekend. We took the boys to a water park, played in Grandma and Grandpa Bennett's back yard and went to Brayden's baptism. Matt was very excited to see Brayden become "a child of God." Yes, that was a quote from Matt. When it actually came down to the baptism Matt got really nervous. It must be such a confusing concept for a three year old. We told him Brayden was going to be one of Jesus' special friends, like he is. Matt was comforted by the friend aspect of this but very confused why God and Jesus weren't physically in the church. This weekend was dedicated to home upgrades! We have a lot of projects and actually completed most of them! We had a landscape designer come over on Sat morning. He will be drawing plans for our front and back yards. Karl and I got so excited hearing all of his ideas but reality hit when we got the rough estimate. The first step is to get the plans then we can slowly complete the yards over the next few year. We also installed two ceiling fans, a bathroom light fixture, toilet seat, and two window valences! Only 7 trips to Lowes in less than 24 hours! The only major project not completed is the bathroom facet fixtures. They will probably end up sitting under the sink for a few more months!! The pictures below are of the boys reading books in Matt's room early (6:30am) this morning. They were actually cooperating! The other picture is of Matt "helping" Daddy assemble a ceiling fan. We went to Apollo Park this morning and fed the ducks. Matt rode his bike and Micah pushed his ride on car around the lake. Needless to say the boys napped great which allowed us to work in the house.


Below are Luke's 2 year picture and Matt's 3 year pic. What handsome boys!!

Keeping Busy

The Stutelbergs have been busy as usual! We were in Las Vegas last weekend visiting family. We took the boys on a train ride in Boulder City. The boys had a great time! I don't think Brayden was too impressed, but in a year or so we will have three crazy cousins running around! The refurbished 1930's style train took us for a 45 minute ride. They boys had a great time exploring the different cars. We also went to a car show in Henderson. There was a Celtic/rock band playing and the boys got their grove on! Matt was mesmerized by the music. It was precious to see him dance with no inhibitions! A woman who had been watching him dance came up to Karl and told him she has been teaching for over 20 years and has never seen a child Matt's age dance like he did! Wow, he certainly didn't get that from his mom! We are taking a break from gymnastics this summer and enrolled Matt in a dance class for 3 and 4 year olds through the city parks! He is very excited about it!Matt is a great helper with his cousin Brayden!

The boys had a blast swimming in the "special blow up pool!" in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard!

Today we went to Malibu. There was an event at the pier with bands. The event didn't look too kid friendly so we played at the beach next too the pier where we could still hear the music and the kids could play. Last year Matt was scared of the ocean and Micah was too young to care! This year is very different. Matt, Micah and Luke had a great time digging in the sand and playing in the water. Karl and Matt went up to the pier to look at some CDs and saw Matthew McConaughey. Walking back to the car Matt kept telling me "Hey Mommy, my name is Matthew too!"

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!

The Easter Bunny visited our house and left marshmallow bunnies hidden around the living room! After church we went to my parents house where the Easter Bunny had also been! He hid eggs with chocolate covered pretzels in them. Not the smartest bunny because it was a sunny day and kids in church cloths with melted chocolate don't go well together!
After a nice Easter lunch we came home. The boys napped and Karl and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and worked outside. We are wedding and cleaning out flower beds and planting new plants that will hopefully thrive better than the crazy things that were planted before. Our "grass" is over 50% weeds so we have been working on that as well. Hopefully we can save the backyard grass. The front may have to be ripped out. It is overwhelming the amount of work that needs to be done in our yard. It will take us a long time!
Happy Easter and have a good week!

Slab Leak...Ice Cream!

I'm not sure who said part of the American Dream was owning a home...not true! Karl and I are very fortunate for the house we have but I think we took for granted the convenience of renting! We noticed a wet patch in the flower bed in front of our house that seemed to never dry out! On Saturday Karl decided to dig up the "broken sprinkler line" and check it out. Little did we know we had a slab leak. This was confirmed after 3 days of plumbers cutting holes in our newly painted house and trudging through with dirty muddy shoes! Anyway, it is finally fixed and a new pipe had to be run from the garage into the house to the laundry room. Thank goodness for our home warranty. That should cover about half of the bill. The boys were such troopers through the whole process. On Tues we took the kids out for ice cream as a special treat for behaving so well while strange men and lots of loud saws interrupted their routine.
The firemen pictures were taken in front of my parents house. Their neighbor is a fireman and happened to be there when we pulled up to my parents house. The boys thought it was really cool to spray the fire hose!I'm off to watch the finale of ER. I have some great pictures from when Erin was here of Kidspace Museum. I'll get them up soon.

Erin visits & Matt flys a kite

Karl's sister Erin came to visit for a week and the boys had a blast with her. She was a big help and even baby sat all three boys (Luke included) for a few hours one night. Matt and Micah love having Erin read to them. Thanks Erin for spending your spring break with us!

Matt got a kite for his birthday and we finally got around to flying it at the park. He was proud that he was able to do it all by himself. It was a boys afternoon at the park while Andi and her Grandma cooked at the house.

More birthday pictures!!

Here are more pictures from Matt's third birthday party that I promised.

Bad weather keeps us inside

100th post!!!!!!!!!!!

We had 50 mph gusts all weekend and rain on Sunday morning. Karl aerated the yard Saturday afternoon. It is going to take some work but he is determined to get the grass growing well. We had the Crane's over for dinner Saturday night for salmon and crab! Matt and Micah both liked the crab. Karl too Matt's picture in this old Twin's jacket with the plan of taking each boys picture in it every year. Micah also wanted his picture taken so the next picture is of him saying "cheese." The last picture is of Matt dancing to "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John. The keyboard has prerecorded songs and he knows the numbers of the songs he likes. He also likes "In the mood" by Glenn Miller (he calls it swing music). He asks Karl to play the "real" Crocodile song on the computer (itunes).
Stay tuned for more birthday pictures.