We ran out of powdered sugar for frosting to finish the details. We may finish them this weekend, but we are pretty happy with our little creations as they are.

TiAhnna and I stuck with a traditional theme, while Christian chose a more progressive, military GI Joe theme. There's even a plane perched on the eaves.

The 1st annual Vergori Gingerbread House Making Day!

Christian and Tim made one, Tia and I made the other. I messed up on the walls, and the roof wouldn't fit, so I used wooden skewers to keep it on!

Aiden and Noah helped out when they could, and took advantage of all the candy.

 

Noah taking a bath with Sesame Street foam soap!

Wednesday was 80's Day at the middle school. TiAhnna was Cyndi Lauper.

My silent, turn-the-head-so-they-don't-see laugh of the day:

The pride in Aiden's voice as he says, "Mama! Look, I'm sharing!" I turn to see Aiden taking the cookie out of Noah's hand and taking a bite!

Getting In The Christmas Spirit!

Tim the Elf

Aiden the Elf

Tim and Noah

For Aiden's birthday, Megan, a friend from church, made a Larry Boy cake. Aiden was so excited for days; he couldn't stop talking about it. In the picture, the "3" is mangled by eager little hands!

We decided to have a small family party after Thanksgiving dinner, when Tom and Jasmine were at our house. Tom and Aiden have the same birthday. We were all so full after dinner, it was a stretch to try to eat cake, but the kids managed very well. Aiden was very tired and went to bed soon after opening presents and finishing his cake.

He got the movie Curious George and a Veggie Tales book from Tom and Jasmine, the book The Night Before Christmas from Christian, an older GameBoy with games from TiAhnna, and Sully from Monsters, Inc., Cooties, the movie Cars, a little stuffed Eeyore and Thomas the Tank Engine underwear from the whole family.

We had to put a diaper on Gretchy. We cut a hole for her tail in one of the boys' diapers. No more drops of blood on the floor!

The boys love bath time!

As Christian walked into the house after spending the night at a friend's he said, "Honey, I'm home!" in a sing-song voice. Aiden heard him and ran toward him yelling happily, "My boy!" (I often call each of the the boys "my boy".)

Aiden asked me if Christian was "almost a big man like Dada." I told him not yet, but he's getting older. I thought it was a cute question, so I called Christian in and told him what Aiden had said. Christian likes the idea of being a "big man", and he said jokingly, "Yes, Aiden, I'm almost a big man!" Aiden started crying and said, "No! You're my boy!"

Noah's getting to be more fun too. His personality is really shining through these days, and he reminds me a lot of TiAhnna. He's a little sneaky, but sweet about it. He tries to charm his way out of trouble! He's more of a go-getter like Christian, with some aspects of Tia's personality. While Aiden is mesmerized by Barney or Elmo or The Backyardigans, Noah's puttering around the room turning on/off the laser disc player (one of Tim's finds; like the guy who remembers the eight track's heyday and keeps it for the memories!); climbing onto the trunk and sitting on it with his hands in his lap while swinging his legs back and forth off the side with a huge grin on his face despite the fact he's not supposed to be there; climbing onto the L-shaped couch and squealing as he runs the length of it until I catch him and make him return to solid ground. Yesterday he crawled into the bath tub while Aiden was going potty and turned on the water, soaking his feet and pant legs. I took him out, turned around to get a change of clothes, and when I turned back to him he was already back in the tub about to turn the water back on. Aiden will sit happily looking at books- he's liked them since he was an infant- but Noah rarely has time for that. He'd rather rip pages out than turn them and look at the pictures. I can't tell you how many books he's ruined.

On the subject of books, I read Aiden Olivia and some nursery rhymes from The Real Mother Goose (I bought one from Barnes and Noble just like the one I had when I was a kid). He loves them! He keeps them on the table in his room and looks at them all the time, talking to himself or anyone who will listen about Jack jumping over the candle stick or Wee Willy Weenky; or Olivia making the Empire State Building instead of a sand castle or waking up and moving her cat Edwin before brushing her teeth and ears. As a book lover, I love to see him enjoying books so much. I hope that as Noah gets older he can enjoy books too. When Christian and TiAhnna were young, it was Christian who sat still while I read to him and Tiahnna who wiggled around distracted.

I said to Aiden, "Do you want to see a picture of your new cousin?" He said yes and sat on my lap as the picture loaded on the laptop.

When it popped up I said, "There's the new baby!"

He looked at the picture, threw back his head a cried. He wailed, "I no like that one! I want my Baby Noah!"

The poor kid thought the "new baby" was Noah's replacement! Once I explained that we got to keep Noah, but that he had a new cousin to play with when we visit The Dalles, he was thrilled! Now he tells everyone about Elijah!

This is thirty buck cheese. I don't know why it is; it just is. One day Aiden dragged it out of the fridge and proclaimed it "thirty buck cheese". If it's Kraft, and it's orange, it qualifies as thirty buck cheese.

Sunday I bought him a sandwich from Subway. He opened it up, pulled out the cheese (it was white) and held it up suspiciously. "Mama, is this thirty buck cheese?" I assured him it was. He smiled, put it back in between the bread and ate it.

Tim took this picture of the full moon from outside our dining room window last week.

The fog has moved in. Last night I opened the front door and it was literally right in my face. This picture was taken from the balcony this morning. The fog could be seen wisping by like a parade of ghosts.

Gretchen's in heat. This has prompted all sorts of questions from the kids: "What's wrong with her private place?" "Can humans only get pregnant at certain times?" "Do cows go into heat?" "Can boy dogs/humans only make babies at certain times?" I'm just waiting to see if putting a diaper on her will be necessary as recommended on the internet. Just as we move one kid out of diapers, we put the dog in them.

Goofing off!

Update/Praise Report: Today was Aiden's first day to wear underwear all day long and not have one accident!!! WooHoo!

A view I have quite often!

Aiden has taken the initiative, and started toilet training himself! I wanted to wait until he was very ready before starting, to lessen the frustration on both our parts. He has been having about one wet-accident a day, but making it to the toilet for every "poo-poo". He even stayed dry all day on our trip to Landstuhl yesterday, except for one pee in his Pull-Up in the late evening while we were shopping. Yay! The diapering days are numbered!

As we were leaving Chili's, there were huge groups of geese flying overhead in giant V's. You have to look very closely!

Chillin' at Chili's

Noah loves corn on the cob!
She was checking to see if I was gone!

Chili's on base at Ramstein is the one place we feel like Americans! We get free water and refills, and good ole American food! It's a little bit of the homeland.

Yes, we take pictures of our food!

Last Tuesday, the day of my surgery, we were looking for a place to pick up some dinner on the way home from the hospital. Everything, restaurants included, tend to close early here, and the two places we went first were both closed on Tuesdays. Finally, we decided to check out Papa Razzo, an Italian German place in Oberweis, which we drive by on our way home. They were open, friendly, and the food was out of this world! This is why we like Germany!

We went back this week, and decided to document it!

The top picture is of my Greek salad, herbed cheese stuffed into any veggie they could get it in. The middle picture is our vegetarian pizza with spinach and garlic added. The bottom picture is Tim's meal, beef cutlets in blue cheese sauce, with spatzle and bread with herbed cheese, with a side salad. The Germans cannot be outdone when it comes to their salads. My theory is that they make amazing salads to compensate for their love affair with fried foods.