Two little girls that like to stick together.

 (watching Charlie take a bath)

 working together to unload the dishwasher

all dressed up for Saturday night supper 

bottles were the cool thing in the house this week 

This week was full of adorableness. The girls teamed up. Charlie was happy to have his own baby to take care of. They played so hard, they all slept well (thank goodness).

After Viv went home, Charlie had his own son named Charlie Juniper (via magic). So now I am busy being a grandmother, but we are missing our sweet little Vivi.

~Becky

The Monster Truck Show.

The green truck with the teeth was his favorite. And he was only a little bit scared. Also, he did not get a picture of himself on Daddy's shoulders; but next time he will if someone else goes with them.

Charlie said they got to eat at Pizza Doctors! Which he also heard about on the radio, and has wanted to go to ever since. I guess we have to be more careful about what he is hearing.

~Charlie

Natural Park

Rock N' Roll Charlie.

Give this boy a guitar, and he will play it for hours. He says that he still prefers the banjo. Not sure if its because TaTa plays the banjo or possibly because the strings are looser. Or maybe he prefers the sound, the twang, that good old-fashioned bluegrass feel? He does like Mumford and Sons...

~Becky

The day that Baby Juniper joined the family.

The Chimichanga Challenge. (or What Trav did with his one day off.)

 Chula Vista in Winona has deal that if you can eat 3 (BIG) chimichangas (1 beef, 1 chicken, 1 spicy) AND a huge plate of rice, you get it for free. You get one hour, and you can't get up from the table.

I honestly thought Trav could polish it off, no problem. It didn't really look THAT impressive. I've seen him eat before; normally I have to feed him. He did pretty good, though. He finished the chimichangas off fairly easily, and within the first 20 or so minutes; but that's when he started to feel full. And it turned out to be a LOT of rice. He still had 15 minutes or so left, but decided that since it wasn't going to happen, he might as well stop while he wasn't feeling too awful. The waiter said that the four people that have actually accomplished this challenge (in about the last 3 years), usually start out by cutting everything up and mixing it all together, so the rice is mixed up with the chimichangas, and the spicy taco is mellowed out. Plus they eat it all within the first 25 minutes. He said if you save the rice for last, there's no way, and it expands in your stomach. He said Trav made it farther then he's seen anyone do for a while, though. Trav decided that he has met his match (I guess that's why I thought this would be no problem, I've never actually seen him be too full before! Perhaps its age? A couple of years ago, or at least when he was a teenager, he totally could have done this.)

And brewing beer with Charlie. Charlie loves to help, but it can be challenging to keep him from touching things after I've sanitized them. He's also gotten really bossy lately, and I'm sort of at a loss on how to deal with that. Must be an oldest child thing :)

~Becky

A day in which we received a visit from Clare Bear.

Before Liz and Clarence arrived, Charlie and I made Gnocchi di Semola (Semolina Flour Gnocchi) to go along with our Italian inspired spring beet greens (previously blanched and frozen from the garden when we thinned out our beets last year; I was saving them for a special occasion) with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and chopped walnuts. We are using Katie's cookbook Cooking with Italian Grandmothers by Jessica Theroux. We were in northwest Italy (Bra, Piemonte) with Grandmother Irene. They were pretty good (I was the only one that thought they were a little bland), and as they are baked with only 1 tbs. of butter in the whole batch, pretty low-fat I would think. We used the Semolina flour, which we purchased at our co-op. The sprinkles on top are good Parmesan and breadcrumbs made from homemade hearth bread. (And then I completely forgot to take After pictures of our meal.)

And then we played, and the boys had fun. Most of my pictures were turning out so blurry I decided to stop trying and just enjoy their beautiful relationship; but here are a few of the better ones. ~Becky

A New Year. Many Exciting Things.

*A reminder for you more technologically challenged, if while viewing this post you left-click on the first picture, it will give you a slideshow view of the pictures so that you can see them better. Then just push the over arrow.

**I do not know how to change picture orientation while on Blogger... I did not load any pictures sideways, but there is no easy way to change it once its on here. Blogger, if you're listening, please make your format more picture friendly, it drives me crazy! I would love to be able to edit pictures while on Blogger.

First off, let's catch up.

Trick -or treating with the Lion and the Gnome (I think Charlie thinks he was Santa Clause. He now puts a bubble beard on at bath time and says, "Ho, ho, ho". I let him see in the hand mirror, and he finds himself quite hilarious. I do not know what Clarence thought, however, he is adorable, and his costume perfectly matched his actual hair color.)

In Grandma's defense, she was set up... she was handed a crying baby, which made the other baby cry.

 

Then there was the visit to go and see Santa Clause. I always think it is a pleasure to also see Santa Clause and Mrs. Clause. Charlie was very prepared to tell Santa that he wanted a tractor for Christmas, walked up and sat in Santa's lap, and then got too shy. But he took it very seriously. Clarence on the other hand, took the opportunity to air a few grievances. (I wonder if Mrs. Clause looks the same in every picture? Man she's good.) Santa Clause did come to our house, and I reassured Charlie that I let him know about his tractor. Thanks to Ya Ya, we had a few cookies to put under the tree, which Charlie checked in the morning, and Santa Clause had eaten them all! There was even one kind Daddy didn't think Santa Clause would like, but it was still gone. Perhaps the reindeer ate it? Next year we should probably leave some homegrown organic carrots, I don't think reindeer should be eating cookies.

And finally, a few goings ons around the house. This is Charlie's way of helping Mommy out... scrubbing the bath tub (I use baby friendly cleaning products), putting pots and pans away (he also took off all of my loose pot lid handles- let's just say most of them were loose. Then Daddy had to get involved, because there's more pieces then you'd think!), decorating Christmas cookies, baking a pie in his new tart pan (baking tools from Ya Ya, kind of fitting), and getting ready to help Daddy organize his gardening supplies. Also, his first haircut picture with Joe the Barber (his first haircut certificate stated that he has now graduated from babyhood, it was a sad and proud day for his parents). 

I didn't even get any pictures when we went to the Viking/Bears game with Kali and Sean. Which I would argue was the best Viking game of the season, and an awesome first game experience for Charlie because of our good seats (my first regular season game, too- I did see a preseason game at Lambeau, which also happened to be Aaron Rodgers first starting game ever). Trav would probably say the best was the Viking/Packer game that enabled their playoff visit. I would say after last night, that win was a high that lasted a mere 6 days. 

Anyways, Merry Christmas!

  

 

 

And Happy and Exciting New Year!

2013 will find us welcoming a new Lingenberry (a firecracker baby, due on my Grandma Z's birthday). My cousin Emily is also having a little one in March, that I will be watching; so between gardening and many, many craft projects I have in my mind, we have a lot to get ready for (and we are so thankful!).

Liz is also going to have a spectacular garden this year (lasagna gardening anyone?), and I would imagine that Clare Bear will be very helpful (I hope he has a pair of bib overalls! And I'll have to check if I have that pair of boots from Helen that will probably fit him this year, or else Mum has them, or maybe you already have them?). She is also working on a living room remodel, and what else? Perhaps Lizzie will blog this year...

Katie will return as the European Traveler, with a couple of months spent in Ireland and Italia. She will be doing some WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), hopefully involving cheese, and I would imagine some regular old galivanting (which can be defined as roaming about in search of pleasure or amusement). She will be in Ireland for St. Patrick's day and Italy for which celebration? ________ (I can't remember, so she will have to fill us in).

And perhaps she will be working on a Dude Ranch in Wyoming this summer (I'm not sure what her pseudonym will be at that time?), and maybe taking Truman out with her for a week?. Truman said that Aunt Carol is familiar with several Dude Ranches out there, so perhaps Katie, you should check with her.

Mum and Dad will be farming and loving on Grandbabies. And gardening and canning. And making cheese and selling Melaluca, in case anyone wants to try it out (http://www.melaleuca.com/). Is that the right website?

Okay, so that sort of catches us up. I think we need to blog this year because we won't be seeing each other as much (especially Katie, and what an easy way to update us a little when you have internet access, even just to tell us you made it somewhere!). I will commit to blogging at least once per week, maybe that could be a goal. We all know how fun it is to check the blog and find that someone has added to it. And remember, "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy," (Red Green). (Even if we're not all that interesting, at least we have the same kind of humor :)

XOXO to all! ~Becky