Pancake Supper

For the first time in our married life, Nate actually suggested having pancakes for supper! I love to eat waffles and pancakes for supper but Nate would normally choose a steak. What a wonderful surprise!


The epitome of being a mom - the mickey mouse pancake! I finally made one.


Mickey being dismantled. Henry's hands were covered in chocolate by the end of supper - he used his fingers to dig out every last chocolate chip.


This is the scene at our house. Our kitchen sink has been backed up so I've been doing dishes in the bathroom sink.


Nate's way of reminding me NOT to use the kitchen sink! Subtle...

Birthdays

We've been busy celebrating birthdays over the last few weekends.


Henry with Mama and the birthday gift he gave her.


Enjoying cake and ice cream with most of his cousins.


Taking a rest.


Henry was a big advocate of opening my birthday gifts at warp speed so we could get to the ice cream dessert! Here he's celebrating the removal of the ice cream dessert from the freezer.

Playing with friends

On Tuesday morning we had our friends L & T stop by to play while their mom ran an errand. I asked Henry if he knew who was coming to our house that day and he said, "Walter." Wouldn't that be great? But we were very excited to have the girls over, too! As soon as they got there, Henry grabbed a hand and pulled them upstairs to play with stuffed animals, blocks, cars etc. He used to do more independent play or playing alongside other kids, so it was fun to watch him initiate playing WITH friends.

We drove to my Boppa and Mama L's house on Tuesday night. At dinner, we discussed our favorite movies. Currently, Henry favors "A Bug's Life," (which is getting old for Boppa.) Henry went around the table and pointed to everybody in order to find out what their favorite movie was. It went like this:
Mommy: I like Babe.
Boppa: I like Babe and Toy Story.
Mimi #1: I like Nemo
Henry: Nemo. Bugs.
Mama: I like Babe.

Repeat the above one time.

Henry: Bugs.
Boppa: What do you think Gus (Mimi #2's dog) likes?
Henry: Bugs.
Boppa: What is your Daddy's favorite Movie?
Henry: Hmmm.....Football.

Wise beyond his years! He also asked me to put in "Laylon" on the way to Bible Study. I had no idea what he meant. Over and over, "Laylon." I finally figured out he was asking me to put in a Waylon Jennings CD!


Cheese Break: They all wanted a cheese snack...so here they are snacking away.


They went from one activity to the next. A little band of tornadoes! Each activity lasted about 3 minutes - and I'm not joking. Here is a picture of them playing with Little People for a brief moment.


3 little kiddos sitting on the slide. Aren't they cute?


And a picture of Henry wearing the new sweater "Mama Bakkel" (Great-Grandma Berg) gave him for Christmas.

Here he is...

Our paperwork has finally been sent to S. Korea so we can share pictures!
Here is Walter MinHo...



Our little guy enjoys babbling, shaking rattles, and being in the water at bath time.



We think he's a little sweetie and are looking forward to having him home with us. Henry walks around the house saying, "Walter. MY brother." We're hoping we will be able to travel by June...we'll see.

Okay men, you can quit reading now!

For those women who have asked: We got Walter's referral on a Wednesday. Henry and I had just gotten back from BSF. I was upstairs finding some comfy pants (I had been home for 5 minutes, after all!) and I heard my phone ringing...downstairs. Missed the call and saw from the call log that it was our agency!

My heart jumped!

"Nate, that was CHSFS! Why would they be calling? You don't think that was BEN (our social worker)!?!?! What could he be calling about besides a referral?" This was all said in about 3 seconds.

Nate actually had a hint of urgency in his voice and said, "Well, call him back!"

"Thank you for calling Children's Home Society and Family Services. Our offices are closed. Please call back during..."

We quickly decided to try Ben's direct line, but he beat us and we heard Nate's phone ringing.

They did the polite, "How are you's?" and then Ben asked if I was around. "Yep, she's right here - I have you on speaker phone."

Ben laughed because he knew that we knew why he was calling "Well, I have a referral for you..."

Hey, Baby & Other Random Pics

We had to laugh when we saw this expression. We could hear some guy saying, "Hey, Baby."


Having fun building with some new blocks.


Henry really likes Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck now (time to start planning the DisneyWorld trip). Nate has had fun finding some of his favorite Mickey Mouse cartoons to watch with him.


The next pictures are being posted so my mom and sisters can see the new furniture arrangement in our living room. Sorry to bore everybody!

Catching Up

I'm finally catching up. Here are pictures from the Christmas celebrations we had with both of our families. We were snowed in on Christmas so we missed Christmas Eve at Grandma Berg's in Wisconsin, but we enjoyed having Nate's parents over for supper.


Getting ready to open presents.


The Men putting together a truck for Henry.


Henry helping out with a screwdriver.


Getting close to the finished product.


Trying on one of Boppa's gifts.


Trying out his fun laptop - oh, kids these days!


With my mom, grandma, and sisters


Henry with Aunt Jodi. He was very persistent about wanting to open Jodi's present for her. You can just see that he's sitting on the present while waiting for the ok to start opening. After this we discovered Henry had a 102 temp.


The fun of present opening.

The Gumball Guy

The hightlight of this week was the arrival of "Gumball Guy."

He first arrived as a birthday gift from Denny and Pat (and their kids) when I was in grade school. What makes him even more special is that Uncle Denny made him. For his own good, when Henry arrived I put Gumball Guy on a shelf in Henry's closet. The last few months Henry has pointed up to the shelf and asked me about him. I explained that he has gumballs in his head, you turn his ears and a gumball comes out of his mouth!

Recently, Henry started to open the closet door, pretend to turn his own ears and make a special sound meant to be a gumball coming out of his mouth. It was pretty cute...and I knew what he was trying to tell me.

This week, I finally remembered to buy gumballs when we were in Willmar! Henry literally shook with excitement as we opened the bags of gumballs and filled up The Gumball Guy's head.

The first words out of Henry's mouth when he wakes up each morning are, "Gumball Guy!" and then he's off and running for the kitchen. He loves to guess which color gumball will come out. I love watching him turn the ears - he takes a big breath and looks at me with big eyes when he hears a gumball drop into place! What fun...


Gumball Guy


Enjoying a morning chew and chat with Gumball Guy before breakfast.


Getting ready...

Aah, the joy!