SNOW!!!!

No words are necessary - these pictures show you how happy Matthew is when he gets to play outside in the snow.  He even puts his own hat on...

Getting ready for Christmas

We went to see the Christmas display at Macy's last weekend "A Day in the Life of an Elf"  Luckily the line was short and we only waited about 15 minutes.  Matthew didn't know which way to look - there was so much to see!  At the end, he got to sit on Santa's lap - they kept a close eye on each other but didn't say much!

This transmission may contain confidential or privileged information; unauthorized use is prohibited.
Transactions with Valspar are subject to the terms found at http://legal.valspar.com/notice

Bowls and Cups

I bought some new cups and mixing bowls at Ikea last week.  I walked in the door and Matthew started unpacking the sacks - he squealed when he saw the bowls and cups.  We had to unwrap them right away and he spent the next 2 hours playing with them.

Painting Pictures

Matthew couldn't wait to get his fingers into the finger paints!  We made several pictures and he smiled the whole time.  Half the time he really liked to squish the paint between his fingers and the other half, he insisted on getting cleaned up before switching colors!  Luckily, I managed to keep him from putting his fingers into his hair.

Mean Faces

Mr. Matthews is getting quite the attitude!  Here is an assortment of mean faces - he will give me one of these looks whenever things done go 100% his way (so quite often!)
The "get me off of this dumb airplane" mean face:

The "leave me alone when I'm eating my breakfast" mean face:

Walking with Lil

During our visit to PA, we went on a walk with Lil.  The walk turned into more of a carry for Matthew, but all turned out well once we found the sliding board!  We all had a great time - it was a beautiful fall day and we were walking next to the Youghiogheny River (10 bonus points if you can say that correctly)

Slick

I thought you would all like seeing what Matthew looks like without his big head of hair. We call him "Slick" when he's done up like this (it only looks like this until his hair gets dry)

Assorted pics from October

It's been a while since I've added any new pics, so I'm going to try to make up by adding a few random (and cute) pics so that Grandma doesn't have to yell at me anymore. :)

David carrying Matthew on a VERY cold Volksmarch walk in Pelican Rapids, MN. Matthew was sooo mad and David actually carried him in his arms 95% of the walk - luckily for me and my arms, Matthew just wanted his DaDa!

Pap came to town for a long visit. Matthew was tossed around and had a great time!

After another peanut scare during the Viking vs Steelers game (you can see who we cheer for by looking at Matthew's shirt), we visited Emerson and his family. The boys played "together separately" - they had fun, which is all that mattered

Happy Halloween! Matthew dressed as Scooby Doo, but it was suggested that he is more of a Scrappy Dappy Doo kind of a guy. We agree.

Cousins Katie and Charlie came to trick-or-treat, but everyone ended up playing with the toys instead. We managed to corral them long enough for a few pictures! Katie is the princess and Charlie is the frog :) Cute!

Giddy Up!

Matthew liked the horse, but one ride was enough for him. He was more interested in his lollypop that the grocery store man gave to him

No More Peanut Butter

Guess who is allergic to peanuts....

The nurse at the ER took this picture - what a sad boy! He was feeling much better after some medicine, but it was a long evening for us both

Assorted funny pictures

Matthew "kissing" his monkey - he really likes it, despite how this looks!

What a ham!

Trying out his new potty seat - fully clothed, of course. In 16 years, Matthew will hate me for this picture but I think it's hilarious!

Baling Straw

Daddy and Grandma Sue spent a hot day in the sun baling the straw. Matthew showed up at the end to check it out and make sure they did a good job.

After all that hard work, it's good to have a nice thumb to suck.

Little Monkey

Matthew likes to play sitting next to his toy box, which is actually a 3-level shelving system with pull out bins. While David and I were having dinner a few feet away, Matthew managed to scamper up 2 flights on his toy box! I ran for the camera and David ran for Matthew. We got a few good shots, but David wants everyone to know that he was standing just out of camera range ready to catch the little monkey if he started fall.

My favorite part is that Matthew took some toys up with him so he'd have something to play with!

Slick

As his hair gets longer, Matthew's hair can get pretty crazy looking. Here he is all slicked down - but this only lasts until his hair dries out!

Soggy Boy

It's a good thing that Matthew likes bath time because he sure gets dirty! Today he's covered with a mix of Vaseline/Dirt/Goldfish crackers/Sidewalk chalk! Here are some strategically aimed pictures from bath time

Splash!

A few days ago, we went to the Splash water park near our home. I was surprised how much fun Matthew had! He loved the circle of water and spent nearly an hour playing in it! We didn't go home until his lips were blue and hands were cold.

Walking, Talking and Caching

Mama and Matthew have tried out a few new things while the weather is nice. A few weeks ago, we joined Volkssporting (http://www.ava.org/) which is kind of like a walking group meets the Girl/Boy Scouts - we go on walks and can earn badges for milages or nubmer of events!

Here is Matthew after our first walk :)

And here he is during a walk through Sauk Rapids in front of a house called the Molehill

The second thing we tried is Geocaching. We borrowed a GPS and went looking for a "cache" nearby - our first find was in a local cemetary (ooooh spooky!) We signed our names to the log, looked through the stickers, pins, rings and other stuff hidden inside and then re-hid the "cache" in the same place (under a pine tree) for the next person to find. Not sure if this will be something we do much of right away, but it would be a lot of fun once Matthew is bigger!

Regersburg Castle

Spent a fun day walking around Regersburg Castle, built a long time ago mainly to keep out the Turks. There was even a Falkoneering exhibition that we watched while the kids looked inside the castle.

Here are Romica and Nick - my how tall you are Romica!!!


The group looking at the moat

Open Air Museum in Austria

We visited an Open Air museum this week. This is a small village where they moved old buildings from other areas in Austria. Several homes, barns, wine press houses were there.

This one looks like it could be a Smurf house! Look how tiny it is compared to Nick!


Nick and Romica inside the barn. Look at the underside of the straw roof!

A view of the village

Visiting in Windish Minihof

We are visiting our Austrian relatives now in Windish Minihof, about 2 1/2 hours south of Vienna (5 minutes from Slovenia and 15 minutes from Hungary) It's a gorgeous area and the people are so welcoming that we don't want to leave!

Here we are with Ernst and Berta Spiegl in front of their home (in order: Nick, Krista, Grandma Ginny, Berta, Ernst). Ernst grows beautiful flowers that you can see in the background. Ernst is the nephew of my great-grandmother Anna Spiegel (she had an "e" in her last name but he does not)


We arrived on July 4th, so Kyrill shot off some Austrian bottle rockets to celebrate Independence Day!


More of my little friends!

Austria

We arrived in Vienna after a night-long train ride from Cologne/Amsterdam. We went to sleep in one country and woke up in another!

We had one day in Vienna to look around - not a lot of time, but we really wanted to have extra time with the relatives in Burgenland (south-eastern Austria)

Here is a photo of St. Stephen's cathedral.

And a personal favorite, here are Nick and Grandma Ginny coming out of the Opera Toilet. You pay 60 cents to go into the rest room and there is Handel music blasting!

Mama, Grandma and Nick in Amsterdam

Matthew gets to stay home with Dada, but the rest of us are having fun in Amsterdam!

On a canal cruise - this is one of many bridges that we passed under

One of the canal boats

Nick and Grandma Ginny standing next to the "I (am)sterdam" sign