The Beutel Blog: Our funny kids and busy weekend

Just so you know, this is the 7th post I've written today...so if you're seeing this one for the first time, there are probably some others you haven't seen yet, either. :)

Nora is quite the sleeper...or non-sleeper as the case may be. Some nights she just wakes up and will come padding up the stairs. Sometimes I wake up because I hear her thumping up the stairs, and sometimes I don't wake up until she is almost in our bedroom and I hear her pull-up rustling as she walks. And sometimes we don't wake up at all and in the morning we find her sleeping on the living room or on the floor in our doorway. My favorite two stories from her little midnight excursions: One night she was nearly in our bedroom when I woke up. She went over to Greg (who sleeps on the side of the bed nearest the door), and the only sound she made was a matter-of-fact, "Mommy." Greg mumbled and pointed her over to me, but I was already awake and laughing.

Another time, she woke up and I took her back downstairs once, giving her her sippee cup. Less than 15 min. later, I heard her back upstairs. By the time I got to her, she was back downstairs in bed. I checked on her and then checked on Max....she had gotten his sippee cup and put it beside his bed!

Oh, there was one more story. Just a week or so ago, I heard Greg get out of bed. Figuring he was just going to the bathroom, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. He came back in the room and all of a sudden I heard a thump and a grunt. It turns out he had heard a noise and went out looking for Nora. She was asleep at the foot of our bed, and when he came back in the bedroom he just about tripped over her!

Anyway, all of those stories are to introduce the first pictures here...Nora came to the stairs after her nap, but didn't come up. I was working in the kitchen and said hi to her, but she stayed down there. When Greg got home, she was still on the landing, sleeping!

Goofy girl.

One morning Tirzah was up early so I brought her back to our bed. She loved Daddy 'flying' her!

Super Tirzah!!!

Max lined up all of his animals after his nap one day.

Smiley Tirzah! She LOVES her exersaucer! I felt like such a neglectful mommy one afternoon...she woke up from her nap at 3, ate a bottle, and somewhere between 3:30 and 3:45 I stuck her in the exersaucer and went back to working in the kitchen. When Greg got home at 5:15, I realized she was still in there! She had been perfectly content, not making a peep of crying or anything, just watching Max and Nora play. The pros and cons of being a third child, I guess!

Nora got some pretty pink sunglasses for her birthday, and Greg thought it only fair that Tirzah got a turn...or maybe Nora told him to put them on her? I can't remember.

The pictures are cute, though. :)

Max and Nora now have matching Turk shirts!

We are recovering today from a pretty crazy weekend. Saturday morning Janelle and I had some of our girls we graduated high school with come to the cabin for a lunch and catch-up. There were only 8 of us, but we had a great time! I don't have a picture...I think our group picture was on Janelle's camera. Anyway, I tried for the first time ever a cheesecake made in a water bath. It was pretty good, even though I felt like I baked the tar out of it, trying to get it to set up!

While I had the girls' thing, Greg was at church, recording a Men's Sing CD. He left after the afternoon break, picked me up, and we both went back to the cabin for Tim's barbershop churrasco. For that event, I made a Cappuccino Torte which turned out much better than last time I made it.

It was yummy, but definitely NOT a health food.

Max and Nora liked their fruit punch.

Paulo and Dad smoked ribs and grilled cheese, pancetta, and picanha.

Nora posed by the fire pit for a few pictures...

Cutie pie!

I don't have any more pictures or even videos, but it was a super fun night. Lots of singing!

We went back to the cabin for a scrumptious breakfast, then to church where, after the afternoon service, then men got up and sang some of their songs from the day before. The kids lasted through about half the program, and then I had to just take them home because of some major meltdowns.

After naps it was back to the cabin (see a pattern here for the weekend?) :) to get ready for Rassi August birthdays. We celebrated Creighton, Amanda, Nora, and Kate (whose birthday is today! Happy 5th birthday, Kate!!!).

Nora wasn't sure of the singing and attention at first...

...but it didn't take long for her to warm up to it!

Blowing out the candles! Can't you just hear Nora going, "FFFFffffff!!!" She did eventually get that candle! Kate had helped her on some of the others. :)

Carmen made these super cute present cakes. The bow is Fruit by the Foot and the dots are Sprees.

That brings us up to today! This morning I felt like I needed about another 24 hours of sleep or so. Max kept telling me, "Mommy, wake up! The sun is up!" as I laid on the couch. Somehow we'd managed to keep the house decently clean over our weekend, so I decided to do blogs today to ease into the week. I'll do laundry tomorrow. :)

As I was looking through some cooking blogs for lunch ideas, I came across an "Angry Birds" sandwich. Personally, I've played one level of the game...and I was awful (it was probably an advanced level, in my defense). Max and Nora have seen Katy play it on her iPhone and love it. She even bought them each an 'angry bird' of their own (Max's red one pictured below on the table...Nora has a yellow one). I thought the sandwich looked cute and that I'd give it a shot to liven up our Monday. Don't expect too much, but here are our 'angry birds.'