The little mower

Gabe was ready to mow just like his dad....

including wearing his hearing protection!

And for you Gabe junkies...

Here's your fix:



He was taking an evening cruise on his tractor...

Family Tradition

Every year in August my Grandma Schaefer would make "Bean Soup" and have everyone over for supper. It was something we all looked forward to because it was the only time of the year we got Grandma's bean soup. I can remember eating it until my stomach hurt and of course until I was sweating because we were eating hot soup in the hot month of August! It was always complete with some fresh baked bread and probably something good for dessert.

A church member gave Aaron a bunch of fresh green beans and they sat on our counter for a few days until I thought of what to do with them.... Well I didn't have to think too much because of course I wanted bean soup! Yes, it is bean soup made with string beans (grandma used green and/or yellow).

I knew someone in the family would have the recipe so I turned to the most obvious choices... Grandma's daughters Judy and Kathy. They both sent me the version of the recipe that they had. The quantities in the one from Judy more closely matched what I had so I went with that one. It is as follows:

3 quarts yellow beans cut in small pieces. 1 qt potatoes cut small. Boil together until both are soft. Add 2 1/2 qts milk. Bring to boil and thicken with flour and water. Just before serving add dollop of sour cream. Some people like to add a little vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

I did have to make one emergency call to my mom because I didn't know if I should drain the water and then add the milk or just add the milk to the water/beans/potato mixture. She said definitely to drain the water off first and then told me how to make the flour/water paste to thicken the soup. Oh and I left out the sour cream because I didn't have any.

After doing those things I seasoned it to taste with a few shots of vinegar, lots of freshly ground black pepper and lots of salt.

It turned out perfect in spite of my shortcomings as a cook. Aaron thought it was pretty good although he didn't have the same connection to it like I do. Then I took it to work and the girls there ate some and thought it was good.

And to top it all off I made some apple crisp (first attempt at that with a recipe from allrecipes.com - great web site, love it) and even that turned out good!

I'm sure Grandma was pleased with my culinary skills!

Growing up....

My crazy boy likes to run around naked after his bath. He gets VERY mad if you try to wrap a towel around him.

I've been working with him for about a week and he is beginning to master feeding himself with a spoon:

My son

Tonight Gabe and I played blocks and talked before he went to bed. He was making a car noise in the picture below - that's why his lips look swollen!

And a little video of us talking and taking video of each other!

Sunday Stroll

TWO POINTERS:

Rowdy pointing a pheasant,

Gabriel pointing Rowdy

We were at a wildlife management area north of Clarion, Iowa.

The boys goof around and wrestle no matter where we are!

And Gabe wanted to take a dip in Lake Cornelia on the way home.

Flashback

Well I don't have any new pictures to post so I thought I would put up some of Gabe's first pictures. The first one was taken a few hours after he was born...


This one was taken the day after he was born...

My Helper

Yesterday Gabe "helped" me fold a bunch of laundry.

Mostly he just unfolded everything after I had already folded it.

Love those kitties

Yesterday Gabe wanted to hold every kitty he could find.... And some crackers too!

Grotto of the Redemption

Today we finally visited the Grotto in West Bend, Iowa. It's West Bends claim to fame....

It's basically a bunch of pretty rocks glued together to make this HUGE shrine to....

God, we guess.... We didn't exactly understand it but it was neat! I think Gabe preferred the ducks....

Here's a shot of the whole thing. Apparently it's best to go in the winter at night because they have it all lit up...

No picture, but....

.....some interesting stats!

Gabriel had his 18 month checkup today with Dr. Votta.

He is a healthy little guy and is *still* tall and skinny!

He is 34.5 inches tall (96%), 25#10oz. (50%), head circumference 49cm (85%).

He only had to get 1 shot and got a book from the doctor AND got a popsicle AND got to write on a chalkboard!

A hot summer day

We cleaned up the pool for Gabe tonight and he had a great time splashing around.


Rowdy liked the cold water too!





Little Mr. Social waving to the neighbors as they went by on their motorcycle.





He had a crazy ride on his tractor too!

Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Aaron and I were fortunate to get some vacation time from work and made a get-away to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. Following are some pictures from our campsite.




We camped on Disappointment Lake -- but don't worry, it wasn't disappointing. Oh wait, maybe the fishing was disappointing....



Here I am resting on a rock after lunch one day.


This "latrine" greatly decreased the level of roughing it! We didn't have to dig any special holes for any sort of things!


This was taken from our campsite.

We decided to leave the BWCA a day early to spend some time with the Flatau's.
Here we were looking at the TWELVE puppies their friends dog had. Don't worry we're not going to get one. Here Gabe is giving the puppy a kiss.





This is Emily's cat, Wyatt. He really liked it when I covered him up for his nap.


Lastly here is a pic. of Gramma Mitzi's new flooring. Yay economic stimulus checks!