The joys of little boys and their toys.....

Grandson, Isaac Kent, playing with trains
Isaac playing before he goes off to preschool

While Luke and Charlie came to visit us, we were introduced to Geotrax by Fisher Price Toy company. Luke has such a love of trains and these Geotrax are perfect for little ones ages 2-7 years old. He talked non stop about his Geotrax set at home, so gramma had to go to the local store and get a couple of sets and set them up in our family room.

Luke and Charlie have gone home now, but Isaac came to stay a couple days and nights with us while his mommy and daddy went to Utah this weekend. Now he is enjoying the Geotrax train set, too. Yesterday, cousin Wyatt and a friend, David Martin came for lunch with Isaac and they played with the trains. Uncle Hans enjoys them, too, and has set up some great layouts. He and Isaac have fun playing tag with their two remote control trains

Thanks Luke, for teaching us about Geotrax. We enjoy them now, too, but we miss you!

Our lives are full of little boys.....

The best part of Luke and Charlie coming to stay with us for 15 days has been that Uncle Hans has learned what it's like to be a "big brother". That is a good thing!

Luke and Charlie soaking off the dirt and food from the day
sign of little boys at play

Charlie putting on his hat

Luke getting to "play" with cousin Wyatt

cousin time

Charlie and Luke come to cheer Uncle Hans on at his soccer game!

Yogurt lovers Charlie and Luke

We are coming to the end of our 15 days of taking care of our grandsons, Luke (3) and Charlie (16mo) while their parents, Erik and Cristin, have traveled in Tonga and New Zealand.

We've had some good times, some sweet times, some happy times and a few frustrating times, if truth be told. This "gramma" is getting a little tired and looking forward to being "off full time duty", but I wouldn't have traded this opportunity for anything.

We are going down to LAX tomorrow afternoon to pick up mom and dad! Prepare yourself, Erik and Cristin....enjoy your last moments of your "me time" !

Love you!

mom/gramma lassen/Debi

To add to the adventure of taking care of two little grandsons....

Our Washing Machine Died this weekend, adding to the adventure

I'm thankful for Craislist where I found a 1 year old Maytag to replace it for a fraction of the cost of a new one!

I did 4-5 loads of laundry today after John installed the replacement! Back in business...especially nice with all the dirty, messy clothes little boys generate in a day!

Labor Day and officially ending of our summer!

Hans and John going down the slide today on a boogie board

We had a Labor Day Barbeque/Swim Party and Family Home Evening at Peter and Gayle Lassen's home
Luke going down all by himself

Gramps Lassen and Charlie

Sunday dinner at the children's table

Gramps taking Charlie on a walk today

I have not taken the time to post on my blog since June! Summer has been very full and I hope to add more about that later.

Today we enjoyed our last official day of summer with the Labor Day Holiday. School and soccer practice, Cub Scouts and piano lessons started for Hans 2 weeks ago though, so we are in full swing for the coming school year.

Our Mette is packing up her room and preparing to leave our home for the next 3 months to travel to Europe and stay with her Aunt Anna Lassen Flanagan in Frankfurt, Germany. She is planning to travel to Denmark and stay with family and friends there as well as travel to other countries that she can arrange to visit. Our family is changing once again. After Mette gets home in December, in time for Steffen, our missionary son's return from Washington D.C. South Mission, she and Steffen will probably leave for college at the turn of the New Year. We will miss Mette so very much as she has never been away from home for so long! We are so excited for her, though, and know this is her season to leave the "nest" and grow on her own.

John and I are at present, taking care of two of our grandsons for 15 days. Our eldest son, Erik and his wife, Cristin had the opportunity to travel to Tonga and New Zealand and asked us months ago if we would take care of Luke (3) and Charlie (16 months), which we are happy to be able to do.

Here's some cute pictures of the boys from today. I've been e-mailing Cristin and Erik every day and adding photos to go with our emails so they know their children are doing well here in Camarillo with gramma and gramps Lassen.

At times it is very tiring, but we have never really been out of the mode of taking care of children since we first had our eldest, Kirsten 33 years ago! We just celebrated our 34th anniversary last week on September 2nd.

Mette, our eighth child, turned 20 years old in August and our youngest, Hans, turned 10 years old in July and so we are still raising a son while we have moved into the era of being grandparents to 14 grandchildren. I hope I can keep up my energy so I can enjoy children all of our lives. John and I still serve in the nursery in our ward each Sunday for 2 hours. We have 10 little toddlers to teach and love each Sunday, so this keeps us in practice, too.

I won't paint a perfect picture here....there are times with all these little ones in our lives that it gets very stressful and exhausting, but children are really amazing. I try to remember how the Savior would love them and it helps me a lot.

I'm so thankful for a wonderful husband that enjoys little ones, too! Happy 34th Anniversary Sweetheart!