Mini Family Photo-shoot ... Just for fun

In Bavaria the rapeseed is beautiful!!  We just had to take advantage of the beautiful yellow and the perfect lighting.  One evening we headed out to get some pictures ... dragging our company along with us, which included my sister with her four kids and grandma and grandpa.

Last Soccer Game

Fussball (or soccer) in Germany is HUGE.  Everyone plays!!  It is a huge, fun, social gathering whenever there is a practice or a game.  I love that my kids got to be a part of this! 

(I also love how it looks as though my son is wearing a dress with nothing under it, Hah!)

Violin Workshop and Concert

My little girl has been going to Nuremberg (an hour drive) several days in a row, practicing the violin for 8 hours per day, falling asleep in the car on the way there and on the way back, all in the name of preparing for a violin concert.  Her very first violin concert.  Her dad was lucky enough to go but

Last Ludwig Palace and a Over-the-top Rococo Church

Linderhof!!

This is yet another one of Ludwig's Palaces in Bavaria, Germany.  It was actually the one he lived in the most and is completely finished.  I really liked this Palace, I highly recommend going!  I loved the peacock room, all the mirrors, the crystal chandeliers, and the gold paint over everything.  Yeah, I could probably live here too.

When exiting the tour, and the Palace,

Birthday Girl!

Why I love this special birthday girl!

* She has the biggest heart and is always so willing to help me when I need help
* She has the best imagination ... I LOVE listening to her playing with her siblings and/or friends
* She is now making chocolate chip cookies all on her own and does a GREAT job!
* She makes me laugh every single day with her cute, spunky personality
* I love her love for horses.  Whenever anyone in the family sees a horse we all yell her name.
* She has a crush on a different boy every couple of weeks, and she isn't embarrassed by it one bit.
* She has all the confidence in the world!
* She isn't ashamed or shy to show someone she cares about them!!
* She sticks up for those who might be getting bullied or picked on - what an inspiration to us all!
* Her goal is to read the Book of Mormon in a year and she has made so much progress.
* Just the other day on Sunday a little German girl came to church and she translated the entire lesson for her and soon they were fast friends.  She made sure the little girl felt included and loved!

Ludwig's Memorial with a bit of Castle Ruins in the Mix

This was not our original plan ... I wont go into details about what happened to our original plan but lets just say motherhood never takes a vacation, even if you are on vacation.  An hour into our original trip we had to stop and never started back up again.  We searched the internet and found something fun nearby and spent the whole day exploring.

We found ourselves at Wallhalla Memorial built by Ludwig

For more information go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walhalla_memorial

And there are a ton of pictures on our 'other blog' you can check out!

the kids running down the side of the building

My little girl showing off how she can balance

"Mom, look it's Jesus.  Take a picture!"

Playing around the outside of the Memorial some more

My little man with his awesome hair!

More playing!

I love these cute girls so much!

Next Stop, which just happened to be on the next hill, Castle Ruins!

I have a love / hate relationship with castle ruins.  I love them because of how cool looking they are, how charming they can be, and how much the kids love running around them exploring.  I hate them because I am scared to death my kids are going to fall and kill themselves somewhere.  Seriously, they scare me so much!   

With it's own little cemetery in the front

I love this little window/door with the old bricks

No railings or bars to keep one in

See what I mean about them scaring me?  See ya, baby!

Can you see my girls?  I couldn't contain them, they were all over the place

The view from the top

Visiting Friends (Luxemburg & Trier)

It was a long weekend and our original plans were not going to work.  We had to do something though, we could waste our time at home.  Oh, how I love traveling!

We called our friends and headed to Luxemburg to visit them.

Our first stop was the Luxemburg American Cemetery and Memorial

Here the kids are standing in front of George S. Patton Jr. grave site

For more pictures of the cemetery check out our 'other' blog 

Then we headed into Luxemburg itself.  There are more pictures on our 'other blog', but this is a picture of the friends we went to visit.

The next day we headed to Trier, Germany

It was so nice to visit our friends and visit new sites around Europe.  

Our favorite spot - Trier!!!  We loved it!

Guess who we Love?

This little guy is home alone with me A LOT!  One day I decided to make the most of it and he became my little model for the afternoon.  I sure do love this little boy!  

Transformer Birthday Cake!

Happy 6th Birthday!

Last year I was asked to make a transformer cake.  So I made optimus prime as a semi truck.  I fully admit it, it wasn't good.  My little man wasn't impressed either.  This year I was again asked to make optimus prime.  Instead of optimus prime as a semi truck, he wanted his face.  This year I got approval!  Hopefully I wont be making optimus prime next year  :)

What can I say about my 6 year old?
I love this little boy so much!  He is such a great kid!  

*He is learning so much in Kindergarten and LOVES it all.  He especially loves math.  I love the abstract German math that he is learning.
*He goes out of his way to make sure his little sister feels comfortable at school since they are in the same class/group.  He isn't embarrassed to hold her hand when she is nervous, it is so cute!
*He has become a little chatter box.  Seriously, I had no idea he had so much to say about everything!
*He has an incredible memory!
*He is such a big help at home and takes his chores very serious.
*He is so kind to his baby brother!  When they sword fight with their light sabers he is so 'soft' with him.
*He is always so quick to say please and thank you.  It's usually in association with playing on the iPad, but I'll take it.
*Nothing makes him happier than to be outside playing or going swimming with his dad!
*He is such a hard worker - he has really improved with soccer and basketball from all his practicing.
*He LOVES lego's ... and loves building them with his dad!

January in a nutshell

We couldn't stay put during Christmas Break so we decided to drive 7 hrs to Auschwitz Poland.  Then to Krakow, then back to Germany via Freiberg and Dresden and then home again.  Yeah, we are pretty much crazy and like to do things last minute.  

Auschwitz was a very humbling, saddening experience.  While there it started snowing, which made it all the more real and sorrowful.  What took place here was awful! But we cannot forget what took place here, no matter how awful it was and is to reflect on it.  All over the camp are these words:

"Nations who forget their own history are sentenced to live it again"

AUSCHWITZ

KRAKOW 

Krakow was a really neat city, we were so impressed! The bus system was probably the most expensive we have ever taken in Europe but still a cool city.  The food was awesome, our kids loved the dumplings.  At one point I had a beet stew with dumplings in it and it was like I was in the movie Ratatouille, except I was taken back to when I was little visiting my Grandma's house on the farm in Canada.  I still dream about this beet stew, it was delicious!  Plus I really miss my Grandparents and visiting their farm and playing kick the can with my cousins.  Anyway, we wandered around the city in the evening, and then in the morning visited the Palace.  A short visit but pretty neat.

DRESDEN

Back in Germany again and loving how cheap the public transit system is!  Here the kids are playing a new version of the 'quiet game'.  I think we were trying to get them to stare at a certain color the longest ... or a letter.  Miles and I were laughing so hard!  I love how competitive our kids are!  Anything to keep them quiet.   

@ HOME

My little man is seriously into everything these days!  I cannot tell you how many times he turns on the dishwasher in a day, or turns it off for that matter.  Here he dumped out his little bag of Cheerios and is eating them off the floor.  What is a little dirt with a Cheerio?!  Cause, lets be honest, do you really think I mop my floors all that often with this little busy body around?!

Yup, now he is emptying the toy basket and climbing in - why not?

SLEDDING IN AUSTRIA

Some friends invited us to go sledding in Austria with them.  Now, this is not your typical sledding trip.  This particular sledding is extreme!  You buy a ski lift ticket, rent a sled (or bring your own from home if you are Austrian) and take the ski lift up the mountain for 10 minutes.  Once up on the mountain you sit on your sled, try to steer back and forth while going down steep switch backs.  Did I mention they are the old fashion wooden sleds?  As you are going down the mountain the Austrians are zipping past you going super fast trying not to run into you!  It takes you at least 20 to 30 minutes to get down the mountain.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!  I had Anika in front of me so I couldn't really rest my legs and it was killing my legs to hold them up, steer, or brake the entire run.  Anika was a riot!  We only made it down twice but the first run was the best.  She sat in front of me and over and over she kept telling me to go faster and how shocked she was that I didn't tell her how fun it was going to be.  The second run she was not so enthusiastic.  Instead, she kept telling me to slow down and screamed at me that she was freezing and that her feet were wet.  Hence only the two runs.  We then headed back to the hotel and jumped on the beds.  When we got home the next day all of us had tons of bruises all over our bodies to prove that we had a blast!  It was a great to experience an Austrian style sledding trip!

This is the view from our hotel room.  Gorgeous right?!  We parked our car at the hotel parking lot, checked in, then walked for 5 minutes to the ski lift.  Man, I love Austria!

MORE @ HOME

This little boy makes our family so happy!  I don't know what we would do without him, he is such a joy to have around and such a cutie!

Here is just a little taste of our little spit-fire!  Don't you just love her choice of attire - a fancy velvet shirt with a feather collar and tights.  Yup, those are just plain tights.  She wore it all day too.  Oh, and that is Nutella all over her cheeks.  I am such a great mom.