Loving Life In Deutschland

Thankful

2011-11-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

Over the last week we've had the boys telling us something that they are thankful for daily and after spending some time researching things on the internet we ended up making our very own THANKFUL TREE.
This was such a great way to teach the boys about being thankful for everything in life as well as giving us a very special new family tradition. It never seems to amaze me just how truly blessed our family are. We have each other, our sweet fur ball Bella, a home, good health and the opportunity of a life time with living in Germany. We can even be thankful for the many obstacles, losses and trials that we've faced this year. That in it's self for us is wonderful!
Slowly but surely Thanksgiving is becoming one of my favourite American Holidays and I'm proud that my children are experiencing both sides of their heritage.
Just a few days till Turkey day as they say!

Elim Mission

2011-11-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I took a trip with 24 others to Elim Mission in Poland. This is a Christian center that runs thanks to donations. The mission seeks to care for the spiritual and physical needs of the people by feeding, clothing, helping the handicapped, providing food-packages and weekly ministries. They also provide a crisis shelter, a Christian coffee lounge, free English school and so on. All of the ministries offered are done so without charge and purely to share Gods Love and Gospel.
I was taken back upon arriving at the mission. It was bought in the early 90's as a very run down old mansion with the majority of the building unsafe and now it is slowly being transformed.
We arrived late on Friday, ate and then got straight to work unloading our vans and restocking the clothing shop. It's truly amazing to see in person and to know that thanks to the help of a lot of families in Stuttgart that some of the families in the area will have warm clothes for the winter.
The trip effected all of us who went, to the point that many of us plan on organising a food drive and making the trip again. It's a place that i intend on taking the family before we leave here as it's such a life changing experience. It definitely leaves you feeling overwhelmed and very thankful for what we do have on a daily basis.

Starting from the begining

2011-10-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since our last post that it seems reasonable to start from the beginning. To treat our blog as a brand spanking new adventure. An adventure that comes with a blog facelift, a move, homeschooling, traveling and just the ramblings of the Williams lot.

The blog facelift comes with just archiving old posts and changing our background. Easy right?
Then we have the move, thankfully it's just to another apartment and not across the pond but nether the less a move. Which is taking place over the next few days and with that being said it's time for us to continue our DE-cluttering of rooms. With some luck I'll be able to blog about my recent Mission Trip in Poland before the internet goes out.
But for now i leave you with a recent picture of our monsters on Halloween.

Making Jam

2011-08-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

Jam has become a huge deal in our house since the first time i made 12 jars of strawberry jam.
So much so that this week myself and Rhys made 8 Jars of blueberry jam and today more strawberry jam with strawberry bread.

It's funny i completely forgot to take a picture of Rhys but did take a few of the jam in progress.
Here is the blueberries cooking in the pot

Finished Jam

The Bread

VBS Overload

2011-07-31T23:14:00.000-07:00

Last week i volunteered at our base VBS which Rhys attended while Caden went to the Chapel child watch program. I was a little nervous to say the least as these kind of things are very new to us but within hours of the first day i soon came to realise just how much we would gain from it.
I was one of the leaders for the preschool area which was nice since i spent the some time watching Rhys interact.

Here is a picture of Rhys from his 1st VBS

He had so much fun that we opted to put both boys in our Church VBS which started today. I'm very excited to hear and see how Caden does with it all and I'm also looking forward to catching up on things that are normally quite difficult with the boys around.

Here they are on their way to Our Church, not sure what was going-on but Caden had Rhys laughing hysterically.

Hours of fun

2011-07-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

with just a homemade tent or in the boys case a castle.
It took a couch, table, 8 chairs and a ton of blankets to make the boys happy. I threw in some torches and I've hardly seen them since which is perfect for this mummy this morning.

Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History

2011-07-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

We took the boys to the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History which has two exhibition buildings, both of which are in Rosenstein park, separated from each other by a 15 minute walk.
The boys favourite part had to have been the Dinosaur area especially as they hunted for bones, and played in the educational bit for awhile.
It's so great seeing them learning new things and having a blast while they do it!

My Handsome Boys..

2011-07-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

Who seem to be growing faster then weeds

It Came and Left

2011-07-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July came and left but what a great day it was!
We started it off with a family walk to one of our favourite spots to take some pictures and follwed the day with baking a celebration cake, a BBQ with friends and letting the boys hit all the fun rides that the base provided. We did how ever end up going home before the fireworks but what a great day it was.

Summer's begun

2011-06-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Every year since moving here we've lucked out with having a group of friends to share summer days, trips and melt downs with and this year isn't any different.
Our summer adventures have begun with Strawberry picking first though myself and the boys have been a few times today was the first with a bunch of their friends.

It's great seeing their happy little faces and I'm excited for the next couple of trips that are coming up
The gang ready to go

my two picking away

Happy kids at the end

Kingdom Kids

2011-06-12T04:24:00.000-07:00

Today the boys had a very special morning planned at church. Both of our boys along with dozens of other children took over the service to preform songs for the congregation. Songs like GOD'S LOVE IS LIKE A CIRCLE and MY GOD IS SO BIG. Sadly i didn't think to take pictures during the service but indeed took one before we arrived.

Here are my boys on our way to church in their very quickly made tops thanks to Daddy. The Kingdom Kids logo was given to us by the church to transfer onto any top and is the name of the children's program.

Publish Post

Home Again

2011-05-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

We're back in Germany and enjoying some extra time with Auntie Shona who decided to join us for the summer. Our first order of business was cleaning the mountain of mess that we came back with and rearanging rooms in order to fit us all in and finally getting out of the house.

Our first trip was to the Nebelhöhle caves. Which is a limestone cave and described as one of the most beautiful show caves in the Swabian Alb. This fascinating natural display of the subterranean world measures a magnificent 380 meters.

Followed by a trip to the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory

and Strawberry Picking

Still here

2011-05-22T02:14:00.000-07:00

I've completely forgotten to blog over the past 9 days but we're still here. Our reason is mainly due to us being back home. We're enjoying being with Family, soaking up some of the British weather (even if it's raining) and some of our favourite foods.

and just to show that we've had some lovely weather here are the boys playing at the beach

A Sleepy Boy

2011-05-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

I just love watching my boys sleep especially when they look as peaceful as Rhys in the picture below. Of course I'm a little biased but he's completely handsome

Publish Post

Enjoying Spring

2011-04-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

Good Friday

2011-04-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

I'm going to save everyone and spare you of a long Good Friday post and cut to how we spent our day through pictures.

We made Hot Cross buns

Followed by Easter Cookies

and cuddling up several times throughout the day reading our very long Easter Story book

Playmobil Funpark

2011-04-19T23:11:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we took a two hour drive to what we were hoping was a somewhat quiet day out with friends but when we arrived at playmobil it was heaving.
Never the less we had a fantastic day playing indoors with the toys,

Climbing over a dangerous rope bridge to play on a pirates ship

Visiting the Dino area

and sadly missing the rest of the park because it was just too big for one day with 5 children all under 5. It's a must do again and again in the next three years though!

Nothing like

2011-04-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

the smell of freshly baked bread to start off your day

Bunny Toast!!

2011-04-12T02:49:00.000-07:00

With Today being a rainy day I set out to occupy the boys and along the way tried something a little new. For lunch myself and two little helpers made cheesy scrambled egg with bunny toast.
The dish turned out so good that they asked for seconds and then thirds so definitely one to use again!

Family Walks

2011-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

After church we decided to eat out and then enjoy the beautiful weather by taking a family walk which always comes with it's ups and downs. Today came with more downs with our youngest guy having tantrums galore but with that said we sure had a barrel of laughs as well.

here we are talking to a horse

Checking our stumpy looking shadow

and most of the time the boys held hands
s

An Hour Of Fun

2011-04-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

climbing on rocks!!

Trains

2011-03-30T05:35:00.003-07:00

I love that my boys can play for hours together as long as it involves trains and their tracks!

Kids Day

2011-03-26T09:25:00.001-07:00

Today we made the day all about the kids with swimming, a bird park and two little park adventures. I think as parents we often get caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day life forgetting about the kids. So we made a day of it finishing with a little picnic on the living room floor while watching a film.
In my opinion the perfect end to a great day!

Really Rhys...

2011-03-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

must you lick the lid of the yogurt bucket?

After a long day

2011-03-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

it's sometimes nice to chill with a glass of wine especially when your husband joins you.

I wonder..

2011-03-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

How many more time i will find pieces of fruit and veg slightly eaten and then placed back.

You may ask who the culprit is and i could tell you that it's our lovely darling youngest.

Wilhelma Zoo

2011-03-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

We took the boys to the zoo this morning and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Though the weather was far from nice with it raining on and off. This however failed to stop us from seeing all the new babies around, from a chick hatching to baby gorillas playing.
Definitely signs of spring but sadly not great timing for pictures due to the on off rain.

Downtime

2011-03-10T04:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a rather uneventful month so far mainly due to myself and the little ones catching the lurgy left right and center, I was going back and fourth to the hospital for awhile as well but thankfully we're all on the mend at long last *Keeping my fingers and toes crossed here*.
The one nice thing about being stuck at home though is the spring cleaning that has commenced with the help of my better half. It's amazing just how much we collect throughout the winter months and we're happily downsizing during our downtime.

Which leads me to the whole downtime, this year has been crazy already and we're only 3 months in so we decided to take some downtime with very little going on.
This in all honesty has been lovely and quite refreshing but leads us to the idea that our downtime should go throughout the year. As odd as this may seem I'm looking forward to it as it opens us up to explore our back door. We've lived here almost 3 years and spent more time traveling around other Countries then the places around us. We've seen quite a bit of Germany but i think it's time to see more especially with us having another 3 years here.

It's still hard to believe that we will be in one place for 6 years in total, yikes!

Strasbourg II

2011-02-21T22:42:00.000-08:00

We stopped by Strasbourg so auntie Shona could take a wander around and see some extra sights as we approach her last week with us. Other then it being very cold and snowing we have nothing to report or even write about just a few pictures from our quick pit stop.

Soufflenheim France

2011-02-21T08:41:00.001-08:00

Today we set out to find a very tiny town in deed that's well known for it's pottery. In fact I've never seen such a dinky place but nether the less Soufflenheim is a lovely quaint little town.
The buildings have such an old elegance about them that makes it fun to roam around checking out the designs and the amount of pottery shops around was crazy.
It's somewhere that we look forward to seeing again, of course that means without the kids and snow. I would of loved to of spent the day walking around taking pictures of all the picturesque buildings but i was afraid my camera would of been ruined by the snow fall.

However we did get a couple of shots at least and here they are
Rhys waiting patiently with mummy to check out

Caden being a ham

one of my new pottery dishes, love it!

I found this house slightly creepy yet fascinating.

We spotted this on a side of a building.

Bärenschlösse Stuttgart

2011-02-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

Bärenschlösse started off in 1768 as a summer residence of Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg and now stands as a Country park where you can walk the trails, look over the lakes and just enjoy the tranquility around. They have a very nice restaurant as well which comes in handy if you get caught in the snow. It's a very peaceful place and perfect for a relaxing walk with the family.
I just wish our boys had cooperated today instead of being cranky and crying a lot.

Nether the less we did snap a few not so great shots of our walk.
This was one of the lakes we passed,

our monkeys,

and with my sister by another lake.

Sea Creatures

2011-02-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

Tonight we pulled out some sea creature capsules. The idea is that you drop each capsule into warm water and watch them transform into foam sea creatures. The boys had a blast placing each one in and guessing which animal it would be.

Here is one of the capsules transforming

into a penguin

Here they all are at the end, you can sea a dolphin, seal, seahorse, shark and so on.

Bowling

2011-02-18T06:17:00.001-08:00

We decided to take the boys bowling with auntie Shona last night and as usual we thoroughly enjoyed it. We forgot to take a group picture or even pictures of the adults as we were too busy laughing at the boys. They were very adamant about doing everything themselves which is great since it tired them both out.

Enjoying our visitor

2011-02-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Auntie Shona is in town for a few weeks and the boys are very much loving all the attention from her, as you can see from the picture below
I will also admit that it's nice having one of my sisters here for awhile and we're all looking forward to some adventures together.

Our Cheeky Chops

2011-02-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

turned the big 4 this past week and he doesn't half look his age!

Here he is on his actual birthday all excited about his cake.

Non-Toxic Cleaning

2011-01-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

A week ago i blogged about making a homemade body scrub and mentioned that we had started to use homemade non-toxic cleaning products around the home. So naturally figured i would share some of our findings on here as well.
I will admit that to begin with i wondered if homemade products were worth the time and energy but after doing much research came to find that these products were much better then the typical things you find in shops. The best part about this is you have less chemicals n the home and it's all things you use in the kitchen. To make the following items you will need baking soda, washing soda, white vinegar, a good liquid soap and tee tree oil.

CREAMY SOFT SCRUBBER
Simply pour about 1/2 cup of baking soda into a bowl, and add enough liquid detergent to make a texture like frosting. Scoop the mixture onto a sponge, and wash the surface. This is the perfect recipe for cleaning the bathtub because it rinses easily and doesn’t leave grit.
WINDOW CLEANER
1/4-1/2 teaspoon liquid detergent, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 2 cups water and a spray bottlePut all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past.
OVEN CLEANER
1 cup or more baking soda, Water, and a squirt or two of liquid detergentSprinkle water generously over the bottom of the oven, then cover the grime with enough baking soda that the surface is totally white. Sprinkle some more water over the top. Let the mixture set overnight. You can easily wipe up the grease the next morning because the grime will have loosened. When you have cleaned up the worst of the mess, dab a bit of liquid detergent or soap on a sponge, and wash the remaining residue from the oven. If this recipe doesn’t work for you it is probably because you didn’t use enough baking soda and/or water.
ALL-PURPOSE SPRAY CLEANER
1/2 teaspoon washing soda. a dab of liquid soap and 2 cups hot tap waterCombine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake until the washing soda has dissolved. Apply and wipe off with a sponge or rag.
FURNITURE POLISH
1/2 teaspoon oil, such as olive (or jojoba, a liquid wax)
1/4 cup vinegar or fresh lemon juice
Mix the ingredients in a glass jar. Dab a soft rag into the solution and wipe onto wood surfaces. Cover the glass jar and store indefinitely.

and there you have it, an easy non-toxic cleaning kit. It's amazing how much information you can find out there.

Natural Body scrubs

2011-01-22T01:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago we opted to start changing the way we live, from spending needlessly, recycling more, eating healthier and lastly trying to find those home remedies for cleaning the house. We see so many chemicals coming in and out of the home that it makes you wonder just how much damage they can do to you or those little fingers that roam around.
With that being said i never thought about cremes and body scrubs, that was until last night.
A few of us gathered together for fellowship, crafts and a little pampering which was lovely after being cooped up in the house for the past 10 days.

It was there that we were taught to make an all natural body scrub for exfoliation. it's perfect for rough skin, which as of late mine has been terrible and the best part it's so easy to make.
By simply mixing sugar, olive oil and a few drops of chamomile, tee-tree or orange oil your good to go.
Needless to say this will be something i plan on making more of when needed especially because it works into our lifestyle that I'm trying so very hard to improve on and i'm very much looking forward to finding other recipes

Cady-McStinky is 3

2011-01-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

has turned three!!!

My darling, crazy, sweet, miracle, bundle of energy boy is growing up to fast for my liking but i will admit that i'm enjoying every second of it.

Especially as he was one happy chappy after seeing his Chocolate cake. It was a slightly odd choice of cake with the chocolate drops on the top but that was his request and this mother couldn't resist!

Out with the old...

2011-01-02T06:48:00.001-08:00

and in with the New...A New Year that is!

Is it just us or did 2010 fly past?

Either way we said Goodbye to a very hectic yet great year and now we're excited for all the Challenges, Adventures and Traveling that lay a head of us during our third year of living in Germany.

Almost 3 years down with another 3 to go!!

The Kids Explore

2010-12-28T04:03:00.000-08:00

I just love how kids explore the outsides. Trailing behind each other, without a care in the world and just purely enjoying what's around them. Even if the parents are slowly tiring of this wonderful fluffy white stuff that surrounds us.

A Quiet White Christmas

2010-12-25T02:55:00.000-08:00

It's been such a lovely day with all the snow falling around us and though we've had a quiet Holiday we've in deed made some very fond memories together.

On Christmas eve we enjoyed the company of some friends and fantastic food

Today it was watching our boys open each gift as if they had won the lottery

Enjoying a great Dinner

Taking a walk in the snow

And lastly settling down with Hot Chocolate

and cuddles to watch a film

A perfect quiet White Christmas in deed

Merry Christmas from us to you!

At Last

2010-12-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to snap a picture of my monkeys while enjoying some snow time this morning

and a bonus one of all four of us

Happily Enjoying..

2010-12-10T01:09:00.000-08:00

All of the snow, wind, rain and cold weather that we've been experiencing lately especially when we spend our time baking,

taking walks,

arriving back to homemade soup

and enjoying our evenings together watching films.

Easy Santa Cookies

2010-12-05T08:57:00.001-08:00

Tonight we tried an easy yet very sweet recipe with the children.

So easy in fact that the boys throughly enjoyed this one.

The Ingriedients were crackers, icing, marshmallows, gum drops and any little sweet for the eyes. It's something we can do again and again especially when they look like this.

New New Snow...

2010-11-26T03:27:00.000-08:00

The new new snow is sparkling in the sun
Wherever we go in the new new snow
We are the very first ones!

So it begins..

2010-11-22T00:20:00.001-08:00

The season of snow, colds and lots of fun activities this winter!

We woke up this morning to sleet but by the time Rhys was heading to school it had turned into snow. It's slowly settling around us which makes us wish we lived out of town as it's looking a lot better out that way.

All we can do now is hope that it sticks so we can go out and get some great shots but for now here are the boys walking to school in their first snow this winter

crafty

2010-11-19T03:05:00.000-08:00

This month seems to be flying right past us, so much so that it's been a while since our last post.

So what's been going on in our household?

Crafting, Crafting and more Crafting. We've become quite a little crafty family from making finger puppets, scrap booking, making Christmas bows, cards, good bye presents and picture tiles that hang on our walls. The best part is that we are doing it as a family and having a lot of fun along the way. Our aim is to be able to send out all hand made Christmas cards next year verses the 12 hand made ones this year. Wish us Luck!

One of our goodbye gifts that myself and Adam made

Some Christmas cards

Advent Wreath that we made at the school
and lastly here is a piece of wall art that has yet to be attached to it's frame for the wall.

It's hard to tell on here but the pictures were glued to a piece of wood that was cut into tiles and then layered. It's a very fun and cheap way to decorate your home

Halloween..

2010-10-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

This year we truly celebrated Halloween with attending three parties and trick-or-treating on the base with friends. We throughly enjoyed dressing up as cavemen/woman on Friday, so much so we decided to share a picture.

Fall Fun

2010-10-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

Walking through woods and picking pumpkins are two of the many things the boys are doing for fall fun..

Rugby Fans

2010-10-12T03:08:00.000-07:00

I believe we posted a little something about Rhys playing Rugby with his uncle over a year ago but during our last visit to see family back home in the United Kingdom we came to find both boys now enjoy the sport. This in a whole is quite a benefit for us as my entire side of the family are Rugby mad and though they are two young to learn right now they still enjoy watching the game and playing on the side lines.

Here are the boys watching during one of our trips to the rugby club, we are hoping that they get to learn on the pitch some day instead of the sidelines but we have a year or two until we need to find a camp for that.

We're Home

2010-10-10T05:01:00.000-07:00

We came to the end of an amazing trip, so amazing in fact that we have spoken about either bringing the boys here in a few years time or trying to get stationed here throughout Adam’s service.

Since our last blog we’ve hiked the famous Diamond Head, which is the only place that you can see all of Waikiki and is one of the worlds most talked about craters. I think the best part for us was getting the chance to climb what seemed like a hundred or more steps to a world war 1&2 site.

After that we took a trip to the north shore. This led us through the Ko’olau Mountains which were simply breath taking followed by a stop at a place named Valley of the Temples where we visited the picturesque Byodo Temple.

During our time on the north side we drove through Kahana Bay stopping at Laie Point to observe native plant species but for the life of me I’m lost on the names.

From there we had the chance to stop at a shrimp farm to see endangered wetland birds, the world famous sunset beach, the Hale O Lono Heiau which is one of Oahu’s best preserved ancient temples, Hawaii’s Kukaniloko Birthing Stones (Hawaii’s Stonehenge), a pineapple plantation with pineapple fields as far as the eye could see. Then finally we stopped at our favourite place of the day, Turtle beach. It was here at Turtle beach that we had the ability to enjoy nature by sitting, watching and just completely enjoying the view of two rare green sea turtles.

Throughout the rest of our spare time we’ve renewed our vows for our 5^th wedding anniversary, ate amazing food, enjoyed the beach, hotel pools and finally on our last night enjoyed a Luau with outstanding food and all round great entertainment. Hands down Adam's dance had to be the best!

With our Hawaii trip wrapped up it was time for us to begin the 25 hours of travel in order for us to fetch our monkeys and all we could say as we left was that we will miss that place. Especially since Adam seemed to think it agreed with me, but this Mummy and Daddy were so very ready to see the munchkins. No words could ever describe how much I missed those boys and though this trip was deeply needed I’m glad it came to an end. Once we made it to the UK we settled down to catch up with the family, shop and just enjoy being back with everyone.

Here myself and Adam are at the Rugby club supporting my brother and step-dad who both play. A post about this will be coming very soon all about the boys of course

Pearl Harbour

2010-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit pearl harbour and all i can say is wow!
On top of going to the memorial site we had the honour of meeting three of the survivors, all three took time to speak to us, sign our book and have pictures taken together.Meeting Herb Weatherwax, one of the survivors from that fatal dayThe names of all the fallen
Seeping oil from the Arizona which locals call the black tear. They say that the final oil will leave the ship after the last survivor passes.
Adam looking down to the Final resting place of so many men aboard the Arizona
Us with the memorial site behind us
Adam in from of the Arizona anchor

Manoa Falls

2010-09-30T04:23:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we took a tour through one of the many sections of rain forest in Hawaii that lead to Manoa Falls. Manoa Falls is a amazing site as it tumbles down a near vertical cliff for approximately 150-feet into a small pool. The hike to the falls is stated to be easy but during our tour we noticed several people giving up and heard the news that a tourist had fallen off one of the many cliff edges last week. Thankfully that person is still here. The trail travels through a bamboo forest, rainforest, and base of the Ko'oaus Mountains. The trail is approximately a 1 ½ mile hike, but we were lucky enough to experience another trail that took us further in and up.

It as also during the hike that we found a base of the Kukui (candlenut), most people will know them from the many bracelets etc.. that have become famous throughout the world. I will be posting about this at a later date, so enjoy the pictures for now!

The base of the Ko'oaus Mountainspart of our crazy trail The falls on a calm dayUs at the top of one of the trails

Aloha!

2010-09-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

We made it to Hawaii for our first holiday without our kids in tow. So far we've been busy soaking up the island starting with a hike through the rain forest, seeing a waterfall and on to pearl harbor this morning. Not to mention enjoying the beach and pool at the hotel.

This has already been such a wonderful trip and we are only two days in!

Leaves-R-A-Changing..

2010-09-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

One of our favourite things about living in Germany are the seasons and as Autumn hits us we're surrounded by so many colours. The leaves have started changing and we can't get enough of it!

Sadly we will more then likely miss the full effects of Autumn due to us traveling soon so for now i will continue to snap away at the many leaves until our trip begins.

My Treasure

2010-09-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have the greatest treasure in the world. Which comes in the form of two little monkeys and it's on days like these that I'm reminded just what I have. These two will forever have my heart and soul!

Pumpkin Fest

2010-09-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again where Ludwigsburg Castle has their annual pumpkin festival and of course it's become one of our many traditions since living here in Germany.
This year the theme was under the sea and though it was pretty i have to question if it was as good as the year before. With that being said we thoroughly enjoyed the day.

.
.

September Sun

2010-09-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

Since arriving back in Germany we've been enjoying some September sun and what better way to enjoy it then by spending time with friends.
Saturday morning four of us adults took seven toddlers out to a local bird park that was surrounded by ponds and lakes galore. Needless to say all four of us were a little worried at times but thankfully none of the little ones had any accidents.

Neglected

2010-09-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Our poor blog has been neglected as of late due to us all traveling like crazy, seeing family and so on but to show that we are alive and kicking here is the latest picture of our monkeys together.

It's the start of a busy season for us with Rhys going back to pre-school, myself volunteering with mops, attending pwoc ( a bible study) and gearing up to teach Caden from home.
The man of the house also seems to be quite busy with traveling with work and both of us having course commitments but we seem to be managing to have some family time in between.

Here is a picture of Rhys and a very tired mummy out side his school

Pforzheim Wildpark

2010-07-23T00:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a trip to Pforzheim Wildpark which is a free petting zoo just up the road from us. The park itself takes no longer then two hours to get around with plenty of places to eat lunch and play areas for the children. They also have a ropes course for Children eight and up which looked pretty darn cool to us. The boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves and probably could of stayed at the park the entire day. In fact we enjoyed ourselves so much that we are heading back next week with a bunch of friends from our Mops group, which I'm excited to see all the little ones around the animals.
But for now i will leave you with a small selection of our many pictures taken on the day.

Jump it's

2010-07-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

This past week we had some visitors to one of the local bases which happened to be the cast from Jump It's. Which is a TV program for toddlers and up. The Cast pretty much jump around like lunatics, dancing and singing while completely entertaining the kids.Funny enough we watched a lot of parents also singing and dancing, myself included.
After the show we had the chance to get autographs and a picture before heading home to watch them again on the TV.

Brush, Brush

2010-07-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Brush your teeth little Rhys, brush your teeth ♫♪♪♫♫♪♫♪....
We have a routine set up for when both boys brush their teeth first thing in the morning and right before bed. The routine basically consists of either myself or Adam singing the toothbrush song while we let the boys brush before we finish up, making sure they don't miss any spots etc..

More often then not we have our rough days when one of them opts to be uncooperative but never until now have we had a day where one of them has single handily brushed their teeth five times through out the day while humming the song. This i will admit to being very proud of yet very shocked on the matter.
Needles to say I'm one proud mum after watching Rhys take care of himself over and over!

Fresh Flowers

2010-07-10T03:54:00.000-07:00

This morning myself and the monkeys headed off for an early morning hike before the crazy heat wave kicked in. Along our way we came across a field full of lilies, Sunflowers and many more beautiful looking flowers. At this particular field you can cut your own fresh flowers before leaving money in a drop box. This made for a wonderful morning with the boys as you can see from the pictures below and you can't beat the smell of freshly cut flowers!

Both boys smelling the flowers before we start chopping at them

The bunch that Caden helped with

The bunch that Rhys helped with

Beckenried, Switzerland

2010-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

During our drive home from Italy we opted to make a stop or two as we entered Switzerland for the sake of our sanity as traveling with 5 toddlers can become quite stressful. At first i was a little worried about finding a nice place without any maps etc but thankfully i came across this most magnificent Lake surrounded my Mountains. As we were driving through the town we noticed a cable car heading up one of the mountains and unbeknown to us at the time we had parked right next to the entrance of it. Naturally we took the car which in my opinion was the highlight of our trip due to watching the smiles and laughter flow from all the little ones.
We later found out the name of the town while eating in a lovely restaurant right on the lake which is called Beckenried.

Here are some pictures from our very short yet amazing afternoon in Switzerland..

Driving Through Tuscany

2010-07-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

While in Italy we took a drive through the mountains of Tuscany which was simply breathtaking yet extremely scary at parts. The roads can become very narrow especially while going up with no where to pull over if another car is making it's way down, needles to say i spent the first hour hiding my face, shouting and squirming as we leaned over the edge a few times.

During our drive we had the opportunity to see lovely looking homes surrounded my beautiful countryside

and spotting many vineyards, some that we stopped at.

Eventually finding a lovely place who offered to show us around and let us taste their wine for free.

This was the villa at the vineyard which was built in the 1600's

Baby Grapes on a vine

and many little towns full of sweet little cafes full of delicious food.

Pisa

2010-07-06T22:14:00.001-07:00

We took a last minute trip to Italy starting of in Pisa (western Tuscany) mainly so we could finally see the leaning Tower at long last. Along the trip we were very surprised to learn that this town used to be a seaside settlement and is also known for the fantastic shopping when it comes to leather products. The cuisine is also sitting right as it incorporates elements found in the local environment--including fish, wild meat, dried fruits, truffles, pine nuts, olive oil and local tomatoes. Standard dishes include panzanella, pasta with hare sauce, wild boar and rabbit dishes, lamp fricassee, fried cod and stuffed mussels. Many local wines are available in the area as well.

With that being said we pretty much finished up our trip in Pisa by heading over to the American beach for the kids to enjoy the sun, sand and water. The beach itself is quite small but worth a trip for those of us who are stuck in Germany. This was also the place that we spent the 4th of July celebrating Independence Day with friends.

On the beach

watching the fireworks

Strawberry Farm

2010-06-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Today we set off for a strawberry farm so I could show the boys how to pick fresh strawberries for the first time. After hearing about a such a place from a friend we drove out on a beautiful sunny day to give the boys their first experience. Thankfully the boys took to strawberry pickin' like ducks in water. Rhys enjoyed it more then we could have imagined and loved every second of being out in the sun, carrying his own box of hand-picked strawberries. (Mummy and Daddy had to screen his selections as he was happy picking any type of strawberry, green or rotten.) Caden, on the other hand, took some time getting used to walking on the straw in between the rows of strawberries and for the most part simply pondered his options. After being there for about fifteen minutes he finally warmed up and joined in.

Adam and I enjoyed had loads of fun, picking strawberries for the boys, for ourselves, and just enjoyed the beautiful day. Towards the end of the trip both boys had given up and opted to eat while Mummy and Daddy did all the rest of the work filling the boxes. Before we knew we had more than enough strawberries to eat for a week, make cakes and even jam. (For the record it was about four kilos worth.)

This is definitely a trip to be made every year until we leave!

One of the many gorgeous strawberries.

The boys munching as they worked..

34 miles

2010-06-27T10:44:00.001-07:00

This past week we've opted to walk everywhere rather then drive and why not since we've had such great weather. As everyone knows we are a family who love outdoors so for us it's the perfect way to get plenty of exercise and enjoy the beauty around us.
Most of the walking was done by myself and the boys while Adam worked but he joined us when he could. I'm extremely proud of both boys for walking as much as they did and for taking little naps in the jogging pram. Little bella even join us on one of our 10 mile walks which ended up being a little dog treat as we bumped into several other families walking their pets.

I can safely say I've enjoyed every second of it even through the sun burn and sweat from going up so many hills. So before i finish this post i figured we would share some pictures from this week.

all of us on a trail

a lizard that Caden came across

Milano...

2010-06-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

Or in our case Milan!
I received the greatest opportunity to visit Milan with some friends and let me just start of by saying my love for Italy just keeps on growing. The atmosphere of the city was breathtaking with lovely little stalls dotted around. During the day we visited the Duomo Cathedral, Santa Maria delle Grazie Church, La Scala Theater and a fantastic segway tour that took us all over the city. Our time in Milan was short but never the less we had enough time to shop and eat a lot of great food. This will be one place that i Hope to take Adam one day. Maybe then we could see the Last supper as well.
I hope you enjoy seeing some of our pictures from the trip..

Barefoot....

2010-06-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we opted to do something a little different with the boys as we kick the summer activities into full throttle. First on the list was Barfußpark.
This park we chose was a 2.5 km barefoot walk through forest and meadow, water wading, spacious water playground and woodland trails. The park it's self receives thousands of visitors every week who enjoy natural walking and to top it off it's free.
Thanks to our day trip we will be returning a few times this year

Us at the Start

Us 4 with friends

Rhys exploring

Caden did not enjoy the experience to begin with

Caden Finally got down

Rhys being one with nature while trying to eat an acorn

and lastly pictures of dirty feet

2010-06-14T00:34:00.001-07:00

My family came and went but left us with a ton of great memories and hundreds of pictures to sort out. Here are a few from our 9 days together.

Adam and I at Heidelberg Castle

3 sisters and Mum

My Parents

The Gang at Lichtenstein Castle

With my mum in Treiberg

Folks Visit

2010-05-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

This week some of our family arrived in town and very much enjoying the company. So far it's been busy with sight seeing but here is a picture of them at Heidelberg.

Schwetzingen Palace gardens

2010-04-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

We have a class up in Heidelberg that started up last week so we decided to make a day of it and take the five of us out. When i say five i mean myself, husband, kids and of course Bella our fur child. It's rather odd how she's become our baby but if you had the chance to meet her you would see why, pretty much everyday she barks for cuddles, when Adam returns from work he has to greet the boys followed by Bella but more often then not she comes first. She loves to be snuggled up in her blanket and so on yet the boys just adore her and spend hours running around like lunatics. So in all she is very much one of the kids and apart of the family.

Anyway back to our day trip, The palace it's self was very pretty and often used for weddings as we found out yesterday. we must of walked passed several brides all having their pictures taken while other families were enjoying the sun by having picnics, walking their dogs and running around like crazy with the children. Defiantly made us fit in more.
We enjoyed hours of walking and a nice picnic lunch surrounded by daffodils and here are just a few pictures of our day...

Frühlings Fest

2010-04-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

The spring fest is upon us once more so naturally we made reservations with friends to enjoy the first weekend of the fest kid free. We reserved a table for 13 in the Chicken tent just like last time and without fail the beer was amazing and the Chicken delicious.
Here are a small portion of pictures from the night with plenty of drinking, dancing, eating, antics and a much needed stop for candy floss at the end of the night.
Oh and did i mention that Adam bought me a new hat for messing up the one from last year, though i believe everyone else wore it more then myself

Monkey mountain

2010-04-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning we set off with friends to a little town called Affenberg Salem and on route we explored the scenic roads while enjoying games and dancing with the boys. Once we arrived at monkey mountain we were greeted by several pleasant locals who were more the willing to guide us around and explaining the history of the monkeys in the park. The monkeys are actually called Barbary Macaques who live in the park roaming freely within a forest area of 20 hectares. the best part was our ability to feed them popcorn.

I was surprised that they had 200 monkeys, 10 of which were pregnant and the oldest in his 20's. Normally the average live span for males are 21 years while the females live to 23. They did have one monkey last 31 years though which is amazing since they are bread in captivity.

Holland

2010-04-13T05:02:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally able to blog about our trip to Holland this past weekend and let me tell you it was just as good as the first one a few months back. Though The weather was much warmer this time around it still left us freezing at night. We think it's mainly due to camping close to the water. never the less we had a blast and enjoyed the company of our friends.
All in all we've made it through markets, ate lots of local foods, visited the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh Museum, the tulip feilds and so on.

If i was to blog completely about it we would be here a week or two so instead i'm going to leave you looking through a few of our pictures

We're off

2010-04-08T01:35:00.000-07:00

to the Netherlands again whoohoo!!

In a few hours we will be packing the car up and heading off to meet friends for our mini break and let me tell you we're all very excited. So much so that we have nothing ready or any plan on what we will do other then seeing some tulip fields.

For us it's our second time going as we took my sister Natalie to Amsterdam while she visited us but completely forgot to post about it. So for now i will leave you with a new picture of our monkeys and hopefully have a great blog to write on our return.

Stash-tastic

2010-03-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

So my darling husband decided to take part in stash-tastic which ran from the 1st to 31st of March.
Where men all over the states were taking part in the mustache march the lads in Adam's work opted to do their own version.
Needless to say i was not a happy bunny for the entire month but now that he has shaved the thing i can finally rest but not before posting these ghastly pictures.

The end result
Adam called it his chemo-stache...

Shaving away step by step

and hurray it's gone!!!

13 months

2010-03-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

is all that's left for us here!

I can hardly believe that we've been here for so long or that our time is vastly approaching the end.
It seems like yesterday where i struggled off a plane with a crap load of bags and two little boys in tow but at the same time we've had such an amazing time here that no wonder it's gone by so quickly. As of the 12th April we will have exactly 13 months left here unless we are approved to stay.

For us the month of April will be a long drawn out process of waiting and wondering on if we need to start clearing up or if we can plan our next chapter in Germany. One things for sure is that we still have plenty to see before we leave and are already making plans in case our time is up

So for now the waiting game has commenced

oh my

2010-03-23T07:51:00.001-07:00

how they have changed. I often think of them as my babies but from looking at them here i can clearly see that this is not the case. I find myself happy that they are out of the baby stage yet sad on how fast our time together is going. Before we know it they will be off on their own causing havoc on the world so i better capture memories like these every chance i get.

Park time

2010-03-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

At long last we've had some sunshine so maybe spring is arriving. Naturally for us this is great since we are an outdoors kind of family and what better way to enjoy it then heading out.
We began thinking about venturing out as a family but instead gladly opted for some company from a friend and her triplets while her hubby is away. Which was defiantly the right choice as we had a blast walking around Stuttgart, shopping, eating out twice and most of all watching our kids play so happily together.

Here are 4 of the 5 monkeys chilling
Rhys was to busy playing in the sand

Jackie and myself

Dog Crate Fun

2010-03-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

While getting some work done around the house i couldn't help but wonder why the boys were making such a racket. So naturally like any mother should i went in search of my monkeys and to my surprise found this

Rhys locking the dog crate from the inside.

Then pretending they were stuck shouting get me out..

Followed by fits of laughter...
and just a good old time!
(note the chocolate covered chops, which means one of them found the sweets)I wouldn't say i agree with them playing in the dog crate and we have since put a stop to it but at the same time i love how they are so creative. Not to mention i can't help but love on the fact that they were quite happily playing together.

So there you have it from one caged monkey to the next that's how our boys enjoyed a rainy afternoon

Patiently waiting..

2010-03-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

for the weather to cheer up in order to go here again It's one of those places that take your breath away in the summer and reminds you about how nature is supposed to be. It's peaceful and fun to walk around with the family.
The boys especially like it as the paths are always over grown and you get to enjoy the wildlife that is lizards, toads, fish and birds.

So here's hoping for spring to arrive soon as all this crazy weather is making us out door folk stir crazy

peaceful

2010-03-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

Life seems to have gone crazy on us over the past few months so much so that with the kids, school, work and every day things I've forgotten all about just taking time out to relax.
Which left me trying to remember the last time i just took pictures for the fun of it.
Needless to say just from looking at the picture below i need to get out more and enjoy what life has in store for us with the camera

I alone find this quite peaceful and of course i just love my new ring

St. Davids Day

2010-03-01T23:22:00.001-08:00

is today so we wanted to share a snippet of history with you all.

For centuries the first of March has been a national festival. As St. David was recognised as a national patron saint at the height of Welsh resistance to the Normans. So today is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March each year. The date of March 1st was chosen in remembrance of the death of Saint David on that day in 589, and has been celebrated by followers since then. The date was declared a national day of celebration within Wales in the 18th century.

Children take part in school concerts or eisteddfodau, with recitation and singing being the main activities. while the public take to towns for an annual parade with concerts held in the pubs, clubs and other places. Many of us wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on their tops to celebrate St. David: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol which is in season during March) or the leek (Saint David's personal symbol) on this day. The association between leeks and daffodils is strengthened by the fact that they have similar names in Welsh, Cennin (leek) and Cenhinen Pedr (daffodil, literally "St Peter's leek").

In South Wales (My home), males usually wear leeks while young girls wear daffodils. Then we have the traditional Welsh costumes that we used to wear to school. These costume consists of a long woollen skirt, white blouse, woollen shawl and a Welsh Hat, like the picture below

And since I'm a proud Welsh lady and sad that we could not be home for it i decided to bring the day to us by making Welsh cakes with the boys and doing a Leek and Potato Soup for dinner.
Next year we have a holiday planned which will bring us back to wales around this time so the poor boys will end up wearing a welsh costume once in their lives but for now i will miss home dearly and teach my boys parts of our tradition from here in germany and of course enjoy eating Welsh cakes like the bunch we made in this picture.

Nos da!!
In case your wondering we said Good night which is pronounced: nohs dah

craziness

2010-02-28T00:07:00.000-08:00

With the weather being so nice this weekend we finally took the boys out of the house after a week of being cooped up due to myself being ill. Originally it was meant to be a nice, quiet walk which turned into shopping followed by a rather exhausting walk. This was due to Daddy acting like a big kid and running riot with the monkeys along one of the many bridal ways near us.

I guess we are in the season of running and pulling faces
but they are my handsome monkeys

Pancake Day

2010-02-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, back in the UK, they celebrated Pancake day. So, attempting to keep up with the traditions of both countries, we set out to make British style pancakes.

Shrove Tuesday, as it is known in the UK, is the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer for Lent. I now know from my husband that in the states Shrove Tuesday is actually called Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, made famous in New Orleans. In the United Kingdom and many other countries, the day is often known as Pancake Day.
For us it was just nice to have a little something from back home. Sure enough, our little Brit child loved the pancakes with sugar and lemon juice just like Mummy. I wish we could say our other monkey enjoyed them but our oldest seems to prefer the American style pancakes.

Here is a picture of Adam's first attempt of making myself and our cheeky Brit kid happy!

Valentine Banquet

2010-02-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

Friday the 12th myself and Adam had a chance to attend a valentine banquet in Heidelberg. Not only did we have the chance to dine with some amazing and inspirational people, Get professional pictures taken and great food but the opportunity to renew our vows with every other couple in the room. Though Hearing Adam's words were one of the highlights of my night the best part would have to be knowing my boys were taken care of, having a blast with the free childcare that was provided and spending good quality time with my husband
I so often forget that quality time is needed for both us and Thanks to an amazing guest speaker and his wife i came away with a new understanding to life, my marriage and the way i want my family to thrive.

Our pictures won't be ready for a few weeks but have this picture thanks to one of the couples we met.

Just Keeps Falling..

2010-02-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

Here we have this amazing experience of living in Germany and the opportunity to travel around Europe but right now I'm dreaming of warmer weather!
Most of January we were covered in snow and as we approach mid-February we are still covered in snow. It's wonderful in some ways and not so wonderful in others, especially when we have places to be or plans that unfortunately have to be canceled due to being snowed in. It's been falling constantly for the past 3 days and showing no signs of stopping any time soon. We've shoveled outside our building four times in 16 hours and we just spent an hour digging our car out!
Now as I sit here typing I wonder if it was wise, our shoveling, with the new layer of snow I see and the fact that the entire country of Germany has run out of salt. So for the time being we will watch as it just keeps falling, try to dig our way out of homes, ski across roads and of course, enjoy another few more days of sledding with the boys.

After getting finished clearing outside our door

You can just about make Adam out clearing around our vehicle

It was hard work that's for sure!

Hearts...

2010-02-10T03:46:00.001-08:00

With us having another snow day myself and the kiddos decided to bake some heart shaped biscuits which sadly didn't look as good as the cupcakes from yesterday but they don't half taste good!
I'm really enjoying these days with my boys and know i should soak them up as before i know it they will be grown and off doing their own thing.

My Little Chef

2010-02-08T23:46:00.000-08:00

Today myself and Rhys enjoyed some quality time together by making cupcakes and with valentines day approaching we opted to use pink icing.
He thoroughly enjoyed it especially when it came to icing the cupcakes and I'm going to miss these afternoon crafts due to him starting preschool in a week.
My little chef hard at work..

and here is our sweet result

Little Valentines

2010-02-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

With valentines day approaching we will spend the next week making little V-Day crafts and cakes so naturally we decided to kick off our February posts by sharing a few pictures of out little munchkins.
Hope you enjoy!

Rockin Out ♫♫.♪.♫..♪♪♫

2010-01-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

The boys seem to be rocking out every morning with the guitars they received for their birthdays.
Caden likes to jam and dance throwing his head about while Rhys takes the lead with his voice. It really is a crazy sight to see but there is no better way to wake Mummy up than hearing them sing very loudly at 6am followed by watching them shake their bums.

Please excuse the mess from the toy monsters.

Note how Rhys is balancing his trains.

Lastly, Caden getting ready to throw the guitar like a true rock star.

Finally we head out to Holland tonight YAY!!

Snow Day

2010-01-09T07:34:00.000-08:00

After taking the boys out sledding at Castle Solitude yesterday, Em and I decided that we'd venture outside and just play around in the snow. It snowed quite a bit over the past couple days and Patch was completely blanketed with a thick coat of white snow.

In the morning we bundled the boys up with hats, coats, and scarves and began trudging through the snow to find a nice place to start a snow fight. Poor Caden was so bundled up he had a hard time moving! After walking around a bit we found a nice, undisturbed area of snow next to some trees and began to play. Emma attempted to make a snow angel and in the first few seconds of making her wings, she was tackled by Rhys.

We tried to introduce the concept of the snowball to the boys, but Rhys was more interested in gathering the snow up in his hands and throwing it up in the air. Em and I threw a couple snowballs at the boys, but the most we got back from them was a cheeky smile from Caden whenever I handed him a big snowball. He, shortly afterward, threw it to the ground and laughed.

Being from Louisiana, I am still getting used to being around snow. Being outside and being able to play with Em and the boys in the snow is still a great treat for me, and I know that I can speak for Em and say that we both will miss this winter wonderland whenever it comes time for us to move on to our next adventure.

Sledding

2010-01-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

Today we finally managed to get out and really use our sled for the first time since buying it last month. I have to admit that though it's nice to have snow it's not so good driving out here.
We started off our day by going to our favorite place, Castle Solitude, as last year we had so much fun watching all the German Families sledding down the hills.
Naturally, Caden disliked the majority of it but did enjoy watching Mummy and Rhys go down the hills over and over. Rhys seems to come alive in the snow and would spend all day in it if he could.
There is nothing more satisfying than watching your children smile and having fun the way they were and it's worth getting completely soaked and freezing for an hour or two after.

Here we are enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and short bread biscuits, trying to warm up.

New Year

2010-01-07T01:52:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that we are already 6 days into January 2010 and that it has been over a month since our last post. Mind you quite alot has happened around here. We started off December seeing Christmas Markets here which followed by our car crash and of course the holidays which kept us extremely busy. As the new year began and the majority of people make resolutions we opted not to and focus on the things that we would like to change or achieve.
For example being a stronger family, the four of u spending more time together as well as myself and Adam as a couple. We plan to do some traveling again this year with Amsterdam being our first trip. That will hopefully be the 26th of this month after my sister arrives.
We can not describe how excited we are to have Natalie visit again or to celebrate the boys birthdays with her. To sum up our past month we have selected a few pictures from each occasion to share, enjoy!

Snow at last

2009-12-15T06:23:00.000-08:00

At long last we had our first snow fall this winter here in Germany. Actually it's been snowing on and off for the last few days so yesterday before Adam left for work we ventured out in it.
Just as we thought Rhys lit up and immediately started playing with Bella who also enjoyed her first outing in it. Unfortunately Caden was not so happy but here are some pictures of us all anyway.

Santa

2009-12-07T02:09:00.000-08:00

The boys visit Santa!!

Thanksgiving 09

2009-11-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly getting used to celebrating this holiday as everyone knows i only do it for Adam and the boys but i will admit i love being around family and friends and having a great time throughout.
Yesterday we enjoyed some company with just a few friends. The kids played while us women chatted and the men played rock band.
The food was amazing, the company was even better and there were some very good films on the telly. I'm truly thankful to of spent the day with them all and feel extremely lucky to have them in our life's
Here are two pictures of us with our closest friends here, we of course are missing Shellie and little cj as they were stuck in the states.

Trick-A-Treat

2009-10-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

Tonight we took the boys out to do some trick a treating around our area dressed up as a Monkey and Lion. We had originally used theose costumes this past Monday at a little party but due to it being so cold we decided to let them have them again and just use the pirate ones for our Adult/Kids party with some friends.

It was a great night with good company, food and laughter. Please excuse my son with the pink pumkin, as he decided to pinch Cami's instead of using his own.

Here are a few pictures but sadly have yet to get a hold of some of us girl pictures