Bremen Christmas Market

We have had so much fun taking Keely down to the Christmas Market. Filling up on Kartoffelecken, checking out all the Christmas baubles, admiring the handmade nativity sets and stocking up on Zimtmandeln. We've had plenty of fun. Keely has taken plenty of photos that you can check out here and in the mean time, here is a family photo that she took of us heading down the lighted streets to Christmas Market (I love having family photos!).

Road Trip – Day 10 (Stake Conference in Hamburg and home)

Oh, it feels good to be home. Walking into an apartment that was clean and fresh was a wonderful feeling (I go cleaning crazy the day before we go on vacation; we’re talking “spring cleaning” crazy). I am so looking forward to everyone sleeping in their own beds tonight as last night was an adventure. We checked into the hotel to find they decided to put us in a room with one king size bed with a baby cot instead of two queen beds with a baby cot. That meant we had one very active toddler who likes to practice his dance moves in his sleep in bed with us. Between that and Milayla waking up 4 times, none of us got very much sleep. And boy, did that lack of sleep come through at Stake Conference this morning….

On the bright side, our breakfast was wonderful. Near the end of breakfast, Atticus apologized to me and when I asked him what he was apologizing for he said “I think I found a new home; I really like this hotel.”. Wow. It’s really hard to compete with these buffet breakfasts they offer. Guess I’m going to need to step it up a notch. Thankfully, once we arrived home this afternoon Atticus was pretty grateful that he decided to keep this home and said “I’m sure happy to be home. It smells good.”. Both kids were super helpful pitching in to get everything unpacked while Jason cleaned out the car. Yet, before we even finished unpacking, Milayla was busy packing things back up and saying goodbye. I think we certainly have a little traveler (or two) on our hands.

It was a great trip. It felt good to spend so much uninterrupted time together as a family. And it feels great to be home. Looking forward to picking up our family runs again tomorrow. Not looking forward to doing the grocery shopping. We have lots of fun family days on the calendar and with the holidays coming up we are highly anticipating some memorable family traditions. We’ll be doing a little Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend (which will be a weekend that has already passed by the time that this is posted on the blog) and after that my attempts to convince Jason that the time is now appropriate for Christmas music commences. Wonderful days!

Mommy School

I love having the kids home during the day. I know it it only for a brief time that they are home before they head off to school, so I really enjoy giving some structure to the day so that we can learn and have fun at the same time. I used to plan my own lessons and activities (which was very energy consuming and I had a hard time focusing them all in together) but for this past fall I adapted the Joy School curriculum to be suitable for both kids and it has been great for all of us. We typically have Joy School two mornings of the week, one morning for a field trip, one for a play date/group and one for errands. It makes for a week filled with good things that keep us learning and discovering and that is good for all of us. Here are just a couple photos of what the kids do in Joy School.

For Thanksgiving we had a nice lead up about gratitude and ways that we can be thankful. For one activity the kids were to come up with ten things that they were thankful for. I love their list. They were so proud of all they were able to come up with.

And on this particular day, we made paper dolls of our family. Atticus had fun decorating the boys in the family, while Milayla picked out the colors for the girls in the family. The kids loved having this up for the entire week and showing all of our guests our family "portrait".

For field trips we love heading to the museums in Bremen, the library, nature walks or exploring new areas of Bremen. Here are some photos of the kids at the Ubersee Museum in Bremen (a favorite of ours). 

I feel pretty blessed to get help these two awesome kids discover the world around them as they grow into little people. We really do have so much fun. 

Road Trip – Day 9 (Hamburg, Conference with President Monson in Germany)

We woke early in the morning without the aid of the alarm (and even before the kiddos!). We were pretty anxious to get on the road and start our trek toward Hamburg to listen to the prophet – President Monson. It was certainly divine intervention to wake us when we did as things took a little bit longer to get loaded up than we had anticipated, then the journey was slowed multiple times due to construction and vacation travelers (it was the start of the school vacation in the particular German state we were driving through and everyone was headed off for vacations with their cars packed to the brim) and I certainly cannot forget the quick reactions that Jason was blessed with as we narrowly missed two accidents. Though the journey was longer than we had expected, awaking early allowed us to make it to the conference location with just enough time to park and head for the door, the only problem was that there were no parking spots to be found. Having booked a hotel for the night in the area we decided to pull over and key in the hotel address for the GPS, we would then go and park at the hotel and walk over. After we typed in the hotel address we realized that it was quite a bit further than we had realized, parking there would surely make us late. Then we looked up and noticed that we managed to stop our car right in front of an empty parking spot that we had somehow missed when we drove by the first time. I know parking spots are fairly trivial, but after being in a car for 5.5 hours with two children anxious to see the prophet, a parking spot within reasonable walking distance was certainly a prayer answered for this mama.

We approached the building just as everyone was heading in. The next task was to try to find a spot where we could be certain that the kids would be able to see the prophet (after nearly 3 weeks of Atticus praying to meet the prophet, I felt it my duty to ensure he had a good seat). That part was generously taken care of by a friend who spotted us looking for a seat and offered us to sit by her. Oh, how great those seats were. I only hope our friend did not second guess her decision of letting us sit with her when the second hour rolled around and both our kids began getting a bit restless. We were certainly grateful for her generosity.

Being in the same room as, and listening to, the Prophet was an incredible experience. He is such a calm, witty and jovial man who exudes the spirit. He spoke primarily about choices and it really hit home to both Jason and I. The choices we make define who we are and what we will become. The talk has certainly helped provide the spiritual guidance for many choices that we were considering at the time. I am so grateful that we got to go there, that the kids could feel of the spirit in that room and hear the words of a living prophet so directly (and not just over a computer screen like we watch General Conference). It was an experience to be remembered and pondered upon. I am grateful and glad that we could all experience it together. The prophet even looked right at us and smiled. Or maybe he was looking only at our general area, but even still it was awesome. So blessed. 

Road Trip - Day 8 (Frankfurt LDS Temple)

After nearly 6 hours in the car this morning (thanks to a few road delays) we arrived at the Frankfurt temple. Thankfully, we had followed an impression we had to cut out an additional stop we were going to make or we would not have made it to the temple in time to do a session each. 

the gorgeous view during the drive

The kids were pretty excited to arrive and so were we. We checked into our room on the grounds and I rushed off for a session at the temple while Jason unloaded the car and organized the room. Unfortunately, we could not find someone to watch the kids so that Jason and I could attend a temple session together but it turned out quite nice for the kids to each have time with each of us on the temple grounds. I miss living closer to a temple. We were certainly spoiled when we lived in The Netherlands with a temple only a 20 minute drive away as it made frequent trips to the temple a lot easier to organize. Though I suppose ‘close’ is relative as I know there are still many people in the world who must drive further than we must in order to visit a temple. No matter how long the drive though, I always feel a deep sense of gratitude as I step inside the temple doors and the comfort of the temple washes over me. I love the temple. It has been the setting for many important life decisions, inspiration and guidance. It is where Jason and I were married; where we began building our family on an eternal foundation. I am grateful for the blessings of the temple and eternally grateful for the restoration of the gospel that has made priesthood authority and temples possible to bless our lives. Today was certainly no exception for insights gained and I felt a deep yearning to have my other half there with me to discuss the things I learned. I suppose it is only natural, while sitting within the walls of the temple, to yearn to be with my eternal companion and our children. It certainly strengthened my resolve to teach our children the gospel so that we can be together forever. As I walked out of the temple doors, I walked out with a deeper dedication to my Savior, to my family and to seeking God’s will for me and our family and following after it. And I walked out to big smiles on the faces of my family waiting outside for me. I love this magnificently crazy bunch. They’re awesome.

As luck would have it, I actually got to use my poor German skills to help out a girl in the temple who was visiting Germany with her husband. Yay! We enjoyed talking with them both outside the temple after the session.

Then it was time for us to quickly hurry off to make sure everyone had some dinner and send Jason off for his session at the temple. Then it was my turn to enjoy the stillness of the grounds with the children before sweeping them off to our room and getting them ready for bed. 

And now, with the children having finally drifted off to sleep (after staying awake to see the temple lit up at night time), I get to sit and ponder on the things that I learned while I await Jason’s arrival from the temple session that he was able to attend. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow; we’re going to go listen to a prophet’s voice – President Thomas S Monson. There has been a countdown in our home leading to tomorrow and a certain little boy who has been praying that we will have President Monson over for dinner. I love the sweetness of a child’s love for the gospel. And, who knows, it could happen one day.  (he even asked if we could invite Heavenly Father and Jesus for dinner so that President Monson would definitely come.)

Milayla's First Haircut

Look who has bangs. And they look great on her.

photo credit goes to Keely Hochstein

So glad to not have to continually work to keep clips/elastics in her hair to keep the hair out of her eyes and so is she. And now she has a little locket of hair safely tucked away in her baby book. She's growing up so fast :).

Little Moments

Just a couple photos that Keely had taken of Milayla while we were running errands and while they were waiting for me to finish up my hair appointment. I love them too much not too share them.