Wij houden van pannenkoeken!

Goedendag! (That's Dutch for "Howdy!")

Last weekend we spent an amazing three days in the Land of Tulips. We rented a car Friday afternoon and drove to the Netherlands, which is only about two hours away. We spent that evening attending the temple just outside of The Hague. It's located in a small city named Zoetermeer. Beautiful and intimate, the temple is located on a small parcel of land. The local church building used to be there, but they tore it down to build the temple! The temple has an underground parking lot complete with a distribution center. But one of the coolest hallmarks is the enormous 4oo kg brass door that adorns the front of the building. Incredible! (the hinges had to be changed twice!)

We started Saturday by attending a second session of the temple (can't get enough of a good thing, right?), and then headed to Amsterdam. Fortunately, we'd been advised not to try and park downtown, so we only had to wait ONE hour at the edge of the city for a parking spot at a Park and Ride. The transit system there is pretty amazing, though. In the city we cruised the canals by boat, ate Dutch pancakes, and took in the enormous diversity of people, architecture, and history. We even got to see the famous house of Anne Frank!

Sunday found us traveling through Leiden, Noordwijk, and The Hague. We attended a small English-speaking Church branch in Leiden and enjoyed their warm welcome. We then cruised the coastline of the North Sea before hunting down a few windmills for good measure. Before heading back to Germany, we drove through The Hague and saw their parliament on the water. It was a truly fantasic time.

Otherwise, things are going well for all 2.5 of us. School and work keep us plenty occupied. This weekend we found our new favorite place to stop and enjoy our little village: the local gelatto cafe - complete with an Italian owner! Mmm...we love gelatto!

We hope everyone is well and enjoy your weekend!

Love,

Laura and Jason

Us outside the Haag Netherlands Temple

The Haag Temple

A view of the front entrance.

Jason standing along one of the many canals in Amsterdam

Look closely...the house on the right is sinking!

There are over 2500 houseboats that line the canals in Amsterdam. Most of them are used as full-time residences.

There are more bikes than people in Amsterdam (and that's a fact!). We saw quite a few of these bikes around town.

Hoisting hooks on the warehouses-turned luxury homes in Amsterdam. Once used to hoist freight into the warehouses, they are still used for furniture since the stairways are too narrow.

Jason in front of Anne Frank's house.

The worlds most public urinal. Laura is not so impressed.

The Noordzee

A trip to Holland would not have been complete without taking a snapshot of a windmill.

18 Weeks, 5 Days....and counting!

Happy New Year Family and Friends!

After celebrating the new year somewhere over the Atlantic we have arrived back to our busy schedule in Germany. Things are going well and we have been getting much done (although some of our luggage is still sitting in our living room...).

An update on Christmas:
We thoroughly enjoyed surprising everyone in Canada with our Christmas News! (1+1=3! For those of you who may not know, that's the equation for a baby.) That's right, come June, we will be a family of 3. Christmas was full of surprises, good news, family, friends, puzzles and plenty of food. Before heading for Canada, we enjoyed some Christmas traditions of our own. One of them being that we put our 2008 Christmas Decoration on our tree. Upon arriving in Canada, we were delighted to surprise everyone and then partake in Graham Cracker House/train building (an English Family Tradition). Our time in Canada was brief but we enjoyed spending time with all of our family.

We seem to have brought the snow back with us and we have a picture below of what we woke up to our first morning home. Only yesterday did the last of the snow melt away. It is such a rarity here for snow to last that long that most people don't have shovels. We saw many people using garden shovels, pieces of wood, or anything else that might push the heavy snow off to the side. It was an interesting sight to see.

An update since arriving home:
IT"S ALLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! We have heard our baby's heartbeat. That was a wonderful experience (and seriously cool). Things with the pregnancy are going well. Laura is excited to be nearing the half way mark and to have a little baby bump. Jason is excited to know what the gender of the baby is (although we're not telling...at least not yet). Life in the new year has been spent studying (for Laura) and working (for Jason) during the week...and sometimes longer. Weekends are significantly more entertaining and tasty. This past Saturday we baked aplenty! Whole Wheat Vegetarian Pizza, Whole Grain Bread, Bran Muffins, Whole Wheat Crackers and (our indulgence) Angel Food Cupcakes with whipped cream and fresh egyptian strawberries. The missionaries will get the pleasure of tasting the last item tonight! We have also started our hand at sprouting. We're only on day 2 of rinsing, so we'll update more on that later. There are also a few pictures of our apartment up as well.

In the next couple weeks things will get even busier, but that's the best way to be. There is never a shortage of things to do with our callings at church, school, work, and getting ready to welcome a munchkin into the world. We are so excited and feel incredibly blessed. We'll do our best to keep in touch and post updated pictures.

Love you all!

Laura & Jason

Our Christmas puzzle, all finished and just in time for Christmas!

Jason putting up our 2008 Christmas Ornament.

Our very tasty, Graham Cracker Christmas Candy Train.

A mid-day picture of the beautiful white stuff we woke up to! Pretty to look at.

Our cozy bedroom. Thanks to Ikea, we actually have a blanket that covers the whole bed. It's common to have two single blankets for a double bed. That was our setup for over a month until Ikea finally had something larger in stock. Now there is more cuddle room!

The kitchen. Small, but we still manage to both be in here on the weekends to cook and bake together. It's one of our favorite things to do.

Jason pulling down our attic access. It's pretty spacious up there.

Laura's Baby Bump. 18 Weeks 4 days.

Our delicious pizza, 1kg loaf of bread, and bran muffins!

Crackers!!!

Dessert. Yum.

Hot off the press!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Happy weekend everyone! Things have been very busy on this side of the world and we are finally gearing up for Christmas. This weekend we put up our tree, checked out the Medieval Christmas Market in Siegburg and "schneed" our windows. It's all very exciting and we have pictures of it all for you to see. The tree was quite the success. Jason put it together and lasted only a few moments with the lights before Laura took over. The Medieval Market was AWESOME! All the people at the booths were dressed in period costume, there were jesters, interesting food and Sankt Nicholas even made a visit. We took a video of a medieval merry-go-round that was hand cranked, but failed to figure out how to put up a video yet. If we figure that out, we will be sure to put it up. Schneeing (which we've adapted as a verb) was a new experience but it was great fun. We also took some pictures of our apartment but we'll put those up in a later post.

That's all for our weekend. Hope that all is well!

Love you all!

Jason & Laura

Yes, that is a giant Toblerone that weighs in at 4.5 kg . It was a beautiful sight.

Laura with the puzzle that we decided to take on. It's coming along...

Jason with the top of our tree!

Laura putting on the lights.

Us with the finished result. YAY!!!

Laura not too sure what she is about to eat. We bought it from a booth that had a pig's head on a stick. It did taste REALLY good though!

Jason taking a break.

Some big bags of spices and tea.

The BEST way to bake bread!

Heading back to the train station. The Monestary is the building in the back on the hill.

SCHNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a CAN!

Jason concentrating VERY hard as he prepares the stencil.

Laura showing the stencil on the window, ready to be schneed.

SCHNEEEING!!!!!

The final result!

Just For Fun

Morgen, Tag, oder Abend (for whenever you read this!)

We're just adding a few more 'just for fun photos' from Bern before we move on to another location. Enjoy!

Our First Post On Our Blog

Hallo, Familie und Freunde! Welcome to our latest idea. Since not everyone has Facebook...and since Facebook doesn't seem to work very well for us, we have joined the blogging world. We'll try to put up a few pictures here and there of what we are up to so you can all take a peek at your whimsey. To get things started we posted a few pictures from our brief trip to Bern, Switzerland. We loved Switzerland. We were able to attend a session at the temple and then explore the city. The temple was nothing short of amazing and the city is very charming. We made a stop by Einstein's hause and also enjoyed the best chocolates we've found yet. We finished the day off with a small jaunt up a steep hill for an amazing view of Alt (old) Bern. The drive to Bern and back was breathtaking and we enjoyed counting the numerous castles as we drove through the french country-side. A great trip!



The Bern, Switzerland Temple

















Heading out to the car after a wonderful session.














One more snapshot in front of the temple.

















Laura in front of Einstein Hause.

















Jason holding the delectable hand-made chocolates.