The Ankeney Tribe

Aliya's Surprise 10th Birthday!!

2011-12-26T05:25:00.000-08:00

On September 23rd, we decided to surprise

Aliya with a birthday party! It was a double

surprise because not only did she not know

that she was going to have a party, it was also

not anywhere NEAR her actual birthday day!

So the first picture is of Aliya being

"surprised" by everyone. Geoff took all

the kids on a long walk with Juna while

I decorated and wrapped presents and then

everyone came inside before she did and hid

so we could jump out and yell "SURPRISE!"

She was definitely surprised!!

This is what Geoff thought up to do

with the party decorations.....

Mosquito Man

For her birthday we all went to the Potzberg

Wildpark, where she had been wanting to go

for a while.

It was JUST her kind of place, horse-lover that

she is....

Jordan and a horse checkin' each other out!

Daddy and William looking at a bald eagle

together...

The kids thought that the white rheindeer

were really cool...

And this white stag came up and struck a pose

just for me!

The park had moose....

and stinky wild boar...

We had a fun day!!

Then on the way home we went to our favorite

restaurant in Baumholder, where we used to go

all the time when we first got here.

Then we walked down the street

to Giovannie's Eis and got ice-

cream like we always used to do.

I think she felt special and surprised,

even though she doesn't turn 10 until

December 31st!!

Grundschule (Elem. school) Open House

2011-12-26T05:03:00.000-08:00

Aliya and Jordan both go to the

German Grundschule in our village,

and they are both doing well! It has

been a challenge for them, and us, to

learn a new language while doing their

regular schoolwork at the same time.

The first weekend in September the

school had an open house and the kids

all had things to show the parents about

what they had been learning. Jordan's

class was learning all about sea life, so

their classroom was decorated with

all of their projects and things that

they were learning about sea animals.

Aliya's class was learning about Dino-

saurs so they performed a dinosaur

song, as well as a dance that they

learned for the open house.

This is Jordan's teacher, Frau

Fuhrman. She has had the same

teacher for the last two years.

This is another new skill that Jordan

and Aliya have learned in German

school. I love the little differences

like this between this school and

the American schools.

They start out on stilts with the

platform really close to the ground, and

then gradually move up to higher and higher

platforms. Jordan is really good on those

things!!

Here is Aliya performing the dinosaur song...

she is the second girl from the right.

And here is part of the dance that her class learned.

2011-12-19T06:10:00.000-08:00

In August, when Geoff went to Officer Basic

Training in Texas, my sister Jennifer got to

come out and help me for a week! It was so

fun to see her again after almost a year!!

We showed her around our little village,

including a trip to Schmidt's Bakery for some

ice-cream!!

The kids talked to her and played games with

her to help her get over her jet-lag.... and it

worked! She was onto our time after about

2 1/2 days!

One of the days she was here, I got a babysitter

and we drove up to Trier for the day. We saw

the Roman Black Gate (Porta Nigra), and walked

through it and into the pedestrian area where

the good shopping is found :-)

Also in that pedestrian area is a

HUGE cathedral that dates back

over 1000 years....it is a pretty

amazing place to see.

One of my favorite memories of our

time together is trying to get these

shadow pictures and laughing hysterically

the entire time. What a fun day!!

We actually got some summer weather while

Jennifer was here, so the kids were finally able

to play in their new sprinkler!!

It was also SO fun to be able to set up our scrap

stuff in the living room and leave it out all day

so that we could scrap together every night!!

This is Auntie Jennifer intruducing William to

the wonders of Peep online :-)

We took a trip to one of our favorite places

near us, the Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl. The

Furlong girls and Jordan put on an impromptu

dance show for us....so cute.

And a trip to European Country Living made

her visit complete....I miss you Jennifer! Thank

you for coming!!

BBQ'd Roasted Marshmallow S'mores!!

2011-12-19T05:54:00.000-08:00

Emma's 12th Birthday--8/14/11

2011-12-19T05:34:00.000-08:00

For Emma's birthday, we had a little family

party this year and it was great! Sometimes

it's nice to just keep things simple. We had

presents and cake.....

and laughing......

She loves her new Penguin pillow pet!

William is telling her a very important

secret.....

To end the night, we pulled the bed out of our

couch and they got to stay up late watching

a movie of Emma's choice and eating candy

and popcorn!! Happy Birthday, Emma!!

A visit from the HInes's

2011-11-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

At the end of July, our friends the

Hines's came to visit us from

Portland! It was so fun to reconnect

with them. Jordan, William, and

Jack were three peas in a pod. And

Aliya and Maddie took to each other

right away. We are so glad they

came!

While they were here we drove to

Luxembourg to see the Beaufort

Castle. It was old and beautiful,

like they all are. Lots to explore.

Aliya and Maddie chatting away

about some girlie thing on a thousand

year old column...

The three stooges...William, Jack, and Jordan.

Nate and Geoff...

Jack and William actually look quite

a bit alike...especially from the back.

Kris and I at the castle...

Downtown Luxembourg...

One of the days they were here, we went

to Bad Durkheim to a wine fest there. I

love walking through the vineyards and seeing

the villages in the valley all around.

BEFORE the double haircut...

DURING the double haircut...

and AFTER...both with mowhawks...cute boys.

Six crazy kids....

A little bit of Summer with the Baughmans

2011-11-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

All the Baughmans and the Ankeneys love

to swim and this time it was warm enough

to go to an outdoor pool that we discovered

in Landstuhl. They use a "green" filtration

system, which means that they don't use

chemicals to clean the water, but the water

is actually GREEN! It is a really fun place

to go, though.

London, July 2011

2011-11-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of July we took a trip to

London to see the sights and visit our friends,

the Alnutts, that we have known since we

lived in Santa Barbara! They live RIGHT

on the Thames, and can see the Prime

Meridian from their kitchen window at night...

it is marked by a green laser across the sky.

Across the river from the Alnutts are

the buildings of the old Royal Naval

Academy...the kids decided to pretend

to be statues...

We spent a lot of time walking around

London, and taking the Tube...sometimes

we just needed a rest...

The Maritime Museum

Debbie at Canary Wharf Sunday morning

before church...

The kids LOVED Debbie and Marshall! They

babysat one night so that Geoff and I could try

to catch a show and the kids had so much fun

with them! I love it that they know the Alnutts

now. They were such a big part of our lives when

we were dating and first married.

The kids thought that the tunnel underneath

the Thames was pretty cool....creepy, but

cool...

This is a metal sculpture of a baboon like the

ones that used to be in the Zoo at the Tower

of London.

More resting, this time at the Tower of London

More animal replicas at the Tower of London...

oh wait! Those animals are MY animals!

The White Tower...bad things happened there.

I didn't go in...

I told the kids the story of the "Beef Eaters",

which is what the guards at the Tower of London

used to be called because they used to get a ration

of beef along with their pay. So, Jordan was

REALLY excited to get a picture with one of the

"meat guards" as she called them... :-)

Emma meditating (or something) at

Westminster Abbey...

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament...

Westminster Abbey door...

My little model...

On the flight home we ended up on the same

plane as our friends Anne and Megan! Megan

is our favorite babysitter (besides the Alnutts,

of course!) and it was so fun to fly home with

them!!

Home at last...

June 2011

2011-11-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

June was filled with friends, the end of school,

playing, sunny days....

Saying goodbye to Claire, Jordan and William's

buddy from German Kindergarten...

Saying goodbye to Savannah, Aliya's good friend

Spider-pirate William...

....and Emma's art school...she invited all

our little friends over and played games with

them and had them do art projects...she is

definitely going to be a good teacher someday.

Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest heights...

2011-11-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite places to go near us, is

up in the hills behind our house by the big

windtowers. It's a perfect place to have a

picnic and fly a kite if you happen to have one.

It was a perfect Spring day, and since we DID

have a kite, we thought we would try it out.

It was great fun!!

Centerparc Erperheide, Belgium May 2011

2011-11-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

We got a chance to go to a great place in Belgium

called Centerparc Erperheide...it's one of a chain

of parks throughout Europe. Each one has a hotel

and usually a waterpark, and restaurants...it was

really fun! The kids got to go to a kid's club where

they dressed up as knights and princesses and had

a little program, and they got to do Bingo one night...

Jordan and Emma both won something. I think the

thing they liked the best, though (besides the

swimming) was all of the animals! There

were animals everywhere!

Ballet Recital!!

2011-10-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

At the end of their first year of ballet lessons

the girls danced Swan Lake for their recital!

They were very excited, and a little nervous,

but they all looked beautiful and did a great

job! Geoff even brought them flowers to

congratulate them!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-10-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day, Geoff gave me an overnight

at a spa called Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden...

an old bathhouse

that Royalty used to visit. Jen F. and Jen C. also

came and we had a nice girl time there. It was an

amazing place with pools of different temperatures,

tiled walls and ceilings, saunas, hot rooms, and a final

room where you lay on a bed and they cover you up

with warm blankets and you sleep for a half-hour.

Heavenly.

And then when I got home, the spa treatment continued!

The girls had looked up things to do online, and they

pampered me!! It was so sweet and fun! Thank you

Geoff and kids for letting me go, and for the spa at home too!

Happy Easter!

2011-10-25T00:57:00.000-07:00

Look to the RIGHT, William!

In the TREE!!

Daddy, giving a little helpful hint...

Megan Ingram, our favorite baby-

sitter...

After church, we went over to the

Ingram's house for Easter brunch

and Easter egg hunting! The day

was gorgeous, and the kids had

a ton of fun...and a ton of candy!

Getting ready for Easter

2011-10-25T00:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm WAY behind and you

are looking at EASTER pictures a

week before HALLOWEEN! Sorry.

Anyway, this year we thought we

would try doing Easter eggs the way

Germans do it. So, we poked little

holes in both ends of the eggs and

BLEW our brains out along with

the egg innards...it was pretty fun,

and we had omlets for dinner!

Then we dyed them like normal

and glue-gunned string to the tops,

then hung them from the trees!

Family Time

2011-10-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

One day in May we took a bike ride near

Ramstein Air Force Base to watch the planes

take off and be outside together. It was a

beautiful day, and even Juna got to come!

Juna

is a great dog...she even jumps on the

trampoline with the kids...whether they like it

or not!

March and April 2011

2011-10-18T05:43:00.001-07:00

Emma and Aliya decided to decorate

the front walk one day...it turned out

great! And it was lucky that I took

pictures, because it rained that night

and all the colors washed away...

Happy 7th birthday, Jordan!!

Happy 5th birthday, William!!

In March we celebrated William's 5th

birthday, and in April Jordan turned

7...I love seeing the looks of happiness

and delight on the face of the birthday

child.

Disneyland!!

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

At the end of March, we all went to

Disneyland Paris to celebrate lots

of things...William's Birthday,

Jordan's Birthday, Aliya and Jordan

making it through an entire year of

German school, Emma making it

through her entire first year of

playing the French Horn...

We're at Disneyland!!!

William and Jordan looking at our all-time

favorite ride...Big Thunder Mountain!!

The hotel where we stayed had these

Teepees up all over the grounds...William

was scared every time he saw them because

he thought that there were real Indians

around somewhere...Indians that were

mean and scary. We just had to stop and

show him the inside and let him in on the

secret that there are NO American Indians

in Paris, unless they are there to visit.

Can't wait to go on the Buzz Lightyear

ride!!!!!

End of a fun, but LONG, day....

Disney Parade

Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse

In the Four Months since Ireland.... (cont.)

2011-07-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of March we had another

fun visit with the Baughmans....Here is a

sample of our creations...

This time we took lots of walks in the woods...

Here's all the kids in birth order...in the street:

Grace, Joe, Gloria, Emma, Rose, Aliya, Libbie,

Jordan, and William.

Thanks for coming Baughmans! We loved having you!

In the four months since Ireland....

2011-07-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

So, now I'll fill you in on some of the things

we did in the last four months...they were

definitely FULL months, and very fun!!

One of the German traditions that

we like the most is Fasching, which

is the celebration that comes right

before Lent...kind of like a German

Mardi Gras. The kids like it

because they get to dress up in their

Halloween costumes twice each year!

Every year in the city of Ramstein

there is a big parade that we have

gone to twice now. There are always

interesting costumes and they throw

candy (the real reason we go...not sure

why though, because we haven't even

finished eating our Halloween candy)

Ireland

2011-03-16T06:49:00.001-07:00

Over President's Day weekend, we found really

cheap flights to Ireland and decided to do it!

I am SO glad we did...and I can't wait to go

back. Ireland is one of my favorite places on

Earth. I can't believe how beautiful it is. We

had a wonderful time on Dingle Bay.

The first day we were there, we discovered

that Dingle is the sister city to Santa Barbara,

CA where Geoff and I met, went to college,

got engaged, and had Emma... it was a little

other-worldly to be so far from home and still

find little pieces of familiarity.

You can't come to Ireland without

your Spiderman hat.

We hiked up mountains in the wind and fog...

LOVED it.

Later found out that not only is Dingle the

sister city to Santa Barbara, but this dolphin

statue that the kids played on was made by the

same man who made the dolphin statue at the

bottom of State Street in Santa Barbara! Small

world.

This was the view from the house we rented.

At the moment, the tide is out, but that whole

inlet would fill back in with water!

At the top of Connor Pass...we hiked up there

and added our own rocks to the pile. The wind

was so strong that we could barely stand!

The second day we were there we took a boat

out into the bay to see if Fungi, the wild

dolphin that lives in the Dingle Bay, would

come say hi. We had such great weather, sunny

and cold.

...And Fungi DID come to see us!

Exploring the tidal zone...lots of treasures to

be found there! I think in this picture, Geoff

is using a sharp rock to try to cut a net out

from under some rocks. Cave man?

View of Dingle from out in the bay...

Jordan and William making things for me...

We stayed near Brandon Point, so on the last

day we drove to the tip of the penninsula to

see what was there... again, more beautiful...

sheep that act like mountain goats, cliffs,

sunshine, GREEN...sigh.

Good-bye Ireland, we'll come back soon!

Skiing in Tyrol

2011-02-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

Our first trip for 2011 was to Austria, to the

Tyrolian Alps!

All four kids got to take ski lessons for two

days and they did really well! They went from

never having been on skis, to being able to go

up a small tow rope and go down a hill with no

problem!

Early morning pre-ski calisthenics

Geoff is pretty much a natural at every sport

he tries, so he knows how to snowboard even

though he's only been on one two times.... I,

on the other hand, needed a lesson. So I took

my lesson and learned a few things before

breaking my tailbone...and I'll be anxious to go

practice those things as soon as it heals! And Geoff

got to snowboard to his heart's content for two days!

Baumholder Triathlon

2010-07-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

On June 27, 2010 Geoff took part in the
Baumholder Triathlon. A guy that we
didn't know very well originally just
needed someone to swim for his team,
but on the day of the race the runner
backed out, so Geoff did the running
part of the race as well. He did a great
job and it was so exciting to watch! He
came in 2nd place in the swim, and they
came in 9th over all. Fun day!!

Trip to Belgium and Brugges

2010-07-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Summer so far

2010-07-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Greenwich Market

2010-05-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

As soon as Heidi got to London, the day after
I did, we walked through the tunnel to the
other side of the Thames and went to the
Greenwich Village antique market

London 2010

2010-05-11T06:44:00.001-07:00

Three days after our fun weekend in Paris,
I packed up again, this time headed for London
to meet up with my college roommate Heidi at
Debbie and Marshall Alnutt's house... This is
their "flat" complex...they are pretty tall to
be called "flats", but whatever, it's England.

As soon as I put my bags down, Debbie and I
made our way down the street to a tunnel that
runs underneath the Thames (30 feet under at
low tide, 50 feet under at high) to go visit the two
cathedrals in Greenwich in the picture below. Debbie and
Marshall live right on the banks of the Thames
across from these cathedrals.

We had a beautiful sunny day to go sight-
seeing...not normal for London

The cathedral on the right is called the Painted
Hall...painted over the course of 17 years by
a man named Thornhill, beginning in 1708.
Debbie is making a cameo appearance in this
picture on the right :-)

View out the front window at the
catheral opposite the Painted Hall,
the one on the left in the above
picture

Heidi is obliging me by being in the
picture so that you can see how HUGE
this place is!!

This is the other cathedral, called
The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul
The ceiling is supposedly modeled
after Wedgewood china, for those
of you who are into that kind of
thing

LOVED all of this!!

Paris "Honeymoon"

2010-05-10T08:54:00.001-07:00

For our 13th anniversary, Geoff
and I got to go to Paris for a whole
weekend by ourselves! Geoff planned
the whole thing...I knew we were going
but I didn't know what we were going
to do...the first thing we did was
go on a boat cruise on the Seine, seeing
all the amazing landmarks from the river
all lit up at night. At 11pm we were in
front of the Eiffel Tower and they turned
off the traditional yellow lights and turned
on sparkling white lights!! It was pretty
amazing.

On Saturday evening we went to
Notre Dame and actually went
inside this time....amazing and
beautiful. I think the most common
word out of my mouth all
weekend was "WOW"

Each face carved into the stone was
different! Who has that kind of
patience any more?

It was Labor Day there on Saturday, so the
Louvre was closed, but we still got to walk around
it and see the glass pyramids...wow again

Getting crepes at an outdoor cafe...
banana and Nutella!

The pictures got mixed up, but here's us
on the boat cruise on Friday night

On Saturday afternoon, we went
down into one of King Louis IV
wine cellars underground and had
a neat experience learning about
wine tasting and have a bread and
cheese lunch...YUM...can't wait to
do THAT again!!
Thanks Jen and Dave, and Jen and
Kevin for your help with the kids!!

Jordan's 6th Birthday!!

2010-04-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

Also while the Baughmans were here, we
celebrated Jordan's 6th birthday! Since her day
was the day right after Easter, we had Andy
hide about 70 eggs and all the kids had a big
Easter egg hunt in the yard... very fun, but
the pictures didn't turn out. So, you can see
the eggs on the table as proof :-)

Sweet six-year-old girl!!

Her new birthday tent... it is now a cl
clubhouse
in their room.

A Visit from the Baughmans

2010-04-18T08:47:00.001-07:00

This time when the Baughmans came
to visit, we took them to the Nanstein
Sickingen Castle that is just about 10
minutes away from us and let the kids
explore and climb to their heart's
content...

Grace and Jordan sitting like "ladies"

William is FOUR!!!

2010-04-17T13:06:00.001-07:00

William turned four years old on
March 21st... He thought that since he
was now FOUR, he would get out of
taking naps every day...but alas...he still
needs them. He's not sure whether or
not he wants to be strong and healthy,
like naps make you, but we are
perservering.

I loved how he used his olive-topped fingers
to tell me how old he is now!!

Emma, Aliya, and Jordan helped me make his
birthday crown....William was very excited about it.
Happy Birthday, William!!

Wine Tasting in Bad Durkheim

2010-04-17T04:59:00.001-07:00

Our friends, Kevin and Jennifer Coleman...
our wine-tasting buddies.

There are lots of amazing wineries in our area,
all an hour or less away. This is our second trip,
this time to a little resort town called Bad Durkheim.
They have a Weinstrasse (wine street) that runs
through the middle of town and is lined with 15 or more
wineries. This particular weekend they were all
open for wine tasting at the same time...so off we went!

This is the Coleman's daughter, Katelynn, in the picture
with William.

Sledding and Snowboarding in Schwarzwald!!

2010-03-03T03:46:00.001-08:00

We got to spend an incredible weekend in the
Black Forest with some friends of ours in
February. We did a lot of sledding and our
family went snowboarding for the first time
ever... it was pretty amazing to be there.

The little village of Hoeschenswand where we
stayed had a little parade right to celebrate "fasching",
which is the season before Lent. Their parade
was centered around the pinecone, which I guess
is a big thing for them.

We were having so much fun, that I actually
didn't take my camera out very much! But
my friend, Jen, put together a video of the
pictures she took, and you can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvw8s1VfgNQ

And more snow....!!?

2010-03-03T03:34:00.001-08:00

I loved the snow on the ground and
on the tree branches for so long...

We were sad to leave behind the
Chehalis Western trail that was right
by our house in Olympia, but it turns
out that there is a trail right by our
house here, too!

A Day in Par-ee!!

2010-03-03T03:03:00.000-08:00

In January, Geoff and I took the kids
to France for the weekend to see the
Baughmans, and one of the days we got
to spend the day in Paris!!

It was pretty amazing to see these places
in real life...

After driving past the Arc de Triomphe,
our first stop was the Eiffel Tower... the
kids were convinced that it was going to
over on us!!

Right on the bank of the Seine River we found
a carousel and a place selling cotton candy...

Notre Dame, all lit up at night...and even though
we were there in the middle of January, they still
had a Christmas tree up! So BEAUTIFUL!

On our way out, we drove past the
Eiffel Tower again so we could see
the lights.... yay! Can't wait to go
back!

Months of Snow

2010-02-28T09:48:00.001-08:00

Since before Christmas we have had snow in
the air or on the ground almost every day! This
week the snow melted and it started raining, but
for two solid months we got SNOW!!

The kids and Geoff made a wonderful snow

castle in the corner of our yard.

We did lots of sledding and even snowboarding,
and just tried to be outside as much as we could.

Merry Christmas from the Ankeneys!

2010-01-03T05:48:00.001-08:00

Anxious for Santa to Come!!

2010-01-03T05:35:00.001-08:00

Emma dressed Aliya up as Santa, and made
Jordan and elf so that William could sit on
Santa's lap and tell "him" what he wanted
for Christmas... SO cute.

Jordan-the-Elf has a purple sack full of toys

in case William has been a good boy this year

He got exactly what he wanted... a train made
out of toilet paper tubes!!

Are your cheeks washable, I wonder?

Let it SNOW!!!

2010-01-03T05:20:00.001-08:00

December 12th we woke up to
our first snow of the season!!

We took our customary Sunday walk
to our neighborhood bakery in the snow...

And parked our sled in their sled racks

The wider you open your mouth
the MORE flakes fall in...right??

The kids made this little squatty
snowman all by themselves!

Getting ready for Christmas

2010-01-03T05:09:00.001-08:00

Every year after Thanksgiving we get into
our pajamas and have hot chocolate with
marshmallows and candy canes while
we decorate the tree. The kids love to
open their ornament boxes and remember
the different Christmases that each
ornament represents. AND Geoff holds
court at his "ornament store" where kids
can get hooks for hanging up their things.

The "Ornament Store"

Getting ready for Christmas (cont..)

2010-01-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

Emma discovered the recipe for Chex Mix
on the side of the cereal box and we decided
to make it this year! I made sure we had
all of the ingredients, but she read the directions
and made it pretty much all by herself! She
was surprised that it tasted "real"

Thanksgiving

2010-01-03T04:54:00.000-08:00

I didn't get many pictures of our Thanksgiving
celebration...with the Baughman's here with us
and some friends from Geoff's work... we had a
great time. But I love this picture of Jordan watching
the turkey roasting...such expectancy! Almost like
Christmas!

On the Way Home

2009-11-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

We stopped by King Ludwig II's castle on
the way home...he wasn't there. But we got
to see where he lived! This is the Neuschwanstein
Castle, which is the one that most closely resembles
the Disneyland castle.

This was taken from a bridge over a really
deep ravine that runs on the right side of the
castle. It's hard to imagine anyone living in
such an amazing place. It's also hard to imagine
how he got UP to his amazing place in the winter
time with only horses or wagons (or whatever
royalty used in Bavaria in the 1800's).

The Top of Germany!!

2009-11-19T15:13:00.001-08:00

Getting up there...

2009-11-19T14:57:00.001-08:00

We took a little cable car from the bottom of
the mountain, all the way to the top.... I mean
STRAIGHT
UP!!!
It was way scary, and really fun!! Geoff and
Aliya had a little relief-cry at the top, but
otherwise there were no incidents :-)

And once we were there and had seen the
top from the viewpoint, we took another (less
scary) cable car a little way down the other side
and ate snow and sledded...

... and finished up the day with huge cups of
hot chocolate. What could be better!!

What big sisters are for....

2009-11-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

Isn't it nice that William has big
sisters that help him get dressed
in the morning?? Um...not so much.

The GOLD cowboy belt is the perfect touch

Treating at the hospital (no tricks for sick people)

2009-11-02T12:34:00.000-08:00

"Cardboarding Pumpkins"

2009-11-02T12:23:00.000-08:00

William kept talking about "cardboarding"
something, and I was so busy CARVING the
pumpkins that it took me a minute before I
finally figured out that he thought that I was
"cardboarding" the pumpkins. He even told me
not to cardboard HIM when I got too close to
him with a knife!

I cut the tops off of the pumpkins, but the
kids got in there and "scooped the goop" all
by themselves. They thought it was pretty gross.
I heard things like: "This feels like brains" (made me
wonder when they had felt brains previously), and
"ewww it's so slimy!!" and, "can I lick this off of my
hands?".... but they did a good job!!!
Emma did her whole pumpkin by
herself for the first time ever! Hers
is the one with the heart eyes.

There are PUMPKIN PATCHES in Germany???!!

2009-10-23T06:31:00.001-07:00

We were all so excited to take a field trip
to the Pumpkin Farm! I had thought that
we would have to just get our pumpkins at
the store this year, but a friend found out
about a patch and so we went!

We all rode, like cows, in the back of this truck
from the farm buildings out to where the pumpkins
were. It was great. William is STILL talking about it!
MOO!

Along with the truck ride, they also
gave us a free tour of their farm which
included pet-able chickens, cows, ducks
and ponies. The kids LOVED it!

More random patch pictures

2009-10-23T03:20:00.000-07:00

We got "real" farm eggs!!

Happy Halloween Hens!

Of course William loved the tractors

Bonjour from France!

2009-10-21T06:53:00.001-07:00

Joe was a champ and played with William
a ton. You can tell he has younger siblings...
he is never short on ideas!!

"Big" Auntie Jennifer (not to be
confused with "little" Auntie Jennifer,
who is my sister) saying good
night to Emma...

Grace cuddled with William whenever he
would let her :-)

Four cousins... Gloria, Emma, Rose, and Aliya

Libbie and Jordan were constantly together.
We didn't really see them very much until
we called everyone for meals, and then
they would emerge from whatever little
nook they were nested in.

I took all these kids on a little field trip to
St. Quentin, which is about 45 minutes away
from Nurlu, where the Baughman's live. We
were in search of the Musee de Papillon
(Butterfly Museum). I say "in search of" because
we did A LOT of searching before we finally
found it. Luckily we were looking for it in
a beautiful city, so we just wandered around
looking at all the sights until a nice bicycle-taxi
man took pity on us after seeing us walk across
the same square five times and drove to it
while we all waddled along after him like
a gaggle of geese.

We weren't supposed to take pictures of the
butterflies, but I snuck this one without a flash.
I hope their wings don't fall off now!!

Here's the square that we walked through over
and over again. The castle-y place in the
background had a nice bell tower that would
chime every 15 minutes with really beautiful
music.

The Baughman's have a huge old barn filled
with hay and rigged with swings... where do
you think the kids played most of the time??

Happy UnBirthday Aliya!!

2009-10-21T06:30:00.001-07:00

Aliya didn't turn 8 on September 17th!! Since
her birthday is on December 31st, she thought
that maybe she could pick a different day of
the year to celebrate and have a party, and
then her real birthday wouldn't get overshadowed
by Christmas and New Year's. So, she picked
September 17th. It just happened that the
Baughman's were at our house for a visit from
France on thatday, so she had A LOT of people
for her party!!

William "helped" Aliya blow out her candle
(which was stuck into a pint of cookie-dough
ice-cream...she doesn't like cake!)...so we had
to light it again so that Aliya could blow it out
by herself :-)

What's happening here...

2009-09-27T12:49:00.001-07:00

Bicycle-shaped places to lock up your bike...

Aliya is catching all manner of wildlife in
our backyard. Mostly butterflies, ladybugs,
snails and caterpillars, and this one little snake.

Our van finally arrived!! We can now go
places as a family again!!

Lazy cat...

Picnics in the backyard...

William is convinced that he is spider-man... the
girls made him the mask and some spider-man
wall art and he has perfected the hand gesture
to make webbing come out of your wrist. Nice
to have a doctor AND a super-hero in the family!

Walks to the park

First day of Kindergarten for Jordan!!

First day of 2nd grade for Aliya, and 5th grade
for Emma!

Two new things I love

2009-09-27T12:41:00.001-07:00

1) A washer and dryer!!! William likes
them too :-)

2) A potty-trained boy!! Can you see what is
on that little behind? No more diapers... he now
wears spider-man undies!! Yay! I haven't changed
a diaper in THREE weeks!! That is the longest time
since Emma was born 10 years ago!

Going to Ikea....NOT!

2009-09-27T12:30:00.001-07:00

My mom and I got to go out just the two of us,
and we thought we would go find the Ikea and
see what was there. Our GPS didn't find it at
first, but it did take us into the city where Ikea was
supposed to be. So we stopped for a while and
looked at downtown Mannheim... including a
cool fountain, the Mannheim University, and
a little cafe with THE BEST food ever!! A nice
waiter found the exact address for Ikea and we
did finally get to it after lunch... except that it
was Sunday and everything, Ikea included, is
closed on Sundays. Oh well. We had a ton of
fun anway!!

The Castle in Lichtenberg

2009-09-27T12:10:00.001-07:00

We visited Burg Lichtenberg (the castle
in Lichtenberg) before Mimi left. There
is a ton of the history of the castle written
just inside the entrance that you can see behind
Emma and Aliya, but of course I didn't
write any of it down. I do know that it
was built around 1200 and is the largest
castle ruin in Germany.... and it just
happens to be only 15 minutes from us!
It is beautiful and mind-bogglingly old.
There is also a nice restaurant and a
youth hostel there...

We laughed when we saw this ping-pong
table that must have been left over from
the cave-man era, or at least from the 1200's
since it was made completely out of stone,
including the net! Geoff immediately
picked up a flat rock and a little
pebble and wanted me to play with him!

Castle...continued

2009-09-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Mimi!!

2009-08-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

For her birthday, my mom got to take the train
to Paris to see her sister Jennifer and hopefully
go to some art museums!!! She left Saturday and will
come back to Germany on Wednesday. She is
hoping to be able to see the Baughman's house
while she is in France, too.

I don't know what we would have done if she
hadn't been able to come to Germany with us
to help us get settled. There are so many things
that would have been SO hard to do with all four
kids, and she has been there to help out with them.
Wow! Thank you Mimi!!!

Alstadtfest

2009-08-22T08:11:00.001-07:00

The All City "Fest" (Alstatdfest) is happening this weekend
in Baumholder...actually RIGHT below our
windows! This includes food and beer stands,
jewelry and art booths, rides, candy...and two
huge music stages, one at each end of the street.
They have live music on each one continuously
from 7pm until 2AM Friday thru Sunday nights!
It is really fun to walk around and see things (like
a pig that does tricks) and listen to the music, and
then we go inside and can still hear all the music!
It's pretty much like they are singing right in
the room with us...

We got the keys!!

2009-08-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

The kids are excited that our new
house has a bath tub... the hotel that
we have been staying in only has a
shower.

One of my favorite parts of the house
is the curved staircase with the little
carpet pieces on each stair. It is just
to the left of the front door as you walk in.

This is the kid's bathroom upstairs.
The previous owners remodeled it
from Ikea...yay! AND she left me
some cleaning supplies also pictured
here!!

This is one half of what will be Emma
and Aliya's room. The blue and white
bathroom opens off of this room. LOVE
the slanted ceilings!

And they also remodeled the kitchen with stuff
from Ikea. There is a TON of counter space and
cabinets and drawers line both sides of the room.

Our new house!! (almost)

2009-08-18T13:16:00.001-07:00

On Friday we will get the keys to our new house!!
Yay! Not that we have beds or towels or kitchen
supplies...those will all get here sometime between
now and September 15th. But at least we can go in
and look at it again! And there is plenty of room for
visitors!!

Visitors from France, cont.

2009-08-18T13:11:00.001-07:00

Visitors from France

2009-08-18T13:03:00.001-07:00

The Baughmans (my Aunt Jennifer and six
of her kids) came to visit us on their way to
somewhere else in Germany. It's so fun when
we get together with them because there
is someone for each of our kids to play with!
We took them to the lake to play in the sand
and get our feet wet.

Libbie got Jordan and William into being statues
on every raised surface they could find...

Aliya and Rose, flouncing around the corner...

I felt like the tail-end of a gaggle of geese as
we crossed the street!!

Jennifer and Geoff having a pow-wow in the
van since that was the only place not
crawling with kids!

She is TEN!!!

2009-08-18T12:51:00.001-07:00

How can she be in the double digits already??
I can remember when she was the only baby
and I had NO IDEA what I was doing...I still don't
but now there are FOUR of them!! Emma is
growing to be a beautiful, thoughtful, introspective,
and creative girl. I'm so glad she was born!

Emma requested ice cream after
dinner for her birthday, so we
walked down the street for some.
Jordan really liked using the leftover
wrapping as a hat...way to recycle
little Bear!

Aliya used some of her own money
to buy Emma a birthday present!
So sweet...

Mimi set up the birthday table with Emma's
stuffed animals and other decorations, just like
she used to do when I was little! It's so fun having
her here this month!

Numbers

2009-08-16T12:45:00.001-07:00

I am loving the creative ways that people put
up their house numbers here, so I thought I
would take some pictures. I'm sure I can use
them in scrapbooking SOMEHOW! Sorry Cathy,
I don't have any "4's" yet.

The Sights

2009-08-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

This is looking out of our second
story window... the man sweeping
his cobblestones is so timeless, to me.

Taken on a walk around the city after dinner...

This is just around the corner...we take lots of
walks these days!!

Our hotel is at the very end
of this street, and our favorite
ice cream store is at the other
end...

We Made it to Germany!!

2009-08-11T16:28:00.001-07:00

There is a beautiful lake within walking
distance from our hotel... the kids like putting
their feet in it and even swimming in it when
the weather is warm.

Yay, Mimi finally made it to Germany after
a long delay and then flying FIRST class the
whole way here. We are SO thankful that she
is here as we navigate this whole ARMY
overseas thing.

Mr. Elma is now a world-traveler thanks to
Ian and Ali's cat carrier. He barely made a
sound the whole trip, and we are all glad that
he is here with us!

William was so jet-lagged the second day we
were here that he fell asleep before he made
it all the way onto the bed... poor guy.

What I did at the crops

2009-03-15T10:53:00.001-07:00

Well, I can't figure out how to make
these pictures flip around. Sorry
if you get a crick in your neck while
looking at them :-)

LOTS of scrapping!!!

2009-03-15T10:43:00.001-07:00

February was the month of crops! Yay!

We got to go to two of them in one
month and we had SO much fun! Much
to my delight/dismay, I won the grand
prize drawing! I say "dismay" because
I have gone to four of the crops where
they do that particular drawing, and I have
won THREE times! It's over $100 worth
of scrap stuff! So, naturally I feel a little
bad that I keep winning. Everyone kept
telling me to get a lottery ticket, but I just
did that this weekend and it seems that
my winning streak is confined to scrap
stuff....oh well.

Here are my scrappy friends!

Someone shook our snowglobe, again! In February!

2009-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

The weekend that a bunch of family came!!

2009-02-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

We got to have Ruth come up to visit a few
weekends ago, and I can't believe this is the
only picture I got of her! She took a BUNCH
with her camera, though, so maybe she will
give them to me. It was so fun to have her
here, and we wish we could see her more often!
Then, while she was here, Mimi, Linda, Carol,
Grammie, and Ayamee came to our house, too!
We had a fun lunch and the kids had a great
time playing with Linda and Carol's dogs and
with Ayamee, too!!

Mimi brought the girls some little
dress-up rings...

Christmas pictures in January

2009-02-10T10:10:00.001-08:00

Each year I try to get the kids all dressed up
and take a Christmas picture of them...this
year it didn't happen until January 19th, but
that was ok, because our tree was still up!!
I guess it pays to procrastinate somtimes :-)
These are the pictures that I liked the best...

And....the silly ones

2009-02-10T10:04:00.001-08:00

Aliya's Birthday, continued

2009-02-10T09:56:00.001-08:00

Ashley, Kaiya, Aliya, and Heather

Our friend (and Geoff's coworker), Ian
Bonner came to help Aliya celebrate...even
though he had never been skating before!

Kaiya's mom, Bridgett, and I
helping William skate... I think
his arms got tired pretty fast!

Jordan didn't want help, and she
didn't need any help... little
adventurous thing!

Emma and her friend Rebecca
from school doing the Hokey-
Pokey...

Happy 7th Birthday, Aliya!!

2009-02-10T09:49:00.001-08:00

For Aliya's 7th birthday, we went to
Skateland with some of her friends and
had her party there! I think it was a
fun and special time for her, and it was
WAY inexpensive for me!!

Post-Christmas Christmas

2009-01-17T17:24:00.001-08:00

The Saturday after Christmas, Mimi and Del

came up to celebrate Christmas with us! They
brought Kevin, and Grammie and Grandaddy
with them, as well! We had such a fun time,
with yummy food and lots of laughs... it's so neat
for me to be near family for the holidays. I
know that we have been back in the States for
a few years, but for some reason, this Christmas
felt really special, with lots of good memories
(Del trying to persuade Grammie to RIP the
present open instead of saving the wrapping paper
for next year.... The girls putting on a 'show' for
everyone, complete with costumes and lights...
Kevin telling me that he can't help the kids
put together William's train set because he
doesn't do "arts and crafts"... Mimi, Aliya, and
Grandaddy playing Blokus... and many more)
and time with people that are special to the kids
and to us. Thanks for coming! We're so glad that
you did!!

Maybe he's good at arts and crafts after all!!

These are the only pictures I have on my camera!
I took a bunch with Mimi's camera, though,
so maybe we'll see them on her blog someday!

Too-White Christmas

2009-01-17T17:11:00.001-08:00

Because of the snow, we thought we
wouldn't be able to be in Portland for
Christmas, but on Christmas Eve we
bought tire chains, packed up the car,
and headed South, hoping that we would
make it to my dad's house. The drive
wasn't too bad and we made it ALMOST
to their driveway, then just walked the rest
of the way up the hill. Dad and Connie
woke up on Christmas Eve morning
thinking that it was just going to be the two
of them for the holidays...it turned out
that Dave, Beka, and Dean got stranded
at their house, then we showed up, and then
Kevin walked in the door unexpectedly
after having flown into Portland from LA.
So, instead of two people, they had 12!!
I am so glad that I didn't miss that time with
my family, that I didn't miss my dad
reading the Christmas story, that my
kids didn't miss that time of connecting
with their Portland family, and that I
didn't miss the look on my dad's face
when Kevin walked in the door!!
Thanks for having us, Dad and Connie!

Emma's Christmas

2009-01-17T17:07:00.001-08:00

Emma's Christmas Eve p.j.'s

Opening her Ariel "Stylin' head"

Aliya's Christmas

2009-01-17T17:04:00.001-08:00

Aliya and Emma with their new p.j.'s and
their new totes from Auntie Jennifer.

Jordan's Christmas

2009-01-17T16:56:00.001-08:00

The wings came with a Tinkerbell
"styling head" that Jordan got
for Christmas... they make her

look more like a little fairy than
she normally does.

Jordan caught in the act of trying to terrorize
her little brother with a gooey red spider that
he was terrified of :-)

Excited about her new p.j.'s... a
tradition we have of giving them
new pajamas every Christmas Eve.

William's Christmas

2009-01-17T16:48:00.001-08:00

William in his new Christmas p.j.'s

Inspecting all of Grandpa's
accessories... Watch, glasses, switching
glasses...

And it kept on snowing...and snowing...and snowing

2009-01-17T16:44:00.001-08:00

Time to sled!!

2009-01-17T16:19:00.001-08:00

There is a little hill by our house that is perfect
for kids to sled on (and it's pretty fun for adults,
too!) By the time it got dark that first day that
it snowed, the whole neighborhood was out sledding!

Jordan attempting to climb a tree,
bear-style.

If there wasn't a sled available,
the kids just went down on their
tummies!!

William came out of nap with no coat
and only flip-flops on his feet... summer's
over, kid!!

SNOW!!!

2009-01-17T16:09:00.001-08:00

Aliya, Ianna, and Kaiya began the day
by making these three HUGE snowballs...
and by the end of the day we had a whole
family of snowmen in our frontyard!

Jordan's snowman has two noses
for some reason.... all the better
to smell with, I suppose!

There was so much snow that even after
rolling enough snow for five snowmen,
we still couldn't see the grass!!