Newest Granddaughter

Since none of you have come to visit us this year, we decided that we would keep a little secret from you all, and share her when the time is right. This is our little baby Sarah! Isn't she a doll.



OK, not really. The real credit goes to our friends the Carters, but I tell Dawnella all the time that Sarah would fit right in to our brown haired family. And she agrees. :) And No I am still not pregnant. We are honestly trying, but since I want a girl, than I am doing things all different than I did when I so easily got pregnant with my boys. Obviously it is not working too well. :) In the meantime you can just enjoy Sarah.

Dora

Don't you just love when you are upstairs (or in another room) and you hear your kids start yelling words out. You start to wonder if they may be developing Tourette's. When come to find out they are watching Dora or Diego and have been asked to answer a random quesion, so they scream it at the TV. "Oh so that is why they are screaming about sticky tape!" :)

Primary Activity

Well, while all of you were having a wonderful weekend, I was on my death bed over on this side of the world. OK, so maybe not the whole weekend. I got sick at about midnight Saturday night, and didn't start feeling better until Monday morning, but it felt like forever. And it was bad too! The kind where you are in pain no matter what you do, and no matter what medicine you take. Even puking wasn't helping me feel any better. I HATED it! But it is gone now, so we will move on.

Steve had to work on Saturday, so the boys and I were happy that we had a Primary Article of Faith Ice Cream Party to go to. We are only on the second article of faith, so we decided now was the time to have a party where they get the number of scoops for the number of AofF that they know. It was a beautiful day, and everyone had a fun time. Nathan and Jacob got a freebie this time.

worth sharing

I have a couple of stories to tell, that I think are worth sharing. First of all we were in the car yesterday and a song came on the radio that I like the beat of, so I turned it up a little even though the lyrics are probably not the most wholesome. Well, it came back to bite me because Jacob walks around the house now saying, "Shakira, Shakira, no fightin'." Luckily he doesn't know the part about the "hips". :)

Also, I took Nathan to school on Monday, and the teacher that he has become friends with that speaks good english has gone on Holiday for 3 weeks. He was having a hard time since we had just had the weekend where he could stay home, and then he didn't have the familiar face there. So after staying for about 15 minutes I was trying to leave and he was following me out the door, and the other teacher who was there was not coming to get him and keep him in. I wasn't sure what to do, when my dear little Steven came out of his classroom and came up to Nathan and said, "Nathan do you want to play with me." Nathan accepted that invitation and they walked off and played together, and turned around and said "I love you Mom." It was so great to see Steven be such a good big brother when he enjoys the games that he plays in his classroom, but came out to help. I hope my children will always be great friends.

My boys

OK, it is Saturday night, time to prepare for Sacrament Meeting. :)

Just Kidding it is really not too bad, I just know that it could be better. The comments and suggestions to my inquiry were awesome. I am sure I will go back and refer to them often. It looks like I just need to find one of the many quiet toys available and see which one will keep Nathan content. I think the duct tape suggestion may have to be the solution to Nathan's attitude. Thanks Dad. :)

I haven't really been taking pictures this week, even though I thought about it.
We have had quite a slow week, with just school, shopping, movies, cleaning, etc. So I will add some pictures that you haven't seen in a while to tide you all over until I take some more. :)





Steve's birthday June 21, 2006



A castle in Garmisch Germany where we spent Easter this year.

Help!

OK, I need some help. I am losing control of my children, especially at church, and I need some ideas. We had Stake Conference today, and I was worried about the kids sitting still for two hours, so I went to the store and bought snacks, and some 2 Euro toys to help the kids be quiet. Well Steve says that is ridiculous that I buy them new toys for everything even if they are only 2 Euros. And he says that from where he sits on the stand at church on regular Sundays I am the only one that brings snacks for the kids. So....I want to know how to keep my kids quiet at church, and am I the only one feeding children in Sacrament Meeting? I want to hear all of your opinions! Moms, Dads, Single, Married, people with young children, people with grown children. Let me have it!

First day of school

Another blog that I am a little behind on is Nathan's first day at school. He started German Kindergarten with Steven on Monday. I took some pictures of the two boys heading off to school, and then was going to take more at school, but upon arriving we had some problems.

Poor Nathan is only 3 1/2 and is starting in a school where everyone is speaking German, and he is scared. Nathan doesn't cower very often, but he has been at school.
One of his teachers was a Nanny in the states for a year so she speaks great English and understands everything that he wants, but she only speaks German to him. I think maybe she should speak a little english to him until he is more comfortable, but we will see if this works.

I am going to try to take a picture of him at school one of these days, but it is a little hard when he is clinging to me. He has had a smile on his face everyday when I come to pick him up, but the next morning it is fear again.

I on the other hand have loved the freedom this has given me. Yes, it is only for 3 hours, and yes, I still have one child with me, but whoa what a difference. I can stroll through the shops in my little town and go into any of them without three kids to keep out of the street and six hands grabbing at everything. Jacob can be a pain in the butt, but having to only control one is sooooo much easier. I am loving it!!



And here is one of Jacob being the KING of the house. He asks where Nathan is at least five times in those 3 hours, but it is nice to be King.

Our Anniversary

So, here we are almost a week later, but Steve and I had a great anniversary last Friday. Steve brought me beautiful flowers when he came home from work.



Then we took the kids to our friends house while we went out to our traditional Auerbach Castle anniversary dinner. The weather has been beautiful here, and Friday was gorgeous. We sat outside, and were remembering the 2 other anniversaries that we have had in that same terrace. The first anniversary there we brought Jacob with us because he was still very small, and it was the day Steven got out of the hospital from his broken leg. I remember having reservations about going, but Steve made me and I am so glad that he did.


We have had a crazy/exciting six years together, but I am so happy that I made the decision to marry Steve. He is making my dreams come true. I think each of us in our family has married the person that is just right for us, and what a great blessing that is!

After dinner, I got a Happy Anniversary email from Grandma and was able to reply with a Happy Anniversary email right back to her. She was married to Grandpa 56 years ago!

P.S We aren't thrilled with ourselves in the picture, but we wanted you to see the great view.

Italy 4

Sadly, we are to the last leg of the trip. I wish I could go on and on about the vacation. OH WAIT! I already did that. :) HaHa. You guys said you wanted to see it, so all I am doing is delivering.

On the morning of the second day that we visited the park I didn't really want to spend all day there again. And since it was a bounce back pass, we really didn't feel guilty about not. So, we decided we would spend the first part of the day taking a nice dip in the Adriatic Sea, since it was right in front of our hotel.


Not many other people seemed to be swimming in the water. I mean, we weren't the only ones so I don't think it was unsafe or anything. But most of the Italians were just walking up and down the beach for miles. There were hundreds of people doing that, most just in their skimpy bathing suits. It made for some great people watching.

So we swam for an hour or so and then had a nice nap, which was appreciated by all. Then we went back to the park for the evening. But I have already posted the park pictures.

And........ here are a couple of stragglers.


I found this picture funny, because it gives you no indication of what country you may be in(as far as the snacks go). This could just as easily be taken in Germany or Italy or the U.S. or a hundred other places for that matter. They all seem to have the Pringles and the Gatorade, and then some other American adverstisement all over.

Out in front of our hotel. This was the evening of the first night we went to the park. We wanted to walk around the streets a bit. It was about 9:30pm and Jacob had not had a nap. So he peaceful slept in that pathetic stroller while we took a little stroll.


Hey... he wears the diapers, he can carry them!!!

And that was the end of our wonderful time in Italy. We got safely on a flight home, and were home by Tuesday night. But of course not without getting one last gelato before we left. :)

Italy 3

For a day and a half of our vacation, Steve had got tickets to an amusement park called "Mirabilandia." It came as a package with the hotel, and was a pretty cool park. I complained a little bit, because it was not as exciting to me to go to a park like Disneyland when we are in a country with so much to see. But now that I look back on it, it had two benefits. 1. It made it so that the kids loved the vacation as much as we did because we did something that they loved instead of just showing them nice buildings everyday. and 2. we saw more of the Italian culture while at the amusment park than we saw anywhere else. The other places that we visited had Americans all over the place, but we were the only ones at the park, and we definetly felt it.


Preparing for the BIG water ride.


The reason they needed the ponchos.


This was a cool water mister that the boys ran through like 60 times. They had a great time, but once again wanted their shirts changed when they were done. (What do I look like? A closet.)



What Steve was doing while the boys ran through the water mister. He tried very hard to get me to go on this, but I am not interested. It is one of those rides that shoots you way up in the air really fast, and then slams you back down.




The boys in this HUGE ferris wheel that we went on. It gave us a great view of the city.



We went and saw a 3D show in Italian. It was a very romantic and dramatic love story. Definitely showing the Italian culture. Nothing like THRILLER. :)






We finally found a couple of rides for Jacob to enjoy. Most of the rides required you to be 3 years old.



Nathan and Jacob entertaining themselves while we waited for Steve and Steven to go on one last ride.