Pay it Forward

OK, so real quick, do you remember the movie called Pay it Forward where a kid has a class project where he does something nice for someone who is suppose to do something nice for someone else. Until everyone is doing nice things for others or "paying it forward." That was the point of this whole contest thing. To encourage people to make a comment to win a contest and also so that I could do something nice for others, since someone did something nice for me. :-) Pretty nice huh?

So, for the winners, it is now your chance to Pay it Forward. You can do it through your blog like I did where you make something or do something (or buy something) for your winners. Or you can do something in "real life" for someone, and then just tell us about it.

Also, let me know via email what 2 FHE lessons you would like me to make for you. It can be anything, including one of the ones I have shown on my blog.

K, That is it, have fun!

P.S. I loved hearing about your computer time. It doesn't sound like we are abusing our computer privileges too bad. :-)

The Winners

OK, so I know I am a couple days behind, but my vacation is getting my time. :-) Plus it gave some more people a chance to comment. And now for the list of winners.....

1. My dear sister-in-law KRISTIN
2. My wonderful friend JEN OLSON
and
3. My amazing sister LAURA


Thank you all so much for entering. I will explain more of what you need to do when I get back to my computer. For now I just need Jen's address. And any of you that are craving something from Germany, just ask and I will get it in the mail. I love to send people stuff.

Time to - Pay It Forward

Today is Friday Nov. 16th and tomorrow we leave for Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with Steve's family. We are VERY excited and I feel like everything is ready to go. Since we are going to be in the states, it is time for me to PAY IT FORWARD.

My friend Emily did this on her blog a couple of months ago, and I WON some very cool things, so now I have the chance to pass something fun on to the next person. What it is:

I guess it is a chance for anyone who may be reading my blog to say hi, including those that may have been keeping themselves anonymous. :) Not that I am expecting too much.

RULES:
You only need to comment. ANYBODY can comment. I don't even have to know you personally.
So if you are reading this COMMENT!
*The winners MUST do a PIF themselves via their blog or in another way they can tell about.
*IF you have already won a PIF challenge, please still comment. You are still eligible.
*On Tuesday Nov. 20th I will pick 3 lucky winners for my PIF, and send you some great stuff within a day or two of that.


I had big plans to do something crafty, but time got away from me, and I have to take advantage of the US postal service that will be right around the corner. So as for now
What you will be winning:
-some of my favorite German goodies
-a German advent calendar
-a German Christmas tree decoration
- and then sometime before Christmas I will send you 2 pre-made Family Home Evening Lessons. With the lesson, a game, dessert idea, and some visuals. (you will have to forgive me that this will come later.) You can tell me what you would like a lesson on, pick one you have seen on my blog, or you can leave it up to me to decide.

So, now it is time for you to leave me a comment and tell me.........................hmmm, how much time you spend on the computer a day. (Prior to your restrictions.)

FHE Being Polite

Steve and I gave a MUCH needed lesson on being polite to others, especially adults, on Monday night. Here I sit 24 hours later and am sad to say, the lesson seemed to do NO good after todays behavior, but I will tell it to you anyway. I was definitely not at the top of my game, and our camera was out of batteries, so Steve just took 3 quick pictures of the boys.
{I was holding Brandon's arms for him to stand in front of me and Steve took this picture just as he was falling over, which is something he doesn't normally do.}

OK, so first for the song we sang "I want to be kind to everyone". Then to start the lesson, I explained what it meant to be polite, and told them about the Golden Rule. I so wish I could have remembered the My Turn on Earth song about the golden rule, but I couldn't. Then Steve and I did some role-playing. We did three different scenario's and then had the boys explain to us what was wrong with each.

First I started asking Steven a question and Steve kept interrupting me. Steven was having a hard time listening to both of us.

Second I asked Steve a couple of questions and he just ignored me. A problem we have with Steven sometimes when an adult is asking him a question.

Third Steve started Screaming at everybody to sit down, and be quiet, and listen, and stop talking. We asked the boys how the screaming made them feel.

We definitely have a problem with screaming at our house, and I will attribute some of that to the fact that we live in a house with 3 floors which is very typical in Germany. I also tend to scream 10 times about something before I spank, so I yell a lot. Anyway....we have made a family goal that we are not going to scream at all from now until Saturday when we leave for Virginia. We have a jar of money on top of the microwave, and whenever somebody screams we take money out of the jar. The money is going to be used to buy something fun for the airplane, so the more money that is taken out the smaller the fun thing is going to be. Nathan had 4 coins taken out of the jar before he went to bed an hour after the lesson.

After our role-playing was done we let the boys act out some role-playing scenarios like..... taking a toy when someone else is playing with it, going over to play when Dad has asked you to put your shoes on, or stepping right in someones way when they are trying to go somewhere. And there are a million more that the boys should be taught. We had fun, but it could have been better executed. But like I said, it didn't seem to work anyway since the boys were all a problem today, so I guess I have a chance to try again. :-) If any one has a good lesson for children on how to be respectful to adults, or how to be more polite I would LOVE your ideas, so send them my way.

Birthday Weekend

I had a Wonderful Birthday Weekend! and am happy to be 31. :-) Steve decided we should go on an overnighter for my birthday, after I told him that what I wanted was for him to do something romantic. So he got us a hotel up in the Black Forest right next to this beautiful lake. He looked at the weather, and it was calling for 2 inches of snow. We got all excited that we were going to be cuddling up in a hotel room by ourselves (with Brandon) in the snow. So we asked our wonderful friends the Hancocks to babysit for us for the night, and we took off. The drive was wonderful. It was about 3 hours with Brandon sleeping and Steve and I listening to Harry Potter. I am still on book 4, and enjoying it.

When we were about 30 minutes from the hotel we were high enough up that it started snowing, and was dark by this time. So, we were going very slowly up this canyon road while the snow was coming down pretty heavy. We were doing fine, until we had to get off on our exit which had not been used much so had about 4 inches of snow on it. We made it half way down the exit and the car spun slowly around and stopped facing us the wrong direction and we were STUCK. Come to find out Steve's car is rear-wheel drive, which is the worst kind to have in the snow. AND.... all the Germans put snow tires on their car by mid-Oct and we did not have them. So, a wonderful nice German man who was coming down the exit stopped to help us, and I am sure thought we were a little crazy. After becoming unstuck, getting stuck again, and getting unstuck again we finally made it to the hotel. A five minute drive took us about 40. Boy were we grateful to that nice German man. We had a great time at the hotel eating and sleeping and we watched "A night at the museum" which was kind of dumb, but cute. We had a very relaxing time. I forgot my camera, so you don't get any pictures of snow, but we didn't ever leave the hotel anyway, because we got there at dinner time and left right after breakfast.

When we got home we thanked our babysitters for being so wonderful. Then Steve made a fabulous steak for dinner with a yummy mushroom cream sauce. Steven made a fruit salad that he had learned to make at school with his class, and I made tomalito. Very delish. Then Steve made brownies for the cake, and put as many candles as he could fit on them. I think there were only 24.

I was telling Steve, I would so much rather have a night away or a little vacation or something for my birthday, because I can't ever think of anything that I want to unwrap. So last year we went to Prague as a family and this year we had a night away in the Black Forest. It was perfect!!

{Brandon at 2months 3weeks}

FHE Jesus Christ

Yesterday was Steven's turn to do the FHE lesson, and I was all ready for him to give it on being polite, or respecting adults. But... the missionaries called and asked if they could have Family Home Evening with us, so we decide to invite a friend of Steve's from work over as well. Her name is Tika, and she is from Albany. Steve had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon in Albanian, so we wanted to have her over with the missionaries. Since we were going to have company we decided to think of something a little more spiritual to teach about, and Steven said he wanted to teach about Jesus.
{This one is for you Tawna :-) }

To start off we ate dinner of course. We have to feed those poor elders! I made enchiladas from these new packets they just got here in Germany and they were Fab. I also made sweet corn tomalito, and apple crunch salad. I was telling Steve I think this was the first dinner that we had people over and I made everything. I ALWAYS have Steve either help with the main course or do it completely. So, I was relieved that dinner turned out very good.

To start off FHE we sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" with Jacob as the conductor. He changed clothes shortly before people came over and I chose not to correct his outfit.
Then Steven stood to give his lesson. First he told us that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Then he told us the First Article of Faith: We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. And we all repeated it with him. Next he told us his favorite scripture story which is about Samuel the Lamanite, and told us what that story taught us about Jesus. That He loved the people and wanted them to repent so they could receive His blessings and be prepared for His birth. Then we played a great Sacrament Meeting match game that Nathan's primary teacher made for him. When they boys got a match they had to tell us what the picture taught us about Jesus. It was things like bread, water, singing church songs, listening during the prayer, etc. Nathan and Jacob needed lots of help when they got a match, so the rest of us were able to participate. We then helped Steven bear his testimony of Christ, and of what he believed.
{Tika with my baby}

When Steven was done we asked the elders if they wanted to add anything, and they shared a wonderful scripture with us. 2 Ne. 25: 26 It was a great evening with the Elders and with Tika .

For dessert we had brownies, and Tika brought over some baklava. Yum. Another successful week.

Happy Harry Potter Halloween

Halloween here was fabulous. The past three years we have gone on the American Base with our friends and trick-or-treated. With the base closing and us changing to the Frankfurt ward, we don't have all the trick-or-treating friends we used to have. So, we decided to see what the Germans do. I guess every year trick-or-treating has become more popular here. So, the older 3 and Steve headed out to get some candy, and Brandon and I were the passer-outers. Steve said there were lots of kids outside. And our neighbor made this AWESOME haunted house at his house. Some people also got out some fireworks left over from New Years. I guess it just feels like what you should be doing when the whole town is outside after dark. :-)

The Harry Potter costumes worked out great. The boys were very happy, the looked cute, and I put little to no effort in to getting them ready. Steve did the scar. Not that I don't like to dress kids up for Halloween, but really I don't. I never did much for my costumes either. I do love the holiday though, and am glad the kids got to have a good time. I was telling my friend, even though they got a good amount of candy, they really don't know what they are missing. Steven was 2 1/2 our last Halloween in the states. So, they aren't missing the 300+ pieces of candy that were all the yummy stuff like reeses and tootsie rolls. They don't know any different.

{Brandon on Halloween. Doesn't he look good in blue.}

On another subject...Steve went to a wedding earlier this month and they made some butternut squash soup. He loved it, so of course he came home and tried making some and it is dang good. Especially with a fresh brotchen (roll). So last night (Nov. 1) we had a friend of his from work and his wife over to taste Steve's soup. They are having their first baby in May. It tasted wonderful like always and it was nice to have people over. The Hancocks are probably going to come tonight for Settlers. Good times!

{This picture if for Alicia to see how big the knife is. It really makes cutting the squash much easier.}
I did mean to post the recipe for the soup. :-) Thanks Sarah

INGREDIENTS

• 6 tablespoons chopped onion
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
• 3 cups water
• 4 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
2. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

This came from www.allrecipes.com of course. I think Steve added more water than called for until it was the right thickness.

FHE Obedience

Last Thursday, Steve and I got a babysitter, and as we were leaving I told Jacob he needed to obey her. I then decided to ask him what it means to obey, and he said, "to be nice to her." WRONG, so Jacob got the family home evening lesson for this week on Obedience. Besides that, he has not been quite up to par with his ability to obey, so this was a good lesson for him.

First he asked everyone what it meant to obey. Steven said it means to listen when someone tells you something. Not quite, that is just listening. Steve helped him out by adding that when you are told to do something, you DO IT! Oh what a valuable lesson for all of us.

So, after we had figured out the definition, Jacob lead the boys in a game of Simon Says. Steven did pretty good, but Nathan still did the action whether Simon said it or not.


{Simon says JUMP}{Simon says Shake your head back and forth}

Then Jacob helped tell this flannel board story of Jonah and the Whale. A wonderful lesson on obedience, and how bad things can get if you choose not to obey. I love these pictures that you can find in the Friend for different stories, but it bugs me that they are so small.

Then each person had a chance to tell us who is someone we should obey, and what they have asked us to do.

Jacob said Heavenly Father who asks us to pray
Steven said Mom who asks us to clear the table.
Nathan said Jesus who asks us to be reverent.
Steve said the Prophet who asks us to do FHE.
Jacob said his Nursery leader who asks him to clean up the toys.
Steven said Dad who asks us to clean the family room.
Nathan said school teachers who ask us to clean up.
Dad said the Bishop who asks us to come to church.

I added that there are laws of the land we must obey too, like not stealing, and stopping on a red light. (Red light, Green light would be a great game to play also)

So, hopefully we will now have very obedient children who do what they are asked when they are asked. :-) Right?? Isn't that what Family Home Evening is all about. HaHa

{Just for fun, here is one of Steve's latest backyard finds. Don't ask me why he always picks this stuff up!}

Halloween Party and Pumpkins

Yay, Halloween is almost here. What a fun time of year. We had our Ward Halloween Party on Friday night, and carved pumpkins on Saturday. And what could be worse for a blogger than forgetting your camera at the party?? Luckily my friends were there for me and I have some pictures to post. I still need to get the pics from Dawnella, but the ones I have will work for now.

We have been really into Harry Potter lately. Steve and I have both been listening to all the books, and a lady from work let Steve borrow the movies. So the boys have heard us talk about it, and have been watching the movies. So, I wasn't surprised when they all wanted to be Harry Potter for Halloween. Luckily I am not too particular, so I let them all be the same thing! Haha Steven is in a quidditch robe.
{Do you love the glare? HaHaHa}

{I don't have a picture of Steven at the Halloween party, but I took one the next day with just the glasses. He lost that front tooth on Thursday. }

Brandon wore this little Halloween outfit that Jacob wore as a baby, and then my dear friend Felicity made him a pumpkin hat just like she had made for her baby boy.

Then last night we had friends (Felicity and her husband and son, who will be referred to as the "Hancocks" from now on) over for dinner and pumpkin carving. I swear Steve and I are addicted to having people over for dinner. We can't seem to go one weekend without doing it. I guess it is a good thing that we both enjoy it. We had a great time carving the pumpkins and now I think we are ready for Halloween. Although we have nothing to do on the actual night of, since they don't really trick-or-treat here. Hopefully we will think of something.
{Do you love the knife safety that is being taught. :) I corrected the problem after the picture was taken.}

{I love the stair steps the boys make when they stand next to each other like this.}{This is what Brandon thought of being outside at night in the cold. Although it wasn't very cold}

FHE Reverence

Monday's Family Home Evening lesson was given by Nathan this week. I just got a new calling in our ward to teach the Valiant girls, and I am thrilled about it. And it has given me the chance to see how Nathan has been acting during Primary. I noticed that he had a little problem with reverence, so as you can guess, that was the topic of his lesson. :)


I took him in the office about an hour before we started FHE and told him this story on reverence. Then when it was time for him to teach he did a marvelous job retelling the story. I was impressed! When the story was over each person got to pick a picture out of a bag, and tell what the part in their picture should be doing when they are suppose to be reverent. This part was straight from the Nursery manual.

earsfeeteyes
arms (colored by Nathan)

mouth (I had the mouth, but looked AWFUL, so you will just have to imagine the mouth. haha)

Then the boys were given one of these situations where they could tell us what they should do to be more reverent:

• You want to tell your Primary teacher something during the lesson. How can you do this reverently? (whisper)

• You don’t know the song your class is singing. What can you do to show reverence? (sit quietly and listen so you can learn the song)

• Your little brother talks to you during the sacrament. What can you do to help him be reverent? (ask him to wait until after the sacrament to talk to you)

• You walk into a room while people are praying. How can you show reverence? (stop and fold your arms until the prayer is over, then go to your seat)

It was wonderful, and we are really enjoying FHE. I am glad we have committed to this, and I plan on sticking with it forever. :-)



(Baby Brandon)
(A rainbow between the multiple power lines directly over our home. )

Pumpkin Festival

{If you enlarge this you can some of the squash animals}

We were fortunate enough to get another nice weekend, although I thought we were done. Last year we discovered this great pumpkin festival about 1.5 hours away, and we loved it, so we went again this year on Saturday. The theme this year was Noah's Ark. They take different squash and make them look like animals, it is really cool. The camera ran out of batteries shortly after we got there, but Steve got some OK pictures. We went with the Carleys and the Hancocks. They are both great friends to us, and have became our Settler buddies. We have gotten together almost every weekend since the Hancocks moved in a month ago to play Settlers. It's been awesome.
{This is a bunch of hay bales they had for the kids to play in. They had a great time, but boy did they itch when they were done. }

{Jacob with the giraffe's }{This is Felicity Hancock with her son William. She knitted that pumpkin hat which I just LOVE. Then she put him in with the pumpkins. haha Jacob wanted to try on the hat as well. }


{And there is little Brandon pulling his minkee blanket up to his chin. }

In an attmept to Teach

As mentioned in an earlier post, one of my new goals is to take more advantage of teaching moments for my children. Here are 3 stories for this week.

1. Nathan has been riding his walking bike for over a year now, and the Germans say that these bikes are supposed to help kids learn to ride real bikes faster because they know how to balance. (If you don't know what I am talking about, they have bikes in Germany for kids as little as 2 that have no pedals and the kids just sit on the seat and run with the bike. Emily it sounds like Ren would love these bikes.) So, Nathan is 4.5 years old, and I kept thinking I wonder if he could learn to ride a pedal bike, but I just never went out and taught him because I figured 5 was the magical age of learning to ride a bike so I will wait until then. Well, since I have changed my ways and don't want to be lazy anymore, I went out to teach Nathan and he was riding like a champ within 10 minutes of us going outside. Including starting on his own which can be tricky. Now I just need to get out and buy him a bike, since Steven would like to use his bike still.

2. The next attempt at teaching was with Steven the other day. He was grounded from screens(no TV, or Xbox) for the day and so I invited him to come in the kitchen and help me cook dinner. We were making manicotti and he was cooking the spinach. So I had him put it in a saucepan that was sitting on the counter. Then when I was ready for him to bring it to the stove I told him to "put it there", and pointed to the burner. He proceeded to pour the spinach out of the saucepan directly on to the burner. Luckily I have a flat stovetop and I was standing right there to catch it before too much came out. But it made me laugh to think about what is so obvious to me could be so misunderstood by him. :-)

3. We had FHE again tonight and it went great! I taught a lesson on Family Responsibilities. We put a house puzzle together and I said we need all the pieces to make the house complete just like we need everyones help to make our home run smoothly. Then I put different chores that we do on rocks and put them all in a bucket and asked the boys to carry the bucket across the room. It was heavy to carry all the rocks. Then I seperated the rocks and we each took one and put them in to a paper sack. That was much easier to carry across the room. So, if we all pitch in, no one has to carry the load by themselves.
{Ginger is still with us}


Our new arrangement with the boys is:
They all have to pick up the family room every night. (Ashley Hawkins taught me this one. When she was here 2 years ago she picked up my family room every night before she went to bed and it was so nice to have a clean room in the morning. I had never thought about doing that before believe it or not.)
Jacob sets the table for dinner.
Steven and Nathan clear the table.
On Saturday they have to clean and vacuum their room and Brandon's room including under the beds
And do one extra chore of my choosing around the house.

If these all get done they get one Euro a week. 10% will go to tithing and 10% will be put in savings. I am excited to implement this as long as I can stay organized with it and keep it going. We will see.