Ethan's Birthday and Our Own Live Nativity

Ethan turned 9 this week. He's got the easy age to remember because he is the age of the year. It was a fun, but frustrating week of anticipation and dealing with emotions. This child lets things get to him a little too much, whether they be good or bad. I used to think he was my even keel child. Not so much anymore. It was like a roller coaster ride with him. One minute he's happy, the next he is convinced everyone hates him, the next he's bouncing off the walls with excitement. It drove me to near exhaustion. Luckily, he is also a little carefree when it comes to preferences for things. Where as the other 2 have planned out the exact cake they want, Ethan usually says whatever, so this year we came up with the idea of ice cream sundays. That made it nice for me. He also always chooses pizza for his dinner, another easy thing. When all is said and done, I am very glad Ethan is part of our family. He is very loving and thoughtful and brings a lot of joy into our family.

Here was our own little 'live' nativity Sophia created and we happened upon. She never even called us to come and look. She was just sitting there like this when we went to see what Clara was up to. Try and guess who all of the animals are. I'm not sure if I remember all of them. The bear opposite her is Joseph and the bear behind him with the yellow blanket behind it is the camel. There are 2 animals hiding in the blanket to make the camel's humps. I thought it was pretty cute and pretty imaginative.

Playing Host

For the past 2 weekends we played host to some welcomed visitors. Our guest bedroom has come in mighty handy. The day after Thanksgiving the Taylors came to visit us from Nashville. You know when the stars align and you meet a family where there is a friend for everyone and everyone really likes each other, even the parents? Well they are that kind of family and that's why we really miss them. As you can see, everyone has a playmate and the parents like to play games, so you can guess what we stayed up too late doing every night. We also took them out to Stone Mountain Park for the day, which was a lot of fun even if we picked what was probably the busiest day of the year as their Christmas Village stuff had just opened that day. Instead we avoided the crowds, had a picnic and walked across a covered bridge.

The Boys
The Girls
And Clara (she's kind of the odd man out in this idyllic arrangement).

She's dancing on some granite and you can see Stone Mountain in the background.

A week later, Grandma and Grandpa Budge came into town. Again we stayed up late playing games and hanging out, but we took them to Stone Mountain too (really it's pretty impressive and compared to all of the downtown stuff, rather cheap so we like it).

We also hosted our annual St. Niklaus celebration with gingerbread house making. For those who don't know, Dec. 6 is St. Niklaus Tag in Germany and it's become a tradition (I think this year was our 10th!). We have a couple families over, decorate the houses and St. Niklaus comes to leave candy in the kids shoes, if they've been good.

The kids decorating their houses and the finished products.

And every year I save a house for me and only me to decorate. Usually I do this after everyone leaves (I have stayed up way past midnight doing this a couple of times). This results in a well decorated house and some creative satisfaction for me. Plus I'm usually too busy playing hostess to decorate while everyone is there. Here's this years.

Another Weird Headline

Remember how I am drawn to weird headlines? Well here is another one that caught my attention. This one just makes my skin crawl though. Could you imagine? I kind of wish there was a picture to go with it though.

Independence and the Balloon

I'm big on fostering independence in my kids...or at least I try to be. I'm still working on that in some areas like making your bed every morning. However, I'm not big on chasing down a balloon every time this little girl's hands let go of it. She got a balloon at the grocery store and was quite delighted. Balloon was one of her first words after all. But the string is just an inch too short for her to reach it when she lets go of it. I was in the middle of trying to put the groceries away so I told her to go and get the stool. She did, positioned it right under the balloon (maybe not such a good idea as she had a hard time finding the string because it was right over her head), grabbed the string and hopped down. She went on to do this several times until once the balloon kind of drifted over the table. The look on her face as she stood on the stool and easily looked over table said it all. She went on to try the kitchen counters to see what she could see. Luckily, nothing too interesting, so I don't know if she'll make the connection when there is actually something up there that she wants. We'll have to wait and see, but it wouldn't surprise me with this one. She's got a pretty good thinker on top of her shoulders. That being said, I guess you have to be careful when you give them 'tools' to independence...they just might use them.

Jam Session

Last night we had a jam session going on at our house. All 3 instruments playing at once, directed by Jakob. It was kind of fun to see them all excited about playing.
The night before Ethan and Sophia had had their own little jam session. They both only know 3 notes so far (they've each only had one lesson), but since the flute and the violin are in the same key, they know the same notes. They played them over and over in various rhythms.
Here's Sophia with her violin. She got hers last week. And here is Ethan with his flute. He got his this week. I was pushing for the piano for him, but we decided to let him have a trial lesson, just to make sure he knew what he was getting in to and that he could actually play it. It turns out he's a natural and has great hand coordination according to the teacher. So flute it is.

And here is Clara pretending to go to school. We have a sleeping bag that came in a backpack. She went and got it and tried to go outside. She really loves to imitate her big brothers and sister and she gets so excited when they come home from school. It's fun to see her look up to them already.

How can anyone resist these big blue eyes?

20 Years Ago

(I'll have to dig out my pictures of the Wall)

I have a soft spot for this world changing event that happened 20 years ago. Can you believe it's been that long? The soft spot probably comes from the fact that I was actually sitting in a German class when the news broke and then 2 years later being able to visit the country that changed so much in such a short amount of time. While I lived in Germany, I met, interacted with and personally got to know people whose lives were forever changed by the "Wall" coming down. Their views on life have affected my views as well. I was there for the one year anniversary of the reunification of East and West and saw the celebration that went with it as well as some of the turmoil it had created.

The biggest eye opener, if you will, happened while I lived with my third host family. My host father's life was forever changed by the building of the wall. Dieter was from a little town close to Leipzig in what became East Germany. His family saw what was going on and had plans to leave. He left a couple of months before his parents, his sister and her husband. They were waiting for her to have a baby. The baby came after the wall was built. He was pretty young and left to make it on his own, as his family never made it out. The next 30 years he made his way back and forth, often bringing with him things the East didn't have. For the wedding of his niece he brought over the fruit (things like kiwi, pineapple, etc) among other things. I can't imagine what those years would have been like.

Well he of course still had connections in the East, so on a trip to Berlin and then down to his hometown, I got to see life there just a little after the fall. It was interesting, to say the least. I saw the difference between East and West Berlin from high a top a tower. At night you could draw a line between the two because of the outdated lighting system still not yet replaced in the East (very dim). I got to experience a wedding celebration that still did things the old way (plate smashings and all) and think how some traditions were kept alive because of the isolation. I got to drive a Trabi (shh, don't tell) and wondered how they ever lasted so long. Imagine being in a crash with something made out of fiberglass. I saw ruins, still sitting there from WWII, because the East German gov't didn't have enough money to do anything with it. I met a family that was still reeling from the change that had come to their life by the wall falling down and the gov't they knew disappearing. They had been told what to do for so long that they didn't know how to think for themselves anymore. They were really floundering, at least that was the view I took from their house as a 16 year old. On the flip side, I saw those people who were grabbing a hold of the opportunities that now were before them, ripe for the plucking.

Really it was a very interesting time to be exposed to how the world changes. I'm glad I got to witness what I did. Sadly, I haven't been back since my year there. I'm sure it looks even more different than it did then.

Here's what we have been up to

Decorating Halloween cookies to give with our "Spooking" gift. I completely thought it was a Utah thing, but our entire neighborhood was getting 'spooked' (drop off some goodies, ring the door bell and run kind of thing) Carving pumpkinsDressing up, not just once, but three times. The elementary school had a book character day. Ethan went as Ron from 'Harry Potter' (too bad you can't see the scarf I knit for him). The girl next to him I think was supposed to be Hermione. She and Ethan are 'pushing' each other in who can get the most AR points in reading. Nothing like good, friendly competition to get a child reading. Those two go back and forth in who has the most in the school. Sophia's character was Cam Janson, so she just wore normal clothes (it got her out of wearing their uniform).
My two flower fairies. I think Phil might have gotten a better picture on his camera, I hope. This is how they looked for the ward trunk or treat. Clara didn't dress up for trick or treating the next night, because it was rather cold and rainy. In fact our neighbors skipped trick or treating all together and went to a movie. I'm thinking that would be a good tradition. It would result in far less candy and be a big treat for our kids. If you have young kids I would suggest starting now. (This is coming from someone who really doesn't like Halloween and can't stand the gluttonous attitude that comes with it.) I'm not sure we could implement it now. This year Phil took the 3 older ones to the next neighborhood over. They are crazy insane with the decorating. There is a traffic cop, the actual street is blocked off and each house is a practically a production.

This was just a cute picture I took of Clara to show how well indoctrinated she is. She loves dress ups (especially this hat) and she loves to play with the cars and trucks. All 3 kids are happy she is in to their thing.

Phil's 15 Minutes of Fame

As you know, Phil doesn't like to draw attention to himself, so I don't know how long it will be here, but I think he did a great job and I wanted to give him a pat on the back by allowing everyone to see how great he did. He's also had to do 2 radio interviews. He's in CO right now working on this. I don't know how to put a video up, so you'll just have to follow the link.
http://www.kenytv.com/video/cdc-researchers-conduct-salmonella-outbreak-surveys

Sweet Dreams

This is how I found Sophia when I went in to check on the girls and turn out the light. She must have fallen asleep like this, because she is usually pretty good about turning out the light at 9. Her hand is still in the book too. This explains why Clara was grumpier than usual (from what I could hear from downstairs). She usually falls asleep first, so having Sophia unresponsive probably irked her. I love that my kids are readers and have aquired the love of reading. Sophia is learning to love the "Little House" books and is just enraptured with how they lived back then. Ethan is all about Harry Potter right now. Even Clara has her favorites in bed with her (right now that's the books by Byron somebody--I can't think of his last name right now, but it starts with a 'b'-- with the bold illustrations and about things like "Airplanes", "Trains", etc). Jakob is kind of in limbo land right now. He goes back to re-read his favorites from years past, but is having a hard time finding something for his age and level. He's read all of the Sherlock Holmes that we can find because he really loves mysteries. I keep trying to get him to read some of the classics too. He's read the Jules Verne ones and liked those but refuses to read some of the other ones I suggest. Any suggestions out there? We hit this a couple of years ago and that's when he discovered the childhood biographies of famous Americans set of books. I'm hoping to find something again to get him excited about different books. He likes mystery, historical fiction, and spy stuff, so let me know what's out there.

Grab a Sweater, It's Chilly Today

Those were my words as we left the house this morning to hop in the van, which was sitting nice and snug in our garage. Ethan grabbed his sweater, but refused to put it on. To prove that he would in deed be cold today, I turned on the car and pointed to the little temperature reading, it said 54 degrees, to which I said, "See it's chilly and it's not going to get much warmer." However, I had forgotten (blame it on the fact that we've never had a garage since we've been married and I never had a garage growing up) that it's a little warmer inside the garage than outside. This was the temperature reading once we got out on the road:

Now imagine the looks that I got from the teachers helping at the drop off lane as my kids hopped out in their shorts and sweaters (Ethan still didn't have his on). The teachers had scarves and mittens. But can I just say that I love having a garage. I would have been scraping ice this morning if we didn't:)

Tonight

More knitting tonight while sitting in bed and watching the PBS series by Ken Burns, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea". I highly recommend it. The cinematography is amazing and the stories inspiring. It makes me want to go on one big road trip and see them all. You can watch them free online for a couple of more days, but PBS might be reshowing them on tv as well. A big screen tv viewing would probably be amazing for this series.

What I'm doing now...

If I was one of those really cool bloggers with a really awesome camera, here's where you would see a picture of my knitting on my lap or my steaming hot cup of blueberry tea, but I'm not and I don't have a really cool camera and the light is awful so even with my little camera the picture would not turn out. You'll just have to imagine it.

It's not quite 9 o'clock on Tuesday. The kids are all quiet, either asleep or reading. Today was a beautiful, crisp, fall day. Probably my favorite time of the year (Spring would tie for first with all of the beautiful blossoms and flowers and still that crisp feeling, if it weren't for the infernal allergies). It was chilly enough to feel cold without long sleeves, but sunny enough to feel warm in the glow of the sun. We raked leaves and picked up pine cones.

Now it is night. It's quiet and peaceful with the insects singing tonight through the open window, which I'll leave open all night so it will be chilly enough to snuggle deep in the covers. I pulled out my knitting. For some reason I don't like to knit much when it's warm. It's hard to get excited about knitting a wool cap in 80+ degrees, but tonight I am excited. And the blueberry tea is Celestial Seasonings, my favorite flavor, except for the ginger tea which they put out only at Christmas time and no matter how many boxes I buy from the clearance aisle after the holidays they never last past February.

Now as I read over this post, I realize I just had stuff I wanted to say and no one to say them to. The best thing about tonight is that it is only 3 more days until Phil will be home. 2 minute conversations on the days that we don't get cut off and intermittent emails just don't do it. I'm excited for Friday.

He's 11

Jakob turned 11 yesterday! I can't believe I have a child who is that old. Actually, he's not much of a child anymore. He's slowly turning in to a young man. His birthday was a little low key, just cake and ice cream at home, 2 presents and a phone call from dad. His cake, an American goldfinch, which is his favorite bird and his presents, the little collectible college football helmets (he has 6 conferences) and a model plane that Ethan picked out for him. He was excited for both and excited to get something from Africa next week.
In other news: The sun came out for a couple of days this week. It was very nice to be outside and soak in the rays. Sophia was out climbing a tree while I mowed the lawn. It had been almost 2 weeks and it really needed it.

Remember how Clara likes to imitate? The other day she insisted on sitting by Sophia and doing 'homework'. Actually she didn't say homework, but she did insist on a piece of paper and a pencil.

Imitation Time

Clara is really into doing what the big kids do. It makes her seem less of the toddler and more of a miniature 6 year old at times, but it is also hilarious. Here she is at the computer, talking to the picture of the 4 kids on the desktop. When I caught her, she sported this silly grin, which I was able to catch on camera ( I came prepared, but ignore the messy back round...we still don't have enough bookshelves yet).

Her favorite thing of the moment is to take a bag, fill it with whatever is laying around (I know where to look if I can't find something) and come up and smack her lips. After doing this a couple of times, I figured out that she wants me to give her a kiss, then she waves goodbye and walks away...just like her dad on the way to work is what I figured. He's the one that gets the kiss, the kids just get high fives, so she must be imitating Phil. The reminders to the big kids that she is always watching and going to do whatever they do have started, although her imitation of Sophia's whiny fits is just hilarious.

What would you do?

What would you do with a day and night in the 'City of Lights'? Phil just asked me that, because that's his problem right now...what should he go and see with so little time. Besides the obvious Eiffel Tower and Louvre, I couldn't give him much. It turns out my knowledge of Paris is pretty limited. Jakob added the Arc de Triumph. Can't say I'm not a just a little envious of Phil's situation right now. Wish I was there!

Against all odds

Do you ever have the feeling that the fates are conspiring against you? That's how I feel about the process to get this jam. All I wanted was simple freezer peach jam. I figured since we were in the Peach State it wouldn't be that hard, but I forgot to calculate for my own lack of sense. On Saturday we went to the Dekalb Farmer's Market, which was pretty impressive--picture local farmer's market meets international market, fish, meats, cheeses, baked goods and produce galore. My purpose, to get a box of GA peaches. What I came away with was a box, but not of peaches. The box I grabbed was full of nectarines, even though it was stored under the display of peaches. Lesson learned: Read the label. I was bummed and thought the jam making was out the window, but after a little internet search I discovered that peaches and nectarines can be used interchangeably, they are just tougher to peel. So today I set to making the jam, however, I didn't follow the directions exactly and I put the pectin in before the sugar. Lesson learned: Read the instructions. I figured I might as well finish, because whether or not it turned out and set right was irrelevant as I had already used all the ingredients. I'm happy to say that it did set, it does taste delicious (if you like nectarines you really should try it, it's got that tangy nectarine taste) and I'm just waiting for my biscuits to cool so that I can have jam and biscuits for lunch. Sounds good doesn't it?

Frustration is probably running high for Phil right now too. We dropped him off at the airport last night to catch a flight to Paris and then on to Togo. He ended up spending the early hours of the night in Greensboro, NC where they landed because of mechanical problems. He missed his flight to Togo and will probably end up with a day or two in Paris until the next flight to Togo on Saturday. To me it sounds kind of fun...exploring Paris by myself. He's probably frustrated, because he probably just wants to get there and get working on the stuff he's supposed to be doing.

Sweetwater

Our adventures at a close by state park, Sweetwater, on Labor Day...

We did a little boating.
Clara enjoyed watching the geese.

We hiked along a trail that led us to some mill ruins and the "Falls", which was not really that much of a waterfall, but still pretty in it's own way.

The kids by this awesome gnarly tree.

The shoals and the Falls

Along the way we saw a few critters and now I want to get some kind of book so that we can identify them. The kids had really good eyes for spotting them though.

A frog of some sort hanging out on the rocks.

Two kinds of lizards

The mill ruins--that's as close as you could get.

What started out as a fun way to get Ethan and Sophia excited about the hike turned out to really annoy Jakob. I guess you just can't win. We played "Fungi Spotting" and stopped to take pictures of all of the unusual mushrooms and fungi along the way. There were a lot...we have about 50 pictures worth of them. Here are just two of the unusual ones.

News

After months (years) of cajoling and trying to convince her she could do it, Sophia learned to ride her bike without training wheels. The trick was telling her to "Look ahead like you have to on the balance beam, not down at the wheels."
Clara really is no longer a baby, but a toddler. Just look at her...she's all toddler now.

Happenings

We celebrated 13 years together. Wow! Can it really be that long? 13 years is how long you are in school from K-12th grade, just to put it into perspective. I, the person who never wins anything...seriously I can't remember the last time I've won something, got a surprise email on the day the kids went back to school and I was feeling a little lonely. I was the surprise winner of this. Lucky me! And the box filled with lovely things arrived this week, much to the kids delight. By far the favorite...Smencils. They really do smell so good.

From here to there

Can you believe that this is Clara a year ago?

Today she is 15 months old, which is a hard fact for me to grasp. She is growing up so fast, yet it is so exciting to see her personality emerge (temper tantrums and all). She is a true delight to our family. She is the apple of every one's eye and she loves her siblings. The smile on her face when we get them from school is priceless.

Here she is today. Big blue eyed and smiley. She's getting 3 molars at once, so ignore the snotty nose.
Here she is at a local park we found. We are still trying to find our way around and find fun, free things to do as a family. This park was right on the Chattahoochee river and had a great playground.