9 years!

On November 19th Brian and I celebrated our 9 year Anniversary! Yea us!!!!! I had tried several options for Baby sitters however due to it being a Wed. night all the girls in the ward had young women. (If anyone has any tips on how to get a babysitter in this country please let me know, I'm not having any luck!)

Brian and I had given up any hope of having a date by our selves. I was talking with Kerri from church asking if she had any suggestions of anyone I could try and another friend from church (Kaylynn) heard us talking and said "I'll do it". I said really, no we can't have you do it. But she was serious and willing to help out and do it. She was wonderful. She came and read with the girls and the girls loved it.

Kaylynn is a school teacher at the American school and she was able to give me ideas of how to help my girls with their reading. She was such a blessing that night in so many ways.

Brian and I enjoyed a night out with dinner and walking around Leiden and just talking and being together. We did window shopping and had so much fun. It was so nice to just be alone with him. It has been so long since that has happened.

Thank you Brian for Marring me 9 years ago!

Let it Snow

We got our first Snow of the year! We loved it! It Snowed all day on Sunday. We didn't get as much snow as some other towns around us did. A lot of places got a lot of snow and even got to build snow men. We didn't get that much snow. But we did get enough that the girls were able to make snow balls and through them at me while I was trying to take there pictures.

The girls loved it that it was snowing and sat and watched it through the window. When it finally started sticking to the ground they ran outside and and began with the snowballs. It was a good day. We look forward to the next snow fall.

Zwarte Pete's Visit

Zwarte Pete comes to visit ever Saturday night for 3 weeks before the Great arrival of Sinterklaas on December 5. The kids are suppose to leave there shoes out by the door with something in it for Sinterklaas and his horse. Zwarte Pete checks to see if you have been good and takes the items to Sinterklaas and leaves some little treat in your shoe.

Since we are not perfectly Dutch we do this a little different. We bought wooden shoes because the idea of putting treats in the shoes the girls have been wearing all day just really grossed us out. We put the wooden shoes on top of the dryer in the Attic next to the little skylight window. We told the girl the Zwarte Pete comes in threw that window and checks and sees if there room is clean and that is how he knows if they have been good. EVERY Saturday my girls clean there room with out complaint this time of year.

In the shoes they leave pictures for Sinterklaas and a list of what they would like him to bring. I can of course easily take these things from the shoes and put them into my "needs to be scrapbook box" in the attic. (The box is pretty full! It is sad how I don't scrap book, with out my friends and my sister it just isn't any fun doing it alone.)

Brian and I put little candies in there shoes for them to find on Sunday morning. They are extra excited about waking up for church!

On the Evening on December 5th they will also find a bag full of gifts sitting on the dryer up in the attic that Sinterklaas left while we were eating dinner. More like mom put there while they were at school but you know how it all works.

I did my Sinterklaas shopping this week. I'm proud to say that I was able to get some fun gifts for everyone for under 30 euro's. (think of it as dollars). We figure they will be getting gifts at Christmas too. We don't need to over kill on the holidays. Just a few from Sinterklaas will do. I did find some really good deals that I'm more then proud of. Especially on Brian's gift. I'm looking forward to it!

My first time to Cook Thanksgiving Dinner

(Brooke sweetly helping me make dinner... It was better then her poking her fingers in it)

We decided this year that we wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner with friends who are closes to us. Those are the friends that live around us and we see each day. We invited over our closes friends to have a Thanksgiving dinner with us. (Marta was moving and wasn't able to come, we missed you Marta.) It turned out great! We couldn't do it on Thanksgiving day since the kids have school and everyone was working so we decided on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I must say that for the first Thanksgiving meal I have ever cooked all by myself it wasn't to much of a disaster. My gravy was a bit more soupy then I wanted and my pecan pie didn't quite turn out. It looked perfect on top but when we cut into it, instead of the nice jelly inside it was all soup. So back into the oven it went. By time the insides were jelly the top pecans were burnt. O well. I will have to try again. However the rest of the meal turned out great and I was proud!

Here are all the men talking and surrounding the food. They are a perfect group. Ulrike's Husband Johanna's is also a Physicist and works at ESTEC (European space Center our equal is NASSA.) Beate's Husband Micha is a Computer Science Engineer guy of some sorts and is programing all the time. (of course him and Brian have things to talk about) Karel who is Erna's ex-husband but still is very much involved in the family and comes to all the events which I think is really cool. He owns 3 auto Mechanic shops and loves racing. Brian's dad had a lot of the same interest so it is easy for Brian to talk there too. They seem to make a good group of friends.



When the kids first arrived we let them all make some feathered hats. We told them they could be the Indians at the dinner and we would be the Pilgrims. It made it a lot of fun for them. Brian told them the story in Dutch of the Pilgrims coming over. I was pretty proud of Brian doing that.

Here is a picture of all our dressed up Indians in their feathered hats. Don't they look wonderful.



Here are few more highlights Gabrialle is the star in the first picture and Ricadia is the star in the second.

Over all it was a wonderful night. I am grateful for my friends and for there love and support.

Visiting Sinterklas

We learned last year that when visiting Sinterklas that it was very important for the children to be dress up like Zwarte (black) Pete. This year I picked up some outfits for the girls that were really in-expensive that they could wear to all the little Sinterklas activities. I couldn't find anything for Kaitlyn though. She is too tall. Although all the other kids her age will be wearing out-fits and she is still young enough to be celebrating this activity, she is as tall as kids 2 years older then her.

So to have something for Kaitlyn to wear we did our best to put some sort of outfit together and make it up as we went. I bought some black hair for her but in the end she wouldn't wear it because daddy laughed at it and thought it was funny. Brianna was more then willing to wear the black hair and add it to her outfit.

First are pictures of the day when I brought home the new Zwarte Pete clothing. The girls all wanted to try it on they thought it was cool. Kaitlyn liked her black hair then.



Brooke is much to busy with her activity to let mom take a picture of her.



The day has come for us to go see Sinterklas. The girls have gotten there outfits perfected and I think they look great! It was a really fun program that went on and was a lot more intertaining then waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap. I must say I was impress. -- Brooke however wasn't so much impress. She kept sneaking off. They had punch in the back and she kept going to get a new cup of it. I was able to a few pictures of my sneaking child.



Here are a few pictures of the show. They had about 350 kids in the room that they were doing this show for.


At the end of the show Sinterklas comes. All the kids are so excited when he comes in. I saw him coming in the back door so I ran back and grab some pictures away from "most" of the crowd.



It is hard to show the true fun of what happens in a photo so I took a short film. It is a bit noisy but shows all the fun they were truely having. You can see the Zwarte (black) Pete's up on the stage and running around everywhere. It is just so weird. I still think I like Santa Clauses Elves better. At least it seems less prejustice

Kaitlyn and dad make paper airplanes

Brian and Kaitlyn spent some time making paper airplanes. Kaitlyn loved making airplanes with dad. Of course Brian's paper airplanes are not simple normal paper airplanes. He had to look up on the internet how to fold the most complicated coolest paper airplanes he could.

He made the FA Thunderhawk, the SR-71 Black Bird, the Flying Wing and many, many others.

The paper airplanes flew amazingly well. Kaitlyn loved them so much that she took them the next day to show her class at school. The boys were especially impressed.

SinterKlas is coming

In preparation for Sinterklas to come Brianna made herself a Hat and beard. She Bravely wore it to school on Monday. All the kinds in her class laughed and thought she was funny. I thought about me back then and how there was NO! way I would have been able to wear something like that and been different then the rest of my class. In fact I felt overwhelmed and embarased by the attention she was getting. However she confidently made a joke about it and laughed with them and was so proud of her hat and beard. I was so proud of her for the confidence that she has and the abilities she has to be herself and just enjoy life. I admire Brianna for this. I hope she will always be able to stand out and be herself and not care if she is different as long as it is something that she wants to do.

Brooke is swimming

Brooke has an imagination all of her own. She just puts me to tears sometimes with the things she does because either I'm laughing so hard or I really am crying about what she did.

This week she has been determined to go swimming. So she gets on the floor and she just goes swimming. No matter what is going on, now matter where we are going or what we are doing, she is going to swim there. On the floor on her belly. She is such a character. Of course when we get the camera out to record it she stops. We ask her to do it again and she did for a second. So typical! I also had to do the movie in black and white because the lighting was bad and the movie came out dark. In black and white you could actually see her.

Making Pizza!

We love to make things in this family. Especially my 3 little girls. Whether it is pancakes or cookies or pizza. They love it when mom is making something with flour, I think it is because they know it is going to taste good and it wont contain vegetables.

My little girls love to help and be part. I had to over come a huge part of my personality because I like to keep things clean as I go and not make messes and well if my 3 little girls help messes will be made. This is not easy for me because "I don't want to clean up that mess"! But then I have to remember that sometimes it requires making a mess to make a memory!

I have found that as we begin on our memory making experience for some reason the neighborhood kids seem to have this little tracker in there heads and know we are doing it and they of course want to be part and the next thing I know they are all walking through the back door wanting to watch and see what we are doing. This is so cool to them and way fun!

Every instinct in me says "I CANT CONTROL THE MESS!" But then I have to remember my end goals. I have always wanted a house where my children’s friends felt safe to come over and hang out. I want to always know who my children’s friends are and I want to be friends with my children’s friends. This is always the perfect opportunity to have them in to begin working on those goals. So I over came my need to control and we made some fun memories with Kaitlyn and her friends. We let them kneed the pizza dough and roll it out. However their favorite part was the flour facial they gave to each other during the process!

Brianna's 2nd Tooth

Brianna has lost her second tooth. This one was a long time coming, since it has been loose for a month now but she has been too scared to actually pull it out. The first time "hurt" to much for her. So finally her tooth got so loose that it was barely hanging their and she couldn't eat food because it was so loose. She came to me with her tooth because it hurt to bad to eat her peanut butter sandwich and tearfully asked for help. I felt the tooth gave it a very small pull and it was out. Brianna broke into tears. I distracted her by suggesting she get a cup of water and she calmed down quickly. Then distracted her more with all the excitement of the tooth fairy coming and what would she do with the whole Euro the tooth fairy would bring?

She happily got a sandwich bag and put her tooth in it and then carried it around with her for a while. I lost track of her and of the tooth and forgot about it all with the business of the day. The next morning as we were making breakfast I realized the tooth fairy didn't come last night and that we had forgotten all about it. (This isn't the first time the tooth fairy has forgotten to come, we often have to send email to see if the tooth fairy is sick and see if she will be by the next night or not.)

I asked Brianna what she did with her tooth and she said she didn't know. I was relieved to hear she hadn't put it under her pillow. So I told her we better find it and that the tooth fairy couldn't find her tooth last night under her pillow and couldn't leave her, her money. We began searching and had no luck. After a short while it became clear that it was not around. I remembered that Brian helped clean up the night before so I thought I had better check the garbage (you know men). We dug down a little bit and sure enough there was that plastic bag with the tooth.
With the tooth successfully recovered Brianna ran up and put it right under her pillow so the tooth fairy could come that night. Luckily we all remembered and the next morning there was a wonderful surprise under Brianna's pillow.

Love your Blog

I was tagged by my friend Valerie ages ago however, I am of course just getting around to doing this. I'm supposed to tag seven people, I love all my friends blogs because they help keep me connected to home and I love being updated with all that is going on! I have to choose just 7 this is hard.

1) My sister Shayleen! - I love your Blog, it makes me feel so close to home.
2) My cousin Sheri - I laugh so hard each time I read your blog
3)My sister-in-law Donna - You always has so many fun stories to tell.
4)My friend Michelle - Again each post is so full of humor.
5)My friend Katie - Every post is so real and so full of life and full of Katies personality!
6)My sister-in-law Ashley- I love reading every post! I love who she is and in comes out in every post.
7)It is a tie it really is (yes I know I'm cheating)
My friend Amanda - we have been friends for so long and I love being able to go to her blog and catch up on life.
Our friends the Brooke's - (I think that statement could cover a wide family range) We miss getting to hang out with them and the close friendship we had with them and it is wonderful to beable to go to there blog and feel like we are still a little bit part of your lifes. You guys are great!

Sunday Fun!

Today we had a little bit of fun with the girls. Brianna loves to do plays and to pretend and it was cold outside so we decided today we would do the play of sleeping beauty. The girls were so excited and everyone got there parts. Just as we were getting ready to start one of the neighbor girls Christal came and knocked on the door and wanted to play and so we decided she could help Kaitlyn with the fairy work.

Brian wanted to record the play and post it here on the blog for his mom and grandma and family since it is a tradition to do plays and make movies in his family for fun. It was a big part of his growing up fun!

We recorded the movie but we don't have any kind of movie editing tools that allows us to edit it so you just get to watch the raw stuff if you choose to. I think it is pretty funny.

Also what was intended to be an all English play turned into a 1/2 English -- 1/2 Dutch play so that Christal could participate and be part. But I think everyone knows the story well enough they can follow this silly video well enough to know what is going on.

Before you watch there are a few things you need to know....
1) Aurora's name in Dutch is Doornroosje
2) When Christel says "Happy End" at the end. It is something to be proud of she did it all on her own. She is always trying so hard to learn English words when she is over playing with us. She is a smart little girl.
3) Brian had way to much fun calling me "the witch" in making this movie.
4) This is for everyone to watch an enjoy. Not just Brian's family. So if you are up for some real silliness ..... Enjoy!

Halloween!

Yes, I have finally done it. I have been behind for 3 months on my blog but today with this post I am caught up!

About a week before Halloween Brian took the girls down to the Albert Heinz (our grocery store) and let them selected out what they felt like were the most perfect pumpkins for there jack-o-lanterns. The pumpkins at the store were so fun because they actually came with instructions and stickers on it, of how to carve the pumpkin, where to carve the pumpkin, and what it should look like when you were done. We found it entertaining. I guess the tradition of carving pumpkins is just starting here or something. We were just so glad to have pumpkins to carve. Kaitlyn says her pumpkin is a Zombie. They were both so proud of their pumpkins.

Halloween night was so much fun. I know a lot of places and people in the Netherlands are not really big into Halloween. But we lucked out. Our whole community participated in trick-or-treating. Not every house But we could go up and down the streets and there were several houses on each streets with pumpkins glowing and signs in the window that said they were participating in trick-or-treating. It was quite stratifying and almost felt like we were at home and in the states just out trick-or-treating because there were so many other kids out trick-or-treating too. It was just fun! We went with my friend Baerbel. Her family moved here from England and her girls also go to the same school as my kids. Kaitlyn and Brianna enjoy playing with Sophie and Alix because they can play in English and in Dutch together. We went over to my friend Beate's neighborhood last because that is where the are the most enthusiastic about trick-or-treating and their were like 50 houses in one little square all participating.

The girls had lots of candy and it was over all a very good evening. Kaitlyn went off and spent the night at her friend Nina's house and her and Nina stayed up all night eating there candy all gone as any good little kid should. Brianna ended up starting to run a fever that night which has managed to spreed its way through the rest of the family. I feel bad for Brianna. It seems like every Holiday that comes, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, she will be sick. Poor girl.

Here are some pictures of the girls in there self chosen dress up outfits. I think they dressed themselves up quit well. We had 2 princesses and their pet giraffe.

Brian's toy!

Brian had to take a picture of his big lazer he built for work for a paper he is putting together. When Brian decribed he was building a lazer and then doing experiments on a lazer I though of something that looked like a microscope that sat on a table. When I got to go see it, it is this huge high powered-- huge thing. So if any of the rest of you are wondering what Brian is piddling away on for work. Here is a picture.

SPELLING!

So I have worked all of my life on my spelling. I am horrible at it and no matter what I do I can't remember how to spell words. So I love my spell check. However my spell check on my blog editor is not working. I click it and it does nothing. I of all people know I have many spelling errors in everything I write. Even if it is only one sentence. So to all of you who are reading my post from today. I am sorry. I am crippled by my lack of spell check and as soon as I can get figure it out I will spell check all of my post!

The 3rd of October

The 3rd of October is a Celebration that is Localized to just our little area of the country. Spain Occupied Leiden and they were finally free from Spain’s rule on the 3rd of October. They celebrate by eating Hutspot which is mashed potatoes/carrots/and onions. All boiled and mashed together. It actually taste really good. Then they usually put sausage on it. They also eat Herring and white bread. I don't go for the Herring fish so much as I've never really been a big fan of fish.

The girls love the festival that happens in Leiden each year. We had lots of fun. We took the Elders with us and it was fun for them, except of course they couldn't ride any rides. They were so good about it too. We also ran into Zhi qi one of their investigators who is from China. Her little girl Rachel and Brooke play a lot together. It is amazing how well they play with Brooke speaking English and Rachel speaking in Chinese. Her mom would translate for me as Rachel would declare she didn't want to be Brooke's friend any more because Brooke wouldn't share her sun glasses or what ever. It was so fun. Zhi qi has gone back to China now for a short while to visit her family before she moves to America. I will miss her as she was a great friend. She taught me how to cook some Great Chinese dishes and we had a lot of fun together taking the girls to the park and having nice play dates.

My Birthday!

October 1! My Birthday was a Great Celebration. Brian was very sweet and put a lot of effort into this birthday. He Made dinner and had the girls buy gifts. The girls were so excited to hide gifts around the house and have me hunt for them it was wonderful.

Valerie Reese and Shanelle (friends from church) and I went out for lunch for my birthday. It was so nice to go out and just have a nice birthday lunch.

I received so many wonderful happy birthday phone calls and emails. It made my day so bright.

My sister sent me a present of some beautiful premade "homemade" cards. She is so creative and so talented in all areas. I love the things that she does and I love the cards she has sent me. They are so beautiful. Thx Shay!

The following week Ulrike, Erna, Beate, and Marta (yes, Marta took a night off from the twins) and I all got to go out to eat. It was so fun being together with them. Ulrike took us on a small offical tour of Leiden and told us about a lot of the History. It was so interesting and so much fun.
I am so greatful for friends who make life so enjoyable. I am greatful for my friends at home who write to me and talk to me and post with me on my blog and help keep me sane and help me to feel like home is just a small distance away. I am greatful for my friends here who so kindly share there time with me and are there to laugh and cry with me. Friends are truely prices. To all my friends. Thank you for being my friends.

My favorite flower

I have seen a lot of beautiful flowers in my life especially since coming to the Netherlands. I saw this beautiful flower that was growing along a bike path up a person fence that was absolutely amazing. I fell in love with this flower. One day I was riding with my friend down this path and I stopped to show her the flower. She told me her neighbor had a flowering vine just like this one. One day she brought me this flower and gave it to me at school. She asked the neighbor if she could pick it. Now I can share it with you. My next goal is to have this vine that grows these flowers growing up my back fense and bringing beauty to my garden every day.

Brianna first tooth

Brianna lost her first tooth the evening after we went to the Anne Frank House. She was so excited to have it out. To have the tooth fairy come visit and to enter this exciting stage of life she has seen her big sister go through.

She now has her second tooth ready to come out but she doesn't want it to. She has decided it isn't exciting anymore and it actually hurt to have it come out. She is babying that little tooth. Making sure she does everything to make sure it does not fall out. Unfortunately, I don't think she has a choice about it!

The Anne Frank House!

September 20, 2008

We went with the Norlander family in our ward up to see the Anne Frank House. Which I loved. That was the best experience. The kids were a little more board with it, except Kaitlyn. She loved hearing the story of Anne Frank and wondered why we had never told her this story before. We left out a lot of the details because we didn't need her crying right there in the middle of everything but we told her enough that she understood the seriousness of what had happened. It was sad but wonderful that her story is continued to be told for all those who suffered such horrible act.

The day with the Norlanders was so much fun. There Children are so fun. Brianna and Mary were quick to make friends. The next pictuer is all of us on a bridge. Anne and Brooke are in the stroller now. It is nice that there kids are all around our kids age.

Brianna and Mary taking a ride in the Stroller. They were telling stories and having the best time.

One of the central squares in Amsterdam. The girls were having fun chacing the birds.

The buildings are Beautiful in Amsterdam!

In the square you find alot of beggers but they are dressed up really cool. If you give them money you can take a picture of them. The girls wanted a picture with the angle.

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The exit of the Anne Frank house. We couldn't take pictures inside. So we took them just as we were leaving so we could remember we were there.