The GREAT FREEZE

We had two weeks of really cold weather. WE loved it. All of the water around froze and we were out playing on it all that we could. We new it would soon melt and go away. All the neighbors set up a little party each night out front by the canal and had music and treats to eat and we all hung out and talked with each other while our children skated and played on the ice. It as an enjoyable time. I loved it.

It was so nice because if our neighbors saw that we weren't out there they would come knock on our door and let us know they were getting together outside and it really made me feel included and part of the neighborhood. I always new we lucked out and that we were in a good neighborhood but I am just loving it more and more the longer we live here.


The first day the ice was frozen hard enough to try to walk on it. I let the girls go out and try. I was of course with them also. We walked around and made sure it was good and frozen.


We went walking around and found this little duck pond that the ducks kept from freezing. It is funny because the ducks would stand in a group on the ice and then all jump into the water. We called it the Polar duck club.

Down by the store there is a windmill and we never have been able to get a picture of the girls by it because there is a pond of water around it. Well it was frozen soild so I had the girls walk across it so I could get a picture of them with the windmill.


The first is a picture of one of our neighborhood parties outside. The other is the girls out on Ice skates with their friends having fun.


I am so proud of Kaitlyn and Brianna learning how to ice skate. They have never really been ice skating before. They are doing such a good job.


Brooke and I had fun running around togther. I had a little chair I pushed her around on it. She loved it. She thought this ice thing was so much fun!

Chistmas Day 2008

Christmas morning was exciting for the girls. It was so nice for them to wake up and find these wonderful gifts under the tree. Thanks to My parents/Brian's Mom and Joel/ Grandma and Grandpa Moore/ Uncle Steve/My brother Jaymie/ Nancy/ and a good friend KayLynne. We had a really nice Christmas. Our family gave us money so that we could buy gifts for the kids.



The girls each had one items they really wanted from Santa Clause. Kaitlyn wanted a panting easel, Brianna wanted a guitar but the one I found was so inexpensive I was able to get her some princess dress up too. Brooke wanted a baby doll stroller. It was nice being able to get them the gifts that they wanted.




Our friend KayLynne works for the American school here and gave us some good condition used English books that she was able to pick up really cheap from her school. Brooke loves reading time and New books are so loved in our house. They were a beloved gifted and made it looked like a lot of gifts under the tree as I rapped each one individually. We had to read each book as we opened it. It really made opening gifts fun.

Last as a surprise to Brian and the girls with the money my family gave us I purchased a Wii. I sometimes feel guilty for doing so but Brian and the girls were so excited and they have so much fun playing it all the time. It was so fun seeing there excited faces Christmas morning. They have played the Wii so much. Especially Brian. He loves playing it with the girls. On Christmas day he played it so much that he actually hurt his back boxing so he was bent over for a little bit and we had him laying on ice packs.



opening the Wii. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Brian playing boxing. - - - - - - - - -Brian and Brianna playing baseball.

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Kaitlyn and Brianna playing bowling. - - - - -Brian's back hurt and unable to stand up.

As one last fun Christmas story, I don't ever want to forget. Brooke loves putting batteries in her mouth. She loves the feel of them on her gums. I being a good mom do not allow my child to teeth on batteries but dispite everything my 2 year old is still trying to bring her mollers in on batteries. Christmas day has an assortment of batteries to be put into toys and we were keeping them out of reach as much as possible but as a determined 2 year old she was after them. She succeeded and got a battery with out mom and dad noticing. She was excited and in her mouth it went as fast as possible. Brian and I heard a loud OW! We looked to see Brooke spitting out a 9 volt battery. We laughed so hard. I know we should feel bad for our child but all we could do is laugh. She has been much less determined to have batteries in her mouth lately. It has been nice.

Behind on my post due to the weather

The weather has been cold but we have been enjoying the winter weather and playing outside in it almost every free minute we have. So I am way behind on my post. I found this article on Yahoo and thought I could post it quickly so you can see all the fun we are enjoying. (Start at picture number 4)

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Dutch-take-skates/ss/events/wl/011009dutchskate#photoViewer=/090110/ids_photos_wl

I will post pictures of Christmas/New Years and all of our fun as soon as we come in out of the cold.

Visiting the Christmas Markets in Germany.

We love the freedom of having a car now and we decide to take a short 2 hour trip and drive to Dusseldorf Germany to visit and see the Christmas markets. What was suppose to be a 2 hour drive turned out to be a 5 our drive because we left at 4pm in the afternoon on a Friday and went through a lot of rush hour traffic through ever city we drove which was a lot of cities. So instead really we sat in rush hour traffic for 3 hours and then we drove for 2 hours to Germany and got there at 9:00 at night. We had a short stop also because Brooke threw up along the way. The beginning of our Christmas sickness started that day.

As we got to Germany we discovered that our GPS unit that we purchased on sale only came with maps for the Netherlands and didn't have maps for Germany. So we did our best to follow signs and somehow amazingly we found our hotel. We were so happy to climb into bed and go to sleep that night.

The next morning we woke up and we went to Konnigstraat in down town Dusseldorf to do some shopping. This was also tricky with out the gps. But luckily Germany has very nice street signs and we found our way around.

Our first stop was to find food. We were a bit hungry so we went in the first place we found with suitable breakfast food. It happened to be a Dunkin Donuts. The girls loved their donuts for breakfast.

The shopping was so nice. The malls were beautiful. Being inside was just like being inside a mall at home. Brian and I found the similarities kind of funny especially since here they do not have malls like that here in the Netherlands.

The Christmas markets were beautiful but also packed full of people. They had really neat wood toys and christmas items to buy. We found Giant Chocolates that we bought to give to friends for christmas.

We stopped and played with the girls to. It snowed on us a bit to along the way. We enjoyed some good food at the market and just had fun. Dusseldorf was a beautiful city to visit. I am really glad we went to visit.