Family Days are the funnest

We played Monopoly as a family and Gideon really enoyed it.  Bridger had fun for a few minutes then was off to playing with his trains on the floor and dancing for me.

 Joseph catching me in the act of reading to the boys before bed.

 Our little drive today took us through the village of phillipsheim which is really pretty with a small river flowing through town and beautiful walking/biking trails.   

 Gideon loves exploring and hiking.  I look forward to nicer weather and be able to do it more with them.

Bridger was asleep at first.  What a darling!   He was so suprised to wake up and be next to a creek.  It made him happy. :) 

  

We then drove through the village of Bruch (brrrrook) and saw Burg Bruch...We will have to go in sometime.  There was a sign that said Bed andBreakfast.  Looks cool to me.

Some new shoots coming out of the mossy ground on our hike today

 Life is going pretty good for us. Joseph's squadron got in trouble because of a few stupid peole got caught doing bad things and so for a month they have to be in dorms or housing by 10pm. It is a good thing we don't go out much. Well 4 people broke on that last night so Joseph had to go into work for a couple of hours on his day off. The joys of having imature adolescents who think they are adults (or is it the other way around) on your squadron. Well at least we got to spend the afternoon together and get out on a SUNNY day. That is something to note about.

FHE sign

I finally made a sign for our family to do our family Home evenings together.  It was a nice day.  I just painted while the boys played and did an art project of their own.....I need more days like this.  I even did pre-school today too and chores and a project.    I love the quote about families. "What matters most is what lasts the longest and Families are Forever." by M. Russell Ballard.

Mud......ball....looking things..!?!

I did a little research and in moist areas earth worms (night crawlers) do this in the mud at night time and you wake up to these new formations in the morning.  Kinda cool.  You can the after effects of the goodness they do for the lawn I guess.  Kinda cool so I decided to blog it. 

Gideon's video of working on the car with daddy

I couldn't get the video to upload the other day so here it is a little late. :)

Our cute boys

Ready for church in their new outfits

Date night and working on the car

So we spent date night at the gym playing raquet ball.  I got us raquets and balls for Christmas but we need to get our own eye protection because these were borrowed...YUK and they were fogging up on me every second.  I truely felt like a nerd, not a competitive wife :)

 After we played.  first game was neck to neck.  Tied most of the way and Joseph pulled in the lead and won.  Then he won the second I won the third and then he won the fourth.  I'll get better.....It was the glasses, the fogged up so I couldn't see the ball :)

 Gideon working with daddy in the garage.  they raised the car, put cribbing under the car to teach safety and put two new tires on the car and Gideon tightened all the bolts and did a great job.  He was loving the time one on one with daddy.

Yummy Scripture Cookies!

Cooking in the kitchen!!

 Gideon took this picture.  We have a photographer in the making :)

So we made scripture cookies today.

It was so fun.  We looked up each scripture to see what ingrediant we needed to add.  There was one we needed to really use our imaginations for but the rest were fun.  So what was taught was identifing references (chapter:verse) listening for a key word, using scriptures, getting your reading in for the day ;) and then measuring and following a recipe.  It was fun and the kids enjoyed it to.  They are yummy as well :)

Scripture cookies
3/4 cup (psalms 55:21)
1/3 cup (2 Nephi 26:25)
1 1/2 cup (Jeremiah 6:20)
2 (Isaiah 10:14)
2 cups (1 kings 4:22)
1 tsp. (Solomon's song 4:14)
1 tsp. (D&C 101:39)
1/2 tsp. (1 corinthians 4:6)
3 cups (D&C 89:17)
1 cup (1 samuel 30:12)
drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes in the (Joseph Smith History 1:37) and make sure to (D&C 133:11)
Enjoy!!!

The snow has melted

Super Gideon to the Rescue

Don Don Don Don

Presenting

Super Brothers

Run Run Run

And Running some more!

Telling me a story

This is what we traded in our F350 for :)

Ok so there was a building down the street giving away some free furniture and there was no way we could get it into our car so we had to get creative and so we got the RED WAGON out.  We were stealth and had fun....I hope I didn't embaress Joseph too bad by doing this with me.  At least it was dark :)  We put these nice chairs in our play room for watching movies, reading stories and just snuggleing on.

Playing around

Joseph being attacked by a dog

Nothing like a little K9 security force training.  The more you yell the more the dog will bite and attack and when you hold still and are quiet is when they stop....or look for something else to bite.  Me and the boys enjoyed watching on the other side of the fence. :)

Calf rescued by snomobillers in Donnelly!

I just love stories like this :)

Bridger Sliding down the "Volcano"....That is what they call it :)

Happy New Year!

We hope all of your new year festivities were fun.  Germans are crazy on New years!!!  I'll tell you why :)  So we went to bed early and I was woken up by kids running around the nieghborhood banging pots and then I started hearing it.  I went to the back of the house and opened the windows and I could not believe the sound.  Let me paint a picture.  I am on base.  No fireworks allowed on base.  Base is surrounded by like 9 villages and thats not counting the ones just past those ones.  Every villages church bells were ringing.  Everyone had firworks, and not the lil fireworks we are allowed in Idaho but the illegal fireworks.  Big Booms, big sparks.  There were people hoot and holloring.  It was seriously like a war zone.  THe church warning bells, people yelling, cannons firing.....I thought I was back in WWII  :)  It was amazing and I have told my self next year we are spending new years OUT with the boys.  It was one of the most incredible sights and sounds I have heard.  You have to experience it to believe it.  I am sure the fire dept. gets there quota for the year just on New years day :)

Some of my goals this year are to
 read the book of Mormon by April
Prepare our family for daddy's deployment
Go and visit some sights in Europe....haven't decided which ones yet.
Come to the states at least once during Joseph's deployment
Pre-school for my boys 3-4 times a week
have Gideon reading and writing and learn more in Math
Have Bridger identify the #'s and ABC's and learn how to focus on one thing and do it.  He gets side tracked easily :)  He's got my genes I think~.......What were we talking about......
Learn German
If I can do the above then I will move on to these....
I really want to learn Guitar
better my singing voice
Get a nice camera :)
Wish me luck I guess

Here is a few things we have been up to .......Enjoy!

Gideon trying out his roller blades and having the stroller and ice cream maker be his "walker" for learning :)

Pre-School room coming along

Playing in a homemade sand box with dry rice and beans in it.  We were practicing measuring and playing.  Makes quite the mess but nothing a broom and dust pan can't handel

My living room coming together.  The back wall is going to become my reading area with the book shelves and bench.  I am planning on having a shelf underneath the stars and then a quote on the wall below that.  n top of the bookshelves I plan on putting poster size photographs.

Daddy and his boys playing in the snow

 

we were lucky to have some sunshine over the last couple of days...It brings color into our lives otherwise it looks dark and gray....like this :)  I think that is why it is so green adn Beautiful when It is not winter, no one would like living here unless it was colorful for at least half the year. :)

We had a girls night and went to the Wittlich (sounds like village) truck stop and had good times talking and having people stare at us :)

I got a peice of home when I saw this on the wall at the German Truck stop.  There wasn't any other license plates anywhere just this one.  I thought it was pretty cool :)  

Gideon in the snow

In our back yard making slides

Me, just slid down backwards on the slide

I'm a big kid now :)

Go Gideon!

In the backyard again

Snow tastes Good!

Weeeeeeee!

He likes going face first :)

Sunshine and snow...Perfect

Our little "volcano" in the field behind us

At the top ready to go down

Climbing up