And just for fun.......

I figured since it was my birthday I would post a few pictures of me when I was younger, much younger as you can see! These are some of my favorites! I was born in Independence, Kansas, the 4th out of 5 children. How my parents survived I'll never know! Three drive me insane! Somehow they did and I think I turned out okay. I can guess they can be the judge of that!

11 years ago......

Today marks 11 years that Zach and I have been married. So for fun I put on some pictures of the day we got married. We lived and met in Cheyenne, Wyoming, but were married in the Denver Temple. When we headed to Denver the weather was okay, the sun was out. As we got closer it began to rain and by the time we came out it had snowed! Despite it being very cold and wet we took pictures! My dress was soaked several inches up the skirt, but my mom was able to dry it and make it nice for the reception later that afternoon. Zach can always make me laugh even in the worst of times! I can't really put into words what he means to me. I love him to death! He is not into mushy sappy stuff so I will call that good.

It doesn't seem like it has been 11 years, but it has and I can't wait to see what adventures come our way for the next 11 years. Well hopefully many more than that!

Happy early birthday to me!

So it's a little wierd posting about my own birthday, but I figured Zach went to all the work to make the cake that I should. My birthday is officially on Friday, but because we will be stuffed from eating all day Thursday we figured we might as well have cake early! So Zach set to work last night and after letting it cool outside he was able to frost it and decorate it. The kids helped and then they had me close my eyes to wait to see the finished masterpiece! Pretty soon I hear a little musical thing playing happy birthday. It was a candle he had bought at the commisary. They sang happy birthday to me then we enjoyed the cake! It turned out really good! Zach bought a german chocolate cake mix and the frosting to go with it. Very yummy!

Now I don't get presents this year because Zach and I are going to Paris with some friends Sunday, Monday and Tuesday next week. I figured that was enough to cover both anniversary and birthday! Well I said Christmas too, but Zach went and bought me some presents anyway! He doesn't listen very well! It was a fun night, oh and the flowers he bought me for our anniversary. It was suppposed to be 10 white roses and one blue, but they gave us 11 white roses. They are very pretty and smell so good! Usually he gets me different colored ones, each color representing something, but this year he decided to change it up a bit. And he cleaned our room! I mean cleaned it good so I consider that to be a present as well! He dusted, reorganized, vacuumed and it looks great. I guess I was complaining about not having one spot ion the house I could enjoy being clean for more than ten minutes so he decided to make our room that spot! He really does try and that's why I love him!

It's officially winter because it's cold!

Tyler asked me the other day if his birthday was in the winter and I replied yes it is. He says no mom it isn't becuase winter doesn't start until December 21. You got me there Tyler! But it is COLD and we've had snow so who cares what the calendar says I say it's winter! I really can't beleive he is almost 10 years old! Man where did the time go?

Girls night out!

It has been a long time, four years to be exact since I have been on a girls night out. I had heard so much about the Twilight series, but at the time I had three classes going and just felt if I got into the books homework would suffer. Since I finished my classes up a week or so ago I tried to get ahold the first book, Twilight, which proved to be much more difficult then expected. The library had a waiting list a mile long and everyone that had a copy had loaned it out. I heard a movie was coming out and about was invited for a girls night out to see it. Well I still hadn't read the first book so didn't want to spoil it by seeing the movie.

Wednesday I was at the BX and there it was, Twilight, on the shelf! I bought it immediately and by Thursday at noon had read the whole thing! It was a really good book just as everyone had said. So I got in last minute on the girls night out which started out at about 10 people and grew to around 30! We headed to the 10:30 showing which ended up starting about 30 minutes late. It was packed! It was so much fun though!

As with any good book, a movie is not long enough or able to capture every detail. To me that's what makes reading so much fun! A lot is left to your own imagination. The movie was still good in my opinion and I look forward to the next one. Now I am hunting down book two. The first book had a sneak peek to book two so I have read the first chapter, but that is just not enough!

It snowed!

The kids were excited when it started snowing on the way home from school yesterday. That little freak storm didn't last long, but this morning we woke to a decent blanket of snow. Cody asked for gloves and a hat and was out the door! Tyler and Ryan followed and they did their best to make snowman out of the little snow they could gather. Then Tyler put it on the baseball tee and well.....no more snowman! The kids had fun, but now the snow is melted for the most part. It is really cold which I could do without! Snow is not much fun for us after living in Alaska! Maybe someday we will live somewhere we can build a decent snowman or even feel the cost of boots and snow pants is worth it!

Auto Technik Museum

Tuesday the kids didn't have school so we decided to venture out to an airplance museum about an hour away. It actually has way more than just airplanes. There are cars, trains, motorcylces, baby carriages, player pianos, tanks, and the list goes on and on and on! There is a nice park for the kids to play at, a few restaraunts and some little rides like go carts as well. They have a Concorde and a few other airplanes outside that you can climb up into. That was really fun although it started raining so we were got pretty wet! There is a slide from the DC-3 that Zach, Tyler and Ryan went down. Cody was too scared so I had to walk back out in the rain to take him in the building. There were interactive things all over that the kids loved, Cody's favorite being the trainset. The museum has an IMAX theater too, but the lady said Cody was too young and he would have been scared since it is 3D. There is an extension to this museum that we want to go see. It has a 747 that you can go up in, more cars and other stuff. It was a fun day and I think the kids really enjoyed it.

Honoring our veterans!

Today is a day to honor those who have sacrificed and served our country. We have done bits of traveling around Europe, but some of my most memorable times and trips I look forward to are when we go to an American cemetery. They are so peaceful and beautiful. The rows of white crosses are perfect and the whole area is so well kept! At St. Avold there are several instances where brothers lay side by side, one instance where five brothers are in a row. Great care was taken to ensure these veterans were properly buried and taken care of. And they more than deserve it!

Unfortunately today I found out that one of my heros and a veteran is in the hospital and not doing very well. My grandfather, a farm boy from Kansas, served in WWII. He used to tell the funniest stories about the time he was in the army among other stories from when he was growing up like the time he and some friends decided to steal watermelons from a nearby field. They got caught! I have not seen my grandpa for over two years, but I can still hear his laugh and see his smile when something amuses him. He is the most generous person I know, always taking care of everyone else.

This new has made me forget my initial post plan. I just hope our remembrance and honor for those that have served and sacrificed is not limited to today. Remember the ones we lost, serve and help the ones that are still alive! We owe it to them!

Beethoven's House!

I almost forgot we went to Bonn after Koln and checked our where Beethoven was born. Afterall we saw Mozart's so why not Beethoven! You couldn't take pictures inside, but we toured the house, saw his pianos, violins, original scores of music. It was really interesting. After the house tour and the workers watching my boys like a hawk! we saw a digital light show type thing. It was fun, but I couldn't keep the 3D glasses on. Part of my antibiotic is no contacts so I had my glasses on and it gave me a headache to wear those and the 3D. The kids had fun and got to manipulate where the characters were. When they would get close Cody and Ryan kept trying to touch them. We stopped at a little bakery afterwards for a snack before heading home. I think the boys had fun even though they had no idea who Beethoven was.

Koln....Another day trip adventure!

Our opportunity to sightsee is getting away from us so every chance we get we are going somewhere. Saturday was Koln and Bonn. I had seen pictures of the big cathedral there and knew I had to see it! The city of Koln was pretty much destroyed during WWII, but this church wasn't. It has over 10,000 square meters of stained glass, beautiful mosaic floors and just so much to take in. We didn't get to go to the top like I wanted. For one Zach is not fond of heights and two it was a lot of stairs that I knew Cody would probably have thrown a fit about 10 stps in resulting in me carrying him. WE walked over the bridge and enjoyed the view looking down the Rhein River. The train station was right there so Cody was very entertained by the trains. I have more pictures, lots more so will try and get a collage done later. I have to get homework done and study for my final that is Wednesday! So for now this is it! It was a great day, not too cold, just a bit windy.

Flowers always brightens the day!

This last week I have been dealing with a kidney infection and for any that have had one knows, they hurt....bad! It feels like I have been kicked repeatedly in my kidneys and the only realy pain free way to be is curled in a ball in bed! Wednesday and Thursday were the worst days. I had so many things to get done so did what I normally do, ignore the pain and move on. By Thursday afternoon I was miserable! Zach called to see if I needed anything from the commisary and I was pretty grouchy with him. He came home a little bit later with these flowers for me. Everyone always said flowers were cheap here, but not that we have found! We must be looking in the wrong place. Oh well, they still birghtened my day and Friday I was able to get to the clinic for some antibiotics to hopefully get this infection under control. The strange thing is I only take this stuff for three days. Can it really be cured in that short of time! Guess we will see!

Wolves in the house!

This week the scouts made dinner for one of the Fisher Houses on base. I am in charge of coordinating the meals our ward bring in each month and live right by them so when the wolves needed a backup destination on where to make thier dessert my house was it! We have a small pack so our wolves den consists of 4 boys right now. Their part of the meal was dessert and man did it look good! Zach took a few pictures when he got home, but none of the final product. The boys learned about mixing, measuring and while waiting for cooking and chilling, they went over the food guide pyramid and created their own healthy menu for a day. Well I guess healthy is stretching it when it comes to 8 year old boys, but they tried! The bear den came over as well when they had finished their bread and salad. Mrs. Beaman, their den leader, even prepared homemade bread for each boy to take home! It was so yummy and went perfect with our dinner! Thanks Heather! The Fisher House is a great opportunity in our area to serve others and I was happy to open my home to help them with this service project.

Baking Gals

I was talking with a good friend the other day and we were counting all my current obligations, callings, school, etc. Sometimes I wonder what I do with all my time! So anyway as if that list was not long enough I added more. I joined a team from Baking Gals. I tried to add a link for their site, but who knows if it worked. Someone needs to tell me how to have the word highlighted so others can click and go right to it!

Anyway back to Baking Gals. The team I joined was in charge of baking goodies for two soldiers so they could then pass them on, eat them all or do what they wanted with them! How fun is that! Since I know both of these soldiers I was on board the minute I heard. So the kids and I made some cookies and peanut butter balls to send. It was a little chaotic at first so next time I plan to do things a bit different. Cody loves cracking eggs so he was in charge of that with Tyler's help. I didn't get any pictures, but Tyler helped dip all the peanut butter balls in chocolate. The boys love to help me in the kitchen (except clean up) and it was a chance to teach them about serving others. And since our wonderful soldiers are dentists I threw a bunch of our Halloween candy as well! They can stay busy by handing out candy to all the others that come in and ensure one or two will be back! Actually it was a nice way to get my boys to get rid of most of the candy so I don't eat it all!

So anyway I look forward to another round of baking for our guys down range. It is nice to know who you are baking for, but even if you don't know them personally it's still fun to know that you are making someones day brighter by getting a box of goodies. Everyone loves mail espeically when they are away from family!

The thinking of a child.

Today after school I told the boys to do homework then clean rooms. I went upstairs to start more laundry now that I had softner and soap. Zach comes up a few minutes later and says Ryan is sitting at the table talking to himself. That is pretty common so I asked what was he saying. It was something like this.

"Man if I would have just not passed all those other tests and done so well. This is so hard I just should have not been so good at this." Zach had no idea what Ryan was doing or talking about. I said well he mentioned that he passed another math speed test and today the one he was on was much harder so he didn't get very many correct. So I guess he is rethinking passing the other speed tests. Now he actually has to work at it and for Ryan, well that is just asking too much! He is such a lazy kid! I have to laugh just thinking about him sitting at the table scolding himself for passing the previous tests. Why would anyone want to do that!

Ryan's baptism

Ryan was baptized yesterday afternoon. It was a little crazy to plan and several friends that wanted to be there couldn't, but all in all it was a good day! I ended up having someone there to play the piano so I didn't have to butcher the songs and Cody said the last prayer even though he was very hungry and not really wanting to be there. Tyler gave a talk and shared some things about his baptism day for Ryan. This is a very special day for Ryan and our family for many reasons. Zach was the one that baptized Ryan so it will always be a special memory for them. Ryan is now officially a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and is now 100% accountable for his actions. In our church we believe that at the age of eight you know right from wrong and are able to make decsions for yourself. Ryan chose to be baptized and had a nice interview with the Bishop to ask any questions and share what he had learned about baptism. Tyler was baptized at eight as well, but I was still a bit emotional and really felt the spirit as he was baptized. I feel very blessed to have an opportunity to see my boys grow and make decsions for themselves. I am so proud of my boys and happy that I have the gospel to help lead and guide them.

Happy Halloween!

Another Halloween is done! This whole week has been crazy with Cody's birthday, class parties, trunk or treat at church, and then trick or treating of course! This year I did more than normal. I made "halloween food" like gigglers in the shapes of pumpkins, ghosts, bats and such. I also made mummy cookies for the classes at school which ended up being a lot more work than expected! For dinner before trick or treating I made mummies (little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls to look like mummies) and now know why I don't usually bother It was a lot of work, but I think the kids had a good time. The Terry's went trick or treating with us. We were so happy the rain had stopped and it actually wasn't too cold. Cody had a hard time carrying his bag, it was just too heavy. Maddy insisted on carrying her basket no matter how heavy it was! It was really cute. She only put it down to check out the dogs that people had with them. Here are the pictures I got last night. As we were trick or treating I took quite a few, but not very many came out. After all the choas of trick or treating Tyler and Ryan went home with the Terry's for a sleepover. Hopefully trick or treating wore them out for her! Happy Halloween everyone!