FourHandsFull

2010-02-16T23:46:00.003-06:00

Lincoln is doing some medical work in Haiti right now. Check out his blog for more info:

http://lincolnwestfallinhaiti.blogspot.com

2010-01-02T23:27:00.006-06:00

Here are some pics of the kids that I took during the summer. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-12-23T00:33:00.008-06:00

May the Spirit of Christ be with you all!

Family Reunion in OR

2009-12-23T00:32:00.039-06:00

For Thanksgiving we were able to go to the Krantz reunion in Elkton, OR. It took place on this beautiful 2500 acre ranch. The Krantz family is Lincoln's mom side of the family. She has 12 siblings and a few were able to make it with their families. Grandma Grace was so happy to see all of her offspring, especially a few of her great grand children.

Luca and Mariah. Mom, can I marry Mariah later?

Second cousins once removed and their great grandma Grace. I think they were watching UP.

What happened to these guys? :)

The cabins didn't have a bath tub. For now a sink will do. I think Ava had peed her pants. :(

One day we went to see part of Lincoln's dads family, who lives all over OR. We got to see grandma Mae, uncle Randy, aunt Carol and their wonderful kids.

Here's uncle Dylan (Lincoln's sister's husband) playing with the kids. They had such a great time with you, Dylan! Thanks for hanging out with them!!!

And here is beautiful Katie, Lincoln's cousin! She's so good with kids! You'll be a great teacher!

Christmas Tree Hunt

2009-12-23T00:32:00.029-06:00

Going Christmas tree picking seems like a fun activity...

...It was only fun for the first 10 min though. Then everyone started getting cold and tired of walking through the snow. Finding THE right tree is a problem, if you have 4 little kids and both parents are perfectionists. The tree was only $5 with a Christmas tree permit from the local forest service.

I just have to show these pictures. Otherwise one might think we only have happy moments in our little family.

There, Ava is much happier in mama's arms. Lincoln ended up carrying Noa and the tree. Poor Leea had to walk back through the snow to the car. Next time it will probably help if I dress them in their snow gear. We didn't have any snow yet, so I wasn't expecting snow in the forest either. Well, the forest is in the mountains. Duh!

Ahhh, Christmas spirit in the house! We had all other things set up, but the tree is definitely the creme de la creme.

My friend was telling me how they pick their tree in the summer. We will do this next year!

Fall Fun

2009-12-22T14:09:00.011-06:00

Luca's friend Beau, that sadly moved away

My friend Jamie had planted too many pumpkin seeds. The results were over 70 pumpkins shortly before a big move. While she kept some to practice shooting, we got to take a lot of them.

What to dowith lots of free pumpkins? We made them into pumpkin puree...

...roasted the seeds and...

...made jak-o-lanterns.

Clothespins help when eating pita bread or stuffed tortillas.

Luca enjoying all the leaves.

Luca has been getting into playing the piano randomly. He's been trying to play songs by ear. I'm glad we brought the old free clunker from MO.

A good sorting activity from http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ I love her blog!

Noa loves his Thomas suitcase!

Don't eat at my house! Noa might have slobbered over the food!

Leea is so incredibly artsy. These are dalmatian ears adhered to the skin and hair with tape.

Martians?

You might have guessed what one of the kids' favorite toy has been for the last couple of months: Mr Groucho glasses!

More Mr Groucho

One of Leea's home made costumes.

Homework Indian style.

Ava is becoming quite the artist.

This picture doesn't show it very well, but Ava looked like some person from a bad 80's work out tape. Priceless!

The hair do would have been great with her gymnastics outfit! :) Ava and Noa both love gymnastics and can't wait for Tuesdays.

Everytime Ava sees a laundry basket, she goes straight to it and starts folding laundry. She's the biggest helper in terms of laundry.

Silverwood

2009-12-22T13:36:00.005-06:00

The kids had finished a reading assignment a while back and got free tickets to Silverwood. Grandma watched the twins and we got to go with Luca and Leea. They even had a reduced admission fee of $20 for bringing in 4 cans of food for a food drive.

Lincoln's awesome bee shots with the macro setting on our little Canon.

After going on the roller coaster, we knew what was Leaa's new favorite thing to do! The rest of us could care less, but she wanted to do it again and again. It might have been the fact that her body is shorter and didn't feel like her head was going to be chopped off by going under the tunnels. It was awful, but yet somewhat thrilling.

Note, this is a kid sized cone!!! Yeah, right. We only got 2 for the 4 of us and were stuffed!

I got to ride alone and apparently used the time for some deep thinking.

First weeks in the new town

2009-12-22T00:31:00.012-06:00

Double rainbow

Leea's birthday was in September- We love you, sweetie!

Noa- party entertainer

We threw a little princess party for Leea and her friends. She has 3 class mates and they're all girls. I sewed these felt crowns. They were super easy and fun to make and the girls decorated them with gem stones. We played some games and had ice cream. Lincoln was even able to join us and read a couple princess books.

There's and awesome toy/homeschool store in this tiny town. The owner homeschools and has good knowledge about quality toys and learning materials. I never expected a store like hers in a small town. She invited us over to their farm, where we could pet all their animals.

Kittens

Lake Roosevelt

All this summer fun made these kids really tired. Imagine sleeping in Ava's position! Ouch!

Our new place

2009-12-20T23:44:00.012-06:00

For those of you who had been wanting to see our new rental place: Here it is! We really like it. It looks a lot smaller than it is. There's an upstairs with 2 BR and a fairly large basement as well. Maybe I'll take some time to take pics of those later.

My friend Melody painted the barn painting in the back. I love it, Melody!

The kids have always slept together and even though we had the space this time, we still put them together. This BR is downstairs, right next to our Master BR, so we can be close to them. The two BR upstairs function as our play and school room.

Here's the wardrobe my parents gave me when I left for the US the second time. It's old (like 200 yrs) and beautiful! Thank you so much, it means a lot to me! My friend Debbie painted the pretty tulip painting. I love it, Debbie!

We like the heated floor tiles in the bathroom. :)

These are the 2 boards that I had been wanting to finish since the 4th year of med school (2yrs ago). My friend Jamie in Spokane has a vinyl business, so I painted them and she made the letters. She gave us the last one (FHE) as a goodbye gift. Thanks, Jamie!

Classical Christian Education

2009-12-20T22:43:00.004-06:00

Remember when I was so sad to leave the kid's previous school? I had no reason to worry, as both Luca and Leea, as well as Lincoln and I love their new school.

Before moving here, we had come for a day to check out their new potential school. We checked into the public school and a Christian school, returning home with very mixed feelings and knowing I wouldn't want my kids to attend either school.

The decision was made, I was going to home school. Until one day, a few weeks before school started, we were looking for houses in our new town. We drove by their new school and we both said, let's check it out. We immediately liked everything they had to say and after talking to the teachers, we were settled.

I knew about the school they attend now, but their web page made it look like a very stiff school, compared to the school they had just attended in Spokane. Plus we had never heard about the learning style. Indeed they're both VERY different, but we have discovered a new wonderful way for our kids to learn: Classical Christian Education

Now they receive an excellent education (and we think it's even a low cost program compared to what other private schools charge in Spokane) and one bonus we all enjoy is a 4-day school week. They get so much done in their small classes, that Fridays can be used for whatever you want (the older kids have a lot of homework though). It's my home school day now. I found it a very nice compromise. We get to go on field trips, do whatever I think the kids need to work on and we have Spanish with our native speaker that day as well.

The kids have not complained once since they started. They have wonderful friends and are in a Christian environment all day long. The pray and bless their day and food. I even like the school uniforms. Growing up with girls bullying me about my clothes, I find it only an advantage. One thing less to worry about.

We're really happy to have found such a wonderful place for our kids.

Leea with her teacher

The "Schultuete" is a German tradition. Kids receive it there from their parents when they start school. It's usually filled with little toys and candy. Leea started Kindergarten this year. Luca got one last year as well.

Luca with his teacher

Black Lake

2009-12-20T22:16:00.006-06:00

We became friends with Leea's old ballet teacher in Spokane. She's a retired Neonatologist, that now lives close to our new place. What is amazing is, that her ballet school is completely free to anyone. Her philosophy: If you've got a talent, share it! Isn't this awesome? She's taught ballet for many, many years, even while she was working as a doctor. Luca and Leea both took lessons from her and loved her. She's kind and fun, yet firm and they did a wonderful rehersal, right before we went to Germany. I'll have to dig up the video. She said we're always welcome to come hang aound and explore her property and use her equipment (canoes, kayaks and paddle boats).

Here we are canoing with kayak paddles. It works great! We had been thinking of buying kayaks, but now we don't have to for a bit longer.

The kids were so excited for the real horsie rides! Eva, dear sister, you could come ride western style with our friend!

Beautiful waterfall on the way home.

Summer in Spokane

2009-12-20T21:33:00.009-06:00

This is how we enjoyed our last few weeks in Spokane. We all hung around like sloths and enjoyed the warm weather! :) Here's Leea's example.

The kids loved climbing grandma's apricot tree...

...and running through the sprinkler. Don't know what had happened to their swim suits this particular day, but underwear worked just as well.

The top of Mt Spokane. You can see all the surroundings lakes from here.

Huckleberry Picking on Mt Spokane.

Grandma not only helped to take care of the kids, but without her help, we would have had even less berries. It took us a few hours to pick a little less than a gallon. That's how hard these little suckers are to pick. But it's oh so worth it!

We all ate while we picked, but only the kids showed obvious signs of berry intake in form of big red stains around their mouths.

Beautiful Mt Spokane wilderness

Mmmm, huckleberry muffins!

A lifetime garden to nourish your life

2009-09-06T23:41:00.000-05:00

I just found this on our local 4 H newsletter. You can grow this garden all year long, over and over with the results of becoming a better person!

The Garden…A lifetime garden to nourish your life:

First, plant six rows of squash.

1. Squash dishonesty in all its forms.
2. Squash prejudice.
3. Squash fear.
4. Squash negativism.
5. Squash gossip.
6. Squash apathy.

Then plant five rows of lettuce:

1. Lettuce be kind.
2. Lettuce respect each other.
3. Lettuce be grateful.
4. Lettuce be patient.
5. Lettuce be faithful to our beliefs.

Add three rows of turnips:

1. Turnip to do your share.
2. Turnip to vote.
3. Turnip to help others.

For spice, plant three rows of thyme:

1. Thyme to teach and play with your
children.
2. Thyme to learn and grow wise.
3. Thyme to think about who you are and
why you're here.

Finally, finish off the garden with two rows of
peas:

1. Peas of mind.
2. Peas in your relationships.

If you care for this garden, it will produce all

Father/Son Campout June 2009

2009-08-12T23:55:00.003-05:00

Luca, Noa and I had an awesome time camping out at Clear Lake with a ton of other dads and sons from church June 5-6. We roasted bratwurst and marshmallows and sang to the guitar and violin around the campfire. We collected feathers and went fishing with poles and nets. Our favorite was kayaking across the lake together and chasing a beaver around in it. Luca did a great job paddling, too! There was lots of other beautiful wildlife including dragonflies, goose families, various ducks and colorful birds, and unfortunately mosquitoes. There was a lovely beach we enjoyed playing and digging at as well. I sure love my sons and feel blessed to be their dad. :)

We love kayaking!

Our friends Jared and Isaac caught a little fish they later fried and ate as a family. :)

Germany 09

2009-08-11T01:08:00.018-05:00

Our old landlord asked us sometime in April:"Would you guys like to move out early?" Utterly surprised (He knew Lincoln had a commitment in Spokane through August) we said no, thinking why would we move out early. We had prepared a nice blog for him helping him to find new renters. He got a lot of responses from people already wanting to rent it. Here are pictures of our old house for t hose of you who have been wanting to see it.

After a lot of thinking we decided it would be perfect to use the money we would not be using for rent to fly to Germany. We ended up moving into Lincoln's parents house the end of May, who agreed to take us in until now, before we're off to Colville. This seems like a long time, but the kids and I got to go to Germany in between for a whole month, while Lincoln was there with us for the first 2 weeks. Our stuff has been in storage in Colville already. It's been nice to be with Lincoln's family and for the kids to grow close to them, though I cannot wait to move into my own house after all these weeks.

It had almost been 2 years since we were in Germany last. It was so nice to see everyone and have the kids get to know my whole family better. They got to speak so much German, it was astonishing how well they handled the whole situation. I'm so happy that they get to speak two languages and function well in both.

Leea slept like this for several hours on the way there...

One of the highlights was that Luca got to go to my old elementary school with my old teacher Frau Fallahi for one week! I had her for 4 years. It was great of her to let him come to her class, even though he was 2 years younger than the kids in her class. They took such good care of him, and most importantly he got to speak German all day long. Luca and Leea also got to go to preschool (3-6) there, but they actually didn't like it. I was hoping it would be a little more fun for them, but they were just sending everyone off for the summer and didn't have much going on. The kids were simply bored.

Luca and Frau Fallahi.

The school grounds with a huge log to climb on.

My parents had tons of red and black currants we had lots of fun picking - yummy!

Mini Zoo in Essehof.

Playground in Braunschweig by the Waldorf Kindergarten.

Tante Eva's backyard. If you can't tell, Eva's obsessed with rabbits. At some point she was breeding them unwillingly. I guess they kept getting pregnant until she figured out how rabbits multiply...Sorry Eva, this was ages ago....

Noa

Ava

Leea

The whole family, without my dad.
Stephan, Matthias, Alina, Eva, Patrick,
Oma Sigrid, Uroma Maria, Lincoln
Noa, Luca, Leea, Rebecca and Ava

Noa eating the good German bread...

We like playing with our food, and Lincoln cracked us up with this little veggie-freak.

Isn't he cute? Here he's got hair as well.

We enjoyed having dinner with my mom's cousin Peter, his wife Karin and Karin's parents Dorchen and Gerd. Thanks so much for what you guys have done for us! You're truly amazing!
Look how much fun a few kids and adults can have with a 200 piece puzzle for kids! :)

Luca and me.

Lincoln and Uroma Maria.

Luca signing his first contract.

Aktivspielplatz Fallersleben. It's a playground kids supervised by an instructor can build things out of wood or other materials. They also have animals. It appears to me that it's for kids socially neglected, as they have lots of instructors there teaching all kinds of things and mostly spending quality time with the kids. It's open to everyone, so we checked it out. Note the wooden VW Luca's sitting in! Folks, I grew up by the VW headquarters, if you didn't know that.

Leea before she lost control of the vehicle and ended up on the lawn.

We loved the zip line best.

A raft somebody had built.

The kids having fun with ucle Matthias.

Lincoln and Luca.

Picking cherries at my friend Ulla's house. This is one of Lincoln's favorite things to do, enjoying the fresh breeze way up high in the tree and eating fresh fruit off the tree. :)

Leea made a present for my little brother Stephan. She put all kinds of stuff from around the house in it. He had fun opening it.

Italian Gelato!

Pirate playground with water pump. One of our favorite places ever.

One of my favorite places in my home"village" (It's more like a small town in US standards.) We used to go here quite often as kids and play in the river and by the old dam.

Huge old tree.

My dad got this accordion from a friend, and Lincoln being a natural could play it right away of course. Here's my mom trying it on for style.

Allersee

2009-08-11T01:04:00.006-05:00

We had so much fun several times at the Allersee in Wolfsburg. As a family we hardly went when I was a kid, but now it's our favorite lake. It's supposed to be the cleanest lake in Germany. Who would have thought. It's pretty close to our home. The kids are still raving about it and keep asking me when we'll go again.

Here's mermaid Leea.

My mom feeding the kids Haribo fruit snacks....

Papa and the kids digging huge holes and making forts.

Luca ready for the water.

Noa checking out the lake from atop his pail.

Oma Sigrid and Ava.

This is one of my favorite things from when I was a kid. Getting buried in the sand.

Snails Everywhere

2009-07-27T00:08:00.012-05:00

My parent's backyard was full of snails. The kids had a blast collecting and studying them. They built little houses, fed and even accidentally killed them. Apparently snails do not like living in covered houses. :) I didn't know that either, and the next day they had turned all bubbly. They also do not like swimming pools, but by the time I discovered the pool the snails had already drowned. I suggested we just build a house without a roof, but the very next day the snails were gone - I wonder why! :) From then on we just gathered them and studied them, because we learned it is best to just have them live their own way and that they can't be kept as pets. Sorry to all creepy creature lovers out there who feel this is one step too far....but then think about those people who love escargot!

One of the snail houses.

Leea loves little creatures. She was out in the backyard "taking care" of the snails a lot.

This is at my friend Ulla's place. The kids in her neighborhood are into snails as well...

Schladen Snake Farm Visit

2009-07-26T23:53:00.008-05:00

We went to the Schladen, Germany snake farm and got to see lots of snakes (more poisonous than non-poisonous), spiders and reptiles. Noa kept pointing out the Noa-, Ava-, Luca-, Leea- and Mama- snakes. He couldn't find a Papa-snake, because he apparently was at work (just like in real life - Papa is always at work). When Luca was asked where the Papa snake works, he said, like it's totally clear, "In the desert!"

The kids playing with a super poisonous black mamba.

Nabucco and Moritz

2009-07-26T22:56:00.024-05:00

My sister Eva was so kind to let us ride her horse Nabucco and a little pony called Moritz that stays in the same stable. Thanks Eva, we had a LOT of fun! And even though I'm terribly allergic to horses, it didn't bother me as much this time around...

...partly, because I wore this little contraption. I think I might try allergy shots before going again.

Luca on Nabucco.

The kids patiently waiting their turn. Bike helmets for safety reasons...I knew a woman who fell off a horse not wearing a helmet and died soon after. I won't let the kids ride without a helmet.

My mom helping out with the kiddos.

Lincoln was great at guiding the animals...

...but when it came to riding Nabucco, he seemed too tall for the horse. It looked quite funny, though the picture doesn't capture it. I think we might have a video somewhere. Hi hi...

Tante Eva and Ava riding on Nabucco on another day.

Leea riding on Moritz.

Luca and Moritz.

Noa found a perfect spot for digging. What would Noa do without any dirt? Pretty soon the other kids joined him. I guess they needed some serious relaxation after the horse ride.

After the fun comes the clean up...starting with horse poop...

... and then the hoofs.

The boys even got to ride on the tractor.

Random Spring/Summer Pics

2009-07-26T22:40:00.013-05:00

Princess Leea in her favorite dress my friend Nikkei gave her. Yay for hand-me-downs, love 'em...

Some sunday afternoon after church.

I just love Noa's expressions.

Ava and one of her twins dolls.

We found Luca and Leea in midst our clothes one day.

Westfall artists.

We love Discovery School!

2009-07-26T22:39:00.027-05:00

We're very sad to leave you, Discovery School. We were able to send Luca and Leea there only because we qualified for a big tuition discount. The kids have learned and grown so much since they started last year. The school is so hands-on and enriching that it's truly hard to find something that will compare in Colville. We especially love that the kids had music, art, P.E. and Spanish each twice a week. They also had reading buddies, at least one field trip a month and lots of fun stuff going on in their classroom besides the usual school stuff. One thing I especially like is that the whole school uses Positive Discipline by Dr Jane Nelson. Each teacher is required to read the book(s) and act upon. Dr. Jane Nelson has declared Discovery School a POSITIVE DISCIPLINE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL.

Here's the school's mission statement:

We believe in INDIVIDUALITY: Each child is a unique and distinct individual to be celebrated. Children learn at their own pace. Learning takes place most effectively when one is accepted and valued.
We believe in COMMUNITY: The community is a valuable resource for learning. Contributing to the community is a personal obligation.
We believe in RESPONSIBILITY: Each person is responsible for his or her own behavior. Learning is enhanced by ownership in the education process.
We believe in the JOY OF LEARNING: Education is a life-long experience. The arts are an essential part of learning. Learning is natural. Learning should be fun.

This was the kid's egg drop with Discovery School. At the end of the school year they had planned a bunch of fun things. I had never heard of an egg drop, but as I started researching the whole thing, it appeared to me that it is quite common in the US. Luca's egg survived in about half a gallon of jell-o in a jumbo yogurt container. We also had an umbrella on the enclosed container, but the teacher throwing the thing off the cliff never opened it. There was no weight limit. Some people had eggs embedded in watermelons thrown down the cliff. A teacher had one in a cabbage head, and there were several other random things containing food. Pretty wasteful, but I guess I don't count jell-o as food. :)

Noa took a good mouthful of the red mass. This container also has Leea's egg in it.

Hers survived too. We built a giant bubble wrap pillow with Leea and put a little garbage bag parachute on it.

Here the whole school rented the Looff carousel for breakfast.

Leea and her Pre-K teacher Chinowa...

...and Desiree.

Leea in front of her school.

Leea and her friend Maddy.

Luca and his friend Jon.

Luca and his teacher Michelle.

The kids with their art teacher Charlie Schmidt. Check out his web site. He's a great artist in all kinds of areas and well known in the Spokane community. He's also performed globally with his nose dance. Watch the videos on his page - he's really funny.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T18:06:00.005-05:00

We had an Easter egg hunt at the park by our house with several other friends with little kids. Sure was fun! We are very thankful for the hope of the resurrection that we are reminded at this special time that Christ gives us. We hope you all are well! God bless you all!

Der Kleine Maulwurf- I Miss you, my Friends in all Parts of the World!

2009-01-29T15:08:00.005-06:00

I loved to watch the little mole as a kid all the time. I'm so grateful for youtube and people uploading all these wonderful old treasures from the 80's.
This is my very favorite video. The two of them have such a wonderful true friendship. It's great to watch even if you don't speak any German, because the mole just mumbles a few German words and you still get the content of the movie. All my kids, but especially my two 2 yr olds, love all the little mole movies. Enjoy!

4 Random Things

2009-01-13T15:07:00.004-06:00

Danielle tagged me a long while back, but here we go:

4 Random things

4 Things I like about my husband:

1. His desire to learn new things.
2. His interest in health and natural living.
3. His sacrifices for us.
4. He is a great husband and father, thanks for being so patient with all of us, Linc! :)

4 Movies I can watch more than once:

1. Live is Beautiful
2. It's a Wonderful Life
3. Spaceballs (remember ladies? Oh come on, just one more time)
4. Labor of Love (This one is also for Steffi, Iris and Kristin- Good times...)

4 TV shows I watch: Don't have TV

1. Pippi Langstrumpf with the kids (German DVD)
2. We like to watch all kinds of things on youtube
3.
4.

4 Places I've been:

1. Most of Europe, my favorite places are the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas.
2. Canada
3. USA, duh
4.

4 People I email regularly: noone, unfortunately, thus this blog

1.
2.
3.
4.

4 Favorite foods:
1. Fresh strawberries
2. Sushi
3. Pasta
4. Fresh vine ripened tomatoes with mozarella cheese, basil& olive oil (insalata caprese)

4 Places I would like to visit:

1. Northern Europe
2. Mexico
3. Hawaii
4. Caribbean
and so on........I'd also like to visit Asia, Africa, Australia and South America.

4 Things I am looking forward to in the next year

1. Noa being potty trained
2. A perfect body, hahahaha (I've been eating raw and working out like crazy)
3. Lincoln finishing his 1st year of residency
4. More moolah

4 People I tag
1. Steffi
2.Nikkei
3.Tara
4.whoever feels tagged

The Twins' Idiosyncrasies

2009-01-12T15:11:00.007-06:00

Please don't listen to my super high voice... :)

Messy, but oh so fun! The kids don't normally lick the table like this, but I felt I shouldn't interrupt. Their behavior was just too cute.

Thanks Allegra for teaching me the above word! Every time I hear it, I have to think about you! :)

Honey, I shrink-wrapped the kids!

2009-01-11T23:27:00.002-06:00

Yep, he REALLY did! One day I was wondering why it took Lincoln such a long time to get the kids ready for the snow. Then I found them wrapped up in the living room. I must say this sticky moving tape works very well to keep snow from coming inside the boots and between the gloves and arms.

Christmas with Lincoln's whole family!

2009-01-10T23:16:00.011-06:00

Sure was nice to be together with everyone for Christmas!

Des, Dylan&Rocky

Rocky&Ava

Ava&Curious George-one of her presents

Leea the ham

Dan&Allegra

Noa&Dan

Luca the thinker

Luca designing Barbie clothes for Leea

John&SierraJohn&Noa- Look-a-likes

Thanks for the fun ginger bread house, Sierra&John!

Our Family Christmas Highlights & Traditions

2008-12-27T01:22:00.019-06:00

We went to the the Colville National forest to get our all natural Christmas tree for $5. Lincoln and I tend to be perfectionists and it took us forever to find the right tree. After a while the younger kids got really tired and we sat in the car while Lincoln and Luca got a special tour of a different part of the forest with some nicer trees. The ranger was so nice to take them there. At the same time we looked at a couple of house rentals for this coming summer.

We went to the "Nativitifes from Around The World" festival that has been going on in our church stake for a few years. Lots of people lend their nativities, so we ended up having close to 700 nativities to look at. They even had a room full of nativities for the kids to play with. Of course I had my German Ostheimer nativity in it, too. The organizers put a lot of work into this and it's always a success. During this time our stake has a lot of visitors from different faiths that even participate in the musical programs. We had a wonderful spiritual experience. Here we are all dressed up.

The kids liked Santa at our ward Christmas party.

Our new tradition is a mediterannean dinner for Christmas Eve. Something Jesus might have eaten. Last year was the first time we did it and we liked it so much, that we decided to make it our tradtion. We had a Greek salad, hummus, pita bread, olives and sugar snap peas. It's so easy to prepare. I can imagine finding lots of wonderful recipes for future dinners, but this year we didn't want to have left overs, since we went to Lincoln's parents for Christmas.

After dinner we read the Christmas story by candlelight and had cookies

After the story the kids got to unwrap their presents, juts like in Germany. I love continiung some of my favorite memories as a kid. It was very special to have our very first Christmas Eve together with our little family.

The doll house: Inspired by this article, my goal is to give homemade gifts every year. It's not limited to that, but I like to not overdo things and rather skip the hassle of running through malls. It helps me to experience a more Christ-like Christmas. The kids know I worked hard on this for a long time and I want them to realize how special it is to give something home made, that's especially designed for them.

Here's a little video of the finished product.

Other traditions include:

advents calender
advent candles
making home-made cookies
Nikolaus on the 6th of December: The kids wash one of their boots and put it outside by the front door, expecting Nikolaus to put little toys and sweets in their boots. I like to tell the true story of St Nick on Nikolaus Day. Christmas I just like to focus on Christ, which is hard, because there are Santa's everywhere, of course. But I think the kids know that we give each other presents, because we love each other. It never felt right to me to mention Santa during Christmas.

Don't you love Leea's underwear sticking out from underneath her leotard? Ooooh, and the low-fat milk for Nikolaus?

Luca with graham crackers for Nikolaus.

All the boots are ready to be filled. One of my favorite traditions...Sorry, no after pictures, because it kept raining.

Merry Belated Christmas!

2008-12-27T00:52:00.015-06:00

We're snowed in!

2008-12-07T21:44:00.010-06:00

On Wednesday, the week before Christmas, we woke up to a few snow flakes and it didn't stop snowing until Friday. It snowed so much in 24 hours that it broke all the records for December. The kids AND Lincoln both got Thursday and Friday off from school and work. This way the kids Christmas break started a couple days early. There was no way we could have made it anywhere on our road. The whole city was behind plowing the roads. I already had problems when I had to run a few errands Wednesday afternoon. I couldn't get through the snow on a hill to make it to the next road, but somehow managed to find another way home. Luckily we had gotten 2 weeks worth of groceries a couple days beforehand. It was o nice to just stay home, play and get ready for Christmas.

Our basement window. When it was finally done snowing, we were only able to see snow.

This is what awaited us when we opened the garage door.

These guys sure had fun.

It kept snowing on and off and we, mostly Lincoln, had to shovel the drive way already 3 times (compare to fall picture of the house-it's ahuge drive way). The snow plow kept pushing snow in front of our drive way, so we had to keep shoveling that away too if we wanted to leave. At some point we had no idea where to put all the snow, as the sides of the drive way and road were already way to high to throw the snow on top of it.

All this snow kept falling down the roof, leaving even more snow in the drive way.

Yep, that's me. Fall decoration in the middle of winter. Love the picture though.

Our lamp with cute snow hat- reminds me of the soldiers in London.

Daddy took the kids to the park.

Potty Training Twin A: COMPLETED!

2008-11-29T19:57:00.009-06:00

One of the batch got the hang of it. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that Ava doesn't need diapers anymore! Only one more to go!

A load full of groceries, a car, a violin and two packages

2008-11-28T23:10:00.025-06:00

Last month was a hard one for us. Lincoln was on OB call every 3rd night (30hr shifts), still had to do his clinic stuff and somehow had to catch up on sleep. We saw him rarely, but visited him as much as we could in the hospital.
We also had some bills we had "forgotten" about and needed to somehow come up with the money, which is so hard on a tight budget. We ended up selling a bunch of stuff and are fine now. I hate feeling stressed out by financial burdens. This has not been the first time of course. Budgeting came to a whole new level when we moved to the big city. Everything is more expensive-which we somewhat knew before, but it's different in reality. (At least gas has gotten down to 1/3 of the price, which saves us a whopping $90 per month).Rent is the biggest burden, but we're still glad we live where we live, b/c it's so close to work for Lincoln and we feel safe here. Lincoln was able to use his bike all summer (and most of fall) long. The parks close are so nice and we love our church ward. And thank goodness it's only for one year! I hate financial burdens (who doesn't) and they take a big toll on me. Our next city is almost as cheap as rural Missouri. AND, the car insurance is paid off! They will leave us alone for a year now! :)
I've definitely learned one thing from being on a tight budget- only buy what you NEED. There are always a lot of WANTS, but lately those have needed to be sacrificed.

That said I was so happy for a few surprises this last month.

1.) Lincoln's mom showed up one Saturday with a trunk full of groceries for us. I knew she was going to get something for us from Costco, but that something ended up a month worth of freezer groceries and all kinds of yummy fruit and other healthy things. It took my breath away. THANK YOU SO MUCH, SUZANNE!

2.) With the weather getting more and more inclement, it was difficult for Lincoln to ride in the rain, but we worried more about the soon to be coming snow season. His parents kept having the feeling that their son wouldn't be safe getting up and down the hill, so they wanted to see how they'd do with only one car and lend their humongous Tahoe to us. I drove that thing once, never, ever again. I felt like I'm stearing a locomotive. Anyway, it turned out to be just the right time, because from then on, it kept raining. THANK YOU SO MUCH, GREG!

3.) Luca has been taking violin lesson for a few months now. Well, Leea started out but she got "stuck" and thus got frustrated and Luca just took over her lessons. We still practice with Leea, but she's so stubborn, we really have to be careful to always make practicing fun for her. We don't want her to lose interest in it by being forced into it. Luca had practiced with Leea and showed an interest in playing the violin, so we thought:"Why not?" When you're ready it's never too early to start. (We asked Leea ns she seemed to be interested at first) His teacher goes to the same church ward as we and is such a nice person to be around. Her sons are friends with Luca and her little daughter is friends with Ava and Noa. After the lesson it's so hard to get home, since we always have such good conversations, plus the boys want to play together. Her husband has been gone for a few months, starting a new job far away and getting is trained for it right now. I feel for her, since I know how hard it is and how talking to adults is so important.

Anyway, she lend us her cute mini violin, while we were searching for a good priced one. One time another friend, whose two kids are also taking violin lessons from her, made us an offer for a violin that they weren't using. Actually they had bought one, couldn't get it for a few weeks, ordered another one and then both of them arrived at the same time. They weren't able to return one of them, didn't want to go through the hassle of reselling it and offered Luca a violin scholarship. For every day Luca practices, he can earn himself a dollar towards the new $250 violin. We made a little chart with the first $25 on it and for every practice time he puts a sticker on for one dollar. After the chart is full he's supposed to report to our friends and show it to them. I'm so thrilled about this. First it was so hard to accept, but then I thought:"Well, they offered it, so it is o.k., otherwise they wouldn't have done it." I'm excited for Luca to earn himself a violin. I think it'll teach him a great lesson and that he can never take things for granted. It takes real work to earn oneself something special. He does so well playing his violin. Once we have another external hard drive, I'll post a little movie. THANK YOU SO MUCH, JOHN & NIKKEI!

4.) My good friend Katrin called and we had a wonderful time catching up. I lived with her family (husband and a little boy back then) for some time as a nanny, after I finished high school in Germany. She's German, which I especially liked. Before I lived with them, I had never been to the States and she helped me transition a lot better than I ever thought I would. When I'd feel home sick, she'd pull out some German chocolate (she always has stashes of good chocolate hidden somewhere) and we would just talk. Ah, I love to think about those times.
I think it was all "planned" that I was supposed to live with them. i did not only get to know their wonderful little family and learned so much from them, but also met my future husband. I first was given a family with 3 girls in KY, but they had to decline, as they needed an AuPair sooner last minute. So I ended up in Pittsburgh and met Lincoln in church a couple months later. It was a wonderful time. My host family was the best host family ANYBODY had, in my opinion. So many people complained about their families and how much work they had to do. I got along with my family so well, enjoyed living with them and just adored their little boy Kieto, who was 2 1/2 at that point. Katrin and her family have done so much for me/us. They have been so generous many times, including buying my wedding dress, that I feel so enormously blessed. Not to mention the life lessons I learned while living with them, especially getting to know residency life, as Katrin was a first year resident, when I first lived with them. By no means I felt as worn out then as I feel now, (actually I don't know if I ever felt worn out, as I didn't have any parent responsibilities) but I knew what to expect. Katrin has been such a trooper, I really admire her.

Anyway, after we had talked, Katrin said she would send another package. Katrin's packages are some of the most awesome packages you can receive. Hers are always stuffed with wonderful (European) clothes from her kids, German books, CD's and chocolate, and other fun stuff. When it arrived we were totally blown away by the wonderful things she send. THANK YOU SO MUCH, KATRIN!

5.) Right before "Nikolaus-Day", December 6th, I found a yellow package on our front steps. Yellow "packset" package means it MUST be from Germany. I was totally surprised that it came from my wonderful childhood friend Ulla. It had little gifts and a couple German books for the kids, German MILKA chocolate, a chocolate advent calendar and Euro money for Lincoln's graduation in it. Now, Ulla has ALWAYS been one of my favorite people in the world. She moved right next to us when I must have been around 8 or so. I really don't remember. She and her husband didn't have kids yet and it seemed like we were over there every other day. She seemed to have endless time for my brother Matthias and me. We played games, made cookies with the all time favorite Bosch mixer, and just had fun together. She's such a wonderful mom now, which doesn't surprise me at all. Her boys are in their teens now, and they have a wonderful relationship together. You probably don't know this yet Ulla, but when you became a nanny, we were super sad and a little jealous that we couldn't spend as much time with you anymore. And then of course you had to move away. Ulla also made our wedding cake in Germany and has always been so generous! Even though we don't see us much at all anymore, I think about you often and cherish the time we spend together when we go to Germany.

We were so happy to find an advents calender in the package. Usually I wrap little presents for the kids. This year it would have been 96 little packages, but I didn't have enough time or energy. They didn't seem to mind. Each one gets to open a little window with chocolate every fourth day until Christmas. Next year we'll continue the our tradition of having a calender for each kid. THANK YOU SO MUCH, ULLA!

Funny phrases continued...

2008-11-28T22:50:00.007-06:00

OK, these things are just too funny to not post! Enjoy!

Ava:"I need to poop".
Me:"Ava, please wait, we're almost at Leea's ballet studio. I don't want you to poop in the car seat!"
Noa:"We can just vacuum it up!"
----
We're eating hot dogs.
Leea:"Did this used to be a dog?"
----
We were at the pool and a very muscular young men enters the swimming area.
Noa in a loud voice:"Look, mom! This man has breasts!"
Thank goodness this was in German. :)
----
This was at least a year ago when Leea was 3.
We had lasagna for dinner and there was a bunch of fat on top that had turned red from the tomato sauce. I got a paper towel to soak it all up.
Leea:"Mom, is the lasagna bleeding?"

Fall Impressions and Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:06:00.017-05:00

Our cute carved pumpkins

In Missouri we didn't like not having ANY trees in our backyard. We missed the shade and playing in the leaves. I never realized how much less work I really had without trees. Here we have several really large mountain hemlock trees (which needle a BUNCH), a maple and oak tree and several other deciduous trees, not to mention the ones along our street. We try to sweep/rake up the leaves and needles at least once a week but don't seem to be able to catch up. The kids love to help sweeping them up and putting them into our city recyclable box, so we can throw them onto our leave compost in the backyard. Regardless of the work, the fall colors and smells sure are nice here.

A wonderful parent each in Luca's and Leea's class had planned Halloween parties. I got to help in Leea's class. I try to help out once a week, preferably in Leea's class, because they have toys Ava and Noa like. It was especially fun to join them for Halloween.

Noa and Ava had some coloring fun, while I was setting up things for the party.

Fun snacks- though I would have preferred ONLY fruit and protein, instead of more sugar treats and WHITE bread.

Doesn't Leea look so old in this picture?

One of Noa's funny faces...

Luca as an "Army of God Knight". He had been begging me for a knight costume and it was going to be his home made gift for Christmas (my goal is to only give homemade things for Christmas), but I gave in and made it for him last minute for Halloween. This hidious material was perfect for the chain armor.
CTR means "Choose The Right"
- a motto among LDS members that is taught to children and used by members of the church as a reminder to act righteously.

A while back we read one of the "Jack and the Beanstalk" books. This particular book had the funniest cat ever in it. Every time we read the book, Leea had to copy the look of the cat. Well, this is it! It's hilarious! Leea is really good at making all kinds of faces. Maybe she'll like acting later - like her auntie Allegra!

Leea is in princess mood every day, Cinderella is her favorite. Halloween was a perfect occasion to let the wear her costumes in public. For our church Halloween party & Trunk or Treat, she wore the princess dress Oma Sigrid had made, but for school she wanted to wear her Cinderella costume.

Back in Kirksville somebody had given me this dog costume at a yard sale for free. Leea already loved it tons and wore 'til she really couldn't fit in it anymore. Now Ava loves it. She's actually afraid of dogs, but loves them at the same time. She always wants to pet them, but then she starts crying. I told the kids we can have a dog when we move next summer and the twins are finally potty-trained. :)

This costume is perfect for Noa's little personality and it reminds me of Kieto, when he was 2. Kieto is the boy I watched, when I was an AuPair. He was so cute in it-I had to have a costume for my kids as well.

Lincoln was actually on call (notice the scrubs under his costume), but a fellow resident with no kids covered a couple of hours for him so he could go trick-or-treating with the kids just like her dad always did with her growing up! How nice of her! We decided to have spider pizza for dinner. The kids had a lot of fun making the spider.

Leea's spider creation. I don't want to meet this fellow in my basement! :)

Neither this one. The one with 8 legs!

When we got ready for our church party the week before Halloween, Linc and I had like 5 minutes to throw some costume together. I managed to get some pirate outfit together with my striped pj's and stuff from the kids dress up box and Lincoln wore a yellow hard hat, yellow work shirt and the little monkey in his pocket- "the man in the yellow hat" and Curious George. It was hilarious. Everyone knew what he was, but it looked so fake (sorry no pic). Then somebody at work told him that this fellow resident had a real Man in the Yellow Hat costume that Lincoln got to borrow. Can you tell we aren't in the possession of any adult costumes yet? :) Someday; we still have to budget for priorities for now. Anyway, Linc wore part of the costume (the yellow hat and then the monkey in his scrubs shirt pocket) the whole day and call night on inpatient pediatrics, and people liked that there. Poor kiddos who had to be in the hospital on Halloween.

Here they are, ready to go Trick or Treating. I actually hate the candy-part. It's fun to walk around and show off costumes and to receive candy, but the candy isn't even yummy, except for 2-3 kinds. The rest went into the box by our front door, and it had magically disappeared that same night. I wish it was all about healthy food. Imagine all the kids would be craving fresh and dried fruit and other healthy goodies!

Ok, I wasn't that mean. They were able to pick a few things and have them for dessert, but the rest went either outside or in a treat box for later, that will last months...

We're glad you could stay with us for a couple hours, Linc! :)

Oh the things that they do and say

2008-09-19T16:08:00.009-05:00

Luca: "Mom, what kind of meat is this?"
"chicken breast"
Luca: "Do you think this breast still has some milk in it?"
"em, no"
--------
We were in a hurry before school and the kids ate their breakfast alone while I got dressed and Lincoln got the twins downstairs. He proceeded into the dining room and saw Luca and Leea all crunched up on their chairs, very close to their bowls of cereal and munching it all up very fast with animal-like sounds.
Linc:"What are you doing?"
Luca: "We're pretending we're dust mites eating cradle cap"

The kids know I'm allergic to dust mites and were interested in what dust mites are and what they eat, so we had a little lesson on them before the above mentioned situation happened. Our kids still have cradle cap (dunno why, but I try hard to get rid of it, but it keeps coming back) and I told them that dust mites eat that and skin pieces that fall off of humans. Pretty gross, I know! :)

I just found pieces of paper with old stuff on them:

I think this is my very favorite one. A couple of weeks after I had the twins and still and enormous belly Luca (then 3) looked at it observantly and said:"Mom (pause), I think there are still a few more babies in there."
--------
Here's another one from a couple years ago. Leea (then 2) had a phase when she would constantly pretend she's a man. Luca and Leea played dinosaurs when Luca asked: "Leea, are you a T-Rex?" "No, I'm not a T-Rex, I'm JUST a man."
--------
Luca and Leea looked out of the window and said something like this, when somebody went by on a bike. Luca:"Look, Leea, there's a woman on a bike". Leea:"No, she's a MAN like me."
--------
Luca (then3): "Papa, I like you. You're SO pretty."

Our Little Astronauts

2008-09-15T15:23:00.006-05:00

This is how we found Luca and Leea in the backyard a couple of days ago. Luca: "Mom, put a candle under the bike trailer, we want to blast off into space!"

Happy Birthday, Leea!

2008-09-07T23:30:00.012-05:00

I can't believe it, but here's our little Leea on her 4th birthday! She's such a beautiful, happy and talented kid. We're so happy to have her in our family! We love you, Leea!
Leea had been asking me for a butterfly cake for her next birthday for along time. I came up with this little whole spelt creature & cream cheese frosting with natural food coloring. The taste was ok, it was more the "look" that counted for her. She actually preferred the Costco sorbet Oma Zanne had brought. It's nice that the kid's grandparents live so close now, that they're able to join us for birthdays.

My new project

2008-09-05T14:04:00.003-05:00

I found this awesome huge old window in the trash a couples days before we left Kirksville. I had been searching for one in antique stores and they run for about $25 in way smaller sizes. I had to have one with panes, they have great potential for a decorating frame or even a picture frame. My friend Melody used hers (without glass) for decorating for Halloween and Christmas and put spider webs and snow flakes in hers. Another friend put her menu on one and made a picture frame out of the other. Hers still had the glass in them. Mine came with broken colored glass, so I had to get rid of it. I am hoping to maybe put some new glass in it and then make it into a picture frame. Of course I don't want it to be too costly. We'll see.
This reminds me of the annual Kirksville clean up. Oh, how I miss those treasures in the Ville (luckily now we have craigslist).Once a year in springtime people put out their junk for spring clean up. Within hours most of the stuff would be gone. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Really. So I put these totally broken wooden chairs outside and they were gone within an hour. I found a Little Tykes kiddie pool boat once and then a Little Tykes cube slide another time. My favorite part is the story with a vacuum cleaner. Ashley had found one and discovered it really didn't work anymore. I think it was super loud and dusty or something. She put it on her curb and found it gone soon. The next day she found it in front of somebody else's house in the neighborhood. This is classic. Melody and Charyce would find the coolest things and use them for art projects or simply repainted them. I think that's where I got my inspiration to get creative with old things. Thank you gals! :)

Laptop Lunch Box

2008-09-04T15:26:00.013-05:00

The kids are in school until 3pm now and eat lunch there. They provide much healthier food than I've ever seen in a school cafeteria. The cook uses veggies from their school garden and they will always have fruit as well. The kids will only get seconds, if they have eaten all their food. While I'm happy with that, I'm concerned about a few other things still.They offer WW-bread and try to reduce white flour products, but still use it mainly. They use meat filled with antibiotics and milk and milk products with hormones. It's also $3.50 per lunch times 2, so I decided to pack their own lunch, at least most of the times. I do realize there will probably be times I won't be able to prepare a lunch and then I can rely on theirs. I'll probably check their menu first and then decide.

I had been intrigued by the vegan lunch box and several other lunch box sites and found the Lap Top Lunch Box to be the best fit for us. Their lunch boxes do not contain phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), or lead. If you get the whole system, you'll also receive a bag and water bottle. I even got a steal on them at our local health food store, because they had told me the wrong price. Phew, they are expensive. I'm happy that my kids will hopefully set good examples to their peers and show them how yummy and appealing whole foods can be and that we can keep our environment cleaner by not producing trash with wrappings of all sorts. And I've found a new hobby: "lunch boxing". I had a lot of fun making them the nights before school. Here are a few of their last lunches. All these got mostly eaten during lunch and finished on the way home (the insulating bag keeps the food cool).

Star shaped cheese whole wheat sandwich with a side of parsley (one of their favorite greens), orange slices, mini tomatoes, celery and carrot sticks with Annie's goddess dressing (pink container) and a few spelt pretzels.

The twins thought it was so funny to eat star bread for lunch.

Banilla (banana&vanilla) yogurt with raspberries (container has a lid), carrots on a parsley bed, apple flower with raspberry center and whole wheat peanut butter sandwich with raspberry jam.Spinach with crumbled feta cheese and olive oil, strawberries and blueberries, half a cream cheese ww bagel, carrots and celery sticks with Asian Ginger dressing and 3 "sun drops".

Prunes and half a peach, cucumber, tuna fish with celery chunks on ww bread and bell pepper strips.

Nectarine wedges, carrots on spinach, turkey cheese sandwich on ww bread on a bed of parsley and prunes.

Green beans w. ketchup (green french fries), a mini baby-bell cheese, cream cheese ww bagel on lettuce and fresh prunes.

Back to school

2008-09-04T14:47:00.017-05:00

The summer was long and we had a lot of fun, but yesterday it was time to go back to school for the older kids. I anticipated this very much, but was having a lot of mixed feelings as well. I love to be with them, play with them, have fun with them and teach them. I think they even speak better German then English now. Their German got really boosted up over the last 3 month with no school. Not that their English is bad, it's just noticeable that their German vocabulary has expanded more. I'm so happy they love to speak German.
Every time they came home from preschool in Kirksville, I noticed their new English vocabulary. It's amazing how they can just absorb it all. They'll probably laugh at my sometimes lousy English at some point. :)
You may wonder, don't they have a dad who speaks English with them? Well, they do, but he works such crazy hours most of the time that they don't get to see him much other than on the weekend.
We did/do get English books and Dvd's from the library and went to playgroup and had play dates over the summer, so they wouldn't be totally underexposed.

We found a very nice school for Luca and Leea. It's up to 6th grade and every class has way less students than the public schools here, which is 25 vs 15 kids for Luca's class.
The kids learn Spanish from a Native, have rich music exposure, art, PE and free play, with all wonderfully committed teachers. We got to know them yesterday and I'm very impressed. The head of the school is a former music teacher, so they have a pretty big focus on that and lots of different instruments there. Sometimes somebody will play the harp during lunch time and then kids will join in voluntarily and sing along. I love it. They also have field trips every month. I think we found the right school and I'm pretty excited for them to be able to go there. It's only possible, because we were given a wonderful grant, which we feel so blessed for.

When I was a kid in Germany and had my first day of school, we were all given a "school cone" (Schultüte) filled with goodies, little toys, things for school etc. Luca knows about this tradition very well from several of our books and my kids pictures and wanted one too. So I made him one and gave it to him for his first Day of Kindergarten. Maybe I should have made one for Leea, too, because it was her first day of preK, but now she's anticipating one for her first day of Kindergarten next year. The head of the school loved the idea and would like to introduce something like this, so the kids will remember their special first day.

Luca's Kindergarten teacher Michelle.

Luca all happy and excited about his Schultüte (cone).Aren't they cute? Heck, they grew up so fast! One of the things in the cone was a "frog and toad" book- one of Luca's favorite storybooks.Lincoln got home for lunch, because he needed the car to go to a different clinic. It's was perfect, because we were able to celebrate their first day with our whole family.

Me with the cone fillings. I was so excited, because it's kind of like reliving wonderful memories of my childhood and home. Plus I knew Luca would really like it. The day before I made this cone, we went to a German deli in town and bought the "Russisch Brot" alphabet cookies and the German chocolate mini cars. This place was so fun. I could have eaten the whole store, but left it mouth watering, because of the outrageous prices in there. So yes, I went a little overboard with the whole thing, but it's a once in a lifetime thing.

He got some lego cars, a balloon boat, candy, chewing gum (his new favorite), play money, a flik flak learning watch (I always wanted one as a kid) and a Biene Maja learning DVD, that came from my mom. and of course the "toad and frog" book.

Treasure Hunt

2008-09-04T14:46:00.014-05:00

Sometimes we like to walk around our neighborhood and collect interesting looking nature things. Here are the kids with their treasures from our last treasure hunt walk.

Luca's treasures were bark, a duck feather and a chestnut-like round ball with spikes on it.

Leea's treasures were bark and a pretty yellow flower.

Here's Noa with a bunch of sticks and a nice, dirty face. Every good treasure hunt involves getting dirty.

I can't resist these pretty pictures of Ava. She looks so gorgeous here. You guessed right, she's also into collecting sticks. And there are tons of them in the park close by.

At this point I should mention that our kids really like the little park with its playground and duck pond just a few yards away from our house. After we swing and slide, we like to walk around the duck pond and listen to the bull frogs, spy for turtles and look at the ducks. We do not feed the ducks, because there are signs all over the place saying we should not feed them. Human food, especially processed white bread, is just as bad for them as it is for us. I like to teach the kids to be obedient in any way, including park signs. They get disappointed in other people feeding the ducks and disregarding the signs.

A few weeks ago Noa was playing with a stick right by the pond and I was sitting close by him in the grass and talking to Ava (the other two were with their grandparents). All of a sudden I realized that Noa was just about to fall into the water and I'm not going to make it. I jumped up as fast as I could and grabbed his hand, but he already had gone under water. Again, the water wasn't deep right there (remember Leea's incident), but he could have drowned, if I wouldn't have been there. It can go so fast. It's horrifying. I have a good friend whose very young daughter drowned while she was inside for just a few minutes. Poor Noa still keeps talking about falling into the pond and is very careful by the pond now. At least he learned something from it. Guess what happened a couple weeks later? Leea fell in.
This was the 4th incident of one of my kids needing to be rescued from the water. The first one was Ava when we still lived in MO and went to the wading pool there. I was playing with the twins in a shallow spot and all of a sudden another mom runs towards us and grabs Ava, who had gone under water. She was right by me. How did I not see that? I feel like I'm losing my sense of awareness...Not good for a mother of 4 youngsters. Anybody else have similar incidents? I like to play outside and around nature with the kids, so I guess there's always a risk of something happening, but even if I were to stay at home all day, they could get hurt. I gotta just keep teaching them to be careful, responsible and to learn from experience.

Aunt Des Visits Us

2008-09-04T14:40:00.016-05:00

Lincoln's sister Desiree got a couple weeks off from PA school and decided to visit family and friends around Spokane and Seattle and go rock climbing in Squamish. Her hubby Dylan, who's in med-school, had his vacation earlier, so he unfortunately couldn't come. Des is so fun to be around and one of the buffest people I know. Every time I see her, I set myself new fitness goals!

Des, Ava and the "fly eye"

Ava in soccer action

Des and Leea

Lincoln's brother Jacob and Noa.

Luca really wanted to go rock climbing with auntie Des. He got all his gear (bob the builder gloves, a pick aka rake from the sandbox and some ropes) together and was so upset, when it didn't work out to go rock climbing together, like we had planned to.

Des, Leea and Noa on our new Plasma cars. They work like a champ on our wood-floor.

Even though rock climbing didn't work out, Lincoln, Des and the older kids went hiking and huckleberry picking on Gisborne Mountain in the Selkirk Mountains in Idaho, almost 2 hours north of here. There was no cell phone reception, everything smelled so fresh and clean, and the views were gorgeous. Now I kind of regret not having gone. I'll have to do it next year.

They're delicious fresh or in muffins. I find them to be a mix between red currants and blueberries in taste, and Lincoln thinks they're even better than blueberries in pancakes, especially being so crisp and juicy. It's hard to pick them, but they got a full gallon of these precious berries. They run for $35-$50/gallon. Lincoln was hoping they could pick more and sell them for profit, but it's actually pretty slow picking, especially when you eat a lot of what you pick. :) The kids had a great time and will hopefully never forget the experience.

Thanks for coming, Des! We love you! :)

A Nice Long Weekend in Oregon

2008-09-04T14:38:00.021-05:00

We had been planning on going to Oregon for weeks, but it kept getting postponed. Finally in late July, Lincoln was post-call on Friday (and had actually gotten some sleep at the hospital) and had the the next Monday off, so we jumped on the chance to make the trip. We have lots of wonderful family in Oregon and got to stay in Portland with Lincoln's uncle Randy and aunt Carol and their awesome kids, who had just gotten home from college.

Since we have such an enormous family :), Randy set up his big tent in the backyard for us. It's been a couple of years since we went camping, so our kids were so excited to sleep outside for a couple of days. They especially liked Randy acting as a pillow fairy to get them comfortable. It was hilarious! Randy is one of the funniest people I know.

Carol cooked wonderful dinners for us and we had a great time hanging out and catching up. It's so awesome to have such nice people in our family, we felt so homey and comfortable. Thanks so much for your hospitality, Randy and Carol! :)

Kenny and Katie with our kiddos. They played so nice with them and the kids really enjoyed them. Too bad you're so far away!

Ava with their dog. At one point she was very afraid of dogs and still is with bigger dogs, but this little one was just right for her. Noa is the exact opposite. He wants to pet all of them, anywhere.

Cute Noa.

Our whole bunch.

Kenny, Katie, Carol and Randy aka the pillow fairy

We went down to Cottage Grove (where Lincoln & his mom were born, a 1/2 hr south of Eugene) for a day to see the kids great-grandma Mae (77) and great-great-grandma Marie (almost 96). Grandma Mae is actually recovering from a major heart attack (she's such a trooper), so we are grateful she is doing relatively well and that we could have such a nice long visit with her and her mom. It's always great to hear stories from the past and to see them with our kids. They're both so cool, extremely knowledgeable and on top of things. I'm amazed. It's a joy to talk to you, grandmas!

Lincoln brought his stethoscope and Leea knew just what to do with it. She must have heard something in the belly area...

Daughter and mother, what a wonderful picture of them.

I love grandma Mae's expression here.

5 generations with Lincoln's dad missing.

Here are the kids next to grandpa Kenny's (grandma Mae's 1st husband & Lincoln's dad's father) grave. He grew up close to Kirksville (where Lincoln did med-school) and Lincoln sometimes would take care of old buddies of him in the hospital. They all loved Kenny and tell what a great guy he was. Lincoln wishes he could have met him before he died, but it's been nice to get to know him through others' stories.

Here are the kids next to grandpa Norbert Krantz's grave. Norbert is "Oma Zanne's" dad, whose family came from Germany. Unfortunately Norbert never spoke German with the kids, only with the farm animals. :)

Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge on the way back home. It's simply beautiful there and the gorge is HUGE (and windy - lots of amazing windsurfers there).

Me and the twins.

Noa loves to play in the water.

Leea right before she fell into a deeper part of the water and was saved by a kind stranger near her who reacted super fast. The river was shallow, but there was one part where it went abruptly down, maybe up to my knees, and she didn't see that part and stumbled.

Here she is all wet. She thankfully still likes water.

We also got to hang out with Lincoln's aunt Mary and uncle Steve on his mom's side and their children Stephanie and daughter Mariah and Aaron with his wife Cory and their kids. They were so nice to take us in for the night and we very much enjoyed their company. Thanks guys!

It's been a while....

2008-08-07T22:56:00.044-05:00

...but here we are again. We're all settled in and are enjoying Spokane, often without Lincoln while he works like crazy. For instance this week he's working 100 hrs delivering babies. I'M NOT KIDDING. It somehow has to average 80 hrs per week over 4 weeks. Lame, I know. Actually last month he had an 8-5 gynecology rotation, which was nice. And even though Lincoln is on call every 3rd night, we have been able to meet him at the hospital for a quick free dinner.

Here are some fun or not so fun happenings with or without Linc since our last post. Sorry, but none of these pics have been worked on.

Lincoln's old buddy Dave from Tennessee and his girlfriend Jen came all the way from Seattle to visit us. Since Jen is vegan I wanted to experiment with the vegan kitchen a little bit and we had almost all vegan food for a couple of days. I actually really like vegan food here and there. I've been especially intrigued with the vegan lunch box for some healthy lunch box ideas. Anyway, we also went on this really fun hike. If I would have known what we were getting into, I would have not taken the kids. It was full of adventures and the kids actually had a blast, though it was a little dangerous at times. The kids kept talking and talking about how fun it was though. I guess it was fine. The older ones enjoyed having some undivided attention -one adult per kid. Usually it's 1:4 when I'm with them. Dave was like:"Do they ever stop talking?" We wish we had some mosquito repellent and proper kid backpacks then (we finally got those now).

Volcanic mattervegan picnic

Jen and AvaPure FUNMore fun

mmh, does she always talk so much?

Dave practiced using Lincoln's 20D. Unfortunately some pics turned out blurred.

Leea got another boo-boo. A few weeks ago she stumbled and fell "chin first" on our hardwood floor. She bled a little and some fat was hanging out, but I think the worst part was Luca being so freaked out. He was so worried about Leea, like he's with all of his siblings. He's very protective of everyone. I felt like he needed more comfort than her. We had a doctor friend over for dinner and he and Linc had decided to sew her up right at home. YES, at home, performed by my husband! I'm like: "Are you sure, I mean, don't you first want to have a doctor have a look at this." They just looked at me. Then I got it. Oh, they ARE doctors. Sorry! Still getting used to it. Well, they got some stuff together, positioned her on our very own operating table (our bed) and then said a prayer. Leea really calmed down then. I was in charge of keeping her still, while Lincoln numbed and sutured her up and the other doc gave pointers. I thought I'd faint, but it was very interesting and I felt fine. Leea even fell asleep a quarter way into it, which made the procedure a lot easier. I liked watching Lincoln perform the whole thing. He really is a doctor!

Like with her broken arm, Leea never complained about her boo boo. She took advantage of all the bandage options though! :) "Look, I drew an elephant-mouse!"

For the 4th of July we went to the Riverfront park in Spokane to check out some rides at the fair and to view the Spokane Falls from the gondola. The fair place used to be part of the Expo in 74' and the huge tent frame is still there. My favorite part was the vintage Looff carrousel, which we rode like 10 times. Luckily we got a day pass for 50% off.

One of Lincoln's fellow FP residents Tyler and his wife Amery have a HUGE Bing cherry tree and just wanted to pick a few for him and his family to make some cherry pie. He let us pick as many as we wanted. All he wanted in return was to borrow our minivan to get a couple large items from Home Depot. Sweet. We picked 75 lbs. of perfect worm-free organic ripe Bing cherries and stoned and froze them all!!! Thanks guys!

It's been really fun to play in our yard. It's hot outside, but unlike Missouri, not humid. We go outside everyday and play either in the yard or on of the playgrounds nearby. There's really no use to drive anywhere, unless we need to haul groceries to our house, go to some fun library programs or go exploring Spokane.

I thought he was just going to play in the waterTurns out he must have been thirsty..oops

Tuesdays we have a church playgroup with lots of kids. It's one of the highlights of the week. This time I was going to be especially prepared and packed a better snack than ever before. We were all ready to put our shoes on an leave, when I heard Noa crying. He's been doing that a lot in the past 6 mos. due to endless teething and him wanting to get more attention. I wasn't thinking anything bad at first, kept packing the snack, but when I turned around to finally check on Noa, the kitchen floor was dotted with blood that came from his little foot. I instantly knew what had happened and felt so bad. I needed to take the trash out the prior night. Being scared of the dark, I just put it on the deck and was going to take it around the house the next day. I forgot, of course. It had a broken glass jar inside, that's where Noa caught his foot on. We headed to the urgent care center, where Lincoln was able to meet us. Thank goodness it was "just" a deep cut and no tenants got cut. Noa was so tough the whole time, he just cried a little and the entire next week did not complain about anything. I was so glad we had a wonderful snack with us, since we spent quite a long time there. For two weeks we put one of Luca's Crocs and one of his own shoes on Noa, so he'd be able to walk without limping.

My wonderful friend Deb and her family came to visit her husband's family in eastern WA and stopped by our house. Her son is one of Luca's best friends. They had really missed each other and were awaiting this day so bad. We had dinner together, went to the parks and had some good talks. A few days later the kids and I went to see them at her in-laws' wheat farm. The kids got to ride in the combine, play in the wheat truck and ride it to the grain elevator, from where it is shipped per train to Asia. The kids had a blast! Afterwards her mother-in-law made us a wonderful meal. She owns a catering service and cooks really well. It was so nice not to have to worry about cooking for once. Thank you! We also got to cool-off in their pool before we had to head home. I'm glad the kids got to hang out before we see you guys in like 1 1/2 years again. I really miss you, Deb! Thanks for the chance to see you guys!

Another fellow FP resident Gloria invited us over to pick some of her raspberries. How fun, we LOVE fresh berries. She already had given us a huge container the week prior. I can't believe how nice people have been to us. She even helped us to pick more of her berries. She also let the kids dig in her garden and they were happy to help her pluck weeds. You need to know, our kids love to dig anywhere and everywhere we go. Sometimes it seems like an addiction -they HAVE to do it, even in the nicest yards or parks. They don't care. When we were walking through the Sequoias 2 years ago, Luca got tired quickly and plopped down with his toy truck and said: "I JUST want to dig ANYWHERE!" I learned in one of my classes that sand/dirt play is very important. It helps kids to cope with stress and just soothes them. Apparently my kids need to relax more. Well, Gloria became their friend instantly.

Noa wasn't quite sure about the tire swing, as you can tell

We went to Riverside Park in Spokane in attempt to find the "bowl and pitcher", did a picnic and started a little hike when we thought it would be fun to just play by the river in the rocks. We stayed for over an hour and found rocks shaped like a pizza, hair bow, nose, soccer ball, and bugs that we later want to paint. Lincoln and the boys did some skipping, while we girls collected more rocks than we could actually carry. We limited everything to two buckets in the end. We didn't know that we were right by the "bowl and pitcher" until we googled it afterwards.

WOW, that was a LOT. Next time I won't wait THAT long to post updates! :)

Look who's a D.O.ctor now!

2008-06-08T22:12:00.017-05:00

Well, Lincoln officially graduated from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine on May 17 and received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree! Good job on this accomplishment, Lincoln! I'm happy that we've made it through 4 years of medical school. It was 4 very hard and stressful years and sometimes we didn't even see you for weeks, but we learned to go through it and it broght us closer together.

We did it!

Proud parents

Here are some more pics from the graduation weekend. Lincoln's parents, Jacob, Sierra and her husband John came out to see Lincoln graduate.

For those of you who have never heard of Osteopathy, it's truly amazing medicine. Osteopathic medicine is a complete system of medical care. The philosophy is to treat the whole person, not just the symptoms. It emphasizes the interrelationships of structure and function and the appreciation of the body's ability to heal itself. D.O.s are trained to consider the health of the whole person and use their hands to help diagnose and treat patients. In addition to learning all the other standard medical stuff taught in M.D. schools, osteopathic medical students get a couple hundred or so hours of training in hands-on diagnostic musculoskeletal palpation and a general approach and large repertoire of manual therapy techniques, comprehensively called osteopathic manipulative medicine or therapy (OMM or OMT). Some of it resembles chiropractic, physical therapy, and massage, but OMM is really a very broad spectrum of approaches and techniques to help release restrictions in muscles, joints, bones, fascia, etc. to arterial, venous, lymphatic, and nervous flow and general proper function of the body as a whole. Like M.D.s (also known as allopathic physicians), osteopathic physicians are also medical doctors and are fully licensed to prescribe medicine and practice in all specialty areas including surgery. Here's a little more about the Osteopathic profession.

Lincoln is starting his Family Medicine Residency orientation weeks tomorrow. Being done with med school is one thing, going through 3 years of residency is a whole new adventure. It is said that the intern year (first year of residency) is usually the most grueling year of a doctor's training. At least I got a little taste of it while working as a nanny for my dear host family back in 2000. Katrin was just starting her Family Medicine residency and Kiame had just finished a year ago when I came over from Germany as an Au Pair to help them out with their cute kid. I remember her being exhausted quite often, but she always tried to manage to spend quality time with her little family. That helps me to think positive about the next year. I've learned so much from living with my old host family. Thank you Katrin and Kiame!!! It really prepared me for our journey. I am excited to meet the new intern families. There's nothing like being in the same boat and understanding each others trials and supporting each other. And of course it's nice that we have family on Lincoln's side close to Spokane. It's so nice to be out West.

We had planned to move out West right after graduation to make the most out of Lincoln's time off. Don't EVER do that! :) It got a little crazy, but we are really grateful that Linc's family and numerous people from our church ward were able to help us pack the rest of our stuff, load our moving truck and clean up our house.

We never thought we'd fill the whole 26ft. truck, but by the time we were done, the truck was chock full.

We left later than planned on Monday, but were still able to make it to the Holiday Inn with the nice indoor water park in Kearney.

Snow in Wyoming. We couldn't believe it.

FINALLY HOME!!!

The drive from Kirksville to Spokane took over 30 hr. We broke it up into 5 days, visiting many of our dear friends on the way. Thank you so much for taking us in, feeding us and spending time with us! We couldn't be more grateful!!! :)

Leea and her broken elbow

2008-04-27T21:55:00.006-05:00

While going through our photos today, I found these of Leea with her broken elbow back on Sunday Jan 6 of this year. That morning around 7am she had climbed onto the piano bench in an attempt to get some tissues that she could have easily gotten from the floor. From our bed we heard a crash and then crying. I was eager to pick her up and comfort her, but Lincoln insisted on examining her on the floor first. He couldn't tell whether something was broken for sure, but he knew something wasn't right with her arm by the way she was holding it. They went to the ER and came back with the diagnosis of a broken elbow (or as Lincoln points out, a "nondisplaced nonangulated supracondylar fracture of the humerus"). She said she had fallen directly on her elbow. OUCH!!! It was hard to see anything on Leea's X-rays, but the orthopedist and the radiologist did confirm it looked like a fracture. It was a rough Sunday morning for her, but in a way it was a special experience for her and Lincoln to be together for all the hospital stuff, and she still loves the soft black teddy bear they gave her there.

The whole 5 weeks the splint was on, Leea was being such a great girl. In fact she's always been a toughy, but this time she really proved it. There was very little complaining and she didn't need any medication. We even got the hang of getting dressed fast.

That very same day was Leea's first day in Primary at church, and she also had her very first day of preschool the following day. I thought those distractions from her pain could only be good for her, plus there are always plenty of teachers at her preschool to take care of her.

The ER doctor had told Leea and Lincoln that the treatment for her arm would mainly be the splint and "ice cream," and she may have thought she really needed to eat ice cream so her arm could feel or heal better, but at the very least she picked up on a sly way to get a treat. One evening she insisted on another helping of ice cream, saying calmly and cleverly, "Mom, my elbow is still hurting - I need more ice cream." I figured that one out pretty fast.

In the photo below, Leea is trying to open the fridge with her left arm. It wouldn't open right away, so she tried to open it from a different angle and got caught up in her own body.

Leea had to learn to do everything with her left arm/hand. At the end of the 5 weeks she had mastered eating, coloring, etc. with both hands equally. She actually kept using her left hand for a while. After getting the splint off she couldn't bend her elbow all the way, but that has gradually resolved. We're grateful she recovered quickly from her injury and did so well throughout it all. Good job Leea, what a brave girl you are!

Star of the Week!

2008-04-20T22:06:00.000-05:00

Every year the kids get to be the "star of the week" at preschool. It was Luca's turn last week. Since Luca was born in Germany I gave a little talk about Germany the first day and brought some traditional items the kids got to look at. Luca wore his favorite German soccer jersey, which unfortunately is getting too small. I'm happy how much he and Leea like Germany and keep asking when we get to visit next.

The next day was probably one of the best days ever for Luca: His crazybusy dad got off work for 1/2 hour (big thanks to his attending) to join us for a FUN show-and-tell and jam session. Luca loves to play the mandolin while Lincoln plays the guitar. It's one of their favorite things to do, when time allows. They like to get really creative and sing everything from church to preschool songs together.

Lincoln also enjoyed telling about his work in the hospital and sharing some health tips with the youngsters, encouraging them to eat their veggies, drink plenty of water, exercise daily and to stay away from cigarette smoke. He let them listen to their heart but later realized that his stethoscope bell was reversed. The kids heard their heart beat anyway! ;)

Here's a little video of some of their singing & playing together.

Good job on the performances! I love you, Luca & Lincoln! :)

The Parsley Dance

2008-04-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

Our kids love to eat veggies and fruits, as well as some unusual healthy things. One of their latest favorites thanks to Lincoln is fresh parsley. If they spy a bag of parsley lying around, they ask to eat it right away. They especially like the crunchy stem. I'm really happy about this, since parsley is so beneficial. When Lincoln used to live in Ukraine, he'd buy bunches and bunches of parsley and eat it raw with most meals, just like the natives. Back when we were dating, we were separated for 3 months. I was still working as a nanny in Pittsburgh and he was working in Germany and Ukraine. When we finally met again, I gave him a bunch of parsley as a welcome present. Sort of like a bouquet of flowers. He really liked it and munched it all up on the way home.

I'm happy that we as parents can help the kids to make good diet choices.

Check out the kids' parsley dance video.

Our new rental home in Spokane, WA

2008-04-15T13:41:00.000-05:00

We are so excited to have finally found and committed to a nice cute house that's large enough for our family and in a super location. We'll be within walking distance of not only the hospitals Lincoln will work in, but also a supermarket, a fantastic natural foods store (Huckleberry's), and two wonderful parks with playgrounds and beautiful gardens (Cannon Hill & Manito Parks). Even the downtown museums etc. are only 2 miles away. The house has 4+ bedrooms, a finished basement, tons of storage and a wonderful backyard. I'm especially excited about the updated kitchen and hardwood floors. The landlords are great to deal with, we ended up with a good price, and the neighborhood is very safe and quiet. What more can I ask for?

Hoppy Easter!

2008-03-23T22:37:00.001-05:00

Isn't this a beautiful picture? I love that Christ's face is right in the middle of the blossoming branches. As with every Christian holiday, I want us all to remember that Christ is the central part of it. I think this picture captured it very well.

These easter twigs are a tradition we already had growing up in Germany. Every year a few weeks before Easter, we'd clip young branches off some tree that would blossom, put them into a vase full of water and hung up wooden eggs. The ones pictured are vintage wooden eggs from the Erzgebirge, that I found new on the net here in the States. I'm so happy for the conveniences the internet has to offer, so I can feel homey a little bit more.

We went to the Truman State University annual Easter egg hunt. Unfortunately it was so cold, that we just gathered some eggs and left without seeing the human sized bunny.

Here's little Noa being proud of his eggs.

Ava's basket broke, but she couldn't gather eggs and hold the basket at the same time anyway, so I helped her.

Here are Leea and Luca. They were so cold and just wanted to get home. Unfortunately we forgot to bring their gloves.

I have been cleaning up at home for the move and found some Christmas paper in Easter colors that needed to be used. The kids didn't even realize it. :)

These are our favorite chocolate Easter bunnies. I was so happy that WalMart carries them. When I was a kid, they used to have little bells on them. German chocolate it THE best. :)

Here's our living room Easter egg hunt video.

The Match: We're going to Washington!

2008-03-21T01:08:00.000-05:00

Here are our BIG NEWS in Lincoln's own words:

I've matched to the Colville Rural Training Track (RTT) of the University of Washington-affiliated Spokane Family Medicine Residency!!! I feel honored to have been granted this competitive position (17 interviewees vied for it), and we are excited to move out to the beautiful West and be closer to my side of the family! And hopefully my parents will finally make it out of hot Las Vegas and move closer to their only four grandkids. :) We'll be moving to gorgeous Spokane at the end of May (a 24-hour drive from Kirksville!), and I start my orientation June 16.

I will complete my first year of training (R1) in Spokane (pop. 200,000) mostly at the two huge hospitals in town (Sacred Heart & Deaconess) as a part of a class of 10 interns (plus 20 upper-level FP residents and some Internal Medicine & Psychiatry & Radiology residents and Traditional Rotating Interns). Then I will complete years R2 & R3 1.5 hours north of Spokane in the mountain-nestled town of Colville (pop. 5000; pronounced "Call-ville"). The Mt. Carmel Hospital in Colville is small (30 acute care beds, 8 ICU beds, 2 ORs), but it serves a broad referral base of ~35,000 people. As one of only two total residents in town at a time I will be surrounded by procedural opportunities and quality teaching from the 28+ doctors of various specialties in the group I'll be a part of there. The rural-oriented training there is very hands-on and conducive to developing independence.

The training in the Colville RTT is literally ideal preparation for my plans to practice full-scope family medicine (including preventive medicine, inpatient care, ER call, endoscopy, obstetrics including C-sections, and osteopathic manipulation [OMT]) in a rural underserved area out West that will qualify as payback for my four-year NHSC Scholarship. The Colville RTT is actually the first specifically rural FP training track created (in 1986), which will be a nice extension to attending KCOM, the original osteopathic medical school (est. 1892). :)

Athough the program is not yet AOA-accredited, I will still be practicing and using OMT and learning more of it from an excellent core faculty member who is a DO as well as from other DOs in the community. Colville is also home to an integrative medicine clinic where I may be able to further pursue my interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Another really cool opportunity I will have in Spokane and Colville is to use my Russian and work with the many Russian & Ukrainian immigrants there! And of course Spokane and Colville are surrounded by beautiful nature and will offer a nice lifestyle for the family.

Now we just have to find (pre)schools for the kids and a house to rent! Please stay in touch - we would love to have you visit anytime! :)

Chicks at the Hardware Store

2008-03-20T23:50:00.000-05:00

We are always on the lookout for new and exciting educational experiences or something FUN to do. We do regular visits at the library and go to music and dance class weekly. We also like to occasionally go to the Missouri Conservation Center and Magruder Hall at Truman State University to look at animals. Points of interest are limited so I was happy that Tasheena let us know that they have chicks at the local hardware store. It was perfect. Especially with these horrible winters here we get really antsy in the house. So off we went. They all loved the chicks and ducklings. Noa probably loved them a little too much.

Here's the video of it.

FourHandsFull

2008-03-20T22:42:00.000-05:00

While I was still pregnant with Ava and Noa, random people would look at my belly and say stuff like: "Anytime now, eh?" The sad thing is that this started when I was only like 7 months pregnant. So every time we went shopping, they'd say that, and after I would reveal that I actually had a couple of months left, they'd ALWAYS say: "Well, you'll have your hands full." I eventually heard this about a gazillion times and now can laugh about it, but back then I was SO annoyed, especially when people didn't offer their help. Once we flew somewhere and people would make such comments, I almost cried because nobody offered their help carrying stuff, even if they only had one thing to carry.

Now when I go shopping or go somewhere with all the kids, I hear "You've got you hands full!" all the time but take it as a compliment. I often reply: "Well, better full than empty, right?" Then I smile and answer all their question about how I can handle so many kids, especially in the store. I like letting people know that we have a positive attitude about our kids. I'm sure the kids appreciate it, too. We want them to always feel that they are special and wanted, and even though they ARE a lot of work and we really have our hands full, we wouldn't want it to be different.

We chose FourHandsFull as our blog title because it kind of sums up our life in one word. Lincoln and I really "have our hands full." Four busy hands taking care of four precious kids and managing life in medical school or supporting it, plus taking care of all the random things related to it all. Our hands ARE full, and we feel blessed. :)

It's about time...

2008-03-18T22:45:00.000-05:00

...to write my first post on this blog. It has only been months since this blog was created. We're very excited to share some Westfall family happenings with family and friends through this blog. What a great way to (re)connect. I love reading friends' blogs and getting to know them better. The last few years have been very hard to keep everyone updated and write each person individually. We usually send out an annual Christmas/Easter letter, but we want you guys to feel more included by reading frequent updates.

I, Rebecca, will be writing most of the posts, all in English, my second language. This will help me to learn to express myself better in English and hopefully learn a few more words. This is a real challenge for me. I've lived in this country for almost 6 years now, but I have had the feeling that I really need to improve and expand my vocabulary to decrease the times of being misunderstood and misunderstanding people. It will also help my family to have no excuse to learn English better, an important skill in the world nowadays. Plus if it was in German a ton of people would have no idea what it says. This way you have to get the dictionary out and translate. Really, I only want the best for you, mom! :)