Happy Birthday Jesus!

To celebrate Christmas we made Jesus a birthday cake. Girls loved putting the icing and decorating it with sprinkles.

 
 
 
 

Sister Love

 
 
 

Emma's Christmas Performance

This past week Emma had her Christmas performance at school. She and her class sang several songs. Last year, she only stood still, didn't sing, and didn't move a muscle. This year, she sang very loudly as you can see in the video below. Enjoy.

Sisters!

In Christ Alone

I love this song-it is a good reminder that he is trustworthy!

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save

‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live, I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From a life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
‘Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

I will stand, I will stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground, all other ground
Is sinking sand, is sinking sand
So I stand

You can listen to it here.

Halloween

Each year for Halloween we go to our friends cul-de-sac and have dinner and trick or treating through the neighborhood. Each year it is bigger and bigger because there is more and more kids. Nora was a lady bug and Emma was a modern princess (she wanted to wear leggins and tennis shoes under her dress) this year. They were cute and excited. Nora quickly picked up on what is going on once she realized there is chocolate involved. She did not want to ride in the stroller but was walking the whole time. Up and down the hilly neighborhood.
Here are some photos.

Lino Lada

Nora loves junk food-any kind of junk food. Her favorite are sweets and chocolate is the best. So what can be more fun then some chocolate nut spread from Croatia called Lino Lada. And why use bread when you can just put it in a cup and eat with the spoon. She picked that up from the older sister of course.

 
 
 

Tatoo girl!

Emma loves to paint-not only on paper- but on herself. Body painting is one of her specialties!

 
 
 

Love of God

"To hang between two thieves in the darkness
LOVE (God) must believe you are worth it!"

Nicole Nordeman

Pumpkin Patch 2010

This past weekend we did our 2nd annual PUmpkin Patch with our friends Boys and Clarks. IT is just fun to get together and enjoy seeing kids play and take in all that is new. Last year we had an interesting experience at Burt's Farm because the day we went was frigid cold with aweful wind. My mom was here visiting and helping take care of Nora and she spent most of the day in the car with Nora. Nora was sleeping most of the time. Luckily we had winter coat for Emma. She and Elliott did not seem to notice the chill at all but were running and enjoying the pumpkins and other stuff out there. This year was a total opposite. It started with the little cold in the morning so we all had our sweaters on but then it warmed up and it was beautiful the rest of the day. It was just a perfect day to be out in God's creation. We went to Kinsley Family Farm-just up GA 400 (for those of you from Atlanta-right before the outlets:)) and it was great. Not as crowded as Burt's Farm but plenty to do. One of the biggest things was feeding the fish in this pond/lake thing they had. These fish were huge (catfish) and there was tons of them. Kids just loved those. Nora tried eating some of the fish food of course. We also had a picnic for lunch and it was awesome. Kids just enjoyed running around and having fun. When we came home that afternoon we carved our pumkin (Emma could not wait for the next day to do it:)) and i will post some of those pics later. Can't wait for next year!!!

Atlanta Parent Magazine Block Party

This past weekend we went to the APM family block party at Mercer University. We took our friend Ty and had a blast. It was awesome. There was a petting zoo, a train, tons of big blow up jumping things, and a giant dragon slide bouncy thing. Amazing. Emma, Ty, and even Nora loved the giant dragon. Emma and Ty loved jumping and bouncing and running. Nora tried her best to keep up. Below are some pics. Enjoy!!!

Crazy in shades!

Goofing around in their fun shades-girls just had a blast. Nora especially!

 
 
 
 

Emma's quote for the day

While I was cleaning Nora's poopy diaper this morning Emma comes over and as soon as she sees the poop she says in a very excited voice "Mom it's compost". I think we need to cut down on Curious Goerge Goes Green DVD's

Guilty or ?

 

Painting on the new easel

Emma LOVES to paint. Every time we are not sure what to do, Emma always say-lets paint mom. She just loves the brushes and having to dip the brushes in the paint and there is water involved. The whole concept is awesome to her. And i can see why. I love to observe her and watch how much she enjoys it. For someone as energetic as Emma it is quite a miracle when i think how she can sit for 30minutes or even longer sometimes and just be happy painting. Well painting got a whole new meaning when we got a big package in the mail and Grandma sent her a new big easel and a whole new set of brushes and paint. Wow imagine what we are doing every day:) Nora loves it also, but there are few issues with her doing it. Brushes usually end up in her mouth. So we tried chalk. Not good idea either-they end up in her mouth as well. When will someone invent edible craft supplies for all the little siblings. She still enjoys doing it sometimes with Emma with our supervision. Emma is not super excited to share the easel though. Here are some of the photos of the girls with it.

 
 
 
 

Sleeping

Nora likes to sleep in the corner of the bed. And i finally got a picture of it. Her legs were sticking out too.

 
 

Washington trip

Late August we went on a very short trip to Washington state visiting Grandma Sue, aunt Faith & Pam and going to Ruth's wedding. we had a great time and wish we could have stayed a bit longer. Emma just loved playing each day in the barn and seeing the animals. A very big hit with emma also was grandma sue's iPhone and some of it's fun games:) We can not forget Saddie, Faith's little dog that was very loved by both Emma and Nora. we stayed at uncle John's house and he has a bunch of animals and things that were of interest to the kids. he also has only one real eye so Emma calls him the one eye man:)This was our opportunity to see chris' grandma too. Emma could not say great grandma and just called her Great Mother. In Anacortes there is a big croatian community so we were able to have a lunch in croatian restaurant one day and I was able to speak croatian a bit with some croatians. IT was all together a nice trip and we were thankful we could go. Below are the pictures from the trip. We do not have many pictures from the wedding. When we get some of the professional pics we may post some of those. The wedding was nice even though we all froze-winds on the island were brutal.

Warning!

Attention! Attention!

Just a warning that the 2 albums attached below with pictures from Croatia have tons of pictures. We just took a bunch. So if you are interested but do not have much time you can double click on the album and it will lead you to the link for the webalbum and you can just look at thumbnails. And if you are very interested you can still do the same and just see pictures in a much better a bigger format-slowly:)
Anyway hope you enjoy it and it give you a sense of our time in Croatia.

Week 2 - beach and then back in Sisak

Week two we went to beach in zadar-or should i say diklo for those who know better:) We had a good time. Beach with 2 kids has a totally new meaning for chris and I. It's fun and all but there is no more laying on the beach reading our books or things or that sort. It is go go go all the time. And ocassional screaming and fighting of the 3 year old cousins-in spite of their big love for each other. It's that time of their life where everything is MIne Mine and Mine only. But they sure had fun too. They could not do anything apart. Zadar is one of my favorite towns on Croatian Coast. My best friend from college lives there and i often would spend my summers in the area. we got a chance to visit with him and see his 6 months old daughter Lori. And also see his awesome apartment. We went back to Sisak a day early because our last day on the beach was bad weather and rain. That was great because it gave us extra time to spend in sisak with the nighbor kids-Dora, Tamara, Maja, Matija...Emma had a blast just being outside all the time and there was always a bunch of other kids there to play with. Nora loved it also.
We will miss being there even though it is nice to be home again.

In Sisak - week one of our trip to Croatia

Finally i am posting some pics from our trip to Croatia. we have been home for almost 2 weeks but i just did not have much tie to do this. as you can see i am posting pictures from our first week while in Sisak and there is 150 pictures in this slideshow. I picked and picked but these are all the one to capture all the important moments. I have pit captions under the pics so you can more easily follow.
First week we were in Sisak and spent with mom and dad and mateja's fam. my uncle from berlin came to visit also because we celebrated my dad's 60th b-day. It was fun to see everyone and especially Stric Blaz from germany. I learned some of his story from growing up in an orphanage and also learned some stuff about dad. It was crazy with the kids but looking back at photos we had a good time and kids had a blast! My parents did too:
I will post week 2 tomorrow hopefully:)

Summer Pool Fun at Ed & Ginny's

As soon as the hot days start we are headed to the pool. We are blessed that our good friends Ed & Ginny let us use their pool any time we want. Our neighborhood doesn't have a pool so this is great! Girls both love the water and swimming and all the pool fun. Emma always wants to be very independent and do all that big kids are doing.Nora just love splashing and jumping. I am the one always taking photos so i am not in any of the pictures:(

Girls Birthday!

June 26 (Nora's actual birthday) we celebrated Nora's 1st and Emma's 3rd b-day (June 27th). Our "theme" this year was Hello Kitty per Emma's request. She wanted a Hello Kitty cake so i made a big one for her and a little one for Nora. Nora did not have a preference-she was just going along to whatever we did. We invited our closest friends (Clarks & Davis' we are sad you could not be there with us this year) and had a good time. Emma was so excited that all of the "big" kids came-because she tells me Mom,they are my friends:)This was the first year Emma understood things and what will happen and was so excited a week in advance about the b-day. She was also excited about all the gifts and opening everything. Nora had a good time even thought by 7pm she was ready to have her "alone" time. I think she had enough of people and just wanted me to put her in her room and leave her by herself. I thought she would crash and go to sleep but i heard her just talking to herself and giggling-happy to finally have some peace of her own. Funny! We don't have tons of pictures but here are some to give you an idea of what was going on. Thank you browns, Pickrens, Gumbrills, Remigailos, Herreros, Boys, Sue & MeMe for coming and spoiling the girls with fun gifts.

Memorial Day

Most holidays we are in town (unlike many of our friends) so we usually try to get together with any of our friends who stay in town too. We were grilling for lunch and Clarks and Davis' came over for the monring of fun. It was a rainy morning and i was bummed that we will not be able to be inside and thinking kids will be bored and cramped inside the house. But as the morning was passing clouds cleared up and we even saw some sunshine. As soon as the rain stopped everybody was ready for the pool to open:) The bigger kids had so much fun. Ty was so happy to be able to open the water so the hose that was attached to the tail will spray water. Elliott was a bit hesitant at first but quickly joined in the fun. Emma of course already knew all the tricks and was excited like always. I love the picture with all of them and how serious they look. Its funny. Unfortunately i did not take any pictures of the adults or Nora and little Charlotte. There is always next time i guess.

Beads/Perlice

Grandma was in town to visit us for the week and she gave us 2 boxes with beads. I mentioned that i think Emma would love that and since i am off on Fridays i always try to do something fun with her like that during Nora's morning nap. She just could not wait for me to get her some thread so we can get going. She was so proud of her products-she made some braceletes for herself and nora and wore them the whole day.















Emma thinking about what she should do?














So proud of her work!

Fun with Pedro!

Emma's old pool broke so she got a new one and loves it. It has a special feature with the sprinkler in the giraffes tail. Emma has used the pool earlier but that afternoon she and Pedro decided to have some fun with the sprinkler. They would put their faces under the water and then run circles in our backyard eventually totally soaking themselves in the pool. They just had too much fun for us to tell them not to get their clothes wet. Hopefully Pedro's parents were fine with that too-they went to mexico the next morning so we still don't know:)

 
 
 
 

Swim season has began and pool is open!

We opened our home pool this sunday. It was hot and humid and Chris gave Emma a great idea she gladly accepted about opening the pool. The water was cold but we added some warm and she was good to go. Nora was not sharing in the enthusiasm of swimming in cold water. She did warm up to the idea after watching Emma for a bit but only to soak her feet.

Playdate at our house

Fridays are my days off and we usually try to get together with friends. This friday our friends Clarks, Boys and Ritsemas came over to hang out. It was apacked house but we had fun. I had a great time catching up with moms:) and kids played good -sometimes together and sometimes just by themselves. Nora and John Parker were excited to hang out together as soon as they both woke up from their naps. Elliott and Emma played pretty good together. Clarked was just roaming around the house and entertaining himself.


Nora and JP were best buds after a minute:)

Elliott is just excited

Emma was busy cooking

Everyone is on the porch and eating lunch.