Merry Christmas

My family is here this year for Christmas! My parents, my brother Kent and Amy and little Brett, and Steve and Kari and Kinsey all got here last week! We wish that Kaci and Adam and Lillian could be here too, but Kaci is expecting another little girl in January, so she can't travel.  Everyone is still dealing with the jetlag, but we have gone to a couple of Christmas Markets, and are looking forward to going to some more! I am so thankful that they are here and so excited about Christmas!

Oh yeah... Caleb lost another tooth!

Happy Holidays

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. The Martins and Carrolls came to Vienna from Dresden, Germany for a typical American Thanksgiving. We went to the Christmas market on Friday and the kids rode the carousel. 

With just the 3 of our families, we have 8 children! It was a little crazy at times. My personal favorite was when the girls filled up the Barbie swimming pool with water and then jumped off the trampoline into it! Sorry, no pictures. It wasn't too funny while we were cleaning up all of the water! 

We had an auction to raise some money for a family who is in financial need. We auctioned off some American things that we can't get here in Europe. Here is what was up for grabs:

And this is all of the stuff we won! Everyone was really generous and we raised a lot of money for this family. The item that went for the most money was the Double-Stuf Oreos for 21 Euros with the bag of goldfish close behind! It was a great idea and we all had a lot of fun. 
We hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving as well. We have so much to be thankful for. 

The Circus is in town

Yesterday, we went to the circus! We actually walked to it, it was so close to our house. Our friend Rodi, who works in the flower garden behind our house wanted to take the kids, so we all decided to go. There were a lot of different animals, but the 5 camels were my favorite! Here are a few pictures:

The pictures are a little dark, but these pony's were teeter-tottering. It was funny. It was really neat to be able to walk across the street from our house to the circus! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving full of family and friends. We did something this Thanksgiving that I bet not many of you did. We had parent teacher conferences at Carli's school! It's just an ordinary day here! We did celebrate at the OC castle with some new and old friends and we will celebrate again on Saturday with friends from Germany. We are truly blessed!

old Testament

Who says that saying the books of the Old Testament can't be fun!

Graz

We just got back tonight from a great weekend in Graz, Austria. Josh had met a man at the men's retreat (Wolfram Schrader) who was speaking at the church in Graz this weekend over the book of Romans. We were able to get to know several Christians in Graz and we were really encouraged by our time with them. It was so nice to go to a church that was so welcoming and friendly as this church was. Everyone immediately made us feel welcomed and treated us as if we were part of their family. We were able to worship with them this morning and we saw so much joy in their worship. One special couple, Thomas and Petra, went out of their way to make us feel welcomed. They had us into their home for breakfast and took us on a tour of Graz. We even ate Indian food with them, which was actually amazing! We really enjoyed our time with them. It was great to see what God is doing in the lives of His people in Graz, and we were blessed to be a part of that this weekend. 

Pumpkin Festival

I'm sure you have all been waiting to see pictures of my favorite festival in Vienna! We went with our good friends and had a lot of fun. It was a really cold day, but we found ways to stay warm...

by pretending to be statues,

Caleb jumped on a giant trampoline,

Cotter had a hot dog,

I had some Gulash Soup,

I pretended like I was 8 years old again,

and the boys swung on a giant swing.

It was a great day!

Happy Halloween!

So, I'm a little late. We had 2 fun Halloween parties to go to this year, and the kids had 2 days off of school, so that made for a great Halloween! The OC students put on a party for the kids up at the castle and then Brian and Alisha had a great party at their place! We carved a pumpkin and even made caramel apples! And we finished the week celebrating Abby Haskews 5th birthday! Here are a few fun pictures..  

Caleb

I just now finally got used to the idea of Carli loosing teeth, and then Caleb decided to join in the fun....

AAHHH!! They are growing up too fast! 

Song in my heart

Lately I have not been able to stop singing one of my favorite songs. It has become my kids bedtime song and I love hearing the words come from their mouths. The words are so meaningful to me, especially at this stage in my life, so I wanted to share them with you and hope that we can share in the same prayer...

"Father God, just for today,
help me to walk
Your narrow way.
Help me to stand,
when I might fall.
Give me the strength,
to hear Your call.
May my steps be worship,
may my thoughts be praise,
may my words
bring honor to Your name.
May my steps be worship,
may my thoughts be praise,
may my words
bring honor to Your name."

Busy times

It's been a crazy few weeks. I am just now able to sit down for a few minutes to write a little about what we have been up to. Josh was gone for a week for a men's retreat in Germany, and just like almost every other time he leaves town, Caleb had another asthma attack. It was really scary, and we packed our bags to go for another stay in the hospital, but by the time we got there, they said that he was not at a dangerous level any more, and since we had all of the same medications that the hospital would use, then I could monitor him at home, and bring him back if needed. Well, he ended up sleeping through the night and I didn't have to bring him back to the hospital. We were so thankful that we didn't have to spend the night in the hospital again. 

Josh got back from his retreat on a Friday and then I left Sunday morning for a week-long women's retreat in a small ski town in Austria called Filzmoos. It was a great week where I was able to spend time with other Christian women, spend time in prayer and Bible study, and just regain some lost strength. And, I forgot to mention that the retreat was all in German! It was very challenging to understand everything that was going on, but there was an English discussion group that really helped. We stayed up late playing cards, went on beautiful hikes, ate a ton of amazing food, and spent lots of time getting to know other Christian women in German- speaking Europe. It was a gret retreat, and I am already looking forward to next year. Here are a few pictures....

I got back from the retreat on a Friday, and my mom came in for a great visit on Saturday. She was here for 6 days and we were so excited to have her here. The kids loved hearing their favorite bedtime stories. I can never do it as well as Nana!

Now, at the end of this week, we are looking forward to having Pat and Carla Jones and their family, and the Wilguess family here for a visit. So, as you can see, we are extremely busy right now! 

God continues to bless us with new friendships and new opportunities to serve Him. I think that our team is becoming more comfortable with speaking German which makes it easier to meet new people.  We are all excited to see what God has in store for Vienna.  

Let the celebrations begin

Do you remember how much Austria celebrates! It seem like there is a festival every weekend! And, we have to be careful because the grocery stores close on holidays and last year we were not prepared for those days at all. Just like last year, the first celebration that we went to was the Erntedankfest which is a celebration of the Harvest and fall. We went back this year and enjoyed a lot of great food and games. Later in October is my favorite... the Kurbisfest (pumpkin festival). I can't wait!

Alone...

Josh left today for a men's retreat in Germany. I will be here all week- by myself! I'm sure it will be interesting! But then, I get back at Josh next week when I go to the women's retreat for a week and leave him here with the kids! Carli asked him the other day, "So Mom is going to be gone for a whole week?! What are we going to eat? Are we going to have fishsticks every night?!"
If anything, I think these next two weeks will give Josh and I a better appreciation of each other!

so many languages...

For the last 7 or 8 months, I have been suffering from migraine headaches. It has really been challenging and I struggle with patience (especially with my kids) during the times that I have the migraine. They usually last 3 days and I am extremely sensitive to light and sound. One night I was putting the boys to bed and I turned on the floor fan in their room. Caleb was in the top bunk and I was tucking Cotter in on the bottom bunk. As I was talking with Cotter the curtain was moving back and forth like crazy. I got frustrated with Caleb and I yelled at him to leave the curtain alone. He said quietly, "But Mama, I'm not touching the curtain." I looked up to see that the fan was blowing the curtain and Caleb was laying quietly in his bed. I quickly realized that I should not have yelled at Caleb and that I was taking the pain of my headache out on him. So I turned around and looked at the fan and said "Fan!! You leave those curtains alone!!" The boys started laughing so hard, but then Cotter said, "But Mama, the fan didn't understand you." I asked why it didn't understand me and he said, "Because it speaks German!" So I turned back to the fan and said "Fan! Macht das nicht!" They started laughing again and then Caleb said, "The fan doesn't speak German, Cotter. It speaks FANish!"

Visit from Dad

My dad was on a business trip in South Africa and was able to stop in for a few days on his way back! We were so excited for the surprise! Here are a few pictures from his trip.

We went into the flower garden behind our house. This is a picture of
our house from the garden. (We live in 1/4 of the house)

My Dad took some amazing pictures of the flowers. This is my favorite!
He got to meet Rodi (our friend who works in the garden)

Thanks Dad, for everything! We loved having you here! We love you!