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!

Family Pic

Thanks Jake for taking a new family picture!

Family Devo

We have started having family devotionals on the Sundays that we meet as a team for worship. I have loved these times together with our kids. Usually, the kids act out the Bible story and we sing songs they already know and try to teach them some new songs too. They always ask a ton of questions about the stories and I love how well they remember each story that we talk about with them. The other day (for example) Caleb was holding on to Cotter's heel and I asked what he was doing, and he said "I'm Jacob!" (Genesis 25:26)

A couple of Sundays ago, the kids disappeared right before we were starting the devo. They all came down dressed up in "church clothes". Carli made sure the boys looked just right and even put a tie on Cotter. It was really sweet and I know that these are memories that we will have forever.