Christmas Surprise

Merry Christmas! We hope that you all are enjoying the holiday with friends and family.

We had a fun surprise for our kids this year. They have been saving money to get a pet rabbit and when we finally had enough money saved, we found out that Austria has a law that requires you to have 2 bunnies. They were upset and thought that they needed to start saving more money to buy a second bunny. So, we decided to give them the second bunny as a gift for Christmas, and they had no idea that we got them. We have been hiding them in the basement for 3 days! We wrapped them up after the kids got up this morning and this is the video of them opening the box. It was so fun to see their reactions! I think Cotter was more interested in the candy from his stocking (which doesn't surprise me)!

Kisi Kids (Eine himmlische Aufregung) - Carli

Over the last semester Carli joined a kid's singing group, which performs musicals about different stories from the Bible. Early in December the group performed a musical concerning Jesus' birth from the perspective of the angels in heaven. Carli was one of the angels. The short videos below are excerpts from the different songs they sang; this was their first performance. With each performance the group improved (I was there for the first and last performances) and Carli's confidence grew to the point that she even had a short solo in the final two concerts. It was a great joy to see our daughter boldly praising God (in German nonetheless); the last song below is "Here I am to Worship" and often brings tears when I hear her/them sing it. What a blessing it is for those of us who have the responsibility and privilege of raising our children in the Lord!

Carli's Christmas Party

Carli had her Christmas party in her class today. They sang a lot of songs and presented the parents with gifts that they had made. It was a lot of fun and she did a great job! She was much more animated than some of the other kids!

Tomorrow we go to Caleb's class and I hear he has a solo! I'll try to post a video tomorrow too!

We have had one of the busiest months ever and I have not had time to keep up with the blog. I hope to post soon about some of the fun things that we have been doing.

Caleb

Lately, Caleb has really grown up. He is so sweet and thoughtful and he is constantly thinking of how he can serve others. We had parent teacher conferences yesterday (yes, on Thanksgiving day) and his teacher said he was doing really well in school. He is really enjoying reading but he LOVES math! We went on a retreat last week and while Cotter was playing the Nintendo in the car, Caleb was doing math problems! We are so proud of him, so we decided that he deserved something special. We told him that he gets to go on a date with Mom or Dad. He chose Dad, and they went to this huge indoor playground. This place is full of cool things to do, and it is one of his favorite places in Vienna. He came back feeling so special that he got to do something fun without the other two. I think that we need to start having more "dates" with our kids.

Then, he decided that he wanted a little color added to his new haircut! (At least it washes out!)

a few favorites

Not much has been going on around here in the last few days, so I thought that I would start posting some of my favorite pictures from our summer. All of these were taken by Chiara.... so cute! I love them!

What exactly is Cotter doing in the picture below?!

Halloween

I have to be honest with you. I'm avoiding everyone's blogs this week. This was the first year since we have been here that we didn't have anything to do on Halloween. I really missed the Fall festivals, the cute costumes, and the Trick-or-Treating that makes up halloween in the States. But, I was still determined to make it a special day for my family, so here is what we did...

After eating pumpkin pancakes, we went for a walk to this cute pumpkin stand by our house and picked out a pumpkin to carve. We also got some cute ones just to decorate with.

I let the kids choose what they wanted to dress up as. Carli got a cat dress that she wanted to wear, so I added some ears and some whiskers. Cotter couldn't decide between Dash (from the Incredibles) and Thomas the train, so he went with both! And Caleb didn't want to be anything, (which made me kinda sad.)

We made some fun cupcakes with spiderwebs on top....
Then we did our own trick-or-treating in the house. Josh and I hid little boxes of candy throughout the house and turned off all the lights and they used flashlights to find the candy. They had a lot of fun. Even though this Halloween was very different, we still had a wonderful day together and made some of our own traditions.

Last week we went to the Volksoper. It is the "Opera for the people" which means that kids are welcome and it is not quite as formal. We saw "Max und Moritz" which is about a famous children's book. We all really enjoyed it.


I absolutely love fall in Vienna! There are so many beautiful colors of leaves! My good camera is not working right now, so I don't have that many good photos, but here are a few from a walk that we went on by our house.

I have some great memories of playing with cattails with my sister Kaci when we were young. The kids love them just as much as I do!

We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

pumpkin Festival- year 3!

Today we went to my favorite pumpkin festival! This is our 3rd year to go and it has been in a different place each year. I love how each year has had a different feel to it. This year, the village was surrounded by vineyards, which I absolutely love. I think that they are so beautiful. We ate lots of great food, like pumpkin cream soup, fresh cooked spiral potato chips, and an amazing hazelnut pastry. The weather wasn't too cold this year, so we were really able to enjoy everything. Here are a few pictures from our day...

There was a parade with floats pulled by tractors. Here are the Vikings. (Notice their helmets made out of pumpkins!)

You can't have a festival in Vienna without tables of meat and cheese!

There were these little wine cellars all throughout the town. Some of them were so beautiful!

This guy was carving mushrooms out of wood using a chainsaw!

At this stand you could buy the yummy sugar-coated nuts. You know the ones that smell so amazing as you walk down the street? But this time they had sugar-coated coconut! It was so delicious!

And this guy was carving wood into bowls and platters. I was so amazed at how smooth he could get the wood. The kids stood there and watched him forever.

another cotter story

One more funny story from Cotter...

Last night I was getting frustrated with my kids because I was having to ask them a million times to do something and they continued to ignore me. I sat down with them and had a nice long talk about how they had been acting and how I wanted them to act. Then Cotter said, "Oh Mommy, I'm sorry. What can I do right now for you?" I said, "Cotter, you're so sweet. Thank you. Please go right now and pick up the toys in your room." He said okay and seriously within 3 minutes he was back fighting with his brother and yelling and screaming! So I said, "Hey Cotter. Do you remember a few minutes ago when "Sweet Cotter" was here? He asked me what he could do to help me. Could you please go and find "Sweet Cotter" and bring him back here?" He got a serious look on his face and said, "Well, Mommy. I can't do that." I asked him why and he said, "He went to Germany!"

Cricket

The other day, there was a cricket on the outside of our window. Cotter went up to it and stared at it for a minute and then asked "Mommy, what is that?" I said, "It's a cricket." Then he looked at for a minute and said, "Oohhhh.... so THAT'S what gets in your neck when you sleep on your pillow the wrong way!"

Long Night at the Museums

Last Saturday night, Josh and I got to go out on a date. It was by far one of my favorite dates- EVER! Each year in Vienna, they have an event called "Long Night at the Museums". It starts at 6:00 pm and you pay one price (13 euros) and you can visit every museum in Austria until 1:00 am! We started a little after 7:00, and we went to 6 different museums, before our legs were so worn out that it was time to go home! We went to the Natural History museum and saw a huge display of animals. We even saw what a marten looks like. (That is the little animal that chewed through the hose on our car and caused all sorts of problems). Then we went to my favorite museum in Vienna, the Albertina. I got to see paintings from my some of favorite artists. I even got to see an actual palette and tubes of paint that Renoir used! I know that an entire night of going to art museums was not Josh's idea of the perfect date, but I was so thankful that he did it with me. It was a truly magical night!

We just had Josh's phone to take pictures, but here is a small glimpse from the evening.

German class

I started an intensive German class 2 weeks ago, which is why I haven't posted anything in awhile. The class is 3 hours everyday (Monday-Friday) and it takes me about an hour to get there and a hour to get back. Add 1-2 hours of homework each night, makes it almost like a full time job! I am really enjoying the class and I feel like I am learning a lot, but it has been very difficult for me to find time to get everything else done each day. I do very much enjoy the weekends! Here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.

This is the view from our bedroom window early in the morning before school. It is so nice to wake up each morning to such a beautiful view of God's creation.

Cotter's big day!

A few pics...

This has been a busy week. We all have had some cold-like symptoms, with the change in weather, I think, but Caleb's cough decided to go into his lungs which caused an asthma attack. It was pretty scary for awhile, but we were able to take care of him at home, and now he is back to normal. He missed a couple of days of school, but Carli was so nice to pick up his homework for him so he didn't fall behind. They move so fast here! Jaime- in answer to your question, Caleb is doing so much better now with school. He comes home talking a mile a minute about his day. He is already making new friends and loves his teacher!

I have been wanting to post pictures from our trip, so here are a few to start off with....

We went to a Colorado Rockies game which was SO much fun!

We went to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in Denver and I absolutely loved it! The way they made the car "fly" was amazing!

This is my newest niece, Keely. Isn't she adorable?!

First day of school

Right before we left for the States, we tried to get all of the kids school supplies together so we wouldn't have to do it when we got back. Part of that was buying Caleb a new backpack. That was quite a process because the majority of the kids carry backpacks like the ones in the picture. They can cost up to 200 Euro!! That is almost 300 dollars!! We did find one that was not that expensive, but I still think that he will be carrying it all the way through college! 

Monday was the first day of school. Carli started 3rd grade (hard to believe) and Caleb started 1st. Here is Caleb in his classroom...
This is a picture right before he (and I) started to cry. I think he was a little overwhelmed at all of the newness.
Lets back up a little. Before he went to his class, we went to the bakery with his good friend and got a Krapfen. It is like a giant donut filled with apricot jelly and covered in powdered sugar. They are yummy!

In Vienna, starting 1st grade is a big celebration. Each of the kids get a Schultüte (which is the cone shaped thing in the pictures) and they bring it with them on the first day of school. The parents fill them up with all kinds of goodies and after school, they get to open them. It is really cool how they make it such a special day. 
This picture is after school so you can see that Caleb has his smile back. His was only overwhelmed for a short time, and then he ended up having a great day! Carli has a new teacher this year and she really likes her. Normally, the kids have the same teacher from 1st-4th grade, but hers retired at the end of last year, so now she has a new one. Cotter is loving Kindergarten and being with all of his friends, so we are off to a great school year! 

We're Back!

We are back in Vienna after a wonderful summer in the States! We were gone for 9 weeks and we were able to spend great time with family and friends. I plan on updating the blog more often (now that I know that people actually read it) so come back often! But, tonight I have another migraine headache, so I leave you with a picture of toothless Caleb....

Hopefully the tooth fairy won't forget this time! 

We made it!

We arrived safe and sound in the United States! We are enjoying time with Josh's family and friends in Woodward right now, then we are off to Colorado to be with my family! The kids are having fun swimming and playing with the kittens. We had a wonderful 4th of July with a great party on the 3rd, then listening to George W. Bush speak on the 4th! We listened to a few songs from Marty Stuart and watched some more fireworks! Here are a few pictures from our first week here:

Hopefully we will get to see many of you during our time here!