This and that....

I still have some picture I can post from our Christmas this year. I don't know but this was one of the fastest years ever! Is it possible that a now has less days than it did when I was very young ;D  .... at least it seems like it .....
These are the last pictures I will post this year. I hope all of you had a wonderful time remembering the birth of Christ! 

This was our no bake Philadelphia cake, yummi...

almost ready to eat, I didn't realize that we didn't have a christmas-y table cloth.....

without words....

this one of the many different gifts in a jar we made this year for friends and family. I also engraved their names on the jar....fun.

 

Happy Birthday Jesus!

It is Christmas once again. This year went by so very fast, it seems that I have been trying to catch up all year long. It was a year with disappointments and a lot of joy. I am completely in awe of God and all He has done this year. It was also a year of failure. Failure to measure up to God's yard stick and also the understanding and the grace of God to get up try anew once again. We have learned a lot and God has shown us favor this year once again. Tomorrow the kids and I will have our own birthday party for Jesus. Thank you, Father, that you send your son to pay for what I mess up! Thank you, Jesus, for taking on my punishment so that I may spend eternity with you! I have nothing that I can give you because all I have is yours. I am giving you my heart and my live. You are my All in All, my fortress, my rock and my shield. My Jesus. So, tomorrow will celebrate your birthday with cake and candles. With prayer and bible reading and with song. It doesn't matter that this day may not be your exact birthday. The point is you were born, and we want to celebrate your life!

Happy Birthday, my beloved Jesus!

Sixteen years ago today....

I had had an accident while seven month pregnant with my wonderful (oldest) daughter. My foot was broken in seven different places but my baby was okay. Thank you God!

Today this beautiful girl turned 16. What a bittersweet day. I am a little sad, because this birthday is sort of crossway into adulthood. The childhood days are over and she is growing up. I have to learn to let her go - slowly for now. I can't help but be incredibly proud of this young woman. God is doing something wonderful in her and she is becoming a more and more awesome young lady - despite me. Again, thank you God ! She is a great big sister, who truly loves her siblings and her family. She has a heart for her friends and she just likes to encourage everyone, even if she doesn't know them well. It is great to see God work in her.

Today she and her siblings gave up birthday presents and Christmas presents to pool all the money so they can get a Wii. Nina asked for a special german chocolate cake, called Kalte Schnauze ( cold snout), do not ask me how the name came about, I don't know. Anyway, I made the cake for her. I love my sweet daughter, happy birthday!

My Cubscout

My little guy has been in cub scouts for a while. He really likes it. It is an all boy affair at our church. It wasn't really easy to stay away when they needed help, but I thought that he needs to have some boy-time. So, I am staying out of his way and he enjoys it a lot. This week he came back as the proud owner of a cub scout shirt. Someone had two and gave one away ( at least this is how I understand it ) and he was the happy recipient of it. He put it on today so I can take some pictures, so Oma, Opa, Tina and Gabriel can see him with this "really cool uniform". So, here are now the pictures .....

 

 

Winter wonderland

Today was snow removal day. We had all kinds of equipment come in and plow the parking lots. When that was accomplished there were real mountains of snow on the sides of the road. It was really difficult to keep the kids from attempting to climb these beautiful, but dangerous things. By the time they were done with the snow blower, the one hill was almost as high as our balcony! And, yes, one of my children asked if they could jump off of the balcony into the snow, all the while the other one got ready to jump - sigh - of course mom is no fun at all and didn't allow them to jump into the snow...
Here are some more pictures :-)

here is the snow blower at work

a look down the street

it is all white...

Snow Storm today...

Today was supposed to be a busy Saturday. The kids were supposed to go to their Aunt to bake cookies, go to practice at church for the Christmas play and we wanted to go to the store. All of this is now canceled because the weather is just really bad. It keeps snowing and the wind keeps blowing. We even have drifts on our balcony. I keep taking pictures to show just how much snow is coming down. I just pray that every person will find a warm place to stay. 
Here are now some pictures from last night and this morning....

This is last night, when the snow started

Our "Narnia" lamp, also last night

This was at 8:30 this morning

also this at 8:30 this morning

the pile was this high at 8:30

This was at about 9:30

that is what it looked like at about 10:00

this is also around 10 ~ish

that is the how high it got at about 10:45

It is getting difficult to open the door, the snow just tumbles in

by the way, the date on the pictures is correct. It is a German camera and so displays the date the European way which is date/month/year   :D       I am going to try to post some more pictures during the day. I am afraid though that we soon have to shovel the snow of off the balcony......


We finally had to clear the balcony, which took quite a while. I then went downstairs to clear the car of and start it to let it run for a little while. My poor Gus has to endure a very cold night, according to the forecast...... okay, here are some pictures before we cleared the balcony.

this was at about 14:30 today

I was hoping it wouldn't all tumble into the house...

here is the puppy in front of the window, she really wanted to go into the snow

Isn't this amazing?

unfortunately it was snowing too much to get a clear picture, but it actually looked quite cool

 The balcony was cleared but it is still snowing and blowing outside. It is close to 17:00 now and we already have about 20 cm of snow on the balcony again..... 

Cool pictures...

I thought I share some pictures Jamie took at the end of November this year, they are really cool. 

Minnesota winter night sky, well evening sky

This was just a few seconds later, unfortunately a little blurry...

 

It was fun....

I finally have some time to finish my story. 
When Joern and Sheila finally arrived at the airport it was as if we had just seen each other a little while ago. It was like it always was, just this time with more children and less space. We had a good time and it was great to catch up. Joern was gracious enough to agree to teach on prayer for two days! On the first day of teaching the younger of their sons had an unpleasant encounter with a piano. Fortunately no stitches where needed, though Mom and Dad were a little stressed and worried at first. After the appropriate bandage was found all was well again. The kids wanted to go out and play in the snow, I think it hurt the little guy more not to be able to go out then the pretty big bump on his head. Well, he was allowed to go out the next day in the afternoon, since his parents were fairly sure that he didn't have any more problems. The kids went outside for the majority of the day and played in the snow and build snow forts. We all had fun and I enjoyed having them here and talking, reminisce and catch up on what each of us was doing. I am thankful that God made it possible for them to visit. After a few short days they had to leave to Sheila's hometown, where they were eagerly awaited for her mom's birthday. While we watched them go through security at the airport, I was wondering when we would see them again. Through my tears I remembered though that God made it possible now and who knows - He can do anything. It was just a little sad to see them go because of course we enjoyed their company and it was also a little bit of home when they were here and they took that with them again when they left. So, good bye my friends may God bless you and your children richly. My prayers are with you as you give up many things to live in a country not your own, raising your children there and bringing God and His word to the people of Cyprus. 
I wasn't very good taking pictures, the kids took most of them :D

Sheila and Elizabeth are taking a nap....

 Nina didn't have jet lag, she claimed she had "Lange-lag"

Helen is really a sweatie.....

Katie, is so adorable......

the kids were playing some games, I think hangman in this picture

Lukas still has the bandage that is the result of him tackling the piano

no clue who took this picture, but obviously they had fun :-)