life is grand, in small ways.

Putting the girls to bed is one of the many small joys of parenthood. Sometimes is a quick, get them in there and give me a break but most times it's a nice thing to spend some down time together reading, singing and praying.  Evelyn is usually in bed first so there's a chance for us to both be a little silly with just Norah.  She loves the attention :)

Just hanging out before bed on Norah's couch!

Our stunning tree is in bloom for about 3 weeks a year and we soak it in!!

She's a bit of a climber, did I mention that before?! I think so.

And, happy mother's day to me!  "The girls" made me breakfast in bed and were so happy to help me eat it.  I am one blessed mama to my sweet girls.  Thank you David for making me feel served and loved on Mother's day and so many days in-between!

the netherlands, women's retreat.

I had the privilege to attend the International Baptist Convention retreat!  It sounds all huge and fancy but it was small (200 women), personal and busy!  Our church teamed up with another nearby church to bus to the Netherlands (saw my first real wind meal), about a 9 hour bus ride.  We sang songs, played games and mostly just chatted on the way there.  It was such a joy to have a few of my girl friends along and then to meet some new fun ladies.

On the retreat we had Denise Glenn as a speaker and learned more about being the bride of Christ. She paralleled the Jewish traditions of marriage to what Jesus said about us being his bride, it was so neat to learn about those traditional things the Jews did/do as they married.

We were able to also do a bit of site seeing.  We visited the tulip fields and gardens at Keukenhof (world's largest flower garden) and also toured Corrie Ten Boom's home.  What a legacy she has left behind of loving others in need.

Lidia and Jessica at the begining of the flower gardens!  So Dutch :)

Me and my roommate, Natalie

Most of the ladies from our church: me, Lisa, Lidia, Jessica, Tara, Dorrie and Natalie

I was stunned by how tall many of the tulips were, higher than my waist!  So beautiful.

This is a picture of Corrie's room. It's a famous room where she did a lot of underground work to help the elderly and Jewish people during WWII.  Where the hole is the wall is her bed was, the people could access the hiding place from below the linens through a trap door. During one of the final invasions of her house there were 6 people hiding back there!  It's pretty small.

A vendor stand near Corrie Ten Boom's house with lots of nuts and dried fruits.

Many many bikes in this city. Watch out, they will run you over if you're in the bike lane!

HE is risen!

As the girls and I embraced Easter by dying eggs for the first time, reading the story of Jesus' resurrection and getting our cute dresses together for the service, the Lord moved!  I have had a hard time the last few years feeling the Lord.  During this beautiful spring God has been allowing my spirit to be moved.  It's such a gift during the season of remembering His sacrifices for our forever.  Thank you Lord Jesus!

 David was TDY while we did our first egg dying!  It was so fun, and the eggs tasted good too :)

Sweet girls on Easter in front of our house.  The eggs hanging in the tree are a traditional German decoration during the Easter season.

 Front door window.

 A cool walk through some farm land.

Through that last couple of weeks the deer have been out so much!  I finally had my camera with when we spotted a lot of deer.  I got out of the car and took a ton of pictures and finally they split and ran away. We counted 19 in this little "herd" just about 1 mile from our home.  What beauty.

brussels, belgium.

A long weekend here means a chance to visit another country and eat some new foods!  As you know, we like Belgium... for the waffles, hot chocolate, fries and beer.  During this last long weekend we had the chance to visit Brussels with the Rigsby's and check out some new sites, and foods :)

Enjoying a slow breakfast with our little fam.

Waffles! 

A peak at the EU building.  It was neat to see the area surrounding where the EU meets.  We were not able to take a tour as the offices were closed but it was still neat to check out the grounds where history is made.

 The Rigs.

Famous little peeing man, aka Manneken-Pis.  The statue is literally the size of a baby (61 cm), it's rather small. The statue has over 700 outfits so whenever you visit Brussels this lil' man will probably be wearing a new outfit (he changes several times a week and the schedule is posted in a few places around town!).  We were visiting on St. Patrick's day so he was dressed in his Irish get up.

So you have an idea of how small he really is and how cute Jess and I are :)

 David & Solomon

 Cuties.

In the town square there are many interesting statues on the top of the buildings.  There was a funny story we read about the man on the horse... it seems he's pointing to another statue across the court and then that one is looking at another... anyway, the story is about which statue passed gas and they are blaming each other for the smell.  It was funny that this story was in our tour book and when you saw the statues "blaming" each other for the smell, it gave us a laugh.

daddy's home!

Resuming the regularly scheduled program with the man of the house back!  Everyone was very very happy :)

 Lots of love and cuddles!

 Walks with Daddy in Nanzdietschweiler commence also!

In the last few months we have gotten to know the Rigsby's.  It's such a blessing our girls get along too.  Here is Norah, Alani, Alexis and Evelyn for a snow day!  David was even home for the action and to teach these sweet young ladies how to have their first snow ball fight!

 Post snow ball fight reading.

And, Cinderella for the girls and knitting for the mama's!

 Cuddles with the "baby"

january/february fun.

David was TDY in Alabama for two months (hence the lack of blog updating given my full time single-mom duties).  I was blessed, though, to have my mom extend her stay for a week and David's mom was able to fly over for a week!  

Blessed to have a good German neighbor for a friend. She made us a chocolate German cake and spent some time chatting and getting to know my parents.  Thanks Tamara!

Matching dresses for the girls!

Playing with the homemade ergo baby carriers I made them for Christmas!

Norah's new "big girl" chair.

I had a great day on my 30th (besides missing David). We caught the bakery truck and had a picnic inside, we reorganized the living room, had our friends over for pizza & cake and then my mom taught me how to knit (a new hobbie)!

Shopping with the girls and buying gifts for Daddy

Always dressing up and having fun.

David organized a surprise birthday dinner with my girlsfriends here in Germany at our favorite local restaurant.  It was such a blessing to have a handful of friends together for dinner and feel loved from afar by my man! (from L to R: Jessica, Diana, Kristina, Amy, me, Erica, Sarah, Corrine)

Norah reading her Bible in her reading area behind the couch.

Me and the girls were SO happy to have Karen visit us during David's 8 weeks away - we laughed and talked, cooked and I ran A LOT of errands.  What a blessing to have such a supportive mother-in-law.

For Christmas David's parents gave the girls a really fun doll house, when Karen came we were able to give it to them so she could watch how thrilled the girls were.  I only got this shot and some terrible video snippets.

MIL love :)

Chatting on the phone with Daddy!  Doesn't she look like a bit of a Diva?

Kisses for Mama, my favorite.