The Forget-Me-Nots: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

Weekend in Holland

We had the lovely opportunity to head to Holland the weekend before Easter. Our trip served a dual purpose - one, to visit the temple and two, to visit the Prins family. Typically we would head to Holland to celebrate Easter, however, this year we felt we needed to stay in Bremen for Easter so we followed that feeling and planned accordingly which put us on a last minute trip to Holland the weekend before Easter. And even though it was last minute, we sure had a lovely time; the temple was incredible, as always, and we had so much fun catching up with the Prins family - egg hunts, kids playing, trips to market, dutch church, talking into the night. It was a nice break from the daily routine.

Of course, I took a lot of pictures. Yet, somehow, Leah escaped all of them despite the fact that she was certainly there. The Prins family were great hosts and we are excited to visit them again soon.

Due to the volume of pictures, I figured I would let the pictures do the talking for the most part.

Reading on the way to Holland

First stop was The Hague Temple from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so that both Jason and I could attend a session. The kids got to spend some extra time with the person who was not in the session.

The kids posing outside the temple. The wind was so cold and very strong - they were such great troopers!

Atticus and Milayla got to go into the visitor waiting area inside the temple and they sure were excited about that. It led to a lot of little questions about when they will get to go inside the temple. I love their questions!

Jason and I took turns doing a temple session while the other person (not doing the temple session) spent time with the kids in the little pedestrian area of Zoetemeer (the small city where The Hague temple is located). Walking those streets and visiting some of the little shops sure brought back a lot of lovely memories.

After the temple we headed to the Prins' home. Man, those kids have grown! The kids picked up right where they left off and went about playing - nonstop.

I love this series of photos with Milayla. She was so excited that she was finally getting a turn riding the little Bakfiets and then watch what happens...

first there was one...

then there were two...

and then there were THREE!

Oh man. I love that girl. Bless her very patient heart. She is a continual sweetheart. On Saturday morning we headed downtown to market (at the Birthday Boy's request, Jason, - we headed down to reminisce and let Jason indulge in some market treats). The kids loved the bus ride.

And Atticus and Evia were back to their little dynamic duo.

Milayla, who did not sleep well the night before (new bed + new room = very little sleep for most everyone..), was pretty quick to fall asleep in her little wind-protected bubble.

I love downtown Leiden!

Jason got his fill of Stroopwaffel, pomme frittes, and raw Herring. The raw Herring thing is something I will never understand - I'm sure of it. Atticus even gave it a try - and LIKED it! At least Atticus showed a little bit of hesitancy before he went in for seconds.

Then the kids played the afternoon away. Well, actually, Atticus napped (which surprised us) and Milayla (who slept the whole morning) loved getting to play with Evia. Milayla may look to be playing a little strange in this photo, but these two sure had a big case of the giggles.

Then we headed out for an Easter egg hunt. Milayla had fun trying to put her bunny ears on (the bunny ears are still making repeated appearances around here!)

I handed the camera over to Jason after I took the first couple shots so that I could sneak into some of the photos as well.

And the kids wasted no time, once we got inside, opening their eggs to check out what was inside. Thankfully, Leah did a really good job of picking small candies so there were no sugar-overloads.

Then there was more visiting. Good meals. More chatting. And lots of praying that a certain little girl would sleep better that night (which she did!). We headed to church Sunday morning and loved catching up with everyone there. It worked out that we were able to stay long enough after to visit with some people from our old branch that also meets in the building - what a treat that was! It was a big reminder to us that we need to make another trip back and be more dutiful in setting times to meet with everyone and catch up. We know a lot of wonderful people in Leiden :).

And, all too soon, it was time to load into the car and head for home. See those smiles down there? Those are the smiles of two tired children who have absolutely no intention of falling asleep on the way home. It worked out just fine though, because they danced, sang and conducted to The Lamb of God cd (from Rob Gardner) for a good portion of the journey anyhow.

Before we officially hit the road we stopped by our old apartment to see if anything had changed. It hadn't. Except that our old apartment is for sale. The building is still the same. The view is still incredible. The windmill is still as quaint as ever. And the neighbours are as lovely as ever. As we were driving by two of our neighbours happened to be arriving home and we ended up having a great conversation with them. We sure were blessed with great neighbours!

And with that it was time to officially head for the high way. It was hard to resist the urge to shed a few tears about leaving Leiden again. We love that city and the people who live there. Our brief weekend there was so nice and relaxed, everything was so familiar and it felt like we had never left. but despite our love for Holland we know that we are where we are supposed to be right now and that was a hard realization for me to remember (and yes, I do mean remember because it was something we knew waaaaayyyyy back when we first made the decision to move to Bremen). It was certainly a reminder that I need to be more present in the place that we live now, work harder to build relationships and do more to serve. Not to mention all the things on my list of stuff to take the kids on adventures to explore :). Bremen has been a hard city for me to learn to love, but it has it's own unique charm that can be quite endearing and I am determined to love it for all it's quirks and charm because I am sure the day will come, all too soon, where it will be time to say goodbye and I am certain I will miss this city and, most importantly, the people who live here (because we have come to know some awesome people here!). Of course, I have no idea when/if that day will come, but I will be keeping that prospect in mind as I put forth the effort to be present, to serve, and to enjoy the moment of living here.

POST EDIT:::

Just realized I missed adding this comical photo of us trying to get a picture of all four kids on the couch as we were heading out the door for church. Poor Aeonia was feeling sick and just happy to be hanging out in her pyjamas. And Milayla was falling over in her snowsuit. We took a few photos and this was the only one we managed to get without any blurry children. Sure hope we can get these kids all together many more times to come.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Nutcracker Ballet

Jason and I are reaaalllllly bad about getting out for date nights (something we are trying to remedy). Between prioritizing, scheduling and planning them we just fail miserably. So when we do get out, it's a pretty big deal and we take tacky, blurry, iPhone photos to commemorate the occasion to the highest extent.

Like this picture of us during intermission at the Nutcracker Ballet that was showing earlier on in the New Year. See that guy behind us? I think he felt left out; he even smiled. Yeah, a little strange.

In any case, it was a nice night out (I love the theatre). We really need to make it happen more often. We even ran into Milayla's dietician in the lobby of the theatre. Experiences like that - running into people we know while we are out and about - really help this city feel like home and that is a nice feeling.

Well, time to get planning the next date night :)

Ear Infection

I've had an ear infection for the last week. And as much as I dislike the constant ringing and swishing in my ear or having to take anti-biotics, it's the decreased ability to participate in conversation with my husband and children that I dislike the most. Or my decreased ability just to listen to the sounds of a home with young children in it. I love the sound of them playing, or singing songs, reading books or telling me about something they just discovered.

Hearing them with a tinny-echo quality is not the ideal, but at least it's something. I sure do love being able to hear those sweet little voices of theirs. Would be great if this clears up soon. At least it has been a lesson in really focusing in on them so that I can really listen.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Milayla and the iPhone

Milayla loves chatting on my iPhone (whether it's a pretend conversation or we are chatting with someone on FaceTime). She also loves having her picture taken on it. Which I guess shouldn't be too much of a surprise as I am sure many kids love pictures on the iPhone. I rather hate to say it (because I feel like this makes me sound old...) but it's hard to believe how much technology has changed and evolved. Though it will be interesting to see how it progresses next! I'm just happy I have so many ways to document these cute kiddos!

deciding which button to press next

pretty happy for how early in the morning it is

about the only way that I can get Milayla's hair to stay put all day

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Milalya Baking

I was a little nervous when I enlisted the help of both kids to make some biscuits for dinner. I had visions of flour everywhere. And guess what, my vision of flour everywhere wasn't too far off the mark. However, seeing how much these kids enjoyed helping out in the kitchen made up for all that flour and then some. I love having two helpers who are always willing to pitch in. They truly are awesome at measuring, pouring and mixing and I love the giggles and toddler talk that accompanies all that flour. I am especially proud of Milayla who took her responsibility of mixing the dry ingredients very seriously. We don't do much in the way of baking around here, but I am on the hunt for more dinner meals that the kids can help out with more because I love the extra help and company!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Never-ending Winter

I've convinced myself that winter is never going to end here. Not because I am melo-dramatic and I actually believe that winter will never end but because I want to be pleasantly surprised when the brave little flowers that have already sprung through the frozen ground don't have to look like they are shivering in the wind and many more flowers have sprung through to join them.

In the mean time, I'm trying to be optimistic about the snow. On the days that it has been warm enough we have headed outside to make snowballs and snow forts and get ourselves covered head to toe in snow.

On the days that it has not been so warm (which are far too many), we've been running snow experiments; dying it, mixing it,

observing how it melts or making ice in our hands with it.

I've tried to make peace with this prolonged winter as best as I can, and I am happy to report the kids have certainly enjoyed it, but I am still hopeful that when this post goes live in April that this weather will truly be singing the song of spring. Until then, I'll enjoy extra cuddles and hot cocoa with the kids because that is a wonderful aspect of winter that I love.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Jason's Birthday

The kids and I always have so much fun planning and preparing for Jason's birthday. When we started planning it triggered a daily question from Atticus - "is it Daddy's birthday YET!?". They were just so excited to spoil him with all of our surprises we had planned. Then we made a fairly last minute decision to go away for the weekend of his birthday which threw quite a bit of our plans for a loop, but it did seem to entail Jason to a few extra days of birthday surprises (how he manages to swing that nearly every year still puzzles me ;). I'll post more about our trip weekend trip to Holland another time, for now the focus is on the little birthday celebration we had for Jason on the Monday following our weekend getaway.

Of course, we kicked the day off with our favorite blueberry buckwheat pancakes topped with plenty of fresh fruit. Once we finished eating, Atticus announced that he was "BERRY full!". Jason wasn't sure if he had really meant to say it that way so he asked him, "do you mean, VERY full?" to which Atticus replied, "No. I am BERRY full because I just are lots and lots of berries so they filled my tummy.". That gave us all a good little laugh. Creative kid. And funny.

After Jason headed off for work we got to work ourselves with decorating, grocery shopping, dinner and birthday cake. Atticus learned how to use an airpump for the balloons which was great because he took over the balloon blowing up while Milayla and I handled the birthday banner.

Following a brief time period of concern that Jason may have to work late (which would have certainly put a little damper on the birthday events), he made it home in good time which was great because the kids were rather anxious to play the birthday games they had picked out for his birthday. Hide&Seek and Triominos. Classic, right?

Naturally, the birthday boy picked Greek for his birthday dinner - greek salad, bread, vegetarian Moussaka, grapes, veggies and Tzatziki. Pretty tasty stuff!

Then it was time to open up presents. The kids could not wait to give their gifts to Jason and Jason was such a great sport (even donning a pair of the kids' bunny ears from an egg hunt that we did in Holland). The kids and I all went and picked out one gift for Jason together and made a special big birthday card for him (loaded with all the sweets he loves that we never have around the house) but they were concerned that it wasn't enough for Daddy so they loaded up a gift bag with all sorts of goodies for Daddy. I'm not sure how they decided on their selection process, but there was no shortage of books, blocks, and straws in that goody bag. I think my favorite part is that they hid it in my closet a week in advance so that Daddy wouldn't find it. They are seriously awesome kids. We love them and absolutely love their creativity and thoughtfulness.

We were all pretty excited to give Jason his Candy bar card, and he was pretty excited to get it too.

And while Jason was busy reading his big birthday card, Milayla was busy helping Jason open up his next present.

I love those little smirks, chubby cheeks, long lashes and the incredible personality that beams through this little girl.

There is certainly no shortage of help when it comes to getting gifts open around here. The part I love the most is that the kids really are doing it our of the excitement to give the gift and are on the edge of their seats about how happy they hope it makes the receiver of the gift. Jason's excitement for his brand new wallet definitely put a smile across these kids' faces, too.

Then it was time for cake. Ever attempted to make a gluten-free, double-layer, brownie cake with two energetic toddlers? I hope not. Though, with a lot of patience and the acceptance of a chocolate-covered kitchen, I think we made a pretty good team and produced some great results!

It was a fun day that we all enjoyed. We feel pretty blessed to have Jason as the head of our household. He's awesome :). We love him.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Milayla's Latest

Milayla has come a long way in the last 4 months and we are so proud of her. Her appointments have been going so well that we are now appointment free until her 2 year check up! So I thought it was a good time to post a few photos of our cheeky girl and what she has been up to.

Milayla is officially a walker, runner and dancer. There are very few things that she will sit still for because she prefers to be on the move. We are pretty happy to see that most of her physical abilities not only meet, but exceed where she should be at for her age group. That is a lot in just 4 short months. We are so proud of her determination.

And, boy, have we loved seeing her love for books really take off. She seems to always be carrying a book around with her. Lately she has taken a particular liking to one of my books though, which I think may be a bit beyond her reading level but that doesn't stop her from carrying it around with her, "reading it" and crawling up on my lap to have some of it read to her.

In case you can't read that blurry writing, it is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl - just a little light reading ;) that she went straight for after bath time

Then there is Milayla's ever increasing personality. She is such a sweet, happy spirit and is always ready for an adventure. And you always need shoes to go on an adventure. Milayla loves her shoes and loves trying on everyone else's shoes too.

And she is so helpful around the house, always doing her part to clean up the toys, put away laundry, clean up her room and clear the table after meals. And she is so smart at figuring out how things work!

She isn't talking quite as much as we would like to see (though that is quite common for children exposed to multiple languages), but her baby sign language has really taken off and she is doing so much better at communicating with us.

It's been fun seeing her figure out new talents, skills and words and getting all those lovely cuddles, kisses and hugs. It is such a pleasure being her mom!