Christmas Part 2- Germany

I really feel blessed that we were able to celebrate Christmas with both of our families this year. That pretty much never happens, so it was wonderful. The kids had been SO excited to get back on a plane and fly to Germany to visit Ragnar's family for Christmas. I however do not love flying so I tried to get on board with their excitement. We left a couple days before school got out for Christmas and began our adventure! We have over 300 pictures, so I will just include some of my favorites of the trip.

 Cavin's teacher kindly asked if we would take their class bear "Bailey" on our adventure and although I feared losing him, it wasn't too bad!

Channing was SO excited, she loves being on a plane. The kids did great on the flight although they didn't sleep the almost 10 hours, at least they were happy! They didn't have a direct flight to his hometown so we flew into Amsterdam (or Hamsterdam) as Cavin kept calling it and drove a couple hours to his hometown of Duesseldorf. His sister Daphne had already flewn and and the kids were excited to see her and his parents.

On Friday we went to the Christmas Market. It was a lot of fun. It's my favorite thing about Germany at Christmastime. There is all sorts of things. Here is Cavin trying out the carasol.

 The other kids weren't to excited to try it out. Ella was dying to ice skate though. Ragnar's father Hellmut is great at ice skating so it is fun to watch him.

Taking a break on the side with Opa!

Cavin has unfortuntely his mothers coordination so he didn't really get the hang of it and it didn't help that he was so tired because we had just gotten there the day before.

Ella did well with Opa and Dad's help and she had a fun time!

We stopped for some fries of course..

I couldn't get a good picture of the market, but it's fun...there is stuff to do and buy all over the streets.

We had a fun time at the market and when we got back Ragnar's other sister Naomi and her family had arrived.

The kids did crafts with Oma.

And they played with Opa's train which they loved and then we went to bed! Jet lag had gotten us, but not too bad!
Saturday the kids would get up and want to go straight to the porch and play with the train, but it is cold! We played throughout the day with Naomi's little girl Juliana.

Don't you love their look! She is a cutie!

Here is Oma always entertaining the grandkids!

Then Daphne, the kind Aunt that she is tried to help Ella learn how to ride a bike!

I think if the weather would have cooperated over the next few days she might have gotten it!
Sunday we enjoyed relaxing church. Cavin wanted to bring Red Rockets ties so they could match!

After church we went Christmas caroling and that was fun. The kids did pretty well at trying to follow along the songs in German. It was a little rainy and cold.
Monday we went to the lake and played.

It is a pretty lake by Ragnar's parents home that Daphne, Naomi, Pamela, and I ran around.

 The kids enjoyed feeding the ducks!

Then we went to walk along the Rhine River and go on the Ferris Wheel

Our camera died on the Ferris wheel but we have pictures again going there on another day! Daphne and I left and went shopping after and that was fun...then that night we met the family and went to Ragnar's favorite restaurant. It was a Greek place and it was pretty good. 

Then we came home and wrapped presents. I had my secret hiding spot so no one could see what I was wrapping ;)

We sure got in a good laugh :)
Tuesday for Germany was Christmas (in America it is Christmas eve, but they celebrate the coming of Christ, we celebrate the birth of Christ). They celebrate at night.

The table was set and we went to the church first for a devotional.

Ursula and Hellmut

Ragnar's sister Naomi, Sharlon, and Juliana

And a not so great shot of us...Channing was in a mood as you can see

And Daphne

 Family dinner was a little interesting because most of the kids were getting tired..but we survived!

We read the Christmas story and then skyped with Sandra as she tried to play the piano for us...but there was slight delay ;)
Then the kids waited for the bell to ring and presents began.

The kids were excited to do Christmas again!!
On December 25, 2013 what we know as Christmas day, that is when the party started and EVERYONE was there. All Ragnar's sisters were here except his one sister Sandra in Utah.

 The kids went to the park while I ran and played while we waited for everyone to get there.

Then everyone arrived. Ursula's sister Brigette and her husband Kent who are serving a mission in Germany and Pamela, Ragnar's oldest sister and her husband Tobias and 5 kids. It was a full house!!

That's a lot of people at one table and a kids table in the back!

Sisters working hard on dinner!

There was plenty of food! After dinner the kids acted out the Chrismas nativity. Ella and Channing were angels :)

Mary (Belana) on her donkey (Fabian)

Jared was Joseph and Cavin was a wise man, Aaron a Shepherd and a whole lot of I'm not sure what else...they had fun anyway!

Our little stars!

The kids colored and played together

Then the matching began!! Women had matching pjs....

and the men matching sweaters!

The little girls, minnie jammies!

On Thursday we walked the Rhine river! It was a LONG walk, but pretty.

Belana was sweet enough to be Ella's buddy and it was a blessing because she was one of the few cousins who knew English!

I love this picture of Ella. Daphne was kind enough to curl her hair for her and she loved it.

Ragnar's Aunt Brigette and Uncle Kent

I was cold...but there is nothing new there!

Here is the ferris wheel we were walking back to...sadly it was closed because they considered it a holiday, so the kids were glad we already had been on it. It is cool though because it overlooks the Rhine river. It was a major bummer to walk that far and it be closed, but the kids got over it quickly.

Naomi's family wasn't feeling well so they didn't join, but here is everyone else!

Channing was loving this picture!

The kids just played in this and watch sticks and such race down until the men came back with the cars!

We love Dusseldorf!
On Friday we went and visited Ragnar's best friend Kris and Christine and met their adorable son Thom.

The kids played with their cousins and had a simple day.

On Saturday we took our little family and went to Koln, Germany about 30 minutes away to see a few things. First we saw the big Cathedral.

There is no way you can get it all in one shot.

Then we walked along the Rhine river again to get to the Olmpic, Sports Museum

We got to the museum finally....

It was a small museum, but neat

The kids practiced boxing..

And cycling....

and of course bobsled!

 The "German" NBA player

Ragnar loved this super old soccer ball

It was a fun family day.

Sunday was our last day in Duesseldorf...so we went to church together and had one more nice dinner together.

Here is everyone!! Minus a few sad moments towards the end of the trip we had a WONDERFUL trip! The kids adjusted well, picked up German fairly well, behaved, and did great on the flights. We had so much fun playing games with the family and being together. We were so grateful to be there and for the hospitality of the Hartzheim family and being able to see all the cousins and enjoy each other's company. We felt like it was a great trip! Channing keeps asking me everyday when we are going back on a plane...yuck! The kids do love to say "Guten Appetit" everytime we have meals now, and Channing always says "uten apetit" Here's to keeping up with my German so it gets better everytime I go!

Christmas Part 1

This year we have done things a little different. As we are going to Germany, we did not want to bring all of "Christmas" with us. So we wrote Santa a letter and he was kind enough to visit us early. We celebrated Christmas on December 14th and the kids were excited. I love Christmastime with kids. 

Christmas eve preparations...

On Christmas morning the kids have to wait for the music to play to come downstairs and at about 6:15 they made it clear that they were waiting!

This is Cavin as he opened the Skylanders he has been waiting for!

Ella seeing her "rainbow loom" that she has been wanting

Channing and her much anticipated "Doc McStuffins Doll"

I think Channing sat in this chair for an hour and played.

So exciting!

I always ask them to pick their favorite thing for a picture and Cavin didn't want to go upstairs to get his Skylanders and Ella wanted something "soft" so this is their picture ;)

My parents came over after the presents and we opened more presents and somehow we missed taking pictures :( They spoiled the kids as usual and they got Ella this flutter fairy that flies and she loves it. We got to see the movie Frozen with them and my mom cooked a nice dinner. It was fun to have an early Christmas with my family and we are so excited to leave tomorrow for Germany! Merry Christmas!!

Uncle Corey

Last week my brother Corey came into town for a few days as he was attending a conference in San Antonio. It was so fun to see him for a minute and we loved having him spend the day with us. He was kind enough to play "Tip Kick" with Cavin and entertain the kids.

Cavin was loving every minute!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by! We sure miss you and your family!

Annual Rockets Run 2013

I didn't want to forget to post about the Rockets Run on November 9th because it was monumental for our family this year ;) My mom and dad joined the kids on their kids 1K and they were so glad to have them!!

Cavin was ready to leave the house and win! He is our competitive child!

Channing was ready to go for a stroller ride ;)

And as usual Ella was the last one down the stairs bright and early to leave.We got down there and the first miracle was that my mom and dad beat us there ;) That was fun. Originally my mom was going to run with Ella, Cavin with my dad, and Ragnar was going to push Channing, because I was running in the 5K. When the gun went off Cavin took off as usual and my dad "trained" to keep up with him... which I was not worried about...my dad could have beaten him if he wanted. Anyway, Ella wanted to run faster than usual and ran along side my dad and Cavin. Ragnar, Channing, and my mom were not far behind to finish! Channing got out of the stroller and ran the last 200 meters. It was my favorite memory to see my dad holding Cavin and Ella's hand down the last stretch to the finish line, helping them along, as they were getting tired. They all finished and did great!

As for me, I got to see them finish then I ran over to the start line and ran my race. I couldn't get out of the pack of people the first couple minutes which was frustrating as I wanted to break 22 minutes, but I got 22:09 and I think I could have broken 21 if I could have gotten out of the pack. Oh well...I'm getting old and I still got second in my age group and finished in the top 100 of over 1750 runners, so I still enjoy giving it a shot! Until next year....

Thanksgiving week!

Man Thanksgiving came and went so quickly! We had a wonderful time! We got to have the kids all to ourselves the whole week and I was so glad to have them home! We had a busy week. A couple days before school let out Cavin had his Thanksgiving play. The Kindergarten class put on a little performance and Cavin was an indian boy. He was pretty excited. 

Grandma Speers came over to watch and have lunch with him and he was so glad to see her.

Our little Indian boy! He did a great job remembering his songs and lines. It was simple but sweet.

On Saturday Cavin's soccer game got cancelled and he was bummed so we asked what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to make ginger bread houses, so we did!

Cavin and Ragnar's house against the girls!

They were excited and Channing just wanted to eat the candy!

Took some work getting the walls up :)

Boys was on the left and girls was on the right!

Silly kiddos!

Then we set up the Christmas decorations because we are leaving so early for Germany that I wanted them to be up for more than 2 weeks! So the kids had fun decoration the tree!

The tree fun!

Jingles the elf came to visit our house as well!
The week of Thanksgiving on Monday we went over to my best friend Stacey's house and the kids played with her children and they had a great time. On Tuesday we went down to the Toyota Center to watch the movie "Free Birds" on the big screen. I guess Dwight Howard on the Rockets is a turkey voice or something in the movie so he got permission to show the movie on the big screen to the employees families and to a couple children's charities. The kids loved having the players right by them and Cavin was excited to high five his favorite player...the beard man...James Hardin.(even though the picture below is of my favorite...Dwight Howard)

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If you haven't seen the movie, it's probably worth a red box rental, but the kids had fun with candy and endless popcorn!
On Wednesday we went' back to the Toyota Center for the actual Rockets game. My parents and sister joined us which was a treat! We were able to get into a suite so we had a nice time and Cavin enjoy flirting with a little girl from his class in the next suite over. Silly kid!

Then Thursday was the Turkey Football game which Ragnar played in and then Thanksgiving! My mother cooked a nice meal as usual and we stayed with them for a few days. The kids enjoy going out on their new back patio. We roasted marshmallows and made smores and then my mom and I braved a little bit of "black Friday" shopping. Target was great and the line was short but Kohl's we waited in line a while! It was fun to chat with my mom though...our backs only slightly hurt from standing ;)
Friday we got to take Ella to the Nutcracker ballet performance. We have made it a tradition for the girls to go and Ella really looks forward to it. Natalie, Mom, Ella, and I went and my dad was kind enough to watch Cavin and Channing while Ragnar was working. We ate dinner and went downtown! 

Grandma, Natalie, and Ella

Our Ballerina!

We had a good time even though Ella and I have allergies because the weather goes from 80 degrees to 40 degrees and back, but we still enjoyed our time!
Saturday Ragnar and I got to see the movie "Catching Fire" which we enjoyed and then that night he performed in "The Messiah" performance that our stake put on and I wish I would have gotten a picture. He played his cello and did a great job. The kids had fun watching him play!!! We had a wonderful week and have SO MUCH to be thankful for!