Birthday Party!

Allison was invited to one of her classmates 8th birthday party today after school at Burger King. They all had so much fun and enjoyed a juggling act from one of the employee's!

Pictures with Santa!

This evening Santa made a little special trip to Schweinfurt Elementary School to take pictures with the kids! Allison and Joslyn knew he wasn't the "real" Santa but sat on his lap anyway and told him what they wanted for Christmas. You know me- I had to jump in on Santa's lap for a picture too!


Joslyn and her friends at the "Pictures and Pizza with Santa"

I missed my Allison

Yesterday Allison complained of a stomach ache. I told her to lay down on the bed. I plugged in the heat pad, set it on low heat and placed it on her tummy. She laid down only for a few minutes and ran to the bathroom. She made it to the toilet...she threw-up and had diarrhea. I drew a warm bath for her and had her lay down in the warm water and placed a cold cup of water on the side wall of the bathtub. Of course we didn't make it to church.
I had everything all planned out. After church we would go grocery shopping, stop at the store to pick a present out for the girls dad and half-sister for Christmas and come home. Well that didn't happen so instead Allison rested in my bed, while Joslyn and I did laundry and cleaned. Allison was feeling a bit better by yesterday evening. I decided to keep Allison home from school today. I wanted to make certain she was over what ever she had yesterday. Today I had plans of going to the store to finish up some Christmas shopping for the girls and pick up wrapping paper (that Santa will wrap his gifts with). I could not do this of course because I had Allison with me. We did however make it to the school to pick- up her homework. I had a lot of plans but none of this mattered to me. All I was focused on was Allison and her health! Allison is doing MUCH better today and is most definitely back to the energetic, happy old Allison! I am so thankful she is feeling her normal self again, I missed her!

German Christmas Market!

What a Wonderful day! So Allison had her practice again this morning for the Christmas pageant she will participate in on Christmas Eve. While Allison was off practicing being an Angel (like she needed any practice with that!)Joslyn and I were out and about, shopping at different stores and running a couple errands.
We picked Allison up and continued with some shopping, came home, had lunch and then Allison and I laid down for a 30 minute nap. Joslyn played a game on the computer. When Allison and I woke up we put on all our winter gear...hats, gloves, sweaters and jackets! We got in the car and headed downtown to the Schweinfurt Christmas Market. Joslyn and Allison brought their own money (Euro) and we began to walk around and admire the different booths. There were carousel's, pony rides, (neither of which the girls wanted to ride) lots of food, hot chocolate, wine, music, carriage rides and lots of cute things to buy! The girls had a few people in mind whom they wanted to buy for, but didn't really find anything interesting enough. I found a booth that had sooo many different cookie cutters so I let the girls pick out a few. Joslyn had a white chocolate covered banana and Allison had chocolate covered strawberries. After about an hour and a half the girls and I were ready to go home and defrost! Our feet and noses were frozen! It was a fun little experience and now we can say we've been to a German Christmas Market!

Let it Snow!

This morning we woke up to a white blanket of snow! I was not able to download the pictures I took of the girls before they left for school, standing in the fresh fallen snow. I'm soo disappointed. Hopefully I will be able to take more pictures when we have our next snow fall. So the pictures I do have were taken from our balcony and at the playground behind our building. So much of the snow had already melted by the time the girls came home from school, but they made the most with what snow was left! You can tell we're from the south and didn't grow up with snow in the winter...we were the only people outside playing in the freezing cold!



Making SNOW ANGELS!!


Writing Messages to our Loved Ones:
"We Love You and Miss You"!

Picture for Philip (written in snow by Allison):
Allison, Denise, Philip, Joslyn

A Special Message from Me to Philip:

Reading Star!

Joslyn is moving up on the reading chart at her school! She has 100 points (every book is worth points, depending on the reading level of the book the points can be as high as 22)! Joslyn made it into the Bronze Star Club since she now has 100 points! Her next goal will be to make it into the Silver Star Club.

My Girls Are Growing-Up So Fast!

Joslyn and Allison wrapped the gifts they bought at the Santa Workshop. Joslyn also typed a letter to a couple of people back home. It's amazing to see the girls spend their very own money they have earned from chores on gifts for family and friends, then wrap the gifts, use the computer to type letters and address envelopes all by themselves, with very little help from Momma! Where have the last 8 and 9 years gone?!