Which Heroine Are You?

I like the rest of the educated female world am addicted to Jane Austen-I love her novels, and most movies that have been made out of her novels. Dave even watched Pride & Prejudice with me the other night when it was on PBS, well 2 hours of it anyway and he loved the witticism. Anyway, I thought this quiz was cute...which heroine are you??

Take the Quiz here!

In other news today is my sweet son's birthday. I cannot believe he is 9, that 9 years ago my heart and life changed forever. He was a good sweet baby, we were so happy to have him after 2 years of trying to have a baby and we are still blessed to have him in our life. He got a PS2 for his birthday-his VERY OWN gaming system and he was SOOO happy. As soon as I download pictures I will post them.

Girlie Girls

I butched the girls hair last week. And I have to say it looks very cute. Bella & Savannah had both gone far too long without haircuts-and even longer without anything more than a small trim. Savannah wanted to grow her hair long after her horrific brother wielding scissors incident when she was 4-so it had not been really cut since then (and yes, it was THAT short) and Bella had never had a real haircut either. Anyway, I got tired of all the whining in the mornings while I managed the tangles so I finally gave in to Dave's pleadings and gave the girls a bob and I think it looks really cute. Dave was really happy (he loves short hair on girls) and they like it too so I think we'll stick with this style for a while. Savannah's hair ended up being a bit shorter, I had to cut off some stray hairs that i had missed and got a little carried away so now it is right at her jawline...so cute

Here are some pictures from our walk on Monday:

Walking in the footsteps of George Washington...this ferry road lead across the river to his home

We always let the kids pick a treasure when we are on our adventures. All Bella wanted was this little bonnet. Savannah chose a fan and David picked a pack of civil war army guys.

The littlest man sleeping away

You're Killing Me

That was one of the things that came out of the mouth of our kids on Monday as we again made them trudge along hills on one of our grand adventures. One of our favorite things to do is take walks or go on hikes. So Monday we went back to Fredricksburg to hike around the battlefield there and the historic district again-to earn a Historic Trails patch for David's scout uniform (he's collected quite a few of those through our travels). The kids like to go on our hikes because usually it includes a stop for ice cream somewhere-bribery to keep their little feet moving.


Anyway, I was laughing because even though they always want to go and they do have fun...the funny comments made along the way-if a stranger heard them they would think we were torturing our kids. Here are some of the things heard on Monday:

you never give us water (from one of the older kids)

When is lunch (at 9am)

My feet are on fire

You're so mean (after being told for the 100th time not to climb on the historic wall)

When is lunch (at 1pm-and yes they were fed already)

I just want to sleep

Why does Benjamin get to ride in the pack (from Bella & Savannah at different times

Here is what they do when we've gone too far:

The good thing to come out of our trip to Germany is that our kids are REALLY good in the car, even without watching DVD's (our DVD player is broken at the moment) they are still great. I think it comes from driving and driving everywhere. Dave and I are now car whiners because we have to drive 75-who made up speed limits??? They are SO LAME!! So the ride up to Fredricksburg and back (about 3 hrs total) was super hard for us and great for the kids. The walk was great for us and hard for the kids.

So on our walks lately we have been missing our lovely home in Kitzingen, the trails through the vineyards. I don't think we will ever live in a place so charming, where you can walk out your back door around the corner and you are on a trail through beautiful country. Germany is criss-crossed with walking trails-wanderwegs- and on Saturdays and Sundays you will see tons and tons of people out walking, or riding bikes on the trails and we totally miss that.

This path was literally around the corner from our house, even in the winter the vineyards are beautiful.

This path we had to drive 20 minutes to get to-in the summer lush green with tasty grapes to sample-beautiful fall colors of yellow, orange and red and in the winter the snow...so gorgeous.

We had a regional stake conference broadcast on Sunday and Elder Uchtdorf spoke. Hearing his accent just made me miss Germany-so I've been thinking about it lately-the brats, the great markets, bakeries with the best bread and pastries, the autobahn, the mountains (as we sit in mountainless Virginia), donor kebaps YUMMY, the people, the architecture, the cheese, the church bells-I totally miss hearing the bells, and oh did I mention the brats, cheese yummy bread, pastries and donor kebaps yet?? Oh and German DIET COKE-I almost forgot! It is different than American diet coke and it is SO YUMMY. If I could I've have someone mail me a case then I'd savor it all sip by sip. Anyway, I'll sign off now, auf wiedersehen....I'm going to sit here and think of German DC and donors all night long.

Virginia Adventures

I finally figured out how to do a slide show...yes I know I am technically challenged sometimes. Anyway, this goes with the post below.

Bone Tired

Oh the life of leisure is so hard...it makes us tired. This is Dave catching a nap while we wait for lunch. My parents were here visiting for the last week. They came out for Benjamin's baby blessing, but also to satisfy my mother's love of touring touring touring. I have to admit that us living in Europe the last 3 years gave her a perfect excuse to travel and tour. And we loved every minute of it. But it does make us very very tired. My parents are great to be patient with the kids and how slow we have to go on our sightseeing trips too and great to help with the kids and make it a little less hectic for us, to hold a little hand or shush a mouth that is a little too loud and beginning to overpower the tourguides. And of course I wouldn't be able to stay sane while we were playing if my mom wasn't so great at helping with dishes, laundry and keeping the house neat. So thank you thank you mom & dad. And no, we don't thik of you as the people who visit and make us drive all over the place-we love it.

Since we only have 2 months left in Virginia we tried to fit a lot into one week, it was fun but qutie a whirlwind. Saturday we visited Jamestown the site of the first permanent English settlement in America. It was amazing to see the boat and the conditions the people lived with, marvelling that it truly was the hand of the Lord who helped the people survive. One of my ancestors, through my dad's line Stephen Hopkins came to America through Jamestown before going back to England and coming again with the pilgrims so it was cool to learn about that history. Monday we went to Colonial Williamsburg which is restored to be what it was like in 1774 right before the revolutionary war. Again, amazing to learn about what the colonist went through and see how the Lord guided his people. Tuesday we saw Yorktown which was where the last decisive battle of the revolutionary war was fought. Wednesday I took a day of rest and sent my parents up to Mt. Vernon by themselves, and caught up on things at home. Thursday we visited Petersburg where General Grant defeated the Virginia Confederate army's blockade to effectively end the civil war. Friday we visited Fredricksburg which was also the site of a large civil war battle and has a lot of revolutionary war homes-including the home that George Washington grew up in. And Saturday we drove up into the appalachians to see Monticello where Thomas Jefferson lived. It was a fun fun week and I will get a slideshow up of the pics when I get a minute to figure it out.

Side note, bella is so funny-she has a ton of gumption, telling people exactly what is on her mind at any given moment, at the top of her voice so she is really fun to take on guided tours (ha ha). She also talks with her hands so imagine the exchange below she had with a man at Jamestown. Notice the hand on her hip, she is telling him what is what.

Bella: are you a pirate?
Man: I was never convicted of those charges

Bella: you look like a pirate

Man: well I'm not

Bella: pirates wear belts

Man: yes they do
Bella: you're wearing a belt

Man: but I"m not a pirate

Bella: (to me as she's walking away) mom, he IS a pirate

Boys Boys Boys

Last week was all about the boys. First we had a pinewood derby. Dave & my dad helped David make his car (notice the paint job-most definitely not done by an almost 9 year old with a 2 second attention span). Last year the pinewood derby was the week the movers came to pack us out...David's car ended up being a painted block with wheels and quarters attached. Needless to say he came in dead last and ended up crying so we felt we needed to make it up to him by helping him make a super car this year. Thanks to Dad's secret formula David won every race, by a lot! He was so happy-doing victory dances after every race but making sure to tell the other kids they did great too.

Sunday was Benjamin's blessing, my parents flew in Friday and we spent Saturday visiting Jamestown (pictures to come later) which was fun since we have an ancestor who came through there. The blessing was very nice and we had a great lunch after with us & friends. We missed having our family there though, this is the first baby to be blessed with out Grandpa Dyer, Dave's dad & my brothers in the circle. A big drawback of living away, but we were so happy to have mom & dad there. The booties I bought last year when we were travelling in Belgium, mom & I were looking in all the lace shops admiring all the handmade things, and I couldn't not buy booties even though I wasn't pregnant. I even bought a little bonnet for a baby girl so some lucky niece or nephew might end up with that someday!!

Last picture I had to add, we were making cookies & I turned my back and bella snuck into the butter...gross gross gross. But if I leave butter out my girls will eat it raw. She says, see mom it's real good!