For Uncle Ray and Aunt Patty :)

Building a snowman winter 2012

Christmas 2012

Last post of 2012

Well you should never say it, there might come more spontaneous posts :). I have three little videos for you to enjoy.

We've had a very great year I would think. It's crazy... you start the year and think, wow... a whole year ahead it will take a long time to get finally through the first half year and enjoy the last few months which I personally enjoy the most. The Christmas Time is the best season of the year for me. But we surprisingly had a very mild winter last year and barely snow to play in. And summer came so early, our leaves weren't on the trees yet and our pool was already setup! We had many great play dates in the sun and the summer went on and on and on... it was very amazing and little days for Frank to complain about the cold ;). This December we got already a couple of inches snow which is very cool. We really need the cold to kill all the insects and make it a little better next summer with the hot summer nights.

We had another wonderful year in our home. Here some pics I had on my phone from our holiday week: My birthday cake:

Zoe was so cute singing: 'Happy Birthday' with Frank together

SNOW :)

My little cuddle bear! I look like I just got up but I was actually already up for hrs... well, sometimes we just look tired *lol*

Today I made some cupcakes for my neighbors New Year's Party. We'll just have a movie Date night at home :). Last week we had two date nights which we really enjoy and me signing up at the gym was the best thing ever. I have 2 hrs that I can drop off the kids at the in-house day care per day at the gym and in that time I can do anything I want: working out in an amazing fitness center with anything you can dream of, steam sauna, swimming, classes, sauna, whirlpool, sauna, rock climbing wall, 2 basketball courts... I mean you name it. Bistro, Spa, massages... The only thing they don't have is a grocery store *lol*... I can really feel the difference in myself what this opportunity is doing for me. The kids are not yet totally ok in the day care. Still crying and screaming when I'm leaving (Henry) and Zoe misses me a lot and cries sometimes while i'm gone but she likes going... she goes in and head towards what she wants to play with etc. Henry is doing fine now during the time there but needs somebody who cuddles with him or he sometimes plays also but as soon as I pick them up, he starts screaming/ crying like: "How can you do this to me????" and Zoe says almost every time that she missed me. But I explain to them where I am and eventually I'll also take them swimming with me. But I'm worried once I show them this awesome pool that they can actually go in there, they won't ever go into day care and always want to go swimming ;). So I'll wait with that a little until they're doing better in day care.

Here some pics from our day outside in the snow. You'll also get a video :)....

Let it snow

Thanks everybody for all the Birthday Wishes and Calls, I was on the phone / skype all day long, it was an awesome Birthday :). My hubby got me a birthday cake and Zoe and Frank were singing 'Happy Birthday' from the top of their lungs it was the cutest thing ever... Zoe really loves Birthdays and especially blowing out the candles! I let her help me ;)

It was snowing all day so we took advantage of the snow after dinner and took a little sleigh ride in front of our house:

I just love my strollers! They're the best... no big deal to go through the snow with it since the little sleigh was a little to small for both kids. The last time we had so much snow was 2 winters ago and Zoe was Henry's age!

Merry Christmas

Yum, Cupcakes:

Last weekend I made Cabbage Rolls: YUM... Frank's mom's recipe and I mastered it. 

Our Christmas Eve Dinner: German Potato Salad, German Knackwurst and BBQ pulled Beef. It was really delicious and even though German Potato Salad is a typical German tradition on Christmas Eve we never ate it in our family. Might be a new traditions of our own from now on... who knows ;)

Needless to say, Henry ate and ate and ate...

Our Presents:

The next morning:

Unbelievable delivery!!! On Christmas Day (an American holiday as well)... the Postal Service came by and delivered our long Christmas Presents from Oma and Opa from Germany! What an amazing surprise and the lady was dressed as Santa... I was super happy and excited for this to happen even though I felt sad for that lady to have to work today.

Flowers from Frank

Yesterday Zoe and I got a big surprise via flower delivery :)... Frank got us both a nice arrangement of flowers. One for his beautiful daughter and one for his beautiful wife :)... aren't we two lucky Girls :). We totally loved that surprise. THANKS wonderful husband and father :)

My little Dancing Crew

I think I'm gonna sign up both kids at dancing school. I'm a little worried about Henry being a boy and going to dance classes (I've not seen a boy in dancing school here!) but I think he has so much potential and is so much into music that this is a necessary step for me to do. I think he'll really enjoy it.

Mama's Birthday

I found some random pics I haven't posted yet :)... here we have our very hungry Caterpillar ;) aka Henry! 

My Mom's Birthday would've been on Dec 16th... in memory of her me and my friends baked something special for our mom's or grandmothers. I baked mom's most favorite cake that her friend Edda always made: Weincreme Torte or also called: Ozean Torte (Ocean Cake). I managed it pretty good and it tasted AMAZING :). Thanks so much for the recipe Edda, I think I have a new favorite in this house ;)...

Zoe hugged Lizzie goodbye after our coffee cake session

On MON night I went to the library with only Zoe to see Santa reading a story. She's seen Santa sooo many times now but still not interested in taking pictures with this weird guy ;). That's ok though... I don't need to have pics with Santa with the kids just fun for them to enjoy the Christmas Spirit