House Update

I promised I'd show you how we ended up working the downstairs of our house once I found furniture to fit it.

Of course I totally forgot to take a picture of our corner computer desk that goes next to the dining room table, but try to picture it in your mind.

By the bar we put our old 17th century trunk & Trek put 2 shelves up on the wall to hold my cookbooks & other kitchen items.  Right now it's all Halloween-ed up, but will be back to normal in November.

That big curved wall right when you walk in the house is now our temple wall.  We have our big map tapestry in the center & have surrounded it with our temple pictures.

We amazingly enough found a couch to fit our odd shaped sitting room.  It curves right around that long wall & ends with just enough room to get to the back door.  The best part is that there is another piece we can add to the couch when we move back to the states that can be put into the configuration easily.  That piece as well as a matching recliner are now in my craft room.  (The girls use it to "do homework" aka take naps, after school)

Trek built me a little shelf to round out the area where the piano sticks out from the wall.  It holds all my music & is perfect for that little corner.

We still need to hang that last picture up & then we'll add a chair of sorts to this area of the sitting room.  But overall, it's done & we're finally feeling settled here.  Yay.

Paris, France Temple

How about 2 temples in 1 week?

After visiting the Frankfurt Temple, we took the next Saturday & drove down to the Paris Temple.  We met up with some church friends there & ended up having a beautiful day together.

We woke up at 4am & hit the road at 5 so we could be at the temple in time for the girls to do baptisms at 10.  We made it with 15 minutes to spare.  I hung out with the boys in the building next to the temple where they have couches & a cafeteria set up for littles to play while parents do temple work.  It was great.  Once the baptisms were done, Trek & I went inside the temple to do some temple work ourselves.

This temple is BEAUTIFUL.  From the water lilly stain glass windows, to the beautiful chandeliers, it was easily one of the most beautiful temples I've ever been in.

STAR Student Award - Canyon

It's always a great feeling when you get an email from the school telling you that your kiddo is getting an award for being awesome.

Canyon got the STAR Student award for his class for 

"Acting Safely"

(which totally cracks me up!)

Four students from each class get selected for each of the STAR areas:

S-tays focused

T-ries their hardest

A-cts safely

R-espectful of others

Of all 4 of those, Canyon would get the acts safely.  ha ha ha.  He's still working on mastering some of those other qualities.  He'll get there, but he's too logical sometimes & that gets him in trouble.

But he WAS selected out of his entire class & I couldn't be more proud.  What a sweet kid I have.

He got to high 5 his principle & then sign his name on the Acts Safely Pledge sheet that hangs up in the school hallway for a whole month.  He was pretty excited about that.

And of course all 4 of his classmates that got awards got to get their picture taken with Kelly Koala.

The kids are sure enjoying their schools here.  We're loving their teachers, the activities, & everything that they do.  We feel blessed to be part of the DODEA school system.

Frankfurt Germany Temple Open House

We had the awesome opportunity to attend the Frankfurt Temple Open House a couple of weeks ago. Our church has over 160 temples all over the world.  Trek & I LOVE to visit the temples.  Every temple we go to together we take a picture, frame it, & put it on our "temple wall" at home.  Our kids know how much we love the temple & often times join us on our temple adventures.

When a temple is built (or in this case - rebuilt/changed), the entire temple is open to the public to tour for about a month.  Anyone can go inside & see the beauty of the rooms & kind of see what it looks like inside.  After the open house finishes, the temple is dedicated by the leadership of our church, & then only members are allowed inside after that.

The Frankfurt Temple was built years ago, but needed to be updated inside.  They closed the temple about 4 years ago & re-did the whole thing.  My kids were SO excited to get to go inside for the open house.  My girls have gone inside temples to do baptisms, but they've only been to the baptistry (you have to be an adult to have access to the rest of the rooms in the temple).  They LOVED seeing all the beautiful paintings, architecture, flowers, & chandeliers.  The temple really is heaven on earth.  The boys have never been inside a temple before so this was really special for them.

It was beautiful, & now when it is dedicated on October 20th, Trek & I will be able to go back as often as we like.  We are planning many trips here over the next few years while we're here in Germany.

Taya's 12th Birthday

Happy 12th Birthday to my little sunshine, Taya.

I can't believe my baby girl is 12 years old.

For her birthday breakfast I made her crepes, sausage patties, apple slices, & a birthday cupcake.  This was the first time I've ever made homemade crepes & they ended up being really really good.  I'll be making them more often for sure.  Yum.

Taya is one of the most thoughtful people I know.  She knew her 2 older sisters had early morning seminary (they have a religious class at school from 6:30-7:30 & leave by 6 am every morning) so Taya wanted to have her birthday breakfast at 5:30 so that her sisters could have some too.  We all woke up VERY early so we could all celebrate together as a family.

We very rarely get to eat breakfast together because Trek & the girls leave so early, so this was really really nice.

After school, Taya opened her presents from family.

Grandma Kinsfather sent her an adorable unicorn card with $10 to spend.

Mimi & Baba sent a 3D Harry Potter puzzle

Opa & Oma sent 2 viola stands for Taya's new viola.

And Canyon gave Taya his favorite pokemon toy

Nancy (my dear friend) sent Taya a beautiful coat,
some bath fizzies, socks, & a horse book.

For her birthday dinner, Taya wanted hamburgers, Kroketten (german potatoes that are a cross between mashed potatoes & tater tots), & orangies.  Yum.

She was a very happy birthday girl.

Since Taya was my last birthday in the year of no parties, we allowed her to have a couple of friends over to watch a movie & eat cake.  However, Taya being as thoughtful as she is, opted for rice krispie treats & fruity pebble treats since the majority of her friends are allergic to gluten.

Together they made 3 batches of treats that everyone could eat together with nobody being left out.

Then they took all 3 pans of goodies upstairs & watched Emperor's New Groove in the play room.

After the movie, we came back downstairs & ate popsicles & opened presents.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl.  You are the sunshine in our family & we love you.