Carving the Hunted Pumpkins.

Look at all these serious carvers!

 So Hannah didn't mean to make her pumpkin puke.  She hates gutting her pumpkin, and decided to finish after she carved this year...this was the result of that decision.

all our Pumpkins a-glow.

A Pumpkin Hunting we go...

 We seriously love the Pumpkin patch, but who wouldn't.  Even if it is slightly (ahem) over priced!

 Hunter always finds his perfect pumpkin right off and then carts it around the rest of the time.

Love it!

 This years finds.

 This patch had a lot of fun activities. 

We went on a hay ride, and played in a corn box.

 Enjoyed a corn maze.

 Climbed on hay statues.

 but our favorite was the bunnies.

It was very difficult to pull all the kids away from the bunny pen!

As we left it was to the sound of kids begging for a pet...

My favorite Room

So I really didn't put much effort into decorating our home here.  Usually I take a month or two scouring antique shops and boutiques for the perfect accent to place here or there.  But not here.  We are only here for one year, so we mostly just unpacked the essentials.  Downstairs has some pictures hanging here or there, but not many.  My kitchen is barely decorated (compared to what I usually do) at all, the rest of the rooms are functional.  Upstairs is mostly just beds and dressers...nothing else.  The one thing that made me excited about this house was the formal dining room.  Finally a place for my nice dining table, antique hutch and of course all my polish pottery.  My pottery is the think that I love most that I brought back from Europe with me.  And my antique hutch is my 2nd thing I love most.  The two compliment each other perfectly I think.  

This is my favorite room.  I come in here and just sit, and feel happy.

What, I have two Four year olds?!!

So, I am play catch up a bit here for October.  We just did so much and we were so busy, and frankly I lost my blogging momentum since we moved back to the States.  

So much overdue, here is the boy's birthday!

I still can't believe they are 4!!

 We have this app on our iphones that our friends got us really hooked on.  It is called Cake Doodle and the kids LOVE it!  You basically bake and decorate a virtual cake.  So when the boys saw me making a real cake they wanted to jump in and help.

It was a blast and they did great!

 The boys requested "Cars" themed cakes this year.

 So I started to run out of frosting, but you get the idea.  I made their first initial into a road and then put toothpick decorated Cars on the road.  The boys were pleased!

 Jack is so grown up!

He loves the birhtday song!

 So the girls found these trick candles and wanted me to put them on the boys cake this year.  I just put one on, but after seeing Jack trying to blow out his candles (we sing and blow in birth order) Hunter wasn't so sure about his turn.  I think he kept expecting the fire to leap of the cake and get him.

Next time no trick candles!

 They were spoiled again this year by some super fun gifts from Aunts and Uncles, and grandparents.

And do they ever know the boys well...

Golf books!

 "Planes" play sets!

 "planes" airplane launchers!

They loved all their gifts so much, but in the end I think they are sports men at heart.

First thing the next morning, while waiting for breakfast, the boys went golfing at our kitchen table.

Happy Birthday to our awesome 4 year olds!!

You make our lives complete and full of adventure!

It isn't the same...but it's still good.

Cuddling with these boys just isn't the same as it is

 cuddling with this little munchkin.

They have grown up so fast, too fast.  Sometimes I miss my baby boy cuddles, and how they would curl up on your shoulder and snuggle and fall asleep.

But, even though I miss those precious baby moments, it is still good...

 We are painting

 cooking...

and having all kinds of adventures with our home pre-school program.

It has been a lot of fun hanging out with my boys, and I treasure every second.

Because I know that too soon the time will come when I will look at my teenage (gasp!) boys and remember (wish for...long for) the sweet pre-school age years.

They are so funny and say the craziest things.  Like everything they don't like is "weird" and everything they love is "awesome".  They can't pronounce the "f" sound, so everything that starts with "F" actually has a "B" sound, like Bace (face), boot (foot) and my favorite one is poopball (football), which for some reason has a "P" sound instead of the common "B" sound.

So much fun, I love my sweet boys and their shining faces!

I am a New Auntie!!!

During all my international moving drama an exciting event happened in my family!  This was pretty big for me, because it is the first baby born to any of my siblings.  I am no longer the single procreator in my family!!

On July 10 I became a new Aunt!

Liam decided to join our family a month early!

This was a pretty crazy day for me, I was doing my final clean and clearing housing that day...so I was going to loose my home phone, my single most reliable means to communicate with my family during important, life changing events....like getting a new NEPHEW!!!

Liam did not check with me before his arrival to make sure it was convenient, (he didn't check with anyone...I know he took his parents by surprise as well!)  He was supposed to come sometime the first week of August, I would be done with moving and our visit to Utah and would be able to come up to New York and help out, ha ha!  Nope, surprise, I was still in Germany.  

It was a very exciting day, and he arrived safe and healthy before I lost my phone connection, so I could call and say congratulations.

Not only is my sister in law and amazing woman, wife and mother, she is also a fabulous photographer.  I stole a few of her shots...hopefully she won't mind, but here is Liam...

Aren't they a cute family?!

 My brother.

I am so proud of him, he took to parenting like a pro.  He was so excited, dare I say giddy, every time I spoke with him leading up to Liam's birth.

He will be such a great dad!

 So, after getting settled, and getting my cars back from shipping, I was able to sneak away from my crew for a quick weekend visit to meet Liam.

I was greeted with this little cutie in an awesome shirt!

(Ignore the hair, I had to leave my home at 4am to catch my flight, and airplanes are never kind to hair anyway...)

 I sure loved these cuddles!

 My brother's favorite stance...rocking Liam to the tune of ESPN.

 So, did I say Liam was my first nephew.

That was a gross mistake on my part.  Meet my first nephew, Bubba.

He thinks he is human and every time attention is granted to someone or something else, he thinks he should be in on his cut.

So here I am, getting some cuddle time with BOTH my nephews.

 Love him.

 Liam and I

I get to see more of this cuteness for Thanksgiving.

Can't wait!!

A Moment to Reflect...my Favorite German Crop...

One of my favorite things about Germany...I say that a lot don't I?  Lets be honest, I loved everything about Germany, even the inconveniences where shopping was concerned.  However, in the spring, driving through Bavaria, is a splash of color!  You either have the purple flowers of lavender, alpha or heather blooming, then after that field of subtle color you are hit by the splash of neon, sunshine yellow that the Rapeseed flower blooms.  It is spectacular, and one of the most beautiful crops I have EVER seen.  If I were ever to decide my calling in life was to farm, this would be the crop I would farm!

Rapeseed (pronounced R-aw-p-eh-seed)

It is harvested and crushed to make Canola oil.

I love it's beauty so much, that I conned our good friends into doing an impromptu family photo shoot.

Impromptu because we had planned it 2 other times, but due to the unpredictable spring, bavarian weather we kept moving it back a day, until it was perfect.  Even then, we only had maybe an hour.  By the time we finished this shoot the afternoon thunderstorms were rolling in, we barely had enough time!  But it worked out perfectly!!

What are they whispering about...

My girls are growing up so fast!

Look at that yellow...neon Sunshine!

 My sweetie and I

 They just make me smile.

They absolutely LOVE their hats!

With the hills of Bayern behind us.

This was literally taken just below my neighborhood.  Our house is on the hill we are facing, so behind the photographer (so not pictured of course...).  So this is the view we have from our front porch and backyard.  It was movie epic, and I miss this view terribly!