Christmas Morning

Rebecca was such a good girl this year that Santa came! She's too little to get very excited, but she did enjoy having everyone around to play with.

On Christmas Day, On Christmas Day!

I'm working backwards, so here are pictures from our wonderful day in Brigham City! You can click on the images to make the words bigger.

Scrapbooking and Snowboarding

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was mostly magical, except for the part where Jorg got slightly sick. I think it was just...too much excitement for him ;) But it was so much fun to enjoy our family and, of course, giving and receiving gifts is always fun. One of my favorite gifts is Scrapbook Factory Deluxe. I've been playing with it in every spare minute! I'm experimenting to see if I can make pages, and then just post them here, instead of having to do double duty. I know the print is small, but if you click on it, you should be able to read it just fine. I hope it's not too much of a pain. I figure, blogging (with an audience) motivates me to journal about our family. And if I publish the scrapbook, hopefully I'll have the same motivation. I will post more Christmas pictures as I have them ready.
Yesterday, I went snowboarding at Brighton with my brothers Jon and Joel (we missed Lane), sister Steph, and cousin Chris. I didn't have the camera, but I think I pretty much looked just like this chica. Pretty much. It was fun to be out there again, since I had to skip last winter (due to pregnancy). It was dang cold. But gorgeous. I found that some of my previous "skills" are missing. Speaking of motivation, my sore body is telling me that if I want to get out there again, I had better get into shape!

Penguin Love

This Huge Ol' Penguin is so silly, I can't believe we bought it! But Rebecca just lights up every time she sees it. She's smiling so big in the top photo, her little dimple is showing!

Essence of Rebecca

Chomping on daddy's finger.

We just love this picture of our girlie doing what she loves best!

A Cousin is Commin'!

Aunt Emily babysat for us this week (my poor mom was sick - feeling much better now). It was so sweet of Em to come over. She's due in just 23 days! Jon and Em are planning to name their daughter Natalie. And here they are...Rebecca and Natalie...sitting side by side, in the first of many pictures together :)

'Tis the Season!

We've been doin' Christmas these past few weeks and the blog has gotten neglected! I know ya'll have been doing the same, and have still managed to update the blogs. Buuuut...yah...we've slacked. Some things we've been up to are: Christmas parties for work, decorating, shopping, wrapping, Christmas Concert by Omi's Choir, making treats for the neighbors, making gingerbread houses, finishing our Christmas Newsletter, etc.

Here we at my parent's house where we made gingerbread houses for FHE a few weeks ago. Everyone (minus Elder Aldrich) was there! We also had our traditional pudding, where one of the pudding cups contain a hidden nut. The one who gets the nut, opens the family gift. I (Emily) got it again this year. SWEET!

Here's Rebecca with Omi at temple square. Birgit's choir sounded gorgeous. They are REALLY good. It was a fun night.

Here is a picture of the treat plates (cookies, fudge, and peanut brittle) for the neighbors. I wish you could taste it!

In Germany, advent calendars are really big. While we were there last month, we bought ours. Oh boy, it's a good one:

Here's something yummy to wake up to: The Kinder Egg Calendar! What could be better? Jorg and I switch-off opening one (behind it's door) every morning. The eggs are chocolate and contain a toy. Some eggs have just the regular toys and SOME have Christmas toys! We are always razzing each other about who will get the Christmas toy in their egg. See the otter and seal? Those are the Christmas ones. Cute little fellas. See the alien in the log? Well, that's just weird.

With all the running around, it's easy to forget what the season is really about. I've noticed quite a bit of impatience, on the road especially. People tired of waiting for traffic, rushing to get to parties or to the next store. I guess the weather doesn't help... But I love this decoration from one of my favorite movies, hanging right where I can see it when I walk in the door. (I got it from Heather last year, so cute.)

This Christmas season, and always, I'm so grateful to my Savior for all he has done for me, for my family, and for all of mankind. I love Him. I'm so grateful for His sacrifice. I will try and show a portion of my gratitude to Him by sharing that love with others. And by accepting His gift. It's just amazing to know that I can be forgiven of my many imperfections, if I will only repent and try my best to be like Him each day! I can be with my family forever! And that is the greatest miracle of all. In this earthly life, I don't think I'll ever be able to understand the full magnitude of the Atonement. But I'm thankful for it every day.

Merry Christmas!

Birthday Wishes

Dear Kristin (pronounced KRISteen...I finally got it right)!

Happy Birthday last month! Rebecca and I are sitting here thinking about how much we love you. Thanks for being such a great sister, friend, and taunte (aunt). We have so much fun with you. And miss you when we're apart! Thanks for such a great time in Hannover. Thanks for being our number 1 commenter. Thanks for all you do for Jorg keeping his stuff at your place and taking calls from his renters. Thanks (to you and Michael) for your help painting the apartment in Kassel. You are an angel and we love you so much!

xoxoxoxoxo

Emily, Rebecca, and Jorg

Rebecca is snuggy wuggy with you just like this, right now...in her mind :)

We Like Ice Cream!

We miss you, Giovanni's (Hannover)!

"SANTA!! I know him." -Buddy the Elf

We visited Santa at our condo clubhouse right after we found our perfect tree last Saturday. Rebecca loved him (smart girl)!

Lucky Number Seven

I love this beret! Rebecca's aunts in Germany helped us pick out the outfit. So fun. This little baby is getting bigger, bigger...so fast. She's scooting around these days. Very energetic and more entertaining than ever. We like it! Here are a few pictures from her little 7 month photo shoot.

Le Petit Bebe

We were lucky enough to visit Paris for a day! In Hannover we stayed with Kristin and Michael who live close to the a train stop. Can I just say, Germany has an awesome transportation system? Well, they do! Trains, subway, buses, the autobahn, ANYways... We hopped on the train to the station where we caught the another train to the airport. Then it was less than a 2 hour flight from there. We arrived in Paris on Wednesday night and took the subway (tube) to our cute little hotel. Here is my favorite boy with my favorite girl on the train.

We had a nice view of the Eiffel Tower that night, which really was good because the next day it was mostly covered with fog. As we were walking to our hotel (we got a little lost, but that was part of the fun) We kept saying, "Hey, guess what? We're in Paris!" to each other. We were just so excited to be there. And so, Thursday was the day of our Paris in a Day tour provided by our very own travel agent, Marriane Sloan Knight. Thanks Mar! We loved your tour! It was seriously perfect. She typed out trains to take and all the major places to see and the history. It made our day really special and (most importantly) organized.

The first stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral. There are no words to do it justice. Some I'll try are: ornate, gorgeous (especially the stained glass windows inside), gi-normous, and amazing.

We were standing there enjoying the view inside the cathedral, and a French lady came up to us and asked for our camera. She said we needed a picture so we could see "how we three look". "Just wonderful". There weren't many kids around and people were happy to see our cutie. She was so fun on this trip too. So smiley and happy. She was screaming (an excited scream), trying to get attention. Such a Ham. Here is the picture taken by the French woman.

Next stop, The Louvre. We saw it, but didn't realize it because we couldn't see the pyramids. So, we circled around the whole thing, all the time wondering about this fabulous structure until, 'ding!' we realized this was the place for which we had been searching. 'Ding, ding!'

Rebecca was served her royal feast just outside the place where the Mona Lisa is kept. How cool is that?? See that little backpack by my feet? That was our luggage/diaper bag for the entire trip. I was so proud of myself for packing light, for once.

Our babe and her favorite toy, de leaf :)

This one's for you Mar...we drank your favorite...Orangina! Very refreshing.

Next, we took a stroll down the Champs Elysées where we ran into Sephora (YESssss), and the Arc de Triomphe, and ate some yummy crepes.

Our last stop was the Eiffel Tower! We went up the elevator to get a view of the city. It was freeeeezing up there, so we didn't stay long. But it was really pretty. We didn't get a picture of the actual tower, but here are some pictures taken from the middle of it.

It was a super fun trip. We almost didn't go because of the transportation strike and the riots. Lucky for us, the strike ended a few days prior to our trip, and we found out the riots were in the suburbs. Overall, the people we met were really nice. Even the Parisians we asked for directions were very helpful and patient. We have to admit it...We fell in love with Paris, the City of Love.