Birthday Boy

 Our kids love their Daddy more than I can explain.  He really prioritizes them.  He helps with homework, plays with them (even pretend play!), and always prays for them.  So of course they LOVE him to pieces.  Its great fun when his birthday rolls around each year.  They like to celebrate with him. 

 This year we had BBQ ribs, potatoes, and broccoli for dinner.  And this amazing CAKE for dessert!  Our friend Emily makes this cake....its to die for.  We were just remembering it a week before his birthday so I emailed and got the recipe from Emily.  It wasn't quite as perfect as Emily's, but we loved it!  With pudding, eggs, sour cream, chocolate chips and extra oil in the mix, then homemade chocolate ganache frosting in between all four layers, and homemade buttercream frosting covering it......what's not to love?!  Right?

This year for his birthday he's getting digital internet in our german house, and also got; new nike golf shoes, Italy, France, and Spain Rick Steves travel books, X-men origins and Source Code movies (with a rain check for THOR), a new Christmas tie, and golf balls, from his mom and Boyd and wrinkle free church shirts from Mom and Dad Jackson. I think it was a pretty good birthday!

A great day.....

Today was great....helped a friend move her food storage to her new house, Cole played with friends, got to feel the warm sunshine a lot, picked fresh apples off a tree, spent time making special treats for my favorite family, and got to go out to eat with my husband.

 As payment for helping a friend move the other day....she let us pick apples out of her backyard.  My mouth waters as I type this.  Annie also gave me a recipe for homemade applesauce which included instructions like "fill the pot with your peeled apple slices and then add two knuckles worth of water".  She grew up on a farm and says this is how all of her mom's recipes are.  So straight home I went...apples I sliced and fresh Applesauce and Apple Crisp were made.  I know right?  Am I a good mom or what? 

 Seroiously...these were so yummy.  They tasted like Gala and were very crisp.  The Apple Crisp was the best I have ever had. 

 Perfection. 

 This door was in her backyard to a shed.  Isn't it so cool? 

Half Day Bike Ride

 The kids have been telling me about the bike path since we moved here.  Since I have been on limited activity with my hip and Jared with his knee, only the kids had checked it out before.  It is connected to our village and goes under the road heading towards Mackenbach which is a village nearby.  The kids got out of school early one day last week so I thought it would be the perfect chance to finally go check it out.  Germans really got the exercise/bike path thing down.  Even the 60+ year olds are out walking all the time. 

 We couldn't get Josh to smile normal for nothin'

 We spent way too much time watching this beetle poop

 We rode to the monkey park.  Its where they have tree climbing materials.  They are only open on Sundays as far as we can tell.  It would be interesting to check it out sometime. 

 These three were about to race, but I talked them out of it.  The path is way too narrow and there are to many other cyclists to share the path with. 

On the way home in Schwedelbach this little old lady was gardening.  I asked if I could take her picture.  She yelled at me and got right in my personal space and wasn't very happy with me.  Finally after I asked again if I could take her picture, she threw her hands up in desperation.  I snapped the photo.  Second time this week that I've made German women frustrated with my need to photgraph their lives!    I'm beginning to think that Germans don't like to be photographed.  I couldn't resist, she looked so cool in her scarf, hunched over weeding!

Wilkommen im Schwedelbach

We have grown to love our little village in the short three months that we've now lived in Germany.  It is pituresque, quaint, and small compared to a lot of other villages.  Its close to base (the East Gate which is not the main one), only about a 7 minute drive.  Jared however works on Landstuhl at the big hospital which is closer to 20-25 minutes away.  The Base here only has a small clinic. 

I've been wanting to make a post about our village before it turns cold and the sky is overcast and dreary....which people keep warning me about.  And that it gets dark around 4:30 pm.  This grave stone store is right as you enter town on your left.  It has the weird bear in the front which were not sure has any significance. 

Connected to our village is a little village called Porrbach.  It is tiny, but so beautiful.  We like to go on family bike rides to Porrbach. 

We are surrounded by corn fields, pastures, and just plain fields. 

This is the one bakery in our village.  It is right across the street from the main part of town and the bus stop.  The crazy poofy white stick is called a spirit stick. 

This is an ancient torturing device used to make kids behave.  This is what I tell my children despite the tall tales that Jared tries to convince them of....that it is used in farming. 

We love all the unique old houses.  No two houses are the same.  They face lots of different directions which makes for a very haphazard, but fun village. 

This is right by the bus stop where my kids used to go all summer to catch frogs.  There is a little creek hidden down there. 

Schwedelbach is big on farming.  We have a rabbit farm and chickens, mini horses, ducks, geese, and big horses in coups and pastures, intermixed in all the houses. 

Germans love flowers.  Everyone has flowers.....almost! 

The main street in Schwedelbach

As I was taking pictures of different things, this tractor drove by.  This is very common so I grabbed a quick picture.  We often share the road with tractors.

Everyone has a wood stove and thus needs a wood pile

Hanna just loves how this ivy grows on the side of this house.  Its starts green and changes to red.

If you check out the sky you can see that the weather is constantly changing in Germany.  It had rained this morning, but since the sun came out I decided to take picutres....but half way through the session it started getting grumpy skied over Schwedelbach again. 

This is a typical German village street.  The houses are so close to the street!  And the streets are narrow.  If anyone parks on the street, then the drivers have to take turns going by one at a time. 

A lot of Germans line dry their clothes.  And don't like when you take a picture of it..... I learned this valuable lesson the day I took this 

Every Village has at least one church.  This is ours:

Every village also has a little cemetary

15 years ago....I visited this house over Christmas Break from BYU.  My sister was living in it at the time as her family was stationed in Germany while also serving in the Air Force.  Who woulda known at the time that one day I too would move to Schwedelbach and live in Germany!!  These ones are for you HAMM FAMILY!!

Don't really know what this building is, but its really pretty.  I love all the flowers!  It says Biergarten on the sign....so it might be a restaraunt or small bar. 

This house we dead end into every day before turning on to the main road out of our street.  There are usually two large overweight women sitting on White plastic patio chairs with a table right by the door on the yellow part of the house.  We always wave.  They sit for hours there. 

All of our German neighbors have some agreement that the wood here is for all of them.  This man stores it and I 'm sure they pay him.  Its a lot!  We are curious to see how much they get through this winter.