Chillin’ at home

I’m so grateful for our little neighborhood and house.  This is the view of what we see when we look out the front windows of our house.  To our right are some more houses and then fields and countryside right behind them.  For two weeks now it has been really cold.  The rest of the winter has hovered around 40 degrees.  The past two weeks have been in the 10-20 degree range.  We have had a lot of snow and slick roads.  We are definitely in the worst of Winter right now.  Cole and I stay home a lot right now.  I enjoy the winter from this view!!  I do feel really bad for the kids and Jared who have to brave the cold every day as they walk out the door at 7:20 am.  Most days Jared can take them and drop them at the bus stop on his way.  There are a few mornings that he has to leave earlier and then I drive them down.  With the slick roads and lots of traffic while the weather is bad we do not want them walking to the bus stop.  
Our house stays pretty warm in comparison to a lot of the older style German homes that several people I know live in.  We do get a lot of drafts through doors on the bottom floor, but otherwise its pretty warm.  We lucked out with this quiet corner with lots of kids and little traffic. 

Cole already is bugging me about going to school.  When I tell him he’s not big enough he says, “I am bigger now” and it usually leads to a frustrated three year old.  He used to say I’m ten whenever anyone asked how old he is.  He also used to be obsessed with 10 o clock and would ask all day what time it was.  When we would tell him what time it was , he would say “NO!  It’s 10 o’clock!  He went through a phase of claiming to be four years old after he got over the ten thing and now in the past few weeks is finally telling people he is three and holding up his three fingers to show them at the same time.   Like all of my little boys have done, he loves to put on hats, gloves, boots, and costumes all day every day.  
   

The Night Bus

Carter and Jake were talking about his upcoming Pinewood Derby when day after church in the car.  Carter said “It would be funny if someone showed up with a double decker bus”!  Well Jake took that to heart and decided to design the “Night Bus”.  We prepped him with lots of comments like “it won’t be the fastest design, but it sure will be cool”!  After it was painted, I cut out some vinyl letters with my Silhouette to put on the back of it that said, “The Night Bus”.  Jake was WAY proud of his car and believe it or not it didn’t come in last place.  (Gotta love Cultural Hall lighting for pictures these turned out terrible)
It was constructed out of two blocks of pine and then a little more to make it extra tall.  They painted windows and cut out a chunk where a driver would sit.  Fun stuff!

Our ward has a lot of cub scouts!!

SIX years

I’m convinced every family needs a Josh.  This little guy is easy goin’, sensitive, fun loving, has an infectious giggle, is very imaginative in his play, and always up for playing with his siblings.  Everyone loves to play with Josh because he’s so easy to get along with.  Happy Birthday little one! 



 
He loved all of his gifts, but the LEGO pirate set, Pokemon DS game, and this book were pretty special ones. The book is from G’ma Karyl from Hallmark that has her voice recorded reading it.  He also got this stuffed animal monkey and a huge 64 box of crayons with coloring books.  A little later he also received a Mickey Mouse watch in the mail from G’ma and G’pa Jackson that he loves (and Cole does too, he always tries to steal it).  AHOY MATEYS!  It’s a Pirate Party!  Two days later, we had a friends party!   
We started out the party by getting the Birthday Boy decked out in Pirate atire and all the other kids followed suit.  I love how much my other kids want to be involved with the sibling parties.  They are a huge help.  Hanna was amazing this year Jared and I were so glad she helped out so much.  When the guest started arriving, we helped them get dressed up too with bandanas, sashes, and patches. 
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Sadie and Kelsey came all dressed up like girly pirates.  Kelsey spent three days making Josh’s birthday box shaped like a treasure box that had the present inside.  These two adore Josh and he gets along with them really well.  Chase and Aedan are great friends too.  They go to church with Josh and Aedan lives next door. 
The first order of business was to get your brown pirate bag colored and personalized. 
Then we played Musical Islands with pirate music playing and getting stopped. 
Then we “Walked the Plank” with Captain Josh in charge and threatening everyone with a sword!  After the workout on the plank, the pirates were hungry so they ate pigs in a blanket and chips with grape soda.  After that they had a scavenger hunt with rhyming pirate clues to look for treasure. It lead them up to Josh’s room, to the garage, in the bathroom, the kitchen, and finally to the back porch where they found a giant tiki island pinata and swords for each pirate.  After several wacks and turns the pinata broke to reveal lots of candy that they put into their previously decorated brown bags.  Finally it was time for Cake and Ice-cream and presents.  I was proud of my cake abilities this time.  Jared usually makes the cake and does an awesome job.  This time I wanted a turn….thank you pinterest for the great idea! 
  Pirate parties are the best for little boys.  They never get old or boring.  I just love my little guys…how about those scary pirate faces!

Munich

Over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, we decided to go and check out Munich.  We found a great apartment on line downtown close to the sights for 300 euro for three nights, so we jumped on it.  We drove into town and went straight to the BMW Museum.  It’s a couple of different buildings.  The Museum is one building and the factory and BMW World showroom are a different building.  They were so futuristic and modern looking.  It was fun to see the architecture and forward thinking of one of the best automobile company’s in the world.  They definitely know what they are doing, and they do it right. We were quite impressed.  We our big fans of this particular brand after owning and driving Jared’s BMW since moving here.   By the time we got to the musuem it was closing…(at 5 pm ugh a very European thing to close early).  We made plans to come back on Monday which were also foiled since its closed on Mondays which is a German thing.  Next time!  We were sad not to go in.  Just the entrance looked amazing and so modern.  They did have a few displays in the lobby including these cars from the new Mission Impossible “Ghost Recon” movie which we had just seen over Christmas break together.  The Show Room was lots of fun with interactive hands on displays.  The kids got to drive a simulator car and pretend to drive several motorcycles.  I did not know that BMW actually stared making motorcycles before cars.  BMW makes the best colors of cars….several different charcoals, blacks, sparkly grays, etc.  All of my favorite car colors.  The tours of the factory are also here, but lasted two hours and are NOT recommended for children.  We opted not to do it.  The next morning we dawned early and headed out into the cold all bundled up!!
   
We started a self-guided tour at the Marienplatz Square the most famous town square in Munich.  It most important landmark located here is its beloved Glockenspiel Clock that rings at 11:00 am and Noon.  We arrived at 11:40…Perfect timing!  The Neo-Gothic building to the left in this picture is the New Town Hall.  It served as the US military Headquarters in 1945 because it had survived the bombings unlike many building in Munich.  The Whitish building toward the back right in the picture is called the Old Town Hall.  It was completely destroyed in the war and had to be rebuilt.  Munich flourished in its early days due to all salt trade having to stop here on the Marienplatz.  By the time it started dancing and performing its number at noon, there was quite a crowd gathered to watch.  I had as much fun watching people as I did the Glockenspiel that acts out a 16th century marriage and dancing after the plague was lifted.    After checking out the inner courtyard of the New Town Hall, we headed a block over to St. Peter’s Church.  This is Munich’s oldest church.  It has tombstones plastered around the outside reminding people that cemetaries were often dug up and moved to the outskirts of town for hygienic purposes.  This church was badly damaged during the war, but has been restored.  It is very loved by the people of Munich.  Munich has more Relics than any other European city besides Rome.  For more than a hundred years, it was the pope’s bastion against the rising tide of Protestantism in northern Europe during the Reformation.  Favors done in defense of the Catholicism earned the Wittelsbachs (royal family) neat relic treats like this tomb of Munditia.  She’s a third-century martyr who reminds people that those who die for the cause of the Roman Church go directly to heaven without waiting for Judgment Day.  (Rick Steve’s Germany pg. 52)  We thought it was creepy…..After St. Peter’s Church we headed to Munich’s Viktualienmarkt.  Its an open air market with lots of fresh fruit, homemade goods, and hot lunch foods to buy.  It’s a great place to get lunch, but we had other plans for lunch!  BRRR!  It was really cold by now. 
We decided to go get warmed up and eat some lunch at the ORGINAL Hofbrauhaus.  We had been to the replicated one in Vegas, but decided we needed to see the real thing.  Its quite the place and experience.  They always have an oompah band, pretzel selling girls, dressed up Gemans in traditional Bavarian clothing, and locked up Beer Stein’s that the locals come and claim on a regular basis.  It’s a lively German must see!!This sign is above some of the tables:  And it means:  reserved.  You can only sit here if directed to by a server.  (In Germany its custom to walk into a restaurant and seat yourself.)
  We bought and shared an oversized large pretzel and all shared it….they are so good! 
After ordering, I went on a little walk to take in the ambiance, and ended up asking several people if I could take their picture or as the below table was they begged me to take their picture.  They were American tourists. 
This guy was definitely my favorite….isn’t he just so off the farm German? 
The next day  we headed over to take a tour of the Residenz or palace of the Wittelsbachs who ruled Bavaria for over 700 years.  We started the tour by claiming our informational wands with English settings (yeah!) but not without having a few light saber like battles first.  
    The Palace was quite impressive!  This amazing dining hall was used for dining as well as a place to display collected busts of emperors.  The “RED ROOM”, (Coral Red was the most royal of all colors in Germany in 1740).  We could not get over the intricacy and details of this Palace.  We took a break for a freezing cold lunch outside in the courtyard before heading back in to see the family jewels and treasury. 
Outside of the Residenz are several lions whose noses get rubbed hundreds of times every day for good luck from locals as well as tourists.  We took a turn or two or five. 
Across from the Residenz is the Odeonplatz (Square).  These two lions are stately and realistic!  Lions seem to be a symbol of Munich.   
We took one more picture of the the New Town Hall before introducing the kids to the Hard Rock Café.  It was a hard choice: go back to the Hofbrauhaus or try the Hard Rock Café.  The kids had such a good time at the Hofbrauhaus the day before, but we wanted to introduce them to Hard Rock too.  Before making the drive back home, we decided to check out one more Palace of the Wittelsbachs.  The Nymphenburg.  In 1662 the Bavarian ruler Ferdinand Maria gave this land to his Italian wife to celebrate the long awaited arrival of their son Max Emanuel.  The Italian Wife proceeded to build this Italian-style Baroque place.  It was used for 200 years as the Wittelsbach family summer escape from Munich and some of the heirs still live in one wing today.   This collection of stagecoaches and buggies was housed here and we enjoyed going through the collection.  King Ludwig II sure liked things fancy!  Wow!  We could not get over just how real this horse looked! 

This Ballroom was a definite highlight! 
   
This is King Ludwig I Gallery of Beauties.  It is decorated with 36 beautiful women that he had painted by one artist.  He would pick out the most beautiful women from the general public and ask them to come to the Palace for a painting (and who knows what else?).  It was interesting to look at them all.  He had a thing for brunettes!  Nymphenburg is known for its amazing gardens and grounds.  If we go back it will have to be in the Summer so we can do that next time.