Prague.

This is all so crazy to me. If someone had told me 3 years ago that I would be taking weekend trips to Prague, I never would have believed them. It's all so unbelievable. I feel so blessed to get visit these awesome cities around us that are so full of beauty around every corner and amazing history everywhere you look. Each building has a story, and it's so exciting to learn about why this building is here, who lived here, how many times it was destroyed and rebuilt because of war, and all the suffering that so many people throughout this area we live in endured. There was a beautiful cemetary behind an old synagague that we found that had Jewish people buried 8 deep and tombstones sticking out of the ground everywhere. There was so room for a plot of land under the tombstone to show where this person rested, because there was seven other people sharing this piece of earth with him and headstones stacked one in front of the other. The whole cemetary was like that.
Anyways! We had a really good time on our trip and I LOVED seeing all the bohemian handicrafts everywhere (I now have more earrings than I know what to do with). The drive there was supposed to be 7 hours, but ended up taking 13. Apparently everyone in Europe decided to take the same autobahn as us!

A shot of the RIDICULOUS amount of people in Prague this weekend. Cool clock though. :)
Hallie mapping out our trip for us. She loved having her own kids map of Prague.

We climbed up to the top of this old Church and got some cool shots of the city.

Italian Ice Cream.....mmmmmmm.

We love our double stroller. It comes in so handy to have the kids napping while we explore.

Best Friends.

Hallie and I enjoying the Gardens. This place was gorgeous, and after a pretty decent hike we had another awesome view of the city.

Up above the city.

On the bridge. There were booths set up all along the bridge with people selling their goodies and random little bands playing for change. The whole atmosphere was so fun.

Enjoying some Czech dessert....we really like to eat good food.

I wish I could tell you what this was called. But I can't. But it tasted really good. Cooked dough rolled in Cinnamon. I think I shall call it.... Cinna-roll-hole. Yep. That's what we'll call it.

Chill-axin on the bridge.

The whole place just looked like a picture. Every street was something that I wanted to frame and hang on my wall.

Climbing up the bell tower of the Church.

On top of the bell tower over the city.

And getting ready to leave our fun easter weekend in Prague and head home to the real world. I love these babies.

Just enjoying our weekend in Prague.

Be back in a few days!

Things I always want to remember.

Moments like these. Happy kids, cooperative horsey (despite the look on the horsey's face), dinner cooking on the stove, laundry folded and put away, music playing, bed time just around the corner. :)

You count yourself lucky if..

Your sunday morning bike ride with your family looks like this...

Check out these people's pet. I don't think I've ever seen an ostrich up this close before. Craziest looking animal I've ever come across.

I'm telling you, this child belongs on a farm. She loves the animals and they love her. And no, I didn't brush her hair today. Yes, the minute I took out the camer I regretted it.

There was no church for us today because of conference and we weren't going to get to watch it on the internet until late at night...so we decided to go out and enjoy mother nature. It was a little over cast, but not really cold out. We found a beautiful walking/bike trail in the Netherlands and the kids were in heaven. All the animals were out on the farms that we rode past (seeing the cute little baby lambs were my favorite) and we just had the best morning. Loving life here.

I LOVE:

-this path behind my house that we take walks on.

-watching my kids play in the bath

-walks to feed the horses

-harry potter (on book 5. boderline obsessed)

-matt

-listening to matt and hallie dancing upstairs to "my little pony" dance music

-hallie's bargaining tactics (just TWO more minutes mom. ok, ONE more minute.)

-chase's chubby buns

-sleeping in

-diet coke

-bottled water (i know....i'm destroying our mother earth one bottle of water at a time. i'm awful.)
-cozying in freshly washed bedding

-reading people's blogs

-top ramen

-sunshine. we finally have had some sunny days here, and it makes me so happy.

-delicious fruit.

-matt's beautiful eyes which he kindly passed on to both our children. i love all of their big, brown, gorgeous eyes.

-make up (you don't even WANT to know what i look like without it)

-dishwasher(s)- the machine AND matt. he knows how much i hate dishes. we always bargain that i'll bathe the kids while he does the dishes. he doesn't know it, but i'm TOTALLY getting the better end of the deal.

-going on a bike ride as a family

-cozy sweats

-america idol.
-my church
-my nieces and nephews
-my life.

No words to describe..

And this kid hit her head tonight and got a REALLY big bump. Would you have taken her to the ER?

Brugges, Belgium

So we decided to have a productive Saturday and go and see something close by we haven't seen yet. We've heard really great things about Brugges, but hadn't been there yet. So we loaded up the kids, packed some food and movies, and drove 2 1/2 hours to this AWESOME city to have a really fun day. We did go to the chocolate museum, other than that though, we just walked around all day. It's one of those cities where you could just wander around day in and day out admiring how beautiful it. Oh yeah, and tasting all the YUMMY chocolate. This place is chocolate central. Loved it. The kids took really good long naps in the stroller which left Matt and I with time to go out to lunch (practically) by our selves, and do a lot of sight seeing (pretty much) without kids. When the kids were awake though, we just kept passing them chocolate and they were angels. :) Anyways, we got to add another country to our list of countries we've visited yesterday and had a great day.

This picture is for Kirst, Julie, and Nicole. SuperSta!

Park Time!

Sometimes I have more fun at the park then the kids.....What can I say? There was a ZIP LINE!

I Wish......

My laundry baskets always had kids in them instead of dirty laundry.


Here a funny little story:
We were in bed sunday morning when Hallie came bounding in (bright and early) to inform us the sun was up and it was time for breakfast. Matt held open the blankets and she gladly cuddled up to him. Cuddling with Hallie in the morning is our favorite. She's just the coziest. Except for when she climbs into bed with you at the crack of dawn and won't stop talking WHILE cuddling. So she kept talking and talking and we kept telling her to "shhhh and go back to sleep". Finally Matt said to her, "Hallie, if you can't stop talking....I'm going to kick you out of our bed". She jumps up on her knees with a horrified look on her face and says, "How DARE you say that to me!" We both burst out laughing. Who does she think she is? The queen of Sheeba?

It's good to have a best friend.

Hallie and Rhiannon just love eachother. They can play make believe for hours on end and it's very rare that they have a fight they cannot settle themselves. When Rhiannon comes over to play with Hallie I call her my babysitter, because I don't see Hallie the whole time she's here. They are so happy in their little world. Everytime we get ready to leave their house. or vice versa, the girls have their little trading cerimony. They always bring one stuffed animal with them to the other ones house and use it as a bartering tool. "I'll let you borrow (this) but what are you going to let ME borrow?" "Umm, no. I don't want that toy. How about that one?" Rhiannon's family was in Florida with us and we both got stationed here in Germany also....I think if we don't get our next assignment together we'll just have to ship Hallie and Rhi back and forth to eachother.

And since we're talking about best friends.....I love mine so much. (Even though he left a cupcake MESS in my kitchen that I spent all afternoon cleaning....I guess it was worth the mess for a little father daughter time.)(Do all Dad's spend their saturday nights making cupcakes with white frosting and pink sprinkles with their daughters? Or am I just REALLY lucky?)