Max: In Memoriam (1989-2009)

Bought in a cake decorating store, you first came into our lives when I was in fifth grade. You were so small, you fit inside Mom's coat pocket. You were so small, in fact, we had to tie a small bell to your collar so we could know where you were.

You fit into the family immediately, even if you would run away from us in the front yard. You were loud, and funny, and sweet. You were good with everyone who came into our lives, both young and old (well, maybe with the exception of Myron and Soto, that is).

You grew with us and went from a tiny, all black puppy to a greying, distinguished Elms family member. You were there for all of the ups and downs. You had a preternatural sense of how to comfort us, snuggling up to us when we were sad or knowing to curl up at our feet to watch over us when we were ill. Thank you so much for that.

You saw us go from children until some of us had children of our own. We're so happy that Ellie got to know you. She loved you so much that it was no coincidence that her first word was "doggy". We're thankful that it was her four-legged pursuit of you in Bakersfield that was the impetus that taught Ellie to finally crawl. And we will always remember how she would light up when she saw you appear over Skype.

We love you and will miss you immensely. You were part of the family--a true Elms brother. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to post this for you. It's been a hard time to get past all the raw emotion and find the right words.

Here's to 20 great years! We love you, Max.

Funny Alien

She was having way too much fun with this toy....... but then it got a little weird.  My baby is a good cheesy scifi actress already!!

Creepy Bunny Award

And the Creepy Bunny Award goes to................................

Catrina! Hands down the scariest THING I've ever seen!!!!:) But you got to give me props for trying.

Dinkelsbühl

So bright out. I love that she is still smiling.

"Prisoners were left in this tower to rot." (In the guide book)

Not sure about this guy.
So, I guess the story is that during the 30 Years War the Swedish were coming to invade the city and so the towns people gathered together all their children and sent them outside the gates to plead with the army to spare their city. The captain of the Swedish army had just lost a son and felt compassion on the children and so Dinkelsbühl was not invaded. So unlike Rothenburg (which is still amazing) this city was not rebuilt, everything is in it's mostly original state. Every year in July the towns people re-enact this in traditional garb and celebrate. And of course all the children get bags of candy.

Andrew found this on the side of the old church, we thought it was pretty cool. Go Crusades!

One of the entrances to the city.



Ellie had a great time.

For Tim

Sometimes stars do things in other countries they would NEVER do in the states.

Does that say what I think it says???

I believe it does.

Munich

We went to Munich over Valentines Day weekend. The highlight of our trip was the Nymphenberg Palace, where King Ludwig was born (the one who built Neuschwanstein.) One of museums held old carriages that were used by the family. Most of these were designed to be way over the top made with gold and intricate paintings all over. It was very interesting.

The nice part about visiting this palace was that we could take pictures! It wasn't until I was about 3/4 of the way done, that I found out we were not supposed to be using our flash.... so some of the pics are really dark. It was also great that the tour was self guided, Ellie wanted to do some exploring and wasn't about to stay put for any amount of time. So, for these reasons this was one of my favorite palaces so far.

Inside the palace was glimmering with dozens of white chandeliers, more intricate paintings, mirrors, carvings, pictures, tapestries and an amazingly huge garden outback (which we'll have to go back and see because it was too cold to wander around outside.) In the front they had a fountain and a pond with swans. It was quite an amazing place.

Music Class, Princess Castle And Happy Valentines Day!

Thanks to Tracy Phillips our brilliant organist, primary pianist and amazing music teacher we have a really fun music group for the little ones. We sing songs, dance and play, Ellie has a lot of fun. Thanks for all your work Tracy!




Ellie got a new toy, for V day. She LOVES it. I think it must be a German thing, I don't recall castle tents being popular in the States.

Russian Night

We have a few Russian members in our ward and a German member that just got back from his mission to Russia, I'm the activities chair at church........... presto, Russian Night. Good times were had, especially by the lady in the white shirt, scarf and boots. One of my favorite families at church are the Grebes. Sister Grebe is the kindest person I've met, she went all out making tons of food for us to try. Although she speaks Russian/German I can still understand her or at least understand that what she intends to say is very sweet. That night she and her brother played the accordion for us. The first song she played was the Tetris song, a traditional Russian folk song, but all I could think about was my favorite Nintendo game- totally made me laugh. Members danced and Ellie had fun dancing to the music too.

Autobahn fun?

I'm still getting used to going 110mph on the freeways. (We were driving next to a Polizei (German Police man) for about 1/2 an hour at this rate.) They do have areas that you have to go 80kmph and instead of pulling you over to ticket, the state just takes your picture. The picture takes most of the shame out of getting a ticket ( I think.) Even though Andrew's been "flashed" once (on New Years) no bills yet....

Favorite Pics

Ellie is so much fun. She can say baby, she holds her nose and says stinky when she has a dirty diaper, and she says doggy about 50 times a day. She is so busy hording all of the craziest things into her favorite hiding spots in the house and into containers. She puts her crayons in moms kitchen cupboards and her books in the closets. At the end of the day I always find a little bucket with all her treasures from the house: ear plugs, pens, hair things, candles, paper flowers, and plastic lids from the kitchen. How does she snag all these things with out me seeing??
Doing Ojitos for mommy. It means "Little eyes" in Spanish- she learned it from Grammy Liz.
We had the missionaries over last last night. Ellie welcomed them by handing over all her toys and books.
These two are best buds, I love this pic.