Kidd's Ring

For 16 weeks now, we have had a young refugee couple from Syria living with us. They have been married a little over a year and for the majority of that time have been separated from each other, since he made the journey to Austria alone and got everything in order so that she could come legally.  Let me backtrack a bit and tell you how it all started. As the refugee crisis really started to explode here, facebook was buzzing with articles, videos, pictures, etc. of the situation. I read a lot. I saw a lot. I was moved. I was troubled. But what could I do? I had a three year old and one year old at home.  ... I could teach some German. But when?   ... I could donate clothes and other items that were needed. But that didn't seem like enough. ... I could give money. But I wanted something more tangible.  I would put my youngest to bed and during those days, she needed lots of TLC in order to get to sleep. I kept thinking about the refugees and how t...

Once again, way too much time has gone by and this poor little blog has left untouched for far too long. So embarrassing! I just don't feel like there's more to say. Life is busy with my two little ones. Evenings I'm tired and don't feel like writing and no idea what to write about.   Here's just some random things that come to mind: - we've been in our home for over a year now! Sunday was our one year anniversary. Crazy how fast a year has gone. And amazing how long this year has been. - Our littlest one is slowly have more better nights than worse! Shocking, I know! So great. It doesn't mean that she is any easier during the day though. Oh well, wait, yes she semi is, but not always. She is still as stubborn as all get out and is not always a happy camper, but we are getting there!!{Cute story for tonight: I put her to bed and she waved and blew a kiss to her sister as a goodnight} -  Our big girl is talking loads these days and it's so fu...

Getting your little one to drink is not an easy task and switching from a bottle to sippy cups and then normal cups can be challenging. NUK has designed a new sippy cup. Finally a sippy cup that doesn't have little parts to wash! Check out what it's made out of:    The cup has three parts. A silicone part (the pink one) and two plastic parts.  Just pop the pink part into the turquoise ring and then screw it on the cup - DONE! Doesn't get much easier than that. And it doesn't matter where your little one puts their mouth, they can drink from it from any side!  It's a perfect fit for little hands. Although the tipping to actually drink is still a bit tricky and needs a little help from bigger hands, but once your little one is bigger this shouldn't be a problem anymore.  They say it's leak proof, which for the most part it is, however after turning over like the picture above, there is a little bit of water, but not much. And when it gets to...

Yes, she has developed a love for cHoCoLaTe and she asks for some after every meal!  But no, she doesn't always get it. ;)   This little one LOVES standing any- and everywhere. She's been enjoying her big sister's kitchen these days!  I love having them squeal, giggle and snuggle with each other! I'm so thankful they have each other. Smoothie Season has started here! This has been our life ... playing. Standing. Snuggling. Reading. Going out on walks.

My day is filled with doing little things... wiping noses changing diapers fixing hair brushing teeth doing dishes straightening up books and toys that land everywhere tying shoelaces doing load upon load of laundry folding said laundry putting on hats making sandwiches  putting littles down for a nap and on  and on and on. Sometimes I get tired of the mundane. I get tired of life right now being so .... regular ... every day seems so the same. I was talking to my sister the other day about it and I said, I wouldn't want to change it, but yet sometimes the mundane gets to me. I get restless. I feel like the hamster running round and round the wheel and it's always the same. {just different friends and playdates} Today over breakfast while feeding the baby, I listened to a podcast {ahem, part of one }. And this really got to me: Love well in the little things. With great love .  Which is part of a very big thing - raising a fam...

We've been living in our wonderful new house for almost 5 months now! Crazy! At times, it still doesn't feel real and other times, it seems like our apartment life was FOREVER ago. Our big wish and prayer for our house was that it would be a place where people would... ... feel at home ... ... be pointed to Christ ... ... be encouraged ...  ... feel loved and accepted ... When I came across a study on Hospitality by She Reads Truth , I knew it was one I wanted to do. Felix and I love inviting people into our home, talking and playing games with them. I love cooking and baking. I was curious what would be shared in the study on Hospitality and so far I have not been disappointed. I may have only done three days so far, but I have already been pushed and given some thoughts to think on ... here are two quotes from it or inspired by the study that I wanted to share: --- Isn’t that true hospitality? Putting yourself in their place, loving them for who they are, ...

 Today was scone making morning to prepare for some guests coming over the next couple of days. Hope there are still some left for when they come, they are soo yummy!  Z kept saying, Mommy, cookie, ahh. {guess someone else liked them, too!}  On our way home from church. This little one was so tired, but she's not a big sleeper in the car, or if she does sleep, it's only for the last tiny bit!  Z's moving out because of all the construction in our house :) lol ... that's what it looks like! Felix decided to tackle the task of mounting the hand rail going up the stairs. Love Saturday morning snuggles! Everyone is very invovled in the book that is being read. Someone's working hard on the pre-crawling stage

Life is busy. The two littles keep me on my toes and exhausted. But life is good! I have so much to be thankful for and so much to enjoy. Since, I can't seem to find much time to blog these days and have missed the last few weeks of Monday Gratitudes, I thought I'd switch things up a bit and do one of these again. I haven't done one of these in ages! ~ enjoying ...blue skies and sunny days ~ looking forward to ...spring, of course, who isn't, right? ~ reading ...books with Z. She loves book and I love that so much! ~ thankful for ...health, even though we were sick a LOT this winter, I'm thankful that we are just sick with normal illnesses and nothing serious! ~ loving ...my handheld vacuum cleaner that has that great extension so you don't even have to pull out the big vacuum cleaner for quick and easy cleaning. ~ eating ...sweets. I can't stop munching on things some days.  ~ excited about ...summer and a big wedding taking place in ...

We had a busy week last week. Well busy in the sense that we were busy with each other { and being sick again! }, but not busy in the sense that we got out and did a lot. Last week, potty training was on the plan! And so we did. Z did great. I am so proud of her. We are still learning and figuring everything out, but so far there have been very few accidents. We even went to two birthday parties and church! { ahem, and one included a small accident } It's not as difficult as I was picturing it to be. It just still makes me a bit nervous, but we'll get there! :) Oh, yes and then we got sick. Again. We just can't seem to stay well this winter. Oh well. This too shall pass. Real quick, because once again it's late and I need to get to bed! But I do want to take time to jot down some things I am thankful for...so here we go: - an almost potty-trained toddler or should I say for the most part potty trained ... not sure how to label her r...

I'm sorry that my blog has turned into a once a week, not so exciting blog post. My two littles are just keeping me a bit busy and I don't feel like there's much to report. We live life. We play. We read. We sleep. We eat. Nothing exciting ... But nonetheless, here's my list of things I am grateful for: - a husband who is so very patient with me and the kids - a little girl who has had a great start on potty training, today is the first day and so far no accidents! YAY! So proud of her! - A has been going to sleep better on her own - always exciting! - yesterday we were able to get some bookshelves! I look forward to being able to unpack a few more boxes, once they are built. Guess that's it for now. Have a great week!!

It's Monday. Again. How did that happen? Today started off normal. Had a strange inbetween. Then ended up normal again. I'll spare you the details though. I'm thankful for... ...babies that sleep past 7 and sometimes even past 8! I enjoy sleeping "late"! ...a walk with my sister-in-law to the store and around our neighborhood. ...frozen biscuits that I was able to make and freeze a few weekends ago. ...a quiet evening when all babies sleep. ...a note in my mailbox informing me that my Crocs order was to be delivered, but since I was out, is ready to be picked up!! ...some successful online cloth-diaper-second-hand-shopping! ...a washing machine that cleans those cloth diapers of ours. ...a husband that puts Z to bed. ...magic jack that makes my parents just a phone-call away and that for dirt cheap! The End! What are you thankful for today???

Hum. I missed last week. Whoops.  Here are some things I'm grateful for today: -medicine and doctors for my little sick girlies -hubby coming home tonight after being gone for a few days -happy little girlies, despite being sick -a warm home in all the crazy wind we've been experiencing -helping hands while hubby is gone -a sister-in-law next door to help pass some hours while our guys are gone Onto the pictures of our past few weeks: Baby's First Christmas Christmas with her this year was soo fun! I was super excited to give her her gifts. The best we can do for a Family picture... She's getting so big! We had such a good visit with my parents! And they were a HUGE help! Little kitchen helper

So many things to be grateful for today: - my parents are here for a week long visit! :D YAY!  - snow, snow, snow!  - helping hands for our house projects - mom cooked dinner - relief for baby gums that are teething  my silly girl pretending to sleep someone is enjoying the bumbo someone else is, too! ;)

It's Monday. Again! But this Monday is a welcome one. Because.... ...Christmas is days away! I love Christmas. I love all the traditions and being with family. I love giving ( and getting ) gifts! :) But despite all the fun and wonderful events that take place around Christmas, it's good to remember what Christmas is truly about. Today, I read in the Advent Reading from John Piper about how miraculous and grand the true meaning of Christmas is - the birth of Jesus Christ. And that is so true! We often get so caught in hubbub of the holidays, that we forget that Christmas is about God becoming man. Christmas is about the ultimate gift being given to mankind. Christmas is about peace being brought to man in a peaceless world. Take time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas! So here are my Monday Gratitudes: - hubby has a few weeks off work! YAY for holidays that fall right smack in the middle of the week! - beautiful, glorious sunshine - my parents are coming t...

Here's part 2 for my Monday Gratitude list! I gotta be honest, I'm impressed I got around to it! - an unexpected Christmas box from a sweet friend in Germany - a nice, long visit with a friend - the grace to deal with a disobedient toddler in a loving way - a washing machine and dryer - phone calls with various family members - a good nap - babies that go to bed easily - getting a Christmas tree put up this weekend

A friend posted on her blog her thankful list, which was inspired by another blogger, who writes Monday Gratitude posts. I thought this was a great idea! So in hopes of blogging more regular, I'll try to post Monday Gratitude posts. Here is mine: 1. a holiday today! 2. an extra day with hubby besides just a weekend, where he was gone lots of it anyways 3. a baby girl, who is four months old today, who is happy, healthy (just a little under the weather right now) and so sweet! 4. my sweet, happy, easy-going two year old 5. our new home! I was hoping to write more, but the day flew by ... hopefully, I'll have more time soon! :)

This week is crunch week for the house. Saturday is THE. MOVING. DAY.!!!!  My wonderful hubby is working very hard to get everything ready on his end and I've been packing, packing, packing on this end {and doing some unpacking in the new house!}! It does seem quite endless and the chaos that comes with packing is starting to drive me nuts. But there is a flicker of light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel. I cannot believe our journey has taken us this far and that we'll be moving and living in the house we've been planning for almost two years ! Craziness!  It's amazing how much stuff a household has! A few weeks ago, I applied with NUK to be a tester of their products and report on my blog. I was super excited, when I got an email from them saying they enjoyed my blog and would love to have me on their team of blogging moms!  Today, I'll be introducing the first product they sent me. MOM'S daily (click to read more - a...

Wow, so it's been forever again! My deepest apologizes. You could say we've been...busy though...new baby, working on the house, getting used to life with two, etc. You know how life is. So let me catch you up on our life! My due date came and went and there was no sign of baby (no surprise there!). I had check-ups all week long and at the last check-up on Friday, August 8th, the midwife said, you'll be back tonight and you'll have this baby. I thought, "Ha! That'd be nice. I don't believe it, but we'll see." I wasn't feeling anything! I drove home and sure enough almost as soon as I got home contractions started. They started coming pretty close together pretty quickly. I called Felix several times - at first just saying, things are starting, then, maybe you should start coming home, and then finally, hey, you need to get home NOW and then, where are you now?!! :) I was kinda nervous, because the contractions were not very far apart and I ...

Due date: August 3rd Actual date of birth: only God knows! :)  I'm really hopeful the little miss #2 does not wait as long as her big sister. But we'll see. They could potentially share a birthday! Not really sure how I feel about that though. I'm hoping she debuts earlier and I can still enjoy Zoey's actual birthday !  The whole not knowing when things will get started is kinda nerve-wracking. But like so many other life experiences, it's just another chance to work on trusting the Lord that everything will come together just fine! Having a child at home that will need care is definitely an added worry this time around, but we've got a list of people we can call and hopefully whoever can come gets here in the right amount of time! It's hard to believe the birth of our 2nd child is just around the corner. So exciting and so strange at the same time. Life as we know it is going to change, especially for Zoey. I look forward to our life as...

So blogging has not been a priority on my list these days.  I've turned into a terrible blogger, for which I apologize. But here's to a new post! :)  Life has been HOT these past few days. With a growing baby bump, I haven't been super motivated to get out and do lots. But we have enjoyed different playdates or going to Oma and Opa's house and using their yard and getting our feet (or more) wet in the kiddie pool. Saturday was spent by the pool and enjoying the shade, while Felix worked on the house. The water was freeeezzzzing, but soon Zoey got over it and enjoyed sitting and falling into it. The quietness out there was heavenly. I was able to sit and put my feet in the cool water or just have them up for a bit. It was so wonderful!  The house is moving along slowly these days. The progress is kinda hard to capture in pictures, so I don't really have anything exciting there to share. It is coming along though and it continues to get more and mor...