Brugge, Presidents Day Weekend

For my mom's first weekend here we took a trip to Brugge. Since we had Monday off it was a good time to  do a road trip. I love Brugge and wanted my mom to see it. We rented an apartment instead of doing the hotel option. I love being able to have extra room, our own kitchen we can cook breakfast and dinner in and a little bit more privacy. We have learned it is the best way to travel here in Europe!

Grace Love being able to pet the horses.

 Hanging out in the Gros Markt area.

 In front of the oldest church in Brugge. We learned there are 17 in the city, 16 catholic and 1 protestant.

Jason enjoying a bowl of mussels.

 Could not get enough belgium chocolate!

 We took a horse carriage ride through the city. The kids loved it!

 The picture is a little blurry, but I thought it was too cute.

 My favorite chocolate shop. 

Valentine's Dinner

We aren't big Valentine's people...but we do celebrate a special way every year.

We put the kids to bed and enjoyed an amazing dinner that Jason made. He is such a sweetheart!

He made bacon wrapped filet mignon, lobster tails and crouton crusted mashed cauliflower. It was SO good! 

Kids' Valentine Cards

I finally finished the kids Valentine cards for their friends at school. I found this idea on Pinterest and loved it!

Jesus and a Scared Three Year Old

When we got home from church Grace wanted me to go upstairs with her to get her toys. I told her that I was busy making lunch so she would have to do it by herself. She said she was scared and wanted me to go with her. I told her that she should never be scared because Jesus is always with her. After she went upstairs and a few minutes passed, she said, "Mom, can you come help? Jesus isn't helping me!"
Funny how a 3 1/2 year olds mind works!

Gracie's Realization

This morning I was getting a head start on dinner with Grace. I was putting a big piece of red meat in the crock pot and this is how the conversation went:
Grace: "Mom, what is that?"
Me: "It is meat from a cow. We are having it for dinner tonight."
Grace: "Oh, it is going to hurt that animal when it cooks."
Me: "No, the animal is already dead. It doesn't feel it."
Grace: "Why did they kill that animal?"
Me: "Well, God made animals so we can eat. That is just the cycle of life."
Grace: "That is not good!" The cowboys shouldn't kill anymore animals so we can eat. We shouldn't kill things."

I just had to post this. It made me laugh! She is putting it together that we eat the cute little cows that graze in the pasture.
Now let's see how she does eating the "cow that cowboys kill" tonight.

New Year's Eve 2011

The Green Family came over for New Year's Eve. The kids had a blast playing with each other (sorry, no pictures of them) while the adults chatted and played card games.

Here in Germany we had a 360 degree view of fireworks from our house. The germans LOVE this day and have the good, professional fireworks to set off. The fireworks went off for about an hour.

It was a great way to end 2011 and begin 2012!