merry christmas!

we hope everyone had an awesome christmas with family and friends! we had a relaxing few days and were happy that steve had work off.

christmas eve day was a little crazy as i spent my morning/afternoon delivering plates of cookies to families that steve home teaches and to a few others around our area. i did all of this during brynn's nap time (and i HATE not being home for nap time as she only naps in her crib. not ANYWHERE else) so she was pretty cranky with me. i even stopped by a german mcdonalds and grabbed her some fries and a milkshake but punk didnt touch any of it! anyways...it was nice to see people smile and get rid of all the baked goods (as i have no self control) that were taking up all my counter space.

that evening, we went to the nielsen's for dinner. we had a good time laughing and stuffing our faces with them. brynn loved stalking baby emma the whole night so we had to watch her as she doesnt understand that babies dont like to jump and eat candy. we also opened our christmas jammies there and hung out in them. i love how comfortable i feel with my friends! i can be in sweats and look homely and not have to worry that they are judging me. plus, the waistband wasnt so tight on my pj bottoms so that always makes life easier when youre trying to eat as much as possible.

brynn is an amazing sleeper so steve and i decided to wake her up at 8:45 christmas morning as we were getting a little impatient! only one of steves presents made it in time for christmas (im still waiting on the rest...so much for shopping online back in november! i thought they would all get here in plenty of time) but he is awesome and didnt mind only opening one gift. brynn tore thru all her presents and even helped us with ours. next year i will be better about spacing out time inbetween each gift as its no fun when its all over in 7 minutes!

we had a little christmas brunch at our place during the early afternoon and invited the schuster's and nielsen's over. it was nice to again, eat more food and watch our kids kill each other and play a little. brynn and ethan have a love/hate relationship so we always have to watch them carefully. it doesnt help that brynn is always jamming her fingers in his face trying to "tickle" him. it hurts! she does that to me a lot and i have to remind her that poking my eyes out isnt funny.

we spent the rest of our christmas day watching "a christmas story" (and i had never seen it! crazy huh?) and hanging out on the couch. ahh i love being lazy!

this evening we were invited to our landlords house for a typical german christmas dinner with our american neighboors and had a blast. beate made these german dumplings and this deer stew with cranberries that were amazing! im always a little hesitant to try new things over here as you never know what you might bite into. but it was awesome and brynn didnt tear down the house. edgar is a huge hunter and had this bench in the living room which was covered in 40+ fox pelts (+ two rabbits) and brynn was terrified of it! when she was acting up, edgar would bring one over to her and growl! she kept hiding her face in my shoulder while all of us laughed. ahh, good "fun for some" game. poor brynn! always being targeted for others enjoyment! that is why you have children right?! KIDDING!

she looks a little homely here as she was running around and being crazy. but, i finally got a picture of her and edgar. he is so sweet to her and always call her his "prinzesschen". plus, we all dig his insanely low voice. such a nice guy.

its a good thing i got jillian michaels "30 day shred" dvd for christmas as i need to get rid of these 5 pounds ive gained from eating like CRAP this week! its so hard to be good around the holidays when there are so many temptations everywhere.

good santa, bad santa

we didn't think brynn was going to see a real amercian version of santa this year (she saw the german version aka st. nickelaus earlier this month) but at the last minute, steves work decided to have a really small children's party. so all this morning, i psyched brynn up and told her how awesome santa is and how she was going to get a present if she went up to him. i didnt expect her to sit on his lap at all, but she actually did! i also think it helped that there was a room full of children and parents encouraging her to go up. she was very reserved and cautious when she first approached santa, but did awesome! no tears this time! we ended up bringing a cute little peoples train, which was wrapped, that she opened while sitting on his lap. she was thrilled as shes been into trains. so thank you grandma and grandpa peterson for the awesome gift! she hasnt put it down since!

a few weeks ago while i was driving on base, i saw this hilarious stuffed "santa" mannequin chilling in a sleigh with the word "attack" sprayed on the front. (the base's motto is "seek, attack, destroy" so im sure it has something to do with that) i have always wanted to get a picture of it, but never had my camera on me when i see it. after this little christmas party, steve snuck away from work and we all ate at the chinese resturant on base. this weird santa mannequin is right across the street, so i convinced steve to go and take pictures with it after lunch. brynn was THRILLED that we were going to see another "santa" as she thought she would get another present...well, as my pictures below show, that wasnt the case. we are such mean parents! i was DYING from her expressions when she first layed eyes on this plastic stuffed santa! it took everything i had to not drop the camera as my whole body was shaking so hard from laughing! of corse all the people driving by were probably calling family advocacy to report us! mean ole petersons...

when i was uploading the pictures off my camera to the computer, the sequence shown below from brynn's reaction about made me pee my pants. poor brynn! i need to find something else to entertain me...

did anyone else take pictures with this thing?!

trier christmas market

all over germany in december, there are several christmas markets that take place. steve and i love going for the food, looking at the interesting things people sell, and checking out the stores. wait i take that back, i love going to the stores. h&m being one of my favorite but steve always gives me a time limit as he isn't into letting me buy anything EVER! thats why i have to go with my friends and not him...anyways.

trier is pretty close to us (approx. 4o minutes) and we are pretty familiar with the city, so we choose to go again this year for their christmas market. i really wanted to go to rothenburg which is 4 hours away, but due to poor planning on my part and steve not being able to take leave, we decided to go somewhere closer. we always love going to trier, so i didnt have to beg too much to get steve to agree.

here are some pictures from our day yesterday (saturday).

brynn and i in front of the porta nigra. this gate was built in 180 AD and is still standing today. trier is considered germany's oldest city because it has so many roman ruins scattered throughout it. i will definately miss this city!

steve waiting for his favorite dish; these saute'ed mushrooms and potatoes with this unreal sauce! i forgot to ask what they are called (also pictured below)

i LOVE this stuff (called poffertjes)! these people cook these mini pancakes on this griddle, (as shown) throw them in an edible bowl, (tastes like an old fashioned icecream cone) chop up some banana's, and drizzle nutella over them. they are UNREAL! this year i decided to boycott the booth as the ladies got nasty with me when i took this picture and told me to leave! chill out people! taking a friggin picture isnt going to expose how the magic works! needless to say i was pretty embarrassed as their booth was packed and germans have no problem at all starring you down. i walked away with my tail between my legs feeling like an idiot.

potato cakes with applesauce. i normally like these, but they were so greasy that i was only able to eat half of one. plus, the cardboard plate was translucent due to the high amounts of grease so that made me a little sick!

me, devouring a nutella crepe (and if any of you havent tried nutella, youre missing out! its this hazelnut spread which is amazing with fruit, breads, your fingers...anything!). they are definately better in paris, but this was good too.

we always get a bag of toasted candied almonds each year. they are really good! i have to hide them from steve when we get home as they are pretty addicting. i forgot to take a picture of this at the stand, so here i am standing out our front door. notice the evil metal stairs?

the following pictures are of the market and some stands.

ummmm....chocolate covered fruit! didnt get any this year, but i drooled over them each time i passed the stands!

it was a great day! they finally put in an h&m kids store in the indoor mall so i grabbed a few knee socks for brynn to keep her warm in this friggin cold weather. i want to go back and buy everything in that store as their stuff is just darling! although figuring out the european sizes is a little hard...

bunny fever

brynn has always loved bunnies. she has a handful of bunny books that are worn down from being used so much (and from her chewing on them) so when i told her we were going to visit teach one of mommy's friends who had a bunny, she was thrilled! she wouldn't stop talking about it the whole 15 minutes it took to get to brittnie's house so i had a headache when we first arrived...anyways, i let her hold one of their bunnies for a few minutes on the couch, took a picture so she could remember, then put it back in its cage as it was getting a little jumpy and scratched brynn's hand. she was mad that it had to go back, but eventually played with the other kids there. i noticed that she kept rubbing her eyes so i grabbed her to put her hair up in a ponytail as i thought it was her long crazy hair that was bothering her eyes. when i saw her face i knew that wasnt the case! poor thing is allergic to bunnies just like her dad! i was so sad as im a huge bunny lover (ask anyone who knew me when i was younger. i spent years in 4H for rabbits and had 50 rabbits in my backyard at one time. and did i mention we didn't live on a farm? yep, in a suburb of seattle baby with tons of bunnies in the backyard crammed in hutches and cages!) and wanted to get brynn a pet bunny of her own someday as they are fairly easy pets to take care of. luckily, brittnie had some benadryl so that helped brynn's "sloth" face clear up. yes, she resembled that 1985 epic movie "the goonies" character sloth (minus the ghetto teeth. she has nice teeth but definately had the droopy swollen eye and puffy face).

needless to say, steve was happy as now he has a legitimate reason as to why we can't get a bunny. i guess our mean cat mango will have to do for now.

finally!

dang! sorry for the gap of time since my last post! i meant to get on here sooner once steve came home (as he had the good computer which allows me to upload pictures) but things have been a little crazy here. steve is a champ and was able to get over the jet lag and adapt to germany so quickly! im jealous as it normally takes me 2 weeks to get back on on schedule! ahhh...i hope it doesnt take me quite as long when we move to alaska in march.

so, heres what we've been up to these past 2 weeks. there are a lot of pictures so brace yourselves:

the wednesday after steve left, our area was hit with 8 inches of snow! it was not cool. im not a fan of shoveling the stuff and cant drive too well in it. for some reason, all of the surrounding villages got maybe 3 inches so i was jealous of that as i drove brynn to school one hour late dt getting all of the snow off our stairs. this is a picture of my car AFTER i went outside and cleaned it up a bit. man, what i wouldnt give to be in africa with kristen! I NEED A TAN!

on december 6th, germany celebrates "st. nickelaus" so my landlord beate arranged for brynn and our american neighboors 3 kids to be visited by out towns appointed st. nickelaus, angels and the dark one (who wasnt allowed to come in as he is dressed like the grim reaper and that would have freaked the kids out. i wasnt quick enough to catch him with my camera to show you all what he looked like) brynn was TERRIFIED of the guy as she was thinking he would look more like the santa decorations that we have up in our house. he looked like a catholic priest to me! i guess that can be scary?! hahaha yeah if youre a little boy....anyways, before friday night, i wrote a letter of all the good and bad things brynn has done this year and he read it off while beate translated. whenever the st. nickelaus dude would speak, brynn would cry so she was happy when her turn was over. the angels then handed each child a gift (that we had wrapped ahead of time and left outside as if they brought it themselves) and brynn was terrified to take it.

i had to drag her with me to take this picture! doesn't she look thrilled?! man i hope the visit with santa on base goes better then this did.


beate and brynn. she is such an awesome landlord who is so helpful and kind. we definately lucked out! her husband edgar is brynns best friend as she digs his incredibly low voice.

i invited the nielsens over for dinner sunday night and of corse they brought their ADORABLE chubby little baby emma. brynn LOVES her to death and was thrilled when i told her they were coming over. and of corse, she didnt object when i wanted to get a picture of her and emma. she will make a good big sister some day...

the owie from last tuesday. it seriously looked worse but by the time i took this, it had gone down a little. good thing brynn heals quickly! that and ive been rubbing neosporin into it. (nah nah nah neo, SPORIN. ahhh, good ole kung pow)

steve took this picture in the south jordan area in utah to show me how low their gas prices are! ahhhh! its $2.10 per gallon here on base and i was thinking that was great! im happy at least that the prices were going down. it feels amazing to fill my car up for less then $30!

steve hung out with the stephenson's friday and saturday when he got into utah and took a few pictures for me. i miss their kids so much! its sad that the last time i saw them was LAST may! janae was still preggers. here is grandpa and cute claire! brynn would totally follow this little princess around if given the chance. she's a professional stalker.

(hope you dont mind me posting a picture of you louise in your pjs! you look great i think) here's grandma giving early presents to jeff and janae's little kids erik, claire and megan. they are such good kids!

steve in logan and my favorite store back in the 2003-2006 days. it closed down since im no longer there to buy their stuff! hahaha jk but i did spend a little too much here...

steve at our favorite resturant "tandoori oven" in logan. its in a sinclair gas station, but don't let that scare you off. the food is AMAZING and the family that runs it is so friendly. we have tried indian food in paris, a few different places in germany, in amsterdam and in belgium and nothing compares to this place! seriously, go try it if you live in the area. my favorite is their chicken tikka massala with rice, garlic naan, a strawberry lassi, and their awesome rice pudding dessert. i was seriously jealous that steve ate there while i was stuck here eating cold cereal! blah!

(this picture was taken in the summer...it was dark when we got there so i wasnt able to get a good picture) on saturday night, steves work had their christmas party at a castle in a local town called rittersdorf. this place is sweet! the place even has its own moat and draw bridge. we were up on the left side on the 2nd level. the food was amazing! it was buffet style and of corse i ate as much as i could! isnt that the point of a buffet? hahahaha....fat americans...i being one of them...

every year, the party planning committee has an ongoing game as to who will dress up as the santa, elf and fairy for the party. you put money down on who you want to wear these costumes and this guy won. we also had a white elephant gift exchange and when you picked your gift, you had to sit on santa's lap first. as you can tell, steve was thrilled! its funny bc people kept calling him "chandler" (off of friends) as the argyle vest totally made him look like him.
they also played a "how well do you know your spouse" game and steve and i won! i was shocked as some of the questions i drew a blank on. like what was steves favorite show as a child? he says batman and i was thinking it was little house on the prarie! but we rocked it and scored a $20 giftcard to the bx. note to self, grab that before steve uses it towards another lame computer game. we also nabbed some wine glasses and beer mugs and everyone thought that was funny as we are the only ones that dont drink in his squadron. we also won the wii but already have one so gave it back. see! we're nice people! dont hate!

me, bloated after eating my weight in german cuisine. thank goodness i wore something black!

after years of not touching my viola, i was asked to play in our wards christmas program night last in a trio and survived! i was shaking so much and made myself sick from being so nervous. im seriously considering joining a mini orchestra in anchorage as i miss playing and need the practice. my inner orchestra nerd is dying to come out again! i've forgotten so much and its frustrating. thanks dani and rebecca for putting up with my lame questions and multiple mistakes!

mommy sleigh

its been butt cold here in germany this past week and a half and our area has had lot of snow, rain and ice. for the past 2 days, it had been raining so luckily all the white puke (aka snow) was beginning to melt. this was great as it is much easier to get into my car without slipping on chunks of frozen snow and worrying about shoveling my stairs and walkway as we all know lindsay isnt good with a snow shovel. where is steve when i need him?!

i had plans to pick up my friend shelly and hit a few stores in wittlich this morning as we both wanted to get some german christmas decorations before they ran out. brynn of corse was slower then heck this morning and i was running late as usual trying to get everything together. i had a lot of things to bring with me (gym bag, brynns backpack, my purse, boxes i needed to mail to our parents on base, and a big toy that i was going to let shelly use for emma) so i decided to make as few trips as possible out to the car to save on time. it looked really cold outside and i could tell that the trees and my wreath on the door were frozen so i knew our freaky stairs would be hell. so i took brynns hand, and flung my 3 bags over my shoulder and walked very very slowly down our frozen metal staircase. i was doing pretty good until i reached the last 5 stairs and my stupid boot slipped and caused me to fall. i was so mad. i remember being mad not scared as i fell, twirled and slid the rest of the way down on my back as i dragged poor helpless brynn down with me. all i could see was this look of horror on her face as she was so confused at why her mean ole' mommy was pulling her down with her! i should have let go of her hand as i slipped, but i tensed up and pulled her down with me. i was so mad and started to cry as i lay at the bottom of our stairs with my sobbing toddler on top of me. brynn started screaming at this point as she could tell that i was upset so i pretended everything was ok and tried to calm her down. i tried to get up but my leg was numb and i was shaking like crazy so i couldnt pull myself up. so i held brynn and looked her over and all i could see was the right side of her forehead was a little red and scraped up. i was so relieved to see that she was better off then me so i sat up and pulled myself up with the help of the bottom step. my right shin and ankle got a little banged up and the stupid steel spikes on each of our steps gauged me below my knee. i eventually got up and walked around and felt ok. i think my gym bag took most of the impact so i was grateful that i had that with me as i would have been worse off.
i got brynn out of the car when we got to shelly's place and her "owie" on her forehead looked ten times worse! i took a picture of it when we got home this afternoon and will post it later as this POS computer doesnt allow me to upload for some reason. its so sad! i took her hair down to hide the area but you can still see her huge bump and scratches. poor brynn! so from now on, if my stairs are this icy again, im staying home. no one likes a mommy sleigh when there is no snow involved. i am not going to miss our deadly metal stairs.

(and thank you steve for "hijacking" MY blog. hahahaha! it needed a new entry so i thank you for doing that. now come home and give me my food! lol!)

Hijacking at its finest!

Lo and behold - Steve has hijacked the blog! Yes, I have been the faithful and quiet sidekick of this blog and have never caused any ruckus - only bliss. However, from the looks of it, I have disrupted the blogging cycle by being TDY back here in the States. It is my duty- no, it my honor, to be able to input a least one post before I return back to Germany and render my service back to the Queen of the Sanctuary.

I was out in Denver for a few days at a conference for fellow Finance folks. I thought of all these different restaurants that I could go to, but Arby's sounded like Heaven. I went to The Macaroni Grill when I got in, but I think Lindsay must've put a curse on my stomach as I couldn't eat my food. I have faith that it would've tasted good, but alas, I did not partake.

Yesterday I came out to Utah to visit my sister Janae and her fam. It has been great to see her and catch up on some things, as well as get harassed by everyone. Why does everyone pick on me? (a classic by the Bloodhound Gang) I'm going up to Logan tomorrow until I go back, and that should be good - I've gotten half of my Christmas shopping done so far and I know exactly where to go to finish. What happened to the procrastinating Steve the shopper?

Seeing baby Megan (Janae's youngest) makes me miss my family. I love seeing the mountains out here and my siblings/parents, but I miss my family. Seeing Brynn at the end of the day just makes my day. Hearing stories from Lindsay of what's she's seen/done with Brynn cracks me up. I'm so proud to by a Dad and love being a husband. I can't think of anyone else other than Lindsay I want to be with forever. Our humor is perfectly intertwined and she is my best friend. She even convinced me to quit WoW! Going on a year of being clean. That's love at it's finest!

It's been good to be out here, but I long to be back in Germany to be with MY family. Sorry for the hijacking...