Christmas Season 2010

The four oldest girls got all dressed up for a Homeschoolers Christmas Party! Christmas Eve Dinner. Mike made a delicious roast. Can you see the "painted" snow on our windows?
Carsten was facinated by this Globe oranament that Grandpa and Grandma Christensen sent.
We thought he might pull the tree down to get it, so we attached it to the lighbulb on the ceiling. He still wants to get his hands on it....
He can't even take his eyes off of it....

We've just opened the BIG box from Uncle Jack and Aunt Amy - oh what fun surprises were in there!!! Thank you!!!

Julia and Megan both asked for Barbies this Christmas, and they were very happy to get the New Rapunzel doll from the movie "Tangled" which we still have not seen.

Jack is so excited about his new interactive Dinosaur book! Awesome!!!

Kids with all the fun new games that Grandpa and Grandma Epp sent!!!

Carsten and his new "Ball" game, his car mat, and xylophone. Can you tell I'm not feeling well?

Julia all dressed up and with her new Rapunzel doll.

Rachel, Heather and friend Judith playing Christmas songs for Christmas party for their families.

Thanksgiving

Sure was a busy day of cooking, baking, and doing crafts! But we all enjoyed all that we did. Hope you had a delicious Thanksgiving too! Oh and we continued to eat leftovers for many more meals - what fun!

Birthday Girl - 11 years old

Rest and Fun in the Mountains!

Just a 2.5 hour drive from home are the cutest little cabins where we enjoyed 3 nights/4 days of rest and relaxation, and lots of outdoors and sunshine! We went up with Mark and Beth P, our teammates, and had so much fun together. The cabins have 2 bedrooms and a loft. The kitchenette was small, but worked great for our time there. The kids loved going into the forest to find twigs and branches to feed the fire pit. Bri and Jack kept it going all day long so we could enjoy a nice warm fire and s'mores in the evenings.

Montana the dog, loved playing with our kids, and vice versa!

Don't you just the "permant outdoor sofas!"?

The dining room table sat only 6, so we made adjustments...

Beautiful Fall Photos

Pretty pine cone! This pictures was inspired by my sister-in-law Shelly who is learning to take the most beautiful pictures. This is nothing compared to her pictures, but I gave it a try!

Amazing Rainbow so close...due to Fall rains!

This gorgeous yellow tree was at the Zoo, and the 2 pretty girls below belongs to me!

Birthday Boy - 7 years old!

Birthday Breakfest - MnM pancakes of course!
Well, not realy Mnm's unfortunately...

A gorgeous day for the Zoo...

He has been wanting a remote control car for a long time!!! He was sooo excited!!

Fun with Nana

Nana came for an 8 day visit. It rained quite a bit, but the first day were we could see some sky we raced to the Atakule tower to get a view of our city. It was REALLY windy up there, as you can tell by these photos.

With all the rain we saw some amazing rainbows.

We are at the top of a lighthouse on the lake, Nana with the kids (except Carsten)

Below are pictures taken at the resting place of Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.