Happy Birthday Emmi!

You are four years old! And you now check all of your clothes to make sure they are a size 4. If you see a 3 in one of your shirts you give it to Lily. You are so much fun to be around. You love to play and finally your little sister has gotten big enough to understand all of your games. Most of the time you end up playing Mama and Baby. And you are the Mama of course!

At four years old you can count to twenty (but you still sometimes forget a number or two), you can write your name and read a few letters and numbers. You just learned to swim and you can swim the entire length of the pool. You still lack a bit of technique since you mostly taught yourself during our almost daily trips to the pool, but for your age you are doing awesome! You love to draw and your favorite subject to draw are girls with really long hair. You can draw for hours! You also love art projects and always ask me to do something you have "never done before!". Your favorite toys are still your babies and your play kitchen, your dress up bin and your legos. You still don't care for puzzles. You have lots of really good friends and you like to play with all of them. You adore older girls and you want to be just like them. Unfortunately you still whine a lot. I wonder if you'll ever stop? It doesn't get you what you want and it sure goes on every bodies nerves. You are a really good listener in general and you don't really like to get into trouble which is a great help for me and you are a good role model for Lily. Your favorite foods are Pasta, Tuna Sushi, Tortellini, Nutella and Broccoli.

You are very excited about moving to Germany in the fall but you are quite worried all of your stuff is not going to make it. But you like the idea of living in the same house like Oma and Opa.

You are still a big snuggle bunny and Mama's Girl. You still don't like to go to sleep, but with a book, a story, a song and a back scratch we can usually get you to go to sleep.

And you love jokes. Your favorite one is "What time is is when an elephant sits on your fence? It's time to get a new one!" You also try to make up your own jokes which mostly go like this one: "What time is it when your pasta flies to the ceiling?"

Happy Birthday Big Girl! We love you so much!

Ohne Worte

4th of July

4th of July was spent...

...with friends....

...watching the Wells Branch Parade...

...candy, fun and games...

...and a water balloon fight...

...at our yearly....

...neighborhood BBQ...

...which was at our house this year.

The fireworks got cancelled because of the drought, but we had a fun filled day anyway.

We are moving...

We have decided to take the big step and move to Germany by the end of the year. We have been talking about doing this for a while now and during our trip to Germany in March we finalized our plans. So the past month has been crazy trying to prepare the house to put it on the market. New laminate flooring in the living room, new paint, new light fixtures, new faucets, new stove and spotless from top to bottom our house is on the market since Friday. Selling the house that we brought both our babies home to from the hospital makes me really sad and I already know I' will cry once we sell it. So many memories are attached to those walls but I guess we'll just have to make new ones. And even though we are really sad about leaving so many people we love behind we are excited about this new and exciting time for our family. Stay tuned for updates :)

The 4th of July "Who is Who"?

Can you tell who is who and what year?

Wer ist wer und in welchem Jahr?

Pool Time!

There is not much else to do in this Texas heat! Did I really tell my parents to come visit us in August? After spending all of August in Germany last year I think I simply forgot how hot it gets in Texas. Oh wait! It's not August yet? It sure does feel like it! We have been going swimming in our Neighborhood Pool almost daily and the girls have turned in little Water Rats. Lily tells me about every five Minutes "Look Mama! I can wimming!" (She has a little trouble pronouncing the "S") and she really gets around great wearing her floaties. And Emmi has really learned how to swim! She can dog paddle about 5 yard distances and can swim even further on her back.We'll be working on swim STYLE next year. Today she learned to float on her back (She can only do it with her eyes closed which looks a bit creepy watching her float around in the pool). She still won't dive but she really wants to and has been practicing dipping her face in the water for a little while (okay, for about half a second that is, but that is actually quite an improvement from her flipping out about a drop of water getting in her face). Baby Steps :) !

Lily loves drying her hair under the hand dryer!

Straight out of the water...

Poolside Snack.

On the way to the Pool. Lily HAD to wear the skirt and don't try to carry the lunchbox for her...

Funny Lily

Lily always tells on herself. It's hilarious...

Today at lunch:

Lily: Mama go outside!?

Me: Why do you want me to go outside?

Lily: I spit out my peach.

Me: You are going to spit out your peach when I go outside?

Lily: Yes Mama. You go outside I spit out peach.

Mhmmm...let me think for a minute, but I don't think I am going to leave the room...

Lily is very much into pretend play right now. If you see her holding her hands cradled up to her chest she is very likely is holding a pretend Baby. And if I ask her to do something that requires her to use her hands she will very carefully put her invisible "Baby" down and pick it back up right after she is finished. Very cute. I remember Emmi doing the same thing right around this age.

Emmi has been going to Summer Camp for a couple of weeks and Lily is very jealous. I felt bad for her thinking she really misses her sister, but apparently she was only jealous that Emmi got to take a backpack full of food with her in the mornings. So Oma sent Lily her own backpack that I have to fill up now every morning when we go to drop off Emmi. As soon as we get back home Lily goes and sits at her little table to eat all the goodies in it. She now takes her Backpack everywhere and she never forgets to make sure it is fully stocked before we leave the house.

Lily is quite the bad listener. She just doesn't care. And if I get mad at her and punish her by taking away her toy for example she just plops down on the ground crying for Papa. "Mama said NO! I want my Papa! Mama said NO!" I wonder what she thinks he is going to do?