Virtual coffee

Good morning Tuesday! What can I say, I had better ones before.
No coffee for me this morning instead it is some tea with 3 ibuprofens. Yep, my little man and I got knocked off our feet and are glued to bed and couch with fever, sniffles and a stomach bug!I felt totally fine til yesterday after cleaning up some of his aftermath and then it hit me too. yuk!
Way to start the new week!
But on the positive end we got to enjoy most of our weekend before Lucien got sick!
Remember the pretty little dress I had gotten at the thrift store?! Friday was 100th day and Stella got to dress up.

She looked so darn cute even though we were on pins and needles to get that hair done( cause she decided against the hat), which is a not so fun occasion even for a normal school day, but we managed and she had a great day!
Saturday was dedicated to the upcoming garage sale. The weather was beautiful and the kids played outside all morning.

Ricky cleaned out stuff from the shed while I piled up some more stuff inside.

You can barely walk in here anymore. I am hoping to feel better by tomorrow. Otherwise this little event is in serious jeopardy!
As a reward for all of us, we packed the bikes in the truck and headed to the bike park in the big city.

It was packed. But my people did not care. They rode between bmx bikes, skateboarders, scooters and what not.

Can you see Luciens shadow????
Once the dirt track was open, there was no way back and certainly no fear! I could hardly hold my phone up to take pics and videos, I was so worried. But we all managed not to crash too bad.

We stayed til late and yep that's my man up there!

Will post a video soon.

Playground and golden M made for happy kids afterwards.

Sunday morning Ricky took one last desperate chance to go hunting, ha this time with a bow and arrow, which did not make for a good outcome either.

Lu woke up with fever this morning :( His little immune system could not fight the bug even though he is eaten at least one of those lovely friends everyday.

Can you believe he LOVES grapefruits?! I like them ,too. but my little 2 year old is all into tart and sour as well.

My sweet friend Cathy and her mama gave those to us. Thanks again lovely ladies.
Late Sunday afternoon was quite a commotion going on.

Granny had found a baby owl in her yard and called everyone to come see it. Stella went with Rick and a lot of people were already there to see her little feathered friend. They said it was tiny and looked hurt. So they called Aunt Beverly to come and bring it to her friend, who is taking care of all kind of birds. Haven't heard any news on the owl yet. It was quite a big deal for my owl loving girlie to see one in her Grannies yard!!!

And this is it for now! I am out of energy!!!! I will take my little man back to bed now and spend the last day of January in bed
Night night

Family Photoshoot Part 1

Back in November( it was hot again) we had my lovely and so talented photographer and sis in law Teresa over to take our Christmas pictures. All those pics were taken at home and Teresa can make the most out of even the smallest set up! She has such a great eye and is just absolutly wonderful and patient with kids( not only when it comes to her not so cooperating little nephew) and camera shy adults as well.Feel free and check out her website and even though she is a homeschooling mom of 4, she will find time to take pictures of you and yours, too!!!!

My mom had send me those cute German outfits a while back and I wanted to get some shots of Lu and Stella in Lederhos'n and Dirndl before we even started our Christmas pictures.

What can I say; I am in love!!!! Of course with the little people in the pictures but also with the way they turned out!



They look like Haensel and Gretel!!!

Germany meets Louisiana( hence the boots)
As I put Luciens pants on he said: ohhh what kind of soft diaper is that, mom?! I guess the leather felt good on his little behind :)

He is holding a tiny beer mug that was my Grandpas . This makes me so happy!
Happy beyond measure to see the love between the two of them

I will post some more of our actual Christmas shoot soon, but for now I need to take care of my little man, who is running fever ....

Thursday is the new Tuesday

Wow this week flew by in a blink. Filled with sunny, rainy, busy and lazy days!
Coffee is in my hand, music is on and here I am once again.
This week we got rid of our cable TV( one of our 2012 to do things, scratched of the list).To be honest we do not miss it too much, except for the missing clock in our living room, which was on our cable box! I was only a bit bummed, when I wanted to cuddle up with Stella last Saturday to watch our favorite cook show AND IT WOULD NOT HAPPEN! Other than that, our evenings have been way nicer! Plus we save 80 $ per month!
We kept on working on our serious house cleaning and went through all of Stellas and Luciens toys( can you believe my little garage sale is in only two weeks and I still got ways to go..... but it's good to have a date set)
Yay for cleaned floors in the kiddos rooms and yes you can actually find things again!

But this is the other side of the glory ! All the garage sale stuff is piling up high in the guest room and waits patiently for another go through and pricing. Not even instagram can make this look any better!

( yep I got lots to do)
The days start early around here.

A pic at 5.45 am !!!!

Last week( on his day off) Ricky and Lu went to the bike park a little past 7 am in the morning and my guys had a blast.

Yes he is wearing an adults size helmet is all proud that Daddy would let him have his!!!

Stella was at school that day and I got to go to Whole foods and hit a couple of thrifts stores.
Thank you very much my man!

Don' t they look soo good?!

Got some asparagus as well and I should have left them there cause this is what happened to my thumb.

I am telling you I still feel handicapped as I write these words. Anyway, I was able to use most of the asparagus for a lovely orzo salad found on pinterest and all my peeps loved it! So maybe it was still worth the sliced finger( can I get a little sympathy here)?!

Got Stella the cutest vintage looking dress for 100th day at school for 1.99$. What a great find!

She loves it and asked if she could wear it on other special days as well.

Of course, sweetpea, cause mama loves it, too

I was on a mission to write here Tuesdays, but things changed a bit after I had not much time to spare on a long post like this 2 days ago. Lu had two potty accidents at school and I had to run and get him early, cause he ran out of changing clothes, sigh! But mostly he is doing great with it. This is a common sight you see around my house these days.

Biking and a little man trying to figure out wether to go to the potty or not!

Also, he finally discovered that markers, crayons and scissors are no weapons and works peaceful next to his sister on valentine projects( score!)

Hallelujah, I thought this would never happen!

What else? Oh, my brother and his wife are finally back to modern technologies after being of the grid for over a year now( due to a move to the not so civilized part of Germany;) ) I am so thankful for finally being able to oovoo, chat and write e mails with them again and I almost fell out of my bed this morning , when I found out that my brother had signed up for a facebook account. It is truly a day to remember, people!

The weather has been crazy here this past week. We had some hot days ( 80*F in January, HELLO!!!!) already , we even turned the AC on a couple of times . Some of our plants a starting to bloom and while I drove Lu to school this morning, I saw the first magnolias is bloom as well.
Hot days followed by thunderstorms and plenty of rain and flooded lawns. But it is still warm enough to walk barefoot in the puddles( Rosie( our crazy puppy) just got out and I had to bring a happy, soaking wet, 50 lbs + dog back to her other dog friend) Now I am soaked, too and my feet are full with mod.

Took this pic yesterday in carpool line. It was pouring and nothing was moving., quite a peaceful moment there, if you ask me

As peaceful as carpool can be, after you had a cracked windshield on the way there....

Speaking of peaceful; no TV means more time for things like this and I am truly lovin it!

Back to work now. Happy Thursday( almost the weekend!)

Virtual coffee

Sorry,I am a little late today.

White stuff makes me happy on gray days like this!

Had a not so fun dental appointment this morning and had to wait for coffee til my lip was actually not swollen anymore. I am in good spirits this will happen soon and I get to sip on some hot yummy brew.

We had a great weekend stuffed with fun.
If you would be really here with me for coffee today, you would laugh at me drinking my coffee( my lip still does not have full control back over what it does) You would probably hear me saying something like" Gosh, there is so much stuff that I want to do and get done this week." But I feel like I can't get into the groove, yet. Lucien was up several times last night and I am so not used to this anymore. He usually sleeps just fine. I am not complaining, just talking to a friend ;) When we rolled out of bed at a little before six this morning, I saw why my poor buddy could not sleep. I was counting 10 mosquito bites in his face( Yep that's what you get when you live in Louisiana in January, not frost bites, no, mosquito bites, yikes.He is taking a nap in my bed at this minute and I should have probably stayed curled up next to him but I wanted to get dinner started, this post going and the laundry done.
If you would be here with me, I would let you taste this awesome yogurt I made over the weekend.

It is really soooo good and even easier to make. Genius.
I was spending time on pinterest the other day( don't you love to get carried away on it???) when I was searching for some breakfast ideas. This is when I saw a fabulous post about making yogurt in the crockpot with not crazy equipment needed( that's my way). I thought it was worth a shot and it turned out to be amazing.

If you don't have time to check out her blog, this is a brief summary:
All you need is half a gallon of whole milk( pasteurized is fine just NOT ultra-pasteurized) and half a cup of a plain starter yogurt with active cultures( I used dannon plain)

Pour your milk into your crockpot , cover with lid and let stand for 2 hours on low.
After 2 hours turn off your crockpot and wait 3 hours
Take 1-2 cups of warmed milk out and mix with starter yogurt
Pour back into pot, wrap the entire crockpot with beach towel
Go to bed! After 8 to 12 hours you will have perfect, creamy yogurt with a nice consistency.
I had gotten some tiny jars, made some fruit mix ( fresh strawberries, a bit of lemon juice and maple syrup), put it into the jars and topped it with the yogurt.
Keep half a cup of plain yogurt for your next batch.
This might be old stuff to you but it definitely opened up a new world to me. Wait until you taste some( plus you feel like you are doing something good for you and your crew, and you actually are!!!!)
Happy Tuesday and happy yogurt making!!!
And oh if you get a chance, go hang out with the girls at Amys virtual coffee. It's like meeting new friends

Wochenendreport

Wochenendreport!

Yogurtland by Stella

Kein Muskelkater von der 1. Sporteinheit bekommen( hm vielleicht muss das Programm intensiviert werden)!
Freitag: Stella kam mit einer perfekten Reportcard( so ne Art Zwischenzeugnis) nach Hause!
Way to go girlie!!!!
Homemade Pizza zum Abenessen! Yum

silly mama and lucien

Den ersten selbstgemachten Yogurt angesetzt
Ergebnis Samstag morgen: Grandios: war eher auf nen Flop eingestellt. Nicht nur ich, sondern auch die Zwerge, waren begeistert! So einfach, gehoert ab jetzt zum Standard Repertoire der Carmouchen Kueche( werde in nem separaten Post berichten)

danach ab zur ersten Geburtstagsparty des Wochenendes( ja es waren gleich mehrere)! Rollerskating Party! Schluck!
Nach anfaenglicher und ueblicher Scheu, war Stella kaum von der Bahn zu bekommen (Rollschuhe stehen seit Samstag auf der Geburtstagsliste).

Lucien und Rick waren derzeit Ethan beim Basketball anfeuern.
Football lief diese Woche nicht so prikelnd fuer Louisiana; Nach den Tigers sind nun auch die Saints draussen! D. h die Saison ist gelaufen und wir koennen wieder was anderes fuers Wochenende planen

Sonntag: Fruehstuck bei Maw maws
Beinahe Trip ins Krankenhaus( Lu hat sich mit nem Stock ins Auge gestochen. Aber nach einem Fluss von Traenen war aller Dreck rausgewaschen und sein Auge begann abzuschwellen. Er scheint sich die Netzhhaut nicht verletzt zu haben.
Trip zum goldenen M um Stellas Reportcard zu feiern.
Yay fuer einen Familien-Mittagsschlaf und ich hab mein Buch endlich ein Stueckchen weiterlesen koennen. Danach Charley's Geburtstagsparty bei "The little Gym"
Die Kids hatten Mega Spass mit all den Turngeraeten und Spielen
Lu war so richtig in seinem Element
Taco soup bei Tricia und Kris
Kids vollkommen erschlagen im Bett
Couching mit Hubby,watching "Moneyball"( falls ich wachbleiben kann)Update: werden den Rest Montag schauen
und das Beste, das Wochenende ist noch nicht vorrueber
Dank Dr King haben wir morgen Feiertag und Zeit fuer noch ein wenig extra Spass....