Three Tods from the June Jiving Junkies in Texas

Look at these three.

Soren. Harley. Eliza.

18 months old.

June 12, 2007 - June 8, 2007 - June 12, 2007

Meeting at the Duck Pond munching on the duck food.

Loving it.

Don't we love them.

Harley & Mom Crissy visiting all the way from Iowa.







Harley's phone made its round through all the kids big and small.

Bella & Chiara helped Soren up and down the slide

the first couple times until he got the hang by himself

and was not getting off it anymore.

Eliza thought it was just too funny watching him,

but no way she wanted to get back on herself.

She is just chicken. lol

Eliza & Mom Abby

Harley & Soren digging in the rocks.

All three tods loved the rocks.

Licking them.

Trying to eat them.

Feeding each other with rocks.

Our kids had a blast and were dirty and dusty by the time left.

one little helper, one medium sized helper

My little helper was already in action just getting the big box aka bookshelf two weeks ago from Ikea with me. We love our trips to Roundrock & Austin.

Finally we got to work and medium sized helper and me carried the big box into the house. Now of course the little helper had to be right in the middle of all the commotion in Bella's room. After the medium sized helper sorted and counted all our hardware the little helper spread it all over the floor. We managed to get the screws laid out and he managed to take them out of the holes. Finally we had all pieces set up and got the second side on top we can hear little helper working really hard and seeing him pulling and pushing and going "aaaaaaaar" to get all pieces down in place. It was hillarious. While finishing tightening the screws all shelves got inspected by medium sized and little helper in various positions until the bookself was standing upright.

(just click on the picture to see it in larger size)

As soon as it was halfway filled with the books and games and knickknacks it was supposed to hold the bookend jumped in place and got comfortable. I wished all my household items would find their places magically.

Christmas Day Crazyness

... early morning we were all sleeping until the phone rang. But it was a short but good phone call from far away.

Then of course everybody started crawling out of bed and that Santa indeed stopped by and left a small treat and a note. And suspicions of the real Santa were made (just look at the end of the last post!).

From there on we were busy getting ready and cooking. Setting the table and cookies out. Those were half eaten before everything was even set up. KIDS. Abby and Eliza arrived and she brought yummy appetizer. With a little delay but a well napped Sophia, Anja arrived with her family and some more food. The table was filled with delicious food and we all ate too much for sure. The kids were playing in and outside, we had no sunny but pretty warm weather, no sight of snow and finally in the end we got the chance to take a few pictures at least with the little ones. The nbigs were way too busy playing and jumping.

Pictures with the cutest snowman in the neighborhood - okay the only snowman near and far.

Christmas 2008

The Christkindl comes on Christmas Eve

Well, the day of Christmas Eve was not as stressful as usual. All the presents were wrapped, the house cleaned the night before pretty much, so it worked out well what was left to do.

So after eating early simple dinner, everybody got dunked in the tub and dressed to go to church. I still have to figure out why a children's service is 1.5 hours long. It's hard to survive with three kids. But we made it.

A little while later back at home the Christkindl stopped by and left all the presents under the tree. Yes, we changed it to how we do it at home. With presents unwrapping gifts Christmas Eve.

We still leave cookie and milk out for Santa, if he stops by and leaves something small in the stockings as a treat, but the presents are not from Santa. I believe the kids need to know from who they are and to who say thank you to.

Karin - guck mal, dieses Jahr haben sich die Geschenke im Rahmen gehalten im Gegensatz zu letztem Jahr, das war zu verrueckt.


Soren is not quiet, but doesn't say too much neither, yet, but he is working on something that sounds like "chou-chou".

"S-N-O-W-M-A-N spells snowman"

Hugs and Horses fit to Chiara just as to Soren.

And more silly hugs.

Serious for once.

And a Letter to Daddy.

Karin - I sniffed out my treats even while all the presents were still wrapped.

Cookies and Milk LEFTOVER and a note from Santa.

But I guess I need to work on Santa's handwriting and can't forget to eat the reindeer food in front of the door next year.

My little elves are working hard ...

... to dip the pretzels in chocolate all by themselves. Okay not all alone, this little hand was diping its little fingers in the dipped pretzels and sneaking the sprinkles off.

SIMPLE, but yummy.

My three elves before spreading some Christmas Cheers and Treats to the neighbors.

Chocolate Factory for a Day

... or "A Sneak Peak of our homemade Christmas presents"

How do you find the perfect gift for a friend without going overboard, out of budget, but still keep it very personally? Homemade yummy treats for the sweet tooth was our answer this year. So for a day we turned the kitchen into a chocolate confisserie or factory. The whole house smelled like chocolate. Semi sweet chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, ....



Just to get started for little gifts, I used some semi sweet melted chocolate bark and dipped in candy canes. Those packed up in a little bag and a bow with a package of hot cocoa was a little treat sent to school and even the postman got on after delivering two packages right to the door.


Just give me the secret how you can get 12 one piece candy canes out of a box with 12 candy canes, because it didn't happen to me. So many were already broke and 1 or 2 snapped while carefully unwrapped the plastic from them. So we ended up with lots of broken pieces.

My favorites are the cookie truffles. I started with the dark cookies, crumbled them up in the food processor, added vanilla and cream cheese, cooled them and roll them in little balls. Dark chocolate for covering them and vanilla for the swirls more or less. But after having also white cookies and more vanilla bark a second batch was done and believe me I am soooooo glad I did. Those are even better.


Oops. Somebody sneak in here. It's impossible to stay hidden from my little kitchen helper, but you really need a game plan to keep him away from the chocolate. Nose Stop!

I knew I had seen a recipe and that one was just perfect for all my leftovers especially all the broken candy canes. Peppermint Bark. Homemade from scratch. Not bought expensive in the store. And it's so easy to make.

All those treats got nicely packed and wrapped and perhabs you were one of the few we gave them to. Enjoy