Brrrrr.... Fall or rather winter?

I can't quiet decide what it is out there... It was only 2 Celsius outside this morning at 0700 in the am and ice everywhere. On the cars, the roofs, the grass.... Everywhere... It kind of feels like fall got skipped. It's just so not fair. We already didn't have a great summer and now fall will be taken away too... =(
On the bright side, the hubby should be home soon and we can't wait.
I gotta say though. Time is flying by like nothing. He has been gone for about 4,5 months? And it feels like he left only a few weeks ago. But I'm not complaining. I'm just a little surprised. But with work, kids, household and gym, time really is nothing at all.... =)

Those Images were taken last Saturday. It was actually 20 Celsius during the day... Now our high is 12.... =(

Home made Pumpkin bread. I refuse to accept the cold temperatures. It is fall in this house... =P

Within the next days i should take my Canon for a early morning walk and capture some of the ice. It is suppose to get even colder with 1 Celsius the next few nights, so it should be perfect. I use that Camera not as often as i used to, not for private purposes and it's really a sad thing. I need to capture more pictures of my own kids. They grow so fast.
Claire for example will turn 3 years in less than 2 weeks.... It feels like yesterday that we celebrated her 2nd B-day in  Texas with my in laws.... =(

A lot going on

A lot of stuff has been going on lately. Specially since german Kindergarten closed for summer.
We were having a lot of company over and also drove around a lot.
On the 12th we celebrated my daughters 5th birthday, yup 5 years old. That means she will start Kindergarten. The american preschool next week. I think I'm more excited than she is at the moment. Hahahahaha =)

While my 5 year old keeps growing up my almost 3 year old daughter is right at her heels. She started potty training herself about 1,5 weeks ago and she is pretty much dry during the day. At least with number 1. Number 2 is a big issue here, one that will prob take a lot more time. =(
We went out to my moms over the last weekend and she didn't want to use my moms potty because it didn't look anything like ours. I have to add, that by potty i mean the normal toilette. I find kid potty's absolutely disgusting. Yucky...
So anyway, once we came back home Monday we pretty much had to start over. But she got it pretty quick. Thanks to my friends that kept telling me not to give up.

We had 4 accidents that Monday afternoon and i was really about to give up and let this be a daddy's issue when he gets back. I was already alone when Melissa potty trained herself. ugh.
Well anyway.

We had a great time at my moms. We even got to see my Oma. <3
Here are just a few images i took over the days.

A walk in Longuich with the rainclouds right behind us. lol we got lucky though. It started raining as soon as we got back to my moms house. 

Here you can see me with my new toy. I didn't even mention it yet. My hubby got me an early birthday present. The 35mmL Lens for my canon. I love this lens, it is pretty amazing. Can't wait to use it at work next month. =)

Getting in shape

Yup it is about time. I did start with the gym before the hubby left in May but then my Gym partner got preggo and cut down. I'm not blaming her but myself. I was just getting super lazy. =P Happens, right?
Well i found my patients and will about 4 weeks ago and started counting calories, crossing the chocolate completely of my food plan and also lowered the sugar like a lot. Yay for me. =)
I even drink my coffee without sugar now. =) It started as a challenge on one of my Smartphone apps. It is called "Trisport" for anyone interested. It is free and has tons of challenges for you.

I lost about 3 kilos since the calorie counting about 4 weeks ago. Not to bad considering that i couldn't hit the gym in the past 3 weeks. My kids are still home.
I can't wait to see if i will reach my goal of  65kg till the hubby comes back from his deployment.
I still had 74kg when he left and I'm down to 69kg at the moment.

I'm so proud of myself and i hope that i can keep it up.

Memere's Banana Muffins

Before I got married to my husband i never even heard about Banana-bread. But after everyone seemed to be talking about it i asked my mother-in-law if she had a good recipe. So she gave me this recipe a while back. And i gotta say it is the best. The bread is moist and tasty.
I added a few other ingredients to get different flavors going, like peanut butter and chocolate chips... Yummy

I just made those muffins with the classic recipe yesterday and they were so good. Will be making them for my daughters 5th birthday. Kids seem to love them.

Memere's Banana Bread/Muffins

1/2 Cup shortening or margarine 
2 1/4 Cup flour 
3/4 Cup granulated sugar 
3/4 Cup brown sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons milk 
2 eggs
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 Cup mashed bananas (3 medium or 4 small ones will do) 

My own twist: 
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 Cup chocolate chips (you can put more or less in there, it really depends on how chocolaty you want the bread/muffins to be.) 

It is pretty simple, really. 
Cream shortening (margarine) and sugar. Add the rest of Ingredients except the bananas and mix. Once batter is smooth add the mashed Bananas, Peanut butter and chocolate chips. 

Butter up a bread form or Muffin pan and fill with batter. I also sprinkled the muffins with Cinnamon-sugar before baking. 

Bake at 375F (190C) for 40-45 Minutes for a bread loaf and about 20 minutes for the muffins.
I usually double check with a tooth pick. Poke it in the center, it is done when the tooth pick comes out clean. 

 

All alone

The hubby left 11 days ago and i got to stay with my mom for a little more than a week. It has been super stressful ever since we got back home. So much stuff to do. Especially in the backyard. I should be thankful for that thought. This is something that keeps me super busy and everyone knows that time flies by faster when you got stuff to do.

This is our last Image together.

Now we gotta wait.
I'm just glad that it is summer and it prob. won't be hard to stay busy and keep on moving. At least this is what I'm hoping for. =)
His last deployment was from Oct-April and we got so much snow that i was stuck in the apartment for a very long time. I'm not even touching the wheel when there is snow outside, unless i really have to. In case of an emergency. Yeah I'm a Wuss... lol

Austria

This month is THE month.... And I'm not thrilled about it. In only a few days we will have to let daddy go for quiet a long time. =(
So we decided on a short vacation before. We went to Austria from the 06-09 of May and it was beautiful. It really made me forget what's to come. We all had an awesome time and I really recommend to any Families that have deployments coming up to do exactly what we did.
A short, non stress vacation anywhere you want. 

We drove only 3 hours to Salzburg and stayed on a farm a little outside of town. It was stunning... 

The first sight of the mountains... It was a rainy and cloudy day. But the following days were beautiful. <3 But i gotta say, even with those dangerous looking clouds the mountains and area itself is just stunning material.... 

This was our little house we stayed at and i loved it there... Everything you need. 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom with shower, a kitchen with dinning area and livingroom... And best of all the bedrooms were upstairs... =) 

Day 2:

We went to see Salzburg and it only rained once in the morning. The weather got nicer as later it got. Meanwhile it was raining back in Ansbach. =)

The awesome view from all the way on top the castle.

 Daddy and his princesses <3
I'm so glad that i got some shots of daddy and the girls. They usual don't like getting a few pics taken, sometimes you have to threaten them. lol So for this shot i was using "Ice cream" lol

After a not so interesting morning for my girls we decided to hit the Zoo afterwards and we all had tons of fun. The Lemurs were on the loose and a mommy with baby even walked up to me. I was using my wide-angle for this Image so you can imagine how close I got to this animal. 

What an awesome hair-cut lol 

Day 3: Was all about me... ME ME ME ME and yes ME

We went to Bad Ischl were Kaiserin Sissi von Oesterreich got engaged <3 If your German or European you will prob. know the movies about the stories?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria

I got to check out there little or should i say "big" Kaiservilla in Ischl. I was so excited to be able to go inside on a tour and hear/see all about her and her history.

The Kaiservilla still belongs to the Sissi-Family.
Her great-great grandson is the owner today and still lives in the north-wing of this place.

The tea-house. Doesn't that look romantic? I could have spent all day in this park and discover cute little places. But the hubby and kids were hungry... Guess it was kind of lunch time. lol 

Bad Ischl/ Austria

 

On the way back to our little farm-house we stopped in Mondsee, because the lake was just so super beautiful. 

Day 4, we went to say bye bye to the farm animals. 

and a little "thank you" to the cows, fresh milk really is the best milk you can drink. Yummy... <3 

On the way home we stopped at the bayrischen Koenigssee.. 

Stunning view, right? 

 

 

Home sweet Home

Last Friday we dropped of our little one with "Oma" and I realized how much I really miss "home"
I know I can get there within a 3 hour drive and a lot of you are not that lucky. But I still don't get to see my family and "home" as much as i would like.
I do work, my kids go to Kindergarten, my Mom doesn't always have the time and a visit is always a over-night stay. Otherwise it would be way to stressful with 2 little kids.

Just a few days ago, on a regular grocery shopping tour in Ansbach I was thinking how cool it would be to see "TR" (Trier) license plates instead of "AN"
And last weekend it almost brought tears of joy to my eyes seeing all those "TR"'s and hearing the dialect of those people living there brought this huge smile to my face.

 
I don't know, maybe I'm just over-reacting due to everything else that is going in my life right now.

And if you never checked out Trier/Mosel and it's area, do it before you leave Germany. 

Easter 2012

The bunny was so good to my kids. Better then it should have been... lol But I have to admit that they don't fight as much as they used to. So maybe they really deserved all those Easter bunnies. =P

The Hubby came back home Saturday and I think that was the best present of all. =) Me and the kids were so excited to pick him up from the Nuernberger Airport. Now I just wish we wouldn't have to let him go so soon again.
Of course we enjoy every day that we still have together and early May we will all be going on a short vacation. Not sure were yet. but it won't be anywhere huge. Somewhere close to here. So it's less stress and more of a vacation with the two kiddos.
Still, I can't ignore the fact that he will be gone for a whole 6 month really soon. It's not gonna be easy, not for me and also not for Melissa... Claire doesn't really care yet. At least she didn't seem to care the last 6 weeks where Daddy wasn't home.
This will be our second Deployment and it feels just like the first time. I really don't think i will ever get used to it. Never ever.

April...

Oh April how i longed for you. I'm so glad your finally here and bring our hubby and daddy home. =)
Not much longer now. In the mean time my oldest helped me cooking yesterday.
She wanted Banana-Nutella Pancakes for dinner...
They were sooooooooo yummy. Just take your basic pancake batter, bake your pancakes in a pan, put tons of Nutella on it and a few slices of Bananas. Enjoy =)

I can assure you that they are more than yummy. I don't have words for them. lol 

opsssss....

I didn't write in what seems like for ever. I was just so busy.
My hubby isn't here at the moment. He had to leave due to a training 5 weeks ago, but will be back home soon.

The weeks just flew by and i was so busy with my business and the kiddos that I didn't have time to blog.
Sorry about that.

I still want to share a few images I took this month. We were lucky enough for the weather to be awesome. Well until a few days ago at least.
18 C outside and no need of winter-coats.... Awesome. I even got some garden-work done. =)
Now i just wish i would be able to finish till the hubby comes back, but I don't think that i will be able to. Oh well.

Also we had my mom and her boyfriend over. They stayed for a few days and it was so nice to have adults in the house to talk to. lol
We had such a great time, exploring Ansbach, doing some shopping and walking around in the village i live in.

And last but not least a Kid-art tip for Easter... My oldest loves to do arts and crafts. So a few weeks ago we made an Easter bunny out of a toilet-paper roll... <3

Lemon muffins with pink lemon icing

Those are so easy to make and taste so yummy.

LEMON MUFFINS

125 g Butter or margarine
125 g caster sugar
2 medium sizes eggs
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
125 g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 375F/180C and butter a 12-whole muffin pan.
Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, lemon rind and juice and the flour to the bowl and beat until smooth.
Spoon the batter into your muffin pan and bake for about 15 minutes or until form to the touch.
 Remove the muffins from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.



PINK LEMON ICING

1 3/4 cups confectioner sugar
3 Tbsb warm water
1-2 drops of red food coloring
1 tps lemon extract

Just mix everything together until smooth.
Put icing on muffins once they are cooled all the way.

Chocolate Cheesecake muffins

I bought a new book of muffins today and i wanna share two recipes... This is one of them.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cacao
3/4 baking soda
1 cup superfine sugar
1/4 cup sunflower oil
3/4 cup water
2 tps white vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup soft cream cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
heaping 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
Butter a 12-hole muffin pan and set aside.
Sift together the flour, cacao powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Stir 3/4 cup of the sugar into the flour mix.. Add oil, water, vinegar and vanilla extract and stir well together until combined.
Place the remaining sugar, cream cheese and egg in a large bowl and beat together until well mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the chocolate batter in to the muffin pan and top with cream cheese mixture.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until form to the touch.
Let them cook in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely ....

Snow

We got some snow today. So the hubby decided to take the girls in the backyard. I'm not a big fan of snow, to cold and wet but the girls loved it.
I'm just hoping it will all be gone by tomorrow, we were expecting friends and they won't drive in snow. Who blames them? I wouldn't. So let's hope snow goes bye bye.