Nürnberg Zoo

 For Memorial Day we decided to go to the Nürnberg Zoo since we had to go into Nürnberg anyways to order Nyah's passport. We really liked the Zoo especially these cute little monkeys that just came out and walked across the rope to the other side. It. was. awesome!!

 The happy little Ty-man at the Zoo.

 Ty really likes tigers and we spent a good amount of time hoping this guy would start walking around a bit.

 After we left we suddenly heard this REALLY loud roaring, moaning noise. We hurried back to the bears, tigers, and lions and saw it was the tiger you had moved and was roaring. It was pretty cool.

 The happy lady in one of her happier moments. She missed naps and was getting pretty tired and ornery by the end of the day. But what a trooper.

 These cool vultures were just sitting really still with they wings out sunning themselves. It was awesome. When we first walked over to them I seriously thought they were statues. And they were so close to the fence too.

 We spent a loooong time watching the 2 cute polar bear cubs running around playing. They were so cute.

 Our cute kids watching the seals. It looks like we're missing a child between Ty and Nyah. Ü

 Laney and Ty totally surprised us at the petting zoo and immediately started petting the goats. Normally they are so shy and timid with animals. I guess we need a goat for a pet. hmmm maybe it could help us out with the lawn mowing too. I'll have to pitch this idea to our landlord. hahaha

 Such cute little baby goats and they made the cutest noises.

 Ty petting a goat.

 There were lots of baby animals at the zoo. Just look at this cute little Shetland Pony baby. (Yes I realize baby animals have other REAL names...like foal...but when you are a mom, you're allowed to call all of them babies...uhm okay!)

 And this cute little llama baby!

It was a pretty sweaty day and we consumed our share of ice creams and popsicles throughout the trip. By the end Nyah was getting tired and angry with all of us and just wanted her own popsicle.....so she stole Ben's, which was okay because it made her happy. What a nice dad!! Ü

For some reason I really really liked the rhino. I mean look at his skin. It's like armor. Anyway, that was our trip to the Nürnberg Tiergarten as Laney (and the Germans) like to call it. I'm sure we'll be back before too long.

Nyah - 12 Months

I decided for Nyah's 12 month picture I wanted to recreate her very first ones that I did. Obviously she couldn't be sleeping for this one or all hell would have broken loose. And it definitely wasn't as easy!! Ü

*you’re not walking anymore….you run!!*

*anytime somebody closes any door you get sad. Maybe you’re worried you’ll miss something fun*

*you have 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom*

*you love to cuddle and you give the best hugs*

*you say ‘tak’, ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and you copy a lot of the tones in the things we say*

*you LOVE to dance*

*you try to jump and do somersaults*

*you like to flirt with people you see when we are out and about*

*you make the funniest faces and have us all laughing*

*you are good at getting your point across to us without just crying*

*you are into EVERYTHING*

*you often do things you know you shouldn’t do and then look at us and shake your head*

*you like to sing especially “wavin’ flag”*

*you warm up to people pretty quickly*

+you are just the happiest, cutest little girl and we love you to pieces +

The Last Month...

So I know I have been slacking in the posting on the blog department but here are pictures of our adventures from the last month. After school got out we stayed in Eschenbach for about a week and then headed over to Frankfurt to visit my parental units for 2 weeks. While we were there we were lucky enough to also see my Farmor (paternal grandmother) and my uncle who stopped by for 2 days and my aunt who came down to visit my parents for about 2 weeks. Anywho, this picture was one afternoon it was raining and the kids asked if they could go play in the rain. Both kids are big fans of the movie "Singing in the Rain" (to my great delight) and so Ty immediately started singing the song and dancing around. I loved it.

After a while it stopped and I walked out so see what they were doing.....I'm still not quite sure but after this they laid down on the grass and I heard them talking and playing. As long as they aren't fighting I don't care.

Nyah is a cuddlebug and when she wakes up from her nap we love to just sit for a while, while she wakes up. Now that Laney is home from school I sometimes give her to Laney and they'll sit and cuddle for a while.

Nyah is starting to feel like she's such a big girl and she always want to sit on the couch or big chairs by herself. And when we let her she always gets a giant smile on her face 'cause she feels so big....that's what I think anyways who knows what she's really thinking.

So we headed over to Karben and the kids enjoyed playing outside when the weather was nice. Here's the handsome man wondering why I was calling his name and acting weird to get him to smile. Crazy mom!

Nyah frolicking outside with no pants on.

The kids playing with this fun water/boat thing.

Nyah enjoying the water. She also thought it was a good idea to stick her feet in the water....too bad she had shoes on. I love the belly hanging out and the sagging diaper. Ü

And then it was Nyah's very first birthday. I still can't believe my little baby is one. Her birthday was on a saturday and since it was a long weekend because of the 4th Ben took the train over to Frankfurt and celebrated with us.

My dad, as always, brought out the flags. And when my mom reminded him that Nyah was born in Germany, he brought out a German flag too. hahaha

The decorations for Nyah's partay. Giant pouf ball things I hung in the trees....the neighbors probably thought we were a wee bit crazy. Oh well, I really liked them. Ü

Nyah and uncle Zak looking at and picking some apples.

Since we all missed Sct. Hans Eve (which is on June 23rd) we decided to celebrate it on the same night as Nyah's birthday. What can I say....it was PARTAY night!!! WOOOHOOO Anyway, the kids made little witches to put in the fire after we had roasted our hotdogs and Shubidua's "Midsommersangen" was blasted throughout the house. Aaaah summer how I love thee.

Nyah's birthday s'more. She had been practicing her blowing skills but unfortunately they had not been perfected in time.

This girl got spoiled. Lots of clothes (which she really needed) and lots of fun toys.

The hippo from Laney.

Luckily she had a big brother to help out with the unwrapping.

And a cute baby doll from Ty.

Ty and Laney made her a card each. This is Ty reading the card for her.

While we were in Frankfurt Zak had an internship at Saalburg, the roman fort. We went to check up on him one day. He must have been sleeping in a corner somewhere 'cause we never found him. But we did see lots of very interesting things and Laney decided that she would like to do an internship there too one day.

Just proof that I go on the family vacations too. Ü

The entrance. Ty asked the other day if we could go back to "the Roman house". haha

The father and the lady.

And this is......Zak??? I don't know some cool place inside the fort. hee hee

We, of course had to get a Roman ice cream.

Toothless.

So every time my dad travels (which is A LOT) he brings home something that Zak likes from that specific country. I don't know if it's every time but it seems like he often has chocolate bars from Czech or soda pop from France. Anyways, while we were there he brought home these orange sodas that Zak likes from Paris. But apparently they have different sizes because he brought these tiny little cans home. We thought they were about Nyah sized and  had a lot of fun making fun of the tiny cans.

Nyah drinking her Orangina.

Laney is a craft maniac. She is always asking if I have a craft she can make. My mom is making a quilt with these cute little flowers and when she was visiting us a while ago she let Laney have a go at it. Laney did really good, so while we were in Frankfurt, Laney made these cute flowers with buttons in the middle and put them on a t-shirt to go with some pajama bottoms my mom bought for it. One talented crafty chicken.

And last but definitely not least....the wonderful parental units. I loveth them! Ü

Hurricane Nyah

 

Some days I think about  how nice it would be to be a baby and just run around and play all day and not have any responsilities. When there's something you want you just cry and people come running to satisfy you. What a life!!! But then I started thinking and I realized that Nyah actually has a full schedule. That girl is busy. I started thinking about what her daily to do list would look like and this is what I could think of off the top of my head:

• Empty the snack drawer
• Empty the cupboard with cereal and little oatmeal packets and scatter throughout the house
• Unroll all the toilet paper
• Throw things in toilet
• Inspect shower drain when the shower is wet and I’m dry
• Scatter tampons throughout house and into the toilet
• Throw food on the floor when I’m done eating

• Rub food in my hair until I look like Einstein
• Empty drawer in office desk
• Suck on some cords
• Climb up stairs when somebody doesn’t close the gate
• Finds straws Mom has hidden and suck on every. Single. One
• Unroll the tape
• Pull out some books
• Get the knives in the dishwasher when it’s left open
• Pull out all the pushpins
• Crumble up some of Laney and Ty’s drawings
• Turn computer off when Mom's in the middle of a blog post (I learned that from my cousin Liam hee hee)
• Hide Mom's keys in the couch
• Throw important stuff I find in the garbage
• Move some chairs around
• Move the garbage can into the other room
• Be really cute so they don't get mad at me!!  

Yep, she has a full schedule! O