Too cute

Lilly is just being awesome these days. She is a very lively young lady. She has been walking for months and starting talking more and more. She can say Mama, Papa, Danke, Hi, Hannah. She loves to dance and sing. Whenever we turn on music she starts moving.
This picture is just too cute

Beer brewing

Usually I post about the kids most of the time, but this time I thought I would let you know what fun things Ben has been up to. My cousin Franziska lives close by (like most of my family) and her husband had invited Ben to brew beer with them. They all got up super early on a Saturday and started their beer brewing process.

And as they were brewing beer in the back of the butcher shop they had some Leberkaese afterwards.

And now we are looking forward to trying the finished product.

Cousins

One of the fun things for Finn and Lilly to do here in Austria is to play with their cousins. Most of my family lives close by so we get to see them a lot. They have an older set of cousins - Alissia, Philipp and Raphael. They are wonderful playmates but also great babysistters :-) We love when they come to visit. And there is Hannah who is 18 months and a great playmate for Lilly. We recently celebrated Philipp's birthday who turned 11 and it was really nice to see all the cousins together.

They do miss their American cousins Abigail and Madeline and we look forward to seeing them soon again.

Fireman Pants

Since we arrived in Austria all Finn wants to do is go outside and play. Every morning he gets up, puts on his yellow rubber boots and tells me: "I want to play outside." It makes me really happy that we have this great play area right outside our door, but the weather has not always been perfect and snow was still melting away. Lots of mud and wet stuff everywhere. But there is something called a "Matchhose" which would translate to "Mudpants" and we pretty quickly got some for both of them. I was actually lucky enough to get a pair for each of them at the local consignment sale of the Parents-Children-Organisation for 3 Euro a piece (about $4). I think that these pants were the best purchase I have made in months and I think every child should own one. Finn's pair is red so he likes to call them his fireman pants. Can't live without them anymore!

Skiing

We had a perfect ski day last Sunday. My mom offered to watch the kids and my dad came with Ben and me to ski one of our favorite mountains - Diedamskopf!
We had blue ski, perfectly prepared slopes and absolutely nobody on the mountain. We went early as it got warm soon and then the skiing wasn't as good anymore. Look at these pictures - one of the reasons we moved here!

And this is for you Barbara and Family Castle!

Arriving at home

One of the nice things of moving to a place that you have been before is that there are people waiting for you. We are still settling in and still organizing and filling out papers. But we also enjoy the nice welcomes from our friends and family. Some of my favorite moments are the following:

- My childhood friend Michael (I have known him for 30 years!) dropped in on our 3rd day here with flowers and chocolates at 7:30am on his way to work - just to say hi and welcome us!

- My grandmother had knitted me a pair of new slippers to use at home and had left them in our new apartment. I love to wear them.

- My neighbor has 4 kids and has just about everything you need. In our first week here she handed down a perfect pair of shoes for Lilly to play outside and a pair of pants for Finn to play in the dirt.

Snow

Unfortunately it rained away most of the snow in my hometown the day before we arrived. But we are lucky enough to live close to the "big" mountains were snow is still piling up high. My brother lives 20 minutes away in a small village called Mellau and they still have plenty of snow. So the other day we took our Rodels and went for some sledging. The kids had a blast.

Chop Chop - new haircuts

Every few months my mom's friend comes by in the evening and cuts my mom's hair. She has been doing this for years and it is really nice and easy. We took advantage of her coming by last night and got the kids hair cut. Finn has never had a hair cut so this was a big day - and much needed as you can see.

We also decided to get Lilly's hair cut and they both did great. Now we have 2 little blond kids with short hair :-)

And while we were at it I decided to get my hair cut too. Lots of hair gone - the after picture has yet to come.

Angekommen... Arrived...

We finally made it to Austria. The last 2 months have been crazy hectic and it is still pretty chaotic here during the first weeks, but at least we are here. And I am very thankful to my wonderful husband for being brave enough to take this step with us!
Overall I am happy to be here and to share this experience with my family, but I am also a little worried  - to be honest. I know that in general this was the right decision, but of course like every human being I am having doubts. At 18 I could not get fast and far enough from my little hometown. I travelled and explored the world. I ended up living in 7 different countries and visiting many more. And I wonder what happened that 16 years later I am back in my little village in the Alps in an apartment in my parents house?
My children! I can't wait for Finn and Lilly to build little bridges in the stream next to our house, to camp in our backyard, to get a ride on the tractor, to learn how to ski, to climb up the mountains, to go swimming in the lake, etc. Finn already is best friends with Jonas, a little boy down the street and Lilly is in love with my parents dog Kira. Finn loves his "new" blue bathtub and Lilly is eating sausages like a champ. Their happy faces and dirty little hands make everything worth while.
And I know, that this feeling of being worried and questioning things is normal. I have moved many times and I know that you go through ups and downs. I just needed to write it out and think about it, because I am already feeling better. Off to buying our car now!