Moran Family Fun

November 30 - After all day in the house yesterday with nothing to do but watch boxes being packed and listen to the sound of a tape gun, we were more than ready to get out of the house today.  It's officially the first weekend of Advent so Christmas markets in most big cities are open and we were ready to go explore. We decided to head south to Baden-Baden, a city we've never visited before but we now wish we'd gone to much sooner.  Baden-Baden is a resort town known for it's spas so it is basically a picturesque city filled with grand hotels, beautiful parks, and a lovely little river flowing through the center of town. The ride there was just over two hours long and since our GPS likes to surprise us we ended up taking the scenic route.  It was actually a beautiful drive through the countrysides of both Germany and France.  Natalie breathed an actual, audible sigh of relief when we drove back into Germany because, according to her, France stinks. The first ...

November 29 - There's not really much to say about these photos.  The movers arrived yesterday and started packing up all our things and they'll be back on Monday to put in all in a big truck and drive it to our new home. The day started early so we could get all of the things we didn't want boxed up out of the way.  The girls dragged suitcases, school bags, and instruments to the entryway and then we filled up the van with everything we'll need for the weekend.  As we were carrying all of our things to the car the movers arrived.  Well really it was just one mover - one friendly guy to pack up all of our things. Still, that one guy was very efficient.  By 4:30 he was done for the day and we were left with empty closets, cupboards, and drawers and walls of boxes in their place.

November 25 - Christmas Markets!  Yep, it's that time of year again and we were all so excited to go to the Kaiserslautern Christmas Market for family home evening this week.  As usual it was all about the food, particularly potato based foods.  The potato pancakes, potato soup, and french fries were all so yummy! We were lucky enough to visit the Market on opening night so it seemed especially festive.  Almost as soon as we walked into the market square we were greeted by an angel who was handing out gingerbread necklaces to all of the children.  Do you see our photo bomber in the first picture? Besides all the delicious food, there are just so many beautiful things to see at Christmas markets.  At Kaiserslautern's market I always like to spend a little time admiring one booth that is filled with gorgeous wooden creations - ornaments, cuttings boards, and candle holders.  Even the wooden spoons look pretty there.  I also love these amaz...

November 24 - We have a little girl at our house who can be really dramatic.  If she doesn't get a cookie, she'll wail, "I NEVER  get a cookie!"  Or if she has to clean her room she'll complain that "Everyone is happy that I have to clean this mess because no one loves me" while big tears roll down her cheeks.  Often when she's misbehaved she'll try to excuse herself by saying that she's had the "worst day ever".  I don't want to point fingers, but her name starts with an N and ends with an -atalie.  Most of the time I sort of roll my eyes and wonder where a child of mine could possibly have gotten such an attitude and where I went wrong.  This Sunday, I realized that maybe the dramatic apple didn't fall too far from the tree because I was having the worst. day. EVER. and I wasn't shy about sharing that with people who asked me how I was doing.  I think they were looking for the standard great response, whoops! It se...

November 22 - Madison has been busily rehearsing for her school's fall drama production,  Class Action, since September.  This past weekend it was finally time for the performance!  As usual, I wasn't expecting much and, as usual, I was surprised by how well Madison did.  I need to remember that Madison is not me, and just because I would be amazingly nervous and probably flub my lines and speak just above a whisper does not mean that Madison will do the same.  She was confident, didn't hesitate with her lines, and projected well. Class Action  is made up of several small scenes that illustrate what happens in high school outside the classroom.  Some of the scenes were funny and some were serious, but overall it was entertaining.  Madison was in two scenes.  In the first one, she confronts a classmate who she saw cheating on a test.  In her second scene, she is waiting for the results of the election for class president while ...

November 21 - I think the picture for today speaks for itself.  Jared was nice enough to take me to see Catching Fire and it was so good.  I don't want to do a movie review here, but it was really enjoyable and even though it was rather long at 2.5 hours, it didn't seem long.  But then, the intermission that the German theater puts in longer films makes long movies seem shorter.  Also, I know that everyone and their brother will likely go see this movie, whether or not I give it my two thumbs up! I really loved the Hunger Games books, but as Jared likes to say, books ruin movies.  What he means by that is that often after reading a book you can't enjoy the movie as much.  Sometimes that's because things are changed or left out for the movie, other times it's because you already know what's going to happen, but for me it's mostly because the movies never quite live up to what I had pictured while reading the book.  Part of what made this movie...

November 19 - I stumbled across this quote the other day on a sewing website I read from time to time and it really stuck with me.  As a mom so much of my day is filled with plain, common (even mundane and repetitive) work. There are times when I can't stand the mundane tasks of housekeeping - washing dishes that are just going to get dirty again, folding clothes, packing lunches, picking up the same toys over and over.  Every. Single. Day. However, for the most part I love the simple daily tasks that make up my life. Jared and I were talking earlier this week about this a little bit and I struggled to articulate my thoughts and feelings about how I feel about my duties here at home.  Basically, I really love being a mom and keeping house.  I feel a sense of fulfillment when our home and family are running well.  There's something that makes me happy when the house is picked up, the laundry is done, and dinner is simmering away on the stove.  I'm...

November 18 - Well, we couldn't let the poor dragon (Jared's car) just sit forever. First thing Monday morning we called ADAC - kind of like AAA - to see if they could help us out.  I used so much German that day!  German on the phone with the ADAC operator, German with the first guy they sent who tried to get the car running (it took him all of thirty seconds to notice that the timing belt was broken), and German with the tow truck driver who came when there was no starting the car.   I followed the truck to our repair guy's shop and we're hoping it can be fixed both quickly and cheaply.  Really we just want the wonderful old car to run for just six more months.  Then we'll be moving somewhere new and we won't have to worry about it anymore.  When Jared and I were trying to decide if we should move on base or not one thing we considered was the state of his car.  It's really difficult to be a one car family where we currently live.  ...

November 16 - Yes, we went to Frankfurt this weekend to go to the temple, but we also went so we could eat at Chipotle.   Before this particular Chipotle opened in September the closest one was in Paris and as much as I enjoy eating at Chipotle, eh, I really don't love going to France.  Is it kind of silly/crazy that I can even say that?  Sorry, it's just that France isn't my favorite European country.  Anyway, Chipotle was high on our to do list for Saturday.  As soon as the girls were done in the temple we were in the car and on our way.  Before we moved to Germany Chipotle wasn't high on my list of places to eat.  There was one in Cheyenne that opened before we moved and I went there from time to time with Jared but mostly because it's his kind of food. Since we've moved here I've changed my mind and have decided that Chipotle is pretty amazing.  Last summer when I was in Alabama with Madison I ate at Chipotle three times in a week. In the...

November 15 -  We had made reservations to stay overnight at the temple hostel on Friday night so Jared and I could attend the English session that evening and Madison and Emily could go to the baptism session with the rest of the youth Saturday morning.  Sometimes when you've made plans to go to the temple it seems as if everything else in the world is trying to keep you at home.   Here's what happened to us . . . The heat/defrost in the front of the van mysteriously stopped working the day after I made our reservation and the only day they KIA dealer could look at our car was Friday, the day we were supposed to leave. Oh, and Friday morning it was suddenly working again but I didn't want to take a chance that it would stop working again.  Driving while trying to keep the windshield from fogging up is no fun. By the time I got back from the repair shop we had just two hours to get everyone packed and ready to go.  Two hours might seem like a long time ...

November 14 - Because Emily's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year and because we have church activities on Wednesday nights, we celebrated her birthday a day late.  It was a terribly long wait for Emily, especially once the presents were wrapped and out where she could see them but not open them. After a delicious dinner of tortellini and spinach in a creamy lemon sauce (yum!) we moved on to Emily's favorite part of the evening - presents and cake!  When the festivities were over she said that it was her best birthday ever because she liked all of her presents and she got some things she really wanted.  I always feel as if I'm doing this mom thing right when birthdays are successful. So here are a few things everyone should know about Emily:   She sounds just like me on the phone.  If you call our house, make sure it's really me before you start talking or you might be spilling all your deepest secrets to Emily. She is currently obsessed with O...

November 13 - What are you doing at 6 a.m. each morning?  On a normal morning at six o'clock I am usually turning the alarm off (after hitting snooze since 5:30 or so) and stumbling upstairs to get the girls moving and ready for school.  This particular morning however, I was up well before six and was just putting the finishing touches on the cupcakes Emily desperately wanted to take to school for her birthday.  Even at fourteen it's fun to bring treats to school on your birthday.  And don't worry, I got a nap in later that day!

November 11 -  For the activity portion of our Family Home Evening this week we danced.  It was so much fun!  The main reason we chose this activity was to make sure Emily knows what to do now that she is fourteen and is officially old enough to go to dances.  We started with fast songs because they are more fun and then moved on to the slow songs, which can be somewhat scary at first.    Since I'm not much of a dancer the instruction was left to Jared, but that's okay because he is such a great dancer.  He and Abigail were especially impressive.  Abigail and Jared are very much alike in their personalities and abilities - they both like to make people laugh, they are both loud and fun and sometimes crazy, they both put everything they have into whatever they're doing, and apparently they both have mad dancing skills.  It's fun to see them being awesome together. Here's another video with more of the girls dancing with their dad.  ...

November 9 - As a parent it's amazing to see your kids growing up and really becoming their own special person.  Sometimes though, I wish I could freeze time and stop the growing up or at least slow it down a little.  I'm definitely grateful to be past the baby/toddler years, but I'm not quite ready to say good bye to the little girl years just yet.  So it's nice to find evidence that our three youngest girls aren't growing up too quickly - like this Saturday when I found them all playing barbies together.  I had to be sneaky to take this picture, as I think only Natalie will freely admit that she even still likes barbies.  Stay little just a little while longer, okay girls?

November 8 - Afternoons are pretty noisy in our house, but I guess that's to be expected when our five kids and a piano student or two are filling up the house each day after school.  Typically, the noise that stands out above all the others each afternoon is music. There's those piano students tickling the ivories, then we add in Natalie singing, and Emily and Abigail practicing their respective band instruments.  Usually Emily and Abby practice separately so we have a clarinet and a trumpet competing for loudest instrument.  However, on one magical day last week I had to abandon my piano lesson for a minute to capture something I've never seen before and will probably only see again very rarely - they were practicing together and playing duets.  First Emily would take the melody part on her clarinet while Abigail would play the harmony and then they would switch and we'd hear Abigail and her trumpet playing the melody. So today's picture is a pair of videos in...

November 7 - Wow, two posts in a row with a picture of the back of our van.  I haven't been super great about taking a picture every day, but if I had they mostly would have looked like this.  We're still getting ready for our upcoming move and the biggest chore we have to do is go through our house and get rid of stuff.  Last week I spent an entire day in the basement going through things, reorganizing, cleaning, and deciding what to keep and what to say goodbye to.  It was a dusty, dirty, spiderwebby job, but I had a great feeling of accomplishment when all was said and done.  I think I found so much excess stuff in the basement because it's the basement and it's where we put anything and everything that doesn't have a real home but we were not sure we want to get rid of quite yet.  Yep, the ladies at the thrift store were happy to see me!

 November 6 - I guess this is a flashback post since it's now been a full week since this year's Halloween festivities.  It's definitely more than one photo for today, so I'll keep the text brief and let the photos speak for themselves.  On Monday night last week we carved pumpkins for family home evening.  It's become an almost  annual thing around here. Samantha and I carved this boo jack-o-lantern together We had Ethan visiting for the entire week and this is his amazing Mockingjay pumpkin Jared and Natalie made a sweet wolf pumpkin So, I guess it's pretty obvious who made this pumpkin.  The flower beneath her name is patterned after a flower she often draws when she's bored and doodling Madison used the drill with a large bit to send a Halloween message Emily chose an owl for her design.  Just pretend you can see it, okay?  It will make her feel better. When everyone was done we still had one pumpkin left to ca...

November 5 - The picture for today is a little blurry, but it's going to have to be good enough.  Six months ago I ordered the pattern for the Clara Dress  from Sew Liberated.  Four months ago I started tracing the pattern, cutting out the fabric, and sewing it together.  One month ago, in October, I finally finished sewing what was meant to be a lovely summer dress just in time for fall. You know what?  I don't care that it's fall; I've still worn this dress two times in the last two weeks because I love it so much.  I love the pockets, I love the collar, I love the twirly-ness of the skirt, and I love the way I feel when I wear this dress.  I also love my new sewing machine, without which I could never have finished this dress.  It was all done in July expect for the buttonholes and buttons.  However, my old machine just wasn't up to the task.  After sewing and then unpicking three disastrous buttonholes I gave up and consigned m...

November 4 - I know we should really be focusing on one holiday at a time and that November is the time for Thanksgiving and not Christmas.  However, we have to get gifts purchased (or made) and then wrapped, packaged, and mailed off to our loved ones in the States before Thanksgiving or there is no way they will be received by December 25th.  So yesterday I busted out the Christmas wrapping paper and set to work to wrapping what we have so far and making plans for the gifts we still need to buy in the few weeks.  It made we want to sing Christmas songs and pull out our Christmas decorations but I'll be good and wait another month before I start decking our halls. 

November 3 - We're moving to a house on base in a month and after being in the same place for five years - I've never lived in any house in my entire life for that long - we've got plenty of purging to do.  I decided to start in the basement, which in our house is the default place to put anything that doesn't really have a home.  Our bedroom, especially under our bed, is home to many secret stashes of junk and seldom used stuff.  I pulled out all the boxes that were under there and got to work only to be sidetracked by a blanket.  Specifically, my baby blanket that I had forgotten I even had anymore.  It was made for me by my grandmother and when I was growing up it always lived on my bed.  Basically, I sat looking at it and crying for a good five minutes. It's pretty sad looking these days as stains, small tears, and previous repairs have all taken their toll. Grandma had hand quilted around all the animals and flowers, but after so many years o...

November 2 - Throughout November many of my friends post things they are grateful for on Facebook.  I don't know if I'm going to join in and do the same, but I am so very grateful for my family.  My favorite place to be is at home surrounded by Jared and our girls.  They are so much fun to be around and spend time with, especially now as the girls are growing older.  I've got to say, it's nice to be past diapers, nighttime feedings, and tantrums. I feel as if this time in our family's life is about as perfect as it can get and I wanted to have something concrete to document us as we are right now. Today we were able to go and have family pictures taken by an actual photographer.  In the past we've used our camera and the timer to take photos.  They've turned out okay, but it was really nice not to have to worry about running back and forth to set the timer.  Our photographer posted a sneak peek of our photos, so the picture for today is one of the ...

November 1 -Every November for the last few years I've taken a picture a day and then posted it here on our family blog. It's been fun for me and a neat way to focus on the more everyday and mundane parts of our life. Yesterday, on the first day of the month, we had a little bonfire party.  Besides the bonfire, roasting marshmallows, and just having fun with friends, the highlight of the evening was the donut eating contest so it was easy to know what the picture for the first of November should be.