Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Here are a few pictures of our kids enjoy their Chritmas presents.

Presents from Nana & Granddad
Presents from Omma & Abba

Sonja

Karina

Daniel

Timothy

Christmas Tree

Winter Sunshine

We see very little of the sun during the winters here in Moscow, so when it does shine we all enjoy those brief moments. However as we approach the shortest day of the year it doesn't get very high in the sky. As our windows face south you would expect us to get a lot of sunshine but as we are surrounded by high building we actually have only two short spells when we get Sunshine. These you can see in the two pictures below. This was taken at about 10;30 when we first see the sun as it briefly pops up over one building and then disappears behind the other.
This is just before midday when it comes up over the tall building shortly before it disappears behind the nearer building and we won't see it again till the next day, if the skys are clear.

Daniel TaeKwonDo

Daniel was performing some of his skills with his Tae Kwon Do group at the Christmas concert in school yesterday, I thought you might like to see him in action. He said to mention that it was two pieces of wood together that he broke!

Daniel

Karina

Timothy

Late Autumn Evenings

Unseen guest

Friends & Co-Workers

Nathan
Elisabeth & Julie

Steve

Anton

Gudrun, Me & Steve

Karina & Kevin

A little while back some of our friends and co workers were in home so we had an evening together in our place.

She's a He!

We were told that the guinea pig we were getting was a "girl" and as one assumes that those who tell you know how to tell these thing, so one doesn't question it. So we all got use to calling her "her" "girly girly" and the likes and finally settled on a name "Jackie" we settled in to a happy life with our Jackie. But as Jackie began to grow beyond the size one would expect a female guinea pig to grow to and in fact as she more and more seemed to be the size of a male, one began to wonder. So after much in dept research and and a careful examination of Jackie (which she didn't really appreciate) our suspicions were confirmed, yes in face our girl was, beyond any doubt a boy. So now we struggle to call him "him and not "her" but we are sure with a little time he will be fine and i guess that should he have any problems we can always get him therapy. He is still Jackie!

The Kids doing different things in school

Timothy's Birthday Party

Timothy wanted to take the boys from his class to Papa Johns Pizza, not all were able to make it, but here he is with three of his friends.

Sonja's Birthday Party

For her birthday party sonja wanted to have her friends home for a sleep over so here she is with them, the four of them make up all the girls in 5th grade.

Our Twins are 11

Timothy and Sonja turned 11 on the 11th of November

(11th Month) sorry the this photo was taken a little later
but i will post some pictures from their parties.

New Addition

Sonja came home from her very first day in school and told us her friend had Guinea Pigs for sale, I think you can figure out the rest.........

Karina is 8

Karina was 8 on the 2nd, she had a party with her classmates (and a few other) after school on the day of her birthday.

Soccer

One of the things Daniel was looking forward to when he got back to school in Moscow, was that now he would be able to join the Middle School (6th - 9th grades) soccer team. Here he is with the team after a recent match.

Saying Fairwell to our Friends in Ireland

One of the harder things we had to do before we left ws saying goodbye to all our friends in our church in Ireland. we had a wonderful year with them and our kids really enjoyed being there and made lots of good friends. We look forward to the next time we are with you.