Let's Rock!

Just a little something about our two little cuties:

You can also download a bigger version (9MB) from this link:

http://www.dautelweb.de/amd/movies/lets_rock_bigger.wmv

Have fun and enjoy!!

Husband Tag

1. What is his name? Jared Raymond Dautel



2. Who eats more? That depends on what it is. During meals Jared's appetite is larger than mine. But when it comes to sweets and desserts I definitely win there.



3. Who said "I Love You" first? He did. We had been dating for a whole week. But he had been waiting to say since our first date.



4. Who is taller? He is, thankfully!!



5. Who is smarter? That would definitely be Jared. He can figure out any problem. He is particularly good with computers.



6. Who is more sensitive? Jared, he is much more sensitive to my needs than me to his. Sad, but true.



7. Who does the laundry? I do, but Jared has no problem helping me. I love folding laundry.



8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When looking at it, Jared does.

Random Things

These are just a set of random pictures from our life lately. Nothing remarkable, just fun.

This gives you and idea of what we have been dealing with for almost 2 weeks now. I am anxious to have us all healthy again.

Playing peek-a-boo with her dad. This has become one of her favorite games.

It seems we have a girl who will love soccer.

Aunt Rike got this whistle for the girls and they love it.

This very fashionable belt is actually a toy for an infant carseat.

The week at the Temple

This is a copy of the weekly update for my siblings and parents

Let’s see if I can condense this past week. I spent all of Monday getting Jared and I ready for our week with the youth of the stake at the Stake Youth Week. Our room still shows the signs of chaos created by all this. Anne and Alicia stayed with Gma & Gpa Dautel and had a wonderful time.

Saying good-bye to our girls. I hate that part of when we go anywhere with out them.

On Tuesday Jared, Richy, Robby and I started out on our 3 hour drive to the Frankfurt Temple. Well, we hit some major traffic that lasted for miles and miles and miles. So we got off the autobahn and used back road (thanks to the handy-dandy navigation system). Jared wanted to get back on as soon as possible thinking that it would be clear up sooner than the radio said. Well, I said that we should stay off. You have to understand, that when it comes to directions or things like that I am usually more right than Jared (even though he lived in Nürnberg his whole life). They didn’t listen to me, because it all looked clear, but guess what…within 2 minutes we had traffic again. He should learn to listen to me. Jared did decide to get off as soon as possible and we continued on our way.

I have to admit that the room Jared and I stayed in was definitely not what we had expected. I will put a picture with this. It was a sort of bunk bed type thing, with the top one in a sort loft type thing. Well, Jared just put the 2 mattresses together on the top part. I hated the ladder each time I had to use it.

Here you can get a feel for how bid our room was. In front of Jared is the bottom bed, folded up to try to get the mattresses together there. They worked better up top (the wood above Jared), so that is where they ended up.

At the temple we did a baptism session each day with the youth. I hadn’t done a session for 3 years. The adults are just there to help the youth and clean in the end. I realized how much I missed doing the actual baptisms. Perhaps, Beate will find some more ancestors that need to be baptized and then I can do it again.

Jared and I were in charge of a workshop for all the kids not old enough to go to seminary. We had them write down their testimonies and then videoed them for cds Jared is making about the temple week. They sure were a hand full.

These are the things I loved most about the Temple Week:
Having 4 days with just Jared and no kids
Getting a full nights sleep, no matter how late we went to bed and how early we got up
Being with my friends and fellow young mothers, who I don’t get to see very often.
Eating sneaking in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to eat with our friend at night when everyone else was in bed.
Talking to my girls on the phone and having their vocabulary increased already
Being in the Temple so much
Being a leader and not a youth (I didn’t enjoy much being a youth at things like this; I just wanted to be a leader and help with planning, etc. Plus, I got along better with the leaders than the youth.

Discovering my patch of grey hair is back. Jared had pulled them all out months ago and I had mourned the loss since.

One night we had a variety show, whích Jared was the MC for. He had written a song for the youth to use for this year's theme. Jared, Richy and Robby sang it at the end of the show.

On the Thursday the youth and leaders were going to be gone all day so I took the opportunity to finish off my training as a temple worker. For those of you who don’t know, here in Germany each stake has several temple workers called from each ward. They help at the stake temple weeks and any other time we are there and they need us. Jared was called as one shortly after returning from his mission. Then when we got married they called me too. I got quite a bit of training done when I was pregnant with Anne, but because of the girls I was never able to get there again for a long enough time to finish everything. So I took this chance while I had it. I finished and even reviewed what I had done before. I loved having the opportunity to really concentrate on what happens in the temple, and think. To slow down and really internalize it all. I learned so much.

The girls had fun while we were gone. But they did get sort of sick. Poor Grandma and Grandpa Dautel had to deal with diahhrea and throwing up. I hope the girls are finally getting over it now.

A long Week

Jared and I have been gone all week at the Frankfurt Temple with the youth's yearly Temple Week. So many interesting things going on with them, as any of you have callings with the youth will know. I will post a more lengthy update after I get my house in order again. You can hear about our biggest news by looking to the right on our blog.

Alicia's Late B-day Party

Because I was gone in America for Mandi's wedding when Alicia turned 1 year old, we decided to celebrate it when I got home. So this Sunday afternoon we had her b-day. We opened gifts, ate dinner and had cake. I think she really enjoyed it, even if she didn't understand why we were celebrating.

We had the meal that seems to be the one picked most often for b-day dinners. It is mexican. The family favorite. We have started giving Alicia utensils when she eats, so that she can learn how to use them.
Anne was just as excited about the gifts as Alicia. You see that she is trying to sneak a peek.

My girls just love dolls. This one is a gift from my parents that I brought home with me from America. When she saw this she absolutely freaked out. She ran around showing it to everyone and yelling "ah-nee, ah-nee". I guess she is copying us when we say Annie's name. She must think that has something to do with excitement. It was the cutest thing. I have never seen her that excited about something before. It was hard to get her to focus on anything else, even her other gifts. (When I got home from my trip she had decided that walking was more fun and more productive than crawling. My life is easier now)

Alicia also got distracted by the new boat for her bath time that she had just opened. She and Anne have already made good use out of it.

I have decided that I don't have the time (or in Germany the resources that I am familiar with) to make a homemade cake for my children's birthdays. Luckily Germany does have wonderful frozen cakes like this one. And the frosting is not heavy, it is actually flavored whip cream. This cream is between each layer along with jam. Yummy!!! I tried to get one of those number candles, but couldn't get one in time.

We did the Jensen tradition for 1st b-days. Strip the baby down to its diaper, give them chocolate cake and let them go at it, and hope they get as dirty as possible. Alicia was a bit hesitant at first but really loved the cake.

She ended up being a lot cleaner abou the whole thing than Anne was, so her dad decided to help her along abit. He wrote I love you, on her chest and stomach. And gave her marks on her face like a football player.

She loved when dad decided to feed her cake with his finger. She giggled and giggled.

This is the finished product of the cake adventure, with a little help from her dad. She is a much cleaner eater than Anne was.

She hated to clean up part and was so mad at us. A neccesary evil I am sad to say.

Our Family Saturday

Yesterday we spent the whole day together as a family. We invited the Dautels to come too. We went to the mall, the park (Nürnberg's equivilant to Central Park), got ice cream and rode a fun train. I thought you might enjoy the pictures of it. Sorry there are so many.

We had to stop and get new shoes for Alicia and Anne got to ride Lightning McQueen.

Look at our Super Model. Isn't she adorable!

I don't think that Anne or the rest of us have ever seen a rubber ducky that big before.

We don't have a park in our village so my girls don't have much experience with them. This is Alicia's first time on a swing. She liked it for the first couple seconds, then decided it wasn't so much fun. Cute picture though.

Dad bought her a new hat. He just can't resist cute things for his girls.
These girls love each other so much. They look like they are about the same size in this one.

They were even allowed to eat their own ice cream cones. And in the car. They really enjoyed it. And it made such a messy mess.

On our train route to Nürnberg they had a beautiful, old-fashioned train running. Anne has a real passion for trains so Grandpa and I took her for a ride on it. She was so excited, but as you can see it was a long day and she was worn right out.

As you can see, it was fabulous and exhausting day. She layed there for about a half hour just where her grandpa put her. It was such a fun day.

We are still here!!

Sorry I haven't been on for so long. I was trying to finish my German class and get ready to go to America for my sisters wedding. It was a surprise for her, so couldn't say anything even on my blog in case she read it. As things slow down and I get back into a routine I will post pictures and a summary of the trip.

I loved being with my family but really missed Jared and the girls.