The Smell of Cinnamon and Spice

I emailed Leah's primary president the other day and since Sunday was the primary program at church I mentioned it and told her thanks for the work she does in primary.  She emailed me back and this is how she described my Leah.

"She is the smell of cinnamon and spice when you walk into a house at Christmas."

I love my Leah.  And I'm glad she has great primary teachers/leaders at church.  I am amazed at some of the stuff she knows and it wasn't stuff I taught her.  Apparently even when she's not sitting still in her seat, she's learning stuff in there!

JaLayne and David's Visit

We get so many more visitors than anyone else I know in Moscow.  And we're not even done - we have two more visitors set up for November and then maybe we'll be done.

End of Sept/early Oct. Levin's sister JaLayne and her husband David and cute baby Porter came to visit.  We had a great time with them of course.

 Levin and JaLayne at GUM.

 I actually don't know where this is . . . but I feel like I should.

 Levin sitting on the stand next to the Stake Presidency member that was visiting the Sunday they were here - Pres. Ashtachov (sp?)

 JaLayne and I at the Kremlin.

 We took a little one day trip to a town called Dmitrov.

 We wen to this museum (blue/grey building) that was a house Tchaikovsky lived in.  There was hardly any information about him.  There were barely any signs about anything.  There was an adjacent house that had much more information about one of his students who later became somewhat famous.  Obviously not as famous, or I'd remember his name and I don't.

 I don't know why we all look so tired in this picture below, but it was waiting for our shashlik at the souvenir market in Moscow.

 This bridge was back in Dmitrov.  It is covered by locks.  That's the romantic Russian thing to do.  Buy a lock, write your names on it, lock it on a bridge and throw the key way in the water.

Around The House Random Photos

I was so excited to buy this easel thinking Leah would love it.  Hmm . . she did for about 3 minutes.  Autumn however REALLY liked it and drew on it for a long time.  You  may notice our hide-a-bed sofa pulled out.  While Levin was on his trip the kids and I had a sleep over and slept on it.  I didn't make it through the night of course.  We left it out for a few days and it was our "happy machine" and I'd fold the kids up in it a little and then they had to come out happy.  It worked a little bit.  I had told Leah I missed how she used to get so excited over everything and asked her what we could do to get that Leah back.  She came up with the machine idea and I think I came up with the hide-a-bed being our machine.

 We are not very consistent with doing "mommy school" but I try to do something fun with the kids every day.  Today we shot baskets and then threw bean bags on the trampoline, so not always school-like, but I guess at least it is my attention.  We learned a little bit about Noah's ark and so we made a zebra mask.  The kids really liked it.

 I don't remember having such a hard time with the other kids at transferring from 2 naps to 1.  But with Autumn is it a constant battle.  We get one nap down, she sleeps much better through the night, and then she has a couple of rough nights in a row, can't make it to nap time so she falls asleep.  Then she is tired too early for bed . . . blah!  I thought we had it figured out again, but today she is asleep for a 2nd nap which will mess her up for sleep tonight which will . . . I can't take it!

Getting ready for bed

I posted this picture below because I think Autumn looks like me - or like I did look I should say.

Kinder Joy

We went to the mall one day and there was a lady working for Kinder chocolate that had this display where you could get your picture taken and these images (that were not really there) appeared.  The kids did it while I looked in American Eagle I think.  I'd told Leah she could sit on a bench while I went inside, but then we found some toy horses you could ride and this Kinder thing.  When we were walking to the car she started crying and when we finally figured out why it was because she hadn't gotten to sit on a bench.  There is just no pleasing some kids.

Kazakstan

Levin is the Foreign Agricultural Service person over Kazakstan.  We only have a local hire there and he covers it from Moscow. He does a pretty good job if I do say so myself.  He went on a trip there in September, over my birthday. sniff, sniff.  I don't know what these pictures are,  I don't even know who the people are shaking hands, but here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Potty Party

We didn't get any pictures of the actual potty training, but we did get a picture of the kids wearing Oliver's potty party present - super hero costumes.  Conveniently, he will also be Batman for Halloween.

We had super hero underwear, super hero books, and we potty trained his Batman doll.

I am a HUGE fan of Potty Training in a Day - I don't know who writes it.  Anyway, so far it has made potty training Leah and Oliver go so much better than anticipated.  That's not to say it was over after that day and we haven't have rebellions or tests of mother's love. BUT it got the ball rolling really, really, well.

Leah was my SUPER HELPER that day.  I couldn't believe how well she did at encouraging Oliver to go potty, taking Batman and Spiderman potty, and distracting Oliver so we could have Batman "pee" (lemonade) in the potty.  She loved it.

I think she was a little let down when she realized that Dolly (the one we used when potty training Leah) didn't really go potty and that I had tricked her.  But luckily, she didn't let the cat out of the bag for Oliver.

We almost didn't get to have the party that night because Oliver would not drink anything.  I wish I had more pictures, darn it.  And I wish he had pants on in this picture, but since he spent most the day with just undies on I guess it is factual at least.

Happy Birthday To Me

My birthday was kind of weird this year because Levin was in Kazakstan on my actual birthday.  So I think 10 days or so before I got to open my present which Levin surprised me with - a Vitamix. 

 

We have done several things with it, but one of our favorites, and the only one we got pictures of was we made butter in it.  It was amazing how the butter actually turned yellow.  And we got butter milk which I put in a pancake recipe or something.  The butter tasted good too.

The thing I've used it for the most however is to make whole wheat flour.  We really like using white wheat.  I think I've decided 50% is best, but last night we had 100% bread and it's not bad and the kids honestly don't seem to notice a difference at all. 
I am hoping once it is summer and warmer we can make more smoothies in it.  We've tried varying kinds of "ice cream" and most were good.

Leah Ballerina

Last year I was so sad that when Leah missed her ballet recital I realized I didn't really have any pictures of her in her ballet clothes at all.  So I vowed I'd take some throughout the year.  This was before one of her first ballet classes.

Surprisingly, she hasn't gotten sick of it yet.  She is 4 so she was supposed to be in the youngest class again, but the teachers asked if she would move up so she wouldn't be bored since she'd already done that class.  So now she gets to be in class with her friend Alexis who goes to kindergarten so she was very excited.  She still calls it Alexis's ballet class, not her own.
This year I've decided as soon as she is done with ballet we are done with ballet.  But so far she doesn't put up any arguments when its time to get ready and go.  Maybe I should have taken that attitude last year.
I wanted her in the younger class initially because I thought she could use the boost of being more experienced in class.  But in the older class she doesn't have that.  One day I asked if she tried and she said, I tried, but I can't do all the things the other girls do.  Well, she is younger than the other girls.  Anyway so we're focusing on as long as you try and respect the teachers.  They close curtains now so I can't see in how she's doing so I just pretend she's doing perfectly and paying attention which was sometimes a problem last year.

Levin Work Travel Pt. 2

They visited a food production factory.  Fish.

 Can't you just smell the fish!  And doesn't it kind of make you sick.  I promise when he came home his suitcase smelled like fish.  I have to plug my nose when I pass that part of a grocery store and when I'm pregnant I have to run past it.

 Sausage stuffing.  Yum . . or something.

 Levin's boss holding hands with some Russian dude.  :)

 Learning to mass assemble little meat pies.

 And this is production of palmeni (I have no idea how you spell it) but it is little pasta dumplings with meat balls inside.  WHen we first got here I enjoyed it okay boiled with a little sour cream, butter, and salt.  But now . . . not so much.  But my kids LOVE IT.  From the moment we got here and at that point both Leah and Oliver would not touch meat.  But somehow this flavored up (gives you nasty burps) meat they liked.

 Coming off the line palmeni.

 Levin eating some kind of pie or something . . .

 The bagged up palmeni.  We always eat beef or pork, but these were . . . . HORSE!  Look at the bag's top right corner and you can see the lovely picture of the horses.  I don't think that's sell so well in the US.

 This is more what Russian houses look like out in the country.  I went on a day trip last Saturday and apparently the "investment" Russians are making is into their Russian country homes.  Some of these are being taken down and replaced with brick, but apparently the window decorations (these are actually quite boring compared to others - usually they stand out in a different color) are back in style now. 

 A church.

 And then on to the mink farm.

 Luckily Levin has this job and not me . . I'm not so much into touching animals.

 And the furs.  PETA watch out!