The Schmidgalls in Denmark: October 2009

Legos with Daddy

Back in September, when Broderick left dagpleje, Hanne gave him a lego set as a gift. So that next night Broderick and Brad got to work putting it together. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't work .... they BOTH love playing with Legos.

The instructions that come with Lego or Duplo sets, Broderick calls a map. So here's Brad and Broderick looking at the map.

My Mother's Group

Here in Denmark, when you have a baby, you get almost a year off of work - paid! I know, that would be nice, right. The sundhedsplyerske (home nurse) that you work with puts you in a group with other ladies in your area that have had children about the same time. My sundhedsplyerske was nice enough to put me in a group .... with ladies who all speak great English. So although a lot of Danish is spoken (which is good for me), I can still communicate with everyone and know whats going on. We meet every 3 weeks and take turns hosting it.

Here are the moms I meet up with: Jane, Nina, Jeanette, and Tina. They are all so nice and its so good to spend some time with other ladies.

Anika, Jeppe and Julia playing together.

Little Levi (Nina's daughter)

Jeanette's girl, Sofie takes amazing naps and is usually sleeping - outside of course- eveytime we meet, so we made her wake up Sofie this time so we could actually see her.

I can tell I'm still not very Danish. When we met last week, it was a bit misty out and I wasn't exactly sure where I was going - so of course, I drove. When I pulled up to the address, I didn't see any other cars and I was wondering if I had the address wrong.

Then I saw it ..... 4 barnevogns lined up outside with their kids in them. =)

They had all walked in the misty rain and their kids were sleeping outside in that. Yeah, I felt like a spoiled American wimp.

Hosting isn't difficult either because you just serve a traditional Danish lunch.
This would include:
*Rundstykker (hard rolls)
*Cold cuts
*Cheeses
*Sliced red peppers and cucumbers
*Chocolate wafers (you put on the bread) or nutella
*Coffee and tea

Sometimes there is some sort of pastry too, maybe some fruit and you may have other slight variations, but essentially that is what you eat. It makes it so simple and its quite good.

Of course when I hosted I tried to bring some American flavor to it and served an egg casserole.

Next time I host is right around Thanksgiving, so I have promised them some pumpkin pie. They are all excited to try that.

Carving Pumpkins

Halloween isn't a Danish holidy, but it is becoming more and more popular each year. There are some who get dressed up and go trick-or-treating, but not a huge amount. They have a similar holiday in February called Fastelaven (You may remember I wrote about it back in February) that is a much bigger celebration.

You do see many jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins around town though and Broderick was very excited to make one. We have never done this since Broderick has been born and sadly, I learned this year that Brad had never made a jack-o-lantern!!!! I'm going to have to talk to his mom about this .... Jane?

The plan was to make two faces ... a happy face on one side and a scary face on the other.

We tried to convince Broderick to reach in and scoop out the insides, but he would only use a spoon. The kid does not like to get his hands dirty! While scooping, he would announce to no one in particular ... "I'm doing a REAL good job .... I am .... I'm doing REALLY good." Way to encourage yourself buddy!

Even mommy got involved to make sure we had everything scraped out!

All done! Here's Broderick with the happy face.

Here's the scary face!

We had a ton of seeds in this pumpkin, so I roasted the pumpkin seeds. Mmmmm .... they turned out so good.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Reunion with Fiona

We were so happy to be able to see Fiona while we were in the states. She happened to have a weekend free of cross country meets, so she came home from college to visit her family and us!

Broderick was in bed napping when she got there and so she went up to his room and came in and he squealed loudly, "ITS YOU!!!!!!!!!!" I think he was pretty excited to see her.

We were finally able to meet Bobby too, Fiona's boyfriend. I'm not sure he was a big fan of us since we stole her for the whole summer. Broderick recognized him from talking to him on skype. Technology is amazing.
I think Anika had changed quite a bit since Fiona had left in August.

Broderick still talks about Fiona quite abit. And when he says his bedtime prayers at night, he always says, ".... thanks God for mommy, daddy, Fiona, and Anika .... "

Yeah, he loves her! We miss you Fiona!

Time with Friends

Its always good to see friends while we're in town. Our schedules are a bit crazy while we're back trying to see everyone, still get naps in, and trying not to get too exhausted. But ... we wouldn't have it any other way. Seeing everyone is the highlight of our trips. (That... and all the food.)

We went to Jeff and Terrean's one day and while Broderick was playing with Raelan he came out with this hat on and announced, "I'm a cowboy." Hmmm .... ok.

Luann had an openhouse for me at her house one morning for all the cousins and aunts to stop by so we would have a chance to see everyone and they could meet Anika. That was so great.

Aunt Joanne with Anika and Kim with Abigail.

Luann was busy making lattes for everyone. That's the other Megan Schmidgall behind her. This causes many problems when I go places in town. I have to clarify which Megan Schmidgall I am ... I actually found out they were expecting baby #2 before they had told anyone because of a mix up at the doctor's office. Whoops ... a little HIPPA violation there.

Brad's cousin Randy's wife, Shayla with their two adorable girls.

More of the cousins.

And more ..... yes, we have a few relatives!

Then one evening I was able to get together with a lot of my girlfriends from Iowa. Tricia had us all over and it was a great time. Many of these girls had been in a Bible Study group with me.

Love all of them!!!!!

Terrean, Ann-Louise (Danish friend), Stacey, Me, Michele, Anna, Tricia (with Anika), and Natalie (with her new baby boy).

Stacey, Tricia, and Ann-Louise. Ann-Louise is one of the Danes who moved to Iowa for a time. I'm so sad that she left Denmark, but how great that I get to see her when we visit home.

Anna, Terrean and Natalie

Michele, Anika, and Megan

Tricia makes these adorable flower headbands (her daugher is bald like Anika is and so she got creative). She is actually making them now as a business. I had to try them on Anika.

Lynette and her two girls stopped over one day too. They've grown up so much.

Of course one night we HAD to go to Martinis to eat in Burlington. Brad loves and misses the chicken lips they have there SO much. Here's Ben and Amanda with Anika. They had come to visit us here when Anika was only 6 weeks old.

Here's Brad with Iggy and Carly and Michele and Chad.

Anika and I hung out with Sarah one day for lunch for some yummy Italian! Mmmm.... It was so good - both the food and the company!

I have to say a huge thanks to our parents (both in Iowa and Illinois) who helped SO much with the kids. They were so willing to babysit so I could do things and meet people.

Well, at least they acted willing.

I hope they were.

Actually, they're probably both thanking God we've gone back to Denmark so they could get their lives back!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Some time in Iowa

We made it out to Iowa and the last week, Brad was able to join us since he was coming to town for business.

We were able to be with Grandpa Schmidgall one night.

Sammy was so nice to little Anika.

Precious Anika. She loves watching people. So she was pretty good with all the commotion going on.

Lorenia put Anika to sleep with Gabe helping nearby. Naomi and Broderick are best buds when they're together.

Great Grandma Lois and Anika.

Grandpa Joe reading books with Broderick.

Great Grandpa was so sweet with little Anika ... patting and rubbing her head.

Broderick ALWAYS has Grandma read Frosty the Snowman to him. He always remembers.

All the Schmidgall girls.

All the cousins watching a movie together.

While I was there, there was a run/walk that our church puts on to raise money for water units for countries without pure water. So .... I attempted to run 10km.

Aunt Luann was nice enough to watch Broderick and Anika so I could run.

Broderick was there to greet me when I crossed the finish line. What a supportive little guy.

Jane and Rosie walked the 5k.

Jared ran the 10k too and won 1st in his age division. Ron, my father in law, also ran the 10k and got 3rd in his age division. Sorry to let you all down, but I didn't win anything. I was just glad to run it all and not die at the end. =)

It was so good to see our family and spend some quality time with them. It was good to see our house back in Iowa too. Ron and Jane take great care of it while we're away.

Fishing with Bop-Pop

While we were with my family, we went fishing with my parents. This was Broderick's first time fishing. He was quite excited at first and enjoyed reeling in the fish, but refused to touch the fish or the worm. I'm the same way though so I really can't blame him.

They caught a fish!

Helping Bop-pop

Broderick teaching Anika how its done.

Even I got involved .... and I caught a fish. No, its not very big, but I hadn't been fishing in years. Probably like 15 years since I've been fishing. Everyone else wanted to go, but I refused to leave until I caught one! I was pumped when I finally got his little guy.

Friends in Illinois

We were so happy to spend time with friends while we were in Illinois. It was so great. These are my girlfriends for years and even though its a long time between visits, we pick up right where we left off. We weren't able to see everyone we would have liked to see in our short time, but at least were able to reconnect with a few.

My friend Kristin has a little boy Dillon about a year younger than Broderick.

Kristin with Anika and Annie holding Kylie (Kristin's new baby). Annie has a daughter just a couple weeks older than Anika, but she was a little sick this evening. Hopefully we'll get to see her next time we go home, right Annie?