The Cullingfords: February 2008

Saturday, 16 February 2008

Ice skating on the harbour

There is an outdoor ice skating rink across the water from our house. We've been wanting to go for ages and then it shut because it got too warm,but the last few days have been beautifully sunny but very cold, so they've reopened it and we finally got to go. It was great fun and the children loved it. They were all over the place in the start, but quickly started getting the hang of it. Erin wore real ice skates and Joshua wore these cute little ones with two blades on each foot that fastened onto his boots.

Afterwards we went home for hot chocolates. Erin got fed up way before Joshua and was a bit grumpy and cold by the time we left. Joshua keeps talking about going back... The funniest thing they thought they'd ever seen was when Quentin skated into a young guy and got all tangled up for a little bit. Erin could not stop laughing for ages.

Valentines day

When I got home after my night shift, I found this in the living room. A lovely (1 meter high!) orchid (which I hope I won't kill too soon...), a sweet card and twenty little hearts each with a thing that Quentin loves about me written on it. How sweet and romantic is he!

While Quentin was at work the children made lots of valentines for him. I hung up hearts with numbers on tha back and words on the front. When Quentin got home he had to find the hearts in the right order for him to read my valentine for him.

Erin and Joshua liked all the little fun things we did for each other all day and talking about how we all love each other and the morning after when they were both snuggled up in bed with Quentin (I was on my way home from work) Erin said "I'm really grateful for you, Johua" He said "I'm grateful for you too" and he kept hugging and kissing her all day. It was so sweet.

Sunday, 10 February 2008

Our walk through Augustenborg Woods

Erin looked like a peacock with this large fan shape branch. Every time she turned around Mikkel and I got hit in the face by some ofthe branches.

Joshua with his usual ration of sticks to take home. I think he thinks if he brings enough home we won't have to go out to visit the woods anymore.

Being on the island of Als means that water is never far away!

The girls were trying to find the longest branch to use as a staff. It looked as though we had two Moses' trying to part the red sea with these huge branches.

Theodor and Joshua climbing through the trees

The things us Dads will do to entertain the children.

Mikkel invited us to join him and his children to take a tour of the woods near to where we will live. We had over two hours of fun walking around the woods with the children collecting everything from a "bird apple" (something that looks like a small apple but is not for human consumption) to huge logs which we tried to convince would be too heavy to carry around the woods. Joshua was proud of himself after climbing over this fallen tree.

Fastelavn, er mit navn

Joshua and Erin ready for "fastelavn" at preschool. Joshua was so proud of his beard and had quite a paddy when I washed it off in the bath before bedtime... He wanted me to draw a new one on him the next morning and was not impressed when I told him he couldn't have one every day for preschool.
Joshua was crowned "king of cats" and still has his crown hanging on his bed post (albeit slightly battered by now...)

Weekend in Copenhagen

We went to Copenhagen last weekend and ended up spending most of it at church... We went because there was a leadership training meeting on the Sunday night (which was excellent, by the way), but on Saturday we ended up going to the "fastelavns" party at church, then of course on Saturday night was president Hinckley's funeral, then church and that meeting on the Sunday. But we did get to see some family too which was nice. Here's Joshua whacking the barrel where all the sweetie bags are. The one to get the barrel to break enough to get the sweets out is crowned the "queen of cats" and the one who gets the very last bit of the barrel down is "king of cats"

Erin having a go. Pia behind her.

The loot...

Erin in Pia's lovely big new flat. Pia put Erin's hair in curlers, which of course Erin loved...

"C'mon Josh, give us a kiss..."

Erin and Pia looking at pictures in Pia's SPARE room!!!

crazy but organised...

I came into the living room one morning while Erin was getting dressed in there and watching morning cartoons. This is how I found her. She said it was so that her sock wouldn't get lost while she put the other one on...

It made me laugh how she didn't take it off her head, but tried to cover it up so I couldn't photograph it when she saw me.

Saturday, 9 February 2008

Big Cook, Little Cook

The children love it when I let them cook dinner "all on their own" and they eat more when they've made it themselves too, so at the moment I let them take turns. It takes a bit of creative thinking coming up with dishes that Joshua can do nearly all by himself though, so when he cooks, we have a lot of pasta with pesto and tuna...
Here's Erin making a lovely soup,

And taking a break while it cooks to read the Friend with daddy and Joshua.

Playing catch-up...

It's been so long since I updated our blog, that I couldn't even remember my password... Anyway here goes, I'll start where I left off and share some pictures from christmas with you. My sister put some on her blog as well (http://www.benandnadja.blogspot.com/) as we were together for christmas around my parents, so I won't double up on hers as half the family already see her blogspot.
Anyway,like I said we were meant to be at my mum and dad's for christmas, but just as we had packed the car and emptied the fridge, they called to say that everyone was really ill, so we decided to wait for a bit rather than hurry down there just to catch it as well. It did however mean that we had no food in the fridge at christmas and the shops would all be closed for a few days. But as soon as we went to church and people found out, we were invited to spend christmas eve with three different families (we told you our branch is amazing...;-D)
So in the end we spent christmas eve with Janne and Mikkel and the kids and then drove to Germany the next afternoon.

Erin and Gabriel lighting the christmas candles. Erin says she wants to marry Gabriel when they grow up, because he's the funniest boy she knows.

Theodor and Joshua checking out the presents under the tree... Cheeky little boys!

The kids are now old enough that they are really easy to travel with and the trip to Frankfurt was a pleassure. They napped when we told them to and Erin has this thing where she puts one of our coats over her head to fall asleep in the car. Only thing is, her hair is crazily static...

Erin and the best auntie ever... playing with beads on Boxing Day.

The boys playing with their new toys. Mainly Zak's new remote control helicopters which were a fascination to both the little and the bigger boys...

Ben was so brilliant with the children. He must have read them a gazillion books over christmas. What a lovely and patient uncle he is!

We went for a day out to an organic farm. The kids loved it. Here's a cow smooching Ty...

...and sniffing Joshua's boot.

After that we went to see a natural spring close to where my parents live.

After the spring, we went to a viking themed park to play. (Sorry, Nadja, but I had to put this picture in, it's my absolute favourite... we won't reveal how many hoops Nadja made, but from her pose you may have a guess...)

The children loved this swing, I think we could have stayed there for hours...

One day my parents took all four children to a dinosaur museum and to McDonald's. The children had a wonderful day out with mormor and morfar and Ben, Nadja, Quentin, Zak and I went into town as well and went to a museum and out to lunch. Afterwards we went window shopping and the guys thought they were incredibly clever, when we split up (for one of Ben's toilet-breaks...) and they had all the credit cards and Nadja and I had none. Very funny, guys!

Welcome to our blog

Well, we've been in Sønderborg for a year now and time has really flown by!

We've bought a house in Augustenborg, which is a village 8 km from Sønderborg. It is also right near the water and is on the island of Als. We can't wait to move in on May the 15th.

Joshua will be starting preschool in Augustenborg when we move and for the first time he'll be going without his big sister to look out for him. He clings to her quite a bit, so we're happy that there's a little boy he knows from church starting at the same time. Hopefully he'll settle in well and make friends of his own quickly.

Erin will be starting school after the summer holidays and all the children starting this year, will be spending the summer at the school (in what's usually the after schoolclub -SFO) so that they have a bit of time to get used to each other and the school. It's very good timing for us as they start there in May, -right when we move anyway. It saves Erin a move or us driving her from Augustenborg to Dybbøl every morning.

The kids are growing so fast it seems at them moment and they are really looking forward to spending some time with nana and grandad this spring (we're looking forward to them brushing up on their English too...) and to going on holiday to mormor and morfar's on their own this summer.

Quentin is still enjoying working as a physio and still travels to Aabenraa every morning. He is also the branch mission leader and the nursery leader. The primary president loves him and thinks he is brilliant in that calling... He is incredibly creative in the way he teaches the children and they all love him and their lessons. He says he loves teaching a class where the students' vocabulary doesn't exceed his own:-)

I am the primary president and am still enjoying that very much. I have an amazing councillor who makes my calling a breeze and the children are (mostly) just lovely.
I am working night shifts at the old people's home, which I do enjoy, but I keep looking for other, more creative work and would love to do something else.

Apart from that, there's not much going on in our lives and we quite think it's plenty, really...

We are looking forward to you all coming to visit us in our new house when we've settled in.

2007

As you may know we moved to Sønderborg, Denmark earlier this year. February to be exact.
Quentin had just finished his MSC in physiotherapy in Southampton and with it being so hard to get jobs in England because of all the NHS cutbaks, he also applied to one here in Denmark. We'd always thought it would be fun to move here for a while and thought there'd be no better time than now while the children are still small. It was still a hard decision though and one which involved lots of praying.
We are so happy to be here though. We had originally said we'd "give it at least two years", but Quentin keeps extending that lol. I think that must mean he's happy here:-)
He's working hard at a private clinic and is doing really well there. I am so happy that he is able to do the job he has always wanted to do.

He also takes Danish classes twice a week in the evening and we are all impressed with how quickly he is learning. I'm sure it has a lot to do with his perseverance in speaking Danish even to people he knows speak English very well.
Apart from that he is the branch mission leader (okay, the meetings with the elders are in English for the moment being...)

The branch here is tiny (when we first walked into the sacrament meeting Erin thought it was Primary) and we were a bit worried about that, having always belonged to big wards. It is a very different experience and we have to give lots of talks etc, but we actually really love it. The branch is made up mainly of young families and a few elderly people. The children have made some great friends at church and so have we.

I have been working part-time as a home help, but stopped a couple of weeks ago. I would really like to do something creative and somehow utilise my education, but for the moment I am just enjoying being at home with the children and having the time to do the things I want to. I do start working as a substitute next week, but that means I can choose my own shifts and with the shift hours I still pick the children up between one and two. I am also the Primary president at church. We have about 12 children who come regularly and they are so good to each other. The older ones always play with and look out for the little ones, so being the Primary president is a pleasure.

Erin and Joshua go to the same preschool (børnehave) and love it. Joshua likes having his big sister with him and mainly play with all the "big girls". They also go to gymnastics, which seems to be something everyone does around this area, so we see all the children from preschool there every Monday night as well. They really enjoy that too. Erin chose an all pink and shiny gym outfit, which happened to be the same one half the girls had chosen too, so they all run around as chubby flashes of pink and think they're ballerinas. Joshua keeps telling me how fast he runs at gymnastics and loves going so much. They both think Mondays are the best because there's preschool, gymnastics and then Family Home Evening.

The Cullingfords