Our little musician

Sydney got a magazine with a recorder from Oma and Opa for Christams. She loves music so much - that she's been running around the house "playing" her recorder. I think we might just accidently forget it here.

Season's Greetings

Christmas wishes to one and all from the little elf



and the medium sized elf.



Bendels wish family and friends a very Mery Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

3 Years Old!

Here's Sydney just minutes old.


Sydney and her 1st Birthday cake.


Syd trying out the gifts and clothes from her 2nd Birthday.


Princess Sydney on the moring of her 3rd Birthday.

Happy Birthday Sydney - we love you.

6 Years Ago

I married the man of dreams. We've had so many fun, crazy, and memorable moments. We have two little princesses - who keep us busy.
I love you David, here's to many more years and memories.

4 Months Ago

4 Months ago today - this little cutie was born. Crazy how fast time goes by. I love this little girl - especially how she lits up when I come into the room. Her smile can melt hearts. I love you Ashlyn!

A New Dress for Sydney

Sydney needed a new dress - so that we could attend a funeral on the weekend. I took a quick look at the websites for my favorite local kids stores - but nothing black or dark colorwise to be seen. So this morning after getting both girls fed and after I had breakfast I decided to go through my bucket full of material - and I came across a black 3/4 length shirt that I no longer wear - so in less than an hour it has been transformed into the latest dress for Sydney. Nothing fancy but it'll work for the funeral and afterwards I'll probably add a ribbon belt or maybe a flower to it.


Here is a very unhappy girl - she had to try it on at least 5 times before it was done.


I asked her to pose for one last picture and this is the result. What a girl!

Rainy Saturday Afternoon

What do you do on a rainy Saturday afternoon? Sydney decided she wanted her toe nails painted. So once Ashlyn was asleep, and David busy helping friends move - we painted our toe nails. Syd gave me orders through out the whole toe painting experince. I've never seen her sit so still so long. It's so much fun to have a girly girl - I wonder if Ashlyn will be like Sydney and love clothes and shoes and eveythign else girly or not.

Sewing Projects

Ashlyn needed a Halloween costume - so here it is - Baby Batgirl. Above is the back view complete with a cape. Below is the front view. She was a hit at the party.



This year we won't be in Canada for Christmas - so it means I need to get everything ready very early for me niece's box. It's a challenge to come up with gift ideas that aren't too big or heavy. Here's one thing I came up with - a blanket.



My niece is going to become a big sister in February so I had to include a little something for her baby brother or sister. Seeing as we don't know if the baby is a boy or girl - I decided every baby needs bibs - so here's the baby's gift.

Halloween

Here's a picture from the Halloween Party - this was right at the beginning - before Syd had realized that she would get candy for every game she played. Also this is the best picture to see the backside of Syd's costume.


Here's Ashlyn aka Baby Batgirl. Baby Batgirl was very content to watch all the older kids play games - and just before we left she decided to pass out in her stroller.


Sydney got a Dora costume when we were in Canada last year and she told me daily for most of October that she was going to be Dora for Halloween. This is one of the only pictures with the hair on - as soon as we had our backs turned it was off.

Twins?

I remember hating that my mom dressed my sister and I in the same outfits. There are 22 months between us. The outfits were endless, everything from pjs, dresses, snowsuits, and anything else you can imagine. Our hair was cut the same way, we had matching baby blankets and this matching seemed to go on at least til I was 8 maybe even longer. We were mistaken for twins so I'm told - how I don't know.


Here you see the same hair cuts and matching bathrobes.


Here we are in the same snowpants and the shirts underneath apear to match as well.

I remember swearing that I would never do the same to my kids and look what has happened. Nana sent them matching dresses - this is the result.


There is more of an age gap between them they are 2 1/2 years apart. But I do have to admit they look pretty cute even if they're in matching dresses.


I blame the matching entirely on my mom - so when the girls are older I'll tell them it's all their Nana's fault.

A Rainy Saturday

What do 3 girls home alone on a rainy Saturday do?
Make cookies - that's Sydney answer this morning.


Here is a picture of the bakers courtesy of Sydney and her photo skills.


So we made and painted stars, moons, and cars sugar cookies.




Sydney decided that she also needed to make a cookie in the shape of her hand.


Here she is showing off her cookies.


While we were busy in the kitchen, Ashlyn spent the entire time asleep in her swing. What a hard life she has.

Can you tell the difference?

Can you tell which one is Sydney and which one is Ashlyn? I'll reveal the correct answer next Saturday the 7th of August.
Answer: Ashlyn is the top picture and Sydney is the bottom picture.

Ashlyn Jordyn Bendel

Birthday: 18.07.2010
Time: 4:00 pm
Weight: 7 lbs & 10 ozs
Length: 21 inches

Geburtstag: 18.07.2010
Uhrzeit: 16:00 Uhr
Gewicht: 3460 g
Größe: 53 cm

Cucumber Monster

Here in Germany we seem to have a problem with Cucumbers this year. They never seem to make it home in one piece. This one did make it home - but then the monster walked into the kitchen saw the cucumber and stole it right off the counter and took a big bite out of it.

Baby Blanket

Seeing as I only have 5 weeks or so left I decided that I needed to finish up the Baby's blanket. Sewing with a 2 year old is definetly not easy - seeing as she wants to help. Thursday was a holiday here so I took advantage of David being home and finally got it done.

Jean Skirt

Sunday afternoon David and Sydney were busy playing with legos, so I decided that I would go through a box of material and see what I could come up with. So this skirt was the result, they were an old pair of jeans.


Sydney was more then cooperative to try on the skirt as many times as I asked, but getting her to pose in the skirt was another story.

Carrots and Yoghurt

Syd loves to dip food. She ends up eating more dip then anything else. So tonight at dinner she asked for dessert - so David brought raw carrots and some of her favorite yogurt to the table. Being 2 - she decided to dip the carrot in the yoghurt. She ate the whole carrot, dipping it over and over again in yoghurt. It only tastes good when your 2 - David and I didn't like her dessert.

My Little Baker

Sydney has a new favorite room in the house - the kitchen. She loves to be in there and search for food herself or watch what is being made in this room. Syd saw a muffin mix on the counter that I had been meaning to make - so she decided that she wanted to make papa muffins. She was so excited to help she could hardly stand still. Here she is showing off her muffins before they go into the oven.


She also had to make sure that they tasted okay before anyone else was allowed to eat them.

Syd approves, we're now allowed to eat them as well.

Newsletter 2009

Our newsletter for 2009 is finally done. Also all the other past editions are here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

English Newsletters:
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Deutsche Newsletter:
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Twinkle, Twinkle LittleStar

Sydney has a new favorite song. Twinkle, twinkle little star. But she has renamed it to Twinkle Star What You Are.
Anyways, take a look and you'll see what I mean.



Sorry that the video is the wrong way.

Long Overdue Update

Yes,I am still alive and well . If anyone has noticed I kind of dropped off the blogging world. The last time I wrote was in October and I did have good intentions of getting more posts up before the year was over. Well as you can see that didn't happen, and for a very good reason.

I'm pregnant! I was very sick at the beginning and simply taking care of Syd became a task all of its own. Then when I started feeling better it was the week before we headed off to Canada. And the last 4 weeks were spent in Canada.


So here's the latest utlrasound picture of our baby. The baby is due on the 13th of July so this picture is the baby at 14 weeks.

Hopefully I can get a couple pictures from last Halloween - New Year put up this week.