Happy New Year 2009!

I haven´t got the opportunity to update my blog about our Christmas yet! I hope I can do that in the new year hehe...

So, as the new year unfolds, I would like to wish all friends and families and your loved ones God´s wonderful blessings and peace, good health, happines and prosperity in the coming new year.

May the new year bring more and more blessings that each of us can share.

May each day bring for you a new joys and new hopes.

I wish you success in all the opportunities that come your way this year.

Happy New One and All!

God bless!

Luth and Family

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

To all friends around the globe,

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas 2008

and a joyous and prosperous New Year 2009.

May God continue blessings!.

Greetings from us,

The Sturm Family

(Almost) Ready For Christmas!!

Christmas decorations are up. Presents for our loved ones have been bought. Handmade cards have been sent …(yeah took so much of my time doing them but enjoyed it so much, maybe they don´t look amazing or so great like the one in the shops but I feel its rewarding; I feel the joy which cannot be purchased). Receiving handmade Christmas cards is special isn´t it? To friends that I cannot reach via Christmas cards this year, please don´t be kumaus, I am really lack of time. I will try next year kio. Christmas songs are playing nonstop now. Christmas cookies have been baked (Peanut cookies tapi sikit saja...maybe I will try to bake Pineapple tart or Kueh Makmur kalau rajin...) Christmas menu has been set.. White Christmas kah tida?? I don´t think so... weather man says next week will be just grey and temperature will be mild. But that´s okay for me...at least the road will not be slippery as we will be on the road during the season to visit hubby´s relatives. Christmas season, no matter how stressful, is always full of joy, especially if you have little kids at home!, we’re getting a real tree this on Friday and cannot wait to decorate it with my boys.. they also enjoying helping mama rolling dough making Christmas cookies..this adds more special feelings and put us more into Christmas mood. I am so ready for Christmas with my little family in Germany but actually started missing my family back home as Christmas is approaching, I am sure Christmas back home is much much merrier sebab ada family gathering with lots of yummy food. Aduii sedihnya aku cannot be there to join them...but there is not much to be done about it, just have to cope being separated with mama, siblings and anak anak buah yang tercinta…sob! sob! ...nasip ada telephone ...yang jauh jadi dekat.

Our simple tree is now standing and decorated...

To those who celebrate Christmas wherever you are...in Malaysia, in Europe, US, Australia or any other parts of the Globe...bah good luck with your preparation!.

Kindergarden Photos!

Taking my boys photos is not very easy. The eldest, whenever I am clicking my camera he turns his face away or pulls out his tounge!. The small guy always making face..I rarely have nice smiley photos of him…My poor boys are sometimes sick of camera because I am contanstly asking them to pose for mama. I am sorry to admit it, but I even resort to bribery at times and promise a toy or a sweet if they let me take a few photos of them. I guess I am a sucker for punishment, but I love taking photographs...bah mamarazzi kan! hehehe.. Last month my boys had photo session in their kindergarden...The theme was AUTUMN. I dressed them up and I was hoping they would cooperate with the photographer especially my little one, because he is extremely shy. He would only pose for mama (sometimes tho) but for stranger? We´ll see... First, group photo, individual photos and siblings photos. Luckily the photo session was a whole lot of fun, I was there behind the photographer....berabis saya signaling them to smile to the camera hehehe...The boys actually had a great time posing and the result was great. The photos are ready. Here are some to share and soon I have to get ready copies of my beautiful pieces of art of my loved one for gifts this holiday ......

Yellow Group Photo at St. Konrad Kindergarden (can you find my boys??) Showing his teeths!

Malu malu lagi!

Blooming to be a Pilot? LOL..

Siblings pose!

First Snow Of The Year!!

Oooooooh! There’s SNOW ON THE GROUND!!!!!

YAY!!!!

Snow makes my day. Makes my kids day!. Winter is not my liking, but as long as there is snow, I think I can handle the weather a lot hehe. I have to say I am a snow lover!!.

We had our first snow of the year a week ago. Its not even officially winter yet but first snow made an early appearance. Kids were so happy..It snowed for 4 days here in the South.. (In the South there’s always more snow).

The first and second day, the snow did not settle because the ground is not cold enough yet. We had blue sky and the sun shining in between made the snow melted quickly. But the third day, it was snowing well enough to call it snow, we had our first real snow fall.

Anyway, it feels good experiencing the first layer of snow although it's not enough to use it for snowboarding or sleighing yet (kids were frustrating..prasss menonggeng tida dapat main sleigh tuari haha). But that will come soon - I am sure!

I managed to snap a few photos before the snow melting away....

All is white..all is bright

Neighbourhood

View from my son´s bedroom. Thick layer of snow on his balcony. This is the first day, not enough snow for shoveling yet.

Happy 6th Birthday, Liebe Kenneth!

(18th November)

Unsere kleine Kenneth ist jetzt 6 jahre!!!. I can't believe it has been 6 years!!!. It feels like only yesterday that he came into our world. Life has been quite a journey. Amazing how life happens. This birthday was different from any others. All of Kenneth´s other birthdays seemed to be cute little baby birthdays, this year he is a little boy. We were enjoying watching him experience joy, friendship, love, presents, cake, attention, and all the other things that come along with birthdays. Kenneths had so much fun with his friends, they’re all at such a fun age, they just run around playing, role playing, and having a total blast!. Like other parents, hubby and I are experiencing the good, the bad, the hard, the fun, just everything in raising kids, and Kenneth turning 6 just seems to be such a huge step for him and for us. Our hope and prayer for him today is that he would continue to be the great person God created him as. He is our joy, a special gift to light up our room and bring smiles to our faces. I hope he never loses that, whatever it is. I pray for his heart, that it would remain soft and sensitive. That he would be humble and down to earth all his life. Happy Birthday son. You are loved more than you’ll ever know. ♥♥♥Mama, Papa and Kyle♥♥♥

Martinstag (St. Martin Day)

Last Tuesday (11.11) my boys celebrated "Martinstag“ (St. Martin Day) in Kindergarden. It is their yearly activity. We joined a short mass in rememberance of St. Martin in church followed by lantern procession in the street with all the kindy kids and their families. While walking down the street with lantern and torches, kids sang songs about good old Marty and their lanterns. It was great for Kyle as it was his first time holding lantern during the procession. They made their own little lanterns in kindergarten. The procession ended in the kindergarden garden area. Kids were sharing breads (semmels) that have been blessed by the Priest. Parents enjoyed sipping glühwein (Glow Wine) and bratwürst (sausages) and some Plätzchen (cookies) around a small campfire. St Martin is a holiday to commemorate lives of humility that came to symbolize sharing and helping each other in hard times. Saint Martinus or Martin of Tours, was originally a Roman soldier. He was baptized in adulthood, became a monk and was known as a kind man who led a quiet and simple life. Legend has it that he once tore his cloak in half and gave it to a begger to keep him from dying of cold during a snowstorm.

Shadow Theatre about St. Martin in Church. Hand in hand during the procession. The campfire.

A lot For New Home

Hi. Welcome to our Donaublick 4, (our future home add), this post will follow the progress of our new home from the start, through every stage until the end (I hope). I will try to include as many photos as I can along the way. This is my sharing to relatives and friends. I just wanna blog about it, at least something for me to remember when I am rocking in my armchair one day kekeke... I hope you will enjoy witnessing/sharing the making and the birth of our little home..

Here was a former swimming pool.

Hubby cleaning the lot, cutting down grass with "rimbas". Showing my goodwill LOL..bah gotong royong!

This place become a new residential area now.

The boys had to tug along, the whole day under the hot sun, pity them!

To be continued..........

1st Day At School !!

My youngest, my little man, my baby, my preemie (who is only 3) just started as junior at St. Konrad kindergarden last week. Its a big step both for him and for mama. He had never been out of my sight since birth so I was so scared something would happen to him when I am not with him. Its hard to see your baby grow up and the 1st day of school is like being kicked in the gut and being slapped in the face with the reality all at once. I have a combination of excitement, happiness, loneliness, fear, and so forth. I don't really know how to explain it, but when you look at your child standing there with a backback, you just think "wow, how did this happen so quick." It seems that this moment just crept up on me so fast, and I didnt have time to prepare for it. Its just weird for a couple of days..but I hope I will get use to it...Anyone else feel like that when your child first started school?

Gott seid dank! (thank God!), Kyle is so excited attending kindy. Every day full of spirit. When I drop him in kindy, that son of mine didn´t look back once at all. He just walked in into his classroom like he own the place. Lucky for him, he is in the same classroom his brother has, and he already knows some of his classmates from playing in the kindergarden while we were waiting for his brother or when the boys come over playing. It was quite a relief when the classroom teacher mentioned to me that Kyle has settled in quite nicely.

He loves it!. I am so thankful that he enjoys it as much as he does. I'm worried about how he will go with all the other kids. He is actually very shy and doesn't really interact with other kids. I hope by going to kindy Kyle will slowly develop his social skills and some kind of independence. Let him experience the world so he does grow and blossom. Ich bin stolz auf dich Kyle, gut gemacht! ( I am proud of you Kyle, well done!).

Trick-or-Treating!

Halloween is not really a traditional German celebration. But now its common to see pumpkin (Kürbis) and jack-o'lantern decorations in Germany in late October. It has become a popular celebration for children and adults in German Europe. Although Halloween is not a holiday in Germany it didn´t stop me from dressing up my boys and participating in trick-or-treating. We went through our neighborhood and both of our boys enjoyed having their bags filled with candies. Very sad to see only a few lighted up houses in the street for Trick or Treaters this year. Even sadder to see not many kids out trick or treating. We prepared one basket full of candies and we only had 4 kids came up to take our offers. We still have so much left over and my boys are climbing the wall to eat them all ...

Our House Is Sold!!!

Yup that´s right, you heard it. We sold our house, we sold our house, we sold house house. Ya, ya, ya..can you see me doing the happy dance???? Oh yeah, we sold our house hehehe... Okay I am drinking champagne and celebrating. In fact, we have been trying to put our house on the market since two years ago. You see, it has been for agessss!!.... In this time we have had numerous offers made, accepted and rejected. We had pretty hectic life in trying to sell this house. Praise the Lord, it´s all over now. It´s done!. It´s worked out in the end. Sometimes it´s worth waiting, walaupun lama but we feel satisfied in the end. Hari ini dalam sejarah!, Wednesday, 16th October, 2008, at 16.30 hour, we exchanged contracts and finally completed the sale of our house. The relief associated with this sale is huge!!. We felt like a big burden is just lifted from our shoulders!. It feels so much better to have it over with. Now we can focus on the building of our new home.. (in the progress now...) We are getting excited about the move but we are also really starting to realize that we will be leaving here...haiyah I don´t want to think so much about the moving now...We are just glad that this house is sold. It has been giving us good shelter for 6 straight years....We will be leaving a lot of happy moments here...

Golden October!

My first post after I made a come back to blogging world!. Tried to post earlier tapi tiba tiba jatuh sakit pula haiyah!..went down with flu, cough, soar troat and bad headache....I am glad I had enough rest and sleep, now I am ready to face the world again hehe.. I can't stay sick for very long I don't have the time to... Berbalik kepada cerita autumn...our gloriously beautiful autumn days are back. After strolling around our housing area a few days ago, I found that more than the trees were hailing the coming winter with the fall crimsons and golds. Autumn is one of my favorite time of year, with its brisk, cool, and beautifully colored leaves. By this time of year, many of us are tired of the summer's stifling heat, and we're ready for the changes granted by autumn. The flowers begin to fade, the leaves begin to turn their wonderful colors, from green to the vibrants reds, oranges, yellows and browns...and the grass doesn't need mowing so much. I can’t help but looking in awe at the breathtaking colors that this autumn has unveiled. We begin putting up all out summer wear, and get out all our long sleeve clothes, our jackets, hats and gloves. We begin wondering what to give for Christmas and getting our lists ready!. When the leaves start to spill onto the crisp green grass, before they turn into yukky, squelchy mud I quickly took a few shots!. So enjoy viewing them. It's Autumn and it's beautiful. To those who are experiencing autumn now..enjoy it and happy raking (in case larrr haha).

Coming Back Slowly!

I am coming back to my blogging world (Slowly but Surely!). I want to get back to regular posting soon. Kononlah haha... If there was an award for bad bloggers, I would get it. I really have missed it, I look forward to blogging again. It's a lonely feeling for Tumpi in Schwandorf to be silent. Now I sit in front of my computer, staring at the welcome screen. So, I am now back to being the lone wolf, doggy-paddling through the internet... In the mean time, let me know what I’ve missed in the blog world.???

Resting From Blogging!

Dear my fellow bloggers / Friends, I am taking a break for a couple of weeks or maybe months from blogging world. I do really missing to write but I think taking a break can do good to me. I hope this break is refreshing... I appreciate your kind messages and comments over the past few months. Thanks for taking your time to visit my humble blog. If I am in your list, please don´t delete me hehe...(merayu lagi ni!). Once I am ready I will be entering the world of blogging again. This break/rest will give me time to think about some other things in my life and give attention to them. Its bad, because I just started getting to know some of the bloggers but don´t worry I don´t give up blogging. I´ll be back. I will “see” you again in a few weeks/months. Happy Blogging!

Being busy and sick of being sick!

In the winter I get sick more often but never in Summer. This time I created a new history when I welcome Summer...I had fever, bad headache and now cold and flu which make me feel pretty miserable. The flu is so nasty!. Masuk second week sudah but still not fully recovered yet! I didn´t know where did I catch this virus...I had watery eyes, runny noses, stuffy nose and scratchy throat. Leceh betul oh. I have been quite busy lately, Yes, it’s been a while since the last posts but there have been many good reasons. I cannot be unhappy about the fact that offline activities are taking more and more of my time these days. When the weather gets warmer, its hard to find time to sit infront of the computer. Its not because I don't have things to share but rather because life has been a bit exciting lately hehe..so many things I have to do, many places we have explored and many many more to come during this Summer. We have done a few family weekend activities tapi tiada masa mau blogging about it...lama lama idea hilang lupa apa mau ditulis and cerita pun sudah jadi bangas LOL... It´s look like July is a busy month for my family. Everyday I have my routine task to follow but our weekend calendar is full! Many interesting events take place, sometimes we do not know which one to go first hehe...That´s the nice thing about Summer. So better enjoy it as much as we can as Summer only last for a few months...Its so enjoyable but sometimes exhausting for my youngest, kesian juga dia..when we go out a lot his misses his nap and tida tentu makan (too much playing and too much excitement!). So my fellow bloggers yang rajin melawat di sini...just letting you know, I am still here alive and kicking, thanks for dropping by..thanks for your messages and comments..keep them coming okay...I´ll be blogging again when time permits and I will drop by at your blogs sometimes. People say, busyness is good, it makes you not be a couch potato. Being busy, spaces in our lives would get filled. I just hope I will not be worned out lah .... So, enough rambling for now. I can be thankful I have my health, my boys, and for being busy as opposed to nothing to do. Betul kan? LOL...

The Final Countdown!

So the big final that comes around every four years will be in a few hours. Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed some fantastic display of football. Germany will slug it out with Spain for final supermacy. In a few hours, Sunday, 29, at 20.45 most of us will grip our TV sets, sofas, Chips, Coke or Beers for the Final of UEFA European Football Championships 2008 in Vienna, Austria. Oh what a final!. Germany have qualified for the European Championship final for a record sixth time and for the first time in 12 years. Spain has reached their third European Championship final and their first one in 24 years.

German Team:- German team started as favourites but have not grabbed the headlines like the likes of Holland, Croatia and Spain. They got off to a good start against their close rivals Poland with Podolski once again grabbing the headlines at a major tournament unlike at his club side. Then came the Croatia defeat and they were forced to face up to the fact that they had a few weak spots and were going to have to produce their best if they were to win the tournament. They then beat Austria in the final crunch game, but 1-0 was far from a convincing result. I think they were a little lucky that they didn’t find ourselves in a 'Group of Death' like the one with Italy/France/Holland/Romania. Up against Portugal they were no longer the favourites but they pulled a top performance out of the bag. Turkey were seen as relatively easy opponents, but once again the proved that nothing can be taken for granted. They are in the final despite not producing our best. In the qualifiers they were awesome; during Euro 2008 so far they have been efficient but not spectacular.

Spanish Team:- I think every Spanish fan will agree that this tournament has been like a dream come true for them. They always demand their national team play beautiful football but in the past, that has always prevented them from going far because they’re not as good defensively and tactically. But things have changed now. They still play attractive football but they´re more well-balanced. Against Italy, for example, they played smart. They kept on attacking but they were also cautious not to get caught in defence. It’s good that their style of football is finally paying off and I think they showed everyone that they can still play attractive and go far in a competition. But now, the bar is set high. Every tournament from now on, a lot of people will expect big things from Spain. Hey! Do you have a ticket for the EURO Cup final? What are you waiting for? Siapakah yang akan menang di final dan menjadi juara Euro 2008? Many fans pick Spain earlier to win but I have to stay with the German team kalau tida kana pukul or kena buang negara LOL...so Good luck Germany!, Viel Glück Deutschland!. Feiert kräftig unsere Fussball-Helden!!!

Happy Birthday My 3 Year Old

My cheeky 3 years old!

We had a little celebration at home in the afternoon. Brotherly love... Kenneth helping out with the cake cutting.

The Candle 3 terbalik pula LOL. Should be facing the camera..barulah.

King of the day at the Group Therapy in the morning during his Birthday.

Giving out gift to his classmates.

Got a little prezzie from his teacher

Happy Birthday Kyle!!!! (25th June). I cannot believe how fast the past 3 years have just flown by. I sit here and at times find myself wanting to cry, not because I’m upset or sad but because I am reminded of how far you have come, how much you have accomplished in these last 3 years. Thank God for what he has done in your life. You can charm your way into anyones heart with your boyish ways, almost able to say about anything and you understand people so well already. Everyday you impress us with what you know. You say "please" and "thank you," and "sorry" when you think you've done something wrong...you know how to say a short prayer before meal and bed time...With all your preemie issues and shunt problems you have dealt with, you never let it keep you from trying new things and climbing new heights. Thank you so much for wanting to love life and fighting so hard to be here now. So much you have endured and overcome, yet you still remain a happy spirited and loving little boy to all. We cannot believe how amazing you are. You are patient, attentive, impressively intelligent, determined, stubborn, so very hard-working...also a crazy hyper but...Simply a beautiful soul. Your obstacles are nothing for you as you face them head on, continuously out performing all expectations for what you are capable of. So here is to you my lovely little boy, my Kyle. Happy 3rd Birthday to an amazing person who I believe will continue to impress people until you are old and gray. We love you. You are our little fighter, our little miracles. And just a reminder (again - for myself and everyone else :P ) Kyle was born prematurely with 670 gramm and was 32 cm long... and now he is 12.2 kilogram and almost 1 meter tall.

A Gift from God At first glance you were so small I hardy saw a baby at all, with tubes and wires a frightening sight but you were in for a big fight. Not even 1 kilo just skin and bones, Your body so small with problems so big, but you fought hard and continued to grow. So many fears So many tears You are home now and growing big I love you dear, more than words can say. A miracle baby A gift from God. You showed the world You showed us all.