Landon just walked down the stairs, holding onto the railing with one hand. Taking what I call "Big Steps". Our stairs are scary stairs. They are wood planks with no backs. Floating stairs. My heart sang as he looked so grown up and could accomplish this on his own. One second later my heart cried, as I see my baby up growing up so fast. Such confusing feelings. One being joy and the other being sadness, within seconds of each other. I hate how demanding babies are for years. However, so much time invested into these demanding babies can only lead to great feelings of satisfaction and joy. Mostly love. Landon is 18 months and loves to be with me all the time. Or at least someone, siblings and dad come second. Landon's favorite words are uh-oh and hot. He says these two words as much as possible. He also loves to say Ma and Dada. Oh how I love this little guy. He loves to go for car rides. He loves to eat chocolate and candy. He loves almost any food. I guess that is why he 30 pounds! He demands to feed himself. He is sleeping through the night for the most part. He still loves his binks and blanket. LOVES THEM! He is good to take naps. He is just adorable and beautiful! I love you Landon!
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Landon is Growing Fast
Before I forget....because I aways do now that I have 5 kids. It all begins to run together. Never thought it would, BUT IT DOES!
Landon just walked down the stairs, holding onto the railing with one hand. Taking what I call "Big Steps". Our stairs are scary stairs. They are wood planks with no backs. Floating stairs. My heart sang as he looked so grown up and could accomplish this on his own. One second later my heart cried, as I see my baby up growing up so fast. Such confusing feelings. One being joy and the other being sadness, within seconds of each other. I hate how demanding babies are for years. However, so much time invested into these demanding babies can only lead to great feelings of satisfaction and joy. Mostly love. Landon is 18 months and loves to be with me all the time. Or at least someone, siblings and dad come second. Landon's favorite words are uh-oh and hot. He says these two words as much as possible. He also loves to say Ma and Dada. Oh how I love this little guy. He loves to go for car rides. He loves to eat chocolate and candy. He loves almost any food. I guess that is why he 30 pounds! He demands to feed himself. He is sleeping through the night for the most part. He still loves his binks and blanket. LOVES THEM! He is good to take naps. He is just adorable and beautiful! I love you Landon!
Landon just walked down the stairs, holding onto the railing with one hand. Taking what I call "Big Steps". Our stairs are scary stairs. They are wood planks with no backs. Floating stairs. My heart sang as he looked so grown up and could accomplish this on his own. One second later my heart cried, as I see my baby up growing up so fast. Such confusing feelings. One being joy and the other being sadness, within seconds of each other. I hate how demanding babies are for years. However, so much time invested into these demanding babies can only lead to great feelings of satisfaction and joy. Mostly love. Landon is 18 months and loves to be with me all the time. Or at least someone, siblings and dad come second. Landon's favorite words are uh-oh and hot. He says these two words as much as possible. He also loves to say Ma and Dada. Oh how I love this little guy. He loves to go for car rides. He loves to eat chocolate and candy. He loves almost any food. I guess that is why he 30 pounds! He demands to feed himself. He is sleeping through the night for the most part. He still loves his binks and blanket. LOVES THEM! He is good to take naps. He is just adorable and beautiful! I love you Landon!
Friday, October 16, 2015
Normandy France at the End of Summer
We took a relaxing trip to Normandy France in August as our last summer vacation. It was beautiful weather and we had a wonderful time. We started off by driving to Rouen, France first. This is a cute town with great architecture. We had some pastries and looked at a few sites before heading towards our final destination, Trouville-sur-Mer.
Delicious French pastries in Rouen. This church's top spires are metal and it was being built the same time Eiffel was building the Eiffel Tower. The idea must have come from Eiffel.
The Bayeux Tapestry is a 70 meter long piece of embroidery that tells of the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We had headsets that told the story of the battle and described the tapestry. The children and Erica and I found it very interesting. It is incredible it has been preserved this long.
Along the beach in Trouville-sur-Mer. Erica and I went for a walk and left the kids to dig in the sand.
At the fish market in Trouville-sur-Mer. Tyler thought it was great to see all the fish and other creatures from the ocean, but would never dare to eat any. Our family isn't keen on sea food.
This is one of the German Defensive positions on the coast of France to try and prevent the Allied Forces from advancing. Only a few of them remained in fairly good condition. Notice the skinned knees on Steve. He took a nasty fall into the the big gun as he was carrying Landon to get in the picture. It was pretty embarrassing and hurt.
On our way to Pointe-du-Hoc from Omaha Beach we saw a helicopter off in a field and decided to stop to see what was going on. For a fee (40 Euros/person for a 10 min ride) we went on a site seeing tour over Point-du-Hoc. It was amazing for all of us and a highlight of the trip.
Landon wandering the Normandy American Cemetery.
View of the beach from the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.
On our way home from our vacation on the coast of France, we stopped by Claude Monet's house and saw the water lilly pond that he painted. The gardens were gorgeous and we also toured his house full of artwork. Surprisingly Monet collected Asian art. We are so lucky to experience these kind of trips!
Catching up!
Well I have failed at something I was determined to do....Keeping this blog updated with our travels and family happenings. I guess I could say that so much happened that I couldn't keep up! It is the truth.
Sarah is a 7th grader this year and busy with all her classes, including German. She is swimming on the Kingfish Swim Team once again this year and doing great. She is a natural swimmer. She looks so graceful in the water. She works really hard at making 3 practices a week (each 1 1/2 hours long) and then 1 or 2 meets a month. Sarah also plays the piano and is amazing at that. I think she is amazing at whatever she does. She is also doing tennis with her siblings once a week. Can you see why I have no time? And that is just with one child.
Kate is busy drawing, writing, and crafting most of the time. I love this about her. She is also playing tennis and the piano. Kate is such an easy person to be around. I was just looking at her the other day and noticing what a beautiful person she is. Inside and out. She is kind of quiet, so she is a little mysterious. Not because she is quiet, but just stays a little to herself. She loves to play at the park or outside with her friends. But she has no problem entertaining herself. She is doing well in school too.
Tyler is excelling in school as to be expected. He just changed teachers to accommodate his advanced math class. It was too bad they didn't catch this error in the beginning, but he has transitioned just fine. He still loves to play Legos and spends most of his free time doing this. Tyler is a fantastic boy, but he knows how to push my buttons. He is a picky eater and is very particular with his clothes and other such things that he often frustrates me. I have to go out of my way to please this kid every day. But he is trying new foods and working on not letting everything bother him. He loves to tease his little sister Megan and of course this drives me crazy. I am always reminding him that Megan is nearly 4 years younger and she doesn't think as critically as him. He hates it when she doesn't believe him and he will say UH-HUH and Megan will say UNH-UNH. It goes back and forth till I tell them to go do something else. They so love each other so much, and Tyler is very watchful of Megan.
Megan is a joy. I will cry a river when she goes to school next year. She is loving and so helpful. She is by my side all day long and is a mom in training. She is doing Joy School this year and I love being a part of that. Megan loves to do anything with anyone. She plays trains, babies and rides her bike. She can ride without training wheels (but prefers the ease of training wheels). She plays well alone and prefers to spend her days helping Mom and playing babies. She also loves letters and spends her free time writing her friends notes. She loves to bake with me and we often make cookies, muffins, and cupcakes!
Landon is 15 months old. Oh I love this boy so much. He is still not sleeping great at night, but getting better. He loves bottles with milk. He loves and insists on feeding himself everything these days. I hate this, but he loves it. He is good at throwing food everywhere. He can go up little steps without holding onto anything and his balance is getting better and better. He climbs the stairs all the time, but does not go down. I am grateful for this because these German stairs are scary and dangerous. He just makes loud noises when he wants to go down and no one is around. Then I go running so he doesn't attempt it and fall. Yesterday in the car he said DADA and MAMA for fun with me. He waves hi, claps his hands, and dances whenever you say these words. He is a heavy little guy. He will eat about anything. He has traveled the world in a few short months of his life and is pretty easy going about it. He just got his molar about a day ago. Here is to being able to chew food!
Most importantly , he loves to go for walks and be outside. My kind of person!
As for me....I am well. I seem to never have enough time to do all that I desire, but it all works out still. I have to remind myself to not be too hard on myself. I am busy raising children and they are my main focus. I think of hiring help all the time, but in the end I know I am happier just doing it myself. There are many days I am mopping floors and folding laundry late into the evening, but I know this is life and everyone else is doing this too (at least those with 5 kids). I was a mother's helper for many years, so that is why I dream of the same help. Steve and I are able to go out about once a week and this is my favorite time. I am able to go running every now and then and I still love that. I am reading books in my free time and I never tire of a good book.
Steve is busy with work and church. He seems to enjoy serving in the bishopric. I am grateful he has this opportunity to grow. His schedule is light and he is home most days by 5. He leaves in the morning around 6:45. It is nice to have him around so much. Steve went to a training in the states and thought he might get nostalgic about seeing our old home and neighborhood, but he didn't. It is a good thing and lets us know we are in the right place for us right now.
Steve and I are loving living here, but we are exhausted already with traveling with 5 kids. The opportunity is priceless, so we will continue to plug along for 2 more years. We just returned from 2 1/2 days at Paris Disney and 2 days in Paris. It was really fun. We toured the Louve and saw the famous Mona Lisa. We took a bike tour and saw the Eiffel Tower. The kids loved going around Paris on bikes. We survived riding the subway and walking many blocks. Paris is only 4 hours from our home. Steve and I hope to return by ourselves one of these times, and take the kids again one day to see Versailles and climb the Eiffel Tower. There is just never enough time to do it all in one trip.
I vow to work backwards and catch up on our summer travels. Summer was wonderful and we went and did so much and enjoyed all the places we traveled. We went to Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, France, and of course traveled in Germany. I have so many blessings in my life. I realize how blessed I am.
And this just happened as I am typing this. So cute:
Megan is playing with her friend Violet and they are asking each other, "Where do you really live?" She answers I am from the United States in her little 4 year old voice. Her friend exclaims so excitedly, "That is where I am from too!" Then Megan says dreamily, "I love that place. I can't wait to go back, I miss my friends." I love the priceless experience these military kids are getting living here in Germany. Their minds are opened up to the world around them. Lucky kids!
Sarah is a 7th grader this year and busy with all her classes, including German. She is swimming on the Kingfish Swim Team once again this year and doing great. She is a natural swimmer. She looks so graceful in the water. She works really hard at making 3 practices a week (each 1 1/2 hours long) and then 1 or 2 meets a month. Sarah also plays the piano and is amazing at that. I think she is amazing at whatever she does. She is also doing tennis with her siblings once a week. Can you see why I have no time? And that is just with one child.
Kate is busy drawing, writing, and crafting most of the time. I love this about her. She is also playing tennis and the piano. Kate is such an easy person to be around. I was just looking at her the other day and noticing what a beautiful person she is. Inside and out. She is kind of quiet, so she is a little mysterious. Not because she is quiet, but just stays a little to herself. She loves to play at the park or outside with her friends. But she has no problem entertaining herself. She is doing well in school too.
Tyler is excelling in school as to be expected. He just changed teachers to accommodate his advanced math class. It was too bad they didn't catch this error in the beginning, but he has transitioned just fine. He still loves to play Legos and spends most of his free time doing this. Tyler is a fantastic boy, but he knows how to push my buttons. He is a picky eater and is very particular with his clothes and other such things that he often frustrates me. I have to go out of my way to please this kid every day. But he is trying new foods and working on not letting everything bother him. He loves to tease his little sister Megan and of course this drives me crazy. I am always reminding him that Megan is nearly 4 years younger and she doesn't think as critically as him. He hates it when she doesn't believe him and he will say UH-HUH and Megan will say UNH-UNH. It goes back and forth till I tell them to go do something else. They so love each other so much, and Tyler is very watchful of Megan.
Megan is a joy. I will cry a river when she goes to school next year. She is loving and so helpful. She is by my side all day long and is a mom in training. She is doing Joy School this year and I love being a part of that. Megan loves to do anything with anyone. She plays trains, babies and rides her bike. She can ride without training wheels (but prefers the ease of training wheels). She plays well alone and prefers to spend her days helping Mom and playing babies. She also loves letters and spends her free time writing her friends notes. She loves to bake with me and we often make cookies, muffins, and cupcakes!
Landon is 15 months old. Oh I love this boy so much. He is still not sleeping great at night, but getting better. He loves bottles with milk. He loves and insists on feeding himself everything these days. I hate this, but he loves it. He is good at throwing food everywhere. He can go up little steps without holding onto anything and his balance is getting better and better. He climbs the stairs all the time, but does not go down. I am grateful for this because these German stairs are scary and dangerous. He just makes loud noises when he wants to go down and no one is around. Then I go running so he doesn't attempt it and fall. Yesterday in the car he said DADA and MAMA for fun with me. He waves hi, claps his hands, and dances whenever you say these words. He is a heavy little guy. He will eat about anything. He has traveled the world in a few short months of his life and is pretty easy going about it. He just got his molar about a day ago. Here is to being able to chew food!
Most importantly , he loves to go for walks and be outside. My kind of person!
As for me....I am well. I seem to never have enough time to do all that I desire, but it all works out still. I have to remind myself to not be too hard on myself. I am busy raising children and they are my main focus. I think of hiring help all the time, but in the end I know I am happier just doing it myself. There are many days I am mopping floors and folding laundry late into the evening, but I know this is life and everyone else is doing this too (at least those with 5 kids). I was a mother's helper for many years, so that is why I dream of the same help. Steve and I are able to go out about once a week and this is my favorite time. I am able to go running every now and then and I still love that. I am reading books in my free time and I never tire of a good book.
Steve is busy with work and church. He seems to enjoy serving in the bishopric. I am grateful he has this opportunity to grow. His schedule is light and he is home most days by 5. He leaves in the morning around 6:45. It is nice to have him around so much. Steve went to a training in the states and thought he might get nostalgic about seeing our old home and neighborhood, but he didn't. It is a good thing and lets us know we are in the right place for us right now.
Steve and I are loving living here, but we are exhausted already with traveling with 5 kids. The opportunity is priceless, so we will continue to plug along for 2 more years. We just returned from 2 1/2 days at Paris Disney and 2 days in Paris. It was really fun. We toured the Louve and saw the famous Mona Lisa. We took a bike tour and saw the Eiffel Tower. The kids loved going around Paris on bikes. We survived riding the subway and walking many blocks. Paris is only 4 hours from our home. Steve and I hope to return by ourselves one of these times, and take the kids again one day to see Versailles and climb the Eiffel Tower. There is just never enough time to do it all in one trip.
I vow to work backwards and catch up on our summer travels. Summer was wonderful and we went and did so much and enjoyed all the places we traveled. We went to Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, France, and of course traveled in Germany. I have so many blessings in my life. I realize how blessed I am.
And this just happened as I am typing this. So cute:
Megan is playing with her friend Violet and they are asking each other, "Where do you really live?" She answers I am from the United States in her little 4 year old voice. Her friend exclaims so excitedly, "That is where I am from too!" Then Megan says dreamily, "I love that place. I can't wait to go back, I miss my friends." I love the priceless experience these military kids are getting living here in Germany. Their minds are opened up to the world around them. Lucky kids!
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
In the meantime
In between our little travels here and there, our kids are growing up. Landon is nearly 1. I am so glad about that. As much as I loved him being a baby, life just gets better for me as the kids get older. None of my babies ever sleep through the night until they are about 1. For the last 2 nights Landon has slept through the night. He is also taking long afternoon naps. Yeah! I can actually get things accomplished. 
Bathtime is a favorite for both of these kids. 
And of course with 5 kids there is always lots of sick days during the winter season. 
Poor Megan had to come along with Mom to drop off food at the school for a luncheon. Thank goodness there were no episodes in the car.
Kate at her award ceremony for straight A's. She has learned how to work hard this year and be organized. It has been fun seeing her master these skills this year. At the beginning of the year she was having such anxiety about all that needed to get done each day. Her dedication and hard work has paid off. 
Kate had a fun career day and got to try on the fighter pilot helmet. 
Tyler had a Volksmarch at school. We were able to join him and enjoyed the walk through the woods. 
I love this picture of Tyler and a friend caring for Megan. They can be the best of friends, but Tyler also knows how to tease Megan endlessly.
We had a Solar eclipse a few months ago. We all viewed it and thought it was a pretty cool event. And yes I looked at the sun with sunglasses even though they tell you to not do that. My eyes survived. Kate and Sarah viewed it at school with an awesome science teacher.
We visited Potzberg Wildlife Park and the kids enjoyed an amazing bird show ( in German) and playing with the goats. It was so fun. 
Steve and I had a fun date with the Army Dentac Birthday Ball. We have been able to go out about once a week now that Sarah can babysit. We usually just go to dinner, but that hour is precious uninterrupted time. We love it! We have enjoyed trying all the restaurants around us. There is never a wait. In fact, they like you to call and make reservations, even if you are coming in just a few minutes prior. Tipping in Germany is about 2%. Their tax is 19%. Steve works hard here at the hospital and I am always so proud of the time and dedication he gives his career.
I love Landon's smiles and giggles. They are so easy to come by and I love that.
Landon is enjoying being more mobile with toys, fast crawling, and walking with supports.
Landon can't hold still for long. Here he is drinking his bottle while on the go. He has 3 teeth at 10 1/2 months. I have nearly quit breast feeding. Landon prefers the bottle and that works for me at his age now.
We went exploring around Lichtenberg and came back with this little critter. After much coercing, Tyler let him go.
An old time teeter-totter.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Amsterdam
We enjoyed our time in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately it was a little cold during spring break. Did you know the Netherlands and Holland are the same country? I was always confused by this until I looked it up. Holland is one of the major/ busy provinces that make up the Netherlands. That is why the name Holland gets used a lot.
We stayed at a home that was part of a farm. Our kids loved it! We liked it too. When traveling as a big family in Europe, you have to rent homes when you travel. No calling up hotels to make quick and easy reservations. You have to search and email requests to rent a place that has enough beds, is the right price, and in the right place. It is such a painful process. Hours and hours are devoted to this one task. So we were thrilled this home worked out so well for us.
The flowers at Keukenhof were gorgeous, but the entire park was too crowded with people, so I didn't enjoy our time there as much as I wanted to. Plus it was about $80. euros for an entrance fee. We also had to spend an hour to get into the parking lot at Keukenhof, and another hour to exit the parking lot. Clearly we went on the wrong day. Ugg!
Sarah doing her hair with beautiful weeds!
One of the cows on the farm gave birth while we were there. We missed it by 10 minutes. We loved hanging out with the cows.
The color is so perfect on the flowers.
I love tulips!
We wanted to see the Anne Frank house and museum, but it was too crowded and the line was like 2 miles long. We decided to get tickets for it another time and come back in a few months. So we took a canal tour to rest the kids legs.
Love my children.
We wanted to see the beach and that was about all we could do there. It was so cold. Kate made ice cream cones still! The sand toys were from the Easter Bunny!
Megan is becoming quite the character.
I love all the bikes in Amsterdam. What a great way to get around. I am quite sure there are millions. I like the basket on this bike by Sarah.
Such beautiful homes all around the canals.
A picture outside will do this time, but next time we will get inside! I couldn't believe how crowded Amsterdam was. Reminded me of New York.
Fields are just beginning to grow!
Absolutely perfect!
Riding around the farm was Tyler's FAVORITE part of the trip. So much fun for the kids. Looking at old buildings is just not that much fun for the little ones.
A man was handing out birdseed for money, and it was so much fun to be swarmed by the pigeons. Thankfully they didn't poop on us.
It should be illegal to wear a snow suit at the beach. Haha! It was cold. Plus I forgot Landon's jacket so he had no choice. Pretty ridiculous picture.
Awesome go-carts.
The baby cows that will be sold for some tasty meat. I could never be a farmer.
Keukenhof fun!
Gorgeous!
Amsterdam
I once bought Nutella in the states and Steve told me it was gross stuff and so no one ate it. But when you move to Germany, you discover something wonderful you have been missing your whole life. We love NUTELLA! Those are giant jars of Nutella in the window. Crepes with bananas and Nutella are our favorite!
Landon catching a much needed nap. He is a good traveler.
The famous wooden shoes and windmills. What a beautiful country the Netherlands is. We feel so blessed to travel and see so much of the world!
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