The kids and I had a fun weekend in Ohio visiting with Joe's family. We got there friday afternoon and Maggie wasted no time getting in the pool. Owen slept most of the evening and only woke up in time to eat some Donatos pizza with us. (sorry Joe) The next day we headed to Piqua which is where they were having their family reunion.

There was a really good turn out and it was nice to get to meet some of Joe's exteneded family that I hadn't met before. He also has a cousin that is living in Italy right now and getting ready to move to Germany, so it was nice to talk to someone else who experiences the same European frusterations as me. Maggie had fun with all the kids there, she didn't play so much as just watch them.

She stuck with her Uncle Matt most of the day since that was the only day that they got to see each other. I wish Joe could have gotten to go, I know he would have liked to have gotten to see all his cousins and their kids.
After letting the kids nap that afternoon, Maggie wanted to swim again so Matt got in with her and she had a blast. She loves jumping in, and Debbie and I had done our share of catching her the day before so we left it up to Matt that day.





Owen also got in with his Papa and really liked the water. The water was super warm so it felt just like his bath.

The kids played with Matt and Isaac some after swimming and then we got ready to head back to the hotel to go to bed. Maggie kept complaing of her belly hurting. She was scratching it so I thought i must itch. I loaded them up in the car and as I was getting ready to back out I found out exactly what the problem was...Maggie threw up everywhere. I had noticed she hadn't eaten so well that day but just thought she was excited about seeing everyone. She obviously had some sort of bug because she was sick all night long until 5 am. Thankfully, Debbie came to the hotel and stayed with me so I woudln't have to be alone with the 2 of them while Maggie was sick. She got up with Owen the next morning, although I know she was as tired as I was, and took him downstairs so Maggie and I could sleep in some. She said Owen was in a great mood and entertained everyone in the lobby all morning. He is such a little ham. When Maggie woke up she seemed to feel better, so we headed back to mom and dad's house that afternoon. Thankfully, we made it there without anyone getting sick or even crying much on the ride home. Maggie didn't eat much yesterday, and still isn't acting 100% like herself but thankfully she isn't sick anymore. We are just hanging out here today and going to cook out with PK and Jim this evening so that will be fun. I havent' decided if we are going to go to the fireworks tonight, they start pretty late and with Maggie being sick I doubt she is up to it. Well, hope you all have a fun 4th of July.

USA ground

So we have made it to WV safe and sound. I have to first thank God for being so faithful to answer all of the prayers that went up for us on our trip home. There is no way that our trip went as smoothly as it did without his intervention. He blessed Joe and I with the most incredible kids, our trip was 15 hours long in total and neither of my kids cried ONCE!!! Now, if anyone has kids, especially 2 toddlers, you know that had to be the work of God! We flew air france and all the seats had TV's which was the big thing I had to have on my flight for maggie, but since it was a french airline all the cartoons were french cartoons and IN french. Well, my TV loving little girl didn't seem to mind in the least and sat there happily wathcing, what I considered very questionable cartoons, for 2 hours. When I saw the title "Red Hot Riding Hood" instead of Little Red Riding Hood" I decided to just turn my head and be thankful that she had a tv show to watch. (okay, it really was fine...just the same story a little dollled up) anyhow, we ended up being delayed almost 3 hours in Paris, which actually turned out good becasue I would have missed my flight otherwise since I only had 1.5 hours to change planes and that place is so huge that I actually needed about 2 hours to get from gate to gate. When we boarded the plane in paris I realized that Owen was burning up adn running a fever. Just what I needed huh! So I gave him some Motrin and hoped for the best. Well, the little guy was awesome. Wiggly, but awesome. When I sat down in our seats I looked at everyone aroudn me adn said, "okay everyone....your worst nightmare has just come true, I am sitting here with 2 toddlers and I am by myself." They all laughed and were really nice so that made me feel better knowing they weren't "kids haters". They passed Owen around quite a bit and gave me a few bathroom breaks so that was nice. When naptime came, I told maggie she coudld either nap in the floor or her seat, she chose the floor. So i made her a bed (i had a bulkhead seat) and she laid down adn took her nap for 4 hours! What a great kid. Everyone around me just looked like they couldn't believe it, especailly since there were several other kids her age screaming. Well, when we arrived at Cincinnati I was thrilled to see mom. She had brought Allie with her so Maggie had fun playing with her on the ride home. The first stop was Wendys to get something to eat and wow, it tasted great. Owen must have saved all his crying for his Mimi becasue he cried basically the whole drive home.

Owen ran a fever until yesterday and has still been very fussy and grumpy today so I am hoping he gets back to himself before too long. I also began running a fever wednasay until yesterday adn just felt pretty crappy so I guess we both maybe got the same bug. Maggie has done great, and aside from waking up about 6 am she has adjusted fine. We are heading out today to go to Ohio for a few days to see Joe's family and go to their family reunion on sunday. There should be alot of kids Maggie's age at the picnic to play with so she will love that. Hopefully Owen will cheer up by then and start sleeing at night better (right now we are getting up 3-5 times a night) at least for my sake. Well, I will update when I get back on monday.

USA BOUND

This will probably be my last posting before I leave Tuesday morning to come HOME to America. I will keep up with the blog while I am at mom and dad's though, so keep checking it. Tommorow I know is going to be very busy getting everything packed and ready and also getting the house cleaned for Joe. I know this is more for me than him but I always like to leave a house clean if I am going somewhere. Maybe it's because I like coming home to a clean house, for some reason I don't think I will come back to as clean a house as I leave.....no pressure honey. :) I am getting pretty nervous for the trip home, so PLEASE pray for us that we will have a safe and easy flight home. I wish Joe was coming with us so much, not just for the flight but also it's going to be hard being away from him for so long.

Joe took Rob to the airport this morning to fly home, so it is just the 4 of us again. It was really nice having Rob here, I had only met him a few times and didn't really know him very well so it was great getting to hang out with him. I can see why Joe likes him so much, he was a super nice guy.

Maggie loved Rob (she usually called him "bob") and spent most of saturday holding his hand wherever he went. Saturday night we had over some friends of ours from Kiel for dinner.


Rob has a friend that is also a friend of theirs so it was nice for them to get to meet. We cooked out hamburgers and sausages. Since they are German we made the theme German cookout meets American cookout. It was alot of fun, and Maggie LOVED the attention. She had fun dancing for everyone and that night as I put her to bed she said, "mom, i had so much fun with all my friends."

Maggie and I made chocolate chip cookie dough today and I ran upstairs for a minute and left her to roll them up and put them on the sheet. Well, when I came back she hadn't gotten too far making cookies, but it looked like she had eaten quite a bit of cookie dough!



She and Owen played a good bit in their toy room today. They were both cooking in their kitchen and I thought they looked so cute.



Maggie didn't stick around too long to cook with him, but Owen played awhile there and seemed to enjoy himself.


We did another "photo shoot" of Owen today and got some really cute shots so I am excited to get them made into his birthday cards for you all to see. Maggie has been slightly jealous of owen latley it seems. I am not sure why, but she often acts like she is a baby too, wanting a bottle, wanting held, etc. The other day I got her up from nap and for the next hour she was "owen". Anyhow, with all the picture taking of Owen today she wanted some of her too... we tried to get a cute one of them together standing but it didn't turn out so well since Owen seemed to be as scared about falling on the marble floor as I was of him falling.



About 3 seconds after this shot he went face first and Joe caught him just in time thank goodness.

After I dressed Maggie for church today she went looking for her daddy, like always. She always wants him to see her after she gets ready and wants to hear him say how cute she looks. (Okay rhea, judy.....why is this?) Anyhow, today she walked up to him and he said, " oh maggie...you look like a doll." She got the saddest look on her face and turned to me and said, "mommy, daddy said i looked like a dog." It was so cute...Joe of course explained to her what he said and when she still looked confused he said his usual, "maggie, you look so cute." With that she smiled and ran off to play.

Here are 2 cute pictures of my gorgeous babies.....

....let's hope they are as sweet on the plane tuesday as they look in these pictures!

We have had a busy week so far. Not so much for the kids and I but more so for Joe and Rob. We picked Rob up from the airport Tuesday morning without any problems so that was nice since I was a little worried about getting around the Hamburg airport. We came home and he took a short nap to catch up on some sleep while the kids and I just played and made dinner. That night I had my final German lesson before leaving for America and my teacher brought different cheeses for us to try. I guess here in Germany you always eat cheese with bread, grapes, and wine so she fixed us up a tray and we got to try the cheeses. They were all really good surprisingly. The two softer ones I wasn't crazy about, but the others were great.

That night Joe and Rob went downtown to watch England play (on TV) and didn't get home until late. They were both up and gone the next morning before the kids and I even woke up. Joe was off to, of course, work. And Rob had caught a train to Berlin for the day. I didn't feel too great for some reason so the kids and I just hung out inside mostly aside from a quick walk to the store to get more apple juice. Maggie was so funny all day. I was changing her diaper and told her that when we get to Mimi and Grandad's house she can't wear diapers anymore. I told her she'd have to wear panties because they don't have any diapers there. She thought for a minute and said, "I guess Mimi will have to go to the store." I laughed and told her that she wasn't going to go to the store to get diapers because they don't have diapers at her store. She looked at me again and said, "oh mom, what are we gonna do about Owen?"
I have been trying to get some plans made for Owen's birthday and found an adorable cake to make. I was so excited because I had been trying to think of something cute to do and then found this idea the next day. I am not going to tell what it is though, so you can wait and see when I post the pictures on here. He also had his "photo shoot" for his birthday announcments but it didn't go so well. He would smile at me when I talked to him but the second i held the camera up he'd start laughing and lunge out of his chair. So before I leave I have told Joe he's hired to help me get a "perfect" shot of him.



This day turned out to be pretty long for me since Joe didn't get home from work until almost midnight and Rob got home about 10 or so. Joe worked super late so that he would be able to go Thursday to the World Cup game. Pretty pathetic vacation day huh, you have to work 18 hours the day before in order to take it. Guess that is Caterpillar in Kiel for ya. Well, Thursday started out the same way, they guys were gone when the kids and I woke. Maggie asked several times where her Daddy and "his friend" were. The kids and I didn't really do anything once again, I began packing for our trip and making a list so I didn't forget anything. I don't have to pack much for the time we are there since mom has basically everything I need, 2 cribs, high chairs, toys, strollers, and car seats. But packing for our plane trip is the big one. I need to have anything and everything I would ever need to make our trip as easy as possible.
The guys had an awesome day it sounds like despite the US losing. They said it was the most incredible experience and so much fun. The 6 plus hour train ride wasn't too bad going since they were really excited for the game. But they said it was pretty long coming back that night. They did get lucky and had seats right next to Landon Donovan's (US player) fiance. Her name is Bianca Kajlich and she I guess is an actress who has been in movies such as Halloween and Bring it on. She was also on Dawson's Creek a few times. She even gave Joe her brothers number in Prauge so he could call him when he visits and her brother could show him around. So Joe told me on the phone that night coming home that Jessica Biel was on the train too....well turns out she wasn't exaclty on the train, just on the phone with Bianca as they were riding. Close enough I guess. They didn't get home until almost 2 am which means I didn't go to bed until then since I am not really too fond of being home alone at night. Thanks to Neila and Kari though I had someone to talk to so I didn't have to listen for creepy noises. Here are some shots from their trip, they said it was so cool to see all the USA flags and such in Germany.








So as you can see they had a really fun time. Today we are basically just resting up and heading down to Kieler Wocher this evening to try foods from the International Market.

Same old thing

I haven't posted for a few days because nothing is really going on here. This past weekend we just hung out around the house and then went downtown on sunday afternoon to "Kiel Week". There are about 3 million people who come here for the week to watch sailboat races...or something like that. Anyhow, there are lots of stands saleing various foods and goods and lots of concerts so it's a pretty big deal. Downtown there is a huge play area for kids with sand and slides and such.



Maggie loves going there and had fun playing with 2 other little girls her age. Owen enjoyed sitting in the sand and of course eating it. I don't know why we were surprised since Owen is the worlds worst baby I have ever seen about eating things. I guess we figured that after he tasted it once he would see it was gross and not try it anymore, but he ate it not once, twice....but THREE times. After that we decided sand time was over.
























Here is a picture of Joe and Maggie inside a huge fountain at one of the parks.








I have told several of you about these HUGE snails that we have here everywhere. It rained this weekend so they all came out and Joe got a few pictures of some big ones.

At any given trip outside you will easily see 5-6 of them ranging in huge to tiny babies. Maggie hates them and is constantly on the lookout since she's scared to death of stepping on one.

The kids and I headed to Hamburg this morning to pick up Joe's friend Rob who is here to visit for the week. They are going to the world cup game this Thursday adn are both super excited. He was supposed to come in yesterday but his first flight got delayed which made him miss his flight out of boston to paris so he had to stay overnight in boston and fly in today. Gosh....I sure hope that doesn't happen to the kids and I!!! Speaking of which.........we leave a week from today! We are really excited. It will be so nice to get back home for awhile, just wish we could bring Joe with us. That would make it perfect! The kids are really going to miss him while we're gone....not as much as I am sure he will miss them though. I am hoping the next time he see's maggie she will be potty trained. The would for sure be a nice surprise! I told Mom that is the goal this summer and it's going to be a joint effort with us all to get her to do it. Well, that is all that is going on here, just thought I would update you and let you know how we are.

weekend in amsterdam

We have had a great time this past week with Wendy, Johnny, Annie, and Tristan visiting. It was so nice to have someone in our home with the great Kentucky accent! Maggie and Annie hit it off great and enjoyed playing with each other so much. For the first few days Maggie only referred to annie as, "my friend." She was right on her heels the whole time. We headed out on friday to go to Amsterdam. We all drove there but Joe flew in that evening adn met us since he had to work. It wasn't too bad of a drive, about 5 hours or so and the kids did really well. Friday night we just grabbed some dinner at our hotel and walked around the city a little before going to bed. Joe and Johnny went out that night to check out the Amsterdam night life and after seeing it Joe referred to this place as "sin city." Basically everything and anything is legal in Amsterdam and we knew this, but he said his jaw dropped when people were coming up to him with cocaine on an open street and they weren't even trying to be secretive about it. By the way, he didn't take it. :) Saturday morning Owen was up at 6:30 so I took him outside to feed him breakfast and walk around some. I couldn't believe how dead the city was compared to the night before. I guess everyone was inside recovering from their night. After everyone else got up we got on a boat and took a tour of the canals. It was really pretty and neat they way the canals run along all the streets.



I am sure the tour was interesting too but with 4 kids under the age of 5 none of us got to hear much about what was said.
There were boats along the canals just like cars parked along a street.



I guess this is how some people get around the city instead of a car. In some places there were what looked like trailers, only they floated on the water, and these were people's homes. It was really different. After the canal tour it was lunch time and we were all dying to get a cold drink with ICE in it. So we of course headed to the Hard Rock Cafe.



I know, I know...I am in all these countries and seek out the most american place there is to eat. Trust me, if you all were here living and not just on a visit you would do the same. It was great and we all enjoyed the ice and free refills. (In europe you always have to pay for refils, even water) Maggie and Annie had so much fun running around Amsterdam, I of course was a nervous wreck half the time since here you don't just have to worry about cars in the streets but also the cable trains on the roads and bikers on the sidewalks who are also as deadly as the cars.




Tristan and Owen were great all day, napping in their strollers and just enjoying the view. We let the daddy's run after the girls while we kept the easy kids in the strollers.




After walking around some the guys took all 4 kids back to the hotel to nap and Wendy and I hit some shops. The shopping was really neat and I got quite a few things for the kids. We ended up staying out that night until 11 since the kids all had late naps and it stays light so late that we didn't even realize what time it was. Our hotel was right by the Rembrandt museum ( think that is what this is called), which was really pretty. Okay, some weird things about Amsterdam, instead of having public bathrooms you can use, they have these urinals out in the middle of streets for the guys. I am not sure what girls are supposed to do.



Anyhow, we thought this was a funny shot of Joe adn Johnny, NO they were not really using it....and No, those shoes will never step foot in my house again. :) The reason i think these people are so loony is they are all high. There are these "coffee houses" on every corner and you just have to walk past one and breathe to know what "coffee" they are talking about.
This bike shop was pretty interesting. Can you guess who they market their bikes to?




Sunday was the highlight of our trip since that was the day Amanda and Tres were also in Amsterdam so we got to meet up with them. They got to our hotel about 9 that morning. Maggie was so excited to see them and quickly took them upstairs to start playing. I was really glad to get to see them too, although Joe didn't think I was quite as enthusiastic as I should have been. :) (I was thrilled to see you sis)
Our first stop of the day was the paddle boats which you ride along the canals.

Maggie and Annie really liked this, as did Wendy and I since we got the luxery of riding in the back the whole time with the babies and letting amanda, tres, joe, and johnny do all the work. :) I didn't paddle at all and I was totally exhausted for them by the time we got back.



It was really hot that day (high 80s) so the kids got alot more sun than I would have liked, especially Owen. His hair just keeps getting lighter and lighter, especially with all the sun he got. After grabbing lunch at a mexican restaurant, (Tres and Amanda were with us, what else would we eat?) we went to the house of Anne Frank for a tour. It was really neat to see it and how small the place was that they had to live in for 2 years.



You weren't allowed to take any photos inside so we only got a picture of the outside. Amanda and I wished you could have been there mom, you would have loved it.
While we were in Amsterdam, they were playing in the world cup so it was crazy there. Joe and Tres joined in the celebrating.






We got some ice cream at Hagen Daaz and I got hit on by some psycho strung out on drugs (who later got arrested) and then it was time for Amanda and Tres to get back to the ship so we headed back to Germany.

We all slept in Monday and basically just hung out around the house to let the kids relax after our weekend.

Tuesday we met Joe for dinner and ate at a restaurant right on the sea.
It had a great view and the food is really good too.



This morning the kids and I took Wendy and family to the airport for them to fly back home. It was about 2 hours away so the kids slept the whole way home and now Maggie keeps asking where Annie is. We all loved having them here, Maggie enjoyed the playmate, I enjoyed the converstion, and Joe loved having Johnny here to kick a soccer ball around with. Tristan also taught Owen how to play patty-cake this week so that is really cute to see him clapping his hands. Well, I think tommorow is going to be a rest day for us. We got a great surprise Monday in the mail, 2 care packages arrived for us. Janelle, who used to work Joe's job here, mailed us a box with snacks, magazines, and tons of dvds with Oprah, soaps, and nick shows she has been taping. Maggie and Owen also got a big box from their Mimi and Grandad with 2 new dvd shows, toys, and dora and princess panties for Maggie. The panties have only been on her once so far so we are going to have to work on that. With all these new shows to watch that is probably how we will relax tommorow.