A Very Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, the kids are at such a cute age and were so excited about the entire season. They loved the lights, decorations, music, and of course the gifts. We spent a few days before Christmas in Ohio with Joe's family and had our Christmas with them. We had a fun time and Maggie got her long awiated pet house she has been wanting.


We had a surprise visit from Santa (Uncle Matt) which neither kid was very thrilled about. Owen was not feeling very well through the visit so he slept quite a bit, mainly just during the day though!










Christmas Eve we went to Chruch and left Owen home with mom since he seemed to be feeling worse. Maggie and Amanda dressed alike which thrilled Maggie.






She adores amanda and has had so much fun with her dancing, singing, and amanda taught her how to shake presents adn guess what is in them, so that is a favorite thing to do of hers. When we got home he had a fever of 104 so I was dreading that this was going to be a exhausting Christmas. My friend Karri's husband is a PA and was kind enough to let us come over on Christmas eve and he gave him a good check and told us he probably just had a virus.



By that evening he was feeling a bit better so we visited mama and papa and then went to the annual christmas eve party at Jim and Patti K's house. This is my very favorite night of the whole year, and always has been. Ever since I was little I looked so forward to the Christmas eve party, even as much as Christmas day. I was so glad we got to be there this year and my kids got to enjoy it also. We had a blast seeing everyone and Maggie had fun with family, she especially found a friend in my cousin Liv.



We didn't get to bed until pretty late that night so the kids slept in until about 8:30 and then we got up to begin Christmas. I must say I did cut back this year, despite what Joe and everyone else thinks.....but I will say my kids got more than their share yet again.









They had fun opening presents and Owen got a dump truck from Grandad (jahjah) that actually held his attention for awhile! We had Christmas dinner at Pat's and Magggie was thrilled that she got to spend the day with ralph, izzy, and lucy. (the dogs) Unfortunatly for her, our trip got cut short since the dogs don't do my allergies so well. Our biggest news of this Chrismtas season though is what a big girl maggie has proven herself to be. She has blown us all away with her latest achievment. We have been talking all month about how we are going to leave her pappy (pacifier) for Santa to give to the baby reindeer and all along she has said that is great. She adored her pappy though so I didn't know how well it would go when that dreaded first night without it came. Christmas eve night we sat out santa's milk and cookies and than she laid her pappys our with a note telling him who they were for. She then went to bed and didn't mention them once!! The next day when we left for pat's she found 2 pappys in the car that we had forgotten, I thought for sure this would ruin it but she told me that santa must have dropped them and she held them all the way to pat's house, went inside and said she was going to give them to the baby puppies! (ralph and izzy) She didn't even try to get once last suck in and since then she hasn't asked for them or even mentioned them once. I am so proud of her but still can't really believe it was that easy. Hopefully Owen will ditch his bottle with the same ease!

I hope you all had a great christmas as well and I will try my best to blog more! Here are some more pictures from Christmas eve for you to enjoy!

I'm still here!

Okay, so life has been totally crazy this past month or so, but I have NOT quit my blog and will pick it back up as soon as I can get a few minutes and get mom's computer to let me post pictures. I just have pictures to go along with most everything I have to tell on here so I am holding out until we get this problem resolved. The kids are doing great and we are having alot of fun here at Mom and Dad's house. I have had more "free time" than I have ever had, I could so get used to living this close to my paretns and aunt and uncle next door!! You have an instant babysitter anytime you need to make a quick errand. We are getting ready for Chrsitmas and will have a bit of running around then but are looking forward to all the fun of the holidays. I hope your all enjoying the season!

Finally able to update!

We have been having so much fun here in WV, but I haven't been able to update to tell about it since mom's computer is still not in "blogging" mode. Tres is here at mom and dad's for a few days before he flys out to California so I am taking advantage of his computer while he's here. While mom was in Myrlte Beach with Rhea, learning sudoku, the kids and I headed to Shelbyville Kentucky to visit our best friends, Nick, Neila and Carson. We had a blast, although I am guessing Nick isn't going to want anymore kids for awhile after our visit. :) Maggie and Owen have had a harder time transitioning this time then they ever had. I am not sure why, Owen just can't seem to get the sleeping at night down yet which has been REALLY exhausting. Thankfully mom and especiallly dad have been great and gotten up with him through the night to give me breaks. Dad seems to have quite a talent for getting him back to sleep so I have pretty much given the night shift to him. I don't know how fair it is since he's actually the only one who has to get up before the sun to go to work. Maggie has gotten the time difference just fine, but has been quite a handful since we got here. I guess that is what happens when your with your grandparents for very long. :)



Karri and I took Maggie and Nicholas to the Clay Center where there is a setup of Sesame Street and it was adorable and so much fun for the kids. The advertisments for it have a huge picture of Elmo so I think they were both a little disapointed that he wasn't there but they still had a really fun time.

We bribed them with the souvineer store so that we could get a cute picture of them on the Sesame Street steps.










Karri and I also got to enjoy a very fun mom's day/night. We went shopping all after noon then had a nice long dinner where we got to catch up and didn't get home until after 9 which meant we got to come home to sleeping babies. We plan to do that again soon while I still have 24 hour help!

And now for the biggest news yet.....

Owen is finally on the go. He has been taking some steps everynow and then but today he walked all the way across the floor over and over again. We kept clapping for him and he seemed to love the attention and kept getting up and walking again. He is still a little wobbly but he will get it. He crawls so fast that I think he hates wasting his time walking and falling when he can get there in a flash crawling. Here are a few pictures of him in action.


Since Maggie didn't walk until 14 months, Owen not until 16 months I am guessing my 3rd baby should walk around 2 years!

We are in for a few busy/fun weeks. Joe gets in Tuesday from Germany and the kids and I head to Ohio wednesday to meet up with him there. We then are going to be in Ohio for Thanksgiving for a few days with Papa, Nana, and Isaac and then are off to Kentucky for the weekend. The week after we are going to Peoria and get to see all our friends there. We will be staying with Mark, Mary and their girls so we are really excited to be back on Colt drive and spending time with them for a few days.
Well, that is all for now, not sure when I will get to post again but I'll try as soon as possible!!

TRICK OR TREAT!

So I am back again, I haven't been able to post at mom and dad's since mom got a new hard drive and there is so much spyware/firewall that it won't let me do much more than check my email!! The kids and I are in KY at Nick and Neila's right now and having so much fun. Here are the kids on halloween. They looked so cute as dorthy and the lion and Maggie had a blast. She went trick or treating with mom and dad's neighbor, McKayla, and went to every house despite the rainy weather. Owen only made it to a few homes but mom took him back home to hand out candy since it was rainingn and he already had a cold. Mom headed to the beach on wednesday with rhea and will be back on sunday, and the kids and I will head back to WV on monday so i am hoping to get mom's computer in blogging order when we get back.

enjoy the pics!!

Bad blogger

Sorry I have been such a slacker at my blog latley. We made it safe into the US on Friday evening with just one short delay in detroit so the trip went pretty smoothly. Maggie was her usual "perfect traveler." Owen did pretty good, although this was his worst trip yet. He wasn't really bad, just very busy and did not want to sit still so Joe and I stayed pretty busy most of the trip. We were greeted at the airport by mom, dad, amanda, tres, JR, and TJ. Maggie was really glad to see everybody, but especially her Mimi. When she got back to Mimi and Grandad's house she had more birthday presents to open so she was was happy about that....then it was off to bed by about 7 or so. The kids slept pretty good the first night, they only got up about once and JOe and I were awake also so that wasn't too big of a deal.

Joe headed out to KY for a few days on Saturday and the kids and I decided to stay at mom and dad's to try and get adjusted to the time a little. Owen has gotten a bit of a cold which is making him extra grumpy, especially at night time. And he has been getting up several times at night and then wanting to wake up at 5 am for good so I am trying to get all the kinks worked out of him and hopefully soon. We were supposed to head to NIck and Nelia's to trick or treat tonight but I think we are just going to stay here since Owen's pretty snotty and we dont' want to pass on his germs to Carson, plus Owen would have the whole house awake at 3 am at this point and since they both have to get up and go to work they probably wouldn't be thrilled about that! :) I have been trying to post some pictures but for some reason blogger won't let me so I will just try again later. Have a fun trick or treat!!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!!

Can you believe Maggie turns 3 years old today??? We sure can't, everyone tells you how quickly your kids grow up but until you have your own kids, you have no idea how true that is.
She knows today is her birthday and keeps telling me she wants another pink princess party. :) I did make her soup again for her lunch and am making a cake for her after nap, but as far as the party goes I think that's about it. I guess having her party a month early confused her a bit. :)
This is the first year that I haven't sent out birthday announcments for her (which I am sure Joe is thrilled about) of course I was a little bummed about not doing it so this morning we took a few cute pictures of her with her homemade "3" sign that she colored.



















She is such a joy to us and everyone who meets her, I can't imagine a more perfect little girl....Mommy and Daddy love you so much Maggie Mae!!

Here is a little "slideshow" of her past 3 years......

DO IT......

So for those of you who remember when Maggie was about Owen's age and we would say, "Do it!!" and she would grin super big and crinkle her whole face up like this:













Well,Owen has now followed in her footsteps. Latley we will say, "smile" to him and he says, "cheese" and gives us a face like this....













Today though, we were telling maggie about how she would smile super big when we'd say "do it" and we said it to Owen and he hammed it up bigtime for us. We thought he was just being silly but everytime we said, "do it" he'd crinkle up his face and grin. How cute is that!














I also got a few cute shots of him today after his nap, he woke up in a great mood.














We didn't do much today, just went for a walk and went to the store to get a few things for dinner. Both kids took a great afternoon nap for me, which was nice and when they got up Maggie had gotten her birthday present in the mail from her papa and nana so she opened that up and was so excited to have gotten the Little Mermaid dvd so that is how she spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner. Well, I am off to bed now.

Joe's 3 man circus

So last night was another fun filled night with dad. Since there isn't alot of entertainment here in Germany, Joe and the kids made up their own.



The night ended without any tears thankfully and the kids were both so worn out that they were so ready for bedtime. Not that Owen stayed asleep all night, but 3 times getting up is better than 8.








The kids had a blast on this homemade playground and it appears Joe did too. :)



















I am constantly finding out more reasons why it is hard to be a German. It takes a load of laundry nearly 2 hours to wash (and that is just the washer), it's basically forbidden (if your a German) to use a dryer for anything so they line hang EVERYTHING, they have to go to the store daily to get food for their meals that day because you can't buy anything in advanced for fear it would go bad on you, they have to go through their garbage with a fine tooth comb to get it all separated correctly, twice a month you are supposed to take all the "clippings" from your mowed yard down to some "meca compost" with all the other men of the neighborhood (and this just so happens to fall on Saturday which is the only day to actually do anything here), EVERYTING closes at 8 and nothing is opened on sunday....Okay, so if this isn't bad enough today my doorbell rings and some man is standing their rambling to me in German when I stop him and say I have no clue what he's saynig, does he know english??? He says he knows a little, well most people who know a little really know enough to have a decent converstion....not this man. He starts asking me if we have TV or radio and how many. At first I thought it was a little strange but answered his questions as best I could but when he starts filling out a form and I see the word EURO on it I knew I needed to call Joe before I had us paying for who knows what. He let's him talk to a guy at work and turns out you have to pay a yearly tax on any television or radio you own. This includes the radio in your car. We told him we have a TV but it doens't even work here but it doesn't matter, even if it's still in the box you have to pay a tax that equals out to about 20 euros a month on every TV or radio. How weird is that. Well, he has his form and shows me and says something about 444 euros and wants me to sign the sheet and I told him no no no, I wouldn't sign anything b/c I really had no clue what was going on and he would have to come back later when my husband was home.
We got tickets to come in to WV at the end of October so we are all excited about that. The kids will get to trick or treat and Maggie is so excited and wants to be dorthy from the Wizard of Oz. Luckily, her cousins gwen and gracie had a costume they are going to let her borrow so now we just have to come up with either a lion or tin man costume for Owen and they will be set! Well, that is all for now, Maggie is having Anna and Lilly come over this afternoon after nap to play so I am going to get things cleaned up before they get here.