Jacob

Seven years ago I delivered Jacob via planned c-section. My first son, 2nd child. I was so scared during my pregnancy that I would not be able to love him. Trust me when I say it was NOT the same fear as most soon to be 2nd time mom's have about not having as much love, I mean I was terrified of not loving him. Jordyn had died 8 months earlier, the pregnancy was shocking for Chad and I. I was grieving, fearful, scared, etc. etc etc. Then he cried....all my fears were eleveated and I was IN LOVE with him, before I'd even see his face! He showed me I COULD love again.

The pictures above...some are from when he was born and first came home. Jacob was born on my Maternal Great Grandmother's 91 birthday. She had prayed and vocalized many times how she wanted a grandbaby born on her birthday...Jacob was the one and only! She ABSOLUTELY adored him. He was her "birthday baby" and for the next 1 yr 10 months she loved him with all her heart and now is in Heaven. There's a picture of her holding her best birthday present EVER :)!! He's not a baby anymore, he's truly a little boy.

Today was a good day! He woke Chad and I up at 4:20 this morning to tell us the Tooth Fairy had came and left him $5.00!!! He was THRILLED! We sent him back to bed after telling him Happy Birthday and that we loved him! During Chad's lunch he opened his presents! We got him a whole big kit for his PSP, a memory card for his PSP. Chad got him a Pirates of the Carribean little set and a pirate bag with various things in it. I got him the book "Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein". Jack got him a Playmobil pirate thing and Emma got him a Bionicle! LOL I took some pictures of him putting together his playmobil set and of him playing! There's pictures of us at dinner..he chose Greek! The food was wonderful as always!

He had a double header basketball game tonight. He got to play in most of both games. We made cupcakes this afternoon, he insisted on green icing. We took cupcakes to his teammates for after the game and they all wished him a happy birthday! After dinner we walked over to the Eis Cafe (Icecream Shop). Jacob got speghetti ice (vanilla ice cream that looks like speghetti with strawberry topping as the sauce), Chad got that too (his favorite). In one of the pictures at the Eis Cafe, you see Jack beside Jacob looking absolutely miserable! ROFL! The little guy was stuffed, as he should have been!

Saturday evening he's got friends coming over. Two or three will be spending the night while at least 2 will just come for pizza, cake, and a movie. Tomorrow will be cleaning day. The boys will be getting that playroom spotless, so that on Saturday Chad can bring the tv and dvd player in there and get it set up, along with airmattresses and the boys little couch (Spiderman couch). I want their room cleaned up too. I'll be putting laundry away and vacuuming our bedroom. I got the living room and dining room vaccumed today. I also need to take the bird cake down since Whisker's killed our bird. The recylcing has to go out.  We'll be making the cake on Saturday. Chad's going to draw a Dragon on there and we're going to put on of his Playmobil Knights on it. :) It should be hopefully pretty simple compared to last year's Tank Cake (which wasn't too  hard, but this will definately be less work and far cheaper! LOL). We do need to go buy the cake for his party and get some ice cream too and a few other snacks for the kids and get everything for the pizza's.

My mom called him today as well as my brother's wife and daughter's. He talked to Chad's mom last night.

Time just goes by so fast. I am so thankful I can be a SAHM. I love my children so much. I love that I can homeschool them. Our life is crazy enough being an Army family so the fact that I can be a source of stability for our children and knowing that they don't ahve to switch schools with every move is a blessing.

Well this Momma is tired and I obviously have lots of cleaning to do tomorrow, so I better get to bed.

God Bless and thank you to those of you who wished Jacob a happy birthday! Mine's next! Feb 9! :) OF course Chad will once again be gone! I think he's been home for maybe 3 of my birthday's in 11 years! LOL That's the Army life! :)

Tags: Birthday, Army Life, Homeschool, SAHM

Give Away!!

I came by Danielle's blog via Kelly (pickles/olives). Anywho...Danielle's doing a give away..really awesome so go check her out! :)

 

Here's a few pictures that were taken over the last few days. If you notice...Emma's getting up on her knee's, she's NOT crawling yet, but oh so close. She can roll anywhere she wants and can scoot (backwards is her speciality) very quickly! In one picture she's sitting up with just the boppy behind her to help her if she falls, and another she's wearing Daddy's beret! She's just too cute, I know! LOL  The pictures of Jack alone are from today, he was being a goof ball! The pictures of Jacob where he's in the red shirt are from today as well. Today is his last day of being 6 yrs old. It feels like an end of something, like being 7 is a whole new stage for some reason. He ended his 6th year on a HUGE high note for himself...he lost his FIRST tooth!

A couple nights ago him and Jack were wrestling and Jackson actually punched Jacob in the chin. Trust me that child got into more trouble than I can write! The next morning Jacob says "my tooth is loose!!! I think Jackson actually knocked it loose"! He was all giddy! ROFL! He's MY child. He has my small mouth (we're not talking voice or ability to talk a lot here! Giggling!! No we're talking physical size...it's SMALL like mine). His teeth are just so tiny and that was so evident today when he showed me his tooth. It's just super tiny! We have tooth fairy boxes that I bought in Poland. I only bought one for each boy, but I see now that's not going to work!! When I go back to Poland (supposed to next month with some friends) I'm getting 4 more boxes. Each child needs 2 and this is why...so they can put their tooth in it and so I have a place to store their teeth! I obviously will have to write on the bottom of them so I know whose is whose. I don't intend to keep their baby teeth FOREVER, but I do plan to keep them for a while! I remember when I quit believing in the tooth fairy and asking my mom what she did with all the teeth and she pulled them out of the cabinet, she'd kept them in a coffee cup that she obviously never used! I remember thinking it was cool that she'd kept them and remember telling her if she wanted to throw them away she could.

I know she didn't throw them out that minute, she said it was a few months later.

Anyways...Jacob pulled it out while at a friends house! He was so thrilled he couldn't stand it. So the Tooth Fairy left him $5.00. She will leave that for the first tooth and after that she'll leave $1.00 a tooth.  I know Jacob's going to be so excited in the morning when he see's the tooth fairy as been here and she HAS been here already! LOL She came about 10 pm! ;)

So, anyways. Tomorrow Jacob turns 7. How is that possible? It honestly feels like he was just born and now he's 7. He's halfway to 14. I just want time to slow down. I know he's going to be 18 in a blink of an eye and be planning his future either college or the military. How did this happen? Where did the time go? It's just flying by far too quickly. IT IS a blink of an eye. I really don't need people who's children are older teens or adults to tell me, I really DO Get it. These last 7 yrs have just flown by. I KNOW tomorrow's not promised on this earth for me or my children or my husband. I get that.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Jacob and I are going to make birthday cupcakes! He wants to help. Marble cake with green icing (yep, green..oh yum ha! I don't like icing the way it is! LOL). He'll take them to the basketball game so he can hand them out after the game. He's NOT happy he has to go to his game, but he does. He made a committment to play, so he's playing. He wants to have Greek food for dinner, I told Chad so I have a feeling we're going to the Greek resturant. It's REALLY good!

When Chad gets home from work, hopefully before Jacob's game we'll have time to open gifts, if not we'll do it after the game and before going out to eat. Or we'll take the gifts with us to the resturant!

Oh my goodness! I didn't tell you all! It's not secret that I HATE smoking. Detest it, wish it were illegal..etc, etc, etc! Well German's seem to love smoking. I don't get it, it grosses me out, disgusts me, etc! They've smoked all over the places. Inside malls, resturants, etc. Well it's been banned from all public places! I'm sooo happy! We can now go out to eat and not leave there smelling like a stinking ashtray and most importantly I don't worry about my family breathing in 2nd  hand cancer causing agents! This is just such an awesome answer to prayers! Oh what a blessing!!!

Well I'm off! I'll write an entry tomorrow about my Birthday Boy!

 

Tags: Birthday, 1st lost tooth, tooth keepsake box, Poland, Crawling, Goofiness

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Back Full Time Again

Well I'm back and should be making entries a little more often, not as much as oh say Lori who made I think 6 just tonight! LOL Anyways...life's slowing back down a bit. Chad heads out to the field for a month next week. The big news here though is that Jacob is turning 7 yrs old on Thursday! How IS that possible? I can't believe it, seriously. It seems like just yesterday that boy was born and here he is turning 7 it's just not right! I need to make an apt to get his yearly pictures taken and get Emma's 6 month pictures taken (yes she'll be 6 months on Sunday...how is THAT possible too????).

Jacob's having a few friends over for homemade pizza's, cake, ice cream, movie, and a sleep over for a couple of them. He's excited. He still has to tell us what he wants for his cake! Jacob had a birthday party today and got to do a tour under the city we live in! It's one of those things that you have to do while living here...sadly Chad and I have yet to get to do it! It's either been booked up when they offer it for English speaking tour (fills up FAST) or we have something to prevent us from going. Jacob LOVED it, said it was awesome! LOL

 

Jack had his last basketball game tonight. He actually joyfully played in it tonight, which was wonderful and amazing! He's not wanted to play hardly at all this season, although it was HIM who insisted he wanted to play in the beginning! Go figure! I really don't see him or Jaocb playing next year and I admit I will NOT be heartbroken over it at all. We've done basketball the last 3 season's and I know that come next year I will definately not mind the break!

Well...I need to get to bed. I should have went earlier, but that didn't happen! :( I have laundry to do tomorrow, but that's all I have planned. Yeah! I am READY for a day off where I do not have to go anywhere! I'm hoping it'll be nice enough I can take the kids out for a walk. I know the boys are really wanting to go to the park too, so hopefully it'll be nice enough for that! If it is, I'll see if our friend B will come out and "play" with us too! :)

 

God bless and Good Night

Real Update

Well I've been off and on here for the last few weeks. Life's just so busy and I've just been so overwhelmed with everything that I really needed to take a break in ready journals, writing in mine, even emails have been overwhelming me so some of the places that I could I went to daily digest. After this week though, life will slow down a bit for me!! Wahoo!

So as you all know we went to Italy this past weekend. We stayed on post in Vecenza at the inn/hotel there! We had a suite, which was sweet! Seriously it was HUGE! It was so nice that we were not all on top of each other! Truly such a blessing! I'm going to send them a Thank you card and let them know how much we enjoyed our stay there! Our drive there started off late. Chad was up about 10 minutes after his alarm went off, he said he woke me up, but I can say I do not remember it at all. I do remember my alarm clock going off and me thinking I'd just lay there for a few seconds and then get up...but well that did not happen. My alarm was set for 4:30 and at 5:20 Chad was out of the shower and woke me up and I jumped out of bed! I got dressed and woke the boys up! Emma was the last one for me to wake up. I got her nursed, diaper changed, and dressed, we grabbed our bag with our shampoo, etc in it, pillow, blankets, etc and we were off. We were on the road by 6 am. Traffic wasn't bad anywhere. Chad and I were both pretty tired though. He hadn't been driving long and asked me to drive. I drove for what I thought was an  hour, but was only 45 minutes and told Chad that we either had to stop and nap or he had to take over driving. He opted to take over. I felt terrible but I just couldn't. He got more sleep than me so he was definately more rested! (I was naughty and was on the phone with Emily until almost or right at 2 am! :X She's a really BAD influence I tell you! LOL J/K) So anyways...we stopped quite a few times to stretch, bathroom breaks, and gas. We got there about 2 or 3. We stopped at the bank as I had a check to cash so we had some extra euro on us, then went and checked into the hotel. After that we walked from the hotel over to ITR and talked to them about taking the train to Venice. They were really nice. The girl printed off times for us and told us where to buy bus tickets (at the hotel!!) how much everything was, and gave us a few hints and tips on Venice! Then we went into the PX to kill time and just check things out. While in there we ran into a friend we had lost contact with! We had been at Ft. Riley together back in '97-98. We moved to Baumholder, Germany. The husband arrived Feb '99 (so a few months after  Jordyn and I did), she (and their daughter)  was coming that August after she was done with college classes she'd enrolled in. He spent almost every weekend with us and after Jordyn was dx came up to the hospital quite a few times. After Jordyn died we ended up losing contact. We'd moved and unknown to me not long after they did too! They moved to Vecenza! They've been in Europe for 9 1/2 yrs and in Italy for 6  of those years! They're leaving in late spring, so we're wanting to take another trip down there before they leave. Their oldest daughter is 11 now and they have another little girl who's 2 1/2! It was so great seeing them! Sunday, before we left we had lunch with them and got all caught up!

Ok so anyways..Friday night we went to eat at a resturant that had been suggested to us by our friend here who used to be stationed down there. It was their favorite. The owners were so nice. The food was really good! Just a great evening! Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the bus stop. Got on the train and off to Venice we went. It took us about 30-40 minutes and we pulled into Venice! It was so exciting and wonderful! I cried many times! LOL I LOVE Venice! LOVE IT!! It's beautiful! It's everything you think it'll be and more! It's really, really, really big! I was surprised at just how big it is! I KNEW we'd not be able to see all of it in one day, but I thought we'd get to see more than what we did. It was just so big! What we did get to see though was wonderful and I'm glad we were rushing around trying to see everything! Venice is a city that you need to take your time in and just enjoy it. We bought souvineers. I got  me a Gucci purse!!!! :) LOVE IT! We bought a Canvas Painting, which is just beautiful. The kids all got souvineers. Jacob got an awesome Pinnocio puppet, it's wooden with all the various strings. Jack got a really cool toy. I don't know their official names, they're popular here in Germany. His is also Pinnocio, but you pull a string and his arms and legs shoot out. I got a small one for Emma too! We also bought the boys wooden Gondola's, to be put up, and we bought Emma a porclein doll. I bought 3 birthday presents (I can't say what they are because at least one of them reads here and sometimes another does too!). We had real Italian pizza for lunch. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!

Everyone had a great time, except for Emma. She HATED it. She hated being strapped in her stroller. She has no use it seems for the beauty of Venice! LOL She's only 5 1/2 months old, so she's forgiven!

I know the boys highlight was in the middle of St. Mark's Square. They have pigeon's everywhere and people selling corn to feed the nasty, disgusting, disease carrying birds. (BTW I DO NOT LIKE Pigeons LOL). If you look in the previous entry you'll see them landing on them. We had some college students who happened to be from Kansas! (Even if they do go to KU..boo..I'm a K-State girl!) It was really great. They took pics so I could get in there and let me tell you Christy found something worse than feeling like you're confined to a small space. It's called a freaking pigeon flying up onto your head and sticking it's disgusting claws into your VERY curly hair. I was absolutely freaking out. (I think I shared one of my freaking out over pigeon's picture! LOL). Chad and the boys loved it, I did not! I was fine watching them, taking pictures...but not joining them. Emma was definately mesmorized by the birds. That was possibly her highlight of the day!

Once we decided we were done and ready to head back, we got on a Water Taxi. Jackson fell asleep for the 30 minute ride back to the other side of Venice. We were all awake on the train ride home and Emma was as happy as a lark! When we got back we were all hungry so we headed to a resturant that was recommended by one of the employee's of the hotel. It was great! We were in the only ones in there. The food was FABULOUS!

Oh and the Italians...in love with Emma! They kept saying "oh Bella, bella" aka beautiful! Her eyes always grab people..they're a beautiful color of blue and they're absolutely stunningly HUGE! Then just add on how beautiful she is (yep I'm totally biased, but still it's the truth!).

When we got back to the hotel, we made out the couch for the boys (which they thought was oh soo coll!), and they passed out! I did too! I was exhausted! I was laying with Emma, wrote out my postcards that I got for a couple people and that was it. I was gone and didn't wake up until 9! Chad said that Jacob was the first to wake up between the two boys and Emma and he woke up at 8:50, Jack woke up a few minutes later.

So we met our friends for lunch at the DEFAC (Chow Hall). Then just talked and hung out for a bit. We got gas coupons and then went to the shoppette to pick up my friends wine that she'd gave us money for! We picked up 3 bottles for ourselves too! Of course we have 5 bottles yet to be opened. I really want a wine rack and that's the next big purchase I plan on making. I want a nice one! We finally headed off post a little after 3 pm! We stopped for gas (no gas stations on post), filled the tank up we were off! It took us 8 hours to get home. We were all tired and hit the bed with delight.

Since we've been home Emma's trying a new trick...she's trying to crawl. She got up on her knee's on the floor tonight. I started crying. She's growing up too fast. I can't believe she's already 5 1/2 months old, it feels like she was just born, yet at the same time like she's always been here!

Well, I am super tired and have to be up and out of here by 8:40.

 

I'll be turning my alerts back on next week. Life will be settled down around here more, so I should be able to keep up!

 

God Bless

Pictures of Italy

Here's some of the pictures I took on our trip to Italy! We absolutely loved it and are planning on going back! We're looking at going back in April possibly, after our trip to Ireland. We loved it there and did not get to see nearly as much as we wanted, so really we HAVE to go back! LOL

 

 

 

 

If you click on the pictures I put text of where we're at or what we're doing!

Off To Italy!!

We're heading out in about 4 or 5 hours! I know I should be in bed, but I'm so wired from excitement I can not stand it!!! Chad will start off the drive, so I'll probably sleep the first 3 or 4 hours until we hit Austria. We'll be driving over Brenner Pass (click on it and take a stunning look!!). This road passes through the Alps! My friend Bobbie said that there's pull of points so I should get good pictures!

Today I got all my errands ran. I got us snacks, got a 4 GB memory card for my camera (1296 pictures!!), I have my 1 GB memory card, it has about 20 to 40 pictures taken on it out of I think it's 800 so I will be able to get probably about 2000 pictures taken just on my digital. I bought new batteries for my Cannon Rebel which I have another lens so I can get those great distance shots with!! Bought a 4 pack of film for it and extra set of batteries. (I haven't used this camera is probably a year sadly...I love the convinence of the digital, but the Rebel's pictures turn out so beautiful). We have the camcorder battery charging. We have the dvd players (one for each boy) batteries charging. The luggage, snacks, and stroller are all loaded up. The van is setting on a full tank of gas and Chad bought a book of Gas coupons (buy them on post and it's soooo much cheaper than paying the price on the economy...we pay about 1/2 what they do!). We have Euro and some cash. We're so excited! The boys are both beyond excited they don't know what to do! LOL I know they'll enjoy it! We have A LOT of walking ahead of us! Maybe I'll lose a lb or two! LOL Probably not...come on I'll be eating REAL Italian food!!! Oh my goodness I can NOT wait! Bobbie told us where their favorite resturant in Vecinza is so we're going to definate eat there one night.

I'll write more when we are back and settled and I have uploaded all the pictures!!!! Wahoo! Italy...here we come!

Little Update

Hi, still alive, just trying to get a grip on life in general. A cold ran through our family. Chad thought he was dying! LOL The man rarely gets sick so when he does it's of course just the "worst" @@! I ended up with it, by the time the rest of them were finishing up theirs and I ended up losing my voice completely Friday and Saturday. Sunday I woke up hoarse, but able to talk!

We are going on a trip this weekend! I'm calling tomorrow to make sure I can get us a room, and as long as I can we're heading to Venice! We'll be staying Vecenzia at the Army Post, to save money! It's only about 45 minutes away. We're driving, it's only 6-7 hrs drive. We're going to get up at the crack of dawn...well before that between 4 and 5 AM and head out! We should get there between 10 and 11 am. Hopefully we can check into our room and get the van  unloaded and then I guess head to Venice for the day! We'll go back on Saturday and finish up sight seeing. We'll come home on Sunday! I'm so excited I can't even describe it!

I have a lot of stuff going on over the next couple of weeks so my alerts will remain off until that's all over. I need to turn on my comment alerts because I haven't even been getting those. I will try to go in the next couple of days and just read some journals, but I'm not promising anything! I hope you're all well!

 

I'm off to bed!

 

God Bless

Just Can't Catch Up

I have so many journal alerts and with everyone being sick (today it caught up with me...just light headed and feeling cruddy and sleeping ALL DAY literally..hence why I'm still awake at 3:30 am! :X) anyways I just can not get caught up on journals. It's just too overwhelming to me and I have so much to do over the next couple of days. I'm planning a deployed spouses dinner and being the procrastinator that I am, have 2 weeks to finalize up everything up! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I really don't have too much left to do, but still I'm feeling stressed now. Since I was not feeling good and Emma did NOT sleep good last night I did not go to my board meeting for PWOC (which is through who I'm doing the deployed spouses dinner).

Just so you know the dinner is for spouses who's husband's are deployed down range. We're having it catered, will have someone give a devotional (which I am really feeling led to be me), and free childcare, and will give every lady a book as a gift. I'm also wanting to get some flowers for the tables and having a drawing for who gets those.

I also have to get some paperwork done tomorrow. I hope I feel good tomorrow. I'm feeling fine right now, so I think it'll be fine. I was supposed to go to the gym tomorrow so I'll have to talk to my friend about what time she wants to go. No way I can go in the morning. Unless she wants to do it on Thursday and Friday instead of tomorrow. I know it'd work better for me that way.

 

Oh everyone else is pretty well all better too, well the boys in my house. Chad, Jacob, and Jack are pretty well done coughing which is good. Emma is still coughing, but not like she was and tonight she was laughing and smiling and just being our sweet Emma again!!

 

Well I'm off!

 

Good night and God bless

 

Wiped Out

Everyone in my home except for me has a cold. Chad started it and since the man NEVER gets sick, it's like his world has stopped. It's just hard to feel really sorry for him because he has a sore throat, coughing, and stuffing nose. I mean come on...growing up I got sick every stinking year and my cold ALWAYS turned into bronchitis (my parents smoked and it kindly turned my cold into it...and they continued even AFTER the drs told them to not be smoking around me...that's another entry though huh!) Anyways so Chad's got a cold and both the boys do as well. Jackson's also just simply not feeling good. Yesterday all day long he literally layed on the couch. He just did not feel good. He barely ate, but have to say when he did it was good choices. He had apple slices, oh the one bad thing he had was a bread stick! But that's all he ate all day. This morning he had grapes and he ate some dinner (some chicken) but not much. I've made sure he's drinking which he has been thankfully. He felt hot this morning and Emma's just miserable with her cold (stuffed up, coughing and that's moved into her chest) so the two kids and I stayed home while Chad and Jacob went to church. Emma was really fussy and I finally got her to nurse for a bit then we rocked and she fell asleep and Jack was sleeping on the couch. I didn't wake up until after 2! Emma slept on me until nearly 3 pm, Jack had woke up after Chad and Jacob got home from church, but continued to stay on the couch, never moving. I started getting ready for Awana and went to see how Jack was feeling and felt him and he was hot. I took his temp and it was 100.7 so he wasn't going to Awana. I asked Chad who was staying home. I'm the Sparks Director and he's the Games Director. I have a great secretary so if I have to stay home it's ok, but obviously not preferable. Chad is the Games director and he has an assistant. Chad stayed at home after calling is assistant to make sure he was going to be there. I cried for a good 20 minutes just thinking of leaving Emma. I haven't left her for more than a few minutes to run to the mailroom so this was huge for me...to leave her for 2 hrs. I just am not a mom that's comfortable leaving my babies much if at all in the 1st 6 months of their life and not much the 2nd half of their first year either. Jacob and I walked to Awana, which was really nice. We talked and although it's cold, it wasn't a bone chilling cold! Awana was good. When I got home Chad said that Emma was awake for the 1st 30 minutes after I left and then fell asleep and woke up 10 minutes before I got home, so in her mind I was only gone for 40 minutes.

I scooped her up when I got home and went to hand her back to Chad so I could change out of my Spark's shirt and she started crying and reaching for me (yes she's reaching for me now!!!) so she went with me to change! God bless that baby girl. Jack seemed to be feeling better and he and Jacob were playing around after dinner and well that was just too much on his little body, he got sick, ran to the bathroom and got sick some more.

 

Please pray for health for my family. No one's drastically bad, but we rarely get sick and well I've had enough of it to last a lifetime personally.

 

Emma's awake and needing to nurse...God Bless

2007-2008

 

 

Well it's 12:05 AM January 2 for me in Germany so since the first day of the new year is officially over, I thought I'd do a review of last year as best as I can remember and share my thoughts for this new year!

January: I was in the beginning of a new pregnancy, dealing with some morning sickness, and we celebrated Jacobs' 6th birthday! The boys wrapped up basketball, which Chad was head coach for them (same team).

Feb. I turned 30, Chad threw me a surprise party!! We went to Rothenburg odT for the first time and loved it and also to Edelweiss for a retreat and had a wonderful time!

March: We marked what would have been Jordyn's 9th birthday.

April: We found out we were having a GIRL!!!!!!! We also were in the midst of planning for my parents upcoming visit in May. Both boys played Tball and Chad was head Coach for Jackson and Asstistant Coach for Jacob's team. I went away for 4 days for a PWOC conference in Willigen (Villigen is how it's pronounced). The city is a beautiful city in the mountains and it was the longest I'd EVER  been away from my children.

May: We marked 7 yrs since Jordyn went home to Heaven. My parents came for 12 wonderful days. We went to area's of Germany we'd never been to before: Triberg in the Black Forest, Berchessgarden, up to Eagle's Nest, The Netherland's to Kuekenhof, and to Poland. May my sweet Emily also found out that there were some very serious problems with the baby who was growing inside of her, Miller Grace...at that point there was still so much not known though. (You can read more about Miller Grace's 5 amazing days on this earth at: www.caringbridge.org/visit/millergracecassetty ) Chad also had knee surgery after waiting 2 yrs from the initial injury to have it. Tball wrapped up, it was a lot of fun and was great to see them enjoy themselves!

June: We spent most of our days at the park or pool, did local trips around the area. On June 23 Miller Grace was born (Emily's baby girl)....she lived for 5 amazing and precious days and on June 28 went to Dance with Jesus.

July:  We celebrated 4th of July in the pouring rain for most of the day. I was VERY pregnant and pretty well counting down the days at this point. Chad braved it and took our 2 boys and 2 friends boys (4 boys in total) camping and fishing.  The day they left my friend Bobbie, her little girl, and I went shopping...we bought BASKETS!! LOL That was the day my stomach almost tipped our table over too as I tried to stand up! ROFL!!

 

August: What a glorious month this was for our family!!! August 3...we welcomed Emma Grace into our family. She was absolutely perfect and beautiful. We'd prayed for her for so long. The boys instantly fell in love with her as Chad and I had! At the end of the month we celebrated Jackson's 4th birthday!

 

 

September: We started back to schooling after taking the month of August off, and adjusting to having Emma here with us. At the end of the month we headed down to Garmisch for a weekend retreat. Emma's first big outing, she did great and we all had a wonderful time!

October: Just local adventures, Jacob and Jack continued to enjoy school (homeschooling remember), Emma turned 2 months old and was starting to interact more and more. Halloween was fun, the boys were both Prince Peter from Narnia and Emma was a Princess!

 

 

 

November: We went to Rothenburg again with the chapel, celebrated with our friends for Thanksgiving. Chad went out to the field for 3 weeks and the night he came home Emma rolled over for the first time.

December: Emma became an expert at rolling over and started scooting backwards! She truly recognizes people she knows, "talks" a lot. Christmas was a blessing and we truly tried to make it special. We invited a friend and her 2 children over for dinner and the evning as her husband's deployed (we had went to her home for Thanksgiving).

Over all it's been a wonderful year with some sadness. I saw my parents for the first time in almost 2 yrs, did some traveling, welcomed our 4th child/2nd daughter to the world, and have had one of my best friends have to hand her baby girl over to Jesus and is now walking this walk of grief that truly turns the world you once knew upside down and inside out.

 

 

For 2008 we are prepared for more changes. More traveling is in order! We're planning a shopping trip to Poland for February!! Can't wait! Still need to line up childcare for the boys, I have a couple options just need to secure. May brings in big changes for our family, which I'll write about later. April I'm planning a trip for our family to Ireland!!! I can not wait for that! It's currently a surprise for Chad! Haven't decided when I'm going to tell him, I'll tell him before the trip. I'm starting to get antsy about telling him so it may be sooner rather than later! :) Planning on at least a day trip to Czech Republic to do some shopping and hopefully we can make it to Prague for a long weekend! We're hoping for a trip to Venice. Chad will be gone for 30 days in Feb (to obviously early March) so maybe in March we can go to Venice or we'll do it after our Ireland trip, it's only a 6 hr drive. I am hoping in March to take a weekend or 4 day weekend trip up to The Netherland's again to Kuekenhof. It's only open for I believe 6 weeks, it'll just depend on our finances for that one. It's a 6 hr drive as well, but the hotel will cost more than when we go to Venice (we'll stay at the Army Post that's just 45 minutes away when we go there and save money). If we can get away for a long weekend I'd love to go to Switzerland in early May. In June or July a friend and I are planning a girls only shopping trip to Belguim! They have gorgeous furniture there, antique's, and we plan on getting a couple things! :) We may have to rent a small truck or a trailor if her van has the hitch (mine doesn't I know). I don't plan on buying a ton, but do plan on buying a couple pieces hopefully! Later in the summer the kids and I are going "HOME" for 6 weeks! We'll be going to Kansas and staying with my parents, we'll be heading down to Ky to visit Emily and my friend Kandy, up to Ohio to see Chad's family for a few days, and then onto Michigan to see my best friend and to see Kelly and hopefully can meet up with Linda if she's available!!

My new years resolution...well normally I don't make them because people just break them, but this one is not going to get broke.

My resolution is to love God as I'm supposed to: With All My Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul.

 

 

My goal is to lose weight. This is something I'm very serious about. My friend B and I are going to start going to the gym. I want to start at least twice a week, and if it's nice out go walking around post and off post as well. I'd like to go twice during the week and if Chad's around on the weekend, go on Saturday with B and see if Chad is up to watching all the kids for an hour or so. He can do it, the boys wouldn't be a problem and if I timed it right Emma could be napping while I'm there and then he'd really only have to entertain B's little girl, D who's about to turn 1 this month! B's husband will be home in last summer and she'd like to have some weight off and I desperately am TIRED of being fat and want to get HEALTHY (B wants this too!!)...so that's the goal. I'd like to see at least 50 lbs off of me by this time next year! I KNOW I can do it.

 

Oh last night we welcomed the New Year in by having B and her kids over. Chad made pizza's, we munched on some snacks, played Sequence, and at Midnight B and her son and Jacob and I went outside to watch the German's shoot off fireworks! They're crazy I tell you!!! LOL They definately get into shooting in the new year! It was cold and snowing. Chad was dozing and Jack had passed out in Chad's arms by then, and Emma was out!

 

I pray your 2008 will be a wonderful year for you.

 

 

 

aoljurlAdd, aoljurlAdd_6

Confession Time

Sweet Barbara over at: Life & Faith in Caneyhead has dared us to share 4 confessions! I urge you to go read hers, never would have thought sweet Barbara to do those things! LOL

 

So here's mine!

 

1. In 7th grade me and my best friend D skipped school (went to my aunts house) and my mom caught us because well we were stupid and went to my aunts house, our punishment from our principal was to clean up the HS football field after playing our neighboring hs, who we hadn't played in over 60 yrs (different leagues) and it took us I think 6 hours!) that same year we also were "brillant" enough to sneak out! We'd just walked around the block and came back and all the lights in the house were on (at 2 am) so instead of being smart we ran to another friends house! We came back in the morning and HID under her porch! The police were called and everything. We decided to run to her grandma's and call from there (her grandparents were at her parents...along with my parents of course) and as we took off across the yard they saw us! We were grounded, but they thought we'd ran away! Stupid girls we were!!

 

2. When I was 16 I dated a guy who was 22...amazingly he was REALLY a nice guy, I was made to break up with him of course when my parents found out! (We dated again a couple yrs later for a few months, he was still a nice guy...too nice! LOL)

 

3. When I met Chad, I told him he didn't have a chance with me! ;) He didn't then either! ROFL Obviously things changed and 6 months later we started dating (we were friends during those previous 6 months....he was another nice guy! I only dated 2!)

 

4. I've had um...well you know ;) in the rain! (With my hubby of course!) I recommend it! :X

 

Your turn!! :)