We truly started with a blank slate with our house here in Germany. It is a very plain house, without much character. Don't get me wrong..we LOVE it...but very sterile looking with it's white walls, white floors..and outside it just looks like a big box! : )
But while we lived in it for about 6 weeks with it almost empty, now that our household goods have been delivered, we have been working diligently to make it look "homey"...
I have been asked numerous times for pics of the inside...and we do have some of the rooms complete, so I will try to get some pics up later in the week. But some of the rooms are still waiting on curtains, and pictures to be hung...so you will just have to be patient...these are things I need my hubby to help with...and with his new job, we are seeing a lot less of him than we are used to!!
Our front entryway is not very grand...but we tried to spruce it up just a bit...
This is a "before" picture of our backyard...nice, huh? We rented the home after agreeing that the landlord would take care of the weeds, and we would have an actual "yard"...
After months of debate, finally some progress on the back yard. There is supposed to be sod here...but there was some "miscommunication" with the landlord and it didn't get ordered...hopefully we will have full grass sometime this week. And believe it or not, this a decent size yard for our area...especially considering how large our terrace is!
More changes brought on by this Germany move...our vehicles. The Army will only ship one vehicle over for us, so we left R's truck behind at my parents' house and shipped my van over. So we knew coming over here that we would have to buy R something to get to and from work. But once we got over here, and saw how narrow the roads are, and how small the parking spaces are...we considered also getting me a smaller vehicle to drive day to day...
Now I have a been a "minivan mom" for many years now...and I have loved it! I rebelled at first...but once child #3 comes along, a minivan becomes so much more appealing! I have even convinced friends that the minivan is the way to go!!
But over here the minivan seems like a beast!! I ran up on a curb the first time I drove here...little R asked from the backseat "Mama did we crash?"...and then I knew what had to be done....
We shopped for weeks, looking for TWO dependable vehicles that fit our budget, which was small, because remember...DEBT FREE...and staying that way!! But we found two little cars, and they are working out perfectly!!
Since the girls are in school all day, most of the time when I go anywhere, it is just me and little R...so the small car works out just fine during the week. And when we all go out on the weekends as a family, we hop into the minivan...just like old times!
This is "Peggy" the VW Polo...she belongs to R...who began the practice of naming our vehicles many years ago...
And this is my (yet unnamed) car..and yes, it is purple!! : ) It is an Opel Astra...they have some weird cars here that we just don't have in the States...and in lots of funky colors! This is actually a very common color over here! : )
R turned 4 in September, and partly because of my delay making an appointment, and mostly because it takes FOREVER to be seen at the medical clinic here...R had his 4-year well child checkup today...finally!
This has been a big year for R...he has seen LOTS of changes in his life in the last 12 months. We moved into a new house about a month after his birthday last year. Then 6 months later, Daddy left for 3 1/2 months. In the meantime, we prepared for the HUGE move in the summer time. He rode in an airplane for the first time (that he can remember anyway), lived in a hotel for a couple of weeks, and lived in an almost empty house for about 6 weeks until our household goods arrived! He also started German kindergarten...where they only speak German...and he has been a real champ about it! This move has turned his life upside down!! He cried numerous times, begging to have his room back. How heartbreaking it is to have your little boy cry for his room, and know that you can't give it to him! Very sad! And he cried, saying "I wanna go home"...and we would have to explain that THIS is our home. Hard enough on the other 4 of us, who could prepare ourselves because we (somewhat) knew what was coming. Even harder on little man...who had no idea what his life was about to become!
But now we have a "home", little R has his room back, and things are settling down. He is still a "Mama's Boy", much to Daddy's dismay! He tells me numerous times each day that he loves me...unprovoked, while he is playing. Melts my heart everytime! He also tells me he loves me anytime he gets in trouble!! His strategy is that I will be so overjoyed that he is expressing his deep love for me, that I will forget whatever it is he just did that was wrong!! Doesn't work, but creative nonetheless! : )
He still loves cars, monster trucks, and tractors! He has a newfound fascination with good guys, bad guys, and superheroes. He is very active, and will play by himself for hours, as long as someone is in sight in the house (preferably Mommy, of course)! He loves to be read to...we read a story every night at bedtime, and it is one of his favorite moments of the day.
His favorite foods are waffles and peanut butter sandwiches! He (finally) gave up baby cereal at breakfast...but not until after his birthday! : )
He says some of the cutest things! Examples:
UPDATE: I forgot a few that deserve noting! He LOVES tractors and trucks...especially DUMP TRUNKS!!
He loves apples, but he doesn't like BEEnanas!
A word he uses often that we love...lasterday. I know he will figure this one out soon...but it is so darn cute when he says "Mama, we went to the zoo lasterday." Or..."I don't need a bath, I took one lasterday!"
He loves playing Disney Jr. games on the computer. Except he leaves off the "com" completely...it is simply "Can I play games on the poo-yer?"
He LOVES the movie Cars 2. He plays with his Cars 2 toys A LOT, and talks about them A LOT. He loves Finn McMissile, and also Holly Shiftwell (except when he says it, there is no F in her name). We finally had to make the girls stop having him repeat it constantly...they thought it was SOOO funny!!
He loves going to the zoo to see the am-nals...and talks about them a lot!
He has tons of cute things he says...but these are the only ones I can think of at the moment!
And finally his stats from his checkup:
He weighed in at 38.8 lbs...65th percentile.
He measured 39.5 inches..30th percentile.
So he continues to be quite short! Daddy has big dreams of him playing basketball...we will have to wait and see how that plays out! : )
All in all, it has been another year of being blessed and challenged by this little boy we call our son. He is active, demanding, charming, sweet, and rotten all rolled up into one loved little guy! We can't imagine our family without him, and we are thankful for every day we have with him. He definitely adds a whole new dynamic to every aspect of our day to day life..and we wouldn't have it any other way!
A few pictures of the last year of his life:
He's usually a pretty happy guy!
A future in modeling maybe? : ) He DID win the Baby Mr. Firecracker pageant, ya know!
4th of July fun...usually he gets very upset when he gets sweaty...but not this night!!
This is one of his new things...this is his "salute"...Daddy will have to work on that one!
And now a video that is just plain funny! It's a little long....sorry! He really doesn't usually have a hard time getting dressed...he can do it by himself except for buttons...but this day with his shirt inside out, he just couldn't quite get it! Maybe if he had turned ONE more circle?? : )
On our hospital tour, the German lady who lead the tour told us of several locations that would be great to visit as a family. One of these was Killesburg Park, and it is free, so it was right up our alley!! : ) They do a fireworks display here in July, and after seeing how beautiful the park is, I definitely want to go to the fireworks!! I think we will be spending many days roaming the grounds of this huge park in the next few years! It was beautiful!!!
Entrance to the park
It's beautiful from the very beginning!
The trees are just starting to change colors here...I loved the red in this one!
Me and my girls!
R loved feeding the goats!! They had chickens, llamas, ponies, and pigs, too!
View of Stuttgart, Germany
This tree formed a neat little archway...perfect for a picture!
LOVED this tree...perfect for climbing!
Huge open field...there were several people down there sunbathing...with very little clothing on! This is something we will have to get used to...especially seeing the men in their Speedos!!
They have a huge tower...this is from the 2nd level...that's as far as I made it before I had to go back down. R and the kids went all the way to the top!
View of Stuttgart from the top of the tower.
The girls made it to the top! A has many, many fears, but I guess heights isn't one of them!!
I made the girls ride the carousel...these are fake smiles for Mommy!
R's smile was real!!!
They had a HUGE playground, with all kinds of things on it that we don't have back home! Here they aren't as overly concerned about kids getting injured when playing...so you see all kinds of things that you would never see on a playground in the states! But R's favorite was this "digger". If you know how much he loves tractors, and already misses riding PaPa's tractor, you would totally understand why!
We ventured out last weekend for our first visit to a castle. We chose Ludwigsburg Castle because it was nearby, and they are having their annual "pumpkin festival". This year the theme was dinosaurs, and they had pumpkin statues representing all different kinds of dinosaurs. I didn't expect little R to be thrilled by the castle (which he wasn't), but I knew that he would enjoy the pumpkins!!
The castle was nothing less than absolutely amazing!! Built in the 1700's, it still has original furniture, artwork, and even curtains & wallpaper!! We chose to do the tour even though we knew that at 90 minutes long, it would be a challenge for little R. But while he wasn't impressed, he was very well behaved for the entire tour!! We even had some German ladies comment to us about how quiet our children were!!
We couldn't take any pictures inside the castle, but the castle grounds are full of flower gardens and beautiful landscaping...so we took lots of pictures outside! The highlight of the day for the girls was that the grounds are sooo beautiful that lots of brides choose to have their wedding pictures taken there. We saw several beautiful girls in beautiful wedding gowns having their pictures done...it was really neat!
It was a great first castle visit...we can't wait for the next one!!
Ludwigsburg Castle
The beginning of the dinosaurs...
Some pretty girls beside some pretty flowers...
The grounds were as pretty as the castle!
T is standing because she had just sat down on the pumpkin, and gotten her booty wet!! We all thought it was very funny...she didn't find the humor in the situation!
The back of the castle...
R thoroughly enjoyed the dinosaurs!!
This is what R does when you tell him to smile for the camera...
More of the castle...
Smilin' for the camera...
A tower on the castle grounds...they even had "Rapunzel" hair hanging down from it! We didn't make it up to see the tower...everyone was tuckered out by the time we saw it.
More dinosaur...more smilin' for the camera!
Not real sure what this face was...but it was CUTE!!
The tradition continues! This was our first pizza night at our new house. We have decided that we can't do it on Friday nights anymore...the girls didn't make it through the movie this week...too tired from a hard week at school!! So now that we don't have the leisurely schedule of homeschooling, we are going to have to adjust our family nights to Saturday nights! : )
With all the craziness of our life, little R's birthday was very low key this year. Fortunately, he didn't mind at all! We spent the day at home, while the rest of the gang was at school and work. That evening, we went to the theater on post and saw Cars 2 (for the 3rd time). After the movie, we came home for some yummy cupcakes! Very low key, but we spent the day focused on this blessing we call our son!! Very grateful to have him as part of our family...he definitely adds a lot of fun to our lives! Happy Birthday, Buddy!! We are so proud of the big boy you are becoming!!
At the movies, with popcorn AND a Sprite...it MUST be a special occasion!
R's very simple, but full of love birthday cupcakes!
Happy Birthday, R!!!
The cupcakes were a hit! He licked off EVERY bit of frosting..and then he was done!
We took advantage of the beautiful weather one weekend, and drove into Stuttgart to the zoo. It is probably one of the coolest zoos we have ever been to! It is also a botanical garden, so there are TONS of beautiful flowers. And the animals were all out where you could see them up close, which makes it much more entertaining for little R. It was a great day, and other than people staring, we felt right at home!
I will miss this when he is all grown up...right now I am his "go to" person...and he loves being with me always! I sure do love this boy!!
Gorilla...up close & personal!
A and R had to pose with this big guy!
If sis can do it, he can to!
Cool baboon...
These guys were amazing...but very restless, which made me a bit nervous!
Beautiful!
Beautiful again!
Elephant...up close & personal
One of my very favorites!
This is the view from the upper portion of the zoo
