And we celebrated!!!!

A few weeks ago (fine, almost a month ago) Gibbers turned 5. Five, y’all!!!! How did this happen?

There’s a downfall of having a winter birthday  in Germany (as compared to Tennessee). It’s guaranteed to be cold. And a cold day for a birthday for a kid just isn’t fun. There are plenty of indoor play places around here (and some of them scare the stink out of me). But the price is HIGH and with the dollar v. euro… it’s even more expensive to us American folk. Luckily I new of a petting farm where most of the attractions were inside the barn. We went with that; though it was still cold, all of the kids had a great time.

The kids played inside the barn with all of the animals to pet, went inside the chicken coop (it’s a nice, open air coop) and chased down some chickens, had a tractor ride, played in the hay, on a tire swing and in a room full of corn kernals. They had food and cake, too. And we ran out of time (meaning it was getting late and we were all TIRED) to play on the outside playground or do the pony ride. (Shhhh! DOn’t tell the kids they could have had a pony ride!)

Here are some pictures of the birthday boy for the long distance family and friends that are still bitter that I cancelled my FB, therefore reducing the frequency of picture viewing. (Pardon and out-of-focus-pictures. It’s nearly impossible to get a very excited 5 year old to hold still for the camera.)

 

 

 

 

 

On his 5th birthday…

How in the world do we have a 5 year old? I know we’re in our mid-thirties and most people our age have kids that are already in the double-digit-ages. But seriously. How did all of this happen so quickly?

It was almost two weeks ago that our guy turned 5. Five. Still hard to wrap my head around. Here are a few pictures of his special day.

He wanted KFC for dinner. And luckily, there is one about 20 minutes away in the Netherlands. (Unfortunately, they don’t carry my favorite side items – mac & cheese and mashed potatoes. Those dutch peeps have no idea what they’re missing.) He really wanted their spicy wings. And he tore them up!

And a special occurrence happened (other than turning 5)… he had his first piece of gum. (Seriously, he hasn’t had a piece of gum in his first 5 years.) We provided a vast array of options gum-wise (gum balls, bubbalicious, sugar free sticks, sour gum) and his first try was a traditional gumball. It was so cute… he didn’t know what to do with it. The hubs had to tell him what to do.

We also made cakes that day and he was able to decorate his own cake however he wanted…. and like however much frosting he wanted.

                            

It was a pretty sweet and low-key birthday. He got a Step-2 playgym from us for his birthday that we put in the basement so he can play with it year round. He was pretty excited when he came into the basement and saw it.

Happy Birthday to our big boy!

 

Celebrating Gibbers!

Gibbers is turning 5 today! It’s nuts. I cried a little last night over dinner because he is getting so big (and because he wants to go to kindergarten next year instead of continue homeschooling).
So, in honor of him, here’s a few of my favorite snapshots (in no particular order) from the past 5 years. I had a really hard time narrowing down the list. REALLY hard. I started with almost 80 after being really picky, and I’ve narrowed it down to 20-something snapshots… ones that I think show his personality.)

Flight out of Las Vegas after placement.

His first Agape Fest experience.

Pointing to where Jesus is.

Being a ring bearer with his bestie.

After playing with cornstarch & water.

At Highland’s PB&J Festival.

Being crazy in our bed.

Welcoming his daddy home from deployment.

Sitting on the pot, reading a book about poop.

Potty hat.

He loved those boots!

Night of Prayer with his bestie.

Gatlinburg Aquarium. He insists the fish was smiling at him.

His first picture with his baby brother that he prayed for.

Gooing around with his momma.

Finally!

First time holding Giblet.

Getting ready to throw a snowball at his daddy.

Licking his fingers while baking.

Reading to his baby brother.

(It’s grape juice.) In Luxembourg.

Goofy kid.

Rocking the PJs. Happy Birthday to our big guy!!!!

 

What a Zoo!

When we lived in the St. Louis area we were members of the zoo. That’s a big deal for me since I’m not normally a fan of zoos. I get so sad for the animals being kept in tiny habitats when they were meant to roam freely. (Yes, I understand zoos do wonderful things for animals but I was raised near a rinky-dinky zoo that kept the tiger in a chain link fence that was so small he could barely turn a circle.) But the St Louis Zoo is AMAZING! I took Jax with a friend when he was around 9 months old and fell in love with it. I love all of the animals. Most of the habitats are pretty good sized. And it is just beautiful. Jax loves the zoo too and he requested that we go there with Leland. Leland’s momma happily obliged and loaded up her three littles and met us there.
It was little crazy with 2 four year old, a two year old and two infants, but we made it work (with three adults)! And to top off all of our zoo joy, we were able to see the baby elephant!!!

It was October and the place was decorated for Boo at the Zoo

 

It’s impossible to get 3 kids to look at the picture at once without bribery.

 

Baaaaaaaaabyyyyyyyy!

 

Oliver and Elihu. Best buds.

 

Eli’s Baby Dedication

One of the most important events we scheduled to occur during our visit to the states was to have Eli dedicated. We knew we really wanted to have it done at our old church, August Gate. Many churches do baby dedications as one mass event, dedicating all of the babies born that year and it’s usually hosted on Mother’s Day. We also knew that this needed to be an event that portrayed the importance of a dedication and raising a child up in “the church”… we knew Pastor Noah wouldn’t let us down.
It was a beautiful dedication. Noah spoke about the importance of parenting and leading by example and walking in the word in front of our children. He spoke about the importance of the church body to come together and help us raise our child in a way that teaches him and instills in him the foundations of Christianity. After speaking for a bit, he asked the members of our Gospel Community (small group) and our friends that were in attendance to come to the front and pray over our family. I held it  all together until then. As soon as Jillian came up beside me, the tears started flowing. I am so glad that we waited and dedicated Eli with our August Gate family!

And now, some pictures (that I hijacked from my friend’s FB page. Thanks KB!)

Us and the Pye family. They are really awesome people.

And with the Warren family. Incredible people that drove 2 hours to be there.

And with the Polish Palace family! Love them SO much.

And my dear sweet Sprenger family. Our oldest boys are besties.

our little family

 

Monschau

In early October, we went to visit Monschau. It’s a quaint historic village less than an hour away. There is a castle there (that we did not tour this time) that dates back to the 13th century!!! (There were way too many stairs to hike to get to the castle for me as I was battling boogers at the time.) The village is situated in a tiny valley with a small river (the Rur river) running through it. The village center has houses and streets dating back over 300 years. A lot of the houses are now cafes or stores, but there are still plenty of houses, and they are really really beautiful. (It’s pretty cool to walk where people walked hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I wonder what life was like for them.)

Will is the only one who knew Tara was taking a picture

 

To get to this home, you have to walk a pedestrian bridge across the river.

 

Yum! Ice cream!

 

 

Jon’s new nickname is “The Pack Mule”

 

 

Friends!

 

Tara & I (she’s 6 months pregnant and I’m the one with the chubby face)

 

 

This is our life. Jon wrangling Jax and me with my finger in Eli’s mouth

 

 

Jax was super excited about the door that was his size.

Monschau was beautiful and quaint. It was quiet and relaxing. I’m sure we’ll go again… and next time we’ll visit the castle!

 

Blomland Farm

Sometime in September, we joined along with a playgroup and went to Blomland Farm. (I may or may not have already mentioned it.) It was in a nearby village and they had the interior of the barn set up with donkeys, chickens (where the kids can gather eggs), bunnies, guinea pigs, real pigs, goats, some birds, some ponies,  and other assorted farm animals. Outside they had a great play area and more animals including cows, donkeys, ponies, wallabies, peacocks, turkeys, etc. It was a really great place and was nicely maintained. My friend Tara remembered her camera (always) and took some pictures that she was nice enough to share.

(prepare for a picture dump)

Instead of a sandbox, they had a room filled with CORN!!!

 

Jax & I playing with a Guinea Pig

 

See! Eli was there, too!

 

Time for a pony ride. (I had to walk the horse. He was stubborn!)

 

For real… there’s Eli.

 

Smartest thing ever!!! A trampoline in the ground!

 

My biggest with some cute pumpkins.

 

And little with the pumpkins.

 

Jax petting a cow.

 

Because I love beagles, and they had a puppy.

 

A brand new piglet!!!!!!! (I named it “Wilbur.”)

 

Luxembourg

This past weekend we took a little trip to Ramstein AB and to Luxembourg with some friends. We wanted to go to Ramstein because they were having their annual bazaar (shopping with 140 vendors) and the guys wanted to play some golf. And because we wanted to visit Luxembourg.

The bazaar was great! We didn’t really know what to expect since we had never been before and we’re now prepared for next year (meaning save lots of money and buy some amazingly beautiful antique furniture). I bought a polish pottery honey jar, some hand painted Christmas ornaments, Haribo gummies, a toy for Jax and a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts! YES! Krispy Kreme donuts. One of the organizations had massive amounts of Kripsy Kreme’s shipped over and sold them as part of a fund raiser. At $15/dozen, I’m sure they made a killing. And they were completely worth $15, especially when it’s been over a year since having consumed them.

And we did some shopping at the BX their (commonly referred to as the mall, but really, it’s just a huge BX). We scored a Blu Ray player, Chuck Taylor’s for Jax, a fleece Jack Wolfsmith jacket for me, a North Face backpack that is now our diaper bag and some other odds and ends. (Which is amazing, because normally we aren’t able to find anything there.)

And then we went to Luxembourg where we toured a winery. We had a little private tour and it was sort of quick because we couldn’t take the kids everywhere, but it was really sweet of the lady to give us the tour. And then we sat on the patio and had some wine (and grape juice).  And after the winery, we went to the American Military Cemetery.

Luxembourg is beautiful. And we’ll definitely visit again. We loved the wines and the winery and we still need to go to Luxembourg City.

And now, a picture dump….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trier

A few months ago…

 the hubs was off of work and we opted to visit Trier (oldest city i n Germany) instead of staying home and cleaning the house. Plus, a trip to Trier also included a pit stop and Spangdahlem Air Base, where we would have Taco Bell for lunch! (I know Taco Bell is really disgusting, but when your options for fast food are Burger King and McDonald’s, Taco Bell seems extremely enticing.)

So, we loaded up the kids int he car with way too much baggage to cary and we headed. We stopped and Spang, had our yummy yummy Taco Bell, got the hubs some new boots, got the car washed and headed down some windy country road to Trier.

Oh, hey, did you know that dirt holds things together on cars? I didn’t. Until we washed our car and it started making a horrible noise when we would drive it. Husband said something about back brakes and rotors… I don’t know what that means. What I do know is that the car didn’t make any noise (other than a weird click when you turn it sharply) and now it does. According to Jax, the car sounds broken and like the wheels are going to fall off. Anyway.. back to Trier.

We went to Porta Nigra, which are the gates the Romans built to keep intruders out. And we went to the Dom (cathedral) and we walked around the city market, shared a bratwurst and an ice cream. So, now, I’ll give you pictures, because pictures always make a blog post better!

One half of the Roman gates

Jax by some doors. Don’t know where they lead to back in the day.

The Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral.

Jax eating some of the bratwurst.

 

A Little Day Trip

A few weeks ago, my momma was in town to meet her newest grandchild and to love on the rest of us. She was sweet enough to bring my niece Bailey with her. (Gibbers ADORES Bailey. A.D.O.R.E.S.)

I was about 3 weeks post partum when they got here, so we didn’t make very many big plans. I knew that I would still be adjusting to life with two kids, and breastfeeding, an all the other stuff that comes along with a newborn. What we did do was decide to take a little day trip to the city of Koln (or, Cologne).

There is a beautiful cathedral in the city square and we wanted to visit. We had no idea what we were doing but saw a sign saying something about tickets. We followed the sign and bought tickets. And walked up the stairs to start our tour. But really, what we bought tickets for was to walk to the bell tower, and those stairs that we walked up from the ticket counter led only to the tiny, winding stairwell of the 533 steps up to the bell tower. There was no turning back… even with a newborn and a 4 year old… and me recovering from a c-section.

So off we went. The stairwell was narrow, and people were coming down the winding stairs as people were going up. Thankfully it wasn’t a terribly hot day, so we weren’t miserable… though it did stink of plenty of body odor (what is with these europeans?).

First, some views of the outside….

About halfway through the climb, there was the floor with the bells. Luckily they had some seating available, and a breeze because of the open areas. We took a brief rest, and most of us continued on. We lost my mom to the rest of the climb, which I completely understand. She had COPD and is on inhalers and they weren’t providing much relief. So, she opted to wait it out for the rest of us to finish the climb. We gave Gibbers the option of waiting with his Neena, but he insisted he wanted to finish the climb, so off we went!

The largest bell in the tower.

And we made it!

Gibbers, Bailey, Mr Gibby & Giblet

Bailey, myself, Gibbers

A view from the observation deck

I am so glad we toughed it out and climbed all of those steps.It was much more beautiful than what my measly picture portrays. We made the climb down and enjoyed touring the cathedral itself (free of charge, no stairs). It was also breathtaking (but I don’t have any pictures b/c I was feeding Giblet while we were walking in there. Sorry.).

Then the rain came (of course) and we took shelter in a guest shop. Once it let up we rewarded ourselves with Starbucks!!!

It was a pretty great day. And I would love to go back (turns out, they have a half-marathon & marathon there!!!!!).