Mommys' baby boy

No matter where we go or what we do, my favorite part of a night out is always picking Dylan up from the sitter. There is no better feeling than seeing your babys face light up when you walk into the room and he knows he's going home. That "Hi mommy!" is what gets me through every single day, every single night, and every single stressful hour I have. Even when my hours are stressful because of him.

People always ask me when Chad and I are going to have another one. I honestly can't imagine giving up my Dylan time right now! I love that he is my only baby. I love that I don't have to share my time equally, that I can spend all my energy making sure I teach him how to be a respectful boy. How to love animals and love other people. How to say please and thank you and how to know when to say he is sorry.

The rate that he is learning right now is unbelievable, every day a new sentence or a new emotion identified. He picks up on things so easily. The other night Chad hid his dvd player because he was messing with it instead of going to sleep. I looked EVERYWHERE for it, and Dylan realized what I was looking for and was able to point out to me wich cabinet high above my head it was in. I am amazed by him every single day!

This blog quickly went from being about motherhood to being about our travels and experiences here in Europe, but my life still completely revolves around him. No matter what awesome things we get to see or do or experience, there is NO more wonderful experience than being Dylans mom.

Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again! Colder weather, twinkling lights, strands of garland all through the town and grungy old men dressed up as Ol' St. Nick. No...seriously.

Okay lets back up a bit though. This was not only our last Thanksgiving in Germany, but also one of the last times we had our whole group together. Everyone is parting ways this year, and half of them will be gone within a month! So we made it special. Everyone came over and helped cook, play games, drink plenty of gluhwein and eat their weight in Thanksgiving food. I think I can speak for everyone when I say it was a blast! I am so incredibly thankful for the friends I have made here that turned into family, all our wonderful memories together and for reunions I hope to have in the future. Also for the fact that my husband was able to spend it with us this year, as he has and always will miss his fair share of holidays.

The day after Thanksgiving we got up early, took Dylan and Moose to baby sitters, and took a road trip up to Holland with our friends for an amazing Christmas Market! This market was held inside a huge cave structure held under the city and castle of Valkenburg. It used to be a hideout and medical center for US and allied soldiers during WW2. Many soldiers drew murals on the cave walls and signed their names, so it was awesome to have that American history at such a beautiful place in Europe.

The caves were all decked out in lights and displays of santa with his elves, and there were different venders set up with different products they were selling. Mostly Christmas items but there were also other things like winter clothes, candles, even swiss knives and kitchen ware. Chad and I got some awesome wool gloves that can be finger gloves, or fold down into mittens. They are REALLY warm though which is a must here in the winter! We also got some Christmas tea light nick nacks, sausage and candies. Then we had dinner on the main street that the caves run under. It did rain most of the day, but it wasn't enough to bring us down! We left Valkenburg and drove back into Germany to make a stop in Aachen, for their martket as well. This was a really pretty city and is home to the oldest church in northern Europe. Here we got ornaments for our tree, a gluhwein (hot wine, sort of like cider) mug, a flickering christmas decoration and also stopped for a famous german Crepe with nutella. Delicious!

We're greatful to have such awesome friends to have shared this day with! It was a great time and we love new experiences. We lugged all our loot to the car and headed home just in time to pick up Dylan and Moose.

Needless to say we all slept in today, and were able to get up as a family and eat breakfast in good spirits! We busted out the Christmas decorations and started going to town on our home. Our tree is lookin a little shaggy but its still good for our smaller on base home. Next year we'll definitely be upgrading. I love getting out the oranments we've collected so far from different cities and can't wait to add to our collection this season!



We still have a few things to hang up and set out, but its all coming together! I love decorating for the holidays. We plan to spend the rest of the day hanging out as a famiy and enjoying the left overs from Thanksgiving. Next stop, Christmas. 

I got this at the Valkenburg market. Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus hand carved from a peice of wood. Pretty good find!

Dylan watched daddy set up the tree, he wasnt interested in helping lol.  

Out with the leaves, in with the snowflakes and snowman friends!!

Merry winter!

Fall update

This past month has been one for the books! Chad and I went to our first Oktoberfest, which I will also say, will be our only Oktoberfest! It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. Some advice for any one in Germany going next year - go during the week! We made the mistake of going on a Saturday, but it was an experience and at least we can say we've been there! We had some beautiful weather in October and were able to enjoy pumpkin and wine festivals, quality family time and nights out with out friends. We also got Dylan completely potty trained! huge accomplishment for us, I was not expecting him to do as well as he did with it.

Dylan went trick or treating dressed as Woody, and his friend Xander dressed as Buzz! He did great saying trick or treat and thank you at every house. Its amazing how much he is learning right now, I never want him to grow out of this stage!! Everyday he says something new that shocks me. This is going to be his first year playing in the snow, we are really excited to take him sledding! It wont be long now until Germays grounds are white. We went through his room and got rid of all his baby toys and donated a bunch of his clothes that dont fit him anymore. Now when Christmas comes around we will actually have room for new stuff.

We have just about 10 months left in Germany and are trying to soak up as much of it as we can. Although we are ready to be back in the states, I'm definitely going to miss this place! The past two years have been an awesome experience and we've seen more than most people see in a lifetime. We feel truly blessed!

We are starting off the holiday season with crhsitmas shopping, thanksgiving with our Germany family, and a day trip up to the Netherlands. Cant wait for all the exciting things to come!

Mommy Dylan Time

Since returning from Barcelona last week, we have been pretty busy. When I didnt have the baby I watch a few times a week, we were out running errands or hanging out with our friends. Yesterday was the first day since before our trip that it was just me and Dylan, so we took advantage of our day and spent some mommy son time!

We started the morning with a little house cleaning, this is where you usually find him while I am doing that.

Then after a nice lunch we headed out for a walk with Moose. They both love to go for walks, especially together.

Moose was being a chicken because another dog was barking at him, so Dylan started to lead the way.

A slide, score!

Dylan enjoyed playing on the slide...

While Moose enjoyed other things

Then we ended up at the big payground for a while

Even Moose loves the playground.

Since there was no one at the playground, Dylan played with Moose. But they had a blast! Moose loves to run around the equipment and chase Dylan, he even went down the slide a few times. He loves his brother.

Then it was home for a nap and dinner!

After dinner, Dylan was kind enough to help mommy bake some brownies! He had fun doing it, and licking the bowl. Im confident he wont get salmonella.

Then it was time for a bath and movie before bed. I even let him stay up later to watch his movie. Mostly because I wanted to sleep in the next morning, but he doesn't know that.

Okay, I had to throw this picture in here because it is HILARIOUS. It looks like Moose is about to eat Dylans face off. He was resting his head in Dylans lap, like the picture before, Dylan shoved his head off of him because he is mean, and Moose shook his head in response. This is the picture I got. So funny.

Anyways, this next month is busy and filled with a lot of exciting things. We are going to the big wine festival in Bad Durkheim this week, as well as the annual Ramstein Bazaar. Then its the pumpkin festival in Hitchershoff which is supposed to be the best around, everyone raves about it. Chads birthday is the weekend after, and we are hoping to spend it in Munich for Octoberfest. Lots of fun fall festivites coming our way, the fall and winter season in Germany is a ton of fun. This is the first year I have actually looked forward to the colder weather, and now it is our last. I will definitely miss it here. Until next time,
Auf Wiedersehen!

August 2012

Unfortunately blogging has become last on my list of things to get done lately. Three months have gone by since my last post and I cant help but wonder where the time has gone. This year is moving eerily fast, and doesn't show any signs of stopping.

This month is the 2 year anniversary of Chad and I's marriage. Two years married, two years in Germany, two years of trying to get our lives going. After these long two years, our on base apartment is finally feeling like a home, and we are becomming a stronger family. Chad is in the process of changing careers and going into dog handling. Even though this means having him gone a lot, and more dangerous deployments, I couldn't be more proud of him for steering his life in the direction he wants it to go.

The past 3 months have been filled with a lot of friend and family time, play dates, date nights, and nights out with my favorite girls. I said goodbye to a very close friend, and welcomed in a new love, our puppy Moose. Next week we are leaving to spend 5 days in Barcelona, Spain, no better way to spend our anniversary!

We are entering our final year here in Europe, and plan to make it special. We have a lot of traveling and sight seeing planned, will be taking advantage of all the Christmas markets and villiage festivities, and hope to make Dylans first home one to remember. Seeing how fast the first two years went, I cant believe we only have one left. Here are just a few pictures taken in the past 3 months.

Paris, France

This Memorial weekend, we took of to France with two of our best friends. Most of you probably already know the friendship Dylan and Xander have from all of my Facebook pictures, so it was awesome for them to have this experience together.  We left on Thursday afternoon, and drove 5 hours to Paris, where we stayed in a hotel just a few minutes form the Disneyland Park. Friday we spent the whole day touring the city of Paris, which was an awesome experience!! Our pictures definitely dont do the beauty of this city justice, but here is a collection of the photos taken on our trip.

The Eiffel Tower. We didnt get a chance to ride up to the top, because the line was so long, and we had so much to cram into our day. But being there and seeing it up close was just as awesome! You could go all the way up to it and touch it, which we did. These pictures were just taken from right when we came out of the subway.

The Arc De Triumph. At the very bottom of the "most beautiful avenue in the world". After the Eiffel Tower we took the Metro here, and walked up The Avenue des Champs-Elysees which had tons of shoppig and restuarants and some beautiful scenery as well.

Then at the very end of this long, and i mean LONG avenue, is the Louvre. Which is way more huge than I thought it would be. We were in there for a few hours, and only saw a section of it. This is where the original Mona Lisa is held, which they have surrounded by glass so you cant get too close to it. They also have other famous peices like The Last Supper, and The Wedding Feast. And we of course had to get a token Pyramid picture.

The Notre Dame Cathedral. One of the oldest churches in the world. Its amazing how much detail they were able to put into the buildings way back then, when they didnt have all of the machines and tools we do now.  

This church also still hold a regular service, which was going on when we went inside of it. Of course it was all in French, and it was kind of weird that they were holding a service and just letting people go in and snap pictures and everything, but it didnt seem to bother them. I guess Paris is used to the publicity!

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After a long day of walking through the city, the boys got to play at a playground just outside of the cathedral. They did SO good all day.

Saturday and Sunday we were at Disneyland, and Dylan and Xander got to meet all the characters and get their autpgraph books signed! We booked a lunch and a dinner with all the characters, so we got to see them quite a few times. This resort was a little bit different than the one in California, so it was nice to see different things!

On our last evening at Disney, we spent some time after a very fancy dinner walking through Disney Villiage, checking out the scenery there. It was gorgeous! That was also the day of Ashley and Aaron's 5th wedding anniversary (WOO!), so they did a hot air balloon ride over Disney, and Chad and I got in giant bubbles and rolled around like gerbils. Yea...he had more fun than I did on that. But it was definitely a trip to remember. On Monday after a long weekend of fighting against time and constantly being in the sun, we hit up a major shopping outlet before hitting the road back home. No better way to end our awescome vcacation than some good ol' European shopping!