Hey, Y'all!

Ok.  It's been MONTHS since I've updated anything on here.  We finally have internet in the house!  It's amazing.  It took literally 4 and a half months of living in this house before the internet got hooked up and started working.  But it's working now, and we're hoping it continues to do so.  Ha!

Life is good.  Baby Boy is growing and moving, and we are less than 2 weeks from his due date!  I feel (and look) gigantic.  Don't comment in any way on my appearance, please.  It's just safer that way.  ;)  Natalie had her second birthday, Travis was super busy with the band, and we had a wonderful Christmas!  There are so many pictures and things to blog about, but I'm tired and don't have much time to do it.  So for now, please enjoy these pictures of our beautiful 2 year old girl at her Garden Birthday Party.  (I plan to make a separate post about her party, hopefully soon.)

An Update

Hello, friends!

I'm sorry that these blog posts have been few and far between. For those of you who haven't heard already, our internet situation is a sad one. We have been in Germany for close to 3 months, and in our house for almost 2, and we still don't have wifi in the house. It's complicated, so I won't get into the details on here, but we are stuck with super slow data on our phones for the time being. I mean slow. So slow that I don't even try to watch or upload videos. Ever. Including video calls.

Which brings me to the lack of blog posts. I am posting this on my phone, which means no pictures for you (sorry). I am very much looking forward to the day when I can sit down at my computer, redesign (and rename) this blog, and upload lots and lots of pictures and videos for your enjoyment. Until that day comes, you are stuck with this boring, words only post.

We have already gotten to visit several neat places in the short time we've been here. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you've already seen a few pictures. We took a day trip to Trier, Germany, as well as a day trip to Heidelberg, Germany. Travis has gone on his first concert band tour (to Slovakia, where he celebrated his 32nd birthday). And our biggest trip yet: we got to spend 3 days in Vienna! Hopefully it won't be took terribly long before I'm able to share some of those trips with you in a visual form.

As far as the house goes, we finally got our household goods a couple of weeks ago. The organizing is slow going, but we're working on it. We still have the extra furniture that we borrowed from the base, and they won't be picking it up until next week. I'm excited for that day! It's taking up quite a bit of valuable space. It's so nice to have our things, though, no matter how disorganized everything is. The kitchen is basically done, which is a super blessing. Being able to cook and use our own pots and pans is so nice.

Baby #2 is cooking nicely! Have I already told you on here that it's a BOY?! I will be 25 weeks tomorrow. That seems crazy, since I was only 13 weeks along when we moved to Germany. He's a mover, for which this Mama is grateful. Feeling my baby move around is by far my favorite part of pregnancy. Prayers for a continued healthy baby and pregnancy are very much appreciated! I'm so excited to meet him! We are working out his name, but don't get excited. Like Natalie, Baby Boy's name will be a secret until he's born.

Our sweet Natalie is still such a joy! She is saying more and more words with each day, and has such a great personality. Like anyone, she has her moments, but, generally speaking, she is sweet and funny and growing far too quickly. It's so surreal that I'm already planning her 2nd birthday party (in my head, at least...).

I will leave you for now. I hope all is well! Please keep in touch, we love to hear from you!

Our German Home

We have officially moved into our house! We've been there for several days, in fact, and it's been so nice to finally be out of that hotel room! (We lived in a hotel for an entire month...) We don't have any of our stuff, yet, but it should arrive by the end of the month. The biggest downside to being in the house is that we have no internet. There are a few places we can go to get free wifi, but it's just not the same. Haha Hopefully it won't be too very long before internet gets hooked up in our house.

As far as our house goes, I think we got really lucky! It was actually the first (and only) house that we looked at. I saw the house online about 2 hours after it was posted, and we were the first people to tour it. It's in the village of Steinwenden, and is only about 10 minutes from base. We live on a dead end street, and at the end of the street is a horse ranch and a walking trail (which has some fruit growing next to it!). The house has solar panels which heat our water, and a filter system to catch rain water to flush the toilets.

Since I'm using my phone to post this, I can't post any pictures right now. Here's a tour of the house to tide you over! (Sorry for my bad camera work...)

Easter 2014

Easter was a few months ago, but I never posted the pictures on here like I intended to, so I'm doing it now.  It was Natalie's second Easter, and the first one where she was able to "hunt" for eggs and such.  We walked a little ways from our house to a grassy area to take pictures and let her run around.  It was a fun opportunity for me to take pictures!  Natalie was 16 months old in these pictures.

{Love My Family}

"Mama, my egg opened!"

{Put the eggs in the basket.....}

{Take the eggs out of the basket....}

The eggs eventually lost their appeal, and Natalie started hunting leaves.

Four Months Later...

So, I haven't posted on the blog in quite a while.  It wasn't intentional, we've just had a lot going on!  Where to start...

We found out at the beginning of May that we are expecting Baby #2!  Baby #2 is due on January 8 (yep, the day before my birthday!).  Part of my lack of posting has been due to the wonderful morning sickness that has accompanied this pregnancy.  Ha!  Here I am, 16 weeks along, and I'm still having to take vitamins to fight it.  (With Natalie, I was done with morning sickness by week 15, and never needed to take anything to fight it.)  We have another appointment in just a couple of days, and are praying that all is going well with Baby 2!  We don't know the gender yet, but hopefully will find out soon.

Here's a video of Baby 2 moving around.  This was taken when I was 10.5 weeks.

In addition to the exciting new addition and morning sickness, we have also been moving!  To Germany!  Travis is now the euphonium player for the US Air Forces in Europe Band, which is stationed here.  We have actually been in Germany for nearly 3 weeks, now, and things are starting to settle down a bit.  The last month or so in CA was a crazy one!  Family flew out to visit us and help us with the move.  What a blessing they all were!  Hopefully in the near future I will be able to post about some of the things we did right before the move.

I am aware that the title of this blog needs to change.  haha!  I'll get around to it, don't worry.  I will hopefully start posting more often, now that things are calming down.  In the mean time, here are a couple of pictures from our first day in Germany.

Travis' first German beer in Germany - a Hefeweizen

Our sweet, jet-lagged baby.

The next morning (jet-lagged, of course), we had this pretty view from our hotel window.

The Big Measuring Stick

We currently live in a rental house.  We are moving in just a few months, and it will not be the last time.  I wanted a way to measure Natalie as she grows, but we obviously can't just pick a wall to mark her heights.  I have seen a few different big measuring sticks on Pinterest, so I decided to make my own.  This is what I ended up with!

I strategically started this project while Randy (my little brother) was in town so he could help me!  I bought a .75"x7.25"x6' plank of pine (it cost about $15).  We sanded the edges, then Randy stained the wood.

After the stain was dry, I set to work drawing the lines.  How do you like my make-shift T-square?  I drew them in pencil, then traced them with a black Sharpie marker.

I bought some 2" stencils and used those to trace the numbers in pencil.  Then I used black paint to paint in the numbers.  I finished it off by spraying several coats of polyurethane.

I nailed picture hangers into the back, and hung it 6" from the ground.  There you go!

{The first mark!}

Natalie's First Painting

This post doesn't really need much explanation.  I found a link on Pinterest for edible finger paints not too long ago.  Isn't that a great idea?  It turns out that I didn't have to worry about the edible part, because Natalie didn't even think about eating it.  Instead of using Koolaid, I just used the food coloring that I had bought for Natalie's birthday cake.  So, without further ado, here is a story in pictures of Natalie's first painting (done on March 3, 2014 - she was almost 15 months old).