Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo......

Today my friend, Amber, and I took our kids to the zoo in Nuremberg.  This was my first "real" outing, not counting daycare drop-off, grocery, post office, etc., with both girls by myself.  I am proud to say that it went pretty well, we all made it home in one piece.  Parker was a little out of sorts by the time we got home...but what do you expect of a two year old with no nap and LOTS of stimulation!  We explored the zoo all afternoon.  Parker especially liked the polar bears, we brought home our own stuffed one!  The weather wasn't the greatest, a little chilly and very windy, but it is Bavaria :).

 All trips start with a big pretzel.

Morgen's Room

I have had several requests for pictures of Morgen's room.  We (I) chose to decorate with a "Peter Rabbit" theme, and it turned out great!

6 weeks and 2.5 (Almost)

I feel like the last 6 weeks has been a year!  But no, it's only been 6 weeks :).  Morgen's arrival was on the rocky side, but I can happily say that she is doing great now!  At 6 weeks she weighs 10lbs and eats 3.5 oz every 3 hours.  She is doing pretty well at night, she has been in her bed, in her room since 4 weeks.  Morgen will give me about 5 hours on the front end (from about 10pm to 3am), but then it's every 3 hours.  I am hoping that she will be sleeping through the night in the next month or so!  John has been on rotation for the last 3 weeks, and will be home again the end of this week.  We are SO ready!  Ebby was here for about 3.5 weeks then we had a week off then Juju arrived for 2 weeks.  We LOVED having company, and Parker has been looking for Ebby and Juju since their departures.  I keep telling her that July is only 4 months away!  Here are a few pictures of the girls.....

SNOW!

When we found out we were moving to Germany, Bavaria in particular, we braced ourselves for snow. LOTS of snow!  Last winter from October until March there was at least 3 feet of snow on the ground.  So we bought snow gear.  I don't mean, just a little, we were/are prepared for a blizzard.  So of course, this winter has been the driest winter in 40 years in Bavaria.  Up until today, we haven't had more than an inch or two at one time.  Don't get me wrong, we have had snow, but nothing that either amounted to anything or stayed for any length of time.  So when it started to snow yesterday, nobody really got excited.  Well,  I woke up to the sound of John and the neighbor shoveling snow in the driveway.  Over night we had gotten about 6 inches of snow, which is MUCH more than we have had.  So out came the snow gear!  We spent the day playing in the snow.  Parker and Mason LOVED every minute of it!

Potty Trained!!

I'm knocking on wood as I'm writing this entry, but.....we have been accident-free for 10 days!  We have been working on this feat for about a month (this time), with varying levels of success, and all of a sudden it "clicked"!  I'm not sure if we will have a relapse when Morgen arrives...but for now, our "Big" girl is out of diapers!

Christmas 2011

This Christmas was A LOT of fun around our house!  Parker is "close" to understanding the concept of Santa, but not quite there!  We spent the weeks leading up to Christmas day looking at holiday lights, talking about the meaning of Christmas (mainly focusing on "baby Justice"....Parker couldn't quite say "Jesus"), following "John" the elf around our house, singing Christmas songs, and of course, lots of talk about Santa Clause and reindeer.  
       So, when Christmas eve finally arrived we were READY!  John and Parker made cookies for Santa and we read "Elf on the Shelf" one last time.  Later that night, after Santa had come and gone (and for those of you wondering, yes we put off ALL assembly until Christmas eve, and no, there was no bloodshed...barely), John downloaded "sleigh bells" to his ipad and attempted to wake Parker with ringing bells and "Ho Ho Hos", luckily it didn't work!  

Christmas morning was a little anti-climatic.  Parker was more overwhelmed than excited.  She just kinda stood there staring at her "pile" of toys not really knowing what to do.  Eventually, she warmed up and began playing with her new things.  We spent the rest of the day lounging around playing with our new toys.

On Monday, John and I dropped Parker off with a babysitter and we headed back to Garmisch/Oberau to meet up with some friends from Texas, James and Eileen Mijares, who are now stationed over here.  We spent all day Monday and Tuesday morning catching up, shopping, and eating.  It was nice to have some "adult" time, but we were both ready to see Parker by Tuesday afternoon!

A Week with Juju and Garmisch

Last friday Juju came to visit!  We were thrilled to have her with us all week, and it's safe to say that we have ALL been spoiled!  As usual, I was horrible with the camera and only managed to take a few pictures of Parker the entire week, sorry :(.  

The weather has been great all week, so we were able to visit several Christmas markets and do LOTS of shopping!  We had snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, but nothing heavy enough to slow us down.  

Last weekend we went to the market in Rothenburg, it was so much fun.  We shopped, shopped, and ate!  We spent most of Sunday working in Morgen's room, washing clothes, cleaning the closet and setting up furniture.  On Monday, Parker and I went to school and John and Juju spent the day shopping in Regensburg.  On Juju's last visit John was in the field, so it was nice that they were able to spend some time together this trip.  Tuesday was pretty low-key, Parker stayed home from school with Juju and then that night Judy and  I went to a coffee with the other "Warhog" wives.  It was nice to get the chance to introduce her to some of my friends here.  Next came Wednesday, which meant work for me and John, then my 31 week doctors appointment (which Juju got to go to and see baby Morgen) and some more shopping in Regensburg.  On Thursday, Juju and I went to the Christmas market in Nurnburg, which is the oldest market in Germany.  We had so much fun!  The market was great and we found some really neat things.  Friday morning we all got up, packed the car and headed down to Garmisch.  Garmisch is the home of Edelweiss, which is the Army's European resort.  We have been trying to get rooms there since we moved here.  Usually, this time of year it's snow covered and a MAJOR ski and winter sports attraction, however, we don't have any snow....so it was nice and quiet.  We spent the weekend relaxing, eating (we actually had USDA steak!!), and shopping.  It was a great end to a great week!  This morning we had to say good-bye to Juju, we can't wait to see her again in March!

5am Sunday morning.....