The Beck Family

Porto, Portugal

2012-02-13T21:17:00.000+01:00

I normally put mostly pictures on the blog but I wanted toremember this trip so I have decided to write about it. Matt and I went on our annual surpriseValentine’s weekend trip this past weekend. I was the planner this year and chose the city of Porto, Portugal. In the past we have gone to Berlin, Paris,Amsterdam and now Porto. Matt did notknow where we were going until we got to the gate. You know you are still in Germany when, atten in the morning, there are guys sitting around drinking beer at theairport!

Anyway, the kids were to be taken care of by Auntie Lydia (withthe help of Sarah and Jill) mainly but her aunt died and she headed back to thestates on Sunday. Auntie Jill and Georgetook over from then, thank goodness. Actually,Jill had Colby the whole time. The nightbefore we left Colby threw up four times (three in OUR bed) so we toyed withnot going but hated to waste the money spent and the money we would lose on theB&B. So, we took off and left Colbyin the hands of George and Colton while Jill was at work because he could notgo to the sitter while sick. Jill endedup taking ½ day off, much to my dismay, because she was sure she was the onlyone who could really take care of our sick little man the right way! ha ha.

Porto was amazing, everywhere we go I seem to think thatplace is the best I have been! We stayedat an awesome B&B in the middle of the historic district of the town. The owners both had lived in Canada for along time but were back in Portugal. Theroom was small but the B&B was top notch. We took the smaller room to get a view of the water, as I knew Mattwould love it. We woke up to the soundsof seagulls, opened the windows to watch the rowers go up and down the canal,we could see the Port wineries out the window, where they made and stored thefamous Port wines.

Upon our arrival we were starved for lunch so Carmen (of theB&B) sent us up the street to a local joint. She suggested Matt and I try the “tripes” – Iopted for the veggie spaghetti but Matt wanted to live like the locals andtried what Carmen suggested (but would not tell us what it was!) The waiter told us it was pig intestines andMatt thought it was not too shabby. Therestaurant had four tables, very quaint. They also brought us appetizers of cod, veal and octopus. Matt tried them all but I stuck with the codand fresh bread. After dinner theyoffered us shots (I find the people of Porto to be lovers of the drink!), Matthad one to be polite – he said it tasted like gasoline. Carmen later informed us that it was theequivalent of moonshine and that all Portuguese made it at their homes. Every time we entered the B&B they wereoffering us wine or beer to bring up to our room. We tried the local “black” beer, which weexpected to be like Guinness but it was nothing like that, was actually notbad. Our tradition is to NOT exchange Valentine’sgift on this trip, as the trip is actually the present; however, my honey is agiver of gifts so I am always prepared. In some of our pictures below you will see what I made him and I thinkhe really liked it. He gave me a nicering and watch.

We tooled around town all day seeing the sites, riding theon-and-off double decker (with the top open) bus and shopping around and hereare some generalizations I have made about the people of Portugal:

· Like I said, they like to drink.

· Women in Portugal must be made small or I am WAYTOO big, as the clothes I tried on only somewhat fit in LARGE, or XL if I couldfind it.

· Women of Portugal must also have small feet, asI wear and 8.5 and most shoes I wanted to try on did not come in that large ofa size!

· Women in Portugal must not cute their hair shortuntil about age 50, I was one of few gals with short hair around.

· I would say 99% of the people we talked to spokeEnglish, magnifying the fact that we only are fluent in one language (as mostAmericans) and many people we met were fluent in 3 or more. Pathetic!

On Friday night we ate dinner across the bay at an Indianplace that the B&B recommended. Itwas delicious and Matt said it was the best Indian food he has ever had in hislife! Wow. They served Heineken, so that was a goodtaste of home too.

On Saturday night we ate at another local place around thecorner from the B&B and I thought it was one of the best meals of MYlife. They served us tuna tartar andmozzarella soaked in garlic and olive oil with spices, amazing…I could feel mycholesterol rising as I ate. I thenordered spaghetti in cream sauce with fresh mushrooms…to die for, and I mightif I keep up with the cholesterol-laden dishes! Matt had beef with mozzarella and mushrooms and some cheesecake to endthe meal. The place was tiny, probablyabout 10 tables, we got there at 8:00, as that is when Portuguese restaurantsopen for dinner, wow, late for us. Anyway, we were the second group there and by 8:15 the place was full,reservations only. Thank goodness ourB&B hooked us up with reservations everywhere we went. Next to us was what appeared to be a veryswanky and filthy rich (or seriously in debt) family. Mom had a Prada bag, Louis Vuitton banglebracelets and a Rolex. I always love topeople watch and Matt does too and he did a lot of it as I was in and out ofstores on the local walking street.

Every morning we went downstairs for breakfast at 9:30,where John (husband of Carmen) had it all ready and waiting for us. I can say I have eaten more fresh fruit inthe past two days then I normally eat in two weeks, very yummy. There was also fresh bread, yogurt, meatcuts, cheeses, green tea for me, coffee for Matt, typical European breakfast. Oh yes, and Nutella, lots and lots of it!

Sunday we walked along the beach for about an hour, we tooka boat ride to see the five bridges in the area, ate lunch and then headed tothe airport. The cab that John calledfor us was a special cab (unbeknownst to us) and the guy showed up in atbrand-spanking new 350 series 2012 Mercedes, it was very swanky. When we pulled up at the airport and got out,it was worth the extra 9 Euros we paid to see the looks on the peoples faces asthey were checking us out (as though we were rock stars getting out of thatcar!) ha-ha. Matt and I got a kick outof that!

I missed the kids but the weekend was amazing. Being away from the hussel and bussel of everyday life, responsibilities, commitments, etc. reminded me how lucky I am to have my best friend to spend my life with and how thankful I am to have him as my valentine.

Veal, cod and octopus.

Only Matt would brave these.

The famous pig intestines.

Matt's Indian dream dinner!

My honey looking out the window of our room.

Entry to the B&B from the street side.

Many street vendors selling things, Matt got these fine "authentic" Ray Bans (also known as Ray Beris in Porto) for several euro. Double click if you want to check them out up close.

Local farmers market on Saturday.

We got tickets to ride the "official" double decker tour bus, much to our dismay we bought tickets for the red bus and should have gotten the yellow bus. We did walk all over the city, the fact that this bus NEVER came added to our exercise experience

Enjoying tuna tatar at my new favorite PIMMS restaurant, second best meal of my life.

Our B&B is in the background behind the boat.

Breakfast of champions.

On the boat tour.

The ship captain insisted on taking this one...

And this one...

Note to self...if you are going to hang your undies out for all to see, make sure the streaks are facing your house. Seriously, there were streaks on the white pair on the right...ha ha.

My little peeps...

2012-02-08T21:09:00.001+01:00

Bowling after church with friends.

Somebody does not like loud noises...a family trait.

My sweet, handsome boy.

Sitting like a lady with big Sis.

Colby's buddy, Josh.

Laney's main squeeze, Samuel.

Bye, bye, Mama, I'm going to school.

Lunch at Auntie Jill's this past Sunday. Jill loves cooking for her boy, she made his favorite cheese dip and cole slaw....and he will tell you it was only for him!

Since Matt and I are going on a trip I wanted to get the v-day cards out of the way early. Our BX is not selling any this year for the kids...same as last year and the ones I ordered from Current have not arrived. So, I found this cute idea on Pinterest and Colby had a good time making them.

Laney, covering her ears again because of the chopping noise. I swear she isn't Autistic.

We chopped up old crayons and melted them in a heart shaped pan in the oven.

Finished product.

Little and Big pouters.

At dinnertime we read a family question, Laney and Colby like to "read" them too.

Oh my!

2012-01-25T19:51:00.002+01:00

Ms. Molly and Bella (and Curtis) sent Laney some dress up clothes for Laney's birthday. They also sent Tiff a gift card! Colby has enjoyed the dress up clothes just as much as Laney. It totally cracks me up to hear them clip-clop around the house in their heels, carrying their purses. SO, SO funny, I will save these pictures for when he is a teen.

Dance on, Little Laney.

Show me your crowns!

Are you smarter than a naturalized citizen?

2012-01-21T13:58:00.001+01:00

We had a party last night to celebrate our neighbor becoming an American citizen. We told everyone to come dressed in their red, white and blue and to bring their favorite all-American dish. We had Twinkies, ding-dongs, chips, hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, baked beans, potato salad, apple pie, banana pudding, rice crispy treats, you name it! J. had his first taste of hot dogs, corns dogs (which he hated) and rice crispy treats (which he loved and said his wife had really been holding out on him for 5 years!) The party was a hoot. We played a game that S. created where we asked questions that J. had to know for his citizenship test in DC. We called it, "Are You Smarter Than A Naturalized Citizen." The boys team won, in spite of the fact that we had two certified SOCIAL STUDIES teachers on one of the teams, ha ha. The questions were far from easy!

Cailyn and Cody enjoying some root beer.

Frances, Christy, Ana and Nancy.

S. and Dori

Auntie Lydia and Baby J.

I am pretty sure Colby had a crush on Yvonne, he followed her around a lot!

The All-American Girls!

More conversations with Colby

2012-01-14T21:47:00.000+01:00

Little Lady after church last week. She fell asleep and had a sweaty head! Papa, Sis and Colby went to the movies while mommy and Laney got to nap.

Sissy made an animal cell out of food for a science project and Colby got to help.

Auntie Lisa got Laney a pop-up castle for her birthday, which Laney likes but not as much as the bag it came in (see on her arm). This bag is her new purse and she does not leave home without it. It holds very important things like Laney's princess camera and things she has lifted from around the house.

Papa is in Switzerland for a men's retreat with our church so we had Jean and the boys over to play this morning.

Colby got these boots for Christmas from Mimi and Pops, he now wears nothing else. He loves his boots, we caught him wearing them with his pyjamas the other night!

Colby cracks me up and I try to remember the fun things he says to put on the blog:

"Goodness Grief!"
"Mama, I want to do this EVERY day!" (when making cookies one day).
"I'm not gonna go up in an airplane and get stuck in a tree!! NO WAY, HOLY COW!"
"I don't want to turn upside over!" (meaning upside down).
"I don't want to be all hairy when I grow up, Papa has hair EVERYWHERE!"
"Mama, let's just stop by Old McDonald's and get a drink."
"Look Mama! I am stirring my head." (booty up in the air, head in the bath water, turning his head in a circle)
"Mama, why do all the kids call you Ms. Beck, don't they know your name is Mama?" (we always run in to my students all over the base)
Singing...."Washing through the snow...." (Dashing....)
"Marge! Marge!!" (I turned around to see him charging, with his baseball bat up in the air like a sword.)
"Mama, we should ask Jill if she wants to go fishing." (Me: Did Jill say something to you about going fishing?) Colby: "No, we should just ask her though. It would be fun."
"Mama, can Jill (my friend) come over to play?" (Me: I don't think so, big guy) Colby: "Okay, what about George?" (Jill's husband)

Birthday Girls.

2012-01-05T21:02:00.001+01:00

Tiffany is now a teenager (as on Tuesday)! We received 10 boxes in the mail on Tuesday, there was a serious back up at the post office and we got a second Christmas out of it!

Laney turned 2 on Wednesday, here she is opening gifts and Colby is her assistant.

Auntie Lisa sent Colby and Laney aprons as part of their presents.

Tiff got this shirt from her mom AND Auntie Lisa!

Matt was taking pictures, I look like I am stunned.

On Laney's day we had dinner at home but on Tiff's we went to a local German place with Jill's family and Lydia. Jill shares Tiff's birthday.

Tiff and Laney shared a cake that Colby and I baked.

Laney got this mini-cabbage patch kid from us, she wheels her around in the stroller all day long and often includes Colby's wrestling men along for the ride.

Making a birthday cake for the girls.

Cupcakes from Grannie B, to go with her new oven.

More from Austria!

2012-01-05T20:40:00.003+01:00

Getting ready for ski school.

After a hard day's work!

Fueling up.

Laney and Colby love to play hide-n-seek.

Austria

2012-01-04T20:13:00.001+01:00

Christmas and Austria

2011-12-28T19:06:00.001+01:00

Christmas morning.

Hat from Mimi and Pops.

Nightlight from Granny B.

Drums from Grandma Ellen and Cookie.

Easel from Grannie B.

Baby Jack and his mommy and daddy came over for Christmas Day, so did the Hall family.

Sitting in Colby's wrestling ring.

We are in Austria for the week, staying in a house with the Hall family. Right across the street are the slopes. We are at the highest peek in Austria, weather is awesome. Colby starts ski school tomorrow and he is psyched.

My sweetest little pea.

Justin and Colby

George, Tiff, Justin and Matt went ski boarding today.

The lift to the top was awesome, we had lunch up there.

Matt, the kids and Colton (Jill's son)

Colby and I built this snowman in the back yard for BELLA.

View of the village we are staying in taken from the lift.

Snow ball fight with Auntie Jill.

Sweet Christmas time.

2011-12-23T22:07:00.002+01:00

We were over at the Miller's tonight for an early Christmas celebration. Here is Samuel and Mommy.

Josh and Sweet Pea.

Me and Baby Girl, stitches on my nose again....that darn hockey puck! Just kidding, I am apparently a personal experiment for my dermatologist.

Josh and Malina.

Laney (hat from Grandma Ellen) and Sieben, who turns 7 on Christmas Eve.

Making a gingerbread house. Laney thought she was to eat all the candy....she has a serious sweet tooth and you will hear about it if you take candy from her!

Making cookies with my boy. Tiff was babysitting the neighbor's girls, Laney was napping, so Colby and I enjoyed time together cooking up some sweets. I could not love this little guy more.

Watching Apple TV downloads.

Can you see Briton, the Elf, hiding on the fan?

Hello Holidays!

2011-12-17T22:21:00.007+01:00

Here is Colby at his school Christmas party on Wednesday. He loves school and so do we. There are now three boys in his class and the rest are girls.

Ms. Stuffy opening gifts, we love her and Faith Baptist Preschool.

Waiting to give Ms. Stuffy her gift.

Laney got to come to the party and eat all the goodies.

I got to sneak out of work during lunch for a few minutes to join the fun.

Friday night we had our Life Group over to have our annual White Elephant gift exchange, it was a hoot. Here you see me, Misty, LeeAnn, Christina and Lisa (in the front).

Between all of us we have 13 kids so we decided to have a kid-less party, Tiff and Colby went down the street to Lisa's. Laney was supposed to sleep but woke up around 9ish to join in the fun.

Awesome shirt that Jason got from the Kouba's....ha ha. We dared him (or anyone for that matter) to wear it without a shirt underneath....to church. Sweet.

Will enjoying his gifts.

Paul's gift was the most interesting one of the evening. I can't even remember what it is called but it was sure good for a lot of laughs.

Laney getting her first official hair cut by Eva, our favorite hairdresser. She is German and cuts hair out of her home. Laney, Tiff and I call got a hair cut on Saturday.

Visiting Papa at his new shop and having a picnic lunch from "Old McDonald's" (as Colby calls it.)

Colby wants so much to be like Tiff, when we pulled up at McDonald's he asked Tiff what she was ordering so that he could get the same thing.

Papa's new store opened this week and we are proud of him and all his hard work. I should have taken a before picture, as he did a lot of work to get the store looking nice. Several friends stopped by the store on Saturday and that really meant a lot to Matt.

Matt planned a surprise date on Saturday night. We went to one of our favorite Indian Restaurants and then enjoyed a local Christmas Market in Kaiserslautern. I loved being at the market at night, just so pretty, many people around, lights, fires, etc. Laney stayed home with our favorite sitter, Ashlynn while Tiff and Colby went ice skating with Jill, George and Justin.

My honey ordering his favorite waffle with Nutella and whipped cream.

SEE Mommy, St. Nick DID come!

2011-12-12T21:02:00.005+01:00

Laney, Colby, Tiff and Matt got goodies from St. Nick. Tiff and I leave first in the morning so I did not have the camera on hand...at 7 AM when she found her treats! Daddy got pictures of the younger two finding their gifts. Daddy's gifts should be taken away for not buttoning Laney's shirt...oh Papa! :)

Look Mama! And you said I was naughty!

Post Baskin' Robbins ice cream dance.

My, oh my....guess who got a little ice cream on the way home from church, lovely.

Getting ready for St. Nick.

2011-12-05T20:49:00.003+01:00

Laney's sweet $2 flea market dress, stop screaming Jill! It has little gingerbread on it, she wore it to church on Sunday with a little red bow that did not last long.

The kids put their boots out for St. Nick tonight....we shall see if he bring switches or goodies.

Matt is opening up a shop soon in Landstuhl...you see the need for more space, poor Sieben. Yes, Matt G., those are iphones :)

Granni B. sent us a pre-Christmas box. The Elf on the Shelf was one of the items in the box, along with holiday p.j.'s for the litte two, a justice holiday sweatshirt for Tiff, candy, holiday necklaces, books, a cook book for mom and many more goodies. The Elf on the shelf hangs out in various areas of the house every day and kids have to find him but can't touch him. The Elf reports back to Santa every night. We randomly drew names for our Elf and Colby's choice of Briton won. So, we have Briton, the Elf on a Shelf spying on the kids all day.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-11-28T21:21:00.008+01:00

When Laney gets in trouble she tells me when she needs to go in time out. I think I have only really tried her in time out once but now she loves to announce to everyone that she is in time out, she is quite proud when she sits there.

Enjoying the Christmas train that Mimi and Pops gave us.

Mama's little helper.

Digging through the goodies to see what sparkles.

I am pretty sure she cannot put her arms down.

Waffles, a must.

Sheer joy.

Laney in her fancy princess headband from a fest. Messy face gets her extra princess points.....Jill!

Weinachtsmarkt in Kusel.

My all time favorite market was at the castle in Kusel. It was a medieval fest and many people were dressed in costume. Good eats, entertainment that included archery and fire throwing, just won my vote.

Goodies from St. Nick from the market in Landstuhl.

Laney trying to escape St. Nick.

St. Nikolaus was there also handing out goodies, Colby was a little cautious but the desire for cookies won out.

This is the guy that hands out switches to naughty children at Christmas. This day he was handing out cookies.

Yummy crepes with Nutella, a must have on a cold day. This was at the Homberg market.

Mommy and Grumpy in her sweet little $2 yard sale dress, I love a good find.

The sleepy-turkey effect gets to all of us, even the littlest turkey.

Auntie Jill is an awesome Southern cook.

Papa Daddy and George fried up two turkeys and they were delicious.

2011-11-20T21:03:00.005+01:00

We have all our winter gear out and ready for snow.

We had the Miller girls over for a sleep over last night, the kids had a blast.

Never a dull moment. Just turn your back for five minutes and this is what you will find.

Playing at a park near Bella's house.

The weather was warm enough for lunch outside. Once we landed in Germany to a balmy 32 degrees we were back in our reality.

Playing hide-n-go-seek with Sissy at Bella's house.

Bella has the BEST games, here the kids are playing a Dr. Seuss version of twister. My boy has mad skills and so does Sissy (see below)!

More from England

2011-11-12T10:52:00.005+01:00

I wish....

One reason that the Beck family should not ask to transfer to England....Ben and Jerry's vending machines!

Briggs B&B

2011-11-11T20:50:00.006+01:00

Just a few shots from our trip to England to visit the Briggs family.

Bella gave Colby some cool birthday gifts including this play-doh transformers kit.

My sweet, sassy gal.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T20:55:00.011+01:00

Pumpkin carving time. Tiff did her first whole pumpkin by herself this year, cutting and all. Playing in the street with Big Sissy who is Colby's BFF when Tiff allows. He will hold on to his food from Burger King to eat it with Sissy when he gets home, he asked me if he can sit with Sissy only at the church games we went to on Saturday night....boo hoo, poor mommy, dumped by her boy.

Taste testing the orange pumpkin colored rice crispies. I am pretty sure our family has had its fill of sweets for the year and pumpkin for that matter....pumpkin french toast, cookies, seeds, etc!Cute shirt from Mimi and Pops.

Tiffany trying to get Laney to smell the pumpkin.

"YUCK!" - Laney's reply after finally smelling the pumpkin. She was not impressed.

I told Laney that I wanted to take her picture so she ran over to the pumpkin and sat like a little model.

On Saturday night we went to our church's chilli cook off. Many games were played and Tiff won this game for her team.

Colby's school had "farm day" on Halloween and the kids could dress up as animals or farm folks. My friend Bonnie (from Texas) gave us all her son's cowboy gear. I loved the results. Papa took these pictures before school.

Halloween at the Beck house can be kind of scary. We had the Millers, Nichols, Mike & Amy, Lydia and Dina over to spook the neighborhood.

Colby and his buddy Joshua.

If you double click and look closely you will see that Laney actually had TWO suckers in her mouth at the same time. I totally blame Mike for that one.

Pretty Malina, all better from her bout with tuberculosis early this fall.

Love Laney's excitement in this one.

At the Davis house, LeAnn and her husband host our Life Group every Monday night. Matt said Laney attempted to walk right in and make herself at home.

I went to the bathroom and asked Lydia to keep her eye on Laney. Laney was WAY past her "no-more-candy tonight" stage.....this is what she looked like when I returned.

Tiff eating a dead man's leg (chicken leg wrapped with sterile gauze).

Cheese eyes balls, legs, brooms, witches hats, mud cupcakes, blood dip, hot dog mummies, all sorts of scary things to munch on!

Sweet Samuel, Laney loves him.

Mike and the kids. Mike is an Army 1st Sgt. here, used to be stationed with Matt in Korea. He was in our wedding and we love that he and Amy are here now....if only the Army did not make him work so much so we could see him more!!

Laney and her BFF for the night.

Lydia came to visit with the promise of wine! ha ha. Laney loved Dina and said "hug" to her as she was leaving. She gave Lydia the cold shoulder when it came to goodbyes. Poor Auntie Lydia! However, I am thinking Dina is good babysitting material.

Matt Miller was dressed as a tree and cracked me up. He would stand frozen in our yard and after the kids got candy and headed back down the side walk he would yell and jump at them. Hilarious. Don't worry, he did not scare the littlest children (unless directed to do so by Dina :) ha ha.

Early Halloween

2011-10-28T20:57:00.007+02:00

Okay, so I lost my camera charger....that is the reason I have been off the blog for longer than usual. The news in the Beck home is that Matt recently resigned from his GS Network Engineer job with the Army and is running his iphone business from home and taking care of the two little people as well. He sells refurbished iphones in mass and repairs them too. He has been doing this iphone business for about two years. He was so busy doing two jobs that it was really getting to be too much! We decided this summer to go this route but waited until fall for various reasons. We said goodbye to Birgit after four years of her working for us, that was a little scary but things are going well and Matt is enjoying the new set up and so am I. Matt also has wanted to have more time to spend working with our church, he is the leader of the media team and does the church web site and has been wanting to do more but restricted with time. Below he took the kids to a local pumpkin farm with Colby's pre-school. It was a family/school field trip and Tiff also was out of school for the day so they had a nice time and enjoyed the animals and pumpkin patch.

Tonight we went with Jean and Josh to Colby's school (at Faith Baptist Church) for a fall celebration. The kids got to try out their Halloween costumes and had a blast. Tiff was there too but was with the bigger kids, helping out and having fun.....so I got no pictures of her!

I love the tongue in this shot. A future Michael Jordan maybe?

Bat Girl....watch out all you bad boys and girls, Laney is here and is taking no prisioners!

Me and the two little people. I got stitches on my nose, the dermatologist had to take something off my nose to get tested, not too pretty and I forgot my bandage! Tiff says it looks like a spider crawling on my nose so I was in the Halloween spirit.

Laney is a candy lover, after we told her she could have no more candy some lady walked up and gave her a little pack of gummie bears, she was thrilled.

Jean and Josh, I love this picture.

There is no need to worry in Mackenbach neighborhood, the superheros are here!

They were handing out candy after each kid played games, Laney did not care, she attempted and succeeded to steal from almost every room....in a church! I tried to get her to pick up only chocolate....she is smart but not that smart YET!

Ferme du Vallon

2011-10-11T18:46:00.012+02:00

We got a wild hair and decided that we would try out staying on a French farm this past Columbus Day weekend. The trip was about two and a half hours and we went with the Hall family. The weather was horrible but we had a good time. We visited the city of Verdun and the WWI sites there, we could still see trenches that had been dug into the hills. There was a huge battle between the French and Germans in Verdun, the French were the victors....you may know this; however, I apparently did not pay much attention during my history classes. Good thing we have our trusted guide, Jill, and her guide books....even if she did tell us that it was WWII, we all believed! The farm we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere, really, nowhere. The houses in the picture below are misleading, that is the house that the farmer lives in on the left and one of his barns on the right. When I thought Matt may have heart failure from riding all around the country, pulling Colby, I was little bit worried! I have decided I could not be a country gal. The farmer had beef cattle, donkeys, rabbits, horses, pigeons, etc. We found a site that lists hundreds of these types of places that you can stay at in France, I think they must get some sort of tax write off if they have a place where people can stay on their farms. Breakfast on the farm consisted of french bread, croissants, butter, jam, tea, coffee and juice. The kids got to go on a pony ride on Monday and they really enjoyed it.

Little play area next to our chalet, the kids enjoyed it as much as an amusement park!

We had to brush the horses before we earned a ride, the horses were pretty messy from the mud and rain.

Justin feeding Laney walnuts from the trees in the area.

Collecting walnuts so Auntie Jill can make us walnut-banana bread...we are still waiting!

No tub so we washed baby girl in the sink.

Playing war in the trenches.

The large cemetary in the Verdun site.

The "American wagon" used during some of the battles.

Matt, Justin, George and Colby went on a bike ride to a little lake where they went fishing, the other girls worked on their beauty rest.

French horses don't like sugar cubes, only one of many would take them. I hope I don't read about a diabetic French horse that died from a sugar overdose.

"They are over yonder." Colby practicing his country talk.

EEH-Haa-EEH-Haa. That is the lovely sound George and Jill woke up to in the morning, good thing our room was on the other side of these beauties.

We had to drive 20 minutes to find dinner places each night. This night we came in to this bar/restaurant where I am pretty sure there had not been customers in a while, they told us what we could eat, which turned out to be pretty good. We had kebabs, couscous, a stew, kids got fries and burgers, not bad! Laney LOVES George, prefers to sit with him at dinner, I could not even get her to come and sit by me so George could eat in peace!

The rabbits right outside the chalet, we felt the need to feed them daily. I told Laney not to let them bite her fingers and from then on she would say "ouch, ouch, ouch!" EVERY time she fed them, I then had to tell her to stop faking.

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy!

2011-10-06T21:36:00.007+02:00

I can't believe that my sweet boy has turned four! He was so excited today, came down stairs this morning to us singing happy birthday, he has been so psyched all week. We got to spend the evening with our favorite friends, Sarah and the baby, the Halls, the Millers, Lydia, Ana, the Nichols family and the Davis crew. Colby had a blast, blessed by great friends. Here is one of the gifts from Auntie Lisa and family.

Auntie Lydia and the Birthday boy. Sissy and Justin watching the candles being blown out.

Mia, Myra, Colby and Josh.

Auntie Jill and Baby Girl.

Ana and Baby J., so sweet, he looks just like his papa.

Chillin' with the dudes.

Spiderman cake was the request, Sieben ate off the corner to give it an added touch.

Papa dressed the baby girl for the party. She looks like a Gnome to me.

Making goodies the night before with my two helpers.

Wearing bows from Mimi and Pop's presents.

Goodies from Mimi and Pops.

Cookies on a stick that we made for Colby's class.

Taste testing.

Respectacles

2011-10-02T20:22:00.005+02:00

At school last week we had the kids make "respectacles" to help remind them to be respectful and to spot respect during the day. I made a bunch at home, Laney and Colby insisted on a pair.

The poster we made for Colby's school this week. As you can see, I talked him out of chosing being a tree as a profession and he decided on being a bus driver or Spiderman.

More art work from the big guy.

Play time at the Weilerbach park with Josh and Jean on Sunday.

Colby gets to bring snack to school this week, he was super excited to help mama make these kabobs with grapes and cheese.

On Saturday night Tiff was at a sleep over with a girlfriend so Auntie Jill asked if she could take Colby to the park for a cook out, play time with her, George, Justin and Colton. Colby was thrilled, after we got his car seat out of the car, he sat in it in the driveway waiting for Jill as he proceeded to tell Laney that he was now a big boy and could go places with Auntie Jill, just like Sissy does. He told her that when she was a big girl that she would be able to go specials places as well. Little did I know that she was going to teach him how to play fire....ha ha.

Conversations with Colby

2011-09-30T20:48:00.002+02:00

- When driving on to base, Colby and I often have conversations about why the guards have guns and what they are doing at the gate. I tell Colby that they are there to keep the BAD guys out. One day after entering the base Colby piped up, "Mommy, are we GOOD?" I said, "Oh, yes, honey, we try to be!"

- Colby will be the star student in class next week so we are filling out a poster about him to share with the class. One of questions asked what his favorite animal was, to which he answered "a kangaroo and a dolphin" (I was pretty impressed) I went on to the next question which asked what he wanted to be when he grows up, imagine my pride when he confidently said, "A tree!"

- Last but not least, my highlight. Colby came home from school to recite his first memorized Bible verse, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1" He has recited it on the phone to Auntie Lisa, Auntie Jill and Granny B. on the phone and they all asked, "What did he say??????" I told them they needed to read their Bible more so they could understand my boy! ha ha, His speech therapist actually thinks he will place out of speech services this year!

Hitscherhof Farm Festival

2011-09-25T21:27:00.005+02:00

We went to the Hitscherhof Farm fest again this year, we go every year to see all the goodies. The farmers offer lots of local crafts and foods for sale, ranging from pumpkin soup, corn pancakes, pumpkin seed bratwursts, flammkucken (my personal favorite), waffles, pumpkin cakes, etc. I love to come and just check out the goodies, things for sale include pasta, pesto, dog cookies, relish, chutneys, herbal salts, tea, mustards, wine, etc. That is one of the pumpkin patches in the background.Checking out the bee hives.

They have some pumpkins that weigh as much as 700 pounds.

Poor little man was under the weather a bit, when I got him home his temp was 102! He laid on the couch all evening. He is better today, thank goodness. AND, I don't know where he got that bruise on his head...he says he fell in the bathtub?

These two are all boy! I rolled up Colby's pants because it was so hot! (Lisa, I know you were going to ask!)

The weather was amazing, we were all burning up. I love this picture of Tiff. This was after she and Colby went through the corn maze. This afternoon (Sunday) was beautiful so we had a BK picnic at the park and met up with the Nichols family for some play time. Being in the mid 70's this time of year is really a treat.

Laney loves to swing, we go to the park a lot, usually while Tiff is at practice. Laney could sit and swing for an hour straight.

I love to shop on RamsteinYardSales.com. I was looking for a lightweight jacket for Colby because his 3T ones look crazy now. I got this one for a DOLLAR on RYS, it is nice an toasty, or "cozy" as Colby would say. It looks a lot like Papa's Carharrdt jacket so Colby was psyched about that too.

Fall is in the air.

2011-09-19T21:28:00.006+02:00

More school work from the big boy, he is still loving school and Ms. Stuffy. I was taking pictures of Laney during the football game this weekend, Colby ran over to get in the action and started posing for me.

Just can't stop taking pictures of the little one...

The bears tied this weekend, rainy game but not too cold.

All dressed up for dinner with Auntie Jill, poor Auntie Jill got sick so could not make it.

More art work from the little man.

On Sunday, Colby, Tiff and I met up with Josh, Mia and Melina to see 101 Dalmations (their moms came too!) It was a good show.

Free cookies and juice for all.

Only Colby and Melina would take pictures with the cast, here they are with the "city dogs" from the show.

Cruella Deville was much nicer after the show!

Go Bears, Go!

2011-09-10T21:49:00.005+02:00

This Saturday afternoon we went to a BBQ for the church media and music team at Sandy's house, I fell in love this chair! The kids were very excited about the plum tree, Laney ate at least four of them.

Laney liked to slide down the hill, rather than walk, to play with the big kids.

So, this is what her little bloomers looked like after the hill play time.

The first football game of the season was today, Tiff's coach means business! They practiced three nights this week. Tiff is the only girl we have seen on the league so far, she played center and our team won! We are the BEARS this year.

Okay, so I took pictures of Colby's classwork this week. I thought it was all so cute, I could not help it....more to come :)

Road trips...

2011-09-10T21:10:00.006+02:00

When you take a road trip with a three year old, you spend lots of time at rest stops... At the lodge in Garmisch over Labor Day, the kids loved the kid-sized rockers.

Dinner with Mike, Amy, Curtis and Amy's parents. The boys tried hot schnapps.

Curtis flew in from England for the golf tournament. We look forward to Molly and Bella joining him next year!

Mike and Amy, they live in our area now. Mike and Matt were stationed together in Korea, the guys were both in others weddings.

Tiff and Colby's mammoth sized dessert, I was a good mama, helped Colby eat his.

We come here every year and love this place, watching the dancers.

I was super surprised that Colby was willing to ride the summer rolladenbahn with Sis!

While the boys were golfing, the kids and I took a lift up the mountain, it was a beautiful day.

Nuggie time!

It was so hot up there, we needed ice cream!

One peanut M&M, really, one.

A beautiful day.

2011-09-03T20:46:00.007+02:00

The weather today was amazing. The lodge here had their annual Labor Day celebrations for the kids, with fireworks to come in about an hour. Here is Tiff doing the beer case climb, she got to eleven crates before she fell, I think the record today was 24 crates. Hanging out to watch Sissy's climb and enjoy the bouncy castles.

Kids TV area in the lodge, you see Laney and Colby in the back row.

After playing the games all the kids got these animals, I had never heard of them, some sort of animal with smelling things inside. Tiff got a lion, Colby a monkey who he named George and Laney another piggy!

Fishing for goodies.

Colby braved even the biggest bouncy castle (with Sissy encouragement!)

Everything was free, including the horse and carriage rides around the base, very nice. You should hear Laney's horse noise, it is pretty impressive.

The mountains here are amazing. Matt and I toy with asking to transfer here but then I go in the PX and realize that I could not survive a Pusan-sized PX again :)

I don't know what the stars and striped theme has to do with Labor Day, but hey, we are patriots and we don't mind going with the flow!

Racing car game in the carnival.

Texas Tiff braved the bull!

Right around the corner from our room was an awesome playground, the kids enjoyed it and the weather today. Both Laney and Colby were out for the count this evening!

So, should I be upset that I had all three of my kids on one end of the see-saw and me on the other end and we balanced out pretty well????

So, Curtis is here from England and he and Matt took off around 6:30 this morning. The kids and I woke up at 8:30, did a leisurely buffet breakfast followed by indoor pool time, playground time, nap time and lunch time....all this before the afternoon carnival.

Conversations with Colby

2011-09-02T23:42:00.007+02:00

"Mama, do you have boobs?" (me) "Yes, buddy, all mama's do." (Colby) "oh...."(giggling)

"Baby Girl, this is a tunnel, don't you be scared." (driving at night in Austria through many tunnels, Laney's eyes were as wide as saucers)

"Look Mama, I got a SNURF!" (after getting a SMURF in his happy meal)

"When I grow up I am going to have a big bath with lots of hot water and I am gonna be cozy!" (this after being told to turn the water off in the tub because he had too much in there)

During night time prayer: "Thank you God for Ms. Jean, for Samuel and for...MONSTERS....Amen."

me: "Hey there, peanut butter boy!" (he was eating peanut butter on apple slices when I got home from work) Colby: "Could you just call me Colby, please?"

"Papa, can I have my Old MacDonald toy?" (toy he got from McDonald's)

Catch up!

2011-09-02T22:08:00.010+02:00

We are now in Garmisch for the Labor Day weekend. Matt is the director of the 38th annual DODDS Labor Day golf tournament for the third year. Here is our hotel room as he and Tiff stuff goody bags for the players. Tiff looks mad but she's not! Laney and Colby refusing to go to bed in the background.

We come down to Garmisch at least once a year, such a beautiful place to be! I love the flowers hanging from the houses, why don't mine ever look like these?

At the golf course, dad was checking in to make sure things were all good for the tournament.

I challenge anyone to get these two to both look at the same time and smile!!

What? I am just trying on one of Sissy's bras!!! And????

On Wednesday Colby got to go to school to meet his teacher , Ms. Stuffy. This pre-visit allowed the kids to meet their teachers and to get acclimated to what his school would be like. He will go to school MWF from 9-12:00. I was very excited about the visit! He is attending Faith Baptist's preschool program, right now there are six kids in his room (he is one of two boys), they hope to build the class up to nine kids. I love that the school's first and foremost goal is to teach the kids about Christ, to teach them songs and Bible stories, etc. They will also go to chapel on Friday! Next, they will be teaching letters, colors and all those other goodies. The school asked that we not bring the kids in to class any more than ten minutes early, as the teachers are using that prep time for prayer for the kids. Awesome. Colby is ready to learn, excited to go!

Colby and Ms. Stuffy (teacher), that is a nickname that her father gave her that stuck.

Can you guess who is in 7th grade? Yep, here is Tiff and dad on her first day of school. She was matching from head to toe, earrings to socks and raring to go! Thus far, 7th grade is a hit.

We celebrated Josh's 4th birthday at the bowling alley this past weekend, fun times, awesome dinosaur cake!

You will have to ignore Laney's hair (Lisa), it has a mind of its own.

In a military community is it rare to keep friends in the same area for more than 3 years so we are blessed to have the Nichols family, we have grown together.

Laney and her main sqeeze, Samuel. She is three months older (cougar) but you could not tell!

Samuel and Josh came over for some play time. Sieben loved Samuel....one treat for you and one for me (Samuel's snack time motto!)

When Tiff was not in school yet, I would leave her a list of ideas (chores) while I was at work, did not want her to get bored! The list usually included some fun things like "make ants on a log with Colby" (peanut butter on celery). One day I told her to make a dessert so she took this job very seriously. She had Birgit write down the German words for ingredients and set off on her bike to the neighborhood store to buy what she needed for the yummy oreo cheesecake below. Needless to say, this did not last a day in our house! These two below look high on dessert!

Holiday Park

2011-08-20T20:36:00.007+02:00

We went about an hour down the road to Holiday Park on Saturday with the Hall family. We had a blast, the weather was a beautiful 85 degrees and sunny. Here is a water area that shot up water in surprises on people, Tiff loved it. Colby wanted to love it but was not as brave so he and Papa-Daddy played on it together.

Ice cream, a big part of many of our days. Tiff got bangs the last time we got our hair cut, I think they look cute.

Jill took these two, I thought they were so sweet. She likes to place Laney in random places and photograph her. She was good to get these two shots in, as Laney was awake all day and we thought she was going to fall asleep in the flowers.

Double click on this one, a keeper.

Tired girl, refused to smile. Wild boy, he is never tired.

There were not many lines so Laney and Colby got to ride the merry-go-round four times in a row....Laney threw herself on the ground crying when she had to leave.

Jill is white-knuckling it, the other three are loving it.

Making brownies, Tiff has gotten very good at this chore!

Dinosaur Park and Colby's new ride.

2011-08-15T20:29:00.007+02:00

Since Colby loved Tiff's Barbie car at Mimi's so much, we were excited to find this one on sale on Ramsteinyardsales.com! Here is Laney, giving her main squeeze, Samuel, a ride (no, these two don't actually drive it, but they think they do)

Cleaning up his new ride for the ladies!

Colby said, "Mama, where are the wipes?? I need to wash my car!"

It has a real radio in it, the other day the kids were cruising around to some Elvis tunes.

We went to the Dinosaur Park with the Nichols bunch. Tiff did not come along, not cool enough for a tween I guess :) Here is Jean and Josh, freezing their feet off!

Jean is an Iowa gal, much more daring than me! My tootsies like to stay warm.

This sweet boy got many compliments after Sunday school about his wonderful behavior, within five minutes and while we were still in the church he had kicked Tiffany twice, hit her once and told her to SHUT UP! Boy, we have our work cut out for us. When I asked him where he learned to say those words he said.....AUNTIE LISA...ha ha. Not true, but it got good laugh.

When I told Colby we were going to the dino park he asked if real dinosaurs would be there.

Home Sweet Home

2011-08-08T22:15:00.008+02:00

We are back in Germany, to a warm 57 degrees today! Here are a few more pictures of our time in the U.S. of A.! Below, Laney is earning her keep at Grannie B.'s house, very serious about her work.
Super Model, in Tiff's "Justice" shades, a gift from Grandma Ellen.

The kids picked up apples from Grandma's tree almost daily. They were tiny little apples that you cannot eat.

Waiting for Sissy to arrive from the airport.

Watering Grannie B.'s flowers, check out Laney's shirt and you will see where her water went.

We got to celebrate Uncle Timmy's 40th birthday with them. His wife, Jennifer and her sister cooked up the most amazing spread, yum. You can see one of the before-party grazers below. The party was a surprise for Timmy, he and Matt went golfing to get him out of the house.

Tim, coming in to the surprise, he does not look so surprised but that is okay.....

Because Laney's face shows enough surprise for both of them!

Carsten and Colby playing with Cookie at the party.

Me and my sister-in-law and our hostess for the week, Jennifer!

Laney would just sit on the bottom of the stairs because she wanted to be up them with Carsten and Colby, sometimes she would try to sneak up them.

At Timmy and Jennifer's country club pool, enjoying the sun.

Nothing like a freeze pop on a hot day!

Colby jumped off the board here for the first time!

Virginia

2011-07-30T03:27:00.008+02:00

Colby and Carsten. We are staying with Matt's brother, Tim and his wife Jennifer. Carsten and Colby are only three months apart in age.

Laney playing on Carsten's play set.

Grandma Ellen had this cool music box that had miniature dancers inside that moved around. Laney was mesmerized.

Grandma Ellen decided that we should celebrate our birthday since we are never together to do so, the kids had a blast blowing out the candle and singing.

Colby won 100 tickets from one machine at the bouncy castle place that we visited with Grandma Ellen one day for lunch.

The mark on Laney's head is courtesy of a tumble down the stairs. Grandma Ellen said she needs a helmet and I totally agree!

Messy hair shot for Auntie Jill. There is dirt in there if you double click and make the picture bigger :)

Making lemonade from scratch with Grandma Ellen.

More dirty little Laney shots that crack me up.

Matt and I went up to northern Virginia so that he could use his birthday present, golf school for three days and three nights. The kids stayed with Mimi and Pops and we enjoyed some time alone with each other.

The guy in the middle is the golf pro, Matt was in a group of three who went for lessons.

At Mimi and Pop's house.

2011-07-23T21:16:00.008+02:00

Someone thinks that she is a professional wrestler these days, here she is taking on Colby.

This is Tiff's little Barbie car that she got for Christmas when she was four. We have been telling Colby about it for a long time and he has been very excited to try it out. He loves it and takes Laney around Mimi's yard, trying not to give her whiplash.

Playing games with Mimi.

Not too happy that Colby is riding "her" car!

This was Laney's car, used to be Tiff's, Laney spends her afternoons conning anyone she can to push her around. Once Colby wanted a turn she chased me around the whole time telling me it was her car!

Riding like a big girl, with help from Pops.

It has been unbelievably hot here, but that does not deter the kids from wanting to play outside as much as they can.

This picture is for Auntie Jill, wanted her to see Ms. America's (that is what Jill calls Laney) dirty feet and banged up knees, I can just see her reaction!

Mimi and Pops have all sorts of toys! Mimi is a trooper, taking Colby around.

Pops, the dare devil, just like Matt.

Laney and Colby both adore their Pops.

More Conversations with Colby

2011-07-19T02:34:00.003+02:00

"I have to brush my teeth to make them shiny!"
"I just SNARFED down all my corn." (meaning scarfed)
"Mommy, when I get big and stop growing, will daddy be really old?" (my answer, "YEP, but Mommy won't be!")
"Mommy, if you take off your pants and sit with your bottom on the tile it is SO COLD! You should try it!"

Grannie B's.

2011-07-19T01:46:00.008+02:00

We have been to the pool at least once a day at Grannie B.'s house. Lisa's kids are such good helpers with the little folks. Tiff left for her mom's and will be there for three weeks. We were glad she got to spend time with her cousins before she left. I am grateful that Lisa was willing to drive 15 hours with three kids to see us! We left NC and now are in Virginia for two weeks.

Colby had never seen a lightening bug before, he had a blast catching them.

This cracked me up, Laney and Isabella having the same expression. Isabella is Matt and Shannon's daughter, she is an old friend from college and now is in DODDS in Korea.

Matt, Colby and Matt

Max, Shan with the Beck gals.

Auntie Shannon is also a swim coach, she gave Colby some non-floatie lessons.

Little Lady and Grannie B.

Hard to get a picture of these two.

One of these things is not like the others...

We hit up the science center in Hickory for free Friday....they did not count on all the Beck and Russell kids!

I used to work with these two in Charlotte for three years at Eastway Middle School. They came up to visit me for lunch, we had a nice visit. LeeAnna, me and Linda.

Lisa's kids were all over Laney, wanted to change her diapers, dress her, sheer Mommy heaven.

More summertime fun.

2011-07-13T20:36:00.005+02:00

Grannie B. and her grandkids.

Shucking corn with Grandma and Lauren.

Lou Lou in the pool.

"Jumping" to Mama.

Games with Grannie B.

Girl's evening out. All the girls, except Laney, all went out to get our toes done together.

Tiff and Riley are down there running the bases.

It was 70's night at the game, they called the kids up on top of the dug out to dance, you can see Tiff was the only one brave enough.

Tiff and Riley stood here during part of the game, they each got a game ball.

Cousin Mackenzie and Colby.

Two more "poor Sieben" shots.

2011-07-11T15:34:00.003+02:00

Summertime!

2011-07-11T14:04:00.005+02:00

Well, we made it back to the states on Saturday without much drama. Colby did not sleep a wink on the plane and Laney graced us with about an hour and a half of sleep. The minute we walked off the plane we were reminded of how HOT it is in NC! Wow, we are certainly used to cooler weather and now are sure we will only retire here if we are closer to the mountains. On Sunday we went to church, a buffet lunch....oh my, and to a Hickory Crawdads game. Here the kids are playing at the playground at the ball park. Laney braves the slide with cousin Lou-Lou. Lauren is awesome at playing with Colby, so nice to see.

Love this look. Laney is a Mama's girl to the MAX.....I hardly get a break, but I certainly do still try to pawn her off to everyone every other minute!

Riding the carousel at the ball game with Lauren.

Colby and his new Crawdads hat and baseball bat.

Mackenzie, Tiff and Laney with the Conrad the Crawdad.

The whole gang, sweating in places we did not know existed!

Baby Girl and Big Sissy.

The whole gang, minus Granny B, already at church and Matt.

Back home Germany, eating pudding, all by herself....like you cannot tell!

On the 4th of July we had a dinner at the Davis house with our life group friends. Granny B. supplied the festive shirts...I can't believe I did not get a picture of Tiff.

You would not be thinking "Poor Sieben" if you knew her :)

Colby watching Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, in a happy trance.

At church Colby made this in his class, Tiff asked what it was and he said a "cheerio thing!"....so, I guess we will never know.

Tiff decided that she should be giving thanks to her parents on occasion so she made us this yummy treat, says "thank you" on it. She has been reading a Christian book and getting good ideas :)

Goggles and Krispy Kreme

2011-07-02T15:33:00.002+02:00

Krispy Kreme doughnuts are nowhere to be found here in Germany. Occasionally, a military group will fly boxes in for the unit to do a group fundraiser. So, here is our $15 box of doughnuts....of which Sieben stole two of this morning. I am not such a fan, but the family is and my friend, Jean, almost fainted with excitement as she saw them in my kitchen yesterday, ha.

Colby is on a "good night night" behavior chart in an effort to get him to bed without all the drama that he can provide. Once he earns 5 stickers he gets a "toy" from the BX. This week he was thrillled to earn swimming goggles like Sissy's. He wore them for a good portion of the day.

He is so cute that it almost makes up for the fact that he made it in to our bed last night right before he threw up. He has special skills, he is able to hold it in right until he gets to mommy.

Babes and Gals

2011-06-29T21:24:00.007+02:00

Jill and I took the kids to Belgium for a couple of days, leaving the men at home. We stayed at a Sunpark village in the Ardennes area of Belgium. Our little cottage had three bedrooms, was fun, relaxing and peaceful. Here is Laney playing her version of mini-golf. Rides inside the main center area.

Baseball is Colby's favorite sport to play but he sure did have fun playing golf too.

Inside the swim park, it seems most pools in this area of the world are indoors due to the cool climate (though we had some VERY hot weather). We went swimming every day, sometimes twice for Tiff and Justin. There were some slides, whirlpools, a wave pool,jacuzzis, and indoor/outdoor pool, etc. Colby went from being scared of this slide to doing it on his own. Mommy did it twice and banged her booty so hard on the pool bottom that she called it quits.

Another slide Colby loved.

Gun toting villian.

Justin, Colby and Tiff

We cooked all our meals in the cottage, good times, good food.

What do you mean it is almost my bed time????
Jill says Laney's eyebrow actions are all me.

Laney loves to point to what she wants and when she expects to be picked up! Tiff's head is hanging down in the far end.

I am seriously starting to think that my family is single-handedly funding the college education of the local ice cream man's children.

Conversations with Colby

2011-06-21T22:25:00.002+02:00

Colby continues to crack me up, almost 90% of these things are said in the car while I am driving:

- "Mama, who is God?"

- "Today I miss Papa-Daddy, who do you miss today Laney?" (to which Laney just looks at him)

- "Mama, what is this button for?" (pointing to something in the back of the van), ME: "I don't know Bud, I can't look around when I am driving." COLBY: "But Mama, how come you can put make-up on when you are driving?"

- "Mama, where does Buzz Light Year live?"

- Me (in the car): "I smell cow poop!" COLBY: "Mama, there are no cows in the car, only kids!"

- "Mama, does Big Bird have teeth?"

- Laney was feeling under the weather a couple of nights ago and we gave her some medicine. Colby then "developed" a tummy ache....asking for his medicine too. I told him to ask Papa to bring his special medicine upstairs. Matt asked which medicine, to which I told Colby to tell daddy that he needed "the FAKE one". Colby ran to the loft to tell Matt he needed the "FAKE" one, to which Matt brought a shot of water, good thing Colby apparently does not know what fake means yet.

S'mores

2011-06-21T21:48:00.006+02:00

Tiff had her first babysitting job watching Baby Jack yesterday. She is now 12, the legal age to babysit over here. We are looking to get her Red Cross certified and a lot more practice and then we will set her free on the babysitting community. I was with her the whole time but let her do the work, she was psyched and did very well. Now that I am not working, watch out, I will be putting any and everything on the blog :) So, we are BIG believers in desserts, as I have said before. I love being able to make a decent meal in the evenings, actually planning ahead rather than cooking what is easy (like I do when I work!) Tonight we has a slow cooked roast, corn and homemade smashed potatoes, that Tiff said tasted exactly like the ones out of the box, ha ha. Tiff also made me and the kids french toast for breakfast and I kicked in some bacon, we planned out dinner and a dessert of S'mores. Yum! Colby was not a fan of the fire and ate his marshmallows uncooked until his last one. You can see by the green grass that the rain has returned to Germany.

Dirt and Colby go together...this boy had a bath last night AND this morning...I refused to give him another one tonight!

Happy Father's Day Papa-Daddy-Babe!

2011-06-20T12:22:00.006+02:00

Father's Day began with Matt leaving to work at church at 7:30, the kids and I joined him at the 9:00 service where I worked in the nursery and Jill got the fun job of watching Laney. We then went to dinner with our lifegroup friends, a big Mexican Father's Day fiestaat the Davis house....brought the camera, forgot to use it! Matt got a new chair to take to Tiff's football/softball games since his broke. He also got some shirts and two picture frames for his office designed by the famous Tiff and Colby Beck!

School's Out Bash

2011-06-18T21:17:00.009+02:00

We went to our church's "School's Out Bash" today. There were clowns, balloons animals, bouncy castles, food, a dunk tank, just a good time for the kids.

Train ride around the village with Auntie Jill. Laney actually looks scared, cracks me up. I love having Jill here, like family to my kids.

Fishing for prizes.

Sweet Pea is just so cute to me that I have to take her picture all the time!

Kevin and Jean's came out to play too.

Colby got a Sponge Bob on his face and an "I love Jesus" tattoo on his hand.

School's almost out!!!

2011-06-12T21:51:00.005+02:00

We had dinner at Jean and Kevin's on Saturday night, this is how funny the boys think that they are, refusing to look at the camera! We were so excited how well little Laney did at the big kid's table. She thought she was a big girl!

Tiff got to play catcher this Saturday at the game, she has been wanting to try out this position and she did really well.

Laney does whatever Colby does, copies his every move. Yes, she has learned to hit!

This is what happens to Laney's bow placement when big brother puts it on for her.

Saturday morning's game was COLD, much more like Germany weather. Tiff's team starts play-offs this Wednesday evening. It has been a good season, busy with Tues. & Thursday practices, some games on Wed. and some on Saturday that last 1.5 hours or more! We always bring our fill of snacks and blankets.

Goodies from an early stop at the German bakery.

Tiff now has one night a week where she cooks dinner, she is very excited about this idea. Last week she made sloppy joes with veggies, they were very good. This week she has some thing with hot dogs planned. She has a kids cookbook that she picks her meals from each week.

odds and ends

2011-06-06T19:41:00.003+02:00

We had no desserts in the house so Matt and Colby decided they needed to fry up some doughnuts so that our sugar levels would not fall into the normal range. We are one sweet-eating family, never a day without sweets~!

We are in a serious water shortage here. Normally, it rains at least 1/2 of the time and I swear it has only rained maybe twice in the past two months. So, grass is dead, heat is high. We had some new students at school today from Washington state and the mom was so surprised at how hot it was here, I told her that it has not been like this for the past seven years. The kids normally only get to wear their shorts regularly when we are in the states but this spring has really been hot, even talk of us needed air conditioning in these parts. Nontheless, Colby and Tiff have been living it up. I was folding clothes upstairs and heard a bunch of laughing and this is what I found looking outside our bedroom balcony. I had filled the pool up for them but they know how to have much more fun than mom does...they managed to drag the slide over for real fun. I was impressed by the way that Tiff rigged up the water hose to spray on the slide. They had their t-shirts on because they swore the WET shirts kept them warm :)

Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium

2011-05-30T21:19:00.010+02:00

About 30 minutes from Spa, we were able to visit this WWII American cemetery. There are nearly 8,000 U.S. troops buried here. It was moving to walk the grounds and important for us to show respect to those who have given their all for us to be free. Finding this cemetery on a bumpy little Belgian road in the middle of nowhere was really something special. It was also heartwarming to see many people there (who were not American) visiting the graves and putting flowers on many of them. We saw only one other American family there. "Here Rests In Honored Glory A Comrade In Arms Known But To God"

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-30T19:59:00.012+02:00

We went to Spa, Belgium (again) for this Memorial Day weekend. We had a good time, a couple of our friends joined us down there. We did some fun things, below are some pictures from a park called "Forestia", it has wild animals and a ropes course that called to Tiff and Matt.
Here is Laney having lunch at the ropes course park.

Sweet baby girl feeding sweet baby goat.

Colby started off the visit refusing to feed the goats (he was scared of them) and by the end of the day he took it on as his personal mission in life to feed every goat in the place!

Tiff and Matt did this cool ropes course while the younger two and I went goat hunting and playground-ing. They had a blast, the whole course took about two hours and they got very high up in the air.

Here comes my honey!

Matt's feet hanging out, Tiff watching him, I thought this was a funny shot.

Getting suited up.

We also visited the drive through safari park that we went to in October, the kids loved it. Laney does her horse sound to every tall four legged animal.

Sarah, me, Matt, Laney, Lydia, Tiff and Colby in front of my favorite B&B. Sarah's honey was there too, our photographer.

Breakfast time, rolls, butter, jams, nutella, white, milk and dark chocolate spreads, cheese, ham, freshly made orange juice, it was included in the stay and just too good! Poor baby girl is an accident waiting to happen, look at her poor knees! Not to mention the bump on her head, she is all over the place and hard to keep up with these days. Second b-day cake for me, we got it at a Belgium bakery.

Tiff made friends with John's (the owner's dog).

So, there are tons of little water fountains and ponds at the B&B. Just as I was saying to Colby that he had to be very careful, he tripped and dove head first in to a pond. It was a major shock to him but I thought it was pretty funny.

Matt cooked up some steaks, potatoes and salad for dinner, it was awesome.

There is a play place for the little people that is attached to the owner's dental office. You get there through the indoor pool, by the jacuzzi, sauna and steam room....what a life they have!

Somebody is tired!

Colby had at least 500 balls tossed to him to hit, he loves playing baseball.

Mama! Come get me!

On Saturday we went in to the Netherlands and visited the town of Maastricht, it was a busy and happening place with lots of stores and a beautiful river running through it. Colby kept asking when we were going to go back to the HOTEL???? He loves it too!

Opening gifts at home on my actual birthday. Colby is "reading" one of my cards.

Laney takes a liking to the bracelet that my girlfriend, Ana, gave me for my birthday.

Opening gifts, I got a lot of goodies, one was a roomba to suck up some of the dog hair! Yeah! I also got a new Kindle to replace mine, since the LCD kicked the bucket.

We had a yummy ice cream brownie cake to celebrate my day. Matt sure knows how to treat a gal, cards hidden in the fridge, in my car on the way to work, a dozen roses sent to work, gifts and cake at home, etc. He sure is good at surprises! Here I am blowing out candles with my three little peeps.

We got some clothes from a friend with two daughters, we went through them to see if Tiff could find any treasures (she did) and then we give the rest away. Colby insisted on trying on this lovely vest, needless to say, Tiff did not keep it. I am saving this picture for his wedding day or his coming out party - ha ha! :)

Tiff and Colby made ice cream the other day with zip lock baggies, ice, sugar, etc. Here they are enjoying their hard work!