What Will Alex get into Today?

Wrapping Paper!!!

Architect Alex

Who needs blocks? I can build with these cans. Mom won't mind that they are all dented when I'm done with them. Just hope that none fall from my tower and burst open! She might mind that.

(What's with the wet hair? He must have just had his face washed from lunch or something)

Do you think my pants are too big??

Fat Lip

While running around on Halloween at the firestation, Alex fell and smacked his face on the floor, resulting in a fat lip. So he got a yummy ice cream treat. We figured that would go over a little bit better than holding him down with an ice pack on his face. I think he enjoyed it....

What would you do for a Klondike bar???

Orange Tights and a Onesie

Alex wore orange tights and a onesie under his Halloween costume. We went to visit Jr. for dinner at the firestation that night, and of course the wearing of the costume didn't last long. So Alex shed his costume and ran around in the tights and onesie. Now, I had clothes for him - manly clothes, because according to the guys at the station, a peacock isn't a manly costume. But just read the name of the bird. Peacock. Sounds manly to me! Anyway, it was too funny watching him run around in the tights, so we just left him in the silly getup.

Looking for Daddy, "Where is he?"

"I gi tu." (Alex speak for I want you to chase me)

Halloween

At the very last minute, the day before Halloween, I found THE very Best costume EVER. It was on a yard sale website, and luckily I got ahold of the lady selling it and was able to pick it up in time for Alex to wear on Halloween. Not that he went trick-or-treating. But I still just had to have it. If it was in my size, I would wear it! So here he is: Our little Peacock!

All About Alex

Showin' off in his cute coat.

Daddy's favorite pic. He's being groomed to be a Lakers fan.

So, so sleepy.

"I'm busy on my computer right now Mom."

(Just a side note: the red sweats that he's wearing totally remind me of you Carl :D)

Watching Baby Einstein on the laptop.

(We still had loaner furniture from the base.)

More Baby Einstein

Going "swimming" in the bathtub and blowing bubbles in the water.

He got into the TP roll.

Why do we buy toys???

Just an update...

Hello Out There.



Just wanted to do a little update on things here. We are all doing ok. Jr has been working a lot lately. He was recently elected President of the Firefighter's Association here. That's pretty cool. I've just been hanging out, trying to get the house in order (this takes us forever! we are not the most organized family).



Alex is ok. He's been a bit sick lately, so just trying to get him feeling better. He has been learning tons of baby signs like more, eat, water, help, daddy, mommy, ball, book, please, thank you, doggie ... and the list goes on. I can't remember 'em all. He is also starting to talk lots more. He says daddy, mommy, eat, cheese, shoes, please, thank you (or da du), teeth, uh-oh, wow, more, hi, go, stay ... and again, I don't remember them all off the top of my head. But those are the big ones. Gives you an idea of what's important in his life :D Stay and go are commands for the dogs, who he LOVES. Especially Susie. Cheese??? Guess that's important. Teeth cuz he loves to brush his teeth, which he has several of. At least 9 and more coming in.



He is also walking sooo fast now, practically running, and has discovered climbing. But he hasn't discovered getting down yet. So he climbs up, gets stuck, gets scared, and whinnes 'till we help him down. The other day he climbed up onto one of his little kiddie chairs and couldn't get back down. So he stood on top of it whinning and signing "help" for at least a minute or two until we found him (bad parenting moment I guess. We were giving my Mom a tour of the house on Skype) and helped him down. He thinks he's brave. Until he climbs up onto something. Then he needs Mommy or Daddy to get down.



So what can I tell you about Germany???

I have finally gotten used to the driving here. Mostly. German driving is much faster that what I'm used to. And the roads are much narrower than in the states. Plus, passing is allowed almost anywhere, as is parking. Certainly took some getting used to. (Has anyone seen the movie The Holiday with Cameron Diaz? There's a driving scene in that movie that totally reminded me of learning to drive here. Minus the opposite side of the road part.)



Hmmmm...Food?

We have only eaten at a German resturant once so far. The food was delicious. Otherwise, we've eaten at Thai, Chinese, Greek and Tex-Mex places. Kinda funny. An American in Germany eating at a Thai place. Guess it's pretty normal though. Every country has food from lots of other cultures right? Just strikes me as funny.



Weather???

Up to a few days ago the weather has been beautiful here. Warm, but not hot. Sunny and clear most days. But it's changing now. It's definately getting colder, and the past few days have been rainy and overcast and quite foggy sometimes. The leaves on the trees are changing for fall, and they are ssooooo pretty. That part I do love.



Sight Seeing???

We haven't done a whole lot of that yet. We went to Echternach a while ago for a balloon festival. It is the oldest city in Luxembourg. My pictures of that trip were on my phone, which, unfortunately had some melt down the other day and I lost everything on it. So no pics of that. Sorry. I'm sure we'll be back there though. It's only about 30min away. Anyway, we had gone to the Abbey, a big shopping square and a park where the festival was. Right next to the park there are Roman ruins. It was just crazy to see hot air balloons floating right over Roman ruins while we played in the park with the kids.



We also went to a city called Koblenz. We had a picinic in the Ikea parking lot (does Ikea count as sight seeing???) I know, odd. A picinic in the parking lot. It was just a timing thing. Did some sight seeing there too. Nooo, not at Ikea. In Koblenz, Silly. So...this time I forgot the camera. No pics again. Sorry :(

One night we went to a Renaissance festival at a Castle in Manderscheid. Very fun. There was a jousting match, yummy food, and shopping booths for cool Renaissance-y things. Oh, and an awesome fireworks show. It's a yearly thing, and next year we are definately going back and spending more time there. Oh, and dressing up too!

Oh, forgot about Pigfest. That was a fun festival. (There are tons of festivals here all summer long. At least one every weekend) Roasted pigs, people dressed up in crazy costumes, tons of cool shopping booths, and carnival games and rides.

Let's see ... Most recently we went to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. Very, very cool place. Can't wait to go back. There we toured the Porta Nigra -the Roman City Gate. We went to the cathederal where Christ's robe is kept. And we walked through Constantine's throne room. It was a very long and fun day. Can't wait to go back. There is sooo much to see there. Here's something funny that happened though: Alex got his first bee sting. He was stung by a dead bee. Yep. A dead one. He was crawling on some steps where he put his hand on a dead bee and the stinger got stuck in his hand. Poor guy. But he was fine. Just had a puffy little red hand the next day.

Well, that's all I have for now. I know you wanna see pics. And I promise I'll put some up. It's just such a chore to get them off of the camera!! It's true, I'm not all that great with computers. Or anything else electronic for that matter. But hey! 1 blog every 2 months. What more do you want?!?! Oh yea, pics. That's right. Next time.

4 Years

Oh yea, forgot to update everyone. It looks like we are going to be here in Germany for 4 years instead of 3. Apparently there was a typo on Jr's orders. Guess this is something that has been happening lately. Someone in an Air Force office somewhere isn't doing their job right. But then, what's new. No biggie though. 3 years, 4 years, doesn't make much of a difference to us. At our 3 year mark we just may be happy to stay another year!

A Few New Pics

Here are some recent, or at least somewhat recent, pics of Alex.

Enjoy! :D

Baby in a backpack

Alex's newest thing. He's on the phone, copying Daddy. He just happened to have a piece of bread with peanut butter in his hand when he answered. Good thing it was bath night!


On the phone again.

Playing in the sand at the beach in Oregon.

The whole Fam at the beach in Oregon.

How do ya like my sunglasses?

Enjoying some ribs. Mmmm yummy.

Update on Things

Things here are going well. We have found a place to rent, and should be able to move in on the 15th if all of the paperwork gets done. I guess. Don't really understand the process completely. It's a nice little place off the back of our landlord's house, 2 bedroom,1 bath. The place is a bit smaller than I'd like, but I think we can make it work. What we really like about it is the landlord's property which is huge, and we are allowed to use all of it! Lots of space for the dogs to run, and eventually, for Alex as well. It is a bit far from the base, about a 25 minute drive, but we're willing to trade the drive for the huge yard. Yards are pretty hard to come by in rental houses here, and we just don't want to live in a place where we have to take the dogs out on leashes several times a day. So we'll see how it works out for the next year of our lease.

Jr starts work tomorrow. We just found that out this morning, and he's not even completely in processed to the base yet. Love how that works.

We went to a festival yeterday with the Rileys. Kinda like a small fair. Had a fun time trying German foods, listening to live music, playing games and taking the kiddies on rides. Jr has been wanting another crepe all day today! Here's a pic of Alex cracking up while he played with a blow up hammer that Jr won. Alex had a great time and was mesmerized by all of the lights and music.

Jr and I were Super Excited today! Alex did his first sign. He signed "more" for more bread at lunch! WooHoo! We've been working on that for about 7 months. Hopefully some of the other signs we've been working on will catch on soon too. Well, that's about it for us here. Hope that you are all doing well. Be sure to email or comment or myspace or something so that we can keep in touch.

Love from,

TheTacbas3

We've arrived in Germany

So we're here in Germany! Yea!!! The flight went very well and Alex did great. It was a pretty long journey from the plane to the base, but we made it without major complications. We are staying in a hotel off base that is pretty nice. It is clean, has a kitchen, living room & bedroom (obviously) and is pet friendly, which is awesome!! We pretty much just hung out today and slept ALOT. Gonna take a little while to get adjusted to the time difference. This evening we have been hanging out with our lovely friends, the Rileys. Went out to dinner and had a little tour of some of the local area. Just wanted to let you all know that we've made it safe and sound. Hope you're all doing well back in the states!

Update on the Moving Process

It's coming up quickly, and things just seem to be moving faster and faster! For the most part everything is going smoothly so far (knock on wood!!) Jr's last day of work was Thursday, the 11th. Our first shipment of household goods, which will be flown to Germany, were packed up and sent out on the 12th. We also shipped our Explorer that day. Movers came today to pack up the stuff that we are keeping in storage, and the rest of our stuff will be packed up and shipped this Thursday and Friday.
Once the house is empty, we'll get to spend the weekend cleaning and getting ready for our housing inspection on the 22nd. Then we're officially homeless :( Thankfully, lots of friends have offered for us to stay with them :) Thanks everyone! We'll be staying with our friends Dave and Jennifer for about 5 days, and after that we spend a weekend visiting more friends, Tyler, Carrie and Wesley. After our weekend visit it's time to come back to base for 2 days, do some outprocessing, see the vet and head off to Germany on the 1st of July.

Phew!!

So that's the update. Packing, cleaning, moving, moving again, and moving once more. Paperwork, appointments, a little more paperwork, and some flying.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

On the 1st of June, Alex's actual birthday, we all went to the Zoo.

The birds were my favorite part. You hold a stick with seeds glued to it and they fly onto your stick for a snack :D

Kathy, Jonathan, Carrie and Junior each with a bird on their sticks. Not sure if Alex is more interested in the birds or his sunglasses (which are his newest fascination).

Daddy and Alex checkin out the bird.

What a beautiful view. This is as you walk down to the Zoo entrance.

Alex's 1st Birthday

We threw a Firetruck 1st Birthday party for Alex on the 30th of May, the Saturday before his birthday. Grandma Karen, Grandpa Gary, Auntie Kathy, Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Carrie all came to visit and help out with the party. Here are a few pics. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find pics of Jonathan and Carrie. I know I have some somewhere!)

Going for the Pinata!

Grandma and Alex

Grandpa and Alex

Auntie Kathy and Alex (she kept feeding him cookies. That's why he's drooling all over the place.)

Time to sing "Happy Birthday"

Alex really didn't get too messy with the cake. I think he was just too tired to eat very much cake. (Who's ever heard of such a thing!)