Farewells

Just wanted to post a couple of pictures of all our farewells right before we left GK.  I was right. After all of our traveling, these are some of the faces that we are missing right now!

Nostalgic

I meant to post this earlier but never did...here are pictures of the girls when we first moved to Germany.  Carolyn was 3.



Miss Sidney was 14 months.



And I brought home a 6 year old, an almost 4 year old and a 16 month old. ( I took these right before we moved into our guest house)





Our time there went by so fast I just wanted to be able to look back and see how much they had grown.

Stein Woods

We found this great walking trail right before we left the big town of Stein.  Complete with streams filled with baby ducks,



friendly horses,



friendly horses that needed haircuts,



dandelions to make wishes on, and



great light for photo opportunities.





I only wish we had found this sooner.

Last Days of School

Sidney and Carolyn had their last days of school this past week.

Here is Sidney on her first day of preschool.  So not happy about going...



Here she is on her last day.  I wish I could say that Sidney got over her unhappiness about school but there were still mornings right up until the end that she would give me a hard time when I left her.  But as soon as I was gone her teachers said she was fine.
She was all smiles this morning because it was her last day.



Carolyn on the first day of Kindergarten.



Here is my big girl on her last day.



Carolyn with her teacher Miss Barrington.  She has learned so much this past year and has just matured a ton!  I thought that she might be teary eyed on her last day but she was fine.  It was me who was having to bite my tongue to keep from welling up.



We are so proud of both of the girls!

SPRING!

We had one of the darkest winters here on record. I kept saying as we were preparing to move that I wanted Germany to make me miss it. I wanted more of the Spring like weather we normally get around this time of year and less of the snow and rain that seemed to not go away. Well, Mother Nature finally listened and the weather here has been great for the last couple of weeks.  This has been perfect for us because we have been eating out quite a bit since we have nothing in the house. With kids, being able to eat outside makes for the least stressful situation. The other day I came up with the best idea ever, and while we waited on our food the girls took turns strolling Payson around. Happiness for everyone involved!



It's always nice to get rewarded with ice cream!



Funny how the third child picks up really quickly on things.  There is no way you can eat ice cream in front of her and not give her some now.



Afterwards trying to walk off some of our dinner and



letting the girls run off some of their sugar high.



This little girl LOVES her Daddy.



I know I am being redundant when I say we are so looking forward to moving home, but there are going to be soooo many things that we miss about living here.

Pack her UP

The week before we started our pack out Brian's cousins Robbie and Palmer came to visit us.  It was great to have them here and they definitely were a nice distraction to all the craziness that was about to happen in our house.  The girls loved having family around.  I think they forget just how much family they have back in the states.  Brian and I both have a large extended family.  I can't wait for the girls to get loved on by everyone in a couple of weeks.

Brian took my camera with him on one of their adventures and this is the only picture he took.  That is our friend Jon in the picture with them.



The Thursday before our pack out instead of doing the many things that we needed to do, we headed to the Sittard market with them and bought our supper.  It was so fitting that our last meal in our house (well our house as a normal house) was what the girls call a "Daddy Picnic".



Then the movers descended upon our house like bees and if something was out they were packing it.  This ended up being the main stresser for me making sure everything that needed to be hidden to not get packed stayed locked in one of our closets or our bathroom.  I don't know how many times during the course of our pack out one of the girls would have a break down over not being able to find a toy that wasn't supposed to go on the boat. The girls got a kick out of all of our stuff got to go on a boat to make it to Alabama.

The other stresser was watching my stuff being taken out the window and put on this elevator thing to be carried down.  They would pack it slam full and I just had to stop watching.



Especially when the last day they went out our top window.  I think Brian and I said "it's just stuff"  to each other way too many times during this whole process.  But that is the truth and the movers really did a great job with all our "stuff".



Since we are doing an overseas move everything gets crated.  We ended up having 13 of these things.



The movers looked like they were playing Tetris with our boxes as they tried to cram each crate full.



Carolyn was in school and Sidney was able to go play with friends on all the days of the craziness but Payson was a nice distraction for Brian and me.  Good thing we have a big enough bathroom that we were able to put her in here for her naps amongst all our stuff we were trying to keep hidden.



Baby Boy was there too.  (Brian and I have almost decided on a name but still for right now we just call him baby boy or brother).



I am 27 weeks preggo here.



Our stuff should take about 2 months to get back across the pond which is why we went ahead and packed out now.  We are now living in our house with the lovely Schinnen temporary furniture that they provide for us.

Mango

Since Payson is constantly on the move now I sometimes have a hard time getting a good picture of her.  I snapped this the other day while we were outside enjoying the nice weather Germany has finally given us.

She is 15 months here.  Brian has nicknamed her "Mango" from a Saturday Night Live skit due to her sometimes sassy behavior.  You will try to hand her something or say something to her and she will promptly turn away from you in a dramatic fashion.  This nickname has stuck and we all call her Mango from time to time.  I am a little worried about our 10 hour flight with her.  She is not a child who wants to sit still for long.  Here's to hoping the Army of snacks that I plan on taking with us and other things to keep her entertained work.

Love her sweet little innocent smile she has here!