Exciting Things Ahead...

We have some very exciting trips and events coming up! We have soooo much to see too! Another two years here doesn't seem very long and I have a hunch that it's going to fly by faster than we'd like or expect it to so we are having fun squeezing in as much as we humanly can - with an appropriate amount of down time throughout of course. I am beyond ready for summer break to be here so we can have some fun! :) And in some ways, I feel that this summer is jammed packed with so much excitement, that summer seems over before it has even begun! It'll be fun though and I'm pretty certain we'll be plenty busy making a lot of fun memories!

{Andrew - Spring 2012}

In May, John and the other guys from his region are going to be away for a few days exploring Belleau Wood in France. He'll enjoy it, I'm sure! Someday, I look forward to us taking the kids to see this before we move. Such a neat memorial of fallen Marines. I'll be playing single mother for these few days, but nothing I haven't ever had to do before. I'm glad he has this opportunity to go. We'll be busy filling our time with a movie nights and games on the Wii and trips to the park. Maybe even some bike rides around the neighborhood.

Later this month, we'll be attending a week long trip with John and his region to Garmisch. If you go to THIS website for Edelweiss, you'll see a video at the bottom that shows the lodge and area. While he attends meetings during the day, I'll be entertaining the kids at the pool, exploring the area and local town and hiking around the Alps. We love nature so I have a feeling this is going to be fun! I'll probably hear a lot of complaining about a lot of walking around but I can deal with that! :) We went here for a few days back in October for our Anniversary so I'm super thrilled to be going back to spend some time outdoors with the wonderful spring weather! We have family events to look forward to in the evenings. We also extended our stay through the weekend after John is done with his meetings. We haven't mapped out what we're going to do yet but I think we are going to try to see some local things like the Salt Mines and Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Salzburg.

In June, the 3rd to be exact, John and I are running in the Frankfurt 10K. I'm pretty excited and nervous. Just a few more weeks of training! :)

After the kids get out of school, we are going down to Slovenia for about a week to visit with some friends of ours we met a few months ago. John met him from work and his family came and stayed with us one night while in route back to the States. They have three very cute kids. It's going to be a blast and I can not wait!! (I also get a new running buddy for a week and some girl time! :))

In July, Aubrey will be going to Young Women (church) camp for 4 days. We don't know the details yet, but she's very much looking forwarded to her first year at camp! Most of the girls from our Stake are German speaking but most also know English so I'm sure Aubrey will have a great time. I KNOW she will!! And if it gives her the chance to learn some German, even better!

One of my best friends, Sabine, that I met while living in Virginia, is from Germany and is flying out here to visit her family. LUCKY US!!!! :) I can't wait to see her again! It will mark one year since I last saw her! How much I miss my Virginina friends and wish to see them all again! Hopefully one day! (It goes without saying, I miss my Oregon friends and family too!)

It's not yet confirmed, but another one of my best friends, Ally, might be coming out here with her husband to visit. I haven't seen her since Aubrey was ONE and since the time we were all living in Pensacola, Florida. Whenever they make it out this way, it will be a great and long overdue reunion!! :)

Ah! August! A month I've been waiting impatiently for! :) We are flying out our family friend, Megan (who happens to also be the daughter of another one of my best friends) to come stay with the kids while John and I finally have the chance to go on our own vacation...alone...to GREECE!!!!! A WHOLE WEEK! It's a dream come true and still seems so unreal to me. It probably won't feel real until we get there! As I've mentioned before, it's part of my reward to keeping my 6 month long commitment to exercise. But it's also because John and I never went on a honeymoon or have even gone on a trip alone together, for that matter. Can you believe that!?!? Quite frankly, we desperately need the break! With me home taking care of our children and in between John's full-to-the-brim job all the while taking his Masters...the vacation is not only long overdue but highly welcomed for the both of us! Megan will also be staying for another week so we can all spend some time together and show her around Germany and whatever else our hearts and time desires to go see! We are really looking forward to having her here and are so grateful for her! She's one of the few people we trust watching our precious little ones!

August also welcomes the beginning of another school year. One which Aubrey AND Jocelyn will be enjoying. It probably won't take long going into June before we, as parents, are anticipating this moment. But maybe not! I have a feeling that NONE of us are going to be bored this summer! :)

Summer {2011} To-Do List

Sorry I haven't been around a whole lot lately. Life gets busy with 4 children of course, but we're also in the midst of a major move. I suppose trying to find my desk has been another reason I haven't blogged much. Just so much to do.

Summer is here so I sat down with my children to make a list of all that we wanted to do, see, accomplish and read, etc. while we're on vacation from school. We ended up making some goals as a family as well as individually - however big or little they may be.

With this summer being WAY busy with our vacation back home coming up to see relatives and friends - as well as our BIG move, we're going to see just how much of these things we can knock off our list. And I'm looking SO forward to moving and being done fixing up our home to rent it out. John has been busy nonstop it seems and I'd really like to see my husband again! Vacation and relaxation is starting in a week and I can hardly wait!! :)

So here's what we plan to do this summer:

1.) Move to another home!
2.) Go to the park/ playground
3.) Meet new friends
4.) Keep in touch with our old forever friends :)
5.) Vacation to Oregon/Washington
6.) Get bikes for the whole family
7.) Catch up on blogging! (Leslie)
8.) Complete Faith in God (Aubrey)
9.) Decorate new home
10.) Play soccer (Aubrey & possibly Jocelyn)
11.) Start potty training! (Andrew)
12.) Go swimming
13.) Portland Zoo
14.) Get family pictures taken
15.) A visit to the ever famous Burgerville (gotta have a seasonal shake!) (Leslie)
16.) Work on 3D figures
17.) Learn to ride a bike (Aubrey & Jocelyn)
18.) Watch new Harry Potter movie (Aubrey)
19.) Paint & color
20.) Start P90X (John & Leslie)
21.) Go to the beach
22.) Play with cousins
23.) Watch Cars 2
24.) Start learning to read (and learning to write more than own name) (Jocelyn)
25.) Blow bubbles (Jocelyn & Andrew)
26.) Read a book  (life's so busy these days that I don't read as much as I'd like) (Leslie)
27.) Start sewing again (Leslie)
28.) Learn a different language
29.) Learn more piano music
30.) Get ready for Kindergarten (Jocelyn)
31.) Hiking
32.) Visit family & friends

Bass Pro Shops

As previously stated in the spring break post, everyone was sick. With today being the kids last day of break and sickness finally on the mend, I thought it would be fun to get the kids out and enjoy the sunshine. What I didn't factor in was my sanity! As a mother to now four children I felt it would be best to just throw myself back into the ring and get it over with. This would be a test of faith and a whole lot different than just a trip to the grocery store. Which isn't always a success. If I could clearly do this with three, what's one more, right? HA!! The joke was on me when I drove them an hour from home on a 100 degree spring day to Bass Pro Shops for some lunch. The drive wasn't hard - especially with the newly loved built-in DVD players. The "way-over-my-head" moment was when we were all seated at the table built for a king ("PLEASE PASS THE SALT!!"); Landon was fed and is normally not a fussy baby in any sense - except for during this particular lunch. Of course, right? And to make matters worse, I then realized I had completely forgotten his pacifier at home! :( Things were starting to get a little overwhelming. I'm convinced breathing techniques aren't just for labor and delivery!!

So with the kids seated miles down the table away from me, Jocelyn started to whine that her burger sliders were gross (she didn't like the toasty bun) and Andrew was picking at his food saying he didn't feel good and kept trying to stand up on his chair so I could pick him up and hold him. All this along with the fact that they were all eating and I was holding and rocking Landon wishing I could eat the food that was sitting in front of me - as well as wishing that the annoying comments from the waitress would stop..."oh he's fussy!!" I had a brief thought at this boiling point: why did I bring them all the way down here instead of just driving up the road from home to Chick-fil-a? One of the main reasons I took them there was because of the massively huge fish tank that they get so excited about. But I suppose I also did it to prove to myself that after one and a half months, I was finally ready to take all my kids out by myself. And yay me! I made it in one piece!

Poor Andrew though! He was clearly not feeling well and getting more gloom by the minute. After I let them roam around and look at the fish, we got back on the road and sat in almost 2 hours of traffic to travel 45 miles back home to take big sis to soccer practice. Come to find out once we stepped foot in the door, he was burning up with a 104.5 temperature!! John was almost home so we decided to meet up the road at the ER and we found out he had come down with an ear infection! :(

What did this trip prove to me? That no matter what is thrown at me...I can do it!!! Four kids and all! :)

We are all so glad school starts up again tomorrow! At least I am! :)

Spring Break

Our family was hit with severe colds during spring break. And I don't mean just a few of us. I mean ALL of us!! It was not the best week to go and do the fun things we had originally planned (one of which was to take the kids to meet up with Daddy at the Lincoln Memorial for lunch: sick + traffic=not fun!!)...but that doesn't mean we still didn't have a good time! :) We did things from soccer games, to family barbeques, to coloring, to watching movies, to blowing bubbles in the backyard. We thought of it, we did it. We managed to pack quite a few things into our week. Here are some pictures of our time together. I know there's a lot of them - but I couldn't narrow them down more than I already did. Enjoy! :) 

Andrew loves this magnifying glass toy we picked up while at Luray Caverns last summer.

Going to family friends for the evening.

Aubrey got a free Chick-fil-a kids meal for having her school artwork presented at the restaurant for the month of March.

Made some yummy zucchini muffins with chocolate frosting.

Getting loves from Daddy.

Snoozing (and waving hello?) :)

Break out the sidewalk chalk!

Practice piano for upcoming recital.

Cars!!!

Annual spring family silhouettes.

Play mat time!

Wawa smoothies....

and pastries! Mmm.

Playing cards with Daddy.

Nap with Mommy.

Not feeling well! :(

Trip to the park!

Played some DS games.

LEGOS!

More DS games.

NBA Playoff games (AKA: Portland Trailblazer watching!)

Fresh air!

Dyed eggs for Easter.

BUBBLES!!!!!!!

Sitting with us outside blowing his own little bubbles! :)

Red Robin

Last week during Aubrey's spring break, we took the kids one night to Red Robin for dinner. Our kids LOVE going there! Usually for the balloons and I'm pretty sure for the food too! :) Going there is definitely a treat. As soon as we got back home, I took this video of the kids playing with their balloons. Can we say "hyper?" I love watching them have fun! These sweet kids of mine are the best!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Spring Break - Recap

This is what we did during Aubrey's Spring Break:

{had fun drawing}

{played piano}

{picked flowers}

{went to the playground - many times!}

{cuddled with dad - and mom...just no pictures to show it}

{snuggled}

{had a bbq}

{made cookies}

{Easter}

{mr & mrs potato head}

{playtime}

{took the kids to Sonic for a slushie & tator tots}

{went to soccer practices}

{played ball}

{read stories in the Friend}

{Aubrey - I took their pictures after Aubrey's piano practice in our friend's yard}

{Jocelyn}

{Andrew}

{beautiful flowers I took in my friend's yard}

{went to the library to get some books & color some pictures}

{went to Red Robin for dinner - and got balloons to take home}

{read some stories}

{made hand and foot prints}

{I got my silhouette project completed and framed}

{painted pictures}

{read books}

{colored more pictures}

{spent the day at Monticello}

{watched movies}

{played with toys}

{slept in}

{swang on the swings}

{piggyback rides}

{played games}

{hung out with friends}

{mama & Andrew went down the slide}

{monkey bars!}

{played with the only balloon left from Red Robin}

{watched a cartoon together}

{watched basketball games with daddy}

{naps}

{ate dinner outside}

{went for a family walk - well, she's running! :)}