Our New Mailing Address

Hi Everyone! Here is our new mailing address:

CMR 480 Box 537
APO, AE 09128

And phone number:
07157 53 4554 (for those of you in Germany)
49 7157 53 4554 (outside of Germany)

The SILENT Play-Date

Yesterday our kids had our neighbor's kids over for a playdate. Our landlord is our neighbor and his daughter's family lives upstairs from him and they have 3 children. Anyways Jordan has been wanting Mahreit (not sure about the spelling but it sounds like MA-REET) to come over and play since he first layed eyes on her. She is the same age and has two older brothers. One who's name is Celas (C- LAS) and think he is 9. I honestly have no idea what their Mom's name is or the older brother.

So I was coming home from picking up Jordan from school and when we pulled into our driveway the Mum opened her windows and asked if the kids could get together and play. I have a million things on my to-do list this week because we are hosting Charlie's work people tomorrow night for a Christmas party. But, I couldn't say no on the first time, so I said yes. I think Mahreit wanted my kids to play at her house, but Jordan was a little apprehensive about that. So Mahreit and Celas came to our house. Keep in mind that Germans are so trusting and don't think at all like myself (the nervous American Mum!) Their Mom doesn't even know my name (well maybe she does from her father (our landlord) but I don't speak German and the kids came over unattended. That's right.... she doesn't know me from a hole in the wall, but the kids came over by themselves. As most of you know, I would never do that unless it was an absolute emergency. But, as an American, I am programmed to not trust strangers and so are my children.

Mahreit and Celas don't speak English and my children don't speak German, so it was a silent playdate. All of the children can count in their foreign language and Jordan knows some basics like colors and he can meet and greet and say how old he is. They all seemed to have a great time and my kids are eager to play together again, so a lack of language isn't bothering anyone! It was hilarious though, because at one point Ava came downstairs and said that she keeps asking the girl how old she is and she isn't answering her. I had to remind Ava that they don't speak English and she doesn't understand what Ava is asking her!

I am definitely feeling pressure to learn some more German As soon as the holidays are over I am going to register at our village hall as a resident of Waldenbuch so that I can try to get Ava and Brady in a local German preschool. If they pick up the language perhaps I can learn from them!

Momma's got a new Best Friend.....

...... and it is most definitely not the refrigerator. It's about the size of a dorm fridge, but at least it is a NO FROST! With 4 kids, this beauty doesn't quite cut it, so the Army delivered an American-size fridge that is currently located on the first floor. My parents are coming for Christmas and I have a job for Charlie and my Dad..... they will be moving the big one upstairs and stuffing it in my laundry room.
Can you guess who my new best friend is after looking at these stairs? We have 3 floors, so 2 flights of these and this type of staircase is pretty standard in Germany because they build up and not out. After climbing them multiple times a day, I have figured out why the Germans are typically so trim.

Oh, and it is not the electric blue paint that they painted the staircase with. After experience at Hornbach (German equivalent to Home Depot) I am hoping that maybe it was intended to be a navy blue and came out a little too electric.

Here she is!!!! She doesn't have a name yet but she really is my new best friend. With Beckett crawling I really needed something to keep him locked into our living/dining/kitchen area. I put it up yesterday and I think it is love at first sight. She's not the most beautiful, but very functional and her handle matches the electric blue handrail on the stairs. What more could I want?

We are still in the process of unpacking the final boxes, but it is beginning to feel a bit more like a home. When the final boxes are empty and the pictures are all hung, I will take some more pictures to share with everyone.

The Feast of St.Nikolaus

In the midst of our boxes the kids managed to celebrate St. Nikolaus Day on December 6th. In Germany and other parts of the world, on the Eve of December 5th they put their shoes (Nikolaus-Stiefel) outside their doors and Nikolaus and Servant Ruprecht come to check on the children in the middle of the night. If their behavior over the last year was good, Nikolaus fills their shoes with small treats. If they behaved poorly over the last year a tree branch is placed inside their shoes. Servant Ruprecht brings fear to many of the children because as legend has it... he would beat the naughty children to bring out better behavior.

Our kids were happy to find treats in their shoes in the morning! It seems as though Nikolaus is helping Santa Claus out because our letters to Santa were missing out of our special North Pole mailbox in the morning. We can only assume that Nikolaus is delivering them to the North Pole for us.

Packing it Up

Just wanted to let everyone know that our movers arrived today and started packing everything up. I will be out of commission on the blog for a while. Probably a couple of weeks.... I will try to post some pictures of the new house in a couple of weeks. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Disneyland Paris Photos

A couple of my viewers have asked where the pictures from Disneyland are? To be honest.... we didn't take a lot of Disney photos because we wanted to be able to take tons of actual Paris. Here are some of the best ones.



We thought this was appropriate for Charlie to pose with Mike from Monsters Inc, they seem to have something in common!

Beckett loves Sully and enjoyed chewing on his horns!

While Brady was waiting for Dad, Ava, and Jordan to come off of a ride that he was too small for, he had a fashion show with Remy from Ratatouille. Here is one of the pictures he made me take.

Ava and Jordan standing on a trash can to watch the Once Upon a Dream Parade. We watched the parade twice and it was definitely Ava's highlight. A little girls dream come true to see all of the Disney princesses dancing and singing.

Riding with Dad on the tea cups!

Our Tax Dollars Being Spent

As I was sitting down to figure out how much money I need to put into our German bank account to prepare for our move next week... I became completely sidetracked by the vast amount of money our government has spent to move us around 8 times in the last 8 years. Most notable, would be our move to Germany. Obviously a trans-continental move would be costly and I would put a rough estimate at $25,000 to get us here initially (only last January). That includes moving our car, household goods, and flying us here and paying for our hotels along the way.

Now, we are doing another COSTLY move. I'll remind you all that movers in Deutschland are paid in Euros (currently 1 euro costs us about $1.25). So, they are moving us again, putting us up in a hotel for about 9 days, and advancing us a whole lot of money to get us into our German house. We will be living off-post in a small German town and renting from a German because they don't have enough military housing available in Stuttgart. Then the military realized that military families with 3 or more children were having a hard time finding adequate housing, so they authorized us to go through a immobilien (German realtor) to find a rental. Of course, an immobilien comes at a huge cost to the government because the immobilien charges roughly 3 months rent to use their service. So our rent will be 1,580 euros a month which currently equates to $2000 a month. That means that the Army is paying this realtor $6,000 for his service in helping us find a house, then they will be paying our deposit of 2 months rent (another $4000), and each month they will be paying us the equivalent of 580 euros for our utilities.

So, this move is going to cost the government another $25,000 dollars, not to mention that they payed for Charlie to stay in a hotel for 2 months back in July and August at the rate 130 euro a night! I know this a ramble, but I just find the amount of money they spend to move people around a bit staggering!!!!!

Somebody needs to tell the government that they have spent way TOO much money moving the Baileys around for the last 8 years and maybe they could stabilize us for more than 12 months at a time. It's a wonder that Alaska felt the most like home to us..... our record is there and we spent a whopping 23 months in one place.

Paris

We just returned from spending almost a week in Paris. We actually stayed at Disneyland Paris because with 4 children it was the most economical way to stay and recieve unlimited access to the Disney parks. From Disney we were able to take a train to downtown Paris. We decided to see Paris without a stroller and I can't tell you how happy I am that we didn't use a stroller. Not having a stroller allowed us to see everything and climb the Eiffel Tower. All of us (except Beckett) climbed by foot, all 706 steps up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower!!!! It was quite a hike, but well worth it! We were able to take a break from climbing to have a picnic lunch on the first level.

By the time we hopped on a bus to head to the Louvre, Brady was ready for a nap after his big hike! At the Louvre, we followed Rick Steve's Paris 2008 guidebook and hit the main attractions of the Louvre (the place is enormous and would take better than a week to truly SEE everything)... it was pretty amazing to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Jordan and Ava didn't quite see the significance, but someday when they are in History class they will have a memory of being there.

Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe was probably our favorite sight. The kids enjoyed watching the traffic in the roundabout around the Arc. It is crazy with horns honking and cars zooming in and out of the circle. Definitely entertainment for the little ones. Later in the day we walked the 2 mile or better walk from the Louvre back to the Arc, via the Champs-Elysees. The Champs-Elysees is glitzy, adorned with cafes and fancy shops and it is hard to imagine what it was like during war torn times with armies marching down from the Arc de Triomphe.

On our last day in Paris, we toured Notre Dame Cathedral and did a historical walk through the Latin Quarter of Paris. Notre Dame is beautiful and my pictures do not do the place justice. I wish we could have planned to attend a Mass there, but our timing was more than a bit off.

Standing in the Tuileries Gardens at the base of the Champs-Elysees and in front of the Louvre with a view of the Eiffel Tower behind me.

The whole family standing on a bridge over the Seine River.

Jordan and Ava climbing the 706 steps up the Eiffel Tower.

Me, Charlie, and Beckett on the second level of the Eiffel Tower.

Standing in front of the Arc de Triomphe.

Charlie, Brady and Ava in front of the Louvre.

Me, Jordan, Ava, and Beckett on the Seine River with Notre Dame in the background.

Halloween Fun

Here is our Halloween Photos! This year's trick or treating was chaotic, but fun! Our housing area is open to the public at all times, which means that EVERYONE came trick or treating in our little community. The Germans are catching on to our Trick or Treating celebration as well. Charlie thinks that about 1/3 of the children were German. Candy, Bitte??? I heard that because we live in the first habitable building at the entrance to our neighborhood that we would be bombarded with trick or treaters. On Halloween morning I started to fret that maybe 10 bags of candy wasn't enough..... I hauled the kids to the store and we bought 10 more bags at a 50% discount because Halloween was already upon us. Let me just say.... Charlie handed out candy at the rate of 1 measly piece per child and he was out of candy in about 1 hour!!!!! I took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood and we made it around 1 block because it was so overwhelming. Honestly, think about a pinata at a birthday party with 25 kids swarming for candy and multiply that by 25!!!!!!
Anyways the kids were happy and they ate until their little bellies couldn't take it anymore. Keeping up with tradition.... I allow them to indulge in as much candy as they want and then we throw it out at the end of the night. I know this seems wasteful, but it saves me the heartache of worrying about cavities. One of our past pediatric dentists had advised us that it was better for a child's teeth to get a ton of sugar all at once and then brush their teeth with the force of a pressure washer (just kidding, but I do brush hard after all of that sugar) then to give them one piece a day for 30 days, prolonging the sugar exposure! Most of you know that we have had enough cavity drama in the past 2 years that I can't take anymore.



FUTURE CHEERLEADERS OF AMERICA

Jordan, Ava, and Friends (Jordan was supposed to be a ghost, but decided his ghost costume wasn't working and he wore his pirate costume from last year.)

Our little Dunkel dressed up as a smiling banana!

The Chicken was supposed to be a monkey, but he changed his mind at the last minute. He was WIPED out and slept while Charlie handed out candy! Thanks for the picture By the Boot!

Quick Update

All my fellow bloggers have their Halloween pictures up. I swear mine are coming with a post about the candy frenzy in our Housing area that went on during Trick or Treating. In the meantime, we have been busy painting our house today and planning Brady's birthday party for tomorrow.

It's OFFICIAL: We are most definitely moving to Stuttgart on December 1st. Our movers come right before Turkey Day. So this will be 2 years in a row that movers will be packing us up on Thanksgiving. Maybe next year I will cook a turkey???

RUN, RUN, RUN

Do my fellow Mommies out there ever feel like all we do is RUN, RUN, RUN???? This week is proving to be a bit crazy with all of the Halloween commitments we have or should I say, I HAVE. The kids don't make the goodies for the parties or the PIN THE SPIDER ON THE WEB game for the amusement of a class full of hyper first graders. Charlie's answer is that I shouldn't volunteer for all of this, but it means so much to the kids to have me there. And in all honesty, I enjoy peeking inside their classrooms and participating in their fun at schools. It allows me to see each one of them in a different light and usually it is because their siblings aren't involved when I volunteer at their schools. Beckett is always present, but he still doesn't quite count because he doesn't steal their toys or talk yet.

In the chaos of it all.... Beckett has double ear infections again. We hurried off to the doctors office after picking up Jordan from school and got the diagnosis that I was pretty sure of before the doctor actually looked in his ears. I seriously think that our older children think that the doctors office is like a second home! With four kids, we seem to be at the clinic all the time. I have them convinced that the doctors give misbehaving children shots if they touch all of the medical equipment in the exam room. But, seriously if I were 6, 4, and (almost) 3 I would want to touch all of that stuff, too.

DRUM ROLL please, for the best news I have received in the last 4 months.....

BECKETT IS 100% SALMONELLA FREE. We got our last lab results today and I couldn't be more ecstatic to close this chapter of motherhood. I pray that we don't ever have to revisit that chapter again!

Aspiring Artists

With Charlie being absent from Sunday nights to Friday nights for the last 4 months, sometimes I go a little crazy with entertainment for the kids. Being that it is Halloween this Friday and it was raining all day yesterday, I decided to let the kids potato stamp some pumpkins and then paint some eyes on them. The crazy part isn't the paint.... but I let all FOUR of them paint.
Clean-up after the mess. Beckett was a bit upset that I took the paintbrush away once I stuck him inside the bathtub.

Beckett was defintely the entertainment for the evening. Jordan, Ava, and Brady had so much fun watching him stick his tiny hands in the paint. Jordan took this picture and I think it is priceless. ENJOY!!!

Friends and Soccer

For the fall soccer season we were very fortunate to find out that our closest friends are on the same team. Jordan is actually on a different team than Ava, but has the same color for his uniform. Anyways, the soccer season is coming to a close on Thursday and I am fairly relieved. It keeps getting colder and darker out there each week and I think Brady and Beckett are done with being the fan club. But, I am a bit saddened by the end of it because this will be our last soccer season where we will be able to play with the other B's from our apartment building. Brady will be lost without his little girlfriend to share snacks with, play in the bunny poop (we try not to allow this), or have bathroom breaks with.

Mr. Mischievous

My baby is trying to grow up way too fast! Seriously.... his siblings didn't crawl until 8 or 9 months and they certainly weren't climbing stairs at 7 months and 6 days old.

Who needs toys when he can shred magazines? Jordan was a bit upset the day he got ahold of his Big Backyard magazine.

I never imagined that he could figure this out already....

He stopped to check out his big brother at the top of the stairs.

With a smile like this, I could only smile back and admire my little climber. We continued to let him try to climb to see how far he could get and he made it to the 3rd step. Now, he is fast asleep for the night. All that climbing wore him out!

PINKALICIOUS

Our pinkalicious playdate with our newest friend was ...........well........

PINKALICIOUS!!!

For all the princesses out there who absolutely adore the color pink, I would recommend this book, "Pinkalicious" by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann. It is about a little girl who loves the color pink and eats too many pink cupcakes. After eating the cupcakes she comes down with Pinkititis (turning pink, of course) and has to eat some leafy greens to turn back to normal.

side note: Brady kind of gets sucked into all this pink business when Jordan is off at school and the next in command is a big sister. She kind of rules the roost when Jordan is MIA.

Sweet Pea Soaps

A friend that is very dear to my heart started a natural soap making adventure a couple of years ago and her adventure has blossomed into a successful home business, Sweet Peas Soaps. http://www.sweetpeasoaps.com/main.sc I was fortunate enough to test some of her samples out for myself last year and I found that I loved them. My favorite was the Oats and Wheat for its mild scent and exfoliating properties. Great on the kids and I was pretty confident that it wouldn't ruin my children's skin. If you find yourself with a free minute, check out her website. I have already placed my order with plans to gift some of it away and keep some for myself!

Congratulations Sweet Peas Soaps! I admire your ambition and drive to succeed, while continuing to raise a family. I look forward to the day that we are on the same side of the planet (maybe even in the same region of the country) and we can take our kids to the park like the old days! Maybe, we will be out of the diaper and sippee cup stages of our lives by then.

My favorite time of year!

FALL!!!!! To my suprise, Germany looks alot like New England in the fall. The only thing that seems to be missing is the deep reds from the Maple trees that we have in New Hampshire. The kids don't seem to care about the colors as much as they do about the piles they can make with them once they fall. Only a few pictures were taken on my camera, so this is the best one I have so far of the kids and Daddy playing in them over the weekend.

After spending a day playing in the leaves, I went on a Fall cooking spree. On Sunday, we made turkey breast for dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. I have to admit, I am not a pumpkin pie eater. Charlie loves it and so do the kiddos. I love the smell it makes in the house as it is cooking, though! With our leftover pie dough, the kids got a cooking lesson from Mom and made their own pies in the shape of tarts.

Jordan and Ava were taking this pretty seriously.....

Brady was so serious that he wouldn't give me a "CHEESE".....

The results before they were cooked.

HAPPY FALL!!!

Ava's attempt at making Beckett stylish!

Ava thought it would be fun to give Beckett a mowhawk when he got out of the bath this morning. She wanted to add some gel and I ruined the fun and said, "not today".

Jordan's First Love Note

I just had to share this.....

I found these in Jordan's backpack today, all wrapped up in a homemade envelope. When I asked him who gave it to him, he said, "Sidney. Not the Sidney who gets in trouble, the Sidney who is cute and nice to me." He was a bit embarrassed about the fact that she wrote he loves him. But, I think he admires her, too. And I am thankful that he is choosing friends that don't get into trouble! I am sure someday he will be mortified that I shared this with everyone, but I am holding on to his innocence.

I promise....

I am making a promise to myself and all of my friends.... to actually use this blog and keep everyone up to date on our crazy lives. A ton of stuff has happened since my first post when I ATTEMPTED to start this thing. Where to start?

Charlie got orders to Stuttgart Germany so we are PCSing again. This will be our 8th PCS move and to be quite honest, I am tired of it. Since leaving Walter Reed 27 months ago, this will be the 4th. Can I say that I am tired??? Since July, Charlie has been in Stuttgart on TDY because the Army decided that we couldn't do 2 PCS moves in a fiscal year. We (me and the kiddos) have stayed in Wiesbaden waiting for the army to cut orders and for Charlie to find us a house. He recently found one in a quaint little town called, Waldenbuch. It is not available until December 1st, so we won't officially say goodbye to Wiesbaden until then.

Beckett got diagnosed with salmonella in July and his little system can't seem to get rid of it. I have gone through a lot of highs and lows since dealing with this because we have one pediatrician here and lets just say that she has been a little frustrating. And to answer every one's question... he caught it from his big brother who went to hourly care and caught it from another child. I didn't feed a 4 month old raw chicken, I promise! He finished a round of antibiotics last week and we go in for a check-up tomorrow.

Jordan started first grade and both Ava and Brady are in preschool. Jordan and Ava are also playing soccer and both seem to enjoy it. Brady potty trained in August and Beckett is trying to crawl. He can't really do it yet, but he does a great version of the Army's low crawl.

Attached are some pictures! I will post again soon! (I PROMISE!)

Ahhh... FINALLY!!!

Okay, so while we were still living in Arizona (over 6 months ago), I said that I was going to start a blog for everyone to keep up with our fun and sometimes chaotic lives. Living in Germany with 4 kids can be interesting to say the least..... We often hear Germans saying, "eins, zwei, drei, vier" as they walk by counting our children. 1, 2, 3, and 4!!!! This will be the place that I will post our fun stories and pictures as we live abroad and hopefully it will cutback on all of my snapfish slideshows.

So I am hoping to post to my new blog a couple of times a week, so please bear with me as I start to figure things out. I am definitely not a "hacker" when it comes to stuff like this! Enjoy!!!