Hello!!!!

Hello! It has been crazy and hectic around here lately and I haven't had time to blog! Brian went to France for a staff ride earlier this month. He went to northern France to learn about Normandy. They had a professional photographer on the trip with them so hopefully Brian will get some great pictures and send them my way so I can share them with you all. He got back from France on the 16th of this month.
We had some sad family news last week. Brian's grandma Ledford passed away on Saturday, the 17th of May. He was able to attend the funeral and he flew into Atlanta on Monday, the 19th and stayed through Friday the 23rd. It was a sad reason to have to go back to the states but he is glad he did and he enjoyed being with his family, and his grandpa, during that time.
Since Brian has been back we have been enjoying the great outdoors! The weather has been beautiful (although if you have allergies I guess it's not that much fun!) and we have been trying to be outside as much as possible. We had a neighborhood BBQ on Saturday, we ventured out to a flea market on Sunday and the past couple of nights we have been walking on the trails in the woods near our house. Luke loves it and walks the entire time. Last night I brought the camera along with me and snapped a few pictures. It's beautiful where we live, huh?

Luke running on the gravel path

The forest right by our house
And the train tracks...
Walking up 1 of the paths
Wheat everywhere!
And little flowers too...

We stopped at the park on the way home to play for awhile...

Well if daddy can do it so can I!
Hmmm...how do I do this?
Hanging on!
I think I like this. :) (Notice his cool baseball belt? I made that for him!)
Every time Luke sees sand, it's in his hand and then thrown on something else.
Luke loves this thing and Brian went around so many times that Luke couldn't walk! I caught it on video, it that mean? :)
Fields of flowers!
A flower in Luke's little hand
He really didn't want to leave the park so we had to distract him by finding dandelion puffs for him to shake and when those ran out we found wild daisies for him to pick. It worked like a charm.

The End!

Germany in May

Last time I posted I gave you pictures of all the plants blooming and of Luke. Today, I give you more of the same. :) I know we haven't done anything adventurous lately but we are really settling into our house and enjoying our home so we have been staying around the town on the weekends and enjoying Parsberg. Every day Luke and I enjoy the beautiful May weather (sunny and in the mid 60s) and while Luke bounces on trampolines, slides down slides and destroys flowers, I take pictures of him and of the beauty surrounding us. The neighborhood is nice and quiet during the day when the neighborhood kids are at school and I can let Luke play in the backyard while I am getting things done inside the house - I just check on him frequently but I usually hear him talking to himself or making a racket.





Yesterday Brian played in a golf tournament and when he got home we grilled out and stayed outside until way past Luke's bedtime. Luke get to bed a little after 9pm. He was so worn out that he sacked out right away. But not before we could capture some video footage! I wanted to upload our clip of Luke telling Brian all the endangered animals in the book "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" Luke says "take a bite of..." before saying the animal - he thinks he is pretty funny. But it is a large file and it won't upload so you'll get Luke starting his ABCs and changing it to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and then Luke bashfully singing his ABCs while I hold him. Enjoy!

Miss us?

Where have we been? Why haven't I updated the blog? Well, we've been here, at home, enjoying the sunny days of spring. And I've been busy blogging on Fray Baby and listing new items in my shop. But have no fear! We still make time for fun and we've been to a JMRC formal, a kiddie carnival and have been strolling around the neighborhood playing in the parks, bouncing on the trampolines and snapping pictures of all the flowers blooming.

Here is Luke at the spring carnival. And what is that in his hand? That is our new pet - a fish.

He has no name. I guess we should name him but he is living in a Pyrex measuring cup and we thought he might be belly up by now but he seems to have taken to us. (Why is Mr. Fish living in my Pyrex? Well, every child at the carnival got a little fishie and therefore the small fishie supply area at the PXtra is cleaned out. They did give us a small baggie of fishie flakes to feed Mr. Fish so don't worry, he isn't going hungry. Just look how healthy he looks!)

Luke sitting on the couch enjoying his bowl of popcorn. Notice the short sleeves? Yup, it was that nice out this weekend.
On your mark...get set...Go! Luke loves running all over the place. Brian took him in the jogger stroller on his morning run the other day and then let him run free afterwards. It was a gorgeous day - he didn't even need the jacket but Luke associates being outside with having to wear a jacket so he insisted.


Pictures of the trees and flowers in bloom! Aren't they beautiful? And they are all in my neighborhood. I think I need to get a few planters and add to the splendor.

Our backyard is enveloped into the community backyard where there are a bunch of toys, some slides, swings and a trampoline. Thankfully there is a mesh "wall" around it so I don't have a heart attack when I see Luke haphazardly bouncing around. He likes to throw all the balls on it and climb up and jump around. We try to go outside during the day when the big kids are in school so he can bounce around without getting wounded. Here is a little footage of the endless fun he can have on a trampoline. Enjoy. :)

Spring is Here!! Oh, Nevermind

Just when we thought it was warming up, we woke up to this Thursday morning!




These pictures were taken pretty early in the morning when everything was still pretty quiet so the unexpected white blanket was quite beautiful and breath-taking. We also knew it wouldn't last because the sun was already starting to rise and warm the air. But what a beautiful site and the neighborhood kids got to whack each other in the head with snowballs while waiting for their weather delayed ride to school from the bus.

(I can appreciate snow in the middle of April because I had 4 1/2 years of sunshine in Hawaii AND we didn't arrive in Germany until February of this year. I'm sure next April, after freezing, sloshing and bundling through 6 months of cold, April snow showers won't be as appreciated.)

Not for Sale

An update mostly for the grandparents because they are probably the only ones who think this is cute - and they miss Luke the most!

As you know I have been quite the entrepreneur and opened a shop on Etsy. Last week I retook a bunch of the pictures of my items on a bed of white chenille. Luke woke up from his nap and saw me taking pictures of my latest bib and burp cloth set and he walked over to it and picked it up, placed it aside and put his gross blankie in it's place. Then he sat beside it and said "Luke camera, blankie camera. Cheese!" And I obliged. After all, he is a lot cuter than a burp cloth.

Earth Day post

Hello everyone! I posted an Earth Day post on my Fray Baby blog - I don't want to repost the entire thing over here so I'm giving you the link to check it out.

"Trying to be more green, perhaps a nice shade of lime"

Oh tell me this isn't being productive!

Brian started a rotation this week and that means long hours - he leaves the house around 7am and doesn't return until 10pm, sometimes later. Luke and I have entire days to ourselves and at the same time, I am on a sewing rampage. I am cutting, ironing, sewing and snipping and then snapping pictures of my creations and uploading them to my store. I obviously can't do this all day and neglect my child so I create projects to do with Luke, I mean, as cute as it is to watch him meticulously move aside my fabrics so he and his blankie can lay on my cutting mat, he can't stay there all day. Besides, he tries to be helpful and bring me my scissors and is always reminding me that the iron is hot (he has experience with this, remember?) and scissors can give you owies. So along with running an occassional errands (to the store, the post office) and afternoon trips to the park (weather permitting), I have come up with fun things for us to do and I can say we have been creative, productive people.

Painting

Sculpting

Building

Ummm...reviewing a cinematic triumph??

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday turned out to be a gorgeous day. Cold and rainy in the morning turned to crisp yet sunny in the afternoon. We walked up to the neighborhood park and then Luke and Brian played inside for awhile, followed by Luke watching a movie from his favorite seat in the house, the laundry basket.

Mission Completion!

The first Saturday of each month, Neumarkt has a Trodelmarkt - a mix between a flea market and an antique market. This morning we decided to drive the 25 minutes north to Neumarkt to check it out. We had a late start - Brian spent the morning straightening the house and then shampooing the rug in my car (high octane fuel stuff leaked out of the container a week ago and we have been cleaning it ever since - peu!) and I was running around trying to get myself and Luke ready while getting sidetracked by random little tasks. We arrived in Neumarkt around noon and people were already packing up their items! It was a very large area, once again in the city's Fetzplatz, and there were over 100 sites. I guess since it was a chilly day and there was a chance of rain people just wanted to go home where it is warm. We left the Trodelmarkt without any new treasures but it is always enjoyable to see the items that people are selling. I'll have to bring my camera with me next time because there really is a huge variety of interesting things. On our way home we decided to stop by the castle ruins we noticed while driving into the city. Could it be? Could we actually find ruins that are open and available for exploration? Neumarkt's castle is called Wolfenstein and for those of you who are tech-geeks and play computer games - the game Wolfenstein is loosely based on this castle. I'm not sure of the history of Wolfenstein, just that it, like many other castles throughout the country, was destroyed in all the bombings of WWII. We drove up the country road (see picture) to Wolfenstein and drove past the parking lot to see if a stop was worth our while or if this, like the other ruins we tried to visit, was closed or under construction. Wolfenstein was wide open and ready to explore. In fact, there was a bride and a groom there getting professional photographs taken. I'm sure they will turn out amazing, the ruins are a great backdrop and we had fun checking out every nook and cranny. We completed our mission, we found castle ruins that were beautiful and fun to walk around AND it was free of charge! Here are the pictures.

Approaching the castle ruins

The bridge that crosses over a moat (which Brian says wasn't the castle's moat but just a huge ravine caused by runoff, but the point is, it looks like a moat)

Luke excited to be at the castle (or excited to be out of the car, whichever...)The view from Wolfenstein castle down onto Neumarkt.Luke and I at one of the lookouts - it was cold and windy.
See my hair? Windy!
Brian standing on one of the castle walls Brian just chilling against the castle tower. :) That tower is actually about 30 feet behind us, we were having fun with the camera.
That is me in the doorway of another portion of the castle.

Luke and I having an indepth conversation.

Another wall

At the guillotine - ready to get his head chopped off. Me too!
Don't forget Luke! (click on this picture to open it big - it's a good one)
It's me! It's me! I liked the view from here.

A family picture before we go. Correction, a picture of Brian and I with the back of Luke's head in it.
Offering Luke some help down the stairs. Look at his little smile.

Auf Weidersehn Burgruine Wolfenstein!