Woohoo!!!!!

My internet is back! This, of course, is not as exciting as my husband being back, but it is still wonderful. Three weeks without internet is difficult when you're a blogaholic, like myself.

Anyway, this came right as we are preparing to leave on our vacation. Tomorrow night is Isaac's one year birthday party (a little over a week early,) and then we are off to Scotland for 8 days. I can hear the bagpipes already! So, I am signing off to spend time with my sweetheart and travel for the next week or so. See you again when we get back and settled! Pray for a peaceful trip for us!

The king of the castle is back!

(Picture above is of Brian showing the kids a ladybug...at least until Isaac smashed it to pieces.)

At least he is the king of our little castle! Brian got back today and is home for 15 more days! It is so great to have my husband home; I can not even begin to tell you! It has been about seven and a half months since we’ve seen him. The girls were stuck to him like glue all day. If he so much as went to the bathroom, they were asking where he was and if they could go. Genna kept saying, “But I don’t want my daddy to leave!” Bless her heart. She just doesn’t understand this at all.

Brian took them to the Backeri first thing when I got brought him home from the airport this morning. Then we went to the lake that is down the road from our house with a picnic lunch. It was a lot of fun! Isaac ate quite a bit of sand despite all my attempts to keep it out of his mouth. I just could not figure it out; he didn’t like the taste but he kept on putting it in there and then trying to spit it out. Not the brightest boy on the beach! He loved getting all covered in the wet sand and splashing around. He was a mess!

How did Hannah do with this reunion? First she surprised me by putting on her tennis shoes without complaining about how they feel. She really wanted to impress her dad. Then we were all dressed and ready to go to the lake and we were just waiting on Isaac to wake up from his nap so we could head out. The girls were both asking every five seconds when we were leaving. When they were told we were waiting on Isaac to wake up, Hannah replies, “Well, mom doesn’t have to go. She can stay with Isaac.” Ouch.

How did Genevieve do with the daddy she has missed so much? She would not let him out of her sight! At dinner, she told him the funniest sweetest thing ever, “Daddy, in my bed, I am going to pray inside my face for you because you are the most wonderful daddy ever!” It took me a second to figure out that she meant “pray inside her head,” as in silent prayer. I am laughing even now! What a character she is!

How did the little guy do with his daddy? He took to Brian so quickly. He rode on his shoulders at the lake, hung out with him outside while I cooked dinner (Spaghetti Carbanara, Brian’s favorite,) and was even giving him cuddles and hugs.

And me? I feel like we are newlyweds on our honeymoon, except for all the kids! LOL! I just can not believe he is really here and that he has to leave again!

***Still no internet at home, I am just typing posts at home and publishing them, post-dated, whenever I am near a connection. They are supposed to come to fix it this week sometime.

A horse is a horse, of course!

Isaac has been notorious for rejecting all objects offered to him for comfort, like pacifiers, snugglis, and blankets. However, he finally decided cuddling with something might be worth a try. He asked for his stuffed horse on the shelf while we were reading by doing his signature growl that he does for nearly all animals and pointing. I gave it to him, and he has been tucking it under his arm ever since at bed time. Now he is even saying the word “Horse” and the words “Up bup bup” for “Giddy up” while making the horse gallop. I first noticed his love of horses when we turned on Black Beauty for the girls. He went nuts over the horses! Some day, he’ll figure out that the horses don’t growl, they neigh.

St. Genevieve

That’s who she was named after, but lately she has been acting, umm, less than saintly. Sweet girl is really struggling with her feelings lately and really missing her daddy. She’s been acting out in uncharacteristic ways for a while now. Now she is missing her Mimi too. I have been trying to identify ways that help her to deal with her feelings and also trying to give her more one on one time. One thing I have learned about my Genna is that touch is very important to her to help her get over anger or hurt feelings. Hugging, kissing, or even just holding hands with her sister seems to suddenly set her right after an argument.

We read a story about St. Therese of the Child Jesus the other day early on in the day. As I was tucking her into bed after a long and difficult day with her, she says to me, “Mom, St. Therese wants to help us get to Heaven.” Thank you, God, for ending our challenging day with such a beautiful piece of hope!

First Step

In the last few days, my big boy has been standing up from the middle of the floor (without furniture to help.) My mom tried the whole time she was here to get him to walk, but with the exception of one attempt he would not even try once you let go of his hands. However, yesterday (the day my mom left) we were outside on our patio and he stood up and I encouraged him to take a step toward me. And he did it! Just one step and he felt unsteady and sat down, but it was so deliberate and perfect! The funny thing is that our patio is where Genna finally started really walking because it is such a rough surface that it scratches up those tender crawling knees. He was doing a lot of bear crawling, but he still had a bunch of scratches all over his legs. He is way tougher than his sisters though! No complaints, he just started finding ways to try to avoid scratching his knees up.

He is learning new words and sounds all the time. He says, “Out out” for “Outside,” and “Tick tick” for “Tickle,” one of his favorite games. He has also started shaking his head and saying either, “No no” or “Uh uh.” Thankfully, he is using this to describe a “No no” instead of telling me “No.” He loves to copy the sounds I make, and so I make up sounds for different things in the books we read to encourage this. He is enjoying books a lot more recently which is exciting! And his 8^th tooth broke through this week. I am praying for a break from teething for a while.

Isaac is just such a joy! He is a very cuddly little boy, and loves to give hugs and pats. I can’t wait for his daddy to see and hold him again! He’s so different from the 4 month old that his daddy last held!

A Finale

My mom left today, and so last night the girls put on a show for her. They introduced each other and performed various songs and dances. Isaac got a kick out of it too! He loves to clap for his sisters! Good bye, Mimi! We miss you already!

Sneaky Peaky Smart Girl

Well, the time has finally arrived when I can’t spell words around Hannah anymore. I spelled the word “died” in front of her while I was talking cryptically to my mom. And what do you know! She yells out the word while she was coloring. Since then she has been figuring out other words I have spelled, no matter how fast I try to spell them.

The “Sneaky Peaky” part of the title is from a book we were reading from the library called The Sneaky Peaky Spy, I think. Since reading it she wants to be a sneaky peaky spy. She was spying on her sister through the keyhole just the other day.

Burg Nanstein

The Burg Nanstein is a castle in our area. I had professional pictures taken here of the kids. They turned out beautiful! Isaac wasn’t as smiley as I would have liked, but he still looked adorable to me. Here are my very favorites.

To Heidelberg we go...

Saturday, we took my mom to Heidelberg to do a little shopping and grab lunch. She really wanted to go there last summer when my dad and she visited, but I woke up contracting pretty good that morning and was afraid to go that far. Little did I know the little stinker had no intention of coming out on time, much less a couple weeks early!

Back to our day trip, the weather was less than perfect, drizzling and raining on and off. I had some excellent Kase Spaetzle that Isaac enjoyed as well. We shopped until the kids dropped. Just kidding! It really wasn’t that long. We got ice cream for the kids in the group at the end of the trip.

Here a cute little girl jumped in our photo. How funny!

The two girls were eating ice cream in their rain coats. Isaac did not like the rain cover at all! He got very upset and tried to rip it off until I gave up and took it off. I guess it wasn't raining hard enough anyways.

This was Isaac right before he crashed. This look says, "I am serious and sleepy. Don't mess with me."

Three Little Fishies

Here are the kids in the baby pool at the end of our swim.

My Brokedown Castle

Everything is breaking in our house these days. First, the computer’s motherboard went kaput and we got a new one. However, it took two weeks to get the monitor to work with the new computer (because of my ignorance, I am ashamed to say). Then my internet went down and we are still awaiting a new antenna. (Oh, how I miss cable modems!) I am posting from elsewhere at the moment to catch up. Then my precious sewing machine totally died right in the middle of a very important project!!! I am heartbroken. The next day, I went to longingly look at the American sewing machines. I was trying to rationalize buying one on the spot when a lady walked up and told me that the American sewing machines ultimately die when used with a transformer because the timing of the needle is not in sync with the bobbin. This explains why I have been having so much trouble with it lately! But this creates a huge dilemma for me since we are only living in Germany for one more year. It would be a waste of money to buy a German one and it would be a bad idea to ruin another American one. I am mourning the loss of my Singer!

Talk about a cute daddy!

Tonight after we prayed for daddy, Genna said she was so happy he was coming home for a visit soon because she really misses him. My mom said that she misses him too, and Genna responds with, “Yeah, because he is our daddy, and we love him!” We started discussing all the things we love about him. He’s the biggest, the strongest, the smartest, and on and on. Then Hannah said “And he’s cute! That’s the main thing!” Hannah, I absolutely agree!

Irish Dance Camp

This week the girls went to Irish Dance Camp and had a blast. They were the two youngest since the class technically started at 4 years. Genna did not quite get the steps down, but she had fun trying! Her report card said she did listen well which, frankly, was a shocker to me! (I have to repeat myself 30 times sometimes to make my voice heard in her world.) Hannah got the steps and jumps pretty well and wears quite the proud smile when she does it. She has trouble keeping her arms down straight by her side though. She got an excellent report as well. Tonight was the Ceili which is an Irish dance party. Everyone dances together and the girls were very overwhelmed and not getting most of the steps. It was cute to watch. Genna was pretty much just jumping and Hannah was just not fast enough for the big girls. I was glad to see the smiles on their faces though! I really hope to continue this in classes while we are still over here where it is offered.

Here they are before their first class.

Here is the Ceili.

Isaac was enamored with the dancing. He would stare and then when everyone clapped he would smile from ear to ear and clap too. Here he is watching them.

Gameboy

Isaac LOVES games, all kinds of games! Whereas, the girls would drag a book over and plop in my lap wanting me to read it to them, Isaac hops in my lap and starts trying to ride a little horsey by bouncing up and down or makes the noise that I make when I tickle him trying to get me to chase and tickle him. He loves peekaboo with blankets over his head that all babes love. He loves to play chase with Hannah, crawling style, and he loves dancing when the girls are dancing around him. He also loves to get dizzy. He either shakes his head or spins around on the floor to get dizzy.

He is now trying to say "around and around" too. It sounds more like "Row row" (the ow as in cow). I can't believe he's almost a year! He's getting his sixth, seventh, and eighth teeth in this week. I am in the midst of weaning him slowly too. He is down to 2 nursings a day now. My baby's growing up. Why do they have to do that?

Standing Tall

I finally caught him standing on camera! He is jutting out his lower jaw like his daddy does sometimes. So cute!


He is looking more and more like Hannah and I with his smile though. I had very little hair as a baby, and my mom keeps telling me he looks so much like me when he smiles.

Four Eyes

I recently had my first eye appointment in 10 years and found out I needed reading glasses. What did the girls think about mom's new look? Hannah said I looked weird. Genna said, "Mom, you look like a different person." I think it's the whole looking over the top of the glasses when I look up thing that makes it look weird...at least, I hope.

Can flowers laugh at you?

I ask because I am pretty sure my neighbor’s sunflowers are laughing at me. His are the gigantic ones in the background of the picture above. Our yard is a lot higher than his, by the way, and our little sunflowers are the ones in between the girls without the blooms. Genna’s tallest one is her height now, and Hannah’s is up to her shoulder. Granted, last year ours didn’t even make it this far, so I am still holding out hope for some blooms to come. Still I hear the giggles coming from the neighbor’s yard as I fight the envy…

Sorry to say, but...

I am having more internet and computer problems now. Please, be patient with me to get these under control and I'll be back! I promise!

A chrysalis

On the way to dinner last night, we were talking about the caterpillar that we found on our cilantro plant. After a funny conversation about all caterpillars turning into butterflies and a long story that Genna told us from a book they read at school in German, I asked Hannah how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. She shocks my mother by describing not only the process, but also the chrysalis that the caterpillar forms. My mom said she didn't even know it was called a chrysalis. Hannah learned all that from the previously mentioned show, Peep and the Big Wide World. She absorbs things from TV, books, and stories like a sponge. All the more reason to be very careful what she sees and reads!

A baby boom this summer!

We are still awaiting the arrival of all these babies, but I have still been working on their gifts.

Here are some of them. I've been an embroidery nut while my mom has been here to help with the kids and the house. Here I embroidered a bib and a hat for each baby. I embroidered animals on the bibs and then I embroidered the first letter of the babies' names on the hats.


I am working on two more different baby gifts at the moment, but I am still far behind the curve on gifts I need to make, ranging from birthday gifts to graduation gifts. I have a super fun idea actually, involving embroidery. However, I don't know when I will get to it. I was inspired from this wonderful mom and want to make saint dolls in the same fashion as her angel dolls. A friend of mine wants to get together to make saint t-shirts too. Wouldn't this be a great way to encourage our little ones to learn about the saints?

Such a developmental age!

Isaac is 11 months today, and he is seriously learning so much everyday! Yesterday, he said two new words, "Night night" and "Book." The word "Book" sounds similar to "Ball," but I knew what he meant because he did the sign with it and pointed to the book. He also blew his first kiss and stood alone to clap his hands many times. He was practicing it over and over! He also finally figured out the sippy cup. He has been very stubborn about trying it out. This is a long story, but he just wasn't getting it or something until today.

He's really getting over his stranger anxiety too. Yea! He has taken very well to Mimi too.

A great big OOPS!

During our movie night tonight, I was getting Isaac ready for bed. There was a pile of all the kids' pajamas and I grabbed a top and put it on him without paying attention to which top I picked up. All I can say is, Sorry Brian, but I had to take this picture!

Patriotic Kids

Here are my Red, White, and Blue Sweeties!

We had people over for the 4th. Hot dogs...my dad says you can't have an Independence Day without them! When in Germany, brats are a must too. Since I have yet to learn to use the grill, a friend of mine did the grilling.

I also made these Martha Stewart inspired patriotic desserts, but Hannah pointed out that they did not look exactly like the ones in the magazine. Apparently, the proportions of sorbet to ice cream were off a bit. That's my perfectionist for you!


Then we went to the firework festivities. Isaac stayed home with Mimi so he didn't miss his bedtime. The girl's got their face painted. I did Hannah's since they were about to close it down while Genna was getting her's done. Then we played a couple games and headed to the funnel cake line. Two hours later...The fireworks are well underway and we finally get our funnel cake. Why wait in line that long for a funnel cake? I really wanted that funnel cake.

What did the girls think about the fireworks? Hannah said, "God must be doing something!" Genna said after the first good bang, "I think I want them to stop now."