Touching Base

I'm sorry I've been REALLY bad lately keeping up with this thing. We've just had a lot going on. The only computer I can ever get on is the laptop upstairs and, I'm not exaggerating, it takes me nearly all day to get through my email. The computer is dying and is so slow, I just dont have time to sit and wait on it. Right now, I've managed to make it downstairs (all the kids are in bed) to get on the "real" computers so I can type this to you all.

What we've been up to lately:

Last week, we had Vacation Bible School at church. It was so much fun! I have lots of pictures to share, and I will do so... at some point. HAHA! We had a great time, all the kids had a great time! It was a huge success! I... all of us, were nearly dead by the end of the week, haha, but it was worth it.

We've received some bad news that our Pastor is very ill. I will not going into details publicly but PLEASE, your prayers are needed!

Elizabeth had her 2nd dose of shots on Thursday. She's not been feeling good today and has had a fever off an on. I'm not sure if it's the shots causing the fever or her bottom teeth which seem to be starting to poke their way through. She is such a little chubster! Her personality is really starting to shine through. I know, I'm lacking pictures... coming soon! ;)

Sean and Ryan are enjoying their summer vacation. I've actually managed to get them to put down the video games and go outside and PLAY! They bought Dennis a super soaker squirt gun for his birthday and I gave them each a water bottle with the sport top and they had a grand time soaking each other. When I came outside with the water bottles, I got a look like, "what's that?!" I said, "these are the water guns Nana and PopPop gave me and aunt Mandy when we were your age" and then I soaked Sean with it to show him how affective they are. HAHA!

Well I better get going to bed... I'll try for picture in the next post!!

Summer Vacations/Cub Scouts

Yay!! Summer vacation is finally here! The boys had their last day of school yesterday... well more like last few hours of school. They only had to go in until around 11am.

I went and picked them up and we met up with his Cub scout pack (or is it den, I always get those mixed up) so he can get promoted to Weblos and get his Bear badge. Then they all got to share some ice cream. No sooner did they finish their ice cream did we start to feel... drip.... drip.... then the sky opened up and just POURED on us. LOL We had to run to the car, which was parked on the FAR other side of the school. The boys thought it was fun though, (so did I, shh). haha!

I know I told you to "stay tuned" in my last post so here are those long awaited pictures.

On Sunday, we met up with the rest of the cub scouts and they let off the bottle rockets that they had made. Basically they decorated a 2L coke bottle, filled it with water then the older boys, I think they were boy scouts, pumped them with air until there was enough pressure and then WHOOSH!! they went up into the sky. It was a lot of fun. I got some good pictures (pats herself on the back).

(you might need to click on some of these to make them full size in order to see what's going on)

Here's Sean heading to go fill up his rocket with water.

Here the boy scouts have put the rocket on the pole and their explain to Sean what's going to happen. They're going to pump up the air and Sean's job is to pull that string he's holding when they say GO.

This is the best picture, you've got to click on it. You see Sean there pulling on the string to release his rocket and you see his rocket flying up into the air, soaking those boy scouts! Those poor boys! They were sopping wet by the end of the day and it wasnt exactly warm out there! Everyone had a good time though!

Music Recitals

Ok! I hope these videos work for you. What you should see is a typical video option below and you should be able to press the PLAY button to get it started. I took several more video than what you will see here. If you click HERE it will take you to my Youtube.com page and you can see the other videos that I took of the boys.




This first video (above) is Ryan's music recital. This is his kindergarten class. Watch Ryan's face (blue spiderman shirt on) - TYPICAL Ryan right there! He's such a clown!!

Here are some pictures of him and his class singing their songs. I apologize for the terrible quality of Ryan's videos. I was balancing Elizabeth in a sling and trying to use my "pocket camera" which I'm less familiar with.





Here, they had to play rhythm sticks to music playing on a CD. I thought they did a great job!


And here's Ryan accepting his "musician" certificate. (sorry, I know it's teeny tiny)



Sean's recital was today. They had an even tougher task, they had to play music on the flute-a-phone (I think I'm spelling that right). It's kind of like a recorder.



Here's Sean's video (above). I actually ended up getting more video of Sean and better pictures because by now I figured out my camera a little better (that usually helps) and also Dennis was there with me so he held Ella. Like I said, you can go HERE, to youtube, and view the other videos I took.



Arent they cute singing from a book like a choir.

Yep, Daddy and Elizabeth were forced to sing too. HAHA (me too but I was the camera girl so no picts of me haha!) I know he really appreciates me posting this picture too. HAHA!

Getting their fingers ready for flute-a-phoning.

Sean getting his musician's certificate.




Stay tuned... we have lots of stuff going on the next few weeks. This Sunday the Cub Scouts are having their final Icecream and rocket launch get-together thing. I should get plenty of picts from that.

Memorial Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial day weekend. What originally started out as big plans for this weekend, most of them didn't happen. We wanted to take a weekend trip out to a military resort they have here in Germany- the Edelweiss in Garmish - but then we found out they don't accept dogs. So our plans got rearranged to "let's just take a day trip somewhere". Then that got nixed because Dennis and Elizabeth both came down with head colds. Sigh! Oh well!

BUT one plan stayed true. We enjoyed a fun Memorial Day picnic with our friends from church.
We had lots and lots of food.



The boys had a blast playing with their friends. They were SO FILTHY when they got home. Just as boys should be! HAHA!


Then we (and by we I mean the boys, I just sat back and watched LOL) had a fun game of softball.






It was a great day! The weather cooperated and everyone was exhausted by bedtime!

Lookie, Lookie...

.... Ryan lost his first toothy!!!

He lost it Friday actually, I'm just slow getting to these posts. :)

I have the laptop back now so I should have an easier time updating you all on what's been going on. Dennis made it back safely from the states. He had a good time visiting with you mom and dad. I wish we could have been there too!

This weekend is a long weekend! I cant wait! We're thinking about taking a short trip somewhere but... we'll see :).

Ive got to go, Ella just took the shortest nap ever and now is demanding attention! LOL

Busy Busy!

I'm sorry I've been so inconsistent lately with this blog, things have just been a little nutty around here the past few weeks. Dennis is back in the States this week for a conference so I'm without a laptop and getting to the "real" computers downstairs is only dependent on Ella's mood. LOL

First, before I catch you all up on what's been going on here, I have to thank Ms Glenda (a dear friend of my mom) for the wonderful surprise package she sent for Elizabeth. Thank you so much for the 2 adorable outfits, the teether (which she LOVES) and the baby-safe feeders - those are so great!

Here is one of those outfits on her. It's great because it's been particularly humid and warm here.




Check out the cute butterfly bum!



She loves this teether, I think it feels good on her gums.



Then I got too close with the camera and she snatched my lens cap. LOL!!



OH! And here's a great attempt she made at rolling over... notice the upset face... she doesn't like tummy time LOL



The weather here has been CRAZY the past few days. I didnt realize they had this many thunderstorms here. If you know me, you know how much I dread thunderstorms. Of course, the storms here dont compare to the ones in the States and I can actually relax (kind of) through these and enjoy their beauty. We had a big one the other day, and by big one, I mean 2 cracks of thunder and some small hail. LOL The hail only lasted a short while, by the time I got my camera it was all done. I did manage, however, to get some pictures of the beautiful rainbow that showed up afteward and the clouds.




I couldn't resist this one... Ryan was looking out the window at the storm with me.

Buncha photos

Elizabeth has had her first taste of baby cereal and LOVES IT!! She cant wait til that spoon gets to her mouth! HAHA Her Aunty Pam might notice the bib she's wearing, too. ;)

Look what the boys just got!! They were so excited!! It was kind of a "spur of the moment" buy so we dont have proper sheets for it yet, especially the bottom bunk since that's a full. We promised Sean that he could pick out a new bed set since he had to give up his Spongebob to Ryan. LOL Man! those walls are bare! I've got to put up some pictures in their room too, I see. LOL!!

Here are some more random pictures I took this weekend. Ryan was bouncing all over while Sean was playing with Ella.

We had some pretty nice weather on Sunday, between rain showers. The boys had a good time running around and playing with their squirt guns.

Not quite sure what Sean is trying to show me here... I think an "invisible" boo boo. HAHA!



And here's a nice picture of the front of our house. The flowers all in bloom!! The grass is in need of mowing but we've been kind of putting it off because of all the wild flowers. The bush with the purple flowers next to the door smells AMAZING! It smells just like lilacs. I'm not sure if that's what it is (never saw them in person ahah) What do you think? You can make the picture bigger by clicking on it. I have a new appreciation for Dandilions here too. They are SOOOO beautiful and HUGE here. You should see them out in the fields, it's like God spinkled paint all over the landscape. (I'm going to try and get pictures)