HA! HA!

I just had to share this picture with all of you, I just found Abby lying like this, she said she wanted to lay like her Baby Born was...this is now my go to picture when I need a good laugh!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!  We started ours out on Christmas Eve by visiting Santa and then attending mass on base, and then the kids opened up 1 present each and we played games the rest of the night, it was a great night!!  Emma was soooo excited for Santa to come.

Then the big day arrived, Emma of course was the first to wake up, soooo excited we ended up waking Noah up, and this is what Santa left them..
        

          

  

         

 

We then got to the fun stuff!!! The kids loved all their presents and have not stopped playing with a single one since they opened them.  That day for lunch we ate lunch on base at the dining facility with Sergio's boss, Col Lancaster and her husband, we had a great time and spent the rest of the day at home together.  It was a great Christmas!!!

We want to Thank all of our friends and family for the gifts and cards!!! Hopefully next year we will be a little closer to home! 

-Darcy

Salsa and Margarita Night!!!

Is is Friday and we are having Margaritas and homemade Salsa.  This salsa is sooooo good and soooo easy to make I thought I would share it...

-1 can Hunts whole tomatoes
-1-2 jalapenos
-1/2 onion
-1 clove garlic
-salt to taste
-lime juice to taste
-handful of Cilantro
 Put everything in a food processor, and pulse, I guess you could use a blender just don't blend it for long, turn on and off the blender really fast.  It is also better if you refrigerate for a couple hours.

            
                             And of course with homemade salsa you HAVE to have Margaritas

Have a good weekend everyone!!!

-Darcy

We Made it!! Our First Semester of School.

We ended our first semester of homeschooling today and I must say it is going very well.  I think all of us have gotten in the rythm of everything. I even have Emma saying at 7:15 am, can we start school yet??  We actually start every morning around 8:00am, sometimes if the kids sleep late we start at 8:30am.  We have a room on our 3rd floor, that is our "school" room, there is a toy area in the corner for Abby and Noah. We are in school for about 1 1/2 hours and then we have the rest of the day to do whatever we need to.  It has also given us the chance to travel and not have to worry about Emma taking off school.  Outside of homeschool, Emma is involved in a montly Art Class on base, jazz class and Girl Scouts.

Where Emma is at right now:

• knows all the letters of alphabet and their sounds (only short sounds for vowels)
• can read any word with a short vowel sound in it
• is reading short words without sounding them out
• adding numbers 1-10 with 1 and 0.
• can count from 1 to 100
• can count by 10's to 100
• she is also learning a little about the United States of America, Christopher Columbus and the pilgrims
• knows what a penny is, who is on it and its value
• knows how to tell time, at the o'clock
• we have also been learning about different occupations (teacher, farmer, police officer, doctor, etc..) and about a little about health, what to do to stay healthy, etc...

     

This is our school Room!

      

Emma working hard at her desk!

                                                            Abby and Noah's play area.                                            



We are now taking 2 weeks off for Christmas, I am glad to have the break, but looking forward to finishing off the year.

-Darcy

Christmas Card and Baking

I made our Christmas card again this year, I opted for something simple, because I had about 40 to make,most of them to our family!!!  Emma helped a lot, she did the coloring and even addressed some  of the envelopes.

We, I mean mostly I did some Christmas baking this past weekend, last yr and this yr I make plates of cookies and other Christmas goodies for people who work for Sergio.  I love to bake, however it is not so fun, when I have to cook in the smallest of kitchens with the smallest oven in the world, I think!!! After all day I did get everything done and it all was yummy!!! Oh yeah, Sergio did help a little after some begging from Emma, although he was not happy.

-Darcy

Our First SNOW!!!

We woke up Sunday monring to a light dusting of snow on the ground!!! The kids were very excited, jumping up and down, especially Noah, even though there was not much on the ground, we of course had to go outside, Emma was dying to make a snowman.  Here are some pictures of our fun filled morning,  It is Thursday and there is still a bit of snow on the ground, and it is supposed to snow some more this weekend, we hope we can get more, so that we can go sledding

This little stinker is just the cutest little thing all bundled up in his winter coat, he loved the snow, in fact when everyone else came in, Emma and him wanted to stay out longer

Emma also loved playing in the snow, what little we had of it,  She had fun making a small snowman and having a snowball fight with Sergio. Abby just played on her own, and wanted to come inside after about 5 mins, which is so Abby!

Not as much snow as Iowa, but the kids loved playing in it just the same, Hope everyone is staying warm.

-Darcy

Decorating for Christmas...

This past thursday we went and picked out our tree for Christmas...we got our tree on base from the Boy Scout troup.  Every year since we have been in Germany we have put our tree on top of Sergio's junker BMW, but since this year we don't have it and have the Smart car instead we decided we would put it on top, it worked just fine...The boys scouts had to go get their moms' to take pictures that thought it was so cool, and definetly the smallest car they have put a tree on top of.

After getting the tree home it has become traditional to get pizza and decorate the house for xmas, of course with Christmas music playing, this year it was Barney's Christmas!!!  Noah really got into it, since music was playing he of course had to go get into a swimsuit, dress and run around the house ringing the bells!!!  Emma was a big help decorating this year, and she even helped vacuum afterwards.  Abby pretty much just decorated the door with stars!!!

Now we are all ready for Christmas, if only we would get some snow!!! 

-Darcy

Noah Turned TWO!!

Well, Monday Noah officially turned two, but Sergio and I joke he has had the terrible two's since he was born!!! JK, we love that little nutball!! It has kinda started becoming a traditional that one of us takes whoever's birthday it is shopping, just the kid and one parent, some alone time, and they get to pick something out, well for the girls' birthdays I took them, so Sergio took Noah.  Noah really did not want to go, we had to bribe him, but once he was gone he was fine, Sergio took Noah to the BX on base, they got a milkshake, some fries and Noah picked out some transformer toys, which Sergio and I were both excited about!  (Usually he is all about girl toys--so him picking out a boy toy was a big deal!)

Sergio was in charge of the cake, which he forgot of course, so he had to run to the German grocery store in the village next to us, and all the had was frozen cakes, that thing was so frozen I couldn't even cut it!! But we sang Happy Birthday, Noah sang along, and he blew out his candles and opened presents, it kinda felt like Christmas the kids were crazy over the new toys!! Noah had a great time, and now that he is two we have started potty training...I am sure there will be a post about that later...

Some things about Noah

• that little stinker gets into everything
• if we tell him not to do something, he will turn his head to one side and say "daaad"
• that smile gets us everytime, he is so darn cute
• his favorite word is "Emma"
• his favorite person is Emma
• he LOVES to dress up--in girls clothes, dance costumes, swim suits, etc...
• he LOVES chap stick, lip gloss, anything for his lips
• he can eat 20 sticks a gum and still want more
• he loves to drink water
• he ALWAYS says "disgusting" when we change his diaper
• If he doesn't like something he will say "EEEWWWW"
• he will say anything we say, he once called Sergio an "asshole", right after Sergio called him one
• he just started singing Hannah Montana songs...his dad is so proud!

What Emma has to say about Noah

• "I love him because he is so sweet"
• "I like him potty training"
• "I like it when he gives me a kiss before i go to bed"

What Abby has to say about Noah

• "he bees crazy and stuff"
• "he was a lot crazy"
•  "he bees crazy and stuff and alot of things"

Even though he is a handful, we couldn't imagine our lives without that little stinker.  Happy Birthday NOAH!!

Thanksgiving!

Ok, so I have a little catching up to do..I am thinking we just need to stay home a little, jeez!!
For Thanksgiving this year, Sergio (who is in charge of the dining facilities on base) had to work or make sure everything was running smoothly. The dining faciliites on base offer Thanksgiving dinner to everyone, Military, Dependents, Civilians, etc.. and it is really cheap, my carrots cost something like $.15!! Also General Brady, the 4 Star General was serving at the time we went, and Emma was getting her food from him, and she received a coin from him!!! Which is really cool!!!  In the military collecting coins is a big deal, from various people, so for Emma to receive one from a 4-Star General is neat.

Holidays are always hard being away from family, We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving wherever you were!  -Darcy