28APR09

It's official my little girl is getting too big. She had her first sleep over last week. Well okay so Anya has stayed the night before but this was a true craft making, watching movies, eating junk food, staying up late sleep over! We had been planning on doing it for a few weeks and Lex and Anya could not stop talking about their sleep over. They had a blast. I can't believe she will be 4 in just a few months!! She is such a great girl. She loves her friends and her sister. She even loves her sisters friends and can make all of them laugh. She is SOOO helpful these days. She cleans up after herself, gets herself ready, tells me when Ryan is getting into the toilet paper AGAIN. She has completely mastered the letters and is starting to write them and know the sound they make. She enjoys her preschool class (usually!) and her sunbeam class. Plus, she always has something adorable to say. I am so grateful for this little girl. She makes me smile every day!
Just hanging out (One of Lexie's other friends, Corynn, was also there in the beginning since I was watching her. She is a sweetheart and they all get along really well!)


Our craft was making bird feeders with pine cones and peanut butter (thanks Erica!) The girls thought it was great since THEY could snack on the peanut butter while making the craft!

All 3 girls making their birdfeeders.

Such goofy girls!! Eating their ICE CREAM!!

Don't worry Ryan got in on some of the fun!! Here she is after HER ice cream! :)

Sweet friends!! Watching My LIttle Pony!

Eating popcorn and, of course, being silly!


All ready for bed!!

Passed out!! I couldn't get a picture of both of them asleep b/c they were talking a ton and I moved Anya's bed away from Alexis so they would actually go to sleep!! They had a great night!

20APR09

Today my friend, Ryan Bean, would be 28 years old. I just wanted to post some pictures of us from back in the day. I miss my friend but I love the memories we have! Happy Birthday, Ryan.

19APR09

When we did Ryan's one year pictures we also did some of the girls in their Germany dresses. I think these dresses are SOO cute!!! It was a cooler day so Lex was pretty cold (that girl is ALWAYS cold!) She did pretty well anyways and my beautiful German girls looked adorable!!

19APR09

We did Ryan's one year pictures quiet a while ago but I realized I never posted the pictures! My FABULOUS friend Erica took the pictures for me and if you are stationed here in Germany you should DEFINATELY book a session with her!! We went out exploring and she got some adorable shots (obviously I'm a little biased but come on look at this little girl!) The next day Erica watched Ryan for me and I came home and she had decided to take a few more to add to my already huge amound of pics to order!! I mean seriously people look at those blue eyes!! I keep forgetting to write on here that RYan is finally walking!! About a week and a half ago she took 7 steps (for a bite a cake who knew that was all it would take!) Now she is cruising pretty well. When she falls she usually finishes by crawling but I would say she is walking about 50% of the time now!! Such a sweet girl!

18APR09

Travis and I got a new camera when he was home on R&R and I've been using it a ton. I LOVE it! I decided I should learn to do a little bit more with it since I really do love taking pictures of the girls. I took the class from Shauna Maness and she is so talented!! Her pictures are AMAZING. I learned a lot and she did the class so well I feel like I got a lot out of it. At the end of the day we went out to practice what we had just learned. Our model, Billy, was so patient with the cold and drizzle of rain (after 4 straight days of BEAUTIFUL weather it has a taken a little turn for the worse.) She was a great model and perfect for what I was trying to learn about kids and little strawberry blonde fair skinned girls! :) So here are a couple of my favorite. Now I would like for you to remember I shot these completely on manual NO AUTO settings allowed! I was pretty proud to figure out the right shutter speed, ISO, and Apature. Photography is so interesting and fun for me!! I had a BLAST!!! The first one I didn't do anything to and the second one my friend Erica helped edit a little bit for me. She is also one talented girl. An extra special thanks to Cristine for taking Alexis ALL day and Erica for taking Ryan ALL day so I could do something fun for myself!! :)

17APR09

A few months ago Alexis woke up one morning and said, "mommy, I want to go to the Circus!" I have no idea how she even heard about the circus but since then every once in a while she will ask me again. So, a little circus came to Baumholder and I HAD to take her (especially since we pass by it for church or to get to the autobahn!) She thought it was fantastic. Except for the fire guy. Her and Anya got freaked out (we were in the front row) and kept saying it was too hot and it was burning them!! Silly girls. All in all she loved it even though it was TINY. I can't wait to take her to a REAL circus when we get to the states!!

Waiting for the circus to start!

Ryan really enjoyed the animals!

Lex and Ryan petting the bunnies.

Lex on the camel. He was seriously trying to lick her. This is how they started out.

Then he moved over here and Alexis thought it was fabulous!

13APR09

HAPPY EASTER!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We started out our day with visits from the Easter Bunny, of course. Alexis was so excited and Ryan, well she had just woken up... She quickly realized the reason Lex was so happy when she was given some of Lexie's chocolate though. After that we headed out to church in our new Easter dresses. We had a great meeting with some great musical numbers. The primary sang a song and I was proud of all of them but I was so proud of Lex being only a sunbeam and trying to sing every word she could remember. After church we headed out for an easter egg hunt and some pictures. That proved to be quite a challenge trying to get all 6 kids ages 3 and under to even stay in the picture much less smile... After that we headed over to Britteny's for a wonderful Easter dinner. Definately a wonderful Easter.

This past week we also made a visit to the Easter Bunny which was definately a success with no one crying and Alexis actually going up to him. Coloring eggs was fun for Lexie. Almost as much fun as eating them.

07APR09

Spring is HERE! I thought it was here a few weeks ago but then it decided to snow one more time. Now, I believe, it's here to stay!! It has been BEAUTIFUL!! We have been to the park as often as possible. The last couple days we've even brought a lunch and then just played. I don't think I realized how much the weather can affect my mood till I had kids!! I'm so glad it's Spring!!

03APR09

I just had to tell my wonderful husband HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I love you baby and I'm so grateful for you in our lives. You are a fantastic husband and a wonderful, sweet father to our girls. I hope you have a great birthday even though you're in Iraq. Oh and now, you too, are old!! :)

On a side note to a birthday wish, I will brag about you... We found out about 2 weeks ago that Travis made the E-7 list. That means that sometime in the next year or so Travis will be promoted to SFC (Sergeant First Class or E-7.) I can not begin to tell you how proud I am of him. He has done so well in the Army and made rank at an incredible speed. I smile everytime I think about it. I would be proud of him no matter what but, what an accomplishment.

One more bit of info... A few people have asked me if we know where we are going and I realized I don't know that I have posted it on here yet. In November we will be reporting to Ft. Benning, GA. We will be heading to AZ sometime in September for leave and then to Georgia. Travis will be a Ranger Instructor which means 3 years of NO DEPLOYMENTS!!!! We're very excited and hope we get lots of visitors! :)

02APR09

Just some stuff about the girls...

Alexis is getting to that age where the questions just don't stop coming. She is curious about everything and really trying to figure out the world. A couple of weeks ago we were talking about daddy coming home and I told her he would be home in the summer. She has learned about seasons from a Dora show where they take the snowman from the summer over to the winter, the flower from the fall over to spring etc. So when I told her daddy would be home in the summer she asked me what season it was. I told her it was spring and she got very excited and said summer was next. I told her that was right. She said, "mom, can't we just WALK to summer??" Oh how I wish we could just skip seasons sometimes!! :)

She's also asked me about daddies job. About going to Iraq and working etc. So I told her as much as I could explain. She said, "mommy, when I grow up I want to be a boy!" I kept trying to explain that we were born girls and daddy and papa and baby Eric were born boys and we don't get to switch. She had a very hard time understanding that so finally I just went with well Heavenly Father made us girls. That seemed to end it... for now.

Ryan has become quite the climber. She may not be walking yet but she gets where she wants to and she can get ON what she wants to too. Her fave is Lexie's rocking chair that Trav built for her. She will climb up and stand up and rock it back and forth. Fast then slow. All the way till I walk over and then she will quickly sit down!!

So a couple weeks ago I was doing dishes in the kitchen. Lex was playing the computer, Ryan was playing in the living room, and I hear a noise. I thought that's odd that sounds like my salt and pepper shaker. I walk in to find Ryan ON the kitchen table. She had managed to crawl all the way up and was just up there playing. I think she used a little stool of Alexis's but it must have been just the right way b/c I haven't caught her since. I wish I got a picture but I was in shock and just hurried to get her down!!

I love these girls so much! They make me smile EVERY day! They help the time with out Travis go by so quickly. I am a very blessed mama.

01APR09

Well I have been a little out of the loop the last few days. On Saturday I went to a baptism for one of the kids in the Branch. I took Lex but left Ryan with my friends Erica. Well she called me right after the baptism and said Ryan threw up... I said okay should I come home or still try to go shopping? She said no you should still go I think she's okay. Before we finished talking she says umm Ryan is throwing up again maybe you should come home... That night Ryan threw up 10 times in about 3 hours. Poor girl. She slept pretty well but the next morning she woke up early and came in my bed. When Lex woke up she came in and said she didn't feel good. I was teasing her b/c I thought she was just saying it b/c of Ryan. Then said she threw up. I said where?? In my throw up bowl. I told her ot go get it. Turns out she had gotten up SOMETIME in the night gotten her throw up bowl (just a white bowl we've used in the past) and thrown up. Then she went back to bed and never got me up. Talk about independent!! She was sick most of the morning on Sunday and Ryan was still out of it and took FOUR naps. Well I was just waiting for it to hit me. (All of my friends AND their kids were throwing up by this point.) Sure enough around 3 I started throwing up. Lucky for all of us it was only like a 10 hour bug. Except for Ryan.

Monday Lex and I were still a little out of it just tired but not sick. Ryan on the other hand slept 14 hours that night plus 2 THREE hour naps!!! She kept getting a fever. Plus she threw up again on Monday. So finally yesturday I made her an appt. Turns out she had a double ear infection and a throat infection (the doc thinks that's probably just from throwing up.) So they gave her a shot and she has to start on amoxicillion today. She threw up again today twice so I'm still not sure what's going on but she has been acting a lot better today... Poor baby girl. Here are some pics. She NEVER falls asleep outside of her crib much less after only being up for an hour. Alexis was so sweet trying to make sure Ryan was comfortable but Ryan mostly just laid there or wanted me to hold her. I love that she's been so cuddly but I wish it wasn't b/c she is feeling so aweful...