Monday, January 12

Hello All!

Well, at least I can say that I am feeling better today - hopefully, that bug won't go around this household here. Not a very good welcome back to Germany!!

Dustin is off to England and Brenna and I are by ourselves for the next two days :-( I'm sure we will be really glad to see him on Wednesday. We are hoping to do some cooking/baking in the kitchen tomorrow - I'm sure that will be fun!

Potty training is continuing - Brenna went 3 times today on the potty - but isn't too keen on staying there now after she is done. We had plenty of bare bottom chasing today!!

We did some dancing around the apartment and got her new microphone out today. She was a little concerned that I didn't have one, but that passed quickly. I got the video camera out for it, but she had to firmly tell me to put it away - that should be a cute video for her some day!!

Well, I'm going to try to tuck myself in and get a better nights sleep tonight than last night.
Take Care!

Sunday, January 11

Hello All!!

First - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!! Hope you had a great birthday - sorry we are missing it (although with my stomach bug - I would be missing it anyways :-(

Not much going on here this weekend. We stayed in all weekend (I know that Dustin was really bummed about this), but we worked on potty training Brenna and with my stomach - not a good weekend for travels. Brenna did pretty well all weekend. She had a dry pull-up all day today until the end - so progress on getting to the bathroom. She still isn't asking to go to the potty, but not fighting it when I say it is time to go too much. Hopefully, with our quiet week this week, we can continue to make progress. Hopefully, Dustin and her don't get my stomach thing. Today has not been a pleasant day here :-( - especially this afternoon.

Brenna and I will be on our own on Tuesday and Wednesday as Dustin has to travel for work :-( At least it is only a couple days. In February, he has to travel to Turkey for a week - what a bummer... Brenna and I will need to invite some people over or something...

Well, my stomach is still acting up - hopefully, it will settle down for sleeping tonight...
Take Care!!

Friday, January 9

Hello All!!

Hope everyone is doing well out there - we are doing good here - just time confused!! Brenna and I are still on U.S. time - Dustin is working to convert to German time - he is doing much better than we are, but was exhausted after working the last two days.

Potty training went pretty well today - she is doing great with pooping on the potty - still working on peeing (sorry Brenna!!!). But, she went on the potty 4 times today!! She loved getting her rewards - I think I'm going to need to find some Hershey Kisses or something at the store tomorrow! She loved the fruit roll-ups that we brought back from the States and is happy to get those for a reward.

With Brenna and I's short days, we are still working on getting everything put away. Most everything is in the right room, just not in its storage location! The landlord turned off the power when we were gone - so we lost everything in the fridge and freezer, so that has freed up some storage space in the kitchen right now. At least the fridges were pretty much empty when we left. Brenna and I played with her new paint brush pens from Crayola today - she loved them so I thought I would share a small picture of her artwork. If these have a good amount of paint in them, they will be a great activity for her as she loves them! I'm sure next week we will spend some time in the kitchen playing with her new kitchen stuff. Yesterday, she had her new Tupperware stuff and food out and she served on those!

So, as promised from yesterday - here are several of the projects that we worked on when I was in the U.S. I still need to get a picture of one of the aprons - maybe this weekend! So, one may be asking what we made - the pictures above are of one of the fleece skirts I made for Brenna (I made 3) - this is the only one with an embroidery, but I thought it turned out really cute; an apron for myself and Brenna that match - sorry it is so hard to see in the picture (thanks for modeling it and all your help, mom!); two coin sacs (mom and I had been dying to make these - they turned out really cute, but the zipper on the embroidery machine is a challenge); and matching aprons for my mom and I. I still have plans for one for you Renee (but I bought you some special fabric for your birthday - too bad it is so far away!!)

Anyway, that is all for today - Take Care!!

Thursday, January 8

Hello All!!!

Hope everyone is doing well - we are working on getting back on schedule - but it will probably take a few days (or a week or two!!!). Brenna and I slept in late (and I do mean late - 2:30 pm Germany time) and I should have an interesting night...I'll cross my fingers that we were just making up for some of our missing sleep.

Dustin was back at work today - Brenna missed everyone and was bummed that it was just her and I today :-( We sure did have a great time visiting all the friends and family :-)

We have lots of cleaning to do in the next few days (just getting back to normal life) and putting all of Brenna's new stuff away :-) The suitcases are all empty - now to just find locations for all the stuff!!! We are hoping to work with Brenna on potty training this month - hopefully, we will have good updates on that :-) She did go on the potty once today - yeah Brenna!!

Congrats to Eric and Karen on their new baby boy!!! Glad to hear that everyone is doing well (bummed that I just missed the new baby - he will be so big by the time we see him!!!)

Well, here are some of my favorite pictures I took at Christmas! I had to include individual pictures of all my god-daughters - they are such hams!!! Hopefully they will enjoy seeing themselves on the blog - I got several other pictures of each of them that were great!!

Renee - does the phone one of Brenna remind you of anything??? Hope you enjoy my pic of the Mikayla shot - she made it tough with her smile, but I couldn't resist the upside down glasses!!! Brenna and I participated in a lip-sinc while we were home - maybe we should both be performers??!! I think she would always manage to steal the show!!

Anyway - hope everyone enjoys these pictures!!! I'm going to post the projects that my mom and I worked on tomorrow - all of them turned out so cute!!

Take Care!

Wednesday, January 7

Hello All!!!

Well, what an interesting flight back to Germany. We were originally scheduled to fly through Paris (with a very short layover) to Frankfort. We got to the Detroit airport and found out that our flight to Paris was cancelled, but they had booked us on the 5 pm flight to Frankfort (direct). Luckily, we had got to the airport early and just made the flight. The bad weather actually worked in our favor this time.

Anyways, we have not had very much sleep, so we are all going to try to get a few winks in.

Take Care!

Monday, January 5

Hello All!

Today marks our last full day in the U.S. before traveling back to Germany tomorrow. We are saying some sad goodbye's, but at least it is only really for a short time... Brenna has been very good for the entire trip - I'm glad we got to spend some extended time with everyone.

Brenna has been doing really well with the potty lately - hopefully we can continue that when we get home so that our next trip back to the U.S. has no diapers...

Well, that is all I am going to say about our day today... Our next posting will be from back in Germany...

Take Care!

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Happy New Year to anyone reading today's blog. I thought I would finally share 3 of my favorite pictures from this holiday season. Hope you all enjoy them - I'm loving my new Christmas present from Dustin (a new lens for my camera!). The first picture looks like a New Year's Eve picture - but wasn't - the girls were just having fun with Grandma!
Time has flown by so quickly while we have been in the U.S. - if we didn't get a chance to visit with you - know that we were thinking about all our friends and family over here. If we didn't see you here - maybe you could visit us in Germany :-)
Anyway - I have been on the computer way too much this morning - I need to get visiting!! Hope everyone is well!
Take Care!