Happy New Year?

Hallie is SCREAMING her head off in her room right now. She doesn't want to take a late nap today so we can go to a New Years party at some friend's house tonight. Because of her screaming, I have no doubt that she waken Chase up from his late nap...which will make for 2 grouchy kids tonight instead of 1. Happy New Years, right? I guess it's time for some resolutions.....that I probably won't keep.
1. Stop drinking Diet Coke (again). (Yeah right)
2. Work out three days a week. (I think I can do this one, have been for about a month now, but gained three pounds as a result. What the?!?)
3. Be smarter. I really want to start brushing up on my history (by brushing up, I mean actually learning it. Ignored it in high school and didn't take much of it in college.) We are surrounded by amazing history everywhere we turn here, I yearn to know more.
4. Be a nicer wife. More thoughtful. I have a really great husband, I want to do more to deserve him.
5. Stop spending all of our money at Ikea.
6. Stop seeking out any McDonalds I can find just to eat fast food again. I feel like fast food has pretty much left our lives....but if I see a McDonalds (which isn't very often) I just have to stop. So stop stopping, basically. Except sometimes. :)
7. Start folding my laundry the same day that I wash it.
8. Start washing my laundry.
9. Stop digging through dirty laundry to find clothes that are still pretty clean.
10. Buy more clothes
11. Get ear plugs
12. Use ear plugs at all times
13. Sound proof Hallie's room
14. This list is getting ridiculous.

Salzburg Weekend!

We made it back from our long/really fun road trip to Austria last night. We all had a really good time, but as always are glad to be back at home in our own beds! Here some pictures of our fun adventure...
Chase in his normal get up. Stroller, blankie, beep and he's happy. This is at the Stuttgart Christmas Market. Second largest one in Germany.

This is Hallie and I ATTEMPTING to ice skate at the Christmas market. Hallie would just go noodle legged and make it impossible to teach her. I ended up holding her while I skated around the rink. :)

The whole fam at the Mirabelle Gardens in Salzburg. Part of the sound of music was filmed here. I want to watch that movie over and over again after our trip. It was also a REALLY rainy, REALLY cold day...hence all the bundling up.

Matt and Hallie at Mozart's house

The Salzburg Fortress. We took a train up and got to walk through it. It was really cool, and had a really awesome view of the whole city.

Hallie and her best friend Rhiannon have SOOO much fun.

Creepy right? These guys are called Krampus. It's an Austrian tradition that before Christmas time these guys have a big parade and run around the city to scare away evil spirits and to scare children so they will be good. Their costumes are passes down from generation to generation within families. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time and got to see the whole thing. It was pretty crazy. Hallie FREAKED out when she saw them and started screaming and crying. Rhiannon informed her that she didn't need to be scared because they were just men pretending to be goats. :)

How scary looking are these guys?

Matt and I above Salzburg

Hallie and Rhi above salzburg. They spent a few minutes up here pointing which castle belonged to which disney princess.

A good shot of the Salzburg Fortress

Caught pigging out on some Chocolate! It was soooo good.

MAtt and Hallie drinking hot cocoa and eating Apfel Strudel.

Hallie reaching her breaking point. Kids can fall asleep anywhere.

Hallie and Rhi showing us their sleeping beauty necklaces while we were on our horse drawn carriage ride up to the castle that Walt Disney used as his inpsiration for her castle. THey were sooooo excited to see the castle that Sleeping Beauty lived in. :)

Neuschwanstein's castle. (Hallie would argue that is sleeping beauty's castle)

Me in front of the castle

And again

And again.

Hallie with her sleeping beauty umbrella that she carried around for the ENTIRE trip (whether it was raining or not).

Front Load Washing Machine

STUPIDEST invention EVER. When you realize you forgot to add something to your washload that you started two minutes ago....it's too late. Gotta wait for the next load. And when you try to pull all your wet laundry out of the washing machine to put it in the dryer, it falls all over the dirty floor because when you pull out one piece of laundry.....the whole load comes out. Ok, done venting. I hate that thing. Now I'm done venting.

Just missing the sunshine....

Don't get me wrong, I love Germany so far and I'm really looking forward to our trip to Austria this weekend, but look at THAT! The blue water, the blue sky, the days when I could confindently throw on a bikkini, ahhhhh. :) Miss those days sometimes. It's pretty rare that we get to see the sun here....I think I need to get a tanning bed pass somewhere just for the UVs. Not to mention, after a lifetime of always having a tan....I'm losing it now and realizing that I do not look good white. It's gonna be a long 3 years of paleness. Here's a random list of stuff that's been going on for the past few weeks:
1. The other day Hallie was arguing with me and she told me I was "mean". I told her if she said that to me again I would put her on time out (proving that I am in fact, mean). Then she glared at me and said "you are UGLY". UGLY!!! Can you believe she would say that to me? I told her that was a very mean thing to say to me and she asked me, "well how do you say Ugly in German?" She's trying to figure out to insult me in other languages too. Great.
2. My cousing Amy inspired me with her blog to finally take away Hallie's stupid "beep" (pacifier). She is only allowed to use it in her bed and I just haven't had the heart to take it away from her prior to now because of all the changes that she's been through. Well we officially took it away yesterday with promises of a new toy pony from the store if she was good and went to bed (I'm all about bribery). There was a pretty good amount of screaming, but she hasn't had it for her nap today and went to bed tonight with only minimal threats of taking away her new toy pony. So while it's too soon to say, I think we have a success!
3. Chase seems to have a pretty major mean streak in him and hits me on a regular ocassion. When I put him in "time-out" for it he laughs like it's funny to sit in a corner for 2 minutes. He tortures Hallie all day by trying to take away ANYTHING she has in her hands, and running with it. Then when she gets close enough to him to take it back, he chucks whatever it is as far as he can. Monster baby. We love him.
4. Matt keeps trying to force me to eat German food. I don't like it. Maybe he'll read this post and stop trying to make me. :)
5. Matt is watching "50 First Dates" by himself in the living room right now, and even though he's seen it about 50 times, he's laughing himself silly. Love him.
6. I'm developing a love-hate relationship with a treadmill. The love will continue to grow as I continue to get skinnier.
7. I'm sad to be spending xmas away from either of our families. It will be nice to have our first Christmas by ourselves, but just won't be the same without our family all around and people spoiling our kids rotten.
8. A few weeks ago I went to a girls night of playing bunco and had a really good time. Afterwards everyone was going to club not far away to have drinks and hang out and enjoy the rest of night kids free. Normally not my thing, mostly because I don't drink and don't enjoy that atmosphere so much, but since I'm new here and trying to make some friends I went. It was fun just hanging out with all the girls at a table and watching all the old people in Germany who still go to clubs when all of a sudden, HELLO! In walks the male stripper. Yeah I guess I'm in Europe and shouldn't be surprised that strippers can be lurking around every corner, not just at designated clubs or private parties. In hind site, it was really funny. I think I'll just call it quits right after bunco in the future. :)

Name it!

So here is my cute little salon that I made downstairs. I'm up and opened for business now, and have three apts for tomorrow morning. I'm going to make some business cards, but I need to name my salon. If you come up with a name, and I use it, I'll give you a free haircut! You just have to come to Germany to get it. :) I need some pics and what not on the walls, but for now, I think it's really cute and happy.

We had such a fun night! We went and bought our first REAL Christmas Tree as a family then spent the night blasting Christmas music and decorating the tree with the kids. It was so fun. We decorated the whole tree in Gold and Red and it looks so pretty.

I found these sparkly bird tree decorations and i love love love them.

And this is what Matt's parents sent us for Christmas, when I opened it I wanted to cry. It's a picture of the temple where we were married with our wedding date written on it. I love it so much. I love the vintage look of it and the how personal it is for us with the writing on it.
So we've been loving Christmas here so far. It will be weird to not be with our families for the first time, but should still be a nice cozy holiday for just us. We're excited as we're planning our trip to Austria, can't wait to go and do some exploring. We're going to go and see the castle that Walt Disney modeled sleeping beauties castle after, and I'm really excited for that. Anyways! Hope everyone is enjoying THEIR holiday season so far as much as I am. Merry Christmas.

This kid and her ears, seriously.

I feel like we live at the ENT's office, and have for the past two years. I would guess that in her 3 1/2 years of life, she's had at least 30 ear infections. They put in tubes, only to have to redo one of them because her ear was constantly bleeding. Since we've been here in Germany, she is on to third ear infection. We went to the ENT a few weeks ago only to be told that one of her tubes has fallen INTO her middle ear and she would eventually have to have surgery to remove it. Since then, the tube seems to have made it's way back to where it belongs and the ENT is hopeful it will stay there.

ANYWAYS, the point of this post is that last night Matt and I were both up the entire night with Hallie crying and screaming, running a fever, telling us her ear hurts, and yellow fluid literally DRIPPING out of her ear. I feel so bad for her, but am so frustrated with her ears at the same time. I always ask the doctors if there is something I'm doing wrong, or something I should be doing differently, and they always tell me "no". We were back at the doctors office again today, only to be put back on antibiotics and ear drops. Going to lose my mind.....

Can I get a whoop whoop?

We are back in business!! We finally got the internet up and running yesterday and were soooo happy. I spent the day calling everyone under the sun to get updates on what is going on back at home (congrats Kelly King on getting ENGAGED!!). Anyways, it's been a crazy month but we are loving our lives here. Hallie likes preschool a lot, but is obviously struggling with the language barrier. She told me that shen she talks to the kids at school "they can't hear her". Even though it's only been a week though, she is already starting to understand what her teachers are saying to her and translating for me. :) Our house is looking good and starting to feel more like home.
We had a really fun day today and went the Christmas market in Aachen. They have tons of booths set up all over the place selling cute Christmas ornaments, and with lots and lots of yummy food. We tried Roasted Chestnuts for the first time (definently NOT my favorite) and has the best hot chocolate I've ever had (ok, second best. Matt's grandma Pat makes her own how chocolate and that's my favorite) but the whipped cream on top was amazing. Anyways, life is good...we are good....everything is good. Here are some pics from the Christmas market today and Hallie's first day of school.

First Day of Pre School!!
Me at the Christmas market BEFORE it started raining.

Hallie giving me a smooch. Up above all the shopping action.

Awww, family pic minus Chase. He was securely buckeled and bundeled in his stroller and we were NOT getting him out.

Love this little girl.

Chase all cozy in the rain. This is Hallie's old umbrella stroller. It's pink, but Chase is secure with his masculinity.

Hallie and I waiting for our Hot Chocolate

Hot hubby.

Sorry, no pictures. Just a stinkin update.

We have been in our house for two weeks now, and still do not have the internet. This means no online banking (the only way we do things), no blogs, no email checking for sometimes IMPORTANT information, no google, and no calling home because our skype phone connects over the internet. Such a pain in the butt. We are "supposed" to have it connected by this Friday (we were told the same thing about this past wednesday, so we'll see). Anyways, I'm here at the airman and family readiness center writing this just to feel connected with the rest of the world. Other than the whole internet thing, everything here is going really well. We totally unpacked (one box left in the bathroom), Hallie started preschool today (I'm so interested to see what she thought about it when I pick her up...they are only going to be speaking German to her), I'm just starting with a group called "Mama Hawks" where you go to the Gym on base three mornings a week and work out and people watch your kids for you. YOu have to volunteer a few times a month to do the watching of kids, but totally worth it. Time to firm up this post two babies body. :) We are planning a trip to Autstria right before Christmas to see where Matt served his mission, go snow boarding, and take the sound of music tour. Who knows what else we'll do there. We might even hit up Paris somewhere between now and Jan 2. Anyways, I'm rambling. Life here is really good. It would have been a way harder move if we had not done it with the military. There are so many American wife groups and what not that we have been able to meet people and make friends very quickly. Oh Yeah! almost forgot, Matt and I made a salon out of an empty room downstairs and it's SOOO cute. I'll take pics and post them when we get the stinkin internet.

Pretty Pictures

St. Martin's Day

Google it. It's a fun holiday here where the kids all have lit up paper lanterns and we walk through the streets in a parade then get bags of homemade bread at the end of the parade. The kids had a blast, EVERYONE in the town was there. It was really cool.

Hallie and Chase in their winter gear

Hallie's paper lantern

Matt and Chase Posing for the camera.

Sorry I haven't had more pics of Germany itself, things here have been so crazy trying to get our lives set up here that taking pictures have kind of been the last thing on my mind. I have to go and take my driving test for my German drivers license today (i failed mine in the USA twice, don't even want to imagine how many times I'm going to have to take this one). We're moving in to our new house on Monday (HOORAY for being out of the guest house). We need to get Dr's check ups for preschool, immunization records from our last base, leases drawn up, refrigerator and washer and dryer ordered, buy rugs, etc. We still have SOOOO much to do. But I promise I'll get more pics up ASAP.

Getting into the groove

How cool is this? There is stuff like this all over this area. All the churches bury their priests on the church grounds. Some of these are hundreds and hundreds of years old. Amazing to see just walking down the street to the bakery (bakerys are everywhere...the most delicious food imaginable).
So we're really starting to get things moving along here. We have a house that we get to move into a week from this monday. Our furniture and all of our other stuff that got shipped from Florida will get moved in that day also. We picked up our car on Thursday so it's also really nice to have our independence back. I'm going to start looking to German PreSchools on Monday for Hallie. I figure that her best bet of really enjoying our time here, is if she can speak the language. From what I understand, she is the perfect age for learning a second language and the best way for her to learn it is through play with other children. I bet she will come home very confused for the first few weeks, then she'll come home speaking German to me and I'LL be the one who is confused. :)
The jet lag is still a problem. We are so stinkin tired all the time. I have a feeling it will get a lot better when we are in our own house, with our own stuff, and our own rooms.
That's all for now, we're headed off to a Bazaar on the base....we need rugs for our new house BIG TIME. They tile everything here.....

We can't seem to sleep right, and we're really cold. But we love it here!

This is Hallie modeling one of her winter hats that I bought for her right after we found out that we were going to be moving to Germany. Such a fashionista. So we made it here on Sunday morning (late saturday night for most of you in the states) and it was 9am by the time we got to the guest house that we are staying at. The problem here was this, 9am in Germany is midnight in California. Soooo, we were VERY tired. We immediately went to bed and all slept for 8 hours, waking up at 6 pm Germany time. I'm sure you see the prolem. For 3 days now we've been trying to beat the jet lag with little success. Hallie and Matt both woke up at 3 in the morning last night and were just done sleeping. So they hung out together, which equaled 5 hour long naps for everyone this afternoon. ANYWAYS...no idea how correct it, hopefully it will just fix itself soon enough.
On to the next subject, we found a house! It only took two days and we are really excited about it. Originally we thought we wanted an older, historical-ish, house with some history. Well, those are VERY strange inside with weird agles, narrow steep stairs, lots of weird rooms, and scary sellars that were used during war time. They also have a lot of houses that are heated with oil heating that you have maintain and get filled once a year, also a pain. So we found a brand new house and we will be the first people ever to live there. It's really nice (we're talking heated towel racks nice) and actually has screens on the windows and doors (VERY rare out here). Apparently, new houses are also very rare out here...so we got really lucky. We have four bedrooms (that means one HUGE guest bedroom people! Start planning your trips out to visit us) and absolutely NO closets. Euporeans don't build closets in the bedrooms, so we have to get wardrobes for our clothes. We have a great backyard and horses in a pasture right around the corner (Hallie will be in HEAVEN). We are going to meet with the landlord tomorrow to pick out what colors we want the inside painted and sign the contract. So as far as housing goes, things are working out beautifully.
Did I mention how gorgeous it is here? I want to take pictures of everything. Every building, every field, every old woman riding her bike, every cute village. I love it all. So get ready for lots of scenery pics people.


You are probably wondering about his guy. I almost died laughing when I saw this. In Germany when people turn 50 their family will put a manikin on the front lawn that they feel is a good depiction of the actualy person. You can't see it very well, but this man is standing on a toilet, so it is safe to bet that he is a plummer in real life. They even put this canope up over the dummy to protect him from the rain. They do this EVERY time someone turns 50. How funny is that? I'm going to love it here....

Trick or Treat!

How are cute are our little tinkerbell and peterpan? They had such a good time tonight and got TONS of candy. That means 5 more lbs for me. :) Off to Germany tomorrow....pray for us.

Oh yeah, my little brother David was capt Hook and Chase and all my nephews were the lost boys. They were all so stinkin cute!