4th of July pictures...

Uncle Pete and Alyssa

Daddy, Hannah and Auntie

Alyssa's first horse carriage ride with Uncle Pete, Auntie & Grandma.

Hannah petting the pig.

Hannah's first pony ride.

Alyssa going for a pony ride.

Best Sisters!!!

Our Family

The girls playing in the bouncy castle.

Another week: Pictures from June/July

Hannah snoozing in her crib.

Grandma M, Alyssa, Mommy & Hannah all reading a book.

Hannah playing with her best friend, Dakota.

The girls all covered up.

Wednesday: September 10th I am officially 24 weeks along, only about 14 weeks to go before we meet our new addition to the family!!!
Thursday: Hannah had her 18 month well-baby check today. She weighed 25 lbs and measured around 34 inches tall (not positive I can't find the paper it was wrote on). She is a very tall little girl (95th percentile) and average for her weight.
Friday: I got all the boxes unpacked and put away!!! Just the wall hanging stuff yet to unpack. And still no hardware for the bunkbeds and futon. I'm not very happy about that.
Saturday: We spent the whole day in Ramstein shopping. We spent the evening with Bill's old Shop Chief from Grand Forks from four years ago and his family (Jeff, Diana, CJ & Zak). We got to order a snizel (not sure of the spelling) for the first time. It is pork, Bill got a hawaiian for me and got parmesan for himself and a German salami pizza for the girls. It was all very delicious.
Today: We spent the most of the day hanging up pictures on the walls and got through all the boxes and there is still no hardware. I guess we are going to have to try contact the companies that manufactured both the futon and the bunkbed and see if they will send us the hardware we are in need of. We went to Bitburg to go the the Commissary and BX, as the Commissary is closed in Spangdahlem on Sundays. We have had a very productive week. Our things were all delivered last Friday and we are almost all back to normal living. Next we are going to work on painting the walls in most of the rooms in the house.

Update-Things going on in our lives...

Tuesday: I went to the OB orientation that I was suppose to go to before my first doctor's visit. I got to learn about all the German hospitals. They don't supply you with pillows, blankets, sheets, robes, towels, and anything that an American hospital would supply you with. I also found out that our son will not be circumcised until he is about two weeks old and that will be done on base. As German hospitals do not believe in circumcising until they are two or three and can be put under for the procedure. All the differences between Americans and Germans.
Thursday: Bill had to return our rental car, so we are back to sharing one vehicle until we find one to purchase. We are hoping to make a trip to Ramstein to check out the cars there that people are selling, there just isn't really a selection here as the base is a lot smaller.
Friday: We got our shipment delivered!!! The girls spent the day with a child care provider in Binsfield, just a couple miles from us. We got the toy room set up and started on the kitchen. There was only one thing that has broke so far, but a lot of items that are scuffed up. Our little freezer got pretty banged up and dented, not to happy about that one. We are missing hardware for our futon and the girls bunkbeds, so we are hoping it just got put in a box we have not opened yet. Most of the hardware was taped to everything, so who knows, I just hope we find it and it didn't get thrown away.
Saturday & Sunday: We spent unpacking boxes and setting up rooms. We also went to the Catholic mass in Spangdahlem on Sunday for the first time. We are thinking about going to Protestant every other week and Catholic the other weeks. Oh, since I unpacked the potty chair on Saturday Hannah has been wanting to use it, so everytime I change her diaper I let her sit on it if she is interested. Just last night before her bath she came running into the bathroom holding herself saying, "Daddy, Daddy". Bill took off her diaper and she sat right down and peed in the potty chair and said, "All done" and slammed the lid down. We were all very excited for her and made a big deal about it. I am just going to continue to let her sit on it if she is interested, we are not going to push her into it . Who knows maybe she will be potty trained before her little brother comes in December.
Today: Hannah got two more teeth!!! She is just missing her fourth K9 tooth on the bottem now. We ate at our first resturant off base tonight in Speicher, it was a Pizza place and we just had to go to the ice cream shop just down the road afterwards.
So, that is the update on us for this past week. I know I need to post some pictures, I will have to get on that here soon.

Historical Castle Festival in Manderscheid

The girls first time on a shuttle bus.

Manderscheid Castle

Looking out the window.

Alyssa climbing up the stairs.

Taking a short break on the way up.

We made it to the top!!!
In the background is another castle in a different town.

Another break on the way down.

8/31/08
Back on the ground after a long climb.
This was officially our first day trip to a festival and it was only about a half and hour away. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

Our first bike ride on the trails...

Bill and the Girls

The view from one of the trails.

The Girls having a snack.
We believe this is an old bomb shelter, there was a sign in German.

Hot air balloons everywhere...

Last night when I went upstairs to close all the shades I noticed all of these hot air balloons just outside our bedroom window. We still do not know what was going on, but there were probably 50 or more of them all over.

How easy is it to remember this...

So this is our license plate in Germany and it is not specially made.
BIT stands for Bitburg
GF stands for Grand Forks
701 is the area code in ND
I thought it was pretty neat and I just had to get a picture to share with all of you.

Recent pictures...

Here we are by our street sign just down the street from our house.

The front of our house.

Hannah, Alyssa & Daddy looking at a slug they found in the grass.

The back of our house, it also shows the lower level apartment under us. We have the top two floors, which were originally two apartments now made into one.

This weeks update:
Monday: Bill pretty much just started back to work since we got here, now that we now have a house, life is a lot easier.
Tuesday: Alyssa had her first doctor's appointment in Bitburg, as that is where all the children are seen.
Wednesday: I finally got to take my driver's test and passed with a 94%, I was just hoping for an 85%, which is passing. Once Bill got home from work we all headed to Speicher and went to a German store and Grocery store for the first time ever. That was very interesting. I have to tell you they had a box of Pop Tarts for 6.50 euros, which is about $9.00 for one box. I thought that was just crazy. We ended up purchasing 2 different chocolate bars at the grocery store. At the other store the girls each got a baby doll, a package of bath toys and a 5 pack of doorstops, which cost about 6 euro. I just had to tell you all about our very first experience in a German store/grocery store.
Thursday: The girls and I ventured out by ourselves for the first time. We went to the base and ran a bunch of errands. I have to take advantage of that while I can as we will only have one vehicle as of next Thursday when we return our rental car.
Today: We met Bill at the PowerZone on base then all went to the grocery store. After supper we went for a long walk in the town we live in. We found the soccer field we were told about and a easier way to the walking paths from our house. Tomorrow we are planning a bike ride on the walking paths.
I will update with older pictures from the last two months as the days go on. Oh and we have a very active little boy, he is kicking and wiggling every chance he gets. Neither one of the girls were ever this active and I am only five months along. One last thing before I forget our shipment should be here on Tuesday and we will be able to schedule for everything to be delivered hopefully sometime next week!!!

We are in our new house!!!

I just wanted to let all of you know that we are now officially in our new house as of this last Thursday. The mover brought our early shipment on Wednesday and we also got our loaner furniture that day too. Wednesday evening we spent cleaning all the bedrooms upstairs.

Thursday we went to our first WIC appointment and got a brand new stove as the prior renters ruined the one they had, which was fine with us a new stove is better anyway. Bill and I spent Thursday and Friday getting just the kitchen cleaned up the prior renters were pretty gross people according to the landlord.

Friday we went to my first doctor's appointment in Trier, Germany. We waited an hour and a half before we got in, and that is a normal wait. My doctor is German, but she does speak English very well. We both really liked her a lot. It is different for sure as the doctor did my blood work, ultrasound and everything else. The ultrasound doubled checked that we are still having a little boy!!! Friday night ended at about 2:30 in the morning for Bill and I as we cleaned late and then realized that our refrigerator was keeping the food cool enough, to top it all off we had just gone to the grocery store and stocked up on groceries. Bill ran to Spangdahlem to the Shoppette to get ice.

Saturday started with a brand new refrigerator!!! It continued as the last three days with cleaning. Needless to say the girls have been watching a lot of movies on the laptop the last three day. We ended the evening going for a walk in Herforst, which is the town we live in. Just down the street there are three walking paths that go to other towns in the area. We live in a very small town and like the neighborhood a lot, it is very quiet!!!

Today we spent the morning cleaning and organizing what we have so far. Then after lunch we played with the girls for awhile before putting them down for their naps. While they were sleeping we actually got ready, that didn't happen yesterday, as we were to busy cleaning. Once they get up we are planning to go do something, not sure what quite yet. I will keep you all updated and post pictures of the house once we get it all cleaned and get the rest of our stuff.

Goofing around!!!

Here are a couple pictures of the girls playing with some packing paper. Things like that are always better than toys. We ordered each of the girls a toy online once we got to Germany and they came in today!!! The box that it all came in was way more fun than the toys that they got.

Bill's last day of work at GFAFB...

All tied up!!!

A little tighter.

A nice shower to top it all off.

Bill ended up with yogurt on his head too, I guess they look in the refridgerator and put whatever they can find on the person leaving. They got him pretty good.
Enjoy the pictures!!!

Fertile Fair pictures...

Posing for the camera.

Goofball eating a mini donut.

The girls with Marissa.

Cheese!!!

Crusing around in her stroller.

Thanks for the pictures, Mom.

If anyone else has any pictures of the girls, just send me an e-mail with them in it and I will get them on the blog. As I will not be able to post any of my own until we get our desktop computer back next month.

Our first visitors...

I forgot to mention in my last post that we had our first visitors last weekend. Uncle Ben and his girlfriend Jody (or Erin as Alyssa kept calling her). We went and saw the two of them today in Ramstein. We spent the day running around with Uncle Ben, then went to Jody's house for naps and supper. Jody had to work most of the day, but we did get to spend some time with her too. Uncle Ben moves back to the states next week sometime, but at least we got to spend some time with him before he had to go. We are hoping that he will come back to visit since Jody will still be in Germany for another year or so.

Our first week in Germany....

We pretty much spent the first week adjusting to the seven hour time change. I think all of us are pretty much all on track again. Hannah has been getting up in the mornings at 7:00 and Alyssa will sleep all morning if I let her. Alyssa has been having trouble getting to bed at night, she has been wanting Bill or I to sleep on the extra bed in her room. Tonight she was very tired, I think that is due to getting up at 7:30 and only taking at very short nap this afternoon.

We decided to turned down on base housing as it just wasn't what we wanted. We were given three places to look at a three bedroom apartment, a four bedroom apartment, and a four bedroom duplex. That was very stressful as now we have to find a house/apartment/duplex off base to live in. So, far we have looked at two places off base. Both of which were in Herforst, Germany, which is only about three miles from the Spangdahlem base. One was a six bedroom apartment and the other was a three bedroom apartment. We found out today that they will only pay for us to live in TLF for a total of 15 days, more stress. That means we have to find a place by the 21st of August.

Saturday we decided to venture out into the city of Trier, that was a bad idea, as we had nothing to go to and just ended up driving around the city. Thank goodness for our GPS that we decided to purchase with the European maps on it. Driving can be a little crazy especially since we don't know German and all the driving signs are in German. It was just interesting to see another city.

Sunday we decided to check out the Protestant service and it just happened to be a Contemporary service outside, but it is normally a traditional service. We really enjoyed the service, but would like to check out the traditional service as well. They usually do the the Contemporary service in the evening on Sundays, so we will have to check that out one week too.

Besides that we have made several trips to the Commissary for groceries as the TLF we are staying in is apartment style, which is great. We have gone to Bitberg base a few times to look at housing, check out the bigger BX, and get groceries at the bigger Commissary. Bitberg is about 10 miles from Spangdahlem base. We checked out an Itailian Ice Cream shop in Speicher yesterday and got to use our first of the Euros.

So, overall we are having a great time. We will just be better once we find somewhere to live, get our own van back, purchase a second vehicle and get all of our personal belonging back.

Day before leaving...

We spent the night at the North Country Lodge in Minneapolis on Monday before we left. We went out to eat at Q-Cumbers buffet, Uncle Nate's choice. Both Grandma and Grandpa's came along with Nichole, Pete and Nate.

Tuesday we spent the whole day at the Mall of America with Grandma's and Grandpa's, Nichole, Pete, Nate, Nancy and Sandy. The girls went on some rides and then all of us went mini golfing at Moose Mountain. Then we said good byes to Grandma and Grandpa M., Nichole, Pete, Nate, Nancy and Sandy:o( Grandma and Grandpa G. brought us to the airport to see us off, which was a great help, as we had a lot of stuff to check and bring on the plane. Then we were off to Germany after saying good bye to Grandma and Grandpa G.

I forgot to tell all of you what Alyssa said once we were up in the air. She said " Are we going to see God up here?" I just thought that was adorable. So we went on to explain that God was higher up than an airplane could go.

Week prior to Germany...

We spent the week prior to coming to Germany with the Gruenes side of the family. The girls had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa's house and enjoyed spending time with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

We all went with Grandma, Grandpa, Joann, Alex, John and Matt to the Stern's County fair in Sauk Center. The girls got to go on the fairswheel with Grandma and Grandpa for the first time ever. Alyssa went on several rides with Alex and had a whole lot of fun!!!

The Saturday before we spent the day with family and the girls got to go to their first parade in Albany. Alyssa didn't get into the candy thing to much, but Hannah just had a blast and she was a pro at the candy picking up.

Sunday we went to lunch at the church in Albany and they also had a kid's carnival going on. It was Grandma, Grandpa, Nancy, Kevin and Cousin Nick with us. Alyssa played lots of games, along with Nicholas. Hannah just had fun running around the playground and eating a sucker with Aunt Nancy!!!

We all had a very busy week. The week ended with supper at Sandy and Brady's house, which we finally got to see. We all enjoyed spending time with everyone.

We made it to Germany!!!

I just wanted to write a little to let all of you know that we made it to Germany safe and sound Wednesday and on time. Yesterday we got our rental car, very expensive over $300.00 (actually ended up being $450.00 with the insurance tacked on) for one week, we are hoping that our van gets here by next Thursday, so we don't have to use it after that. We made it to Bitberg to look at a three bedroom apartment yesterday and also went to the bigger Commissary to get some more groceries. I was surprised that the prices were pretty much the same as in the states. Bill is bring in a copy of my medical records today to the housing office, so we can look at a four bedroom instead. We are still thinking we are going to live off base, as we can make more money that way. I am going to go as I have a bed awaiting me for a nap. I will write more later.

The Girls

ADORABLE!!!
Here are the last of the pictures that we had taken last week. I can't wait to get the pictures back and share them with everyone!!! We have to have my Mom pick them up for us as they do not come in before we leave for Melrose, but we will get them back before we leave the US. Enjoy as I probably will not have anymore pictures to post before we get our desktop computer back the middle of August. Unless of course anyone decides to e-mail me some pictures.

Hannah Ellen-17 months

Here are Hannah's year and a half pictures. She did a great job!!! Now both of the girls just have to have their pictures taken yearly.