Samuel at 3... and a few months

Our dear sweet Samuel... at 3 years old...

He is as sweet as the smile on his face and as mischievous as the stick in his hand...

This past Thursday, we were on our way back from our weekly shopping trip to the commissary. If he is good then I treat him to a fresh pretzel from the bakery there. Then as soon as we get into the car he gets his big pretzel. What a treat! He often comments all the way home "Yum!" and "Yummy!" with just about every bite.

So, after we were in the car for a bit I hear a voice from the backseat say "Momma, how do you say 'yummy' in German?"

And I say, "Hmm, I don't know. Probably 'yummy!"

And Samuel says "Probably 'pretzel!"

I think he may be right.

We are getting so spoiled with the fresh pretzels. He is going to expect every grocery store to have fresh baked pretzels regardless of where we live. Or maybe he will just savor the memory of enjoying fresh pretzels when he was a little boy in Germany.

These are some pics I took of Samuel after church last Sunday. He too had a recent doctors visit and was measuring around 42 inches tall and weighing in at 44 pounds.

He is a big boy and is often mistaken for a 4 or 5 year old. He is ALL boy! He loves to be outside and can't wait to play sports like his big brother. Watching from the sidelines is tough to do at this age. Soon enough he will be out there on the fields and courts enjoying himself as well and he can't wait!

Photo of the Day 7: Sweet Siblings

These are the kind of little things that melts this mommy's heart.

I was riding in the back seat while we were traveling to and from Garmish last month when I captured this picture of Samuel and Grace holding hands. This is not a rarity. They often hold hands like this. Their seats currently face each other (since Grace is still not quite old enough to have her car seat facing forward). And, sometimes it's Samuel being sweet and reaching out for her but often I see Grace reaching out for her brother as well.

On the ride home from Legoland last Friday, Samuel fell asleep in the seat next to Grace and when Grace was awake she kept trying to pull his hair! Not quite sisterly love but definitely trying to get her big brother's attention or maybe paying him back for the times he has already tried to tackle her.

Photo of the Day 6: Grace is 9 Months Old!

Grace is 9 months old today! Time is just racing by and it's hard to believe our sweet baby girl has brightened our days (and sometimes nights) for 9 months already.

She had a doctors appointment about two weeks ago now and she is weighing in at 22 pounds and is 30.5 inches tall. She is in the 95 percentile in weight amongst other girls her age and off the charts in her height.

She is crawling all over the place and holding onto things (mostly my legs, or so it seems) and stepping from place to place. She is into everything... touching, reaching, tasting, eating, crawling under, crawling over, crawling into... EVERYTHING! She is so busy and keeps me on my toes. She adores her big brothers who affectionately refer to her as "GooGoo". They like to tell me that she says words... Samuel things all her baby babble sounds like something er other and will come running to me in his all excited way and say "Gracie just said this... to me!" And Benjamin literally puts words in her mouth (as if she's a puppet!) He will say "I want more food" says Gracie and those sort of things.

It's hard to imagine what our world was without our sweet girl. She has touched our lives in so many ways in the course of nine months. Obviously, the boys aren't the only ones around here that are gaga over "GooGoo."

I can't praise God enough for blessing us with our sweet and snugly oh-so-cuddly Gracie Jo.

Photos are from last Wednesday when we visited Luisenpark in Mannheim.

Photo of the Day 5: Southern Germany

I looked back on some photos I took when we were down in Garmisch, Germany in March. I came across this photo that I took on our way home. The drive through southern Germany and into Austria is incredible. The Alps are breathtaking and it's just awesome to take it all in.

I took many photos along the drive so here is one that I thought I'd share today. It was snowing as we were heading out of town and you can see the snow clouds in the distance.

And I'm throwing in one more pic... I snapped this one on my iPhone as Samuel, Grace and I were at the PX Shopping Center in Garmisch. I just love how the mountains were all around us there. Even makes a PX picturesque.

Photo of the Day 4: Grace Swinging

I took some pictures of Grace recently while we were at a nearby playground. Here she is enjoying her first ride on the swings. She was barely moving but she seemed to love it.

She always has that tongue sticking out!

Photo of the Day 3: Hello Legoland!

Benjamin is REALLY into Legos these days. And soon after we arrived in Germany he discovered that there is a Legoland IN Germany. He wanted to go... IMMEDIATELY.

Well, it took us seven months or so but we finally made it to Legoland Deutschland today.

Don took the day off from work and we made the drive which was supposed to be two hours but ended up being around three hours with traffic and a stop for lunch.

We decided not to tell the kids exactly where we were going until we got there. And, as you can imagine, they were surprised and excited as they saw the huge Lego statues as we entered the park area.

So, today's photo is of Benjamin shortly after we arrived on the first ride they went on for the day.

More pictures of our trip to Legoland will be posted soon I'm sure!

Photo of the Day 2: Bloomin Samuel

So, how could I blow it already? It was only Day 2 of my challenge and I didn't post anything! Oh well, today I will try to make up for it...

On Wednesday, Samuel, Grace and I joined our Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) group for an outing to Luisenpark in nearby Mannheim. There was lots to see and do there and we all had a good time. Can't wait to take Benjamin and Don back with us next time!

Here is one of my favorites I took of Samuel near the awesome spring flower gardens.

Photo of the Day 1: Technik Museum

Okay, I have decided to challenge myself... I have been neglecting my blog a bit so what I'm going to try to do is post at least one picture (hopefully more!) per day for the next week and blog about it... We'll see how I do.

Here goes...

Last Saturday we headed to the Technik Museum in the nearby town of Speyer. Speyer is known for it's beautiful cathedral and small mosque like castle that boasts beautiful gardens. We have not visited either of those attractions yet but thoroughly enjoyed this museum which had a huge collection of cars, motorcycles, trains, planes, water craft, etc.

I took a ton of pictures (which I need to post more of one of these days) and the kids had a great time exploring everything... including an airplane they could climb about three stories high to see inside then slide down.

In this picture I'm including on this post of the boys, Benjamin told me he was making his "Army face"... whatever that means!

And, I guess I couldn't limit myself to one picture in this post! Grace and I had a little bit of a wait while the boys were exploring some aircraft so I snapped some pics of her while she patiently waited and downed a good amount of Cheerios!

Daddy's Lil Girl

I took this picture of Don and Grace a couple of weeks ago. It's one of those pics that just makes me grin every time I see it. Daddy and his girl... I love it!

Heidelberg Zoo - March 2010

It's been awhile since I did a video montage! I had a ton of pictures from a day we spent at the Heidelberg Zoo a couple of weeks ago so I thought I'd share a bunch of them.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Grace's First Easter

It was Grace's 1st Easter, so, of course, I took about a gazillion pictures of our sweet lil girl. Here are a few more of my favorites.

Our First Easter in Heidelberg

Happy Easter! We had a busy but terrific Easter day.

The boys were thrilled to discover their Easter baskets in the morning. Then we were off to church! After the children's sermon the kids were dismissed for an Easter Egg Hunt. Benjamin found one. Yes, one.

He can get a bit distracted at times and was probably preoccupied with something while the other kids quickly discovered the eggs. One of our neighbor kids generously offered him one of his eggs to add to his collection as well. And Samuel wound up with 4 eggs.

It sounded like they had a great time regardless of the number of eggs they found.

Immediately following church we enjoyed a yummy potluck meal (every first Sunday of the month is a potluck immediately following the Protestant service at the chapel... and luckily Easter fell on the first Sunday this year). So, I whipped up a batch of my sister-in-law's Pretzel Salad and we joined in the potluck.

Then we headed for home just long enough to change clothes and head back out for the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Our neighborhood does NOT have it's shortage of kids so there was a good group all gathered and ready for the big hunt! The kids had a blast and the rain managed to hold off until the kids had found all the eggs.

Our busy morning allowed for a little downtime in the afternoon so Samuel and Grace both got their naps in before we enjoyed a nice family dinner.

Oh Happy Girl

Grace and her giggle...

Hope this makes you grin... I know it puts a smile on my face.

Our Night Out

Last Saturday, Don and I went out! On a date! Just the two of us! I know, totally amazing, huh? We thought so too!

We had watched some friends' boys a couple of weeks ago so they could go out and now it was their turn to watch our crew while we went out! The kids were just as excited to spend time

with their friends as we were to get out and enjoy some adult time.

We didn't really have an agenda but we headed into downtown Heidelberg which is very close by.

First we just walked around for a bit. It is such a charming city with tons of old architecture including the castle which is up over my head in this photo of me. And there was lots of window shopping too. I imagine that if I wasn't lugging three kids around with me I would probably venture downtown more often.

So, after a nice stroll we decided on a restaurant/ pub which was right on the main street in the old town. It was nice and quaint and offered lots of good German food with the menu choices in English (bonus!). Don chose a country platter that included lots of sausages and a dumpling and I decided on a pork steak and spaetzle (German noodles...yum!). It is hard to find bad food in Germany.

As we waited for our food we took note of the music playing softly. As some as you may know, Benjamin has become a HUGE fan of the song "Eye of the Tiger." Don had taught him the song lyrics a while back and showed him the video which includes several clips from the "Rocky" movies and it just really clicked with Benjamin. There is rarely a day that Benjamin does not sing this song. And now, of course, Samuel has picked it up as well and joins in when his brother is signing or bursts into song all on his own. Back to our night out... he were are, in the middle of downtown Heidelberg in a German restaurant and we hear none other than "Eye of the Tiger." We got a good laugh out of that as Don commented "We can't escape it!"

Overall, we had a great night out together and hope to enjoy more date nights again soon!