happy bday

peek-

a-boo

i see you!

congrats

to Chandra and Brandon on their new lil baby girl- Vivian Silvers Knowles

wish I could be there to hold her....SOMEDAY she'll get to meet the circus!

CONGRATS! Couldn't be more happy for you!

a peek inside

Our new landlord let us come over and take some pics of the place:) it needs a railing out here on this patio and the steps need put in...but then it should be done. Our only worry right now is we don't quite know where we're gonna let Morgan out to pee:). The steps are not being put in until sept.8 and they are letting us move in sept.9 (to a room upstairs so they can clean up the rest of the place). Otherwise, we would have to pay out of pocket for a place to stay until it was ready. Guess it will be back to barrowed air mattresses for us...NO JUMPING on them though...we don't need anymore casts.

the living room
master bathroom
1/2 bath upstairs (right next to master bath-silly:) but OK
boys's room - ours is exactly the same size just reversed

the HUGE guest room/office

stairs that aren't finished

kitchen - facing the living room and doors to the outside

kitchen

we are so very excited to move in. Our unaccompanied stuff is scheduled to be delivered Sept.12. which means...MORE TOYS (thank God) and some bedding and towels. Until then we are beginning to enjoy some festivals and castles!!

"parking lot"

The weather has been really nice here....so we've been hitting up a lot of parks...or as cole likes to call them "parking lots"

Gabe was pretty crabby this morning...not usually his case...but as soon as I got the camera out, he had a big ol' grin for me:)
Cole on the "pider" swing

this park is at a quiet little church down the road from our apt. It is also in the flight pattern so we get to see all kinds of planes flying over..pretty cool.

dumb-dumb

a little brotherly sharing...

love cole opening his mouth for gabe..:)

Ramstein-Miesenbach festival

so today was a good day! now that we don't have the stress of worrying about when or if we are going to find a house (thank God) we can just hang out and try to explore a lil more Germany. It's all RAINBOWS here:) kinda.

There was a very little festival down the street from our temp apt. this is a pic of the rain and the smoke from the bumper cars...
they were also loading ALOT of pigeons onto this truck...we couldn't find anyone who spoke good enough english to expain what the heck they were doing...

trying to throw down the tin cans...he hit the one off the top 3 spaces over and 2 spaces over...good thing it wasn't crowded:) and HE WON A PRIZE!!

first "carnival" ride!

darts=lots of plastic toys!

more riding...or driving as he calls it

first real German beer and braut....really i had a rinswurst...Gabe is jealous

YUM

the beer stand

the GPS in the murano is a little "off"...

We also braved the Germany walmart "Globus" and the toys/baby's R us. great lil experiences...not quite the same as in the states...but close.

skinny

these milk cartons crack me up:)

check out the cows:)

finally

sooo...after all this rigga-ma-roll, we gave our word on a house today. Originally we wanted this VERY VERY nice house in Niederstaufenbach. After some stalking of the landlord and talking to his realtor, we found out that he will not accept dogs and his house will not be ready until october 1. I was trying to come up with a plan in my head of how I was going to convince this guy that we could live there (our dog is old and not moble, I'll clean the house and get it ready for us, I'll mow the yard and plant flowers) all so we could move in early:) However, the Realtor that he was using suggested we look at this new house. The landlord will live downstairs and we will have the top 2 floors. It is awesome. I have a feeling the other house may have been a little nicer, but we definitely could not pass up this one. 4 good size bedrooms 4 bathrooms kitchen, living room, nice patio slab and a yard that will be done next spring=PERFECT! There is a great view and there are even HORSEY'S in the back yard!! Cole is pumped about that...AND our landlord has 2 horses of his own he said we could ride. I can not wait. I need to get on my German lessons so we can communicate better with him, but I plan on baking him cookies ALOT and taking him lots of dinners to get on his good side:) It is on a quiet street and I noticed an old lab and a little girl next door. It also has a walking trail about 2 houses down. God is so good. So, it's still in Niederstaufenbach (nee-der-stof-en-bok) where there is a resturant/bar at the bottom of the road, a park to the left and some great great walking paths...and still close to most of our friends. Now we just have to wait for it to be finished and hopefully move in Sept.10.

not sure what color it will be...but WHO CARES:)

ugh...houses

so...we kinda put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak. We went and looked at the Oberstaufenbach house this morning and it was not what we expected. Lots of wallpaper ripped off and sockets coming out of the walls and just over all not kept up very well. So we are back to square one with house hunting. We have an extension until Sept.1, so hopefully we'll find something soon. We have a call into a house that we LOVE in Niederstaufenbach. Great location, great lil cul-de-sac, great yard, amazing view....but not sure they'll take dogs. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow morning. Otherwise we have some to look at tomorrow afternoon. Please pray that the Niederstaufenbach one works out. We really really really want that one. Plus, not only are we are getting down to our cut off date, we are all going a little stir crazy in this appartment. We are ready for our things to get here and so so so so so soooo ready to be settled. THEN we can start traveling a little bit! Prayers please!

practicing

just trying to get used to the new camera. taking a few quick shots of cole on the patio.

the _______on the bus...

well...i've been trying to put a video of cole singing the "wheels on the bus go round and round" for about 2 days now. I need to break down and do what Caroline told me:) and put it on utube and then onto here. I just don't know how, so I need to figure it out. lil pic of the kitty:)

this, at least, is a pic of him singing.

just a lil guy

ok, not really...he was pretty big!

cole walked into the kitchen to get some breakfast and said "look at that pider daddy" ryan didn't even notice it. we had to tell him he went to live in a new house...the landlady came and killed it:)

more pretty countryside

up in the hills near Niederstaufenbach and Oberstaufenbach

giant windmills...pretty sure we drove up a bike/walking path:) not a road...but we got to see the windmills a lil closer:)

oh gabe

pulling up on everything

please tell him to slow down!

the park! - in Oberstaufenbach

this pic pretty much sums up how morgan feels about Germany! :) - ryan said she's German, so she is HOME!

the kiddos...minus sylvie:)
he is such a ham
i think i'm going to use these few pics as his 6 month pics

LOVING the soft soft grass

the stream that runs by the park

Ry, Gabe watching Morgan get a drink

the park!! there is a little soccer field to the left behind that fence and right next door to the firestation:)

SOOO, our friends and sponsors (Donavan and Erin Laskey) had us over to their house on Saturday night for a little BBQ. We met a few new couples who are AWESOME! One girl in particular, JEN, knew of a house that would be coming available in her village OBERSTAUFENBACH. So we searched for it online and could not find it. Jen got the landlords number for us and we called her. The next door neighbors are Dan and Sarah Rees who are also in Ryan's squadran and Jen happened to be taking care of their house while they are back in the states. Their house is a replica of the one we could possibly rent, so she let us in to check out the floor plan. While we were in the driveway Ryan called the German land-lady (whom he spoke with yesterday) and she had talked with her husband and they had decided no pets:( We were so bummed. It's in a great little village and close to most of our friends. Sooo...I called her back and begged:) She said she had to speak with her husband and to ring her back this evening...I called and she said YES!! oh Lord! We are so happy to have a nice place to live and close to our friends and immersed in a German village! however, I told her we'd move in and forgot to ask her if we could see it first:) so we'll have to call her back tomorrow to have a look before we finalize. We are so so so so very thankful for the connections we have made and the help we have received. I can not imagine doing all this with out friends and helpers!