I am a New Auntie!!!

During all my international moving drama an exciting event happened in my family!  This was pretty big for me, because it is the first baby born to any of my siblings.  I am no longer the single procreator in my family!!

On July 10 I became a new Aunt!

Liam decided to join our family a month early!

This was a pretty crazy day for me, I was doing my final clean and clearing housing that day...so I was going to loose my home phone, my single most reliable means to communicate with my family during important, life changing events....like getting a new NEPHEW!!!

Liam did not check with me before his arrival to make sure it was convenient, (he didn't check with anyone...I know he took his parents by surprise as well!)  He was supposed to come sometime the first week of August, I would be done with moving and our visit to Utah and would be able to come up to New York and help out, ha ha!  Nope, surprise, I was still in Germany.  

It was a very exciting day, and he arrived safe and healthy before I lost my phone connection, so I could call and say congratulations.

Not only is my sister in law and amazing woman, wife and mother, she is also a fabulous photographer.  I stole a few of her shots...hopefully she won't mind, but here is Liam...

Aren't they a cute family?!

 My brother.

I am so proud of him, he took to parenting like a pro.  He was so excited, dare I say giddy, every time I spoke with him leading up to Liam's birth.

He will be such a great dad!

 So, after getting settled, and getting my cars back from shipping, I was able to sneak away from my crew for a quick weekend visit to meet Liam.

I was greeted with this little cutie in an awesome shirt!

(Ignore the hair, I had to leave my home at 4am to catch my flight, and airplanes are never kind to hair anyway...)

 I sure loved these cuddles!

 My brother's favorite stance...rocking Liam to the tune of ESPN.

 So, did I say Liam was my first nephew.

That was a gross mistake on my part.  Meet my first nephew, Bubba.

He thinks he is human and every time attention is granted to someone or something else, he thinks he should be in on his cut.

So here I am, getting some cuddle time with BOTH my nephews.

 Love him.

 Liam and I

I get to see more of this cuteness for Thanksgiving.

Can't wait!!

A Moment to Reflect...my Favorite German Crop...

One of my favorite things about Germany...I say that a lot don't I?  Lets be honest, I loved everything about Germany, even the inconveniences where shopping was concerned.  However, in the spring, driving through Bavaria, is a splash of color!  You either have the purple flowers of lavender, alpha or heather blooming, then after that field of subtle color you are hit by the splash of neon, sunshine yellow that the Rapeseed flower blooms.  It is spectacular, and one of the most beautiful crops I have EVER seen.  If I were ever to decide my calling in life was to farm, this would be the crop I would farm!

Rapeseed (pronounced R-aw-p-eh-seed)

It is harvested and crushed to make Canola oil.

I love it's beauty so much, that I conned our good friends into doing an impromptu family photo shoot.

Impromptu because we had planned it 2 other times, but due to the unpredictable spring, bavarian weather we kept moving it back a day, until it was perfect.  Even then, we only had maybe an hour.  By the time we finished this shoot the afternoon thunderstorms were rolling in, we barely had enough time!  But it worked out perfectly!!

What are they whispering about...

My girls are growing up so fast!

Look at that yellow...neon Sunshine!

 My sweetie and I

 They just make me smile.

They absolutely LOVE their hats!

With the hills of Bayern behind us.

This was literally taken just below my neighborhood.  Our house is on the hill we are facing, so behind the photographer (so not pictured of course...).  So this is the view we have from our front porch and backyard.  It was movie epic, and I miss this view terribly!  

Lazy summer days

We had a few weeks of lazy summer days to fill before school started up again.  Here are some of the things that filled up our time while we first arrived.

We lived in our new house for a week without any furniture. 

It felt like camping.

Being int an empty house with no furniture brings the inner ninja out of boys!

Our favorite Ice cream shop in Charlottesville.

This has been a favorite for 8 years, and we stop to get some whenever we are in the area.

This soft serve frozen custard is the closest thing to Gelato I have found in the states.  It's pretty tasty!

 We had a visitor stroll into our yard one day and spend the afternoon with us.

 Isn't he cute!

 We spent a lot of time at our community pool.  We could just walk to it following a trail that begins at the end of our cul-de-sac. 

 Such a fun pool! and hardly ever busy!!

The boys became addicted to "pop-pops" while in Utah.  It became a favorite afternoon treat!

Mini-golf of course!

 Our furniture came!

Our first Sunday dinner in our new house with furniture!

 The boys moved into bunk beds...I may regret this decision!

 We had one small clear patch before all the tree growth began.  Just the perfect size for our tramp!  We are so relieved, I would have been so sad if we couldn't use it.  It is a favorite activity for the boys!

 Can you see our little squirrel friend on the rail by the fire pit?  He is a frequent visitor, and often hangs out on our deck.  The boys love to watch him from our back door.

It's a much different life then we have been living the past couple years.  We have more free time, more free weekends, without our crazy "got to travel and see it all" schedule.  Matt has started his graduate program.  We see much more of him, which is really nice.  He is usually done with school by lunch time, comes home to eat with us and then studies in our study (master bedroom, ha ha) until the girls get home from school at 430p. His thesis topic has been approved, and when this year of class and writing is complete he will graduate with his Master of Laws.

I think it will be a good year!

Our home for the next year...

We are now living in the lush green hills of Virginia.  It is a nice transition for the beauty of Bavaria.  Our neighborhood is pretty similar to our old one, we are surrounded by a forested area, with lots of walking/jogging trails.  We also have the added bonus of a community pool, which we loved!

It's officially ours (for the year)

names on the mailbox!

What a cute little cottage!

I love the front porch!  It is awesome, especially for enjoying summer rain storms!

 So weird for me to have the garage in the basement of the house!

That's how they do it here, previously all our garages had been unattached. 

 Our back yard, which really isn't much of a yard at all.  It is mostly trees and forest, but the kids love to explore in it!  I really like the deck though!!

Cora gets baptized and we visit Utah!

We are finally back in the United States!  We feel bitter sweet about this, but we are excited for our new adventures...although road trips in the U.S. just aren't as fun as Europe.  There are no Castles just around the river bend!!  Still, we are slowly getting readjusted.  The flight back to the states was uneventful.  We were on Luftansa and each of us had our own video screen with all the in flight movies free to choose from. It was smooth sailing!  Then we hit D.C. drove the 2 hours to our next digs, got our keys, unloaded some luggage and repacked, drove 2 hours back to D.C., hopped on another plane, and flew to Las Vegas, picked up a rental van, drove to hotel, and the next morning we drove to Utah. 

Sounds exhausting just reading about it!!

We had a great time while in Utah reconnecting with family and friends who most of us haven't seen for a couple of years.  One of the most exciting events during our visit was Cora's baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We are so excited for her that she made this choice!

Here she is on her big day!

Getting ready to be baptized, Dad is going to perform the ordinance.

3 down, two more to go...the next one will be a double wham!

After her baptism and confirmation

She looks so happy!

Our attempt at getting a group shot of the all the kids.

Jack wasn't very cooperative, not sure what his deal was this trip.  Every time we tried to get him to take a picture he would throw a royal tantrum!  I am chalking it up to jet lag?!

We had the awesome surprise of several of our dear friends (family really) we knew in Germany come for the baptism.  They all were either living in Utah now or visiting, but it made the day that much more special!

Here is the group shot of all the family and friends that were able to make it.

It turned out beautiful, and a special shout out in Thanks to all those that participated and made it such a neat event!

The next day we had her 2nd "White" pictures taken.  Yes I know there is a finger in the picture!  Anyway, somehow during the trip her feet grew like a size in a week and her white Sunday sandals didn't fit anymore...she was getting horrible blisters from wearing them.  So Aunt Trudy bought her this soft, fuzzy blue slippers to wear.  She loves them!

at the splash park near my parents house.

we spent some time visiting with Great-Grandma Gale

The girls added to the puzzle Grandma always has going.

She is a pro...look at that organization!

There goes Jack again with his anti-picture taking attitude!

We missed the 4th of July, but in Utah we celebrate the 24th of July as Pioneer Day and we can do fireworks.  So we had an awesome family BBQ and did fireworks with all our cousins!

One of the favorites are the strobe fireworks...everyone gets up and we have ourselves a 

DANCE PARTY!

When ever I am in Utah I try to get together with my three besties from High School.  It is so much fun for me to see them and reconnect, and to see their kids.  Everyone has grown up so much!!  We have been doing this for years, since our oldest kids were babies, now they are all teenagers or close to it!

There are 12 kids between us all, 11 are in the picture.

That's a lot of kids!

But what a fun day it was!!

About 5 blocks from where my parents live is the old Provo Tabernacle.  I have such fond memories of this building.  We would go there for church (Stake) Conferences, special events, concerts, and I graduated form my religion seminary class in this building.  Well, several years ago there was a major fire and the building was destroyed....or so we thought...

 The LDS Church has decided to restore this historical building and convert it into a Temple.  It has been an amazing process.  My family has been following it's progress in the news since we lived in a different country.  But during our visit we went down a couple times to see it.  They have gutted out the inside, but kept the outer, original brick walls in tact.  Then the supported the structure on stilts and dug out beneath and around it, to build the basement facilities and parking.  Simply amazing!

I can't wait to see it when it is complete!

How jealous (in a good way) am I that my parents will have a temple within walking distance of their home!

The closest we have been to a temple in the last 8 years is 2 hours...It would be heaven to be able to just walk to one!

It was a great trip, sure makes us realize how much we miss family!  Hopefully we will be closer again soon!