Bedroom Shuffle

At the beginning of October we ordered a bunkbed system for the girls. Delay after delay pushed our delivery date back. In my frustration I moved Rose into the toddler bed, knowing that she would only be in it for weeks (hopefully). Of course the day after I set it up I get the call that they finally are going to deliver the bunk beds. Oh well.

So Rose did really well with switching from her crib to the "big girl bed". She enjoyed the freedom it afforded, even if Carmen wasnt sure what to think of Rosemary getting into her face as soon as they were up in the morning.

Finally the beds arrived on the 15th. Thank goodness. It took the delivery guys over two hours to set it up.. yeah I dont know why either... but its set up and the girls love it.

I loaded a bunch of pictures onto picasa, so you can check them out here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeniferlawson0117/WinterInKatterbach?feat=directlink

I also took a video of the girls playing on it, so here's that link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfpMdCeYsPw

December Fun

Alright so the begining of December brings us right up to Carmens Birthday, its hard to believe but she turned 5!!! I didnt take any pictures, oops, only video's so you can see what we were up to anyways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjCuTqo5owk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CBPrqCPfk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILXWvaXYXEo

I decorated, well as much as I was willing to invest this year. We dont have a Christmas tree, and getting a real one out here seemed rather daunting. So I decided to make my own. I ended up wrapping our camera tripod with garland, then lights and bows. It isnt strong enough for 90% of my ornaments... but the girls believe its a tree, and I did it for them.

Oops

I just realised I havent updated this in over a month... and I have alot to update, so I will try to catch up everyone as best I can.

First off, Jim deployed to Iraq middle of November. We were sad to see him go again, and its been an emotional rollercoaster since he left. But we are trying to trudge forward best we can. We took these the morning he left.

Thanksgiving was mellow, I made tv dinners (heehee) for the girls and I. They went to bed early and I watched old movies.

To make being away from daddy easier on the girls I made "daddy bears"...get it, instead of teddy, its daddy? anyways. The girls seem to like them. I made them large and slightly flat so they can be used as pillows if so desired. I also put some of Jims cologne inside the belly so when they hug it, it smells like daddy.

here are two videos of the girls playing with the bears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEDW6sM7Lkk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InT5VX-0Z3U

I think the brings us to December... we didnt really do much other than just get by the end of December.

Diva's in the Making

We took Carmen in to get her hair cut today. It was very much needed, her cute bob cut was becoming a scraggly mass of knots. She took it like a pro and practiced her "pretending to be a statue" while keeping her head down. The look came out adorable, and she was more than willing to show it off. She knows she's cute, thats for sure!



Rosemary jumped into the chair after Carmen got out of it and wanted ot have her hair cut too. I wasnt planning on doing it, but why not? She fought the hair apron, but once I got her sidetracked with my camera (which she stole and then took pictures with) she was having a blast. She looks cute as always and I cant wait to see her curls get curly after her next bath!

Afterwards, her new haircut going on, Daddy gave her a pickle and she wanted to show off her pink boots... cant live without the pink boots!

Rosemary Surprises

The other day Rose decided that she wanted to scare us. So she proceeded to yell "boo!" from across the room and then giggle when we would react. I caught it on video. Carmen woke up to this and wandered out, Rose wanted to get her in on it but Carmen ended up turning right around and going back to bed. lol!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFikkaMyJBk

Daddy Time Part II

As before, we are trying to make sure the girls get alot of Daddy Face Time. This weekend I set up the girls tent and sent him in to investigate what the girls were giggling about.

He kept yelling that he couldnt breath in there, the girls spent all day and didnt seem to have a problem. They did however, come out sweaty, smiling, and hungry!! Grilled Cheese to the Rescue!!

Daddy Time

With Jims deployment looming nearer and nearer we are trying to make a point of having more "daddy time". This morning was no exception. I took a video, its adorable, but long so I loaded it onto youtube, here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCMWA-Gj_Cg

And a picture of the moment...

Halloween Happiness

Well, we lived through it. The girls had a blast, and the traditional temper tantrums have been dealt with. So now we can put this holiday to rest for another year.

On the 30th we made our way to a battalion holiday party that the girls got to dress up for. They decorated cupcakes and ran around in circles. We stayed for about 30 minutes and it was anti-climatic to say the least. Here are a few pictures from that night. Carmen became camera shy all of a sudden so I took a short video of that.

Rosemary refused to wear her witch costume so she ended up going as a "spoiled brat". But she did invent a new way of eating cupcakes, here is the video for that too.

The next day we did venture out into the chilly night to trick or treat in the neighborhood. Each apartment building had a stairwell that you could go to. Most had people at the bottom of the stair to hand out candy so that made it a little faster. Since the girls are young we got away with skipping the others. Our building actually created a haunted house. Jim and Carmen went through it and Carmen enjoyed it completely!! Rosemary had never trick or treated before so when she held up her pumpkin and got candy she was extremely excited. She kept saying "mommy I trick treat! got candy!!" adorable. I think she shook most of her candy out of her pumpkin out of excitement. Too cute. Jim came up with a good idea to keep the path lit for the girls and not have to intrust our flashlights to the girls. He put them in the pumpkins and so the pumpkins became lights themselves. The girls loved it and we were stopped a few times to explain what we did and how it worked. Jim was very proud of himself.

Of course, the evening ended in screams, tears and time outs. About 10:30pm the fire alarm went off in our building so we had to grab the girls and carry them outside. Come to find out the smoke machine from the basement haunted house set it off. I was less than impressed (carmen doesnt do well when her sleep is interupted and she has actually had two siezures already this morning) But after making our way back up, the girls curled up and went back to sleep. The firedepartment showed up and finally turned off the alarm and all went back to normal.... well at least as normal as grown adults wandering around singing off key at 11pm can be. (gotta love military living!)

Here are the pictures I did get from the evening, my camera fogged over when we got back and so it took some cool pictures. I didnt realise I got any good shots of the girls in their outfits till this morning, oops, bad mommy.

Slides, Swings and Slippery Leaves

Last weekend we took advantange of a "nice" day and headed to the playground. Jim and I both were fighting off a cold, but it was either take the kids out and let them run around or kill them... :0)

Its been snowing and icing over every morning for the past few weeks. The weather seemed to lighten back up over the weekend and now we are in the low 50's for highs and in the mid 30's for lows. Its foggy every morning but at least its not icing over.

Nothing momentous happened at the park, other than kids laughter that is amazingly contagious.But we shot some video's and some pictures, so enjoy! There are 4 videos in total, three of them were too large to post on here so I loaded them onto youtube, I will attach the links at the bottom of this email.

Oh and yes, they have matching jackets and yes... they are Dora.. I know, I really fought this one but we had a limited selection to choose from, and they both needed jackets... And you cant get one a Dora coat and not get the other one one.. It has actually worked in my favor, they are like mini beacons, I can see them for miles, and can take mental stock of where they are at with in seconds. (Gotta look at the bright side when talking about Dora)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6FUFcUko9Y

this is the first video, its the girls spinning... on the spinning thing. :0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sh-XiMYd6A

This is Carmen on the zipper-thingy. Jim rode it later (didnt get a video) but he did almost drag his bottom on the ground, quite entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioNS3w7Aap8

This is Jims video with his commentary, its a long one so might take some time to load. But still worth the watch.

Garmisch Germany

This weekend we headed to Garmisch, its a cute little resort town. Its at the base of the Alps with some of the prettiest mountains to be seen. We went for a few days "away" and to take some family pictures. It was supposed to be a rainy cold weekend, but it, luckily for us, turned out to be partly sunny and cloudy. It rained in the afternoons but even that wasnt all the time.

The drive was three hours long. And I don't think it is possible to do it shorter, Jim averaged about 100 mph's most of the way. Now we were on the autobahn, but the world flew by! We also got lost because the gps wanted to take us on a unmarked, unpaved road.. but we were close, in the right valley, just not a real street.

The hotel itself is a nice retreat to go to. It was right in the heart of things and it had three places to eat. It had a pool, spa, and hot tub and a parking lot in the basement (which was surprisingly nice!) The room was average american size and style. It was a military hotel so everyone spoke english (a nice perk) and everyone was just trying to get their time away from work the same way.

We had a lovely time, even managed to make it out into the mountains to take family pictures. We got a few great shots and you will be seeing them on our christmas cards this year. The ones we didnt choose you can see on our picasa web album (I will post the link below) The scenery was amazing, the mountains is something Jim and I both love so it was easy to just sit back and enjoy.

The girls were typical, we wanted to bind and gag them within minutes of leaving the house, but we worked our way through and they returned to the house alive. :0)

We have plans for the "next" trip, when that will be, we dont know yet... but its worth it for sure.

So check out our pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeniferlawson0117/GarmischGermany?feat=directlink