Six More Days...

Six more days until my parents, Kate (my sister) and Ryan (her husband) come to visit us!

Until later,

Emily

And...He's Back!

James is home from a quick TDY.  He went to Belgium. He was only gone for two nights and they were weeknights so to me it was no big deal.  He brought home toy swords for the boys and chocolates for me.  His sore throat is a little better.

Until later,

Emily

Our Health Update

James seems to have dodged the bullet with the stomach flu.  The Thomas, Toby and I are fine now.  Thomas has had another growth spurt and grew out of his remaining jeans and pants over the past week and I am not kidding.  Luckily, I have quite a few size 6 in the back of his shrunk (closet). James, however, has a nasty, nasty sore throat.  He has had more sore throats since we've lived here... He probably needs some medical attention, but that's not geographically possible at this point so I just tell him to keep popping the ibuprofen and Tylenol to manage the pain.

Until later,

Emily

March: In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb!

More like a white lamb.  We have substantial snow on the ground yet again.  This morning, I was glad that we haven't taken our snow tires off and I feel like we got our "money's worth" out of them in one instant.  I was coming home from taking Thomas to school, got to the turnoff to our neighborhood (the same one that we got in our car accident in November).  I was going slow but noticed that there was a car turning left that I had to yield to, I went to hit the brakes and hit ice.  It was like a nightmare coming true again but then I felt the grip of the tires.  It's the first time I've honestly felt a difference between our all-season tires and the snow tires.  And I am quite certain those snow tires saved us from another accident and this one would have probably been more damage and might have hurt someone.

Until later,

Emily

A Wave of the Stomach Flu...

It first hit Toby in the middle of the week, then Thomas Friday night (Saturday morning, depending on how you look at it) and then me hours later.  So, Thomas and I spent the entire weekend, either on the couch or in bed.  James worked 11 hours on Saturday and Toby was pretty patient considering  how lethargic Thomas and I were.  James feels like a walking time-bomb at this point.

Until later,

Emily

Thomas Loses Tooth #2

Thomas lost his second tooth last night.  This one caused a lot less drama then the first one, that is for sure.  Over dinner, he was wiggling it and it started to bleed.  That was when I had "had it" and told him it had to come out.  Thomas hid under the table from me.  Once he came out, I gave it two good yanks and then he said, "Let me try", he went over to our mirror in our hallway and it fell right out!

Until later,

Emily

P.S.: According to Thomas, the Tooth Fairy makes a little "ting-ting" sound and he heard her in his room last night!

Happy Birthday Grandma Sherry!

Today is James' mom's birthday!  We all hope she has a wonderful day!  We love you, Grandma Sherry!  Happy Birthday!

Until later,

Emily

Cute Boys--Taken March 6, 2009

Miltenberg, Germany

February 28, 2009

Another cute, German town relatively close by. The weather was nice-ish, and we found a really fun German restaurant to eat at.  Which had food that I actually enjoyed.  We all enjoyed it.  James thought Toby was a handful, but that's because he got to sit next to him, and I generally do! :)

Thomas has become very creative with his picture posing!

We were in this tiny little room all by ourselves!

Toby being Toby.  He's never liked cameras, I'm starting to wonder if he ever will!

Cute Snow boys!

We finally let the boy out of the stroller.

Until later,

Emily

Fasching 2009

February 28, 2009

We went to the Kinderfasching parade in Mainz, Germany again this year. It was a great time, just like last year. This year, we dressed up, even James got into it a bit. The kids wanted to ride some of the rides, Toby only rode one ride and then he decided they were too scary for him. That worked out nicely for Thomas because we had bought a lot of tickets already!

Most of the parade consisted of people walking, this was one of the few floats.

Lots and lots of marching bands.

Toby not knowing if he should cry or not.  The funny thing was HE was the one that wanted to ride the rides so badly.

Pirate boy on a bumper bike.

When we decided to leave the festivities, we had about a 10-minute walk to get to our car.  We had a lot of people pointing and smiling at Toby and we thought it was just because they thought he was cute, then we realized that he basically passed out.  We tried to move him, but he would go back to this position.

Until later,

Emily

France Pics

February 15-19, 2009

Here are a few glimpses of our nice villa.  It was a 2-story, 2-bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom unit with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, dining room and living room.  I could have stayed there for much longer than four days, that is for sure!

This pic is out-of-order, we were standing in line for The Pirates of the Caribbean and poor Toby just could not stay awake any longer.  I kept trying to entice him with, "Toby, stay awake or you'll miss Captain Jack!" Maybe he sensed that Disney Paris' ride didn't add Captain Jack a few years back.  I know I was rather disappointed! 

James and the kids riding the teacups.

Cute, cute Thomas!

I know that Toby won't remember going to Disney Paris, but he sure had a fun time that day!

As did Thomas!

Day 3: We had some morning visitors! They stayed at our backdoor for at least 10 minutes!

Day 3, continued: Paris

Notre Dame

The Eiffel Tower (I was quite surprised to see that it is actually brown in color, I always thought it was black).

Day 4: Thomas and James went back to Paris, Toby and I stayed at the hotel.  My feet hurt so bad that I could barely walk.  I put my feet up and finished reading Twilight.

Napolean's Tomb (Funny story about this, just days before we had watched Napolean Dynamite with Thomas, so naturally, he thought Napolean Dynamite was buried here!)

Pics of the outside of our villa on the morning that we had to check out and drive home to reality!

Until later,

Emily