where have I been??

ok so I know I have been a SERIOUS slacker on here.. Our lives have been nothing but go go go for the past month. I have been dying to update you all on what is going on and all the fun places we have been able to explore.. unfortunately I haven't been able to hop on here to take the time to upload photos ect. So now that my in-laws are touring the south of France I will take some time to do that. For those of you who are impatient and can't wait for some photos. My sister in law (brittany) has a blog and has done a bunch of entries about Ireland (which was AMAZING by the way). So you can visit her blog and see all of our fantastic photos from our trip. My GOAL is to get on here tomorrow and friday and do all my photo updates and such. We have been doing great and loving our crazy belgian life and by crazy I mean CRAZY :) We are learning how to live in the farmland in the winter time and do I have some stories to tell..... anyways heres brittany's blog.

http://brittanygartner.tumblr.com

Enjoy the beautiful views!!

7 months and still growing...

Okay so I have been horribly bad about taking pictures of my son. I used to give my mom such a hard time for having about 10 pictures of my childhood and now I just think well our third may only have 10 pictures too.. So needless to say I have been trying to get better at taking pictures of him.
He just turned 7 months on the 12th of this month and I have a BIG boy on our hands. He is weighing in at 22 pounds and I actually can't remember his length, but he is in the 98% for weight, length, and head. The doctor just laughed when he took his measurments and states "Well you have a proportionally BIG baby." I laugh and think yup I am pretty sure I realize that since I am the one who carries him around all the time... but it is a great workout!
He is turning into such a great little boy. Once we settled into our house he has been so fun. He LOVES his sister. She acts as if he is a doll and dresses him up while he just sits there and laughs. The other morning I walked into the kitchen where Jake was playing with his toys and Allie had put a boa around him, a crown on his head, and a bracelet on him and she is saying to him "you're such a pretty little girl". Well I guess we all know what she wishes jake was :) So I am trying to put sports balls in his hands as much as possible :) He is eating solid foods now, I have made him, Sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli, squash, and applesauce all of which he scarffed down, not surprising! He definitely loves baguettes and any type of roll he can pull his direction. He is also a crazy scooter. He can scoot himself anywhere at this point. He finally figured out how to get from a sitting position to on his belly and he is very happy about that. I have got him and his sister on the same napping schedule, which makes this mama VERY happy and he is sleeping a solid 12 hours at night. I think my body is making up for some seriously lost sleep and I am enjoying getting a solid 7 to 8 hours of sleep now. Some cute jake-isms : He is doing this cute thing where he wraps his hands around my face and gives me this sloppy drooly kiss, it cracks me up every time he does it. So crazy cause the other night we were sitting at the table after dinner and playing peek a boo with Jake and he looks at me picks up his napkin and puts it over his head and we say peek a boo! and he puts it down and laughs. Rob and I looked at eachother in amazement thinking theres no way he just did that.. but sure enough he continued to each night after dinner. too funny.

I feel so blessed to have two healthy beautiful children. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for His blessing. There is always some rough days, rough moments, rough hours, but there is always a time to be thankful to kiss those big chunky cheeks and to feel honored that God called me to be his mother.

Our trip to Ghent, September

Ok so if you ever come to Belgium you definitely have to make your way to Ghent. Its about an hour and fifteen minute drive from our house and what a beautiful city it is. It was just a great day that the whole family loved. I have decided that when it comes to touring a city Allie is certainly not my daughter and is definitely Robs. She LOVES to site see. Through the whole city she would walk through a church like a cute little old lady looking at all the pictures and stained glass with an amazed look on her face as she would ohhh and ahhh over everything. As we would leave one church it wouldn't be a minute later before she would say "Can we look at another church momma?" or "Can we look at another building momma?". We spend about 4 hours walking the city and never once did that little girl complain. I am always shocked at how much she loves to tour a city. I'm only shocked because I vividly remembering as a child hating to tour places and just wanting to play, so it makes me so happy that she enjoys site seeing. One funny story: So we are walking through one of the beautiful churches and Allie stops at a painting of a bloody Jesus laying in Mary's arms. She is looking at it rather thoughtfully and about a minute later she says "Momma this a beautiful painting. I think it would look great in our house." I laugh to myself thinking yeah that painting would be quite a conversational piece as I say "Yeah Allie is would, but its not for sale". "Bummer" she says and walks to the next one.
We had a lovely meal on the canal or crepes, sandwiches, and rob enjoyed a Belgian beer. Allie was VERY excited that there was a castle in the downtown of the city. It really was beautiful. I told her we would go tour inside when people come visit, since I was guessing we would be there a bunch, she was a little sad but just kept saying "I just want to see where the princesses live." (she is a TAD bit princess obsessed), but we moved on to the next building and church. There were horse and carriages riding around the city giving tours (another thing we'll have to do when guests come in) and Allie was loving watching the carriages, you know since princesses ride in them :)
We were pleasantly surprised by Ghent and really loved it. Its so fun to find such great cities not too far away. A great day trip.
Like I said before I will take house pictures soon and update on the house, preschool, jake man etc early next week! We are hoping to have Brittany in to visit on monday or tuesday!!!

A quick picture update!

I will write more later and update I just wanted to get some pictures up to show you some of the happenings around here. We haven't taken any pictures of the house yet, but I will soon I promise. We are doing great. Loving our new home. We have officially unpacked all our boxes, but I am still trying to get it to feel "homey" I have to make a big trip to IKEA to fill some holes in this spacious abode. Allie is loving her new playroom and her large fenced yard (ok maybe its me that loves the fence!). The pictures are of our trip to Germany last month to the wine festival in Bad Durkhiem. What a great time. We are loving all the great festivals around here. It is such a fun way to experience the different cultures in all the little towns. What fun. Then there is a picture of Robs latest 'accident'. I guess he decided he hasn't destroyed his face enough to he had to spash into a guy playing flag football.. So we had our first experience of a Belgian ER. Robs doing well though. healing well.
Like I said I will update more later I just wanted to post some pics now that we are finally hooked up to the internet. thanks for all your prayers as we transitioned here! I am still processing all the things the Lord has taught me through this whole process... man what a teaching time it has been for this family. Jake is thankfully sleeping MUCH better. He is now sleeping from 8 to 8 solid. Praise the Lord cause this momma was sleepy! I am gonna do a 7 month update on him in a week or so cause he is getting sooo big and doing such cute things!

oh my goodness I'm finally back online!

So I have been totally out of the blogger loop for way too long and I have been dying to put some photos up since the last month has been FULL of events in our family. So appologies that I have been MIA. Our computer decided to die on us so I have been using random computers along the way, not able to upload my pictures. So I wanted to wait to update in writing till I had some photos to share with it. First things first. My big girl started into the Belgian preschool! She has been there three weeks now and is doing great. She is only going tuesday and friday mornings from 8:40 till about noon. Here is her on her first day. Standing in front of our 'home' aka hotel, the place we called home for 8 weeks! Room 341- the beckenhauers.she's still working on not using her creepy smile :) So as we entered her school grounds there is a courtyard area where all the kids run and play till one of the teachers rings the bell. At which point all the children go running to their designated lines, allies being the 2 1/2 year old class. They all line up with their teacher and walk to their class. I followed next to her to support her to her classroom. At this point I have met the teacher once, but you have to get the picture in your head of me looking and the teacher saying "Bonjour Madame" and she saying "bonjour madame." Yup and thats it. Thats the extent of our conversation cause I do not know enough French to converse and she knows no english. I mean none. Sooo away we go to the classroom, atleast thats what we assume we are doing since all the parents walk that way conversing together, in French that is. We get to the room and everyone starts taking their coats and bags off while listening to the teacher. I stand there laughing to myself thinking... seriously how is allie going to know what the heck is going on??? but off with the coat we go.. and all the kids walk over to the carpet area to take a seat.. Allie follows suit.

There are only 6 kiddos in her class which is great. Three girls and three boys. Allie of course always looks the biggest (her height is a bit taller than the rest). And the teacher continues to say directions as allie and I watch in confusion. Another mom walks over to me and I state politely "Bonjour" She looks at me and says "Are you American". PRAISE THE LORD! I think. This mom speaks ENGLISH! I will survive! I look at her excitedly. "Yeah I am." Then we continue with about a 5 min conversation. She is belgian and has a sweet little girl Eloise, who at this point Allie is hand in hand with and giving me big smiles. Eloises mom speaks incredible english so she continues to explain to me how the classroom works, the things Allie will need etc and gives me her phone number in case I need a translator for anything. Hallelujah it was like the heavens opened up with a light on this sweet mom. I look over at Allie and she is just chatting away with little Eloise, while Eloise just looks at her with confused eyes as if to say "what are you saying?!" (since eloise only speaks french) Yet it doesn't seem to bother Allie one bit. Allie comes running over gives Jake a big hug and kiss and says "I love you sooo much" gives me a hug and runs back to her friend while saying "see you later mom". Ok then. I guess she doesn't mind school...

Allie runs over and sits next to her new found friend as the teacher starts to give instructions. The parents start to file out of the classroom and I just look back, say a little prayer that Allie doesn't have to use the bathroom, since she doesn't know how to ask in french to use the "potty" and away I go. Eloise's mom (Caroline) lets me know that she'll be fine and if theres a problem they will call. I'm not too concerned just kind of laugh at the idea of Allie not knowing what anyone is saying. I thank Caroline and out I go.

Jake and I head off for the morning. Tuesday mornings the chapel on base offers the most amazing womens Bible study. So it works out perfect for us to head down there for the next three hours, have some coffee, worship and a great Bible study. There are some amazing women here whom I have been so blessed to meet. Honestly as crazy as the last two months have been and how crazy it is to move overseas the women here have made this place really feel so welcoming and so much like home to me. I am blessed. So Jake headed to the nursery (where they offer free childcare during bible study) and I get a blessed three hours for me. ahhhhh. so amazing. I will definitely enjoy tuesday mornings.

Noon came quickly as Jake and I headed back to allies school. On the first day of school everyone has a half day so all the parents are there waiting for their kiddos to get out and thankfully Caroline is there waiting as well (have I noted that she also has a baby boy, two months old, I think I found myself a Belgian friend in the making!). All the kids come running out into the courtyard, Allie with her friend in hand. Big smile on her face runs up to me gives me a big hug "Hi MOM! did you miss me?" "Yes Allie of course I did!" she says "was jake crying All morning cause he missed me?". "Definitely, he was for sure crying allll morning". the mind of a two year old, all things must cease to move if she is not around :) Madame Celine (allies teacher) came walking up and started speaking to Caroline. Caroline thoughtfully asked her how allie did and translated for me that Allie had a great day and did very well. Perfect. Allie said her goodbyes and away we went.

The car ride home is always a funny one.

"Did you have a good day Allie?"

"Yup"

"what did you do?"

"glued"

"glued what?"

"Nothing. Just glued".

"mmm ok. did you have fun?"

"Yup"

"Did you read a book?"

"yup"

"was it good?"

"Yeah it was really funny." And away she goes eating her snack.

I laugh to myself thinking, she made no comment about how no one made any sense or that she couldn't understand what they said. It amazes me that she doesn't need language to get through her day. She follows cues and body language and just plays. Quite funny to me.

A very successful first day!

Allie has now been to three weeks of school and is doing very well. We have had tears two mornings now when I leave but they quickly stop as I walk out of the room. She has done all sorts of fun things in class (although I don't know what they are since I can't speak to the teacher) Although on fridays she eats lunch at school with the kids before picking her up and the first friday this is what Madame says to me. "Allie Mange" Thumbs up. "Allie mange bien bien". translate "Allie ate very well allie ate her whole lunch." Yup thats my girl, the good eater. They cook huge healthy meals for them for lunch its great. normally a soup, a meat, a vegetable, and a fruit. Allie loves it. So preschool is a success and I am thankful we are doing it the two mornings a week.

ONE QUICK FUNNY STORY

So Belgium is known for their french fries. They actually invented the french fry, suprisingly. So everywhere throughout the city they have things called Friteries. They are tiny little shack of a restaurant that have all of the WORST foods for you, hense why my husband LOVES them. They have everything fried you can imagine and some you can't imagine. Their fries of course being the best. Heres the types of signs you see everywhere...

So one night we are out shopping and such so we decide to head to a friterie, having only been to one, Rob was really wanting another heart stopper meal. So thankfully we walk into this one that has a type of meat like Gyro meat that they serve over lettuce and with some veggies, thankfully that is what I order. Rob on the other hand has no idea what is on the menu and just starts pointing at random items in the glass case in front of him, at which they grab the item and throw it into the frier. Then they serve it up with some sauce normally a mayo sauce. Rob is in heaven, I am a little sick to my stomach seeing his items, but happy I have my own :) We walk outside to our table and allie says what are we eating? I laugh and say "I'm not sure allie a little bit of everything." "Can I have that sausage?" The one non fried item on robs plate is this large sausage, cold mind you. "Sure allie girl you can have the sausage." Rob takes a bite and Allie starts chowing it down.
"mmm momma this is good". "Great Al I'm glad you like it". Of course we ordered an order of fries, in which they serve with mayo as well (they alll dip their fries in mayo.. lovely) So the tiny fork allie has in her hand is for the fries to dip in the sauce.

Rob says "wanna bite?" "no I'm good, I think I am gaining weight just sitting next to all that oil". "Try the sausage". "No its ok I like my dinner. thanks". A couple minutes later he says "Here try a bit of the sausage". "no I'm good. really". "Come on just try it".

"Ok fine I'll take a bite". (we have always said that we will try anything here, just one bite atleast, cause thats what we make allie do) so I tried a bite.

"Its cold. tastes weird cold. like it should be served with crackers or something."

As I swallow my bite Rob says "Wanna know what it is?" "huh? what do you mean?"

"wanna know what animal it is?" I swallow a little harder thinking you little punk you had me eat some crazy meat. "what was it?

"Cheval he says." I think real hard at the limited french words, many animals I actually know.

"HORSE????"

Rob looks at my with a grin on his face. "Yup"

So then I had to sit there with this little girl in front of me gnawing on her sausage and I can't say a thing cause there's no reason I should tell her to stop or get her grossed out... so instead I sit there getting a little sick to my stomach at the thought of sausage made from horse... and rob sits there laughing at the sitaution..... ahh a day in the life in Belgium :)

Giants Festival

We had the opportunity to head to a town just 5 minutes North of our base named Ath. Every year they have a festival of "Giants". It has been going on for over 525 years! Pretty impressive. The 'youngest' giant was 125 years old. We went with some good friends we have met at the hotel. They have two girls 11 and 13 that adore my children and are just great to be around. So it was fun to have the company. We headed up around 10:30 just in time for the parade to start. The parade was about 3 hours long and was very cool to experience. Each giant weighed on average 130 pounds and was carried by one man under it. Except for the horse pictured in the first picture, which weighed 1400 pounds and was carried by 16 men. A couple of the giants had children riding them. Can I say that I was more than impressed with the kids? These kids literally sat on these giants and horses for the whole parade. Not only did they sit on them, but about every 20 feet each giant would stop and do a little 'dance', meaning they would spin and spin and spin in circles, how those kids didn't get sick is beyond me. We went into the Grand Place (the center of the town), which every town here has, and experienced and whole different part of the parade. There were people E-VER-Y-Where. It was so fun to people watch and just soak in the event. We were definitely happy we went and will for sure go in years to come. Allie loved it. She just stared the whole time mesmerized by the whole event, as was I. Jake slept through most of it :)

Well the great news is we officially signed our lease! PRAISE THE LORD. We move in September 21st, which is exactly 5 months from when we moved from our Wichita home :) We will be having an early Christmas as our home, opening all our boxes, especially for Allie! Now to order curtains, rugs, etc.. The fun of decorating a new home! We will get to go in the home in about 2 weeks to measure things and look around to see what we may need to order. I am more than anxious for that. Allie is doing MUCH better with her potty training. We had a minor setback and whenever she was stressed she would have lots of accidents (which frustrated this mother), but thankfully we are doing much better, which also means Allie isn't as stressed. Jake is a beast as always. He is now fully wearing 12 month shirts. This boy is growing exponentially. He is not sleeping well though, which also frustrates this mother. The most frustrating part is that he used to sleep through the night. Since he was gaining weight so fast after he was born that they allowed me to let him sleep through and he did. He was sleeping through the night at about 8 days old... I was so excited.... Then we started traveling... dum da dum dum... being in so many peoples homes and not wanting him to wake anyone up caused me to pick him up whenever he cried, which caused him to get used to it so now 4 months later he is waking up anywhere from 2 to 5 times a night! ahh. But I can't let him cry now cause we are in a hotel where everyone can here.... sooo needless to say this mama is TIRED and ready to have her little boy in his own room so he can sleep soundly, as can I. So prayers are greatly appreciated :) Rob is planning a trip to luxembourg right now for us, I think we will try to head there next weekend. Man its fun being able to travel Europe! Come along with us.. starting September 21st we have LOTS of room for guests :)

4 months in transit and 4 weeks to go..

BUT we found a home! YAHOO and this is it! Can you believe it. I LOVE it.

Seriously God blessed us immensely and I am so happy we waited. It is perfect for us. Has such great character and a huge yard! Which Allie is very happy about. She is even more excited cause her dad said she could get a play set :) All this waiting is well worth it. Only problem is that it isn't available to move into till September 20th. And the housing office is supposedly kicking us out of our hotel on August 26th. So we have to figure out what to do for three weeks. We have a couple options out there, none perfect, but we will figure it out. Its an adventure right? Thats what I keep reminding myself, when I look at my little boy (not so little anymore) and think he is now a little over 5 months and has not had his own "home" since he was 5 weeks. Crazy, but we are blessed. God is definitely teaching Rob and I a lot. Its amazing how much you learn about yourself when put in a pressure cooker of stress. But we are surviving and happy. Rob and I are constantly saying "ok Lord what are you trying to teach us in all of this". One thing is that we are blessed.... have I said that yet? :) But honestly there are so many uprooted families, kids moving homes, and people that don't have a safe place to call home. So in all of this we have a beautiful hotel room, great friends we have made, a playground out back.. how bad could it be right? 4 more weeks can't be that bad.

Since our week is full of craziness and we get a little stir crazy at the hotel we have tried to take weekend trips. Last weekend we went to visit Robs cousin Katie and her husband Andy in Germany. They are just an easy 3 and a half hours down the road. It was so fun to see and spend time with them all weekend. Rob had monday off so we had three whole days with them! They were great hosts and have an adorable place. Allie loved to be somewhere new and find new adventures. Rob was happy to be speaking his German he is so good at. Germany is beautiful. It was my first time there and I was impressed. We spent saturday in the cute town they live in, Munster Sarmsheim, don't ask me to pronounce it cause as I have discovered I am no good at German! Their town is so cute. The Rhine river runs through it with beautiful scenery. We fed the ducks and swans, Allie played at this amazing park, and we enjoyed lunch on the river. It was a great day. That night Katie and Andy had to attend a wedding reception for a friend and they graciously invited us to come along. What fun it was. They were all so friendly. Andy's dad and sister play in a great band, that consists of about 15 or more people. Rob was excited to have some real German food and Allie was happy to dance and play with the other kids. All in all it was a really fun night. Sunday we drove up to Heidelburg, this is where Rob lived when his family lived in Germany.He had some fond memories of this town and was anxious to look around. We climbed all the way to the top of this beautiful castle. Allie was excited to see a real castle where princesses used to live. It rained most of the day, but we still enjoyed it just the same. We explored for a couple hours, had lunch and I had 2 lattes throughout the day (which I LOVED) and headed back to Katie and Andy's. We had a really fun night of games and chatting. The next morning we headed to Ramstein, which is a very large airforce base in Germany. When I say large I mean LARGE. It has a huge mall inside with a ton of stores and a full food court. It also has a couple american restaurants. We shopped around and explored the base, had another latte of course, and headed back home to Belgium.

We had such a great weekend and can't wait to see them so much more in the next three years, especially since Katie is Due mid october with their little girl Emily.

my heart touched...

Have you ever read a story over and over again yet for some reason when you read it again you are touched in a new way? Or watched a movie you have already seen only to be brought to tears even though you know the ending? I had that moment today. I am ready this book called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World 'finding intimacy with God in the busyness of life' by Joanna Weaver, and I love it. Each chapter I am brought to a point of challenge or encouragement. The title just fits my life right now and I feel blessed to have opened its cover. The verse that opened the chapter today was "Then Mary... poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." John 12:3. The story of Mary washing Jesus feet with her perfume before He was betrayed by Judas is one that have I heard many times, but today the author of my book brought new light to the story, new breath, and a new challenge to my heart.

Just to get a picture in your head...

Now Mary was a single woman living with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus. It appears that her parents died so there was no 'father' to arrange a marriage for her. So she hadn't been married off yet. A bride in those days had to present her 'fiance' with some item of value before getting married and this bottle of perfume was her item of value that she had saved when that time came. This bottle was no ordinary bottle it was one that was worth a years salary. Nowadays it would be worth around $30,000. Jesus came into the house after being away and Mary was overwhelmed with worship to her Savior. Her response to that was a feeling of sacrifice. What did she sacrifice? Everything. She gave up her dreams, her money, her everything. Now she could have put a couple drops on his feet and wiped them, but no she broke the bottle and she gave everything. "She spilled it all out. Lavishly. Extravagantly. Until her treasure ran down Jesus' feet and soaked into the floor." (weaver) She sacrificed everything in worship of her Savior. Luke 7:38 states "standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing his feet anointing them with the perfume." I can picture her at his feet crying and feeling that feeling of release. Like someone had lifted a weight off her shoulders. That feeling you get when you open your hands from it all and say I give it all over to You, so that You will do Your will. I am no longer in control. I sacrifice everything to You. As the fragrance filled the air it would have been an overwhelming smell for all as they witness this act of sacrifice. It had to have been a beautiful picture. Then what does Mary do after sacrificing everything she had? She took down her hair and wiped His feet. I have to quote the author cause her description on this part I love;

Then she did something I find disconcerting. She unbound her headpiece and wiped Jesus' feet with her hair. By that act, she laid down her glory and, in essence stood naked before the Lord. For in that culture, no proper woman ever let her hair down in public. A woman's hair was her glory, her identity, her ultimate sign of femininity, an intimate gift meant only for her husband. But for Mary, nothing was too extravagant for Jesus; she was even willing to risk her reputation. Like a lover before her beloved, she made herself vulnerable and fragile, open for rejection or rebuke. But neither came. Only the tender, silent approval of a Bridegroom for his bride. Jesus watched as Mary dried his feet, and I'm sure there were tears in his eyes"

What a picture? Now others around here did not understand her doing. It looked extreme, absurd to them. Why waste such an expensive bottle of perfume they ask? And Jesus' response to them? "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a BEAUTIFUL thing to me." What an amazing thing Jesus says. She has done a Beautiful thing to me. He sees her sacrifice and worship and defines it as beautiful. How much I desire Him to see my life, my worship, my sacrifice to Him as beautiful. I'm sad to say there are many days that I look back and it is anything but beautiful, yet I am thankful for His forgiveness and that the rising sun brings a new day. A new worship. A new sacrifice for Him. A new chance to release that aroma that Mary poured on His feet. A new day to weep at His feet. To pour out my worries, my concerns, my life and my tears and to have him care so much even to call it beautiful.

Its interesting that my response to this story is one of belief, of a desired sacrifice on my own part, yet when this was happening Judas was there watching. He was mad at her sacrifice. A waste of money he says. And Judas' response? He betrays Jesus and gives him over to Pilate to be killed for half of the money that her perfume was worth. Interesting.

A closing quote that Weaver gave that I enjoyed by St.Augustine from a sermon he preached where he proposed a kind of self-test to see if we truly love God;

Suppose God proposed to you a deal and said, "I will give you anything you want. You can posses the whole world. Nothing will be impossible for you... Nothing will be a sin, nothing forbidden. You will never die, never have pain, never have anything you do not want and always have anything you want--- except for just one thing; you will never see my face". Augustine closed with a question. Did a chill rise in your hearts, when you heard those words, "you will never see my face"? That chill is the most precious thing in you; that is the pure love of God."

Military Family

Define Military Family: those who have very small walls up and are open for relationship/friendship upon first meeting; those who immediately bring your family into theirs; those who understand what 'military single mom' means and will help with children at the drop of a hat; those who prepare a meal for you during times of need; those who, when away from family during holidays, gladly have you over to theirs; those who know that goodbyes are clearly only 'see you laters'.

Military Family; my family that I feel blessed to be a part of.

Prior to being married I had no experience of the military and no real understand of their life. I have now been married into the military for 5 years now, gone through 5 deployments and lived in three different cities. In those 5 years I have been shown so much support and love by so many other military families. The quality of families that I have come across is indescribable. The support that the wives have for their husbands is one that I haven't seen elsewhere. The instant military community you receive is also one that is hard to find outside the 'military' walls. I often try to describe the military life to those not apart of it and its hard to put into words, alls I know is that I feel blessed to be called a military family, and a military wife. I feel blessed and honored to be a part of this great group of people. Thank you to all my military family out there, thank you for your open arms, for your kind words of support, for your many meals over the years, for the hugs during times of need. And even though some of you are now miles away thank you for your friendship, you are all amazing people.

A Day in Paris

4:50am the alarm buzzes.... What were we thinking??? No turning back now. We signed up for a free military bus ride to Paris, so here we go. Rob and I rub our eyes, get dressed, wake Allie up, stick Jake in his car seat and away we go down to the base, hop on the bus and down to Paris we head. The night before I was searching the internet for fun things to see for kids in Paris and I came to a website that had a Madeline Tour. Allies Nonnie (my mom) gave her these gorgeous Madeline dolls and the collection of Madeline books so Allie has been in LOVE with her. She wants to be Madeline for halloween, too cute. Anyways, so I thought it would be fun to visit the sites in Paris that are seen in the books. We arrived to Paris around 9am. Rob was pointing out the Eiffel Tower as Allie states "MOM MOM LOOK LOOK! the Eiffel Tower!" She was more than excited to see it. We get dropped off and we quickly head to the Garden of Luxembourg, the first stop on the Madeline tour. Rob and I look at the map and think, well that doesn't look to far to walk..... Little did we know it is a VERY magnified view of the city. It ended up taking about an hour to walk to, but well worth it. The Garden of Luxembourg is huge. As Rob stated, I think we could spend all day just in the garden. It is full of things to do. Miniature horses to ride, crepes to be eaten, paths to be walked, and a HUGE playground to be played on. We of course made our way to the crepes, ordered three, of which we did not know the flavors, but ended up to be amazing as to be expected. Allie loved the Nutella one :) We walked over to the horses cause Allie was stating she wanted to ride. Allie got on the horse, got tied on, as I was walking to get my camera something in Allie realized she did NOT want to ride, so the tears started flowing. She decided that riding a horse was a horrible idea.... lovely. I try to explain to the man who only speaks french that she wants off. So he kindly unties her. We sit and watch the kids have fun as they walk down the paths, Allie states "Mom next time we come I will ride, I am just to little to ride right now. And I will ride when Bella comes too, cause I bet she will want to ride, I just don't want to ride without my friend." hummm. If only her friend wasn't across a very large ocean! So we walked over to this playground that was huge. It costs 2.5 Euros for allie and 1.5 Euros for each Adult. So of course we had to go. Allie was dying to get in. It was a pretty cool playground. Allie played for about an hour as Rob and I tried to figure out where to head next. We walked over the the main garden part that is found in Madeline books where Allie states "Mom Madeline walked right here??" in amazement. Yup Allie. We opened Allies Madeline book and found the picture. So fun.

We then realized we had our Eiffel Tower appointment at 1:00 so we needed to head over. We took the metro. The lines were still very long even with the reservation. We made it up to the 2nd floor where there was a very long line. Allie hopped in Jakes stroller and PASSED out. She was exhausted. I looked and Rob and laughed saying that it was hilarious that Allie was sooo excited to go to the Eiffel tower and she was sound asleep :) Thankfully after we waited about 40 minutes in line we got in the elevator and Allie wakes up just in time. We make it to the top, Allie is extremely groggy, but happy to see the top. We point out some places where Madeline went and back down the elevator we went. We didn't realize how long it would take to do the Eiffel Tower so we try to quickly head to a lunch spot. We all get back on the metro and head to the Champs Elysée for lunch/early dinner. Allie tries some bubbly water and decides that it is NOT good. We enjoy some pasta, a yummy pizza and a baguette, of course. After lunch we walk down the street look at some shops, peek into the disney store, and head back to the metro. We get back to the Eiffel tower just in time to catch our bus back... we get on the bus, Allie and Jake fall fast asleep. We arrive back at the hotel at 11pm...

Long day.

We didn't see as much as we wanted, but it was a fun day. We knew that we would be back a lot more times so there was no need to stress. I did not get my latte I was hoping for... next time. But all in all it was a good day... Good to realize that Paris is huge and not possible to do in one day. Allie enjoyed it although she was trying to find the Paris that was covered in vines since all the Madeline books start off "In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines lived 12 little girls in two straight lines..." She couldn't understand that it was the house that was covered in vines not the city Paris.... Oh well.. Next time I'm sure we'll find a house covered in vines...

To see the pics and some videos cut and past this website: leave a comment if it doesn't work!

http://picasaweb.google.com/109618480278935753781/ParisJuly31st2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCNn0nomx34i2Pw

Our first European Adventure: Brugge

So we decided to get out of our crammed hotel room and head out on an adventure for the day. Everyone has told us how beautiful the city of Brugge is, so we decided to head up there knowing that it will probably be one of the cities we will be touring often with ALL of our visitors (hint hint.. to all of you). We headed out to the train at about 8am. Allie was very excited to ride the train. It was a beautiful hour and half ride. The countryside is so pretty. Simple. The houses are all the old brick homes. So cute. We stepped off the train ready for the day. We didn't know what time our train was to head back to our town that night so we quickly found a person that worked at the station. I stated "Bonjour" with a smile (a habit I have gotten into now living with all the people in the south who don't speak any English) I quickly got a glare back from the man. Rob asks "do you speak English?" And with a very annoyed tone in his voice he states, "I speak English much better than French." Ummm sorry sir. As we finish our conversation we walk away and Rob asks me what I said to him, in which I said "all I said was Bonjour". Rob looks back at me, "Lindsey they hate the south of Belgium here (which is the French speaking part of the country). They speak Flemish here and everyone probably speaks English as well." My bad. It felt like when I stepped out of the train I had entered into a totally new country. The difference between the people in the south and north is like speaking of someone from america and mexico. The people in the south are very "frenchy" (my word I know). A big group of them are not very friendly and most of them really don't speak English, but the people in the north know about 3 or 4 languages and are very friendly. Interesting. You learn something new everyday I guess..

So away we went to the city. I have been dying for a cute cafe with yummy lattes, a thing that is not found anywhere near our town. As we took in the beautiful sites and buildings I was secretly looking for a cafe. We arrived at the adorable street that was packed with people. Every other store was either a chocolate shop or a cute cafe. Hello I was in heaven! So we stopped for a snack and a latte. We enjoyed a yummy Belgian waffle and latte (amazing) and continued on our way. There were horse and carriages riding all down the street, which Allie was gawking at. We stopped into a couple chocolate shops admiring all the beautiful chocolates... until we came to this one shop... yup they had "exotic" chocolates... Allie was making her way over asking what everything was until I quickly say "Look Allie a chocolate bunny!" Phew.

All the buildings were amazing. The history is amazing. Allie LOVED the old Churches. She kept saying "Mommy I'm gonna find Jesus on the cross first!" Even when we got to the town hall building she searched it for a Jesus on the cross...

If it is possible to eat our way through a city we certainly did. We enjoyed a yummy lunch of; beef stew (rob), shrimp croquettes (Allie), and a sandwich on a baguette (me of course). After walking some more we had to enjoy another latte. Allie was eyeballing the horses so we headed over to see how much to ride. We found the line to be very long and cost about $45.. so we decided that would wait till next time. Allie just wanted to be a princess in the carriage :) Next time for sure. Each street we went down had a different theme; chocolate stores on one, lace shops on another, shoe stores on another and so on. We watched this woman who had to be in her late 80's making lace. It was fascinating. I have never seen lace being made and was it crazy. A skill that takes a lot of patience and looks very confusing. Brugge is known for their lace and chocolate, so as you can guess the stores had the most detailed beautiful lace. As our day was coming to a close we had to stop at a little ice cream shop for a cone and sat at the fountain. Allie of course ordered "the pink kind". After enjoying our ice cream we made our way back to the train though the park where allie states "Mom why is everyone napping in the grass?" :) We successfully found our way back and onto our train.

It was truly a great day. Rob and I just kept saying how fun the day was. Allie was amazing. We didn't get back to our room till almost 9 that night. She walked for hours that day and was just as amazed at everything as we were. She is definitely a natural site seer. I'm still waiting for my camera charger to come in the mail so I will be shooting LOTS of pictures when that happens. We are heading to Paris on saturday. Allie is beyond excited. She is very much into Madeline right now and Madeline lives in Paris by the Eiffel tower. So Allie is VERY excited to see the Eiffel tower.

We are trying to make the best of being at the hotel. It gets pretty exhausting being in the hotel, but we are trying to travel and be out and about as much as possible. We are viewing a home that we have been waiting to see for over a week now on thursday and we have high hope that this one may be it... so we wait to see. We did look at a home today that would definitely work if the other one falls through. Decisions decisions. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to look for a home; for patience with each other and for one to come quickly. :)

4 Months and growing :)

Poor Jake doesn't get much mention around here so I thought that I would do a 4 month update!

*He weighs 18.3 pounds and is wearing 9 to 12 month clothing! People always do a double take when I inform them he is only 4 months. He's a beast.

*He LOVES I mean LOVES his sister. She walks in the room and he laughs or smiles. She can do anything to make him laugh. And Allie loves him. She loves to rub his face and make silly faces at him.. its too cute.

*He is a DROOLING machine. From the time he came out of my womb he drooled. I always wondered why moms had bibs on there kids all the time cause Allie rarely drooled... now I understand.

*He loves people. He can be held or played with by anyone (the joy of traveling a lot)

*He still loves to be swaddled when he sleeps.

*He has rolled over a couple times

*He loves tummy time

In the four months he has been alive he has:

*Been to 6 states.

*Been in 8 different "homes"

*Been 'on the road' for 13 out of 19 weeks hes been alive.

*Been in 2 countries

Needless to say he doesn't have a 'normal' right now and I am anxious to get to that 'normal' soon.

For the last month or so he has started to wake up at night. Being in so many different homes and being in my room his whole life it is hard to let him cry at night, cause I don't want to wake anyone up. So unfortunately I have trained him to wake up at night and assume he gets to eat. So he may not be happy once he gets his own room at our new house where he can fuss and cry a little bit... but this mom will be happy :)

He is a sweet little man. I am blessed to have two healthy kiddos. Although there are days that my patience is tested. and nights that are hard and I want to scream. I am thankful that their bodies are strong and healthy. I'm excited to see what kind of personality this little man has as he gets bigger.

No house and Thunderbugs?!?!

So we didn't get the great house we found... Just found out today that it went to someone else... So we continue to search. :( Rob went to the housing office today and called to say that there were no new homes up... This search is getting scarce. We found a cute house last night, but it was one that wont be available till September 1st at the earliest and we have to wait to see if its even approved. I'm starting to see that our stay here at the hotel may be a bit longer. PLEASE pray that a house shows up soon.

They had a playgroup at the playground today so of course we went. Allie was excited to have some kids to play with. I was sitting there chatting with the ladies when they started discussing the thunderbugs. Understandably so I ask "What are those?" The ladies look over and say they are the little tiny bugs everywhere. "Where?" I look down at my arm and I notice these TINY specks of black that look like dirt. "THOSE??" I ask. Yup, those are them. Allie runs over from the playground to get water and I look at her head and that beautiful blonde hair she now has is covered in black specks! Seriously GROSS. I assume they don't bite cause they are just hanging out on our skin and clothes.. but NOPE they bite! Yuck! The ladies inform me they are bad for about a month. So thankfully I am in an air conditioned hotel room where the windows are closed. They are soooo obnoxious and quite disgusting. Something new I learned in Belgium. Lovely. *note: I haven't informed you all that no homes or places here have air conditioning so I am extremely thankful that the weather here is not as hot as it is back in the states!!*

Week one in this beautiful country.

We had a great first weekend here. We had a lot of grand ideas of heading to Paris, but when saturday came both me and my little lady were exhausted. A couple days of crazy sleeping and no naps for her made for a very tired 2 year old. So we decided to have a day of just playing at the park and reading at the library.
The night before we headed into a beautiful town called Aht, which is about 10 minutes north of Chievers, the base we are staying on and Rob works at. It has a beautiful city center. People were walking their dogs, sitting having a beer, visiting with friends, it was so fun to people watch there. We sat down at one of the restaurants and graised the menu... Realizing that we didn't know any of the words besides jamon (ham), spagetti, and escargot. So I just picked a random thing of the menu, Rob choose one the jamon dishes and he also ordered an escargot. After trying to speak to the waitress rob and I quickly found out that; #1 She is not understanding Robs broken French and #2 When I try to speak French I end up speaking Spanish?! Which is not helpful for any of us! Need less to say.. we are lucky we even got any dinner ordered. When our meal came we were anxious to see what we ordered. I ended up ordering these meatballs in red sauce with a salad and french fries (always a side dish here)... the meatballs were very good. Rob got this ham on the bone with french fries and a salad, which he was pumped about and then we got the escargot. I took Allies plate and put some ham, meatballs, french fries and escargot on it. After tasting them all Allie looks up and says "yummy, I want more of that please." pointing to the plate of escargot. Rob and I look at eachother and laughed. Out of all those choices our 2 year old choose the escargot :) Rob then had to fight over his escargot with his daughter. After a very enjoyable meal we walked to a cute icecream shop for some ice cream cones. Rob discovered an amazing flavor called Speculaas. Its a type of cookie from here and it was crushed into the ice cream. Mmm it was good. A successfull first night in town.
We enjoyed a slow saturday at the library and playground. We met up with a couple we have met here at the hotel that also just got here from the States and cooked out with them that night for dinner. They have a daughter that has latched onto Allie and will be a great babysitter! I love to find those!
Sunday we headed out for church, but realized once we got to the town we forgot the address... so after driving around for 15 minutes we couldn't find the church so we headed back. We had a squadron function that night and got to meet a bunch of people Rob will work with. Allie was very excited to be playing with a bunch of other girls and toys! The people we met were all very friendly and accepting. Its always nice to meet people with kids that are around the same age as mine especially when Allie loves to play with them.
So now we are back to Monday. Thankfully Rob said he was going to head down to the housing office on his own so Allie could get some sleep. So he is there right now seeing if there are any new homes up on the board.... we found one house that we really like, but we are waiting to hear if we got it cause there was one family ahead of us.
Now if Jake can just get back in order, everything will be good. He has had a rough couple days. I think his stomach is a bit upset with him cause he is extremely gassy and poopy. Poor guy. He hasn't been sleeping great, waking up screaming in the middle of the night. Thankfully he only woke up one time last night so both him and I got a bit more sleep. Maybe today will be better.

House hunting we go......

Day 2/ Day 3

Well I'm happy to say that we slept MUCH better last night. Allie slept all the way through. Rob was up for about 2 hours. I was up for 1 hour. And Jake slept all the way through minus one feeding.. I think one more day and we will be good to go. Yesterday was a day FULL of military hoopla. We were at the base from 10am to 4pm.. Let me say the base here in Belgium is different than ANY other military base. Since its a NATO base we have to get all sorts of new I.D's, passes, etc. So we spent a lot of time in lots of lines and in a lot of different offices. Can I say my little lady was a rockstar?? She didn't complain all day and just hiked around the base with us.. Praise the Lord for these little princess dolls that she earned from her sticker charts.. cause she would just sit on the chair and play with those all day. We came back to the hotel after getting all our passes and walked down to the BX and commissary (grocery store on base).. which Allie was MORE than happy to find an indoor play place there! To Bed we went....

Today we started our house hunt journey.... We got put into the house system and started looking at LOTS of photos. The problem here is that no one is in one area and the towns are all spread out... So we have a lot of options.. So heres the plan for the next month probably. Get up at 7:30... make our way 20 minutes down to SHAPE, which is the NATO base where we do our housing, and check out the housing list since right now we are living at a hotel on the base Rob will be flying out of its and Air force and Army base, about 20 min north of the NATO base. Almost every day there is a new house available on their housing wall and its like Christmas at Walmart... everyone is racing for the best house. We then make an appointment to see a home and then decide whether or not we even want to get put on a list for the home and THEN we wait to see if we get it. So need less to say its a bit of a process especially with two small kids you have to lug around with you. So this next month may not be the funnest month for her or Jake but thankfully there is a fun playground to end each day on...

Tonight we had a church come in a make us a great dinner at our hotel. It was fun to chat with everyone and meet some new people. And now we have a church to visit this Sunday. Yahoo!

My camera battery charger is not with me and I have to order a new one so it may be awhile for photos... I'll have to close with this one from 4th or July because it makes me smile :)

and this one cause I couldn't resist! Allie experiencing a chocolate fountain for the first time at my Aunt Cris and Uncle Bob's.

Hello Belgium!

Well yes we have arrived! After our 8 and a half hour flight we landed in beautiful Belgium. Both of my kiddos were rockstars, although Allie only slept for about 3 hours of the flight she did well. Jake slept for 7 and a half! Yahoo! I slept for 30 min. Go figure. It was definitely an easy trip over. We arrived at 8am in Belgium (which was 1am in chicago) Allie was more than confused. I just kept laughing cause she was totally a walking Zombie, but wanted to check everything out even though she was making no sense of herself. Our sponser couple met us at the airport and away we went to the Airforce Base. We arrived at about 10am to our hotel, which has been newly built and is very nice. Rob dropped the bags off and away he went to do some improssessing stuff. My goal was to keep Allie and Jake up till noon so they could get on some normal schedule so we decided to trek our way down to the playground outside the hotel. I was pleasently surprised when there were about 10 moms and 15 kids outside. The second I walked out there I was greated by 4 other moms introducing themselves. Allie was just excited to run around.. even with bloodshot eyes and a bit confused. For the next hour I got the low down of housing, base info, playgroups, etc. It was a perfect beginning to our new home here. I met a lot of great women who have kids around the same age as Allie. Come to find out they are actually a part of a church here and do Bible studies and play groups on tuesdays... so I'll definitely be looking into that! Noon quickly came and Allie was unraveling so we made our way up to our room. Rob came home and we all crashed. After a good long nap, by all except me, we took a walk over to the BX on base (which is like a little walmart), walked the isles and came back to the hotel cause a woman was bringing by dinner for us. A lady showed up around 6pm with a great pasta dish and salad. I am continually amazed at the military family and how great they are at making people feel welcome and have an easy transition. Our sponser couple has been incredibly helpful in making this an easy transition and now a great dinner to add to it! Allie was pumped to have "noodles" for dinner. Dinner, Bath and bed. Jake crashed at 7.. Allie and I at 8. Rob at 9.... At 10:00pm I woke right up thinking it was for sure 10am. You see I quickly found that it does not get dark here till about 11pm. Rob and I hopped out of bed thinking we were late for a meeting... Oops only 10 at night. Ugh. So confused. Jake woke up about 10:30 wide eyed and smiling. So now I'm here in the computer room at 11:30pm wide awake with Jake... while rob and allie are quietly dreaming up in our room. This may be a long couple days.... But all in all its been a great beginning to our new chapter here. Everyone seems incredibly nice and so helpful. I'm excited to venture out tomorrow to see the towns around here to figure out where we'll want to live. The land here is gorgeous. Thanks for the prayers they were felt as our flight was as easy as can be. Please pray as Jake and I try to get our bodies on schedule here and as we go through the housing process.. I guess the base here makes life very difficult for you to find housing.. it is different than any other base.. weird. I'll try to keep this blog updated and take some photos soon.

Just a little change

So I haven't meant to be away from my blog this long.. for some reason my account wouldn't let me sign on for a couple weeks so I finally get to update it! We have had just a little change in the last couple weeks, but it thankfully has been an easy transition! We have officially moved out of our wonderful house on Mitchell Street. We had to say goodbye to some great friends and ministries we had there. It was definitely bitter sweet leaving. Always so hard to say goodbye in the military because your friends become your family.

Its hard to describe how amazing the street we lived on was. It was like we were back in the 1950's where the kids were always outside riding bikes, playing at the park without parents, everyone sat in their front yards talking and socializing. On a sunny day the people flocked out of their houses parking themselves in a different persons yard each time. It was shocking if a day went by without us visiting or getting a visit from Allies best friend on the block, Bella and her mom, my sweet friend Jenny. Watching all the kids play together, grow together and having other wives to chat/support eachother with about the ups and downs of our crazy lives made my house become our home. Watching the city get smaller in my rearview mirror, heading north to lincoln nebraska, was hard to do. Many many memories made there, our first real "home", the place where both of my children were born, many BBQ's with great friends, many many dinners with my bible study girls, Allies first home, first steps, first friends, many laughs and tears. Wichita will always have a dear place in my heart. Its funny how the Lord works. I remember pulling in saying, "really Lord, Wichita?!" and as I leave I am truly thankful of Him placing us there and couldn't imagine a better place for us the last 4 and a half years.

On we go... Lincoln nebraska our first stop... We headed to Robs parents house for a little over two weeks and had a great time. Ann filled our days full of MANY activities that Allie loved. Zoos, museums, play places, walks... We definitely weren't short of things to do! It was a blessing just to spend time together making memories before making our journey across the world. Jon and Ann spoiled us and there is such joy in watching my children LOVE their grandparents. Then Jon and Ann helped me make the trip back to my parents house.

They got to join us for our Annual Cystic Fibrosis walk last weekend. What a successful FUN weekend that was! The Lord blessed us with AMAZING weather. We had a great turnout of probably around 250 people and raised over $40,000! Such a blessing to have such great friends and family. After the walk my family of about 50 came back for a BBQ at my parents house. We had a blast! Nothing like watching all the little cousins (probably 15) run around and play together. No fighting, no arguing, just playing. Catching bullfrogs, playing games, digging in the sand, and swimming in the hottub. Brings back memories of when I was a kid! So now we breath for a day or two. Allie, Jake and I have the day off. Resting, relaxing, and getting back on track :) Before our next adventure to visit Rob on Wednesday to Savannah Georgia. I will soon be one of those crazy moms in the airport traveling with my two children by myself with a layover. 7 hours of travel sounds like a blast... anyone want to join in the fun? :) But on the other end will be DADDY. Who Allie can't wait to see! and me too of course! We have a 2 week adventure in Savannah, Raleigh, and D.C then back to Chicago we go. We will then stay with my parents till we fly out July 12th to Belgium! What a summer! Nothing like going out with a bang, right?

Oh yeah and Jakes doing well. Growing growing growing! He is now 16 pounds at 2 months! a bit of a beast :) But he has the cutest smile and coos. Allie is still loving her little brother. She randomly will put down her toys run over to Jake give him a kiss and say "I love you soo much" then go back to her toys. Its too cute.

Well now that I wrote a novel for an update I will go back to playing "babies" with Allie.

FINALLY here are some photos... from Easter through a couple of the CF walk.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mcgowansherie99/AllieJake2010#

Welcome Jacob Owen Beckenhauer

I have been wanting to sit down and post my thoughts and pictures for a week now so now I finally get to it...

As you can see we have welcomed our son Jacob Owen into our family and we feel more than blessed. I wanted to write down his labor and delivery story so that I wont forget and for his own knowledge... its always fun to hear about the day you were born.

So I was a week overdue.. I had done just about E-VER-Y-THING to get my baby into this world. I went to my 41 week checkup where I was 3cm dialated and ready to go.. my doctor said that I should go anyday. I decided to take my brothers advice and get some labor inducing acupuncture done. At 4:00pm I walked into the chiropractors office for my appointment. He informed me that if my body was ready acupuncture has been proven to induce labor and also make contractions come fast... hummmm... We'll see. I arrived back home at 5:00. We sat down to a yummy dinner of pea soup and cornbread (one of my favorites) and I am feeling some stirring going on, but I refused to say anything to my mom or Rob as to not get anyones hope up. We decided to go on a nice long walk (a routine we had done every night). Every so often I would have to slow down my pace.. hummm I thought could this be it?? We arrived back home and my mom put allie to bed. I started to watch the clock everytime I felt anything.... 15 min apart? really? At about 9pm I realized my contractions were about 8 to 10 min apart.. And at that point my mom goes, "Are you keeping time?? Will you please let us know when you are having a contraction??" I was so afraid of false labor that I didn't want to say anything. Finally at 9:45 we decided to start packing my bag and get things moving. I called my sweet friend and neighbor, Jenny, who was going to stay the night with Allie. At 10:30 we headed out, my contractions were about 3-4 min apart, but still not too intense. We checked into the hospital and I was 4-5 cm dialated. They checked the heartbeat and I was on my own. I was really wanting to go natural again, so I slipped into my own comfy nightgown and started to walk the room. In the blink of an eye my pain went from a level 3 to an 8. Man did those contractions hurt. I decided to get into the tub, the tub was my best friend in Allies labor so I was hoping the same. I got some relief but not much. Now I am not one of those quiet laboring ladies... The poor women that are in the other rooms are probably thinking that someone was dying in the room next door. I scream and grunt loud. I mean loud. It is the only thing that relieves any pain. I have the joy of having ALL back labor. Back labor is something that is hard to describe because the pain is so intense. It is like someone is taking your lower back muscle and ripping it to shreds every 1 to 2 minutes... sounds nice huh? Well my poor husband and mom tried there best to help, but nothing seemed to help. At midnight they checked me again and I was about 7cm. Ugh I thought come on I know its only been a little over an hour but man I am dying here. Rob was trying to be encouraging... a great hubby. So I continued to bounce on the excercise ball, walk, squat and back in the tub I went. Pain Pain PAIN. I felt like I was ready. They checked me at 1:15 and I was 9 cm. The doctor came in and broke my water and I was ready to go. I looked at Rob and said "I don't think I can do this" He lowered down kissed my head and said "You are almost there you can do it". Let the pushing begin. At this point I had a flashback to how painful pushing Allie was and decided Nope cant do it. I verbalized my concerns... probably not very nicely yet again Rob says "You can do this, you can do this" So three CRAZY PAINFUL pushes later our baby joined the world. I can't explain the pain of pushing a baby out but whatever pain you can imagine times it by 10 and maybe youre close! :) But at 1:47am I looked down at this baby looked at Rob they helded him up at said "Its a BOY". They placed him on my chest and I looked at that sweet boy amazed. I then looked over at Rob and he looked at me and continued to say "ITS A BOY ITS A BOY ITS A BOY!! WE HAVE A BOY!" I can not describe the grin on Robs face. I gaze into my sweet sons face amazed. Amazed at my Lord who continues to bless my family beyond belief. My mom kisses my head and says how proud she is of me. Rob kisses my head and says he loves me. Bliss. Those 30 min of having my son on my chest is minutes that I just wanted to breath in and never forget. The nurse finally came over and asked if I was ready for him to be weighed.... I guess if I have to... So they took him over to the scale and 9.0 pounds was read. No WONDER this boy hurt so bad coming out! Ahh. They wrapped him up placed on his hat and gave him to his daddy. The joy that poured out of Rob was almost humorous. He got his boy he had dreamed of... I could just hear Nebraskas school song ringing in his head....

Robs mom was on her way from Nebraska so we called her and told her to join us at the hospital since Jake already joined to world. Rob, my mom, and I all got to squeeze this new life that joined our family. I felt so blessed that I could share this with both Rob and my mom, a time that was so special. The support of both of them was one that got me through all the pain. Ann showed up shortly after Jakes birth and so we all got to share in the joy. Rob at that point was as giddy as a 5 year old on christmas. Soaking up that he had a boy was something that was seeping out of his pores. We all were laughing at him hopping around the room. Although it was 2:30 am we all talked and held this sweet baby boy. One of my good friends was coming off her shift at the ER and she stopped by and held Jake and got us all ice cream from McDonalds... I needed some calories in my system! Around 3:30am everyone headed home so it was just Rob, Jake, and I. That night I was unable to sleep. The adrenaline would not leave my system so I just layed in bed, prayed and watched my son sleep.

The next day we could not wait for Allie to come see her new brother. My mom, Ann and Allie finally came to the hospital around 11. She walked into the room and came straight to my bed climbed up and saw jake in his bed. I could see her eyes looking at him soaking it up. She got closer to him. "Can I hold him?" she asks. "Of course" She comes in next to me and I place him on her lap and pure joy pours from her face. Allie noticed a small wrapped box in Jakes bed. (Rob and I got Allie a silver heart necklace for Allie from Jake before he was born) We told Allie that it was for her from Jake. Her eyes lit up and she opened it up. She looked inside and her eyes lit up as she said can I wear it? We put it around her neck and she now has to show everyone her beautiful necklace that her brother Jake gave her. She never wants it taken off. Nothing like the love of a two year old towards her brother. We spent a lot of time together just holding Jake and soaking in our family. We spend another night at the hospital and got to go home the next day. We arrived back home where we were greeted by our two dogs and a happy little girl ready to show Jake all of her toys and things.... What Joy.
Its funny how a time that started in such extreme pain can end in such joy. I swear women can only get through labor pains knowing that there is such joy waiting for them on the other end... atleast thats what gets me through. That and the strength of the Lord... Other than those two things I couldn't do it.
So Jake is now a part of my sweet family. We are adjusting well to a family of four. Allie is doing so well with it all. She is such a great helper and is so patient when Jake needs to be fed or changed. Jake went to his check up on monday and was already gaining weight! Normally a baby looses weight and doesn't start gaining till 2 weeks so I have a feeling this little man is going to be a beast! The Dr said I can let him sleep at night so I do and he does :) he already is sleeping 6-7 hours at night! Love that!
I will try to keep posting photos and info on here as much as I can. Thank you for all of your congrats and support we are always amazed and feel so blessed to have such loving family and friends.

Nothing Like a Daughter with her Daddy

This week has been such a blessing... We normally have a very packed schedule, which only allows us to have one or two nights a week with just our family so those nights are so precious to Rob and I. This week, due to different circumstances, we have had so much more time together as a family and it has been a total gift from God, something we definitely needed since I know that time will be limited after the baby is born. I love those nights that we can just laugh and play together as a family.
One of my favorite things in the world is to watch Allie with her Daddy. I can never mimic that time they have together and how happy she is to be with him. Throughout the day Allie is constantly asking when Daddy is coming home from work. When she hears his truck rumbling up the street she runs to the window and starts squeeling. As he walks up the sidewalk she gets all giddy just waiting for him to walk in the door. When he walks in she squeezes him so hard and has the biggest smile on her face. Right away she asks "Daddy take this off" (as she pulls on his uniform) as she thinks that if his uniform is off he wont have to go back to work. She follows him up the stairs to change talking all about her day and then I hear her laugh upstairs with him saying "Plane please daddy!" Allie asks me all day to do things such as plane, throw her in the air, climb up mommy, or wrestle with her... at this moment with this LARGE belly of mine none of those things can be done and even without this belly, as a mom I can never play as rough as daddy, I worry too much, so she waits eagerly for her Daddy to play with her. Rob comes bounding down the stairs with Allie thrown over his shoulder like a ragdoll asking "have you seen Allie?" Allie looks at me with a grin on her face. For the next hour or two I have to hang up my motherly hat so that they can play together. So many times I want to say 'Careful! Be careful! She might get hurt!' but the second I want to say it I hear Allie's great belly laugh and her say "Again daddy again!" What it is about playing rough with daddy I do not know, but it is one of the things that makes her laugh so hard she looses her breath. One of Robs favorite things to do with Allie is something he has done since she was only 2 months old, something that makes my heart stop for a second and that is balancing Allie on his hands. She loves it... I hate it :) He has her stand on his hands as he raises her to the ceiling, great balance that girl has, but man I am always scared she will fall. But again its another thing that is only something Allie does with her Daddy. And so the playing continues....
Rob tosses her on the couch as she laughs and he sits down. She climbs off the couch chases Charlie (our dog) around the house then comes back to daddy and climbs up him. Rob pretends he doesn't see her and she looks up at him all confused at to why he isn't tossing her into the couch. I laugh. Allie looks up at him again and says "toss me daddy!" "Oh you want to be tossed??" Daddy says. "YEAH" allie yells! And so the craziness begins again. I continue to think we are going to have one tough cookie on our hands. There are only a couple times Allie stops, rubs the area that has been bonked, takes a breath and begins again. Rob turns into a horse, plane, wrestling partner, and many other things before we finally have to say okay Allie time for dinner or time for bed. She looks up at her Daddy smiles and says "again?" "No Allie time for bed" She walks away sad. "We'll play again tomorrow." "OK!" And so she waits another day for that precious time with her Daddy. Time that we always miss when his job calls him away, but time we love so dearly when hes home. mmmm. Nothing like a Daddy.

on my heart.

"We were living with my brother on his ranch for the summer and as there were no young people around I had to occpy many evenings, so a good novel was my first resort. This particular time, it was an exciting on and I could not lay it down. I might say that I never read the modern sexy novel; these were just clean exciting love stories; but, like such, very often not really true to life. Life does contain moments of adventure, but they are interspersed with long periods of plain, unvarnished hard work. The real things of life are attained at these monotonous level periods, so to speak, more than they are at the high peaks of excitement. So that novel-readers who feed on the lurid and melodramatic are not prepared for the long stretches of routine work which fill every life. I believe this is partly responsible for the many broken marriages we have today. Young people think married life should be all moonlight and thrills and they baulk when they find themselves on the level stretches of plain, ordinary working together, which actually are the real life and backbone of a home." Isobel Kuhn

I am reading this great old book that one of my good friends and neighbors gave me for my birthday. It is an autobiography of a woman named Isobel Kuhn called By Searching. I have really enjoyed it and have to make myself stop reading it at times so I can soak it all in. This past passage I put up is something that has been on my heart a lot this last year and something Rob and I talk about all the time. What is funny is that this book was written back in 1957, but I find that it is so ever true right now in our culture. We have been surrounded by many couples who have ended in divorce already (6 in the past three years to be exact) and it breaks our heart EVERY time we hear of it. Not saying that all or any of them were because of this reason quoted above, but I do believe it has caused a lot of hard times in marriages. We are constantly bombarded with this "romanticised" view of marriage throughout TV, movies and books, that I feel many don't even realize the impact it has on how they view marriage. Marriage is shown as this time full of extravagent dates, no fighting, always physical, and if it doesn't work out just leave. It rarely shows the times of daily life, times of reality... busy schedules, unrealized expectiations, hard times, and miscommunication. Rob and I have been encouraged lately by some of the movies out there that have shown a more realistic view of marriage such as Marley and Me and surprisingly Couples Retreat, but shows that marriage is hard, and has its hard moments, but when you stick with it you learn so much more about yourself and grow so much more as a couple and giving up is not the easy road (although it looks that way at the time). The grass isn't always greener on the other side. I know I am only coming up on five years of being married and I am well aware that there are many difficult roads ahead, but this issue has been very heavy on my heart and Rob's heart since we have just been apart of so many failed young marriages. And as I read books, watch TV shows, and movies that bombard me with what my marriage 'should' look like to the world and how I 'should' feel I am encourged when I am brought back to reality. Brought back to the fact that we are all sinners, we all fail, we all struggle, relationships are not perfect and we can get through anything with the power of the Holy Spirit. I love my husband. I feel so incredibly blessed that God put us together, but that doesn't mean I don't struggle at times to serve him, love him, or get annoyed at little things. But its in those moments that are hard that I look to God to give me the strength and I succeed and I grow in my love towards him and I learn more about who I am as a person and wife. After realizing the "falsehood" of marriage that I am surrounded with daily I find that I am comforted by the simple things in my marriage. I love that one of my favorite times of day are when Rob and I lay in bed at night talking about our day, our struggles, or frustrations and can just sit in the quiet and appreciate eachothers closeness. No money was spent, no expectations were set just us two experiencing life together. How I treasure those moments. Not that I don't love the times we get a "date night" or Rob does something romantic for me, it is really the simple things in our marriage that I find comforting, that I feel his love for me. So as I sit with my college girls every monday I hope to show them not to jump into marriage lightly, thinking it is going to always be this romantic fun time, not to be jaded by what our culture makes marriage out to be, but that its hard. it takes work. selflessness. But it is ever so worth each tear. I am always encouraged to hear of the older couples around me that have gone through some of their worst times together, yet have come out stronger in the end and still love eachother through it all. I only hope and pray that 50 years from now Rob and I can look back and see God holding us in His hand through everything and we can honestly say that God is still our foundation and guide.

The challenge for myself after reading this chapter in the book is to be mindful about what I am putting in my mind. As silly as some of the shows or movies I watch or books I read I need to step back and make sure that I am not letting it effect how I feel about my own marriage. That I am not placing unrealistic expectations on myself or Rob. Ahh. How I love to be challenged cause it causes me to grow and change.