Our Christmas MIRACLE

Merry Christmas!!

We can't wait to meet you in JUNE 2009!!!

Our adventures continue. There's nothing like a new home, job, city, state, school, life and BABY all in one summer :)
We are truly blessed. We have been praying for this for a very, very long time and we thank you for your prayers.

Visiting Dad at the Office

Dad has all kinds of fun toys at his office!

Visiting with Santa

Noah had a great visit with Santa today!! We can't wait for tomorrow :)

Gingerbread House

Of course no Christmas is complete without a Gingerbread House.......and a few samples along the way. YUM!

Christmas Market in Deidesheim

One last Christmas Market for us on our last winter here. Deidesheim is down on the Deutsch Weinstrasse, the German wineroad. It is a really pretty drive through the narrow streets from village to village in between vineyards.

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Noah's German Kindergarten, run by the village Catholic Church put on a program on the last day of school today. We couldn't understand most of the words, but at least we know the story; and Noah was able to sing along.

Bavarian Dinner Party

Mark's work Christmas party was held at the Potzberg Castle and to celebrate the occasion, we got out our traditional German attire to fit right in.

Couldn't resist this pic...He was so tired he fell asleep with his hand on the light switch before he could turn it off. He and Chowsky, the Tiger are snuggled in nice and cosy.

Haircuts 'R Us

The boys took turns out back for homeade haircuts!

Video below (if there is no picture, I think you can still press the PLAY in the gray box and it will work).
Noah's comments: "How does that look?
It looks much better.
You're gonna get a nice...nice big...big, big haircut"

Halloween!

It was a Light Year of a Halloween as we donned our Star Wars outfits for trick-or-treating! Thanks grandma for the Jedi robe and Leia dress :)

Amsterdam for Columbus Day weekend

We drove about 4 1/2 hours up to Amsterdam for the weekend. One of our college friends from Coffey Hall, our dorm, lives there. Another friend from Coffey was there visiting!

The leaves were beautiful
Check out this bike!!

Bikes everywhere!
Tulip bulbs...

Beautiful flowers...

Cheese....

Star Wars Obsession

It all started with Noah innocently playing with a few of Mark's old Star Wars figures. And then it turned into him turning everything into a light saber....

and learning the songs....

and watching the movies....

...wait 'till you see the Halloween costume!!

The Free Visit

My parents arrived during the middle of our "Indian Summer" but since that only lasted about a day we found fun things to do inside....

Our first excursion was to the Homburg Caves

and Castle above.

We then headed to Vienna

to see Mozart.. opera...
and big palaces.


It rained and rained but was still beautiful.

Back in Germany, we sought refuge in the beautiful Black Forest. The town of Staufen was very cute and quaint. Noah had a blast riding his bike all over the pedestrianized town.


And of course the obligatory castle and vineyards surrounded us.

While checking out the views from above we got to watch some paragliders take off.




From Staufen we headed to Triberg to see Germany's biggest waterfall and cuckoo-clock mecca.

Thanks for a great visit mom and dad!