Kaiden turns 4!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY KAIDEN!!!

I can not believe that my baby boy has turned 4! 

He was born January 7th 2008. He came 10 days early, weighing 7lbs 2oz. We believe he came early to spend more time with daddy, before he deployed to Iraq for 13+ months. Matt deployed when he was 2 weeks old and came home when he was 13 1/2 months old! Kaiden was not the easiest baby to deal with, still wondering why this all worked the way it did, but I will just leave it at God has a sense of humor, I do not understand sometimes :) He keeps us on our toes that is for sure! I love him to pieces though, he has one of the biggest hearts! Kaiden loves babies, kids, animals,  just about everything! He is always giving us kisses and hugs. Tells me I love you mom, you are the one I am going to marry. Just melts my heart! 

Here he is on his Birthday morning! 4 YEARS OLD!!! :) 

 At his party waiting for his friends to show up at the bowling alley. 

 We have found something Kaiden is good at and loves! Makes me very happy.

 My 3 boys, couldn't be any happier to call them my sons and husband.

 Those two love each other so much.

 Momma and the birthday boy.

 Showing off at the bowling alley, he loves it! 

 The German candle I got..which really was a sparkler! haha! 

Make a wish and wait for the sparkler to go out! 

 Cake and Ice cream, well pretty much milk by then :)

Eating the Knight!

One of his presents, Thor mask and hammer 

 Very neat German Knight and Horse from mom and dad. 

THE cake! It tasted great and looked amazing!! 

Until next year little guy! Mommy and daddy LOVE you SO much!!! 

Short road trip

I met my dear friend Emily at Gabrielle's preschool in Lawton, OK. She was a preschool teacher there, saw her a lot, then the girls were on the same basketball team. We started talking around Christmas time and hit it off. I moved to Fort Lee, VA, she got married and moved to Germany. Then we got orders to Germany and we are now only about 2 hours and 15 mins from each other, and its a quick drive! They have come and seen us twice now in 3 months, so we thought it was fair we loaded up the crew and headed their way :)

We got there very late on Thursday night, well Friday morning. Went to bed very late and got woken up by 2 screaming girls who were excited that it SNOWED!! The 3 kids got bundled up and played outside in the snow, making snow angels, snowmen, and snowballs. After they were done they needed some hot cocoa to warm them up!

We went to an indoor play place, called Jola where the kids had a great time, we spent all

afternoon there playing and eating french fries :)

We had a great time and little sleep. It was nice to be able to smile, laugh, and relax with some awesome friends. Wish they lived closer though.

New Year New Experiences

Well, we are going to try starting a blog to keep everyone up to date with our family! Matt came up with the title "What Is It This Time", because that is what we say a lot. When a kid cries, whines, screams with joy, get a phone call, go on a trip, just about anything! So to start it out, What is it now?? It is now 2012!

We have now been in Germany for a little over 3 months. It honestly seems a lot longer than that, we are trying to see and experience it all with a open mind. Kaiden finally told us at dinner tonight, "Mom, I do like Germany now, because we got to shoot off fireworks!" Really?? That is all we had to do to make him like it here? Speaking of fireworks! New Years Eve is a huge deal here. We had been told that many times, but never really understood it fully, till we were in the middle of it last night!

New Years Eve here is like 4th of July on steroids! I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. There are no rules except they can only be shot off on December 31st and January 1st. We celebrated with friends and all of us had a great time. We (the dad's and kids) shot off fireworks almost the whole evening. So did our friends German neighbors. At Midnight (we do not get to see a ball drop till 6am, so we find out another way), ALL of the church bells in the villages go off. It is a beautiful sound, over the top of that you hear and see TONS of fireworks! It was a very neat and beautiful experience. Even with it sprinkling no fireworks were stopped and we all go to celebrate. We are already ready to celebrate next New Years Eve, but not wishing away 2012. We are praying for great blessings, adventures, and new experiences for our family this year. We already have a few trips planned, stay tuned!