Wordless Wednesday

Luxembourg/Saarbrücken Weihnachtsmarkt

Luxembourg/Saarbrücken Xmas Markets

(In my best Andy Williams voice of course) It's the most wonderful tiiiiime of the year! This weekend started the Advent season and that means Christmas market season is now in full swing. We kicked it off with a weekend in Luxembourg, one of our favorite cities. Friends of ours that have a 10 month old baby girl went with us and Colin loved visiting with Baby Addison. At the expo center in Luxembourg is a large international bazaar and we didn't want to miss that this year. It's a fun place where you eat and drink your way around the world. Belgian beer in Belgium, amazing food in Greece, Korean bulgogi, sangria and paella from Spain, maple desserts from Canada, Thai noodles and beef from Thailand, the list goes on and on. After we were done there we headed over to our hotel to check in and get bundled up for the cold outdoor Christmas market. Colin had a blast riding the rides, we wandered and warmed up with some glühwein. Last year it snowed on us at this market and it was absolutely beautiful. This year we were not lucky enough to get snow, but it was still very pretty. At the end of the night we walked back to the hotel to warm up and rest. Sunday morning we had breakfast with our friends and then got back on the road to head out. We decided to stop in Saarbrücken to visit their market on the way home. We had not been to this one before even though it is only 40 minutes or so from our house. It was a nice, decent size market with lots of food and rides for Colin. It was pretty cold and windy, but the rain held off long enough for us to make it through the market and have a nice afternoon. It was a fun weekend and I can't wait for this week to fly by so we can do it all again next weekend!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

This year Shelby had to work on Thanksgiving. He claims this is the first Thanksgiving he's had to work in all 12 years in the Air Force...how he managed that one I have no idea. I was all set to send him off to work and then head over to a friend's house for dinner so I didn't have to cook or clean anything. Shelby decided it would be nice if we did Thanksgiving in the tower and Colin and I came up and we are there together. Colin was over the moon excited to be going to work with Daddy and the thought of eating Thanksgiving there and watching movies had him so wound up he could hardly be contained this morning. I cooked all morning and had a big cooler ready to put all the hot food in to keep it warm when I took it to the tower. Colin asked me what it was for and I told him to take food to the tower and he wasted no time gathering food like a squirrel. He filled it full of Thanksgiving necessities like Goldfish crackers, string cheese, Girl Scout cookies and God knows what else. Then he packed some clementines and a plum in his lunchbox and said the picnic was ready to go.

We got to the tower and he was thrilled to be there and into everything. He had a blast though and it was probably the highlight of his week to go and hang out at work with Dad all day. We did watch movies and hung out and ate a lot. Colin had a hold of my camera several times throughout the day, so I figured I'd just let him document our Thanksgiving at the tower this year. Enjoy!

Colin and the camera

Colin LOVES taking pictures of things lately. He's always asking for my camera and I cringe as I hand it over and then hover nervously as he snaps a few pictures. Yesterday when we came home from work/school he was very excited to see Tinsel, our Elf On the Shelf, had returned from the North Pole and chosen a spot in the Christmas tree to settle on. He laughed and laughed about Tinsel in the tree and then asked for my camera right away because he wanted to "cheese Tinsel". I gave it to him and here are the pictures from his photo shoot. LOL

Colin's pictures

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Dinosaur Museum Fun

Today we took Colin back to the dinosaur museum. The first time he went he was a little scared but very interested in all the dinosaurs. The second time I took him, about 6 months ago, he remembered it from the first time, ran through the entire thing and was nervous about the dinosaurs. It has several rooms that you move through and they all have very life like, animatronic dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. This time we talked to him about it being pretend and not to be scared. He did okay until we got to the part where the thunder and lightning starts and then a big flood of water comes rushing down some rocks. Then he cried a little.



He did better this time than last time, but was still nervous through some of it. He still had fun though and they've added a big indoor play place so he spent a while playing in there.

Gondwana

Leaf Fun

Today Colin and I raked leaves into a pile and jumped into them. He thought this was hilarious and great fun. He'd run and take a flying leap into the pile, then roll around some. I'd pick him up and throw him into the pile and then he'd charge me with a handful of leaves and we'd have a leaf fight. We had a blast.

A little whine with my wine.

Yesterday and today were pretty lousy days. Saturday I did a home test and it was negative, I was a little bummed because I should have been able to turn a home test positive by then, but I was holding out hope. Then came yesterday, bleeding, a lot of bleeding. Not a good sign. Devestated, I went to work and hoped it would stop and all was not lost this time around. I think work helped a little, I had to keep it together around the kids. Shelby sent me flowers and balloons at work to cheer me up. It did cheer me up and it also made me cry. Today I went to the doctor and he confirmed what I already knew, no pregnancy this time around. How you can put three growing little embryos in there and have NOTHING happen is beyond me, but it's not for me to know I guess. He said we could try again with the frozen embryos in December, but the timing was not right. I would need to be there for transfer about the 22nd and we are scheduled to leave for Christmas vacation on December 19th. We are heading over to spend Christmas in the Alps again this year. Shelby's parents are flying in to meet us over there for the holiday, so cancelling the trip to cycle wasn't an option. That puts us into January before we can try again. Frustrating, but what can you do?

The bruises on my stomach have almost healed and the cysts on my ovaries are gone. Now if only I wasn't carting around an extra 15 pounds from the drugs. The negative test hurts. The obscene amount of money out the window hurts a little more. The fact that the only pants in my closet I fit into are damn maternity pants and I'm not even pregnant...yea that sucks.

So, I've been trying to focus on the positive side of the negative results today. Not being pregnant means I'm finally off "pelvic rest" and can get back to business with my man. It's just downright mean to pump a woman full of hormones and then insist she remain abstinent! The second good thing about not being pregnant....wine. Oh how I've missed my dear friend and we've been getting reacquainted all evening. :) Shel and I have already planned every weekend between Thanksgiving and New Years at various Christmas markets around Europe; Belgium, Luxembourg, and several in Germany. A Christmas market just isn't a Christmas market if you aren't out in the freezing cold trying to get warm by drinking God awful tasting hot wine! I won't have to miss out on that now. Another perk to not being knocked up right now, skiing in the Alps this winter. I'm sure I could come up with a few more positives if I'd put down my wine glass long enough to be able to really concentrate, but where's the fun in that?

"Mommy, my tummy hurts!"

I had been upstairs putting some laundry away and Colin was downstairs watching TV. I finish up, come downstairs and he's still on the couch, so I head to the kitchen to start setting up the ingredients for us to bake pumpkin pies. Shortly after that Colin comes into the kitchen and says "Mommy my tummy hurts." I replied, "why does your tummy hurt?" He tells me, "the gummies make my stomach hurt." I said "WHAT gummies?" He answers, "the gummies in the couch." I go to the couch to investigate and discover that he had stolen the bag of gummi bears we keep around as treats for him and helped himself. It was a quart sized ziplock bag that was half full of gummi bears, and now there were maybe 20 bears left in the bottom of the bag. I hold up the bag and say "Oh my God did you eat ALL these gummi bears???" He, knowing he's in trouble, says "the gummi bears hurt my tummy." I told him yep, I bet they were hurting his tummy, and they were probably going to hurt it worse and maybe even make him throw up. I can't believe he didn't get sick, I don't know where in the world the kid even put all those bears in his belly. Note to self...put gummi bears up higher!

Bungee fun

One of the girls from Colin's preschool class had a birthday party at an indoor playground this weekend. Colin has never been big enough to do the bungee jumping trampoline, but finally weighed enough to get on it this time. He was so excited and he's pretty lucky his daddy waited almost an hour in the line for him to jump! Here are some pictures of him having a blast.

Bungee Jumping

And of course some video too :)