Happy Birthday Cody!

 

It's party time in our house again and this time it's for Cody! Our baby boy is 5 now! We had pizza from Papa Johns of course, root beer (Cody's favorite) and of course cake. Zach made an awesome monster truck cake! We found it on the internet and copied it as best we could. I think it turned out pretty good. Cody got a new bowling set, a huge firetruck (thank you grandma), monster trucks, some spending money (thank you great grandma and nana and bapa!) and I think that is it. He had a great time and didn't want to clean up to go to bed!

The New Truck

Zach requested I put on some pictures of his precious truck. He has not driven the van since and I am not kidding. It's a nice truck so I can't complain that he is happy. At least he will leave me alone now. Ever since he had to sell his truck in Alaska and we were stuck with our little Saturn in Germany he has wanted a truck again so we saved and worked it out to get him one. I always want to wait until we are more settled, but it didn't happen in Alaska so I knew it wasn't happening here! Some of the options I like are that we taught it to open our garage so we don't have to use the remote. That is cool! It also has satelite radio which is really nice. I love not having to listen to commercials during the peak times for 30minutes! Wait I don't get to drive it, so Zach is enjoying the satelite radio! Anyway I have done my job by posting!

Russo's Farm

This farm has been in the family for 4 generations and the 5th generation is currently being trained to take it over when they are old enough! They have apple orchards and grow everything from corn to onions to pumpkins. All year round they have various things you can pick yourself. We took a hay ride to the field where the corn maze was then we drove around the rest of the farm. We stopped where most of the pumpkins were grown to see if there were any left that we liked. Up front they had most of them, but the boys found some in the field. It was a fun day. We brought home pumpkins, corn and delicious apple cider! The produce is expensive, but so worth it!

Picking Pumpkins

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Corn Maze Fun

There are lots of farms around here so we had a hard time deciding which one to go to for pumpkins and fun. Cody's class went on a field trip so I decided it was the closest and with the weather not being too great it was best to be closer to home. We managed to get through the maze with only sprinkles off and on.

The start of the maze. The exit is only 20 feet from the entrance, but of course finding it was not that easy! We all started out together.

At first it seemed dull, not turns or anything. Finally we came to a fork in the road! So what did we do, split up just like the sign said not to! Zach went one way with Tyler and Ryan had a harder time deciding. He ended up with me and Cody.

We found lots of dead ends along the way!

I was pretty sure Zach and Tyler had made it out and we were the lost ones! We started following his footprints, then realized they were going in circles a lot. we could hear the tractor that brought us to the field so started taking paths to work our way towards it. Finally we made it out! But no Zach and Tyler! About 15 minutes later they finally came out!

Boys and their toys!

My dad made these guns for the kids. I forgot to ask them what each one has so will have to do that later since Tyler and Ryan are gone already. Cody is very attached to his. He won't let anyone touch it and he puts it by his bed to sleep. Zach decided he needs one too. So Tyler has placed a second order.

Ryan's Birthday Celebration

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With moving we had a family party this year for Ryan. As I looked back on pictures of previous moving years I noticed they all had moving boxes so I made an effort to not have any boxes! I blew up some balloown and trie to decorate a little, but I am not sure he cared. He is big in Bakugan so he got a T-shirt, some cards, two of the figures (don't ask the names, I have no idea!) and then Tyler got him the dual light saber he saw at the store and was dying to get! Grandma and Grandpa sent Monsters vs Aliens which was perfect that it came Friday so the kids could stay up late to watch it! Nana and Bapa sent money and as you can see from the picture he was more than pleased! He also got money from Great Grandma in Florida! He is dying to go spend it all now!

At school they ate cupcakes and he got a card from the lunch monitors, his teacher and new pencils and something else. I think a book, but I can't remember. He was so excited to be coming home with it all! Oh and of course Zach gets credit for the cake. I found a picture on the internet and Zach did pretty good copying it.

Lucy Torture!

Okay this is so mean, but it's also very funny! Ryan and Cody had already picked Halloween costumes and both happened to be Star Wars. Tyler was still trying to find one when we found this dog princess Lea outfit! So we convinced Tyler to be a star wars character too! Thank goodness Lucy's was on sale and cheap becuase I am not sure she will cooperate to go trick or treating with them in it, but it was so funny to stick her in it! The pictures aren't that great, but you can imagine why!

Happy 9th Birthday Ryan!

Things are still a bit disorganized around here so instead of pictures I did a little interview with Ryan.

1.What is your favorite color? Blue

2.What is your favorite food? chicken cordon bleu

3.What do you want to be when you grow up? Scientist

4.What is your favorite thing to do at school? Math

5.What's your favorite toy? backugan

6.If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? I'd move back to Germany

7.If you had $50 what would you buy? A lego set

8.What is your favorite restaraunt? Macaroni Grill

9.What is your favorite video game? Legend of Starfy and Spiderman.

So now you know a little more about Ryan!

Just a little update

So our stuff arrived and it was mayhem! Cardboard everywhere, packing paper, just utter chaos! It seemed as though it wouldn't fit, but it is fitting rather nicely. Kind of scary considering how small the house is. Guess that means when I finally get to buy my nice big house I will have to also save to fill it up!


This is what Tyler's room looked like when the boys discovered their legos really came with us! We threatened many times that they would be given away or magically lost in the move! They weren't and I am pretty sure they multiplied in transit!

And of course we can't leave out Lucy. She loves having a front door to look out and she whines whenever someone leaves and she doesn't get to go with them. I have been good and been taking her on walks during the day. I figure it's still nice out and a walk is nice for me to get out of the house. On my run the other morning I saw several squirrels, but haven't come across any on walks with Lucy. Probably a good thing!

So life is settling down. Cody's face is looking good. He might have scar where he bit the outside of his lip and he goes to the dentist tomorrow to see about the tooth that is now brown. That was an ordeal! We waited on dental records just to find out Ramstein didn't send any of the stuff from the fall! SO now the xrays will have to be done again, but that's not completely bad since we can see better if any further damage was done now that he is not swelled up!

Zach is getting into the groove at work. He has good guys teaching him what he needs to know. He currently works Sunday through Thursday, but we hope he will be able to switch schedules in a few months so he can come to church with us. I am staying plenty busy organizing the house, but am itching to either get a job at the school or find a school to continue my education! Once I get Cody's dental and appointments at the children's hospital done then I will see about subbing. Patience....never was one of my virtues! Guess I had better work on that!

So we are alive and kicking. Ryan turns nine this week so I'll get a post on about that! So stay tuned......

Big Yellow Bus!

I had a bit of a hard time sending Cody to school for the first time knowing it was all day, five days a week! Afterall he is my baby. I had an even harder time putting him on the yellow bus! He however loved it once he got over the anxiety of it all. We talked about it the day before and got him all geared up for how fun it would be and his told him his driver's name and the aid that will buckle him. This is the photo I took of his first time coming home and you can see how excited he was!

Home Sweet Home

Nothing fancy, just base housing, but this is where we will call home for a while. It's brand new and so far from talking to neighbors I am glad we didn't try to buy a house. In Zach's OSI brieing they told him you really have to be careful with neighborhoods around here. Some appear to be nice, but they have very high crime and drug problems. One nieghbor lived off base 7 years and said it drained them of savings, the school her son went to ended up being pretty bad and it was miserable. A few others said they were about to buy homes then found out the area had high crime or the schools had gang and drug issues. Right now the boys are in a really good school district. Ryan and Cody attend buildings about 3 blocks away then Tyler has a nice new school in town. All three ride the bus. Don't ask why the younger two have to ride three blocks! It's just the way it works!

For now we will get settled in as our stuff is being delivered Monday! It is a small house, but we will make it work and look forward to getting a bigger one when Ryan turns 10 in a year!

At the Airport!

Our trip to NJ wasn't as smooth as we had hoped, but we made it! Our plane was coming from Aviano, Italy and was an hour late. Then when we finally boarded they had double booked seats so had to figure that out. Then becuase the plane had empty seats they went around and offered people the chance to spread out! Finally we took off and about died when the pilot announced we would be seeing 4 in flight movies!! Wow! And we would get a meal and two snacks! Wow again! The kids settled in. After about an our or so Cody asks "Are we still flying?" I responded "I sure hope so or it will be a long cold swim to NJ!"

Cody fell asleep, thank you tylenol with codene! Then there was a bit of commotion. We of course being on a military flight had many soldiers and airmen coming home from deployments. A flight attendant was going around asking if any were doctors and of course found. We had a sick passenger. A young army guy and he looked awful! So the doctor on board took care of him then had another sick passenger at the front of the plane! Gee you think you are home free and in for a relaxing trip home just to be put back to work! Once we landed we had to wait for the sick passengers to be taken care of first. They don't mess around! There was 8 people that boarded the plane to take the guy by us! And because of this British Airways debaorded first which meant a longer wait at customs!

After that we found the rental car and our traumatized dog and arrived at McGuire AFB 2am Friday Sept 25th! Zach and I had been awake going on 27 hours! Somehow we made the 2 hour drive safely!

Lucy and moving!

Lucy in TLF. She was very confused by all the moving around, but is settling in now.

Lucy loved the dog park by our TLF in Germany! She even played with another Beagle! This little dog is part beagle.


Lucy stayed by Cody's side and cuddled with him. It was very sweet.