One Year in the USA

I cannot let this milestone go by without mentioning it. We flew from Germany to Georgia on June 2nd last year. It has already been a year that we have been here, and I just can't believe it. Although on one hand Germany seems years and years ago. The coolest part about this too is that Steve flew back to Germany to teach a class at his old stomping ground on June 4th. What a perfect way to spend our one year mark. I will be joining Steve there on June 17th where we get to spend 5 days together without the boys in Germany. I am so excited to go back to Weiterstadt and eat all the yummy food around there with just Steve. We are really making these get away vacations a habit and I am loving it.

{Here we are a year ago at the front door to our house in Germany the day before we left}


One other thing that I must mention. I have been seeing blogs of people starting up there garden and it made me realize how much warmer we are here in Georgia. I mentioned our garden a couple months ago and this is it today.





Steve and I each planted some things, and they are growing beautifully. Steve has been using Miracle Grow on them, and it really does wonders. On Thursday Steve picked a beautiful zucchini and I picked a yellow crookneck squash straight from the garden. I cooked them up for dinner with some chicken and Italian dressing. I have also been eating peas out of the garden as I seem them, but the peas aren't doing so hot. I am not sure they are going to live much longer. We have a better plan for them next year.

I Can't Wait Until I'm 8!!

Steven had his 8th birthday on June 3rd!! He has made it to baptism age, and we are all very excited for him. He will be baptized on July 5th. We set that date a long time ago not knowing Steve was going to be out of town, but now we are very happy we did.

Steven wanted to have a Star Wars party this year, and he had a blast. I really, really don't like giving parties. Actually I guess what I don't like is a party where the Mom drops the kid off for a couple of hours. I always try to do a party where the whole family stays. I have more fun that way, and less responsibility. But this year we decided to give Steven a real party and it wasn't sooo bad. Not my favorite, but it worked out.

He had 5 of his friends come. We started out feeding them lunch. Top Ramen is Steven's favorite, so that is what he chose. When I went to the store, I thought that is what I had in my cart. But when I got it out 5 minutes after the party started, it was Cup O' Noodle! Oops. So, I threw it all in a big pot and it worked out OK.

{The rest of the boys just ate watermelon and then were ready to get up and play. Not Steven. He sat there and ate his bowl of soup and another bowl of soup while his friends all ran around outside without him. The boy has a real love for food.}


After lunch the plan was to play star wars for a little while, but the boys knew that they were here to swim as well, so they didn't spend much time playing, they went straight to the pool. Luckily the party favors could go in the pool.

{These are the light sabers that Steve made for the boys}

{Making a whirlpool}


So they swam for an hour, and then we had cake and opened presents. Steven said present opening was his favorite part of the day. He wanted a lemon cake which I thought was interesting, but he always used to get lemon ice cream cones in Germany. So, I made a lemon cake where I added some lemon gelatin to the batter. Then after it was cooked I poked holes in it, and drizzled some lemon sauce on to it. It turned out very good, and lemony. Even the other boys liked it.




He had a great party and as a family we went to that same awful pizza buffet for dinner. Steve and the boys all love it, so Steve suggests it every birthday. I am going to do my best to get out of it at Brandon's birthday. :)

Thank you to everyone who sent gifts and called. The boys love that. Steven got a card from Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Papa, Grandma Great, and Aunt Kristin and Uncle John. Thank you all so much.

School's out

The boys last day of school was on Friday and we are very excited for summer. We got the pool set up in the backyard, and it is getting lots of use.

The three oldest boys, and a neighbor.

And we have a trip to California/Germany scheduled for this month. So lots to look forward to.

Here are the thank you letters the boys wrote for their teachers.
Nathan's

Steven's


The last day of school was very nice for the boys. First we went to Nathan's classroom for what they call on Honor's Day program. He had such an awesome kindergarten teacher, and I will always think the world of her. She gave each child an award, and even wrote them a poem called "My Sweet Sixteen." There were sixteen kids in her class this year. It was so sweet. Nathan got the award for best reader! Yay Nathan.

Here is Nathan with Mrs. Debbie.

This is Mrs. Sarina, the assistant teacher in Nathan's kindergarten class. It is amazing to me that in his school they have no more than 16 kids to a classroom, and have an assistant teacher. What a GREAT school!

Then Steven's Honor's Day program was in the gym. He got awards for Outstanding Citizenship, a Music Award, and Honor Roll. He was one tardy and one absence away from Perfect Attendance. We will have to try harder next year.
Here is Steven with his Awesome Teacher Mrs. Ledford. She is so much fun, and a really good teacher. She is pregnant with twins and due a month after school starts again next year. She is teaching third grade next year so Steven may get her again.



Now we have eight full weeks of summer, and then the three oldest will go to school. It is going to be so nice.

And as for the one staying home. He is crazy!! The boy has a thing with dumping things. For example: a box of corn flakes, a squirt bottle of water all over my wood floor, and here we have two examples of things that he dumped out. I am going to let you guess what they are.

thing A


thing B

Short camping trip

What a weekend! We were supposed to go camping with a family in our ward this weekend and we were all geared up for a great time. Well, since the rain doesn't seem to want to stop this spring, we cancelled the trip because there was a 70% chance of rain day and night in the city we were supposed to camp in. Since Steve and I are not deterred that easily from camping he got on the computer to find a place we could camp where it wouldn't be raining. He found a place in North Carolina that was a six hour drive, but had a 0% chance of rain.

We got there at 10pm and set up camp pretty easily. At about 2am it started raining. Steve and I had to get out of bed to put the rain covers on. It only last for about an hour so that was fine.

Eggs in a frame the first morning.




That day we went on a beautiful waterfall hike and had a great time. There were three places you had to cross the river like this. They were all pretty dangerous because of the slippery rocks, and one of them was a pretty good fall if you slipped. I was shocked that these were on a trail suggested by the campground staff. There were plenty of people up there with kids though.


At the top. The black dog at Steven's feet is named Spot. I guess she is the guide dog. She belongs to a man that lives at the bottom of the trail, and she just walks people up the path all day. We didn't know why she was with us at first, but she did always know where the next turn was. It was pretty amazing.


The boys of course put there feet in. They eventually got completely in swimsuits and really got wet.


Jacob's new way of protesting something he doesn't agree with. Poor guy.


This is another place we had to cross. Don't even think about what would happen if Steve slipped. It was giving me a mini heart attack. And the one I didn't get a picture of was way worse.




After the hike we came home to make dinner, but there were some big ugly clouds overhead so we went to Taco Bell for dinner. When we got back from dinner it was pouring rain. So, we put the kids to bed with it raining and hoped it would stop. It Didn't! It rained ALL NIGHT LONG. The boys slept all through the night but when we checked their tent the next morning it was filled with water. Thank heavens for waterproof sleeping bags. There pillows were drenched though.

I cleaned up the water while Steve went to get a paper to read the forecast. It said rain morning and night for the rest of the weekend. We decided to head home after we had some eggs in a frame. Unfortunately it decided to rain the minute we finished our breakfast, so Steve and I turned a movie on for the boys and started cleaning up in the pouring rain. We didn't want to sit there for hours waiting for the rain to stop, just to get in the car and sit there for hours on our drive home. We have never taken camp down so fast. We just shoved everything in the van the best we could, water and all, and headed for home. We got home early enough that we could lay everything out to dry. Ironically things at home were dry and sunny. We had tents and sleeping bags, and air mattresses and shoes lying all over our driveway drying off. Then we grilled hamburgers, took showers and got in our nice cozy beds. Crazy.

We have just been being lazy today. We decided to fill up our pool so the boys have been playing in that while it fills up. They have had a great day.

Jacob turns 5

{The birthday boy with Dad. and a nice picture of Steve's longer hair. I love it like this}


Yeah! Jacob is now five and is ready for school. His birthday was yesterday, and he has asked me a couple of times today why he is not going to school today. I'm glad he is excited to go.

He had a very fun, hectic birthday. For lunch we invited two of his friends and their Moms and siblings to meet us at chick-fil-a to eat and play on the toys. It was a perfect birthday celebration... cheap, easy, eating was involved, and I got to enjoy it as much as him with my friends.

For the evening portion he wanted to go to a pizza buffet for dinner. The problem came when Steve was going straight from work to a young men's meeting that ended at 7pm, and Steven had a baseball game that started at 6:45pm. So after Steven's game (where he actually hit the ball from the pitching machine!!! Way to go Steven!), we headed to pizza at 8pm on a school night. We were home and fed by 9pm where we still had cake to eat, and presents to open.

First was from Grandma and Grandpa Allred. It is a Dr, Suess game that looks really fun, Jacob is excited to play it. And he got some "dollars" from them too. Thank You!


Next he opened his cards where he got a check from Nana and Papa and more dollars from Grandma Great! Thank you!


From Mom and Dad he got a bike with training wheels.




And a slime gun that he has been asking for that I am not too excited about.


Here is his ghetto cake. haha I bought a cake from Walmart, and then tried to write his name on it without decorating tips.


These candles are those long ones that sputter a little kind of like sparklers. He was not sure how close he wanted to get to them. He did get them blown out though.


The kids were finally in bed by 10pm and I am hoping they are not too horrible for their teachers today. Thanks to all of you who called to wish Jacob a happy birthday. He loved it.

Now today Jacob is ready to play with his new bike outside, but we are getting more rain which I LOVE. We have had so much rain and thunderstorms this spring and it is so fun to see. This picture is of a storm that was blowing in a couple days ago. We aren't getting thunder and lightening today, just lots of rain. (and we are suppose to go camping this weekend!)

Saturday in Savannah

Last Saturday with Mom and Dad we had a great time. I can't believe that was a week ago. This week really flew by.

Anyway, we started the day at a wildlife center, which was really neat. It was kind of like a zoo, but the animals were more in their natural habitat. Most of the really cool animals we didn't see, because they were hiding. It was lots of fun though, and a good Saturday activity.

(The boys having their picture taken sitting in a bald eagles nest. The sign said this is the actual size that their nests get, not the actual size of the eggs though.)








(Jacob standing in front of a lake that is completley covered with green pollen. It was actually pretty cool, there was a landing you could feed the fish and turtles from and they would pop their heads up out of the pollen to get their food.)


After that we headed on to a crowded Tybee Island to spend some time at the beach. It is a really neat place to go, but they have no place to park, so you drive around for the first hour of your day. But once we found a spot to park we had a great time at the beach and the boys were loving it. Even with the crowds we still enjoyed it.

After the beach we went to a famous place to eat on Tybee Island called the Crab Shack. Rachel Ray even went there when she used to do her show were she would go to different cities and try one of their best restaurants. We ordered what people in the south call the "low-country boil". It was a huge platter of all kinds of seafood, plus some sausage, corn and red potatoes. It was pretty good, but not my favorite seafood. But it was perfect for Mom and Dad's Georgia experience. They have a trash can right in the middle of the table for you to throw all your shells in and a big thing of paper towels to keep yourself clean. They even have a sink in the dining area for you to wash up afterwards. Seafood can be pretty messy.

(waiting)


(The food, after we had all taken a plateful.)


(the boys)



(Another of Steve's scenery pictures taken from our driveway.)

Savannah

Mom and Dad left on Sunday after spending a great week here. We all decided that there is not a whole lot to do (especially when compared to Germany), but we enjoyed each other anyway.

On Wednesday the boys and I went to explore Savannah's river walk with Mom and Dad (Steve had church stuff). We walked along the river


and explored an AWESOME candy store. It was three buildings long and had everything sweet you could imagine. My favorite was the candy popcorn. They gave free samples and it was delicious. Mom and Dad bought us each our own choice of candy. The boys put different candy in their little bag and had a great time. They even remembered to mention the candy store in their prayers that night. :)


(enjoying our purchases)


So an interesting story about Brandon. You know how I left the boys with Mom last August while I went to Hawaii with Steve. Then when I came back Brandon would have nothing to do with me as long as my Mom was around. Well, somehow they have formed a bound even after almost a years time. Brandon LOVED Grandma. He followed her around and wanted her to hold him or hold his hand. It was so fun to see, and I am glad he remember the good care his Grandma took of him. This is them on a ferry ride we took on the water. I am wishing I would have taken a picture of them where wind wasn't involved.


On Friday morning Mom came to my house to watch the boys while I went to a Mother's Day tea party at Nathan's school. His teacher is THE BEST! and she put a lot of time and excitement in to this tea party. It was really neat.


Then Friday night we got a babysitter and headed to Savannah for dinner without the kids. We found a delicious steak restaurant and were able to sit and enjoy ourselves. It was a fun evening, and the kids were all in bed when we got home. PERFECT!

(looks like I could have used the flash. This is the front of the restaurant where we ate.)




(Steve was playing with the camera while we sat and watched the water.)


(And as a special treat....we found the weiner-mobile on our way to the car. Pretty cool huh?)


More to come about Saturday