OUR NEW HOME!!!! October 11, 2010

Finally some pictures of our new home with some of our stuff unpacked!!! Still need to take pictures of our bedroom, the guestroom, and the nursery… but pictures of the entry way and family room will have to do for now!!! We absolutely LOVED THE RED WALLS in the family room because all of our family room décor and kitchen stuff is RED!!!! The guestroom and our bedroom are a very dark brown (Andy thinks it is black) and light crème color, which is perfect because our bedroom colors are light blue (light tealish blue/turquoise) and dark brown and the guestroom colors are green and dark brown!!! So that worked out perfectly!!! The nursery is currently light purple (which you would think would be perfect for a little girl), but we decided to do a patriotic nursery with an Americana theme!!! We are in the process of clearing out the nursery (clearing out “the army gear” and the “craft gear”) so that we can paint the nursery light blue!! Once I get our bedroom clean enough to take a picture I will post a picture and once we get our guestroom beds (which were ordered 8 weeks ago!!!!) and once the nursery is all ready we will post more house pictures!!!! ☺

My First Full Pregnancy!!!

My First Full Pregnancy
March-December

Well so far in the last 7 months, Andy & I have been preparing for a new addition to our family!!! Andy and I found out that we were pregnant while we were living in the Lagerhof Hotel on post while we were waiting to pick a house here in Germany! We were so excited about this great news, but I refused to get too excited since I had just miscarried in January so we just waited filled with excitement… At my first appointment at about 8 weeks when we got to hear the heartbeat is when it really sunk in that I had a real live human being growing inside of me!!! It all became real and we were very hopeful that this pregnancy would go full term and we would soon be parents.

Obviously hearing the heartbeat did not rid me of all my worries. The fears and anxiety have continued the entire pregnancy that maybe something might go wrong, but I am more and more optimistic that we will have our beautiful little baby here with us soon!!

It was great because my widwife at the hospital let us do an early ultrasound because Andy was leaving for training for 6 weeks and he would be gone for the sonogram. So she snuck us into the ultrasound room and we got a sneak peek!! It was the funnest thing to see the excitement on Andy’s face when he and I got to see what our little baby looked like and to see that she was ok! This appointment was at about 17 weeks, so about 3 weeks early to find out the gender of the baby. But Captain Wilhite was 80% sure that we were having a girl!! I wasn’t going to find out the sex of the baby while Andy was gone, but since we got that fun sneak peek he said I could find out just to verify what we were having.

So 3 weeks later I went and had my sonogram with radiology. Beth, being the AMAZING friend that she is, came with me for this appointment. After quite a LONG time of her looking at everything and taking many measurements, the nurse said she was about 99% sure that we were having a little girl!!! She said she never gives 100%, but if she was to give it, she would for our baby. SO WE WERE HAVING A LITTLE GIRL!!! I verified what we had learned from the previous ultrasound and let Andy know that he was going to have a little princess!!! I think the thought of having a little girl was a little intimidating for Andy, since he is all boy… but the longer we have had to let the idea sink in, I know he is so excited to have a little daddy’s girl, who he can go and throw the baseball with!

Andy came back from training and we have gone to a few more appointments together. We got to do another ultrasound because they were worried about some issues with the placenta, but after looking everything is fine with that. But the very cool thing with that ultrasound was that we got to do a 3D ultrasound… all of the sudden the doctor was looking all over for where the placenta was and then with a switch of a button we got to see our baby girl’s cute little face!! We both looked at each other and we were both just so excited!!! It was so funny because she was sitting there so peaceful and calm and then the doctor pushed on a certain spot on my tummy and on the screen we could see baby archer’s face get all squished… as if she was saying, “hello, I am trying to sleep in here! Stop pushing on my face!!!” HA HA HA It was so funny!! Andy and I were laughing so hard because it was such a quick little face being squished by her own foot and the doctor. And they were able to take a picture of her cute little squished face!!! WE LOVE THAT PICTURE!!!! ☺

At that point we new we had to decide on a name because she was coming quick. We had a few names that we both liked, but nothing was really jumping out at us. A few days before the 3D ultrasound I had mentioned the name Cambree. And right away Andy loved that name and so did I. It was a unique name, but not too weird. Andy wanted to make sure that teachers would be able to pronounce our baby’s name. That was a big concern for him and my big concern was that I wanted a name that was unique and not the same as a million other little babies! So it was difficult to find 1 name that we both loved. I think after we were able to see our baby’s little face, the name Cambree was a done deal and we decided that CAMBREE ANNE ARCHER would be her name.

Now we are down to about 2 months!!!! YIKES!!!! Where did the time go!!!??? Cambree is definitely growing (and so am I right along with her!!!) and it is time to get stuff done for our baby girl!! As far as clothes, Cambree has more clothes than any baby still in the womb should ever have!! I found a great deal on our version of craig’s list, baumholder yard sales.com, and was able to get 2 bags of baby girl clothing for $40. Which was plenty of clothes, but then our cute neighbors brought over a whole box of baby clothes, and how could I refuse, they were all just so cute. So now Cambree has a ton of baby clothes, which I am sure she will grow out of way too fast!!! I was also able to find great deals on a stroller, baby swing, vibrating chair, pack ‘n play, and a car seat on our yard sales website!! So as far as baby “stuff” goes, we are doing pretty good and have a ton of “stuff” for baby Cambree. The only problem is that she is taking over our entire family room with all of her stuff!! We have yet to complete the nursery!!! So this weekend that is our main goal!! Inseatd of using our 4 day weekend to travel to another beautiful European country, I told Andy that we had to stay at home and work on the house and getting all ready for Cambree!! Our job this weekend is to move ALL of the army stuff into the attic or into the guestroom. For those of you not in the army, you truly have NO idea how much gear and equipment comes with being in the army!! Literally it is taking over the entire nursery right now so we need to find places for all of Andy’s gear!! And I am definitely NOT blameless in this area, because yes Andy comes with a lot of Army baggage, but I also come with A LOT of craft & holiday baggage!! I have many boxes in the nursery right now that are my “craft & holiday boxes” which also need to find a home other than our baby’s room!! We decided these things would be better in the guestroom. We figure that everyone who comes to visit us knows we are in the army and knows I LOVE my crafts, so they will have to deal with the fact that they have to share their guestroom with these things!! ☺

Best Things About This Pregnancy:
-Finding out we were pregnant and seeing how excited Andy was!!
-Hearing the heartbeat of baby cambree for the 1st time
-Seeing her in the ultrasound with Andy for the 1st time
-Finding out she was a baby girl!!
-Picking her name, Cambree Anne, and both loving it!!!
-FEELING HER MOVE AND KICK AND SQUIRM INSIDE OF ME!!! (I think that is the most fun part of the pregnancy for me, because it is proof there really is a human growing inside of me, and not that I am just getting fat!!!!)
-ANDY FEELING CAMBREE MOVE AND SEEING HOW EXCITED HE GETS!!!!
-When Andy tickles my tummy to put me to sleep!! ☺

Good & Bad Things:
-Getting everything ready & set for our new addition to our family!! (it can be a little stressful trying to get everything ready for a brand new mommy who feels quite overwhelmed at times)
-Trying to imagine how it is going to be with our new baby girl!! (this is also a very overwhelming thought!! A very exciting thought, but also a very scary thought about how our lives are going to change FOREVER!!! But in the BEST way possible!!!!)
-Baby Cambree moving during the middle of the night when I am trying to sleep. Sometimes it is uncomfortable, BUT I LOVE WHEN I CAN FEEL HER MOVING AND WHEN ANDY CAN FEEL HER MOVING!!!!! IT GETS US SO EXCITED TO MEET HER!!!!

Bad Things About This Pregnancy:
-Moving to a new country far away from family
-Trying to unpack your house when you are 2 months pregnant!!
-Being SO SO SO tired ever day for the 1st 3 months. (luckily I was not very sick, only got really sick like 3 times, but many days Andy would come home for lunch, to find me STILL in bed!!!) I LOVED when I would feel guilty about not getting anything done all day and Andy would ask what I did that day, I would always, say, “I AM GROWING A HUMAN INSIDE OF ME!!! THAT TAKES A LOT OF WORK” HA HA HA
-Growing, Growing, and STILL growing!!! For someone who has always been conscientious about their weight and tries to eat healthy and workout, gaining 25 pounds is some days hard to take. Luckily I am blessed with an incredible husband who thinks I am so beautiful with my baby bump and all!!! He is so good to tell me that too when I am feeling down about gaining the baby weight!! And he is very encouraging and very supportive about the weight I am gaining and how I will lose the weight!!! I LOVE YOU ANDY FOR ALL YOU DO FOR ME!!!!
-THE CRAZY PREGNANCY HOROMONES THAT MAKE YOU CRY FOR NO REASON AT ALL!!!!! (on July 4th Andy and I went to church and I don’t know if I was feeling really patriotic and missing home or what the deal was, but from sacrament meeting all through Sunday school, I couldn’t stop crying!!! It was nonstop and almost uncontrollable!!! I made Andy take me home. He kept asking what was wrong and if he had done something to make me upset and all I could tell him was that I didn’t know what was wrong, I just can’t stop crying!!!) Looking back at it I can see how humorous it was, but in the moment, not so funny!!!
-Feeling like a DRAGON!!!! HEARTBURN!!! I have never had heartburn before and when I was telling Andy that something felt weird and that I felt like I had a fireball in my throat… he started laughing and told me that was heartburn!!!

Pictures of our new home!!! It is definitely bigger than our last apartment, but it is still not huge. We looked at many nice places that were bigger, but we decided to go with closer to post. On the last day of looking for a home we found the cutest little apartment (on the 3 floor, which will be very fun at 9 months pregnant!!!). It has a beautiful family room (painted RED!!!), a cute guest room (painted dark brown and beige), a great master room (also painted dark brown and beige), a small quaint kitchen that is painted lime green (ha ha ha), and a very cute nursery that at the moment is painted lavender. But we are painting it royal blue on the bottom half with light blue on the top and a red straight along the middle to go along with our patriotic theme!! We also have 1 1/2 Baths!! Because it is on the top floor we have very cool vaulted ceilings, which meant we had to be very strategic with how we decorated and where we put our furniture!!! But it has all worked out perfectly and we LOVE our new little home!!! it is sad that we don't have a yard for now, but like I said, we wanted to be close to post!!! and being 3 minutes away from work is amazing!!!! Andy can come home after PT and have breakfast at home, and he can come home for lunch whenever he has time!!! It will also be fabulous in the Winter so we wont have to drive too far in the crazy snow!!!

gErMaNy!!!!!

Our wonderful adventures in Paris!!! we saw incredible sights, ate delicious food, and made lasting memories!!! It was a truly beautiful trip!!











































B-Dub, Andy, and I at the Burg Lichtenberg Castle!!! It is such a cute castle and is only 10 minutes away from our house!! This was Andy's and my 1st German Castle!! It has the best restaurant there as well!!








It turns out that one of B-Dub's great friends from Utah State lives about 45 minutes away from us in a cute town called kaiserslatern!! We were able to go visit her for the day and eat lots of yummy German food and enjoy a beautifully sunny day in K-Town!!!



Frauenburg Castle with B-Dub!!! This castle is known as the Repunsel Castle!! So pretty!!! We hiked up there and ate a bowl of yummy grapes while we enjoyed the scenery!!!






Andy had to go to Heidelberg for a week long conference and we were lucky that I was able to go with him!!! This gave us a great opportunity to explore this Old Town!!!! It is so darling and so charming!!! I fell in love with this cute town!!!









Celebrating my 27th Birthday with some great girlfriends while Andy was away at training!!! Thanks girls for such a fabulous day!!! Andy and I celebrated when he got home!!! He made me such a great cake!!!! :)






These are pictures from the cute town of Idar-Oberstein where there is the Church in the Rock, Beautiful Castle, and fabulous Shopping!!!













I have to start off by apologizing once again for the lack of posts!! I am finding blogging a lot harder than i thought it would be. it is kind of reminding me of my 6 journals growing up that all start off great with about 10 pages and then go to bullet notes and then have about 100 blank pages! In all fairness to me though, it has been quite chaotic the last 2 months!!

The chaos consisted of moving to a new country, living in 2 different hotels, living out of suitcases, getting our German driver's licenses, having army brief after brief, taking a German class, finding a home, moving into that home, getting our household goods, having the movers unpack, trying to organize our new home, picking up our car, buying a new car, andy being gone at many trainings, meeting amazing new friends, celebrating my 27th birthday!!, traveling like cRaZy from country to country, and we think the most exciting event was FINDING OUT WE ARE PREGNANT WITH ARCHER BABY #1!!!! :) (which also tacked on many doctors appointments and a couple of months of not feeling too great!!!)

So I do apologize for the lengthy post trying to play catch up on our crazy lives and the mass amount of pictures that are to follow!!! But we are so excited to finally be able to share our beautiful journey to Germany with our close family & friends!!! YOU!!

So far since we have been here we have been fortunate enough to meet incredible new friends and travel to see incredible new sights. Some of the new sights include: 4 amazing castles including, the Berg Lichtenberg Castle (about 10 minutes from our home and has the most fabulous restaurant), the Frauenburg Castle (which is known to be the Repunsel Castle and again 10 minutes from our home), the Idar-Oberstein Castle and Church in the Rock (a beautiful Castle & Church that you have to hike up to, which is only 15 minutes from our home), and the Heidelberg Castle!! We have also been able to visit the ever so beautiful city of Trier which is one of the 1st Roman Capitals and consists of Many Roman Ruins, churches, Imperial Baths, and a gorgeous Amphitheater, and of course amazing street markets (my favorite!!!)

We also have been fortunate enough to have had our first visitor from the states!!! B-Dub (aka Britney) Johnsen one of my very best friends was able to come visit and stay with us for a couple of weeks. It was such an incredible visit and we were able to take her all around exploring many of the beautiful sights!! We were also able to go visit Paris, France for Memorial weekend which was incredible because B-Dub and Andy had never been so it was so fun to go experience that with them!!

Paris was filled every day with much sightseeing, walking, a beautiful river cruise, shopping, Les Miserable, yummy French food, and of course delicious Crepes & Chocolate Croissants!!! It was a very fast weekend, but so much fun!!

It was truly a blessing to have her come visit and play with us and we cant wait for more visitors!!! :)

The next couple of weeks Andy had a crazy work schedule which was 530AM-10PM every day (including Saturdays & Sundays)!!! so I had a lot of alone time which was spent enjoying the beautiful sunshine (FINALLY!!!) out walking at the track on post, trying to continue the never ending task of unpacking and setting up our house, and trying to get more prepared for baby Archer!!! We have decided to go with a patriotic theme for the nursery and WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!! It has been very fun trying to plan everything and a little overwhelming at times!! Luckily my mom has been amazing making crib blankets and sets with the most darling patriotic fabric!! She is also making the cutest curtains for the baby nursery!!! But of course there is still MUCH TO DO!!!! In fact instead of cleaning the house and unpacking I am sitting here blogging!! ha ha ha but that was something else on my ENDLESS TO-DO LIST so it will be a great check off the list for now!!! :)

Andy and I also just got back from a fabulous get away to London this past weekend (sorry the pictures are not ready yet). It was a great trip for us after a crazy work schedule the past 2 weeks! so it was very nice to get away on a romantic trip for 2!! We stayed in the most GORGEOUS hotel that overlooked the Tower Bridge and the Thames River!! This trip again was filled with much walking, sightseeing, delicious food, a fabulous red double-decker tour bus, going to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, walking down Baker's Street, eating at the Sherlock Holmes Pub and having Real English Fish & Chips, going to see The Lion King, watching a real Adidas Futbol Tournament, eating at an amazing Italian & Thai Restaurant, and lots of World Cup Watching!!! Over all it was a fabulous trip & I am so thankful to have such an incredible husband that loves to travel everywhere with me!!!!

And of course in true Army fashion, we got back from London on Monday and on Monday night Andy headed to a conference for the week to help get prepared for their upcoming 2 month training!! Luckily he gets back on thursday night, works on friday, and we leave for the French Riviera on Saturday morning to stay at a beautiful beach house with our amazing friends and neighbors, The Hollands!!! Then we get a week back at home to ourselves before we say goodbye for about 7 weeks!!! I just enjoy every second I get to spend with Andy because I know for a while those precious moments are far & few between!

OVER ALL, LIFE HAS BEEN CRAZY BEAUTIFUL!!!! IT IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL LIFE & I TRULY NEED TO REMEMBER TO COUNT MY BLESSINGS EVERY DAY!!!!!! WE HOPE LIFE IS GOING GREAT FOR YOU FRIENDS!!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU & YOUR FAMILIES!!!!!! :)