Wednesday, June 23, 2010





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!!!!!! :)