Visit from Arkansas

Leland's parents came visiting for 10 days. I didn't post so much during that time but here are a few pictures.

And as information for future visitors:

Be aware there is always a camera close by!

Leland's father

Leland's mother

CJ

The pictures before the departure.

The girls were just goofy!

The best shot - Soren screamed on all of them.

Did I mention Goofballs before?

Smiles.

First Steps - Erste Schritte

Two days ago I was doing laundry and when I turned around Soren was standing almost behind me all by himself. He finally did it. He even took a few steps. He is still so "chicken", tries once a while to stand again by himself, but always heads for the floor.

He is not really walking yet, perfect in cruising, mastered the first steps,

BUT already turning in a little daredevil, besides the constant whining and squeaking and screaming we get lately.

A few days ago I lowered his highchair to push it up to the table so he could sit with us and also color.

Today Bella asked me "Who put Soren in his highchair?" Nobody. He climb in all by himself. His flegs were a little bit tangled up, but he was already messing with the belt. He went right away and showed us how he climbs up the chair. I was stunned.

Vor zwei Tagen war vor der Waschmaschine gestanden und als ich mich umdrehte stand Soren ganz alleine vor mir ohne sich festzuhalten. Ich war richtig ueberrascht, der er sich ja immer irgendwo festhalten will. Er hat dann sogar noch seine ersten Schritte alleine gemacht und kam ein Stueckchen auf mich zu. Na endlich!

Er laeuft jetzt nicht alleine, dazu fuehlt er sich noch nicht sicher genug, aber solange er was zum festhalten hat ist er nicht aufzuhalten.

Doch er entwickelt sich auch jetzt schon zum kleinen TEUFEL. DAvon abgesehen, dass es den ganzen Tag nur MAMAMAMAMAMAMA geht und er jammert, schreit und quietscht wie ein Verrueckten seit Tagen.

Vor ein paar Tagen, habe ich der Hochstuhl niedriger gestellt, damit er mit uns am Tisch sitzen kann zum essen und auch mit den Maedels zum malen.

Heute kam Bella und fragte "Wer hat Soren in den Hochstuhlt gesetzt?" Soren thronte mit verknoteten Beinen gleucklich im Hochstuhl und versuchte sich auch anzuschnallen. KEINER war unsere Antwort. Der kleinen Luemmel ist ganz alleine hineingeklettert und hat es uns sogar noch gezeigt wie er das macht. Ich war sprachlos!

Roadtrip Interrupted

That's how it looks when your car breaks down on a roadtrip in Texas. Your are stranded in the middle of nowhere.

But there were a few helpful people who stopped and tried to help us out and sheriff's deputy who stayed with us until we were back in the nearest town to the gas station with the only mechanic on duty on a Sunday. We were also in luck because we got stuck in the only spot close by with cell phone receiption and we had a full icebox with drinks and food. LOL

THANK YOU. They might never read this, but we really appreciated the help.

We we spent a few hours waiting in Llano, a small farm town, everybody was really friendly there, across the Water -N- Hole Saloon until we got picked up. Without the kids you probably would have found me inside the saloon. LOL

So our week of bad luck just started in Sunday and with the car breaking down on us we didn't get a chance to meet with Doris, Chiara'a godmother, in Sonora. We all were looking forward to see her and she went through so much trouble and effort to make it possible. We are so sorry and that did upset us more as the car.

The next day the A/C leaked in the house and damaged the floor which Leland is going to fix again,

The lawn mower broke in the evening.

The next morning, Leland dumped his motorcycle going 10 mph. Luckily a few scraps on the mototcycle and at his glove is all the got damaged. But hopefully this counts as bodily injury and was the worst part.

A bunch of little things kept happening .... just added on the disastrous week.

And now a good friend of us lost her job because she is not able to move 5 hours away as a single mom within 3 weeks to work at a different unit. Instead she is moving quite a bit further away where she has better options. - We will miss you and Soren's best buddy.

Soren's First Birthday Party - lots of pictures!

Soren's first birthday is here in Texas, if everything works out the way we would like the next one will be back in Germany! We will see want 2009 will bring.

Dieses Jahr feiern wir hier in Texas, naechstes Jahr hoffentlich in Deutschland.

Soren's first and fussy picture. - Das erst Bild von Soren und auch noch knatschig.

The girls are splashing. The boys play inside and outside. - Die Maedels planschen und die Jungs spielen drinnen und draussen.

I also have the usual picture from Sandra with her coffee cup, but it's not this one. LOL

Ichhabe auch wie immer ein Foto von Sandra mit Kaffeetasse, das hier ist e saber nicht. LOL

Time for the birthday cake - Geburtstagskuchen

Presents, too. - Und auch noch Geschenke!

He is crazy for balloons. Our fan on the ceiling, too.

Er liebt Luftballons! Unser Ventilator an der Decke auch.

He got a cute pinhuin beach towel and the shorts, but of course he loved the wrapping paper bag and had a blast.

Er hat ein suesses Pinguin- Badehandtuch bekommen auch noch die Shorts dazu, aber in dem Moment war viel zu begeistert von der Verpackung!

Party Invitation - Changes and Updates

We planned to have Soren's party on the last Saturday in June hoping the most of the boxes would be already unpacked and less chaos here. Because of family visit we switched it to Sunday, updated the invitations, mailed them out and planned everything for it day by day.

Last minute on Friday we changed it back to Saturday - if not for emergencies I usually always try to stick my plans if other people are involved, too - but we had to go out of town on Sunday. (more to that perhabs at a later point).

So after a bunch of phone calls, the last shopping I started making his birthday cake Friday evening and was done by 3 am. That was not planned like that. I should be used that plans never work out. LOL

Mandatory Fun Day at BLORA

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Last Friday was this mandatory fun day from Leland's work out on the lake area close to the poste. Even we already live here for over two years neither one of us had a clue how to get there and what was going on there.

You have to drive about ten miles out into nowhere to get to the park and it is actually quite nicely done, but in summer it is of course pretty hot there.

The mandatory applies to all the soldiers to be present at the event.

Fun - that part we didn't really figure out. Lots of sports activities for the soldiers in the heat. Not much for family or kids.

You just always have to make the best out of it so we just hung out there and took a look around so we know where to go next time we go out there by ourselves taking along bathing suits, towels, picknick or BBQ.

Am Freitag war wie jedes Jahr wieder einmal ein obligatorischer "organisierter anwesendheitspflichtiger Spass Tag" von Lelands Einheit.

Chiara hat dort auch gleich Valentina getroffen, mit der sie die letzten zwei Jahre in einer Klasse war. Und die zwei hatte so ihren Spass.

Jetzt wissen wir wenigstens wo BLORA ist und kennen auch endlich den Weg dorthin. Und koennen das als Ausflugsziel auf unsere Liste setzen auch fuer zukuenftige Besucher. Zu Weihnachten gibt es dort auch viele Lichterdekoration - Nature Lights! Just wait for Xmas!

Splashing at home

Es sind richtige Sommertemperaturen hier in Texas, deswegen kann man kaum etwas anderes
draussen tun als zu planschen.

There are real summer temperatures hier in Texas, so there is hardly anything else to do outside beside splashing in the water.

Danke Karin

Dear Karin,

thank you very much for the package that came in the the mail. I love the baby cookies and can eat those all the time if Mami just would let me.

I was also really excited to unwrap my present, but Chiara just couldn't keep her fingers off. Hey I can do it all by myself - jyst wait until your birthday comes and I try to help YOU!

I already fingered out how to get the little truck in and out the house, but still need to work onm the little pieces. But I am sure if I keep watching my sisters on how they are playing with MY new toy, I will eventually figure it out.

Thank you so much.

Hugs and kisses

Soren

P.S. Can you come and bring me my present next time? Please?