June

I am going to have at least 2 posts this month!!! SO here we go with #2...

It has been quite a trip around here lately. The driver's side window on our minivan has been stuck in the down position for 4 weeks now. Thank you AAFES for all of the confusion over ordering a part, which part, we don't know if we ordered the part, oh wait you have to pay for the part, etc. Maybe someday the window will go up again. Also, the BMW is in the shop with a possible death rattle. So we are getting used to the feeling of wind in our hair as we drive down the autobahn. ;) Also, Rob test drove a Mini this week. hmmm.

My nieces Leah and Sarah arrived with Leah's aunt Connie (also a librarian) and we had a whirlwind week of sightseeing in southern Germany last week. there were many mis-adventures along the way with poor directions (thankfully we had brought an atlas,) getting caught in the rain repeatedly, and even, literally, missing the boat for our Rhine cruise! But it all worked out in the end (we caught up with boat in Rudesheim) and everyone stayed in relatively good spirits (except maybe me.)

Connie and also Sarah have now returned home to Pennsylvania, but Leah is still with us and being a HUGE help with the kids. Hopefully she's having some fun too.

Also, last night we had Enrichment meeting at church. Not long ago I was asked to be on this committee and so I had a part to play in the planning and execution of our ladies' Summer Social evening--- which involved making about 20 jars of strawberry freezer jam, coaxing Rob and Leah into watching 10-12 kids, and researching & growing a small herb garden. Maybe it doesn't sound like much, but in the context of the past few weeks, it was a LOT to do. :)

Anyway, here are a few snapshots from our recent trip, all in a jumble as usual---

The Rathaus and Marienplatz in Munich.

Our hotel in Baden-Baden was just a short walk down to the city center.

Jetlag, 800 miles in a minivan, & countless castles.

Leah, Connie, & Sarah in Heidelberg.
The view from Neuschwanstein.
Rob would like to spend a week just here, hiking around the lake and exploring the mountains. :)

Sarah and Leah at the gate of Dachau Concentration Camp.

One of the many castles along the Rhine... Rheinfels???
The cruise was nice but MUCH too long (at 7 hours) with our two little ones.

Me and my sweetie. :D

overheard

Charlotte: It's a snake!
Rob: It's not a snake.
C: It's a worm!
R: It's not a worm, Charlotte.
C: It's a DEAD worm [nodding.]
R: It's not anything, just stop freaking out.
C: It's not freaking out, it's a worm!
R: No, YOU are freaking out.
C: I'm not freaking out... I'm just a Charlotte.

PS- Check out http://leahscoolsite.webs.com/apps/blog/ to read my niece Leah's blog. She'll be staying with us this Summer and keeping you all up to date on us as well. :)

Jahjuh

We have been back to our lovely house in Germany for 2 weeks now, and I am just NOW getting around to posting photos from our trip to Georgia. Jetlag will do that to ya... and the 2 little ones sure are demanding of time and attention too. :)

The biggest event of our trip, in my opinion, was "family picture day!" (Thanks to Rachel we have all of these fabulous behind-the-scenes shots.)

Rachel & Becky


Rachel & Mom Anderson

Rachel & Charmay

Rob & Tom

Me, Toby (chewing on my necklace,) & Rob

Toby (like many of us) looks up to his Daddy. ;)

Henley family- Ally, Chris, Joseph, Lizzie, & Savannah

Rob's Dad is a very popular man with the grandkids-- here you can see Savannah, Lizzie, Elanor, Joseph, Johnny, & Charlotte

Grandpa is an expert on rocks... which Charlotte loves. :)

After photos, we went to "5 Guys" for some burgers for dinner. Grandpa taught Charlotte about shelling peanuts.

And SOMEBODY allowed (and encouraged) her to eat this entire little cup of ketchup. hmmm, who took these pictures again???

Daddy & Toby sneaking up on an ice-eating Charlotte.

We had lots of other (less photographed) fun visiting at Grandma & Grandpa's house. This is Charlotte in her "big sister" shirt, with her "pony tail" and polar bear- all ready for bedtime.

Playing nap time with Aunt Rachel.

Aunt Becky & Toby.

We loved having time to spend with ALL of you--- even if we didn't post a picture of it here! Thank you Rachel for all of the great shots, I am notoriously bad at remembering to pull out the camera.

newsflash!!!

Yesterday morning there was a commercial on Nick Jr. about potty training. I thought I'd try to take advantage of this instance of marketing to children and asked Charlotte if she'd like to wear panties and sit on the potty. She did! And guess what! She had an extremely successful day of going on the potty! Woo-hoo!!!

Rob suspected that she just did not want to do it because we wanted her to. Looks like he was right. :) She wore a diaper to bed last night, but otherwise she has been 100% a potty girl since yesterday morning. Way to go Charlotte! :D

good times

When Rob & I were first married, we made some friends who were also married with no children.... 3 1/2 years later it's great to get together with some of our old gang! We bought our first homes around the same time, had our first babies within about 6 months of each other, and had our second babies within about 7 weeks of each other.

Cameron, Toby, & Sophie
(I love how Toby is flirting in this photo!)

All of the kids!
William, Cameron, Toby, Charlotte, Josh, & Sophie

It was a lot of fun to see y'all- Hancocks & Spiveys!

One last photo-- we took Charlotte & Toby to the Visitor's Center at the Washington DC Temple this week. This is where Rob and I were married. The Visitor's Center has a lot of information and displays about the history of the Church and the life of Jesus Christ. When we were walking back to the car, Charlotte said, "This is where Mommy and Daddy and Charlotte and Toby got married." and "That was a good Jesus."

Also, yay! we have a sit & stand stroller!! Let's hear it for yard sales. ;)

watch out world, he's on the move

Toby is soooo close to crawling! I took this video a few days ago. He can now find a way to get to the things that he wants--- which means we are in big trouble! :)

sweet home Pennsylvania

After Easter Rob had to return to Maryland and his class work. The kids and I decided to stay in PA for 2 weeks and visit with friends and family. (Although Rob did come up on the weekend, because we missed him so much... for the first time, Charlotte was actually willing to really talk to someone (her daddy) on the phone. Amazing!)

Here is a muddled snapshot of our trip--- I'd put these photos in order, but I'm blogging from a hotel room with 2 small children, so this is the best I can do today! ;)

Molly and Charlotte enjoyed going for a little hike at Beltzville and lunch at the Sunset Diner with their moms. One of the nice things about hanging out for so long was being able to meet up with some of my old friends from high school and catch up with them. 13 years is a loooong time- it's nice to know some things never change. :)

Toby and Aunt Melissa. I liked having little visits throughout our stay and having time to talk with my family as individuals and not just as a big group. I like teasing Melissa that Charlotte got her Chatterbox gene from the same place as her Aunt Melissa. ;)

I made a short visit to see the headstone that we had put up for my mom and her parents. She had always talked about getting a headstone for their grave and hadn't been able to. Since we had her remains buried there as well, we were able to do that for her and I think that would have made her happy.

A crowd gathers to watch Uncle Ed eat something yucky- pickled tripe I think.

Toby with Aunt Melissa and Max. It was wonderful for Charlotte and Toby to spend time getting to know some of their cousins better.

Portrait of a TIRED traveler.
Charlotte has been such a good girl throughout this trip, but she seems to really be missing her home, toys, and friends in Germany.

Nothing like a popsicle on a hot day.
Notice Charlotte's new haircut? She can see again!

Toby chillin' with his Uncle Dan. Only 13 and already taller than me! Well I was the tallest in this family for a long time-- go ahead and enjoy it Dan- until Toby overtakes you. Oh wait, you have to catch Allen yet! ;)

Play time at Chestnuthill Park.
I got a haircut too- although it's pretty windblown in this photo, I think I like it. We'll see.

Tori preparing the kite for flight at Chestnuthill Park.

Happy little traveling man. We left this carseat in PA and have switched to a bigger one since Toby had reached the weight limit on this one and I could barely carry it around anymore.

It rained a bit and even hailed one day, but overall we had beautiful weather for our stay on the farm. Thank you Pam & Mark for letting us hang out and stay for so long!

Charlotte and Toby both liked the dogs at Pop-Pop's house. This is Buster, he's the bigger one.

And this is Nana. She's a little bit smaller while still fitting in the "enormous dog" category.

Tori and Charlotte had fun playing kitchen together and dressing up as super fancy ladies. I laugh every time I see Charlotte's face in this picture. :D It reminds me of living in New Jersey for some reason. hee hee

Thank you all for making time to play with us! I'm sorry if there is anyone we missed-- it was a very busy couple of weeks. It's kinda nice to be back at the hotel and recoup for a little while before we head off to visit Grandma & Grandpa Anderson in Georgia!!!

Easter 09

We headed up to visit my family in PA Easter weekend. It was great to get together with a lot of Charlotte and Toby's cousins and hunt for eggs and dye them as well. :)

Charlotte did a great job on the Easter egg hunt and couldn't wait to see all of the candy inside the eggs.

Easter egg dying- Eddie, Aunt Pam, Leah, Grandma Linda, and Connor

Aunt Pam, Leah, Daddy, Connor, and Uncle Dan

Charlotte showing off the eggs she dyed... notice how they each have exactly one sticker on top.

home sweet hotel

Hello from beautiful Greenbelt, MD! "A Liveable Community" according to the welcome sign. For those of you who might not have heard, we are spending some time in the good ol' US of A this Spring... and it really is good to be here. :) Here's a glimpse at what we've been up to so far.

Toby thinks the king size bed is just the right size for chillaxin'.
I agree.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner last Friday. Charlotte LOVED it. She ran right up to Chuck E. and said, "Hi Mickey, I'm Charlotte." I told her his correct name about a zillion times, but at this point he is still "Mickey Cheese."

Even Toby got in on the action and rode a creepy Teletubby ride.

Daddy and Toby beat Charlotte at air hockey, but she basically understood how to play and giggled like mad the whole time.

In non-photographed news--- we have been "stimulating the economy" (aka shopping.) I, especially, have really been missing the American shopping malls... and Target. We've been eating at all of our favorite dining establishments- Red Robin is my favorite and last night we celebrated Rob's birthday at Cheesecake Factory. Yummy! (Happy birthday again my love!) And last, but of course not least, we have been catching up with some old friends and having some fun playdates. :)

On the flip side- Charlotte is a bit homesick for her toys and friends in Germany. The morning we first woke up here she said, "let's get ready to go home!" Ummm, no. Living the Eloise-hotel lifestyle gets old fast. And there are things that we really enjoy about Germany--- our friends there, being able to walk places, bakeries on every corner, book club, etc, etc. But we'll be back there before we know it.

In the meantime- we look forward to seeing family very soon and hope that you all have a very Happy Easter this weekend. :D Tschuss!

out on the town

We've had some really nice weather here lately (for a change) and so we've tried to take full advantage of it and get out as much as possible. :)

On Sat. the 14th we walked through the forest to the Vivarium. It's a little zoo in Darmstadt, and is about a 3 km walk from our house. Charlotte loved it there! Rob, Toby, and I had a nice time too... and boy were we all worn out when we got home!

The walk took a while because we had to FULLY experience it by walking on logs, crunching through leaves, and pointing out pebbles in the dirt.

My cuddly Toby bear.

Charlotte, the curious monkey.

Charlotte and Daddy by the "Nasenbär exhibit." There is one in the photo, just to the left of Charlotte's head, but it is really hard to see here. I was surprised, there were many animals there that I had never seen before. Also, the habitats/exhibits were quite nice and large--- not nearly as depressing as some zoos I've been to.

This is our self-created double stroller. Toby is in the carseat in the stroller and Charlotte sits on top of the cup holders. It works pretty well actually.

Last Sat. we took a drive to Aschaffenberg and walked around the Altstadt, the open air market, and the castle there. It was a beautiful day! I love visiting different little German towns--- and eating yummy food too. My favorite German phrase right now is either, "Haben sie ein schoko-croissant?" (Do you have a chocolate croissant?) or "Eine kleine Doner mit Flatbroten bitte." (One small Doner on flatbread please.) hee hee

Random photo of Charlotte "smiling" like Rob did in his childhood photos.
(Those quote marks are just for you honey.)

"Knock, knock... are there any princesses here?"

In the courtyard of Schloss Johannisburg (probably misspelled) circa 1600. That door Charlotte was knocking on is on the righthand wall in this picture.

Castle in the background, market in the foreground. I thought it was quite busy for March- but it was a beautiful day out. :)