A few new pics

Playing on the porch

Mowing the carpet

Not sure why he's got the windblown look going on

Relaxin' in his Bumbo

Playing Army

Spaghetti night! We babysat Gavin so Jon and Lynse could go to a Hail & Farewell dinner and decided that spaghetti sounded like fun!

I think he enjoyed it

I'm bothering him with the camera

Look at this LOOONG noodle mom!

Reaching in for more - notice his hair? Did you know spaghetti sauce could be used as hair gel?

Still eating

Sorry for the lack of updates

Sorry - I've forgotten to update the blog lately. We went to Paris the weekend of Kemper's birthday because James had a 4-day and we don't have much longer to travel before we head back to the States.

Sliding after church on Easter Sunday

Double trouble!

Kemper made a friend on the church playground

Kemper and Daddy before church on Easter

Trying to convince us to open his Easter basket goodies before church

Checking out his Easter basket

Paris was actually a let down for us. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and spent some time lounging on the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, but Paris just didn't impress us nearly as much as Rome. We did take Kemper to Disneyland Paris on Sunday and had a great time! There were a few things that he could ride and he enjoyed them! He rode It's a Small World, the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, Dumbo's Magical Flight, The Enchanted Carousel and Buzz Lightyears Laser Blast. He really enjoyed It's a Small World and the Teacups. James and I took turns riding a few of the larger rides and were able to take advantage of a great program that Disney offers to parents of small children. It's called Baby Swap and it allows one parent to wait in line for a ride and the other waits with the child. Once the first parent is done riding, the other parent gets to get on the ride right away without having to wait in the long line again. It was VERY nice because some of the lines were WAYYY too long for us to wait in with Kemper. As usual, Kemper did GREAT. We got to the park at 10:30am and left at 8:30pm without so much as a meltdown. He took a nap in the stroller we rented (we've learned that traveling with a stroller in Europe is pretty much pointless as you spend most of the time carrying it up and down stairs) and was happy to look around at all of the colorful Disney decorations.

Whoa! Daddy took off a little fast at MegaPlay

Loving the slide into the ball pit at MegaPlay

Where's Kemper?

Trying to figure out how to get one of these ball pits at his house

Chasing Ruger

Kemper's still going to CDC 3 days a week and LOVES it. He really loves his teacher, Ms. Josie but we just found out she's PCSing in 3 weeks so he'll have a new teacher. I'm sad about this. Ms. Josie is SO good with the kids and you can tell that she honestly loves her job and loves the kids. She is truly excited to see them and is sad if they're not going to be there for some reason. Recently, when I dropped Kemper off she asked me if Gavin was ok because he was scheduled to be there that day but had cancelled that morning. I assured her that he was fine and Lynse just had the day off and wanted to play with him. She was sad he wasn't going to be there. She puts me at ease and makes me feel much better about leaving Kemper. We'll miss her, but we won't be around to much longer after she leaves!

Come on Mom, I'm ready to go inside.

Enjoying the beautiful spring day

Kemper demolishing a lemon at a restaurant in Paris

James got his orders yesterday that say we are officially heading back to the States at the end of June. We'll be heading back to Bedford for a week, maybe 2, for a wedding and then will be going up to Petersburg where James will be at Ft. Lee for about 5 months. We should find out around October where the Army will be sending us for the next 3 years. We get to submit a "wish list" and hope that there is an available job for James at our top choices. We're really looking forward to being closer to home for a bit and hope that it will alleviate all of the stress that we feel when we come in for Christmas and our 2 week summer trips. There are always so many people we want/need to see but only so many hours in a day. Plus, now with Kemper, we just can't run around as much as we did before. He's a tough little guy and pretty adaptable but he also gets tired and cranky if we constantly go non-stop.

James and Kemper in front of the Eiffel Tower

He liked the Carousel until the horse starting going up and down!

Kemper and I in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle

As our time in Germany winds down, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that our 3 years here is up. Granted, James was gone for 15 months and I was in the States for 12 of those, but I remember in August of 2006 thinking that the time for us to move back would NEVER come. There are many things I'll actually miss about living here. Driving on the autobahn is FUN! Steak on a Rock is DELICIOUS! We have WONDERFUL friends here, who, with the way the Army works, we probably won't live near ever again.. We get to travel to beautiful places and see things that we never dreamed of seeing. It has truly been an amazing experience.

Birthday Party!!!!!!!

We had Kemper's 1st Birthday Party this afternoon and had a great time! We decided to have it a week early because of the way the Army has scheduled 2 4-day weekends for the month of April. It ended up being that basically everyone was going to be traveling next weekend and the weekend after that due to a 4-day so nobody could have come. Easy fix - we'll have it early


We had a cookout with burgers, hotdogs and ribs on the grill along with some other fixins followed by cupcakes and ice cream! Yum!! I made Kemper a giant cupcake for his "smash cake" and he really enjoyed it after the initial shock of being allowed to play with it.

**WARNING - TONS of pictures to follow*** We did video it, and once I have a chance to figure that out, I'll try to post it!

Kemper, Gavin and Aiden playing

Kemper, Gavin, Aiden and Jessica (and Ruger dog)

The dining room - we hung pictures of Kemper from this past year

The cake table

Kemper's cake and the cupcakes

Uh, mom, what is that thing?!

Testing it out

This is pretty good.

James trying to get him to dig in!

Yeah!!! Delicious!

Such a good sharer!

YAY Kemper!

More cake

What, you said I could!

Hey, what are those up there?!

Gavin says, "Hey, I want to do that too!"

Soon buddy, really soon!!

Such a sweet boy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!! We love you!

See that sly grin?

It's everywhere!

Straight to the tub.

Haha, where does he get that look from?! ;)

Where'd that cake go?

All cleaned up and ready to play!

Gavin just hanging out.

What was left of the cake.

Rome, Italy

Well, it's been awhile (as usual, sorry) and we've had lots going on. Rita got here on the 9th and has been visiting with us, soaking up time with Kemper, and traveling with us. We went to Rome for a 4-day weekend and had a GREAT time. We got to see the Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistene Chapel, Palentine Hill, The Roman Forum, The Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Whew - we were busy!

Kemper, as usual, we a great little traveler. He did great on the plane rides and seemed to enjoy the trains around Rome. We carried him in the Ergo carrier again because a stroller wouldn't have worked in Rome and he hung out, looked around and slept. What a life. :)

I took lots of pictures, so rather than to clog up the blog (hehe), I'm posting the link to our Kodak Gallery. If the link doesn't work, just let me know!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ViewSlideshow.action?&collidparam=92571316407.902421727307.1237400973262