Tori in Europe!

Well, since Victoria spent the 12, 13th and 14th months of her life abroad, I thought I would include a montage of her time in Europe! After this post, I left in any post that contained cute pics, funny anecdotes or records of milestones. But for all the rest, I put togethere a hodgepodge post of cuteness.

Unpacking:

She threw all the shoes out of my closet and climbed inside!

Downtown Stuttgart, enjoying our first sample of German ice cream!

Tubingen:

Hohenzollern castle:

Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber:

Yum!

Victoria was completely obsessed with animals! Any time we saw a dog or a horse, this is the reaction she offered:

4th of July in Berchdesgaten, Germany

During the week, while Matt was working hard, we hung out at the SI Suites, our home for 3 months. Tori spent much of her time playing in these rocks or climbing the cement and metal stairs. Although the hotel room was fairly kid-friendly, the grounds were not.

Pizza in Italy! On the Vaporetto in Italy:

The Aquarium at Legoland Deutschland: More Legoland... how cute is that baby?

Tori and her buddy, Josh:

The Fam in Legoland:

St. Avold Cemetery in France:

(this is the largest American military cemetery in Europe)

Victoria with her bottle habit just outside General Patton's grave:

The Roman Black Gate in Trier, Germany, which is the oldest city in Europe (so they say)

Cochem on the Mosel River

Pointing at swans out on the Mosel River:

Burg Eltz:

The Eiffel Tower!!!

Tori at the top of the Eiffel Tower! It was while we were waiting in line to go to the top of the Eiffel tower that I held Tori's finger and let her walk around me for a minute. Matt said something to me and I turned to look at him, at which point, a strange woman in line picked Tori up and started giggling while all of her friends took pictures of them together!

Needless to say, I was horrified at their rudeness, but a little flattered that they adored her so much. Everywhere we went, people would ooh and aahh over Victoria (I think they loved her white-blonde curls):

Walking along the Champs de Elysees Taking a very windy boat ride around Paris!

I spent most of the ride just holding on to Tori to keep her from going over the side!

Walking down Rue Cler:

Munching on a real French Baguette:

Rubble Hill (which is in Stuttgart, where we lived)

Salzburg- this is Von Trapp house in the Sound of Music:

Salzburg: Mirabell Gardens

Tori spent a lot of her time in Salzburg walking on some very famous floors and throwing big fits when she was not allowed to climb the stairs over and over and over again. Kinda like this:

Lucerne, Switzerland... Tori would not keep her head under the shade, so she ended up pretty soaking wet by the end of the morning:

Just outside the caves of St. Beatine in Switzerland:

The tallest waterfall in Germany, Triberg:

Versailles Palace:

Schloss Schoenbrunn in Vienna:

Hallstatt, Austria:

The Ice Caves just outside Hallstatt:

Our last ice cream in Germany, also in Stuttgart's City Centre:

Such a big girl!

Victoria, we are so glad that you got to tour Europe with us! I only wish you had been a little older so that you would remember all the amazing sights. But here is a little record so you can know that you really did see Europe!

A Visit from GiGi

My Mom came to visit over Tori's Birthday weekend as a little Bon Voyage. We had a wonderful time together and the kids really enjoyed being able to play with their GiGi. I was so grateful to have her help and company!

It was also Air Force Week and many of you know we live a few blocks from the base. So, Mom's visit was fun, but noisy. We tried to get some shots from the airshow on Saturday:

Isaac and Daphne really enjoyed showing GiGi their bike riding skills:

Unfortunately, GiGi was here for the week before we left for Germany, which means I was running around like crazy and running errands this way and that. We were on the go a lot, so we had to have some meals out. Here is Tori at Costco:

Isaac wanted to use his money to buy a lollipop!

Sunday morning, our goal was to get some pics of all of us. Unfortunately, Daphne was in one of her moods. It was a good mood, just a "I'm going to be silly mood." So here is what we got:

Thanks for visiting GiGi! We had a great time and we will miss you while we are abroad!

Isaac's First Grade Program

These next few posts are pre-dated; as I am very behind on posting. I don't know what I have been up to for the past few weeks! :) Anyway, I'll have more Germany updates soon, but for now we'll have to settle for things that happened the week before we left.

Isaac's Last Day of School:

My first grader is no more. Standing in his place is a tall, lanky boy with glasses who looks just like his father. People tell me he looks like Matt all the time, but I never really saw it until we watched the video from this program. W-O-W. He was the tallest one in the entire first grade except for one girl. Here are a few pics...
Smiling before they start: He was all business as they performed; concentrating intently on the teacher and looking very serious. Here he is singing:

Beside his flower painting and picture:

I can't believe he will be a second grader this fall. It seems early childhood is nothing but a memory for him... We are so proud of him, though- he is such a good boy! We love you, Isaac!

Happy Birthday, Victoria- Day 2!

On Sunday, we had Tori's family birthday party at Matt's parents' home. My Mom was still here and able to make her super-cute Birthday cake...

At first, Victoria was very interested in her yummy birthday cake:

But after a few minutes, she began smearing it all over her tray and making a big mess. Yay!

After finishing her cake and a nice warm bath, we changed her clothes and began opening presents. Victoria seemed to prefer climbing on them:

My sister gave Victoria a glow-worm, totally 80's style. She loves it! I love that it reminds me of my childhood.

Happy Birthday, sweet Victoria! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Victoria!- Day 1

On Saturday, Victoria's actual birthday, we wanted her day to be special even if she had no idea it was her birthday. So, we decided to make sure she got all of her favorite foods. As previously mentioned, we provided strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Playing peek-a-boo on the way to the restaurant: In addition, my Mom, "GiGi" was visiting, so we all went out for Thai food at lunchtime.

Thai food, you ask? Well, as it turns out; one of Tori's favorite foods is eggrolls! (Isaac had eggrolls for his first birthday, also.) She thoroughly enjoyed this:

She also loved the Satay, which is like a chicken kabob:

Then we went to another little place for ice cream. Isaac and Daphne in their Texas shirts from GiGi: (T0ri and Daphne's say Texas Princess)

Now this next part requires a little explanation. About a week ago, Matt was grilling Bacon Cheeseburgers for dinner (Yum!) I was running around trying to prepare the other Fixin's and Tori was enjoying a strawberry in her seat. When we all sat down to eat, Tori started freaking out. I seriously thought that she was hurt, she was crying so hard. So, Matt suggested we have dinner on a blanket outside (which is her favorite place to be). So we all carried our plates outside, but that seemed to calm her only slightly. Unusual- she typically calms right down if you take her outside. I started pinching off pieces of my hamburger bun for her, which appeased her a little more. But she kept swiping at by burger and finally snatched some of it out of my hand and began chewing on a chees soaked piece of bacon and bun. She danced and made yummy noises like it was the best thing she had ever tasted. Apparently, we have quite the carnivore on our hands!

So, we had bacon cheeseburgers for dinner:

Whatchya eatin' Tori?

Yay! It's my birthday!

One

One year ago today...Our lives were changed forever. I thought it would be more subtle. I mean, we already had two lively young children bouncing around our house and filling our lives with joy and frustration. I knew three would be demanding and overwhelming, but we were already parents, right? How different could it be? But once more, God taught me a beautiful lesson.

Victoria has changed our lives immensely- in so many ways I did not expect. I have watched her grow and begin developing into a sliver of the person she will become. I have been awed by the majesty of bringing a life into this world. I have seen how she has permanently altered our family in the most beautiful ways. I have seen her teach me to treasure the small moments and even increase my love for my older children. I have watched my children care for another sibling, share their lives and belongings and very hearts with their sister. And I have watched my husband-my very best friend, blossom into a strong, dependable and tender-hearted father to three children. And once again, God's plan was better than my own...

Happy 1st Birthday, Sweet Victoria!

Tori's very favorite food is strawberries. (For most of April and May that's virtually all she would eat) So, for her birthday, we decided to let her have strawberries with breakfast:


Lunch:

And Dinner:

I have lots more pics from today and we'll get plenty more at her party tomorrow.

Messamaroo!

That's Victoria's new nickname. She lives to destroy all forms of neatness from block towers to folded laundry. Every morning she "helps" me unload the dishwasher, which consists of her grabbing out each piece of silverwear and dropping it as fast as possible. I try to catch them before they hit the floor and put them in the drawer.

In addition to these messes, we add every meal: Victoria will NOT be fed. She must feed herself and usually refuses to have her food cut up into bite-size pieces. She wants to hold her strawberry whole like the big kids. When she is eating something that absolutely requires a spoon, such as soup or yogurt, I get two spoons. I get a scoop of soup and she snatches the spoon from my hand and sucks the soup off. Then I get more soup on the next spoon and offer her the new one, which allows for me to take the first spoon without a screaming fit. It's quite ridiculous actually. But darn cute!
I must say I have a new patience for this stage of life. It's fun having my third child and realizing just how quickly each stage passes and that this messy stage will soon be exchanged for a new type of mess, until finally there are no handprints on my walls at all. It is my prayer that I can embrace their lives for what they are and enjoy God's gift of mothering these three precious children.

I ran to the grocery store to pick up just a couple of items and set the bags on the seat next to Tori. She was very quiet on the way home, but she usually is in the car. When we parked, I got out to find this:

She had gotten a yogurt out of the bag and chewed through the lid to get som of the yummy contents. Then she screamed when I took it out of her hands to get her out of the carseat. Let the tantrums begin.