2011

It's the first few minutes of a new year, welcome 2011! It's so strange that 4 years ago this time, I was getting ready to graduate highschool, and this coming May Jared will be graduating. So much has changed this year, it has been pretty crazy. I could not be more grateful for the way everything has turned out. Mat and I have a beautiful home in Belgium, and we made the move without going crazy. We made it through the dogs having puppies and KayLeigh being born at the same time. I still have trouble believing I am a mom sometimes, and giving birth in Belgium was quite the experience. I am so thankful that KayLeigh is happy and healthy and she is thriving. This summer Mat and I are looking forward to having his daughter,Breanna spend a few months with us! She will get to see a lot of her little sister and we have a lot of plans for her to experience Europe. My new year resolution is to go back to school, and I am working with admissin counslers right now to start asap. I"m looking forward to completing a degree. I hope everyone had a wonderful 2010 and that the new year finds everyone healthy and happy! I love you all! Happy new years from Belgium!!

Family Pictures 2010

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, we just got back from the states a few days ago, we didn't have much access to the internet, and we were way too busy to write a blog! We went and visited Mat's family in Ohio, and had an excellent time! We decided to try out Space-A (space available) travel through the Airforce, and we had a pretty good first experience with it. We left from Ramstein, Germany on the 15th of November and the flight was about 10 hours, the only one that was available was into Dover, Delaware, so thats what we got on. The way Space-A travel works is that cargo planes or planes taking troops to Afghanastan and Irag go through Germany and will pick up more people if they have room. So the plane goes from Afghanistan to Germany, then Germany to the states somewhere on the east coast usually, and we hopped on to go to the east coast. The plane we rode on to the states was quite different than any I've been on before. We rode on a C-5 cargo plane! The thing is sooooo HUGE!! It is the plane they use to transport tanks! Above the cargo space there is space for passengers, and we rode up there. There are quite a few seats and only 18 passengers so we got to stretch out quite a bit, it was pretty nice. The seats in the plane face backwards though, so when you take off and land it feels really weird. The worst part is there are no windows on a C-5, so it felt kind of claustraphobic in there...but I cant really complain because it is free travel for military members, so we didnt have to pay anything. KayLeigh did very well on both flights. She slept pretty much the whole way, and when she wasnt sleeping she was eating, she barely cried at all! Her ears didnt seem to bother her, so that was a relief, and she adjusted to the time change of 6 hours really quickly. Once we got into Delaware we were planning on staying at a hotel since Ohio is an 8 hour drive, but Mats mom and sister suprised us and brought us all the way back to Ohio that night. We were so ready to sleep after that drive! We spent the first few days there shopping and stopping in to see everyone in his family. The next saturday Mat went and picked Breanna up from Louisiana, and she spent the week of Thanksgiving with us. This trip was Breannas first chance to meet KayLeigh, and she is such a wonderful big sister!! She is absolutley in love with Kay, and is great with her. We had a birthday party for Breanna while she was there with mat's whole family and she got tons of presents, cake and love. We took our family pictures, and they will hopefully become a yearly tradition. I took Kay to get her ears pierced while we were in Ohio, and she did really well, cried for about 2 minutes and then completley forgot about it, she has little pink butterfly earrings, Breanna thought they were too cute. After Breanna went home we continued to shop and spend time with Mats family. I was treated to a night without the baby and Husband and went out for a girls night at a bar, my first time to drink at a bar in the states since I turned 21 while pregnant in Belgium! I had a good time, but lets just say I wont be drinking for a while! Mat stayed home with Kay and found out just how good our baby is, she slept for him the whole night darnit!! lol. The plane ride back was easy enough, we didnt think we were going to get on it but by some luck our names got called and we boarded on the 6th from Baltimore. Space-A travel doesnt guarantee you a seat, you can sign up online in advance, but if the plane crew decides they dont want anymore people, or they too many people sign up before you, you just dont get a seat. This time we got a commercial plane, and got to watch movies the way home, when we werent sleeping. Again Kay slept pretty much the whole way, and she stunk up the airplane bathroom with a poopy diaper, I feel really sorry for whoever went in there after us lol. We got off the plane and were greeted with snow in Germany, stopped at the PX to buy Kay a bouncer (thanks papa Rusty) and headed home that day. The roads were pretty bad, we had horrible weather to welcome us home, fog, and rain, and wind. But we made it home safely, it was pretty late though so we watited until the next day (yesterday) to go pick up the dogs. They were staying with our friends who dont live too far from us. They were so happy to see us!! The dogs even seemed to miss Kay, and gave her some kisses too! while we were in Ohio Kayleigh perfected rolling over, which she did for the first time a few nights before we left from Belgium to Ohio, and MAts sister got her to laugh for the first time, its such a cute laugh! We all had a great time, and we are looking forward to our next trip to the states this summer!! But for now it feels good to be home, I love being in the US, but its nice to be in our house with all our stuff, living out of suitcases was getting pretty old by the time we left. IT was a good couple of weeks and I certainly needed to get out of Belgium for a while! Our next trip will be in May, Kay and I will be coming to Colorado for a while. Love you all very much!! hope you enjoy the pictures!

Halloween

This was KayLeigh's first Halloween! We did not go trick-or-treating, because, well KayLeigh can't eat candy yet lol. But we did do "trunk or treat" on the army base here. A bunch of people sign up and hand out candy to the trick or treaters from the trunks of their car. It is a lot safter then going out in the various neighborhoods here in Belgium, and there were a ton of kids out! It was a lot of fun, and we are planning on doing it again next year, and we'll take more pics then because we are going to decorate the car really awesome! But for now here are some pictures of Kay in her Halloween costume. She was a scarecrow, cutest little scarecrow I've ever seen!! love you all!

11 weeks

I finally found the cord for my camera, so I took some new pictures of KayLeigh..She is almost 3 months old and getting bigger everyday! Not too much is new here in Belgium, Mat andI are doing well. Mat is enjoying his job still and we are both looking forward to our trip to Ohio next month to see his family. It is definitley fall here, the leaves are changing colors and the days are much cooler, it gets dark around pm now. I'll take some pictures of the trees, and I'll take lots of pictures when we get to Ohio. But for now here are new pictures of KayLeigh! Love you all!

2 month check up

We took KayLeigh to her 2 month check up on the 12th. The pediatrician on base is very nice, I am very glad we don't have to go back to the hospital I gave birth at. We have an American doctor, and it is much nicer to have someone who speaks english! She now weighs 12.3 lbs, and is 23.5 inches long. She is in the 73rd percentile for her age, so she is doing very well. The doctor said that her height to weight ratio is very good. She also got her first round of vaccines, poor baby. I think it was worse for me than it was for her though, she did very well, just cried a little bit. I on the other hand, felt like punching the guy that gave her the shots in the face for making my baby cry...probably not the best idea lol. She got her shots and stopped crying right after I picked her up, she did fine for a couple hours but got a bit of a fever later in the evening. Nothing some tylenol didn't clear up though, although tylenol doesn't cure crankyness, and she had plenty of that all night! She is still doing well, sleeping through the night, only waking up once to eat around 4 am usually, so I get about 6 hours of sleep. It's amazing! I don't know what I did to deserve such an easy baby, but I sure am glad!
In other news, we discovered that not only do we have a cherry tree in the backyard, we have a walnut tree in the front! We have huge piles of walnuts laying all over the ground, so we went out and gathered a bunch up, we're going to roast them, I hope to make it a fall tradition for the next few years we are here. They are delicious walnuts! Other than that, I've been taking a kickboxing class on base, my wonderful husband watches KayLeigh, so I get some time to myself out of the house. It's stopped me from going crazy, so thats good! Other than that, I don't think we have much news, it's been a pretty calm month so far, which is very much appreicated! Love you all!

2 months!

KayLeigh is now 2 months old, the time flew by pretty fast! I haven't updated the blog in quite a while, we have just been so busy, I feel like I'm just catching my breath and getting a little bit of a routine in place with KayLeigh. I'll backtrack a bit and let you know what we've been up to the past month or so.
After Mom, Dad and Jared left we had a few weeks before Erin and Cory came. The time could not come fast enough! Erin and Cory were coming to visit and meet KayLeigh, but they also took the two puppies back to the states with them, thank goodness. They were slowly driving me completley insane! Foxie is usually a relativley well behaved dog, but when she had her puppies she went crazy! Mat would leave for nights at work, and foxie would cry all night long downstairs in the kennel with the puppies...so combine that with adjusting to life with a newborn and needless to say, I was not a very happy person. During the day wouldnt have been so bad, if I didnt have a newborn..but trying to get off the couch to stop a puppy from chewing on something is rather difficult when you have an infant attached to you breastfeeding lol. So the puppies ran wild for a while, driving me crazy, I thought they were the cutest things before KayLeigh came along, but after she was born, all I wanted to do was ship them off with Erin and Cory! They got here on the 15th of September and stayed for about two weeks. It was really nice having them here, we did a lot of traveling! The first few days we just hung around Belgium, showed them base, went downtown, then they went to Englad for a few days. Once they got back we headed to Germany. The first day we went to Ramstein AFB, which is about 3 hours away, we were going to stay the night, but they didnt have any rooms, so we made our way to Heidelburg, where Cory had a friend stationed and we stayed at his house. He took us out to dinner at an amazinly delicious German resturant! I wanted to eat so much food! KayLeigh did well the whole car ride there, and slept through most of dinner. The next day we woke up and walked around downtown Heidelburg and did some shopping. Mat and I are planning to go back, it was really beautiful, and the real cinderella castle isnt too far from there. Next summer we will hopefully have Breanna,and KayLeigh will be about a year old, so we're planning on taking them there. We ate lunch, then got back on the road heading to Edelweiss, an armed forces resort in the swiss alps.. we are definatley going back there! It was absolutley amazing!! After getting lost in the dark, because our gps got confused when we crossed the border into Austria momentarily, we got there pretty late. Nothing was open for dinner at the hotel, so mat and cory went out to find some foood. There was a bar/resturant down the road a bit and the lady that owned it opened up her kitchen and sent mat and cory back to us with this delicous stew and noodles! she even lent us her own tupperware to take it in, she was a sweetheart. We all slept really well that night I think and woke up the next morning and headed to the Eagle's nest, Hitlers home away from home in Austria. We had to drive to the bus station, then get on a bus that drove us up the side of a mountain. and this road was only big enough for one bus at a time, we were looking over huge cliffs on the side of the road on the way up, it was pretty scary. After we get to what you think is the top of this mountain, you have to get on an elevator that takes you even higher! We didnt get to see the inside of the house, because you had to schedule a tour in advance, but the views from the top were worth it! we were so high up, and the view was beautiful. I didnt take any pictures, so I'm just waiting on Erin and Cory to send us the ones they took, I figured why take pictures, when we have Professional photographer cory with us? After taking in the views for a while, we started the trip back down the mountain. We got dinner in the town not too far from the eagles nest then started the journey to Munich. We got there kind of late, but we walked around downtown a bit, and ate dinner at the Hofbrauhouse. KayLeigh has been sleeping through most of this, waking up in the car to stare at Erin, and eat lol. We got back to the hotel (thank you again Erin and Cory) and all had a much needed nights rest. Woke up the next morning and headed to Dachaus, a concentration camp. It is a huge place, and we spent quite some time there reading all the stories of people who had been through there and looking around at all the buildings. Once we were done there we headed back to Ramstein, and luckily they had a room for us that night, because we were all exhausted from walking around all day. The next day was spent at Ramstein, they have a huge bx on base, it is like a mall, makes mat and I feel a little like we're back in the states, since they have lots of food from home. After shopping for a while we made the 3 hour trip back home, picked up all four dogs from a friend who was bravely watching all of them for us, and slept. We went to Antwerp, which is in belgium about 2 hours away the next day. Had a delicious lunch at an italian resturant and did some shopping. spent the night relaxing, cory took some cute pictures of kayleigh for us, hopefully i'll have those soon and can get some sent out to everyone. Erin and Cory left with the puppies the next morning. I was happy to see the pups go, but sad that erin and cory were leaving. It was really nice having more family here, but it's also nice to feel like we're finally settling in at home with KayLeigh. the past few weeks mat and i have just enjoyed being at home. He started a new job right before erin and cory came, he is now personal security for a 3 star general. He likes his new job, and the hours so far seem a bit better then they were at his last job. He is looking forward to getting his official passport, because then he will start traveling with the general for a few days at a time.
KayLeigh and I are doing very well, I am so glad I had a natural birth, I feel like I recovered very quickly. She has a little bit of a routine that I have just adjusted myself to. she eats and sleeps all day long, no real rhyme or reason to it, but at about 9pm she starts to get a little fussy, shes usally fed and asleep by midnight, and I get to sleep in bed for almost 5 hours. I wake up, feed her, and fall asleep in the rocking chair with her for another couple hours. Its not too bad most nights, I feel like i get a pretty good amount of sleep. She is growing like crazy, already weighs about 12lbs. We have her two month checkup on the 12th. she has to get her vaccines, so we'll see how that goes!
and that is about all that has happened for the past few weeks. Mat and I have some calm for a few more weeks, then we are heading to Ohio for 3 weeks around Thanksgiving. We get to pick up Breanna, so she will get to meet KayLeigh, and Mats family will be meeting KayLeigh for the first time as well. We are looking forward to the trip, it will be nice to get back to the states for a while. Our next trip will be in May, for Jared's graduation. I will post pics for everyone to look at as soon as I have them. love you all!

Videos of KayLeigh

Silly faces : )

Mat and I were trying to catch KayLeigh's smile on camera...We got lots of silly expressions in the process. They make me laugh so I thought I would share them with you!

More pics

Well today KayLeigh is 12 days old, and she is doing very well! She is asleep on me as I type this, seems like we spend a lot of our time like this. : ) She is a very good baby, doesnt really fuss or cry too much, she lets us know when she is hungry though! She lets me get about 3 or 4 hours of sleep in bed until she wakes me up to eat. Thank goodness Mat bought the most comfy rocking/recliner for the nursery, I usually just fall asleep in there after feeding her. KayLeigh is happy most of the time, she already smiles when she hears daddy talking to her after he's been at work all day, I've been trying to catch a smile on camera, but its hard! It was really nice having my mom and dad here, HUGE help since I was in the hospital for a few days. The Belgians usually keep people in the hospital for 5-7 days, even if nothing is wrong, but we escaped early, I was getting tired of being woken up by the french language... I think we would be buried in laundry, dishes and puppy poop if my parents hadnt come to help, they stayed home while Mat slept with me at the hospital. It was so nice to not have to worry about the dogs being home alone, and it was nice having my parents there for KayLeighs first few days of life. It was quite the process trying to get out of the hospital early. The doctors thought KayLeigh was jaundiced, even though none of us could see it...and guess who was right? us!! They had us stay so they could do blood work on her, and they came back just fine, so wegot out of there. Once we did leave, we spend a day in Antwerp with mom, dad and jared, it was a nice day of shopping and being together in the nice weather before they all had to leave. We miss them, the dogs keep looking in the guest room for grandpa and grandma lol. We couldnt be more grateful for their help!! So here are some pictures from antwerp, the boys climbing trip and a few more of KayLeigh...Oh, we also went to Waterloo, I'll put those pictures up too! : )














The Hill at Waterloo that overlooks the battlefield. I waited at the bottom with KayLeigh lol

Jared with a Napolean hat on : )

Jared on the steps up the hill

The view from the top

Dad

Mom and Dad at the top

Jared and a smart car in Antwerp lol

Eating delicious food!!

The climbing wall dad, mat and jared went to

They get along so well lol. (Jared had just had his first beer ever lol. the drinking age in belgium is 16)

Dad at the climbing wall

Dad and Mat climbing

I love theselittle socks!!

She loves her chair! Thank you Aunt Christine!!

Last day in the hospital, ready to go home in the cute outfit Nana bought her!