Glover Boys Beard Pictures

Another free photo collage by Smilebox

We made it to the States!

Saturday we arrived safely in Myrtle Beach! We'll be here (and Florida) for the next MONTH...one of the perks of working in Europe is TONS of vacation which we'll be using up.

The flight was surprisingly uneventful considering Kherington has had the stomach flu. Kherington started throwing up Thursday...like throwing up as in all over mom for a couple hours (I have very thankful for hardwood floors and leather couches). Since then she has just been really really mellow. We weren't sure how the plane would go, but she just wanted to be held and to sleep. She didn't throw up at all on the plane and even saved her diarrhea for Myrtle Beach :). I think this morning she is finally starting to feel a little better...she has been eating everything in sight and had some chunky poo which I think are both good signs. Hopefully it all stays down and she'll go back to her normal self (I've now decided mellow is overrated).

Anyways...since we were making the trip we decided we should pack back some chocolates and favorite European candies to share with those we'll see.

The brown boxes are filled with Neuhaus chocolates and the stack of boxes with white on the side are toffifee (my favorite).

The New Addition

Yep...that's right. Kherington is going to be the big sister. We're having a BOY at the end of March / beginning of April.

In the US my doctor went off the calendar due date even though the ultrasound showed Kherington was growing about 1.5 weeks small and she was born a day early. If we have a repeat of that, he'll come March 30th and be the perfect size (6ish pounds). :)

In Belgium my doctor based the due date solely off the ultrasound hence the April 5th...I'm thinking that would make too big of a baby.

Everything is going great. I don't get sick when I get pregnant I just get tired so that's a plus. My doctor speaks English fluently and is very nice. We get 3 major ultrasounds (one each trimester) plus a quick one at each appointment which is kinda cool. They tested for the baby's blood type since we have negative and positive between me and Ryan and found that I get to get that fun shot once again.

Play Group

I've been doing a play group with some ladies that I met at the neighborhood park. It has been a lot of fun. We meet once a week from 9:30am - noonish. We take turns hosting and whoever hosts in is charge of lunch. There are 6 kids total (5 families...one with twins). Each of us are from different countries so we speak different languages to our kids and then English to each other. I sometimes wonder if Kherington is picking up any Italian or German or other languages just from people talking to her in it. These aren't the best pictures, but they're as good as they're going to get for now....it's lunch time at our house (chicken pot pie, cucumbers and clementines).

Aachen Christmas Market

With just one free Saturday before heading back to the states, we decided to head over to Aachen, Germany to visit their Christmas market. We enjoyed sampling the food including huge bratwursts (next time we'll try out the 1/2 meter ones), sugar coated deep fried bread balls and sauteed mushrooms with garlic sauce. We both decided out favorite was the mushrooms :). While we were in Aachen we also found a Euro store (just like the US dollar store) as well as a cool Christmas store where we bought a fun Advent Calendar (yet to be hung...maybe next year).

Mom's Visit

My amazing mom came out to visit us and stayed 3 whole weeks! Ryan and I were on our cruise 12 of the days and mom watched Kherington for us.

We tried to pack in as much as possible while she was here...hopefully she'll come back and visit us again. So...what did we do? Well, here's out play by play with the pictures that I had on my camera.

Thursday - Mom arrived in the afternoon. We were able to snatch her just as she exited the baggage area which was very lucky.

Friday - Let mom adjust a little to the time change then went to Stockel market and had the BEST waffles made in Brussels.

Saturday - Day trip up to Amsterdam. Kherington had a nice nap in the backpack for most of our time there. Mom bought some tulips and planted some in our back yard AND weeded for us while she was here. We were in search of some German food and had seen a bratwurst stand at a market, so we found out way back there. Ryan made friends with the guy and found that he's a fugitive from Cleveland (haha)...he was nice and gave Kherington a free hot dog and bun.

Sunday - Church. Mom drove home...I must say I think having her drive in this crazy place is probably what it feels like to have a 15 year old first get behind the wheel. In the evening, we explored downtown Brussels.

Monday - Day Trip to Ghent. It was kinda sad that they were doing major construction around the main square and very interesting that the public walk ways went right through the construcation area where back hoes and whatnot were in use. On our way home, we stopped at the Neuhaus Chocolate Outlet.

Tuesday - We stayed around home and did the normal stuff to make sure mom would be okay while we were gone...that means grocery shopping (how to buy produce and how to actually use the debit card) and gas station (how to fill up the car).

Sunday - Mom picked us up from an airport that's about 45 minutes away. Kherington was VERY excited to see us :) and is much more cuddly than she was before (which still isn't a ton...she's an independent little girl).

Monday - Day trip to Colonge to got to the Christmas Market at the Cathedral. We made a pit stop in Aachen to grab a kebab from my favorite kebab place....if you're ever going through definitely stop because they are AMAZING! It was FREEZING, but they had some good food to keep up warm. I discovered that I do not like roasted chestnuts...I always thought they sounded cool because of the song, but I'll never buy them again. We also tried these deep fried potato cake things (like hashbrowns, but they have flour in it) with a side of applesauce to dip them in (Kherington enjoyed these), bratwursts and a mixed bag of sugar coated nuts.

Tuesday - Trip out to the Le Creuset outlet in France. Mom now owns a beautiful Blue Enameled Cast Iron Pot :). We also stopped at Flanders Fields on our drive out.

Wednesday - Mom decided since she loves the morning so much she would fly out at 6am...meaning her flight left at 6...which means we went to the airport before the crack of dawn.

We had an awesome time and can't wait for more visitors to come :)

Kherington - 19 Months

Kherington definitely has her own personality.

She loves the computer and music...we're trying to train her on liking movies to make long airplane and car rides a little more enjoyable but they still don't hold her attention. She loves shoes, laughs at almost anything, says no-no before doing something she's not supposed to, and says uh-oh after doing something she not supposed to. She like applesauce, pudding, hummus, guacamole and anything else she can dip something in. At thanksgiving dinner all she at was turkey and jellied cranberry sauce (and dessert). She loves going outside (too bad it is FREEZING here). She grabs your face when you're not looking at what she wants you to be and leads you to the correct location when she wants something that is locked up or she can't reach. Her favorite books are currently Ryan's college basketball magazine and Book of Mormon Stories. She LOVES her bears (brown bear and rainbow bear...rainbow bear is the favorite). She likes talking on the 'phone' meaning anything she decides to stick to her ear (domino, spatula, shoes...). She doesn't care for naps, but still has time in her room by herself (she can either sleep or play with two toys in there).

Here she is:

Kherington 18 Months

My how she has changed. She is between 16 and 18 months in all of the pictures below (pictures in age order). She is a silly silly girl and we LOVE her!