October catch-up

October flew by. Once again I'm left wondering where the time has gone. We had the pleasure of having Sam's cousin, Heather, and her two kids visit us this month. They are currently living in Serbia and came over for a long weekend with us. We had a nice time. The rest of our month was filled up with those every day moments that make up life. Here is a look at our month ~

It has become a bit of a routine on Saturdays for Sam and Elly to do things together. Sam gets very little time with his little girl through the week, so he enjoys (and I know Elly LOVES) the time they have together on the weekend. It also gives me a little break :) Many Saturday mornings they take the recycling in and pick up some milk at the little grocery store in our town.

A house just down the street from us often has things set out to give away. One such little treasure we found while out on an evening walk was this little wagon (below). We see them being used alot by people delivering papers in town. This one was obviously home made, had a flat tire and looked like it had seen better days. Thanks to my resourceful husband he was able to get the tire fixed and now has this handy little wagon to drag to and from the store.

Out on one of our evening walks.

We love it when we come across a herd of sheep. These completely ignored us, but as soon as a dog came down the path they all had their heads up looking at him, ready to run. It's amazing to me how they react to a herd dog.

One of Elly's favorite things to do is get into everything I have on our fridge. She takes it all off and rearranges everything to her liking.

This little outfit was the first that she had ever shown an interest in. In the PX one day I showed her this little dress in red and purple and asked her which one she liked. She said that Daddy likes the red one, but that she liked the purple one :) I got it for her and the first time I put it on her she was so tickled and said "This is fun!!" She still loves it when she gets to wear it. I thought it was so cute that she actually had an opinion on her clothes. (I'm sure someday those words will come back and haunt me :)

Elly loves to look at pictures on the computer.

I stole this picture from Heather :) We were waiting for the bus at Burg Hohenzollern. We take all of our visitors to this castle. It's pretty impressive.

Like father, like daughter...

It was windy and chilly up at the castle.

Another day we went to the Stuttgart Stadtmitte.



We went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in downtown Stuttgart. It was HUGE and very nicely done, but I was mentally finished before we reached the end :) Maybe the next time we go I can start from the end and go backwards so I can catch what I wasn't real interested in this time.

The beginning...

At one point Elly thought it was more fun to sit and look out the window.

She liked the bus that she could get into and play around in.

Another day we went to Legoland. I love that place! It was a little chilly, but we enjoyed it anyhow. Elly really liked taking the boat ride with Daddy.

Berlin made out of Legos. (Now that we've been to Berlin I'd like to see it again.)

More Berlin

Venice, Italy

Venice

Trying to get a family picture while we were on the train. I love that Heather's cheesing behind us :)

At the end of the day Elly was happy to just play with the pumpkins they had for decoration while we waited for the others to go on another ride.

Elly was intrigued with this little Lego baby.

Too much excitement for this little girl.

Little cutie! It was a rainy day and she was finally able to use the raincoat from Oma and Opa and the umbrella from Aunt Kristy.

25 October 2011 ~ This was a BIG day!! From the time Elly started on solid foods she's been very picky. It's been a huge frustration to me. I question what I did wrong to make her so picky. Did I not give her enough variety of foods when she was starting to eat? What did I do wrong?? I've gone over it a hundred times in my head. I just wish my little girl would sit down and eat like other children. But she doesn't. Those that have never had a picky eater have no idea how frustrating it is and it's easy for them to judge and think I haven't tried hard enough, but until you've been there you really have no idea.

Anyhow, on this particular day Elly just got it in her little head to try some foods. She tried 10 different foods throughout the day!! This, after NEVER tasting a new food. I was so thrilled that she was finally eating! That night at dinner I had to take a picture because it felt like a turning point. It hasn't continued to be that successful though. She is still very picky and has gone backwards a little bit again. Getting her to try anything is still a huge battle, but I know she'll come out of it at some point.

Sam made Elly a sandbox (out of her little pool) in the backyard and she really likes playing in it. A part of me doesn't like it because lots of sand gets tracked in the house, but Elly has fun with it so I just have to sweep a lot more.











This was another day when she was out playing in her sand. She was all ready and just waiting for Daddy to get home. He was going to take her to the playground so she was ready and waiting, but played until he got home.

Then Gabby did what cats do best after eating grass...she threw up and Elly was totally intrigued. It's not like she hasn't seen this before, but I guess having it right in front of her like that was a new experience.



Ready for church one morning I took some pictures of Elly out on the front walk. I just can't believe how big she's getting. She's no longer my baby. Well, she'll ALWAYS be my baby, but she's much more a little girl these days.



Well, that's about it for October. I'll do another post about Halloween. I sure hope to get caught up with this blog one of these days. Until next time...

Cannstatter Volksfest (25 September)

The end of September brings the Cannstatter Volksfest to Stuttgart. It's often referred to as the second largest Oktoberfest in Germany. Most people go to Munich to experience the "real" Oktoberfest, but Stuttgart's fest is quite large too. We have gone to the fest in past years, but this year we decided to go see the parade too. Our neighbors went too, so Elly thought it was the best day ever (she loves their three kids). It was a really nice experience. The parade was beautiful and so different than the average parade in the states. It was much more "earthy" here. Decorations for the floats were mainly fruits of the harvest. Lots of grapes, cabbages, wheat and flowers. Very pretty! So, here are some pictures from our day...

This is the latest "smile" I get from Elly. What a little goober!

The Cannstatter Volksfest mascot.

These guys were just watching the parade, but ran in during a break to make this pyramid. No doubt they had been drinking quite a bit already.

Look at all those beautiful grapes!! This is the first parade I've been too where grapes, wine and beer were passed out in place of candy. We must be in Germany!

Since this fest does focus on beer, different breweries had their horses and wagons in the parade. The horses are beautiful!

Sam getting a sample of beer.

Elly was happy as can be sitting with the kids watching the parade. She loves them.



After the parade, we went to the fest and had lunch in one of the beer tents. These tents are huge and seat several thousand people. It can get rather rowdy at night, but we were there early in the day, so I didn't mind taking Elly in. The music was very loud though which made talking with each other almost impossible.

It's not possible to get a beer any smaller than this in the tents. Seriously. Sam asked at one point and they looked at him like he was crazy.

Elly and the girls were watching Sam and Aiden on the bumper cars.

There's that cheesy grin again :) We were in an enclosed ferris wheel with Dana, Audrey and Linnea and Elly was a very happy little girl.

A view of the fest grounds from up in the ferris wheel.

Elly and Linnea on a ride.

Dana and the kids at the end of the day. What is a day at the fest without cotton candy?!

Various September Happenings

This post is just a "catch all" for all the little things that went on in September that don't really fit into any other post. The months go by so quickly and I've been playing catch up since we got back from the states in June. I feel like it shouldn't have taken me this long to get the blog up to date, but with a busy little two year old in the house it's not like I have lots of time.

September started a really busy time for us. I signed Elly up for a Tumbling class that met every Tuesday morning. I really thought it would be great for her to be with other kids her age and get some of her energy out. Problem is she didn't want to interact at all while we were there. All she wanted was for Mama to hold her. I think it was intimidating to her. Lots of kids running around and loud music. She did start to interact a little bit, but in general we spent the whole hour on the sideline because she didn't want anything to do with it. That class was over at the end of October and, needless to say....I didn't sign her up for the next Tumbling class. Maybe in a few more months I'll see if she likes it again.

MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers) and PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) Bible Study also started in September and I just LOVE these meetings. I started MOPS last year and fell in love with it. It's such a great group of women who are all experiencing similiar life situations. It's a great place to meet other women and the meetings are a lot of fun.

I heard about the PWOC Bible Studies last year, but didn't want to start mid year. So, this year I planned to get in on it from the beginning. There are lots of Bible studies to choose from, but the one I went with is Believing God by Beth Moore. It's awesome! It's been so encouraging to be in this weekly Bible study. It's been a wonderful addition to my life. God is so good!

Anyhow, on to the pictures...

I tried painting with Elly when she was younger, but she just wasn't interested in it at all. She didn't like the mess and didn't want it on her fingers. It's been a few months since then and thought I would try it again. Of course, this time she LOVED it. And I found out a couple of things about my girl. At least for now, she loves pink, blue and purple. She would only paint on the pink or white sheets of construction paper and she tried all the paint colors, but decided she really liked the blue and purple the best. I just love how she's getting opinions of her own these days :)

For awhile, when I would tell her to smile this is what I got. A grin with her lower jaw stuck out. She thought it was the funniest thing. I'm glad she's moved on past that :)

Alot of times in the morning when I'm getting her breakfast ready she likes to sit on the kitchen counter and watch me. I just love her so much and love how she wants to be around me all the time. I hope she always does.

We ended up getting this smaller pool for Elly. The other one is nice if we're going to get in it with her, but this is a better size for just her. It's much easier to fill with water and she can get in and out by herself.

My cat is crazy. She goes wild over spices. I've noticed there are certain ones that make her act like she's on kitty crack. This day, I walked into the kitchen and found her like this. She had gotten into the groceries and stolen a taco seasoning packet. There were bite marks all over it and powder all over the floor. She's a rotten cat.







This summer I bought some tomato plants, primarily for the green tomatoes. I love my Mom's Green Tomato Relish, but anytime she would send some it would arrive having gone bad. The seals must have been broken during flight is all I can figure. Anyhow, so I figured if I was going to have some of that yummy relish I was just going to have to make it myself. All summer long I babies these plants and tried to keep Elly away from them because she could hardly keep herself from picking the tomatoes. They were getting blossom rot in August so I picked them all and was able to get two batches of relish from those. Over the next several weeks the plants kept producing little tomatoes, so finally I let Elly pick off any that were left. She loved it. She's such a great little helper.

Elly loves Daddy's scooter. He makes her day sometimes by giving her little rides around the driveway.

We love going for walks around town. Elly spends alot of the time up on Daddy's shoulders, but we try to get her to walk some too. We have such a nice little town to walk in. Just outside of town it's all country.

Sam decided to play flag football this year. Elly and I didn't make it to too many of the games because it was pretty rainy and the games ended up being late in the evenings. Elly enjoyed going to them though.

Elly still thinks it's hilarious to wear Daddy's big shoes. Little stinker!

This was so funny! Sam told me to come look at Elly and this is what I saw. She had climbed up to the table, donned my glasses and was looking through the mail. She was so cute in those glasses.

Well, that wraps up September, for the most part. I have one more post that I'm working on. I hope to get it finished and posted before too long. Then maybe I can get October done and finally be caught up. I love blogging and love the journaling aspect of it so I really work at keeping this up to date. I got very behind with being gone for those 2 1/2 months in the states. I'm getting there though! Until next time...