Congratulations to Arnold!!!

I just wanted everyone to know how wonderful my husband is!!!! He took the NY Bar in July and we found out last night, after 4 horrible hours of the server being down since everyone was checking at the same time, that he passed! Yippie! The long wait is over!!!! :) So thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last long while of waiting and trying. It's finally over! Who knows what grand adventures we have in store for us now but at least this one is over! I have to admit I'm glad it's done. I'm so proud of Arnold for doing his best over and over again and trusting that the Lord knows what's best for us. It wasn't easy for him but he did it! :) And the most important thank you goes to a loving Heavenly Father who has great blessings in store for all of us if we are just willing to wait and trust him.

Jen's visit

Ok, so I know I'm a little slow on this but I haven't been able to decide how I wanted to do this post so I finally just decided to start and then finish with more than one post if necessary other wise it won't ever get finished like this sentence. So here we go...Jen's visit...

First I have to give Jen a BIG THANK YOU!!!! for first, coming to visit me, and second, being insanely patient with my pregnant belly. We could have done so much more if it wasn't for me being so easily worn out. I know I would love to have done more and she probably did too...But it was still a great week.

So Jen arrived and looked fabulous! I know I don't look that good after a long flight. I also don't sleep on planes but that's another story. We got back to the house and decided to take a walk into town so she could see where I live now. It was loads of fun and Sam's favorite part was getting to see the animals. :)

Yet another thank you to Jen for chasing Sam around! Yea! So cute!

The next day we went into Frankfurt and met Arnold and co-workers here to find some lunch. This is the old Opera house I think.

This is Jen watching/chasing Sam around while we waited for them to show up. We actually got there much faster than I expected so Sam got to run and stretch his legs a bit. We then had lunch and let Arnold and co. go back to work while we played and saw some of Frankfurt. :)

Friday was a break day and we didn't do much since we went to Mainz on Saturday. This is Sam taking a nap on the train ride. Poor little guy had a fun week but just got a bit tired. Oh, he's hiding in Arnold's jacket but won't be able to do that for much longer.

This is the beautiful Cathedral we saw in Mainz on the way to the Gutenberg Museum. It was absolutely beautiful but Arnold and I had to leave a little faster than Jen and Eddie due to a certain curious little fellow who was no longer asleep.

Yea for apples! Sam loves apples and had a great time eating this one before going into the museum. It was too cute to not add. :)

The next week we went into Hanau and looked around there for a bit. This is the statue of the Brothers Grimm since Hanau is their birthplace.

On the way back to the train we saw tons and tons of airplanes. It was fun to try and get pictures of Sam pointing at the planes. I thought this was cute even though he's not pointing in it. He's too fast sometimes.

We went out to Kassel the next day to see the Brother's Grimm museum and then a break day again before she left. I'm afraid I was tired but it was so much fun to just catch up and share some time with Jen. I hope she really enjoyed it as much as I did! THANKS again! You're the BEST! Miss you!

My pregnant belly shot

Ok so I know some of you have been waiting for this and I've taken a few pictures but haven't posted any of them.

These two pictures are of me at the end of September so they are a little out of date but it gives you an idea of how big I was and the main thing is the fact that I look like I stuffed a basketball under my shirt. Seriously! I haven't changed that much from the back, a little from the front but I turn sideways and WHAT??? I look like an elephant! Just kidding. Although the YW did tell me my stomach arrives 5 min before I do. It is pretty funny...
Ok, so this is the real elephant shot. Just from the side, since I don't change much from the front or back, but taken this morning.

And just for fun or comparison, although I though it was rotated and I'm not going to fix it now, this is me at 8ish weeks left when I had Sam. I'm currently at about 5 weeks left so about 3 weeks difference. I definitely think he was bigger.

Oh, WOW!!!

Sam loves things that go. To clarify, that means anything that has wheels typically and goes a lot faster than he does. I thought that moving to Germany his main love would be trains and he might notice other things if we were lucky, but apparently he is all boy and has been exposed to enough of the other things that is almost equal for all. Here are a few of his favorites...

Ok, so this is a funny first one, but Sam does enjoy being with his Dad in any way possible.

I know you can't see what he's pointing at but I'm sure you can guess. We see airplanes ALL the time. I wasn't exactly expecting that coming out here but Sam has loved it and has gotten very good at spotting them even before Arnold and I see them. Go Sam!

These are fun to see too. Sam is always excited to see tractors when we are on a walk. We usually go to the bridge and watch the cars go under but it's a bit more fun when we get one of these passing us on our walk.

And of course what little boy doesn't enjoy a car. I think this is Sam's second favorite. Every time he gets in the car with out getting put in his seat immediately he climbs into the drivers seat as fast as he can. He knows all the buttons to push and even the right sounds. He identifies them whenever he sees one by saying tato for auto(german).



And last but definitely not least is Sam's favorite! He loves trains! Commonly referred to as Choo-choo's or probably more like too-too's as he says it. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of him with a train but this was pretty good too. He loves to look out the window every time he thinks one is going by. We can just hear them from the house and there is a window upstairs that you can watch them go by over the housetops in the distance now that the trees are loosing their leaves. So every time he hears one he runs to the window saying TOO-TOO with as much excitement as you can expect from a 1 year old. In this video he's a little preoccupied with the suit case but it gives you an idea of how much he likes them.



Now if you have made it this far and survived then you get the explanation for the title of the post. Over the last month or so Sam has started to say "Oh, WOW!" when he sees something he likes (usually trains) or when he gets really excited (usually about trains). Unfortunately it happens so quickly that I haven't been able to get it on video but it's the cutest thing ever. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get it sometime but if not, you now know what you are missing out on. :)

Random cuteness

So these are just some random things I thought were cute or funny and so I thought I'd stick them all together...Sam is definitely a Texan. He seems to think the bike is his horse and rides it frequently. I think he also thinks he's a gymnast or something because he likes to perform all sorts of tricks on it.
So the other day Arnold comes in with Sam all bundled up and hands me the camera. He then tells me to get ready to take a picture and this is what he uncovered. We aren't sure how he did it but somehow he managed to get the one arm out of his pajamas. He does move a lot in his sleep but still... ???
Arnold gets Sam ready in the morning. This is the two of them just before Arnold took off for work.
Just chillin together in the morning. Sam loves every second of the day he gets with his Daddy and you can tell by the smile here how happy he is just to be with him. Arnold is the best Daddy in the whole world!

So I'm not sure how this happened but there are a lot of things I'm not sure about when Sam is around. They usually occur in the 2 seconds I'm not looking. Either way he was giggling and when we went to check on him to see what was so funny we found him stuck in the chair. :)
This is one of Sam's favorite books and of course his favorite person. So cute! :)

Hello from Sam

Ok, so first of all to clarify, most of these posts I'm doing right now are about a month old. No this is not all happening at once even though it sometimes seems that way. I know I'm slow...

Anyway, we were on a walk and Sam looked up at me and started saying hello over and over again. It was so cute I kept walking and pulled out the camera so that I wouldn't interrupt him. However as you can see the moment I pulled out the camera he stopped. It's amazing how they do it. I did get him to eventually say it once for the camera and then some mumbling of some sort and it's still cute if you have 35 sec to spare.

One of Sam's new tricks...

Ok, so I wasn't quite ready for this one but I guess it will keep me on my toes. Needless to say we keep the door locked now, and since it takes several turns of the key to unlock it I haven't been too worried about him unlocking it yet. I'm sure I'll need to keep a close watch so I don't miss when it happens or maybe I'll just start taking the key out...