Baby Smiles & Party Planning

Tristan has been growing so fast! One of my friends has a baby who is 5 months old, and Tristan is the exact same size! Tristan is 3 months old now. Time is buzzing by so fast.

Look at that little face! He just steals my heart!

I'm planning Tommy's birthday party and decided on the theme "Born to Be Wild". It's very fitting, very Tommy. His decorations will be wild animals. I'm hoping most of the attendees will wear their Halloween costumes. I made his invitations the other day, and I'm happy with how they turned out. We're all so excited for his party, it's going to be so much fun. He's turning 3!! How did that happen?

Tommy is so much fun these days. He's constantly talking, and everything that comes out of his mouth is certifiably hilarious. I've actually started writing down the things he says, because I never want to forget any of it.

And, another picture of Tristan to show how big he is. He isn't really chubby anymore, just built big. He's my big healthy boy! He has the sweetest disposition. All it takes for him to smile is to hear you talking to him, or if you play with his feet or cheeks. He's a dream, and I'm crazy for this boy.

♥ ,

Brittney

Mmmm!

Justin and I tried our hand at making classic German recipes tonight, and it actually turned out! We were feeling proud of ourselves and wanted to share the pictures with you. Okay, we wanted to brag!

Cucumber salad is really easy. I used pre-made dressing.

Tommy just wanted lemonade. What a ham.

Pork shoulder roast

These are the BEST! German potato dumplings. Yum. They're sticky and salty and they always served with thin gravy.

A friend of mine is coming over next week to teach me more recipes, I'm so excited. When I visit AZ make sure to ask me to make the potato dumplings for you, they're incredible!

Our Wedding Scrapbook

Here is our wedding scrapbook I've been working on. It isn't my main wedding scrapbook, this was just for pictures I'm not using in my main scrapbook. I didn't want to just stick them in a photo album, so I quickly made this small scrapbook. The camera didn't do a very good job, the pictures don't look as clear as I would like them to be. You can mouse over each picture and see the captions of what is said on each page. Still, it was fun to make and I'm happy with it. Enjoy!

Tommy's First Love

Justin had a company BBQ today, all soldiers and their families come and it's usually a lot of fun. They have fun games for the kids, music and of course BBQ. It's a chance for everyone to get to know the people they work with and to meet the new families coming in from the states. Tommy fell in love with our friend's daughter. It was so cute, he followed her around like a lost puppy. He held hands with her and tried to get her to dance when they started the music. It was literally the cutest thing I've ever seen. Her name is Autumn. She was so sweet and took care of him the whole time we were there.

How cute is this?!?!

Justin demonstrating one of the kid's games. You throw the hands and feet into the sharks mouth. I didn't think it was very appropriate for kids but they seemed to like it.

After the BBQ we went to see Inception and bravely took both boys with us. Tommy ate his weight in popcorn and then promptly fell asleep. Tristan was up most of the time but he just wanted to be held, which was fine with me. It was freezing in the theater and he kept me warm. Now I know why I was so hot during my pregnancy, Tristan is a little human heater! This just goes to show that Tommy can literally fall asleep anywhere, and in every position.

We all had a lot of fun today.

Things I've learned this month...

That a messy home is sometimes the happiest home.

Getting your kids to sleep at the same time is an art.

It feels good to rid your life of bad friends.

It's possible to miss someone you've never met before.

(My sister's baby)

If you start watching a tv series, be prepared to get addicted.

Having a baby will undoubtably make you want another one, no matter how miserable your pregnancy was.

(The look on my face here says it all)

Keeping in touch on facebook very well could save my sanity.

Tommy will do what it takes to stay cool.

Appreciate time alone with your husband.

Hospitals really do serve mystery meat.

(Ew.)

Justin and Tommy are clones, but just a few years apart.

I think July has been a pretty good month.

Things I love about Germany

I've been meaning to document my most favorite things about Germany. Well, we've been here two years so I guess it's about time!

Favorite number one: The food. Surprised? I didn't think so. When we first got here, the first week or two the food tasted funny to me. Dare I say it tasted... foreign? Oh how I crack myself up.

Ahem.

Favorite number two: We recycle here! Ok ok, I admit, the first year here of having to sort our trash into paper, plastic, organic (food), and glass I was deeply annoyed. In the good US of A we have two bins. One is for everything recyclable, the other for everything else. But I've really come to love how important recycling is here. Everyone recycles even though it is a pain to own three to four trashcans taking up space in your kitchen. Not to mention the plastic is only picked up twice a month so you have to put your bags of plastic in storage until it's time to put it out on the street.

Favorite number three: soda isn't served to you by the bucketful. I've never been much of a soda drinker anyways, but soda refills here are NOT free and soda doesn't come cheap here. We pay about 2 euro for a glass the size of about 8 oz. Easy not to go overboard with something so bad for you.

Favorite number four: It's beautiful here. No explanation needed.

Favorite number five: CLOTHES. I love European fashion. Catch up, America!

Favorite number six: The autobahn. We can go as fast as we want and get anywhere REALLY fast so long as Justin is driving. I'm much slower and stay in the slow lane because I'm afraid.

Favorite number seven: We can visit an abundance of other countries without having to jump on a plane. They're all just a few hours away!

That's it for loves. Now lets go to the hates.

Hate number one: Smokers. They're EVERYWHERE. Kids even. They sell cigarettes in vending machines all over the place. I see jr. high kids smoking on their lunch break. Sad!

Hate number two: Sticky summers. I'm an Arizona girl all the way. Dry heat trumps sticky slightly cooler heat.

Hate number three: The language barrier. Ok, German sounds pretty cool, but after awhile it's really frustrating not understanding the radio, tv, cashiers, waiters, etc. With a little more motivation I would learn more German. Promise.

Hate number four: The US dollar to Euro exchange rate. The cost of living here is much higher because the Euro is worth more than the dollar. Justin is paid in US dollars so that gets a bit annoying.

Hate number five: No air conditioning. Germans are very eco-friendly. They don't believe in wasting energy on air conditioning. Unfortunately, I do. Gimme some air, stat!

Hate number six: the bugs. Lots of them. In a country that doesn't use air conditioning, you'd think they would put screens on their windows to let fresh air into their houses. Nope! You either sweat in your house and let mold grow from lack of air flow, or you open your windows and brave the spiders and abundance of flies and mosquitos.

Hate number seven: okay, there is no hate number seven, but since there were seven favorites I felt the need to even things out. Blame the perfectionist in me.

So there you have it. Would I want to live here forever? No. But right now we love it and I'm very fortunate enough to be able to live here and experience it.

Family of Four

Tristan is finally here!! We're all home and doing well. Justin has maternity leave for the next 10 days to help out, but it already feels like we're on a schedule. Tristan is a really good sleeper, we have to wake him up to feed him sometimes. Tommy loves him, I have to put Tristan in his crib every time he sleeps because if he's anywhere in Tommy's line of view then Tommy is going to want to play with him. We let Tristan finish his nap in his carseat when we got home, and I caught Tommy bent over him asking "you want out?" and then proceeding to tickle him.

Friday afternoon we went shopping for flowers that we're planting on our balcony. Later we were going to take a boat ride across the river going through our little town, but my water broke at the store. Kind of embarrassing, but it'll make for some good jokes later I'm sure. So we went home to pack my hospital bag really quick and then headed to the hospital. The labor was pretty quick, no complications. It was wonderful. Having Justin there meant so much to me. When I had Tommy Justin was in basic training. We spent three days in the hospital and got to come home yesterday morning. The hospital was awesome, I loved it.

Tristan Caleb Brooke was born June 12th at 1:16am, 8 lbs 21.5 inches. Big healthy boy. He looks so much like Tommy when he was a newborn, but their personalities are definitely different.