memories are made of this...

Crawling

2012-01-28T17:48:00.000-06:00

Maddox started crawling last week and has spent this past week getting better and better. Now he has taken to getting on his tip toes as shown below. We have a sunken living room with 2 steps up to the formal dining room. He has managed to pull himself up by the first step and stand there as well. Thankfully no climbing yet and hopefully it takes him awhile to figure it out.

Watch out ladies

2012-01-25T09:51:00.000-06:00

this cute boy has a convertible!

Sweet Baby Boy is 6 months!

2012-01-17T10:06:00.001-06:00

Half a year already?! Sweet baby boy is still as happy as ever - always, always smiling. He has such a sweet disposition about him. Maddox is ticklish from his cheeks all the way down to the bottom of his feet. He had his 6 mo appt last week and here are the stats: 26 3/4" for height (51 percentile) and 17lbs (31 percentile).

So happy to have the baby bathtub back. He loves bath time and can soak anything and anyone near him. Maddox still loves us singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to him. We are finally getting into a regular rhythm of reading again and he loves books. Lucky for him we have our own little library.

Here Maddox is pushing all the way up on his arms but he has since progressed to getting on his knees. He will spend time on his knees rocking back and forth before doing a belly flop back to the ground. We are on borrowed time with the crawling.

He is pretty good at sitting up now without the support of the boppy. He is still taking some spills but has yet to cry from one. Normally he'll just land on his tummy.

We started on solid foods over the weekend and this is his first taste of sweet potatoes. No silly faces here! He lapped up that stuff like crazy. We'll try a fruit today. He is still doing really good with rice cereal. We tried oatmeal but that didn't sit well with him so back to the rice.

Maddox rolls wherever he needs to go for now and that typically means right for Macen's toys. So Macen has taken to doing what any older brother would do - drag him away.

We love you sweet baby boy!

Maddox's Baptism

2012-01-15T10:17:00.002-06:00

We had Maddox baptized last weekend. Jeremiah and Mariah are his godparents. Maddox did great during church and the ceremony.

Finally a feeling of home

2012-01-05T20:57:00.000-06:00

I think we are all feeling a bit of normalcy and finding somewhat of a routine now. We thought things would settle a bit now that the holidays are over but I don't think that will happen for several more weeks. We seem to have appts and such booked out for awhile. The house is done for the most part. We haven't even started on the garage or the guest bedroom though (that will be done before you get here Ryan, I promise). And I had every intention of reorganizing all the closets this week but somehow the week has gotten away from me. We did have neighbors from Germany visit yesterday and it was a great feeling. Macen has mentioned several times he misses his friends in Germany and yesterday he got to play with Gabi for awhile. Hopefully that will hold him over until we can get him in hourly care or a program on post. We got our last shipment of household goods this week and now all we are waiting on is our car. They said we'd have it by the 9th of January and they are using up every bit of the time until then.

2011 was a pretty big year for us. I guess we can sum it up with one word -GRATEFUL. So many things to be grateful for!

One final notation - God has welcomed me back to the US with some fantastically warm weather. I am loving it! So you get a warm kind of background for now.

Santa found us

2011-12-26T15:50:00.001-06:00

Santa brought Macen several Star Wars toys and Macen was so excited!

Macen also got several of the cars from Cars 2 and he did a little dance.

Dad and Macen putting together the Republic Gunship

Maddox actually didn't do half bad opening some of his presents.

We had a perfect Christmas! The boys opened presents, we spent time with family throughout the day, Macen got to play with his new toys and we ate a lot. Oh and it was pretty darn warm outside - that was a present from Santa just for me. Ha ha! It couldn't have been any better.

Opening presents from each other

2011-12-26T15:39:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T15:29:00.000-06:00

Another holiday, another attempt to stick a baby in something. I wish this one hadn't turned out blurry because his smile is so stinkin' cute here.

Gone Fishin'

2011-12-26T15:04:00.000-06:00

Not a good day for Jingles

2011-12-19T21:06:00.001-06:00

Looks likes Jingles got on the wrong side of a Star Wars fight. He got tied up with the bad guys.

But then he got revenge and tied them all up!

Let's just say these days highly amused James :)

5 months

2011-12-19T19:26:00.001-06:00

Boy what an active little guy we have! He is turning himself around while on his stomach. He can roll back over onto his back now so we really never know what direction we will find him in. I don't think it'll be long before he is crawling. He can push himself up pretty well and get on his knees for a short amount of time.

He is still enjoying his cereal and is mostly only waking once during the night. We had to do a little training for that last time he was waking but not getting himself back to sleep. It only took 2 nights before he got it and even better, we found a non cry it out method that worked well for us.

He is a very happy baby and we love that. There is nothing better than having this amazing, innocent little guy smile at us all the time. He has noticed the cats more and more so that has been fun. Now that we have all our things, he has gotten to play in the exersaucer and he loves it - lots of things to chew on with those teeth coming in.

Middle of the night meal

2011-12-17T22:21:00.001-06:00

Jingles got hungry in the middle of the night and fixed himself a meal...spaghetti with marshmallows and fruit snacks.

Guess who was so.not.impressed?!

Macen sat down at the table to drink his chocolate milk, glanced up at Jingles when I mentioned it and then went right back to drinking his milk. Not a care in the world, not even a double take. When I pressed on he stated elves don't eat.

Guess Jingles is going to have to step up his game!

Sugar Angel

2011-12-15T08:25:00.000-06:00

Jingles played in the sugar last night making angels.

Tree decorating

2011-12-14T14:23:00.000-06:00

Macen loves Christmas time and loves decorating the tree. He even said he wanted to add candy canes this year. As we finished hanging the stockings he exclaimed "This is going to be the best Christmas ever". We have to agree with him. Maddox is here with us and James is not deployed. We are so excited to wake up Christmas morning in our own home and all together finally.

Jingles has arrived!

2011-12-14T14:16:00.000-06:00

We were out of town for the weekend and when we returned home, Jingles was hanging out in the Christmas tree. He put it up for us while we were gone since we had been concentrating on unpacking so much. He left a note for the boys and let them know they have to be really good so Santa will find them on Christmas.

God Bless Rice Cereal

2011-12-14T14:12:00.000-06:00

Maddox has been waking 3 times a night but only eating once. So in effort to curb those other 2 wakings, I started him on rice cereal. I wanted to wait until he was 6 months but he has been showing alot of interest when we are eating and with everything we have going on, I need sleep. Haha! It has eliminated one of his wakings so it has helped and he enjoys it so much.

Sorry for the blurriness - taking them one handed while he was eating.

Barcelona pics updated

2011-12-14T14:07:00.001-06:00

Hooray!!!

2011-12-05T18:58:00.000-06:00

James just got word our household goods are in the states!!!!! It's possible we may have it by the end of this week. Next week is worst case scenerio. What perfect timing for us! We were just discussing today how long we were going to hold out until we bought a tree and some stockings so Santa could find us.

So excited!

We have a home

2011-12-02T08:25:00.000-06:00

We got into our new place yesterday. We rented site unseen and we are pretty pleased with the house. It was nerve wracking but thankfully we were already familiar with the town so I knew what areas we wanted to live in.

Now we just wait for our things to get here.

We have not adjusted to the time difference yet. Well Maddox has for the most part but he sleeps alot already so it was pretty easy for him. The rest of us are struggling but I think after today we will be set. We were running all over yesterday getting things down so we didn't get a chance to recover any. We are making time today though.

Due to the lack of sleep, I made a 5am Wal Mart run this morning. Probably the best time to go since it was completely overwhelming. Lots and lots of choices! I found some new things that the commissary didnt have in Germany though so it was fun.

American Macen

2011-12-01T00:51:00.000-06:00

Is now in America. We landed in the good 'ole US of A yesterday.

For those of you who don't know Macen has claimed his name is American Macen or Macen America for months now. He got this from being in German kindergarten and they were discussing America.

We are tired and have to hit the ground running at least for our first day here but hopefully we'll get in some recovery time soon. Both boys did excellent on both of our flights. Maddox had started doing lots of crying on our return trip from Athens and going to and from Barcelona so I wasn't looking forward to a long flight with him. I imagine having his own seat helped - him and I both got our space. They could not have been any better and we had a pretty pleasant trip back to the states.

Frankfurt Christmas Market

2011-11-29T13:52:00.001-06:00

One of the big things we wanted to do since coming to Germany was go to a Christmas market. We had heard so many good things about them to include the food and gluhwein (warm wine). James was gone for last years and I was newly pregnant and worried morning sickness was going to kick in any day so I didn't travel to any. The closest ones would have been an hour away. Since we got the airport this morning and we aren't flying out until tomorrow, we decided to take the train to the Frankfurt Christmas market. It didn't disappoint.

On our way....

2011-11-29T13:47:00.000-06:00

We got to the Frankfurt airport this morning via an early, early morning bus. Myles' travels have not started well. First he was dropped from the top of the pile of lluggage. Thankfully he was in the hard carrier. Then his carrier popped open while James was trying to get himself and cart of luggage in a small elevator. Again thankfully James caught it before he escaped.

We fly out first thing tomorrow morning. Hard to believe the time has come.

Barcelona, Spain

2011-11-29T13:43:00.063-06:00

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Spain. We were smart and selected a warm location with a Hard Rock of course! We had perfect weather and couldn't have asked for more.

Hard Rock

Water fountains at the square near Hard Rock

Hop On, Hop Off

There wasn't anything we absolutely wanted to see in Barcelona other than Hard Rock and the beach so we decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus to see the sights. Barcelona is a very modern, updated European city who appears to like architect. It's really beautiful!

Christopher Columbus monument

Aquarium

Or as Macen kept calling it - the fish museum. Macen was very excited to go here and enjoyed it.

An arena where bull fighting use to take place. It is now converted to businesses and retail shops.

Barcelona is known for their hot chocolate so of course we had to sample it. It was the thickest hot chocolate I have ever had. I wasn't sure if I should drink it or use my spoon so I did a little of both :) They serve it with a couple of soft, sweet biscuit to dip in it. Fantastic!

Cable Car over the harbor

Next we took a cable car ride out over the bay to get a view of the city from above. It was amazing to see the Mediterranean Sea from this view.

Lunch

Barcelona serves tapas which is kinda like appetizers in small portions. So we ordered a selection of them to get a taste of Barcelona! Our table was full of food that James and I enjoyed.

The beach at the Mediterranean Sea

This was a highlight for us since we like the water so much. We had great weather for it and I was able to capture a picture for our Christmas card from here.

Macen enjoying the waves coming in and running from them.

Maddox in a little dip that had been dug out by someone. He had on a onesie with jeans over it. I was still finding sand in his diaper the next day.

Macen willingly went into the water with James. It was a little chilly but he enjoyed it. He doesn't like his clothes to be wet but a couple of waves caught the bottom of his rolled up jeans. He didn't mind at all though.

Christmas Market

Nothing like leaving the beach and going directly to a Christmas market while eating gelato. I guess that is the way they do it in Barcelona. It's certainly a different story in Germany :) We had watched them set up some of the market the night before so we return since we had not been to a Christmas market over here yet.

Macen getting into the spirit!

These last 2 were taken in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona which has become very touristy. We ate dinner here, did some souvenir shopping and then enjoyed some gelato and covered waffles. In fact, we enjoyed quite a bit of gelato while here!

We had a great time! Barcelon is a beautiful city and we couldn't have asked for more in our last European vacation.

4 months old

2011-11-18T04:28:00.000-06:00

Pause button please! Maddox is growing so fast and getting stronger and stronger. He prefers to be sitting up most of the time or even standing on his tiptoes. He is now 14lbs (18th percentile) and 24.6 inches (22nd percentile). He is getting good at rolling over much faster now and sometimes he is able to get back over on his back.

As you can see we are still swaddling. Although he is too long for the miracle blanket now so I just leave his feet out and use it for his arms. Maddox got a nasty cold before we left for Athens. Poor guy! We are not having a good time with his night sleeping. Between the cold, him being more aware of his surroundings and teething, every night has become a struggle. The doctor did say he saw some teeth coming, so it begins.

Santa is coming to Amsterdam...

2011-11-17T10:19:00.000-06:00

but the boys beat him to his chair! We had a decent layover in Amsterdam on the way home. The boys got their first dose of the Christmas season and I selected some fine Belgian chocolates to take home.

Athens, Greece

2011-11-17T10:00:00.001-06:00

We had a great time in Athens. This trip was a little different for us since it was centered around the marathon James did. We went with 2 other couples and their kids, sharing an apartment with them. They are our neighbors so the kids had a blast being on vacation with friends. There is also a Hard Rock there and I have to say, we had our first horrible Hard Rock experience. First of all they don't have the pilsner glass James likes to collect. James was in shock and wasn't sure what to think. And our waiter wasn't that great either. We have gotten above and beyond service every time we go to a Hard Rock. Even employess that aren't assisting us, stop and take time to talk to Macen and/or look at Maddox. We've even had a hostess put together a toy for Maddox to play with before. It just wasn't our typical experience. Boo to the Athens Hard Rock, we won't be recommending you.

If you are wondering if Athens is safe after all the news floating around? Absolutely. Had we not seen anything on tv or the internet about Athens, we would have never known anything was wrong there. I think the guys heard a demonstration the first day we were there but we never witnessed anything. And we covered a lot of ground by foot so we would have seen something if there were any major problems going on.

Hadrian's Arch

Temple of Zeus

Tower of the Winds

Odeum of Herodes Atticus theater. This one is still in use and it was amazing!

At the top of the hill of the Acropolis. As soon as we got up there, it got extremely windy. So windy it was hard to enjoy it. But still an amazing landmark.

Macen enjoying the Acropolis with his friends

A view of the Panathenaic Stadium James ran into at the finish line

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is guarded 24/7 and the guards do a changing out ceremony on the hour. It is quite the production and pretty amazing to see.

A view of Athens from Lycabettus Hill. We took a tram to the top of the mountain and enjoyed a snack at the cafe at the top.

A quick view of one of the marathon runners! He finished with 4 other men dressed in similiar attire. I found it interesting! It was a cold, rainy day for a race. At the finish line, it would rain with the wind blowing and then stop with the sun coming out only to rinse and repeat the entire 5-6 hrs we were out there. Maddox caught a cold before we left for Athens. So with not being able to breath well already and then getting gusts of wind occasionally, he was miserable out there. Thankfully the carrier I use is cloth with extra material so I was able to cover him most of the time.

It's a pretty amazing city and we are thankful we got to experience with some great friends.

Athens' Classic Marathon Recap

2011-11-16T03:22:00.002-06:00

Well I've had a few days to reflect on the Athens Classic Marathon and during that time the screaming in my quads has subsided and I think I can look back with a slightly clearer head. Here's the recap.

On the morning of race day, me and the two other guys that were running the marathon got up around 4 am and had a light breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee to wake up. We then made the 15 minute walk to the pick up point where the busses would take us to the start point at Marathon Stadium. After about a 40 minute drive we arrived at Marathon. The first thing that we noticed was the light drizzle that was being blown sideways by the gale force winds. Great this is going to be fun.

We grabbed plastic bags from the volunteers to keep us dry and we quickly found shelter under the stands of the stadium. While we waited for the 8:30 bag drop, we stretched, tried to stay loose and debated how much clothes we wanted to wear. I'd purposely left my tights back in Germany, thinking it wouldn't be too bad, but I did have a have a long sleeve technical shirt and a long sleeve half zip outer shirt, my warm up pants are way to baggy for me to run in so I knew it was going to just be shorts for me.

Just before bag drop time I went to the porta john for that last minute download and that's where things started to get interesting. As I was trying to get all of my layers off/down my gel bottle fell off my race belt and plop! Right into the blue water of the porta john. Great. There was only going to be one gel station on the route and I'd wanted to make sure I didn't have to rely on it. Now I was going to have to ration my gel and pick up more than one packet at the only gel point at around mile 15/16.
I dropped my bag having made the decision to run in the long sleeve shirt and the half zip. We then ran into/met up with several other runners from the Vilseck/Graf area. All told there were probably 13-15 runners from the area there for the race. There were blocks that the runners had to go into to start and then it would be a rolling start. Blocks were determined by your finish time from your last marathon. This is where we all got split up as we headed to our specific blocks.

9 am start time. The gun went off and everyone takes off. I was in Block 4 and I finally crossed the start line at about 9:05. I weaved through the crowd trying to find my stride, which I finally hit when I got on the sidewalk and started to pass everyone. The first 10k is basically a gentle downhill slope. We looped around the the tomb of the Greek Soldiers who died at the Battle of Marathon and then we started a gentle up hill climb.

At the 10k mark I was feeling good running at a avg 8:30 pace which is a little faster than I wanted to be but I was comfortable. The weather had started to clear and I was starting to think I had overdressed and having some thoughts about finishing under 4 hours.

At the half way point is about where things started to go to hell. The weather had gotten worse again with wind gusts of 20-30 mph with a continuous light drizzle and the temp seemed to be dropping. I had started fighting some calf cramps around mile 12 but I had stopped and stretched and seemed to be working through them pretty well. I crossed the halfway marker just under 2 hours, still on pace for a sub 4 hour. Little did I know what was about to hit me.

According to International Association of Athletics Federations the Athen's Classic Marathon includes the toughest mid race climb in any major marathon. Here are the charts from my Garmin.

First 13 miles, not bad. Mile 14 to mile 20, this sucks. Mile 20 to the finish, it's all downhill!

The climb from the 6 mile mark to the halfway point isn't too bad. It's the almost 900ft in elevation change from mile 12 to mile 19.5 that really kills you. If you don't think that's too bad check out the grades below.

The grade chart demonstrates that many of those uphills are actually short .25-.5 mile grades of almost 10% or greater in some cases followed by an equally short steep downhill. Those short ascents and descents played hell with my quads and it was right around the 20% grade at mile 17 where everything fell apart.

At mile 17 I stopped to stretch my calves again and all of a sudden it wasn't just my calves, it was my quads, my hamstring, AND my groin. Basically my whole left leg was a taken over by muscle spasms and cramps. In all of my athletic endevours I have never felt anything quite like it. I was leaning against the metal guardrail in the median and pounding on it in pain, thinking that I was going to end up at the medic station waiting on the Sag Wagon bus to take me to the finish. The cramps gradually subsided though and I decided I would walk until I felt like I could shuffle/run again.

Statue of Pheidippides along side the route. He died after
running from Marathon to Athens to give news of a Athenian
victory.

At around mile 19 I actually saw 3 busses full of people who had called it a day and at that point I was cold, wet, miserable and the wind was whipping pretty bad and it took all of my intestinal fortitude to not call it a day. But as I've said before I'm too damn stubborn (or dumb depending on how you look at it) to quit so I kept driving on, besides in only a mile it would become all downhill too the finish line.

Can you tell I'm struggling here?

I made it to the downhill portion and I managed to pick up the pace to a shuffle/slow run and I was actually able to hold it all the way to the finish.
I have never been so happy to see a finish line in my life. I picked up the pace as I headed into the stadium but had to shut it down again as my legs started cramping again, although I did cross the finish line at slow run. I was very disappointed with my 4:59:48 finish but considering the course and weather I'll take it.

A view of the finish area at Panathinaikon Stadium
from across the street a couple of days prior to the race

This was a well run race event with over 8500 runners for the marathon. It is an IAAF Gold Label Race so it's well supported. The course is completely closed from Marathon all the way into the Athens' City Center. Aid stations were well stocked with water, although it was in bottles and not cups, with alternating stations having sports drinks and bananas. The race expo had lots of cool gear and exhibits with several booths from marathons across Europe. I was disappointed in the photography of the event. The photographers, and there were a lot, only managed to capture photos of me crossing the finish line from a distance and at the edge of the shot, even though there were plenty of photographers at ground level and at other points throughout the course. Oh well.

This was a fun race and if the weather had been different I think I would have had a better experience. Average temps in Athens during November are in the mid 60's, it was in the high 40's low 50's on race day. The sheer history of the event makes it worth doing. I'd recommend though that this not be someone's first marathon and that they train for hills (something I really didn't do) and that you really pace yourself to the half way point (something I also didn't do) because that's where this race will get you.

I really need to wash the taste of this race out of my mouth. I'm thinking but Shantel and I have both agreed that races between October and May are not good because of the unpredicatability of the weather. With that said, there is the Olathe Chamber of Commerce Oz Marathon next April 21st. That's almost May, right?

Rolling Over

2011-11-02T05:25:00.000-05:00

Maddox's hard work has paid off. He worked extra hard yesterday trying to roll over and was able to by the end of the day. He had been getting 3/4 of his body turned over and I grabbed the camera to get a picture of his efforts. Well just as I was taking a picture he went over so I got his first roll over. Notice how he is already mostly off the blanket. He is a mover for sure. He kicks his feet and arches his back so much that he turns himself around.

Happy Halloween!!!!

2011-11-01T03:35:00.000-05:00

Macen is so pleased with his Batman costume.

Maddox as a little owl. He spent the evening in the carrier. He was quite content with so many people coming and going around us.

We did another neighborhood get together this year so the kids got to trick or treat together. And it was another year of mass numbers of trick or treaters if the line above gives you any indication of how things go here on Halloween. This was early though so they were polite and formed a line, lol. Usually it's just a a huge group of about 20 kids and parents surrounding you as you try to get goodies in everyones bag. It's fun seeing so many people out and about though. Macen had a blast, got tons of candy, is actually trying some new candy this year and has spent the morning picking out which candy he will eat next. Good thing he gets a nap before school today or his teacher would not be happy with me.

School Halloween Party

2011-11-01T03:20:00.000-05:00

A couple of pics from Macens school party. They made spiders, spider webs, witches hat and lollipop mummies to name a few of the projects.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-01T03:15:00.000-05:00

Packed up...

2011-10-27T12:45:00.000-05:00

And no where to go....yet. The movers took everything today. We have loaner furniture to get us through the next month and we are living the simple life. We won't be around the house much in November anyway so it shouldn't be too bad. It won't be long now. And even knowing that, it seems so far away. We have several trips planned between now and the time we leave so busy, busy, busy.

Autumn days are here again...

2011-10-24T02:51:00.000-05:00

Maddox in a pumpkin!!!! He didn't mind it until he got nekkid. This boy does not like his picture taken naked. Our photographer here can attest to that as we spent over 3 hrs trying to get him in sleepy nekkid baby poses right after he was born. He did just fine once his clothes were on. But the 2nd picture is too classic not to include it here. These were taken several weeks ago when we still had really warm weather. I LOVE babies in pumpkins! Macen got the same treatment when he was 5 mos old. Haha!

Macen spent the afternoon playing in the leaves with his friends.

Bumbo Baby

2011-10-22T05:03:00.000-05:00

We've introduced Maddox to the Bumbo and he likes it. He is still a little wobbly for it so he's only in it for a very short amount of time but it's good practice for him.

I love this 'Are you people crazy!' look

Our very smiley baby!!!

High Tech

2011-10-22T04:59:00.000-05:00

The boys playing on the iPad. Haha! Actually Macen can figure the thing out much more than James and I can at times.

3 months old

2011-10-19T02:08:00.003-05:00

Our baby is getting so big! He loves to talk to us now and just started laughing out loud. He is even ticklish now. I *think* we are in a pretty good sleep pattern now. He has set his nap schedule and for the most part he wakes only 1 time throughout the night. Maddox is starting to spend some time on his side so we'll see how long it takes him to roll over to his tummy. By the way he kicks the upper leg, I don't think it will be long.

Breastfeeding survived the thread it was dangling by much to Maddox's delight. When he was 6 wks, I had switched to exclusively pumping since we were still struggling with it and that was working well for us for a couple of weeks. Maddox then let it be known he wanted to start nursing again. Hard to say no since I am pumping and he can smell me. He doesn't nurse as well as he takes the bottle though. He will drink 6 ozs at a time and not need to eat again for atleast 3-4 hours but when he nurses he will nurse enough to get a few ozs and then is hungry again in an hour or so. So he nurses throughout the day and then its bottles before bed, during the night and first thing in the morning. It's not really what I had in mind for us but it seems to be working out. And since we are moving, I am having to throw out breastmilk - atleast 10 ozs a day. Yep, liquid gold down the drain. I wasn't happy about it at first but I have come to terms with it now. I am eager to get to the states and start freezing it so Maddox will have it until he is atleast a year old.

Halloween Party

2011-10-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

We took Macen to a Halloween party here on post. There was lots of games and his fave: a bounce house. He had a blast and even ran into the boy from German kindergarten that he played with all the time. They were so excited to see each other.

Macen's baby

2011-10-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

Macen is still holding strong to the proud big brother status. It's pretty amazing how the brotherly bond was there for him the minute Maddox was born. He shows him off to his classmates atleast 1-2 times a week and to anyone else he thinks hasn't seen Maddox.

Today as we are getting ready to walk to school in the rain, Macen got upset and said "I don't want my baby to get wet."

And then tonight as I came back into the living room to pick up Maddox, he said "Come here and watch my baby."

When in Rome....

2011-10-11T10:36:00.000-05:00

Maddox did fantastic on his first flight. On our return flight, he cried for a few minutes before take off and then went to sleep. So all in all, he did great on both flights.

Trevi Fountain

Legend has it if you throw a coin into the fountain, you will return to Rome one day. There were so many people, we didn't even attempt to throw a coin. It was definitely beautiful even with all the people surrounding it. Next we headed for Hard Rock.

Vatican City

St Peter's Basilica first thing in the morning. It was great to see it before the area filled up with people. From here, we did a tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's. We booked a 3 hr tour and I was pretty sure we were insane to do it with a 4 yr old and 2 mo old. But it was something we really, really wanted to do while in Europe so we were going to give it a shot. We had total success! Maddox fell asleep within the first 15 mins of the tour and slept the entire time. Macen was on his best behavior almost the entire tour. The last 20 min in the Basilica were wearing on him but he did great overall (could have had something to do with the fruit snacks we fed him every 20-30 mins). We did the tour with about 30 others and I was afraid they were going to be cursing us by the end of the tour. Instead, we got several compliments on how great both boys did. That felt great!

These 4 pictures are from the Vatican Musuems.

The 4 pics above are inside St Peter's. It was pretty amazing! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pics in the Sistine Chapel.

The Pantheon

Outside of the Pantheon.

Inside the Pantheon. It is over 2,000 yrs old and has hardly needed to be renovated.

Piazza Navona

Rome is full of fountains and the Piazza Navona this had 3 in it. We were there first thing in the morning before all the tourists arrived and I am so glad we got to see when it was peaceful.

The Colosseum

Roman Forum/Palantine Hill

The 2 above pics are from where we ate lunch. Macen was all about taking pics this weekend and he isn't half bad with them. We need to work on the focus a bit but I love that he enjoys being behind the camera.

In my research for Rome, I found there was a pyramid here. There are only 2 in Europe so I thought it was great we'd be visiting Rome to see 1 of them. For months now Macen has been telling us he is moving to Egypt and he will see the pyramids. We have no idea where this statement came from but he always talks about it. So I thought he would get a kick out of the pyramid since we won't be making it to Egypt.

These last 2 pics you can see where Piazza Navona is quiet in the morning and bustling in the afternoon. We found some gelato here and enjoyed watching all the people for a bit.

Overall we had a great time in Rome. It is not stroller friendly though. We brought the stroller and it sat in the itty bitty hotel room all weekend. Maddox had to be carried/worn everywhere and it was kinda exhausting. He did great with it though and it ended up not being too bad. James got sick during our Vatican tour so after that was over, we did absolutely nothing the rest of the day Saturday. It was kinda nice to relax. There is so much to see in Rome, you just can't take it all in. If you go there with the mindset that you aren't going to see it all then it can be very enjoyable. Even with missing out on sightseeing time on Saturday, we didn't rush to do a bunch Sunday. We just covered the things we really wanted to see and enjoyed the day - even getting in a carriage ride. We enjoyed a whole lot of gelato. Macen even branched away from the only flavor he will eat (strawberry) and had some blueberry gelato. I'm pretty sure it was only because the color purple was acceptable to him that day. He later tried grape gelato as well since it had a purple tint to it. We found what is suppose to be the best gelato place in Rome but I don't think we'd agree with that. They did offer different flavors than the normal gelateria offered but it wasn't the best. Definitely a great way to spend a 4 day weekend.

Traveling with a baby is EXHAUSTING.

2011-10-07T14:41:00.001-05:00

That.is.all

Oktoberfest

2011-10-05T14:15:00.001-05:00

We don't have many pics this year. James had the camera since I was holding Maddox most of the day and the guys took the kids on the rides. While they did that, the women (and Maddox) held down the table we managed to snag. These tables are very hard to come by with the thousands of people around so we weren't letting it go. All of the picture comments are James'

This was the big sign at the entrance. The entrance where we were told we couldn't come in because they didn't let strollers in on the weekends! It took us awhile but we found a place to check the stroller and after a couple of hours we finally understood; it gets way too crowded on the weekends to even think about having a stroller.

Macen on one of the rides that he just had to ride. He's gotten more adventurous riding some of the faster rides. He doesn't cry now if he doesn't like them, he'll just tell you that it wasn't very fun.

James posing with one of his beers. Don't just notice the Cardinals gear he's sporting on the first day of the MLB playoffs, but check out the girl behind him dressed in the traditional dirndl. Virtually all Germans were wearing either lederhosen or dirndl. We couldn't get into the beer tents where the big 1 liter helles beers are served, so we made do with a small outside beer garden that served hefe-wiezen. The beer drinkers didn't mind.

Here is a picture of the crowds from one of the rides. This was pretty early and it got more packed as the day went. Luckily there are enough rides so that you really didn't have to wait long. Just imagine that all 70 some acres of the theresienwiese grounds are packed like this. It got really crazy.

This was a really long day. We started at 7:30 am and spent 3 hours on a standing room only train from Vilseck to Munich. Then we got off the train found the street we needed and proceeded to follow the crowd......the wrong way. We finally got turned around and then had the stroller drama. Got the stroller drama taken care of. Tried to cram into a beer tent with a whole lot of drunk Germans and decided that wasn't the place for the kids. Finally found a beer garden and a table and everyone relaxed and had a pretty good time. Then the cycle started all over again as we missed the early train by about 5 minutes. Waited for the next train which was also standing room only and then finally made it home 3 hours later at about 10:30pm.

Here's some advice if you are going to Oktoberfest. GO DURING THE WEEK AND GET THERE EARLY. I'll say it again GO DURING THE WEEK AND GET THERE EARLY. Do you get the picture. If you are taking the kids FORGET about the beer tents. If you aren't taking the kids, MAKE A RESERVATION for the beer tents. Overall it was a good day and a good experience, but as James says the juice probably wasn't worth the squeeze!

Amberg Fest

2011-10-03T03:20:00.002-05:00

We went to a local fest twice last week with our neighbors. Nicole and I took the kids during the week and then the guys joined us Friday night. Macen loved going with his friend Gabi. They both loved riding the horses.

While I finished up feeding Maddox, Nicole grabbed the kids a treat. Macen came running around the corner yelling that his lollipop was healthy. I thought Nicole had told him that but come to find out he came up with it all on his own. He had wanted one that was licorice flavor and Nicole told him he probably wouldn't like it and pointed to one that was fruit flavored. He has been asking us a lot lately about what foods are healthy and such. So since fruit is healthy and she told him it was fruit flavored, he put two and two together :) We got a big kick out of the "healthy" lollipop.

When we went back on Friday night, Gabi and Macen were able to do a little more since the guys were there to help. Nicole and I were outnumbered with 4 kids, 2 of which being babies. Macen was happy to finally get on the bumper cars and go through the fun house.

Fest season is coming to a close so it was nice to get out and enjoy this one before it gets cold and we move back to the states.

Fighting over a chair

2011-09-25T05:47:00.001-05:00

With James being deployed for a year, Macen took claim to the chair James prefers in the living room. Of course its the seat directly in front of the tv - I think that is a guy thing. So there has been lots of fighting and eventual compromising with that particular seat. I mean it was so bad when James came home for R&R, Macen was crying within the first 10 mins of him being home because dad was in his seat. So when James spotted this chair at Ikea yesterday he thought maybe that would help keep Macen out of his chair and he could reclaim his seat. Here is Macen having fun rolling around in it while dad is putting together the base.

So far he likes hiding from us.

Only time will tell if James' plan works...or we get a new sofa set.

Update: They are still fighting over the chair

Keeping Macen Occupied

2011-09-18T04:28:00.002-05:00

With most of Shantel's attention focused on Maddox these days, I've been trying to come up with ways to keep Macen occupied. We've started going for runs where I push him in the Bob Stroller and that's a hit, but his attention span even with the videos on the iPad lasts only about 5 miles and I like to run longer than that on most days. What seems to have been the best idea for both me and him is the introduction of Star Wars Legos. He is still a little small for them but he does help me put them together and then he does spend several hours in pretend play with them. I let him keep them for a couple of weeks and then we hang them from his ceiling with Macen directing where they get hung and who's chasing who. I provide some input but the final decision is all Macen's. Here's the results of the last couple of months.

The Episode III Battle of Coruscant

He stares at them when he goes to bed and makes shooting noises and sometimes tells me which ones get shot down. He is fascinated by them.

Macen and I think we need more legos, especially the larger capital ships. Mom thinks we have enough. It's a good thing I've found a website that has people selling used sets so I don't have to spend too much. That keeps Mom from getting too grouchy.

A word of warning. Don't let Macen hold the camera as you make a tweak to the legos hanging from the ceiling. You never know what he might do with the it.

I think we have a budding photographer, he just needs to work on his subject matter. My backside is not that photogenic.

2 months old

2011-09-16T05:08:00.002-05:00

Another month already?!

Maddox is now 11lbs 1oz putting him in the 10th percentile and 22.5 inches which is the 14th percentile. He has become quite smiley and coos even more. So far he enjoys being read to. And he absolutely loves the sound of Macen's voice. Macen can soothe him with a song or two. Maddox started rolling from tummy to back a couple of weeks ago. Macen thinks it is the greatest thing ever. I can imagine what he will think when Maddox starts crawling, walking, eating, etc.

As for sleeping, Maddox is keeping me on my toes. Since he has to be waken to take Macen to school and for other things by the end of the day he is overtired. And that equals lots of screaming in the evenings as he tries to settle into sleep. So we are working on that. This week I worked on it so well that he got his days and nights mixed up as far as eating. I am getting up frequently with him throughout the night but he does go right back to sleep. It's that darn miracle blanket, it really does its job :) No more swaddling with the miracle blanket during the day so he will wake more often to eat. Hopefully we'll get back to only getting up once or twice through the night...and soon because this momma is exhausted.

ETA: I'm so sleep deprived I forgot to add a funny story from his dr appt. Maddox got shots and Macen was not happy about it. After she gave him the first shot and Maddox started crying really hard, Macen told her not to do that. She preceded with more shots and Macen went and hid behind the big chair I was holding Maddox in. He did not like Maddox crying that hard especially someone making him cry. Poor boys!

Corn Maze

2011-09-12T02:58:00.000-05:00

We took Macen to the corn maze this weekend and we ran into some neighbors - all of which had boys Macens age. So we did the corn maze together and Macen had a blast running the paths with friends. The guys even let the boys lead the way sometimes. You have to find 6 checkpoints within the maze and stamp your card at each one. The 6th checkpoint was a lookout over the cornfield which you see Macen at above. This year they didn't have the hay bales stacked as high but the kids loved running over them and jumping from them.

Hamburg

2011-09-07T03:35:00.001-05:00

We headed to Berlin and Hamburg for the holiday weekend. It was nice to get out of town and it was our first trip with Maddox in tow. He did great traveling so we have the green light for future excursions. Hamburg is a big port city and of course they commercialize on that. There were all kinds of river boat cruises and boats with restaurants on them.

Hard Rock

This Hard Rock just opened this summer. We have now been to all 4 Hard Rocks in Germany. We brought along our own tourist attraction in Maddox too. Throughout our trip so many people stopped to awww over him and ask how old he is including the staff at both Hard Rocks. Everyone loves a baby!

Miniature Wonderland

In our research for Hamburg, we found the highly rated miniature world was great for little kids. Well turns out it is a hit for all ages. The place was packed! Macen loved that there were trains all over. It was divided out between countries for the most part and there was even a section about America. I didn't get to look too closely here but Vegas took up a large section of it.

The trains take off and disappear into flaps in the wall.

Ar regualr intervals, the lights would go down so you could see everything lit up.

Berlin

2011-09-07T03:19:00.001-05:00

Berlin Zoo

This time Macen was all about the rhinos.

Hard Rock

Maddox slept through his first Hard Rock experience. Ironically, Macens first Hard Rock was in Munich.

Berlin Highlights

Victory Column

Brandenburg Gate

I was wearing Maddox when Macen got pretty cranky and tired so we put him in Maddox's carseat which was attached to the sit n stand stroller. He eventually fell asleep but was very confused and unhappy when he woke up in an infant seat.

Beer on wheels! Everyone around the bar peddles but the main person in the middle (who I assume isn't drinking - atleast not as much) steers. Notice the keg on the front.

We lounged in the yard in front of the Reichstag for awhile. James got some shut eye, Maddox stretched his legs and Macen got to run around and play some.

The Reichstag

A portion of the Berlin Wall still standing

Checkpoint Charlie

We went to the Ritter Sport chocolate store where you can make your own chocolate. You pick up to 3 items you want mixed with either white or dark chocolate and then come back later and pick up your chocolate bar. Macen selected strawberry pieces, sprinkles and gummi bears to put in his chocolate. He wasn't willing to try it but mom and dad thought it was rather tasty. Yes, even with gummi bears in it.

Next we went to a little more upscale chocolate store - Fassbender Rausch. The lower level is a chocolate store and the upstairs is a restaurant. We didn't have time to make it upstairs but reviews said the desserts are pretty amazing. Macen enjoyed looking at all the things they made out of chocolate like the volcano above. It was amazing how big the store/selection is downstairs.

The boys hanging out at the apartment we rented.

How do you like the Berlin Reichstag?

2011-09-07T03:17:00.000-05:00

James likes it in person.

Shantel likes it in the form of chocolate.

Macen likes it built with Legos.

Swaddle Free

2011-08-26T05:28:00.000-05:00

Maddox got part of his night swaddle free so he took advantage of the freedom.

Legoland Deutschland

2011-08-23T06:26:00.001-05:00

We took Macen to Legoland and we were all amazed at the lego creations. The main attraction for Macen and James was the Star Wars area. It was a hot day so all the water activities were refreshing for the boys. Picture overload follows:

Fountain in Berlin

Munich airport

15,000 pieces and 143 hrs later you get the above result.

James and Macen at Pirate Island spraying innocent bystanders

The "instruments" played music when you stepped on the stones. Macen got a kick out of this.

To our surprise, Macen wanted to ride this and dad was more than willing to indulge him.

Macen tempting the water gods. He managed to play for a bit and barely got wet. Next we headed to a playground with lots of water playing. His shirt came off and his shorts were quickly soaked.

Macen liked riding the horses and even named them.

Star Wars Legos

2011-08-18T13:29:00.001-05:00

It's a poorly kept secret that I'm a Star Wars Geek. I've been waiting several years until Macen was old enough for us to start putting together Star Wars Legos together. I finally decided to take the plunge in order to distract Macen after Maddox was born and I'd heard several guys on the street with boys Macen's age say they had started putting them together.

Macen helped me a little bit as I put together Darth Vader's Tie Advanced but I was pretty much on my own for the X-Wing.

The plan all along was for Dad to put together the regular size Star Wars Legos and then hang them from the ceiling in Macen's room. Macen wasn't supposed to play with the regular ones, instead he got Star Wars Mini Legos that he could play with. Well Dad didn't have fishing line in Germany, he must have left in the States with the rest of his hunting and fishing gear, so it took a little while to get some from Amazon. In the meantime Macen caused Dad to have several heart attacks by breaking both the X-Wing and Tie Fighter numerous times as he played with them. Luckily I was able to put them back together with only losing one small unimportant piece to the X-Wing (it's around here somewhere).

It's not quite the Episode IV chase scene (Shantel I need 2 regular TIE Fighters for that) but I think it looks pretty darn good.

4 hours to put two both together; 60 minutes to hang them "just right". All worth it to hear Macen say "That's cool, Dad!!!"

I wonder what he'll say tomorrow when we go to Legoland Germany. I also wonder how many more kits I'll just have to have from there.

1 month old

2011-08-15T05:55:00.001-05:00

Maddox waving hi to everyone

Hard to believe it's been a month already. I am going to keep asking for a pause button the next couple months because he is going to grow way too fast for me. Life has finally settled some for us and we aren't running here and there trying to get things squared away with Maddox. Where things are all done in the hospital in the states, we had to make numerous runs to offices/agencies here. And if you didn't already know, Europeans don't typically believe in circumcisions. So we ran into several roadblocks with that only to recently have it completed just before the cut off time (Maddox also had phimosis which added to our trouble with the procedure). Otherwise we would have had to wait until he was a year old and he would have had to go under anesthesia. So hopefully we get some down time from dr appts and such now.

Maddox has started cooing a little. We are getting under way with a bedtime routine and he does great with it - even giving me several 5 hr spells of sleep. While he has been a pretty good sleeper, he is a noisy one. He snorts, grunts and stretches A LOT in his sleep. It's more frequent the closer he gets to waking up but he has been known to be noisy for an hour and a half before waking up. I know this because he kept me on my toes in the middle of the night for that duration. Breastfeeding is hanging on by a thread, lol. We'll see where we end up with it. Macen is still so proud of his little brother and it's adorable to watch him with Maddox.

Thank you

2011-08-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

We received an aunt onesie and some monkey onesies for Maddox and wanted to say thank you to the gift giver. Both seem to come through Amazon but neither had anyone's info on them. They are adorable and we can't wait to get the little guy in them.

Ironman Regensburg 2011

2011-08-08T00:20:00.002-05:00

Well folks it's official, I'm an "Ironman" I completed Ironman Regensburg yesterday in 14hrs 57min 45secs, not as fast as I wanted but under the 16 hour cutoff. Before I get into the race day story let me give you a little background.

Most of you know that I redeployed from Afcrackistan on 27 May. I really ramped up my training once I returned and I was posting all about it. That all kind of went to hell around 13 July, that when, if you noticed, I stopped really posting about my training.

On July 13 Shantel and I welcomed our second son Maddox James, so that week's training was shot. I got back on track for the most part the next week only to have my Mom and Stepdad arrive for their visit the Friday before race. No issues there it was taper week anyway and I really enjoyed playing tour guide all around southern Germany and the Czech Republic for them.

So if you really look at I only had 10 weeks to prep, 1 of which was lost for the birth of our son, and the other was a taper week. That's 8 weeks of training to do 140.6 miles in under 16 hours. I don't want to hear any excuses from anyone about how hard an Ironman is to complete. It's not easy but if I can do it with only 8 weeks of real training than a normal person should be able to get off the couch, get a plan and finish one.

Now for the race day story:

Ready to go after a quick warm up swim!

Forcast for race day: 55-60 degrees with rain showers all day. I got my hopes up at 4:30am when it wasn't raining as we went out to the car to drive to the swim start. I was thinking that the forcasted rain today would be like the forcasted rain all week; just a figment of the meterologists imagination. My hopes were dashed as we were waiting for the shuttle bus to take us from the parking area to the swim start when it started pouring and kept pouring and kept pouring. It rained off and on all day until the run portion when there was still some scattered drizzling.

How did I fit 195-200lbs into that
neoprene suit?

The swim start went off right at 7am and it was asses and elbows as 2500+ particpants did one mass start into the lake and I was right in the middle of it. Things spread out eventually as all of the "fish" left me behind. I spent most of the swim with several other blue capped men and a couple of orange capped women and I just tried to keep up with them, keep a steady pace and not stray too far from the bouy line. I succeeded for the most part and came out of the swim with a time of 1hr 46 minutes. Faster than anything I'd done in training.

The bike was wet, wet, wet. I was wearing a a sleeveless tri jersey and I was wishing for some arm warmers or a long sleeve jersey. I drove on though and I really enjoyed the ride through the Bavarian countryside. Despite the weather the bike course was lined with Bavarians out having a good time cheering on the bikers, cooking out and of course, drinking beer. I couldn't believe it, but it's not like a Bavarian to turn down an excuse to party. I finished up the bike portion with a time of 7 hours and change. What do you know, I'm about 20 minutes ahead of the pace I wanted to keep.

I started the run with 7 hours to go until cutoff time. Piece of cake I thought. Yeah right. I'd had high hopes for the run since that was really the only event that I had trained for while in Afcrackistan putting in several 15+ mile runs and I'd had several good training runs in the weeks prior to the race. Well the first lap went pretty good with about a 12 minute a mile average and a couple under 12 minutes, but I was fading, not fast but I know me and I realized that any hopes of a sub 13 minute average was slipping. Lap 2 was decent with a couple of good miles but the monkey was on the horizon and he showed up for good on lap three where the average jumped from around 12:30 to almost 14 minutes. Lap 4 I decided to make my victory lap, the pace was a shuffle at around a 15 minute average, but I knew that at even that pace I was in no danger of missing the cutoff. Why push hard when I'm not in contention for a Kona slot and the only goals I had were to finish and not finish last in my age group? I crossed the finish line at 14hrs 57min 45secs. Not stellar but I accomplished my goals and I FINISHED!!! My run split was a 5hr 55min and change.

Overall the race experience was great. Great volunteers, Great spectators, Great racers. I chatted up racers from the US, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy, and Canada, everyone was mutually supportive and made the race experience so much better.

Finishing strong!!

I feel good today, not great just good. This may have been my only Ironman distance race. I don't know. I know that my friend Andy will probably try and twist my arm into doing an Ironman race next summer, we'll just have to see. I'm really comfortable with the half Ironman races and I think that is where I will probably concentrate my efforts, you never know though, I may have to stretch my limits again.

I'd like to thank my Mom and Hugh for being my Ironman Support Crew. They were there for the start and for every transition and Hugh took plenty of pictures which I'll post later. They rang cow bells and kept me going. Thanks guys.

Finally I'd like to thank Shantel. This was the ony race she's missed since we've been together, she stayed home with Macen and Maddox,and she hated it but she was glued to www.ironmanlive.com watching my splits and tracking my progress at home. She was even worried when my last run split didn't get posted and was really relieved when I called to tell her that I was done. Thanks babe, I couldn't of done it without you letting me out of the house for those long rides and runs. I love you.

Visitors

2011-08-02T14:50:00.003-05:00

My Mother and Stepfather have been here since last Friday so we've been on the go ever since they got here.

We started out pretty light on Saturday just visiting the local area but we've been down to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in Southern Germany, we moved on yesterday to the Seehof Palace and downtown Bamberg, Germany, a city with a unique beer brewing style that I talked about here, here, here and here. According to my European Daytrips guidebook Bamberg residents drink an average of 330 liters a person per year, a world record, but that's a story for another day and another blog. Oh yeah besides the beer it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Bamberg we of course had some beer and we visited St Peter's Cathedral, the Prince Bishop's Rose Garden and New Residence. Today we headed down to Kelheim and took a River Cruise on the Donau River to the Weltenburger Monastery, home to the World's Oldest Monastery Brewery, where we had a lunch and enjoyed an afternoon lounging in the biergarten, very relaxing.

Tomorrow and Thursday it's off to Munich and Prague. Friday starts the Ironman Regensburg activities. So there is still plenty of fun ahead.

Ok enough talk, here are the pictures.

Hohenschwangau Castle

The clouds rolling down the Alps to Neuschwanstein Castle

Macen, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa

A view of the waterfalls from the Marien Brucke just above Neuschwanstein Castle

A picture of Neuschwanstein from Marien Brucke

Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein

One very sleepy little boy

One very sleepy Grandma

Seehof Palace

The fountains go off every hour on the hour

Macen being silly with Grandpa's hat

St Peter's Cathedral, Bamberg

The Prince Bishop of Bamberg's New Residence

The Rose Garden

Can you spot the crazy American 4 year old in the Rose Garden? Hint he's wearing blue.

St Peter's Cathedral on the right and St Michaels Monastary on the left. We spent an hour trying to drive to St. Michaels only to be continously routed the wrong way down a one way street by the GPS. We finally gave up.

Grandma and Grandpa on the River Cruise.

Grandma with Maddox and Macen

Grandma, Dad, Macen and Maddox

Dad trying to teach Macen how to skip a rock

Cute baby alert

2011-07-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

Maddox had his 2 wk appt yesterday and is doing great. He has regained his birth weight so momma's milk is doing his body good. He's starting to stay awake for longer periods of time and Macen has started talking to him more during that time. Macen is still holding onto the proud brother title and loves showing Maddox off to people. Maddox seems to have great neck and leg strength. He's always trying to hold his head up and loves pushing off our stomachs.
We can't believe how incredibly lucky we are that he is ours.

German-American Volksfest

2011-07-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

We indulged Macen's fascination of fests once again. Post hosted a fest with the return of our troops. Macen is getting pretty good at the games they offer. The bog prize amongst majority of the booths this year was blow up bats, hammers, axes, etc. We managed to come home with 2 and these things are huge. James got to partake in the large German beers while I enjoyed some chocolate covered strawberries.

Settling in at home

2011-07-20T02:57:00.000-05:00

We are home and adjusting to a newborn again. So far Maddox likes to sleep most of the day and then cluster feed in the evening with some fussiness. He does settle down for a decent stretch through the night and hopefully it'll only improve from here (fingers crossed). James has been great taking care of Macen while I tend to Maddox. Macen finally asked to hold Maddox after we had been home a couple of days. He is pretty proud of little brother and is always saying in a soft, sweet voice how cute he is.

The wrong boys in the basket

2011-07-20T02:45:00.000-05:00

As you can see, Mo and Myles have made themselves comfortable in the moses basket.

More Pictures of Maddox

2011-07-14T14:26:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures of Maddox

Momma and one racked out baby. According to Shantel he was a little fussy in the night.

Maddox seems to have taken to a pacifier. Something Macen never was interested in.

Macen seems to be taking just fine to being a big brother. He even offered him some pommes from his happy meal today.

Finally a picture of me with Maddox

Introducing Maddox James Scrogin!!!

2011-07-13T07:50:00.000-05:00

Maddox James Scrogin made his arrival at 10:58am CET at the Amberg, Germany hospital. He weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 20 inches long. Both Mom and baby are doing fine. As you can see from the photos below Maddox has brown hair (unlike Macen's bright red hair) and it appears that he does have blue eyes like Macen.

Here are some pictures.

38 wks

2011-07-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

38 weeks to the day and heading to the hospital. The little guy inside will be here soon. We haven't decided on a name yet. It's a toss up between 2 names - Jaxon or Maddox.

A pregnant belly to a 4 yr old

2011-07-11T17:40:00.000-05:00

How do they come up with these things?

James got a flat tire on his bike ride the other day so Macen and I took him some things to repair it which included the air pump. While James was messing with the inner tube, Macen asked me to hold the nozzle of the air pump to my belly. Then he started pumping it! After a few pumps, he stated "It's not coming out". I'm not sure if he thought he could expand my belly even further for his brother to come out right then or what. James and I got a good laugh out of Macen "pumping air" into my 9 mo pregnant belly.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

We had a neighborhood get together instead of going to see the fireworks. It doesn't get dark here until after 10pm so the fireworks don't start until 10:30. A German dollar store sells small fireworks year round so we got some for the kids to see. We did most of them earlier in the evening while it was still light out and they enjoyed them. And if you notice, the men did too :) We let Macen stay up to do the sparklers. It was his first year with them and he loved them. We had a great, relaxing evening!

Nurnberg

2011-07-02T02:12:00.001-05:00

We took the train down to Nurnberg for an afternoon. Macen enjoyed the ride and we just walked around the city center. We visited the Burg (castle) and went to a brewery for some Nurberger sausages.

We just walked around the outside grounds of the castle instead of touring the inside. At the end, Macen enjoyed climbing on the rocks.

Macen wanted his pic taken in front of every fountain we came across. This one was gorgeous with all the gold.

And as we were leaving James found this in the train station. It's very rare to find my name spelled this way so we were amused to see this posted.

Prague, Czech Republic

2011-06-22T03:00:00.001-05:00

We made our 5th Hard Rock Stop while in Europe. Prague has the largest one in Europe complete with a guitar chandelier in the middle.

The astronomical clock in the Old Town Square. Every hour on the hour a trumpet plays and some of the figures move about. There is a huge crowd gathered under it each time it strikes top of the hour.

This is a random picture but I wanted to show you how hard it is to read Czech. The last line is in German since it is also a common language spoke here. Atleast with the German you can attempt to decipher what is being advertised but that is not the case with most of the Czech language. Fortunately for us, English is very common here as well as posted often.

A view of the Charles Bridge. It connects the Old Town to the Prague Castle. There are many staues like the one below that line the bridge. During the day there are painters, souvenir vendors, musicians awaiting the tourists that are drawn to the bridge.

A view of the city from the Prague Castle. We took the short tour that included the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica, St. Vitus's Cathedral and Golden Lane.

Basilica of St George

St. Vitus's Cathedral

At the beginning of Golden Lane where all the goldsmiths sold their goods. James and Macen went up the stairs here to an area filled with armor.

We walked up this to the castle. Let me tell you, it's much easier on a very pregnant lady to go down it then come up it.

From the castle we went to a restaurant highly recommended online. It is the restaurant of a brewery located right next to a monastary and we had read it was a beer lovers heaven. They serve a select few beers and James was impressed with them. He enjoyed the place and is willing to go back so he can buy some beer to bring home. Macen was thrilled his apple juice came with 2 straws, lol.

This is a brewery in Pilsen. We had every intention of doing the tour and then eating in the restaurant before heading home. However, as we were leaving Prague James was pulled over by Czech police and ticketed for entering an area where no cars are allowed. Apparently there was a sign stating this but it was hidden by a tree. And just so everyone knows, James has now gotten a speeding ticket in Germany and ticketed in Czech. We are thinking of heading to Austria sometime but we may have to take the train at James' rate :) So we just ate at the restaurant this time but will have to go back for the tour.

We are Comin' Home!!!!!

2011-06-19T01:00:00.001-05:00

James has received unofficial word that he was accepted to SAMS (a school). We've been anticipating this announcement for months so finally some relief to know if we are moving or not.

*This means we are moving back to the states by the end of the year. WooHoo!
*This also means we are heading back to KS. We will only be there for a year but the timing is really great for us.

So we are pretty excited as visions of ice cream, restaurants, shopping, baseball and football games flash through our minds. We will miss plenty of things here most of which is the travel opportunities we won't get to experience but it comes with the territory of being a military family. 2011 is turning out to be a pretty big year for us!

Nurnberg Zoo

2011-06-14T03:12:00.000-05:00

We took Macen to the zoo over the weekend and he was very excited.

He was hesitant on feeding the goats but after watching dad doing it a couple of times, he got the courage. And then he kept wanting to feed them.

There is a kinderzoo where the goats are, cows, donkeys, bunnies, guinea pigs and pigs. Also in the area are several play structures. Macen wanted to go down this extremely tall slide where you basically had to wall climb to different levels to get to it. So up him and James went. It was a time consuming adventure but Macen loved it. James was a trooper and did it with him twice. Thankfully it was time for us to get some lunch after the 2nd time so James got a break.

New set of wheels...

2011-06-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

for Macen. He got a bike more his size now that he is pedaling pretty good. He is still adapting but I think it'll be well used by the end of summer.

Kickin' off summer

2011-06-06T03:28:00.000-05:00

We're kickin' off the summer months with a fest. I'm sure if we looked hard enough, we could find a fest every weekend now through the end of September. They are big over here and I think I have mentioned before that Macen loves them. This one was very small but it had everything Macen enjoys doing at them.

Macen has really taken to the fun houses. This one had a long slide off to the side that James was more than happy to go down with him.

This fest was in a town about 20 mins away and wouldn't you know Macen ran into a kid from his school. So they rode most of these rides together.

He's Home

2011-05-30T00:21:00.000-05:00

After several delays in the day he was arriving as well as several changes in the time, James is home.

Macen was thrilled to see him. He kept saying before the soldiers marched in that this was going to be cool and then as each group entered the gym, Macen excitedly clapped with everyone. After a prayer from the chaplain and a 10 second speech from the boss, the soldiers were released. James didn't have too much trouble finding us this time. We had an obnxiously large guitar shaped balloon for him to identify us. (After James' 1st deployment, him and I spent a good 10 mins searching for each other in a large gym filled with many soldiers and family members. I wasn't going to let that happen again). The friends we sat with also had an off the wall balloon leaving us the only people in the gym with balloons that weren't 'Welcome Home' or red, white and blue. No way could he miss us.

We are enjoying a few days of quality time before James starts reintegration and then eventually work.

School Program

2011-05-18T02:56:00.000-05:00

Macen's school had a program/fundraiser last weekend. They have been working on a theme of "A Trip Around the World" for several months now. The kids were divided into groups and represented different countries. Macen was in the group representing America so he was a firefighter for the his part of the skit.

Macen's group sang along to a song about firefighters. He did a great job!

After the program, there were activities set up for the kids. One of which was using a fire hose to knock over some cans. This one was a huge hit with all the kids. Another one was painting a snake on the kids arm/hand. Macen also loved this and named his - snake-co. He did not want to wash him off that night so it took some convincing. As I tucked him into bed that night he stated he missed snake-co and the next day Macen noticed we didn't get all the paint off the side of his arm. His reply was that snake-co was coming back to see him.

Outdoor Fun

2011-05-09T12:34:00.000-05:00

One of the neighbor girls got a slip n slide and Macen took a chance on it. Enjoy the pics because it's not likely he'll be doing it again this summer. He had orginally went down on a portion if it with jean shorts and didn't slide well so I got his trunks. The first pic is where he started getting scared of it. And since he is the weight of a feather you can imagine how he flew over the bump and then past the end. It was placed on a steep hill so all the kids were sliding close to the sidewalk. As soon as he stopped he started crying because it was scary. I knew he was going to be mad but all I could do is laugh. I was shocked he wanted to actually do it and then to watch him go through it was too much.

Macen got a bubble gun for his birthday and it is a huge hit. It has become a neighborhood fave since several kids have them.

The kids have been dragging hoses from the houses on the other side of the playground for a couple of weeks now to play in the sand and this weekend they realized it would also reach the slide.

Party Time

2011-04-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

We went with a Pirate party and it was a lot of fun. I made his invites on regular paper then soaked them in tea to discolor them. Then I put them in the dryer for a few minutes to stiffen them up and when they were fully dry I took a lighter to the edges. I rolled them like a map, wrapped them in twine and hung them on the invitees doors. Super easy and they turned out great!

The tent was a fun for them but it was really windy so it was blowing over at times. Evenutally it got cold enough we took the party inside.

We did a treasure hunt with nursery rhymes.

*Clue #1 - the itsy bitsy spider went up the ____ _____. They found a small treasure chest with empty goody bags and eye patches.
*Clue #2 - one, two buckle my shoe. three, four open the ____. They found rings and bracelets in this chest.
*Clue #3 - jack and jill went up the hill to fetch a _____ of water. They found a mardi gras beads and the final clue here
*Clue #4 - baa, baa black sheep have you any wool, yes sir, yes sir ____ ____ ____. They found 3 "treasure chests" pcitured above full of goodies to put in their bags. There was some pirate stuff in there but mainly it was Macens faves like pez dispensers and fruit snacks.

We had to light his candles inside because the wind was so bad. He wanted them lit over and over :)

And I need to show off my pirate ice. Too cute!

Everyone had a great time and Macen loved having his friends at his house. As I tucked him into bed tonight I told him he was four now. He laughed and said "Maybe tomorrow I can be 5".

Happy Birthday Macen!

2011-04-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

Our little guy isn't so little anymore. He is the big 4 now! When I told him it was his birthday this morning he responded with "You're so crazy!" Here he is with a gift from us. It was a huge hit! He played with it most of the morning.

We love you Macen!

Egg hunting

2011-04-25T02:04:00.000-05:00

We had a neighborhood dinner and egg hunt for the kids. There is an egg hunt on post but it is mass chaos with so many kids and I didn't want to deal with it. Good thing because they didn't have near enough eggs for the amount of kids that showed up. The egg hunt we did was perfect because there were only 7 kids, 3 of which were older and helped the younger ones while still hunting for some themselves. The kids had a blast and loved it!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T00:47:00.001-05:00

The Easter Bunny visited Macen leaving him goodies and hidden eggs. He loved the drink, Toy Story kinderegg and fruit snacks in his basket.

He had no problem finding the hidden eggs and even managed to eat all the hershey kisses inside them within an hour. I think it's time the Easter bunny steps up his game. Macen was hopped up on sugar all day long between the kisses and the fruit snacks. Thankfully he did share the box of fruit snacks with all the neighbor kids but he still managed to devour a few packages on his own.

The Influence of a Pregnant Momma

2011-04-15T04:31:00.001-05:00

Macen and I had been working around the house when I said I was tired. He exclaimed he was too and took off. A little bit later I came around the corner into the living room and found him like this. Notice the very important pillow between the knees, lol. If you've been pregnant you know this technique helps with back pain. Macen finds me like this everyday when he comes down from his nap. Either I have just woken up from my nap and I'm watching tv or he wakes me up.

Coloring Eggs

2011-04-12T02:46:00.000-05:00

We colored eggs this weekend using things I found on the German economy. One technique didn't work well for us but we found some we loved.

This is rice with coloring on it and we shook the eggs in the cups. These turned out really great. Macen was all over each of the eggs having more than one color on them.

I liked the idea of this little contraption holding the egg for you and it works great for a 3 yr old.

He makes me laugh

2011-04-04T11:48:00.000-05:00

By the influence of another kid, Macen has taken to wearing his bike helmet all the time. I did make him take it off before heading into school this morning but it went back on as soon as he was in the car again. It's really hard to take him serious with it on sometimes. Like today when he asked if I knew of any concerts going on. Totally random I know. He has been fascinated with musical instruments like violins, cellos, trombones and is always saying he needs some for his friends so they can put on a concert. Those kind of concerts and helmets don't really go together though.

Oh, Shreds!

2011-03-31T08:39:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when a little boy wakes up at 5:30 one morning and wants to go outside by 6:30. In effort to divert his repeated request, we shredded paper. Macen just wanted to hide his pez dispensers in it though. The cats got days of entertainment from it. They napped in it, wrestled in it and tracked it all over the house.

Finally!!!

2011-03-25T04:40:00.000-05:00

Macen has finally taken an interest in riding his bike. A neighbor girl had her training wheels taken off the other day so a couple of them have been riding their bikes a lot. He doesn't last too long on it yet but he has spent time on it the past 2 days.

20 weeks and Expanding

2011-03-17T04:29:00.000-05:00

I just finished my 20th week so half way there. I have managed to go a week without throwing up - big progress from the last several months. This pregnancy has pretty much wiped out my immune system and I am catching every single thing going around. The little guy seems to be just as active in utero as Macen was too. Finally a part of pregnancy I can enjoy.

Fasching Parade

2011-03-11T08:53:00.000-06:00

We went to a Fasching parade in the town we live near to see what all the excitement was about. We didn't do this last year because there was still a lot of snow on the ground. It was a pretty big parade for a small town. Not only did the walkers dress up but so did a lot of the bystanders.

Lego people

Macen thought the bands were loud. We placed ourselves right at the beginning of the parade front row so we had a good view. Macen thought it was pretty cool and then he quickly realized just how great it was when they started throwing candy everywhere. It took him about the first 5 mins to go from sitting in his stroller to making sure he was standing so he could run after candy.

The guy in green had a pretty creative costume if you ask me. It's hard to see in the shadows but keep looking down for the spout. Haha!

A lot of the floats were jamming out to some loud music and the jail birds were no exception. If only you could see how much they were bouncing the floats.

A creative, handmade bike.

And this is a local brewery. Not only was candy and some toys thrown into the crowds but a lot of people in the parade either had kegs, bottles of beer and wine and some even had the mini bottles of liquor. The mini bottles were thrown into the crowd and they would carry little plastic cups with the kegs, beer and wine and hand out small drinks randomly to the crowd.

Macen loved it and we came home with a lot of candy. Way more than what will get eaten.

Our House of Blue

2011-03-04T15:19:00.001-06:00

It's a boy!

We're so excited to add another boy to our family! Macen has accepted a brother is on the way with no problems. Almost immediately after I posted in January that he only wanted a brother, he switched to wanting a sister. After I told him it was a boy and he'd have a brother, he laughed and said okay. I guess it's time to start thinking of names for this little guy.

I just have to say I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by all these males - all the way to the feline ones.

Fasching

2011-03-01T03:39:00.000-06:00

We are in the middle of Fasching over here. It's the big celebration before lent starts. It's such a big deal that Macen doesn't have school a couple days next week because of it. Parades, costume balls and lots of beer drinking take place during this time. Macen's school has been celebrating with the theme "A trip around the world". The kids were divided into groups and represent a part of the world.

Macen was part of the group representing America so he had to come dressed as something from there. We thought a cowboy costume fit well for America. He also had to bring a snack for the buffet that represented America so I made mini apple pies.

Yesterday they continued the celebration and they could dress up as anything they wanted. He was not thrilled with the headpiece to his costume as you can see.

So he swapped it out for his knight helmet and was much happier. Macen has enjoyed the parties at school lately. They are done dressing up but I think they are still celebrating all this week.

Officially a Deployment

2011-02-27T02:04:00.000-06:00

It's a given the car will break down or any number of things in the house will break once they are gone. Just ask any spouse of a soldier. Every deployment we've gone through, there has been car issues and this one is no different. We had hoped we were avoiding this issue by buying a brand new car before coming over here but no such luck.

Thankfully it happened very close to post and we could still see the front gate. And we were thankful a neighbor drove by and offered us a ride so we didn't have to walk too far in upper 20's weather. We were within 2 milies of home so it wouldn't have been too far of a walk for us. The car is at a Ford dealership about 45 mins south of here now. Another neighbor looked at it before it was towed away and said it was a pretty big issue so it may take awhile to get parts shipped here from the states. We've been in a rental car for a week now and hoping it won't be too much longer.

All in all we got very lucky with the entire situation. I couldn't have asked for a better way for it to all go down.

Handing out Spurs

2011-02-25T02:42:00.000-06:00

James handing out spurs and Order of the Spur Certificate to the Law Enforcement Professionals that helped us at the PHQ.

Road Trippin' and Tippin' Over

2011-02-10T02:16:00.001-06:00

Joint ANP US Convoy on the way to Nawbahar district to take supplies

there. ISAF troops had not driven to Nawbahar in over 6 months, so the
SEAL team that was there was surprised that we made it without incident

Crossing a river - A Mine Resistant All Terrain Vehicle (MAT-V) crossing

a river. These trucks are really pretty good in all terrain, as
compared to the heavy MRAPs, not quite as good as an MRAP in taking a
blast but definitely better than an up armoured HMMWV

Taliban country - driving through passes like this gives me the heebie
jeebies just waiting for the bad guys to spring an ambush on us.
Luckily that has not happened yet to any patrol that I've been on.

Barrett .50 cal. The SEALs at Nawbahar were more than willing to let us

play with some of their Gee whiz weapons, MP-5 submachine guns, SCARs,
and their Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle which you see me shooting here.

Snow in Nawbahar There was 2 inches of snow on the ground when we left

Nawbahar, a harbringer of things to come.

Roll over - Due to the rain, the mud was very slick and the MAT-Vs are
top heavy. That equaled disaster on the minor slope we had to cross
here, the slope was bounded by a 3 ft drop off. We slid and when we
hit the drop off we tipped over. I was in the truck on its side.
Luckily no one was hurt in either vehicle and once we got my truck back
up on its wheels we drove it another 7 hours back home.

Recovery, this is how we got the truck that was on its top back up on

its wheels, a pretty good job by the wrecker crew to make this happen.
We did have to tow it all the way back home since it had leaked pretty
much all of its fluids out all over the ground.

Dab Pass - more snow. This is the Dab Pass, it's in the mountain range

that separates Qalat from the rest of Zabul to the South Southeast.
There was about 4 inches of snow as we negotiated the pass. We were
extra careful here since we'd already had a couple of incidents and were
towing the results of that incident.

Joint ANP US convoy, our truck with ANP trucks at a rest halt.

James and LTC Matin

So long 1st Trimester!

2011-02-06T06:47:00.001-06:00

Can't say I am sorry to see it go. It's kinda crazy how something so tiny can control so much. And let me tell you that 5 oz someone is reminding me from time to time he/she is still in charge. I still have to be careful with what I eat and when I eat it.

I *think* I am over the morning sickness. Atleast I have been telling everyone that and then I had a bad bout a few days ago. I'm not spending every night on the couch anymore and I can clean more than 1 thing around the house in a day so big progress there. I finally starting gaining some weight in the last 2-3 wks. Yeah, I had a bump without weight gain for awhile. The first several weeks I knew I was pregnant it was as if I was 8-9 mos pregnant already and could hardly fit anything in my stomach. So I lost 5-6 lbs and spent the next several weeks gaining that back before finally adding onto my weight. I am still exhausted but my naps have gotten shorter so I think some of that is going away as well. This symptom took me by surprise because I didn't really have it with Macen. Thank goodness he still naps daily so I can nap at the same time.

As you can see from the updated baby pic to the left, he/she is right on track and growing well. Germans are very generous with ultrasounds and I get one at every appt. My doc was great about thoroughly going over what he was measuring and how the baby looked. We are hoping to find out what we are having at the next appt.

Macen has been really great with me being pregnant. I think he is relieved I am now a functioning pregnant mom so I can play with him again. He likes to poke at the baby from time to time. And sometimes he likes to share his food and tells me "Your baby likes (insert whatever he is eating here) ". It's pretty funny and atleast he is thinking of the baby already. He'll be a good big brother.

Thank You

2011-01-26T04:58:00.001-06:00

We received a gift this week from Amazon from a mystery person. There was no paper included inside so I just wanted to say Thank You to whoever sent it. The giraffe is so soft and will come in handy to ease the baby into sleep.

Tunnel Time

2011-01-21T02:21:00.000-06:00

We set up Macen's tent and tunnel after taking down the christmas tree and boy have all 3 boys been having a blast with it. Not only does Macen play with his toys in it but he has been chasing Mo and Myles through it. And when Macen doesn't play with the cats in there, they are typically sleeping in the tunnel, wrestling in the tent or chasing each other through the tunnel. It's been great for all of them while we are stuck inside a little more.

Plus One

2011-01-13T08:15:00.005-06:00

There are 3 people in this picture. Can you see everyone?

How about now?

We are expecting #2 around July 27th. We are thrilled! Morning sickness has made itself known in the last few weeks which has helped Macen get a decent grasp of what is going on. Macen is adament it's a boy. He won't even discuss the possibility of a girl. We'll see if he is right. Mo and Myles are taking very good care of me especially Myles. He follows me everywhere and talks to me as I enter each room. When he needs a break and retreats upstairs, Mo steps right in following me everywhere.

Our Secondary Infertility Journey

2011-01-13T08:15:00.000-06:00

I have kept pretty quiet about this until now. First, I didn't know how far down the infertility path we'd have to go. And also didn't have any answers for a long time, so really what was there to talk about other than how much it hurt to not get pregnant. I was also completely baffled on how I got pregnant with Macen so quickly and was struggling this time.

After 18 mos of trying, I was diagnosed with secondary infertility this past June. I knew there was something wrong 9 mos in and saw a dr about it in KS. James was tested and while his #'s weren't perfect the dr believed we could get pregnant without any issues. Since we had a big move approaching I waited until we got here to see an actual fertility dr because the issue clearly lied within me. My dr found both of my tubes were blocked and laproscopic surgery was scheduled for August. The dr apologized several times saying he didn't expect my tubes to be blocked. I told him even bad news at this point was better than no news. I just needed answers and a direction to go in. Those last 9 mos of knowing something was wrong yet not having any answers was the longest, darkest months I have ever had. Anyone who has gone through infertility knows you deal with everything from extreme highs to extreme lows any given day or week of every single month. I spent so many hours online researching infertility and after I was exhausted from that, I'd research more. I probably drove myself insane and kept myself sane at the same time with it.

So surgery was done and went way better than expected. The dr told me my tubes weren't blocked so my fertility dr had unknowingly unblocked them with the HSG in June. I had no idea what they would find when they got in there so I had prepared myself for the worst. And I got the best results anyone could ask for. We got lucky. The best time to get pregnant after your tubes are unblocked is within the first 3 months. We were in a race against time with James deployed and even more so since my tubes had already been unblocked longer than I thought. We carefully planned his R&R so he'd be home at the right time.

James was retested when he got home since it had been over a year since his last test. The latest results put us into a whole new journey with fertility. I hadn't been worried about his analysis because he was fine the previous year. So when I called the lab to get the results, the nurse asked me to wait and I heard her talking to a male in the room in German. I couldn't understand everything she was saying but I made out August of last year and my heart sank. I knew we weren't going to get good news with them comparing his results to last years. My dr got on the phone and explained James' sperm wasn't well formed so IVF (in vitro fertilization) would be our best chance in getting pregnant. It wasn't our only option but we were nearly 2 yrs into trying and we could spend another year trying naturally but unsuccessfully. James and I had already discussed the option of having sperm frozen while he was home so fertility treatments could be done while he was deployed. So with the news of IVF, we had sperm frozen. Doing IVF without James here was a lot to take on but we didn't feel waiting was a good option for us. My tubes could become blocked again and time was no longer on our side when it came to James' sperm so waiting another 6-7 mos to start didn't seem like a great idea when we had other options. And in all honesty, I couldn't handle anymore waiting. When trying to get pregnant, you wait every single month to get the result you want. Then I had to wait until we moved, only to wait to see the only fertility dr in our area and then wait some more due to mother nature in the form of an erupting volcano. Then there was waiting for surgery because it has to be done on certain cycle days. And then I was going to have to wait for James' job to bring him home? I was so over waiting. In my opinion, it's the worst word when it comes to infertility. It hurts the most.

My dr had also agreed to us trying IUI (insemination) while James was home. So we went back to the dr to be monitored. I was on my 2nd day of a positive ovulation test but the dr found nothing going on at my left ovary and they couldn't find my right ovary. We were sent home without doing IUI. I did talk to them that afternoon and they offered to do it the next day but I felt it was pointless. So the nurse advised us to try naturally. The nurse also asked if I could come in the following week for a blood test. So a few days after James left, I had blood drawn and our disappointing news continued. My progesterone level was low - so either I didn't ovulate or my level was too low to sustain a pregnancy. They put me on progesterone and I needed to stay on it until my next cycle started or if I ended up pregnant, I would be on it until 12 weeks to prevent a miscarriage. Starting the medicine was incredibly hard for me. I had no qualms with the surgery other than preparing myself for bad news afterwards. Those small progesterone pills did me in though. I was completely convinced I hadn't ovulated so I thought taking it was pointless so having to take it made me angry. Second, it the was the first step in taking medicine/drugs for our infertility. It made IVF a reality to me. It was no longer something I had read about in my hours of research. I was going to become one of those people who injected themselves with hormones daily, dealing with erratic emotions, make frequent trips to the dr, etc. All for the simple desire to be pregnant which comes easily to so many. I know because I was one of those women 4 years ago.

About a week after starting progesterone, I started having insomnia worrying about my cycle starting, IVF, what it be like for Macen, etc. I wasn't technically late yet but on a whim, mid day I decided to test using an expired pregnancy test strip with random, non-built up urine. I did everything you weren't suppose to do, that is how convinced I was that I wasn't pregnant. And we all know once you test, your period will start. I just wanted the insomnia to stop, my cycle to start and move on with IVF. Again, I was tired of waiting. So I got a little surprise when it turned positive! The insomnia continued but only because I now had to worry about miscarrying. That lasted about a week when I decided it was out of my control. All of this had been out of my control. My body was going to do what it was going to do.

Our infertility journey has been long and heartbreaking and yet we didn't even come close to enduring what some couples have to deal with. But everyones infertility is different and it hurts just the same. Infertility is powerful. I guess it has to be to go through what you need to month after month, year after year to reach the desired outcome. I also like to think we had a little infertility insurance in the form of frozen sperm that last month. As I told James - we had it, so we didn't need it but if we didn't have it, we would have needed it :)

So here we are at the 12 wk mark and I am done with progesterone. Our initial prayer was answered and now we will continue praying for a healthy pregnancy. We are incredibly lucky our journey ended when it did so we can start this new one.

James has been busy

2011-01-10T12:03:00.000-06:00

A joint ANA/ANP and US rehearsal

Taking a river bed to get to the mountains

Stopped in the mountains conducting some hasty road repair and
getting a route clearance vehicle unstuck

An Apache providing watch as we did the hasty road repair

Playing Ranger Games in the Mountains when we sent the Engineers to blow
really big holes in the roads to keep the insurgents from using some
smuggling routes

Afghanistan pics

2011-01-05T02:01:00.001-06:00

A Shura or village meeting attended by the Provincial Governor, the provincial Afghan Security Forces leaders and the commander of ISAF troopss in the province.

A meeting the Chief of Police and I had in a district where the Chief replaced a district chief of police making the SEALs and the locals unhappy. The Chief was explaining himself and I was trying to make sure it seemed like the Americans were on the same
team. The SEALs weren't real happy with me because they thought I had influenced the Chief to replace the district chief, when it was actually the Chief's idea.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-27T13:25:00.000-06:00

The much anticipated dragons. Macen actually stopped asking for them about 2 wks before Christmas. He said all he wanted was hamm and trex from Toy Story. So I wasn't sure how the dragons would be received and Santa went through A LOT to get those things. He loved them and played with them all day ignoring his other presents for the most part.

He also got some of the Toy Story characters he had been asking for.

Long before the dragons ever came about Santa had gotten him this castle and some knights to go with it. Macen has been playing with the dragons in it more than the knights.

After the excitement of opening presents was done and Macen had been playing for awhile, he opened his arms wide and exclaimed "This is the best Christmas ever" (You know because he has a whole 4 of them under his belt now :) He was thrilled with all the Christmas shows on tv and being able to play with his toys all day. It was a pretty great day with just 1 important piece missing but he was making sure Santa made it through Afghanistan without incident.

And here are some of the furry people. Santa didn't forget about them and Mo was very thankful for that. He loves his new toy and was wound up like a cat hopped up on cat nip the first several hours we were up. He slowed down to nap only to get crazy again in the afternoon. He must have been enjoying the Christmas spirit. Typically Myles is our crazy man bolting and jumping everywhere. He must have been feeling sick because he spent nearly all day under the tree. Mo had a cold earlier in the week so Myles must have caught it.

He's too little to drive...

2010-12-24T15:11:00.001-06:00

We were heading to school yesterday when I opened the door I found the car like this...with Jingles at the steering wheel. Apparently he got hungry in the middle of the night and went to Burger King. He must have forgotten where the car is normally parked because this wasn't it. He was suppose to pull straight ahead to the carport. Macen was amused but said Jingles isn't allowed to drive but he was thrilled Jingles selected a happy meal and Macen got the toy. Ha ha!

Jingles left Macen a note this morning saying he had to leave to go back to the North Pole to help Santa tonight. He did leave behind some cool Christmas pj's though. Thanks for the fun Jingles! Maybe next year we won't be sick so often and you can have all the fun you had planned for us.

ETA: We went to the mailroom today to pick up our mail and Santa was there. Ugh, I had been trying to avoid Santa since Macen's last encounter with him. Santa talked to Macen about being a good boy and then gave him a mini candy cane. Macen looks at it and says "Oh no, not a candy cane again". Santa felt bad and said lets see what else we have and handed him some gummi bears. I felt bad about Macen's response and said Macen had a tramatic experience with Santa and candy canes a few weeks ago. A lady behind the counter helping with packages asked why it was tramatic so I had to explain what happened and they all laughed. Macen is not ever going to live this candy cane thing down.

Jingles' latest

2010-12-19T01:33:00.000-06:00

Jingles had been on a short break due to Macen being sick for a few days. Prior to the sick days, Jingles hid candy canes throughout the house and that entertained Macen for most of the day. He found most of them before school but didn't find the last one until around 5pm. He is still talking about his elf hiding candy canes for him.

Jingles made a slide out of aluminum foil but Macen wasn't impressed. He wanted it taken down immediately much like the couch cushions and stacked canned goods.

Macen found Jingles taking a bath with marshmallows in the sink. He was highly amused by this and said we don't take baths with marshmallows, we eat them.