Going out on the town

Is this not just the most precious outfit??? This sweet dress was given to Ella Rose by our wonderful friends, Mr. & Mrs. Matheny in Dallas, TX. Ian calls this her little Mary Tyler Moore dress. Oh I just love it!

Our friends, Jason and Amy Blehm with Ella Rose

Ella Rose gets very excited when she eats and hmmm...kind of impatient too.

Ella Rose knows how to do sign language for "more", but the funny thing is when we are teaching her to sign "thank you" and "please", she does the "more" sign then too. She's our baby doll!

Date night with my man

Last weekend we went out on a date night and left Ella Rose with our fabulous baby-sitter Kaeli who lives just 3 doors down. We had such a great time and went to the kind of place where it takes 45 minutes between each course to bring out the next course. Ian is not too crazy about this kind of place because it takes so long for the food, but he loves his wife and kept telling me wherever I wanted to go so I chose this place. I kept telling him, "Baby, this is FINE DINING and look at it this way...at least you're hungry all over again by the next course!" And we were able to talk up a storm and catch up for 3 whole hours without having to hand out any Cheerio's or Puffs to a certain baby girl. :)

Ella Rose lights up when she sees Kaeli

Can you tell I'm looking pregnant??? I'm 1/2 way through!

Ian told me to take a pix of this appetizer he ordered so I could put it on the blog...he thought it looked like some kind of sci-fi thing...still not sure what it was but he said it was good!

Showing off for Daddy

Over the weekend Ella Rose just had to show her Daddy how she could swing at the playground. She was showing off for sure and enjoying every minute of her Daddy pushing her and showering her with attention. As we walked around the base, Ian mentioned that living on the base we live on is as close to the 1950's as you can get...all the homes are the same, the yards are the same, and every home has 2-3 children with at least 15-20 playground areas and hey the big PLUS is that we live in a GATED community. You can't get anymore gated then the Military police checking I.d.'s...no trailing in behind another car when the gate goes up here or you're liable to get shot...and hey I'm not kidding!

Our little adventure girl

Push me higher Daddy!!!

Our sweet Ella Rose

Play date with Evie

Last week we had a play date with Evie and had a grand time! Evie just turned ONE although we missed her birthday party because that was during the time Ella Rose had her stomach bug. The girls always do well together and Ella Rose thoroughly enjoyed checking out all of Evie's cool toys! And Evie is expecting a little brother or sister in March so they will be 14 months apart. Evie's Mama, Karen and I have already been talking about how busy we're gonna be. :)

Feeling good now

Just one week ago today, we had to take Ella Rose to the emergency room because she had been vomiting for 8 days. There has been a horrible stomach bug going around Germany, and it definitely hit Ella Rose. We were quite worried about her as she lost almost a pound during the 8 day ordeal and looked kinda skinny to us but she is doing GREAT now praise God! Today was GLORIOUS here in Germany with temps in the 50's so Ella Rose and I just had to get out for a nice long walk. I felt like I was back in Georgia in the middle of the Winter...it was awesome. The first Winter we were in Germany, it snowed the day after we arrived (Nov. 24), and it ended up snowing for 40 days that Winter (yes I kept count) with the last big snow storm in March with a whopping 3 feet of snow. The next year I prayed that we would not get that much snow...seriously it was just way too cold for this Georgia Peach so last Winter and this year (so far) we've had very mild Winter's! Yeah! And today while we were out on our walk, Ella Rose experienced her 1st ride in a swing...she loved it!

Ready for our walk

Sittin' pretty


Wheee......this is fun!!!

Visiting Salzburg Austria

Right after the New Year, we took a long weekend to Salzburg, Austria and had just a splendid time! We visited Mozart's birthplace as well as visited the sights where my all time favorite movie, The Sound of Music was filmed. Traveling in Europe is oftentimes an adventure...EVERYTHING costs $$$ or should I say Euro and when the GPS says it takes 5 hours to get somewhere in Europe...you should tack on 2-3 hours more than that as there are always Stau's (German word for Traffic Jam). Ella Rose proved to be a little trooper once again traveling all over the place with her Mama and Daddy and enjoying every bit of it, especially socializing and even in very cold 25 degree weather, she did great!


I'm not kidding...it cost .75 to go to this restroom at a rest stop...this is very common in Europe...very rarely are there FREE restrooms (not even for pregnant women)


Finally arrived in Salzburg

Our hotel had beautiful antiques and the rooms were lovely

Bundling up Ella Rose for a long day of sight-seeing

Scene from the Sound of Music was filmed here...mural of the horses

Shopping in Salzburg...thousands and thousands of beautifully hand painted Easter eggs

Ian below the Castle in Salzburg

St. Peter's Cemetery...the dramatic escape scene was filmed here

This sight seeing wears me out!

It was a treat seeing Salzburg still decorated for Christmas

Oh please Daddy, can we take the Teddy Bear back home with us???

Yellow building is Mozart's birthplace

Our little family making memories

Meeting 2 little girls from Russia

Ella Rose couldn't take her eyes off the girls

I couldn't resist...one day I'll be telling her NOT to do this!

I think Ella Rose has it down!

Always has a place on Daddy's shoulders

Cafe Sacher's Famous Chocolate "Torte"

Salzburg at night

Fountain was covered but this is the fountain Maria in the Sound of Music danced around singing "I have confidence in Me"

Salzburg is a beautiful city!

Okay so chocolate is another food group since I'm pregnant...

Cafe where we drank hot chocolate and had chocolate croissants

Salzburg local outdoor market where they sell foods and plants

In front of our hotel...we stayed at such a great location right in the middle of town

Outside our hotel window we watched a traditional New Year's event although it was the weekend after New Year's

Ella Rose helping pack the bags

On our way out of town, we visited the Gazebo where the song "I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen" was filmed.

Leaving Austria...the ALPS are glorious!

Heading home and Ella Rose is already sound asleep

But not for long...happy little world traveler!!!