Happy Halloween!!

Jeffers...aka Milkbeard wishes you all a very happy Halloween and hope you all get a boatload of treasure...or candy this year!

Land Navigation

While out on the land navigation site I took out my camera and tested my close up abilities. The Bavarian forests always have something interesting to study or photograph. I love this type of photograph to set as my desktop background.

Tummy Time

Jeffery's tummy time has gone from him simply attempting to lift himself up to a search for toys around him. He has the desire to reach, but does not yet have the mobility to move himself toward anything.

Waking Up

When I got up this morning I did not have to go to work immediatley so I took some time to spend with Jeffery. He is a pretty happy guy in the morning, but I miss out on this so much since I do not even have weekends to spend with him.

Reaching

After work as I was cleaning up my room and getting ready to take a shower Tricia called me into the living room to see Jefferey. He is not yet crawling, but as you can see he is trying to reach out and grab an object.

Filming After Work

After work I got out the video camera and sat down on the couch with Tricia and Jeffery.

Jeffrey has a temper.

Jeffers threw a fit when his sippy cup fell until he found his fishies, then all was ok. Silly kid! He's also started shaking with fury when he wants to get his point across. Nice huh? 5 Months old and already making himself heard!

A new stroller...

So, I've been on the hunt for a new stroller since before Jeffers was born. European strollers are AWESOME! There's just no other way to describe them. They're built to last and they are made for walking over cobblestone paths. A friend gave us her old jogging stroller and it has shocks, tires and inner tubes. That's meant for some serious cobblestones!

When we switched out his carseat we had to finally get a new stroller (we've used a great one that the car seat just clipped into and it's worked great). So I started seriously looking. A couple of my friends in the ward have bought the Peg Perego stroller (one got the matching carseat which is amazing! We'll be getting it for our next kiddo. Should there be a next kiddo.) I love it already and we just picked it up yesterday!

The other great thing about living here in Europe is we can get European strollers (in this case Italian) for European prices, which even with the less than great exchange rate makes it way less than the American price for it!

Another Step to the German Proficiency Badge

SSG Heck and I returned to the Bundeswhor post to participate in several more events in our quest to earn the German Proficiency Badge. Today we threw the shotput, and the iron brick; jumped the running long jump, and ran both the 1,000 and 3,000 meter run events. All we have left to do is pick a date to comlete our timed swim.

It is fun adventures like this that make it worth it to be in Germany.

Two More Classes Done

This is a photo of me turning in my last assignment for my last two classes. In the last nine weeks I have earned another six semester hours. I am slowing inching my way toward my degree, but each set of nine weeks goes by very quickly. Since the classes are starting to become more intense and time consuming I have decided to cut it down to one class at a time. I want to do more at home than homework. Thanks Uncle Sam for paying for college.

Dressing for the Cold

It is starting to get pretty cold now. No snow has fallen, but you definitley will not want to leave the house without a good coat on. Tricia and I have taken our summer clothes to the basement and exchanged them for the winter items waiting for us since last year. This is great weather for hot cocoa and a heavy blanket for the bed. The only thing we are missing is a fireplace.

Roll over, Roll over!

I was at my friend's yesterday (she's teaching me to paper piece)

and we had finished and were having lunch and Jeffrey was on the floor on his back playing. I was tickling him and he was giggling and being very cute! I stopped and he kicked his legs up and rolled over onto his stomach, it was so funny. We both squealed and then he was very proud of himself. He did it again this morning on the bed, so I don't think it was too much of an accident. Thankfully he wasn't on the couch or something. I guess he's not safe there anymore.

When Quincy (my nephew) was born I remember my brother and sister-in-law said that it seems like when you have a baby you don't seem to exist anymore, everyone will come up and talk to the baby and practically ignore you. I totally thought they were exaggerating or just being funny, but I know that feeling now! It's really funny, some people will come and talk to Jeffrey and hardly once look at me or talk to me.

Jeffery Playing

I placed a high definition 8mm tape in my camcorder and found that I had much greater recording results with it than the old tapes I had been using before. I also used Microsoft Movie Maker to edit my video and found it very easy. I am finally getting the performance out of my Sony Hanycam that I had hoped for when I first purchased it several years ago.

October!

I've updated my jewelry website with a few new things! If you haven't finished your Christmas shopping and you haven't found that perfect gift! Look Here! Or if you'd just like to get yourself a Happy Octoberday Present, I can help you out!

Tomorrow Jeffrey will be 5 months old! I can't believe how fast he's growing. At church we like to play the compare the babies heights game (there are several right around his same age). Jeffrey is definately a tall kid, but what can we expect when he's got two giant parents?

Ruck March

SSG Heck and I have been working together towards earning the German Proficiency badge. The events include a ruck march, shot put, running long jump, swimming and running events. Yesterday we completed our first event the ruck march.

In the afternoon we met with our contacts at the Germany post with our ruck sacks. With a map in hand we set out as a pair on our 30 kilometer journey with the timer counting down from five hours. By the time we arrived at the half way point and enjoyed a one minute break with a glass of orange juice and an apple only two hours had gone by, but our feet were beginning to hurt. The 15 kilometer return to the start point was terrible. My feet hurt so much I had to constantly tell myself to ignore the pain and move out. I would have preferred to take up a light jog to ensure that I returned in time, but my feet would not allow jogging to be an option. On our way out we had been keeping careful track of our pace count, steps per minute and kilometers to go. On the way back we were so worn out that neither of us could work out the math to figure out how fast we needed to travel so we were left with just moving as quickly as possible.

I crossed the finish line with an easy 17 minutes to spare. SSG Heck and I ached so much that we could barely get in and out of his truck to get home. As soon as I arrived home and made it up to the third floor I had Tricia help me get my boots off and took a nice hot bath.

I suspect in about two days I will really feel the effects of the ruck march on my body.

Four Day Weekend

Jeffrey is so funny at mealtimes. Mostly in the morning when he's so happy and in a good mood. He likes to grab his toes and eat his fingers in between bites of cereal. He looks very jealously at our plates at dinner time, like he just can't wait to get his fingers into all of that mess!
We went to Regensburg to the IKEA today on Cory's last day off before the cycles begins again tomorrow. It was a little bit chilly today so we had to get Jeffrey's jacket and hat out. It's funny to see how much the Germans bundle up their children. Jeffers looks like he's dressed for the beach according to their standards.
We watched conference the last two nights at home too. It was nice to be able to watch from home and not have to drive to the stake center an hour away. We dragged the couch in front of the computer so we could sit comfortably as we listened and watched the talks.
All in all it's be a wonderful and relaxing four days off!

Steak on a Stone

Many of our friends in Germany have enjoyed a restaurant and reccomended to us a night out eating meat served on a very hot stone. The meat is brought out to you raw on a stone so hot that it sizzles as you cut off a thin slice to cook and then dip in sauces.

This was our first night out without Jeffery. Maratee Andrus volunteered to take him for the evening while we went out. Just as we pulled up into the restaurant parking lot Tricia pulled out her jacket from the back seat and a spit rag fell out of her pocket. She immediatley exclaimed, "Oh, Jeffery would have loved this place." We had an enjoyable meal together but did not delay long in going to the Andrus home to retrieve our son.

Jeffery and His Toy

Grandpa MacNeil sent Jeffery this toy which he has come to play with more and more. It is nice to lay out a blanket on the floor and put him down with it for a while.

Changing Weather

It is raining much more often now and the early morning temperatures are much cooler. I used to ride my bike to work in the morning with plenty of sun light and return home in the light of day, but now it is dark when I leave and getting darker as I return. Soon winter will be upon us.

Fall

The trees are changing to the most beautiful shades of orange and yellow. I do love fall in Germany. I love spring and summer too, but right now I love fall the most. The weather is perfect. We're going this weekend for pictures at a castle that someone in our ward recommended, I'm hoping they turn out good. We'll see, I'd like to get my hair cut before then, but it will be the first time I've had someone else (besides my mom) cut my hair.

Cory has a 4 day weekend because the cycle ends this weekend. It'll be nice to have him around for a few days. We're planning to finish a million errands and chores that we haven't been able to do before, but we're also planning to go on our first date (without Jeffers) this weekend. Big step right?

Speaking of Jeffers, he's really enjoying his cereal now. I changed to giving it to him in the morning when he's less cranky and he loves it. He keeps opening his mouth for more. After he eats, I put him in his swing while I eat and get dressed for the day, he'll sometimes fall asleep in the swing and yesterday was just too funny so I had to get a picture.

I'm also amazed at technology...(I love technology, but not as much as you you see, but I still love technology, always and forever)...we were on messenger a few days ago and my mom was on there so I talked to her for a minute and then we put Jeffers on the webcam and his sugar grandma and everyone else at the house at the time was able to see him playing and having fun. I played the donut song video for him and they watched his reactions to it (he grins and gets excited). So anytime anyone wants to see little Jeffrey, find us on msn messenger.

He giggles more now, I had to hide the camera though because he gets all shy and self-conscious when it's around. ;)

Enjoy the squeal, it's his new favorite trick.