So we decided to go swimming....

and it was loads of fun, i didn't take many pictures for the sheer fact that Cory's camera may not be terribly amazing but its the only camera we got, so i didn't want to risk giving it a dunk in the pool.. and, i tend to not be as camera happy as i could be.....:) but I'll survive till hopefully Christmas when i can get a new camera..... ANY WHO...a little off track... here are some fun pictures





After a little over a year..(or so, i have no sense of time anymore...) the Ramstein Aquatic center is now open!! hooray! and, well, we got a year pass.......yeah yeah, we didn't know we'd be going through a possible coming home sooner then we thought, so yeah..we'll see how much use we get out of it....any who, its taught Kaylee how to swim with a life jacket i am currently looking around online trying to find these amazing little jackets..

the only problem is that they've taught her not to be afraid of the water, this pool goes from about 6 inches deep to about 4 feet deep and its about half the length of the lap pool, so, without the life jacket she goes in too deep and well...i don't care to think about it.. so we just stick with the life jackets..
nikoys been in the water long enough to know she's scared of it, so life jacket or no, she doesn't like to go deep, and when we get feeling a bit tired, theres a nice warm kiddie pool...i try not to think about the reasons that the toddler/baby pool is warmer then everything else.....i like to think that its because it's smaller and easier to heat.. right?...
at any rate.. the pool rules are "no outside pool toys." so nikoy and Kaylee's inner-tubes are no longer needed, and because they don't allow those toys they provide other means of safety and fun, with the life jackets and these fun little diving rings (with life jackets????...don't ask) that nikoy decided she needed EVERY SINGLE ONE....all to herself...

well on another fun note, on the......20Th (???) of September Cory and i had the chance to go to the Frankfurt temple with some friends, it was a stake temple day and we decided to car pool, so we got a sitter and spent the day in Frankfurt, OK half the day, but it was still pretty fun, they do English sessions at 9 am and 11 am, so we went to the 11 am and got back at 3, it was so fun, and very muchly needed...





so yeah... another normal blog (ha ha merritt!!) more pictures less talkie talkie... we are still in waiting for the results of Cory's medical evil, he's gone in for the testing, they needed to see how much movement and strength is left in his wrist, and then theres interviews i guess, and if they keep him he'll more then likely be retraining to be a Chaplin's assistant, which will thankfully give him time for school!! yay! so when (if we decide to stay that long..) he retires he'll have a degree to fall back on, and if the other route is taken and he gets kicked out, we'll move to San Antonio and I'll get me a job and Cory will get him some schooling, and eventually i'll get m,my degree....someday....and a decent camera.. if he gets out i wont be getting my camera any time soon.. theres pros and cons to both... they pretty much equal each other out.. so yeah....anywho...i hope everyone gets this okay, I've had to privatize my blog, i was getting unwanted comments from total strangers and it didn't sit well with me that I'd been letting the whole world read about our lives so...yeah. any who... i love and miss you all so much! be safe! and take luck!!

it's a party!!

So we celebrated Nikoy's 4th birthday on the 16th.. it was so fun! her day started at 8:30 in themorning with a bowl of boo-berry cereal. her choice, it was either pancakes or waffles or halloween cereal, and she chose the boo-berry.... after breakfast we sat and watched some of her favie morning cartoons on playhouse disney, little einsteins and handy manny and what not, then daddy came home for lunch and picked us up, and we had chicken fingers from charley's steakery! where, oddly enough, nikoy and kaylee, both ate all thier chicken.....weird...... anywho.. after lunch i had a dental appointment, so daddy got to spend some quality time with the girls. after all our appointments and cory was done working we went swimming! the girls had so much fun at the pool, as they always do.. the pool provides the cutest little life jackets, it's like water wings with a vest, and it clips in the back, but anywho, they float around the pool, and have lots of fun, kaylee has even figured out how to get herself from point A to B, i REALLY have to watch her now, she's swimming circles around me one second then she's gone the next... Nikoy, my social little butterfly, already knows the lifeguards by name, and they all know her. if i didnt know any better i'd swear she was flirting... anywho, after swimming and going down the big slide a couple times we decided to go home fer dinner.. as we were driving, our good friend merritt called us and asked if we wanted to go to JR rockers with her (its almost like a TGI fridays.....sorta...) we told her we needed to get home and clean for later that night and we were just going to go through the drive thru at burger king, and we hung up. then we decided JR's sounded fun so we called her back and she didnt answer and didnt answer so we decided she must have left and we would just meet her there....we got there, and she wasnt there....so we ate and waited and ate some more, and she never showed up, so we went home to get ready for the party. when everyone showed up at 8 (yeah kinda late but oh well.) we learned she had changed her mind about JR's and went to burger king instead... so we felt really bad.. but we made up for it with cake and root beer float flavored ice cream..:) look i took pictures..

V V V

ask nikoy how old she is and she'll be happy to show you four fingers..ALMOST a handful!

she had so much fun opening her gifts it was so noisy and so loud! i'd apologize to the downstairs neighbors if i liked them......moving on...
grammy gave nikoy the cutest little disney princess purse and an outfit and a pez dispenser (she even got an outfit and a piggy pez dispenser for kaylee,,,grammy couldnt help it..:D)

cory was a fantastic daddy as usual, we got her a disney princess edition bella dancerella mat/dvd, its a dorky little thing that is supposed to teach the basics of ballet....nikoy thinks it's fun, but i think they could have been more aware of who they were making it for, the box says 3 and up, but i had problems keeping up with bella and i've been dancing for a long time........ oh well she enjoys it... thats all that matters..
LOOK AT MY BABY!! she's not a baby anymore!! why is she growing and how can i make it stop!?!!?!!?!!?..can you believe this 35pound little four year old started out at 5 pounds 10 ounces, and looking like an alien??!? now she's gorgeuos!! ......and ready for school...*sniff*..moving on.....*sniff*

after presents was cake and ce cream, nikoy loved her aurora jewelry cake..she LOVES aurora, sleeping beauty is by far her favorite, in fact theres been more then one day that shes woken me up in the moring by telling me shes not nikoy today, shes aurora, and she gets mad if i call her nikoy.. "no mommy i'm aurora.." *sigh*
she had no problem blowing out her candle and thankfully it was slobber free...

after we cleaned up the cake and ice cream we watched a movie and tried on our new outfits, nikoy and kaylee are adorible grammy thank you!!!
the girls unwrapped thier matching outfits and i said, "oh they match!" and cory said. "oh great they match...." ..:) dont worry grammy he loves em too!
and this morning we tried the bella danceralla thing, nikoy enjoyed it, kaylee did too. and nikoy got to wear the new leotard daddy gave her for her birthday, for christmas we're gonna get her a tutu, assuming the dance shop gets them by christmas.. and assuming we're not back in the states then it'll be easier to get a tutu...heck i could make one! anywho.


so yes you heard me right we could be back to the states for christmas.. but then again it could be longer... we had our hopes up that cory would be cross-training, but a new developement has made us stop our planning, cory is going to have to go to an actual medical evaluation where they are going to decided whether or not he gets to stay in the air force... the first doctor we spoke to agreed he just needs to cross train, but the last one thinks he needs to be "officialy" evaluated. so now we are at a point where he'll either be cross trained or kicked out... and much as i dont much care for the military life, i support our troops and all, im just tired of the polotics and cheating, and lying, and lets just say..as a whole our military is amazing and im eternally greatful for the freedoms it allows me, but unfortunatley there are people in the military who arent at all good people. who will stop at nothing to get all the good things they dont deserve, and dont care whose family gets destroyed in the process... and i cant wait to get away from it all, but as of right now the military is doing more good then bad for us.. we live in military housing, we shop at a military grocery stores that have no sales tax, (wa-who i saved 5 bucks!) i dont need to worry about any medical bills, i had 2 kids and never saw a bill for either of them! if one of the girls get a hundred and 3 degree fever i dont even have to think about it, just take her to the emergency room! so basically we've been spoiled.... so yes we are hoping we can get them to just cross train cory into a new job, where he will have time to finish his schooling, and one where i can go to school..and have at least one more baby without wondering how we're going to afford it.. and one where i can leave the base and not have to worry about getting mugged by the rude germans who are mad because theres more americans then germans in this area, (hey we wouldnt be here if they hadnt tried to take over the world....whose fault was that??!?!?!?)

anywho..so yeah. thats our worries and stresses lately... not so bad, just enough to make my hair turn gray and fall out....what ever happens we'll muddle through it.. :) (my cup is half full) anywho, everyone be safe! we miss you all and hopefully we'll get to see you soon!! LOVES!

anderson look a like

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family tree maker - Historical photos

Anderson Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Family histories

itsa looooong one....

fair warning, this is a long, one... we've had an awesome weekend! so, we got my birthday package from my family and there was these pretty dresses that my girls love playing in! they are a bit big for kaylee but she enjoys them just the same..
thanks to my mummy! i finally got some of those nice Lacey frilly tank tops and t-shirts and I'm finally fashionable!!..... :) .....any who, i got a few of them, the white one is just an example...:)

see? pretty! anywho, Cory decided to take some time off and we spent a night camping..yes it was just one night, it was the girls first time camping, and we didn't wasn't to overload them.,..as it was the spot munched because we were literally surrounded by stinging nettle... Cory has my gratitude (and sympathy...) for finding that out for us.. :)..i little mud fixed it right up though don't worry..
anywho, we had 2 tents a littler one for the girls and a bigger one for the adults.. our dear friend Merritt came with us and her 2 kids, so it was the 3 girls in the small tent and us 3 adults and her baby boy rulon in the big tent... we had lots of fun!
Cory's such a good scout! setting up tents, finding a field of stinging nettles, and making lunch! it was fantastic!
nikoy enjoyed the wild flowers the most, she loved the purple clovers, and the teeny daisy looking weeds, i think we came home with more weeds then dirt...
Kaylee just enjoyed marching around and seeing whatever there was to see..she nearly got lost once, but thankfully, us "grown-ups" kept our wits about us.. :) and realized we'd left the van door open and she was playing in her car seat...."phew..."

the kids LOVED the camp fire, merritt and i worried over it...Kaylee thought it was so pretty she kept trying to touch it. same with rulon.. he just wanted to sit in it..just for a minute...but we kept a pretty good eye out, and Cory sat his vigil by the fire, so no one got hurt..although Cory's shoes did manage to get a little singed...



Kaylee LOVED sitting by her daddy at the fire. Cory let her throw her paper plates in it after our dinner of burned hot dogs, chips and pork-n-beans.. :) every campers favorite dinner.. its just not camping without hot dogs and beans... and smores.. after dinner we made smores, i just did the marshmallow thing, smores are to messy and crunchy..and I'm emotionally scarred (don't ask) but the girls and Cory enjoyed there chocolate and marshmallow filled Graham crackers..
the next morning it was a tasty mountian man breakfast (in a skillet, dad i really miss your dutch ovens!) mmmmmmmmmm dutch oven cobblers...any who.. back to the subject at hand..we had breakfast then Cory played soccer with the kids while Merritt and i cleaned up, we had to be out of there by noon, but that's OK..

we had fun playing by the spring.. cory couldn't stay out of it, and nikoy sure had fun!
i got the satisfaction of killing the fire.. it wasn't very satisfying, and i got a face full of smoke...but that's all good...:)

anywho, Friday was my birthday.. happy birthday to me! i forgot to get pictures of the cake before we cut it, yes it had all 25 candles on it....way to make me feel old friends...way to make me feel old....
since theres not much to do around here, and what i wouldn't give for a chuck-e-cheese... we decided to go bowling for my party! wee! yes the very sport that caused the joy of a dislocated elbow (repress those memories!!) i used to celebrate my birthday... (try not to think about it..) so anywho, Cory and me and Merritt had one lane and the 3 girls had another with the bumpers and all... it was lots of fun!
this is kaylee being silly just before we left..:)
kaylee bowled the highest score with 111!!! holy buckets baby girl!! woo!
i got a whopping fifty something....

nikoy got an even 80!!
and .....oddly enough i don't remember Cory's score, it was well over a hundred....:) anywho, saturdayish... we went to the zoo! and as we had to walk down to the front gate to pay and get in we passed this cute little lake that was really dirty and smelled like dead fish..any who, we passed this grate and there was these turtles and a water bird of sorts getting some sun.. well the turtle in the bottom left corner, of the picture down there, we noticed that the little turtle had a fish line and fish hook hanging out of its mouth and the line was stuck to the land so it couldn't get far.. so we picked it up..

and brought it to the vet clinic in the zoo.. and rather then do as they do at the states and help the poor thing, they got mad at us for picking it up....we explained that it was stuck, it couldn't get to the water, and we showed them the fish line and everything and they told us to go put him back.. there was this other couple, the man was military the female was his German girlfriend, and they saw us and went with us to get help for the poor thing, well the German girlfriend was appalled that they wouldn't help, so she turned to cory and let him know that turtles are not illegal to own in Germany, and he could very well take it home as a pet.. so well Cory being the turtle lover that he is, brought it home, cut out the line and the hook and he's sitting in a swimming pool on our balcony, but we'll get to that.... back to the zoo..



it was a quaint little zoo.. i forget that alot of the wild animals you can see in your own backyard in the states are exotic to Germans.... so they had lots of raccoons, and Guinea pigs and floppy eared bunnies, and things that we keep as pets..

the most exotic animals they had were the lion and a tiger...

oh and cant forget the zebra.. kaylee LOVED the zebra!
the pond was nasty and grimy but the ducks and geese and swans LOVED it.. i love swans so i couldn't pass up this picture..

the girls liked the deer, this lucky guy shared a pen with 6 other females, ad he got really close to the fence. just past the deer pen there was the mini petting zoo that claimed to have goats and chickens and pigs..well all i saw were goats, but the goats were way fun!!

i want a goat. Cory tells me when he's old and senile and doesn't know its there i can have a goat.....i think I'll get one sooner though.. :D....any who, we went and saw the bird show.. they had a few eagles, a couple different Hawks and a great horned owl..

the owl had these HUGE orange eyes that were so beautiful the falconer had it fly a few times, but all the pictures i got of it flying are super fuzzy...waaah.
after the bird show we went to see the llamas! Cory made friends with the grumpy black and white one...then we went to see the camel..which decided to walk away as soon as i got the camera out... jerk.....

then it was the wild boars, these were lazy.. but super cute.. yes i like pigs of all kinds..

even this one! he was a sweety, they wouldn't let anyone pet him because well, he was grumpin at the time, but he was sweet on me.. :)
kaylee ran off and we found her just down the isle petting a baby cow! she LOVED the moo. and it was all fun watching her love on this cow until we saw mommy and daddy coming.. daddy was a bit intimidating..

untill cory got to him, then he was a big ball of fluff... he LOVED cory! cory sat and scuffled him for a good fiveish minutes and as he walked away the bull followed him scraping his side along the fence wanting more... so, what do ya do? cory scuffled him some more...look at that face...
after we got done seeing all the amimals, (no there were no elephants, or giraffes, or gorillas..*sigh*) we decided to do the few photo ops they had.,... so heres the girls on these weird, horned bird things, that looked like a mix between a bird and a cow..then we found some cute little pandas they could pose by..

so cute, they had these little figurine things but not the real things... sad huh? get yer hopes up... anywho. after seeing everything the zoo had to offer we decided it was time to go home and check on the turtle,
we discovered its called and eastern river cooter (or something silly like that..) and its a female!! the females are bigger then the males and this ones really big... so we decided to call her she isntead of he, but as far as i know she's not been named , i told cory it's his job to name her, so far she's just "turtle."
she's a growing girl her shell is starting to molt (or whatever its called when the old shell falls off and the new one shows up..) we're really excited to see how her new shell looks, the parts that we can see are quite pretty!

the girls love her, and no they havent been swimming with her, in that picture they just finnished running through the sprinklers, it was a hot day so yeah... anywho.. that was our weekend, it was memorial day weekend so we just spent monday at home doing absolutley nothing... it was great! but today (being tuesday..) he had to get back to work. unfortunatly..we enjoy having him home.. but anywho.. so thats that, so far..nothing much else to report.. the new pool over on ramstein airbase opens on thursday and we're thinking of going to the opening.. it'll only be like 6 bucks for us to swim there, we'll find out on thursday if it'll be any fun for the girls or if it's like the typical military swimming pool and has no play area for toddlers... so yeah. anywho. i gotta go. i love you all and miss you so much!! i hope all is well with everyone! LOVES!!!