Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve- Jordan was so excited he opened everyone's pajamas from Grandma Shauna! Josh's family tradition is to open and play a game on Christmas Eve, so we continued this tradition. Jordan loves to play games!

It started snowing in the afternoon of Christmas Eve and we are pretty sure it didn't stop until the afternoon on Christmas. There was a lot of snow, especially since it doesn't usually snow very much in this area.

Looks like Jordan was pretty good this year! Santa left lost of fun stuff and even ate most of his cookies and milk!

The first picture is Jordan walking in and seeing all the presents. Jordan had lots of fun opening presents, but did have to take a few breaks to play with some of the toys!

More opening presents! When we would ask Jordan what he wanted for Christmas he would always say, "McQueen and Batman!" Santa brought he a Batcave and Batmobile. Mom and Dad gave him the Mac truck from the movie Cars along with McQueen and some of the other cars from the movie. Aunt Brianna also sent him a pretty cool McQueen car, some how we didn't take any pictures of those though.

Sitting by all his presents, now lets play!

I am wearing the apron my brother's girlfriend, Melissa, made for me. Isn't it cute! I love it!

We had dinner with a few families from church, it was so much fun. Jordan was able to play with all his friends from nursery, he had a great time!

Christmas Tradition

Our Saturday was filled with a few Christmas traditions we have started in our little family!

Last year when Josh was gone, Jordan and I made some Gingerbread houses our of graham crackers, we had so much fun we decided to make it a yearly thing!

Josh got all creative and used a mild carton, I just used graham crackers. I built Jordan a house with a flat top and let him place all the candies where he wanted them. A lot of what Jordan did was what he saw Josh and me do, but he did it all himself!

I thought Josh was just going to put graham crackers on his box, then just add a few candies to make me happy. I forget how artsy he can be. All I saw while we were make them was the back, then I finally saw...

that Josh did a really enjoyed making the houses! I think Jordan's turned out really well, he had so much fun sticking candy on his house and yard! I think they all turned out pretty cute!

Later that night we went to the bowling alley to eat dinner and play a game. Josh's family always has a huge party at a small town's bowling alley, but since we are so far away we decided we would make it one of our traditions if we can't make it to the big party.

Jordan had so much fun, he loves bowling. He even beat me! But then again he had bumpers and Josh lined his ramp up just right every time!

The very last picture is of Josh helping out a group of Germans that came on post to go bowling. Josh had to tell the main idea of the game, they really didn't know what they were supposed to do. We found it interesting cause everyone in the states just knows how bowling works, but they don't really play it over here.

Merry Christmas!!!

Slumber Party

Jordan got to have a slumber party with his friend, Riley, on Thursday night. We don't get to see her very much anymore so he was super excited to have her here to play! They had so much fun, and slept pretty well!

Just Jordan

Sitting by the tree!

Proud to be a Dot's Knott!!! He loves his family reunion shirt, and don't you love the sweats he paired them with! Most of the time he has to pick his own clothes, and wont wear what I pick for him!

Celebrating the Hoildays!!

Jordan playing in the snow for the first time! I am not a huge fan of snow, so I never got him snow clothes last year.

Look at his cool flight jacket! My friends gave it to me at one of my baby showers, we have been waiting for it to fit! He loves his "Apache jacket".

Christmas on Main Street on post. It was so cold we mainly stayed in the library, and sent Josh outside to get food for us! Jordan was so excited to see Santa, but of course he got scared once we got up to Santa. Notice the death grip he has on Josh!

Josh and I were able to go to the Nurnberg Christmas Market without Jordan! It was so much fun to spend time together!

Jordan showing off one of the shirts his cousin Remmy sent him! - So tired he fell asleep on the glider!

Christmas Markets

The Christmas markets open up the last weekend in November, so we went to a few since Josh had a four day weekend.

On Friday we went to Rothenburg, my favorite little German town.

On Saturday we went o our city's Christmas Market, it was really small but still fun. The bottom 2 pictures are ones Jordan took. Josh is on the side of the last one waiting for crepes, we got them at both Christmas markets.

On Monday I was able to go to Ansbach's market with some friends. It was lots of fun to shop around without kids! The big thing at the markets is warm punch, we tried the warm fruit punch. It was pretty good, and helps warm up on a cold, snowy day.

Thanksgiving Day!!!

Thanksgiving morning, we had our first snow of the year. Jordan was really excited, but it only snowed for about 5 minutes so we didn't get much!

We went to our neighbor's, Kurt and Misty, for dinner, and celebrated the holiday with some of our other good friends that were there!

Look at all that food for just 5 little families, yum!!!

side- Kurt trying to carve the turkey - Jordan playing before dinner - Josh chillin' with the boys!

bottom- Jordan having dessert with some of his friends, all of which were girls!

Thanksgiving in Jordan's eyes!! We let Jordan walk around with the camera so he could take a few picture.

Funny Face Mask! The kids were running around making everyone try on the mask, then would laugh every time some had it on. We had a great time, yummy food, and fun company! It was a great Thanksgiving even though we were away from family!

To Infinity and Beyond

Every time Jordan jumps off something he has to say, "To infinity and beyond!" He loves Buzz Lightyear!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had lots of fun celebrating Halloween this year! Our festivities started with dressing up for play group, I didn't take very many pictures so I didn't post any of that event!

On Friday night we went to a party at our church. They guys had to go to a work dinner, so I invited Melissa and her girls to come with us!

We started with hot dogs and chips for dinner, then we played games for candy prizes! The kids played a ring toss game, a keep the ball on the spoon game, musical chairs, and a few others. We got sooooo much candy, we could have been ok not to go trick or treating!

On Halloween night we went on post to a festival at the chapel, where Jordan got to hang out with his friends all dressed up in their costumes! As you can see I dressed up as Jessie and Josh was an American! I can't get him to dress up, maybe next year!

We ended all our Halloween festivities with Trick or Treating on post!!! We went with our friends the Dannenbergs, it was lots of fun! Jordan couldn't even wait until we got home to see what he got! Happy Halloween!!!

Military Ball

Last week we went to a Military Ball, and Jordan got to spend the night at one of his friend's house. We had the whole night to ourselves, it was so nice!!!

It only took about an hour and a half, over 60 bobby pins, and tons of hairspray, but I think my hair turned out all right.

Love when Josh wears his blues, I just wish they matched!

Our good friends Gavin and Melissa!

More good friends, Kurt and Misty!

Now I know my ABC's....

Jordan's favorite song is the ABC's and he sings it all the time!! I must say he is getting pretty good at it too! He messed up a little around L M N O P, he usually sings "elbo p". Too cute!!!

Seehof Castle in Bamberg

Last weekend we went to a hunting castle in Bamberg.

The front of the castle - a small courtyard in the middle of the castle

The back of the castle with a fountain - playing by the fountain

Playing around on the castle grounds!

There is a small private lake. Jordan loved throwing rocks in the water, so Josh had to show him how to skip rocks! There were tons of little frogs along the path, Jordan had fun watching them jump away!

Redneck Fire and Bowling

A few weeks ago we went to a BBQ at our neighbor's, it was so cold outside and the girls all thought it would be so nice to have a fire. 2 problems with that: 1- no wood and 2- nowhere to have a fire. The boys went out to search around our apartment buildings and came back with one of the neighbor's BBQ and an old bed set. Problem solved! They found different ways to break/cut the wood, and we had a very nice redneck fire!!!!

We took Jordan bowling for the first time on Friday night, we had so much fun! I love spending time with my little family, Jordan is at such a fun age!!!! At one point Jordan and Josh were tied, so Josh decided he had to get his game together so he wouldn't be beat by a 2 year old.

Playing video games and posing for a pic!

PARIS

Our Paris trip is in 4 different posts, don't forget to scroll down to see them all!!!

Arc de Triomphe - The traffic around this is CRaZy!!! There are 12 streets that lead into the round about circling the Arc, just watching all the traffic stresses me out. I would never consider driving in Paris!

Notre Dame Cathedral

Random sites while walking half way from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower. I am not sure what anything is, but I still enjoyed the sites. Half way to the tower we decided to take the train, its a long walk!

EIFFEL TOWER!!!!!! I knew it was big, but never realized how BIG it is!!! Pictures just don't do it justice. We didn't go up in it cause we still had to drive home after we left Paris, but we still had so much fun experiencing the Eiffel Tower and everything else we did in the city.

Jordan even like seeing the tower cause it in an episode of The Little Einsteins, so Jordan keeps calling it "Einsteins Tower". What a silly kid!!!!