Ready For Some Summer Adventure!

Oh hi. I kind of...forgot about this blog again. I won't bother backtracking or anything. We've had a fun couple of months: went to Spain, visited an amusement park in Germany called Holiday Park, and took a Rhein River cruise. Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet summer so far. At least, quiet in comparison to years past. 

That will all change next week, though! We're going on our MONTH-LONG SUMMER EXTRAVAGANZAAAA!! I feel like the list of things I need to get done before we go is about 10x longer than it should be, but oh well. I'll get it done somehow =P I always do!

I just wanted to post something while I was thinking about it - hopefully this will become a regular thing again!! 

And now a random picture of Sasha walking down the street...

It's a Great Day!

Happy Thursday! 

Life around the Brant house has been pretty "ok" lately haha! Regan is back in the states right now for training, so it's been just Sasha and I for the last 1.5 weeks. It's hard not having Regan around to distract Sasha from me in the evenings, but we've been doing ok, I think. 

I've been doing VEDA (Vlog Every Day in April) on my personal youtube channel, so that's actually been taking up a lot of my time (probably the main reason I haven't been posting in here as much). 

Here's my channel, in case you don't know: http://www.youtube.com/user/CuteCoil

The sun has been rising well before 7 AM lately, so Sasha has been having a hard time staying in bed even though he's tired. The other morning I woke up to him standing next to my bed with wet pants. I thought he hadn't made it to the potty in time, but he kept trying to tell me he spilled something on himself. When I went downstairs, I found out what had spilled...

He's not QUITE ready to get his own breakfast...

He got the Rice Krispies, soy milk, cups, bowl, and spoon out but he just didn't have the strength to pour the milk, poor thing! He was SO CLOSE!! Instead half of the soy milk container ended up on him/the chair/the rug. That stuff's not cheap, either! Oh well! That's what I get for trying to sleep in past 6 AM. 

We've been hanging out with our good friends, Beth and Zoe, once or twice a week because Beth's husband has been out of town lately, too. A couple of weeks ago, Beth bought us a season pass to the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern - it's basically a huge, awesome park. Lots of playgrounds, a huge sand pit, water play area, giant dinosaur statues, flower gardens...you get the idea. It's awesome!! We've been trying to go at LEAST once a week to get the most use out of our pass.

"Stop taking pictures of me! I WANT TO PLAY!!"

Sasha is happiest at the park!

The weather has been AMAZING this whole week, so we've been going to a lot of parks. Yesterday we decided to go find a tower south of Kaiserslautern. I should give some back story: When Regan and I first moved here, we didn't have a gps and we loved just driving around and exploring. We had a map of the area and it had castle ruins/towers/etc marked on it. So we would just drive around and try to find them all. There was this tower that we saw and we tried to find it, but we drove around forever and got really lost and never found it. So yesterday, the weather was nice, so I was like "SASHA!! LET'S DO THIS!!!!!!!!!" I thought I could find it on the gps and drive up to it. I was wrong. The gps took me to a dead end - actually, it was a private dirt road that people use for a bike/walking path. I decided we could just walk up to the tower, so I parked and that's what we did. It took an entire how of hiking up hill, but we got there! It was actually a ton of fun and a really beautiful hike. Sasha was a total trooper and just hiked right along with me. Sad story is, I didn't bring the digital camera. I brought two different film cameras....but I can't show you those pictures yet. Sorry. 

Sasha is still kind of having a hard time staying in bed. The other night, I walked into his room to check on him before I got into bed, and this is what I found. He was completely passed out...

Is that really better than sleeping on your bed?

Last night I found him asleep in his closet with the doors shut. I have no idea. He just seems to really hate sleeping in his bed! At least he's sleeping, I guess. 

And that wraps up what's been going on lately! 

Easter and the Temple!

Two weeks ago, for my Harvey Bloodline video, I showed Sasha and I making these lovely paper plate bunny face things. Here's a better picture of them than what you probably saw in the video:

Sasha's is a bit abstract, I think.

We had a great Easter. A bunch of Regan's co-workers got together last Sunday evening for a 'brunch-for-dinner' potluck event! I brought peanut butter sticky buns (which were absolute heaven! SO GOOD!!!), bacon, and I made eggs Benedict there (since that's not really a 'make ahead' type of meal). There was SO MUCH food. I don't think I've been that full for a long time. Very uncomfortable...but very delicious. And seriously, those peanut butter sticky buns were just...amazing. SO amazing. I ate so many!

This past week was rather uneventful, besides the usual story time and a couple of play dates. We were able to go to the Frankfurt temple this weekend, though, which was a lot of fun. We drove up Friday and stayed in the lodging on the temple grounds. We checked in and then went out for some Thai/Chinese/Japanese/Asian food (they had pretty much every country in Asia on the sign, so I don't know what they really identified as) and it was SO good. I had a massive pile of fried glass noodles with chicken. mmmmm my fave. It was really cheap, too! After that, I went to the 7 PM session at the  temple. Regan got up the next morning and went to the 9 AM session. His was in English, too! Lucky duck! I haven't gone through a session without headphones since my brother's wedding over a year ago! The headphones are now a normal part of my temple clothing haha. 

This weekend is also General Conference, but being in Germany, the times are all weird. The Saturday morning session comes on at 6 PM, for example. Regan went to the Priesthood session this morning at 11, and then we watched the Saturday morning session. So far that's all I've seen. BOO!!! But with the weird times, it's just hard to watch them as they air live! I'll catch up during the week, though, so it's ok. That's how we usually do it anyway. 

Well, it's after 11 and I am trying to go to bed earlier. 10:30 was my goal...but this is a start! At least it's not midnight yet.

Peanut Butter, Marshmallow, and Grits

Sasha seems to be getting up earlier and earlier every morning and it's driving me nuts! The other day, he apparently got up before my alarm. When I got up, I heard him quietly bumping around in his room. When I opened the door, I found him sitting at his table, calm as can be, with open jars of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. He was eating out of one with his left hand, and the other with his right. His clothes were completely covered in marshmallow, as was his face and the table. I wanted to be mad, but it was honestly too funny! I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was afraid to leave him alone to go get the camera. Oh well!

After he had a quick shower, we came down for breakfast. Regan bought a box of instant, flavored grits because it was on sale for 1$ or something. I hate grits, so I had no intention of eating it. Sasha usually enjoys hot breakfast cereal, so I thought he could give it a try. I made him the butter flavor because I thought it would be closest to what he was used to. Well, he hated it. He took one bite and gagged! He choked down a few more bites, but obviously hated it. I made him finish the whole bowl, though. I called it his punishment for eating peanut butter and marshmallow in the wee hours of the morning without permission. That seemed fair, right? Or maybe I was just being mean? In any case, no more grits will be eaten in this house.

Bad Parent Awards

I feel like I reached a milestone of parenthood today: I lost my child in a store!! To be fair, though, it was totally his fault.

Here's the story: Today Sasha and I were able to meet Regan at the KMCC (mall) on base for lunch. After Regan went back to work, Sasha and I went to pick up a few things for our home-preschool adventures (which I may or may not discuss here, depending on how it goes haha). As we were walking into the store, Sasha decided to run ahead of me, as he often does. No big deal...except that he didn't stop. I didn't chase him because 1) he usually stops and waits for me when he thinks I can't see him anymore and 2) I assumed he had run to the cosmetics because we always go there first to look at nail polish and the last I could see of him before he disappeared, he was about 5 feet away from there. But then of course he wasn't there, or anywhere around there. I spent about 5 minutes looking around in clothing racks thinking he was hiding from me before I got nervous enough to hit an "assistance" button and get some help. After another 5 minutes of waiting with no sign of anyone coming, I finally walked up to a register and told the cashier that my kid had run off. She was kind enough to inform me that a child had been found and she called to double check that he matched the description I gave. Sure enough, it was Sasha. He had SOMEHOW managed to get himself to the complete opposite side of the store without me spotting him.

Anyway, I went and picked him up and spent the rest of the shopping trip gripping his hand tightly and calling for him loudly whenever he wasn't within 2 feet of me. When we went to check out, the cashier looked at Sasha and said "I told you we could find her" which led me to realize that she must have been the one who found him or something. I made some joke about it and then tried not to talk about it anymore! SO EMBARRASSING!

So yeah, bad mom award pinned to my jacket now. Go me!

Happy Family of Snow!

Story time last Thursday wasn't as exciting as it had been for the last few weeks. Although, they did read like 4 extra stories because kids kept coming in late! Sasha colored a lovely St. Patrick's Day picture.

A more beautiful picture I never did see!

Friday, Regan was home from both of his jobs so we were able to have some great family-fun time! Sasha and Papa built some snowmen in our side yard.

Don't worry! Regan is hiding behind the snowman!

Can you tell which one is me??

On Friday I was also organizing our office (a massive job that still isn't done) and I suddenly had a weird pain in my hip/lower back...and it still hasn't gone away! It's very uncomfortable and I have no idea why it started or what it is. I'll probably go to the doctor tomorrow...even though I don't really want to. But I do want this pain to go away, so yeah. No other choice, really.

Other than that, it's been a quiet few days around here. Not much to report, I guess!

Snow Day!

I'm sitting next to Sasha while he takes a bath and he's laying with his ears under the water singing: "It's my bath! It's my party! It's my baby! It's my friend! It's my Papa! It's my bath! It's my snow!" He's a musical prodigy! A lyrical genius!

Today, it snowed a lot. Last week the weather was beautiful! Sunny and in the low 50s! But today it turned back into Germany. It looks like someone just took a big white blanket and dropped it over the entire country. Regan got to come home early from work so we had a fun family snow day! Sasha and Papa went sledding down the hill next to our house.

Looks like fun!

Sasha and I also painted with water colors today! It was Sasha's first time, and I had I had to keep reminding him to put the brush in the water first, then the paint, and not the other way around! 

3 of Sasha's masterpieces!

My only painting of the day. I spent hours on it.

Sasha has declared that he is done in the tub which means that I am now done with this entry! 

Sasha's Bedtime Adventures!

Sasha's bed time is 8 PM. Last night we had people over for dinner and they didn't leave until after 8:30, then we just let Sasha stay up until about 9:30..for no reason. We assumed he'd be really tired and go straight to sleep. Usually, we'll check on him every so often until he falls asleep - this can take anywhere between 30 min and 2 hrs, depending on how wound up he is and how distracted he chooses to be. Well, because our guests stayed so late last night, Regan and I both spent a couple of hours after Sasha went to bed talking with our families back in the states, which we would usually do earlier. When we finally wandered up stairs close to midnight, we realized neither of us had checked on Sasha since we put him to bed. Well, this is what we found:

Urban camping?

From this picture it may be hard to tell, but he pulled all of his blankets, pillows, and toys under his bed, then used the mattress to block himself in. He was passed out down there by the time we came in. I feel like lately he's been getting a little too creative at bed time! I have found him sleeping everywhere but his bed! I'm not really sure where this is coming from. We thought this particular set up was too funny to take down, so we just left him as he was. Of course, around 4 AM he came into our room and got in our bed. Oh well. At least he slept in until 8:30 this morning! I'm definitely not complaining about that!

Story Time

This winter has been a rather lazy one for Sasha and I. We can often be found like this:

Just a couple of brain-dead zombies

In an attempt to force us out of the house, I've been bringing Sasha to story time at the library on Ramstein AFB every week! He always has a fantastic time. Sasha loves to read, though, so I'm not really surprised. They always do 2 or 3 books and then have a craft of some kind. 2 weeks ago they made masks:

Sasha's was very fashion forward!

And then this past Thursday, all of the books were about ducks and chickens, so they made little chickens out of cups. Sasha carried his around for 2 whole days before it finally "disappeared" in the car. By that point, there wasn't much left that resembled a chicken...

They both kind of have shifty eyes...

We usually follow story time with either a) lunch with Papa at his office, or b) playing at the indoor park on Ramstein if Papa is not available. There is usually some grocery shopping mixed in somewhere, too. Basically, it's become our day to run errands. One thing I WILL NOT miss when we move back to Ohio is being 30 minutes from everything. I like having a Kroger 2 blocks away! 

New Year, New Stuff, New Things...and Things.

AAAH A new year! A new year with new goals and new stuff and things!

I made a goal this year to post every Sunday on this blog...and then promptly forgot. oops.

I'm posting today, though! It won't be much of a post. I just realized I didn't post 3 days ago when I was supposed to, so I felt OBLIGATED to post something. I don't feel like posting what I had planned for last Sunday because that will take a while and this is totally a whim.

This January is pretty mild so far. I'm not complaining, mind you! No snow, not too cold...a little grey, of course, but if it wasn't I'd be worried. January is the month of nothing for us, I think. We have no plans to do anything and I intend to keep it that way. Story time every Thursday and church every Sunday is enough this month.

I've decided to open up a private youtube account for family videos (mostly of Sasha) - Grandparents will probably be the target audience, but anyone who follows this blog is welcome to it as well. That's on my to-do list for this week, so hopefully when I post on Sunday, I'll have a video for you to watch, too! Of course, that brings my total number of youtube channels up to 3...which may be a bit excessive. We'll see how it goes!

In other news, I've made an insane list of goals and resolutions for not only myself but the entire Brant clan! I should just pick one thing at a time for us to work on, but that's just not how my brain works! Our big family goals for this year:
-FHE every week no matter what!
-Visit the temple once a month (even if only one of us can go)
-Eat our meals together as a family at the table
-Go to bed on time (all 3 of us are terrible at this)

mmmm that's pretty much it. I'm sure I'll add to that list. I like to have so many goals that I feel overwhelmed and give up after just a week or two...at least it SEEMS like that's what I like because that's what I always do!