Happy Easter!

Today is Easter, and I really should be boiling eggs for Sasha to color after his nap...but instead I'm making a blog post! 

Yesterday, we decided to go to an Easter celebration on base. It was our first time going to something like this, and Sasha had a blast!

Sasha was totally thrilled to hang out with the Easter Bunny!

The highlight of the event was an Easter egg "hunt", which wasn't a hunt at all. They just threw a ton of eggs into an open field and then the kids all scrambled like crazy to get as many as they could! They had it divided up by age group - ages 0-4 were supposed to start at noon. We got there at about 11:55, and it was already over! So I just put Sasha in with the 5-6 year old group that did their "hunt" at 12:45. Worked out very well haha!

Sasha in front of the field full of eggs!

Kids started lining up along the starting line over 30 min before the "hunt" was to begin, so we went ahead and lined up, too. It was a long, windy wait. When they finally counted down the last 5 min, the kids exploded from the starting line and the whole thing was over in about 1 minute. It was pretty intense...and didn't really look like much fun, to be honest. 

Sasha is circled in red - this was taken right as they yelled "GO!"

Besides the "hunt", they also had bouncy houses (which Sasha loved), face painting, photos with the Easter Bunny (as you saw), and free kites!

Sasha getting a batman symbol on his face!

We stayed for about an hour and a half, then went off to run some errands. One of which was getting Sasha a hair cut!! We had to wait almost 2 hours (!!!) because the place was so busy. So I went off shopping, and Regan and Sasha waited at the barber. I came back JUST as he was climbing up into the chair. Pretty good timing, huh?

Sasha actually LOVES getting hair cuts!

As I said, today is Easter! I should probably be writing this post later tonight so that I can include pictures of Easter dinner and decorating eggs, but I can just make another post later (or you can look at the pictures on facebook haha). I will include this picture of handsome Sasha, all dressed for church, just after he found his little basket this morning! 

He was so excited!!

And that's it for now! Happy Easter!! 

Freiberg Temple Trip

This past weekend, we went with the youth from our ward on a 3 day trip to Freiberg, Germany to visit the Temple and the surrounding area! Regan is still the young men's president, so he was going no matter what, but Sasha and I thought we'd tag along, too. We had a car full of young men for the 5.5 hr drive - THAT was interesting haha!

this is a pretty good representation of the drive.

We drove to hostel at the Temple and checked in, then our whole group drove into Dresden (about 40 min from the Temple) and spent the evening touring the city! Dresden is really beautiful. The weather was a little dreary, but at least it didn't rain on us! 

Sasha and I in Dresden

The next morning, we got up much too early so that we could be on the road around 7 AM - our group went to a spot near Dresden where Thomas S. Monson dedicated East Germany in 1975! One of the other leaders gave a great fireside about the dedication, but I missed a lot of it because I had to chase Sasha down the road. It was a still a really cool experience and a beautiful place!

The Brants at the place of dedication!

After that, we took the kids back to the temple so they could do baptisms and a service project. The weather was SO BEAUTIFUL (at least for the first part of the day). I wish we would have taken our family picture at the temple then, but we took it the next day when it was overcast again. Oh well. At least I got some good pictures of Sasha with a blue sky!

Sasha LOVES to see the Temple!

That evening, our group wandered around downtown Freiberg, played some ultimate frisbee (to the great curiosity of passing Germans haha), and had some pretty good Döners for dinner! The next morning, we had to be out of the hostel by 7:30 AM, so once again I was up well before I wanted to be! We had breakfast, then packed up and hit the road! After about 2.5 hrs of driving, we reached Wartburg Castle - where Martin Luther translated the New Testament. The castle was huge and the tour was really fascinating! That was one of my favorite stops on the whole trip! 

The Brants and Wartburg Castle!

After that, we drove on to Frankfurt so that some people could get chipotle for (a very late) lunch. That was pretty much it for the trip! We all had a great time! I'm glad we got to visit the Freiberg Temple before we move back to the USA.

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!

Weekend in Berlin!

This past weekend, we went to Berlin. We're counting it as our first trip there, even though we'd been there before. Of course, that was in 2010 on our way to Poland and was for less than 24 hours. 

In any case, it was Sasha's absolute first time! 

We left for Berlin around 9:30 AM on Friday the 9th of November. The drive was pretty uneventful. It took us about 7 hours to get to our apartment in the West of Berlin. The apartment was great! It was cheap, had a full kitchen, balcony, and a separate bedroom for Sasha. The only thing that wasn't so great about it was the distance to the city center...which we demonstrated after we had dinner the first night. We decided to walk to the Brandenburg Gate, just for kicks. That turned out to be more of an adventure than we planned on. It took almost 2 hours to walk there. Needless to say, we took the train back.

The next day, we spent the morning at the zoo. Sasha went between being scared of the animals to being completely enthralled by them. My personal favorite exhibit was the nocturnal animal room under the cat house! They had Aardvarks!! I don't think I'd ever actually seen one before. It was awesome. I was really impressed with the Berlin zoo. It was huge and had tons of different species and a huge playground and I loved it. We spent 3 hours there and I really wish that we could have stayed longer.

After the zoo, we went to the Brandenburg Gate to meet up for a free walking tour. The tour was supposed to be 3 hours long, but we ducked out early because it started raining on us. The part of the tour we went on was great and informative, but we didn't have our umbrellas, so it just wasn't meant to be. Later that night we went to a grocery store and stocked up on some more food...and that's about it.

On Sunday, we tried to go to church, but the trains just weren't being our friends and when it became apparent that we were not going to make it in time for sacrament, we decided to just go to the city center again. We hung around and ate lunch on a bench, until around noon when we had reservations to go up in the Reichstag. I kind of forgot the Reichstag is a government building, so I was caught off guard when we had to go through an airport-style security check point. At least we didn't have any knives or whatever in our backpack! The dome on top of the Reichstag is so cool! The view was great and the dome was beautiful and there was a free audio guide, too! It was great! We stayed up there for about an hour.

The Brants at the Reichstag!

After that, we wandered over to the East Side gallery and walked he whole length of the wall. Then we went over to the Wall memorial. The sun set around 4:30 PM, so we didn't have a lot of daylight hours. By the time we got to the Wall memorial walk, it was dusk. By the time we finished, it was pitch black. We still had a great time and I learned a lot. I remember learning about the Wall in school, but that was about it. The Soviets were crazy talk! 

The next morning, we were on the road by 9 AM. We had another uneventful, easy drive home and the rest is history! I wish we could have stayed in Berlin for a whole week. There was so much more I wanted to do! At least we did all of the major stuff. And who knows? Maybe we'll go back again!

Brants in Berlin!

The Blog Shall Rise Again!

Well, that was quite a gap in posting. I won't bother backtracking. I'm sure we did lots of terribly interesting things since March, but you're just going to have to deal with not knowing what any of it was! HA!

Last Wednesday was HALLOWEEN!! I really love Halloween, though not so much here in Germany. I haven't even bothered to wear a costume for the past 2 years. Those who know me well will know how strange that is. Getting fabric here just isn't as fun: at the German stores, it's really expensive, and on line, I can't see it in person before I buy it! I've been buying fabric on every trip back to the states that we make, but I just wasn't thinking about Halloween in July. I'll try to plan ahead next year, though.

 Our ward had a trunk or treat ON Halloween, which I thought was a little odd. They also decided to cancel the chili cook off aspect of the activity and JUST do trunk-or-treating. That's fine for the kids, but it took a lot of the fun out of it for me. There really wasn't any time to socialize and it ended up feeling more like a primary activity than a ward activity.

Sasha dressed up in the dinosaur costume that his Grandma Brant got him. He LOVES it!! He wore it most of the day because we also went to Halloween story time at the library. He kept getting down on his hands and knees and roaring. It was cracking me up. The costume is so adorable, too! I love the tail! Sasha was a little shy at the beginning of the night when the kids were doing a costume parade. He just wouldn't join in! But as soon as the trunk or treating started, all reserves were lost. Candy was to be had and the only way to have it was to walk up to strangers in vans. Now if that's not creepy, I don't know what is!

Check out that smile! He's cute and he knows it!

That's it for this update! I'm going to try to put myself on a schedule to post at least every Monday! So...see you soon?

Spring Bucket List!

I keep seeing people make bucket lists for different things (Christmas, Spring, etc.) and since I just LOVE to make lists, I thought I'd make one for us, too!

Poor Sasha is going crazy with all of this bitter cold weather! I call this our "Bring Out The Sun, Already" Spring bucket list:

1. Make Easter baskets

2. Color Easter eggs

3. Plant flowers and vegetables in garden

4. Fly a kite

5. Go see the tulips in Holland

6. Go on a picnic

7. Go to the zoo

8. Make cookies as a family

9. Make cotton ball art

10. Make clay and build sculptures

That's all I have so far. I'm counting spring until the end of May, and when June starts, we'll have to have a SUMMER bucket list (which I already have a ton of ideas for). I'll probably add more things to this list before the end of May, too.

And now it's about time to Skype with the fam back in the states!

Mediterranean Cruise January 2012

So the time has finally come to type up a report of our cruise. I'll start where I left off back on January 19. We were in Bavaria, at a military resort called Edelweiss. We stayed there from January 19-21. Regan went snowboarding on the 20th, and I stayed at the resort with Sasha.

This is how I found Sasha the morning of the 20th. Looks comfy!

Sasha went swimming for the first time ever at the resort pool! He LOVED the water, but hated his life jacket haha.

On January 21, we drove from Bavaria, over the alps, to Italy. The drive, according to Google Maps should take about 5 hours. It took us closer to 9. There was a TON of snow coming down, so traffic was slow and backed up in places. The trees looked so lovely, though!

Winter wonderland! Not so good for driving, though.

Here is a video of our drive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjdiQNmbCyY

We spent the next few days staying with our friends, the Lazenby family, in Italy. They live about an hour away from Venice, which is where our ship was leaving from. On Monday January 23, we hopped a train to Venice and got on board the MSC Magnifica! The first day was spent eating, going through safety drills, and getting used to being on a ship.

Me and Sasha all ready for the big safety drill!

Here's a video of our 1st day on the ship:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zffri304qbM

On January 24, our ship made port in Bari, Italy! We didn't have a tour booked, so when we got off the boat, we tried to find one. We ended up taking a 1 hour tour in a rickshaw! So fun!

The Brant family in a rickshaw!

After our tour, we still had free time, so we walked around for a while and tried to find souvenirs. I used my amazing Hello Kitty powers to find a little Sanrio shop! I got an ice cube tray and a hair clip. We also walked along the shore line for a while and it was really beautiful. We had the best weather of the whole cruise in Bari.

Here is a video of our 2nd day on the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0v6a8P6s4U

On January 25, we had a lovely day at sea! It was a pretty lazy day with lots of naps and eating, but I explored the ship and found lots of new places! It was also the Gala night, so there was a fancy dinner and show, and everyone was dressed in ball gowns! It made me wish that I had a gown.

The Brants on Gala night!

Here is a video of our 3rd day on the ship:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYTeLCz8_nE

On January 26, we made port in Rhodes, Greece. We had arranged for a private tour which took us all over the island. My favorite part of the tour was visiting a small town called Lindos! It was very well preserved and exactly what I pictured a small town in Greece to look like.

Me and Sasha on the acropolis of Lindos!

Here is a video of our 4th day on the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y2wfPqw8Ew

On January 27, we made port in Haifa, Israel. We had booked a private tour with our friends, the Lazenby family, and had a little mini-bus and tour guide to take us through the holy land! We visited Galilee and the Sea of Galilee, but not much else. Sadly, daylight was not in our favor and neither was time.

Sasha and me on the tour bus in Israel.

I love this picture of us on a boat on the Sea of Galilee! So funny!

Here's a video of our 5th day on the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFKy55i9Wwo

On January 28, we woke up in our hotel in Jerusalem early so that we could fit in a whole day of sight seeing! We saw a LOT that day. We were able to see the Garden of Gethsemane, The Garden Tomb, The Wailing Wall, and the old section of Jerusalem. We had an AMAZING lunch of traditional Israeli food. So good. It was an awesome day and an unforgettable experience! I wish we could go back and spend a few weeks there.

The Brants in Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock behind us.

Sasha moving a mini-version of the stone in front of the tomb! Strong boy!

Here is a video of our 6th day on the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDTIfgBo0Q

On January 29, we didn't do much of anything. It was an at sea day and we were all pretty tired from our whirlwind trip through the Holy Land. Lots of naps were had, lots of food was eaten, and lots of nothing was done.

Here is a video of our 7th day on the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK60Kg9uciI

On January 30, we made port in Athens, Greece! The sky was clear, but it was SO cold that day. I was freezing (and I HATE freezing). We were able to see some really cool sights, but our tour guide, George, was a little weird and didn't seem like he was used to giving tours. Instead of just taking us around, he kept saying "It's up to you." as if we knew where everything was and where to go next! But we still had fun (making fun of George).

Sasha and Me on the acropolis in Athens, Greece!

Here is a video of our 8th day of the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvKE9knDIoM

On January 31st, we had another at sea day. Our friend watched Sasha during his nap for us so that Regan and I could go on a little date. We went to the Tiger Lounge and had some (non-alcoholic) drinks! It was really nice to relax together.

mmm those drinks were good!

Here's a video of our 9th day on the cruise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sIMVqx4KzA

On February 1, we made it back to Venice and said goodbye to the MSC Magnifica!! We left the ship in the morning and were back to the Lazenby's house by early afternoon.

Papa and Sasha saying goodbye to the ship!

Here is a video of our 10th, and last, day on the cruise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKQ1cp0nGsU

And so it ends! It was such an amazing trip! I absolutely LOVED the cruise! I hope that we can go on many more.

Slow Cooker Sunday, Valentine's Day, and Fasching!!

Hello Hello! Time to play a little catch up! Let's start with Valentine's Day. The day before, Sasha and I were as sneaky as possible and snuck into Regan's office after he'd left for the day (we were lucky someone else was still there to let us in) and decorated his cube with balloons, candy, pictures of us, and streamers! I thought I really got him good.

Here's one of the pics we put up in his cube!

He called me the next morning right after getting to work and told me how surprised he was! He actually woke me up when he called because I wasn't going to get up until 8 when Sasha gets up. After we got off the phone, I decided to just get up and go downstairs and what should I find? A surprise of my own!

Flowers and candy! So sweet!

Sasha wearing his awesome V-day crown (made with only a little help from Mama)

Next up, let's talk about Fasching! Fasching is carnival time in Germany. We've never really done anything to celebrate, even though it's a pretty big deal in our area. This year, Regan happened to be off of work on the same day that Mainz was having their big Fasching celebration. We decided to make the drive (it only takes about 45 min) and check it out. Our friends the Ta's came with us and our goal was to get there around 11 when the big parade started!

There were MANY of these scary guys in the parade!

For Fasching, you're supposed to dress up in a costume like at Halloween, but we didn't. I'd say over 90% of the people there were dressed up, though.

I wore my Hello Kitty headband for a costume!

The parade was advertised as being kid friendly, which it pretty much was. The problem was when you stepped away from the parade! It was just a drunken mess! There were people puking every 20 feet or so, and I don't even want to think about how much public urination I witnessed! As we walked down the street, we had to dodge "pee streams" flowing down from the side of buildings when men had been relieving themselves all day. It was also VERY crowded. We ended up staying for about 2 hours and most of that time was spent watching the parade, thank goodness. It was pretty much agreed by all parties that the Mainz Fasching parade was a one time thing. We won't be going back next year. It was yucky.

For slow cooker Sunday, I made Polish Sausage Stew from my Fix it and Forget it cookbook! I picked it with Regan in mind.

It's not much to look at, but holy crap it was good.

Recipe:

1 can cream of celery soup

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

27 oz. sauerkraut, drained

14 oz. Polish sausage, cut into bite sized pieces and browned

4 medium potatoes, cubed

1 cup finely chopped onions

1 cup shredded Jack cheese

Combine soup, sugar, and sauerkraut. Stir in browned sausage, cubed potatoes, and chopped onions. Cover and cook on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Stir in cheese just before serving.

YUM!

This was REALLY good. Everyone loved it and it made enough that we got to have it for lunch for a couple of days. WHEN I make it again, I will double the sausage. 1 pack just wasn't enough!

Sasha enjoying his stew!

Last Friday, we had a speech therapist come out to the house and evaluate Sasha. It was a wonderful visit! She was really sweet and she pointed out some things that no other doctor has (and considering how many we've seen in the 6 months since we brought Sasha home, that's saying something). She wants to do a second evaluation and bring another doctor with her. She said that Sasha tested really high on pretty much everything except speech and fine motor skills, so she doesn't know if we'll make it into the free early intervention program, but she's hopeful that because of his history, we'll be able to sneak in. I really hope so because I would love to work with her more! I already learned so much from her after just one visit. In any case, I'm very hopeful that Sasha will be able to catch up now and that makes me super happy!