Santa Came!!!

Christmas Eve we started the tradition of opening gifts from grandparents.  Andy and I remember when we were young and how BAD we wanted to just open one thing! 

Drew received an awesome Bass Pro Shop boat set from Papa and Mimi  and a Tag Jr. reading program for him and Claire.  Claire also scored a fun bunny box the hops along the ground! 

Thanks grandpa and grandma for the awesome lego set and the dog Violet for Claire!

Christmas Eve night we had our neighbors over to help decorate cookies for Santa

We then wrote Santa a letter saying that Drew and Claire were good boys and girls and one last wish for a bike with training wheels!

We then put cookies, milk, and the letter to Santa under the tree!  Claire thought this was hilarious!

Christmas morning the kiddos all slept till after 8am!  Drew was so excited to find a train under the tree!

Never a dull moment with the Claire Bear!

Hidden in the corner was a bike with training wheels!  Drew was sooo excited!

Drew scored a CAT constuction site, this keeps him busy forever!!!

We had a great Christmas and we're so excited to share it with Andy's brother and wife here visiting!

Oh Claire...

So the other day I had about three seconds to brush my teeth and I heard Drew yell, "Mom bug in Claire's hair"!!! So I ran out and found Drew's favorite lizard (which is sticky) all tied up in her hair!!  I'm guessing Drew had something to do with this....  We didn't have to cut any of her hair, however we now own detangler!

Only six months old and her hair goes in full pig tails!!!! 

Oh Christmas Tree...

This past weekend we took a trip to the old Christmas tree farm at the Navy Exchange! Every year we've gone to a tree farm and have cut down our own.  This year was a little different and we had to go to the base store:)  So in Spain when one get's their tree they get roots and all!!!  What one has to do they have to buy a pot and pot their tree as tree stands aren't used!!  So that's exactly what we did with our 5ft. tree.  Drew loved the chnage to get his hands dirty!

Claie and I were the boyzzzz boss and told them when the tree was straight!

So...Drew had a little to much fun in the dirt and water and needed to leave his pants outside before coming in:)

And the final touch of the white lights.  We left most of our decorations in the states as we didn't want things to break on the move over and our storage is very limited.  Drew and Claire don't mind at all and think it's awesome to have a tree in the house with lights!

Germany Christmas Markets

Last week I jumped on a plane with four other girlfriends for a five day trip to Germany to visit the Christmas Markets!  Daddy provided Disney Land for the kids at home here in the house and had a great time with them! 

This was the firs time that I had ever been away for this long since Drew has been born and have never left Claire.  Luckly I was side tracted with beautiful Germany and fabulous markets!!  Another good thing is that we were limited on how much we could buy due to wait on the plane... or this could have been dangerous!! 

We traveled to Dusseldorf first and spend two days there and then went to Koln for the rest of our trip.  The markets are all outdoors and have Chrismas light everywhere.  The stands are full of food, drinks, clothes, jewelry.... a shoppers dream!!  It was so fun to wear a winter coat and have mittens and a hat on as well!!!

Molly being served a true German beer!

From Germany we jumped on a train to Brussels. It took my breath away at how pretty it was there!!!  This here is the "market area" .  The center was decorated for Christmas and also had Christmas markets for us to visit.

This store ruled for a few take home beverages for Andy.  I was able to purchase for him the WORLDS best beer for the 4th time in a row here!

This is what I love... Everywhere in Europe they use Mercedes Benz as their Taxi cars!!!

Back In The USA!

Andy had a conference back in the states earlier this month, we we took advantage of it and made a family vacation back home.  We spent a week in Iowa, one in MN, and one in Norfolk.  Drew and Claire loved being in fall back in the midwest and all of the attention from the family!!!

The kiddos with my parents (Papa and Mimi)

Clarie and I watching BIG brother Drew cruise on his bike with TRAINING WHEELS!!!

This is Drew sitting with Ms. Amy... Amy was a doll that I had when I was young and she's just as tall as he is!  He loved playing with her and sitting with her to read books!  I think that I used to many products on her hair when I was younger, as her hair isn't in the best of shape!!

My sister Allison even flew in to visit us!!!  It was so great seeing her!  Drew and Claire had such a great time with her and loved all of the attention from her.  For the five days she was home we talked about how we WILL be neighbors.. some day...

On our way back to Spain we spent a few days in Norfolk.  It was so nice to see my friends there again and Drew was in heaven seeing all of his buddies again.  Drew was just getting use to his friends living far away and then we visit them... talk about confussion!!

Mia was born a little over a month after Claire!  This is Kai's younger sister:)

A few photos with Drew and his old gang!

Our good friend Chad to when to school with Andy flies helicopters. Chad took to his squadron to check a few out.  Drew was speachless and in heaven!!!  Talk about a little boys dream and being able to hit buttons!!

Claire loved the tour as much as Drew and was laughing the entire time!! 

Navy Ball

This past weekend we celebrated the Navy's Birthday with the annual Navy Ball.  This year the ball was held at Hotel Playa da la Luz, a beautiful hotel out in town.  We went with the usual Rota gang and had a blast!!!  It was defenly a Spanish ball as we didn't even start to eat dinner till 10pm!!! 

A photo of the hotel that the ball was held at.  Steps away from the beach!!

A few pre-ball pictures at the neighbors house!

Waiting for the buses to take us off base to the hotel...

We couldn't ask for a beter group here!  Being so far away from family, we become one big family!

Da Men.... this is also a photo of the entire fantasy football league!!!  Which they live and breath....