Around Town

Wes loves walking the dog and visiting the cows and saying hello to the fish!!  

He likes to stop and smell the flowers and when he's on foot, a walk can take  a long time!  Our German neighbors like to give him chocolate, which I don't mind at all!!

He's trying to kiss the cows...great!  Totally cracks up and keeps talking about the middle calf (they are being weaned) who jumps (bucks around when scared).

Block Party on Base

April is the Month of the Military Child!  Yesterday the base sponsored a Block Party for the kiddos and since we live in Germany and never have anything to do, we thought we'd check it out!  Wes loved the bouncy castle once he was able to stand up in it!  He had to be lured out by a balloon promise!  

Playing at the sand table and planting a sunflower with Ms. Ellen, his teacher from Monday's playgroup!  He loved the dirt and would get a scoop from one tub and move on to the next!
He is totally cracking up in this pic because there were kiddos doing a tumbling demonstration in front of us to the loud music!

36 Weeks

The pics of Wes above demonstrate a few of his favorite pastimes...climbing up and "working" on the computer, and playing basketball!  

Last Saturday, I made it to 36 weeks!  After spending 3 nights in the hospital the previous week, my early labor was stopped and I've just been taking it easy.  Hailey weighed about 6lbs last Thursday, which is great.  Chasing around a toddler while being preggers is certainly a good way to not gain a lot of weight.  At this point with Wes, who was delivered at 36 weeks, I weighed 178...right now I'm at 160...I don't mind gaining weight at all when I'm pregnant, but I'll take it!!  I find that I'm drinking a lot more water, and I think that helps...

Wes and Dad go to Belgium

On Saturday, April 11, John and Wes headed to Belgium to see the grottos and wildlife park!!  I was excited for them to spend this time together and see the cool animals and caves.  I was excited for me, because they were gone from about 0700 until 2000 (8pm)...I was going to scrapbook, relax, watch Australia and Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Well, I helped them get out the door and never could go back to sleep.  I had breakfast, cleaned out the hall cabinet, and started to watch a movie, when I realized I was having contractions.  Since I was only 35 weeks at the time and had gone into early labor with Wes, I ended up going into the hospital and they said I was dilated to almost 2 and still having contractions.  I ended up staying for 3 nights, but all is well now!!

John and Wes had a wonderful time in Belgium.    Some of our friends ended up being on the trip, which was great!!  I know some of you (DEB) could care less about the animal pics, but We s loves to get on the computer and look at our blog!  John and Wes ended up spending a lot of time together and came to visit me everyday at the hospital.  It was a good trial run for Hailey's arrival!  I was afraid he would cry when it was time to leave me, but he stayed long enough until he was ready to go and just said "bye bye mommy".   What a relief!  

Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt

So cute to see these toddlers searching for eggs!  Wes' M.O. was to find an egg, open it, eat the contents, go down the slide and move on to another egg!  As you can see, we've had some beautiful weather over here!

Algarve Coast, Portugal

Our last trip as a 3 person family was perfect!  We went to an all-inclusive resort in southern Portugal and we couldn't have asked for anything more...well, maybe warm outdoor pool water!  We played, relaxed, ate too much, and swam lots and lots!  Besides taking walks to the beach, the only time we left the resort was for our afternoon of sailing!

Like father, like son!

The outdoor pools were so cold, Wes found a nice footwash to swim in!   A few moments prior, he went for the real deal and jumped in the big pool!  We've never seem him swim so fast to get out of a pool!!  He was quite cold, so we let him go with just a swimmie diaper!

His little buddy from England.

We went on a sailing trip out of Albufeira for a few hours!  The coast of Portugal is truly beautiful!

"up on daddy!"

SHELLS!!

Picking up more shells with Daddy!

This is my favorite!!  He brought me flowers!!  And was so proud!

Where there's a dog, there's Wes!!

34 weeks!!!

All is well over here!  Belly and baby are growing!!   

Leo Marquez Award Winner...John Kendall!!

A few weeks ago, we attended the Maintenance Professional of the Year Awards Banquet.  John had been nominated for the Air Force Leo Marquez Award for CGO (Company Grade Officer) Aircraft Maintenance category.  The award, named in honor of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez, recognized maintenance operations in the categories of Aircraft, Munitions/Missile and Communications-Electronics Maintenance.  The award is presented to maintainers who have demonstrated the highest degree of sustained job performance, job efficiency and results, job knowledge, and direct sortie generation involvement.   

This is impressive because John has only been in the maintenance career field for the 2 1/2 years we have been in Germany.  His actual career field is contracting, which he'll return to upon our move to Virginia in the fall.