We're havin' a blast!

So, Joe flew back to Germany and left us here for a little while. Although we miss him very much, we are having a lot of fun visiting friends and family. Paw-paw Buckley took Tyler to get a haircut yesterday at his barber. That was eventful. He did great, but was very wiggly, so I ended up cutting some odds and ends.

And We're Leavin' on a Jetplane...December 21st!!!!

Well, we didn't think we were going to make it back home until our final out June 2011, but this holiday season has really made it hard NOT to miss home, so we are leaving December 21. Joe was able to spare a couple weeks, while Tyler and I will be staying for a couple of months! Yes, we will miss Dad, but we will pretend it's a TDY, and I'm sure time will fly for all of us. I'm sure the grandparents won't mind too much having another little grandchild running around creating chaos. We are so excited to see everyone, but again, NOT looking forward to the flight with a one-year-old. We will survive, as we always do.

An update on schooling, Joe is hitting the books pretty hard taking a couple classes at a time...keeping very busy. I'm still plugging away as week 6 of 8 ends and then ONE MORE CLASS and I am DONE!!! I cannot wait, and I certainly will not miss writing a paper every single week of my life. I am running out of words.

Tyler is growing like a weed, and is starting to show his fun and crazy side. His little ornery smiles make the days interesting, to say the least. He is into everything (including the toilet). He has grown two shoe sizes in just one month. That seems just crazy to me. When he turned one, we went off the bottle cold turkey and he's done great with that, and sleeping through the nights too ever since. We couldn't ask for more.

Can't wait to see you all, 10 days!

Here are some more updated pics:

The pic above is Tyler in clothes from Afghanistan, thanks to our friend who is over there right now. We appreciate all that you do Adam!

We're back from a fabulous mini vacation!

We traveled, yet again, to Garmisch, Germany. This time we took a different route and went through Austria! We didn't get to do that last time since we forgot our passports, whoops!! Although the trip started off a little rough (I spilled water down both of my legs in the car when Joe made an abrupt stop and once we got to the resort. I almost lost my lunch on the curvy Austrian roads through the mountains. We were so hungry we had to eat right away but the wait for the buffet was over two hours, so we ended up eating at some fancy restaurant with no wait (dead giveaway, not good) and Tyler grabbed my plate, spilled his applesauce all over my already drenched pants and crawled out of his seat, thus dinner ended sooner than we thought and we packed it up for take-out in the comfort of our room). Although we had a rough start, the rest of the trip was fabulous. We took Tyler to the pool twice and he loved it! We visited the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the one the castle in Disney Land was modeled from. It was actually one of mad King Ludwig's castles. We didn't take the tour inside, since it required quietness, and we didn't know how Tyler's squawking would resonate against the castle walls. We toured around the castle, however, and it was great, very picturesque. The Alps were obviously very beautiful since there was quite a bit of snow, however it didn't snow on us until the day we left, and it was just a dusting. We love this trip, and I'm sure we will go back again several times before we leave for good. I'm hoping our next trip will be to Berlin or Poland. I want to see Auschwitz, but children are not allowed there, unlike Dachau. Pictures to follow.

Tyler's First Birthday Party!

Wow, now that was an event. Tyler's party turned out great, since we were in the company of good friends. That makes living overseas a bit easier, but it would have been so nice to have family join in the fun. Tyler loved playing with all of the other kids and playing with his new toys. Enjoy the pics!

He's Walking!!

Well, it's official...we have a walker!! He's actually picking himself up to stand from the sitting position and then taking off. Check out the videos! The first one was a trial and the second, a mastery! haha

Birthday Party

Well, we kind of decided last minute that we would throw Tyler a little birthday party with some of our friends and their kids. Basically, it will just be a little get together to eat some cake and ice cream and watch Tyler devour his first cake. I will certainly be posting pics and video of that great event. The party is Thursday and I am finding it very very hard to find any party decorations at our PX/BX. I would go on the economy and look, but I have no idea who the characters are, and the exchange rate is awful right now. I may end up making all of my own decorations. I guess that wouldn't be too awful. He enjoys Elmo, so I may try to decorate a cake by painting Elmo?? Oh boy, this will be interesting.

So, Tyler is in a very fun stage right now. He's walking around everywhere and he's starting to cuddle just a little. I didn't think that was ever going to happen since he's constantly on the go go go. I caught a pic of Tyler and Joe when Tyler was actually willing to sit for half a second.

Ready for Halloween

It's getting darker a lot sooner and it's cold cold cold. We are not ready for winter, or I guess fall, but we are ready for Halloween. We got Tyler a little costume, which he's not going to be going trick-or-treating since he can't have the candy yet, but we were invited to a couple of Halloween parties that we will be attending, pending Joe and I's costumes arriving. We just ordered them. Joe and I are planning on being a tavern wench and tavern man?? This should be interesting. Tyler is going to be a little lion. He looks so cute. I will post pics after Halloween.

Happy belated birthday to my nephew, Connor. He was three on the 18th. Man, time does fly. Sorry we missed it Buddy. I'm sure it was a good one.