Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Picture Recap

I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera.
Here is the view we have had since we have been here.  We have had a lot of snow, which is not typical for this region.  This is one of the few palm trees in Germany (this is my parents backyard). Ha!
Hannah is not a fan of the snow.  She will not stand or walk in it.....very strange.  We borrowed a sled, but she is not a fan of that either.  I guess we will just keep trying.
Scott built Hannah a snowman the day he arrived.
Here is Hannah's grocery store.  She really likes to play with it.  She can't open the register with her little finger, so she pounds on it with her elbow....it is really funny.
Hannah's sleeping arrangements in Germany.  She refused to sleep in her crib here as well, so we built her a mattress fort.  She moves around so much at night that she really needs all of this space.
Last week Scott and I went to the 1. FC Köln soccer match with my brother.  We started out at the Christmas Market in the city and had a Glühwein (hot spiced red wine) before heading to the stadium.  It was a cold night out and Cologne did not play well at all.  We still had a great evening despite the loss.  After the game we picked up Ashley from the train station who came in from London to visit us for the holidays. 
On Christmas Eve we did some shopping at the Farmers Market and Metro.  Scott really likes to go to the Metro (wholesale store) to buy all kinds of random things.  We went Kegeln (German Bowling) in the afternoon while my dad cooked us a wonderful meal.  I have some fun pictures from the soccer game and our Kegel tournament, but they are all still on my other camera.
 Uncle Volker playing with Hannah on Christmas Eve
 Hannah really likes to cheers everybody.  She will use whatever she has in her hand to cheers.....bread, cup, plate etc and she won't forget anybody at the table.
Hannah has been kicking Opa out of his own chair.  She will pull at his leg until he gets up and then she climbs into it.
This is it for today......I will finish up Christmas Eve next time.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Good Ole Germany

Hannah and I made it to Germany last week and Scott got here today.  We had an uneventful trip, but it was a long day.  Hannah is such a little travel trooper and did great.  It is tough to keep her entertained on an 8 hour flight, but we managed.  I thought she would sleep most of it, since it was overnight.  Wrong!  The entire plane was asleep except for Hannah.  She just wanted to keep reading books, play with play dough, run around etc.  We had a really nice flight attendant that saw I was traveling by myself and took Hannah a few times and walked around with her.  Every time she came by our seat again Hannah put her hands out and wanted to go with her.  It was a lot more fun to walk around with her than sit in the seat with me!!!!!
We have had a lot of snow since we have been here.  This is unusual for Köln, so we have had some challenges getting around.  The streets are very icy, so we have stayed close to the house most of the time.  I have taken some fun pictures, but I forgot to bring the cable to download the pictures and Sony's memory card doesn't fit into any of the card readers we have.  So annoying!  Scott brought my nice camera now, so I will take pictures with that and I have a card reader for that one. 
Hannah has adjusted really well and she has been a really funny girl lately.  She is very busy and constantly running around.  We have visited my friend Meike with her two little girls a few times and Hannah enjoys playing with them.  We also went to mommy and me gymnastics with them and she loved running around in the big gymnasium.  It brought back a lot of fun memories for me, because the class was at my old elementary school and I have been to countless gymnastics classes at that gym.  So fun!
One of my mom's friends let us borrow a play grocery store for Hannah.  Her grandkids are too old for it now.  Hannah loves to play in it (especially the register).  The fun thing is that it is the same grocery store I had as a kid.  Hopefully I can share some pictures soon!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Christmas Fun

Last week Scott and I took Hannah to take pictures with Santa.  I think we have a great Santa at our mall....  he just looks like Santa.  However, Hannah was still not a fan of Santa.  She had a melt-down when we got close. 
Here is the picture from last year....I think it is pretty funny!
And here is her picture from this year.  Notice that she is not sitting on Santas lap?  She is sitting on my lap and I am hiding behind Santa (he's got some good tricks up his sleeve).
We also took a family picture with Santa (which we were not planning on).....Hannah did not know that he was behind us! 
Here is picture of daddy with Hannah and Santa
Maybe next year she will actually like Santa.
Saturday night we had our christmas dinner with friends.  We always have a great time with everybody.  We have been doing an Italian theme for the last few years, so I think that has become our tradition now.  This year we decided to do white elephant gifts for everybody and instead of doing couples gifts we decided to donate gifts to the local shelter (thank you for that idea Jenny).  Jenny always does a great job decorating her house. 
Here is the dining table.
Hannah in her cute christmas outfit that my friend Rebakah made (she has an etsy site called Audrey's Room).
Jenny shared her nanny with us, so all the kids played downstairs while we were able to enjoy a nice and quiet (somewhat) dinner. 
Here are a few of the white elephant gifts on display!
I ended up with the Superman Snuggie and Scott is the proud new owner of a lava lamp.  Hannah and I leave for Germany tomorrow morning and Scott is going to join us next week.  I better go to bed now to get some rest before the long trip. 

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

We have had a wonderful and busy weekend.  We hosted the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party on Friday night.  It has been a few years since we have had it at our house.  This used to be a crazy party (including beer pong etc) and this year was pretty calm.  I guess we are all getting older....plus we had a bunch of kids running around. 
I was not going to put up any christmas decorations this year since we are not going to be home for christmas and the house is going to be on the market, but Scott "talked" me into it.  I am so glad we put up some decorations.  It just makes the house feel so cozy.  My favorite is this wreath.  I added some mesh and ornaments and it looks like a new wreath (I am pretty proud of my crafty project).
Back to the party.....Of course we had to dress up Hannah as well.  Her outfit was pretty" ugly" (it is a boy's outfit), but it still looked so cute on her.
She was such a trooper and played all night.  She did not want to go to bed, so we let her stay up until 11pm (and she slept in until 9:45am the next morning).


First ugly christmas sweater family picture
The McElroy family....love the plaid pants on the boys!

We had a blast and it was great to see everybody.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Basketball and Park

Last week Hannah and I decided to go to one of Scott's basketball games.  Hannah enjoyed it and cheered for both teams.   She just can't help it, she has to clap when she sees other people clap.
Watching the game

Hannah tried to run onto the court to see daddy several times
Last Friday we enjoyed one last day (probably for a while) at the playground.  The weather was beautiful out.  I have been wanting to go to this new playground for a while.  It is very nice and toddler friendly.  Hannah also enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek.

I am looking forward to spending a bunch of time at the playground again in the Spring.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Weekend in Kansas City

We drove up to Kansas City again this weekend for the Chiefs vs Broncos game.  This game has become a tradition with our friends and family and the tailgate gets bigger every year. 

Jenny and Dave brought their new RV.  Thank goodness, because it was freezing cold out.  I spent pretty much all morning in the RV along with the babies and most of the other ladies!


Hannah was so bundled up that she couldn't move at all.  It was really funny.  Jenny took a video of that. Click here to view it.
We had lots of yummy (and very healthy) food.  We had breakfast burritos, cheese dip, hot dogs, cake etc.
Hannah shared a few plates of cheese dip with grandma.

Once it was game time Hannah left with aunt Allison, because it was too cold for her to go into the game.  Thanks again Allison for watching Hannah during the game.
Scott and Ryan
Me, Scott, Irv and Jeannie
Casey and me
I wore a lot of layers of clothes and I was fine for most of the game, but by the 4 th Quarter I was freezing.  We are happy about another Chiefs win (it was a pretty ugly game though)!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Could It Be Time For New Years Resolutions Already.....

I have not made any New Years Resolutions in several years.  I have made them in the past, but hardly ever followed through, so I gave up for a while.  So, for next year I decided to come up with one New Years Resolution and post it, so maybe I will actually hold myself accountable.....just maybe???????
My resolution is to be more organized and keep the house more picked up.  This is a big one.  I thought by staying at home with our daughter that I would have all the time in the world to keep the house picked up, organized and cook (maybe even bake every once in a while).  Wrong!  In my defense I do spend a lot more time at home now and eat/cook three meals at home (vs just one when I was working), which gives me a lot more opportunities to "mess up" the house.  Since we have decided to put our current house on the market I have spent a lot of time de-clutternig and cleaning out closets.....it is amazing what you find.  Why did I keep all of  my college text books?  And all of my Birthday, Christmas and any other occasion cards from way back when?  Going forward I am going to take a hard look at things before I store them away.
I am going to make one other goal (I don't think I will call it a resolution).  I would like to participate in at least two triathlons next year and maybe a half marathon (but I am not committing to that one just yet).  I really enjoyed the triathlon I did this year and I would like to do that one again plus one more.

Let's see where this will take me.......

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Demolition Day

Last Friday was demolition day at our "new" old house.  I wish we would have been in town to witness the tear down, I think that sounds really fun.  We had a few friends that went by that day to watch the demolition and took some pictures.
Before.....



During......


After.....
We are excited about our new lot downtown Bentonville.  We will be breaking ground on the new house soon.  I will continue to update the progress.