Georgia's 2nd Birthday

Georgia is ready to open her presents and eat her cake.



Tonight we celebrated Georgia's 2nd birthday. We had a Dora party, and she loved it! She loves her new Little People house and all of the Dora things that she got. She is such a fun little girl. She is full of life and energy.





On to other things, Brad just got home, and we all love having him here. Today Clayton had a Thanksgiving feast at school, and he was so excited that daddy was able to be there. Tomorrow Brad is going to be able to make an appearance at Zoe's feast. It is so nice to have him home.

2 Month Old Lincoln

I can not believe that Lincoln is 2 months old! It seems like he is getting older faster than the other kids did. I do not remember the time going so fast with them. He is finally starting to wake up for a few hours at a time. I was wondering if we were ever going to see his eyes! He slept for 7 hours last night before he woke up to eat. It was amazing! I am hoping that this is something that he continues. He is a great baby, and I hope that you get to meet him soon.

Trick-or-Treat

The kids had a great time on Halloween this year. Brad was not here, so things were hectic, but some good friends of ours, the Babbs, helped out. I could not have done it without them!

They came over on the Saturday before Halloween and carved pumpkins with the kids. Clayton's pumpkin is smiling, and Zoe's pumpkin has the cat on it. Georgia's pumpkin was too small to carve, but she has been carrying it around for the past couple of weeks saying "Georgia's pumpkin". She is pretty funny.

On Halloween, we went on post to trick-or-treat. We started from the Babb's house and made the rounds from there.

Clayton was an Army soldier-Captain Crockett.

Zoe was Violet from the Incredibles.

Georgia was a Chicken.

Overall, we had a great time. We miss all of you and wish that we could have been at the infamous "Sine Halloween party".

Pumpkin Patch

Georgia is so funny in her little pumpkin hat. She wants to wear it everywhere.

Zoe is quite the big girl. She picked out a huge pumpkin to take home with us.

Clayton looking for a pumpkin of his own.

I have been meaning to do this for the last couple of weeks, but better late than never. While Candi was here, we took a trip up to a pumpkin patch about 45 minutes away from us. They have the most beautiful pumpkins and gourds that I have ever seen. There was also a corn maze for the kids and a blumen patch where you can pick flowers. It was a beautiful fall day, and we had a great time.

1 month old

I can not believe that Lincoln is now 1 month old. The time has just flown by. We went to the doctor's office last week, and he weighed 7lbs 14oz. He is much smaller than the other kids, but he is definitely growing.

Life with 4 kids is taking some getting used to, but we seem to be adjusting pretty well. Clayton, Zoe and Georgia love having Lincoln around, and they have all been a huge help to me.

Zoe's 4th Birthday

Can you believe it? Zoe is now 4 years old! But she acts like a six year old. For her birthday, we went to Sternenland, which is a giant indoor playground. It is like the McDonald's playground but much bigger and the tubes are big enough for parents to crawl through. Brad loved having an excuse to chase Georgia all over the playground. It also has giant slides and trampolines. The kids especially loved the mini go karts that they could drive on their own.

Later we had a family party here at home with Nana Candi. It was a My Little Pony theme party. Zoe was very excited about all of her presents. She got a My Little Pony Teacup toyhouse, a pony outfit and a bunch of other girly treats.

Burg Eltz

It's always good when visitors come to see us because it gets us out to new places. We decided to take Brad's mom to a nearby castle, Burg Eltz. The castle was established in 1157. It is located in a river valley on the Mosel River, in Southwest Germany. It was built up over several years, but it has remained virtually unchanged since its completion. Unlike other German castles, it was never destroyed by war. The Eltz family has owned the castle for overy 800 years, and still owns it today. Apparently, no one lives there on a regular basis, but they do stay from time to time.

We arrived at the castle around 3:00 p.m. and decided to take the "shuttle" down the hill to the castle. It was a good decision, if for no other reason than to avoid getting ran over by the crazy shuttle driver. We were fortunate enough to get an English speaking tour despite the fact that castle does not have scheduled English tours. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos inside the castle rooms.


It was one of the best castle tours we have been on. The castle is still decorated with a lot of the original furniture, paintings and tapestries. It was interesting but not too long, which is important when you have four kids five and under on the tour.

The Final Edition

Lincoln Duane was born at 8:01 am (Central European Time) at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and measured 20 inches long.

Jessica felt her first "real" contractions at 6:00 a.m. on the 14th. Based on our previous experiences we decided to head to the hospital at approximately 10:30 to avoid delivering the baby in the car! When we arrived, Jess was afraid we wouldn't be admitted so we walked around the post to try to increase her labor. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day in Western Germany, a rare occurrence. Then we went back to the van where Jess sat in the passenger seat and slept on and off for 1 1/2 hours. At this point, the contractions were strong enough that Jess could barely walk. We were first checked at around 4:00 pm, and the nurse noted that Jess had a temperature, but after an hour we were sent to get something to eat and walk around some more. After two hours we were admitted, not because she had progressed but because she still had a temperature. The doctor decided to give Jess petocin to speed the process along. Needless to say, she was less than thrilled about that option. Fortunately, she did get an epidural around 2 am, which allowed her to get some sleep before the final stretch.

At approximately 7:30, the nurse checked Jess and declared her ready to go. They called the doctor in who told Jess to push during the next contraction. Shortly thereafter the contraction began and Jess pushed. In all, she pushed only four times for less than 2 minutes and Lincoln was born!

Brad went home to get the kids, who were very excited about their new little brother. Jess and Lincoln came home Sunday morning. Clayton and Zoe fight over who gets to hold the new baby. Georgia wants to give Lincoln kisses and is very concerned if he begins to cry. If we don't respond right away, Georgia starts to scream "crying!" over and over until we go tend to Lincoln's needs. I guess she figures it worked for her to scream so it should work for Lincoln too.

We are all very excited. Especially Jess, since we aren't planning to have her go through this ordeal again. At this point, we feel that our family is complete. God has blessed us with four great children.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Clayton's 1st Soccer Game

We signed Clayton up for pee-wee soccer this year. Jess and I were both very excited about the season. Oh yeah, Clayton was looking forward to it as well.



After just a few practices, they had their first game. Clayton started out playing defense, but unfortunately there wasn't much action. Then the coach put him at forward. It was just a pee wee game...and we're not supposed to keep score...but Clayton scored something like 6 goals during the game. At one point it almost became embarrassing because he kept breaking away from the other kids and scoring. I was very proud, not just because he did so well, but because he was always hustling.