A Trip to Rothenburg Ob der Tauer.....without a child

This weekend is a 3-day weekend for both Joe and I, as today (monday) is Presidents Day. So, we decided to use Saturday as a travel day, to see a bit more of Germany. And as much as we love our daughter, we thought it was time for a much needed trip away without her. So, we left her with Patrick and Tanya (for family that visited, this is who we borrowed the van from) for the day and off we went!

I (Alyson) had been here once before, with Steven and Mickaela Peterson (Scarlett's Godparents), when they were here in August of last year. Joe was working the day we went, but they showed me a fantastic little village - Rothenburg Ob der Tauer. It the most well-preserved medieval village in Germany and just happens to also be the village that Disney's "Pinocchio" was drawn after. It has all the traditional German architecture that everyone thinks of when they think of Germany - very storybook-esk. 

We didn't really have an itinerary for the day, other than wondering and seeing what there was to see...

So, we started with breakfast...in Ramstein Village at a Bakery. Teah introduced us to this little bakery, which was delicious! We picked up a chocolate glazed doughnut, chocolate croissants, an apple turnover and a chocolate vanilla twist thing. Yes we ate all of them. The states should really invest in having good bakeries like this! Everything was made fresh that morning. 

This is the chocolate croissant...so delicious!

Then hit the road! It was a 2 hour 16 minute drive....But, gorgeous the whole way. It winded through the German country side. ...and for those of you who haven't been here - the highway (autobahn) is high up, and overlooks villages, vineyards and grazing farm animals. 

We got to the city, which is really two cities in one. There is the old city, built inside the city wall, and there is the new city, built outside around the city wall. So, when we parked, we parked outside the city wall and walked through the city wall (literally) to the inner, medieval city. 

Inside the city wall, we found old cannons and winding passages/walkways. There was not many people there on this day, so it was neat to walk through when noone else was there.

 

The old cannons sitting in the city wall and the outside of the city wall on one side of the village.

Then we started wandering through the city... 

I stole this picture from Mickaela...our pictures that we took like this, just aren't
anywhere near as good! So, thanks Mickaela! Love you! :)

The gorgeous view from one of the sides of the castle wall....its winter, so its kinda bland, but during August when Steven and Mickaela were here, it was gorgeous.

We found a cute, melting snowman. 

It has one arm, and the other is laying next to it (the right arm).

The coolest find of the day was the Medieval museum! It was full of actual torture devices used back in that day...So thankful that we live in a free country (well, are residents of a free country) and didn't live during that time! 

This sign says Medieval Musuem, in German, of course!

These are all masks of shame... Men (specifically stated) would wear these, when found to be "gossip queens." Women had their own trials - witch trials. Not a pretty sight some of the torture devices for those women.

   Along with the masks were the different court seals. They had a seal for every State in the area. There was also a Bakers Chair. The Bakers Chair was a chair that the Bakers sat in when they were being punished for not baking goods to the specific amount, like if they were off by an ounce they would get put in this chair and dunked into a pond. They were dunked once for every ounce they were above or below in their goods. Also, when the women were put on trial for being a "witch", they were put in a chair that was covered in spikes. When I say covered, i mean everywhere, from the seat, arms, back, feet, to the legs.

These next two pictures are kinda hard to see, but they are pictures of a scene set up of a school house with punishments happening. 

The one punishment in this picture that Joe and I remember: teacher spanking the
child with a rod on the left (teacher is in the red).

A couple of things going on in this picture: child kneeling on a triangular piece of wood in the front on the left; behind the dark hole on the back right side is a child in "jail;" and the teacher in this one is smacking the fingers of the pupil. 

We enjoyed a lunch having Gyros and fries that actually tasted like potatoes - so good! We did manage to get one picture of us in front of the city hall. :)

However, I know that you didn't all come to the blog to read about Joe and I, lets be honest here, (haha!) so, here is a picture of little Scarlett to get you all by... 

Okay, we stole this from Teah on facebook, but its one of our favorite pictures of her!
This is the cheese-y face we get all the time from her. She is such a happy little girl!

Scarlett fell asleep in the car on the way home from errands. We love us a sleeping Scarlett!

Well, we are all home today on Presidents Day, celebrating with runny noses and colds....and this momma has no voice to go with it - so hot tea and cough drops for me, it is! 

Stay healthy everyone! :)

Hugs to all across the pond. xoxo

 

Happy Valentines Day!

Well, this is what I (Alyson) walked into tonight, when I got home from work... Flowers, a card, spaghetti, shrimp, and Wine. Amazing.

Such a handsome man - I'm so lucky! ...who got all dressed up for me, for no particular reason, other than the fact that he made dinner to celebrate Valentines Day. 

Such pretty flowers! He went to a floral shop here in our village and picked them all out one by one...and made the bunch himself. 

And then there is our princess on her first Valentines day... We gave her some of the dry spaghetti noodles (cooked, of course) without any sauce....and she had a hay day with it!

And of course a video for you! :)

We took this video on Joe's iPhone (it was the closest phone), so the sound stinks (aka is non-existant), but she is still pretty darn cute and you can see her big smiles and waving. Both of which she loves to do now. Our favorites!  https://vimeo.com/36781880

It make take a minute to load, but give it a chance - its worth the time. :)

Hugs to all across the pond. xoxo

Life Since Vacation in the States

Well, we've been back from the states for 6 weeks or so - and we have yet to put another blog up....Sorry! So, there won't be much talking in this one....just a lot of pictures and links to videos. Enjoy!

Shortly after we got back, we had to move her crib down.....because as you can see - she figured out how to get standing in her crib quite fast.

So, we moved it down to the middle rung.....

And that still didn't work....So, down to the bottom rung it went! Mommy can barely reach it, but she helps out by standing up. :)

Because we know how to climb up on things, laundry baskets full of laundry are our favorite thing right now! She thinks she is just the Queen Bee when she can do this. Makes for a great laughing time for all of us, when she does it! :)

She also helps unload the clean laundry for us! Such a great helper.....and starting her chores early on. I'm sure this willing and eager attitude will change within a few years...

Scarlett, for the first time since she was a wee-little, she fell asleep on mommy's chest....It was a precious moment. Photographic, apparently... :)

Her hair is growing out! She woke up from a nap with a mohawk, so it was the perfect chance for everyone to see how much its grown! Her hair really just grows on top, down the middle. The rest is slowly getting there,  but the top has always been longer, ever since birth. So, this is just a fun picture..

We also got our first boo-boo! She decided to stand in her carrier and it flipped over on her. She hit the tile floor face-first and after a call to the peds clinic to ask how bad of a bump it needed to be before we took her into the ER, we learned that her bump that was swollen and the size of a half-dollar was big enough that she needed to be taken in. So, off to the ER we went... All was fine, but she looked like she got into a fight for the next few days.

It was hard to get a picture of, but its on her left cheek (as your'e looking at her). It looks like a shadow in this picture, but its there! I promise.

Her fingers are covering it here, but this was in the ER. It was nap time and all she wanted was daddy. So sweet. :)

And here is the aftermath, two days later -- its gone down quite a bit! Looks much better. And by day 3, it was gone completely. It went away so fast!

Here's a couple of links to some fun videos...

Scarlett pulling herself up in her crib: https://vimeo.com/35138291

Scarlett learned how to walk in her walker... https://vimeo.com/36304413

Daddy and Scarlett having a conversation: https://vimeo.com/36304559

Joe took this video with the computer. He recorded him jumping out from behind the couch...Super cute! https://vimeo.com/36304891

And our newest trick is waving! We are working on it. Its a work in progress... https://vimeo.com/36305033

Well, we are headed to bed over here....But, here is one last picture to say "We Love You All!"

Hugs to all across the pond. xoxo

6 Months...

Oh my how time has flown...!
Scarlett celebrated her 6 month birthday yesterday (Saturday). I woke her up and told her that we should throw her an "Over the Hill" themed birthday party. ha ha! Just joking, but we thought it was really funny. :)

Last you saw/read was that we went to the pumpkin patch and carved our pumpkins... Well, since then, we celebrated the actual holiday - Halloween! Joe's squadron hosted a luncheon on the 29th of October over the lunch hour, which was great fun! We were able to get together with all the families from his squadron, get dressed up and have some great food.

The night before the Trunk or Treat, I realized that we didn't have a costume for Scarlett, so Stephanie and I messed with the stuff that we had on hand to come up with a costume. ....and this is the way it went:

Macie Walker (Alyson's good friend from High School) sent Scarlett an adorable tutu and bow that was Halloween themed. We got this in the mail on Thursday and I knew right away it would have to be used for something, and well, this was it! The costume!

So, these were black, green and orange.... and Kaylie Baetsle (Alyson's other good friend from high school) sent the Halloween outfit that Scarlett wore the pumpkin patch, which happened to be orange and black -- super convenient. Well, Stephanie and I started manipulating the outfit and came up with making her into a BAT!

First we wanted to make the wings, but that was harder than we thought...

We though wire hangers and a black tank top would work best at first....

Shaped the wire hanger and taped it with electrical tape....

Then we realized the tank top was going to be to awkward to cut and shape around two wings, so we scratched that.

Instead, we thought we'd alternate the tape and fabric -- you know, coordinating colors! But, then that looked so bad, that we thought we'd just cover it in electrical tape...

Which just turned out to be even worse! lol We called it our little inkblot. It was just terrible - and looked nothing like bat wings.

So, what was the next best idea we had? ....the pizza box that was in recycling and electrical tape! Which, worked fantastic!

And then I took a white onezie, green fabric and velcro; sewed them on to it, which she could then wear as part of the bat costume...

And this was the final result of her costume... Ready?

Ta Da! Pretty darn cute, eh? :)

The other big happening on this side of the pond is that Steven and Teah (our friends that we met while Joe was in Tech School in California) had their baby girl on Tuesday, November 1. A healthy baby girl, 8 lbs 10 oz and 20.75" long named Annibelle Elaine. She is a beautiful little thing. 

And I had the pleasure of going up and meeting her, while running errands for her momma and poppa... She is so so sweet. Doesn't give me baby fever, but it does bring back sweet memories of when Scarlett was born. 

Shortly after Annibelle was born, Scarlett was able to meet her for the first time. Babies/Children under the age of 12 are not allowed on the recovery floor of the hospital, so Scarlett never went up to the hospital to see her. However, before we went to the holiday bazaar on base, we let them meet for the first time... 

She "pet" Annibelle just like a dog, and was so excited about it... it was sweet! :)

And well, the last bit of updates I have to add is from today! Today was a lazy Sunday around the Mahaffey house. We didn't do much, but Scarlett had a few new experiences. We gave her pears for the first time, she typed a love note on the computer and.....well, we'll save the best one for last! :)

We added a new food to her growing list of tried foods. We gave her pears for breakfast! We have been having problems with her digestive system (aka pooping) and I know that pears are great for constipation. So, I bought some pears...

And let Scarlett play with one pear...

While Lindsey cut up the rest of them....

And then we "steamed" them....

And then blended them up and placed them in the fridge over night.

Then fed them to Scarlett for breakfast...

She couldn't get enough of them! She seemed to really enjoy them! Pears were her first fruit, so the first "sweet" thing she has ever had. We took video of her trying them, of course, and it was rather entertaining. 

Here's the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/31687167 

Another funny thing that happened today: Scarlett woke up from her nap and was talking to her self in her crib, so Joe and I went in and looked at her, and she was on her tummy, playing with the one stuffed animal that is in her crib, a bunny. Well, little did I know, this bunny had a tag on it -- a paper tag. Well, Scarlett had been sucking on this tag for so long, that she had sucked it apart. Luckily she didn't choke on it or anything, but it was funny as she had it all over her face and hand - just like a dog.

the poor bunny!

And well, Scarlett wanted so badly to tell everyone how much she loved them, so we let her type you a love note, so she could tell you herself! Here it is:

Kopwdtptwyepkuy         n meo  kf j d mcc n n sc csjcjad uk d jd f fs   n98h7ynvh  nmm

G

    h mkmommv2  h xzxd  jk8

Love, Scarlett. :)

.....okay, thats not the real story. The real story is she was sitting with Joe as he was research some stuff, and well, Scarlett just loves our keyboard (as it lights up), so she was getting pretty angry that Joe wouldn't let her type, so he pulled up a word document and let her go at it. It was pretty cute! See the pictures below:

She will grow up to be such a good typist. :)

Well, in the world of teething, we offically have TWO teeth! We broke another one through a week ago or so. Its on the bottom, right  next to her other one. Makes for a super cute, toothy smile! 

Can you see it? Can you see it? right below the runny nose. :( 

...but, its there, I promise. :)

And are you ready for the big announcement?!

Ready?

Scarlett is scooting! Not crawling yet, but scooting! 

I am willing to bet that by the time we get home, she'll be crawling! And by scooting, I really mean pivoting in circles. Its rather entertaining. :) She wouldn't let me take a video of it. Every time I tried, she fussed. So, I cheated and took sequential pictures. Enjoy!

In these next pictures, she threw her rattler teether....so, she was working hard to get it back....

She got pretty frustrated....

Reeeachhh!

And frustrated again.... 

But, learned, in the end, that hard work pays off! :)

And the one other fun video that I got today of Scarlett was of her telling stories! She was having so much fun talking that I recorded her. Hope this gives you an insight into her daily stories. ...I cut it off earlier than I meant to, but then she stopped when I tried recording again, so this will have to do for now. 

Link to video: http://vimeo.com/31687065

But, time flying also only means one thing: We'll be home soon! In 13 days to be exact! So exciting! We are working out the final details this week as to how we're getting to the airport and such, but soon enough we'll be on that plane to Chicago! ....13 days.