More Jensen

We went sledding last week (down the landlord's unshoveled driveway). I tried to get Jensen to play in the snow, he wasn't going for it.

He didn't mind the first run down the hill when it went really slow,

But after the trail had been blazed the subsequent run was not happy. I didn't get a picture of the sad time, so maybe someday we won't even remember it...

Alex really doesn't ever remember shaving in front of Jence, but this is what happens every time he finds his razor...and why he is able to find it I'm still trying to work out...

Here we have Jensen brushing his motorcycle- I keep telling Al they require a lot of maintenance...
This is how Al puts on Jensen's shoes.

Last tuesday we drove Daddy to post to go to WLC (warrior leader's course...sounds cooler than it is...)  Jensen gave him a kiss, 

And said bye-bye. (for a month...Al wasn't thrilled about that, especially because he is in some barracks in the woods behind our PX and he can't come home the whole time... dumb.)

I also put up a little video on YouTube today. Ours are all under Alexgarner63.

Vignettes

On Valentine's Day Jensen and Alex woke me up with a surprise.  They brought in a wrapped present!  Now all who know this family's dealing should be well impressed with both those things! And hold onto your hat when I tell you that I had had no idea that Alex had even got me anything, and he had ordered it online, and it got there early!  AND it was the coolest little Coach make-up bag I have ever seen!  Since I use a ratty old bag everyday and leave it in the car he figured I needed a nice one-- especially if I was going to leave my stuff on display for everyone who gets in our car.  Happy Valentine's indeed!

Roswitha watched Jensen so we could go see a movie for the first time since Alex came home.  We saw Taken because that's the only thing that was playing and I had just read that it was good on Sarah Jo's blog.  Very good.  Not very romantic... but very good.  It was such a nice day.  Thank you Al, I love you too.

Here we have our first Family Home Evening fight!  Jence didn't want to stop playing to join us.

I figure it's the first of many times...

Daddy is good at persuasive arts, though.

See- all better.

We got Jence his a little bike.  It was a impulse buy at the grocery store, worth all 11 euros.

He can actually reach the ground on it so he can scoot it around. He loves it.

Washing around the cast... that still gets wet.

The Gibbs's left us a few weeks ago.  It was a sad day- but we'll see them again soon.  This is when they came over to say hasta luego!

The boys. Britt and I were having a no-pictures-please kind of day...

Why always upside-down...?

Inevitable contention...

And Jensen always gets his way...because he will pitch a fit and Tristan won't.

See- all's well that ends well!

Coloring

Jence wanted to color today- an activity usually reserved for church, (so as to avoid pretty colors on the surfaces of my home- am I stifling his creativity?) But I am sick and didn't want to fight, so I thought I'd just take pictures instead.

The look everyone gives me when they realize that I am still taking pictures.

Finishing off with a good one handed swig of juice. We've had to put away all cups with no handles  for the time being- though it was funny to watch him maneuver them.

"I...broke...my...ARM!"

Jensen has been having a rough few days, just howling every time he fell over, etc- it started around Friday.  Sunday night I figured out that his wrist was hurting him and took him to the hospital.  They said he was okay and sent us away, then called Alex at work TWO DAYS later and told him that upon further investigation Jensen's arm was in fact fractured.  So, tonight we went to the Amberg hospital and Jensen got his first cast.

He was so so so good the whole time, he only got a little nervous and weepy right at this point, but was over it quickly when he realized the two people working with him were so nice.

I love this one- everyone is so intent on that little arm.

And when it was all said and done he gave Daddy some good high fives.

Bye-bye hospital- see you in a few weeks.

Bye-Bye Brian

Brian is officially a civilian now- we said farewell to Al's best friend of three years and stuck him on a train headed to a plane headed to PA.

Their last evening.
But don't cry for Al, Argentina.  They already have a reunion scheduled for Labor Day in NC.

Par-ee

Brittany and I decided to take a little last hurrah to Paris before she leaves Europe in a couple weeks.  We left the boys with the boys... daring, I know, and we flew to the city of lights for 4 days!

After a little beating around the bush Brittany and I both realized that one of the main things we wanted to do in Paris is go to Disneyland...  So we did.

We had a really nice time because it was a weekday and there was no one there- well, that and it's mid January, not exactly peak season...

Britt is a big fan of all things pirate, so here we are with Capt Hook's ship.

Dumbo...
Sleeping Beauty was out and about with her court- but we didn't feel like waiting for her and Prince Phillip, so we grabbed these guys instead.

Britt and C3PO.

This was Brittany's super sad day... Pirates of the Caribbean was closed.

I think this is me inside Snow White's ride...

This is one of those pictures where you think, "Really?!  There was a gigantic pink castle behind us, and you took a picture of the pine tree??" 

Brittany was determined to laser all the bad guys she could find in Buzz Lightyear's space quest ride.  We almost bought these little guns for the boys, but opted out when we heard the noise they made...

Belle and me.

We bought matching hats...

The end of our day, in our hats.

It was drizzling when we got downtown, but we didn't mind- Our first sight, the Arc de Triumph. Lovely, lovely...

 Note, our travel light method.  We didn't even bring purses- it was so nice! (Especially after 19 months of diaper bags!)

We walked down to the Louvre and took a look around, we didn't have time to go inside, but I had already been and Britt didn't mind.

This was funny, the person taking our picture was like- oh, would you like another one?  And they moved around in a circle and we just kept facing the camera...

Aaaand here is the other side of that last picture...

Britt asked if I wanted a picture with the pyramid, so sure why not- here's me, peace.

"Walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain..."  Has anyone not seen how adorable Colin Firth is singing that on Mama Mia?  Besides you, Jes.

Notre Dame
And of course, the Eiffel Tower.  Really, this was all Brittany needed to see.  It was very nice, eating our churros, sitting on a ledge, waiting for the lights.

And you can see this was post shopping... I found a purse I liked, one of my goals, so life is good. (And Jes, I did buy the paris bag that I whined about not getting last time, we both got one.)

And here, the crowning glory of our trip.  We left the Eiffel Tower and went to see Twilight.  We had waited so long!  But we got to see it in Paris. (You can see the billboard up top, mostly obscured by the lights.)

And that's that.  We had a wonderfully relaxing trip and we are so so so grateful for our wonderfully sweet husbands for watching our monkeys all by themselves...We didn't even bring up what we did for 15 months... well, maybe just once or twice.