Q8 Update

We've made it to Kuwait and through our first week or so, we just got the internet hooked up, so I'm writing an update for anyone interested. It's a little too much to put on facebook, so this is my forum of choice for longer updates.

Anyway, the flight was A LOT smoother than expected. We left at 10pm, so the girls didn't have much trouble going to sleep almost right away. All three probably slept 9 or 10 of the 12-hour flight, as did Eric, so it really was an easy flight. I didn't sleep as well, but had plenty to occupy my mind!!

Two of E's coworkers met us at the airport and helped us through customs, we had 9 suitcases, 3 carseats, 5 carry-ons and the 5 of us, we're a traveling circus! This being our first overseas assignment, we're learning a lot about what to pack in which shipment.

We arrived at our house on the embassy compound around 6pm and explored our new abode, this took awhile! It's 5 bedrooms + a den, 4 1/2 baths and three floors of marble! I think we have 6-7 patios as well! The embassy had already made up beds, bath towels, the kitchen and a crib for us! It was really nice just to be able to take it all in rather than getting right to work. Our sponsors stopped by shortly after we arrived to welcome us with a huge pan of lasagna too! They have a 5 year old girl that C & M were thrilled to meet, they're obviously a little tired of each other as playmates and have been anxious to meet some other kids.

The jetlag has honestly kicked my butt! E & J were the first to get used to the new time, but the girls and I took almost a full week. Lots of nights waking up around midnight and not being able to doze off again until 3 or 4! It made for some cranky days, but we're getting better now.

The girls have done very well, but we're all anxious for school to start and some routine. We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but all in good time. They love having a playroom which we've set up right off of the kitchen. I love having a door on the playroom!

I'll post pictures of the house once we get it in order, there's a lot of boxes and piles everywhere right now, so pictures wouldn't do it justice. We have one more shipment of belongings from Virginia that is currently stuck on the docks here, has been for a few weeks. So our Wii, electric piano and various other things are melting in the dry heat! We're hoping to get it before Ramadan starts on Friday, or it could be another month before we see it.

OK, enough for now, I hope to update this frequently and keep the posts a little shorter, but with a 7 hour time difference, I can't call any of you to chat until late in the day, so this is my outlet!

Julianne Update

"Bless you!"

So, I thought I would share why I lost the "Mother of the Year" award this week! I took Julianne to the doctor on Monday for her 2 month checkup and shots. She's gained 3 1/2 pounds and grown 2.25 inches since birth if you were wondering. Over the weekend, we travelled to Indiana for my cousin's wedding and received many compliments on what a perfect baby she was because she was constantly, almost unnaturally sleeping, ALL of the time! So at the appointment on Monday, I asked how much sleep is too much? The doctore wasn't worried so much with the amount of sleep (I estimated 18-20 hours a day!) but asked how her development was. I answered what I could of her questions, but quickly realized we haven't been giving Julianne the attention and TLC she needs!

So at dinner on Monday, I explained to Eric and the girls that we needed to interact with her more, talk to her and engage her. Everyone has taken to the task wonderfully and it's amazing how much she has really come out of her shell! I thought she was a serious baby, as well as sleepy. But she's actually quite fun! We were just letting her sleep too much because it was the easy thing to do while chasing the older cuckoos as well as getting ready for our trip home, the movers that are coming on Monday and the impending move to Kuwait! So while I got a lot of snuggle time with my angel, I wasn't doing her much good in developing her mind and personality!!

Reality is setting in...

For some reason, it took Julianne turning 6 weeks for the reality of us moving to Kuwait in 10 weeks to set in.  We've also figured out that shipping our stuff a little earlier than planned might be a good idea. While we'll have to go without the minivan, the girls' toys, some kitchen gadgets and other little things for a few extra weeks here, it could mean they get delivered a few weeks earlier in Kuwait. My fear right now is arriving in 120 degree weather with a month until school starts, no car, no toys, no way to easily entertain the three cuckoos. So this has put me at ease...a little! It means getting our act together a lot faster than we had planned. 

So we're making our lists, checking them twice and getting through as much red tape and logistics each day as possible. At the end of each day, I get to snuggle with my newest monkey and relax! 

Party of Five

So it's been a little while, but my excuse is adorable. We added Julianne Kathryn to our family last month and have been enjoying her company ever since! 

Now that she's here, we're realizing we can't put life on hold just to nibble on her cheeks! A quick glance at the calendar knocked the wind out of me this past weekend with the realization that we'll be leaving NoVa in less than two months and heading overseas shortly after! With that, I need to get back into the swing of things and get this blog going so that when we do move, it's part of my routine to regularly update this for those that want to follow us to the far side of the world!

A little housekeeping...

So many things to blog about, where do we start?!
The holidays were great, went to PA for a few days then to IN, so we got to see everyone. The girls and I caught colds, but have recovered. In PA, we saw cows at the dairy farm, made pretzels at the pretzel factory and ate lots of chocolate from Wilbur Chocolate Factory! In IN, we went to a puppet show, saw Sesame Street Live and celebrated Mimi's & Tia's birthdays!
Dad drove back with me and the girls and we took him to the Air & Space museum out near Dulles, saw tons of planes and the Enterprise shuttle.
Since then, Eric & Caroline have gone back to school and already had a long weekend to celebrate MLK & the inauguration. We decided to witness the historic activities from the comfort of our family room due to weather, small children and a pregnant belly. But the girls had a great time watching and chanting OBAMA! throughout the day and Eric took the opportunity to give them lots of little historic and presidential facts to learn. We're hoping to be back in DC for another inauguration in the future so we can take it all in in person!

I've recently had a panic attack with the realization that we have 12 weeks until another little girl blesses our family. 12 WEEKS!!! Holy cow! It's getting to be crunch time. While I can't wait to meet her, the second part of this pregnancy has definitely flown by!

OK, here's a few pix, because blogs are no fun without pix. I've posted a bunch on our picasa site as well.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone! It's been awhile since we've checked in, I'm going to stop apologizing for that cuz it happens. Anyway, we've been keeping busy. Eric survived his long bike trip, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with Pop Pop, Grandmom, Aunt B, Uncle Mo, Uncle Al, Tata and Bahareh at Aunt B's house. Eric ran in the Del Ray Turkey Trot in the morning and was ready to stuff himself full when it was time for dinner.

That's Eric waving as he pushes a sleeping Molly in the Turkey Trot.

Caroline & Pop Pop cheering on the racers!

We've been taking advantage of the local festivities for the holidays this month. We visited the White House and saw the big tree with lots of trains around it as well as a tree from every state. We went to the Old Town Scottish Day Parade, their Christmas parade. Lots of kilts and lots of dogs! We stopped into Union Station to see the decorations and warm up after our "photo shoot" for our Christmas card. I don't think there's been a colder, windier day since we've been here! The girls were troopers and withstood the arctic conditions for promises of hot chocolate and cookies! If you look close enough at our faces, you'll see the rosy cheeks and tears in our eyes whipped up from the wind!

Molly and Santa at the Del Ray tree lighting.

The Ros' & the Sultzbaugh's at the Scottish Day Parade.

Jenn & Caroline at the White House Holiday Tree.

We also visited the Serth's in Del Ray for their annual tree lighting. The neighborhood looked beautiful, there was a light snow falling and they had the avenue lit with luminaries. We serenaded Santa with "Here Comes Santa Claus" , he arrived in a police motorcade to a couple dozen children cheering for him. He promptly swooped up Molly, counted down from 10 and lit the tree with her help. She just kind of looked at him and didn't say much. Then we all paraded down the avenue with Santa and the kids were able to get some one on one time with the big man and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Molly's request was "lots of presents!" while Caroline had a much more specific list, being a veteran of Santa's lap.



Both Eric and Caroline are ready for a break from school. We're looking forward to spending some time with out of town friends next weekend before heading to Pennsylvania to celebrate Christmas, then on to South Bend for Tia and Mimi's birthdays as well as New Year's! We've got lots of fun stuff planned for both visits, cow farm tours, sleigh rides, visiting the chocolate factory and a sledding party! I'll try to be good about getting pictures so I can share more. I treated myself to a new lens for Christmas to replace the one I cracked in October, so I'm hoping to get lots over the holidays!

I Have a Gone Tooth!!

This picture doesn't show the big hole in the bottom row of teeth, but she's quite proud to show it off anyway!

Wow! I'm bad at blogging! I'm quite a hypocrite too! I have a few blogs that I check just about daily and will get annoyed when they go a long time without posting something new, and yet I go almost a month with nothing. Oh well.
Let's see, where did we leave off...I am a victim of pregnancy brain. We've had a fun couple of weeks here, Eric and I were in Boston a few weekends ago for my cousins wedding and we got to visit with Katie a few times. We had a blast and it was perfect weather, without the girls in tow, we were able to do a lot of walking and enjoy the city.

In front of the island in the book, Make Way for Ducklings.

Playing pooh sticks in the park, can you tell we miss the monkeys?!

We had a wonderful Halloween with several families, as Caroline puts it "We had our own parade!" We really did, I think we had 9 kids and a dozen parents/grandparents. Joanna was kind enough to let us all descend on her and our old neighborhood. We even trick or treated at our old house so Eric could slyly get a look in and check out the tenants. The girls came away with way too many sweets, most of which are still in their loot bags sitting on top of the TV. I think they've forgotten them, which is good because Mommy has quite a sweet tooth with this pregnancy. With every pregnancy really. Who am I kidding...all the time!

My Fancy Nancy's! Before they had any sugar!

We went to a birthday party of a friend on Saturday and just before we started to sing, Caroline pulled out her first tooth and stole the spotlight! She was very excited. And to top it off, Mimi came in for a visit on Saturday night and Caroline was able to show her the "gone tooth"! We had a great time with my mom, we explored Great Falls, MD on Sunday before having a few friends over for Eric's chili and some pie and cake to celebrate his 35th birthday. She got to spend some QT with the girls on Monday as Caroline had off of school for conferences. We hit some old favorites in Old Town on Tuesday and she was off on Wednesday.



Eric is going to bike the C&O Canal this weekend with a couple of friends. It's a little over 180 miles in three days. The fall leaves are beautiful right now and hopefully the weather will stay warm for them. The girls and I are looking forward to a relaxing weekend here and Caroline's last soccer game for the season.