The Kells Family

My favorite time of year!

This is by far the best time of year no matter what! The weather over here is very different then Colorado. By now we would have gotten snow every week but over here instead of snow storms we get tons of rain. I feel like I take two showers a day when I go outside. To tell you the truth this really makes me miss the snow! My wish was answered!

Collin finally got his two bottom teeth in. Man that was hell getting those little suckers in. Well we all know that Collin looks like my brother, well come to find out my brother would get two teeth at a time so I guess it's not just looks Collin gets from his uncle. Thanks Patrick hope you guys get the same pleasure when you have a little one. One thing is at least we get a break for a little while and this will help with his other teeth coming in.

Collin started making some attempt to crawl for about a month already. It wasn't a full crawl but he would scoot around in his play area. So we have been working with him and his stance position. He did a lot of head stances and he would fall forward numerous times. We finally got somewhat of a crawl on December 28Th he looked like a worm. After about two days he finally got the hang of it. We are now dealing with him getting into everything.

Christmas Market in the Netherlands. We wanted to go to some markets in Germany but couldn't find the time to actually go with Iain studying and Collin being fussy. Iain gave me an early Christmas present and on the 20Th we went to Valkenburg in the Netherlands for a Christmas market in a cave. It was horribly cold up there. We had to stand in line in order to get into the market and Collin was not being cooperative in his stroller. Once we got in the temperature was about 50 degrees in the cave. We finally got warm after about ten minutes. We went with one of Iain's co-workers Kathryn and her mother. She is the one who found out about this Christmas market. It was packed and Europeans don't really care about personal space so you could only imagine what it was like for us in there with a stroller and baby! The cave is a historical landmark for they used it in WWII. It still had a lot of the original markings soldiers had carved into the walls. They would paint pictures and sign their names and where they where from. I saw one was from Alabama so we know that the US used them as well. I only bought one thing for Christmas and some mittens for Collin since it was so crowded in there that it was almost impossible to really shop. I like the attraction and historical part of the market. They do a theme every year and this year it was "A Christmas Carol". Some of their decorations were kinda creepy but it was still very cool to be apart of. At the end of it Kathy got us some Gluhwien and said in Germany this is a tradition to walk through the market with your Gluhwien. Let me tell you I fell in love with Gluhwien it is a molted red wine. It's like apple cider but with wine instead. I was so obsessed with it when we got home I made a batch for ourselves. What a great thing to have for the holidays.

We started opening presents on Christmas Eve but only one per person, which was pajamas from my mom and dad. Iain and I were so ready to sleep in since last year Iain woke up the entire house at 4:30am to get Christmas start. Well to our luck Collin was wide awake at 4:30am this year so we couldn't sleep in like we wanted but we still had fun. We got a lot of great things and Collin really liked eating the paper and boxes that all his stuff came in. Collin got his first rocking horse and really fell in love with it as soon as he was on it. Santa was good to us this year I even got my Coach purse I've been wanting for awhile now. Thank you Santa. We also got something from Santa that didn't come from a store or in a box. Last month I told you that Iain was going to the board, well he passed and was promotable but we just had to wait to see if the points dropped enough for him to actually be promoted. Well on the 24Th we looked at the points and sure enough it dropped. Iain is now a Sargent in the Army. What a great present to my hubby and to our family on Christmas! I couldn't be any prouder of Iain. For our Christmas dinner I wanted to do something different so I prepared a Cornish game hen dish. It turned out great and Iain once again was impressed.

Now that Iain was promoted his unit really wants to send him to some classes so that he could possibly be promoted this time next year to a Staff Sargent. This is ending up to be a great move for Iain's career and for our family. Although we really miss home and can't wait to get back this is where God wanted us and he is blessing us with so many great things.

Thanks to all who have really stood by us and help our growing family this past year. We really couldn't have made it this far without all the support. Thank you and miss you tons.

The Kells

Sweet November

Labels: Turkey Time | at 5:58 AM

As the season starts for the holidays things around the Kells home have been crazy. Iain studying, Collin teething, and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep at all this month.

With this new job for Iain came a great deal of new opportunities. The Army was sending him to the board. If you don't know what that is, it's like a group of people that one has to go in front of to prove thems

elves worthy of a promotion. So in other words Iain has to study so that he can impress the board so he can be on promotion status. He won't actually get promoted until the points match up with his points. I know this is all confusing and I don't even know if I got it all right. So I have been helping Iain every night with studying before we go to bed.

Collin has decided to start teething! Everything is in his mouth and drawl is everywhere. Sleeping has been crazy for him and me, in other words lack of sleep. Lots of thing

s come with teething that I had no idea about. I never knew how bad a messy diaper can get until

they start teething. I don't know how many times I had to change not only Collin's diaper but his clothes as well. One good thing though is you do get some sleep when he finally gets too tired.

We decided to set up for Christmas early. I'm not talking about right before Thanksgiving, more like a couple of weeks

before! I love Christmas and so does Iain so it was very hard to wait especially since we started getting presents. That meant I have to hide the presents away from Iain so he cannot get ahold of them! He is so sneaky, he's as bad as a child. Got to love him though. So after all the decorating we needed to do some shopping to fill out our collection of Christmas decor. There was a Bazaar on SHAPE with a lot of local vender's one of which was polish pottery. We bought somethings and got some ideas about what we want in the future.

To add to the ciaos of my house I started watching a little girl named Jordan. She is about 4mos younger then Collin. Iain works with her dad and I have become friends with her mo

m(Kathi). Such a big difference between Collin and Jordan. Jordan is so easy, she hardly ever cries and she is so easy to put down to sleep. Amazing how opposite the two of them are. One good thing is that Collin really likes having a friend over even though he does get a little jealous when I have to take care of her. So now I not only take care of Collin but I also take care of our new puppy and Jordan. My house will never slow down.

Thanksgiving dinner. I cooked all day the day before and prepped the turkey for the big bake! I had emailed my

mom and mother-in-law for some recipes so that we can have some familiar meals to make us feel more at home. Let me tell you everything turned out great. I never cooked a turkey before and wow it was perfect. Iain couldn't believe everything and how well it all turned out. Luckily with all this food I made we have one of Iain's co-workers Mario come and eat with us since he was single and wasn't going home. We still had tons of leftovers th

at lasted us quit awhile. That Saturday we were invited to go over to our friends house the Vokes for a big Thanksgiving meal with everyone in Iain's shop. What a great time to spend with new friends and eat a ton of food.

Six Months of Bliss

Labels: Time flies | at 2:05 AM

The past six months have been flying by it seems. Collin has grown to be the most perfect little boy I could have ever have imagined. He turned 6mos old on Thursday October 29th and of course we had his check up on that Friday. Everything is going great and he is maturing a head of schedule.

Collin started to sit up about the first week of October with little assistance holdin

g him up and now he is a pro. He has also found his passion for the kitty cat. Every time he is on his tummy and teaching him how to crawl he is only cooperative when Meshia (the cat) is in front of him. He gets this crazy look and starts to get very excited so he flips out until he can touch the cat. Don't worry she is great with him, she doesn't hiss or move away when he comes at her and he is great with her as well. I think instead of a toy to teach Collin to crawl it will be the cat. I wonder what he is going to do when we get the puppy?

About the end of September we went to a breeder out here in Belgium to look at dogs. The dogs that this breeder breeds is German Shepherds. There were about three dogs that wer

e pregnant so we would have plenty to choose from. Well we feel in love with them and so we bought one. We could not bring the puppy home because it was only two weeks old so we had to wait till they were six weeks. We get first pick of the litter so that's going to be very exciting. Iain decided on the name Bear but her full name is Gummie Bear since that is Iain's favorite kind of candy and it will be fun for Collin to grow up with. The breeder is very well known around here since he is the one that gives the police and trains their dogs.

On November 14th we finally got to pick up our little Gummie Bear. She is a crazy but cute puppy. She is a medium hair German Shepherd with black and tan markings. We weren't able to pick her up until she was 7 weeks old because the puppies weren't eating on their own yet which meant we couldn't pick out our puppy. She was the biggest girl out of the bunch and

she was the only one that made eye contact with Collin and I. This was a big deal since she will be at home with Collin and I, so that way she felt comfortable being around little kids. So far she has just bend taring up the kitchen and our shoes. The kitchen is where she is limited to because we don't want her to eat up Collin's toys. She is doing great so far with the potty training outside, we have only had a couple messes inside. Collin love's his new found friend and has already bonded to her. When one cries the other one will chime in, which is a headache for mommy but that's what I signed up for.

Back to Collin now. This growth spurt has been a big one for our little guy. We have found him sleeping everywhere. He has slept through pretty much the entire night except

for his one time feeding. This is heavenly since we have gone from every two hours to about three times waking throughout the night. Iain and I have been able to catch up on our sleep. With this growth spurt Collin has not only grown physically but mentally as well. He now has a better concept of eating big boy food, he is more vocal and forming new words like da and ma, he examines his toys trying to figure out how they work, rolls everywhere, and he is in the fast track to crawling. Collin loves to stand and for his sake we hope he crawls first and not decide to walk like mommy.

We went to Ramstien Germany the other weekend to visit the Air Force base out there. We heard they have a huge PX and a Chili's out there! To give you and idea pe

ople call it little America and let me tell you they were right. It was like a mall with a food court and everything. The movie theatre up stairs and everything that you can think of was in the PX like Walmart. Trust me when you go without a walmart for a while you get real lost. They also had some vender's that are locals, this was nice to see a difference from Belgian shops and German shops. We had so much fun we plan to go back sometime soon. The big thing for me was having Chili's since we haven't had that since before I left the states. Brought back some good times! On the ride there was the longest car ride that Collin had ever been on which I must say he did very well and slept for the most part of it.

For Halloween we all went to a party one of Iain's co-workers invited us to. It was fun not much we could do w

ith Collin being so young. Iain went as his favorite rodeo cowboy, I went as little red riding hood, and Collin was an Anne Geddie blue bear. He was so hug able and s

oft, thanks to Linda who got the costume it fit him great! We called it an early night since Collin was still going through his growth spurt but we didn't mind.

Anniversary/Antwerp

Labels: One Year | at 12:27 AM

Happy 1 year Anniversary to us! Wow fascinating how fast a year goes by and the things that change in a year. Not only did I give birth to a wonderful and joyful baby boy but I grew closer to my husband every day even though he was across the ocean for a quarter of it.

Iain had brought me a dozen red roses and I cooked steak and scallops (Iain's favorite) for dinner on Wednesday 9-9-09! How lucky we are to have our 1 year on a special day and date! We didn't do much since it was in the middle of the week but we definitely went all out on the weekend.

We went to Antwerp the diamond capitol of the world! All the diamond trading goes trough Antwerp first and then gets sold to the other jewelers around the world. Funny because I love diamonds not just because I'm a girl but also because they are my birth stone.

We drove one hour and half to get there and dealt with crazy traffic. Surprisingly the road system was even more confusing then where we live. You have to understand first before I go on on how Belgium is split up. It is divided into three parts you have your north east side, north west side and the south side. The NW is dutch speaking and don't like the french speaking side which is the S. side, where we live. The NE is the German speaking and they are friendly but still don't really care much about the S side as well. So with that explained everything in Antwerp is in dutch and everyone speaks dutch, so everything that I have gotten used to about Mons is out the window when we go north from now on! So not only will I have to learn french I will probably have to learn dutch and German just to be on the safe side.

We got to our hotel after getting lost in translation. Iain picked out a

great hotel room in the Radisson BLU which was located across the street from the Central Station. Everything was very accommodating there.

I first wanted to go to the Diamond Museum and come to find out it was just across the street next to the station. We got to learn how diamonds are made, created, and traded. There was showcases of diamond necklaces and pendants, as well as crowns and tiaras dating back to the early 1800's. Unfortunately we weren't aloud to take our camera's in so I couldn't get pictures. I did however get a book on Belgium's Best and in it shows some of the diamonds we saw and other things that Belgium is known for. They did have a pen and pencil that said bling bling on it which I was debating on getting but didn't.

After the Museum we called it a night a headed back to the hotel because we were both tired. We rested for a little while and then dressed up to have dinner in the hotel restaurant. Wow let me just tell you it was great. I had a tree course meal with Belgium chocolates at the end and it was amazing, Iain's was good as well. It was all very fancy high class dishes.

The next day we went to the Zoo because we heard there was a new baby elephant there. The elephant was born on Mai 17 (May 17) just a couple weeks after Collin was born. Their zoo was so much different then the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was green a lush with gardens all over the place.

They also had very different animals there. You could actually go and pet the penguins if you want to that's how close you can get! They also had at least two of every animal not one like ours back home. The Baboon cage was out side and had like 20 of them and it was feeding time so that was very interesting needless to say. The monkey house was very clean and had no stench to it at all like ours back home.

Tons of things were different and I enjoyed every minute of it. It did rain but luckily we pick up some umbrellas the day before for just in case reasons so we were lucky.

Again Iain did a great job on the weekend plans and we are deffinately going back because there were so much more to see and yet two days was not enough. I have the best husband and child anyone could ever hope for. I love them very much.

Visit to Bruges!

Labels: First travel | at 1:03 AM

We went to Bruges on August 15th for the day. It's about an hour in a half drive to get there but we went on a Belgium holiday so it took us about two hours. Never go to tourist places on a holiday! We learned that one real quik.

The photos to the left are of the famous clock tower in the Market Center called Belfry. This is one of its main attractions. Also it's in that one movie about Bruges. We didn't go inside but we walked through to the courtyard and saw the back.

This is the other part of the Market Center. The building in the middle is the town hall. This place was too crowded. Even when it's a holiday and people crowd around in this center cars are still let in to drive, not like the states where they normally close the streets for something like this!

We went walking through the streets looking at all the shops. We stoped in to

buy some stuff but not a lot since we had to walk about two miles back to our car. So Belgium is known as the capital of Chocolate right! Well when we were walking looking at shops I saw this window for just a regular jewlerey store and thought this was just figureens, oh no it wasn't. The entire set up is made up of chocolate. This really made me want some. What people can do with their food!

We parked pretty close to the Sint Salvator Cathedral. Wow talk about medevil churches. This thing was amazing. Nothing like the cathedrals back in the states. As I was admiring the structure Iain was wonderin

g how many trees made one frame to hold up the paintings! He makes me laug

h. The set up in the cathedral was different there was only a few pews in the center the rest was all open. Of course we had to be quiet and luckly when we were in there Collin was fast asleep. We got so many stares because I was wear the baby bijourn in which he was facing out so I had to hold his head up. I guess I would stare too if I saw that.

Belguim is also known for their canals like everywhere else in Europe. This was very cool to see though, all the old houses and buildings right up to the canals with gondolas floating by. One of these days we will take a ride on one. It was way to hot to stand in line for a ride, so maybe next time. We had fun enjoying the sites and walking around. We deffinately want to come back.

The Kells Family

My favorite time of year!

Sweet November

Six Months of Bliss

Anniversary/Antwerp

Visit to Bruges!

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