The Kells Family

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

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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 themselves 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 things 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 mom(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 that 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.

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