Happy 8th birthday Gregory!

The other day we celebrated Gregory's 8th birthday.  As always I had to look at photos from past birthdays, so many fun memories with so many friends around the world.

Gregory is an amazing boy.  He is tenderhearted, encouraging, smart, incredibly smart, a thinker, a dreamer, dancer, worshiper and evangelist (just not on tv) :-)

One of my favorite characteristics about Gregory is how he loves to encourage people.  He regularly encourages those around him, adults and kids alike.

He still loves astronauts, Mars, planets, astronomy, all things space related.  He especially likes the Apollo missions.

He is an incredible mathematician and an amazing reader.  He loves to show off his math skills (still working on humility with knowledge).  He loves reading biographies and the goofy boys books that are in the library (like Big Nate books).

His love for history continues and is stretching to have an interest in travel as well.  Recently he has been enjoying the "Where on Earth is Carmen San Diego" tv dvd series.

This boy is such a easily lovable boy and is turning into quite the thinker and dreamer.  I love you Gregory!

Happy 8th Birthday Gregory Thomas Cook.

Youth for Christ Update

We are nearly 2 1/2 months away from starting our adventure with Youth for Christ in Iowa, so I wanted to give a bit of an update to our friends and family.

Over the past couple of months we hosted a couple of dessert parties.  These were a great opportunity for us to share "our story" and how God led us to join with Youth for Christ.  We also were able to share a video of the building that will be the YFC building in Hawarden, Iowa.  Below is the link to that video!

 Youth for Christ Bldg in Hawarden Video

As for our support raising...we are doing great - with just a little ways to go!  Our monthly support goal is $1366/month and we have raised about $1166.  Our cash budget was $6000 and we have raised somewhere around $12000!  WOW!!  Praise God!  This has been an amazing stretch of our faith and an increase in our faith.  Tom will start drawing a paycheck from YFC on 1 July, and we'd really like to be able to say we met our goals, so we will keep praying towards this.

In a little less than a month we will be closing on our house!  We are waiting on our VA loan to be approved still, but we are confident it will all go through without a problem.  It has been a HUGE blessing to be able to live with my parents in ND.  So many great memories for us and the boys.  I am not even sure I want to start with listing it all because with so many words people could get bored ;-) 

Here's to the next few weeks of extreme busyness!  Looking forward to posting more answers to our prayers in the near future.

And there was rejoicing in heaven yesterday

So last night when we were tucking the boys into bed, like always, the boys are thinking of how many questions can we ask to delay turning the lights off and then Joshua picked the best questions to ask...

Mommy, are you going to heaven?  To which I answered, "yes".
Daddy, are you going to heaven?  To which Tom answered, "yes".
Gregory, are you going to heaven?  To which Gregory cut his brother off and said, "YES, I am going to heaven".
Are grandma and grandpa going to heaven?  And we all answered "yes".

Am I going to heaven?  So I answered, "Well, do you have Jesus in your heart?"  And Joshua, said, "I want to go to heaven" and turned his head and asked Jesus into his heart as quickly as he possibly could so we could keep talking.  So we kept talking a bit more with Joshua to see if he was serious about this...or was this like other times where he lets the conversation end and moves on to something else.  He kept going with the conversation and we kept going too.  I explained it all further and what this meant, that he needed to want to quit doing bad things and quit trying to be naughty and mean and to want to be more like Jesus and to try to a good boy and make good choices.

So then I told him he could ask Jesus into his heart, to tell him that he is sorry for the bad stuff in his heart and that he wants Jesus to be in his heart.

He turned his head and whispered his own prayer asking Jesus into his heart. 

Good stuff.  So proud of him and looking forward to helping Joshua to be a passionate follower of Jesus. 

This time was completely different than when Gregory asked Jesus into his heart...Joshua has been really slow to understand some things, but I am hoping this means he is making decisions for life because he seems to think them over for much longer.  Where as I know Gregory understands things earlier but he is very committal and makes commitments that he wants to last forever. 

I love my two boys and they mean the world to me and now I am happy to know how I can keep praying for each of them to know Jesus more and more and to love him more and more. 

....and there was much rejoicing in heaven last night when Joshua asked Jesus into his hear.

Pray for the Cooks!

Once again it's been a while since I've posted on our blog...so to catch up below is our Youth for Christ letter that was sent out to as many friends and family as we could think of, in case we missed someone, it was not intentional :-)  

YFC support letter

If you read this and you feel you would like to support us and Youth for Christ, send us an email, roxannecook@hotmail.com, or contact us on Facebook or any other way you know possible. 

Currently we are at about 50% of our cash budget raised (50% of $6000) and about 33% of our monthly budget (33% of $1366).

We have been at this for about a month and we've been blown away at how God is moving in people's hearts to support us. 

If you'd like to pray for us that is much appreciated as well!  We can mail you a prayer reminder photo, if you'd like.  Just ask!

Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
Romans 12:11-13 The Message (MSG)

Our Christmas Letter 2014

For those who did not get a copy of our annual Christmas letter and card, below is a copy of it...

Here we are at the end of 2014.  If we could use one word to describe 2014 it would be CHANGE.  So many things have changed for us this year; everything from Tom’s job, our living location (home), Gregory’s school, Joshua’s age and so many other things.  Below is just a snapshot of how so much of that change came about.  Towards the end of our letter, please pay special attention for a special update on the future God has laid out for us, we are praying that at the beginning of 2015 we will be communicating more about how you can prayerfully and financially support our family as we join with Youth for Christ to reach the youth for Jesus in Sioux County, Iowa.

JANUARY – This is the month when change started happening for us.  In order to cut its budget, the Air Force decided that it would allow so many people to apply for early retirement.  So after realizing that this would be a good option for us, Tom applied for early retirement from the Air Force.

FEBRUARY – Our family went on a middle school youth retreat, “Escape”, with over 100 Chapel youth from Stuttgart.  Roxanne was one of the admin helpers and Tom was the assistant to the main leader while Joshua and Gregory got to have lots of fun with some of the other workers kids. 

MARCH – The Air Force informed Tom in March that he was approved for early retirement with an official retirement date of August 1.  This meant that we would be leaving Germany toward the end of June.  From there everything started happening pretty fast.

APRIL – Since we were leaving Europe soon we started traveling like crazy.  We took a spring break trip to the Netherlands.  While we were there we visited Corrie ten Boom’s house, windmills, a Noah’s ark replica and so much more. It was also a special time as we were there for Roxanne’s birthday and we were able to visit a friend from Colorado Springs (that lives in Germany now) when we were traveling back to Stuttgart – great seeing you Hope!

MAY – In May we made one last visit to Legoland and then one last visit to Garmisch, Germany.    Oh how we miss the Swiss Alps!  We drove from Garmisch to Pisa, Italy as Roxanne really wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Tom had already seen it years before).     

JUNE – On June 5^th we celebrated Tom’s upcoming retirement with a ceremony and celebration.  This was an incredible time to have some of our close friends with us and to celebrate Tom’s 19 years and 2 months in service.  Our last European adventure was to Belgium, Luxembourg, and France to see some World War II sites.  This was a great time with our boys as we walked some of the Battle of the Bulge routes in the fields (Tom and Roxanne had done this a few years back, so it was great to be back).  While in Europe Gregory developed a great love for history (and World War II) and we love to spur this on, especially since it’s Tom’s passion as well.

JULY – On the 1^st of July we said farewell to our home in Germany and many friends.  We are so blessed to be able to keep in touch with so many via Facebook and are so thankful for photos that jog our memories and keep them alive for Gregory and Joshua.  We strategically planned our entry into the US at Baltimore so that we could have a little time to visit with a couple of great friends, Gregory Shade & Amy Ellicott.  Then we began our trek across the country to our next home in North Dakota.  Once we got settled for a little bit, we took off for Missouri to spend some time with Tom’s mom, Betty, and sister, Beth, and family.  It was a great time to catch up with everyone.  The boys especially loved getting to spend time with their cousins since it had been a while since they had seen each other.  Tom was able to spend quite a bit of time with his mom and help with some odd jobs around her house.

AUGUST – On the 1^st day of this month Tom was officially retired from the US Air Force.  Then nearly all of Roxanne’s family got together in Jamestown (only one nephew was missing).  We had a great time of Frisbee golf, boating, water balloon fights and s’mores around the fire pit.  Towards the end of August, Gregory started 2^nd grade at Washington School in Jamestown, ND (the same school Roxanne attended when growing up in Jamestown). 

SEPTEMBER – The end is in sight!  Tom started his last year of college with Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU).  He is so close to having his Bachelor Degree in Youth Ministry! 

OCTOBER – While being in Jamestown, Tom has had the privilege to volunteer at our church with the Middle School students weekly and then he was able to go as a chaperone for the annual Youth Convention in Fargo as well.  Roxanne, the boys and her parents were able to travel to Minnesota to help her brother, Kirk, and his family as they prepared to move into a different house.  Once again the boys loved getting to be with some more cousins!  This was also the month where God started opening doors and showing us the path He wanted us to go on…Tom & Roxanne went down to Hawarden, IA to interview for a position with Youth for Christ.  We had been praying about this position and have continued to pray and feel that this is God’s direction for our family. 

NOVEMBER – This year for the first time in MANY years, we were able to be with Tom’s family for Thanksgiving in Missouri.  It was a quick trip but we were thankful to be close enough to be able to make the drive.  This has been one of our favorite things about being back in the USA, being able to be with family!

DECEMBER – As for most families this month has been filled with Christmas programs, parties, and even some caroling.  We will be celebrating Christmas with Roxanne’s parents and then Raquel’s family will come shortly after Christmas and we will celebrate Joshua’s 5^th birthday in ND.  We will close out 2014 and start 2015 with a celebration of Roxanne’s mom, Judy.  She will be retiring from Building Blocks where she has worked for 25 1/2 years. 

2015…As we are working on our annual letter we are prayerfully awaiting a job offer from Youth for Christ and we plan on accepting the position as the Sioux County Area Director and we will be moving to Hawarden, Iowa (between Sioux Falls, SD and Sioux City, IA).  Tom will be responsible for leading Campus Life ministries and also running a Teen Life Center in Hawarden.  Tom will not be doing this job as a one man show; it will be a team effort.  Roxanne will be coming along side Tom to help out where and when she can.  Once we know more and have more info we will be contacting you to share how you can partner with us to reach the youth for Jesus in the Sioux County area.  So please be in prayer with us as we will be raising support before we will begin ministry in Iowa.  We are aiming to be in Iowa early in the summer, so we can be prepared for the school year.  We know this will be difficult to reach this goal in such a short time, but we do serve a big God who already knows how this is all going to work out, so we are trusting in Him for this to be accomplished and to bring Him the glory!  

      Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!                        Tom, Roxanne, Gregory & Joshua Cook
thomasearlcook@gmail.com 701-269-6259

             roxannecook@hotmail.com 701-269-6352

         

Happy 5th Birthday Joshua!

A few days ago we celebrated Joshua's 5th birthday and as with all birthdays it causes memories to be jogged about the past, so I thought I'd pull out a photo from the past for each birthday.  The first two were in Colorado, the next three were in Germany and then the most recent was in North Dakota.  Wow, so much has changed in 5 years for this guy.  He's a handful much of the time, but he's loved all of the time.  I think that should be my "slogan with him".  He's cute as can be and knows it!  Since being in North Dakota he has fallen in love with all things John Deere, so we did that for his 5th birthday party theme.  This morning I was asking him if he still loves John Deere and he said, nope, my birthday's over...but the pile of tractors he'll be playing with for years to come is still there to remind us and him, that he still loves John Deere.  Joshua always has something cute to say, but I am usually in too big of a hurry to jot it all down, so the quotes I do grab, they are usually on Facebook for more to share in the laughter he brings.  One of his favorite things to say is "speaking of..." so I will use that here now knowing it's how he's say it... speaking of laughter, Joshua LOVES to go visit Great Grandma Vilhauer who is in a nursing home.  She will turn 95 next month and Joshua can get her (and many other residents) to smile nearly every time he is there.  Joshua is teaching me much as we have to change up discipline styles/methods so many times to try to figure out what he needs and when, I find so many times that when I am disciplining or talking with Joshua I am hearing God speak to me and remind me of how I need to be corrected in my attitudes and issues I am going through.  Raising Joshua is challenging to say the least, yes, we are rewarded in precious memories and hugs many days which helps outweigh the orneriness.  I am reminded over and over again about the verse Joshua 1:9 and I think of it as a verse that I was given to go along with Joshua when he was born.  We have gone many places with Joshua and God has been with us and we will go many more places with Joshua (through various stages of life as well) and God WILL be with us.  Here are where the rest of the photos are https://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Joshua 1:9  "This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Back to blogging

So I have been majorly slacking on our blog and have considered giving it up, but I know our future will involve keeping in touch with lots of people and this does seem to be one of the best ways to share information (more than short posts on facebook), so I have plans to get back to blogging...
 
So stay tuned and I hope to be more consistent...not a New Year's resolution, but a change that needs to be made...

Gregory's 7th Birthday

April 27th, was Gregory’s 7th birthday, so a couple of days before we started celebrating and continued throughout the weekend.  Friday during school, we shared birthday cupcakes with Gregory’s classmates and then after school the boys from his class (along with one other who is a good friend – Tucker) met at Sensapolis for a fun time of running around, climbing (rock-climbing wall), shooting balls in the “jungle area” and so much more.  He had a Star Wars themed party and had cupcakes to share again with his friends.  He also overcame a huge “fear of heights” and he did the rock-climbing wall.  He did an awesome job and climbed incredibly high (about 2 or 3 stories high!)  Throughout the rest of the weekend we pulled out gifts from family to continue the celebrating.  One of his "big" gifts was a telescope we got from a student in our youth group.  We can't wait to be back in the USA and to let Raquel, who's newest "gig" is teach Astronomy at a college in Minneapolis to teach us how to use it :-)   

March and April

So February was finished and March came and we heard from Cadence that we weren't accepted to be missionaries with them and we got the approval from the Air Force that we can retire early.  Knowing we only had four months left we planned a "bunch" of trips.  In April (birthday month for Roxanne & Gregory) we headed north to the Netherlands.  The tulips were beautiful!  This trip was probably one of my personal favorites of our nearly three years in Europe.  My birthday was spent with the ones I love and with such beautiful scenery.  We also stopped in and visited with my friend Hope Hamer (that I met at MOPS when we were in Colorado Springs).  It was great to catch up with such a sweet friend who is living out her dream of FINALLY being in Germany :-)  

I'm Still Here

It has been a VERY long time since I have posted on my blog, every day that passes it makes me feel like I should just give up on my blog, but then in the back of my mind I keep thinking, "no, don't be a quitter."

Life has been incredibly busy these past few months.  The busyness has been making wonderful memories mostly so for this I am immensely thankful.

In November we had our first visitor, my sister.  We crammed much into the time she was here and it was a wonderful time together.  We also had a good time with friends celebrating Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for. 

Then in December, wow, we had our second visitors (my parents), visited a few Christmas Markets, celebrated Jesus' birth, Gregory memorized his first portion of scripture for our church's Christmas Eve service, celebrated Joshua's 4th birthday with lots of friends (and Grandma Judy got to make another birthday cake).

In January, we calmed things down a bit...Joshua started pre-school since he was fully potty-trained!  This was a huge accomplishment and we are very proud of him.  We also got news that we could apply for early retirement from the Air Force.

In February, we completed and submitted our application to Cadence to be missionaries to the overseas military youth.  We also (as a family) went to the Germany Cadence Middle School Retreat called Escape.  Tom was a small group leader (and Nick's right hand man), Roxanne helped Nick with Admin duties, while Joshua and Gregory ran around and had fun with the students and other kids of Cadence workers.  This was all with about 110 students from Stuttgart and about 140 more from other bases around Germany.  It was a great time for the students to grow closer to God, have fun and build relationships.  For us it was a great time to do ministry as a family and see how it can still be done with all of us together - as this was the first time we participated as a family where both Tom and I had significant roles and we had both of our boys with us.

We are nearing the end of February and we know that the pace of our lives is going to pick up again soon, as we are anxiously awaiting news from the Air Force and praying for the acceptance of our request for early retirement.     

2013 Annual Letter & Christmas Card

Autumn / Herbst

So I am not too tardy on this post as we are still in the season of Autumn, but I do know that it's been a while since I've blogged.  I guess I can say that we've been enjoying life rather than "typing" about it (except on Facebook).

So my favorite season of all has been here for a couple of months and it's turning into winter here in Germany (my least favorite season - except for the one or two days of snow I enjoy to look at).

I love the colors of autumn, the word autumn, the smells of autumn (pies of all sorts, pumpkin anything, caramel - that's not really seasonal - for me it's ALL the time!, apple everything) and the sounds of autumn (the crunch of the leaves).

As a family we got to visit a corn maze (with quite a few friends), we also visited the pumpkin festival (Tom's first time, our second time).

The Pumpkin Festival is an annual event but the theme changes each year (last year was Switzerland and this year was Sports).

The past couple of years I have gotten pictures of my two sweet boys with the beautiful colors and this makes me happy.

We also got to participate in an amazing Chapel marriage retreat down in Garmisch at Edelweiss...it is our boys FAVORITE vacation spot - mostly because of the pool.  This was such a great retreat with childcare and such beautiful scenery and then we even had friends at the retreat too, so the fellowship time was sweet too.

There have been a few other things that have happened during the fall, but those deserve their own post...so for another day...

First Day of 1st Grade

Today Gregory completed the first day of the 1st Grade.  He is in a multi-age class (K - 2nd grade) so he will keep the class (for the most part) and the same teacher (as long as she remains here).  So there wasn't a lot of "new" today for Gregory and that was kind of nice.  His class is relatively small (20 students) and about half of that number are new students (maybe a little less).  There is a german tradition that when you enter the 1st grade you get a "Schultüte".  This is a cardboard cone which is filled with "goodies" and school supplies.  Even though Joshua isn't going into 1st grade he got a miniature Schultüte because it was just easier this way.  I put some silly stuff (moustaches, toys, candy) and then a couple of school supplies in them each as well. 

I also forgot to get a picture last year of what Gregory wanted to be when he grows up, but it was a paleontologist.  This year it's an astronaut.  I love asking this question each year...it will be fun to hear what it is in 10 years from now :-) 

 

Summer Recap

Since school officially starts on Monday, I decided I needed to get a summer wrap-up post done so that I'll be all ready for that first day of school post soon after Monday.

As always, the summer goes too fast and there are so many things I wished we'd have gotten done, but I am happy with all we got to do as well.  Here are some of the highlights.

Edelweiss, Lindenhof, Documentation Center (Eagles' Nest)
Playmobile FunPark (for the 4th of July)
Sensopolis (Kid's indoor play place)
Saw Sesame Street Live production (on base)
Participated & Volunteered with VBS
Strasbourg (Kid's museum, toy museum, train ride, boat ride, bunkers)
Rubble Hill (little hike)
Dinosaur Museum (with friends)
Fossil Dig (with friends)
Dinosaur Museum (a different one and with friends)
Jumpinn (Kid's indoor play place and with friends)
Trips to Ramstein for medical appointments
Sinsheim Technik & Automobile Museum
Grilled, celebrated Father's Day, celebrated our 10th Anniversary, hung out at the park(s)

We did a lot, saw a lot, made a lot of memories, enjoyed each other, laughed a lot, and drove some.  It was so much fun to return to places we had visited before, but this time to get to show it to our boys and it was also great enjoyment to get to visit new locations.  We made sure to leave plenty to do during our random days off from school and the weekends when Tom is caught up on his schoolwork.  There is always so much to look forward to in the fall, so now we close this season and move on to the next...one of my favorites...autumn (and spring is my other favorite)...so happy to have four seasons here in Germany, even if there short lived sometimes (SUMMER).

As always, there are lots of pictures documenting our fun this summer... https://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/ or also on Facebook.

Another Fun Summer Vacation Trip

This past week we went to the Strasbourg, France area.  This was our first time being back down there since being back in Germany.  When we were living at Ramstein we had been there 4 or 5 times (with various family as well).  In fact, we took Gregory there when he was less than a month old when my parents visited us.

This time though we ventured out to some of the surrounding areas, as well as letting the boys see some of the fun stuff in Strasbourg.  First we went to a children's museum and this was a ton of fun!  Lots of hands on activities.  Afterwards we went on the boat tour of Strasbourg (on an open top boat) and Gregory thought this was one of the best things ever!  They had an audio tour for kids, so this was very cool to him!  It was amazing to think about 6 years ago we had been there on a closed top boat with my parents.  I have a picture of me holding Gregory and feeding him a bottle while we were on the boat.  What a special memory to get to bring my boys to a favorite place we like to visit.  It's one of a few select locations that we have "artwork" reminding us about, so this was neat for our boys to see it in real life, not just on the wall. 

We also took a day and went to Colmar, France (about an hour away) and visited a toy museum, took a "train" ride around the beautiful city of Colmar, visited a memorial to the military veteran, Audie Murphy and then visited a small bunker near Colmar.  Seeing the memorial was pretty cool as my mother-in-law, Betty, is a big fan of Audie Murphy.  We got some neat pictures and it was neat to see the memorial.  Of course Gregory and Joshua (mostly Gregory) were super excited to learn more about WWII and to hear why Audie Murphy was such a big war hero.  The bunker was used during WWI & WWII and it is one of many bunkers along the Maginot Line.  It was just the start of whetting Tom's appetite to want to see more WWII stuff.  In the evening we even got to enjoy some Domino's Pizza in our hotel which had wonderful air conditioning that was amazing since it was quite hot and humid outdoors.  We are finding that we really like the Holiday Inn Express chain of hotels in Europe :-)

Our last day we went to Cora, which is an incredibly large store like a Target/Walmart, but the awesome thing about Cora is it's in France.  So they sell lots of unique french foods (like Speculoos in a few varieties, macaroons, croissants, etc.).  While we were in there a huge rain storm came through, so we were very thankful that our plans worked out for us to be inside during this time.  After a bite to eat we started our trek home, with a stop along the way.  We stopped at another much larger bunker further north on the Maginot Line.  This location was AMAZING.  There were all kinds of displays and buildings and "static" displays of vehicles (from a small jet, a Russian helicopter, tanks, etc.).  The bunker was also much larger and they had many rooms set up with different things (from a dentist office, a kitchen, an office, etc.)

Unfortunately, we had some detours to avoid staus and it took a bit longer to get home, but maybe, just maybe it was my way of stretching out our vacation time since it was such a fun time for our family to get away and have fun together. 

If you've got the time and want to see some of our pictures, here's the link to where you can see them all.  I don't think I could pick out a favorite this time, so you have to go to the link to see them.  Enjoy!  Click here to see "Our photos".

Garmisch (again, finally)

It has been more than 7 years since we've been at Edelweiss (Armed Forces Resort) and it was wonderful to be back again (for the most part).  We have so many memories from being there with my parents, my sister, her husband and Jaden, when he was a baby.

It was awesome to bring our boys to such a beautiful area and to enjoy God's beautiful creation.  Unfortunately, it was not without complications...the day before leaving Gregory developed pink eye and then right before getting in the van to drive Gregory got a very bad bloody nose and he has some horrendous allergies to something outside at this time of year.  In spite of all of this and trying to find the right medicines and such we all had a pretty good time unfortunately we don't have the family pictures we planned on doing because of Gregory being so sick and not feeling up to pictures, maybe next time (as we also missed out on being in the pool too).

On the way I packed a picnic lunch so we stopped at a beautiful lake and enjoyed feeding some ducks, skipping some rocks (or at least trying), watching all of the sailboats, gazing upon the moutains, and a far away view of Neuschwanstein.

We got to visit and went on a tour through Schloss Linderhof (one of King Ludwig's three castles in Germany).  Gregory was incredibly attentive while on the tour and enjoyed it a lot.  The day was beautiful (a tad warm, but the sky was gorgeous) and so we had ice cream multiple times during the day.  Joshua loved watching the hang gliders as we had a beautiful view out of our room at the resort.

And then the day before we left we drove about 2.5 hrs to the Berchtesgaden (Obersalz) area where the Eagle's Nest is.  Our original plans were thwarted due to an oversight on my part...it was Hotel Turks day of rest, so we didn't get to tour the WWII bunkers under it, but we did go in the WWII bunkers that are under a documentation building near the Eagle's Nest.  Due to the crazy bus ride up the mountain to get to the Eagle's Nest we decided to view it from afar and just take in the close by things to see.  Gregory and Joshua loved learning about the WWII bunker and I am sure they will develop a love for all things WWII just like their dad with as much as they get to see and hear about it in our home.  The temperature in the bunker was the big bonus as it was incredibly hot outside (in the 90s)...but very cool inside the bunkers.

The drive back was long, very long.  Staus are not our favorite thing to be stuck in...we like it when traffic keeps moving...so much better than sitting at a standstill on the (oh so fast SOMETIMES) autobahn.  So with the travel we did, we are now trying to think through our next travels to Italy...will we be able to do it (and be happy and feel like enjoying the area when we arrive?)  Stay tuned to find out where we travel to next!

http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Father's Day and our First Summer Vacation (for this year)

This past weekend we got to celebrate a few things...Father's Day!  And the start of Summer vacation.  But this post is dedicated to my son's daddy.  As I looked through the pictures from this past weekend I notice a commonality...just about everywhere Tom is, there you will find Gregory and Joshua.  Both of our boys look up to their daddy so much...oh the pressure this brings.  I know there are days when Tom feels the weight of this and then there are other days that he seems to forget about the pressure and just has fun with his boys.  Tom will be the first to admit he's not perfect, but I know he does try so very hard to be a good example to his boys.  He has always been there for his boys and we are so thankful that his military career is nearing an end so we won't have the "fear" of a deployment.  Our boys have only been apart from their dad for at the most a long weekend (with a youth group event)...they have been blessed.  Tom is passing on so many of his traits to his boys (both the good and the not so good).  Thankfully he has an awesome memory which is tested every day by Gregory.  One of Gregory's favorite things to do is to have Tom tell him stories about what it was like when he was a kid (his favorite tv shows, favorite games, favorite wii game..hahaha, etc.)  Joshua's favorite thing to do with Tom is to "play tackle"...yeah that's my Joshua...a future football player.  There are lots of Super Hero games in our house, lots of Transformers to play with, and Legos....my boys love to have their dad involved in their lives and that is what he does...he is involved with his boys and loves them incredibly.  Tom, thanks for being a godly man who has so many wonderful traits (too numerous to list) and you have been giving our boys a godly example to aspire to.  I love you!

Kindergarten completed!

About a week ago Gregory finished his first year of school - Kindergarten.  We were so proud of him and all he did and learned this year.  It was amazing! 

Here are the beginning and the ending photos:

 

Here are some of the highlights of the year:

• Two field trips:  Ropes Course & the Stuttgart Airport (and water play at a park after riding the train and a bus while going to the Airport)
• Having an incubator in his classroom - got to watch eggs hatch and see baby chicks born
• Learning to read and doing so well with it
• Math, Science, Reading, PE, Recess and Lunch were favorites
• He made lots of friends - Austin, Dieter, Levi, Joseph, Gabriel, Gregory Miller, Zachery (notice there are no girls listed!)
• Enjoyed Ms. Beckham for his teacher
• He was in a multi-age class with Kindergarten, 1st Grade and 2nd Grade (He will be in this class the rest of our time here in Stuttgart with the same teacher - as long as she stays here...she's been here over 10 years already)
• Sliding down "the hill" in the winter time
• Had Art, Spanish, Host Nation (German) and Music class as well
• Mrs. Caravona was a great "aide" in the class and always made learning everything fun.  She taught him math mostly (including money)
• Learning about money has been the most difficult for Gregory...you have to think...he's learning about Euros and Dollars
• Gregory got to celebrate his "6th" birthday with his classmates and brought in cupcakes
• His favorite things to do at recess were play foursquare, tag and just play with his friends.
• He learned (and loved) to play baseball and was on the 6 & 7 year old team.
• He had TONS of spelling words and very regularly got 100% on his spelling tests.  We were amazed at the difficulty of words he was given and soon found out that the words he was being given were more advanced as he was learning how to spell very quickly.

 

My baseball player

Last year Gregory tried soccer and it wasn't for him.  He kept saying he didn't like that he couldn't use his hands and wanted to try baseball.  So we got him in and he loved it...he loved that there was a ladybug on his cap when he was in the field :-)  This was the first practice and by the end of the season (which only lasted 5 weeks) he was doing great and has a great natural "batter's stance"...so I think we've found his sport for now...he has some room for improvement when it comes to running (Tom's idea of pretending that a girl was chasing him hasn't worked to well so far)...and he needs to work on catching, which isn't too surprising considering halfway through the five weeks he got hit in the face by a ball that was tossed to him to catch by one of the coaches...there was a lot of blood involved with this injury, but he was back out on the field before the practice was over.

I love baseball, so I hope Gregory sticks with it and that it is "his" sport.  I always loved watching my little brother play baseball, so now I look forward to the days at the baseball field with my boy.

Here's an "artsy" picture from our last baseball game.

Gregory's 6th Birthday Celebration

Nearly a month ago we celebrated Gregory's birthday.  He chose to have a "Transformer" themed birthday party at home with as many friends (who were boys) that he could invite.  So we had 11 boys (Gregory and Joshua included), all 2nd grade and younger.  Wow, do we have a small apartment or how much more did it shrink after we filled it up with boys? 

Due to living where there is no easy way to purchase a Transformer cake, I relied on my God-given talents (and the wonderful training from watching my mom decorate magnificent cakes).  I think it turned out pretty good for not knowing how it was going to all work out. 

And a big thanks to Tom for being the "big" boy of the bunch and hanging out with the kiddos while they played some "Transformer" games.

Gregory had a great time with his friends and got some wonderful gifts.  It was a fun time celebrating with him.  

Oh and the day before Gregory's birthday at school they were celebrating "Earth Day", so I made cupcakes that were green and blue on the inside with brown frosting on top (with a Transformer pick on the top).  Didn't get a "good" picture of them once they were decorated.  Bummer.  They were so cute!  I love how they looked like a globe :-)

Happy 6th Birthday to my big encourager, awesome big brother, amazing reader, great baseball player, funky dancer, and a rock star of a son!  Love you Gregory!