Changes coming - heading back to Germany!

So most everyone who knows us by now knows that we have a move coming up in our future.  In August we get the pleasure of moving back to Germany!  We are pretty excited about this change and excited for where we'll get to go, what we'll get to experience and what God will be doing in and through us while there this time around.  We know this time will be significantly different having two boys (where we left with one little guy back in Jan 2008).  Gregory will start school there; Tom will be working with AFRICOM (Africa Command); Roxanne won't be working at all (I got to work for nearly 3 years when we were in Germany last time); and Joshua, well he'll be experiencing it all for the first time!  We know there will be tough times (being so far from family will be the biggie), but we also know we will have fun adventures too!  So the next couple of months will continue to be busy with appointments, traveling to see family before we leave and sorting through our accumulated belongings :-)

Please be praying for us during this transition and we'll keep in touch.

Gregory's 4th Birthday

It's now been a couple of weeks since we started celebrating Gregory's 4th birthday.  We started on his actual birthday, this was the first time Tom wasn't in town for the actual day.  So me and the boys celebrated all week with birthday meals and birthday fun!  He got presents on his birthday and the day of his birthday party, so he was definitely blessed!  Since his birthday was on a Wednesday we took a special treat to share with his friends at church.  Earlier in the day we went to Chuck E. Cheese.  Both Gregory and Joshua had a fun time.  Tom got home from San Antonio on Friday night and Saturday afternoon we had the birthday party.  Here are some of the highlights from the party.
-the homemade pinata that I made of and was VERY proud of :-)
-having a few special teenagers come for the party...one of Gregory's favorite babysitters, the other one couldn't come.
-having friends from MOPS and from our "regular" church.
-having YUMMY homemade ice cream that I made earlier in the day.
-Gregory got to have some of his best buddies come for his birthday party.
-He also got some wonderful new toys!  More Toy Story characters, a Toy Story play tent, Toy Story Yahtzee Jr., Sequence, a Buzz Lightyear wrist toy, a Star Wars Nerf gun, a Star Wars Light Saber, Cars race cars, a new game for his Smart Cycle, the Color Wonder Sound Studio, a Woody guitar, a Toy Story Hot Wheels track, a subscription to National Geographic for Little Kids, a chef hat and apron, an Etch-A-Sketch, sunglasses, a Cars marker kit, a Cars backpack filled with lots of fun stuff.

We have lots of pictures from another fun birthday!  http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Here is one of the birthday boy!

Christ is still Risen!

This past weekend we celebrated Easter.  It was so much fun to hear Gregory talk about what he was so excited about.  He kept repeating it over and over and over again.  "I am so excited about Easter 'cause we get to celebrate God and Jesus".  He doesn't quite get the trinity concept yet :-)  We try to focus on what Easter is all about and enjoy some of the other fun things too.  I wanted to do the Resurrection eggs with him and to make Resurrection cookies, but that didn't happen this year.  Maybe next year. 

We had an Easter party at a friend's house on Friday and got to enjoy all the fun activities of Easter...dyeing eggs, decorating cupcakes (and eating them too!), watching a movie about the real meaning of Easter (a movie about Jesus as Gregory puts it), and an egg hunt outside too.

Then we went to church on Saturday night as a family since Tom and I both had other commitments (at church) on Sunday.  We heard an interesting sermon from our wonderful pastor--it was from a different perpective--Paul (Saul) with the Easter story woven into it.  If you want to hear it, check out our church's website.  http://www.radiantchurch.org/ 

On Easter Sunday we woke up to SNOW!  Crazy Colorado as we call it.  We only got about a half inch and it had melted by the time church was done.  Tom was doing the sound for our Jr High service and I was helping with greeting at church.

After church we enjoyed a wonderful meal with our friends, Jake & Kathryn, their twin boys (age 3), their 3 month old baby girl and many of their family.  Jake and Kathryn are friends we have much in common with (Jake helps with youth at our church, Jake is military, Kathryn is a wonderful friend of mine).  We have shared a few holidays and birthdays with these dear friends.  We had an egg hunt after eating lunch together.  The four boys had a great time finding lots of eggs...and Joshua even snuck some dessert when no one was looking :-)

We are so thankful that our Lord and Savior did not stay dead and in the tomb, but that He rose from the dead and is seated in heaven.  Yes, we had fun with Easter silliness, but we are forever grateful for the "real" meaning of Easter.  Thank you Jesus for what you did on the cross for all of our sins.

As always, there are new pictures :-)  http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/ Stay tuned for more blog updates as this week we celebrate Gregory's 4th birthday!

Tourists in Denver

Today we went enjoyed a "family day" and went up to Denver to the Aquarium for the first time and the Children's Museum for the second time.  It was a wonderful time for all of us.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been to go see the Cubs and the Rockies play, but it is way too cold for baseball today!  We'll hold out for watching the Triple A Cubs team next month when they play the Sky Sox just down the street from our house :-)

As always there are new pictures (and a few videos on facebook) to go along with this fun day.  Enjoy!

Joshua's First Haircut

This past weekend we finally got Joshua's haircut for the first time.  There are no more curls in the back :-( He still hasn't lost that baby look even with a fresh haircut...those chubby cheeks are still there too :-) We got his hair cut at the same place Gregory got his first haircut and in the same fire engine, too.

Celebrations

This is a month of celebrations for our family...it's the only month with multiple things to celebrate, that's why I say that.  So far we've celebrated my 36th birthday and our 9th anniversary of meeting each other (Tom & I).  For my birthday we enjoyed HuHot Mongolian Grill for dinner and for our anniversary Tom and I went to the Melting Pot.  Both of these were the first time we went and enjoyed them and hope to go back again some day! 

Our next celebration will be Gregory's 4th Birthday!  That will be on April 30th, so after that I will post about it.

Welcome Spring

We are enjoying some spring weather and the boys are both loving being outdoors.  Here are some of the cute pictures we took the other day...there are more at our shutterfly website.