What we've been up to...

We've been in Germany a little over a month and we've been in our apartment a little over two weeks.  We are still at most two weeks away from getting the "rest of our stuff".  I can't hardly wait!  Not sure what I am most excited about...having OUR microwave, or OUR bed, or just a simple pair of scissors.  Sometimes it's the little things that matter so much! 

So what have we been up to?  Well, Tom is the easiest one to start with...he's been working.  Not a lot, but long hours when he is working and we've sure missed him whenever he's not with us during the day.

Joshua is the next easiest, he's been busy playing, getting into trouble and following his big brother around where ever he goes.

Gregory has been enjoying Germany lots, but still missing his best buddies in Colorado.  There aren't too many days that go by when he doesn't mention something about someone in CO or he's flying his airplanes to Colorado or just remembering good times we've had when we were in CO.  Gregory LOVES preschool.  He's been learning about the letter "O" and he has a wonderful teacher that is helping him learn.  We've also attended the same church for two weeks in a row and this has been a big deal for Gregory.  He's enjoyed learning here as well.  There's been new songs, new friends and crafts (his favorite).  Today I loved to hear Gregory telling Joshua, "Goliath, you cannot defeat me!"  And then yesterday Gregory was quizzing Tom about all kinds of bible facts like, is there a story about Moses when he was a baby?

And then there's me.  I have been meeting new people trying to find new friends through MOPS, PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel), hanging out at the park, church and any where else I meet women.

This move has been a difficult transition for our family, but we have so much to be thankful for...most importantly, we are together as a family. 

Here are some pics that have been bringing smiles to our faces, hope you enjoy them as well.

Germany Part II

After leaving MO we headed to Atlanta, GA for our first leg of the trip.  There we spent a night and then left Georgia for Germany.  The flight from MO to GA was uneventful as was the flight from GA to Germany.  We were so thankful the boys behaved and weren't too frustrated by being confined to their seats.

Of course there were little "issues" once we got here in Germany, but overall God has for sure been with us and helping us as we are adjusting.  It's very different here in Stuttgart than when we were in Ramstein.  Of course having TWO boys is one of the biggest differences.

We got our van pretty quickly after getting our licenses, so that's been nice.  We've taken a road trip up to Ramstein already and got to hang out with some wonderful friends (Jan, Ginger and kiddos).  It was nice to get to spend a couple of days with them.  Such dear friends and wonderful to catch up with them.

We are in our apartment.  It's way smaller than our house back in COS, but it's bigger than our last place at Ramstein.  We are anxious to get the rest of our stuff so we can really make this feel like home.

The weather here has been great (warm and cooler days), so we've spent LOTS of time at the various parks all around.  Gregory has found kids to play with most everywhere we've gone, although, he does realize they aren't his "friends".  So that has been hard for him with being as social as he is.  He misses his wonderful friends from Colorado for sure.   

Another big thing for us since getting to Germany is Gregory has started preschool two days a week.  He has gone two times so far and is loving every minute of it.  The main reason for him going isn't for him to learn tons, but to learn to listen in a structured classroom setting AND to learn some while he's there.  Kindergarten will be here before we all know it (a year from now!). 

So there we have it, I'm closer to caught up!  Next up will be to get some pics of our new place online, but for that we'll wait until all of our stuff is here..in a few weeks.

MO Visit

After our goodbyes in Colorado we got to spend some time with Tom's family in Missouri.  It was a great time!  We spent lots of time with Tom's mom, Betty.  Me and the boys enjoyed spending more time with her this time than any other visit, so that made it especially nice. 

We got to spend time with Tom's sister and her family as well.  So the cousins enjoyed more time together since we had seen them earlier in he summer.  We were so thankful that we got to see all of our family before we left for Germany.

While with Betty, we took some time to get some pictures of the boys with their Grandma Betty.  Joshua and Gregory both had no problem warming up to their grandma that they've only gotten to see a few times.  As always, Gregory had lots of questions for grandma and Joshua was just thrilled to show off and eat crackers.

In preparation of leaving the USA

As my faithful readers know (you are out there right?) we were preparing to move to Germany this summer.  (Since I'm writing this from Germany--we made it, but here's a little blogging about what happened before we got here.) 

Soon after our trip to ND it was time for us to leave Colorado, so we had a wonderful get together at It'z with so many of our friends we spend so much time with while in CO.  It was one last time to hang out and have a good time together...especially for Gregory to have wonderful last memories of being with his friends.  We had yummy food and played lots of games and took many pictures.  Our goodbyes were not fun, they never are.  We hope to keep in touch with those close to us, but we also know they are busy and we are busy too...so we'll do our best (at least with Christmas letters/cards).

As always, pictures at our shutterfly site.

ND Journey (from last month)

One of our most recent adventures / vacations was to North Dakota (this was all before leaving CO for Germany). And boy was it an adventure. 22 hours one way straight through with a few stops (bathroom, gas and meals!). We didn't plan on doing this trip straight through, but that's how it ended up due to our lack of planning and being a little too optimistic. I couldn't believe that there would be no vacancy in towns like Dickinson and Bismarck...there wasn't. So we pressed through and made it to my parents by 730 am on Friday (after having left at 10 am on Thursday from Colorado Springs). 


Our time in ND was so awesome. We got to see and visit with so many relatives. My sister planned an awesome family reunion for my dad's side of the family and then my sister-in-law and my sister planned an amazing 40th Anniversary celebration for my parents the same weekend. And on top of that it was my brother's 20th High School reunion so a lot of our friends from our youth group were in town as well. Talk about jamming it all in! 


This all seems so long ago as I type this sitting in our hotel room in Germany...I cherish each and every memory as I look through the HUNDREDS of pictures. I don’t think I want to start listing all of the special memories or I might never finish this post.  This was Joshua’s first time being in ND, Gregory’s first time being with all of the Vilhauer cousins, Tom’s first time riding in my parents Model A, my first time enjoying as many raspberries from my parents garden as I wanted — of course the high light was still being with all of my siblings (and their spouses and kiddos and my parents and so many others).

As I said already, there are hundreds of pictures, and there is no way I can pick just one...but if you want to wade through them, here’s the link http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Beth & Rob's visit

Once again I am behind in my blogging, but this time I feel it is justified with being so busy :-) So at the end of June we got to have Tom's sister, Beth and her family visit us for the first time in CO.  Not only was this the first time for their visit it was also the first time any of Tom's family has been able to visit him since he had left home.  I realize there are circumstances that prevent the others from traveling, so for those of you who haven't made it to see us, I do understand, but I also want Beth to hear how special this visit was to us.  (So Betty & Lorrie, please don't be offended by this.) 

While Beth and Rob and the kids were visiting we celebrated Beth's birthday, Mark's birthday, played with lots of water (balloons, squirt guns, slip n' slide, etc.), went to Focus on the Family and played, went to Garden of the God's, visited Petersen AFB (saw where Tom works and the amazing aircraft on base), and tried to go to a baseball game (but it was stormed too stormy out for us).  The kids all had tons of fun playing with lots of toys and enjoyed each other for the most part :-)

As always, there were lots of pictures taken!  You can see more here...  http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Incredible Day - Oh Happy Day

Even though we have been having a great and eventful weekend with family...I have to interrupt my posts and go out of chronological order for a moment.  Please forgive me, but this is a biggie!

Tonight Gregory asked Jesus into his heart!  We have talked about this various times and had conversations with him about this too, but tonight he seemed to get it more than in the past...so we are considering this "the day" Gregory asked Jesus into his heart and asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins.  When we told him that God and the angels were having a big celebration since he asked Jesus into his heart, he said, really?  They are?  And I told him, yes, they are.  So proud of Gregory and his decision.  Now we have the even bigger job of helping him to understand this each and every day.  We were talking afterwards about what it means to be a "follower of Jesus" and how now you need to tell others about Jesus and how he loves them too and Gregory replied by saying yeah and I can tell my friends that I asked Jesus into my heart!  Gregory's friends...you know who you are and he loves you all so much.  As I am typing this I am sad to think about leaving Colorado and the memories we have made here, but am so thrilled to say that in Colorado, Gregory asked Jesus into his heart.  I could write so much more about this, but I will leave it at this...thanks to everyone who has helped teach Gregory about Jesus and how much He loves him.