Merry Christmas

David, Kelly & Sydney wish you a wonderful Christmas. We hope you have a great time with family and friends and all the best for the New Year.

Saudi Arabia

During the month of November, I spent 4 weeks in Saudi Arabia doing a field survey as part of my diplom thesis. Most of the time I was out in the desert doing infiltration tests on different soil types. So I saw a lot of the desert in and around the capital Riyadh. During one occasion I was driving in the desert and stopped by a big dune. When you drive over the edge it's like driving into nothing until the front of the car finally drops down and you can see the sand again. It was a wired feeling to drive over the edge without seeing anything.

Sometimes I had to talk to people to get permission to do the field survey on their property. Most of them were very friendly and I had no problems what so ever. In fact it was more of a challenge to get away from them because they would offer you tea or coffee and would invite to over for lunch or dinner. Most often I had no clue what I was eating but, it always tasted good.

I drove a Toyota Hilux 2500 Diesel which was good because I had to carry a lot of water on the bed in order to be able to do my infiltration test. But the best thing was the gas price. 1 liter of diesel cost only 5 cent (Euro). It was fun to buy gas.

November was also the best month to go there. It was between 20 and 30°C the entire time, so not too cold and not too hot.

Fun at Oma & Opa's

Sydney and I have been at David's parents house for the past week while David is in Saudi Arabia working on his Diplom thesis. Anyways I promised David I would take lots of pictures and videos. Sydney is walking. She started before Halloween with a couple very wobbly steps and now she's much more confident and walking when ever she can.




Sydney has also been enjoying having a full sized bathtub. She loves water to start with but she goes crazy in the tub here. WARNING: naked baby.

She's Walking

Yesterday, the 30th Syd took 3 steps one after the other for the first time. Up until now she had done one step from one piece of furniture to the other. Now she walks with one of us towards the other person and takes the last steps by herself, and she does this with the biggest grin on her face.



Sydney also celebrated her first Halloween yesterday night in the traditional American way. Lots of candy, people of all ages in costumes and a spook alley. Too bad she is too young to enjoy any of these activities - but she looked really cute in her pink butterfly costume.

Flowers & Shoes

My husband is the greatest. What does every girl love, flowers and shoes. Well on Friday my husband brought me flowers just cause he saw them on this way home and thought they looked nice - which they do, he got me 7 different colors of roses all mixed with fall colored leaves. Then on Saturday, he actually told me to go and buy shoes - which is a very rare thing, seeing as I have a closet full of shoes. I love him and all the sweet things he does for me.

Sydney's new toy

Who ever said that kids need toys is wrong. All they need is the packaging from the toys. I opened up a package today, and Syd was going crazy dancing and going round and round the box. She circled it for over 45 minutes today. It was just too funny to not take a video. Enjoy

I HATE Traffic Jams!!!

So on Thursday we left just after 1pm to head off to Jahnsdorf (400kms away,) to go to a cousin's wedding reception. Okay, so 400km, plus traveling with a small baby, that should take what 4 1/2 to 5 hours right. WRONG.
There are so many things I love about Germany, but Traffic jams on the Autobahns here have to be the number 1 thing I hate about Germany. It took us over 7 hours to drive just over 400 km due to countless construction zones and endless traffic jams. We obviously weren't on time but we still did get to enjoy the reception.
The rest of the weekend was spent at my In-laws, so Syd could play with Oma and Opa.
Sunday around 2:30 we started back towards Stuttgart (also just over 400 kms away) The first 2 1/2 hours were fine, very little construction or traffic jams. Then just after 5pm, we saw a km sign and figured we'd easily make it home by 7:30.
Not even 5 minutes later we entered probably the longest traffic jam ever (at least for us), not only were the regular commuters head back to work, but there was also the people coming back from the long weekend. There was one construction zone that we were stuck in it was 8km long and only a single lane, David was so happy driving through this section. The only benefit of driving on the German autobahns is that once you finally get out of the traffic jams, you can drive as fast as you want. So David drove up to 180km/h. He would have driven faster but we only had a small car which didn't go faster. Anyways, we finally made it home at 10pm, almost 8 hours for a 400 km stretch of Highway.

I Love when she Laughs

Our little girl loves to laugh. She has a blast when you make faces or repeat things over and over again. Her laugh is contagious, don't you think?

Sydney thinks Mommy is silly



Sydney's stinky feet

The Stevens

So as previously mentioned we were in Canada this September for Kerry and Pascal's Wedding. Kerry and Pascal got married at Stringer's Cottage (previously McGinn's) on Lake Kenogamissi. They were married on the 5th of September, surrounded by their immediate family members. There were 24 guests there to see the rained on ceremony, the rain was light so it made everything just a little wet and not ruined. Then we had a casual evening with a huge BBQ dinner of Steaks, Potatoes, and tons of salad.

The next night was the wedding reception at the Shania Twain Centre. The room was packed full with family and friends, lots of music, food and drink. It was nice to see more family members and old friends there.

It was definitely a very memorable weekend, that won't be forgotten for a long, long time. Congrats again, Kerry and Pascal.

Sydney's Favourite Aunt Kerry

While we were in Canada we went swimming with Sydney. Pascal has a friend with a pool. So Sydney, Kelly, David, Kerry, Pascal, Michelle and Olivia went over to Pascal's friends place. The water was rather cold so only the girls with the two babies went swimming. Pascal and I stayed outside where it was warm. After 15 minutes or so everyone decided it was too cold to stay in the water. Once outside everybody dried off and Kerry ended up with both girls. As you can see Aunt Kerry doesn't mind holding her two nieces.

Our Trip to Canada

During the first two weeks of September we were in Canada. Kerry (Kelly's sister) was getting married. It was a nice wedding but I will talk about that later.

The flight was long but Sydney sleep nearly 4 hours during the transatlantic flight. She has absolutely no problem travelling. The only thing she hates is customs. Every time we had to wait, or put her in the buggy, or take her out of the buggy for screening she was .... well lets say, she was a loud girl.

The first few days were very warm and sunny. We went to a nearby park with fountains, sand, and grass. She loved walking in the sand, was a bit unsure of what to think of the picky grass, and loved holding onto daddy when running through the water. We sure had a lot of fun.

The weather for rest of the time in Timmins wasn't that great so Sydney stayed inside or went for walks in the mall. One night Kerry picked her up to babysit, so we could go on a date. Well, it was more a shopping trip with dinner at Wendy's, but it was fun and we enjoyed our time alone. Kerry and Sydney had a blast. They love each other. I guess Kerry won Sydney's heart by having screaming contests. Every time they were together they would scream at each other. I think I even got headaches once in a while from them.
We had one big problem while we were in Canada. Sydney hated the food. We tried different kinds of baby food but she didn't like it. When we gave her a spoonful she gagged and stopped eating and drinking until her mouth was empty. So all we could do was feed her fruit, milk and Cheerios. Everyday we tried something new but she never ate it properly even homemade food. Once we were back in Germany she was so happy to have her "Good German Food" again. She ate fine again from the first day.

During the two weeks Sydney took over the living room little by little. By the end of the two weeks she was the Boss in there. She had so many big toys in such a small room that it was nearly impossible to cross the room without stepping on something. I guess Grandma loves her a lot for allowing that, but when I think about it our living room doesn't look much better.

Sydney and Paul Potts

When Sydney was about 5 months old, a new commercial from Telekom started in Germany . It shows the performance of Paul Potts from the “Brittan’s Got Talent” show. Our daughter Sydney loves that guy or at least she loves the song "Nessun Dorma". Whatever she is doing she stops and watches the commercial. I guess we know what we will play for her wedding.

My Baby is 8 months old!

Time goes by so fast - I can't believe that my little girl is 8 months old. It seems like just yesterday that I was pregnant with her. She is a lot of fun but also trying, but then again what baby isn't? She is crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on everything she can find, and walking circles in the living room.

When she wakes up in the morning I bring her to bed sometimes hoping she might lie down with us. When she is in our bed all she wants to do is crawl to the head piece an stand up. Once she succeeded she is the happiest child in the world.

We're back with a new Blog

Hello Family, Friends and Visitors,. Welcome to our blog. As you might know we have a homepage as well, but it is a lot easier to post pictures here on a blog. You will find information's and pictures about our life before 2008 on our homepage. Kelly will also post pictures on Facebook.

We had another blog before but it got deleted. Don't know why or what we did or didn't do but we're back.

David, Kelly & Sydney