BED HEAD!

We took this picture last week and I just had to put it up...Tyler was born with a lot of hair - but Alex has her beat! I don't recall Ty having bed head at 4 weeks old LOL

June Pictures!

June Countdown to Israel

Well its been a while since my last blog. Aside from some post-op complications (infection, etc) and taking care of a toddler and newborn we had one last factor come in and create more work for us: PCS Move this July!! LOL

Okay - this is not a complete surprise for us. We knew it was supposed to be happening but it wasn't till right before Alex was born that we were more certain that the plans for us were not going to change...now we have an RFO so I can finally say with certainty that we are moving this summer to Israel for a year. Yup, you read that correctly we are moving to Israel :-) Tel Aviv to be more specific. We are looking forward to it - there is so much there to see/experience even though there are places you obviously still cannot go to. Supposedly we will be living close to a beach and I can handle that NO PROBLEM!! haha

It does however make for interesting times now...All the joys of a PCS move to a foreign country AND we need the passport Alex, certificates for the dogs, car shipping (we have already sold the other car and are now down to one), etc. Given that the housing is or can be furnished we are figuring out what is coming and what is staying in storage, etc.

Sebastian will be headed there at the beginning of July for a couple of weeks while we wait on the passport and actual orders. Hopefully it all comes quickly that we will all be there together by the end of July. Time is flying!!

Alex and I are doing well. This recovery did not go as smoothly as when I had Ty (never had a problem post-op after Ty's birth).... Thankfully, everything seems to have gone back on track (yeah infection, etc is NOT something I want to be dealing with while moving LOL).

Alexandra had her first wellness appointment and is already growing like a weed! She was 8.9 lbs when born, went down to 8.3 and is now up at 9.2 :-) She likes to eat!! She also likes to make noise - squeeking and 'talking' as we calling...she sounds like a little Ewok.

Ok long enough post - I will try to post more often over the coming weeks so they are not so long, but I am not making any promises :) Here are some more recent pictures!

ALEXANDRA ZOEY PASTOR IS HERE!

Alexandra arrived Friday, May 23rd at 11:37 AM

Big Sis and lil Sis taking a well deserved break together!


She was born at Weiden Hospital, Germany about 2 weeks early and weighed in at 8.8 pounds and 21 inches long = as big as Tyler was, just past her due date! It was via c-section and while it didn't quite go as smoothly as Ty's, we are both doing great. In fact I think I am healing and up & around faster this time around LOL though part of that may be necessity :-)

Sebastian was AWESOME and he and Tyler got some true "Daddy & Ty" time. She is still following him around everywhere mimicking all that he does :-) No jealously rearing up much yet which is nice. The hardest thing has been that I cannot pick her up yet and she doesn't completely understand why I can carry Alex but not her. She has had a few meltdowns over that but we are working on it. Daddy’s ice cream and park time certainly seems to help a lot :)

We were discharged on Monday (a process that takes ALLLLL day here) and were home Monday evening. Since then we have been resting trying to get into new routines and, of course, begin all paperwork for the Army, etc….

To Lori H and Stephanie -

Special thanks to you wonderful friends for helping out - we don't know what we would have done without you!! Knowing you were taking care of Ty for us gave us a piece of mind that was so needed and appreciated while in the hospital!

More updates later but here are some pictures for now. Time to take a break :)

Me and Mom!

Ty and Alex visiting at the hospital .....

Finally at home .......relaxing with Dad

Finally feels like summer!

Well the weather has finally turned it seems and it is starting to feel like summer :-) YEAAAA! I still need a better picture of me than the ones below - thanks for the 'you're huge/swallowed a balloon' comments LOL - and I will try for that this week. You just don't think it is possible to get bigger but, I swear, in the last couple of weeks I have! I have yet another doctor visit this Thursday to see when Alex should be making her arrival - I don't think we will be going to June 4/5.

We went to Ramstein to get out of Graf for a bit and pick up a few last minute things for Alex as well. Somehow we forgot that it was Cinco de Mayo weekend. It was great. Even though the 5th fell on the Sunday they were still doing stuff on Saturday as well making it a more interesting visit. (The picture above was taken there.)

There are more photos below of the local 'duck park' as the kids call it :) I had planned on doing books for Mothers Day but found out only after doing the layout and everything that the pictures were not of a high enough quality to print with. Talk about %$#^% you off. Sure enough, I went into the camera and while 'superfine' was selected there are apparently better options still in there LOL So I have changed the setting and will have to take a bunch more

pictures to do a book with. In the meantime I will post some of the others here.




Checking out the crowd and starting to dance!

I'll go with Dad to take a closer look :-)





















"Now this is what right looks like" - Ty

Grafenwohr "Duck' Park















All at the park......



















Ty and Paige checking out some ducks.....

















They've found something!


















Then it's off with Drew to the

...park favourite!