Welcome to the Netherlands!

I have experienced the life of first class and now I understand why Jason complains when he has to fly economy. It is easy to get spoiled! When we got to the airport, we went to the Continental Presidents Club Lounge; cozy seats, quiet relaxing atmosphere, complimentary snacks and beverages. As soon as we boarded the plane, we were welcomed by about five different flight attendants (they all had different titles which I can not remember). They offered us a beverage as soon as we sat down and gave us a menu so that we could select what we wanted to eat for our main course. As soon as we were airborne, they brought us a bowl of warm roasted nuts and took our drink order. I had champagne and they were refilling my glass every time it got less than 1/2 full. I had to tell them no more after the third refill. We were then served the following meal courses:

Appetizer: Seafood bisque with crabmeat, mini beef wellington, a tandoori chicken skewr with ancho chili sauce
Salad: Fresh greens salad with Parmesan peppercorn dressing and fresh garlic bread
Main Course: Dawn - Grilled sterling silver New York sirloin steak with pepper rub and herb glaze, sauteed spinach, roesti potatoes and a piquillo pepper filled with stewed eggplant and fresh mozarella cheese; Jason - Seared breast of chicken filled with fontina cheese and spinach, accompanied by port wine sauce, creamy polenta, broccolini and carrots; Justin and Lauren - Cheeseburger, salad, baby carrots, trailmix and milk
Fruit and cheese cart: select cheeses and fresh fruit
Dessert: Dreyer's Grand vanilla ice cream with choice of caramel, strawberry or chocolate syrup, whip cream and nuts.

Then, after we had reclined our large cozy seats and slept for several hours, they served us a breakfast of orange juice, fresh fruit, yogurt, cinnamon roll or croissant and then your choice of either cereal and banana or a cheddar cheese omelette with smoked pork loin, turkey sausage and broccoli gratin potatoes.

Now, even though this was all "airline food", I would have to say it was pretty good, the champagne may have helped that too.

We also all had our personal tv's were we could choose from a variety of movies, tv shows or interactive games to play. Lauren watched Brother Bear and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Then she slept until we landed.

Justin did great, better than I would have ever expected. The best money spent this year goes to the sit 'n' stroll! This is a FAA approved car seat that also transforms to a stroller. Justin loves it. We never had to take him out of it from before we got on the plane until we arrived at our house in Assen, besides changing his diaper and giving him a few moments of free time on the plane. He did awesome, no crying and lots of sleeping!


Once we landed at 8am we went through customs (easy), got all of our luggage; 8 bags, Lauren's carseat, stroller, and all of our carryons, and then we found our driver. We had a 2 hour drive to Assen and then we all got in bed and slept until 6pm. Jason then took us all to the grocery store. They had a child sized grocery cart for Lauren to use. She was the leader and took us down every aisle telling us what we needed to buy. Her cart was full by the time we went to check out.

We then came home, cooked dinner, got baths and put everyone in bed. At 2am, both of the kids decided they wanted to get up. So, after about an hour of watching some TV, we all got in bed again. Jason had to get up and go to work, but the kids and I slept until after noon! It may take us a few days to get used to this time change.

We are off to eat dinner with Jason's co-workers so I will write more later!

We Made It

Well, we are now in the Netherlands! The flight went great and we got to our temporary housing and have unpacked our luggage. It has been a very long day, but I think we will be able to get the kids adjusted to the new time zone fairly quickly. We are 7 hours ahead of Houston time. It is almost midnight so I am going to get a shower and head to bed. Check back tomorrow for a more in depth update. Thanks for all the prayers you sent our way!


Jason and Lauren on airplane, kids in the van on the way to Assen


Lauren having made herself at home, kids eating dinner

Let's Dance

Once again, presenting the theatrics of Lauren..... She received the High School Musical 3 CD for her birthday and has already choreographed dances to every song. I am really scared thinking about her as a teenager. Our hands are going to be full.

Princess Tea Party

This has been a girly weekend. Saturday we had Lauren's 5th birthday party. Her birthday is not until later this month, but with the big move coming up I wanted to have it early so she could get all the attention she deserves! This year the theme was Princess Tea Party. If you know me well, you know I like to take a theme and go overboard! I love it! The girls enjoyed dressing up, making necklaces, having a tea party, answering princess trivia questions to get to a treasure, and playing 'Pass the Poisoned Apple'. I think it all turned out great, but most importantly, Lauren said it was the best day ever and she loved everything about it. That means it was well worth all the time. She is my little princess and I love being able to make her feel like one! Thank you to all of her friends and family for being there and making her day special.

Lil' Miss Drama Queen

I took these videos a while back but just recently got them both uploaded to YouTube. This is an everyday occurrence with Lauren. She loves music, especially these two songs, and every song is a play to her. She definitely keeps me entertained. Enjoy!

Dance With Me Baby

Love Story

What a Joyful Day!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! It began with a delicious breakfast shared with our Sunday school class, followed by a wonderful sermon at church, and concluded with spending the afternoon with our family. We are so thankful!

Where's Daddy?

Justin loves to "wake up the computer" after I have put it in sleep mode. He always gets very excited when he sees the picture on my desktop of Jason and I and says "Dada, dada, dada!"

A Day in the Country

What a beautiful day it was today! There isn't a much better way to spend it than we did. The kids and I took a trip to Brenham with Gram-E (my mom), and Aunt April (my sister) met us there. We took pictures in a field of bluebonnets just outside of town, toured the BlueBell Creamery, and had lunch together. On the way home we stopped at the outlet mall on 290 to do a little shopping. When I asked Lauren what the favorite part of her day was she said "Eating cookies and cream ice cream!" Of Course!

Family Fun, Great Weather

Last Saturday we spent the day visiting several parks in our neighborhood while our house was being shown by realtors. We just drove around finding all of the little pocket parks in each subdivision and let Lauren pick out which ones she wanted to play at. It was a beautiful day and we had some very relaxing family time together, something we don't do enough of. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways, we just need to take more time to appreciate everything and give him thanks.

I love the following pictures. The first one was taken when we were exploring the neighborhood and playing at the park with Lauren when we first signed the papers to buy and build a house in our neighborhood. The second one was taken last week. Lauren has grown and changed so much in the short 3 1/2 years that we have been here. We have such great memories of living here that we will always cherish.

Spring Break at Winter Park

There is so much going on right now with the move, but I am going to get to that at a later post. I just wanted to share some pictures from our ski trip with you. It was Lauren's first time to ski and Justin's first time to Colorado. Both of them had a great time being with family and enjoying the outdoors. We rented a house in Fraser, CO, which is near Winter Park resort. It was a great family gathering with Jason's brother Mark and his family, his cousin Teri and her family, and his uncle Joe and aunt Pam. Lauren and her cousin Kaitlyn took 4 days of ski school together and by days 3 and 4 they were skiing down the bunny slope with no help. Jason and I were so proud of Lauren, she did awesome! The weather was beautiful and Justin loved being outside. Jason unfortunately was stuck working offshore the first 2 days of the vacation so the 2 kids and I flew to Colorado without him (don't want to do that again!) and he was able to make it there on Tuesday and salvage 2 days of skiing. I think both the kids are going to like skiing which makes Jason and I very happy!

Lauren is the skier in the back.