Happy 4th Birthday Noah T!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Noah!!!!!

Some pictures from the last 4 birthdays!

First week...

We were living in College Station, awaiting approval from the doctor that Mommy and Noah were fit to make the long journey up to Ft. Leonardwood where Daddy was anxiously waiting for us. Mimi and Pawpy drove us allll the way there!

First Birthday....

Daddy was deployed to Iraq, so he couldn't make it to your party. So, we had everyone dress up in Camo to remember him. You had a pretty cool tank birthday cake!

Second Birthday....

We were living in Poppenhausen. We made you special blueberry waffles and bacon for breakfast and cute little monkey cupcakes for your birthday cake!

Third Birthday....

All your sweet friends came out to celebrate you turning 3! Mom and Dad spent a long time creating a pretty spiffy bulldozer cake because you LOVE bulldozers!

Fourth Birthday morning....

Started the day off right with a Birthday Donut!!! We have lots more fun things planned for you on this special day! Mommy made you soccer ball and baseball cupcakes to take to Kindergarten today! And...this sunday we'll play outside and have a Spiderman party just for you!!!

Blessed beyond measure for sure with this little dude. He makes our hearts happy and light.

Best big brother around too!

Here's to you our lil 4 year old! We think "Yer the BEST!"

A New Year...a new beginning....a new home????

Yes, yes indeed.

The Houston family is heading back to Texas.

It's been [almost] 4 amazing years here in Germany.

All good things have to come to an end.

I think that's the way I will feel once we set foot on Texas soil.

We'll wonder if the last four years were just a dream.

Did we really live in Germany?

Well enough about that...and all those one-liner thoughts. [it was for dramatic affect...did it work?]

meh. Let's recap what's happened just this year....

• We had Jon's wonderful amazing beautiful talented (I could go on forever folks, she's just that cool) Shannon came to stay with us for 2 weeks.

Wowzah, did we have fun with her and we're still a little bit grumpy-pants that she's back in Texas. We thought we could convince her that the last semester of her senior year in college was over-rated and she should stay with us....I know I know, NOT going to happen, but hey we love her! Needless to say, we are counting the days till we get to see our beloved Shan again:)

• Jon and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of Marriage:)

Woot Woot!

Sorry you can't see our faces in our wedding photo here, cool idea though right?

We still feel the fireworks even after all these years...har har har...

Shan actually took this shot of us right as fireworks were exploding in the sky behind us on New years Eve!

• We are NOT ready to say goodbye to this sweet lady ( I realize that this is more of a statement than an event that has taken place...)

This is our beloved Emma. She's like our family. She's totally the smartest wisest woman you'll ever meet. Except you'd never know because she's so cautious of sharing her wisdom so as to not offend or push her "way" (as she calls it) on you. Shame Emma, Shame! You could save the world from cancer, bad doctors, etc. if you'd share your wisdom with everyone! :) We do NOT want to say goodbye to her. Everyone let's all give a collective "BOOOOO!" now...

• Noah said goodbye to his best friend, Anna Sophie.

She is Emma's grand daughter. She is the coolest girl. What pre-teen do you know will spend hours and I mean hours running around the house with a 3 year boy. This one that's who. She is so loved by Noah. He is devastated that she had to go back home to Macedonia (where her mom works at the German embassy) and that he won't get to see her again before we leave for Texas. Boo for saying goodbye.

We feel you Noah, we do.

Did I mention the boys weren't that thrilled about Shannon leaving either?

Yep, so they devised a plan to go with her...

Yep, it didn't work, nice try boys, nice try.

So, I believe that's enough to last ya for a few more days. Soon and very soon we should have official dates for our move to Texas:) We are happy and sad ..excited and scared. Stressed? meh, just a little.

But, did I mention Jon and I will finally get to have our first vacation, alone at the end of the month???? PARIS ...here we come! Oui Oui!

2011 ....what a crazy hard year!

2011....

There were certainly highs

...and very low lows.

The blogging was lacking...very lacking. But don't let that fool you, there was more than enough to blog about, I think too much, which kept me from getting on here and babbling on about it.

Who's ready for 2012?

We are!

I say half-heartidly...I want to kick 2011 out of here for all the hard times we've been through, but I cannot fully say that without being so thankful for all of it, good and bad.

Through the hard times you learn who your true friends are, your family never ceases to amaze you with their generosity, kindness, and prayers (even though they are hundreds and hundreds miles and an ocean away!), and....God's love. He has shown us his GREAT BIG love by providing for our every need, every hurt, every last challenge.

Without all the challenges and heart ache this year brought, we would have never known just how many people love us and how BIG God's love really is.

Here's to all of you!

We toast this New Year's Eve to all our support system from 2011!

Did we ever tell you about our little indian?

A few months back, Noah's German Kinder put on a small program in the village.

They had just completed learning theme all about Indians.

Noah's indian name was "kleinemond" ...."little mouth" ;)

Here's our little Indian playing and trying to keep up...

He's usually pretty shy around Kindergarten, very perceptive. He definitely knows the language and usually you will find him quietly observing when he's in a big group of his German friends.

What a cutie patootie!

He's a ball full of laughter that's for sure! He's sweet as can be. "Mommy, [rubbing my head bc i'm laying down with an headache] I'll take care of you" "Mommy can we go home now, so I can sleep with you "[he likes to nap with me on the couch] And lately he's been talking about how he would love a pair of soccer shoes and shorts.

We will surely miss his Kindergarten and the language he learns when we move back to Texas.

Our little ONE year old....

He's one.

Where did the time go?

We had a fun birthday planned for this one....but the weather had other plans...so we didn't get as many photo booth shots as we would have liked. Nonetheless...here are some favs:

We had a whole birthday party themed around pieces...

mostly M&M's. Pretty fun. Simple. Everyone took home baby food jars I had turned into M&M holders that said "We love you to pieces"...they were pretty cute...sadly, we didn't get a lot of pics because the our amazing photographer

had to go home and take care of windows and such because it had started storming about 45 minutes into the party.

Here's Jon and James escaping the weather...but not before he had his

first chocolate cupcake!

My sweet friend Jen would simply NOT let him go without getting as much cupcake as possible!

This is Jon's way of saying ...he doesn't think the weather is that bad, stay awhile, James is!

(I promise no kiddos were injured playing in the rain...)

Noah...sort of tested a cupcake before we arrived..so he got to eat his before everyone else.

James is a happy little one, most of the time.

He just started walking, although he still thinks the one legged scoot is much quicker.

He loves playing with his big brother, who takes great care of him, most of the time (as long as his favorite toys aren't involved) ;)

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Too Much!

How much is too much? I mean in the ways of apologizing? I keep saying sorry every time I get on here to post. Figures.

Unless you know what's been going on in our lives!

I will just summarize some highs and lows, not in any specific order, however they all occurred this past summer. That's right Summer of 2011...we'll surely remember you because:

• Peter, our landlord here in Germany, passed away.
• I, Angie Houston, completed my very first Triathlon!
• Jon completed a HalfIronman race
• Jon trains for a full Ironman race in August
• Jon has to give up Ironman bc he has testicular cancer
• Our baby James turned ONE!
• Jon has surgery to remove the testicle with cancer, told he needs chemo and then sees his cancer levels decrease= no chemo necessary!!!!
• Jon starts training again...this time for a small sprint distance Triathlon
• Jon starts studying for the Professional Engineers exam

Some pictures to illustrate what we've been doing...

Houston boys...LOVE to stretch!

Little James "reading" his Birthday card from GiGi

I finished my Triathlon 1:37 minutes! 13 minutes faster than I thought!

Noah getting super excited about riding the swings with Daddy!

The most incredible man I know...Jon. FINISHING his half Ironman race in just under 5 hours! His goal was to finish in 6! Way to go Jonny J!

Crazy summer, lots of drama, lots of tears, lots of sweat, lots of sleepiness....but

GOD IS STILL GOOD!

We praise him for all the things we have been through this Summer. We serve an amazing God that "Works all things for the good of those that love Him" Romans 8:28

James update...

Hello everyone.

Here's some pictures from about a month ago of James. 8 months never looked so cute!