Cookie Time

We had some friends coming over today, so we decided to make some cookies for them! Riley Cates and I are both good helpers now. And by good helpers, I mean that we can make a good mess!

I am trying to teach her how stir gently. That doesn't always go so well, but I try!

I decided that cars were more fun, so Riley Cates helped Mommy roll the cookies in sugar and cinnamon (we were making snickerdoodles!). You should have seen Riley Cates! Even her feet were covered in sugar by the end. I don't even know how that happened!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, and let's be honest, they are mostly gone now! And I also meant to take some pictures with our friends, but I just forgot! To make up for it, I'll show you a picture of tonight's beautiful sunset!

Funny Story

It's a funny story now anyway (I don't think Mommy and Daddy thought it was particularly funny at the time!). We had to go pick up a bookshelf from a friend, and we thought it would just take a little while. Well, we went right at rush hour, so a trip that normally takes 30 minutes took over an hour! Yikes! Even though we had supper ready at home, we were too hungry to make it all the way back. Yay for McDonald's! (I think we have eaten at McDonald's more since we have been in Europe than we ever did in the States!) Then we noticed we were almost out of gas and didn't know where to find a gas station. When we finally found one, it was closed! We found a few more closed ones before driving back to the McDonald's area because we knew there was one there. Although we added another hour onto our trip at this point, we were thankful to be able to continue driving! We were supposed to run in the store on the way home to pick up breakfast, but we were all too tired at that point, so we found Krispy Kreme! Totally not a typical British evening, but we were happy with our American finds... and with making it safely home without running out of gas! 

More Great Windows

Not only do we have great window sills in the kitchen, but we also have them throughout the house. Our favorite one (when we aren't eating) is in the hall right outside of Riley Cates's room. It has the amazing view I have shown you pictures of before, and it is a fun place to sit with blankets and airplanes!

It is also a perfect place for catching up on some reading.

Although sometimes we get a little over ambitious about how much we can read...

Window Sills

For the first week and a half of our time in Hexham, we did not have much furniture. 

We shipped over a bunch of stuff, but not a table or chairs for the kitchen. 

The picnics on the floor didn't go so well because at least one of us tends to make lots of big messes (but I won't name any names).

 So we happily ate sitting on the window sills! (That helped a little with the messes but still not much).

In fact, now that we have a table, we kind of miss eating at the window and ask Mommy from time to time if we can have lunch there!

But if you come to visit, we won't make you eat on the window sills... unless, of course, you want to!

They even have tractors here!

Everyone who knows me, knows that I love tractors. And guess what?!? They even have them in England! Hooray!

Mr. Nigel brought his tractor over today so that he could get some of the boxes we had taken over our house. That's a lot of boxes!

And that is one cool tractor!

We got to check it out!

Riley Cates loves tractors too!

It was even fun to watch it go away.

Mr. Nigel had to raise all of the boxes to fit out of the driveway! Tractors are so cool!

What a fun treat for today!

Off to Church!

We love going to church on Sundays! Right now we meet in an office building. Here's the sign out front that lets us know where to go!

I love taking the lift rather than walking all the way up one whole flight of stairs.

Here is where we meet for the service. We had a great problem this morning in that all of the chairs were completely full! We need more space!

After church we get to play with our friends.

I love these girls!

And they are so sweet to listen to me and play with me!

Riley Cates likes playing with the new little baby. She is only two months old, and she is so cute! (She is a real baby, even though she looks like a baby doll in this picture!)

While the kids play, the grown-ups have tea and enjoy time together!

We are enjoying getting to know our new friends!

Our First Day

I found the camera cord! Hooray! So I will back up and give you a few pictures from the past two weeks.

On February 6 we headed to the airport in Belgium and got to fly on some small planes (I like the bigger ones better). I love sitting by the window and watching everything outside.

Riley Cates had her own seat this time, and she didn't even have to sit in her carseat! What a big girl! It really helped that the snacks on both flights were waffles!

I call this picture, "What Were We Thinking?!?" With two carseats, a pack n play, suitcases, and lots of carry on bags, we were quite the site to see! The nice thing was that it took us so long to get off the plane and go through Customs that we were the only people at the baggage claim! It was easy to spot our bags!

This is where you will fly in when you come visit us!

Traveling is hard. We were exhausted but glad to finally be in our new home! We didn't have any furniture yet, so we had to relax on the counters!

They make a good place for a nap!

We ate our first meal in our new home picnic style. One of our friends made us a yummy lasagna, which we devoured! We were so thankful for lots of help getting settled!

Oh, and I will leave you with one more picture of our view. Just to tempt you again to come see us! How can you resist?

We're Here!

We are in England! It is hard to believe, but we have moved into our new house and are trying to figure out life in Hexham! We have been here for about two weeks, and yesterday was the first day we had internet or phones! Crazy! I have lots of pictures to catch you up on! Unfortunately I can't find the camera cord this evening. I'm sure I put it somewhere safe... So we'll just go with a few pictures that are already on the computer for today.

Here is the view we see each day. And it is the middle of winter! Can you imagine how beautiful it will be when it is summer?

This is the view out of the other side of the house. Our house used to be part of a farm. Well, it still is part of a farm, but these buildings have been renovated and turned into homes. Ours used to be a granary, which happens to be the name of our house. We're connected to these other houses that you see in the picture, and we have some really nice neighbors. One of the other families is also from America, and they are moving back in a few weeks. And just to show what a small world it is after all, the husband went to Clemson! We told him that orange is not our favorite, but we are glad to have a bit of South Carolina connection over here in England!

We have already adapted to our new home and are taking up tea time!

When in Rome, right? (Or England. Whatever.)

Oh, also, we didn't have a table for the first week and a half, so this counter and the window sills are where we had all of our meals! Those were some fun (and messy!) picnics!

What's that? You're ready to come visit us? Come on! We have a place for you!

Little Fork

Whenever we go get frites here, they always give us these little forks. I finally realized what they are for! This is the polite way to eat frites. (Especially when you dip them in mayonnaise! Yum!)

Riley Cates loves to dip, dip, dip!

Perfect!

And after we eat our fries, I get to see my favorite thing... The train station! 

Fries and trains. Does it get any better?

Luxembourg

(Note: I knew we wouldn't have internet for a bit in England, so I am writing these posts early! I will update you on life in Hexham as soon as I can!)

After we saw Papa's memorial last week, we drove down to Luxembourg for a quick visit. We stayed at a fun hotel near the city center.

Not a bad view out of our window!

But the best part? Can you guess where we ate?

McDonald's! A little piece of home! Mommy got a McBaguette. You can't get those just anywhere! Plus check out these cool straws they gave me. There were chocolate pieces inside, so when you drank white milk through it, the milk turned chocolate! Yum!

It was a nice getaway with our family on our day off!

Bye Bye Belgium!

Today was our last day in Belgium! We have had a wonderful month with some wonderful people!

Aren't we a great looking group?

It was a very sweet morning as all of our new friends spent some time praying for us and Mr. John and Mrs. Julie as our families are headed to our new homes!

We leave bright and early in the morning to head to England!!!