First Outing

It has been a LONG time coming, but I'm finally doing this! I figure if I don't do it now, it's not going to happen after the baby arrives. We are expecting baby girl #2 (Peyton?) in less than two weeks now. I will try to keep this current with the new baby and all of Ellie's activities after she arrives...

Things are going well here in Berlin. It's a gorgeous city and we're really enjoying our time here so far. We just returned from London, where we spent Christmas. It was wonderful and our last "hoorah" before the baby arrives. I was a bit past where you're supposed to be to fly, but we figured, at least they speak English there so let's go for it! Casey made a video for youtube of our Christmas in London plus our "second Christmas morning" we had back here in Berlin with all of Ellie's toys that were too big to travel with:

And here is a silly little one I took of Casey and Ellie on the London Eye:

I am still feeling great with this pregnancy. I've felt wonderful and been able to stay pretty active. I'm just to the point, though, that I'm HUGE, not sleeping that well and ready to NOT be pregnant anymore! Seriously, why do my face and arms have to get fat when I'm pregnant, too??!! Haha... If she doesn't arrive sooner on her own, we're scheduled for a C-section on January 12th. Mom arrives on Saturday and we can't wait! Poor Ellie... I never should have told her that "Nana B" was coming so far in advance. She wakes up every morning and from every nap asking for her! Anyway, I'm actually hoping the baby doesn't come early because I'm hoping to get the chance to show mom around the city for a week or so beforehand. Fingers crossed...

Ellie is doing great. A little maniac but SO much fun. She is two now so she has her moments, but truly she is almost always a happy girl. Some of her "latests":

She is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The other day I dropped something and said, "Whopsey Daisy!" She looked at me a little confused, got a funny grin on her face and yelled, "Whopsey DONALD!!!"

She has mastered her basic colors and shapes now.

She loves her music/CD's in the car. For the past few weeks, we have been listening to a children's Christmas album and she knows ALL the words to Rudolph, Frosty, Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, etc...

She still terrorizes Harley every chance she gets.

If you say to her, "See you later, alligator", she yells, "CROC-O-DILE!!!"

She MUST "help" Mommy in the kitchen. Sometimes to Mommy's great frustration... :)

Her new favorite TV show is Tom & Jerry. We have SkyTV here (British version of DirecTV) and we get Boomerang. :)

She is in HEAVEN at Daddy's basketball games. Superfan for sure. I have to say, though, that she does seem to get just as excited for the dancers as she does for Casey:

Basketball is going well for Casey. We are in 1st place in the German league and have played pretty well in Euroleague as well. We've lost a few that we shouldn't have in Euroleague and we've pretty much got to win out the rest of the first round here to make the top 16. Positive thoughts are appreciated.

That should do it for my first posting. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas as well to end things...