Dubel Party of 4

 A lot of people have asked how we’re doing as a family of four. How is Emily as a big sister? Has the transition been easy? Are we getting any sleep?

Proud big sister meeting baby brother for the first time.

Honestly, the transition has been and is still difficult. Emily is a wonderful big sister when she wants to be. Some days she wants to love on brother, and other days she avoids him like the plague. Those are the days I fear because those are the days she acts out. My smart, intelligent, articulate three-year-old starts acting like a baby. She starts crying about every little thing, she tries to talk like a baby (grunting unintelligible things), all while trying to be an independent child who could care less about the rules. Now I know that three-year-olds are difficult to begin with, and her world has been turned upside down numerous times in past two months or so, but it is starting to take a toll on all of us. Almost every day is a power struggle, and although I know her strong will and independence will be amazing qualities when she is older, right now it is difficult. Before having a three-year-old I heard awful things about “terrible twos.” Three makes two look like a walk in the park now. Have you hear of a threenager? That’s exactly what we have on our hands right now. Being three is hard, being three with a new brother is a whole new ball game. 

She can be the biggest helper, and sweetest sister.

Learning to co-exist, and how we need to be gentle with babies.

Kisses for brother on Valentine's Day.

Sleep. What is that? I never knew what sleep deprivation was until I had Travis. I know now how INCREDIBLY lucky we were with Emily as a newborn, well really until she was about 18 months and we moved back to the states. Emily was the perfect baby. She stuck to a predictable schedule, was sleeping through the night (7-8 hours) when she was 6 weeks old, and by about 12 weeks old she was sleeping 12 hours a night. We. Were. LUCKY! Travis has been all over the place. Part of it, I think, is because he has had digestive issues, but also he is just a normal baby. Some days he sticks to a good feeding schedule, while other days he surprises me and wants to eat more often. He also LOVES to be held, rocked, and cuddled. There are many naps and nights where I need to hold him while he sleeps. 

I would never get to see these sweet little moments if he didn't want to be held when he sleeps. 

Emily was never like that and didn’t like to cuddle until she was almost two. At first I was ungrateful, and just complained more and more about being tired and how Travis never sleeps unless he is held. However, I was looking at it all wrong. I. Am. LUCKY! I have this sweet baby boy who needs me and wants me to feel secure. I am lucky! I get to watch him sleep. He scrunches his little face when he is having (what I think is) a bad dream, and he smiles quite a bit when he sleeps too. I can’t remember how Emily used to sleep when she was his age and that breaks my heart. She always slept in her bed with little to no help from us. She didn’t like to be rocked to sleep, in fact she wouldn’t fall asleep being held unless she was sick. Emily didn’t need us then like Travis needs us now. So although the sleepless nights make for difficult days, I’ll cherish being able to hold my son when he needs me too because one day he won’t need me and it will break my heart.

One month new on February 11th. His one and only monthly picture in our house in Texas.

How have we adjusted to life in Korea? Well, that post will need to wait. My babies need me now. 

Hmm... Yaki Tacos!

I LOVE Yaki Tacos from Islands Restaurant! To be honest, had I not worked there back in high school, I probably would have never tried them, but I am so glad I did! Who would have thought that teriyaki would go so well with tacos?

We're moving in a few weeks and we are trying to use up any and all food in our house before we leave. So this recipe uses ground pork because, again, that's what we had, but you can use grilled or sautéed bite size chicken to make it more like the real Yaki Tacos at Islands. When the recipe gets down to the garnishes, I didn't add amounts, it's up to you how much you want to add. :-)

Pork Yaki Tacos

Ingredients

1 cup pineapple juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 c onion, finely diced

1 lb lean ground pork

1 tbsp flour

10 flour tortillas

Pepper jack cheese, shredded (you can also you regular jack cheese, we just like spicy food!)

Romaine lettuce, shredded (you can use ice berg too)

Cilantro, chopped

Green onions, sliced

Jalapeños, diced

Pineapple, chopped (we used a drained can of pineapple, but fresh would work too)

Ranch dressing

In a small sauce pan, mix pineapple juice and the following through the onion powder. Heat on medium-low heat until the sugar is dissolved; set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-hight heat and sautée onions until translucent, but not brown. Add the pork and cook until no longer pink; stirring frequently. Sprinkle in the flour and cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Add the sauce and reduce heat to low and simmer until the suave thickens, about 5 minutes.

Building the tacos from the bottom up: tortilla,  cheese, pork, lettuce, cilantro, jalapeños, green onions, ranch (drizzle), and pineapples.

We ate our Yaki Tacos with some leftover pinto beans and it was amazing! Hope you enjoy theses as

much as we did!

Side note:  this teriyaki sauce is great to use with  any dish calling for teriyaki sauce. I've used it with chicken and served it with white rice and it was so yummy! My 15 month old loves this sauce because it's sweet and delicious!

Time for Change

It’s been quite some time since our last blog post. I had everything written out and pictures in place for a post about our week long trip to the Canary Island of Tenerife, but when I pressed “Publish” it all disappeared, even after I had hit “Save” a few moments before. Needless to say, I was upset and angry. At that point, I had no desire to put another 2 hours into the same post.

Since then, I have decided to change the way our blog is done. It will still have periodical posts about our travels, but now it will have posts about Emily and how much she is changing, some recipes I have created, tried or tweaked, and our life in general. I am hoping that with these new additions I will get better about blogging. Clearly, I am not the best at posting because I haven’t posted anything since March. So here is what’s been going on in our lives since then…

April and May were kind of a blur, so let’s skip straight to June. In the middle of June, Emily and I flew to California to visit our family and friends for 6 weeks. The flight was awful, Emily did okay, and we made it in one piece. It was AMAZING that I was greeted with an ice cold beer from my in-laws, yeah, they’re awesome! On June 28^th, our sweet baby girl turned ONE! The following day we had a small party with family at Grandma2’s house. It was a lot of fun, and Emily Jean could not have been a better guest of honor. She smiled for photos, endured being passed around from person to person, ate her cake, didn’t cry (even when we sang to her), and went down for her nap per usual. It was great that we were able to get many of our family members together to celebrate this momentous occasion. 

The birthday girl and me (with cake on my face, courtesy of Em).

Some other fun things we did while were in California... we went to:

The San Diego Zoo

 

The Del Mar Fair

Disneyland (Emily & Logan)

Balboa Island

Seaport Village

The Birch Aquarium

and Logan’s 1^st Birthday Party!

I did have a little kid-free time while I was there, and in that time, I went to:

My first Angels’ baseball game

 

Was a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding. I have no photos of me in the wedding (obviously) but here is photo of the bride and her ladies before we went to dinner for her Bachelorette Party.

The beautiful bride and me before the ceremony. I feel so honored to have been a part of her special day! 

I also went to the beach. I LOVE the beach! Oh yeah, and California burritos!

We had a wonderful time back in the states, but we were ready to get back to Germany. Another international flight with Em and we were home. It  was not an easy flight, and I promise I will not willingly fly alone internationally with Emily ever again. She cried, I cried, yeah, it was awful.

It took a while to get back into our same routine once we were back on Germany time. Emily went through serious withdrawals, and we had a few tough love days in there as well. Since we've been home, we have tried to lay low and not do too much. We did go to Pig Fest in Wittlich with some friends in the middle of August. Although, I can't seem to find those photos...

An update on Emily:

She is now 14 months old and walking! She started walking when we were back in the states and has since perfected this skill. Emily is trying to run, but isn’t quite there yet. She loves to eat and will eat just about anything. I am very thankful that she isn’t a picky eater because that makes my life a whole lot easier. Emily enjoys playing with the dogs, even though sometimes they don’t want anything to do with her, and playing with her friends here in Germany.

Also, we found out we are moving to Dallas Fort Worth, TX at the end of the year. Sadly, our time in Germany is coming to an end, but we are ready for this next chapter in our lives. We have traveled to more places in 3 years then most people do in their entire life. We have one more trip to Italy planned before we move back to the good ol' US of A. 

I have a few recipes to share, some that have been requested, and others that I would like to post. Hopefully I will be able to post them soon. XOXO 

London

Dave and I had talked about going to London ever since we found out we were moving to Germany. Finally, after being in Europe for two years, we decided to go for a long weekend to celebrate our birthdays. 

We drove to Brussels, Belgium and took a train through the English Channel to London. We arrived in London on Friday evening and decided to hang out at the hotel and grab some food near the hotel because it had already been a long day of traveling for Em. 

The next day our adventure started! On our first day of sightseeing we went to/saw: Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Parliament Square, took a ride on the London Eye, and walked around Leicester Square. 

Big Ben and the London Eye

 Em and me in front of Big Ben

 View of Big Ben from this amazing little bar, Stephen's Tavern. A friend of mine had pinned a much better photo than this on Pinterest, and after seeing it, I was determined to find this tavern to get a similar photo. Unfortunately, there was a police bus in the picture, and someone else was already sitting at this table where the photo was taken and didn't want to keep bugging them so that I could get that perfect picture. Nonetheless, it was an awesome place to stop at to have a beer, eat some fish 'n chips, and feed little Emily. 

 Here is Dave in front of Westminister Abbey. Photographs weren't allowed to be taken inside, so unfortunately I have none to post. It looks exactly like it did in the video footage from Prince William and Kate's wedding. Yes, that is one of the reasons I wanted to go there. I also wanted to go there because it is full of history and there are many famous people buried there. It was truly amazing to see the fine workmanship that went into creating such a wonderful place. 

 A view of the London Eye from the bridge near Big Ben

 Em slept through the ENTIRE London Eye ride

 Riding the London Eye was an experience we will never forget. The views were absolutely breathtaking! Below is a view of Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminister Abbey. 

After a long day of sightseeing, Emily just wanted to play on the bed back at the hotel.

 The next day, we were off to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. 

We arrived at Buckingham Palace about an hour before the Changing of the Guards with hopes of getting a great view... that didn't work out that well for us. It was so busy! Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought that was a good idea. =) 

Buckingham Palace

Us in front of Buckingham Palace

The end of the Changing of the Guards

Next stop, St. Paul's Cathedral. Just like Westminister Abbey, photographs aren't allowed inside St. Paul's so I only have these two from the outside. Also, because we visited on a Sunday, there were no tours available.

 The front of St. Paul's Cathedral

 D at St. Paul's Cathedral

Our next sight to see was the London Bridge. She's not much to look at, but fun to see none the less. We've seen the original that is now in Lake Havasu, AZ plenty of times! 

 Em and me on the London Bridge. Yes, she is sleeping! 

After seeing the London Bridge, we walked along the river on the Thames Path to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. 

Once we got to the Tower of London, Emily woke up and was in need of a diaper change and some food (or so we thought). She definitely needed the diaper change, but was less than interested in drinking her bottle. So, we packed up all of our stuff and headed toward the ticket office to purchase our tickets for the Tower of London. Well, the last tickets are sold at 4:00 pm and we showed up at 4:05 pm! We were so bummed that we weren't going to be able to see the Crown Jewels! We were even more bummed that we wouldn't have time to go back to the Tower of London the next day because we were leaving to go home... 

So instead of having being able to explore the Tower of London, we just took a few pictures in front of it. 

Behind us in this picture is the beautiful Tower Bridge. It is much more picturesque than the London Bridge. The Tower Bridge is where they hung the Olympic Rings this past year. 

 We had about an hour or so to kill before we had to be at the train station to go home, so we were able to squeeze in one more sight. Here is the famous Sherlock Holmes' home, 221b Baker Street! We didn't have that much time, so we unfortunately didn't get to take the tour.  

We had such and AMAZING time in London! I wish we had one more day, but Emily had pretty much had it and was not up for another day of go-go-go-sightseeing. We would love to go back to London if time permits, but don't see that happening. 

It's Been Awhile...

So here's what you've missed with the Dubels...

I apologize that this is my first post in over a year, but life has been pretty busy for us. Here is a very brief look at what our lives looked like since our last post! 

In December of 2011 (wow, that was forever ago), we took a trip to Rome for a week. It was an amazing trip and we were able to see a lot.

The Pantheon (Dave's favorite).

 Us at the Colosseum.

In front of St. Peter's Basilica.

The Trevi Fountain (my favorite).

In January 2012, we announced that we were expecting Baby Dubel. This is our first glimpse at our precious baby at 10 weeks and 6 days.

In February we found out that we were going to have a baby GIRL! Dave was out of town for the appointment when the big reveal was going to happen so I had the doctor write gender on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope. My friend, Michelle, went with me to my appointment for moral support and to be the keeper of the envelope. We had a gender reveal party with a few close friends to celebrate the big reveal. Michelle made us amazing chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting in them.

How ADORABLE are these?!?  

 It's PINK! 

It's a GIRL!

The last week of March to mid-April, Dave's dad, Mark, and step-mom, Carlene came out to visit. While they were here, we went on a road trip to Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; Innsbruck, Austria; and Zurich, Switzerland.  That's over 1,000 miles and over 20 hours of being in the car in one week! Needless to say, I was not planning on another road trip anytime soon. It was great to see Mark and Carlene, and they were even able to go to one of my doctor's appointments to see Baby D!

Here are the four of us at the famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich. This is the only photo that I have on my computer, the rest are on Dave's. 

In late April, some of my very sweet friends through me a baby shower. It was everything I could have dreamed of and more! The best part was definitely when my sister, Michelle, flew in to surprise me!!! I was so happy to see here and can't believe she flew out to Germany for my shower! 

Here I am with my amazing friends who threw me a baby shower! From the left: Becky, me, Andrea, and Michelle (the same one who made our gender reveal cupcakes).

 Awww! Sisterly love! This is right after Michelle walked in and surprised me! 

I had to post a picture of the cake at my baby shower. How AMAZING is this?!?

While my sister, Michelle, was here, we went to: the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens, Amsterdam, Paris, Luxembourg, and Brussels! 

 In front of the Eiffel Tower.

For most of May and June, we stayed home and didn't do much traveling. I was very pregnant and after all of the traveling that we'd been doing, I was ready to stay home, relax, and prepare for the arrival of our baby girl.

On the morning of June 27th, at 39 weeks pregnant, my water broke. At first I wasn't sure because I didn't feel or hear a pop and it wasn't a huge gush like you see on TV. About an hour or so later, I realized that I didn't pee my pants, and that I was pretty sure that my water broke. I had a doctor's appointment that day, so I waited to tell Dave that it broke until he came home from selling my Eclipse. He was quite surprised that I didn't tell him sooner, but because I wasn't having contractions and we were already going to the doctor's I decided to not stress him out until absolutely necessary. My appointment was at 1:00 pm, and after the doctor looked at the ultrasound he said there was very little fluid and even it wasn't my water that had broken earlier, they were going to induce me. YAY! Our baby girl was on her way!

So how did my labor go? Well let's make a really long story short. My water broke at 8:00 am on June 27th. I went to the hospital at 1:00 pm for my appointment. At 2:00 pm I was admitted and they gave me a cervical induction. After too many hours of natural labor, excruciating pain, and only being dilated 1 cm, I decided it was time for an epidural at 8:00 am on June 28th. I felt like a whole new person after that! They then gave me pitocin to see if that would help me dilate, but still nothing. So at 12:34 pm Emily Jean was born via c-section.

Emily Jean 7 lbs 7 oz and 19.3 in. 

Meeting our baby girl! I was so overwhelmed with love and happiness! 

July and August all kind of blur together right now. I really am unsure what we did except for I know that we took a day trip to Brussels, Belgium! 

Dave and Em in Brussels.

The three of us in front of the flower carpet in Brussels. 

In September, Dave's moms, Janet and Karen cam to visit us and meet sweet baby Em! While they were here, we went to Tongeren, Belgium, to a wine festival down in the Mosel, and we went on a trip to visit Bruges, Belgium for a few days. It was beautiful, and the beer was delish! This was Emily's first overnight trip anywhere and she did so well, she is a great little traveler!

The Moms and Em at the wine festival. 

Emily's first boat ride! We were on a canal tour in Bruges.

 The beer at De Garre in Bruges. Easily the best beer (and cheese) that I have ever had! 

 We took a carriage ride all around Bruges, it was beautiful!

In October, we were so fortunate that some of our friends from Dave's B-Course (F-16) class from Luke came out to visit us and our friends, the Wagners (friends that were also in that class but are now stationed here with us). We went to the Zoo in Köln and had such a blast! 

The three of us in front of the giraffes! 

The girls! From the left: Bri, Vanessa, Erin, and me. 

 Dave, Emily, Aubrey, Jared, with George and Georgie in on the right. 

November was sort of a blur for me. I really don't remember what happened except that Dave was gone for work for the month in Spain. 

In December, we packed up our stuff and flew home for the holidays! We spent three awesome weeks in sunny southern California spending some much needed time with our families. With the exception of Janet and Karen, no one else in our family had met Emily yet. It was wonderful being able to spend the holidays with our families. While we were there, we were also able to baptize Emily. Her great-grandpa Wayne, who also married us (the second time), performed her baptism which was very special for all of us. Unfortunately, I can't find any of the baptism photos at this time to post...

We flew back to Germany just in time it ring in the new year. A few days later, Dave was on a jet back to the good ol' US of A for training. I spent most of the first half of January recovering from a nasty cold I caught right before we flew home so, again, that month was a blur for me as well. I do remember that we got quite a bit of snow here in Germany. I distinctly remember this because I had to shovel the driveway a lot! 

Dave spent the first half of February trying to get back to Germany from the USA. After a few glitches and with the help of our awesome squadron commander, he made it home on my birthday! Dave made it just in time for our birthday weekend get away to London, which will be what my next post is all about! 

That was a lot to recap, and I hope to NEVER get that behind with blogging again!