These pictures are just a brief summary of Isaac's first trip to America. We flew over on a military flight...not many people can say their first airplane ride was on a C-17. We got to show Isaac the great city of Chicago where he visited the Shed Aquarium. He LOVED watching the fish. Isaac got to meet his 7 cousins who he now realizes have much to teach him. :) He met great-grandmas and great-great grandmas, and visited with lots of other family and friends! Needless to say, we were pretty beat by the end of our trip. But it was well worth it to see everyone!

Isaac's First Halloween!

Ike the Dinosaur!



We went "Trunk or Treating." It's what the Americans do here since the Dutch do not do Halloween. And yes, it's what it sounds like. People decorate the trunks of their cars and hand out candy. We had a good time although some people were a little sceptical about giving candy to a toothless dinosaur. :)

Finally an Update!

I know, I know... I am officially the world's worst blogger! I wasn't very good at keeping up with it before I had a little one and now as you can see, I've just gotten worse. Anyways, I can't make any promises, but I will try to get better. :)

My last entry was May 30th! Haha...much has happened. We've had all of the grandparents here to meet Isaac plus one great-grandma and Uncle Al. We had great visits with all of them! Now we just need to bring Ike home to meet the rest of his family...I think he might be slightly overwhelmed when it comes time for that.

We took Isaac on his first vacation. He needed one you know...it's tough being a baby. ;) While Joe's parents were here we drove out to Garmisch which is a beautiful part of Germany in the Alps. The scenery was amazing! And the food was almost as good! So to sum up our trip, we took pictures and ate!

Isaac is four months old now. I can't believe it. Time is flying by! He is growing and learning so fast we can hardly keep up. He's at the stage where everything goes into his mouth and he drools like crazy! Joe has always played airplane with Isaac, but now he calls Ike a drool bomber and flies him overhead...usually I end up being the target. He's a really happy baby most of the time and we have so much fun playing with him and watching him grow.

Well, that's all for now and like I said, I'll try to be a better blogger. :) If you receive our blog by email be sure to check the full website (http://www.joejenineurope.blogspot.com/) so that you can see any other pictures or albums that we add to the page.

More Isaac!

Hey everyone, here are some new pictures of Isaac. We have been adding to the album on the blog as we take them so you can check that every once in awhile if you would like. Everything has been going really well. Many of you already have heard about his grand entry, but we wanted to make sure that everyone knows what a little miracle Isaac is. Wednesday May 14th I went in for my last Dr.'s appointment before the due date just for a check up. At that appointment, my doctor discovered that all of my amniotic fluid was gone and that Isaac's heart rate was fluctuating. My hospital was in Germany where they are not in favor of C-sections, but they were afraid that a natural birth would be too stressful for the baby. SO, my appointment was at 1:15 and by 4:30 they were prepping me for surgery. At 5:32 pm, Isaac Joseph was born. The doctors found that the problems he had been having were due to his umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck 5 times! They told Joe and I that if it had been any other time, or if we would have tried to deliver him naturally, he would not have made it. We still can't believe how close we were to having things go very differently. But instead, we have a perfectly healthy baby boy. We give ALL of the credit to God. From the very beginning of this pregnancy, we have trusted God with this new life. Whatever way it would have gone, we know that He is in control and He is good. Thank you everyone for all your congrats, prayers and warm wishes. We are so in love with this little guy and thankful for this precious gift.

Isaac Joseph Dillabaugh

Hello Everyone,

We wanted to let you know that On Wednesday at 5:32pm Jen had a C-Section and out came our son, Isaac Joseph Dillabaugh. There were some health concerns so Jen went in for a routine Dr. Appointment and came out with Isaac. Both are very healthy and doing great. Isaac was only 6lbs 4oz. and about 20 1/2 inches. Everything happened very quickly and was a bit overwhelming at first, but we are now doing great (even though there is no more sleep). They will both be in the hospital until about Monday, so if you call we will likely not be home. Please check out the pictures and we will keep updating them.

Rotterdam Marathon

Hey everybody! Hope you are all doing well. We had a busy and exhausting weekend. Joe ran the Rotterdam marathon on Sunday! Yep, that's 26.2 miles. He did a great job too! Just finishing it is amazing enough, but he ran it in 3hrs 38min. And, he hadn't been training since February! God gave him an amazing gift and it is so fun to watch him use it.

We made quite the pair after the race was over. Joe was barely able to walk on his own and I, being almost 9 months pregnant and on my feet all day, wasn't much help. We were both hobbling and wobbling around Rotterdam. It had to have been a humorous sight.

Other than that, we have just been preparing for our little guy to arrive. Only about 4 more weeks! We will be sure to keep you posted!

I know...Finally a new blog!

Hey everyone! Thanks for being patient while it took me 2 months to update our blog. We are doing really great over here and are getting very excited for our little one to arrive...only about 6 more weeks! The time has flown by, but we are ready and excited to meet him. The last Dr.'s appointment showed that he and I are both healthy. I've said before that he already seems very active and he's always "acting up" for the doctors and nurses. This time he had what I think were hiccups the whole time the nurse was trying to hear his heartbeat. She couldn't get a good recording because of them. :)

Anyways, other than preparing for the baby to arrive, we have done a little more traveling. My mom was here in early March and we were able to visit a few different sites throughout The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. The photo album of our trip is posted to the right of the blog if you want to check it out. The picture above is from Joe's trip to the Alps. He had to attend a confrence at the Army's Eidelweiss Lodge in Germany, a very beautiful place to visit. Unfortunately, he had to spend all of his time indoors, but it is definately a place that we will be revisiting!

Well, that is mostly it. We hope that you are all doing well and I will try to be more diligent in my updates. :)

ROME

I never in a million years would have imagined we could spend our 4th anniversary in Rome! 40th maybe, but 4th? Don't worry though, we know how fortunate we have been and are grateful for the opportunities God has put in our path. This last adventure, 5 days in Rome, was pretty amazing. There is so much to say about the city and all of the things that we were able to see, but it would take way too long. So, we'll keep it to the basics.

We stayed in an "affordable" hotel (by affordable I mean we had a bed, toilet, and shower that didn't work) that was just 500 meters from the Colosseum. Literally when we looked down the alley across from our hotel the Colosseum filled the view. The first night there, we decided to explore the city. We of course got extremely lost and although we had a map we couldn't tell where we were on the map so that doesn't help. Probably 2 1/2 hours later we made it back to our hotel and then down the street to a really good pizzeria for dinner.

Our first full day there we decided to take on the Colosseum and Palatine Hill which is basically the ancient city remains. The Colosseum was built around 70AD...it's unbelievable that they were able to think so BIG! Check out all our pictures from this day it was incredible.

On Friday we got up early and walked to the Vatican. The map says it's only 4K but I'm 6 months pregnant, we had walked all day the two previous days, and that's 4K each way, not including all the walking in and around the Vatican...so I think I deserve a gold star. :) Anyways, it was completely worth it! We were able to see the Sistine Chapel, The Basilica (oh and by the way, we climbed about 7,000 steps to the top of the dome to get an awesome view of the city...gold star!), and dozens of amazing works of art that are held within the Vatican museum and the Basilica.

Our last full day in Rome we had to do some souvenir shopping and see some more monuments. We were able to make it to the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain before exhaustion set in. Both were very impressive...make sure you check out our pictures!

So the last thing I have to mention about Rome is the FOOD! Oh, Yum! We did our best to go to authentic family owned roman restaurants where they are so proud and eager for you to try their food. We had some of the best lasagna, spaghetti, gnocchi, calzones, and pizza we have ever tasted! Particularly at "Vito's" where Vito himself made Joe try his "Spaghetti con fish." That was his best translation...he was a funny guy.

Anyways, that was our trip. We had an amazing time and what a great place to spend our anniversary.

Zuid Holland

This past weekend we decided to take Grandma to see some of the Netherlands. We made plans to visit some of the oldest cities in the country (Dordtrecht, Rotterdam, Kinderdijk, & Delft). It was a great trip even though we stayed in a crappy Rotterdam hotel. Delft and kinderdijk made the trip worthwhile. Delft is a small town that is known for their famous pottery (white pottery with blue painted designs), but the town itself was incredible. It had three huge churches, and a beautiful town center, along with small winding canals. There were great shops, and cafes. It was a great place to visit, and we discovered why there are so many windmills in this country, as we were nearly blown away on more than one occasion.

Kinderdijk was great as well. There they have canals and 19 windmills that help maintain water levels throughout the area. In 1366 they began work to adjust the levels of the river, and canals in the area. The site is now on the UNESCO List which is basically the UN's historical Society being on the list means the UN will help to preserve and maintain the area.

Oh boy!

Our favorite Christmas present this year was finding out we are having a BOY! Of course we would have been just as excited if it were a girl, but Joe would have already started cringing over the thoughts of barbies, boyfriends and wedding expenses. However, after seeing how rambunctious this little guy is already, I think we are in for it no matter what. Every ultrasound we have been to the nurses have been laughing the whole time at how active he is and joking at how he is going to be a "handful" (much like his father so I have heard!). This particular time they were unable to do all of the proper measurements to make sure he was healthy because he wouldn't be still enough. We had to go back the next week. He was still moving quite a bit, but the nurse was able to tell that he is perfectly healthy.