A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

The past few weeks have been really busy around here. When I try to pinpoint what we've done it's nothing grand, just a whole lot of stuff. We've had our fair share of illnesses the past few weeks from the stomach flu to teething to yucky colds with fevers. We've also had our fair share of doctor visits - shots given and blood drawn. I never knew that they would actually draw 7 vials of a blood from a 14-month old, but they will. Audrey's being testing for numerous things to see why she isn't putting on weight. In the meantime we're just trying to be patient as we wait for the results...

We've also had church stuff that has kept us busy, trying to plan our last few trips, and teaching Joy School. A few Saturdays ago I put together a ladies night out and I believe all 11 of us had a good time. One weekend we enjoyed going to an indoor water park with some friends (of course we left the camera in the car). We all enjoyed the water slides and hanging out in the much warmer toddler pool! :) Rachel and I had a date last weekend to see the local international school put on a play of Aladdin. She enjoyed it and when it was over, asked if we could start it again. In the midst of all this we did recognize Valentine's. Andy brought home beautiful roses from Ecuador for me and some smaller roses for the girls. Rachel exchanged valentines with her Joy School friends and the girls also received some special valentines in the mail from their grandmas and grandpas.

The view from our house has looked a lot like this the past few weeks:

That's snow on top of the frozen canal in front of our home. This past weekend there were parents out there shoveling the snow off the ice so their children could ice skate.

We have definitely had an unusual amount of snow and cold days this winter. But we've tried to have some fun with it:
Over at the shopping center near our home there's a new clearance store. When my friends told me about these leotards for one euro, I had to go stock up. The leg warmers were only 50 cents a pair and the girls look pretty cute in their dress-ups. Some days Rachel wears her leotard all day. I don't know how she manages to stay warm enough, but she does...

Since we've had a lot of snow days we've tried to do some fun indoor things. One day we met some friends at a nearby indoor playplace. It was the first time Audrey has been to one since she's been mobile and she enjoyed it as well. It will be much more fun once she finally decides to walk!

We've had fun indoors playing dress-up:
Doing a bit of coloring:
Painting a princess or two:
And trying to sort through all the books to find the perfect one:
Here's a much happier Rachel after about five days of an icky cold:

Audrey's done a lot of cuddling this past week with shots, blood being drawn, teething, and a very yucky cold:

Luckily though Audrey is doing better and was having fun messing around with the computer this afternoon:

Life is definitely keeping us busy. We are down to the phase of trying to figure out where we still need to go visit and what we still need to buy before we end our European adventure. Hopefully the next couple of months I'll find more time to update the blog more often and be able to share some of our last adventures here...