Too Cute!

Rachel sure did look cute yesterday in her new dress. Thanks Grandma and Papa Smith for such a cute dress! Rachel was so excited to wear something new. :)

Funny Story

I hope I get this story right... While I was out Friday night, Andy heard Rachel over the monitor at around 9:30 and she wasn't a happy camper. So of course, he went up to investigate. Here's their conversation:

Andy: Rachel, what's wrong?
Rachel: Change diaper. (Rachel makes a throat clearing sound and waves her hand in front of her face.) Very bad.
Andy: Okay.
Rachel: Lots of wipes.

Andy turned on the hallway light instead of turning on her lamp and that upset Rachel. She didn't want the light on. But Andy explained to her that he needed to be able to see to change her diaper. Once Rachel had a clean diaper on, she didn't forget to say "thank you Daddy". So, Rachel got her diaper changed, Andy sung her a song, and then she went back to bed. Sometimes she surprises us with the things she does! I don't think either of us have ever used the term "lots of wipes". I guess she's one smart girl and hopefully getting closer to being ready to be potty trained! :)

Girl's Night Out

I have the most wonderful friends in the world! Claire, Ruthie, and Amy all treated me to a fun night out to celebrate my birthday. We were also joined by Amy's sister, Karyn, and Amy's baby, McKay. It was so much fun! We took the bus into Amsterdam and had dinner at Hard Rock. And then of course the night wouldn't be complete without a trip to Ben & Jerry's. :) I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends here in Holland. Thanks girls for such a fun night!

Beach Noordwijk

Andy had a holiday on Monday, so we decided to try out our first Dutch beach. It was quite crowded, but we had a great time. It's only a 30-minute drive from our house, so I'm sure we'll make more trips to the beach throughout the summer. The water was freezing cold, but the beaches were nice. No one else really went in the water either, so we weren't the only chickens. We simply enjoyed getting a little sun. Rachel absolutely loved playing in the sand! She first started out by simply grabbing handfuls and letting them go (luckily she didn't exactly throw the sand). Rachel also enjoyed playing with some toys in the sand - we need to purchase some actually beach toys! :) And then one of her favorite things was for her dad to bury her legs in the sand. We had a great time and here are some pictures of our beach adventure:

Nate's Visit

Andy's brother, Nathan, came out for a visit! Rachel had been so excited for him to come. She'd been talking for weeks about her birthday, Nate, and riding a train with Nate. She wasn't too sure about him at the airport, but once we got home she was ready to be his friend. We had a great time with Nate. We enjoyed exploring more of our new home with him. Here are some of our adventures:

We went to Alkmaar to see a traditional Dutch cheese market. It probably would have been more interesting if they had spoken English instead of Dutch. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day. We watched the cheese auctioning for awhile, walked around and tasted some Dutch cheese, and just enjoyed the little town of Alkmaar. After Alkmaar we headed out to Volendam. Along they way we stopped at some tulip fields. In Volendam we just walked around the little town. It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed walking around, having lunch, and hanging out in the warm weather. The next day we headed into Amsterdam. We went to the Anne Frank Huis, did a ton of walking through Amsterdam just checking everything out, and then eventually we ended up at Hard Rock for dinner. Here's Rachel giving her Uncle Nate a kiss on the train ride home: On Nate's last day here we headed down to Kinderdijk. Unfortunately we didn't have much time, but we did enjoy a walk along the canals as we saw all the windmills. In this small town there's 19 windmills that were all built around 1740.
We enjoyed Nate's visit and were glad he made the effort to come. Rachel certainly had a lot of fun with her uncle! We are looking forward to more family visits in the future! :)

Mother's Day 2008

What a weekend! Rachel's birthday, my birthday, and then Mother's Day. All in a row! Mother's Day this year was a bit comical. I don't have any pictures, but I'll share the story. I informed Andy on Saturday morning that he was in charge of dinner on Mother's Day. So, the dutiful husband that he is, he set out to the grocery store. He was going to purchase some chicken cordon blue. The Dutch version is a little different than back home, but it's still pretty good. The container should have said "kip cordon bleu". Well, shortly after he got home I noticed it said "gehakt cordon bleu". Andy doesn't really do any shopping here in Holland, so he thought he was getting the right thing. We were curious what he had bought, so we tried to look it up on freetranslation.com. We didn't have any luck, so we checked out our nederlands-engels dictionary. Success! Gehakt means minced meat. So, I told Andy it would probably be fine and not to worry about it.

Well, fast forward to Sunday night. Andy's boiling the potatoes and cooking our gehakt cordon bleu. We quickly discovered that gehakt doesn't smell that great. So, I told Andy he was in charge of a taste test. He said it was okay, but he didn't think I would like it. I took his word for it. I know, not that adventurous... So, the mashed potatoes got put in the fridge and the gehakt cordon bleu was tossed in the trash. Andy got out the trusty waffle maker and waffle mix and made us all waffles. The dinner turned out great! The best part of it was I didn't have to cook or clean (two nights in a row even!). Andy of course felt horrible, but I didn't really mind. He got me roses and chocolate (although it was dark and I prefer milk). He tried so hard and it's the thought that counts anyways. Maybe next year we'll have purchased a barbecue and then it will be a bit easier for Andy to grill something for Mother's Day! I did make it to the grocery store this morning and purchased some kip cordon bleu. So, we'll have our planned Mother's Day dinner tonight. :)

Laura's Birthday

The celebrating continued on Saturday. I had a nice birthday! We spent most of the day in Amsterdam exploring. It was perfect weather and Rachel was so good for not getting a nap all day long. Rachel was a bit confused that it wasn't her birthday anymore, but she got over it pretty quickly since she still had her presents to play with. She did inform us that I was 2. Eventually we got her to say 28. Funny girl! :) And what did I get for my birthday? Well....In a few weeks I'm off to London with some friends. I'm so excited! Four days of fun and freedom. Andy's taking time off work and staying home with Rachel so that I can have a fun girl's trip. I can hardly wait! :) Rachel and I hanging out in Amsterdam.

After we got home that night (around 9:15) Andy was getting into our cupboards and I asked him what he was up to. He simply stated he was getting some cake. I thought that was odd, we had just walked in the door and we had just barely eaten at Hard Rock. Well, he came around the corner with a piece of cake and a candle for me to blow out. Fun times! I actually looked for an "8" when I bought Rachel's, but they didn't have one, so just a "2" worked just fine. I had a great day! So many people made my day so special by cards, emails, messages, and phone calls. Thank you! :)

Rachel's Birthday

Rachel turned 2 last Friday and she was much more into her birthday this year than last year. She had fun opening presents, playing with her presents, and eating the frosting off of her cake. I always struggle with what to get Rachel, because I never know what she'll really like. Well, this year all went well and she enjoyed everything she got. Here are a few pictures of her day: The hat was probably the one thing we could have done without. She wasn't that into, but it's so huge she'll be able to use it for several years to some. So, maybe next year she'll enjoy it more! Opening Presents

Rachel's new sunglasses! She loves them! :) Taking care of her new baby. The baby can laugh, cry, and talk depending on what part of the body you squeeze. Rachel gets quite concerned when I make her baby cry! :)Pretty Princess! Thanks King Family - Rachel loves it! :)Blowing out her candle. Rachel did really good!
No need to use the fork. All Rachel wanted was the frosting anyways.

Rachel's 2nd Birthday

We are celebrating Rachel's Birthday today. She is lucky enough to have her dad taking the day off work and her Uncle Nate visiting from Utah. It should be a fun-filled day. Rachel has requested several things over the past couple of weeks when we have asked her what she wants for her birthday. She wants pancakes, cake, ice cream, and bubbles. Not that hard to please, huh? Here are Rachel's 2-year stats:

• 22.5 pounds and 34.5 inches tall (tall and skinny)


• Loves to color and she's really into drawing circles (which she calls flowers).


• Knows most of the basic colors and is constantly telling us the color of things - white, yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, green, blue, brown, and black.


• Loves being read to and has special names for all of her favorite books.


• Can sit for a good 30 minutes flipping through a Reader's Digest.


• When caught in the right mood will sing several songs pretty much the whole way through - her latest is "I Am a Child of God".


• Loves to be outdoors checking out flowers, ducks, and dogs.


• Has quite a vocabulary - the biggest word she can say so far is anniversary.


• Longest sentence so far: "I don't know where airplane is."


• Enjoys helping Mom cook.
• Can count up to 16 (minus the number 15) - we have 16 stairs. :)

It is amazing how much joy and happiness the past two years have brought. We feel so blessed to have Rachel in our lives and try to make the most out of every day! We already feel like she has grown up so much and we don't want the time to slip away too quickly.

Germany

We went to Germany for a couple of days last week. We finally broke down and purchased a GPS system, which pretty much made our trip possible. We were on several "unnamed roads" and it would have been a little difficult with a Yahoo map. :) The countryside was beautiful. Everything was green and there were lots of wildflowers on the side of the road. Our first stop was Burg Eltz, a castle in the Mosel Valley. The castle is still owned by the family and they still reside in a portion of it. We were able to take a tour of the castle and see many of the original furnishings and paintings dating back to the 12th century. Pictures were not allowed on the tour, but here are some pictures of us outside:

After our tour of Burg Eltz we decided to go find Burg Pyrmont (another castle nearby). We took a look of it from a distance, but decided not to take the hike up to it. Rachel did enjoy playing by the waterfall that was near Burg Pyrmont.After that little stop we drove through the Mosel River Valley. It was a beautiful drive and we enjoyed the scenery. We drove through a little town called Cochem. As we drove along the Mosel River the mountains on either side were covered with vineyards. The next day we spent some more time along the Mosel River. We went to a town called Bernkastel-Kues. It was a cute little German town. We found a park for Rachel to get some wiggles out. Rachel and I also enjoyed an ice cream cone at 11 in the morning! :) As we drove through the Mosel River Valley there were several more castles along the way. We then headed to our final destination, Heidelberg. We got there, checked into our hotel, and then headed out to the Heidelberg castle. It was 3:30 and the last English tour was at 4:15. So, we took off and hoped for the best. After climbing up roughly 300 stairs we made it just in time for the tour. And it was worth it! We really enjoyed the tour of the Heidelberg castle. We learned a lot of history and found it very interesting. Rachel was a good sport through the tour. We could take pictures inside this castle, so here are a few:

Rachel thought the ceiling was pretty cool!This one is for my brothers - Ruprechta? Who knew I was royalty?The many views from the castle. Heidelberg was a beautiful city.

I believe the highlight of the trip for Rachel was that evening when we went swimming. She absolutely loved it! Of course we didn't take our camera down to the pool, but she had a blast. She kept on saying "all by self" and would push herself away from us. So, finally we let her swim all by herself. Let's just say, it didn't go to well. Once she recovered though, she asked again "all by self". Before heading home the next day we decided to do something just for Rachel. She had been a trooper on castle tours and long car rides. So, we took a train ride up the mountain to Konigstuhl. There was a fairytale amusement park for Rachel to play in. It was up above the castle and the view was absolutely beautiful. Rachel's favorite discovery was the bouncer(?). I'm not sure what it's official name is, but she loved jumping. It was hard to get her away from it. After a couple of hours at the park, we started our 5-hour trek home.

Yes, I'm a big cheese in this video. I thought Andy was trying to take a picture of us. I didn't realize he was taking video. :)

It's a miracle that Rachel lasted so long without colliding with anybody.