Home Leave - Part I

Since we decided to extend our stay in Holland a bit we received another home leave allowance. It had been several years since we had been with family for the holidays, so we decided to go home for the holidays this year. Our first stop was Utah and boy did we have lots of fun. The time went by too quickly, as it always does. Here are a few highlights of the things we did while in Utah:

We went to a restaurant similar to Chuck-E-Cheese, but with a pirate theme: Rachel figured out the best way to play skee ball:
Cousin Chase found his favorite spot:

Lots of tickets=lots of prizes - right? We had to laugh as we left the restaurant and walked through the gift shop. Rachel picked out a wand as one of her prizes and it was in the gift shop for 99 cents. I'm sure it would have been much cheaper to buy it at the gift shop... :)
We attempted to get a picture of all the cousins in front of a pirate display and of course Rachel wouldn't cooperate. Since Rachel didn't cooperate Audrey was able to enjoy her first sucker - Rachel lost out! :)
One day while we were there Natalie, Andy's sister, organized a treasure hunt for the kids. They had lots of fun finding the clues around the house and then opening up their prizes at the end. Rachel got lip gloss and Audrey got a play cell phone. A win, win situation! :)

Here's Audrey having fun with Grandma's piano:

One afternoon the kids had fun decorating sugar cookies:

Presley was happy just picking the M&M's off her cookie - such a cutie!

We enjoyed one evening at an indoor pool in Lehi.

Just fooling around:

We headed downtown to the children's museum one day and the kids had a lot of fun exploring.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith bought all the grandkids matching pajamas. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Rachel hanging out with her Aunt Natalie:

Audrey enjoying her first sugar cookie:

One freezing, cold day (okay, they were all freezing) we went on an Elf Scavenger Hunt at Gardner Village. The kids had fun checking out the different elf displays and everyone earned a free candy cane for finding all the elves.

Our pink marshmallow:Daddy is the only one allowed to kiss this little one underneath the mistletoe!Our last night in Utah we celebrated Christmas a few days early:

Having fun with the top to her new sippy cup:

Look at that concentration! We had such a good time in Utah. It's always a lot of fun to spend time with family. And we were lucky enough to be able to see everyone from Andy's family while we were there. We are looking forward to the next time we can be all together again...

It's a hit!

Happy, Happy Birthday Audrey Dear!

Our baby is one today! It sounds like such a cliche, but boy does time fly. Luckily though she's still so much a baby and we're enjoying it! :) She had a check-up yesterday and has gained one ounce in the past month. However, they aren't concerned because she grew 2.5 centimeters. So, at one year Audrey weighs 16 pounds 13 ounces and is 28.15 inches tall. She's a teeny, petite baby and we love it! :)

Audrey has finally figured out how to pull herself up to a standing position. However, she only does this in the comfort of her crib. :) I don't think she's brave enough on our slippy laminate floors. Audrey insists on feeding herself and she's actually pretty good at it. She makes a mess, but she gets the majority of the food in the right place. I love it, because it frees up my time and I actually get the opportunity to feed myself! :) Here Audrey is feeding herself this morning:

Audrey has perfected her gorilla crawl and can get around pretty quickly. She loves playing with just about anything. And recently she has fallen in love with books - particularly pop-up books. Audrey is completely weaned. She was pretty upset for a couple of days, but she's gotten over it. She's not a huge fan of cow's milk all by itself yet; but she loves yogurt, oatmeal or cereal with milk, and cheese. :)

Audrey has brought so much joy to our home in the past year. We love seeing her get so excited when her daddy comes home. We love watching her face light up when she discovers Rachel and wants to play with her. We love when she reaches out and just wants to be held. We love when she bounces on the floor to get places. We love when she scrunches her nose up and looks like a total nerd. We love when some music starts up and she starts bouncing away. We love how she waves on cue to anybody and everybody. Most of all we love that Audrey's healthy, happy, and doing so well. Here's to many more years of joy! :)

Sinterklaas

We celebrated Sinterklaas on December 5th. This year we got a bit more into the traditions than past years. Andy was out running some errands Saturday morning and happened up Sinterklaas making some rounds. So, he came back home to grab Audrey and I and we found the next spot Sinterklaas had moved to. Rachel joined in for a bit on the festivities and with some coaxing sat on Sinterklaas' lap. From the picture below you can tell why I'll never pay for Rachel to sit on Santa's lap! :) Audrey and Rachel both received wrapped gifts from Sinterklaas while we visited him.

Then that evening we exchanged gifts amongst each other. It made a lot more sense to do all the gifts here, rather than haul them back and forth from the States. As we were unwrapping our gifts from each other we heard a few knocks on the door and went to investigate...

The girls definitely had fun. Although Audrey wasn't too into opening her gifts, but Rachel was more than willing to help anyone that would let her. :) We certainly made a mess:
I have decided there are things I like about Sinterklaas and things I don't care for as well. I love the idea of welcoming him into the town and the fun of having the children leave their shoes out for treats each night for a few weeks (kind of replaces stockings). I love how the Zwarte Piets are just milling around town several weeks before the Dec. 5th passing out treats to the kids. It definitely has it's bonuses. I think my only complaint would be Sinterklaas bringing the gifts in the evening. The girls didn't have time to play with most of their toys that evening because it was time to head for bed. But it wasn't a big deal to them, so maybe it doesn't matter... I just remember having all Christmas day to enjoy my toys, so I guess the traditions I'm used to are favored. And the girls have the best of both worlds this year, because Santa Claus will be visiting them in Texas. Next year though, we'll be back to just Santa Claus. The girls have definitely enjoyed playing with their new toys this past week. It was so much fun to see Rachel's excitement with her gifts. Next year I'm sure Audrey will get more into it.

Sometimes it just hits me...

I get pretty busy with day to day life, like everyone else. Things like hoping Audrey will sleep past 6 in the morning, doing chores, having playgroups, fixing and cleaning up meals, taking naps, running errands, etc... That most days I don't even realize that I live in Europe and have this incredible opportunity at my feet. But luckily I have moments when it just hits, like 2 minutes ago... I was cleaning up Audrey and my lunch dishes (as Rachel was still trying to finish her lunch) and from the kitchen I heard: "Jingle bells, Jingle bells, as we burp all the way to Germany". My 3 year-old regularly talks about European countries and monuments on an almost daily basis. It's crazy! So, I definitely need to make the most of the next 6 months...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Rachel does know the real words to "Jingle Bells", she's just being one silly girl today! :)

Christmas Markets

Our first holiday season here we went with some friends to the Christmas Markets in Cologne, Germany. Last year Audrey was born in the middle of the holiday season, so the Christmas Markets weren't even considered. This year, being our last year here, we tried to hit as many Christmas Markets as we could in a 36 hour period. We were lucky enough to have some friends that humored us and joined us. So, this past weekend we hit 3 different places with Christmas Markets.

Our first stop was Valkenburg in the Netherlands. This Christmas Market is in caves. A fabulous idea for the Netherlands since the weather is so unpredictable. And it was raining on and off that day, so we were more than willing to pay 3 euros a person to get into the caves. We learned that you need to make sure you have cash on hand, because PIN machines don't work down in the caves. They had the tunnels of the caves all decked out. We enjoyed strolling through checking things out and purchasing some ornaments. My one complaint would be how crowded it was, but that's not exactly something you can avoid. Maybe it would have been better on a weekday... You can go bike through the caves other times of the year. I think it would be a fun adventure, but I'm not sure they would have baby seats on the bikes for rent. Something to look into and maybe do at a later date. Here are some pictures of us in the caves:

From Valkenburg we drove about an hour to Siegburg, Germany. We arrived there around 4:30, but it felt like it was 9 and time to go to bed. It was so dark already. Anyhow, our main purpose for going to Siegburg was to experience a Medieval Christmas Market. It definitely had a medieval theme, but I was very disappointed in the quantity and quality. Everyone was dressed in medieval attire and there was no electricity - candles and torches lit the booths. We did get to watch a blacksmith make a nail and a Medieval music performance. Andy and I had a Medieval dinner (something like a burrito with bacon and onions inside). We all enjoyed some Medieval bread - the outside was as hard as a rock. And the kids got dinner at the local grocery store - you can never go wrong with cheese, bread, and yogurt! :) Don't have any pictures of Siegburg, sorry to disappoint but it was so dark the pictures probably wouldn't have turned out... :)

The next day we enjoyed the Christmas Markets in Dusseldorf, Germany. I have to say I was most impressed with Dusseldorf. We were able to take a tram from our hotel to the heart of the Christmas Markets. Dusseldorf had a total of 6 different markets and we were able to hit them all because of the close proximity they all were. I was able to find a German Christmas Pyramid that was a reasonable price. The highlight of Dusseldorf was Rachel going ice skating for the first time - she had a blast and didn't want to stop... :)

Audrey riding the carousel with her daddy:Rachel happy to ride with Bailee, Talynn, and Chase:

We found some cute decorated store windows:

Before they hit the ice:

Not too sure about this:

Tried the little man and she wasn't a big fan:

Back to feeling safe in Daddy's arms:

It's always fun to do the Christmas Markets. We enjoy the atmosphere and food more than anything. And of course it was fun to go with our friends. I have to say that we stayed a lot warmer this year than we did 2 years ago. We all had several layers on and we are probably acclimatised a bit as well. We'll definitely miss the opportunity of the Christmas Markets next year...