Animal Fun

The Sunday after Papa and Grandma Smith arrived we decided to take a walk through the Amsterdam forest. We had all gotten afternoon naps and were ready to enjoy the outdoors. Every time we go to the Amsterdam forest we discover something new. This time we happened upon a little petting zoo. Rachel was pretty excited about it, as long as Mommy or Daddy were close by. We saw pigs, goats, horses, and chickens. Just last night Rachel randomly started snorting and brought up the dirty pig that needed a tubby. It's amazing how she can remember something that she did over a month ago.

Two-thirds of the way!

Nine pounds heavier and nine inches wider around the waist, here I am at 6 months:Everything is going just fine. The baby keeps quite busy moving around. I'm still feeling great. Hopefully it will continue to last throughout the rest of the pregnancy. My midwife appointments are now 3 weeks apart, so that means things are getting closer. :) Rachel's latest idea of a name for the baby is Rooster. After she suggested that I asked her if the baby was going to come out saying, "cock-a-doodle-doo". She thought that was pretty funny. When we ask Rachel when the baby's coming she says, "cember" (December). Rachel is still pretty adamant about having a baby girl. Hopefully within the next week or so we can find out for sure! :)

Papa & Grandma Have Arrived

After way too many hours of traveling Papa and Grandma Smith have arrived. Rachel has warmed up quite well and is enjoying all the attention. We received a suitcase full of goodies. We are certainly spoiled! The next 18 days should be full of fun and adventures! :)

5 months along...

Well, here's my big belly at 5 months. It seems like it is already so big! I know that I'm definitely bigger than I was with Rachel at this point. It will be interesting to see how far my belly will be popping out at 9 months! I had an appointment last week and the midwife said it felt like my uterus was stretched out to about 24 weeks. I don't know how they figure that out by just feeling my belly. Too bad the baby isn't measuring that far along, that would take 3 weeks off of the pregnancy! We weren't able to get another ultrasound because the midwife who saw us last time isn't trained to run the ultrasound machine. So, hopefully we'll be lucky enough at the next appointment to have one of the midwives who is trained. We will have to see... All is going well and I'm feeling great. :)

Hot, hot, hot!

Right now, at 4:41 PM local time, the temperature outside is 82 and with humidity it feels like 85. A lot of people would think I'm crazy to complain about such weather. But when you don't have air conditioning and your bedroom gets the afternoon sun shining on it - things can get pretty toasty. Here's proof of what the current temperature is in our bedroom: The saddest part about it is that sun will be shining for another 5 hours or so. I do keep the shades drawn and we have a fan. Opening the window and door doesn't help that much because there is absolutely no breeze. We've had several days like this in the past week. It's crazy! I'm glad it doesn't happen too often. Luckily the high is only 72 tomorrow and for the next 10 days it's not supposed to get above 74. Now, that's doable! It's amazing what a 10 degree difference can make. We definitely spend most of the day downstairs, where it is cooler. Rachel was up at 11 PM last night with 102 degree temperature. She's never had a temperature before. Thank heavens that an hour after giving her some ibuprofen her temperature was back down to 98.6 and she's doing just fine today. We are looking forward to the cooler days ahead! :)

What a trooper!

Andy often feels bad that I don't have 24/7 access to a vehicle. He is constantly offering for me to have the car. Most days though I really don't need the car. However, today I needed the car so Andy left it home for me. He decided to ride his bike to the tram station this morning, instead of walking like he usually does. So, with his computer bag and all he was off. Rachel was quite concerned that she didn't get to go on the bike ride with her daddy. But luckily we could convince her that she couldn't because there was no seat for her. We're starting to feel more like the Dutch every day... :)

Quotables

Rachel talks up a storm. She talks the most on bike rides. She just chats and chats and chats. Recently she has surprised us with some of the things she's said and when she's said them. Rachel definitely keeps us laughing. So, here are a few of her famous one-liners:

• I do good job.
• I did it!
• I'm cute. (as she's looking in the mirror)
• It's okay.
• Don't wake up 'til sun comes up.
• Be right back.
• I'm busy right now.
• Check my email. (sitting at the computer)
• What's that? (again and again and again)
• Just a minute.
• One more - that's it! (shaking her pointer finger)
• Go store and buy some more. (usually referring to yogurt, ice cream, or more recently chocolate milk)

Friday Cutie

My dad really didn't like the mug shot of Rachel, so I figured I better post a better picture. So, Dad, here's your cute Rachel! Thanks Aunt Cristy for the cute outfit. :)

First Market Purchase

The shopping center that Rachel and I walk to several times a week has a huge outdoor market every Friday. You can find pretty much anything there - fresh fruit, fish, bread, clothes, purses, fabric, and so on. So, after living here for almost 8 months we finally made our first purchase. We bought some fruit - raspberries and plums. The raspberries have already been made into freezer jam. Yummy! It's not exactly cost effective. I spent 16 euros on raspberries and made one batch of jam. When you've grown up on homemade jam though, there really isn't another option. :) I wasn't planning on buying the plums, but the man gave Rachel and I each one to try. They were too delicious to pass up. I got 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) for 3 euros, so not bad. Plus, they're just like eating candy! :) I bought a bag of M&M's for the movies tonight, but maybe I'll just take 10 of these tiny, delicious plums instead. :) I think I'll be purchasing fruit at the outdoor market on Fridays more often. I was impressed by what I bought today!

Legal Beagles

We are officially legal beagles here in the Netherlands. We finally went yesterday and picked up our driver's licenses. We received our residency cards a few months back and then were able to apply for our driver's licenses. It cracks me up how they literally take a mug shot of you for your residency cards and driver's licenses. You can't smile and they have to be able to see your ears. Why? I don't know - maybe ears are our defining feature. Andy and Rachel have residency cards that don't expire until November 2009. For some reason though, mine is only good for a year. We asked our relocation assistant why that is and she said it's because I'm the non-working spouse. Basically they want to make sure we're still married in a year. In order for me to register here we had to fill out a bunch of forms because Andy and I had been married less than 10 years. It cracks me up! I guess marriages here aren't truly solid until after 10 years. Another strange thing - on the back of each of our residency cards it lists our place of birth and birthdate. Andy's and Rachel's are correct, but mine says "Onbekend USA". Onbekend means strange. I guess Bountiful, UT is a strange place to be born! :) One more thing, I received a driver's license class that allows me to drive and pull a trailer. Andy wasn't so privileged. Why? We don't know. We are glad to have everything taken care of for now. We won't have to visit town hall again until after the baby is born. Very nice! I took a picture of Rachel's residency card and then cropped it so you could see how funny our pictures look. We took our pictures way back in December when we were still living in the hotel. Rachel's is the cutest out of the three of us! :)