No Fear Here

Tulips ARE Flowers

Saturday morning Andy had a conversation with Rachel explaining to her that tulips are flowers. She simply thinks tulips are tulips and flowers are flowers. She doesn't quite understand the whole concept of grouping, but she'll get there. When we were saying family prayers on Saturday night Andy was thanking Heavenly Father for the flowers and Rachel quickly corrected him in the middle of his prayer and told him to say tulips. Silly girl!

So, after the parade on Saturday night we drove through quite a bit of countryside in search of some tulip fields. After driving around for about an hour (traffic was horrible) we finally settled on a field and got out to take some pictures. Of course by that time Audrey was enjoying a nice little nap, so we first just took some pictures of the flowers...

And then of course Rachel...Rachel loved walking down the rows, which she called "roads". The yellow tulips were almost as tall as her. So pretty!Rachel even took some pictures of her daddy... And I snapped a picture of the two of them together...And then we woke Audrey up...We attempted to take some family pictures with the tripod. Audrey was more interested in the flowers, the dirt, or the people walking by. And of course Rachel had to give us a big cheesy smile on our last attempt...We enjoy seeing the tulips every year. We live in such a beautiful world and are thankful for all the beautiful sites that we get to enjoy.

Flower Parade

Every year the Dutch have a Flower Parade. The parade route is roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles). The parade goes through various cities and it takes about 12 hours. On Saturday we were able to catch the parade around 5 pm. When we first got there I was a bit disappointed. There were about 20 advertising cars and I was worried that the whole parade was going to be like the picture below, but luckily it improved. Just like in the U.S. the parade has to get paid for somehow, so there was plenty of advertising. We didn't stay for the whole parade, but definitely enjoyed the 30 minutes that we spent watching the floats go by. This year's theme was "Famous Books".

Imagine our surprise as we heard the familiar tune of "The Star Spangled Banner". There was even a U.S. themed float. Just in case you are wondering what Dutch singers sound like, here's a little clip:

My wish list (for today)...

Just in case any of you are at a loss as to what to get me for my birthday! :)

• going into work on Saturdays outlawed
• a driveway
• auto mechanics who can actually make repairs
• bags provided free of charge at the grocery store
• baggers to bag my groceries
• carts that don't require a deposit to use
• return cart areas in the parking lot
• carts that can actually fit a baby car seat and groceries in them
• courteous grocery stockers or better yet grocery stores that stock when they are closed
• items advertised to actually be in stock (I mean if they're always stocking, why don't they have the stuff advertised?)
• carts that one can easily steer when loaded with groceries
• a chocolate pill so I won't have to eat chocolate to calm my nerves after such a morning

Okay, I know what would solve all my frustrations. I need my own personal shopper. Yes, that would be wonderful! Then these stressful Saturday mornings wouldn't occur any more. I hope you all know I'm smiling as I type this. It is a beautiful day and now that I've vented, I'm going to enjoy it! Thank heavens for my little angels - Audrey and Rachel - they were wonderful as I coped with my frustrating morning. :)

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Audrey has become quite the roller. She has discovered our couches. She loves to roll over to the edge and feel the underside of them. This is exactly how I found her yesterday afternoon: Earlier this week she surprised me by rolling 4 times quite quickly. She rolled herself off the quilt and on to Rachel's padded numbers. Of course I didn't catch that one on video. Her play keys seemed to be the trick to really get her to roll. So, on Wednesday I tried to recreate it and she did a pretty good job. I don't know what it is about her play keys, but they make her roll.

Rachel Randomness

Preface: Last year Rachel's Uncle Nate (affectionately called Nate-dog by Rachel) was here for her birthday. Rachel loves to watch videos of herself on the computer and she did so yesterday. She must have seen her birthday video from last year. Rachel loves to stall going to sleep. As you are putting her to sleep she'll come up with anything to chat with you about, so here's what occurred last night.

Rachel (sits up suddenly in her bed): Nate-dog is going to come for my birthday.

Me: No Rachel, he's not going to be able to come this year.

Rachel: Oh. (She thinks for a few seconds.) Well, that's okay because Ashley can come over for my birthday.

Thank heavens Ashley is around to make up for Nate-dog! :) Rachel is quite excited for her birthday this year. She has been talking about it nonstop. She's also very curious when everyone else's birthdays are as well. Her third birthday should be a fun one!

We hope you feel loved Nate! I'm sure Audrey would request something similar if she could talk. :)

A Miraculous Afternoon

Audrey took a 2-hour nap this afternoon! She hasn't had a 2-hour nap in months. It was quite miraculous and a wonderful gift to me. Rachel was asleep for 1 1/2 hours of Audrey's 2-hour nap. So, I got a bit of a nap myself, finished one book, and started another book. With the hours Andy has been working recently it was heavenly to have 1 1/2 hours to myself this afternoon. Now we'll see if Audrey will take another 2-hour nap tomorrow. I never know with her! :)

What did you say???

Rachel is driving us crazy! :) She is constantly asking, "What did you say?". She does it quite often when Andy and I are carrying on a conversation and she wants in. A few weeks ago she starting the whole "why" thing, but that has already worn off. Now, she's on to "what did you say?". The tone of voice she uses makes it all that more hilarious and annoying at the same time. Who knows what she'll come up with next....

Solids

On Friday I made the decision to start Audrey on solids. I know she can go longer than 3-4 hours at night, so we're hoping the rice cereal will help her sleep longer. We shall see... Audrey really likes rice cereal. Rachel never liked it and so we just went straight to fruits and veggies with her. But the past three days have gone well with Audrey. This morning Rachel decided she needed in on the action and so she was helping out.

Happy Baby

It was so nice to hear Audrey's cooing over the baby monitor this morning. And then when I went to get her, this is what I found:She is definitely starting to explore her crib and blankets a lot more. This soft, white blanket is one of her favorites. Technically her little head should be laying on the yellow sheet saver, but she's obviously been wiggling around. Audrey's gotten into a new routine lately. She's usually asleep by 9, then wakes up sometime between 12-1 to eat, then gets up again around 5:30-6:30 to eat again, and then finally wakes up for the day around 8:30-9:00. Even though I wish she would go a longer stretch she's such a good baby in the middle of the night. She's up for 15-20 minutes and then goes back down without any qualms. It's always nice to have a baby wake up happy! :)