8 Months

Wow!!! I really can't believe it's been 8 months since we added our little Marie Elouise to our family! She was a bit of a surprise but one of the best surprises in my life!

One day those happy beautiful blue eyes are going to enchant some guy and she will take off to find her happily ever after. For now I'm just going to enjoy my snuggles and the fun we have each day.
She is such a delight to have around and between her and Sam I have more smiles, laughs and insanity than I know what to do with every day.

I love you my little Marie!

Surprise!

Ok, so I think the frustration finally wore off. No, the internet situation isn't much better (although we are the only ones in the house using it now so hopefully it will be a bit better) but I finally came up with a plan to hopefully allow me to blog without going crazy so here it is...

I'm going to do short posts hopefully more frequently and sometimes with continued themes(ex I'll be doing Sam's birthday over a few days probably). They will have one possibly two pictures in them and you will be lucky if there is a video. So all the cute videos from Sam's birthday will have to wait for another day. Sorry! But here we go!

Happy Birthday Sam! :)

This was just so cute that I had to try. :)




This is from Thomas the Tank Engine, one of Sam's favorite trains, it's name is Toby. This is the shortest of the videos so I got it up with only an hour of waiting. There are more but this is the only one you get to enjoy. More pictures to come soon! :)

We love you Sam! Thank you for an awesome 2 years!

Very long blog Vacation...or end.

Well, we switched our internet and phone service because we would completely loose our internet and phone for at least a day or two every month. When we switched we lost 4,ooo in our connection speed because the company is being very dumb about I'm not sure what for I'm not sure why. It has been insanely frustrating to try and do anything on my post since it takes several attempts to do anything, takes forever to do or just doesn't do it at all. I tried to do a birthday post many times since Sam turned 2 on Friday and it just isn't working and is making me want to scream. I have 2 wonderful little babies that need me more than I need to post things and get frustrated so for now...

My blog is done.

I'm not sure when I will be back but I'm not going to be posting for a while unless this internet thing gets straightened out. So farewell to all of you who look at this blog. I might be back but I might not.

The Dentist

I've been to the dentist many times since January to get my teeth fixed after a 5 year dentist drought and 2 babies(which I hear does great damage to teeth). So for my last visit on Monday she ask me to bring Sam along since he has all his teeth and is turning 2 tomorrow.

We practiced for the week before to get him to open his mouth wide so the dentist could see his pretty teeth and cheered and clapped for him every time he opened it even just a little bit. He'd smile and get excited. So when Monday came we were hoping she could get a little peek at his teeth.
She was great! He was shy at first with all the equipment around and strange people but he opened his mouth twice for her and she said his teeth look great and was amazed at all the teeth he has (I have been giving frequent updates due to my insanely regular visits). When she was done she brought our a bucket of toys and he got to choose one which he has been carrying around all week and plays with regularly. And now for the reason for the post...

Sam today apparently decided he wants to be a dentist. He has been speaking about it all evening and got really excited when I pulled up the picture. He was even going around, opening his mouth and saying "AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!" So we'll have to see what the future holds for our little man.

Climbing everything

Ok, so this little man is climbing everything he can. Everything has become a step stool to something else and if he wants it he goes for it. Fear is not something that has even been considered at this point or discovered for that matter.
As you can see Sam can get to just about anything he wants to get at this point. We thought raising things to higher levels might help but... Not any more. I guess if we hung it from the ceiling that might work??? Any suggestions?

So this might look terrible but I'm really glad there are bars on these windows and that we are in the basement where the bars are. As you can see Sam has figured out the windows and if we were on the main floor or higher we would be worried about him falling out due to the lack of bars on those windows. So although they aren't pretty to look at, boy am I grateful for them at this point in my life.

Ok, so I know these pictures aren't great but we quickly put a stop to this one and so this is all I have. Just scroll down and watch him climb. No help or assistance was given just careful watching and ready to catch if needed.

Even though it was only the second time (that we know of) he had no problems whatsoever and made it up quickly and skillfully.
Yea, just look at that proud face! Sam, I hope that your whole life is conquered with as much enthusiasm as you put into it now and that you tackle all problems with the same determination. I just hope that in the future you will ask for assistance from your Father. Arnold will be there but even more so your Heavenly Father as He will always be there even when Arnold can't and knows how to help even better than Arnold can.

**Just a quick note...Apparently mother's revenge is great. I guess I was this way too. And Grandad...Are you going to take this little guy climbing in the future? I think he might need it. He's got a pretty good start as you can see.

Berlin...beware, long post.

Well, our trip to Berlin was great! We made it there and that was the first step. And here we are...
We made sure we had everything and then took off. This was one of our first views and I loved this bridge so Arnold took a picture for me.

This was some kind of cool building. Not sure what it is but looked cool.
This was another cool building on the other side of the path we were walking on. Again, not sure what it was but it was interesting to see the contrast of the two buildings.
Next we walked through a really cool park. Actually it was a rather warm day but that's another story. Anyway there was a playground and we had time so we stopped to let our little man get out some of the insane amounts of energy trapped inside of him.
I tried to get a fun picture of the beauty of the park but this was the best I could do. Just know that it was huge and beautiful.
Leaving the park after getting the passport info taken care of we saw this and thought it looked pretty cool. And yes, Sam crashed! Yea!
And this is the big gate. No I don't remember what it's called but it was big and fun to see.
Next we went to one of the coolest museums I've been too. They have collected old big stuff and I mean BIG! Take a look for yourself.






Yea, it's late and I'm tired...can you tell? This next picture is a building we passed all covered in Ivy...yea I'm stating the obvious I know. But it looked really fun since the wind was blowing and the whole building looked like it was breathing or alive or something.

Yet another fun looking building. I think the most interesting thing was seeing the contrast between the old and the new.
And finally, our last stop before going home... the train station.

We had dinner here to celebrate a successful trip. I think Sam enjoyed it.
Me too! :) I couldn't enjoy the veggies though but the rest was delicious!
Marie wanted some of what we got later as we waited for our train... I would too if I was her.
But Sam enjoyed it...
and so did I :) Hmmm....Yummy! :)
The best part of the train ride home was the space to play in so they could wear themselves out a bit. Did I mention I love the kiddie section we were able to reserve! :)
Sam had to explore everything which usually involved one of his favorite past times of climbing.
And finally....Cabin fever?
What else do you call it when you put cups on your feet and socks on your hands and then try to escape?

Prep for the Berlin trip

In the process of applying for Sam and Maries Austrian passports and stuff we had to go to Berlin basically to prove that they exist or something like that. It was a crazy trip and with the right preparation it turned out to be a lot of fun and not too expensive. :) Oh, I love trains especially the ones with kiddie compartments!

We decided to plan out what we were going to take to survive the day with the two kids. As we thought about it we decided to take out super stroller and boy are we glad we did. It was so nice to have and as you can see from the pictures when collapsed down it really isn't much bigger than the other stroller. It was easy to collapse and put back together and it held our stuff (diapers for the day, food, extra clothes, etc) and the babies so it was perfect for the trip! :)


This is the new ritual called babies sleep well dance. Yup, in hopes that the two would sleep well and get there quickly so they could be rested for the 6am departure the next morning and not be screaming the whole trip because they are too tired to cope with anything dance. I think Arnold did a great job, and for the most part it was a very successful dance. Maybe we should have him do it on a more regular basis. :)