stuckihouse

Winter baby

2012-01-22T12:13:00.000-05:00

Just quick, baby Kate ready for cold weather (although it has been in the 50's a lot, crazy Winter!) This sweater was with my old doll clothes but my Mom told me I wore it as a baby.

She has such a cute elfish look! When Colin was a baby people frequently said he looked like a little elf, which I was a little offended by. I now full embrace my cute elf baby!

With great sadness

2012-01-08T12:37:00.003-05:00

A few days after Christmas, Brian's Mom Marilyn passed away from complication with ALS. We have been very sad for her loss, but are relieved she does not need to suffer anymore. Brian and I were able to travel to the Seattle area for her funeral last week and I am very grateful we both were there. It was a beautiful memorial. It think Marilyn has very good reason to be proud of her family. Brian's parents have done a lot of things right to raise such good kids.

Below are some words from Brian:

As the youngest for 5 years (before Brandon came along and ruined everything), I was my Mom's little pal. She was the most influential person in my young life, and even as a young man, she was the first person I wanted to share good news with, and the first person I would ask for advice from when I was confused. She was such a wonderful sounding board. I treasure the friendship that grew out of the regular conversations we had as I became an adult. It was hard when ALS took her voice, and we couldn't discuss life, the gospel, music, ideas, current events or anything else under the sun. I started trying to communicate by email more, and Mom sent me some beautiful messages that are so full of wisdom and insight. Here is an excerpt from one: "My life for almost the last decade has taught me more than the first 50 years combined. I certainly did not anticipate the serious trials... but looking back now I feel gratitude for the experience of living in a dark unknown and finding out for myself that the Lord really knows me by name and grants me sweet peace in the midst of frightening turmoil. Now dealing with loss of physical strength is almost automatic for laying my burdens on the Lord, because I have been lovingly schooled by the Spirit in the past. I feel so grateful for our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren. I feel that the Lord truly knew me and Dad to send us such amazing spirits to teach us the power of love. I am so thankful for eternal marriage and family relationships. I find myself very content with my lot with Dad giving me such loving care and the local family helping Dad as much as they can." Who else but Mom could confront the stark realities that lay ahead with such faith and grace? Her entire existence became a living extension of her testimony. I love you, Mom. And I know that there will be many times when I will want to reach for the phone to tell you about something exciting or ask for your opinion. But I know that you won't be far away, and I know that all that you shared with me will be a compass for any situation I could ever be confronted with. I wanted to send you the "Et Resurrexit" from Bach's Mass in b minor in those last days, because it is the music I think of when I consider where you now are- a place of utter light, complete triumph, joy and limitless possibility. (I can't wait to talk to you about the music you're listening to now). 'Til we meet again!

Happy 2012!!

2012-01-06T00:14:00.001-05:00

We happily said goodbye to 2011!! We had a quiet evening at home with some party hats, pizza, and fizzy apple juice. Brian set an alarm on his phone so we could do a count down at about 9pm.

Kate is our best from 2011. Trips to Rome and Warsaw were pretty good, but other things in the year were very hard.

I adore both those faces!!

Jane even has jammie get-ups.

The Martinelli's was quickly gone.

And we made faces.

The next morning I found that Jane had made a little party hat city with the fancy goblets.

We are very much looking forward to the new year!!

More holiday mis-adventures

2012-01-06T00:10:00.001-05:00

I would love a re-do of the entire month on December. After 5 years of pretty great family health (a few things here and there but nothing super terrible) we were all sick just in time for the holidays. Colin and Jane had it first, gave it to me, and then to my Mom. Very thankfully, Brian missed it during his 8 performances, but he and Kate got it the week before Christmas. All the people I wanted to see, all the neighbor gifts we hoped to give, all the gatherings we hoped to attend or host, all gone. We found out from Brian's ER run on Christmas Eve that we were passing around strep. (Guess how much an ER visit Christmas Eves runs? Over $800!!) Brian has had several complications with his ear, the most recent being partial facial paralysis. Oh my. We just hope he is getting better and regains his hearing! It is quite miserable to have an eardrum burst.

To make things more fun, we added a stomach flu to the mix! We had been stuck in the house for a few days and wanted to do something as a family. I had bought a membership to the planetarium so we headed downtown. On the way, Jane was complaining of a sick tummy. I was not sure if she had just wanted attention since Colin had been sick. She was pretty funny though because she told me she had thrown up by our couch but was "saving it for a surprise for later". She fell asleep but was happy to wake up at the Gateway, where she then threw up on Brian. When our kids are sick, we let them sleep in our room on a "sickie bed" but we had to have two sickie beds in our infirmary. Thankfully kids are better now and although I have technically not been sick since early December, I feel like I am still recovering!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-25T23:20:00.000-05:00

We had a fun, not quite as planned day, but still, a lovely Christmas.

Jane got some new dress-ups (on 75% off after Halloween) and she asked Santa for Princess Legos. Thankfully, he found them.

Colin's Santa present was a blue Transformer motorcycle.

The transformer is a little tricky and needed some Daddy help. Poor Brian, here he is still with his hospital wristband. He had to go to the ER in the middle of the night with an extreme ear infection. His membrane ruptured, which we found out is not fun. He's starting to feel better but not the Christmas Eve we had hoped for.

Christmas carnage.

Colin found the pickle ornament and got the pickle prize. He was delighted.

Baby Kate was a little unsure of this unusual day.

She loved her new toy.

Not long before I took this photo, she had a blow out that was dripping down my leg and onto my shoe. She then spit up all over her new sweater, and had a second blow out later in the day. Still a nice Christmas, it has just taken more out of us than we expected.

Pre-Christmas

2011-12-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

It has been a wild month. Brian was gone for about 8 days while I was sick which thankfully, I survived better than I thought we would. The weekend before Christmas Brian had two more Messiahs in Boise. As it is not too far, we loaded everyone up for the weekend. Above are the kids in the hotel. They were delighted to go on a little trip. Colin said several times how he wished we could stay longer.

Downtown Boise is really cute. I had intended to take photos but everything is just a little harder with 3 kids.

The hotel room was fun for a while, before Colin and Jane got sick of each other.

Brian and the same conductor and soloists were also in VA. Our kids got to play with two of the singers' daughter. Colin and Jane were delighted, and she was a very cute girl.

Not long after we were home from Boise, Kate and Brian got the cold that we had been passing around the house. Kate was so sad sick, and Brian's illness has taken some unexpected turns. They were cute napping together.

I had the camera close and got a handful of everyday happenings on Winter Break. Lunch in jammies!

We have also been painting rocks. Colin can't decide if he should keep his rocks or sell them.

Just general craziness here. It was not quite the week before Christmas we thought we would have.

Excited kids

2011-12-11T00:30:00.000-05:00

Brian got these cute photos of Colin when we were unpacking Christmas decorations. I got this Nutcracker at a 5k fundraiser that my friends and I did in 2000. It was a ballet fundraiser and we ran in dramatic tutus made of garbage bags, tiaras, lots of make-up, etc. Kind of glad a lot of my young adult life was before digital cameras, blogs, and facebook.

No photo, but the other day I caught Colin and Jane setting up our Little People Nativity set and rolling a ball to bowl them. I had to tell them that we do not bowl the Holy Family.

Jane is always excited about anything electronic these days. We have had many, many tantrums involving Nana's ipad or Daddy's smartphone.

Both kids love to cuddle Kate. So cute!

We are rounding out a week without Brian. It has been very long, but we are surviving. Thankfully my mom is close but I try to not ask too much of her. My heart goes out to single and military moms. Brian is in Virginia singing Messiahs but back Monday morning. Just one more Messiah gig this season, then full focus on Christmas and a nice break.

Holiday mis-adventures

2011-12-09T17:26:00.002-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving we went to a great tree farm in Alpine, Utah to get this beautiful tree. This is where our mis-adventure began. Since Brian is very, very particular about the tree, we were planning to have him drop the kids and me off to play somewhere while he made his choice. That did not quite work. He and the older kids tromped around while I nursed in the car. I then took the kids to get hot chocolate and cupcakes while Brian refined the tree search. He found one he liked, geomarked it on his phone but then could not find it again. While he was lost (although he says he was not lost) Jane was loosing it and making waiting very hard for me with baby and Colin. I had brought the camera and thought we would have a fun time at the tree farm but no, not so fun. Every year getting a tree is kind of hard so Brian said maybe that is the new tradition. Next year we are going to send Brian well ahead of time to make the choice as the farm lets you tag a tree as early as Labor Day. It is a lovely tree and needs to last until Epiphany. We are excited for a visit from Befana since she found our kids in Italy last year!

Mis-adventure #2: We let the kids camp out under the tree for just this one special night. (Maybe hard to tell in the photo, stories by Ikea night light light.) They were very excited and got to bed way too late. Colin woke up sick the next day and complained the light of the tree did not let him get a wink of sleep. Great.

Of course both kids ended up in bed with us. With baby Kate this does not work so well. We hope for better luck next year.

It is a gorgeous tree. The icicles look really great.

Michaels' photo

2011-12-09T16:42:00.001-05:00

A while back, Colin was thinking about how we have Stucki family photos and Hinckley family photos, but since he has Michael in his name, he wanted a Michaels' photo. We got 3/4 of the family Michaels (sadly one Michael nephew was missing). The first Michael Hinckley is in the frame. Strangely, all the Michaels had similar stripped shirts.

More extreme baby cuteness

2011-12-06T13:09:00.001-05:00

I realize we may be exceeding the legal limit for extreme baby cuteness. She is so sweet and I just want to play and coo at her all day.

Jane loves her too. I'm happy to have some photos of the sisters.

Kate's Blessing

2011-12-06T12:42:00.001-05:00

About a month ago now, Kate had her blessing. (So hard to blog with 3 kids! And so behind on our family books I make from the blog. I was making good progress but then got stuck in our Japan trip from the summer of 2010. I hope to catch up, our kids love looking at the blurb books.) Anyhow, in our church father's give new babies a name and blessing. Brian gave a beautiful blessing, which I wish I could have paid more attention to rather than dealing with Jane. Jane did settle down in not much time. She had been excited for the blessing and frequently in her prayers would bless Kate for special blessing. Now Colin and Jane both ask for Kate to have health and strength in their prayers, so sweet! And Jane went through a long period in her prayers where she would bless Nana to set the hoses.

Kate wore the family dress that goes back 50 years now. She slept through most of her photos.

She finally got a little smiley once she was in more comfy clothes.

2nd Sunday

2011-12-04T18:18:00.002-05:00

It's our second or third year counting down the Sundays of Advent with our kids. Trying to keep Christ in Christmas you know. I love the symbolism of the light of Christ slowly growing leading up to His birth. The kids love it. Brian has been annoyed recently by kids Christmas specials on TV where Christmas is threatened by a missing Santa. Thanks to the Grinch for showing us that Christmas does not come from a store. Perhaps Christmas means a little bit more.

Today we lit the 2 candles and read our lovely Tommie dePaola pop up Christmas story (thanks to April who got me the copy!) Our kids love it.

Colin also had to show off his new Christmas activity book from Nana.

To celebrate Kate's first 3 months, we got out her zero candle. We intended to make her a cake but have not gotten that far yet. She'll be zero for a while yet, no rush. She is starting to grab things, it is very cute for now. Too bad, she was tired and not super smiley for the photos. She is getting easy in some ways, andvery, very cute.

Below it looks like she is planning some baby mischief, like not staying asleep in her bed as she is doing right now. I have seriously put her down four times and she keeps waking up. She is a great sleeper if someone will lay down right next to her. I am more than happy to do that but I have these details of two other kids and Brian out of town for the next 8 days. Heaven help us.

Goodnight Garden

2011-11-20T23:58:00.000-05:00

The day before the big snow, Brian worked to bring in as much food as possible. He had a great garden year and we had a very serious harvest. Jane likes to play in the dirt near the potatoes.

We plan to bake and eat this pumpkin. NPR had a great recipe for a cooked pumpkin here. The recipe is well worth it.

Some of the last tomatoes. Brian got over 300 pounds of tomatoes!

Colin thought just a warm hat would do it but no, had to get a jacket too.

Bringing in the squash. We have a great stash of lovely winter squash!

The end of the grapes.

After the first earlier snow, Brian made corn tee pees, which worked well. We had very yummy corn all through October.

It was a lovely, lovely Fall!!

Sad we did not get garden photos earlier in the year, it was a very beautiful garden this year.

Our Green Man, covered in Fall.

More snow!

2011-11-20T23:46:00.000-05:00

A few Saturdays ago, we woke up to a lot of snow! The kids were so cute and excited. They had me drag out all their their snow clothes and had to go outside even before breakfast. Colin did not last too long, but Jane stayed outside playing for a long time.

She stayed so long that I brought her some hot chocolate outside.

What I am most disliking about winter is sock wearing. I hate washing and trying to mate the socks. Other than that, winter is still fun right now. It will be fun until maybe February.

Belated Halloween

2011-11-20T23:29:00.001-05:00

We had our first of hopefully many Halloween parades at Colin's school. It was very cute.

Jane pouts on the floor a lot these days. I thought we were set having her be 3 by the time we had another baby but no, it is proving to be quite hard sometimes. Colin got much easier at 3 and was a very hard 2 year old, but Jane was an easy 2 year old and has proven to be a very hard 3 year old. She tells me "never ever!" a lot, and she can be less than pleasant at times. Oh well.

Brian waiting for the Halloween Parade. We got this awesome carseat strap. It is very nice especially in the cold weather as we don't need to take Kate out once she is bundled.

Jane on the ground yet again, not wanting to leave somewhere.

Jane also found that when you stick your head through these things, you get stuck.

Daddy had to rescue her.

We spent the Saturday before Halloween at the Aviary with some friends and got to do a Halloween scavenger hunt. Very fun!

Colin's scavenger hunt paper, and crazy hair from the ninja hood.

For Halloween, Brian had the idea to have us dress up as a Senior Missionary couple. I don't think people really got it when we were trick or treating with the kids. I am sure it just helped the neighbors further think we are weird.

Kate

2011-11-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

Someone is getting very cute. We need to work harder to get more photos of her, and I don't think we have any video yet (we are disasters with video). She is starting to discover her hands and her voice which is so , so sweet.

Sometimes when you are only 2 months old, you fall over a bit.

One year

2011-11-13T23:16:00.001-05:00

While in Washington, we also got to see another young cousin who was in town from the DC area. We had not seen him since he was 6 weeks old and was very fun to see the little big guy.

He loves playing outside. I love the slightly sad face when his mom grabs onto him.

He thought the Schwan truck was a bus and started chasing it.

So happy outside!

Brian got this great series with the rocks.

Contmeplating the rocks. . .

And eating them.

I love his Mom's blurry hand to remove the rock.

Must taste multiple rocks.

So fun to be one! So busy.

Trip to Washington

2011-11-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

We used the days off for Fall break the end of October to head up to Washington for Stuckis to meet Kate. Here are a few photos from a sunny afternoon at the park. I have more of these prints to send to various family members as I went a little crazy making prints the other day. It is fun to have young cousins to play with as Colin and Jane also have first cousins in their late 20's.

Yay for cousin friends!

Alpine Loop 2011

2011-11-13T22:38:00.001-05:00

A month ago now, we headed to check out Fall up the Alpine Loop. (Wow I'm behind on blogging! Three kids seems to take 98-99% of my time.) It was a perfect afternoon. We did not drive the above car but it was fun that it was there to greet us in the parking.

It is our first full Fall in Utah since we moved here (just one trip to Washington, no extended absences thankfully with the new baby). It has been lovely.

My mom was in the middle of making the grape juice from the 1/3 acre of grapes. Jane had a grape juice face for several days. Who are her parents that let her go out like this?

Kate slept during our little hike and was very sweet.

Hiking was a bit slow going with Jane. She enjoyed stopping.

Bright sun. We hit the light perfectly.

Jane enjoys standing on any large rocks she can find.

And Colin has been working on his leaf collection. He found a soft leave that he loved.

Nice Pie

2011-11-13T22:31:00.000-05:00

Brian has made a couple triple chocolate pies recently. We are pretty sure they could win some pie prizes. One of my favorite parts are the slightly salty crust with all the chocolate layers, yum!

Brian's manager Kristin was in town from New York and as we had never had her over, she and Carol joined us for some pie and Mormon coffee.

It was a very nice afternoon.

Getting Ready

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

Beware the Red Ninja!

She usually also adds bunny ears to be a Bat Bunny but for some reason when we did a trial run on Saturday, just wanted to be a bat.

Super sweet baby Bunny!

First snow

2011-10-14T10:50:00.006-04:00

We had our first snow on Oct 6th! It basically went from about 80 degrees to snow. The kids were delighted, Jane especially was so cute stomping around in delight. The snow did not last long at our house, but the following Sunday we took a lazy drive up Millcreek Canyon. This was the snow at the top.

Our yard still looks like this. It has been such a lovely Fall. I need to nurse the baby more outside and enjoy this.

Clever Brian, while at the top of Millcreek, thought to bring some snow down the canyon for the kids to have a snowball fight. We still had 2 dutch ovens in our trunk from the family reunion in the beginning of August. Our car does not get cleaned out much and presently is very stinky. Oh well.

It was a great little snowball fight.

Jane had been asleep in the car but was happy to wake up to a snowball fight.

Some random McDonald's toy that helped Colin to hold a snowball. I suppose it gave Colin's hand a break from the cold. Sadly our kids have an amazing collection of Happy Meal toys from all over the world. We can't get rid of them because the kids really play with them a lot and keep stock. Colin spent several days very upset because he had some Happy Meal toy and could not find a piece of it. It drove us all crazy.

Jane got cold quickly and wanted gloves and her warm hat. I love her red hat. Phil&teds sent it to me last year as they are a parent company of a lovely line of wool clothing for kids, mokopuna. In other phil&teds news, I won a new hiking pack back and port a crib from an inline stroller photo contest recently, yay!! On their blog we will soon be rolling out a series of fun things to do with kids around the world. It has not been published on the phil&teds blog yet, but my first entry on Mexico City can be previewed here. And here is a link the the phil&teds blog. Kate's birth announcement was on there not long ago.

This is one of my new favorite photos.

We do like these kids.

And since Kate spent the snowball fight in her car seat and cuddling her Nana, here are a couple of photos of her (so she does not feel left out someday). She gets seriously cuter every day!

Recent Dress-ups

2011-10-14T01:09:00.000-04:00

Jane likes this dress-up dress since it touches the floor, making it a princess dress. She came down to ask me where her princess crown was. I was pleased that when she could not find her crown, a pirate hat would do.

Eyes open

2011-10-11T19:44:00.000-04:00

We are behind on photos, but about a month ago Kate started to have more alert times.

She is up 2 pounds from this photo and seems so much bigger already.

Brian made this clever co-sleeper. It is very nice to have more room in our bed.

Recent adventures with marshmallows

2011-10-11T18:33:00.002-04:00

There are few things I love more than home made marshmallows. We were having some friends over for a fire and as we had no marshmallows, Brian made some. When I was looking for Colin and Jane, I found them outside sitting in the rocks and licking the marshmallow making instruments. It was very cute. I love little moments like this. I hope their childhoods are full of simple memories like sitting outside to lick the spoon and whip.

And for good measure, baby Kate asleep in our bed.

Baby Photos

2011-09-16T22:49:00.002-04:00

I already need to take many, many more photos of this baby. This is from 5 days old and she is already twice that age! I love the baby ball.

I think she will be a jolly little soul.

She has some great dimples.

I realized I should have cleaned off her milk face, but I love the milk face. I work very hard for that milk.

First Day of Kindergarten/Kate's Birthday

2011-09-16T21:57:00.002-04:00

Thought I would get a few quick details in from recent events. The last couple weeks are a bit of a blur from lack of sleep/constant nursing a cute little baby, etc. SO, Sunday night on the 28th I was feeling a little funny, which is the first time Brian took me seriously I was maybe going to go into labor. My funny feeling lead me to do about 5 loads of laundry, just in case. I went to bed but woke up with some broken water around 3:30 am. (It was funny because Colin's labor started just about the same time, even on the same day of the week.) I woke up Brian and thought things would pick up pretty quick as they had with past labors. I tried to go back to sleep but could not, so I folded some laundry. I wrote my mom a whole one page note about getting Colin to kindergarten since that was his first day. I was a little worried about not being there for him as I wanted to see that detail through. We called our midwives and went over to the birth center about 5am. When we got there, I was only about 2 cm and things were moving very slowly. The birth center was happy to have us hang out there, but we opted to go and walk around the Walmart that was just down the road (we needed a few things and picked up a new matchbox car and some play dough to give the the kids when we came home with the baby.) By about 6:30am since not much was happening, we decided to head home for a while. The midwife could tell only my fore bag of water had broken which was nice, still making labor easy and allowed it to stall out. I really think I was more worried about Colin than labor which let me go home to see him. My mom laughed and laughed when we pulled up still pregnant. She had already told Colin we would come home with the baby so he was a little confused that I was still pregnant. I was able to take a shower, make the kids some pancakes, and we even walked to school to see Colin off.

Some cell phone photos, the other camera was already at the birth center. I love the big back pack on Colin!

Still a little pregnant. . .

Colin walking into school for the first time. I am glad Dora is in his class.

I love his little nervous smile. He really was not too nervous, he has taken to school brilliantly. He is a very flexible child.

Once Colin was at school, I was able to focus on our third child (since Jane was fine to watch PBS kids with her Nana). I had had a few good contractions walking to and from school and I went downstairs to try and focus. After a while things got more serious so we headed back to the birth center around 10am. They have such a beautiful new birth suite. Brian is such a pro at helping me through labor, there is really no way I could do it without him! He was supposed to go to a cello gig that morning but thankfully was able to cancel. I spent a lot of time just on my hands and knees, we labored in their big birth tub for a while, and when things had really progressed, they have an awesome birth stool that I was curious to try. We had a great birth assistant looking in on us and bringing heat and cold when I needed it, and a very great midwife. Most of our labor it was just me and Brian, they would just check in on us to make sure we were ok, check baby's heart tones, etc. It was so nice just to have some space to get the baby work done. It was kind of funny (and I don't think I have even told Brian this) but one thought I kept having over and over in labor was about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban. I think these thoughts came from a quote that was up in the birth center about how my contractions are not stronger than I am because they are me. Once I personally get through the fact that I cannot run away from the intensity of birth but that I have to get through it and work with it, then I am much more able to get the work done. I do feel like unmediated labor kind of takes a woman to a different place mentally, and mine took me to Harry Potter. Since it was my third labor, I was thinking about the end of the story when Harry was waiting for who he thought was his father but was actually him and he knew he could do it because he had done it before. Anyway, not sure I am really explaining my laboring thought process super well, but it was comforting to know my body had labored well before meaning I had the power to birth this baby too. I had a very intense transition where it was just contractions on top of contractions without any breaks but I was able to move around bring the baby down. Once I was ready ready to push I had some more breaks between contractions. I should have Brian comment here too, he is the one who caught Kate. She was crying before she was even all the way born, very full of life and ready for this world. We are so happy she is here, even though the newborn period can be a little tricky for me. It is such a short time and she is really so, so sweet.

AND some baby Kate!

2011-09-04T23:50:00.001-04:00

The week has been a bit of a blur as it was almost a week ago that we became a family of 5. Here is our little Katherine Noelle, born Aug. 29th at 1:40 pm. 8 pounds 10 oz, 21 inches. She had a very peaceful birth and it has been fun getting to know her this week. We think she is very lovely. Colin and Jane have been very sweet and love to give her kisses. Things on a whole have gone very well with only a few rough spots. We are very, very happy to have her here safe and sound.

We will write more details soon, too tired right now!

and some Jane

2011-08-28T22:56:00.001-04:00

Jane also got a very cute new hair cut.

She still has a week before her preschool starts. She is very excited and I think she will do very, very well. She has taken a couple of summer classes and I think she'll enjoy the structure. She is very smart, which is almost a little scary sometimes.

Classic Jane. She has been reminded that there is no nose picking at school.

She has been so sweet during the end of my pregnancy and during my recent cold (which has dragged on 12 days now, so not normal for me! My midwife said it is not uncommon for labor to delay while the mom is sick, really, really great.) Anyway, Jane cuddles with me most afternoons so we get some rest. We slept until almost 6pm tonight, which was a little over the top. She is going to be chatting and singing to herself in her bed probably until 10:30-11pm.

New school hair cut

2011-08-28T22:53:00.001-04:00

As Colin was getting very shaggy, Brian gave him a new hair cut not long ago to help get ready for school. I love the photo above, so classic Colin. The morning school schedule is going to be a bit of a shock to our system, it is almost 9:30 pm right now and kids are still settling down. We have not been getting up until 8:30 a lot of days and that won't really work anymore. At least it is getting dark earlier, but so much of our kids not getting to bed early is Brian and I not having the energy to get them to bed.

Colin is very excited for kindergarten, which starts tomorrow. He got to meet individually with his teacher this last week and she seems very, very nice. I have his favorite Transformers shirt and shiny blue shorts in the dryer right now to make sure they are clean and ready for school. He also chose out some very crazy light up school shoes (we worry they might cause seizures) but he loves them. I need to let go of my own vanity a bit as I would keep dressing him in clothes I like, but it is great he dresses himself and has his own ideas too.

Also classic awkward smile, so cute!

I can hardly believe he is so big! We hope school does not take away all of his sweet little nature. There is still something so innocent in Colin.

And he still pretty much always has a toy in his hand.

He is a very delightful child.

Glow bath

2011-08-28T22:28:00.002-04:00

One morning when I was having trouble sleeping, I was looking around at the Play at Home Mom site and she had some cute ideas with glow sticks. As our kids already LOVE glow sticks, we thought a Glow Bubble Bath would also be a hit. It was.

We also filled some balloons with glow sticks which turns them into cool lanterns. And we learned that if you put glow sticks in the freezer, they will last longer.

More Summer

2011-08-22T23:58:00.001-04:00

The photo above is actually from 2009, but it is one of my favorites of Colin and summertime. It's been a fun summer, but I am mainly ready for it to end and not to be pregnant anymore. My head cold from our anniversary has moved into my chest. I never get sick like this so why now? Brian is ready for me to move onto new things to complain about like postpartum issues.

We have spent a lot of time this summer in very little clothing. Both kids love undie time, which has been handy with adventures in potty training. I do not know how I will handle teenagers since getting through late pregnancy and potty training have about done me in.

Speaking of potty training (since it has taken up a lot of my time) we have made some very serious success this week with the number 2 issue. Number 1 has been no problem for months, but Jane had some very serious psychological hang ups with solid waste. Poor little thing, it really has been kind of terrible and was making her so upset. The above bubbles were one of her poopy prizes, and we have had several poppy parties this week to re-enforce her success. And today, all on her own, she hopped up and got it done. I really, really needed this small miracle this week! Let's hope there is not too much regression.

We have also spent a lot of time in jammies. Why get dressed when we mainly hang out at home?

I love Colin's bed head. Both kids have gotten cute new haircuts I need to take photos. Colin also met individually with his kindergarten teacher today for an assessment. She seems very great, can't believe he is a big kindergartner!

So many changes coming up, I will probably miss the jammie days with my 2 cute kids. They really are delightful children.

Anniversary

2011-08-19T14:51:00.003-04:00

We had our 8th anniversary this week. It was pretty low key. I had a very bad night of sleep that night due to late pregnancy, and to make late pregnancy even more fun, I seem to have a head cold. I am just really fun to be around these days. To celebrate, Brian and I went out to lunch at a super great Mediterranean place, it was very, very delicious. Then I took a nap with Jane, it was awesome.

I looked through our wedding photos with Jane after our nap. She was so sweet because over and over she would say, "Mommy was the Princess and Daddy was the Prince."

We did have a very great wedding, and have had 8 action packed years. I need to formally write down how it all happened but have no energy for all the details right now. I did look up the email Brian sent to his high school friends after we got engaged so I will let him tell it in a nutshell:

I just want to let you all know that I'm engaged to be married! I know this may seem like fast work, but actually it's been ten years in the making. I'm proposed 4 days ago to one of my dearest, closest friends (I've always wanted to marry my best friend). Her name is Ann Hinckley and we met our freshman year of college. We have been kind of a constant reference point to each other since than- and we are in reality certified soul mates (according to a Ladies home journal quiz I recently took). This January as things were fizzling with another girlfriend, I began to realize that the connection I was craving- the one that made me feel like the best version of myself, that kept me buoyant and made me feel intuitively the richness of life, was the connection I had to my Ann. I had frequently said to myself, "If I could just find someone like Ann...". Then I realized that I have found someone like Ann. Her name is Ann. I am a complete genius. It only took me ten years.

Brian was worth the 10 year wait.

Reunion weekend

2011-08-14T00:37:00.003-04:00

As part of our reunion, we headed to Cove Fort in Central Utah. My great great grandfather built the fort so fun to have some family history. It was Cove Fort days so there were lots of little activities and free hot dogs and chips. Our kids would eat hot dogs everyday if we let them.

Wagon rides!
Jane keeps telling me her wish is to go on a wagon ride/horse ride all by herself.

Here is everyone, all my siblings, most spouses, and majority of the grand kids minus 5 of them I think.

There was also a stage coach to ride in, which our family found out had a very, very long line. Colin thought it was very fancy.

My sister and a couple of her cute girls. I stood around and looked pregnant most of the time.

We stayed in Manti, Utah with this gorgeous view of the Manti Temple. My great great Grandfather on my mom's side was the architect of this Temple, so more family history!

Brian made some dutch oven pineapple upside down cakes, that were very quickly gone.

I think my Mom was very pleased with everything.

After we were back in SLC, we got together for the baby blessing of our new niece Jill. I love the photo above of all the kids crowed around to see her.

She looked very sweet, a nice ending to a big family time.

Summer

2011-08-14T00:32:00.002-04:00

Since I have been too busy making a human to take many photos this summer, I was lucky to borrow my sister-in-law's memory card before they left to get some documentation of the summer (thanks April!)

Our kids had a fun time at Temple Square with their cousins.

We visited their other cousins at Daybreak for some Splash pad fun.

Our kids have spent a fair bit of the summer wet.

My Mom had everyone come to the Church History Museum where she works on Mondays. The kids loved the Mexican dance demonstration.

Colin and Evan were really going for it.

We had my uncle down and have had 30+ family members in town for a little reunion. It has been a fun, family filled summer!

Waiting

2011-08-11T23:39:00.002-04:00

I have not seen my feet while standing for about 4 months. Shoes with shoe laces are very hard to put on. I have been waddling around for a long time, and going from sitting to standing, or moving in general is getting harder and harder. I am getting more and more swollen, I would not recognize my lower extremities as my own. Contractions are coming more and more, but just for practice, nothing really making things happen. I have whole new colonies of visible veins down my legs that will be a fun souvenir to keep after the baby is born. I feel super clumsy, drop things all the time and then picking them up is very hard. I keep running into our 5 and 3 year olds with my belly. I get very nauseated again since my stomach is smashed by a baby, and my abdomen seems stretched to its limit. I am in a constant state of pulling up my trousers, of which I have only a handful that still fit. And the fatigue! And the inability to get much done. Just a few of the joys of late pregnancy.

But I still love to feel the baby kick and can't wait to meet her. Our older kids are so excited for a new baby- they both are great with little ones. I love hearing Jane list off the people she loves which always includes her baby sister. I am excited for labor, not only to not be pregnant anymore but I actually have always had a fascination with the process of giving birth. I trained and worked as a labor doula (to provide non-medical labor support) years before I had my own kids. Knowing how labor works and helping other women through labor before having a baby is very great preparation. I have had two very easy births and hope for an easy third. Maybe we will be surprised as birth is unpredictable but we hope for a peaceful beginning for our little one. And knowing all I know, I would happily go through pregnancy again. I am grateful for our growing family as I have seen too many friends who long for children struggle with fertility issues.

And now to keep waiting. . .

I had my final trip of this pregnancy last weekend, a family reunion in Central Utah. This pregnancy has taken me as far as Italy and Poland, but I need to stay a little closer to home for now. I was 37 weeks along (which is when I delivered Colin). While on our trip, we got to go on some mule drawn wagon rides to celebrate our Western heritage. I maybe should have taken a few more rough rides to get labor going.

Recently

2011-07-31T00:27:00.002-04:00

Not so inspired to blog recently. I need to get out the camera more, our kids are doing very cute summer things but the end of pregnancy is taking all my energy. Pregnancy is going well but just in the last few days I have started to get more swollen. Hopefully we will have a baby in 2-6 weeks! Thankfully, we have lots of family visits in the next couple weeks which makes the time go faster and keeps Colin and Jane happy with cousins.

We took a few quick family photos a few weeks ago when the kids looked cute.

I need to take a good after photo also, but this was Brian mid-hair cut from super long to super short. He was getting a good pony tail (and I do really think he looks awesome in a pony tail) but his short hair is also very attractive. I just hope the short hair will not bring a serious church responsibility.

Colin drew this family portrait downtown at one of the kid's exhibits. I like my big baby belly, and Colin thought my crazy hair that seems to envelope the whole family was pretty funny. I have been slacking on the kids' art time, I need to plan more projects for them but so tired all the time!

Just some cute photos of Jane, I think back from May actually. I had the backdrop set up for another shoot and stuck Jane in front of it. She was darling (of course!)

A few more

2011-07-01T09:51:00.001-04:00

I think I have posted most of our best of photos, but wanted to include this great photo Brian got of the castle. If we had had kids with us, we would have been begged to get a balloon. I think this photo would be fun to enlarge for the kids' room.

And for Colin, he was very amazed at these photos of a real Hot Wheel car. The weekend before I got to Warsaw there was some big car race around the theatre, which Brian said was very, very noisy.

Last night in Warsaw

2011-06-30T08:46:00.001-04:00

Brian had his last show of Usher as a matinee on Saturday, so he was done working by 6pm. We took advantage of our last night in Warsaw (and last kidless night) by enjoying the twilight and taking a 5 mile walk through Old Town (with a stop at our favorite Indian place, they were so good that night) and then we walked along the river for a long time. It was perfect.

We stumbled upon some zombie war fare. Too bad our Polish vocab does not include the word, "why?" It was kind of funny though.

So many churches, and such pretty light.

We love walking down Nowy Swiat. It is so great, on the weekends they make the street pedestrian only. Find Brian in the above photo. He may look like he is smoking but we just shared a Magnum bar (which we heard will be available in the USA soon.) Colin, when he used to smell cigarette smoke would say it smelled like Poland.

We wandered down below Old Town more than we had before and found this cute little street dating from the 1830's. We imagine it was not destroyed in the war, seemed original, but then the reconstructed Old Town seems original to us. The re-building the Poles were able to do under communism is very impressive.

And below, I wanted an eerie photo of myself in the hallway to our apartment in the theatre. The hallway is a bit creepy, but we had an awesome apartment. We love being 2 floors away from Brian's work. Brian swears he heard very some strange things in the theatre, and I just could not think about it. It was bombed and the shell was used for some fighting in WWII. It is am amazing huge structure that is home to the National Opera, the National Ballet, and the National Theatre.

Museum of Ethnography

2011-06-29T21:52:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, we went over to the Museum of Ethnography. I would have considered myself a very bad former Anthro major (and I spent several years teaching Ethnography) to not go. It was a great museum, great to see more of what real Polish life was like.

A great display of folk costumes.

And an amazing collection of wooden sculptures.

I best not show this one to Colin, he would probably get nightmares. I forgot to read what this was depicting, as I was too distracted by the cat lady and evil frog.

We are major suckers for Polish pottery, so fun to see some old pottery. We added a lot to our collection, our two roller bag carry-ons were all pottery. I am very lucky to be married to Brian as he also loves the pottery and does not mind lugging it home. We will set some beautiful tables, maybe in 10 years or so when kids are old enough to not break things.

More Lazienki Park

2011-06-29T21:32:00.001-04:00

We have been back a few days, may as well post some more photos. I came home a little sick, but at least I was not sick in Warsaw, that would have been tragic.

Last Wednesday we spent a fun day exploring the interiors of all the former royal residences at Lazienki. It really is excessively lovely! This is the Palace on the Water.

We were very impressed with the restoration, as in one part of the palace they showed a lot of before and after photos. Sadly, the Nazis destroyed a lot of things when they were destroying Warsaw.

We were amused but this peacock showing off for a lady friend.

She was not impressed.

Admiring the fake ruins at the amphitheater, and looking a bit prego. If I had even been a couple more weeks along there is no way I would have been up to this trip! Thankfully we were never on a British Airways flight as they do not allow travel past 29 weeks without a doctor's note. (I had medical clearance to travel but did not get a note.)

We love a good Orangery! Lazienki has to of them, this one is now a lovely sculpture garden, and the other one is a fancy restaurant where we had a very fun dinner later that night. Brian had kept the reservation a surprise, it was a great night!

The above Orangery also had a full theatre inside, that dated from about the 1770's.

Corpus Christi

2011-06-25T05:35:00.010-04:00

Thursday was a holiday in Poland and Brian was clever enough to figure out what it was beforehand (whereas we usually see something cool and look it up on Wikipedia after). It was Corpus Christi, and Brian had found out there would be a procession just a couple blocks from our apartment in the theatre. We headed over just to look and got totally swept up in it. It was very sweet and simple, everyone singing a hymn quietly and walking in the procession. I really found it quite moving, and thanks to crazy pregnancy hormones, was crying most of the time (so Brian took all the photos. I think it is great to spend time in a country with faith, so much so we can hardly see the churches here since there is very frequently a mass. We also have been talking a lot about ways to make Mormonism less boring, and I don't think the real answer is a Broadway musical. I guess the 24th of July parade is somewhat of a procession for us (and it would probably also make me cry in my current state). Brian feels like I have been very emotional around pageantry with this pregnancy. He sang all the Armed Forces anthems at a Memorial Day service in SLC and I was also crying. I did not know the anthems meant so much to me.

We moved with the procession up to the Saxon Gardens, just across from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We seriously could not have been in a better place as right in front of us they had the crowd open for the main part of the procession to continue.

Not sure what this was, but secretly hoping it was the Ark of the Covenant. (And I really do not want to be disrespectful, sarcasm runs too deep.)

The flower girls dressed in white for their first communion were darling. They would do an elaborate curtsy and throw their petals.

We think the man behind the elaborate gold cross is an archbishop or cardinal of Warsaw. Not sure if Warsaw has a cardinal. Wikipedia told us they used to.

Mary got to get some fresh air.

The band was quite good. No Sousa here though. They played with the processional hymn and in little interludes.

We loved these guys!!

Love the traditional dress.

This cute little girl was maybe a little tired of throwing petals. If you click to enlarge, you might find the look in her eyes a little creepy.

The procession stopped for little mini services in front of several of the churches on the last block of the Royal route. Yes, several churches in one block.

We really enjoyed the solemn show of faith and devotion. There were throngs of people out for this, and Brian and I had many conversations about how folks in the USA would need a lot more razzle dazzle to turn up for something like this in such large numbers.

I cannot think, I feel too much

2011-06-23T18:24:00.004-04:00

Above is Brian in his dressing room, ready for the second show of the Fall of the House of Usher. It is a pajama pants opera. Brian has had a couple roles where he preforms in basically pajamas, and in this production, no hair, make-up, or even a need to wear contacts. Brian has enjoyed coming back to this opera with the same cast and same production. It is a very cool production, many details to look at, visually very interesting, and super, super creepy. I have the fun time as his wife wondering if I prefer to see my husband in a romantic role with another women or in this role where there are incestuous overtones with his sister (although it is in a dream sequence, still kind of not my favorite thing. The whole story could be a dream.) We did get a video of the last production of the opera that I am not sure our parents would really enjoy, but Brian is brilliant. Just one more show on Saturday. All the shows have been sold out.
If the link works, the following is the promo the opera did on youtube, with Brian's character asking for his friend to come visit. Wish more friends could see it, it's a good time (minus the hint of incest).

A quick hello

2011-06-23T18:01:00.003-04:00

I finally made it to Warsaw a few days back. I had a fairly horrible trip involving a detour through Germany, making it 4 flights for me to get there, thanks to a paperwork problem in Detroit that made me miss a connection in Amsterdam. We will have to really catch up the blog when we get home (as blogger is being weird with our connection, so now I can be behind on Rome and Warsaw!) We are enjoying a very lovely week. We really love Warsaw and it is so nice to be in a familiar place, doing lots of things we were never able to do with 2 kids. We could not help but bring one child (although baby #3 is still fairly portable). Oh man, if I were even a couple more weeks pregnant I would not have been able to do this trip! The baby is getting so big we can see her move in my belly, so cool and alien at the same time!

We have enjoyed some lovely weather, although the forecast said it was going to be a rainy week. We enjoyed a day further exploring Lazienki Park and touring the interiors (not a kid friendly activity).

As I am so used to being in Poland with a stroller and kids, we could not help but pose with another phil&teds and our friend's child. (We ran into some lovely people in Old Town today, it was a holiday today and we have had a great time, quite accidentally all day.) It has been funny to not have a stroller and do crazy things like take the stairs. I do miss having a place to keep a water-bottle, and we miss the kids a lot! They are doing great at home, but their care-givers are tired! Just a few more days. . .

Back to Warsaw!!

2011-06-15T21:51:00.006-04:00

Brian is already back in Poland (left a week ago) and I am lucky to join him kid free this weekend! It will be strange to be there without kids, but almost 30 weeks pregnant, I was not up to a big trip with kids. (We thought we would go together but then we found out about baby #3 and after the Italy trip, it just was not possible. We have hired my nephew to help my mom with the kids and they will be in very good hands. I am a bit nervous to leave them and go so far, but they will do great.)

We LOVE Warsaw and are so excited to see it in the summer! The Polish National Opera is doing 3 more shows of "The Fall of the House of Usher" the same production Brian was in in 2009. We are very happy he gets to return to the role.

The opera houses us in an apartment in the Grand Theatre, which is awesome!

The theatre is just a couple blocks from Old Town.

I will miss these little guys in Poland. Colin I think has some memories of our time there, Jane, probably not. It was a very great place to travel with kids.

More recent photos

2011-06-06T22:50:00.001-04:00

We also got to photograph this lovely mezzo. She was very fun and gorgeous to photograph!

Recent photos

2011-06-06T22:47:00.001-04:00

Our lovely niece Kait is getting married in the Fall and we got to do her engagement photos not long ago. We are so happy for her and Micah!

Birthday part 4-Cake Wreck

2011-06-06T12:53:00.001-04:00

The kids got a Dora and Diego cookbook for Christmas and they really wanted to make the Dora castle cake. We had an incident with the food color with the red lid on the yellow color paste. I did not notice until too late, thanks to 2 kids screaming at me about who got to lick the bowl and the beater from the frosting. So the cake was supposed to be purple but turned this dark green instead. Oh well, we decided it was a rain forest cake. I had been reading recently about using more natural food coloring and had even looked up where to buy some but a few times a year won't hurt too much (we hope).

Colin noticed that I had one gumdrop going the wrong way and he gave me a little talking to about following the recipe and the picture more carefully. Thanks Colin.

Jane was delighted.

It was windy and Brian loves any reason to use the culinary torch.

My mom got both our kids sparkler candles for their birthdays and they were very exciting.

We had some nice friends over (who sadly will be moving soon) to help us eat cake. It was funny talking about our efforts to limit sugar as we continued to pick at the cake.

Everything was green. It is even green today on the other end if you know what I am talking about.

The girls were being very cute tossing the soccer ball and then the boys tackled Jane.

Again, Happy birthday little Jane! We were also going to do a pinata but we had had enough for this year. This however was Jane's first birthday home since she was born.

Birthday part 3

2011-06-02T13:29:00.001-04:00

And for part 3, we headed up to Park City. Jane had not taken a nap but needed one so we had her sleep a bit in the car. The last time we were in Park City it was 19 degrees. The Park City Spring is further behind further down in the valley, tons of daffodils and tulips still.

Sadly we were too late for the Kimball Arts Center (we always love seeing what is there.) We actually spent most of our time in the LDS Family History Center since we knew there would be a bathroom for Colin's emergency. There were some very nice missionaries who let the kids play some games on-line, gave the kids ice cream cones and sang to Jane for her birthday. Jane was so cute when she realized the Happy Birthday song was for her. Brian sang a few hymns for the missionaries too, it was really quite fun.

Kids ran up Main Street.

We found a little stage and were treated to a special Colin and Jane Dance Extravaganza.

I cannot believe how big they both are!!

I love it when they get along. I would like to think we are at about 60% getting a long and 40% fighting. It is hard to tell.

We also ran down Main Street.

And the pay and display parking meters were amazing!

AND we watched some construction!!!

Happy birthday sweet little Jane Emmeline!!! We are so happy and lucky to have you!!!

Birthday part 2

2011-06-02T13:25:00.001-04:00

For the next part of the birthday, we went to a little local indoor playplace to ride the big rides.

The little roller coaster goes pretty fast! The kids love it!

The ride goes forwards and backwards, and this was Colin's reaction to when it started to go backwards. I think it is kind of funny because just a few days earlier Colin had something going on that produced a lot of vomit. It actually was not funny, and happened near the top of our open, wooden stairs that go down 3 floors. He had had a lot of grape juice and there was purple vomit on both sides of the walls down all three flights. Poor Brian had to do the clean up as I attended to Colin. We also had a friend over who took it very well and stayed to help take care of Jane. I think a lot of people would have taken that as a cue to leave as quick as possible. Thank goodness for patient friends who know that sometimes kids vomit. Thanks goodness too it was a quick bug that did not go onto infect anyone else!

Birthday part 1

2011-06-02T13:20:00.001-04:00

We have a 3 year old!!! We had a fun day for Jane in 3 parts (with a couple more birthday things this coming weekend). She is such a delightful child in so many sweet ways, but the tyrannical threes may be evident already!

We had fun opening a pile of presents.

We mainly got her baby type things for her dolls so she can do her own mommy things with her babies when the new baby comes. Hope it helps!! She (and Colin) as so excited for a new sister. They talk to the baby all the time and give my belly cuddles and Jane especially all the time talks about how much she loves the new baby. Hope it lasts!

She was a little excited.

And yes, we forgot to get actual birthday candles, but for the weekend she has a #3 sparkler for her big cake. She did not mind the tea lights. She had her birthday crown from her Grandma Stucki and a new princess skirt from Grandma Hinckley.

And she would have been happy if I had just put frosting in the little mini muffin papers.

Preschool Grad

2011-05-25T01:11:00.002-04:00

Although it seems a bit much, Colin's preschool had an elaborate graduation program. He has had a very great teacher who works very hard, and Colin was SO excited! Jane loved the program too, actually sat pretty still and listened to all the songs. In the above photo he is doing his sign language solo.

I LOVE this photo! So preschool. Sometimes you need to put a shirt on your head, and who knows what Colin was doing.

Colin is the tallest in his class.

He got to keep his cap and gown, and loves his tassel!! He got very serious, must have felt the pressure of oncoming kindergarten.
He is such a sweet little guy!

End of the tulips

2011-05-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

We have finally had some nice weather (but a little more snow today). On Sunday night we headed down to Temple Square since we had not seen the tulips and we knew they would be gone soon. They were already taking out some of the tulip beds but we still saw many lovely flowers.

I wanted some photos with the kids and this is the behavior we have to deal with.

We spend most of our time at Temple Square going from fountain to fountain, the kids love water!

I am getting very pregnant. I'm 2/3 of the way, fully third term! Second trimester went by pretty fast, and probably faster than the 3rd will go. Sadly, some of my discomforts of pregnancy have hit earlier this time around. I also am totally waddling, oh well. Baby #3 is a very wiggly little girl.

Many lovely flowers. Our kids love tulips. We have lost a lot in our yard to a couple of deer who have been visiting. It is quite annoying to see our personal lovely tulips mowed down by stay deer. They better be gone before there is much in the garden!

Something went wrong with Jane's pretty.

Always happy to see a fairly normal photo of Colin.

Jane being asked to please not climb so high.

There is some open grass so there was some freeze tag.

Seattle Aquarium

2011-05-15T16:13:00.001-04:00

We spent the last week in the Seattle area to visit Brian's family as travel in June is out with a trip to Poland and I will not be fit to travel July and August. Sadly, we got zero Stucki photos, even though several times we intended to get out the camera. Guess it is more fun to see and interact with family than take photos of them. We met my sister at the Seattle Aquarium and did take some photos there. To the delight of our children, my sister let her 8 year old skip school to play with us.

The kids were a little too shy to touch many things. Brian wondered if the touch pools were where the bad starfish had to go for punishment.

Cute cousins.

Colin adores his cousin Maggie. We stayed with them when Brian was working with Seattle Opera and Colin learned a lot about playing from her. I like this photo of him trying to do just what she is doing. She is nearly 3 years older but they still have a good time, I think because Colin loves to do anything she wants. I really hope they stay good friends.

I love the little hands.

Jane climbed up to this little pool where tides kept coming in. It surprised her every time.

Fairy Ninja

2011-05-14T10:29:00.001-04:00

Colin recently acquired a new ninja sword, making him pull out the ninja masks we brought home from Japan. Jane had to get hers out too, but paired it with her fairy wings. I love the combination of big brother influence and girly girly-ness.

Eating Out!

2011-05-02T11:53:00.004-04:00

(I wrote this for the phil&teds blog and while it has not posted yet, thought I would post it here too.)

We have had many restaurant adventures with our kids, some good, some not so good. Here are a handful of things that have helped.

Above, Brian with our kids in Victoria BC's Chinatown. I love how Brian looks like he has had enough. There are definitely some days when I would rather do anything else but take our kids to a restaurant. When living on the road as a nomadic opera family we have not had other options at times (only so many meals you can eat in a hotel room).

1-We love appetisers, or if we are going to a place we are not familiar with, we bring some food to keep kids happy. At times this can ruin kids appetite but we enjoy quiet, happy children while eating out.

2-It feels like lame parenting, but we have used our portable DVD player and my husband's smart phone to keep kids quiet and happily plugged in when needed. We try to use this as the exception but at times it is necessary (and nice). We were in Italy not long ago and thanks to the bread sticks and the cartoon Pinocchio on my husband's phone, we were able to wait for our food in relative peace in a restaurant we were dying to try. (It was worth it too for this restaurant! We had these amazing stuffed squash flowers that were unlike anything we have ever eaten! We had amazing food in Rome and really bad food too. Beware of restaurants that speak to you in English and serve dinner early!)

3-At times, I feel like whatever works and keeps kids happy is worth it, even if a little gross. The above photo is from a Mexican restaurant in San Angel just outside of Mexico City. Our son was about 16 months old and kept himself busy for a long time making the above concoction. It was a water bottle layered with corn tortillas, beans, orange rind and anything else that was in front of our son. My husband and I were able to eat relatively calmly, even with this disgusting thing on our table. Our son continued to drink the water even when it was full of stuff.

4-Sometimes all your best efforts will not be enough. The above photo is our son on the floor of the famous Opera Bar in Mexico City. He was done and had started exploring and saying hello to other people trying to have their meals. Lucky for us he is cute and Mexicans loved him.

5-Bring a good bib while your child is little to keep them and yourself cleaner. I LOVE the bibs with sleeves! Ikea sells some good ones or we have had a couple of these brands, they have lasted very well too. Bring lots of wipes to clean up after yourself and tip your server well!

6-Especially in Europe, we have typically brought our own baby chair as many restaurants do not have children's chairs. We travel with a booster chair that is a little bulky but is worth it to take with us. (We have yet to get a phil&teds clip-on chair as many times we have been in apartments or hotel rooms where we could not clip on such a chair. We do have a new wriggle wrapper for baby #3. I wish we had the wriggle wrapper for #2 but we did not know about it in time!)

7-When possible, ask if it is possible to sit away from other people. We went for some great Ethiopian food in Tel Aviv (there is some amazing food in Israel!). Our son had some extra energy that night so we asked to sit on the patio. It was very nice for him to have a little space and not bother other in the restaurant.

Below is our son at the Ethiopian restaurant. You can see in his eyes he was up to no good that night!

We had a funny time in Paris when our son was just about 2 years old. We were at a restaurant that had many mustards and condiments in the middle of the table. We moved them out of our son's reach but every time the waiter came to our table, he very fastidiously re-positioned them in the center of the table. He seemed very disapproving that we would move them as I suppose our 2 year old should know not to touch them. Oh well, it was not a great restaurant and we ended up eating a lot of street crepes in Paris.

We also found you can’t believe everything you read in a guidebook. One of our books for Warsaw, Poland claimed that “Rooster” was a great family eating establishment. There was one a short walk from our apartment, so we ventured in one evening for dinner. As it turns out, “Rooster” is modeled on the American “Hooters” experience, where the waitresses do not have much to wear. After being seated, our waitress came to take our orders and our three-year-old son wanted to know why she wasn’t wearing any trousers. However they did have a baby chair, crayons for kids and popcorn on the table. Our kids had a good time and the food was pretty good (we were hungry). We did not need to go back however.

Ok, just one more story from our first day in Jerusalem. It was very hot and from a lot of walking we were starving and out of water. I saw a sign for the Cafe of All Nations , so we headed up to it. It was a very funny little place. We walked in and it did not seem like a cafe at all. They had some old ice creams and drinks, but it did not seem like there was any food. There was a glass display case that seemed like it would have food but it was empty. We asked the man if they had sandwiches as the sign had suggested and he said yes, or course, and listed off what we could have. We asked for two falafel, so he made some phone calls and seemed to have sent a fax, and a few minutes later a car drove up, handed the man a black plastic bag from which he produced our lunch. It was a very strange little place and Brian asked me if I wanted to go there because I suspected it might be strange. But the food was pretty good (Brian liked the hint of lemon on the hummus), we had a place to sit and drink cold water. The man was very sweet with Colin and had him laughing a lot with 'gimme five' and some rather alarming vocal noises.

Brian and Colin at the Cafe of All Nations.

What are your best, or worst experiences eating out with kids?

I need a ketchup

2011-04-30T12:41:00.001-04:00

I think I first hear about the uses of little ketchup packets for medicinal purposes from Sue Anne. I believe it was her sister-in-law Jeanette (who we later became friends with AND she is a long lost cousin of mine, anyway) she would freeze the fast food ketchup packets for little kid-sized ice packs. My kids are somehow hurting themselves all the time and they have LOVED having their own ice packs.

It is nice too because our freezer is on the bottom. Anytime there is a little bonk, the non-injured sibling loves to run to the freezer to get the ice pack. It is just enough of a distraction to make the pain of whatever happened usually go away very quickly. Jane has chewed through a couple of them to eat the ketchup, but that has not happened in a while. I guess we could go by a Taco Bell sometime to give her a little spice.

Colin was posing for me and knew to make a sad face.

Easter aftermath

2011-04-29T15:13:00.002-04:00

Our rug not long after the Easter Bunny came.

We have shoes everywhere in our house.

Someone got a ring pop.

I think this is only the 3rd time since Brian and I have been married that we colored eggs, and the first time we did it with kids. (We have spent a lot of Easters away from home.) Ideally we would have done this sooner and let the Easter Bunny hide these eggs too but instead, we colored them after dinner. Our kids were delighted and actually do love hard boiled eggs. Very exciting.

I made them take of clothes, I already do enough laundry and did not want to deal with more stains. (Although, has anyone noticed how the liquid OxyClean foams up on grass stains? I kind of love that.)

Brian got some little q-tip things that were filled with color too.

And we ended the day with this lovely mango tart. Brian has a major disagreement with

Cook Illustrated on this one since they say that mango is too weepy for tarts. Turned out just fine.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T18:16:00.001-04:00

Colin and Jane looked pretty cute in their pale greens.

Our Easter Bunny came after lunch to the delight of the kids.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T18:03:00.001-04:00

It has been a crazy weekend. My brother throws a big Easter party that included a bouncy castle. Our kids were lucky and had some fun time in the castle before it was over-run with other children.

Easter basket love.

And below, exhausted kids. They have even been very worn out today on the real Easter.

20 weeks

2011-04-14T23:50:00.002-04:00

The kids love to cuddle the new baby. We are half way there, but meeting the baby still seems far away. Granted, the photo exaggerates, but I cannot believe how much bigger my belly is this time around. We have our ultrasound appointment next week and we hope to find out if it is a boy or girl. We thought about keeping it a surprise since we have one of each but we would like to know. Maybe the baby will not cooperate and keep it a surprise.

Jane was having a wild afternoon. She would have fallen asleep in the car but it was warm and we had the windows down. How can you fall asleep with the excitement of the windows down?

I took Colin's preschool photos again today. I was glad to see all the other preschoolers who are funny in photos (not a phenomenon unique to Colin).

Funny Colin.

Here are a few more out-takes, but some cuter ones. I still have some work on the photos and am excited to get it all done.

Recently

2011-04-03T13:36:00.004-04:00

Brian might not miss this scene, but the little guys who made it are pretty cute when they are not fighting. Jane just looked at the photo and said "that is a fun dumping of the Little People!" The mess has gotten even worse as now the kids are building a train track through the pre-existing mess. I was curious and playing with my Dad's old fish eye lens this morning. It is super wide and focus free. I need to play with the old lenses more.

We also had a Jane potty training breakthrough this morning. I won't be too graphic in the explaining, but it is very exciting. The process is probably not over, but things are going. Obviously this is from before Brian left. When he is home, he plays Disney songs for the kids everyday and they dance. My Mom made this skirt for the new children's exhibit at the Church History Museum downtown and Jane thinks it is hers.

On Fridays we have cousin time with Mallory and Mia. The kids are all very cute together.

And a while back, we got a special Pie of the Month 3D card. The kids take turns sleeping with the 3D glasses.

Fuzzies

2011-04-02T23:33:00.013-04:00

Brian has been gone for almost 2 weeks and has 2 more to go. (He is home for one day in between, which I worry may be hard on the kids to have him leave again so quickly, but I will be glad to see him even briefly.) I have been not looking forward to this time away for a LONG time. The kids have been on a whole, pretty great. We started a fuzzy system to reward good behavior and it has gone very well. Colin was excited because his church group is also collecting fuzzies and Jane, although she maybe a little young for it, has gotten very excited. Colin was funny this morning. He was cleaning up some toys for fuzzies and he later told me "I thought the clean up was just going to be annoying but it was not so bad!"

I was planning on keeping the fuzzies only for positive things, but Colin brought up that if they do bad things, they could lose fuzzies.

Today since their jars were filled, they got to go pick out a couple of things at the Dollar Store. Colin knows the Dollar Store does not have quality products but he still loves it, even when new $1 toys break the same day. After we got home from the Dollar Store, most of the afternoon was spent fighting over each other's toys. If there had been fuzzies in their jars, both kids would have lost some.

Colin chose this little lantern that he loves. He has already fixed it a couple times but thankfully, it does still light up, for now.

We are watching for the new tooth but nothing yet, and nothing else seems to be wiggly.

Jane chose a hula hoop and some necklaces. The hula hoop has already broken in one place, and has been banished to outside of the house. I wish I knew where my Mardi Gras necklaces were, the kids would LOVE them. I had a lot, and from the real Mardi Gras in a different lifetime.

Jane has 2 pairs of leg warmers and she wanted to wear both today. The pair under her trousers are hidden, but she also wanted a pair to be arm warmers. In Italy I would occasionally use the kids' leg warmers on my arms if I was cold, it was very nice.

A relatively normal smile from Colin. How strange.

And from a few days ago, Jane playing in one of the toy boxes. It was just kind of cute. To the left in the photo, our pink exercise mat is visible. Jane has been so funny because of course we are eating jelly beans these days and she likes to tell me what flavors the colors taste like. She says yellow tastes like lemonade, orange like an orange, and pink tastes like the pink exercise mat. She frequently does yoga with me and has a great downward facing dog. Maybe she does know what the mat tastes like.

For extra fun this week, the herniated disk in my back that has mostly left me alone for 18 months wanted to say "hello" a few days ago. I was laying down reading a story to my kids Monday night and I could barely get up. I was very concerned since Brian is gone and I knew most of the pharmaceutical remedies were not an option to me pregnant. Thankfully within a few days I was feeling nearly normal. My Midwife had me check in with a physical therapist to make sure I am doing everything possible to ensure this does not happen again. I really liked the therapist and I am doing all the right things (minus doing abdominal exercises on an exercise ball pregnant. I thought this was safe but she said it can encourage a separating of the abdominal muscles so no more). My Mom has been very great to pick up where I cannot (literally) but I hope things are really on the mend.

AND, when standing normally, my pregnant belly no longer lets me see my feet. It is getting serious.

No More Scissors for Jane, another try

2011-03-27T23:18:00.005-04:00

Technical trouble, why will the photos not post? Try #3

The post title should actually be no more unsupervised scissor time for Jane. Until today, she has been good with children's craft scissors. Our kids LOVE to cut paper for art time so I thought nothing of letting Jane sit at the table with safety scissors and some paper. I went upstairs to talk to Brian on the phone since he has been gone for a week and I thought I had a few minutes kid-free. This is what I found when I came to check on them:

So I had to fix it.

I think her little bob is very cute, but we will miss the cuteness like the following. Oh well.

Siblings photo

2011-03-27T20:35:00.003-04:00

Sibling photo, easier said than done. And finally, cute kids. Below, Jane before her self haircut. She looked very smart today in her jacket that is still a little too big for her. We had snow on the ground (again) this morning so good time for a jacket.

Vatican City

2011-03-26T22:15:00.003-04:00

Still a lot of Rome to document. . . I can do this post without the guide book as above is St. Peter's Basilica. We rented an apartment about a ten minute walk from the Vatican and while I came here on walks all the time with the kids, in our last few days in Rome we finally took the kids inside.

Poor Colin had a fever for a couple days, and I think had a fever while we were looking around on this very day. He was a good little sport. We had meant to go to the Basilica the day before but his fever made him sleep that afternoon (which is very strange for Mr. Colin). No strollers allowed in the Basilica, be ready.

A little Michelangelo.

This former Pope or Saint seems to be threatening us to be good or else.

View from outside. Brian read that that obelisk has been in this spot since AD 37, thus likely witnessing the martyrdom of St. Peter. I think he said it is called The Witness. Rome does LOVE obelisks, can hardly turn a corner without seeing yet another one! I wonder how that makes Egypt feel.

I was amused to see Brian talking like an Italian to the Swiss Guard. Way to use your hands!

Above, another guard on duty.

And below, a nice little view from the wall that leads out of Vatican City. Follow this wall right down to the Castle as there is a playground AND carousel there. Good times.

Interactive Art in Jaffa

2011-03-25T17:46:00.000-04:00

The following website, http://www.deliciousbaby.com/ encourages sharing travel photos on Friday. Here is baby Colin in a back alley of Jaffa, Israel way back in 2007. This is one of my favorite photos and it is hanging in our room. Jaffa seems to have a great artist quarter. We had a fun afternoon wandering. From our apartment in Tel Aviv, it was an easy walk along the ocean to Jaffa. We loved our time in Israel, back when life was so easy with only one child.

Did I ever link to the very lovely and clever website Brian made me for Christmas? He included a section of favorite travel photos: http://www.stuckiphotography.com/

Surviving on a Plane with Kids

2011-03-18T19:16:00.005-04:00

(So, I'm still a bad blogger recently and still have many things to post from Rome. To post things from Rome I need to crack out the guide book and that seems so hard! I am also a travel blogger for phil&teds and wrote the following up not too long ago. Early pregnancy hit me hard and it literally took me close to 3 months to finish this post of surviving on a plane with kids. Here is link to the actual phil&ted blog but thought I would also post it here. I am so happy to not be traveling with my kids any time soon!)

We have logged thousands and thousands of miles flying with our kids to several continents. Maybe someone with a history of traumatic flights with children would be better qualified to write this post. Really, our kids are such good travelers that I would say we have only had a couple bad flights, but I would like to think it is partially because we try to be very prepared to keep them happy (and to keep the other people on the plane happy also.) I know traveling in general is stressful, even if you are just traveling alone as an adult. That said, I do get so annoyed by adults who are overly put out with little kids who also travel. Everyone was once a child and just a little patience and understanding goes a long, long way.

With infants:

I did not fly with either of my kids until they were about 5 months old so I don’t have experience with really little ones on flights. What has saved us on many flights is breast feeding. It is so convenient not to pack tons of bottles and formula but instead just to have instant food and comfort. It is also helpful to nurse for take- off and landing to keep little ears more comfortable. For those who don't breastfeed, I would think having a bottle ready to go at those times would be very valuable.

We have kept our kids as lap children as long as possible to save from the extra expense of a whole other ticket. (Domestically in the USA there is no extra charge for a lap child under the age of 2, but remember when traveling internationally, there is a charge. It is usually around 10% of the adult fare or the taxes. On international trips airlines have required our lap children to have an actual paper ticket.) A lap child gets tricky as kids get bigger and squirmy. On all international flights we have been on the airlines have supplied an additional seat belt or belly belt that attaches your baby to your seat belt for extra safety. I have liked additionally having a baby flight vest that does the same thing but secures the baby more efficiently since I feel the belly belts tend to come undone. The flight vest is long enough that an older baby can also stand in front of you while seated, still allows nursing while attached, and it give the parent of the lap child the use of two hands! It also protects your lap baby in the case of turbulence.

We flew from the middle of the United States to Israel with our son when he was 14 months old. It was a long day, made longer by about a 3 hour delay on the jet way in London. Our son was a very busy 1 year old and we were nervous. We had recently celebrated Easter and he was very entertained by plastic eggs and jelly beans. We would break the jelly beans in half to make them last longer. My friend had mentioned that oversized pill boxes (you know, the ones with all the days of the week) were fun for little kids on flights as you can hide little things or snacks in them to find and they are great for shaking. Our son was also very entertained by left over ice from the beverage service. I know some people say just to expect to walk the plane with your kids but we have chosen to limit that option for our kids. Once you open up that option, you better be ready to wander the aisles non-stop. We much prefer keeping the kids entertained in a confined space rather than letting them roam the plane.

Things we have found to be helpful:

-Bring a change of clothing for the kids and maybe even for yourself (and your neighbor). I sat by a lady once who was telling me how her baby threw up on the stranger sitting next to her. She said the person was very understanding but the mom obviously felt horrible. All she could do was hand over some wet wipes.

-Don’t forget to bring lots of wipes, diapers, plastic bags to put any gross clothing, soiled diapers etc after you have used the extra change of clothing. We once flew across the Atlantic the day after our son had diarrhea. I had him double diapered and in plastic pants the entire trip and brought tons of extra supplies just in case. Thankfully our son was fine on the flight, but my husband spent a lot of the 10 hour flight sick in the restroom, poor guy!

-A flashlight is fun, as you can send your preschoolers under the seats to look for things that are going to be dropped. I once was flying alone with my kids and most of the flight I was telling them to not shine the flashlights in my eyes. I am sure there was a great light show on the ceiling in our row but people assured me if the kids were being quiet, they did not care. Glow sticks are fun too. It can also be fun for older kids to make a fort with the flash light and the in-flight blanket over a tray table that is down. Whatever is fun and semi-quiet is great.

-Portable dvd player/ipod/mp3 players can help keep kids entertained. (Make sure everything is fully charged the night before.) We have found that sometimes even on 12 hour flights to Japan or Paris there may not be individual movies screens in the economy class, which is crazy!! If your flight does have individual movie screens, there is usually a kids channel which is very, very helpful.

-I always try to bring little surprises to open along the way. I have spent up to $40 at the Dollar Store getting ready for a trip. I don’t mind cheap surprises because some of them may be left behind on the airplane anyway. (I try not to bring favorite small toys on board to ensure not losing them.) I find lots of things my kids are entertained with in the party favor sections too. Kinder eggs are very fun, a little chocolate and a toy, awesome! Space out surprises every 30-45 minutes or longer if you can. It makes me sound like a mean mom, but the surprises are good for curtailing misbehavior. I am sure I have threatened “no more surprises if you do not stop that right now!” on more than one occasion. We have found great Dollar Stores as we travel also in Japan, Canada, and Israel.

-I find it handy also to keep candy treats in smaller portioned snack bags so as to space out the candy. We make gummy candy go further by making it a game of breaking off little pieces and sticking them to the back of our kid’s hands. We try to make it a goal of not making our kids sick to their stomachs with too much candy. When we were traveling for a wedding once, our son’s babysitter accidentally let him eat an entire bag of gummy candy. He got very sick (everywhere!) and it was not fun, especially as he had eaten hot dogs for lunch. Maybe hot dog vomit is a rite of passage for parenthood?

-We have had a lot fun recently with dry erase markers. My son has a couple activity books that use dry erase markers and my husband realized they can also be used in little photo albums. I make my kids their own photo albums of their pictures and now they are extra fun as they are a place to draw and add funny details to their photos. Wipes clean with your finger or a wet wipe. The dry erase markers are also fun with the inflight magazines and Skymall. (Is there Skymall outside of the USA? Most of our international travel has been based or going to the USA so we always have Skymall. Check out all their ridiculous things here- they have everything you did not know you needed.) With young kids, it is fun to find the doggies and kitties in Skymall, and as my kids get older, they like to look for what they want. We hope to not raise totally mindless consumers, but if Skymall can keep them happy for a few minutes I think it is great.

Trying to relax will also go a long way, you will get there whether you are stressed out or relaxed! I love the feeling of finally being on a plane because I am done packing and even if the flight is a disaster, we will get there! Just a few weeks back we flew from Rome, Italy back to the Western United States and the whole very long travel day was really much easier than we expected. Good luck to all of you in your travels!

More Snow, and first baby tooth down!

2011-03-10T21:58:00.003-05:00

On Monday night, we got a good 10 inches of snow. Tuesday was a beautiful day and in the 50's so an ideal day to sled. We are very spoiled to have this great hill, but it is technically my sister's.

Brian got this big tube at the tire store, it was a good time.

It was super bright with the sun and the snow.

Jane above, exploring the field and below, the tracks she left.

Our kids LOVE sledding! I was feeling a little blah and pregnant, I just took photos.

And today, we said good bye to Colin's first baby tooth! We did not even know it was loose until his 5 year doctor's visit when our pediatrician pointed it out. It was very exciting, and we hope the tooth fairy comes tonight!

Today

2011-02-27T23:44:00.003-05:00

Our kids were kind of driving us crazy today (fighting, crying, no nap for Jane and over tired parents, etc) but for a few minutes this afternoon, we had some fun. Last week too Colin was dancing with an umbrella so we showed him the scene from "Singin' in the Rain". Colin has some serious moves.

Jane had her magic hat on and off. It is her Frosty hat. We still spend a fair bit of time marching and singing "Frosty the Snowman."

Jane-Recent Cuteness

2011-02-21T23:44:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when Jane sleeps in rag curlers. Pretty cute. Although this was after she smeared several handfuls of Eucerin loction on her head a couple days earlier. Guess how many hair washes it takes to make hair not greasy after lots of Eucerin loction? About 8-10 washes, including washing with Dawn dishwashing soap.

Biggest Christmas Surprise Ever

2011-02-16T00:07:00.002-05:00

This post could also be called how Ann's trip to Italy was 30-40% ruined. Ok, 40% is a bit dramatic, as is the word "ruined" but my trip was very disrupted.

So, not to be too graphic but we as we were preparing for Christmas and leaving for Rome on December 26th, I was waiting for my monthly feminine time. It seemed a couple days late, which I thought meant it was just waiting to arrive the day of travel (to make that day of travel extra fun!) It is not like me to be late so we wondered. On Christmas Eve after our festivities, Brian ran out to Walgreens in the last 10 minutes they were open to get a special little test. And very, very quickly, the test was positive. I was in shock (and still am a bit) as this is not quite the timing we had hoped for. I very selfishly hoped to NEVER be pregnant through the late summer. Additionally with a few life details, this endeavor definitely will be a bit of a challenge. We are excited nonetheless and lucky to grow our family. We even got a peek at the little one this last week. (All three of my pregnancies have seen little embryos who do not like to cooperate with the midwife and give fetal heart tones in early pregnancy. Our midwife now has an ultrasound machine in her office so when the little one was playing hide and go seek, she tricked him or her and we got to peek at the little wiggle worm. The baby was doing flips and we got to see hands, feet, and a backbone{all good signs}).
So, I suppose babies come when they want to at times. We very much were hoping for a baby by the end of next year so we are just a few months ahead of schedule. I will be 13 weeks soon, so the baby gets to be classified as a fetus and not an embryo, yay! I have been way sicker than with either Jane or Colin, which is hard when there are 2 kids to care for. I have felt like a very lame mom with next to zero energy. Funny how growing our family makes me feel like a bad mom. I hope to feel better and better soon, before I feel really gross again. Oh well, what are we to do? It is the year of the Rabbit, which is both Brian and my zodiac sign. Fun that we get to have a Rabbit child, and guess makes sense that we would be pregnant, knowing rabbits.

Presents and cake

2011-02-12T12:01:00.004-05:00

We had Colin wait until his actual birthday for our gifts. I had not really thought about how kids bring gifts too when you throw a party so Colin got a lot of birthday loot! I always think we will not over do it, but we always do. Such fun though to celebrate Colin!

He has been very excited about Bakugans. We don't totally understand. (We might not be intended to understand.)

And one of the Bakugan's open, to Colin's extreme delight.

I expanded our vintage Little People collection, which I admit was a little present for me too. Colin was happy to have a son for his favorite little person, Greener as he has named him. They really are such great toys, I love that they require some imagination.

Got a Little People tow truck, and more pieces to the Main Street set we already had.

Since Nana got Colin a big Automoblox for Christmas, we added to his set too. They are lovely toys. We have quite a little collection now.

Nana got Colin a sparkler 5 for his cake, very exciting!! As part of getting over jet lag in Italy, a couple times I sent Colin to bed with some index cards to make his own birthday plans. It was really cute because I could hear Colin discussing plans with Jane for quite awhile. Anyway, one of his plans was to have fireworks for his birthday so Nana pulled it off!

The cake was a Triple Chocolate Mousse cake by Cooks Illustrated, although he hoped for the Castle Cake from his Dora and Diego cookbook. (He told us too late the day before his birthday after all the shopping had been done.) He was still delighted (and the cake was quite amazing). Brian wants someone to make this cake for his birthday but it seems way too many steps for me. I may not be up to much by the time Brian's birthday comes around, we shall see.

Party Day

2011-02-12T11:41:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday we had a fun little friend party for Colin's preschool class and a couple friends. Brian made Colin this lovely pinata.

We decorated some cookies. Luckily this little guy had the good sense to not eat his entire creation.

Colin was so happy and excited all day, well, all weekend!

We used the ax we brought from Poland to break the pinata. It was very effective.

(from Christmas 2009, I just love this photo of Colin and his ax. So little boy to me.)

And pinata chaos. It was a little crazy as we had 9 kids to keep entertained, but they all had a great time. I can't believe Colin is 5!!! He is such a dear little boy most of the time and is really growing up to be a nice kid.

Birthday ready

2011-02-03T15:18:00.002-05:00

I am very behind on blogging, the jet lag has been pretty brutal and at home there are all these things to do instead of blog, so hard! But today is the first of 4 days of the Colin birthday extravaganza! Well, not so much of an extravaganza, but today was his little school party where we got to bring in cupcakes. He got this birthday crown, which sadly gave him a paper cut on his nose. Tomorrow we will have a special McDonald's lunch with his local little girl cousins, party for school friends on Saturday, then on Sunday (his actual birthday) we will have a little family dinner, including a sparkler for his cake. Good times. And Brian and I to get ready for his birthday this week went to Toys R Us for the first time in our 5 years of parenting. Maybe we should have held out since we had done so well without Toys R Us, but he really, really wanted some Bakugon things. We thought we should look at some instead of ordering on-line. What have we done? I am glad our kids do not know of that place yet, wow, I kind of never want to go there with my children.

Since Jane did not get a preschool cupcake, I let her eat the sprinkles out of the container I took them in. It kept her busy for at least 30 minutes, which is always nice.

Skipper goes to Italy

2011-01-29T09:51:00.001-05:00

We did not get a Skipper photo until our last day in Rome. I love that we also got the nice little couple to the right in the photo. Our last week in Italy brought Colin a fever, a cold for me, some very crappy weather but thankfully, the last day was beautiful.

We found this park near the Colosseum and there were some amazing ruins right behind. Seriously, one month in Rome was not enough time to enjoy this amazing ancient city. I feel so bad for the American tourists who think they can see everything in 2 days. (I was one of them once, can't be too critical. But that is such the wrong way to travel!)

We ended up exploring lots of Rome's many, many churches. Our kids liked the churches and were fairly well behaved. (In a church in Jerusalem with 1 year old Colin, he once started meowing very loudly. It was funny and embarrassing.) It was not a trip for museums this time with a 4 and 2 year old, but we have the rest of our lives for museums. I have many future posts coming of all the churches were we wandered. We took a walking tour through Rome's Jewish Ghetto (on a very rainy day) and sadly, we did not get to go in the Synagogue. We would have loved to see it as it is a very different style than all the baroque gold we saw in most of the other churches. And we walked through in the wrong time too as we saw a falafel place that looked awesome!

This was the last photo I took in Italy, Jane running toward a very busy road. She totally bolted. I still kind of cannot believe we just spent the month in Rome. We have been home 3 days now and the kids slept most of the night, so why was I up at 5am? Jet lag gets worse as I get older. The kids were so great on our very long trip home (about 15 hours of flying and 5 hours in airports). We will be very happy to be in one place for the next little while. And I need to get some Mexican food today! I am craving fish tacos from Lone Star!

Teatro Dell' Opera

2011-01-20T02:49:00.003-05:00

Our time in Italy is winding down. We have so many things to post that may have to wait until we are home. We burned through our allotted internet minutes and have to pay as we go now. We will be a little excited to return to our fast, reliable, unlimited and cheap access at home! Here are just a couple of recent photos. Brian had a little errand to check in on at the opera so we let the kids get happy meals (and sadly they got the same toy they had gotten this summer at home but they were still happy!) Then the kids had fun running the red carpet outside Opera di Roma while we waited for Brian.

The opera opened on Tuesday night. As Brian is covering the tenor role, the other tenor was unwell for the final dress and Brian got to go on. It was a good experience for him as he learned he is able to jump in (since covers do not get as much rehearsal) and he would very much love another shot at it with a performance. Of course we wish the other tenor well, but one show would be amazing!

We like views like this.

Colin found a place to be a statue.

In other good new, we found THE place to get gelato!!!! It is just far enough off the tourist road that is is not overpriced and totally amazing gelato! We have had a couple better eating out experiences too, but Brian has mainly made us food at home as the ingredients are so great here. We live near the best fresh food market in Rome, which has been lovely.

The Spanish steps, from the bottom and the top, just if you are wondering.

After we had some Chinese

2011-01-15T15:43:00.001-05:00

We met Brian for lunch yesterday and had some good Chinese. He did not have much of a break so we went into just one church and enjoyed a little time.

The kids are currently (like right now as I post this) being such bedtime stinkers that I thought I should post cute photos of them to replace the frustrated mommy thoughts which were also in my head.

More from a day's wanderings

2011-01-14T16:40:00.001-05:00

We also took turns looking into this darling little chapel. There was a noisy group of kids outside playing futbol which amazes me. This is just their play space.

A couple views of the neighborhood.

Then, as you can see from the following photos, the sun went down.

View down the road from the Castle where we play.

And it was a lovely night to photograph St. Peters. Brian has done most of the night photography. He is pretty great with a low shutter speed!

Sant' Andrea della Valle

2011-01-14T16:33:00.001-05:00

Very near the Campo di Flori is this lovely church. Since the kids were both asleep, Brian and I took turns going in. It was completed in 1625 says my guidebook, and has some of the best natural light of all of Rome's churches.

Winter is fine for gelato

2011-01-14T16:08:00.002-05:00

It has been sunny and close to 60 degrees all week, perfect for gelato! Sadly, this gelato was very over priced as were were closer to the Colosseum than we realized. You very much get taken as a tourist, and it is crappy to know it!

Our stopping was to try and keep Jane away but we stopped too soon and she was asleep not long after this. It is hard because if she naps now, she stays awake until about 11:30 pm. We are in a hard pattern and very much have a night owl.

Wonder how long the funny smile phase will last, 15 years?

Brian near the Wedding Cake building.

And actually both kids fell asleep this day. Colin fell asleep with a lollipop in his mouth but when I tried to take it out, he woke up and popped it back in his mouth and kept sleeping. I felt like a great parent.

Wandered over to the Campo di Flori. There are some very great neighborhoods over here. They had some grape hyacinths that would have been fun to take back to our little apartment. Instead we were lured into our favorite fancy soap store Lush which was just up the block from here. I love their shampoo soaps for travel and I was nearly out of the sea salt scrub. As they do not have a Lush in SLC, it is something we love and a souvenir. We have now followed Lush through 5 countries. About 10 or so years ago when I was returning from England with a Lush bath bomb in my carry-one luggage, the security could not tell what it was in the x-ray and had to check it out. Thankfully it was not taken from me, although it was a very, very messy bath bomb full of flower petals.

More of our life in local parks

2011-01-11T11:01:00.004-05:00

One of our local parks is behind the castle. Not too bad. Most afternoons we head out to a park. It is nice, the kids and I take it pretty easy in the morning just because we can mostly. After lunch we head outside to burn some energy. Then we come home to art and music time, eat some dinner, and try to wind down to bed. Today not going so well, it is 10:15 and Brian is down stairs roughhousing the kids. We went out for a Roman meal tonight and ate at about 8:30 pm and the kids do not sound anywhere near being ready for bed. Very great meal though just in our neighborhood. We will never eat in a tourist place again!

Our friends helped us find this park too, it is our kid's favorite within walking distance. Colin was having a picnic on the toys.

Jane routinely does things two year olds should not do. I have seen kids Colin's age and older be afraid of climbing this rope ladder, but not Jane. No limitations for her.

The kids' favorite park has a nice view.

At yet another park, Colin found a comic that he wanted to recycle.

The kids love playing post office. We mail all sorts of things all over the world.

We watched a show about ninjas this morning, which prompted the wearing of Colin's ninja shirt today.

After walking through St. Peters and playing at the Castel Sant' Angelo, we walked to the Piazza Navona, mainly just because we can. We enjoyed admiring all three fountains. It was a lovely day with some sun and close to 60 degrees. It is kind of hilarious because we are out in just sweaters and light jackets but the Romans are still dressed for about 30 degree weather. One would think you could take off a scarf but I guess not.

Today

2011-01-08T15:53:00.002-05:00

Brian did not have to rehearse until 3 pm today so we headed out for a couple hours with Daddy before his work. Brian had not been to the Piazza del Popolo so that was our first stop. To the delight of our children, there were great bubbles.

Then we went near the Spanish Steps and ate some pizza. Brian and I shared a very yummy mushroom slice, I would kind of like some more right now. It is funny because I came to Italy when I was 17 with my family and my mom remembers getting the fold over pizza by the Spanish Steps in Rome on that trip too. We were robbed on that trip so that is my main memory of Rome from years ago. (It is a crazy story, my Dad was pick pocketed in the train station, an on off duty police man saw it all happen and missed his train home to help us. The pick pocketer was in jail the next day but sadly he handed off my Dad's wallet so still a big problem, since he even got my Dad's passport. So nice to have the help of a stranger.)

A view of the Spanish Steps from a few blocks away. It was crazy warm here today, like in the high 50's so pretty much everyone was outside.

After Brian had to go to work, I headed back across the river to the Castel Sant' Angelo as there is a small playground in the back. We walked home through Vatican City and had such lovely end of the day light. (No photos, I was just trying to get home before Jane fell asleep. The kids sleep has been very off but they were both asleep before 9pm tonight, yay! Jane has been staying up until about 11:30 pm so this is very exciting to me.)

Amazingly, Jane with her finger in her mouth and not her nose. It was a good Saturday. We are very much in love with Rome.

Piazza Navona and the cheese

2011-01-06T15:15:00.003-05:00

Last night I took the metro in to meet Brian after his rehearsal and we wandered down to the Piazza Navona. There was a big fair going on for La Befana and it was the last night. We ate a donut bigger than my head, saw a drag Befana, rode the carousel, AND got gelato. It was a night of too many treats. And Befana found our kids last night and left some candy in their shoes so the first things they ate this morning was Kinder eggs. The toys in the eggs are really great (we seem to remember Cracker Jack toys being a lot better in the olden days than they are now). Colin even got a little USB in one of his eggs that has some little computer games and activities.

Colin was very tired last night but perked up to see the fair. It had rained on and off all day. The rain stayed away while we were looking around, but started again on our walk home. Colin wanted to go back to the fair tonight. I do wonder how all this travel is shaping his experience and world view.

In other news, this is what we had for breakfast yesterday, courtesy of Mercato Trionfale, the amazing open market a few blocks away from us. Brian's brother Dan will recognize the little package above. It is a Burrata- the pinnacle of the fresh mozzarella experience. The few outlets in the states that supply this cheese charge upwards of $20 to $25 for the serving size pictured above (I got it for about $6). Since it is a southern Italian (Pugliese) specialty, it is not available every day in the market, and I think the vendors were tired of Brian asking for it. When it came in, they saw him coming and immediately said, "Burrata?"
It was consumed with this delightful bread (Filone del Contadina, wild yeast with whole grain) and some Blood Oranges on the side. The citrus here is spectacular right now.

Let me explain Burrata. Mozzarella di Buffala is pulled into a thin sheet, than filled with an unbelievably buttery mozzarella and cream hybrid called straciatella and tied up in a little purse. The interior is a spreadable consistency with a bit of stringyness and the whole thing is basically the embodiment of fresh dairy goodness. Trader Joe's sells a domestic version of this, and it is a noble effort, but now that we've had the real thing we won't be able to go back.

There are not words.

Funny photos from Church

2011-01-04T14:40:00.001-05:00

We made it to our Church on Sunday and the congregation we went to only had older kids. We were not aware we are to dress out kids in all black. Also, shiny black puffy coats are very much de moda here, like the guy to the left of Colin. I wish they had issued us new black shiny coats at the airport when we arrived. These are just photos from Brian's cell phone but I find them very funny.

Jane liked sitting with the big boys.

Everyday

2011-01-04T05:28:00.002-05:00

Since Brian is gone at work for a good portion of the day, the kids and I are settling into our something of a routine. We go on walks and go out to play. Thankfully on our first day here I noticed something of a park between these buildings that is not too far from our apartment. And there is a direct view of St. Peters from where we play.

With the kids one day I walked to the Piazza del Popolo. I just had our little camera and somehow had the white balance set not for outdoor light. So here are just a couple of quick shots.

This walk should not have taken quite as long as it did but sometimes it feels like I have to stop every 5 feet to take care of someone. Oh well, they are cute kids.

Since we did not play at the Piazza del Popolo, we went back to the little park we know. We have not found so many playgrounds in Rome but we met a very nice family who took us to a great park yesterday. (Sadly, no photos). The family has two kids our kids' ages so they know the family friendly things to do in Rome. Yay!

Not really a flattering photo, the kids were being a little crazy when I took this photo, Jane with Nutella face and Colin, I don't know. All I remember was it was an evening of high needs.

Castel Sant Angelo

2011-01-03T04:31:00.001-05:00

Wandered over here last night.

We intended it to be a sleepy walk. Colin fell asleep quickly in the back but woke up at home and Jane never slept. What fun would parenting be if your kids were predictable?

Below, a view of St. Peters from the river.

And there were real tears from Jane when we came upon this as it finished the last ride of the night. We will be back.

New Years Eve and Day

2011-01-01T13:38:00.001-05:00

Welcome 2011! On New Years Eve we went over to Trevi Fountain. We are very much looking forward to many of the tourists going home so we can throw some coins in for luck.
To celebrate the New Year we ate some really bad food. We realized too late NEVER to eat at a place where they speak English to you! We got sucked in because we were hungry and the place looked easy with a stroller and kids. Brian said everyone working there should be ashamed because they know they are serving bad food. I have had a couple other bad experiences this week, we will need to try much harder.

Last night we also walked around the Pantheon but we did not get photos yet. Not too impressive though, it is only from 125 AD. Our friend sent us a funny message saying how sorry she is for us to spend time in a city that is all ruins. We do very much have the luxury of staying for a long while so we will get back in times that are not the New Years holiday. And the actual New Year at midnight sounded like a war zone. We are in a quiet little neighborhood but it was anything but quiet. Our kids were up too late and Colin fell asleep about 10 minutes before midnight and slept through all the noise.

Headed over to the Colosseum today, dating back to 80 AD. It was closed for the holiday so we will head back another time. It was supposed to be sunny today but no, gray and light rain. Oh well.

(below) The Forum was also closed but we were able to peek.

Jane loves to find little places to sit down.

The Arch of Constantine.

And below, Jane running away.

Hello from Rome

2010-12-31T16:56:00.002-05:00

We arrived on Monday after a (thankfully) non-eventful travel day. We were able to fly right to Paris and then onto Rome which was pretty great. We were first looking at flights through NYC and are SO glad we could bypass the weather mess on the East Coast. The kids did quite well on the very long trip and two of our fellow passengers commented an how good they were. By the second night here they slept through the night, but the first night Jane was up from about 1am-5am, it was great.

Our flat for our month in Rome is just up the street from St. Peters so I have walked there everyday this week except today. We went more into Central Rome tonight since Brian had the night off. He had last night off too and since Brian had yet to go to the Vatican on this trip, we headed over last night.

We put the kids in jammies for a sleepy walk. Wish we had done it tonight, it is after 11pm and they are still chatting and playing in their beds. It is New Years so maybe they would wake up from the fireworks anyway.

We love that it is still Christmas here and are getting ready for Befana on January 6! Our little market sells Befana stocking, we should maybe get a couple.

This is what I look like walking around Rome with my beloved stroller and two kids. I think I was out with the stroller and kids for about 5 hours yesterday. And today we took the metro into Rome but just walked home several miles.

And below, one more time to talk about my stroller (I'll try and save some of it for a phil&teds blog in the future). This is a shot if the street we live on. A side by side stroller would not even fit on the sidewalk to get to our flat, and it can be a busy road. Take that any side by side stroller! The fat air tires are great for jumping curbs, cobblestone, and getting out of cars' way. Drivers do not seem to like to stop for pedestrians, we will try to stay safe.