Talking Two Year Olds

I know it's not like me to post without a picture (or to have a post with many words at all for that matter) but my kids have been saying some funny things lately that I wanted to share. I am really loving this two year old stage. They are fully communicating, and I love to hear what is going on in their little heads.

Me (while changing Andrew's diaper): "Wow, this is a monster poop!"
Andrew: "No, it's a Sulley* poop!" (*can be replaced at any time with Mike, Randall, or Roz)

Brooke: "I want water please"
I hand her the water bottle
Brooke: "No, I want apple juice"
I go get her apple juice
Brooke: "No, I want a water bottle"
Me (while I hand her the water bottle): "Brooke, you're driving me crazy"
Brooke: "No, I not crazy, I drinking water"

Andrew: "sghioxjcvlknew" (speak your own gibber gabber here) "I talking German"

Brooke (while stacking her dollies up tall): "Look, Mommy, an obelisk!" (I have Little Einsteins to thank for that one)

And probably my most favorite:
Andrew (while giving me a big squeeze): "It's mine Mommy. I love mine Mommy"

Our Everyday Life....

Inspired by my sister's "Photo A Day", I decided to show a little more of our everyday life. Hopefully this will shed a little light into our crazy fun life (some days crazy, most days fun, every day an adventure).

Hanging Around the House
We spend most of our time hanging around the house. Especially since it's still winter here. We color a lot, eat a lot, sleep a lot (at least it seems that way with the overlapping nap schedules) and play with a lot of toys.

1) I fear we have passed on our lip chap addiction 2) "Sgetti" for dinner is a huge hit with Brooke 3) "I don't like it" I think he was referring to the camera in his crying face 4) Matthew having fun with toys 5) Chicken McNuggets can have crazy affects 6) "I color Spiderman" 7) Matthew discovering that Andrew and Brooke's toys are more fun than his baby toys 8) Have you ever seen a happier baby? 9) Taking advantage of Daddy being home

Swimming Bath Lättich
At least once a week I take the kids to this indoor swimming pool. It has the most amazing kiddie pool with fountains and a slide that keeps these guys entertained for hours. Anthony has been able to join us a few times and we always have a ball.

A lot of times I surprise myself with how much I can do alone with three babies. The first attempt in any activity is usually the most challenging, but once I figure out the small details and remind myself to ignore all the gawking people, we four have quite a fun time together. Which leads me to my next post....


How to Grocery Shop with Three Babies
I do almost all my grocery shopping online. But we do make a trip every couple weeks for a few random things.

The before and after

I'm not opposed to bribes or rewards
(And for those wondering, Matthew's place in the cart has been taken up by the bags and he is now in my arms as we walk back to the car)

Bathtime Fun
Always a fun time in our house. Smiles and water absolutely everywhere.

Movies
And I wouldn't be completely honest if I didn't admit that we have our fare share of this as well!

Wildlife Park

We went to a wildlife park just outside Zurich, with goats, deer, wolves, etc. Not sure what kind of animal this is, or how he got over the fence.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

It felt like spring here today so we ditched the coats, sweaters and even shoes and spent as much time outside as possible. Here are a few pics from our little park.

Feeding the Bunnies

Brooke and Andrew doing their part to fatten up the Easter Bunny

Engleberg (23.02.08)

European skiing at its finest: 10:30 start, 2-hour lunch to soak up some sun, lots of breaks to watch the ski races. We even got a few runs in.

Is there a resemblance??

8 months old (all three)

Some of the Everyday...

1) Bedhead 2) Drinking yogurt 3) Spiderman:
These may look like ordinary sunglasses, but if you just turn them upside down they are a perfect Spiderman costume--that and the enormous spider hand drawn in pen on his bare belly (not shown in picture). 4) The cucumber-lover:
(also worthy to note: Brooke absolutely loves to color. Lately she's been really into tracing her hands, however in the process enjoys a little tracing ON her hands as well).

Bern (the temple, the hosile and the hospital)

This is about all we saw of Bern during our trip a few weeks ago. On the way up Friday night, our car started shaking. We barely made it, and Anthony went to a temple session, leaving me to entertain 3 cranky kids in the temple hostel (think concrete military barracks with bunk beds and disposable hospital sheets). We soon realized that Brooke was not just cranky, but had an ear infection. The girls stayed up all night while the boys slept through most of the trauma (something in the Y chromosome?). In the morning we drove home with our shaking car and stopped at the hospital where we learned Brooke had a ruptured eardrum. Brooke was fine after 24 hours, and the car was only CHF 300 to fix (about as much as an oil change here). Apparently a cylinder fell out, or at least that's what the mechanic told us, but we think something was lost in translation. Hopefully we'll have better luck on our next trip to Bern.

Happy Valentines!

The silly faces of Brooke

Andrew the Adventurer

8 Months Old

This boy is in full force teething mode. Notice the line of drool in every picture here, and the bottom two pearlies in the last picture. Despite it all, he is still the happiest baby ever. Happy 8 months Matthew!

Rome, Italy

While my parents were visiting us over the last month we had planned on a number of activities: First, Anthony and I would go to Paris while they babysat, second, we would all go to Zermatt together, and third, the two of them would go to Italy. Well, the first and second trips went off without a hitch (as you can see from our previous posts), but on my parents first day in Rome they called sounding like two giddy little kids, "you have to come to Rome while we are visiting you. We'll watch the kids so you can really see this place." We gladly took them up on their offer to add one last minute trip to our list of activities (as well as their short excursion to Rothenburg, Germany). We spent two amazing days in Rome and were blown away just as much as they were. This city is amazing. Here are the pics:

Day 1:

Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica

Spanish Steps

Day 2:

Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and Colosseum

(with our friends Janelle and Josh Frampton who went with us)

Piazza Navona

(Footnote: When Anthony and I first moved to Europe I presented him with my project: although he was by far the better photographer, it was my goal to capture the charming windows and doors of Europe. Piazza Navona seemed to be my personal photography dream. We even found some perfect oils on canvas to take home with us to really capture the scene.)

Pantheon

St. Moritz

Anthony with our neighbor, Dan Hemmert, enjoying the blue skies at a work event in St. Moritz.

Zermatt

We just happened to pick the most beautiful day to spend in Zermatt, with a perfectly clear view of the Matterhorn. Anthony and Ashley got to ski while Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the cute shops and spent the most they had ever spent at a McDonalds. The kids got a kick out the sled rides and to top the trip off we stumbled upon an Alphorn concert.

Paris, France

Sans kiddos in the City of Lights (thank you Grandma and Grandpa)!

Day One:

We stopped at way too many of these pastry shops

La Sainte Chapelle

Outside the Louvre

Inside the Louvre

Day Two:

Château de Versailles

Marie Antoinette's hamlet at Versailles

Arc de Triomphe

Day Three:

Notre Dame

The Pantheon

The Eiffel Tower

Day Four:

The Orsay Museum

Bye Bye Christmas Tree

This year we joined the Swiss in their traditional disposal of Christmas trees. "Bye-bye Christmas tree in the hot fire" and hello 2008.

Salzburg, Austria

We spent New Year's Eve in Salzburg, watching the Sound of Music in our hotel room due to food poisoning. Fortunately, we were on the 10th floor and had a great view of the fireworks, which was better than any 4th of July we've seen. The show lasted about six hours, with people shooting off fireworks (most of which would be highly-illegal in the U.S.) out of hotel windows and off rooftops in every direction.

When we finally made it out into town, we found adorable shops and of course, more Christmas ornaments! Fortunately, everything was closed on New Year's Day.

Vienna, Austria

Unfortunately, the camera stayed in the bag for most of Vienna, as we spent most of our time at the Schonbrunn Palace Zoo, in charming cafes, and in the hotel swimming pool. Here's one photo just to prove we were there (Vienna Rathaus).