Solano Life

Twins' 3rd birthday

2010-02-07T11:53:00.001-08:00

My babies are three and pretty much potty trained. Aziel is completely done, but Eli is still holding on to his role as the baby of the family and likes to do business in his pants sometimes... He likes to keep me on my toes.

We had a little party for the twins.

Here's the cake I made:

It was a hit with the the twins.

Frosting everywhere...

Kids playing with a game that they got:

Olivia sent Flat Stanley to us for a visit. He will be on his way back to MN this week. :)

And here's a few random photos that I found on the camera that I love. :)

Have a great week!

New blankets for the boys!

2010-01-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

I'm FINALLY getting to posting these photos for my mom! She made each of the boys new quilts for their birthdays.

Here's Isaac's. His Transformers blanket arrived in November, if I remember correctly. He was SOOO happy! Just loves it!

This past week, Elijah's Superman blanket arrived. Another very happy kid!

The next day, Aziel's Spiderman blanket came. He had the biggest smile as he opened the box. :)

The quilts are just perfect. THANKS MOM!!! And THANKS GRANDMA from the boys. :)

New Baby

2009-12-12T12:54:00.001-08:00

Here's my new nephew Caleb! Is he the cutest little guy or what?!? Nice job Jim and Sarah! :)

If only I could hold him...

Sweet Autumn by Michelle Underwood, sequin from Watch Me Now by Michelle Underwood,

Word Art from Elegant Word Art by Bethany,
Font: My Own Topher

A few new layouts

2009-12-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

Baby It's Cold Outside, Vintage Holiday Memories by Michelle Underwood (slightly recolored), Bad sewing machine stitches by Traci Reed, Fonts: Trajan Pro, Missed Your Exit

Baby It's Cold Outside by Michelle Underwood,

Fonts: Traveling Typewriter, Pea Stacy Tunibug, 28 Days Later, Guess What.

Baby It's Cold Outside by Michelle Underwood,

Font: You are Loved,

Template by Michelle Stone

If you give a mom a muffin...

2009-12-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

There is a kids book called "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". I have read it probably once, but after what I stumbled across this morning, I will have to track it down. I found this on Pamela Donnis' blog this evening, and I LOVE IT!!! It's something that she also came across while blog hopping.

If You Give A Mom A Muffin
by Kathy Fictorie

If you give a mom a muffin,
She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She’ll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she’ll find dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook (”101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger”).
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She’ll smell something funny.
She’ll change the two year old’s diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She’ll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are…
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Pamela made a very cute freebie to print out if you want, just click on the image below to go to her blog and download! :)

Such a bad blogger...

2009-12-07T05:34:00.001-08:00

Hi, I'm back. I have tons of photos to post but I don't know when I will get around to it! Sorry. Sometime soon. For now, I just want to announce to the world that my little nephew Caleb James was born on December 5! He is a great looking newborn from the one photo I've gotten so far. Congrats Sarah and Jim! :) We're all excited about the new addition! :) The boys can't seem to remember his name, so they call him "baby cousin". I guess that works for now, until the next one comes along!

When I was browsing through photos, I came across this photo of my dad and the twins. I just love it! I had to scrap it. The quote is really cute, although I have a hard time thinking of my dad as "antique" just yet. You're not old, Dad!!! Very young at heart!

More to the story...

2009-11-29T23:22:00.000-08:00

We had some friends come here from Prague for Thanksgiving! We had a great meal and lots of fun shopping at the BX and Commissary. Will post photos one of these days, sorry I've been so bad about updating this month!!! One of these days I will post about 100 photos at once to catch up (and blogger will crash, no doubt).

On Thanksgiving Day, Martin received another e-mail from the retired paramedic who saved his life when he was about two years old. If you would like to read the first post, you can find it here. Since so many people seemed interested in the story, we thought we'd share some more. Please note that I have changed names for privacy, but this is absolutely the truth of what he sent to us.

Here's most of what he sent:

My family would like to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving... You said you were interested in hearing the rest of the story so I thought this might be an appropriate time to share it with you. It's going to sound a bit strange...probably a bit unbelievable, which is the reason I kind of held out. I told you that I wasn't your guardian angel but that your guardian angel was the one who put us together at the right time and place. You see I had planned to be at the park with my son that morning...not that afternoon, but I was delayed, or should I say I was delayed by someone or something.

My wife (name deleted) and I were separated at that time and in the process of going through a divorce. She had moved not far from the lake where we met and I had planned to take my son to the park when I got off work that morning to spend time with him. I had worked a 24 hours shift with Medic 1 and was off work at 8am that morning. That morning before I woke, I had a very disturbing dream or should I say nightmare. I dreamed that I had taken my son to the park to spend time with him. I parked the car where I usually parked, got a sleeping bag and laid it on the grass for Johnny (name changed) to play while I fished. I realized I was paying more attention to my fishing than I was to my son and saw he wasn't on the sleeping bag. I panicked and started looking around the park for him when I saw him in the water right in front of where I was standing. He was about 4-6 feet from the shore, laying face up, eyes open, arms and legs kind of spread open, under the surface of the water, kind of laying motionless on a bed of weeds. I woke with a start...can't tell how hard it is to write about this as I'll never forget the visual or the panic I felt....it was so real. Instead of leaving when the relief crew arrived, we sat around having coffee and talking.

After the dream I wasn't in a hurry to take Johnny to the park. Instead of picking up my son that morning, I stopped at my best friend's house and had more coffee...and we talked about the dream. It was just so real. I still planned to take my son to the park that morning but time kind of got away from me that morning so I called my wife and told her I would pick Johnny up after his afternoon nap. I believe I told her about the dream also...as you can tell..it was very disturbing to me. As I was leaving with Johnny (my son), my wife handed me his ball and asked if I wanted to take it with me and I told her no...I remember telling her I was worried he might follow it into the water.

When we arrived at the park I laid a sleeping bag out on the grass for Johnny to play on, sat him down on it, stood up to cast out my line...looked down at the water ...and there you were...just like in the dream...exactly as in the dream...except that it was you instead of my son...you and my son are the same age. You know what happened until the ambulance came. After the ambulance left to take you to the hospital, I started packing up to leave and remember seeing a ball floating in the water. I always wondered about that ball floating in the water...your part of the story filled that in for me.

Now I know the dream sounds very strange and probably unbelievable... and I do not claim to be psychic. but that dream was what kept me from being that park that morning as planned. In any case, your guardian angel did both of us well.

The Christmas after we met was very hard for me. I was divorced and my son had a new father. Martin, please let your mother know how much that card meant to me. It was such a nice thing for her to do. It may have only been a card but it really brightened my Christmas that year. Isn't it funny how even the little things can really impact another person without either even being aware of it. The one thing I do know...we both have much to be thankful for. You may not realize it but our meeting has given me as much as I have given you.

Happy Thanksgiving my friend.

Stay safe.

An old photo

2009-11-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

My parents and my sisters will get a kick out of this.

Credits: Babushka Mini Kit and blog freebie Add-On by Amy Sumrall Font: My Own Topher

A really cool story

2009-11-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

Martin's family has repeatedly told me a story about when he was a little child. I always thought the story was a very good one, perhaps a bit exaggerated, but powerful nonetheless...

When he was about 2 or 3, his family was at a picnic. Martin was playing ball by a small lake with one of his brothers. When it was time to go, his brother called him and threw the ball out in the water telling him he was done playing and walked away. Martin went after the ball and drowned. His family insisted that he had literally died. A doctor happened to be passing by and pulled Martin out of the water and saved his life. When Martin's mother tried to find the doctor at the hospital where he said he worked, she was told that no such doctor worked there. She sent a card thanking the person, but never received a response. The family believed that it was an angel who had saved Martin's life.

Martin's mother is visiting us here in Germany right now. Yesterday, it stunned us all when, out of the blue, Martin was contacted by that very angel who saved his life over 30 years ago. And through Facebook, nonetheless!!!

Here is the message trail:

The Martin Solano I'm looking for lived at xxxx xth St in

Chicago, Ill as a child. He would be around 34 yrs old. If

you aren't him, I would appreciate a response to let me

know. If you are him, I would like to hear from you. I'm a

retired paramedic who met you many many years ago

when you were a very young child and just wanted to

know if your gift of life has gone well. If you are the

Martin I'm looking for, I still have the Christmas card your

parents sent me many many years ago. Thank you.

Hello,
I am Martin Solano from that location. It is very coincidental

that you find me in this time because mom is visiting me

from the states. I am in the military currently stationed in

Germany. I have been in the military for fourteen years this

December. I have deployed four times in support of Iraqi

Freedom and am about to deploy again in February.

I was wondering where you knew me from, I remember my

parents talking about a doctor who pulled me out of the water

when I was a young child. Is this you? I would love it if you

wrote back and maybe told me a little bit of information from

where and how you know me.

Thank you,
Martin Solano

Martin,
My name is (deleted for blog post for privacy) and I now live

in Mesa AZ with my wife. I'm the person who pulled you from

the water as a young child but I wasn't a doctor, I was an off

duty paramedic. When we met you were laying face up

underwater, eyes open but unconscious. You weren't breathing

and didn't have a pulse but after a few minutes of CPR, you spit

up some chunks of watermelon and lake water, took a deep

breath and let out a loud cry and started breathing...much to

my relief. There's so much more to this story but not sure how

to tell it. I spent over an hour today writing it out in detail but

after I read it...I don't know, it just sounded so strange...

probably because it was. I'm talking about everything that led

up to me being there at the right time and place to help you.

Maybe another time if you're interested. I really can't believe

the blind luck in finding you ...well your mother had

a lot to do with it too. I've lost many things in my life but

have always been able to hold on to the Christmas card your

mother sent to me the Christmas after you and I met. I

worked many years as a paramedic but your mother is

the only person who ever sent me a card. Please tell her

how much that card ment to me. I've always believed that

things happen for a reason and I think you are living proof

of that. I have always wondered what happened to you and

your family...so, I thought, what the heck...I'll try facebook.

That Christmas card gave me a name and address, a little

guess work and a lot of luck and here we are. I can't imagine

4 tours in Iraq. My war was Viet Nam and thought it was bad...

until your war came to be. My prayers will be you on your

next deployment. So sorry they keep sending you back...

again and again...and again.

Just wondering, are you married, have a family? I hope your

mother is doing well.

He then went on to tell Martin a bit about himself, what he is doing now, and his family. He also expressed a desire to keep in contact. Is that not beautiful??? I love how he asked if Martin's "gift of life has gone well".

It's been amazing to hear Martin analyze his life in the hopes that he has used his gift of life well. He worked as a lifeguard and pulled over 20 children out of the water himself. He had a friend tell him that he was thinking of suicide but Martin helped him to regain hope. Martin has served in the military for almost 14 years. He has 3 beautiful boys and a smokin' hot wife. (Opps, did I write that?) It's an amazing and very humbling thought to know that, were it not for this "angel" being at that place at that time, I would not have the life I now have. And for that I am unmeasurably grateful.

Here's a scrap layout that we sent this newfound friend both as a thank you and also to introduce him to our family:

"Life has been so good to me for which I am truly grateful"

Credits: "Vintage Holiday Memories" by Michelle Underwood, White paper and word art from "Life is Good" kit by Gina Huff. Font: Bulky Refuse

Short post with no photos...

2009-10-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just letting my family know, we are all sick, and the doctor diagnosed us all with H1N1 this morning. :( We'll be starting meds as soon as the Base Pharmacy is open. Yuck.

Martin's mom and aunt are coming in to visit for a couple weeks starting on Friday, so the house will obviously not be as clean as I had planned. But that's the way the cookie crumbles!

Just October happenings...

2009-10-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Not too much exciting has been going on. I started babysitting a couple of girls after they get done with school, so that's just a couple hours a day.

A story from a few days ago... Isaac wanted some of my hot cocoa, but I told him it was too hot for him and subsequently chugged it down. When he realized it was gone, he asked "Awww, Mommy? Why you didn't give me some?" I told him it's because I'm a mean mommy. He told me "No mommy. You're a nice mommy." What do you think I did? I ran straight to the kitchen and made him a cup all of his own!!! Oh boy, I sure am a sucker for flattery...

Here's what a typical evening at my house looks like...

Last week, we made fall cookies. The boys had fun with rolling dough, cutting cookie shapes and decorating!

He's concentrating REALLY hard, note the tongue...

Should've rotated this picture, but you get the idea:

OK, enough of that. On to more "manly" things. How 'bout some photos of the guys building stuff?
Isaac being silly...
Elijah is reaching way up to give thumbs up.

Boys looking at a worm.

I love this photo!!!

Guess what the boys were looking at:
A ladybug!
Some extreme close-ups. They are just a bit distorted from the camera lens...

Here are a few of my favorite photos that I've taken recently:

That's all for now! :) Have a lovely day.

Isaac's 5th birthday

2009-10-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

Finally made some time to share some photos from Isaac's b-day and party, which was 2 days after his b-day.

Isaac woke up (at 5:30, yuck! haha) to a bunch of balloons in his room!
After he found some pants, he dashed downstairs to discover birthday presents! Yay! He was SOOOO excited!
Then he ran back upstairs to get his brothers so he could open the gifts. Elijah and Aziel gave him excited b-day hugs!
A gift from Auntie Anna! All the kids love it by the way. Thanks! :D

Playing with some of his presents:

We had birthday cupcakes and pancakes for supper. Isaac's choice. :)

Two days later was Isaac's party. He invited several children from his German kindergarten. We ended up with 15 kids in attendance, including our own. Wow. You should have heard the noise level! In English AND in German! :)

Here's a photo of Isaac's cake:
Decorating for the party!

BUSTED! Good thing I took that other photo beforehand... Nice going Eli.

Some candids from the party.

Pinata time! Everybody got a turn.

And cake time. Nobody even noticed the "Eli nibbles" on the side. :)

After all the kids were gone, we hung out with our good friends the Koutrases for awhile. Here's Meike and I. :)

And the twins and Zoi, still in party mode:

There was one gift in particular that got played with a LOT. It was a Whoopie Cushion. Perfect for a 5 yr old. Isaac is demonstrating here:

Isaac had a blast and really enjoyed it all. I, for one, am glad that he will not be having another birthday for 355 more days however. ;) Exhausted but happy!

Some pages

2009-10-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've been a mad scrapper the past two days! When the kids go to bed, it's my time to play! :)

Here's a couple from the pumpkin festival:

Credits: Doodle flowers, Papers from A Better Me by Gina Marie Huff

Credits: Funky Fall collab (Inspiration Lane), Elegant WordArt by Bethany

And one from a photo of the boys from two days ago:

Credits: No Girls Allowed by Creations by Rachael B

And one from the dinosaur park a few weeks ago:

Credits: Rawr by Amy Sumrall

And another one, can't remember if I've posted this one before. It's one of my favorites:

Credits:Credits: Doodly Patterns papers by Gina Marie Huff, screws from No Girls Allowed by Creations by Rachel B, red paper and chicken wire by me (Share Joy)

Sesame Street Live!

2009-10-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago, the USO sponsored Sesame Street Live! The organization brought the show to us here in Germany - for FREE for U.S. servicemembers and their families. Simple thing, right? It's just a kids show. But it is soooo nice to be remembered WAYYY over here across the ocean. There just aren't things like this for the kids very often - unless your kids speak German!

We got to the show early. I wasn't sure how we were going to entertain the kids while we were waiting for the show to start, but I didn't need to worry. The sweet USO people gave every child a bandana and a super cool spinning Elmo toy. It incorporated every child's favorite activities all into one toy - button pushing, motion, lights, and Elmo! I found out later that at Sesame Street Live shows, these toys run $15 a pop. That's $45 worth of free toys PLUS whatever the ticket would have cost. Wow.

The show began!
And guess who is enjoying it the most? hahaha...

The little blond girl is Isaac's friend from German kindergarten, Zoe.

I wish I could begin to describe the magic that the evening was. It was displayed all over each of the boys' faces. The photos just don't capture that!

Isaac got to meet Grover in person.

And Aziel too!

Elijah was too scared to meet his heros in person.

After the show, the kids went up to shake hands with all the characters. Aziel didn't want to leave the stage. He parked himself right in front of Cookie Monster and kept his little hand up until Daddy picked him up to go.

Afterwards, we went to Burger King with Zoe's family. It was just one of the "funnest" nights I've had in ages!

Sesame Street also gives out a kids deployment DVD regularly. It's really quite touching to hear Elmo talk about missing his daddy, and then seeing Elmo's daddy come home and sing about how proud he is of Elmo... I get all choked up. When Martin was deployed, we watched it sometimes, but not a lot. I caught Isaac crying one time while watching it, and it was really hard... anyway... I love Sesame Street and the USO. They do such fantastic things for the military families. :)

Christina's visit and Pumpkin festival

2009-10-02T00:44:00.000-07:00

My good friend Christina came for a visit for almost a week! She brought the boys some very cute t-shirts:
We had a great time hanging out, walking Isaac to school and doing normal things.

We found a slug...

Aziel really loves cereal...

Last Saturday, we went to the pumpkin festival in Hitscherhof. The twins, especially Elijah, LOVE pumpkins. This was a fun relaxing afternoon!

Elijah next to a ginormous pumpkin!

I'm not sure what he is doing, but it looks like he's talking to his shadow...

Here he is kissing a pumpkin, but it sure looks like a pouty kiss. It was serious business for him, I guess!

Us:

I told you. He LOOOOOVES pumpkins...

Aziel climbing up the cement rock fence.

And unexpectedly to us, JUMPING off of it. (This photo was a re-enactment)

Martin laying the smack-down.

There was a "castle" made of hay for the kids to play with.

Winks!

In motion:
What a little poser...

Jumping... again...
Gorgeous colors, right???

My lovely friend!

Head in the clouds...
It was the perfect fall afternoon!!!

Some photos, boy I'm really behind!

2009-10-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had so many photo ops lately that I've had a hard time choosing which to post! I decided to just jump in and post a few tonight and will do more tomorrow!

A couple weekends ago, I took the boys to the Dinosaur Park. Aziel wanted me to take a photo of him with some pumpkins:

Elijah posing after sliding down a big slide. This is classic Elijah, he's very "artistic", even with his poses. haha!

Tiny Zeelers, next to a giant Wooly Mammoth.Isaac and Eli playing with my favorite dinosaur - a Triceratops!

Back at home, the boys took advantage of a new prop to play with while I was cleaning one day. "The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round..."

Some candids from the park down the street from our house:
Right before Eli smacked Aziel in the head by accident...
Isaac's kindergarten:
We had told the kids we were going to take them to the circus that was nearby. It was a small tent with horses and goats (no elephants or flying trapeze or anything like that). When we got there, we discovered that it was going to cost our family 50 euros (like 70 dollars) to attend. To see HORSES and GOATS.

I felt soooo bad, but we had to teach the kids a life lesson about money that day. We left and went bowling instead. But here's the kids looking (for free) at the horses grazing outside.

The twins moved into their "big boy" beds the beginning of September. They are doing just great with the transition. :)

Will post more tomorrow! Sesame Street Live and the Pumpkin festival to come.

September autumn photo session

2009-09-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today while the kids were out playing, I decided to have a spontaneous photo session, and I caught some GREAT memories! Like this one:

Only Aziel is actually looking at the camera and smiling, but the other boys are just being themselves! It's so much real life for us! I love it.

Aziel found flowers and brought them to me. It really captured his sweetness. He's such a serious, quiet boy for the most part, but also loves to figure everything out. His thoughtful personality is blossoming right out of that stubborn side! He is so snuggly too.

Elijah's mischievous grin. He just bubbles over with enthusiasm and love for life! He's always giggling and running with a bounce in his step. He is a loud, silly kid!

He's also my mama's boy.
Isaac is so playful and inquisitive. He never ceases to amaze me. He's one of the bravest, most adaptable people I've ever met! He's been through moves to foreign countries, gone through deployments and then readjusting, and he's gone to preschool as a minority. This kid impresses my socks off.

A few poses:

Isaac making a face:

Aziel was posing for me so well today!

This is my life! I love it.

The crazy week...

2009-08-17T13:52:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we had a few memorable things go on in our household. On Saturday evening, there was a street BBQ, in which everyone on our block was invited to get together and get to know each other. We went and met some of our neighbors, the kids had a blast staying up late and playing with the other young kid there. Sammie made her rounds with the other dogs and enjoyed getting attention from other people. While we were sitting around, she jumped into my lap and I was petting her. I noticed a bump. I rummaged through her fur to find an engorged tick. BLECH. So gross. I did not feel like sharing this discovery with the neighborhood, so we carried on like nothing had happened... When we got home, Martin and I discussed who would be removing the little bloodsucking parasite. Neither of us wanted to and we decided to deal with it in the morning, since it had most likely been attached for nearly a week (Black Forest trip) anyway.The next day while Martin was out and the kids were napping, I did it. :) I'm so proud of my toughness. haha...

Then Sunday evening, we took Isaac in to the ER because his ear had been hurting a lot. He went home with a weeks worth of antibiotic... And it worked great! :) Aziel ran a little fever that night as well, but they've all bounced back quickly.

Our Taurus is on the fritz. It's overheated and died twice this week, and now the driver's side window won't roll up! If it rains, it will rain in our car. Good thing I will be done with work next Friday! We will soon be down to one car.

I scrapped a few new pages. My style is slightly evolving. I think I'm getting better at drawing the focus to the photos then the elements. Let me toot my own horn, lol. I've also been playing around with different fonts, word art, and photo effects. Next up, I need to beef up my journaling and start trying out RAW photography. Supposedly you can do SO much more with it with photo adjustments and stuff. When I say "stuff", that means I really don't even know, but I would like to learn more! :)

Credits: Composure Plus by Taylor Made designs.

Sorry about the kissy picture. We just don't get very many photos together, and I liked this one...

Credits: Happy Garden by Weeds and Wildflowers.

Vacation to the Black Forest

2009-08-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

Vacation! We left on Thursday around 7:30am to go on our 4 day vacation to the Black Forest in Germany with our friends Jannis and Meike and their 4 yr old daughter Zoi. It was a 4 hour drive, mostly uneventful other than the normal crazy Solano interactions. The kids were fascinated by the windmills. Elijah would squeal “Castles!” whenever he saw one popping over the horizon. He’s called windmills “castles” for almost a year now and I don’t know how to fix that. Not that I really want to, because we think it’s funny! Isaac pointed one out that was close to the road and exclaimed “LOOOOK! The windmill is following us!” I forgot a knife to make PB sandwiches, so I had to use a carrot instead…

When we got to the bed and breakfast that our friends had booked, we discovered that it wasn’t quite what we had expected. The website advertised a completely fenced yard, a petting farm, free breakfast… The promised “fenced in yard” was indeed there, but apparently it was only for the hotel owners 5 dogs. It was a farm, but we couldn’t go near the animals. (We found out when we checked out that the bread and jam and coffee breakfast was 5 euros a person, not free.) The house was decorated with creepy porcelain dolls and witches. Weird. The kids got in trouble for playing in the well, we were informed that the water is too cold for them, but I think they didn’t want their beautiful perfect green grass patch to get ruined! We had only been there an hour when the lady yelled at us to watch our kids because one of them had let one of her dogs out. I couldn’t believe it. That set the stage for a slightly uncomfortable stay there…

Our room:

The twins fighting over a flowered bedspread:

There was nothing for the kids to do, no place to really let them play, so pretty much any time we spent at the hotel, Martin and I were getting irritated with the kids who were just acting their age. They were jumping from bed to bed, squealing, fighting… Sigh. Jannis and Meike had brought their big Doberman Aris. They were equally as disappointed and confused about our accommodations, but since we had registered when we came in, they did not think that we would be able to get out of paying for the whole time, even if we left early. Anyway… our kids were going bonkers. We had to get out. So get out, we did.

Isaac and Zoi at the first restaurant we ate at:Jannis and Meike:Elijah eating cucumbers. He loves them.

We went to a lake called the Suchtsee. We walked around for a few hours, it was gorgeous! We found a nice little pizza place and the people there were very nice.

Aziel saying "I don't know":
Isaac posing silly:
Koutras family: The boys throwing rocks: Martin and me: The boys: We went back to the lake on Friday and swam the day away. Just fantastic! The kids had a blast swimming and playing. That made up for the sorry bed and breakfast, haha!

All of us chillin' at the beach:

Eli was so tired that he fell off the bed and didn't even wake up!

On Saturday, we woke up to find that it was pouring rain. We did not want to be stuck at the hotel. There was absolutely nothing to do other than try to get the kids to watch the portable DVD player that we’d brought along. We eventually decided to venture out and find an ATM so we could pay when we checked out the next day. When we got to Todtnau, the closest town with a bank, it wasn’t raining anymore and there was an outdoor market. Aziel making a silly face for me:There was a little waterfall, and we were going to try to hike up to it. Jannis hitched Aris to the stroller and he took off pulling the twins up the hill. It worked really well until we got to a huge flight of stairs. We didn’t make it to the waterfall. Double strollers are tough going up stairs!!!

Next, we went to a huge “slide”. It was built into the side of a mountain. Kind of hard to see but here's the "slide":Reminder here, Martin is scared of heights. Terrified. So he was more than happy to stay down in the van with the twins who were too little to ride, and to watch Sammie and Aris. I managed to talk/bribe Isaac into going with me, even though he was nervous. We had to go on a lift (like a ski lift) to the top of the mountain. Isaac asked why we had to be up so high, he was pretty freaked out! I had him pretend we were birds flying and he and I flapped our way by the trees on up the hill. Then we got to go down this gigantic slide on a sled type thing. It was almost like a single car roller coaster. Really fun!!! Isaac loved it and talked about it for hours.

After that, we took the kids back to the room for naptime. While they were napping, we found out that we could check out early since it was raining and there was nothing to do. We were soooo happy. Haha. Our vacation was cut short and we were all relieved! Funny…

The drive home went pretty well. The twins sang for quite awhile. This is a bit of what we heard:
Elijah: “Whad want?”
Aziel: “Whoa, whoa”
Eli: “OK.”
Together: “Whoa, whoa, whoa you boat zenlee ow nasteeeem. Mewwy, mewwy, mewwy, mewwy. Lime is but a deem. Wok, wok, wok you boat zenlee ow nasteeeem. If you see a cwokadial don agit to scweeem. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”
Elijah: “Whad want?”
Aziel: “Whoa, whoa”
Eli: “OK. Whoa, whoa, whoa”
Aziel: “NOOOOO!”
Elijah: “Whad want?”
Aziel: “Whoa, whoa”
Eli: “OK. Whoa, whoa, whoa”
Aziel: “NOOOOO!”
Elijah: “Whad want? ABCDEFG?”
And so on it went!

Elijah kept repeating the GPS instructions: “Turn right, mama. Turn right.” He said “mama” a million times on the way home. I think he just wanted to make sure I didn’t forget him!

We also accidently drove through France on our way home. What an adventure! But we made it safely home with a bucketful of memories. I love how Martin put it: If our vacation went perfectly, what stories would we have to tell?

I chopped my hair

2009-08-04T12:43:00.001-07:00

What do you think of it? :) I think I got rid of 5 lbs of hair today!

Trip to the zoo

2009-08-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Martin and I got a sitter for Friday night so we could go on a date. We went out for Mongolian BBQ, and then went grocery shopping. haha... how romantic is that??? Our sitter burned the popcorn really bad, so we were greeted with a lovely smell when we got home. But we did have fun.

Saturday, we went to the zoo for an unofficial field trip with some other kids from the twins room at daycare. The Siegelbach Zoo is small, but does have tigers and monkeys. The kids were most impressed by the raccoons, ducks, and llamas. They wanted to feed all of the sandwiches that we had packed for lunch to the animals.

Here is my lovely photoshopped picture of the boys at the zoo. Can you guess who I added in?

And a few new scrap layouts I've done recently...

Credits: Life is Good, A Better Me, Happy Garden by Gina Marie Huff (Weeds and Wildflowers)

Changes...

2009-07-31T03:18:00.001-07:00

This week, Martin and I made a big decision. We looked at our finances, our workload with the house, as well as our personal values and family needs. We decided that it really wasn't in our best interest for me to continue working.

The conversation started with talking about the expenses of childcare. After subtracting the cost of childcare, extra gas, and all the added eating out, etc, we realized that I'm just not making much! I leave the house before 7:30am M-F. and I'm not home until nearly 6:00pm. At that point, I basically stuff food down my cranky, tired kids throats, dunk them in the tub and put them to bed. Then I sometimes clean a little, sometimes I just don't. And then we have to deal with the continuous laundry and mess of the house...

For the amount of time that I was working and the level of exhaustion that Martin and I have been experiencing, it just is not worth it... and beyond all that, I am giving up so much time with my children. Time that I cannot go back and re-live. Instead of being filled with family time, our week-ends are full of cleaning and running errands... We are all TIRED!

It surprises me to hear Aziel say a whole sentence. I'm like, "Did you just hear that? When did he learn to talk like that?" Or to see Elijah's drawings. Or to listen to Isaac's imaginary play. They are growing up and I don't want to miss these stages as they work through them. More than anything, I want to be a positive, supportive mother to my kids. Money cannot buy self-esteem for children. Money cannot buy memories that will last a lifetime. Money cannot begin to buy back the time that is lost with family.

I'm accepting the fact that this is a phase. I do enjoy my job very much, but it is the time to re-evaluate priorities and values. My career will come to a pause, but it is only for the season. I'm not going to miss this. These little boys are the most important things to me right now and they deserve my full attention. I strive to live my life with no regrets and I know that missing my babies' childhood would be a regret. So, this is the decision. No looking back!

My first post

2009-07-26T03:31:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to think of ways to better keep our families up-to-date on our happenings since I don't keep up my old MSN blog anymore. Thought this might be the solution! :)