Boys will be boys.......

and so our girls will be wild!! After taking Norah's 2 year old pictures that I procrastinated, Abe was throwing Norah on the bed over and over again. My heart always stops a little bit when he does this and I think the kids are going to start screaming because they are scared or hurt. But no. They are always laughing their heads off. After Abe did this to Norah the other day, she kept saying, "again!"

Happy Birthday to me

We celebrated my 29th birthday on Saturday. We didn't really do much during the day. Abe had to be at the church all morning helping with the road show that the youth will be doing. He did come home with a bouquet of red tulips that are really pretty. I could definitely get used to having fresh flowers all the time. They are SO cheap here! It also helps that the florist is a block and a half away from our house. In the afternoon my german friend and her daughter stopped by. She made me a pretty cake (that I can't eat since I am off dairy) and brought me a present. So nice of her.




{dairy free rice crispy treat cake... and Abe also added lucky charms? These were the only candles that abe could find around the house. Oh well, I can be 21 again}


Birthday cards from Adeline




That night we got a sitter to watch Adeline and Norah. Abe took me to KOBE, a Hibachi/sushi restaurant in Holland that was right next to the shopping streets along the river. It was really nice. I still feel like a little kid. Weird that I have 3 kids!

{this was a neat bridge over the river right outside the restaurant....stle it off the internet. I suck at bringing my own camera}

Karneval

Karneval is a huge "Holiday" here in Germany. It is basically a big party/festivities before Lent starts. It officially started last Thursday and went through this past Monday. The festivities are big parades, parties and everyone dresses up. It's a little mix of Halloween and Mardi Gras. It was pretty funny seeing many adults riding their bikes everywhere in pretty ridiculous costumes!

Last week Adeline's kindergarten celebrated Karneval. The Monday before Karneval officially started, someone came into the Kindergarten and did face painting. Adeline was pretty excited about the horse painted on her face!

{Class Picture}

The Thursday that Karneval started, all the kids were able to wear pajamas to school. Adeline wasn't supposed to eat before I dropped her off because they served the kids breakfast. When I picked Adeline up, they were dancing around in their pajamas to music and were having a great time. I had wished I had my video camera with me to document it!


On Friday the kids were able to wear a costume to school.

{Adeline and her German Friend Maike. Maike is a year older and looks twice Adeline's size. These girls love each other. Adeline doesn't speak German and Maike doesn't speak English}

Over the weekend we didn't participate in any of the festivities. We missed all the children's parades and that is what I wanted to go to. I didn't want to take the girls to the big parades, because I heard they are extremely raunchy and are not good to bring kids. My German friend Michaela (which is Maike's mom and I will have to talk about more in another post) invited us to go with them to our town "party" on Monday to celebrate Karneval. Abe had worked a 24 hour the night before and didn't care to go. So I left Meika with him and took Norah and Adeline. We walked over to the party with our German friends. We most likely were the only Americans in the entire hall. Everyone sat down at a table and all the kids ate a TON of candy. When the party started, the band played and while everyone stood up, the "prince of karneval" arrived (which happens to be our dairy farm neighbor). Balloons were thrown everywhere and everyone sang some sort of song. Not sure what it was since I did not understand it! Then the whole program was the school age kids performing dances with their classes. It was really cute. Adeline loved watching all the kids, especially her friend Maike performing.

{getting ready to go}


{the prince being welcomed}



{my German friend Michaela and Norah. I thought Norah would be terrified of her b/c of her costume and wig, but Norah sat with her the entire time}

{Maike performing}

{Maike}



Other than that, we have just been hanging out. Luckily it is starting to "warm up" a little, so I hope it continues to so I can start walking outside with the girls. It has been a little to cold to go walking with Meika. She is growing like a weed. I can't believe she is already 4 weeks old!



This week I made home made play dough with the girls. It brought me back to my childhood because I can totally remember doing that with my mom!


{The girls playing outside on a "warmer" day. Had to get this picture of all 3 girls in their DARLING hats my mom made}





{cute little Meika smiling in her sleep. Last week she started smiling at us on purpose when we talk to her! Melts my heart. She seems a little young to be doing that before she is 4 weeks old, but maybe it's b/c she was overdue?}






Adeline and Norah continue to play so well together. The will disappear for hours at times. This is an outfit Adeline insisted Norah wear for one of their performances.

Norah. Our 2 Year old Cherub.

My mom and dad were calling Norah a little cherub, and it kind of stuck. We now call her our little cherub as well. Just for fun, I looked up the definition of "cherub" and this is what came up:

cher·ub/ˈCHerəb/

1. A winged angelic being described in biblical tradition as attending on God, regarded in traditional Christian angelology as an angel of...
2. A representation of a cherub in art, depicted as a chubby, healthy-looking child with wings.

I got a pretty good laugh out of that.... "chubby, healthy-looking child with wings". It just makes me think of cute little Norah running around naked with angel wings.

Anyway, about a month and a half belated, but Norah finally had her 2 year old well baby check up. I almost forgot she was supposed to have one. Her stats were:

23 lbs (I totally thought she was going to weigh more!) (5% weight)
32.5 inches tall (less than 3% height)

I just love this cute little thing. She is one of the sweetest little things. I am happy to say that she is finally potty trained!! She had practically potty trained herself back in October, but then reverted and was having accidents all over the place. With us moving into our house and preparing for the baby, I decided to save myself from cleaning 4 poops a day from her underwear and put her back in diapers. When my mom got here before the baby came, she had me cowboy up and made Norah start wearing panties 100% of the time. We even went on long excursions and Norah went in panties. She has been in panties about 4 week straight now and has been VERY good about peeing in the potty. She was very BAD about pooping in the potty though. She was afraid or something and would hold it until she went down for a nap, or bedtime when she was wearing a diaper. Over the past 2 weeks she has finally started to poop in the potty. Just in the past couple of days she has completely turned a corner and is always going #1 & #2 in the potty and tells us every time (instead of us just making her go). Thanks mom for making me just buck up and get her trained. I am very happy now that I don't have to start that whole process right now!

About Norah right now:

-still as sweet as ever and always handing out free kisses and the best hugs you have ever had
-loves babies. Real babies & baby dolls. She thinks she can just hold and pick up Meika like her baby doll. We have to watch her!
-Has an amazing vocabulary. Talks, talks and talks and loves singing songs. When I talk to her on the phone I can't tell right away if it is Adeline or Norah b/c Norah speaks so clearly.
-She is picking up on Adeline's phrases. "I never never never get to". "It's not fair!!" (while she folds her arms and stomps her foot. "So so so so cute!"
-has a sweet tooth
-If you are eating something Norah always wants one. She says, "I want one!" If you try to give her a bite she says, "No, I want my own one!"
-Loves pockets and putting her hands in them
-Always wants to be wearing her hat and gloves right now because, "it's freezing!!"
-Still napping about 2 hours a day and doesn't fight it
-Doesn't really like to wear jeans, but doesn't have too much of a preference what she wears. However, she wants to wear her piggy jammies that grandma barker gave her every single night.
-Likes watching movies

Valentines Day

So let's just say that I pretty much blew valentines. I had the best intentions of actually getting something together for Abe and the girls, but it didn't work out. The commissary ran out of v day stuff way in advance and everywhere local seemed to not have anything. Carnival is a huge holiday here and everyone is focused more on that. Anyway, I just ended up making big heart sugar cookies for the girls to decorate and eat. Good news is that they loved it and have no expectations. I can start traditions next year... I just better not blow it again when the time comes. You have to plan WAY in advance here. Abe also got a big heart sugar cookie from me. I didn't even write a nice note or anything. Abe on the other hand pulled through this year. He bought each of the girls something and got me some perfume. Later on that night when he got home from helping coach wrestling, he brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I am a lucky girl.

Meika at 2 weeks, Aachen and some catch up

I can't believe that Meika is already two weeks old. The days and weeks seem to be flying by. At Meika's 2 week check up, she weighed a whooping 6 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. I can't believe she gained a pound in just over a week! She is a very good eater and eats every 2-3 hours. The nights have been a crap shoot with her. Some nights, she quietly wakes up, eats, and then goes right back to bed. Other nights when she wakes up to eat, she likes to scream awhile and takes a long time to get back to bed... which makes for a long night. 2 nights ago she decided to wake up every 15 minutes and scream. That was not a very fun night! She is still sleeping a lot during the day. She has her moments of being very content and happy, but then of course she loves to scream just like both of our other kids did. Adeline didn't grow out of her fussiness till 4 months, Norah was 3 months, so I am crossing my fingers Meika will beat both of them and hopefully be closer to 2 months! We shall see! I may be eating my words soon, but so far the transition to 3 really has not been bad at all. Adeline and Norah play together all day and keep each other entertained. Adeline and Norah love Meika and have not shown any signs of jealousy. Abe is also able to be home a lot. It is easy for me to escape to the store, or go run errands if I need to without kids.

{Meika at 4 days old}



{9 days old}



We have been so lucky too. We really haven't been here too long, and have already been taken care of. My friend Sara set up meals a week straight for us and then I have another friend that set up 3 more meals for us. I feel really spoiled that everyone else has been cooking for us and that I haven't really had to make dinner since I had Meika. Here are the girls enjoying a cupcake the other night from my friend Beth. Norah had me laughing pretty hard with the frosting all over her face!






Rewind back to before I had Meika. My mom flew out so she could help me with the girls and spend some time with us. Of course I was overdue and was getting really frustrated that the time was ticking when my mom would have to leave. The first handful of days she was here it rained and we really couldn't do anything outside. Once it stopped raining, we were actually able to sight see a little bit. We took her to Sittard in the Netherlands and went to the Market and walked around. Unfortunately I was really bad about taking pictures, so I don't really have anything to show for it. When I was about 4 or 5 days overdue, we took a little trip down to Aachen. I loved walking around there and the Cathedral was amazing inside!










The day after we got home from the hospital with Meika, it snowed for the very first time this season. Adeline was so excited because she has been saying all winter long that she wanted to make a snow man. We really only got a couple inches of snow, but they were able to muster up a snowman.


Of course my mom had the girls very entertained when she was here and they loved every second of it. Adeline was doing all sorts of little projects with my mom.


I loved having my mom here and honestly wish she could have been here longer! It was really sad to see her go, but we look forward to her coming again when we can actually go travel and explore!