Cool Dudes

I have been cleaning out boxes and making room for things for moving and I came across some goggles. Reed insisted that they were sunglasses and put them on immediately and declared he was a "Cool Dude". He then decided that Daddy wasn't cool enough and needed some also.
The other pictures were from a night that Reed saw Daddy reading the paper and so Reed ran and got one of my magazines and sat at the table with him to read. It was cute.

Cool Dudes

Latest Tricks

These are Sophie's latest tricks....




And her first steps!!!

The Kids

I have been really bad about pictures since mom has been here. I have no documented her visit very well, but outside of the wedding, these are the few I've taken.

The Kids

Italy Wedding

This is it! All the pic's I have from the wedding and reception. It was absolutely amazing and we had a great time!

Italy wedding

Friends

The other day we had some friends over and these are just a few pictures of that.

Friends

Sophie's Mischief

Every time I turn around, Sophie is getting into trouble somewhere, doing something. These are a few of her favorite trouble areas....

Sophie's Mischief

Parks & Recreation

We've been spending a lot of time at the parks lately and even going to a couple new ones. We have some good weather left and we plan on taking advantage of it because it won't last much longer. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately...

Parks & Recreation

Photo Shoot

Finally decided I needed some cute black and white pic's of the kids. I got some really good ones...

Photo Shoot

Last Day at the Pool

Our pool season is rapidly coming to a close and so we had one last hurrah yesterday to get our fill for the summer. Here are a few pictures...

Last Day at the Pool

Koleszar Visit

These are our pictures from Chris' parents visit. Most of these are from us going out since that is something we were able to do a lot of! We had a great time and loved all the goodies they brought from the states!

Koleszar Visit

This is Sophie laughing...it is not a cry.



And this is Sophie's "happy" scream....

Past Week

Over the past week we have had some fun activities. We went to the circus and saw lots of animals, we went to a huge festival in St. Gallen, and we played here at the flat. Lots of fun!

Past Week

A picture just wouldn't do it justice...does this song "ring a bell"?

Arbon

Our day trip today was to Arbon. It's on the lake and is a very small town, but we had heard good things about it. It's a cute little town, but were a little disappointed. We ended up only spending half a day there, but there wasn't much to do outside of a short walk along the lake. If nothing else, it was super relaxing, we laid in the grass while the kids played at the playground and strolled around the city. I also got a couple of awesome pictures of Reed.

Arbon

Sophie's Birthday!

Sophie had a great birthday today and we really partied it up. We went to the pool, had her favorite dinner, she even got some dessert and we opened up gifts. She had a great time, but was exhausted and ready for bed by the time it was over.

Sophie's Birthday

Sophie has learned to climb stairs. I have no idea how or where she learned to do this, we obviously do not have stairs in our flat so I'm a little confused, but she sure can go.






Sophie likes it when we sing so she loved it when we sang "Happy Birthday".

Chur

We have been pretty restless and bored around the flat and in Heerbrugg in general lately so we have decided to start doing day trips more regularly. Today we decided to go to Chur for the day. It's an amazing city and we will definitely take anybody that comes and visits to see this place! It was a little drizzly, but the kids had a blast and it we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't get a ton of pictures of the city itself, next time we go, we'll try and be better about pictures.

Chur

What the kids like to do...

More random pictures of what we've been up to lately. We've been pretty busy so sorry these aren't more organized.

What the kids like to do...

What the kids have been up to

This is a bunch of random pictures / videos of what we've been up to lately.

What The Kids Have Been Up To

Reed is doing fantastic on his bike now!!

Reed's Birthday Party

Reed was supposed to have a pool party, but the weather was cool and rainy so we went to an indoor play area close to where we live. This place is HUGE. There is a huge play area for big kids and then another whole level for babies and toddlers. To top it off they had a gigantic cafeteria with lots of yummy treats and drinks for all. This place is great. I had never been before, but will probably go every day over the winter. I am so glad we found it I think all the kids had to be dragged out kicking and screaming. It was great.

Reed's Birthday Party

At the end of the day, I'm just glad they all had fun, in fact so much fun, Reed didn't want the day to end....

Reed's Birthday

Reed's birthday was yesterday and we had a great time. We got up, had breakfast, opened presents, played, baked his cake, took naps and got ready for his party. These pictures are just our morning.

Reed's Birthday

Fake Sneeze

This is Sophie's fake sneeze. I have been trying to get it on camera for awhile and with Chris' help, I was finally able to. Reed is actually the one that taught her this fake sneeze which makes it even funnier. I may try to get Reed's fake sneeze on video too, he is very dramatic with it. Here is Sophie...

Baking a Cake

Today Reed celebrated his birthday at daycare so in the morning, we baked a cake. Reed had so much fun, but threw a fit when I told him he could not eat it for lunch. I did let Reed help and he thought that was really cool. He also put all the flower candies on the cake, but not before licking them all (I did not tell the daycare people this). They said he had a lot of fun and ate a lot of cake.

Baking a Cake

Crusing

A little video of Sophie cruising and climbing.

Jumping & Spike

Reed loves jumping on the spare bed, I tried to get some action shots. He also loves spiking his hair after bath.

Jumping

The Kids (& Chris)

These are just a few super cute pictures of the kids. There are a series of pictures of the kids putting Chris to bed. It was the cutest thing in the whole world. Chris laid down in Reed's bed and Reed started talking about our day and what we did, what we have planned for tomorrow, read him a book, tucked him in and said "Night night Dadda" and closed the door behind him. It was to die for.

The Kids (and Chris)

Today's Activities

Today both kids are not feeling well. This morning we watched some tv, then we had a play date at a friend's house. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Today's Activities

Crazy Hair

I just needed to share these with everyone. This is after Reed's bath.

Crazy Hair

Taking Turns

This exercise was exhausting, but in the end, Reed finally got it. It is too hard to teach how to take turns.

Pool & Migros

What we've been up to since Chris has left.

Pool & Migros

Barbie's Visit

These are the photo's from Barbie's visit. Unfortunately, I only took pictures on two days. I always seem to forget. So these pictures are from our hike up to Ebenalp and from our afternoon at the "beach" at the Bodensee.

Barbie's visit

Rappenlochschlucht

Reed and Chris did some snuggling in bed before our big hike! Doug and Cindy showed us a new place to hike. This place is AMAZING and is surprisingly easy. Everyone needs to come visit just to see this. Here are some pictures....

Rappenlochschlucht

Coop Play Area

How can something that's going SO well, turn into something so ugly? Please, tell me, where did I go wrong? Where should I have drawn the line?

Migros Play Area

By some small miracle, the kids played great together the other day at the Migros play area. I was so proud and they were so cute!

The Pool!

I finally remembered the camera at the pool! Here are some adorable pictures!

The Pool!

The kids playing at the pool....

New Dining Table

We finally got a new dining room table. It looks great and is SO functional! We love it. I might go back and get a few more chairs too. Ikea so great and cheap!

Riot Reed

Reed is so funny right now. He is just getting to a really silly age. These are just a few of the funny things he does...

Riot Reed

Teaching

We first tried teaching Reed how to use the camera. He at least started understanding the concept, but we have a long ways to go. We then decided to try and teach him to was the windows (this is something much more useful to us) and as you can see, he is just much too short. Then he eventually gave up and decided to do something he's really good at and that's play with Sophie.

Teaching

Sophie is a natural when it comes to standing up. She is going to be a climber! She is always trying to climb on everything and it cracks me up. One time we were in the basement, trying to get the bike and the trailer together so we can go and I caught her climbing up the stares on her own. She was so happy, but this is what happens when it's too high for her to climb up on....

Sternschnuppe Party

Reed and Sophie's daycare had a summer party today and they had face painting. He made the cutest little bee I ever did see. It was funny because he couldn't stop staring at himself in the mirror. Sophie really enjoyed all the chaos with the kids too. She thinks she's such a big girl and play with the big kids.

Hiking

Reed is now addicted to his Leapster. It's great because if he wakes up too early, we'll give him his Leapster and we'll get another hour or so of sleep. It's fantastic. Reed is also hiking on his own this year. He's such a big boy. We took some pictures on our hike the other day. It was beautiful out and Reed did great.

Hiking

Sophie is getting big also. She is pulling up on everything now and is starting to get interested in cruising. I'm sure that by the end of this month, she'll be crusing on everything.

Randoms

These are the few pictures we've taken since being home from the states. We've been to the pool several times and have yet to remember my camera when I go. Hopefully I'll remember soon.

From Randoms

The Girls

I did a photo shoot of the two girls. Maybe we got one good picture?? They were just happy as could be, swapping toys along with spit. It was funny.

The Girls

Museum

We went to the museum with O'Riley's. We didn't take very many pictures, but the kids loved playing with all the hands-on stuff and really had a great time.

Museum

Chicago

We did go to Chicago for a couple days. Luckily, Mandy is awesome at taking ten million pictures (most of which are really good) so we have a lot of our days there. It was a lot of fun with all the cousins together! Reed's favorite was Dairy Queen!

Chicago

Trip Home

This video is of us traveling home and we are just starting out on our journey and are all fresh with lots of energy...





After a LONG journey, we finally got to Chicago, we were all exhausted, Chris and I couldn't even move from our seats and this is Reed....





These are some pictures of the beautiful weather and the kids having fun playing outside.

From Trip Home

Schnapps Tasting

We had some friends ask if we wanted to go Schnapps/wine tasting with them and their kid. Our kids play together well so we all went. They had a whole swing set and stuff for the kids to do. It was great. It was really just at somebody's barn. Very informal and a lot of fun.

From Schnapps Tasting

Zurich Zoo

For Easter Sunday, we went to the Zurich Zoo. It's a pretty big zoo and we didn't even get through half of it, but Reed loved it and was so excited to go from exhibit to exhibit and talk about all the animals. He ran everywhere and burned up a lot of energy. I think that in the end, he decided that the snakes were his favorite. We actually met another couple and their daughter at the zoo so it was fun to see the kids together. Even Sophie enjoyed it, but she just kept laughing because Reed was acting silly because he was so excited. We had a great time and it was perfect weather. Warm enough for short sleeves, but breezy enough that we weren't sweating. It was the perfect day!

From Zurich Zoo

Saturday of Easter Weekend

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo so we did our Easter Egg Hunt today. We had Cindy and Doug over and we all cheered Reed on. He really did a great job and had a pretty easy time finding them. After he found them all, we re-hid them again and this time a bit harder. We had to coach him a bit the second time around, but the challenge is what makes it fun. He was SO cute finding the eggs. We would tell him to go look for the eggs and he would just think about it and look a little and then when he found one, he'd have to talk to it a little bit before picking it up and putting it in the basket. He has such a personality now, he really cracks me up. We had a lot of fun.

From Saturday of Easter Weekend

Trips to the Park

It's been so beautiful outside that we've been going to the park almost every day. Reed has turned into a complete nature boy (I'm thinking he might be interested in boyscouts) and totally ignores all the playground equipment and grabs a stick and runs to the nearest ant hill to poke the ants. Sophie really loves the swings and watching Reed run around. It's hard to believe that she'll soon be running with him. I also got some pictures of one of Reed and Sophie's daycare providers. She has been such a lifesaver and has been so helpful since day one. Reed has also grown to have a great bond with her and is very attached. She is also probably the only one that speaks English and she is great with the kids and I think she really enjoys what she does.

From Trips to the Park

Easter Party

A British friend of mine decided to have an Easter Party with a couple of different mom's and their kids. It was so much fun, but unfortunately I didn't get a ton of pictures. These are the few I did get....

From Easter Party

Sigrid's Birthday

We had a friend invite us over for cake and coffee for her birthday. She has a boy a year younger than Reed so it was also a nice play date. It was wonderful, the kids played well and to top our afternoon off, she told us she was pregnant! We're really happy for her and her family. They live really close to us so we walked and here are some pictures of our afternoon.....

From Sigrid's Birthday

Play Date

We have some British friends that have kids the same ages as ours. Our babies are only one week apart and her older daughter is only a few months older than Reed. These are some pictures of our last play date.

From Play Date

Lounging at the Flat

These are just some pictures of the kids. We also took our first train ride with Sophie. Both kids loved it.

Lounging at the Flat

The tickle game! The kids were being SO cute!

Houdini

Sophie has become a regular Houdini. I have no idea how she did this!

From Houdini

Also, Sophie is very close to crawling. The video is long, but you get the gist. She can scoot across an entire room....it may take her a few hours, but if she wants something bad enough, she can do it!

Planting Flowers

Chris thought it would be a good idea to show Reed how to plant flowers. Reed was just infatuated with the dirt. I mean, for a boy, is there really anything better?

Planting Flowers

Misc.

These are just random pictures over the past few weeks. I'm just trying to catch up. The captions will explain them all.

Misc.

Reed has decided that he must feed Sophie. He actually does a really good job and is very gentle with her.

Ode to Sophie

Sophie is reaching all kinds of milestones. She is starting to sit up really well. She can do it on her own for about 30 seconds before she tips over. She's getting better though. Not only that, but she got her first tooth, it hasn't been fun here!

From Ode to Sophie

A little video of how well she's sitting.

Ode to Reed

These are some pictures of Reed. He is quite the character now and becoming more and more independent. I also got his first experience with PlayDoh. He loved it.

From Ode to Reed

This is as we were putting the PlayDoh away. This is a pretty standard tantrum. I hope he outgrows this quick, but in the meantime, I guess all I can do is laugh about it. If I didn't laugh, I might just cry and go crazy.

Migros Coffee

For those of you that don't know, every Monday morning, I take the kids to Migros to meet with some friends for coffee and chatting. This is Sophie hamming it up at Migros. She loves the camera.

From Migros Coffee

Our Walk

After Reed's rough weekend of being sick, we decided to get out for a little walk and took some video and pictures.

Sophie's Mohawk!

Sophie is starting to get some hair in....too bad it is in Mohawk form!

Super Cute!

This is a little video of Sophie giggling. It is so cute, I can hardly stand it! Also, I would like to apologize for the boy pajamas. It's all she's got.

Sophie is getting bigger and bigger and doing more and more. She is definitely not crawling yet, but she can certainly scoot herself around and get around a little. These are a few pictures and a bit of video of that and her dazzling smile.

Sophie's Smile

She certainly can scoot too.....

Are You Kidding Me?

This kid is the biggest baby ever! He stubbed his toe and he did actually stub it pretty good, it was bleeding a little so I put a bandaid on it. You would think he had broken a toe. I couldn't help but laugh and of course, get it on video. And Mom...yes I know...I need to put clothes on him! It was just a beautiful day and he's happiest with no clothes on.

Home Again, Home Again

Some pictures and video, mostly of Reed. The first night home, Reed crashed on the couch. Poor kid was so tired. Also, a few pictures of Raclette and one morning I tried to get the sunrise over the mountains, it was so beautiful, but the pictures didn't turn out the way I wanted.

From Home Again, Home Again

Reed's Gibberish.