A Week in London Town...

It is a blessing and super fun thing to have a really great friend who lives in London! As we approach  baby #3's arrival we thought this might be as good a chance as any to hop up there on the Eurorail for a week and enjoy her company and the sights of London! Here are some of the highlights from our trip! A HUGE AND MANY THANKS to Krissy for hosting us (longer than expected, to be explained later...) and for being such a great friend and "aunt" to the kiddos. We loved your city!

Well, you guessed it... BIG BEN... and he "spoke to us" (chimed) while we were near him! 

 Outside of Westminster Abbey

We met in 1998 at UNCC... who would have thought we'd be here today! 

It was cold, but there are amazing and beautiful parks everywhere!

Buckingham Palace... 

where the QUEEN LIVES! 

Palace Guard

Daddy and Noah in front of the Tower Bridge!

St. Paul's Cathedral 

One of the "old" city buses... very cool.

We hit up both the National History Museum and Science Museum while we were there... it was nice being free and because it was cold outside... it was perfect for the kids. They loved everything being so interactive. Well-done London on those kid fun places for exploring!

(National History Museum... not too shabby, right?!?!)

Exploring... in action!

We were suppose to head home on Tuesday but when we got to the train station to head home, we found out snow had been dumped on Northern France and so we were delayed an extra day. At the end of that day... these two were pooped! 

We LOVED IT!!! Would love to go back in warmer weather... 

but so thankful for the wonderful week!!!

Getting Ready for Easter!

Easter is at the end of the month, and during Noah's naptime yesterday Sadie Mac and I had some fun we wanted to show! 

Because of this holiday, we started memorizing the verse:

"(Jesus Christ), the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" John 1:29

 

Here is our popcorn "lamb" project...

 And our finished project!! 

We're excited and ready to celebrate Jesus' resurrection! 

Seeing "Old" Friends

Some of you who check our blog will recognize these friends... we've known each other since before Stephen and I were married and it's super fun to see how we've... MULTIPLIED!!!

We went from knowing our friends with one child, to having a combined of five kiddos here and one on it's way!

We had a super-fun-filled weekend with our friends in our tiny little house. We laughed about old times, and look forward to more to come. The kids did great and here are some of the highlights...

Cartoons & Movies (only time we could get all of them to sit still in one place!)

Of course, we had to go to Disneyland Paris...

One our first stops there...

Tea Cups!

 Then, to make two little princess' dreams come true... 

we met Sleeping Beauty!

Micah was amazed with Buzz Lightyear

We had "in house" tea parties...

And a quick trip to the Eiffel Tower... super DUPER COLD with some snow flakes in the air. 

(I'm waiting on more pics to come!) 

Special thanks to our friends for driving 9+ hours! We love you guys!

SNOW in PARIS!

SUPER FUN SNOW DAY!!!! We've been hearing reports of snow back in NC, so it's fun to have it at the same time here in France! Of course, having a 2 year old and 4 year old... they are our very own personal alarm clocks which normally go off around 6:50-7am (if not before that!). 

So... after breakfast, we headed out in the snow around 8:30. YES... 8:30 in the morning. Call me crazy... but it worked. (Plus Stephen had to go to work!) ;-) 

So, here are some shots of us playing outside this morning....

 There is nothing on this little girl's face, but T.R.O.U.B.L.E!!!
(as she packs a snowball)

SNOW cake anyone? 

 The startings of a snowman!

 Cutie.

The 3 snowman makers! 

Noah became attached rather quickly... even to give him a hug!

Then, decided to sit in his lap.   :-)

Time for some pull-sledding!

Fun. Fun. Fun day! WE LOVE SNOW!

(Good morning world... don't you love my 8:30 am face!)

Favorite Memories of 2012...

So, I tried to do a top 10 of pics... but it just wasn't possible. Looking through, it was so fun to remember, reminisce, and laugh at the past year. It was fun, sad, good, and amazing at all that we've done in the past year... our first FULL year in France.

Many of these have already been on the blog... but

So... in no particular order of favorite, more so just in the timeline of the year...

Sadie and Stephen's first ski trip... in the ALPS of France!

Sadie Mac and I went for a quick trip the States in April and had a super fun time... enjoying Krispy Kreme and enjoying family!

Fun memory of taking pepperoni to our local pizza place and asking them to put it on a cheese pizza...

it was AMAZING! Always a fun and special Friday night treat while we were in language school!

Sadie's end of year trip, hiking with her class in the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen!

And sweet memories of her little best friend!

Got to SEE the Tour de France... in our town!!!

Summer = Fun in the Sun at a beach/lake near Annecy

Move to PARIS in August 2012... first trip to the Eiffel Tower as a family!

Disneyland Paris... making Sadie's birthday dreams come true!

In September, we found out Baby 3 would be arriving in 2013!

Noah's love for Elmo... even in a pumpkin!

Date Night!!! Stephen took me to see West Side Story at the Opera!!!

Mont Saint Michel... love these two.

Of course when NanNan came to visit and pose with SM in front of the fabulous Tower!

Cuddles with Grandmommie! (Poppie being here too!) ;-)

Super Fun Family Outing...

In Boone, we use to (honestly before I was big enough to remember) have an ice skating rink called "Polar Palace"... and in France, this is our version of that! On Christmas Eve, the four of us ventured out and had a super fun time watching Sadie ice skate on something... that was NOT ice.

It seemed like some kind of plexiglas or something that worked for ice skates and made little shavings like ice skating would. 

It was nice because Stephen could just wear normal shoes and help her... she LOVED it! Noah also got to ride a couple of times and he was a fan! 

As night fell, they even had crazy fun lights!

This melts my heart to see them together... so sweet.