Yes, we are still alive!

Although it might seem like we have disappeared.  We have had such a busy and fun last two months.  A trip to the US, a great time with Bud and Jane in Italy, a lot of time at the kiddie pool and of course a huge dose of soccer!  Hopefully the Dutch can pull of a World Cup win next time!

The Italy pictures almost finnished uploading, so I will have those up soon.  In the meantime here are some pics from the last few months.

Kaylin on Queen's Day

Time trials for the Giro Mania bike race...went right by our house!

Airplane ride to the US

Meeting cousin Reese for the first time!!! 

Shane's 2nd Birthday!  (Which really deserves a post of its own!!)

Cuddles

These really just skim the top of what we have been up to.  I know I will kick myself later for not updating for two months!!! 

Next you'll be overloaded with pictures from Italy!  Our favorite trip to date!

Sunshine

Greece

After an unexpected extra week in Greece we are home!  We had a great time and I just posted pictures in the slide show on the right. I don't have captions on all of them, but I am getting there...
That is all for now, enjoy the pics!

Pants

Yesterday I made both kids a pair of pants out of old t-shirts.  I started with a green pair for Shane and when I finished  I tried my hardest to get him to try them on.  He wanted nothing to do with them!  Luckily Kaylin was a trooper and put them on.  She ended up loving them and wore them the rest of the day...couldn't have made me happier! As she was trying them on I decided they would work perfectly as a pair of capris and then decided to make her a pair with some ruffles. 

Shane tried his on this morning.

Kaylin's are fitting a little bit funny, so I think I am going to take out the waistband and see if I can make them them a bit longer.

Dress Up

The joys of  having a big sister with fancy dresses....

Yes, he has marker on his face, his hands and quite possibly his teeth.

Park

On Saturday we biked over to Amstel Park which is another huge park here.  Within the park there is a huge playground, mini golf, petting zoo, gardens, tennis courts, etc.  We spent the morning playing around and left just as it started raining.  Another great ride on the bike!

First Quilt

I have completed my very first quilt!! I had so much fun doing it and have so many other fabric projects swimming around in my head! :) Like this skirt for Kaylin.

I also finished a bag to hold the yarn, needles, etc for whatever project I am working on. It is much nicer to have everything in one place and away from 4 little hands.

Projects

We've been keeping busy here I just haven't taken the time to upload the pictures.  I just finished a hat for Shane that is so cute!  It is a little big and I am not too happy with the yarn, but it still looks okay.  I am going to try with a different yarn and see how it comes out.  I have a couple other projects that I have finished that I will be posting in the next day or two. 

This past weekend invested in a bike with a seat on the back.  It was the best thing we could have done! I see many bike rides in our future.  The mini van bike is so heavy that the thought of going on a long bike ride does not sound appealing at all, but now...this is fantastic.  I'll have to get some pictures this weekend. 

We just booked our trip to Greece in April! Excited doesn't even begin to express how I feel about this trip.  We will be in Athens for 2 or so days then taking a cruise to a couple of different islands and then a stop in Turkey.  We found a great deal on the trip.  April is not peak season, kids go on the ship for free and if we booked by a certain date we received 30% off.  Matt has been gone at least 3 days a week since January so we are really looking forward to some time all together!

I think we are going to stick around here this weekend...perhaps a bike ride or two. 

Shane's Dr Appt

Shane had a check up yesterday and he is on track for both height and weight.  He weights 11.34kg and is 83cm which translates to 25 lbs and  32.7  inches.  She said he is a bit ahead on his speech because he is putting a few 3-4 word sentences together.  The past few weeks he has started to become really shy.  So, I wanted to talk to her about how to help him with it.  It might just be a stage or just his personality.  When we go out he cries that he wants to go home and hides behind my legs if anyone looks at him.  He does okay when we are at small playgroups, but has a harder time when there are more kids around especially bigger kids. He has fun, but is just a lot more cautious that Kaylin is.  I'm not wanting to compare them, but sometime it surprises me how different they are when it comes to other people.  Kaylin has always been so outgoing and Shane needs a little more time to assess the situation.  I will gladly take all of the extra cuddles he wants though!!  I am sure he will be pushing me out the door soon enough!

Big boy!

About a week ago I took Shane to get his haircut.  I gave up on cutting it myself...
He looks so much older!

New Family

Kaylin was not happy to be picked up from school today.  So when I put her into the bike she was tired and crabby and decided to take her frustration out on Shane.  (Who was crying when he woke up because he was ready to pick up "my tayin".  Bet he regretted it at this point.) She sat across from Shane, not next to him because on Tuesday she complained the whole way back because his arm was touching her.  So as soon as we started going she begins to kick his leg which obviously makes him upset.  I end up pulling over and trying to talk to her because she is crying that she doesn't want him in the bike.  She goes on to say she is staying in the bike until she can go back to school and she wants Shane to walk home.  I told her he is too little to walk home and he would get lost.  I said what would we do with out our Shanester. We sure would miss him wouldn't we?  She says that he can go to another family with a big sister.  LOL!! 
Nothing I said was helping the matter so I started biking again and she continues to kick him and take his mittens off which sends him into a tissy.  People all over the city could probably hear them crying!  I park the bike, unbuckle them and get Shane out and then Kaylin.   She immediately grabs his hat and runs away from him!  He was so upset!  I think it is pretty funny now, but not so much then!
Her mood has since improved and they are both sitting at their table coloring and making cakes for our birthdays.

Carnival

This past Sunday our family along with Jim, Megan and Jack took the train to Den Bosch for the Carnival celebrations.  I have never been to Mardi Gras, but I am guessing it is similar. We stuck out like sore thumbs though because we didn't dress up at all.  I didn't realize that everyone would be decked out. Most of the southern cities in the Netherlands are predominantly Catholic so that is where we needed to go to find the parties.  We arrived and Kaylin immediately wanted to be carried.  She was so uncertain and wanted NO part in ANYTHING!  I think if we would have dressed up too she wouldn't have been so scared.  I put her in the carrier and she fell asleep.  Actually, by the time the parade started all three kids were sleeping.  The parade was quite disorganized, but no one seemed to care at all.   For example, in parades that we are used to the bands are all separated for obvious reasons.  Not so here...they were were ever they decided to be.  At one point a band came down a side road and just walked right into the parade route!  It was very amusing. 

Each city has their own set of colors and Den Bosch's colors are red and yellow.  It also seems that every year there is a new patch for the festival that everyone sews onto their carnival jacket.  Good times!

We didn't take too many pictures because it was snowing and we didn't want the camera to get wet.

You can see the jacket with all of the patches.

Fun

Normally I am not okay with bikes on the couch, but on this day I let them do it because 1. they were not fighting and 2. they were laughing SO hard.  I just couldn't stop them! They pushed the bikes onto the couch and then pushed them off.

Salt and shells

This kept Kaylin busy for a VERY long time!