The park and shopping

Today we went off to Beatrixpark park today. Kaylin was excited at bedtime last night about going to the park today! This morning, she talked about going to the park and asked who was going with her...As soon as she and Shane were in the stroller right outside of the house- she was sleeping. She slept for most of the time going to the park and once we got there and actually found some playground equipment for her to play on- it was all soaked from the rain! Scratch that idea. Instead we just walked around and took in the scenery. There was a lot of bird life which Kaylin really enjoyed. Shane slept from the second we left just to just about 15 min. before we got home. It was a nice outing. After the park we made it over to the market. That was pretty fun- Kaylin helped pick out food that she thought we needed and was very helpful holding the bag while we packed up the groceries. Again...Shane slept. HAHA Once we got home, we made lunch and just hung out. Its been a fun day! 

Below is an area of the park that I thought would look really neat during the spring/summer- so I took a picture of it in the winter so when I get back here in May I will go back and see if I was right or not! Then there are a couple pics of Mom and the kids.

    

   

   

Then in the park I saw some ducks I havent seen before- not saying that they arent in America- but just incase they aren't- I included pictures of them :) OH and then when we were exiting the park, that is the sky line that we saw- again- look at the buildings! there is one in the middle that has the widows "cut" out making a design in the building- it looks so cool in person!

And thats it for today- Time to start making dinner because the stove takes a while to warm up :( OH WELL!

Rain.

So, I know that I have been told this- probably about a hundred times...It rains in The Netherlands during their winter months...Yeah I get it- but seriously...Its got to stop some time for us to get out and explore with out getting soaked! Ok enough of that- but still on that subject a little...We played in the house yesterday because it was raining! HAHA Mom was ambitious and went out down the way to the grocery store- but other than that, it was an uneventful day. 

We took the kids downstairs to the basement to play. That was hilarious. Shane was crawling all over, and Kaylin was showing me how she rides her horse. 

 

Kaylin first started riding her horse, then decided that it was time for it to have dinner, so she went around and picked out a bunch of play food to feed her horse. 

     

Then she got tired of that and went to find her picture book that Sarah and Matt made for her. This picture book had pictures of friends and family for her to look at while she was on the plane and so she could play with it here too.

The funny thing is-once she found this book, she decided that the horse NEEDED to see all of the pictures in the book. So she went one by one, telling the horse who was in the picture, and then patted the horse while showing it the picture- HILARIOUS!

 

Later that day we painted with water colors. That was pretty fun. We were trying to get Kaylin to paint pictures for Mom and Dad- or Grandma and Grandpa...but she only wanted to paint pictures for Bailey (my Moms Dog) Go figure!

   

Oh and did I mention that Kaylin thought it would be a good idea to start painting her face???

Luckily she only started on her cheek, chin and shirt...haha

I also have some pictures of Shane getting up from his nap...

He is such a happy baby!

   

And lastly, Here are some nice pics of Grandma and Kaylin reading stories-

   

Tomorrow weather.com says its supposed to be partly cloudy with NO RAIN!!! YAY! We are packing up and heading out for the whole day! So look for some great stories and pictures to follow!!!

Sean is taking over!!!!

Hello everyone- Its Sean. Sarah and Matt have left for their trip to Cancun and have left my Mother and me in charge! SO I will be updating the blog here until they return in one week. 

So far the trip has been awesome. Flying economy though was tough...I suggested to Mom that we move to 1st class...but was quickly shot down for that- it was only an extra $300 per person!? HAHA

Our first day here we spent time having a small Christmas gift exchange with Sarah, Matt and the kids. That was a lot of fun.

 Our second day here, we did a little exploring. We went downtown to the Rijksmuseum which was awesome to see. Everything here is so unique. All of the buildings have so much character and life- very refreshing to see. 

We also went and checked out where John Adams used to live while he had residency here in The Netherlands-

We have also gone out to dinner at a local corner restaurant which was delicious. We have also gone around our neighborhood area checking out where we will need to grocery shop and where else we would have to run errands. We are looking forward to taking the kids to as many parks as we can get to as well as just wander around the city. I will keep you updated!! I have to go for now...Nap time is over for Shane and Kaylin...haha

   

A future gardener?

So, I know I have not been very good at updating lately and I have quite a few things to post about and will do so later, but I have to show you this...

I was upstairs putting Shane down for a nap and this is what I came back to!

Biscuit

Shane's first attempt at feeding himself. He loves these!

Shane's first doctor's appointment here...almost

So we finally scheduled Shane's 6 month doctor's apt with our house doctor. Each neighborhood has a house doctor that we take the kids to or if you can't make it there the doctor will come to the house. Very nice. Well, we go to the doctor and get the kids registered and when we see the doctor he tells us that we only come to him if the kids are sick and go to a different place for their well child checks and shots. So, he has yet to have his 6 month check up...at least we tried right?! Just an example of a difference between here and the States. Also, all shots and well child checks are free for kids up to the age of 4. You would also go to the house doctor if you have an emergency that you would not call 911 (221 here) for, but would drive yourself there.

New Years

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had a fun and safe night. Ours was very low key and I barely made it to the New Year, but was re energized right at midnight when a crazy amount of fireworks were going off. I have never seen anything like it...4th of July times 2. They were going off in every direction for 2 hours, yes 2 hours. There were a few moments I was afraid the building would catch fire and the houses here don't have smoke detectors.

This picture is the next morning at the corner outside of our house. It was like this all over.

This video isn't the best to actually see the fire works and doens't really do it justice, but you can get an idea...