Art Show

Victoria was 1 of 60 kids from her school selected to have a piece of her artwork displayed at the annual school district's art show. The Art Show had selections from every elementary, jr. high, and high school in our district, so it was like an art museum with a huge variety. The kids loved looking at all the creative art pieces, as did Jason and I. Victoria's piece wasn't her best work ever, but we were excited her work was there, as she is a very good artist and deserves to be recognized for all the effort she puts into her work.

 Way to go Victoria!

5 months

 It's hard to believe my baby is 5 months! Since he was so big so fast, I feel like I had hardly any newborn at all! I finally got his 4 month check-up today (I had forgotten that he needed a 4-month). He weighed in at 17 lbs. 5 oz. and was 26 1/4 in. long That puts him in the 70th percentiles for both height and weight, so his decline has started.

The only "concern" I voiced to the dr. was that he's just not interested in any of his toys. She said it's because he's got such good entertainment from his siblings, that the bright, colorful, little rattles don't even compare to what he gets out of them! She's right! He loves to watch them dance and play and run around together, as long as he's right there in the action. As soon as he doesn't make eye contact with any of them within a few minutes, he will let us know!

He can roll over from front to back and back to front, though he doesn't like to be on the floor very long. He prefers his bumbo seat now.

Check out this "boy" look.

 He's so sweet!

Other talents/interests:
-kicking in bathtub
-being tickled on his feet (we get some good laughs out of this!)
-being stroked along his jawline
-blowing raspberries
-playing pat-a-cake with Mommy
-playing with his hands
-trying to suck his thumb

Austin has taken to him lately. He like to repeat what he hears Victoria say, "Are you smiling at me? Are you smiling at me? Yeah! Yeah!" It's so cute when he says it because he raises his voice, like Victoria does, but he still has a lower voice, even though he's only two. Maybe he'll have a deep voice like Daddy's.

 Victoria has really taken to helping with Erik since we've been back from France. She can't stand him crying one second and will promptly pick him up as soon as he does. She can actually get him to calm down now by bouncing him and shushing him. Erik thinks she's just the funniest person in the world. He will follow her with his eyes and head as she dances around telling stories or sings. It's so adorable!

Who looks bigger to you?

 Karissa hasn't been as interested since Victoria has been. She still super sweet and calm with him and will help with him when I ask her to, but I think since he's too big for her to pick up on her own and he doesn't like to just lay in her lap anymore, she hasn't figured out what to do about him yet. She's been using her mothering skills on her "Honey". She dresses her in clothes almost every day, and pjs every night. She puts her in the highchair for meals, reads her stories, and bring her to the park. When she's really in a mothering mood, she will use the younger-looking baby and nurse her. It's very sweet, though many times gets in the way of what Karissa needs to be doing at the time (like getting herself ready for bed, or out the door, or fed).

Erik has been such a good baby and a great addition to our home. I love watching him develop and grow in so many ways!

A Little Culture

Last Saturday we were able to go to downtown Detroit to the Target Family Days free orchestra concert in Orchestra Hall. The theme was Adventures in Music, so they played some classics (Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Mozart's Symphony No. 35), as well as some popular tunes from modern times (Nimbus 2000 from Harry Potter and a medley from Pirates of the Caribbean). In between, the  conductor, Michael Krajewski, did very well at explaining the main components of an orchestra and the different "families" of instruments that make up an orchestra. He kept our kids entertained between songs, as well as teach them new things. Each family of instruments was highlighted. I think we all came to the conclusion that we all liked the strings and percussion best, though the woodwinds and brass were excellent as well. Later, I found out that the conductor worked with Jenny Oaks Baker (my favorite violinist!) with her Silver Screen Serenade. It was an awesome experience and better yet, the kids enjoyed it! Victoria is now determined to play the piano even better and I've noticed Karissa playing around on the piano more. We will definitely go back to the next free concert called Dance! Sing! Swing!


Erik was put to sleep by the music!

It Has Begun!

Our family has grown in size and in needs, as families do at some point. The needs are quickly becoming very apparent.

-Karissa needs glasses. (check)

-Karissa has three cavities to be filled (check on two)

-Victoria needs to get referrals from orthodontists for work to be done on her teeth (working on it)

-Victoria needs sealants (check)

All of these appointments have happened since we've been back from France, many of them last week during Spring Break. Needless to say, we didn't do too many exciting things over the break besides play with friends and go roller skating, since we were going to so many appointments. So the work of many years to correct all the imperfections on my children has begun. I still think they're cute, though!

Victoria took this picture of herself, not a bad shot, eh? Her teeth look way better in this picture than in person! Many of you saw this cute pic on facebook. Victoria wanting to wear glasses has definitely helped Karissa with her necessity of wearing them. I think glasses look good on both of them. Victoria still wears hers every day. I'm interested to see how long that will last!
Erik's still perfect!

Austin is too, though he's tired of all these appointments!!

Easter

This year for Easter I made a new recipe for breakfast; french toast casserole. It was delicious and the kids ate it without complaint! I also made them eat first thing before hunting for their goods. I knew if I didn't, Austin would eat tons of candy for breakfast. He ate tons anyhow, but at least he ate breakfast first! Even before breakfast, since the girls were awake early, they watched a 20 minute Easter video about Christ's ministry, Atonement, Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. It was a great way to start the day!

Here's Erik with his bunny that he actually liked to hold. It was very cute! Victoria wanted glasses for Easter, just for fashion. Ironically, after seeing the eye doctor this week, Karissa is getting glasses for real. She has a "lazy" eye like I did. It's not that noticeable all the time, but the doctor says it will get worse before she possibly grows out of it, like I did. I do have problems still, though. In fact yesterday at church I sang The Lord is My Shepherd with a group of women in sacrament meeting. As I was on the stand, I glanced to my family quickly to the left. Since I wasn't looking straight and moved my eyes quickly, my eye crossed over and I saw two Karissas with her eye crossed over too! She'll have to wear glasses all the time and after Victoria wore hers all day today, I guess we'll have a lot of "four-eyes" around here.

Here she is lining up her loot.
Karissa wanted a "K" for her shelf, like Victoria's "V". She got what she wanted!
Good thing we ate breakfast first!

Austin loves sunglasses and broke his last pair last summer. Instead of wearing his sisters' pink ones, now he can wear his Thomas ones!
He also got a "baby" Lightning McQueen, so he had to quickly find the big one to go with it.
Church was lovely and our Easter dinner was easy and yummy. We hope you had a great Easter!

Por Fin! (don't know how to say "finally" in French)

I need to finish up blogging this trip so I can blog about my kids; like how Victoria took notes during General Conference and how Karissa was so brave in getting her first cavity filled...

Monday morning we went on a hike in the Jura Mountains. It was gorgeous and made us miss the mountains.

After our hike we ate at a family-owned Italian restaurant that had all homemade fresh pasta- yum! And we visited with Eliane, my mom's good French friend. That was a highlight of my trip to visit with her in her home and get a better taste for the culture there. We drank carbonated water flavored with syrup, a common drink in France.

That evening we went to Family Home Evening at the Institute with the Spanish speakers. I felt really good about my Spanish after hearing all the French that I don't understand. Jason made a good contribution to the lesson.

Before leaving for Paris on Tuesday, we went to Nyon to see some Roman ruins.
I had to take a picture of the Sycamore trees that are trimmed so uniquely everywhere there.
We were sad to leave my mom and Jim, but excited see Paris. Luckily, we had been forewarned just the day before by a missionary from Paris how dangerous it is there with all the pick-pockets. After checking into our hotel, we took a bus and then the metro to see Sac le' Couer, a huge cathedral that overlooks Paris. As we got closer, we could see that we were in a dangerous part of town and felt the reality of the dangers we had heard. The metro started getting super crowded with the kind of crowd we wouldn't want to hang out with. It made NYC feel very safe!! Then, all those people got off with us and made the trek up to the cathedral! Check out this amazing-looking cathedral

and all the people in front. You'd think they were going to watch fireworks, or something. No, they were all just sitting there, drinking and smoking who-knows-what. Then some guy started to dance with a ball and climbed up the light post showing off his tricks. He had to include some nasty moves as well. The view of the city was cool (our pics of that were fuzzy for some reason).

The funniest thing was we thought we were supposed to be looking directly at the Eiffel tower, but we couldn't see it anywhere. And really, the Eiffel Tower is huge, how could we miss it? Well, we did, until it got dark and it was lit up. It was slightly to the right, and from where we were, amongst all the people, it was covered by some trees and buildings close-by. When we finally got to a good picture place, everyone was already taking up the good places and I had to squeeze my camera through to get this shot of when the lights started to twinkle, which they do every so often. Again, the picture is fuzzy, but you can see that they are twinkling.


Needless to say, our opinion of Paris by this point was not very high.

It redeemed itself the next day, though. We must have been in a really bad part of town. The rest of the sights were pretty much what we expected.

The Eiffel Tower is huge, obviously!
There was a sister missionary from Paris, who served with my mom and Jim, and she was kind enough to give us a tour of Paris, which we needed to get through it in a day with a baby and not speaking French! Marie brought her friend Serial and we enjoyed their company.
Arc de Triomphe. (It was very sunny that day, lucky for us!)
This is the Royal Palace, where the Louvre is housed, though none of our pictures could capture just how gigantic this place is. It is 850 meters long, like 9 football fields, each wing! There are two wings and they're connected in the middle, making an "H".

Here is the famous triangle where you enter one of the world's largest museum (652,000 square feet of exhibition space). We didn't go in, due to lack of time, but I saw the Mona Lisa in a bathroom nearby, so, I'm good!

This is what Erik thought of all this.

Here is Notre Dame.
Check out all this detail!
Pictures just can't do the stained glass justice!
We parted with Marie and Serial after seeing the Luxembourg Palace. Jason, Erik, and I then went on a Seine River tour and got to see all the sights from the river and enjoy hearing more history and background on the buildings, bridges, and monuments we passed by.

We finished up just in time to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle again and then give off it's usual glow.

It was a whirlwind of a trip and we were exhausted when we got back to the hotel, and still the next day on our flight back to the states. Actually, yesterday was the first day in two weeks that I didn't have frequent moments in the day of exhaustion!

Thanks to my mom and Jim for flying us out and showing us around and my dad and Mary Lou for watching our kids while we were gone. I've got great parents, all four of them! We're glad to be back with our kids now. They all seem to be a little more independent!

France et Switzerland II

Saturday morning we walked from the apartment to Ferney Voltaire's very popular marche, where there were lots of yummy foods to buy, as well as clothes and accessories. It was fun just to be a part of the French culture.

We then traveled to another medieval village on the Lake Geneva called Yvoire (in France). This might have been one of my favorites. It was so small and quaint, right on the water. Plus, the first thing we did was eat crepes at the crepery for a good price. They were delicious!

This is out on the dock looking back at Yvoire.

Where we're standing is the "entrance" and the church in the distance is at the very end. You can see the other side of it in the picture above by the water, that's how small it is.

Here's the outside wall surrounding the village.
We drove back to Geneva to see the other sights we missed on Thursday. Here was our mode of transportation.... Okay, obviously not, but Jason thought this machine was hot! Any female reading this know the name of this vehicle? Just checking...
We saw the famous Jet d' eau, coming out of Lake Geneva.

St. Pierre's cathedral.
The clock de fleurs (don't know if that's really what it's called, and I'm too tired to double check, but it's a famous landmark there, so you might have heard of it.)
I just liked this street with the flags and buildings. I had to wear the beret. When in Rome....
We went to the church for a baptism that evening for a lady from Mongolia. It was great to be a part of that experience!

Sunday we went to church. The Geneva I Ward is in English, so that was nice. Afterwards, we went to Annesy, France, the Venice of France (it actually really used to be a part of Italy).

Nearby Annesy is a hidden treasure. This Roman bridge, Pont du Calle. All I have to say about is is AWESOME!!It's huge, if you can't tell.

Here's some of the water ways through Annsey.
The Notre Dame cathedral of Annsey.
As opposed to many of the other cathedrals we saw, this one had a nice skylight, and so was light inside, which I enjoyed.
A young lady from the institute, Emily, lives in Annsey and she gave us a tour. It was great getting to know her and hear some of the history of the town from a "local".

More to come soon!