The Move

Here it is, the long awaited house blog.

We did it, we finally moved.  After looking at hundreds of homes we finally found THE ONE.  Even though I had to move to Iowa, I think we will all be very happy here.

**I am still going to root for my Moliners**

Our new home is beautiful, the woodwork is amazing, the rooms are huge, the kitchen is glorious and the backyard has plenty of room for the kids to run, and get this...it's flat, something we couldn't enjoy in the Hamptons.

Here's our new home (FYI...the pictures are all from the listing, not our furniture, the home is still in disarray from the move....and the small children living inside.  I am guessing it won't look anything like these pictures for the next few years).

The Zoo

We made our first trip to the zoo today.  The kids had a great time.  Olivia was so excited to spend the morning with her best friend Lily.

Finley loved the zoo, this was the first time that he actually showed some interest in the animals.  He loved every exhibit, waving and saying bye-bye each time we left an animal enclosure.  He especially loved the monkeys.  They were very active today, swinging and jumping all over the place.  I have to say, it was probably everyones favorite.  Olivia may have wanted to bring one home.

Feeding the fish.  I did have to stop Finn from feeding himself the fish food.

Waving bye-bye to the fish.

I think Finn was surprised at how big those kitty's were.  The lions were very boisterous today.

Lily enjoying her train ride.  The girls talked about the train the entire time we were at the zoo.  I think they were more excited about the train then all of the animals.

Germany

I've been trying to get this post ready for about a week now.  I can't seem to find a way write it so you don't end up reading a novel.  Here it goes, short and sweet.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Germany for work, for the second time.  I had an absolute blast.  The first time I went I had to travel alone.  This time I went with a  group of people, which meant we also did a little bit of site seeing every night after work.

I'll spare you all of the details.  We lucked out and had gorgeous weather every day - 70 and sunny.  We worked past 5 PM most days.  We ate some of the most amazing food and found a few new types of German beer that we liked.  Here are a few of the pictures from our evening travels.

The Sunday that we arrived we traveled to Heidelberg to visit the castle there.

This is the tram that we took up to the castle.

The view from the castle.

This is part of the castle that has collapsed over the years.  It split right down the middle.

This is another castle that we travelled to one night for dinner.  It has been turned into part restaurant part youth hostile.

Spaghetti ice cream that we found at a place called Fontanella's.  It was delicious.  

And of course, my beloved Paulaner.

I am lucky that my parents have instilled in me the love of traveling.  I enjoyed every minute of this trip, even when I had to work.

Finley at 18 Months

My baby boy is 18 months old.  We recently had pictures taken of the kids, I don’t know where the time goes, Finley looks like he is 3 years old in all of the photos!

Finn’s personality grows every single day.  He is a laid back, fun loving little guy who loves to pick on his sister.  He knows exactly when he should press her buttons to get the most bang for his buck.

Finley, at 18 months you:

Weigh 25 lbs and are 32 inches long.  Both of which are in the 50th percentile.  Your head, however, is measuring in the 75th percentile.  

Wearing size 24 month clothes, size 5 shoe (however you are just transitioning to a size 6), and size 5 diapers.

You will eat most anything I give you (this is proven by how your cheeks jiggle when you run).   However, you don’t like macaroni and LOVE your fruit.  Bananas and raspberries are your favorite.  Breakfast is your favorite meal, you could care less about eating dinner.  You rather put your feet on the table and try to take off your socks with your teeth while the rest of your family is trying to enjoy their dinner.

When you find something to eat that you like you will open your mouth as wide as you can and grunt for more, just like a baby bird.

You know how to sign for more.

You have a whole slew of words that you can say: more, mine and no are your favorite (mine and no are compliments of Olivia).  You have a few two word phrases that you can say, “Hi Mama” is your most recent one.

You like to get into the fridge by yourself when you are thirsty, we are lucky that our refrigerator will start to beep when you leave the door open.

You also help yourself in the pantry, we’ve had to rubber band the doors shut to prevent you from getting in.

You are in to everything, wanting to know how it works.

You love building towers.  Whether it be with blocks, yogurt containers, or mom’s lotion bottles, I can always find you stacking something.

You love to dance and are starting to sing your favorite songs.  We often spend our evenings having “dance parties” in the living room.

You know your body parts and can say all of them.

You love the new house.  You have so much more room to run, drive your cars, and play with all of your toys (by the way, I feel like every time I open a new box it is full of more toys).

You are very lovey.  The first thing you do in the morning is go around and give everyone hugs.  You pass out kisses like they are candy; believe me, I love this and take full advantage of it each and every day!

We love you so much and can’t wait to watch you grow!

Baby Chicks

The kids had their pictures taken with baby chicks again this year.  With only a 15 minute time slot I wasn't sure how well the pictures would turn out.  To be honest, I wasn't sure if we would get any good ones.
 
Much to my surprise, we came home with some very cute pictures of my sweeties.

That poor chick knew better.  He was trying to hide from Finn!

He was much too slow, though!