Perspective

ByAmy

Ok I promise that my next post will not be about the baby. Soon I will be posting about Paris, my boys and just general ramblings of my life. But I just spent the day with litte Miss A and I can't help but to post some more pictures. Here is one of my favorites. It just shows how tiny she is.

Here are more of my faves....

Ok, that's all for now. But really, have you seen anything cuter? Nope, me neither.

KISS-A-BLE

by Ang

You'll have to bear with Amy and I. We're in deep with cute baby photos.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I just love her cheeks!

I can't wait to see you again baby girl!!!!

I AM IN LOVE

By Amy

My niece arrived today at 4:13 in the morning at 2 1/2 weeks early. Her parents are exhausted, in shock and deliriously happy. She is perfect in everyway. And I am in love. Did I mention that already?

The real reason I went to Paris

By Amy

Was for this......

And this......

I'm ashamed to tell you how many I ate. The croissants and pain au chocolat were incredible. Melt in your mouth. Better then a hot Krispy Kreme glazed donut on a cold day. I wanted to buy one at every bakery I went by. But if I did I would be stuffing my mouth every block. Which I would have been ok with. My thighs would have cried in protest. Something that was a little unexpected was the crepes. I had read that you can buy them freshly made with a assortment of toppings. I thought "what's the big deal about a flat pancake?" The first one I had was made with sugar. YUM.

But being a chocolate girl the rest were all filled with chocolate. And I'm embarassed to say that at one point the chocolate was dripping down my wrist and I had no shame in licking it off.

Hello my hero.

Perfection! I will never doubt the goodness of french crepes again.

Things I Love & Other Random Thoughts

by Ang

I was going to do a post about the awfulness of allergies and how horrible this allergy Spring has been already, and how I can't breathe and how my nose is red from blowing it all the time and how my bedside table looks like a medicine cabinet. But who wants to hear about that, really.

So instead I'm going to post some happy things. Things I LOVE.

First, this goopy stuff:

Put a pea size drop in your fingers and run through your hair. Blow dry and your hair will not be static-y when you fix it and it will have extra volume!

The best TV series ever:

I actually didn't start watching this show until it was in it's last season on TV. Quite honestly, I was turned off by the name. Gilmore Girls? It just sounded so cheesy. It is FAR from cheesy. It is the absolute perfect mix of comedy and drama. It makes me laugh out loud and it makes me cry. Perfection!

Snacks:

Corn sticks and garlic hummus dip. It's not gross, I promise!

And this! Great taste in great portion sizes:

Notice the Weight Watchers logo in the corner of the box? Hmm....it matches this logo!

What's inside?

I joined Weight Watchers today. I am DETERMINED to get back to my post-high school weight. I have absolutely no excuse not to! I have many free resources available to me, my job being #1. I work at a place that has free health screenings, a free gym RIGHT IN THE BUILDING, discounted healthy foods in the cafeteria, and they send out daily 'healthy tips' emails, plus more. The weather is getting nicer. I'm going to put my zoo pass to good use and start walking at the zoo. I'm going to pack my lunch EVERY NIGHT no matter how tired I am. I am motivated!

So there you have it. I didn't complain about my allergies once! :)

Paris in the Springtime

By Amy

I think it's safe to say that Spring is finaly here. The trees all have buds, the daffidils are blooming and you can hear birds in the morning. It's about time. It was so depressing coming back from Paris and everything was still so dead looking here. The weather is pretty mild in Paris so their flower shops are busting at the seams all year round. Just take a look at some of these shops.....

All those beautiful colors. It was almost sensory overload. I just wanted to buy them by the buckets and spread them all over our apartment. The prices were even comparable to the states. I made a vow to have more fresh flowers in my house. So the other day I bought some sunflowers..........at Costco. They are very pretty. But there seems to be something a little off when you can buy flowers at the same place that you can buy a 24 pack of toilet paper. It's just not the same as a little flower shop in Paris. Not the same at all.

Our Grandma and other Adventures

By Amy

Our Grandma is back in Nebraska! She has been in California the past two and a half years. I was able to see her a couple of times but not nearly what this granddaughter needed. She is glad to be back. She loved being with my aunt and uncle in California, but her heart has always been here. She even wore her "Go Big Red" shirt on the plane back here. She once told my sister that she thought it was "repulsive" that they didn't show the Nebraska games on the local channels in California. I love her and maybe I'm selfish to say that I'm so glad that she is back. I love her near me! On another note, I stepped outside to see what the boys were up to and saw this.....

Please tell me that this isn't a homemade bike ramp.

Oh dear....

Hey Mom! How much air am I getting?

So far we haven't had any broken bones in this house yet. I hope we keep it that way.

Arc de Triomphe

By Ang
If you would have asked me before I went to Paris to predict what one of my favorite things would be there, I never in a million years would have thought the Arc de Triomphe would be on that list. But it was.

A little history:
The Arc de Triomphe was completed in 1836 and sits on the Western end of the Champs Elysees. The arc honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the inside and top of the arc are all the names of the generals and wars fought. Underneath is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

From the top there is a panoramic view of Paris, of twelve major avenues leading to the Etoile and of the exceptionally busy (to put it lightly) roundabout in which the Arc stands.

When we got off the metro, we took an escalator and when we emerged onto the street, there it was.


We had to cross the street to get to it, but thankfully there is an underground tunnel. We weren’t about to try to cross the scary roundabout.

Check out the amazing detail!

Here’s the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

There are 284 steps to the top in a spiral staircase.

Spiral staircases are everywhere in Paris. In fact, the only non-spiral staircases I seen were those in the metro stations. So we began to climb. Thankfully at the top before you go outside, there are places to sit and catch your breath. Because there is nowhere to stop on the way up. So if you have someone behind you, that’s too bad.

It was completely worth it though.

Here are some of the breathtaking views of the city:

Here’s the famous Champs Elysees
And this beautiful thing:

Here's the Sacre Coeur:

The traffic was highly entertaining. There are no lights, no lanes, no speed restrictions, anything goes.

It started off like this (not too bad):

And 2 seconds later it would turn into this:

Look at the little Smart Cars! Aren't they cute?

This is the business district of Paris, built to the west of the city. It’s called La Defense. See the Grand Arc? It lines up exactly with the Arc de Triomphe.


We watched the sunset and then headed back down the stairs.

I think it was a combination of things that made me love it so much – it was a beautiful night, we came at exactly the right time to watch the sunset, it was entertaining watching the crazy traffic, and you just can’t get better views than that. I will never forget it!

Break

By Amy

I thought I'd take a break from the regularly scheduled program of cleaning, laundry and scrapbooking and take a peak of what is going on outside. It's a pretty night tonight and the boys were in a competitive game of HORSE.

Well not really to competitive because one is twice the size of the other. But he is kind and let's the little one shoot from any point. He's a good big brother. Most of the time.

Where is the hubby? My oldest mumbled something about the shed with the Nova. Let's take a look.

Hello handsome. What's going on here?

It seems that he is figuring out how to put the roll cage that he tore out of the car, back into the car. My youngest, never far from our sight, demonstrates how it will look when finished.

I concluded that I need to get out of the house more often. I just never know what I will find.

Everything is Better After Paris

by Ang

*I'm less stressed at work (which is odd, since this entire week I was swamped and trying to catch up)

*The mantle over my fireplace looks better

My tea...

...tastes better:

*I'm much more relaxed!!

I will be posting more details and pictures about the Arc de Triomphe in a couple of days. When I catch myself thinking about our trip (which is ALL the time) and the sights we took in, I find that this is one of the things I think about the most. It deserves its own post!

Scrappin'

By Amy

I've started. I'm excited about it too. I couln't wait to start using all the beautiful papers, punches and stickers that I've collected for this. I kind of have high expectations. I want it to look messy but organized. Informative but natural. Capturing the moment without alot of words. Or pictures. Impossible I know.

My poor hubby just got rid of all of this mess and now it's back again in our bedroom.

I told him I would try to get it done as fast as I can but that means ignoring alot of things. Like laundry. And cleaning. And kids. And cooking. Just kidding about the kid part. Actually it was so nice today that we went on a bike ride.

The sun felt so good on my pasty white skin. Here's a sneak peak to the first page of my scrap book.

I've got 8 done so far. Only 65 to go! (: