I saw the Sun

Horses pulling a buggy in Einseideln

Okay so I didn’t get to Einseideln Monday as planned since no one could watch Ian but…… we did get to go yesterday. Let me say, I was so happy to see the beautiful sunshine again. Zurich has been covered in the normal winter fog so every day seems so blah and cold outside; Einseideln was just high enough above the fog.

Using my Macro as a medium Telephoto Lens, Top of Einseideln

My Mom really enjoyed the church and an Apple Cinnamon Crepe at the local café. I was ecstatic to see bouillon soup with crepe strips on the menu (my latest craving). The soup is just perfect with the Swiss bread. My Husband always giggles when he sees me ripping and dipping. I think that is why I had to pull out my Bella Band today..maybe I've been eating a bit too much. *gasp*

Oh my..yes it is New Years Eve, soo HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE. Tonight we are going to have a meal at the In-Laws than go out to Zurich to watch the fireworks. I am hoping to get some good pictures, but we’ll see.. I might just be soo frozen. It is that time to pull out the long underwear. Well, time for me to get back to the 9 loads of laundry (grr, why did our laundry day have to be today) waiting for me.

Goodbye 2008!

Candle at a local Einseideln Shop

Can we do it? Yes we can!

The past couple days we have been chilling about. Yesterday we were going to head out to Einsiedlen, but my In-Laws pipe in the basement started to leak so we headed out to Zurich to have a nice Swiss Lunch (beef broth soup and Macaroni and Cheese with potatoes for me). I was amazed at how well Ian did with sitting in the restaurant, but he did stay busy cheesing up the ladies at the next table.

Eating Grandmas Cookie

We then went to visit the Swiss National Museum. There was sooo much to see, I don’t think we even got to look at half of it. The babies decided to give me some pain, my guess is from walking, so we headed out. I did get to try the Ergo carrier there, since they do not allow strollers… and I am so pleased! Ian rode on my back for a little and he felt so light. If it weren’t for my full bladder I would have kept him on the whole time. I will for sure look into getting that for the Twins. They have a carrier called Beco out there that they say is better than the Ergo. Now only if they weren’t so darn expensive.

Today we are going to try to get to see Einsiedlen again, since I think my mom will really enjoy it. Fingers crossed for no more leaky pipes.. Or we'll be sad...

Welcome Back: Part Two

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We have been enjoying having my Mom visit.

This was her first Swissmas ( Swiss Christmas ). Here they like to celebrate on Christmas Eve so we made a cheese fondue dinner for everyone.

On Christmas we had the usual U.S. morning festivities of gathering under the tree to see what Santa brought. Ian really enjoyed the ripping of the paper more this year. It was hard work to keep him from ripping our gifts open..haha. Santy brought him a Kitchen and Lego Train set. From his grandparents a boy doll, build your own puppet, sweater, wood train toy, and stuffed lamb. He also got a nice cough…so we are working on getting that gone.

Stanta also treated me well; blessed me with a Macro 100mm f 2.8 Canon lens. I had to pop that sucker right on the camera to finish our Christmas pictures and let me tell you what..the macro is just AMAZING! My parents also got us a mini USB video camera, HD quality. I will have to get our video up soon. Thank you all for everything you have done for our family and lets not forget the reason for the Season :).

My mom wth the Flip camera.

I will finish you out with pictures of the past few days.

The rest of the pictures are located on flickr.

Welcome to all of my new readers!

Twins 11weeks 4days Video

Twins 11weeks 4days Video
Originally uploaded by mrs.steiger

The Twins Ultrasound at 11 Weeks and 4days

Welcome Back: Part One

How long have I been MIA now? We’ll please forgive me…I have had plenty of complaints since I have been gone, missing all the updates of our lives. So here I am. Lets make this a two part-er update. So PART ONE:

The Family is mostly all well. My Hubby has been feeling bad (not the best around Christmas, but whatcha going to do?). Ian is growing fast in his language skills. It sounds like he comes out with a new word everyday. He really understands a lot. How do they go from needing you for everything to being independent so fast. I miss my little baby!

School has finished for this semester and I passed with flying colors. It is nice to be in the break period where I can enjoy my family more and not have the stress of due dates on my back.

Okay so quick skip to my big news…

I’m expecting two little ones.

I found out in November and will be due in June but I doubt I will last that long! So these might be May babies. As of tomorrow I will be 14 weeks and it has passed by so fast. I am just glad to be out the morning sickness window. Why do twins seem to make everything worse? Oh well, they are a blessing and I am looking forward to the big changes it will bring to our family. It is exciting but scary. So much to think about! Do I need two of this? What kind of double stroller to get? Birthing two..ohh my!! Anyways, here are pictures and video!

8 weeks

11 weeks

-Video in Post Above

Stay Tuned for Part Two!

Family is Doing Well

I hope you all have been having a good week. Everything has been good here, well pretty much. The Husband came down with a cold but finally symptoms are alleviating. Ian is being as rambunctious as ever. This child seems to have the energy of 15 adults. I am chasing from one end of the room to the other. At least he is into working with me now. When he sees me doing some housework he tries his best to help. He actually can vacuum pretty decent. As far as doing the dishes, not too shabby, but if I don’t pick up what he is handing me fast he will try to find a place for it to go. Haha. It is nice to have a little helper. I look forward to the day when his help will actually get a lot done :)

Ian's stack of pillows on Daddy, notice the stolen Daddy sock

So Christmas shopping time is in full bloom and I have no idea what to get everyone. It is really hard when you ask them and all you get is, “I don’t need anything” then they ask you what you want. Grrr! I am looking forward to shopping for Ian. We are thinking of getting him two bigger things this year..a lego set to add to his collection and a play kitchen or play car garage. What are you all getting your kiddos this year or hey even your in-laws or parents?

Life with Snow at the end of October

Can you believe it? That’s right, you are seeing the first snow in October. I was very surprised when I woke up this morning.Too bad I didn’t grab the snow suit for Ian when I saw it. Who would have thought it would have snowed this early.

My 21 birthday turned out pretty good this year. I got some great things! First off, a crockpot. My Husband had to special order it since you cannot order them here. I made my first chili in it last night and it turned out to be a hit. Many more yummy easy meals to come with this thing! My Husband also got me a camera tripod. I finally don’t have to set up a pile of books to take a self portrait! Thanks so much!

My family back home also treated me well with some money towards my macro lens. I am working towards enough money to purchase one…those things aren’t cheap! Oh Oh and I got some beautiful roses with two heart balloons. Everyone treated me really well on my big 21. Oh wait, I also got money from my Mother and Father In-law toward my lens and my Brother-in-law gave me a pass to a indoor/outdoor waterpark. Wahoo! Thanks everyone for treating me so well.

Now that the birthday times are over, I have been busy completing classes for school, which have been keeping me super busy. My Java programming is going alright. We are required to write about 10 programs a week, take a quiz, and do a discussion or exam. I am doing all this along with my history class. So I have been keeping on my toes!

Ian is doing well. He is talking more and more every week. He now has learned to say thank you. My boy is so polite..well most of the time. He has started to pinch again. He knows it is wrong because he says oww when he does it and then shakes his finger like “no-no”. I guess this will pass..just hopefully soon.

Have a great Thursday and Happy Halloween tomorrow.

Ian's Moved Out

What a week! Not in a bad way though. I finally finished my first class of this semester and came out with a high B in accounting! Considering I am no math whiz...that is something! My new class on Java starts Monday and let me tell you..I will have no life when that class starts. Programming can take up all your time especially when you find yourself stumped.

Also Monday is my big 21! The twenties are flying by fast. We don’t really have anything planned since it is on a Monday and I am a mom with a kiddo, so you can only do but so much. Just having my family is nice. :-)

Wondering about Ian? He is busy having fun with his new playhouse thanks to his Grandma and Grandpa S. They gave it to him as an early Christmas gift. We really wanted to get him one when we saw how much he enjoyed the one at the park (that is too far away). Here are pictures of Daddy and Uncle setting it up and Ian enjoying it:

Yesterday it was really rainy and all Ian could do was pull me to the door to take him out. He had so many fits over me saying no. Poor thing but thankfully the sun came out today!

Happy Friday!!!

When I'm Sick

Flower from the Hubby when I was sick..also gave me P.S I Love You movie and a CD (so sweet!!)

I’m sure you have been wondering where I’ve been. Let see, I came down with Tonsillitis around last Tuesday and been busy with school and family. Finally now I am starting to feel better and get back to my normal me. Let me tell you what, I don’t think I have felt that miserable in years.. fever, chills, super sore ears and throat, oh and the worlds largest fever blister (which I still have..grr). I’m just happy to know what I have so I can take the proper medication and take care of my family like I should.

Flower from Ian when I was sick

The rest of my week is pretty busy. My first class of the semester ends this week so I have a final exam to take..scary then a bunch of ther quizzes to complete. Hey, what is a week without test a quizzes!

For those that are wondering, I will tell you all about my T.V stand situation when my new one gets delivered :-)

We’ll be back to normal soon!

My Expat Gal Pals

28/365: The Lake of Zurich

The weekend is here, well almost! This means another week gone by. Ian had a blast this past Wednesday visiting his little friends and so did Mommy. The children’s fair that I suggested we all go to turned out to be a downer.

Sobia, Jenny, and the child she is a Nanny for

Daugther of Sobia

There were only 3 stands and another which had an author of a children’s book. She read to the children while you were able to go look at stuff. My son was too young for that so he decided to pull books off the tables instead and try to escape out the door. Okay, so it wasn’t all that bad. I did get two books and a music CD for Ian and some English greeting cards (so hard to find around here) for me. We ended up having bunches of time left over, which allowed us to have a nice walk along the lake. We all still had a blast but now one of my gals is going home to visit family for two months. We expats have got to do what we have to do, but I will still miss the company.

Tomorrow my Mother-in-law is going to take Ian so we can get some things done... like search for a new T.V. stand! Wahoo finally, we really need something that Ian can’t get into as much and a place for me to put books and my collectables. Going to have to be a big ole’ thing!!

Happy Friday!!

Writers Block..Agh!

Did everyone have a good weekend? We sure did. Like I said on the last post, we went out to the park as a family and it was really enjoyable and not too cold! I took way too many pictures..so here they are:

25/365

Other than my usual week, I haven’t been up to much. A lot of due dates in school this week. An accounting project (finished!), history paper, and quizzes galore. That’s pretty much it for me as I am having writers block and I know you aren’t in for reading a bunch of blah blah. So, I will spare you. Happy Tuesday!