First time to the Beach

Today we took Kelsey to the beach for the first time. We just went down Westward or "Free Zuma" in Malibu. She was mesmerized by the waves and wind. Tal and I put her feet in the water and she seemed to like it. She got sand all over her feet and Tal found a shell that looked like a shark tooth next to her, so we're keeping that as a keepsake of her first time to the beach.

Kelsey's Blessing Day

On Sunday, December 30th 2007, we blessed Kelsey Marie Price in the Holladay 28th ward. The blessing was beautiful and I wasn't alone in getting choked up. She didn't cry or make a peep...until after it was over and we left the meeting. It was so fun to see so much of our family, friends and ward members! Thanks to Brent (my mother-in-law) we were able to have a few refreshments and visit a little longer with our friends and family. It was such a wonderful day and I hope when Kelsey looks back, she knows how many people love her and what a special little person she is.








Here are some family shots. I copied them from online so I'll repost when I get them in email form.








Kelsey with all of her cousins!!

Kelsey with her girl cousins

Traveling Fools

As many of you faithful viewers have noticed, I've been keeping a little too busy to post. I've really been enjoying this vacation. Sorry about the hiatus! I hate seeing the old same Christmas tree on my blog too. So, here's a quick post to show a few things we've been up to. I'll start from the beginning. On the way over from Zurich to NY and then NY to LA, Kelsey was a dream. She slept a lot and cried for a total of 2 minutes the whole time. Here are a couple of pics from our travels.


Kelsey and I in Zurich gearing up for our long journey ahead of us


Tal & Kelsey on flight from JFK to LAX



Kelsey turned 3 months on Sunday (technically 4pm on Saturday in the states) and celebrated with her great-great grandma who turned 90!!



My sister Jenna with Great Grandma

Pick a Present - This is fun!

I got this from Tally's cousin, Sandra's site. It's so fun. You can pick a gift out for me and you don't have to spend a penny. It's the thought that counts anyway, right? If you put it on your site, I'll give you a gift too.

Flumsiberg

On Saturday, Tally got to go Snowboarding with some friends. Here's some of the pics he took while up there.


Tally & Didier ready to board down

Samichlaus & Schmutzli & Winter Party

The 6th of December is a really special day in Switzerland, especially for the children. St.Nikolaus is coming.
Usually the children prepare themselves with little poems or songs they want to ‘present’ to the holy man, who in turn is pleased by all the efforts of the children and gives them his appreciation!! The well-behaved children get some goodies, such as gingerbreads, cookies, mandarins, nuts chocolate etc, often St.Nikolaus tells the kids a story.

Then the long awaited moment arrives, when St.Nikolaus starts to read out of his golden book and praises the child for his good deeds throughout the last year and offers ideas of ‘betterment’ for the not so good things the child did. (The parents or teachers of the kid usually give these information’s)

He then leaves a birch rod as a souvenir of his visit and a reminder to keep up the good work.

Though in some parts of Switzerland, it used to be customary, that the children who really didn’t behave only got a birch rod and no goodies, basically a bit of the carrot & stick principle to encourage them to better themselves and the promise of goodies the next year.

The historic background in the custom lies in the 4th century AD and was inspired by the Holy Nicolas, Bishop of Myra, who according to legends that surround him, did many a good to youngsters and children and so he became the patron Saint of Children, that he wears a bishops habit and a Mitre shows his holy status, as well as his long beard shall indicate his old age.

The legend of St.Nikolaus got intertwined over the centuries with Celtic customs of Saturnalia, leading to the well-known Samichlaus and Schmutzli.

Schmutzli a dark dressed and dark looking counterpart to Samichlaus is a devilish figure accompanies a holy man. Tradition says that he takes away the bad kids in a burlap sack. This part of the legend scared our friends' 4-year-old so bad because he said he had been bad this year!

Here are our friends Karl & Jacob dressed up as Schmutzli & Samichlaus.


I went to the store with Kelsey on the 6th & Samichlaus was there ringing a bell. My first thought was that he was collecting money but it turns out he was giving kids goodies. Too bad Kelsey was asleep or she may have scored some good stuff.


GS WINTER PARTY
Tonight we left Kelsey with a babysitter for the first time and went to our 20's themed work party. Tal & I didn't dress up but almost everyone else did!



Here are a few of my girlfriends I worked with.

Zermatt- The Matterhorn

Tally found out recently that he needed to take off a few more days of work before the end of the year so we decided to book a trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. With Tally's amazing "deal finder" abilities, we were able to stay in a 5-star hotel for less than 1/5 of the price. Here's a video of us arriving to the hotel.



We ended up taking a nap after we got there, trusting the concierge's weather forecast. Unfortunately, it ended up being the clearest day and snowed the rest of the time. Tally got this shot of me and Kelsey in front of the Matterhorn.



Here's Tally & Kels in downtown Zermatt. The town is all dressed up for the holidays.


Our family has a thing for hotel robes. Too bad they didn't have one for the babe.


These buildings have been here since the 1600's and were used to store animals during the winter. We happened upon this part of town and we're so glad we did! It was pretty cool to see.


A view of the Matterhorn with the snow blowing off of it.


Here's a picture of the Matterhorn from the hotel hot tub.

Christmas is in the air!

The Lindt/Sprungli Chocolate Factory is a few minutes down the street from us so we had to get a picture in front of their Christmas display. Unfortunately, it started raining right as we were about to leave but we went anyway. Kelsey was a trooper being out in the cold, wet weather but she didn't cry - and don't worry, we weren't out for long. This is her new Christmas dress and she seems to love playing with the bow and the lace. So many new things to discover! We also put the decorations up at our place however, there's so few there's not much to show. Enjoy the Christmas tunes - we had fun picking some of our favorite songs and left it on to enjoy the Christmas spirit.

Missing In Action - blame it on a vampire love story

I just finished reading the book "Twilight." Everyone who's read it seems to love it and I had to see what all the fuss was about. I read the 500 page novel in 2 days and I'm not a fast reader. Don't worry, Kelsey is still alive and the house isn't a complete disaster - but I'm not making any promises for this weekend. The two sequels are sitting on my night stand. I made myself put "New Moon" down to play with Kelsey and eat lunch but I'm dying to know what happens next. So, if I'm not posting as much and somewhat missing in action, blame it on Bella and her love affair with a vampire. I'll let you know when I've finished and come back to life. :)

Happy Thanksgiving...2 Days Late

As Thanksgiving is an American holiday, it is not celebrated here in Switzerland. However, that doesn't stop the American's here from going all out. And this year, around 60 people RSVP'd. I did a turkey, yams for 12, and 2 pumpkin pies. After about 10 hours of straight cooking, even our oven was tired. I cooked the yams last and somehow, they didn't turn out. I must have missed a step - but oh well - we had one of the turkeys and had to leave. I put Kelsey in her new Thanksgiving dress and adorable Janie & Jack shoes. Then as I went to put her in the car seat and I hear a big rumble down under if you know what I mean. I went to change her and it was record-breaking explosion of poo, all over her perfectly planned outfit. I changed her, salvaged the dress and off we went. Tal handed me the yams to hold in the car so they didn't spill. About 10 minutes from home, we went up a hill and I suddenly felt warm, sticky liquid creeping up my leg and around my butt. Fortunately or unfortunately, our friend Josh had forgotten to go to the store to bring his butter and jam so we stopped along the way and I managed to find paper towels in the men's bathroom (that's because not a lot of men here wash their hands - gross!). It was a hectic start to our Thanksgiving feast but I couldn't have done it without Tally. He even stayed up until 3am to take the last pie out of the oven. Lucky for him the BYU Basketball game was on. Anyway, we had a button-popping good meal and had a really good time hanging out with our friends here.

This is only part of the line of people. Our friend Jenny put this whole thing together and we had it at a school cafeteria.

Now you might say a good nap was in store after this crazy turkey feast but instead, we got all hyped up for the BYU GAME!! We left the school and went over to our friends house to watch. Tally brought our laptop with Slingbox and we hooked it up. About 20 people came over after the dinner and we fully invaded their house! It was fun to cheer on the Cougs with a crowd of fans. We only had one Ute at the party but deep down he bleeds blue so he was allowed to come. :) It was a painful game to watch until the last 5 minutes. I about to go into depression mode when Kelsey woke up. I went in one of the bedrooms to feed her and I came out to everyone cheering! I ran out to see BYU pull ahead and make the game-winning touchdown. It was a wonderful sight to behold. Once again, Kelsey cried when everyone cheered but she'll get used to it ;).


Tal and "Kelso," Tally's little boy.

Some of the guys anxiously waiting for the game to begin

Kelsey and Matthew. One day she'll be swooning over him...