Temple & Talent Abend

On Saturday morning, we got to go to the temple in Bern for the first time since I was 8 months pregnant. We brought my friend Dianne to the temple with us (it's an hour and a half drive each way) and then she walked around with Kelsey while we were there. I'm happy to report that she did very well with Dianne and I'm so glad she's warming up to other people.

Oh yeah, and it snowed here this week and has been freezing since. Welcome to winter.

That night, we had a branch talent night. I signed Tally up when I found out there were no Americans participating. I also put myself in a dance number, to be fair. So, his was titled, "Surprise." This is what all my pictures should have looked like had I known how to use my flash properly (it's new, we're still getting to know eachother)

He asked the biggest guy in our branch to rip the phone book in half.

(This is how NOT to take a picture)

Of course, he didn't really want him to rip it (it was our only one). Not that he stood a chance.

Ta-Da! My super strong hubby pulls it off, even after several years without practicing

Isn't he a good sport?

Here we are dancing. I'm in the back left, exactly where I wanted to be for this one.

The food afterwards was great too. I love getting new ideas, and the Swiss know how to make their food look so cool. I brought a bruscetta (not pictured) that I got from allrecipies.com

Skyping with Julia

I figured I hadn't gotten a picture of Kelsey and Julia together in awhile, so why not now? I thought it was so cute that she kept looking over at Julia like, "hey, what are you doing there next to me?"


Tonight, we had a good talk with Julia via Skype. It was fun to get to see and talk to Peach in real time. She's been on a bike tour across the U.S. since August 2, 2008. Today marked their 3 months anniversary. They are in the Ozarks in Arkansas right now and are aiming for South Carolina. I'm nervous for them to cross the Appalachians, but they may end up having to hitch a ride over depending on weather/snow. If you want to see their progress, check out their website here or under my family websites.

Josh Jensen and Halloween

We met Josh Jensen (one of Tally's childhood friends) and his friends in Luzern while they were on their European dream vacation. They started in France and ended in Italy, which created the perfect opportunity to see them. After several plans, we decided the best and easiest for all would be to meet up in Luzern. It is one of our favorite Swiss cities (can you tell?). We were just glad to be able to see Josh, even if it was only for a couple of hours. Well, at least Tally and I were glad to see Josh!
Daddy had to calm her down. We think it was the beanie, but maybe it was just Josh ;)

All better!

Walking across the famous Chapel Bridge in Luzern.

Good 'ol friends, no matter where we are

It was a bit foggy, but still beautiful. There were a lot of local markets set up on either side of the bridge which added that extra taste of Swiss culture.

The Lion Monument

Next to the Lion monument there was a group of men dressed up like butchers, pigs, military, chefs, chickens...I don't know exactly what they were doing except drinking. Their costumes said protesters but their demeanor said PARTY! We got this shot with them. The pig next to Kelsey was making OINK noises. When she looked over and saw him right next to her she started crying (go figure). I would be scared too if I were her!

After seeing Josh, we rushed over to our Halloween party. Kelsey was a Bee Fairy complete with a "Honey Pot" for her candy.

The other bee's mom (Roberta) and I ran a booth with Halloween Thumbprint Creations. Basically the kids stamp their thumb on a stamp pad, then on a piece of paper, and then make a Halloween creature out of it. Jessi Berg is the one who thought of it and we did it together last year. Anyway, it was a popular booth and it was all Roberta and I could do to keep the booth running while watching these little ones! Luckily, they stayed close by most of the time and played with each other. Here are our friends Kevin, Lydia, and Ashton Coombs at the beginning of the event.

The girls, standing around chatting like girls do.

I picked up my friend Karen along the way so she and David could get in on the fun. It was great to have them there.

I thought this picture was funny. Don't try to make her take a picture or else!

Here are Roberta's kids (Anna & Mariah) with Kelsey at the end of the trick-or-treating line. After the first door, the kids from the front came back through and in their hurry to get more candy, started pushing the little kids over. It became a mad house and very stressful to keep track of all three of them. Luckily it didn't last long and we made it through with all three in one piece.

Her first piece of candy given at Halloween.

She didn't stop reaching in for the candy (as you will see in the next several pictures - I couldn't get her to stop to even take a pic!). She even got a few bites with the wrappers while mom was busy. What can you do?

Little miss priss with her honey purse. She's such a little girl!

Bees of all ages

Jennifer (blue fairy), Emily (butterfly), Kelsey (bee), and me (me)

Here are the girls last year at the Halloween party

And here they are this year. They grow so fast and they definitely didn't get a wink of sleep this time around.

As for Halloween night, we didn't get a single trick-or-treater. However, we do live on a busy road and we live in a country that doesn't celebrate it, so I figured we wouldn't. Instead, we had two of Tally's work friends, Mathias and Andrea, over for fajitas.
Aren't these darling? Mathias brought them (and a box of truffles, I told him he was welcome for dinner anytime) from Luzern as a way to say thank you for dinner. I love that about Europe. They have such wonderful table manners. My mom was right, I should have gone to Cotillion.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bye Bye Bergs

Some of you know Jacob and Jessi Berg recently moved from Thalwil to Geneva area. They were our closest neighbors (after the Framptons left) and we gradually became good friends. Jacob & Tally not only worked together, but sat right next to each other. Jessi & I did visiting teaching together, watched each other's kids, took dinners to people (mostly Jessi), went to activities together, etc. Jessi was always serving. She brought meals to me when I was pregnant and after I had Kels, brought me American food products, let me borrow tons of baby stuff, and the list goes on. We used to visit them on Sunday afternoons when we would take a walk in the park behind their house. Needless to say, we miss them.

Kelsey and Abram at the Langnau Wildpark. Kelsey loves following Abram and Abram loves telling her what to do.

Looking at the Wildcats...okay, this was prompted. But cute nonetheless.

Koo-koos! Peek-A-Boo!

The one and only time we ran into Jessi & Abram at Coop

Jacob, Jessi, Abram, Chloe, Jacob's parents & Jacob's sister stayed with us over conference weekend. Our upstairs neighbors were out of town and were SO nice to let us use their place. It was fun to have them (especially for Kelsey), they were great guests. Whatever it takes to keep the Bergs around longer!

Abram being such a good boy, watching conference

Jacob's parents with Kelsey

She really liked Jacob's dad!

A sign of things to come?

Going in for the hug

They're going to miss each other!

Jessi & the kids stayed with us last Sunday after they blessed Chloe in their Geneva ward. It was a quick trip but at least we got to see them again. We will be coming to Geneva to visit for sure.

Grateful

I can't help but feel grateful tonight. Kelsey is still here, all in one piece, sleeping away. Today she fell down a flight of concrete/tile stairs and I found her screaming on the landing. I didn't see what happened. A mother's mantra: I let her out of my sight and I didn't even know it. When I heard her scream, I new exactly what had happened. I've been fearing those stairs ever since she started walking. I was slightly relieved to see her standing and screaming and not lying there broken, dazed or twitching. Every cell of my body still lurched and I almost broke down in tears myself. So today I have learned a valuable lesson without having to pay a high price. For this I am grateful. And for a loving Heavenly Father who looks after our little ones, no matter which side of the veil they are on.


These are not the stairs she fell on, just some she attempted a few weeks ago.
Maybe I'm overreacting, maybe not, but this is my first toddler -okay!

New Look

I've been meaning to do this to my blog for a LONG time. There are still a few kinks to work out (why is that white banner there, apparently it didn't save as "transparent."), but I'm mostly happy with it. Thanks to my cousin Tiffany for letting me use her template codes to go off of. I always dread the thought of redoing my blog but once I get into it, I love learning the codes and playing with it and reading on the internet about how to do things. I think I'm a computer geek at heart. So, enjoy. Although no one will enjoy it as much as I do I'm sure. I'm so sick of that pink one I had with that GOLD ribbon! If anyone wants to give me tips or ideas, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me (I need all the help I can get around here!). 

Music and Dancing

Kelsey has always loved music and now she'll "dance" too. Here's a little taste of how much she loves music. When a song comes on on TV or the radio, she'll start moving her head side to side. Just the other day she started moving her head back and forth like a punk rocker. Neither of us are very musically talented, but maybe she has a chance!



For all my family in Arkansas - Go Razorbacks!

Still here...

Hey, I've been working a ton the past week or so and we had the Bergs in town last weekend. I have a blog facelift in the works and I've only just begun blogging about our Prague trip (I know, I haven't even gotten to Prague).

Tal has been at work a lot and Kels and I have been laying low. She's understanding more by the minute and now will go get my shoes and her shoes when we've spent too much time in the house. The weather had been great until today, it rained all day. So, I hope to catch up this weekend. It's 2:30 AM and Tally will be waking up soon to watch the BYU game. Imagine that. GO COUGS!

Engelberg

Before Lee & Brent left to go back home to the States, we had to take them to the ALPS! So we went to one of our favorite places - Engelberg. On the way there, we saw the cows coming home "parade" down the mountains. I'm glad they got to see it and it was fun to take some shots too. It was a little windy so they made us ride in one of the bigger cars instead of the covered chair lifts, which was good since we had a baby stroller and Lee. Once we got to the top, I think Brent was ready to come right back down. It was over 10,000 feet at the top and she was a little weary of walking towards the edge of the railing. She didn't even want me to walk that close with Kelsey. But, we stretched her a little, got some pictures, and enjoyed the views. The clouds rolled in and out so luckily we got to see the sweet view - but not so lucky for all the pictures. We went into the glacier caves, which were slippery, multi-colored, and dark. It proved a tough challenge for Lee but he made it through okay. Kelsey was not pleased that I sat her down on cold ice in a dark cave (at the time the music was wolves howling). Poor baby. We had fun and even took a picture of her in her Heidi dress.

We are SO happy that you got to come visit us Brent and Lee and we miss you. We can't wait to see you in December!! Thanks for everything!