They speak French in Budapest?

I hope that everyone I know that reads this gets the answer right, or at least knows that France is a country. This just makes Americans look RIDICULOUS.

Post Christmas Happenings

Tally had to leave on December 28th to go back to Switzerland. It was really hard to see him go for a lot of reasons. I knew it was too short of a trip for him, it went by so quickly. He also helps me so much with Kels, especially when I'm sick and prego and I wasn't sure how Kelsey would do without him. He came back to a very gloomy Switzerland, but luckily got to go Snowboarding with some friends. Meanwhile, back in Cali, Kelsey and I enjoyed our last bit of sunshine.

FIVE Generations

We drove down to see Great Grandma & Grandpa Miller to say hello and snap some pictures.

My dad, my great-grandma Miller, me, Kelsey, my Grandma Lang

Kelsey petting her great, great grandma's ceramic dog

Hi Doggie!

Hanging out with Great, Great Grandma & Grandpa Miller. If you're wondering why Kelsey's arm is in a sling, keep reading. Kelsey's arm was hurt so we used one of Grandpa's old shirts to make it because she would whimper every time her arm was left unsupported.

Kelsey's 1st ER Visit
It was my fault. We were walking down the stairs at my parents' house, on our way to see my Great Grandma & Grandpa Miller. Kelsey was walking down with her right arm holding the railing and her left arm in my hand. She jumped from one step to the next, but kept holding on. Then she suddenly let go, swinging her forward. So in order to keep her from flying down the stairs, I pulled up on her left arm, and she twisted around. This caused her elbow to come out of the socket, giving her "nurse-maid elbow." She cried for a bit, but since we weren't sure if it was just sore, sprained, etc. we continued to Grandma & Grandpa's. Once there, we realized it was probably worthy of an ER visit. My mom, an ER nurse, volunteered to pop it back in but since we didn't know if it had broken or not, we thought it best to have a doctor take a look. Sure enough, my mom was right, and the doctor was able to just pop it right back in. Within minutes, she was using her arm and happy as can be! It was such a relief. When I called Tally to tell him what had happened, I was bawling. I know it wasn't big, but I felt completely responsible for causing her pain. Anyway, for 15 minutes in the ER (my mom works there so they got us right in), we got a $500 hospital bill and a $500 doctor bill. How are people who don't have insurance or even GOOD insurance supposed to afford that!? I hope our Swiss insurance covers it! Time will tell...

Learning to play the piano with Great Grandpa

My grandpa taught/teaches himself to play the piano. Now he's passing on his knowledge to the great-grandkids!

Kelsey, James, & Great-grandpa Lang

Hitting the high notes!

Rough-Housing with James

Amber and I got to go see Twilight together while my parents and Ryan watched the kids. I was so glad she wanted to go because I would not have seen it otherwise. We were late, had to pay at the machine, and they ran out of adult tickets so I went in as a senior - $1 off! I would have paid full price, but there was no time for debating... we had a good time together!

Kelsey loved running around, chasing James. They are only two weeks apart so it was fun to see them play so well together.

Kelsey would lay down and let James attack her

Until he got too rough!

Caught red-handed - what were you guys doing?

James playing with her face, and Kelsey letting him!

Night, Night!

Good Night, Gorilla

This is her favorite bedtime book

There's a Wocket in my Pocket

This is the extended version, we just have the board book. I can remember my dad especially reading this to Julia at least 3x a night for a year. I'm surprised the book is in such good shape!

Santa Barbara Zoo

Watching the otters with Aunt Juju

Said otters, cuddling up for a nap

Watching the lemurs play

We had to peel Julia away, she's a lemur at heart

Flamingos doin their thing, Kelsey putting her hands on the gross bird poop

Watching the elephants with Grandma

I think these were her favorite. This is one of the rare pictures of her looking at the camera while in the vicinity of the elephants' home.

Penguins - Kelsey wanted to jump in

Kelsey and Julia playing at the zoo park

Julia teases her and she pretends not to like it, but always goes back for more

The Cactus Garden

Time to leave Kelsey with the wild animals where she belongs

It was sunny, okay? Good 'ol SoCal. Kelsey enjoyed the giraffes too.

Back to Switzerland

The flight back was better than anticipated. We had two legs of the trip and both times, they said the plane was full which meant Kelsey would have to sit on my lap. I was stressing out because not only was I still nauseous, but I was by a window (and knew I would need to get up several times). But then, miraculously, the plane would not fill up and I was given a whole row. Kelsey was a good traveler and took a few naps with me, although not for as long as I would have liked. We didn't sleep much on the NYC-Zurich flight so once we got to Zurich, we were both exhausted! Kelsey was started to get drowsy as we were about to land and I mentioned that we would see daddy soon. After that, she fought the tiredness and didn't crash until minutes after seeing daddy at the airport. They lost one of our bags, luckily Kelsey's, but returned it to us in a few days. Kels and I fell asleep from 9am-4pm that first day so it took us about a week to get back on schedule. We were having parties from 1am-4am for a few days in a row. We got to see a lot of movies though! The gloomy weather didn't help. But we did have somethings waiting at home to cheer us up!

We are loved, even in Switzerland!
Kelsey's Christmas present
All of her old toys were suddenly so cool again too

Ich Bin Schwanger

Hello from the baby! Just look at the hand - the rest of it looks SO weird from this angle. TRUST ME, it looks like a  baby, not an alien. The baby had the hiccups and was VERY active which made it hard to get a picture of the face. 

Ich Bin Schwanger = I am pregnant! Yes, again. Kelsey and this baby will be 22 months apart. I am due July 12th (two days after my b-day) which puts me at 14 weeks. I just went to the doctor this morning and all is good so far. The baby is 15cm long and weighs 100 grams. For those of you who saw me in the states, this comes as no surprise as I am not good at keeping secrets - or hiding being sick. I have been nauseous from about 6 weeks on but I think I was more sick with Kelsey. It's hard to compare - I was working and in the process of moving countries with Kelsey. I'm hoping to be over the nausea soon. It seemed to last until about 14 weeks with Kels, but I wasn't fully over it until 20 weeks. Since July is only 6 months away, we'll most likely have the baby here in Switzerland. I had a good experience with Kelsey and I feel more comfortable having it here than in the states! I hope to know the sex by the next appointment (week 18) but it may not happen until my appointment at week 22. They do an ultrasound at every appointment here, which makes it fun. Plus, my doctor has a pretty high-tech ultrasound machine. 

On another note, we are so excited to be having another baby. It may be soon, but it will be nice for them to be close together. Kelsey LOVES babies so it will be funny to see how she reacts to our new baby. It seems like the time has gone by fast, I guess Kelsey keeps me distracted. It never ceases to amaze me when I see my baby on the ultrasound, moving, beating, with all its little body parts so perfect and so tiny. As I watched today, I couldn't help but think about God, and how all things - especially this - prove his existence. I wanted to ask my doctor if he believed in God since he sees these miracles every day but I didn't. Many Europeans don't believe in God and I didn't want to offend him. We also had the talk about not doing the down syndrome test because I would carry the baby to full-term even if it had downs. My stance on that stems from my belief in God, which goes back to the ultrasound experience. So, there you have it, the BIGGEST reason why I haven't posted lately is because I haven't felt motivated or well enough to do much of anything. Hooray for motherhood! 

Catching Up to do...

I know, I've been a terrible blogger over this holiday season. I'll catch-up, and explain, I promise. But it might take me several weeks to go back in time. We had a great visit to Utah & California and now we're back in FREEZING Switzerland. It's 6:45am and I've been unable to sleep since 1:00am (from 1-6 it was due to Kelsey, now it's my body clock out of whack). It's only been 2 days though so I hope to be back on track in another...2? Does that sound reasonable? Any tips? I'll fill you in later, I'm going to try to catch some zzz's.

Christmas Festivities in Cali

Kelsey's Visit with Santa

Jenna and Kelsey waiting in line to see Santa

The carolers singing to the people in line

First, she's not so sure. Plus, it was 3pm and still no nap

Who is this guy?

AH! I don't like this one bit!

Now when she sees these pictures, she says "HO-HO-HO"

I wish she had liked him when I was taking her picture!

Christmas Eve at Cheesecake Factory

We've never eaten out for Christmas Eve but since there were so few of us this year, we decided to try something new. It was a lot of fun and best of all, NO CLEAN-UP!

She kept us and all the customers around her entertained

My grandma & grandpa Lang

Grandma Nanoo & Julia

Licking the pie off the plate

Family fun

Christmas Eve Family Pictures

One of the lovely outakes

The picture my parents sent out

Christmas Morning

We have a tradition of reading Luke 2 before opening presents. At 8am, Kelsey was still asleep but Grandma & Grandpa were there and I was anxious (I still get that way, couldn't sleep the night before). We read without her and then woke her up.

There's the beauty sleeper

Woah, fire

The first present she saw from Santa was a BIG hit. She ran right over to her triplet babies and as almost crying wanting them out of the box. She wasn't happy until they were all 3 in her arms. And that's where they stayed almost the entire morning. I ended up having to hide one or two just so she would have a free arm now and then.

So happy!

And yet, so sleepy!

PJs from Grammie Nanoo - SO cute!

Boring clothes - I, on the other hand, was really excited about this!

Grammie & Julia looking through the "Reflections of Christ" book Tal & I got for Grammie & Gma & Gpa Lang. It's portraits of Christ's life done by Mark Mabrey. I got one for me too.

Who's the center of attention?

Santa's little helper

I led Tal on a scavenger hunt to find his present (yes, the bandana was part of the hunt)

On a side note, the picture in this picture is called "Villa del Como" and it was painted by my Grandma Nanoo. Isn't she SO talented!? I wish I had a house for her to paint me a picture!

The end of the hunt - it's an iTOUCH! It's his favorite toy now.

Nursery rhymes with Grammie

She loved this Silent Night book from Gma Lang. It lights up and sings.

Watching Sponge Bob with Grammie & Grampie

Our Christmas Angel

For Christmas Eve pajamas, Tal and I got "Life is Good" shirts for everyone.

We wanted to show that LIFE IS GOOD!

Playing with Dad

She had more fun with the box than with some of her presents!

Kisses or surprised?

Stealing Kisses

While Kelsey modeled her new outfit from my mom, my mom & Julia bribed her with a few treats so I could get some kissy pictures.

Christmas Dinner at Grandma Lang's

Amber with James & Kelsey (3 weeks apart)

Watson boys serenading us to tears (happy tears)

The fam presenting Grandma & Grandpa with the box of all our notes to them.

They were so happy and had read all the notes (around 40 each) by the next day.

I was going to slip one in for Grandpa (I had left that ONE at home) and Grandma asked me where mine was for Grandpa the next day. BUSTED!

Caitlin, Robert & Kelsey tickling the ivories

Me and my cousin, Shannon

She's been my best friend since SHE was born (she's younger) and it was fun to hang out for a bit. She even drove up another day from San Diego and since I was sick, we just sat on the couch and talked. I love how no matter how much time passes and how much changes, when we get together it's like nothing has changed.

Kelsey LOVED that Madison was pushing her around the house!

Madison, James & Kelsey

Hollywood with the Miller Crew

We didn't get to see the Miller crew in Utah, but we were able to meet up with them the day after Christmas in Hollywood. They went to all the amusement parks over Christmas before they headed to Utah so we were glad we were close! We didn't get to hang out long, but it was great to see Chi, Pais, and the kids. The grow so fast.

I was too short to get the Hollywood sign in the background

The Miller Band - they make up quite a good Rock Band!

HOLLYWOOD SIGN

Hollywood Stars - we managed to find one of her favorites, Walt Disney

The oldest cousin, Madison with the 2nd to youngest, Kelsey

Friends

Girls lunch to celebrate baby Lilah

My high-school friends "The 4 Amigas" with Chelsea's new baby, Lilah

I was so excited to be in town when she blessed the baby.

It's always a good feeling to be around old friends.

Emily, Kelsey & Baby Lilah

We visited our family friend, Timmy, who is currently undergoing treatments for Leukemia. You can read more about his story here. Extra prayers on his behalf would be much appreciated! He's been doing a bit better the past few days, which is really exciting.

My friend Tammy also came over and we got to catch up for a few hours on Sunday. I'm an airhead and forgot to get a picture, but it meant a lot to me that she came up to visit me. Whenever we get together, you can guarantee some laughs.

Grandma Nanoo Time

Kisses for Grammie

She absolutely LOVED my parents' new tub. She would try to push the button for the bubbles and got about as excited as I've ever seen her when they turned on. Here it looks like she's not the only one being entertained.

Grammie feeding Kelsey...mmm

It did my heart well to see Grammie and to have her meet Kelsey. It's never enough time, but we were glad to have the time we did have. Grammie took care of me and cleaned up after my meals and took care of Kelsey when I wasn't feeling good. I hope we get to make it to Arkansas soon to visit her and the rest of our family.