Moon Sand

Jimmy got Moon Sand from my family for Christmas and we have LOVED playing with it. It's fun to squish and has such a neat texture. Here he is digging for dino bones...

So if you're ever missing the beach and the feeling of having sand down your underwear...give this stuff a shot. ;) It's like bringing the beach inside! Really though, he loves it and each time we get it out it occupies him for at least an hour (the first time it was 3 hours). The End ;)

Difference #1

I thought it would be fun to occasionally post about the differences I notice from my life in Utah to my life in Holland. So here we go...

#1. The Mail
In order to send mail I have to visit a local drop box in my neighborhood or a post office (postkantoor). It takes about 3 minutes to walk to the neighborhood drop box and about 6 minutes to walk to the postkantoor...not bad.

Incoming mail is nice because it is dropped right inside my house. Jimmy still thinks this is so cool and every time he hears the mail he gets excited..."De mail here!" and he runs to get it. Now I no longer have to worry about my mailbox getting so full that the mail lady complains!

One obstacle I didn't think about before coming here is that all of our utilities, bills, etc are obviously in Dutch. It's made paying bills more interesting!

FYI: To send mail from the US to the Netherlands it costs $0.94 for a typical letter/card. You can use just regular stamps so long as they add up to $0.94.

He Walks

This video was taken a few days after Glade started walking. You can see a clip of him walking in between the horsey rides. This movie is already out-dated...he practically runs now!

High Time

Okay, so it's time already for a New Post. I've been thinking about it daily and just haven't made the time (and now this post has been sitting in my drafts for 5 days). There are grandparents dying to see pictures and videos of the munchkins, right? I promised I would post them...oh about 14 days ago...two weeks behind isn't too bad.

It's been another busy week. The Jimmers has become a pro at the potty. We "got serious" about it on Monday and he went ALL day (13 hrs) with absolutely NO accidents!

Three 300 cheers for Jimmy!

He's been doing excellent ever since and I cannot believe how good it feels to have only one child in diapers. Now I have to worry about finding bathrooms when we are in public. OH MY! That is SO difficult here. And when you do find one you often have to pay to use it. I better go scout out all the public bathrooms beforehand and make sure I have lots of change on hand.

Well, other than going without heat in our home for a day and a half, our week hasn't been too out of the ordinary. We've experienced first hand that the customer service here is horrible compared to the US. You have to pay at least .10/min to talk to (& to wait on hold for) any customer service rep or even just to call any store in general and then most reps will say just about anything to get you off the phone. Boy is it frustrating. We had to wait a whole day before anyone could come out to fix our heat and then water was running down our wall ten min after the repairman left. We called back and again were told it would be another day before anyone could return...even though the problem was never fixed correctly in the first place. UGH. Anyway, it's over now and I am very grateful to have heat. Speaking of heat, I was talking to a Dutch friend the other day. I thought you might enjoy this...

Him: "Do you keep your heat on all night?"

Me: "Oh yes. Of course."

Him: "Americans. So wasteful." (Have I told you how blunt people here are? VERY. I'm used to it now...for the most part.)

Me: (chuckle) "Wait. You don't?"

Him: "No. And we open our windows at night."

Me: "Really? Why?"

Him: "Fresh air."

Hmm, I'm willing to sacrifice the fresh air for the comfort of being warm. Okay, well here are a few Christmas goodies for you.

Waiting to come downstairs...poor things had to get dressed before coming down since we had a church breakfast that morning.

The following video shows how pretty much the whole present unwrapping went...Jimmy opened all his gifts and his brother's. Glade didn't care to open anything but rather liked to eat everyone's candy while watching Jimmy open gifts.

What kid likes to get crackers in his stocking? Jimmy!

Jimmy's big gift = tool work bench (to replace his beloved one that I sold before coming here) Glade's big gift = lego table

Both boys also got a puzzle, movie, Dutch pic book, Nerf gun & of course candy (of which Jimmy ate ALL of his on Christmas day. There was no way I was going to stop him. I believe that's part of the fun of Christmas candy...it's all yours and you decide when to eat it. I'm sure I deserve a parenting award for this!). We had a wonderful break from the norm. Here's proof it was time to get back to the norm... Hehe, actually none of us were ready to get back to the norm. We all enjoyed the break so much and wished it could've lasted longer. We were planning on going to Paris but that never happened...hopefully it will soon. It was too cold and we chickened out when thinking about wandering around in the cold with two little boys. We did however finally get chairs for our dining room table and I consider that to be a huge accomplishment. I still can't believe we went without them for 2 months.

Sorry grandparents...more videos later. It took me days to get the one video on here. I'm not sure why. We took mainly videos on Christmas and didn't take many still pictures.

Everything In Order

Well, it's 11:53 PM here so I have officially 7 minutes left before Christmas. To keep my mind from wandering too much to the sadness of missing my family I decided to write a quick post and give you a glimpse into my last 7 minutes of Christmas Eve. Enjoy...

I've been admiring my cute little tree and the presents underneath. Just looking at the presents remind me of how every year my dad would tell us kids that Christmas was going to be small that year and to not be disappointed. Every year we woke up to a room packed with presents and were never in the least bit disappointed!
The stockings are placed and stuffed to the brim. I think mine may be the fullest. What can I say, it pays to be Santa's helper! :)
Little boys are tucked in snug in their beds with dreams of sugarplums dancing in their heads.
What the? I snuck into Jimmy's room to take a picture of him snoozing. The little stink is too excited to sleep. Can't say I blame him. Isn't that part of the fun of being a kid on Christmas Eve? I remember sharing a room with my sisters and giggling and having THE hardest time going to sleep because we were just too anxious...and then waking up at 3:00 am to see what the jolly man brought. Oh to be a kid!
My kitchen is a mess from the 73 pancakes I made for tomorrow's church breakfast. It will stay a mess until tomorrow. I chose to blog to you instead...good choice, eh?
And here I am in my pjs, wishing you a Merry Christmas.
And blowing kisses just for you...
Okay, let me go to bed already.
And now it is officially Christmas here in Holland. I love you all. I miss you like crazy.

2 Videos For You

Is this too cute, or what? Don't you wish you were his puppy dog?

I love this song...the holidays are sort of bitter-sweet for me this year.

Blogger for Hire

I am looking to hire a blogger. Someone willing to come live with me and document my life - complete with pictures, witty comments, wonderful memories, and funny videos. Your compensation = you get to live with me and my cute boys and follow us around everywhere we go. I know, it's too good to be true. Any takers? I just have no time for blogging!

Here's what I do have time for:

1. Teaching early morning Seminary. It's held at my house 4 days a week. I am loving it. The youth are wonderful. Just like Bishop said they are. It takes me about 4 hours to prepare each lesson...I know, I'm slow! I'm learning so much and growing closer to my Savior. It's been such a huge blessing in my life already. That being said, I have to be honest and say that Thursday morning feels AMAZING when I've finished giving my last lesson of the week! I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Too bad that will be countered with the effects of staying up late blogging.

2. Getting my little boys excited for Christmas. So fun! Jimmy doesn't know who Santa Claus is but he does know Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). The children here receive the majority of their gifts on December 5th or Sinterklaas day. Sinterklaas and his helpers (the Zwarte Pieten) arrive by steamboat from Spain in November. Some time between when Sinterklaas arrives and December 5th the kids put their shoes out before they go to bed. Sint and Piet leave them little candies. Dec 25th and 26th are mainly days to visit family and friends. You can read more about Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet here...like why are the little helpers called black pete? And what happens to the naughty children...it doesn't seem like a punishment to me!

3. Stopping to smell the 18 long stemmed roses on my dining room table. My husband is the best. He's so good to me. I'm a lucky girl.

4. Learning to ride a bike - again. Apparently I still need practice with this one. I swear it's the bike but Bishop said he could ride my bike blindfolded so it must be the rider! I bought a secondhand old fashioned Dutch Batavus bike. It is green. I love it. Except for the fact that it feels shaky to me. I know I already said this but, I swear it's the bike! It already has one child seat on the back so I just need to add one more. Jimmy and I took it for a test ride tonight and he loved it! I've only riden it in the dark so far...too afraid my wobbly self will be seen. :) Here's a sneak peek: 5. Trying to get a cute picture with both my boys in it. Seems impossible. Still trying. These are cute...but not Christmas card cute. As you can see, their plans were different than mine.
6. Watching my baby grow. He's walking you know?! Yep. And clapping. And biting (just me). And blowing kisses. And hiting. And growing more hair. And waking up 4 times every night. And dancing. Oh little boy, slow down. PS - These onesies are from Onesie Twosie. Aren't they adorable? You should check out how many designs she has. I love this one.

Okay bloggers, who wants the job? I could've been in bed two hours ago if you were already here. Please come soon. Bonus: I'll even let you cuddle up to "the biter" every morning at 3 am! Now you're sold, eh?! And there's a Lovelace forehead for you! :)