Goodbye 2007

Tonight we celebrated Oliver's first birthday. As you can see, Waverly enjoyed the party hats and Oliver REALLY enjoyed his pig cupcake. He was timid at first, but then dug in and loved every bite. He screamed when we had to take it away from him. He also had a lot of fun opening up the gifts people sent (thanks for thinking of him). He thought his ride-on lion was very fun....as did Wavey. We hope you all have a wonderful new year's eve. Here's to 2008 and all of the adventures it holds. Cheers!

Happy 1st Birthday, Oliver!!!

We cannot believe that it has been an entire year since Oliver arrived. Life is not imaginable without him. We spent much of today reliving his entrance to the world and the hellish weeks to follow. We are SO incredibly thankful that our little boy fought through it and is the incredibly joyful old soul we are blessed with today. Here are a few photos. The first was taken after he was born. The following two were from tonight - his first sugar experience - ice cream! We are having a family party for him tomorrow night with cupcakes. More photos to come...

Merry Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids enjoyed opening their gifts and it is so much fun watching them delight in a new toy or book. Thanks to everyone who sent them something - that was very thoughtful. This Christmas was a bit sad for us. We missed being with our friends and family. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Lots of love.

Batboy & Big Sister

Oliver loves to be upside down. We have to be careful when holding him, because he will throw himself backwards. I snapped this photo today while Matt was holding Oliver. His hair is getting curly!!

I also took this photo of Wavey this afternoon. Matt and I both think it is lovely - she looks so grown up that it shocked us.

Winter Wonderland

We went to Hyde Park tonight for "Winter Wonderland". They had a little market set up, rides for the kids, sledding, ice skating, and food. It was cute. Waverly was in a bit of a funk tonight, so we didn't end up staying too long and I was unable to get any good shots of her. This is the best I could do. It was still nice to get out and enjoy the semi-mild weather we are having. It doesn't look like it will be a white Christmas for us. We hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday weekend. We miss you all. Happy birthday, Jack!!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Maybe not in this photo, but it is beginning to finally feel like Christmas. It has taken me awhile to get into the holiday mood this year. I think that getting into the Christmas spirit means realizing that I am homesick for Christmas in PA. We are having a fun, relaxing day. Waverly had her last day of therapy for a few weeks today. I am hoping to wrap gifts tonight and make sure I have everything. Tomorrow we may go out to pick up some last minute items and check out the windows on Oxford Street. It is cold here, but it is supposed to warm up next week....no white Christmas for us in London. We miss everyone so much. Especially at this time of year.

Daddy Daughter Afternoon

Matt took Waverly to the National History Museum on Saturday for a fun bonding afternoon. Waverly LOVED the cars and carriages so much. In fact, by the time Matt finishing snapping the photo, Wavey was trying to climb up into the car saying "Drive! Drive!". I spent the afternoon enjoying some quiet time and playing with Oliver. He is going to be 1 year old in just a few weeks - WOW!

Christmas at Winfield House

Yesterday we went to Winfield House for the Ambassador's Children's Christmas Party. We had so much fun and the house is AMAZING!! It is the largest private residence in London, aside from the royal palaces. They had face painting, balloon animals, Father Christmas and story tellers...plus some delicious treats. The ambassador and his wife also gave all of the kids an art set Christmas gift. We had a wonderful time.

Our New Chef

Oliver helped me make dinner last night. He enjoyed banging the wooden spoon and throwing a plastic bowl on the tile floor (what a loud noise that makes).

We have settled back into our routine in London after our vacation. Today I visited the new nursery school that Waverly will be attending in January. Here therapists are taking over a local Montessori school and adapting it with speech & OT therapists as part of the teaching team. We are VERY excited about this opportunity for Wavey. This will mean quite a change to our schedule - it should be interesting.

The "Vacation Is Over" Blues

We had such a wonderful vacation. We spent 8 days in southern Germany & Austria - Bavaria country. We stayed in a lovely town called Garmisch and rented a car for daily excursions around the region. I HIGHLY recommend a visit to Bavaria!! Here is a photo of the views around our hotel.

And another view. The mountains were snowy, but we had minimal snow on the ground for our visit.

Here are the kids our first morning at the hotel.

Here is Waverly on our balcony. She loved it out there. You can see a glimpse of the Alps behind her.

Neuschwanstein near Fussen - Ludwig II built this castle and Walt Disney was inspired by in to create Cinderella's castle at Disneyland. We took a horse drawn carriage up for our tour.

Oliver spent a lot of time in the backpack as we traipsed across the region. He loved it, but boy does he get heavy!! (I know, I carried him up 300 stairs and then back down again.....of course Matt carried a sleeping Waverly up and down those same stairs, so I guess I don't have a lot to complain about).

Here are Waverly and I enjoying a pretzel after our horse carriage ride.

Here is Matt walking around with Oliver.

This is the kids & I at a beautiful church in Nurnberg. We ate at a restaurant started in the 1300s - great food served on tin plates.

Waverly really fell in love with horses on this trip. They were everywhere and she would scream "Horsey - NEIGH!!!" every time she saw one. Very cute!

Here is Matt with the kids (Oliver is slumped over sleeping) in the quaint town of Garmisch.

Here is another view from our balcony - a snow storm was coming in.

Here is Waverly enjoying the balcony and her new scarf.

Here is Waverly and I in Bad Tolz - a beautiful town with a beautiful Christmas market.

Here is the Rathaus in Munich- every hour there is a miniature tournament below the clock. We spent most of our time walking the city and enjoying their huge Christmas markets and visited the toy museum.

Here we are in Salzburg Austria - our favorite stop along our travels. This is the birthplace of Mozart. It is such a fairytale city along the river, with an amazing old town. We took a horse carriage ride around the town, walked the old lanes, enjoyed a wonderful Christmas market where I bought some cool wooden toys for Oliver.

Here is Waverly and Matt in our carriage. You can see other horses passing and Waverly's eyes are looking at them rather than the camera.

Here are Matt and Oliver at the market in Salzburg.

While driving back to the hotel from Salzburg, we passed this sign for "Wendling". That is my family's name and we are from southern Germany. We stopped along the side of the road to snap this quick photo. I regret not finding that town...next time.

Here are Matt and Oliver riding one of the many carousels we took the kids on during our journeys. He LOVED it!

Here are the kids in front of one of the trees at our hotel. They were both SO good on our trip. We couldn't have asked for better behaved kids. They were real troopers. We had a fabulous vacation. This has been a tough year for our family, so we were excited to take a week to get away and enjoy ourselves. Not one time did we think about doctors or therapists or anything else to stress us out. It was perfect.