Bright Greens: January 2014

Friday, January 31

Louis Boo-is

There was a point in time not too long ago I feared we would have no smiling pictures of Louis' childhood. It's not that he never smiled. He just wasn't in the habit of smiling for photos. His 9 month photo shoot (we take 9 month baby portraits at the Green house) produced vague traces of contentment but no silly, goofy grins for this kid. Nope. Until now. I think he's settled into his happiness at two years of age and not only is he smiling, but he is now posing. I love it. Oh, he makes us laugh!

Eating breakfast. Dangerous breakfast.

Ready for a puppet show!

Happy about his new hat from Nanny and Parrain!

In the midwife waiting room. Apparently very dangerous also. Pose.

Potty training. Cutest undies ever. Pose.

Being my smoothie fan.

Im sure he just finished saying, "KNIIIIIIGHT LOUIIIIIIIIIS" Second favorite only to "TOWBOOOOOY LOUIIIIIIIIIIS" (cowboy louis to those who don't speak 2 year old). Pose.

Oh how you are loved sweet Louis. Daddy is also calling you "Louis Do It" these days because you say "I do it" for um everything. But you are also quick to say "Thank you Mommy" "Thank you Daddy" and "Thank you Bateman" whenever you do decide to ask for help. Such sweet words for sweet Louis Boo-is who SMILES!!! :D

Thursday, January 23

Valkenburg, Netherlands

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to us a trip to a Christmas Market. :)

I had heard the term "Christmas market" many times in the past few months, so I really wanted to check one out. I hear that the idea started in Germany (maybe Cologne which I hear has the best), but each town that has one has it's own little spin, of course. We decided to check out a market in the southernmost tip of the Netherlands in a cute little mountain town, Valkenburg. It's a sleepy little town with a ton of charm. Add lots of Christmas lights and decorate caves and plazas with Christmas booths and such, and you get yourself quite a cute Christmas Market.

There are unique items that can be bought for gifts and one of the caves houses a beautiful sand sculptured depiction of the nativity story-- and not just one scene... the whole story. It was outstanding. Quite a fun trip. We even celebrated our 6 year anniversary while we were there!

Story reading on the train to Valkenburg.

The Valkenburg train station. So cute.

Saturday morning we took a walk all around the quiet town and found this awesome park.

The Nativity Story in Sand...

I loved this scene. Mary is packing her things for the journey with her big belly.

Look at the detail! This scene shows all the people in line to be counted for the census.

Mary and Joseph with the inn keeper.

People in the town of Bethlehem.

I don't know this guy, but the detail...

Angel and Shepherd

There's the Man! Er, the baby...

We rode the chair lift up to the mountain cafe for lunch.

Every city we've been to so far has a carousel. Boys can't get enough.

Since we went after Christmas Day, there were no more parades. We were all dressed and ready for the parade when we found this out so we made our own parade down the street.

We found a fun, muddy park. We may or may not have enjoyed it.

Up on the housetop...

Christmas Celebrating

Our first Christmas in Amsterdam was sweet. We missed family and friends immensely- like a whole lot- but we definitely made the most of our time here and we did lots of Christmas celebrating.

Bateman and Louis were in their first Nativity Play (or Activity Play as B calls it). As you can see, Bateman chose to be a shepherd and Louis was an angel. I was excited to create their costumes, even though they're pretty basic. It's neat to see how they each noticed their characters more in other nativity scenes throughout the Christmas season since they had played the parts. I was so proud of both of them acting out their characters. All the children did such a nice job! Cute cute.