NOW Its Official

Hello.

Ok, so now it really is official. I've gotten emails stating so. :-)

Our project has moved out to Feb 1 and then I'll be here for 2 months of stabilization. We will be moving home April 1.


Things here are exciting as always. Ivy is talking more and more and loves to sit and 'read' her books or watch her movies (Tee Wee).
Henry is a crawling machine and loves to chew on his books and watch Ivy. Their interaction is super cute.

Ivy created her first piece of art with her nanny Rosina the other day. I came home from work and there on the table was a piece of paper with a sheep drawn on it. In the sheep were little cotton balls glued to the paper. It is SO CUTE! I can't wait to take it to work and hang it on my wall. I LOVE IT. I was so excited to see it. :-)

We have decided that it would be good for the babies to get some social time during the week so we are enrolling them in 'school'. It's really a daycare run by a british woman (Alison) in her home. She has a 4 year old name Daniel and there is another little girl who's 2.5. Her name is Lydia. We met them all today. The babies will go to school on Fridays from 8 - 5 or 6. They start the first week of November. I am really excited for them...

Ben has found a Crossfit gym just outside of Amsterdam. He does two nights a week to workout with the gang and have some fun.


We have also met a great couple on our street, Kate and Chris. They are originally from Scotland, but have lived in Portland, Buffalo, London and now Hilversum. Chris is a professional freelance photographer so they've traveled for his work.

Their daughter and son-in-law live in Corvallis, their son and daughter-in-law live in Columbus, OH and their other dauther and son-in-law live in Amsterdam. Kate and Chris are extremely friendly, love the babies and are a lot of fun to hang out with. We went to dinner with them last night and left the babies with the babysitter. It was a ton of fun.


This weekend (Saturday) Ben and I are going to Rotterdam with Jami and Igor. There is a craft fair that Jami and I want to check out. Our knitting clubs will be there and we can just hang out and knit for a while and then pick up some cool stuff. Igor and Ben are going to explore Rotterdam. Then we'll all meet up for a beer and some bitterballen before heading back.

Ivy and Henry will be hanging out with Susan, their babysitter.


Next week we are having visitors. Rod and Joanne arrive on Friday. We are SO excited to spend time with them. Then Andrea arrives on the 24th. It's going to be such fun to hang out for a few days...They won't believe how big the babies are. :-)

Oct 30th we'll be moving in to a bigger and GORGEOUS new house. It's about 4 blocks from where we live now, but such a better place for us. And, the roof doesn't leak and it doesn't smell of mold and must. BONUS! It's been completely renovated and the attic has been transformed into a beautiful master suite. I will take pictures and post them as soon as we get the keys. :-)


I hope things are going well for everyone in the states.

We are really looking forward to our visit home in Dec/Jan.

Til then, we'll keep posting the blog and pics!

Love

The Swinehart Clan

Pictures from Lindsey

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See you in...Dec?

Hello~

Many of you have heard or seen on facebook that our stay has been extended.

We will have final plans later this week, but I wanted to update you on what it is potentially going to look like over the next 6 months.

The project that I am working on over here has been delayed. As of right now, we are shooting for a Feb. 1 2011 go live. This means that we will be home Dec 18 through Jan 7 for the holidays. Then back to Holland where we will live until the successful end of my project. :-) As of now, it looks like I will be here for a month or two after go live to help with stabilization.

This decision was not made lightly. Ben and I discussed it over tears and fears. Ben has spoken to the team and let them know that he won't be back until March. Thankfully, they are extremely supportive and are not looking at this extension as necessarily the end of Ben at T-hills. But for now, he will continue to be the rock of the house in Hilversum.

Our lease is up Nov 15 so we are going to start looking for a new place to live. Maybe something a little more baby/family friendly.

Ivy and Henry continue to grow and enjoy life. Recently Ben took them shopping for winter coats, as all we have here are jackets and hoodies. They go to the park or on a stroll around town daily and are always finding new adventures around the corner. The other day they walked around Hilversum and took pictures of the gorgeous churches.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Feel free to email, call or skype if you want to chat!

Love

Lindz, Ben, Ivy & Henry

Pictures from Lindsey

Click here to view these pictures larger

Still Loving It....

Hello.

It's been a week since my last post and that week was CRAZY!

I worked 60 hours this past week, which in Holland is NOT typical. It was rough. I didn't see the babies for 2 full days, so now I know how you all back home must be feeling. :-)

Besides having a crazy week we are doing well.

Henry is fighting his first cold, but I think teething might be involved. He is winning the battle quickly though so that's nice. He is also sitting up fulltime now and LOVES to sit in a highchair when we go out to eat. I am hoping to get him one for the house this week.

Ivy is clearly nearing her 2 yr mark. She had a full on temper tantrum the other day for no real reason at all. I think she is getting one of her 'fang' teeth and it is painful. Hopefully that has something to do with it. She is also talking more and more and is so animated. We are really enjoying her grow up...although it is happening rather fast. :-)

Today is Sunday and we are spending another restful day at home letting everyone recover from the week. While Ben took the laudry to the Izi Wash and Henry took his nap, Ivy and I got online and looked at pictures. She recognized her grammy and grandma jo immediately and blew them both kisses. Then we pulled up pictures of her aunties and uncles and when I asked her point out certain people she did. Then she reached out as if wanting to hold them. When I told her they weren't here she blew them kisses as well. It was very sweet and nice to know she still knows who all of you are.

While I was working, Ben and the babies found the local petting zoo and spent an afternoon exploring all of the animals. They also found and enjoyed the local Shwarma restaurant. YUM! Rain or shine they get out and about each day with or without a destination in mind. Sometimes it's just a great way for the babies to get some fresh air.

Ben and I were able to arrange for the babysitter to come over a few times over the past week and had some fun adventures.

Wed night Ben had his board game night and I went to knitting. It was nice to relax at the cafe with my knitting friends.

We met up with my work friends Eddie and Brannon (here from the US) on Thursday night and had some Tapas. The restaurant wasn't far from our house and the food was DELICIOUS.

Friday night we met up with the same friends and my friend Julian (another developer from work here from the US). We went into Amsterdam for some drinks and dinner. It was nice to have some fun adult time on the town.

Saturday afternoon we went to Jami and Igor's for their Wine and Cheese party. We had originally planned to stay a while and go out in Utrecht, but the craziness of the week and weekend coupled with Henry having a cold helped us decide to come home early and spend a quiet evening together. It was glorious.

I'm gearing up for another crazy week at work, but hoping it won't be super long days, just funfilled. :-)

I have knitting on Monday this week and Ben's game night is Wed so we will take turns staying home with the babes and save some euros on babysitting.

Enjoy the pics. I'm working on another video. I'll try to keep the size down so it will fit on the blog.

Until next time...

Lindz

Videos

I have finally put together videos of Henry and Ivy.

We are having a great and relaxing family weekend at home. It's very nice.

There will be pics tomorrow...Henry is now sitting up by himself and sat in a highchair at dinner. It was very cool!

Enjoy the videos!

Lindz

Brussels

Hello again.

We have been quite busy traveling around Belgium in our spare time.

Last weekend we went to Brussels. This was sort of a spur of the moment trip spawned by the fact that Ben wanted to take his Level 1 Crossfit Certification class at the US Air Force Base in Belgium. I figured, why not spend the weekend in Brussels with the babes while he does that...So that's what we did.

We were joined by a colleague of mine, Micheal, who is working in our Europe office with me and the team last week and this week. He was planning to go to Brussels so we offered him a ride. It was nice, because I had someone to have meals with and I wasn't completely alone in case I needed help.

We got a steal of a deal on our rooms. Upon checkin I realized we'd been upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite. It was heavenly...especially with the babies. Ivy got the living room and Henry and I shared the large bedroom.

It was an adventurous weekend, but I didn't stress and I had a great time with Ivy and Henry.
Brussels is to Chocolate what Antwerp is to Diamonds. Every other store is a chocolate shop...and boy to they do chocolate right! Our hotel even had a chocolate shop in the first floor...Chocopolis. I bought 10 truffels and I think Ben and Ivy ate 9 of them.

Saturday, after Ben left for Chievris, the babies and I explored the streets around our hotel. We walked through the outdoor market in the square just across from our hotel. We spent some time looking in the shops. We wandered into the Grand Palace square and we eventually found Mannequin Pis.

Mannequin Pis is dutch for 'little man urinating' and that's exactly what it is. For as much attention as it draws in Belgium, it's a very tiny statue of a man urinating. Everywhere you turn in Brussels you see drawings and picture of 'mannequin pis'. I never understood it until I actually went. He has entire chocolate stores dedicated to his figurine. People flock to this tiny statue weekly just to see what outfit he has on. It is quite a scene.

When we found him, we also found a giant crowd of Japanese tourists taking his picture. As I waited for my turn I parked the stroller to the side. When I returned to Ivy and Henry (just a few feet away) I found that Ivy had become center stage. There were no less than 6 japanese women smiling at Ivy and taking her picture. It was quite hilarious. I had to take a picture just to prove it happened. :-)

Unbeknownst to us, last weekend was also a big celebration weekend in Brussels. I am still not sure what they were celebrating, but everytime I turned around there was a parade passing by. Saturday night the festivities heated up with some MAJOR fireworks. I had finally falled asleep around 11 and not 30 minutes later I awoke to blasting sounds. I truly thought we were being bombed. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window. Not a block from my hotel was a GIANORMOUS fireworks display. It was pretty, but so loud. Thankfully Ivy didn't stir, but Henry did. He went back to sleep with a bottle and all was right with the night again.

Sunday we awoke to rain showers and dreariness. We had to find a way to entertain ourselves until 4pm when we could load up the car and go get Ben. This was not helped by the fact that checkout was a noon and they wouldn't budge because the entire town was booked full Sunday night for some sort of convention. So, we had breakfast, packed up, then chilled/played in the room until 11:59. Henry even got in a short nap, which was helpful.

By the time we checked out the sun was shining and the rain was gone. We walked the streets and indoor malls, enjoyed a light lunch at a sidewalk cafe and played in the square for a bit.

At 4pm we loaded into the car and headed to Chievres Air Force Base, 30 km south of Brussels. I thought we'd get there in plenty of time. I didn't take into account the fact tha Brussels is nearly impossible to navigate without a Tom Tom. It literally took 1 hour for me to just get out of the city. Thankfully, on my third attempt at stopping for directions, a gentleman who didn't speak english and only spoke french successfully used hand signs and Franglish to show me the way. It was a miracle, but we made it.

We arrived at Chievris at 5:30 and met up with Ben who seems to have had a wonderful time. His blog is below.

Not sure what this weekend holds, but I'm sure there will be more stories to tell.

Much love.

Lindz