The Fray---BIG NEWS!!!

This is BIG TIME!! ABC has picked up The Fray's new song "You Found Me" for the trailer to the show "Lost"! The trailer premiered last night! I couldn't wait to watch it this a.m. It gave me chills to watch.....SO cool! I'm really happy for them as I think "Lost" will do for "You Found Me" what "Grey's Anatomy" did for "How to Save a Life"...They didn't write this song for the show---they wrote it several years earlier and it just worked out perfectly! I just know their new album is going to be amazing! It is due for release in February. So anyway, I'm SO proud of you Mike! GREAT JOB....AGAIN!!!!! XO

See the trailer to the video and list to the song HERE...Or go to thefray.net. ENJOY!!!!!

Krista's Regional Competition!

Look at this girl!! Can you imagine doing this? I sure can't! Well I have exciting news that Krista had her Regional Competition on Sunday and qualified to move on to the Zone competition in December!!! She was 7th out of 18 girls!! And OLDER girls who are clearly superior in ability. One year of training at this age makes such a huge difference. I was SOOO pleased with Krista's performances. She had 2 different routines to perform and she only made one visible mistake (to me at least!) in the two. She did her hoop routine of course, but this time added a freestyle routine also. She LOVES freestyle and she looked radiant doing it! I could not have expected a better performance from Krista...that is why I am so proud of her. She stood out there on the carpet and worked her heart out--competing in a league far from her own! It was clear she wouldn't place in this compeition, but I was REALLY hoping she would be in the top half of the group..and above all that she would advance . The next competition will be on December 13th and 14th in a town about 1.5 hours from here. Grandma will be here then too so Krista will FINALLY be able to show Grandma what this is all about!!!



The winning girls' routines were absolutely INCREDIBLE. The first 4 places go to girls training at the Gymnastics "Pole" school in our city, while places 5 and 6 were to "Pole" girls in Pfstatt (about 1.5 hours away). The Zone competition is going to be an even more challenging with additional girls from other regions. If she qualifies in that competiton she will be going to the Federal National competition in January!



Way to go little Krissie! Here are a few more spectacular photos..taken by the professional photographers on the mat. I'm SO proud of you Krista!!!

Pregnancy Portraits

I'll be posting a series of portraits on my pregnancy blog. Stay tuned :)

Kaitlyn is 2 1/2 years old today!!

Wow, a second post today!!!! I've been meaning to do more blogging, but my other pregnancy nesting projects have been taking up all of my free time--so excuse the lack of updates. Of course today I just had to post a little report on Kaitlyn's 2 1/2 year birthday!!!!

I can't belive she is half-way to THREE years old now! She has really grown up a lot in recent months and become both the CUTEST girl in the world, and the most difficult two year old you could imagine!!! Lately she has been a real mix of both...and I'm HOPING and praying that she learns a little bit of flexibility in the coming months and leaves the "terrible 2's" behind! Right now she wants EVERYTHING her way and only HER way! She is as sweet as can be when things are going well for her, but if she runs into a bump in the road...WATCH OUT! What doesn't help any is that both Krista and Erik give her EVERYTHING and ANYTHING she wants. They are her servants (along with Toomas and myself)...Not a bad life with 4 servants at your beck and call! I'm really wondering how things will go once the baby arrives. She is certainly going to learn quickly that the world doesn't revolve around her. I'm hoping it is a smooth transition but I'm mentally prepared for the worst!!

Now onto the OTHER side of Kaitlyn....SHE IS THE CUTEST GIRL in the whole world! She has SUCH a vibrant and fun personality. When is she happy she is HAPPY and her laughter and giggles are so contageous. She jumps for joy and smiles for all the world to see. She knows how to make ANYONE smile...and is a real character. She is definately a funny one and could possibly be labed the comedian of the family at the ripe old age of 2! She is a TON of fun. She makes faces just to make you smile, asks you what is wrong if you seem unhappy and is willing to give a hug to make anyone feel better! She is very caring and loving! Her 2 favorite animals "The two Snowys" are her best friends in the world. She is very attached to her stuffed animal snow tigers! She takes them everywhere and can't sleep without them.

Her nickname at the moment is "Benny"---yes Benny! When she was about 14 months old she adorded the Disney Princesses and whenever she would see them---a poster at someones house, a video case, an advertisement-- she would yell BENNY!! We don't know why she called them Benny but that was her word for Princess. It took it a while for us to figure out what BENNY meant. We would hear her say it quite often and FINALLY on her 2nd birthday when she got a Disney Princess pjyama gown from Grandma we made the connection!!! Benny meant princess!!! So, ever since she has been our Benny!!! She is DEFINATELY a true Benny!! She loves anything that is pink, sparkles or shines. She loves long dresses, wearing her hair up in a ponytail or barettes, wearing necklaces, having her nails painted..you name it. Right now she is very much into shoes. Krista had a pair of glittery ruby-red maryjanes when she was the same age and Kaitlyn LOVES those shoes. She wants to wear either those, her shiny black "lady shoes" as she calls them or her mini ballet slippers (which she calls her "tippy toe shoes"). It is too funny! She is SUCH a TRUE girl! She imitates Krista so much also...she loves ballet and gymnastics and can almost manage to do the splits! She has been doing sommeraults for a while now too! So amazing to see! She is a ton of fun!!! Full of life and spirit!!!!

Kaitlyn is a GREAT sleeper. She takes over an hour nap during the day and consistently sleeps over 12 hours at night (usually 8:30-9:00 a.m.) It is awesome for me! I am hoping that this continues through to when the baby is born. Right now she is still in her crib and I'm not planning on changing that because she loves it so much! She has a big girl bed set up in her room already so whenever she gives us the green light we will move her there. For now she is sleeping wonderfully so we're not rocking the boat!!

Last 2 topics of the day---eating and pottying... Both could be going better. She is SUCH a picky eater. If she could she would live on camembert cheese and cucumbers!!! Some of her other favorites are applesauce, yogurt, broccoli, bananas and french bread. She doesn't like meat at all but LOVES salmon. She is a tough one to please and most nights she doesn't eat much............but I figure if she is really hungry she will learn to try new things! She also cheese pizza, plain rice, clementines, berries of ANY type and pickles. She is cereal girl in the morning and can easily eat a bowl without making a mess. It is nice that she has mastered that skill! On the potty training issue she CAN use the potty but it is ME who is being lazy! I find diapers so much more convenient when we are out shopping or for an outing. I really need to be a bit more consistent so that she will learn completely. For now though she will go pee on the potty when she needs to and can dress and undress by herself. She is VERY opinionated on this and wants NO help whatsoever!

Below are some more pictures and a little video clip of Kaitlyn coloring today (she LOVES to draw and color). HAPPY 2.5 year Birthday my sweet Benny!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween Preparations!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM KRISTA, ERIK AND KAITLYN!!!

The kids are getting excited for Trick-or-Treating tomorrow night! Krista has invited her best friend Carla for the festivities tomorrow...and Erik will of course tag along with the girls. Kaitlyn has NO intention of being a part of Halloween this year. Here in France Halloween is actually just about Gools and Goblins--only scary costumes are allowed! The costumes are pretty scary indeed---you will see a combination of witches, ghosts, skeletons and the nicest of the bunch---pumpkins! Erik has bought a skeleton costume this year while Krista and Kaitlyn will be pumpkins. We went costume shopping last week and after we got the costumes home, Kaitlyn ran into the closet and hid. She didn't want any part of her costume. There was one older costume of Krista's from a previous year (a witch dress) that she liked alot---just because it was long dress so she might just wear that, but I highly suspect it will be too scary for her and she'll stay at home with Toomas and eat from the candy bowl!

Yesterday we carved pumpkins and today we did a pumpkin painting project. We had a lot of fun carving the pumpkins yesterday. The kids each designed their own pumpkin faces (except Kaitlyn who helped take the seeds out of the pumpkins). I LOVE freshly baked pumpkin seeds so I was in heaven yesterday!! I found out that it is one of the healthiest foods you can eat in pregnancy. Of course they are packed with zinc and iron but they also contain a fatty acid that is essential to fetal brain and eye development! Hooray...no-guilt-snacking for me! :) We baked up 3 cookie trays of toasted, salted seeds and had fun snacking on those. Today we took out the acrylic paints and did a pumpkin project that Krista had read about in her American Girl magazine. It is super cute!!

Here are a few photos:



The finished product! Krista's Halloween BLACK CAT!! :)

Krista Qualified for the Federal level in GRS!

Krista QUALIFIED yesterday for entrance into the French FEDERAL level of Rhythmic Gymnastics!!! It was a LONG day. We left the house at 7:45 a.m. and didn't return here until 2 in the afternoon! I am so proud of Krista! She has worked so very hard this year...with practices 4 days a week for over 2 hours a day (over 8 hours a week). What is so amazing to me is that she was selected by her club to go one year early to this competition (it is a 10 year old age-group and she is only 9). There were four girls selected from Krista's club to participate. Three of the girls were 9 years old and one was 10 years old. Of the 4 only two qualified for the Federal Level and Krista had the most points of all four girls! Overall for the day she placed 5th-- with places 1-4 going to ten-year-old girls from other clubs who are training at a very special school (CREPS) for 16 hours a week. The great news is that since Krista passed into this category as a 9-year-old, not only will she be able to participate in the Federal Competions this year... she will be able to STAY in this same level next year when she will actually be 10!! I'm really proud of her. This is the clip of her routine and a few amazing photos taken by the photographer on the mat. I LOVE the one of her in mid-air! Look how high she is off the mat!!!!!! My photos ALWAYS end up blurry as I am too far in the bleachers for a clear shot. If only I had a $3,000 camera like they do... I'm going to to a slideshow soon of the photos that I took before, during and after the competition. Enjoy the show!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Want to see the professionals???

This is one of Krista's favorite Rhythmic Gymnastics montages!! It is very inspiring indeed! Enjoy!

Krista's Rhythmic Gymnastics Routine!

Wooo Hooo for Krista! She had her dress rehearsal last night for her rhythmic gymnastics routine and I thought she did GREAT! I'll be so happy for her if she can do this well at her competition on Sunday. This was the first time she got to wear her new leotard. It looked amazing! It was made in Georgia and is really high-end! She has a trainer from Georgia who had them imported from there. She looked like a real professional!!!! I'm so happy with her coach. She has helped her progress SO quickly!

Here she is:

New Couches

We got NEW couches. FINALLY! We've really been needing to do this for a long time, but every time we went shopping for new furniture we left thinking WHY BOTHER? The kids are so rough on the furniture that it isn't worth risking them damaging anything new. Well, FINALLY we decided on a compromise: LEATHER.... DARK leather. It's the only solution for our household at the moment. Many houses in the US have the luxury of having both a family and a living room, but we have just the ONE great room with couches that get a LOT of use. We had to find something that would suit the everyday roughness of our 3 (soon to be 4) kids! I LOVE the new couches. PLUS the main couch will serve as the guest bedroom. Now that the baby will be filling the 5th bedroom upstairs, we don't have room for vistors! Our solution is the hide-a-bed in the main couch. It is SOOOOOOOOOOO comfortable! I have never seen a pull out bed so sturdy and comfortable as this one. Grandma will surely love it on her trip here for Christmas! It sure feels great to have a change in there. The only downside at the moment is the strong smell from the leather. Here are a few shots of the kids on the new couches.

Erik lost another tooth!

No major news here...just checking in with a tooth update. Erik lost his 5th tooth!!! I CAN NOT belive this is happening so quickly. He is at least a YEAR ahead of where Krista was at his age. Believe it or not...Krista who is NINE years old has only lost 8 teeth...while Erik has already lost 5! He looks ADORABLE with his ONE tooth at the bottom in the middle. It is too funny! This gap-toothedness won't last too long because his upper incisor and bottom incisor are already on their way out...but for now it makes for a funny photo! Also a picture of Kaitlyn just for fun. She's really such a big girl these days....talking up a storm!! She LOVES coloring and doing puzzles. She can draw circles and lines and knows the names of most colors (although confuses them most of the time). She can sing her A,B,C's although reapeats a lot of letters and mostly just knows the tune of the A,B,C song..it is very cute. Can't belive she is creeping up on 2 1/2 at the end of this month! So that is the brief update of the day....

Krista's Pre-Competition GRS

Krista had a pre-competition at her Gym last week to practice her routine for the upcoming individual competition. This year she will be competing in a very high level and is currently working on a routine that is two levels above her age. It is amazing to see the things she has learned in the last month!!! She only started on this routine at the beginning of September and will be competiting on the 19th of October. She still needs to master a few elements but she did a great job! It will be a tough year, but hopefully this will help her in the long run. Here she is with her routine.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My 4 Blessings...

Just did a signature for one of my "Mommy" boards....

Doctors Appt. and recent pics

Today I had my ultrasound appointment and everything looked great for me and the little guy! The report is over on my pregnancy blog.

Here are a few photos from this past week of the kids...The last photo is of Erik with his first ever 'Ratus' book. It is the series that they are using for their textbook at school and they also have short story books for sale. This year there is a system of tickets that the teacher uses for the children in the class. When they do excellent work they receive a ticket. Once they have 10 tickets they "win" a small picture card to collect. After TEN picture cards they get a book from the teacher. Erik is leading the class in picture cards!! He already has 2 cards (20 tickets) plus 2 extra tickets. I'm so proud of him! He is doing SOOOOOO well in school and is off to an excellent start. I never thought he could rival Krista's success in school but it looks like Krista has some competition on her hands. He told me the teacher commented that he is "just like his sister" on several occasions! The last picture is of Erik looking very proud with his 1st Ratus book that I bought him for winning his first picture card.

Kaitlyn the performer!!

Kaitlyn is JUST like Krista at this age..SO full of character and expression. Kaitlyn just loves to be the center of attention and is always full of ideas on how to get that attention. She loves to dance and sing and be on stage. Her latest performance is "Me and My Teddy"... She tries to sing and dance along....and she even takes a bow at the end. SO cute! Enjoy the show :)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Kaitlyn's Update

I just thought I'd share a few recent photos of Kaitlyn...She's growing into a little young lady these days! It is amazing to see her transform from a "baby girl" to a "little girl" now. She is a little CHARACTER, that's for sure! She can be such a little fun goofball. We all get laughing when she does silly things and she LOVES to perform and make us laugh with her funny costumes, dances or songs. Right now she is into wearing funny hats, glasses and LONG dresses. She has had her own word for Disney Princesses for about 1 year now and they are called "Bennies"...WHO KNOWS how she got that word, but she is such a goof that even now that she can SAY princess...she still says "Benny" for princess and when she dresses up with jewels or a gown she calls herself a "Benny". So lately her nickname has been "Benny!" It is so great to see her little personality blossom and all of us are having so much fun with her lately.

We've made some recent progress on the potty training end of things. She really can do it, but it is a matter of ME putting my mind to being consistent. I had SUCH an easier time with Erik than with Krista by simply waiting it out. With Krista she wasn't even 2 yet and she was day-trained (it took over a YEAR before she ws night trained though and with occaisional daytime accidents). With Erik I waited until he was almost 3 and we did it in a WEEKEND!!! It was the easiest thing I've ever done. He was day AND night trained in that one weekend and with NO accidents thereafter. I remember accidents with Krista from 22 months until 36 months and that is a LONG amount of time to deal with messes and laundry. Sure I could 'say' she was trained before she was 2, but it came at a high cost to me---a lot of cleaning up jobs and a lot of nighttime diapers!! With Kaitlyn she pushed for the potty herself (at 2 years 3 months). I am not sure if I will wait a bit with the full fledged training program or try now. I'm honestly thinking she will do a much quicker job of learning for good if we wait. We'll see!!! So for now, here are a few photos of the little beauty on the swing in the backyard. PEOPLE, she CAN swing all by herself. She pumps her little legs and gets that swing going! It is so funny to see a little 2 year old swing! She loves the motion and has seen Krista and Erik do it all summer so I guess she is ready! BYE BYE baby swing :)

Back to School!

It is finally here....the FIRST day back to school! It is always such an exciting time. The end of summer vacation and the long awaited "rentree". It was a wonderful morning. The kids woke up chipper and ready to roll. They had their backpacks loaded, snacks ready and their clothes out for the big morning. Krista is entering 4th grade this year and Erik is entering CP (essentially French Kindergarten, but US 1st grade). They are FINALLY at the same school together! Krista had to be at school at 8 a.m. today (the usual starting time), but Erik's class didn't meet until 8:30. Since this is his entry into the elementary school the parents get to accompany the children into the class and help them set up their desks. Next year we will just leave him at the gate. I took the opportunity for photos since this will be the last time I get to take him inside the school on the first day. The reason the first year children meet at 8:30 is so that they aren't intimidated by the hustle and bustle of the big kids on the first morning back. Erik did WONDERFULLY! He was really excited to start working and to show the teacher his reading and writing skills. He wasn't nervous at all---a big bonus being the 2nd child and already seeing Krista go through this. I spent my morning in peace with Kaitlyn. We went to buy Erik a rain jacket and a few pairs of pants for Kaitlyn. She deserved a little spoiling on a difficult day---she will really miss Krista and Erik's company all day long. We picked the kids up at 11:45 for lunch, and per Toomas' suggestion took them to McDonalds. They were both so happy. It was great to see them so excited about school! I hope this attitude contines for many, many years! Krista loved her teacher and Erik said his teacher already knew his name (since she had Krista a few years ago). All in all it was a great day!!! Lets hope this is a wonderful school year for them both. Here is a little montage of the morning and a few more photos.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com