Beach Vacation

This past week we spent in Seagrove/Seaside Florida for our beach vacation. We enjoyed the sand, the ocean, the pool. Girls had a great time. Chris' family joined us as well. Faith and Ruth came from Washington. Unfortunatelly I do not have any pictures of Erfon but there are some pictures of Jonathan-Faith's now fiancee:)
There is tons of pictures here so be ready:)

Happy Birthday Emma & Nora!!!!

This Saturday we celebrated Emma's 4th and Nora's 2nd b-day. Emma's actual birthday wa on 27th and Nora's on 26th o why not combine.They love to do everything together (most of the time) anyway. They have been watching Dora the Explorer a lot in the last year and therefore wanted a Dora cake for their b-day. Chris and I were working hard the night before to make it happen. We think it turned out great and everybody enjoyed it. Party was lots of fun. Both girls invited a few friends from school plus our family friends. Nora was very happy that her friends Rachel and Becca will come to her house. It was cute! Rachel and Becca have been in Nora's group since they all started when Nora was about 6 months old. Emma was a bit shy at the beginning and overwhelmed with all the people but she got over it. She is a wild one but she has her introverted side and it comes out when there is lots of people.

I can't believe my girls are so big. They have changed o much recently. Emma is a big girl and i can't believe the conversation we have. She is a great observer and nothing misses her eye. She loves adventure and is not afraid to try anything. She desperately wants to do gymnastics but we are doing swim class during the summer months. I am planning to put her in gymnastics when fall comes. She still loves to read and now that is bigger loves to read a few books before she goes to bed alone. We love hearing her tell stories out loud as she does that. She loves Jesus and prays for those that do not believe in him so they can go to heaven with us one day.

Nora is our sweet little bean. She has always been petite so we still call her bean.Nora loves people. She loves to give hugs and is our cuddly child. She loves to be tickled and laughs so hard and loud when we do that. She is very neat and loves to be clean and things to be clean. If she gets anything on her clothes she wants me to change her immediately because she is dirty. We joke that God better start making that perfect man for her now and get him ready:) She love her babies and playing with them. She feeds them, carries them, soothes them, take them on a walk in the stroller. That is her every day routine. She loves to read books also and there is never enough of them read to her before she goes to sleep. She loves her pacis for sleeping and would love to have a bed covered in pacis if possible. She sleeps with one in her mouth and 4 in her two little hands. As many a possible she can hold at the same time. It is cute (hopefully when time comes to get rid of them she will be ok:))

We thanks God each day for the beautiful blessing these 2 little beings are in our lives and all we can learn for them. We are humbled a we parent them and pray for God's grace to cover over all our mistakes and still make them into great women who will love and serve Him. Thanks to all of you friends out there for the role you play in that as well.

Enjoy some pics from the b-day. I hope to have Chris post a video of everyone singing to the girls too so you can see how they were so excited and nora wa just beaming with joy and enjoyed attention.

p.s. Leann thanks for the beautiful dresses they wore on their party day:)

Sisters!

Emma's Christmas Performance

This past week Emma had her Christmas performance at school. She and her class sang several songs. Last year, she only stood still, didn't sing, and didn't move a muscle. This year, she sang very loudly as you can see in the video below. Enjoy.

Halloween

Each year for Halloween we go to our friends cul-de-sac and have dinner and trick or treating through the neighborhood. Each year it is bigger and bigger because there is more and more kids. Nora was a lady bug and Emma was a modern princess (she wanted to wear leggins and tennis shoes under her dress) this year. They were cute and excited. Nora quickly picked up on what is going on once she realized there is chocolate involved. She did not want to ride in the stroller but was walking the whole time. Up and down the hilly neighborhood.
Here are some photos.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

This past weekend we did our 2nd annual PUmpkin Patch with our friends Boys and Clarks. IT is just fun to get together and enjoy seeing kids play and take in all that is new. Last year we had an interesting experience at Burt's Farm because the day we went was frigid cold with aweful wind. My mom was here visiting and helping take care of Nora and she spent most of the day in the car with Nora. Nora was sleeping most of the time. Luckily we had winter coat for Emma. She and Elliott did not seem to notice the chill at all but were running and enjoying the pumpkins and other stuff out there. This year was a total opposite. It started with the little cold in the morning so we all had our sweaters on but then it warmed up and it was beautiful the rest of the day. It was just a perfect day to be out in God's creation. We went to Kinsley Family Farm-just up GA 400 (for those of you from Atlanta-right before the outlets:)) and it was great. Not as crowded as Burt's Farm but plenty to do. One of the biggest things was feeding the fish in this pond/lake thing they had. These fish were huge (catfish) and there was tons of them. Kids just loved those. Nora tried eating some of the fish food of course. We also had a picnic for lunch and it was awesome. Kids just enjoyed running around and having fun. When we came home that afternoon we carved our pumkin (Emma could not wait for the next day to do it:)) and i will post some of those pics later. Can't wait for next year!!!

Emma's quote for the day

While I was cleaning Nora's poopy diaper this morning Emma comes over and as soon as she sees the poop she says in a very excited voice "Mom it's compost". I think we need to cut down on Curious Goerge Goes Green DVD's

Week 2 - beach and then back in Sisak

Week two we went to beach in zadar-or should i say diklo for those who know better:) We had a good time. Beach with 2 kids has a totally new meaning for chris and I. It's fun and all but there is no more laying on the beach reading our books or things or that sort. It is go go go all the time. And ocassional screaming and fighting of the 3 year old cousins-in spite of their big love for each other. It's that time of their life where everything is MIne Mine and Mine only. But they sure had fun too. They could not do anything apart. Zadar is one of my favorite towns on Croatian Coast. My best friend from college lives there and i often would spend my summers in the area. we got a chance to visit with him and see his 6 months old daughter Lori. And also see his awesome apartment. We went back to Sisak a day early because our last day on the beach was bad weather and rain. That was great because it gave us extra time to spend in sisak with the nighbor kids-Dora, Tamara, Maja, Matija...Emma had a blast just being outside all the time and there was always a bunch of other kids there to play with. Nora loved it also.
We will miss being there even though it is nice to be home again.

In Sisak - week one of our trip to Croatia

Finally i am posting some pics from our trip to Croatia. we have been home for almost 2 weeks but i just did not have much tie to do this. as you can see i am posting pictures from our first week while in Sisak and there is 150 pictures in this slideshow. I picked and picked but these are all the one to capture all the important moments. I have pit captions under the pics so you can more easily follow.
First week we were in Sisak and spent with mom and dad and mateja's fam. my uncle from berlin came to visit also because we celebrated my dad's 60th b-day. It was fun to see everyone and especially Stric Blaz from germany. I learned some of his story from growing up in an orphanage and also learned some stuff about dad. It was crazy with the kids but looking back at photos we had a good time and kids had a blast! My parents did too:
I will post week 2 tomorrow hopefully:)

Summer Pool Fun at Ed & Ginny's

As soon as the hot days start we are headed to the pool. We are blessed that our good friends Ed & Ginny let us use their pool any time we want. Our neighborhood doesn't have a pool so this is great! Girls both love the water and swimming and all the pool fun. Emma always wants to be very independent and do all that big kids are doing.Nora just love splashing and jumping. I am the one always taking photos so i am not in any of the pictures:(

Girls Birthday!

June 26 (Nora's actual birthday) we celebrated Nora's 1st and Emma's 3rd b-day (June 27th). Our "theme" this year was Hello Kitty per Emma's request. She wanted a Hello Kitty cake so i made a big one for her and a little one for Nora. Nora did not have a preference-she was just going along to whatever we did. We invited our closest friends (Clarks & Davis' we are sad you could not be there with us this year) and had a good time. Emma was so excited that all of the "big" kids came-because she tells me Mom,they are my friends:)This was the first year Emma understood things and what will happen and was so excited a week in advance about the b-day. She was also excited about all the gifts and opening everything. Nora had a good time even thought by 7pm she was ready to have her "alone" time. I think she had enough of people and just wanted me to put her in her room and leave her by herself. I thought she would crash and go to sleep but i heard her just talking to herself and giggling-happy to finally have some peace of her own. Funny! We don't have tons of pictures but here are some to give you an idea of what was going on. Thank you browns, Pickrens, Gumbrills, Remigailos, Herreros, Boys, Sue & MeMe for coming and spoiling the girls with fun gifts.

Swim season has began and pool is open!

We opened our home pool this sunday. It was hot and humid and Chris gave Emma a great idea she gladly accepted about opening the pool. The water was cold but we added some warm and she was good to go. Nora was not sharing in the enthusiasm of swimming in cold water. She did warm up to the idea after watching Emma for a bit but only to soak her feet.

Easter Fun!!!

Here are some Easter pictures. I am trying to be a bit more on top of things:) Last week we went to our pastor's house for the annual Egg Hunt. Emma was very excited and looked in every hole possible to find some. My boss Kerry got her this cute Tweedy Bird basket and she was so excited about it. As she was looking for the eggs, she noticed other kids running and looking for some and she told me "mom, i don't want those other kids to take my eggs".

On Good Friday i stayed home in the morning and Emma and I had a great time coloring eggs and making Easter cards. Emma did a great job coloring the eggs with paint, especially since this was her first time doing it (at least at home). She also loved putting easter stickers on.

Yesterday, on actual Easter day we hid eggs all over our front and back yard and invited our neighbors Pedro and Alondra to join Emma for the hunt since Nora is too little. Emma loved that her buddies were there and she could enjoy all the treats with them afterward. Nora enjoyed the time as much playing with grandpa who came over for dinner. We remembered the story of Easter and why we celebrate. It is interesting how amazed the kids faces get when they realize that the stone is moved and Jesus has risen. Wish we all have that kid like amazement when we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. Happy Easter to all! May you all find the joy and meaning that Easter brings!

Real Snow this time!

In February we actually got somereal snow.And we got a lot of it.It even stayed for 2 days and we couldplay in it. Make snow balls and snowman. Emma had a blast. Her aunts were in town from washington so she could even enjoy the snow with them. Chris of course had the most fun from all.Norica unfortunately did not experience this fully since she was sick with her 2nd (or maybe 3rd even) ear infection in a row. Poor little girl. But oh well, she did watch it from the inside of the house. Luckily she doesn't know what she was missing out on.Snow in Atlanta-rarity:)
Enjoy the pics.

First Snow-January 8th 2010

This is all very overdue but better ever then never.Right?

Halloween

For Halloween we went to the annual (our 3rd) Halloween party at the Pickren's cul-de-sac. It is always a fun time as there is over 20 kids and their folks there. This year was very cold and wet because it has been raining the whole day. Inspite of the weather kids had a great time. You could not even see their costumes from the winter jackets they had to put on in order not to freeze, but they had fun. Emma did really well with walking the hills of the Georgetown neighborhood and trick or treat-ing. She was amazed at everyone giving her candy. She did not even eat that much of it but she crashed as soon as we came home. It was just so much fun for us to observe Emma as she learns and is amazed at all this new stuff she is experiencing. Nora was out at the party but when trick or treat started she and baka duka went inside the warm Pickren home.

Emma and Payne

This past weekend our friends Patty and Oliver took their twin boys for a surprise trip to Disneyworld and they left Payne their 3 and a half year old here in atlanta. We had the pleasure to hang out with Payne for almost 2 days. He stayed with us Friday and Saturday. You may wonder where he slept so let me answer at the beginning-we have an air matress and he slept on it with Chris and I in our bedroom. He and Emma had a blast jumping on the matress and also just playing together. Emma has a new hero and keeps talking about payne still. She wanted to do everything he did and also wanted to show him everything. Saturday we went to a Atlanta Parent magazine Block Party at Mercer University. That was tons of fun for the kids. They were exhausted and almost both fell asleep in the car ride back home. Nora also did awesome, walking around with baka duka. Baka enjoyed seeing different people and promotional boots. We got to play Mommy wheel of fortune (kolo srece) and even got some prizes:) All in all we had a great time having Payne stay with our family and thanks Patty and Oliver for trusting us to leave your precious little boy with us!

August Collage

Here are some pictures we took through the month of August. Aunt Ruth came to visit so that was fun. We still had our good friends Domi & Bibi and Lara & Hana with us so Emma enjoyed having fun with good friends. Nora has grown a lot and i can't believe she will be 2 months tomorrow. she is smiling and talking to us now every day. Emma just has fun and every day is a new adventure for her. Enjoy!

Emma's First Hair Cut

A few weeks ago Andreja took Emma for her first haircut. IT was getting a little out of control. Here's the result:

BEFORE


AFTER




Now Andreja and Emma look like twins:)

Emma's Belated Birthday Party!

Since Nora decided to join us a day before her sister's 2nd birthday, we had to postpone Emma's party for a couple of weeks. When it finally came Emma was very excited. She was singing happy Birthday song to herself days before and after the party. Chris and I joint our efforts and made her Curious George cake. That is her favorite TV show:) She had fun with her friends and enjoyed all the gifts that she has received before, on and after the party. Thanks to all our friends for awesome gifts that Emma received. She has truly been enjoying all of them and will probably for a long time. It is fun to see her excited and using her imagination.
Here are some pics from the party and with some of her gifts.