Moving to London

Small Disclaimer: No Pics! Sorry. We had a small misfortune with our nice camera, and so we were uber unmotivated to take pictures outside our 365 project. This is also the reason the whole month of December, the 365 pictures look markedly poorer quality than usual.



ANYways...



We left Tuesday night around 5:45-in a car that came and picked us up. We flew business/first class so we got to hang out in the lounge where we watched a movie on Justin's laptop and got the girls in their pjs. On the airplane, we got two of the middle seats (see my terrible 'paint' rendering below):



Solia and I took one, and Justin and I took the one in front of us (which was actually closer to the back of the plane, since the middle seats faced backwards).

We took off around 7:30 and by 9 Amaia was still awake-even though I'd drugged her with antihistamine. She watched some movie with Jusitn while we ate dinner on the plane and I worked on getting Solia to sleep. I pretty much fell asleep as soon as I was able, and slept. When I woke up we still had a few hours (and the girls were out) so I finally got to watch Eclipse via the in flight movie thing (you each get your own personal screen).

We got picked up at the airport (after getting our 8 items from the luggage belt!) and driven to our first temporary living apartment. This place had two floors and 3 bedrooms. We just hung out for the weekend, spending time playing our Xbox (that we of course put in the suitcase) and walking around some stores nearby (including a gelateria that had a-maz-ing ice cream). For Thanksgiving we....did nothing. Didn't even go out-we ate frozen dinners. Which doesn't sound as bad as it was. Let me elaborate: Nothing here tastes as salty as in the states, and something that you'd think would taste one way, tastes completely different. Add that on top of the fact that we were still having a hard time figuring out the ovens, we had cold not very good tasting frozen dinners. No fun.

On Sunday we went to church. Our ward is super small but there are a handful of expat families, and quite a few from other countries.

Sunday afternoon we had to move all of our stuff from one apartment, downstairs to another. This one was only one floor and 2 bedrooms, and it was awful. I tell you what. Before we had each girl in their own room. Now, Amaia had a room, and we had a room, and since neither room had enough space for the pack and play, Solia slept in the kitchen (whcih was only like a foot wider than the pack and play). We left it up the whole time because there was no way I was going to pack and un pack that thing every day.

Solia got pretty sick at one point-mostly with just a cold. But she was miserable. We spent a lot of time bumming around doing nothing. We went out to the grocery store a couple times to get stuff-mostly frozen dinners and cereal since we didn't have much by the way of cooking supplies. All Amaia had to play with were the toys I packed for her in the suitcase (flash cards, crayons and paper, foam beads and string, and a manga doodle) and her ipod. She pretty much watched movies all day (we brought some), and when she wasn't in front of the tv, she was watching aladdin on her ipod. It was awful.

On the 7th of December we finally got into our new house to find: NO HEAT! yikes. They were supposed to come fix it over the weekend, but they didn't. That night we had toast and ice cream for dinner (you think I"m kidding, but no). We went to Tesco (the closest thing to a super walmart) and bought 3 space heaters and some other things we needed. We had all 3 space heaters and the fireplace on in the living room, then at night we put on heater in each of our rooms. It took them A WEEK to get the heat fixed-luckily they reimbursed us the cost of the heaters, plus our electricity bill for the whole month of December for having to run the heaters 24/7.

Come back for more in the December 1st Half post...coming soon....hopefully....since all the pictures are all ready....

November 2010 2nd Half-With Video

Whew. Lots to catch up on.
So, this is the month of the move! (Sorry, that's for next post). Justin was gone for the two weeks before the move since we finally got our visas. Without them, he was only supposed to be allowed to stay for 1 week at a time.
So it was up to me to go through the ENTIRE house and separate out the stuff that we wanted to store, and the stuff we wanted to ship over air or sea. The only problem was, you can't just start unloading your cupboards and making neat little piles all over the kitchen counter of what is going where. We were still living there, and hello, I needed my counter top for things like, you know, FOOD. and Cooking. (and junk that doesn't belong there).
So. No room for nice little piles. Which meant that I pretty much had to tear the house apart, and put things back in certain ways. Like all of the stuff in the kitchen that way staying got put on one side of the microwave/stove, and all the shipping stuff went on the other. (Turns out I'm retarded because I put things like my tupperware and cutting boards on the 'store' side. doi.) One half of our bedroom closet was stacked up of stuff for storage, and the other half for shipping, and the same with the rest of the house.
Didn't leave much time for much else, but I was still able to get around to making these awesome pajamas for the girls:

To be honest, I made these just for 365 pics. I bought the pants on clearance at Target (although the biggest size they had was 9 months, so I added the band around the bottom for Amaia). The tops are just regular onesies that came in a pack. I appliqued the 'psych' and the airplanes on the shirts, and then freezer paper stenciled the pants.
Yes, I sat there with an exacto knife and a cutting board and cut out at least 30 stencils of the word psych. Which means I had 30 little circles that went inside the 'p', etc. It was a mess. I ended up using tweasers to position each little itty bitty piece of stencil on to the page. Next time, I'll just carve it out of an eraser and make it a stamp.
Solia This Month:
*Started grabbing things with her hands and stuffing it in her mouth. Her favorite is to grab the thin strands of hair at the base of my neck and hold on for dear life, ripping them out. Which probably explains why I'm going bald backwards.

Amaia This Month:
*Every time I have to change Solia's diaper, SHE has to get the diaper and I only get 1 wipe, unless it's poopy
*This is how Amaia likes to entertain Solia: "HiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiii So-wee-uh! Gah Gah Gah gah gah gah gah gah gah-you happy now?"
*She always says "Amaia need a be RAAAT back" when she leaves the room
*She'll always tell us to look at stuff, except she says "yurk at dis, yurk at dis"
*She's fond of saying "Jeeze a weeze, Em..."
*She's started talking jibberish to herself or 'on the phone' to someone.
*When she wants to say "I already did" it sounds like "I do did".



The following are the 365 pictures for these last two weeks.

And lastly, one cute pic of Justin in our first temporary living apartment, with our family pics we did right before we left.

Enjoy the video!


http://youtu.be/IclIAijou8E

November 2010-1st Half

Well we had more of the same for these few weeks. Justin being gone some, and here some. Spent a lot of time finishing up last minute crafts before the move, deciding what we were going to store, and what we were going to ship in which shipments, and finding out which appliances were going to work fine with just an adapter or which we would need to buy once we got there. All that plus justin being gone, and me with the two kids was exhausting.


This month:

*She runs around saying "oh wow dats TAZEY" when something exciting or sudden happens

*She likes to pretend to fall off a chair and yells "hulp meeee!" until i grab her hand and drag her up

*If she sees an airplane at night, it's called a 'dark airplane'

*Amaia will go around the house saying she's got 'stuff a do' as she plays with stuff.

*When she goes pee in the potty, it's to make Ali (from Dhoom-she's got a major crush on him) happy, and when she kneels and folds her arms for prayer she says it's to make God happy

*Bones are called 'bingo's' (the TV show, and actual bones) becuase 'there was a farmer had a dog and bingo was his name-o', and since dogs eat bones, bones must be called bingos.

*When I hold her down to hug her, or talk to her, etc. she'll yell "I'm skuck!"-hello! I know you're 'skuck'-I'm the one holding you down! cracker....

*SOLIA is lauging all the time and it like a rolling machine. Definately no more leaving her anywhere but the floor.

*She's found her voice-and fingers. and toes.
Solia: I usually don't buckle her in her bouncer bc she's not going anywhere, but lately she's been a little wiggly and ends up all scrunched down like this:

Some pics of the girls together that didn't make the 365 cut:

Amaia only:

She would not put her hand in the pumpkin until we gave her gloves.

And when we put her in the pumpkin for this picture, she freaked out (it's a fake smile) until we got her out, which is when she demanded a shower. We even lined the pumpkin with that cling wrap stuff and she was still so grossed out.

The upside down picture is day 100! Wahoo for us making it the first 100 days! Now that all of our good ideas are used up.... :)

That one of Amaia screaming in the top middle: she throws a tantrum like that every time I put Solia on the trampoline. I can't even get on while I"m holding her-she yells at me to 'put soweeuh down'. Apparently this trampoline is just for her. Luckily it's the only thing she seems possessive over (for the time being; I'm sure it will get worse).

So, like I've said before, you can see all the 365 pics on Facebook by clicking that link up in between the header picture and the picture of Amaia. You don't have to have a Facebook to see it, and then you can see them all one at a time if you want. (Some one let me know if it doesn't work right).

"Kids Say the Darndest Things" {Part 1}- A Series

You know how kids are-they pick up everything you say, and then mix it all up and make it hilarious. Amaia is no exception. I hope to keep doing these posts every once in a while, which is why I called it a 'series'. Maybe that way I won't load it down with too many all at once. :)

Me: Amaia it's time to take a bath!
Amaia: I need a take a bath and wash of aaaaaaaaaaalll my pee pee!

Justin: Amaia you are such a fruit/so silly/crazy/etc
Amaia: No, my not a fruit, my a big geerl!

*Daddy come be my prince.

I was going to get Solia b/c she was crying. Amais jumps in between us and says "Never touch my Solia!"

Sometimes when she gets sad, she'll make a super sad face and say "What's wrong with me?"

*I need this-NEVER take it away a me!

October 2010-2nd Half w Video

This is a little late. So sue me.

The second half of October Justin spent two weeks in London, so we were lonely. I used that time to make stuff: a diaper bag that I still haven't finished, the girls Halloween outfits, Ghost Pillowcase Dresses, Bones outfits (Solia's is gray because I used cheap fabric dye to color a white onesie), spider hats, etc. I spent a lot of time doing that, and also working on paperwork for the move. We had to get the girls passports, and all 4 of us visas, which required a lot of forms and over $1500 in fees (which luckily was reimbursed).
Update: So I totally forgot all of the stuff Amaia's been up to/saying. As much as some of you might not like to read all that :) But this is for me to, you know, so I'll leave it in red that way it's easier for you to skip if you just want to jump to the pictures (since that's the cutest part):
UPDATE AGAIN:
Not likely that you looked at this in the last ten minutes, but I had November's little list on here instead of Octobers. So let me fix that right quick:
*She likes to take things away from people saying "dats mines"
*She tells us to STOP about everything: Stop singing, stop kalking, stop going away a me, stop getting a drink, kissing/touching me, stop moving
*If you touch her, to pick her up or hug her or just touch her (especially her hair) she'll jerk away and say "Never touch me!"
*She's started throwing things in anger, but it's not too bad so I'm hoping it won't stick
*She loves Solia so much that she just has to hug her, which turns into Amaia full on laying on her (since Solia is always on the ground) and Solia screaming when she gets squished.
*Solia loves jumping on the trampoline-one of the first times we heard her laugh is when I jumped with her (see video!)
*Solia smiles all the time, and is starting to make some cooing noises which are super cute
So, back to the pictures.
These are the pictures of Solia: top left is her Passport photo, the spider hat is in the bottom right, the one to the left of that is the diaper covers for the Ghost dresses, and Solia as a parrot in the middle. I tell ya, it's really hard to take good photos of a baby who can't sit up or really support her self at all.

The polaroid collage was going to be our family pictures but we never turned it into one. Next to that is a picture of a little baby frog we found hanging out in the trampoline coils (there were 3 at one time! crazy) and my photo for my visa.

Here are some pictures of the girls that weren't 365.
We tried to get Amaia to hold up the polaroid frame in front of Solia, but she didn't really get it. Plus it was a little windy.

Here are pictures of Amaia alone: her photo for her Visa, her modeling the ghost dress, her as a pirate, at the playground. Sorry they are so small-it's just so much easier to upload pictures as a collage. Click on the picture to make it bigger (i think...)

Here are the 365 pictures from the last 8 days of October. I didn't number them like I usually do, but I don't think it makes any difference what day they were. You can tell how much Solia enjoyed the pumpkin patch :)


Here are the 365 pictures for the second to last 8 days of October.


Ugh. The reason this post took so long is this video. I wanted to add a clip from when Amaia was a baby, but they were all file types not supported by iMovie so I had to download a program to convert them, and then actually make the video, save it all, upload it, etc. So I hope you like it. I enjoy it quite a bit, but then again, I'm pretty biased. :)

http://youtu.be/y_EcG-WQOn8

October 2010-1st Half

*Let's just cut to the chase with the whole Amaia said/Solia did essay because all I can remember about October is making lots of outfits for these girls...

Amaia:
*Started calling me 'Em'-that's what Justin calls me after all.
*Got this set of animal bowling pins for her birthday-she's been taking them potty, and then wiping them and flushing for them when they are done.
*She's started talking to her Teddy-doing crazy stuff and saying "Teddy watch me!"
*She calls the scriptures "skippurs"
*When she wants to go for a walk, she asks to go strollin' (thanks baby signing time!)
*She likes to say that Solia's sleeping, except when she says it, it comes out like she's got a wicked accent: "Solia's slape-ing"
*Except for it's more like "So slape-ing", because she's shortened Solia to So: So wake, So sleep, so tie-ing (crying). She used to do this for Amaia to: Mai wake, etc.
*She's started that impatient bounce kids do when she really wants something
*She's started to 'sing' hymns with us at church-and loudly too!
*She's got faces-a mad face, a sad face, and a happy face. At any given time you can ask for one of the above and you'll usually get it
*If I get on her case about doing something she's not supposed to, she'll put on her super sad face, and very slowly come and give me a hug while saying "Oh, sorry Em"
*We got Robin Hood recently (the Disney version), and she calls it the "cock-a-loodle-loo" movie because at the beginning is that rooster singing that song

Solia:
*Sleeps through the night! Unless Justin's home. No kidding. I think it's becuase he likes to freeze us out at night.
*Got Solia's ears pierced right after the she got her shots. Super cute!
*Solia smiles now!

Here are the pictures.
Solia Only-Lots of Smiles:

At the mall on the carousel:

Girls 365 Project Photos

Girls Not 365 Photos-IE Ones that didn't make the cut, but are still cute :)

Amaia Only

September 2010-2nd Half

Sorry guys-Justin had the video camera in London for most of the month of September (I guess only 2 weeks, but still) so we don't have any video for this month. But don't worry, there's plenty in October. If I ever get around to it....

Amaia:

*Will be playing with toys/something and will inform me that "Amaia's busy right now"-apparently she's not to be disturbed.

*When Amaia kisses Solia, I always tell her how sweet it is. Now every time she kisses/hugs Solia, when she's done, she'll go "aawwwww, dat's so sweet!"

*Amaia started to say "really, really" (except she pronounces it 'reedy, reedy') about everything: She has to go potty 'reedy, reedy' bad, or, her lunch is 'reedy, reedy' hot and she needs to be 'pareful', etc.

*We've been teaching Amaia about the Sacrament-that that is what those boys are doing when they walk around during church. She got up during Sacrament meeting one day and practically yelled "boys walking-pass uh sac-a-ment!"

*she calls 'spaghetti' 'spuh-daddy' and asks me to sing the 'spuh-daddy' song (on top of spaghetti....)

*Amaia will baby talk to Solia in the cutest little high pitched baby voice that gets more and more high pitched the longer she talks to her. Most often "HIIiii Punkin, you awake?!?"

Solia:

*Rolled over for the first (two) times from her stomach to her back.

*She's starting to stay awake longer during the day and sleeps almost 8 hours on most nights

*She really hates it when I touch her nose (like to get a booger)