Bonjour!

We made it! We're here! We never thought the day to actually get on the plane and fly to Luxembourg would actually come. But, come it did.... After hanging with family in Virginia for six weeks, it was time.

It took two cars to get our five bodies and twenty plus (you think I'm kidding, but I'm not) pieces of luggage to the airport. If you figure one carry on suitcase and one backpack per person for carry on, then one free checked suitcase apiece, plus three car seats, a stroller, and a pack-n-play AND K's golf bag. The lady at the check-in counter was super nice and figured out a way to "justify" all of it except for the golf bag, so we only had to pay for one bag :)

I think that the kids thought that the coolest part was this shuttle train we had to take to our terminal in Dulles.




Out first flight was from Dulles to London. We departed at 10:30 at night, so right after take off we got everyone into jammies and they crashed pretty quickly. The kids slept pretty well on the plane, but it was a pretty short night for them since London is five hours ahead of D.C.




We had a five hour layover in London, which we thought would be ridiculously long, but turned out to be pretty nice and not too bad. After being on the plane overnight, we all needed some time to get "refreshed" (if you know what I mean.....clean clothes, brush hair and teeth, wash face, feel human!) Then we found this kids play place. Seriously, how cool is this? I've never seen one of these in an airport before. Miss A spent a lot of time here.




And had to wear this cool green stylish vest to be allowed in.




We waited for our flight to pop up on the screen. Seeing our flight suddenly made it feel so real to me! I knew that once we got on that plane there was definitely no turning back! The flight back to Chicago just a few lines above suddenly looked pretty tempting too. The nerves were setting in....




We were really impressed with how well the kids did being in charge of their own luggage and walking so much in the airports.



Don't judge Miss A on the socks and crocs ;). She's only wearing the socks cause they were required in the play area.

That's our "little airbus" to Lux as the ticket agent put it.




Our flight in Lux landed at about 6:30 local time. We got all our suitcases, cleared customs, and then tried to figure out how to get to our hotel with all that stuff! We had a rental car waiting, so K took the kids in the rental car while I rode with the Portuguese and French speaking taxi driver and all the luggage. He told the taxi driver the name of our hotel, because, conveniently he speaks Portuguese thanks to his mission. We parted ways, and I felt slightly nervous leaving my husband and kids to drive off into a strange country with a strange man I couldn't even talk to. I didn't have my cell phone either because we cancelled my plan before leaving the U.S. I'll get a new one here. Anyways the problem was that K got confused with the name of the hotel, and so my stranger taxi driver took me to a hotel that had no record of us coming. After unloading those 20 bags into the lobby, we figured out it was the wrong hotel. He oh-so-kindly reloaded it all back into his car, and the oh-so-nice receptionist let me make an international phone call to call my husband and find out where I was really supposed to be. She also helped me out by speaking french to the taxi driver to tell him where I needed to go instead. He took me there, unloaded the stuff again, K showed up with the kids, and I breathed a big sigh of relief.

Night #1 was pretty rough with jet lag issues, but everyone fell asleep eventually and we all survived.












Let the adventure begin!!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Luxembourg, Luxembourg

I Can See Clearly Now!!!

We decided that before we left for Luxembourg we should have A's eyes checked. We took her in to the eye doctor and to our surprise she was actually very nearsighted. She got some new glasses and is very excited about wearing them (We'll see how long that enthusiasm lasts...)

Which pair do you Iike better?
The chic butterfly pair



Or the sophisticated student



A loves the black & pink butterfly pair! Who would have guessed ;)

Oh yeah! We can't forget Mr. L, he had to show off his glasses...



-K & E

Happy 4th of July!!!

We've been staying with E's family while we've been waiting for our visa's to come in. It has been quite an adventure since everyone in E's family is also staying with her parents as well. So the 12 of us, have learned what it's like to literally be one big happy family!




Today the ward had a 4th of July breakfast parade so the kids decorated their bikes and definitely took first place in decorations. Needless to say K had an influence on the theme of their vehicles.










After the parade we went to play at a neighbor's pool and cooled off. It's been hot here in Virginia so a little splash hit the spot!

A's belly flop, ouch...










In the end it was a wonderful day and we hope you had a great 4th of July!

Here We Go!

So the time has come....

For this of you who don't know, we're on our way to Luxembourg for 2-3 years on a tour for K's work. We've decided that we're absolutely crazy and really have lost our minds. We started to whole process back in September of last year, and we were notified of the approval at the end of March. We then had to report to Luxembourg on August 1st! Needless to say trying to move our entire family oversea for an extended period of time, was more than we bargained for.

Little did we know all the work that it was going to take and how many decisions and discussions we would have just to make the tiniest of progress. K's work paid for us to move the majority of our house over, but the bigger items like our couch and kitchen table couldn't fit, so we sold them. The movers came a few weeks ago and it was amazing to see how fast they would box things up and how quickly our house emptied out.

The Girl's Room Before:




The Girl's Room Almost Done:




It was crazy to watch the mover's carry all our things on their backs, we felt bad for how heavy all our stuff must have been...








In the end, we're happy, excited, terrified, humbled, and sad all at the same time. We're dedicated to sharing our adventure with all of you on the blog, and hope that you'll come see us in Luxembourg one day! Well give us some time to actually find a house there, that's the first step :)

- K & E

Location:Our Chicago Home

A the Book Worm

So A has been developing quite a nack for reading/writing and spelling lately. We thought you all would enjoy seeing some of the fruits of her labors. This is the fourth book that she's learned how to read and every night she keeps trying to read more. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

So I've hijacked E's account for tonight because I wanted to let you all in on a big secret, today is her Birthday! In honor of her B-Day here are 28 things that make me grateful that you're mine:

1. Your smile always lights up the room.
2. Your patience with me and the kids is amazing.
3. Your ability to simply listen whenever anyone needs a friend to talk with.
4. Your willingness to always do whatever it takes to make our family happy.
5. You try your best to always make our home nice and tidy, even with L's best efforts to tear everything apart one room at a time, numerous times a day.
6. Your cooking has had negative effects on my waistline, but positive effects on our marriage!
7. Your dedication to the gospel and church.
8. You are always willing to hear me rant on about boring accounting/auditing issues.
9. Your humility and they way you always put other people's needs before your own.
10. Your ability to endure through busy season and not having me around for 3 solid months.
11. Your ability to make do with what we have.
12. Your enthusiasm for the little things in our life.
13. Your devotion to teaching our kids the gospel.
14. Your laugh is contagious.
15. Your ability to control your emotions is amazing, every time you have a baby, nobody believes your in labor because you're always so calm and controlled. SCREAM! Every now and then...
16. Your ability to always see the good in everyone (Except for that one nebulizer billing department lady who we both didn't really appreciate.)
17. Your love of ice cream.
18. Your desire to continue to gain talents and abilities. Unfortunately, I have not gained your cake making ability so I'm sorry in advance for the lopsided carrot cake ;)
19. Your ears (Don't ask...)
20. Your willingness to always scratch my back.
21. Your dedication in taking care of H, even though there are 2 other kiddos vying for your attention and constantly circling you like a school of sharks.
22. Your patience with A and her constant barrage of tiny papers and stapled letters to her 50 or so friends.
23. Your ability to make every penny stretch by finding the best deal for everything.
24. Your drive to ensure that we always eat our vegetables, I think I'm more stubborn than the kids on this one.
25. Your desire to always make sure everyone is happy.
26. Your dedication to always making sure I always have clean clothes.
27. Your willingness to always talk to our kids and make them feel like equals.
28. Your amazingly good looks!

Sorry for anyone who doesn't enjoy public praise, I just couldn't help myself. E is truly the best thing that's happened to me in my life so I wanted her to know how much I love her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Just Stuff

Just stuff that's been going on around here.....

Every once in awhile, Miss A comes in our room during the night if she has a bad dream. She usually just brings her pillow and blanket, lays down on the floor, and we find her there in the morning. A few nights ago she came in during the night to find me sitting in bed feeding Miss H. She asked, "Mom, what are you doing?"
"Feeding the baby," I replied.
She came back with, "Aw, that's not fair. I wish I could have a snack in the middle of the night. That's really not fair."

Miss A also really loves to talk on the phone. I find her talking to the relatives she knows how to call from my cell phone all the time. The other day I was talking on the phone with one of my friends who has a daughter that is one of Alexa's best friends. After I was done she asked if she could talk to her friend on the phone. I passed her the phone, she started talking, and I walked out of the room to do something else. This is part of the conversation that I heard:
"My mom has to feed the baby all the time. Do you know how she feeds the baby? She lifts up her shirt and just feeds her. Isn't that soooo weird? I think that's weird! I wish she could just open her mouth and feed her!" Getting back into the swing of nursing a baby is obviously a big deal to her. I don't think she has much memory of me nursing Mr. L, even though it hasn't been that long since I stopped.

Miss H had her one month check-up this morning. I had been slightly concerned about her weight gain just because she's not always a very interested eater. It's sometimes difficult to get her to eat well. I guess I don't have any reason to worry. She's at 9 lbs 2 oz, up two pounds from her birth weight of 7 lbs. 3 oz. She's also grown 2.5 inches in the last month. I guess she's just efficient!

We had peas with dinner tonight. Mr. L loves peas, which is good because he gets to eat them a lot. I try to avoid broccoli and cauliflower for awhile while I'm nursing, he has a corn allergy, and he doesn't eat green salad very well yet. Considering all those things, his main vegetables are peas, green beans, and carrots. Tonight as I was putting on his pajamas for bed, I noticed he had a pea up his nose. I guess it wasn't bothering him, but I went and got the bulb syringe to try to suck it out. Wow! I've never used a bulb syringe on an almost 30 pound nineteen-month-old, but, boy, did it make him mad! After sucking out his nose, though, I couldn't see the pea anymore. Do you think it just went all the way up his nose and then down his throat? Anyone have any experience with this???

I'm realizing now that this post seems to be focused quite a bit around nursing. That was totally not my intention, but I guess that's pretty representative of what life is focused around right now..... :)