A date!!

Our friend Ann, who lives in Egg and is from Nebraska, watched Carsten for us on Saturday afternoon so Andy and I could go on a date to Zurich and watch the new James Bond movie. This was such a special treat for us because it's very rare for us to find someone to watch Carsten here. We appreciated her gift of time and it was very special for us because actual dates 'on the town' are quite rare. Carsten also loves playing with Ann, so it was nice to leave him in such capable hands. Andy and I took in the Christmas market in Zurich at Bellevue and had a berliner (jelly donut/pastry) and gluwien (hot, spiced wine) before we headed in to the movie. The movie was quite good and we even treated ourselves to popcorn :). I loved having the opportunity to spend time with just Andy and it was fun to spend some time in Zurich Carsten-free. Also on a side note, I met Andy for the first time 10 years ago approximately to this date - who knew that I'd marry him and move to Switzerland within 10 years! :) Here's a photo of Andy at the Christmas market:

My handsome hubby :).

Thanksgiving

Last week in Egg we celebrated our own family Thanksgiving. It's the first 'Thanksgiving' meal that I've prepared, and I say Thanksgiving in quotes because there was no turkey. Turkey is SUPER expensive here, so we had pork chops instead :). Since I had just come from the US, I brought some American treats such as pumpkin pie filling (difficult to find here), jello, and stuffing for our Thanksgiving celebration. I spent most of the afternoon cooking our modest Thanksgiving dinner, and Andy made it home early to help out with Carsten and have some special family time. Our menu was: pork chops, stuffing, jello, butternut squash, and fresh bread. Carsten and I made some pumpkin pie cupcakes for dessert, which were actually very good even though I didn't have the correct spices. We definitely missed seeing our families for Thanksgiving - we'll see about next year! :) Here's some photos of our Thanksgiving celebration:

American treats!!! 

The meal. :)

My boys. Please note our awesome patio table Thanksgiving here :).

Pumpkin pie cupcakes!

A couple of days after our family Thanksgiving, we also celebrated Thanksgiving with our good friends Kai and Vanessa. We had an amazing time hanging out with our friends and Carsten loved playing with their daughter, Eleanor. As a special treat, our meal was catered to give the pregnant ladies a break :). The food was great and the company was amazing - definitely a must for Thanksgiving :). Thanks for such a great Thanksgiving celebration Kai and Vanessa! Here's a couple of photos:

Kai is getting the food ready!

Andy is reading the kiddos a story in German. Eleanor may have been correcting him occasionally :).

The amazing food.

Wonderful friends :).

It's a.....

BOY!

Carsten is going to have a little brother around April 2, and we're very excited to welcome another little boy into our lives. I started feeling kicks from him around 16 weeks which is about two weeks earlier than Carsten if I remember correctly. We had our 20 week ultrasound last week (we're already halfway?!) where we found out that we have a healthy, normal baby boy. I feel great except I could swear that I am getting bigger every day. Oh, and sleep is starting to get difficult, but it's just training for when our sweet boy arrives :). He's also seems like a very active boy from the amount of good kicks I get from him, which is similar to Carsten as well. So everything is good news on the baby front! Here is an ultrasound photo of the newest Swiss Huisman:

This is his face head on. We couldn't get a good profile shot because of the way he was laying.

Last flight to Zurich

Well, this was our last planned flight to Zurich for a while, and to be honest, it went really well. Carsten slept for 3 hrs on the flight (a new record!) and we had a non-stop from Chicago to Zurich which made the trip go much quicker than normal (we usually have to change planes on the East Coast). The only annoyance on the flight was that the guy in front of Carsten cranked his seat back the ENTIRE trip. Since this meant that there was less than an inch between his seat and Carsten's feet, I had to just let Carsten do whatever he wanted since there was no way I'd be able to prevent him from kicking or grabbing the guy's seat (usually I try to prevent this when there's a normal distance between the seats). I'm sure he was not a fan of us, but seriously, there was nothing I could do. Oh well :). Carsten did great though, and since Andy met us at the airport with our friend's car, it really couldn't have gone much smoother. Well, except for that 2 hr traffic jam in Chicago from downtown to O'Hare. But hey, we can't win 'em all. :)

Carsten recovered from jet-lag much faster than he has before as it only took about 3 nights to fully sleep through the night. In fact, I usually had to wake him up in the mornings so he wouldn't sleep in too much. Here's a photo of my sleepy buddy:

I woke him up about an hour after I took this photo. He was still in the same position :).

Chicago

Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen graciously took us to the Sioux City airport on Monday, November 5. We were able to eat lunch with them and then they helped me drop off my checked bags at the airport. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Carsten had a great time running around in the tiny airport, and once security opened it's ONE line we zipped right into the two-gate terminal. Yes, it's small :). Carsten did great on the flight and slept for part of the flight in his car seat. Once we got to O'Hare I retrieved our bags and had to break down a pay $4 (really?!) for a luggage cart to get all our gear to the bus for the rental car. Sigh. The nice man on the rental car bus handled all my luggage and helped me get into the car rental place. Yay for nice people! We got our Nissan Altima rental car after about 30 min, and I was very happy with how it drove. Now I have to just insert that Chicago and I will never be friends. Every time I went anywhere it was in a traffic jam (to the hotel, from the hotel to the aquarium, and from the aquarium to O'Hare). I despise traffic jams. I despise taking 2-3xs longer to get to my destination.

Anyway, once Carsten got to the hotel we brought our stuff into the room and then got some Panera Bread for supper (YUM!). We got to see Nicky and her boys for a few minutes before I had to send Carsten to bed, but we got to spend a lot more time with them in the morning at the hotel since we were all up before 6:30 am. Nicky and I got to chat while the boys watched 'Bob the Builder' (yay for friend time!). Once I got packed up again, we rounded up our boys and headed to the Shedd Aquarium for the day. We were not aware that it was a community day (so IL residents get in free) so it was BUSY, but we still enjoyed ourselves a lot. I think Carsten, Colin, and Connor all had a lot of fun seeing the different fish, but I'm guessing the highlight for all of them was the play area level where they could play in water, do some slides and climbing, and play in a pretend submarine. I know that Carsten especially loved the submarine since it had a 'digger' arm in the front that you could move with levers. We actually ended up going there twice in the afternoon because he did such a good job of playing. My good friends Corrie and Maureen arrived during lunch and I got to talk with them during the afternoon as well as meet Corrie's new son, Clive, who is quite the cutie pie. I appreciated getting to see and catch up with all these lovely ladies (and boys!) - thanks to everyone for meeting me at Shedd! Here's photos from the day:

Carsten, Connor, and Colin watching 'Bob the Builder'

Carsten and Connor being cute :).

The 4D movie of Ice Age was way too scary for Carsten - we had to leave. Poor kiddo.

Nicky and her boys were able to watch though :).

Maureen!!!

Cutie Clive.

Corrie!!!!!!

Playing in water.

Playing in the submarine.

Iowa - Mom's birthday

Now that we've lived so far away from home for so long it's always a special treat to make it to a special family event. We had the opportunity to be with my Mom on her birthday. And even better, both she and my dad had the day off since Mom had conferences that week. Dad graciously watched Carsten for the afternoon while Mom and I went shopping in Sioux City. Mom and I had a lot of success finding her new clothes, and it was fun to have some one-on-one time with her without Carsten around. Dad and Carsten met us at Archie's in Le Mars, which is a terrific steakhouse. In fact, it's so terrific that even my well-done steak (thank you pregnancy!) was still AMAZING. I loved having such a special day with everyone and I know Carsten had a great time with Grandpa :). Here's a couple of photos from Archie's:

My wonderful parents.

My cheesy son :).

Iowa - Halloween!

Halloween deserves its own post because this was the first year that Carsten participated in treat or treating and as a special treat, Grandma and Grandpa Hoogie took him around :). This meant that I got to watch and take photos :). We ended up trick or treating in Le Mars and honestly, it's way better than Orange City. People were very into decorating and at least where my Grandma lives, there was a high density of people actually giving out candy which meant that we didn't have to have Carsten walk too far :). I think Carsten was confused at first, but he caught on and did pretty well :). Carsten got pretty tired towards the end, but it was understandable since we hadn't had supper and it was close to bedtime by the time we quit :). As a special bonus, we got to go trick or treating at my Grandma's house too! :) Thanks for trick or treating with Carsten Mom and Dad! :) Here's some photos of our Bob the Builder:

Carsten got to go through his first car wash with Grandpa at Grandpa's car wash. What a treat! (Right before trick or treating)

We started at Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen's house! Grandma dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood :).

Trick or treating with Grandpa!

Mom and Dad taking Carsten around to the houses :).

Corrie, please tell me you have done this to Jimmy :).

We ran into Megan, Kent, and Andrew on Central Avenue :). Yay for family!

Carsten loved trick or treating with Grandpa :). Thanks Dad!

What a special first Halloween trick or treating experience for Carsten!

Iowa - Family and Friends

We were fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time with family and friends while we were at home. Mom and Dad spent as much time as possible with Carsten and I, and we were able to see my grandparents quite a bit during the two weeks as well. We even got to see most of both sides of my extended family which is a rare treat in October :). Carsten loved seeing everyone and still talks about all of you quite a bit :). I even got to have a couple of playdates with high school friends and see our Madison friends Kayt and Kurt who now live in the area :). What a fun couple of weeks! Here's some highlights:

Uncle Dave and Grandpa Ranschau showed Carsten and I around the farm including getting to drive in with the cattle. Carsten thought that our vehicle (a mule) was pretty awesome and enjoyed seeing the cattle up close. We enjoyed seeing you both and had fun talking! Thanks Uncle Dave and Grandpa!

Uncle Dave took Carsten up close to see the cows.

Carsten enjoyed getting to 'drive' :).

Mom met us at Pumpkinland to play on the play equipment one day after school. Carsten got a kick out of it and we all had a lot of fun :).

Playing on the slide with Grandma....

....is FUN!!!!! :)

I have a photo of him in this from last year too. This year he could stand reach it on his own! So fun :).

Carsten had Grandpa to himself for an entire day since it had snowed. They first put together a tricycle that Carsten got to ride in the unfinished 'new' kitchen (minus all the cupboards and appliances that makes it a kitchen so it was a GREAT playroom). Sorry about that nick in your new paint Mom! ;) The snow was pretty, and Grandpa even took Carsten outside to play in it for a bit. Carsten loved playing with Grandpa - Carsten kept saying 'Follow you follow you follow you' which basically meant, here's a toy, play with me! Here's a few photos:

absolutely love this photo :) 

First snowfall of the year for us.

Grandpa taking Carsten outside to play in the snow!

Some Bob time.

We spent several days at my Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen's house, and Carsten discovered the piano room where Grandma gives lessons. We might have a musician on our hands because he loved tinkering with the organ :). Grandma and I got to play several games of Scrabble while Carsten napped at her house - so fun!!

Carsten playing the organ.

Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen with Carsten!

Carsten got to play with his Hoogeveen and Ranschau extended family cousins, which he really enjoyed. It's so fun to have family with kids Carsten's age :). I forgot to get my camera out for the Ranschau get together, but here's a few photos of the Hoogeveen get together for Dane's birthday party and for a Halloween outing for businesses in Le Mars:

Carsten and Andrew having fun at Dane's birthday party :).

Playdate at Megan's house for the cousins! 

Carsten and Andrew having fun :). 

Uncle Nate with Carsten! The only way we could get Carsten to leave his Bob the Builder hat on was to have the stocking cap underneath.

Taking a candy break at the ice cream shop!

Carsten and I were also able to see our good friends Kayt and Kurt a couple of times. Yay for good friends in NW Iowa! We also got to see a few more friends, but I don't have photos of those :).

Kayt and Kurt with Carsten!

Well that turned out to be a long post, but we really did pack a lot into two weeks! Thanks for making time for us everyone!

Trip to Iowa

My amazing brother drove us down to O'Hare on a Sunday to catch our plane to Sioux City, IA. Thanks Luke! Carsten was great the whole trip down, and many more thanks to Luke who helped me maneuver all the bags through check-in. We sent Luke on his way home and then went through security. I had planned in a couple of extra hours of time in case traffic or check-in delays, so Carsten and I had plenty of time to eat lunch and play at the fantastic play area in O'Hare.

Play area!

Carsten fell asleep instantly on our flight and proceeded to sleep almost the entire 1.25 hr flight (hooray!). I had ended up checking his car seat because I forgot our car seat roller at Mom and Dad Huisman's house, so he was in his own seat with his head on my lap. I had previously thought that this scenario would not work for him, but I was wrong :). What a restful flight for the both of us!

Mom and Dad Hoogeveen met us in Sioux City and then we did a little shopping before we headed back to Orange City. Dad even managed to get a tractor ride with Carsten in that evening before supper :).

Week in Holland

I apologize that this post won't be as in-depth as I would like for a week spent in Holland. I honestly could have written a post about each day since we did so much, but as I'm running short on time for the blog, this must suffice. We of course saw a ton of family and too few friends since we always seemed a bit short on time.

We spent a great deal of time playing with Carsten's cousins at Mom and Dad Huisman's house. They have a terrific basement with lovely toys for the kids to all play in. I think Carsten loved it, and I enjoyed watching all four kids interact. They also got to play on the tricycles and go to the park together. It was so fun to watch and I can't wait to see them all together again next summer. Here's some photos of cousin time:

Playing in the basement.

Tricycle time! Carsten didn't quite get how to work the pedals, but he scooted around just fine :).

All four kids together! 

Best way to get them ALL to sit still: have Grandpa mow the lawn.

LOVE this photo of Carsten swinging at the park.

Snack time!

So much fun to see them grow up together!

Carsten also got to see Aunt Barb who brought one of her super nice border collies to play with Carsten. Carsten even got to throw Bryte a frisbee and being the amazing dog that she is, she waited until he threw it a couple feet and then retrieved it. What a good sport! Here's a couple of photos:

Carsten, Aunt Barb, and Bryte.

Carsten petting the puppy.

All the Huisman's in Zeeland took off on Thursday to go to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, which was an amazing air museum with some fun rides in it. It was all indoors, so the fact that it was a cold day didn't matter at all! Carsten was a little unsure of the rides, but as long as he could hold my hand he was fine and even enjoyed himself. We all enjoyed seeing all of the planes, and as always when you have little kids I would have enjoyed reading a little bit more about the individual planes. Oh well :). It was a super fun day to spend with family, and we will have to go back next summer with Andy who will appreciate the airplanes so much more than I did :). Here's a few photos:

Getting ready to ride the airplanes!

Getting ready to ride the hot air baloons!

We found a helicopter!

Zachary and Carsten driving the helicopter! 

Sitting in a cockpit playing with the buttons.

Blue Angels cockpit :).

Carsten's first 4D movie! And first movie in a theatre as well. He seemed to enjoy it although he wouldn't leave the glasses on.

We also got to see Uncle Luke quite a bit :). We played at Kollen Park which was extremely wet, and also got to play marble works which Luke and I enjoyed putting together immensely. I think Carsten was only mildly interested :). We also got to go out to eat twice with Luke which is a rare treat for us! Here's a few photos:

Kollen Park was kind of like a splash pad. 

Carsten got quite wet despite our best efforts.

Marble works!

We are totally getting something like this soon. For Andy and I. Not for Carsten.

We loved seeing all of our Huisman family plus Luke and we're anxious to get back to Holland next summer and see everyone again :). Miss you all!