Playing photo catch-up

After a few chaotic weeks, I'm feeling almost completely caught up today:

* Well, first, both boys are asleep. That is always a good feeling! Getting Gabe to nap/sleep when Zach does is actually starting to happen.
* Our gifts have been purchased, wrapped, packaged, and mailed out. I only have one more thing to order and a few to buy for Frank.
* Christmas cards are done and will go out soon.
* Travel arrangements for an upcoming trip are finally completed.
* Frank, Zach, and I have all gotten our H1N1 flu shots.
* I've completed 2 of 3 levels of my Rosetta Stone online Dutch lessons...I'm trying to get through them all before my subscription runs out at the end of this month.
* We actually made it to playgroup twice this week, after a couple weeks of not going because of rain, or fatigue, or not being able to get us all out of the house in time.
* The kitchen is no longer a total disaster area.
* I've done some creative stuff that I've wanted to do--read blogs and magazines, watch videos online, keep up with message boards, and print up some things. And I actually got around to figuring out which photos I want to post! :)

So here's catching you up on lots that happened in November:

We ate, drank, and were merry! Mom, Katie, Josh, and I (and the boys) toured a small lambic brewery in Brussels, had waffles downtown, and we all ate and drank many good things in Paris. The cheap beers in our hotel room did not fall into that category!


We walked who knows how many miles and took countless rides on trams, trains, and metros.

We saw the sights, including going inside Notre Dame and the Louvre this time.

We rested, and were pretty happy when the boys were content on their own.

Scenes from around the house:


Zachary's second birthday. What can I say? It was a long day, filled with cake, and photos and video, and Frank off work, and Skype calls, and most of all BUGS! Thanks, Emily, he just loves all these little guys!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Abby at our house. Ah, my favorite meal of the year...everything was so good. Zach got a kick out of putting ornaments on the tree, saying "More!" after each one, though we tried to just put the least breakable ones up this year.