Our Madrid Piso

One side of our living room with a nice view of some city and mountains in the distance. I often find Elle in here watching the sunrise.

The other side of our living room with a dining table on the left side which you can't really see and on the right a library of art history books.

Elle's "Princess room". She loves it in here.

Ava's room. She loves to sit in here and do puzzles and look at books.

European Adventure photos

Here are some slideshows of pictures taken on our 10 day European Adventure. The slideshows here are pretty small -- if you click on them, they will open bigger.

Florence and Barcelona Slideshow

Venice Slideshow

Paris slide show

Elle's E String Concerto

Daddy-Daugther Birthday -- March 9, 2008

Happy Birthday to Nathan and Ava Natalie!

It was a double-fun day!

This year was especially fun as Ava actually looked forward to her birthday. She would request a birthday song "ah-me" (for me) several time daily for a couple of weeks before March 9! She woke up and knew it was her special day... and she beamed all day long -- you can probably see in the pictures. And she had fun knowing that it was Dad's birthday too. She loved the songs, the presents, the candles, the strawberries, the "chocolate cake" (brownies) and ice cream.

What a fun day.

Valentine's Day!

Valentine Morning...Valentine party with our friends the Bates family and the Anderson family...
the chocolate fountain was a hit.

Bathing beauties...

Ava and friend Dallin -- little pals. She calls him "Baby" :)

Elle's Violin!

When asked what her goals were for the year, Elle said " I'm going to learn to play the violin." At which point I promptly looked up Suzuki violin teachers and voila just a few weeks later we areon track for her goal! We had to order a special size -- so we were waiting for it to come in the mail...when she heard a knock on the door on Valentine's day, somehow she knew that her violin had arrived. She threw open the door, and ripped open the package and she hurried and put the bow to the violin... unfortunately, it didn't make any sound (no rosin on the bow!) "Mom! It's broken!" When we got some rosinon the bow finally, she put the bow to the untuned strings and was thrilled by the sound (or NOISE!) it made! She played it again and again and again...
"Oh Mom, isn't it just beautiful!" What fun!

Elle calls these the "Cuddle-Buggle" pictures

Elle will occasionally snuggle up to one of us and say "Let's take a cuddle-buggle picture..." Nathan and I enjoy these little snugglers...