We had a great Christmas. We saw lots of family and had lots of fun. James and John-Luke especially liked playing with their older cousins. We started off with a bit of family fun for Christmas Eve chez Brian's mom. All the kids who were sleeping there got to open some Christmas pajamas.
We celebrated Halloween at the annual church party here in Geneva. Although the pictures are a bit blurry I thought the boys looked too cute not to share. Here they are in there costumes.
Hope you all have a great Valentine's Day! We did! We miss all of our family and friends who are far away! We love you all! (Especially our Grandmas and Edpa!)
We went to a Valentine's party this week and my super cool friend, Harmony, had this cool photo booth set up so that we could all make these personalized Valentine's cards. She has such cool ideas. I think I will make this a habit! She even managed to get Johnny-Lu smiling!
(December 20-26) This was an eventful week. And not just because of Christmas. James and I decorated Grandma Shelley's Christmas tree. James loved this activity. Johnny-Lu and James got lots of grandma and Daddy attention (mommy attention is normal so it doesn't count). And I got my hair cut! Voila! Here is my new do! I love it! I donated my hair to Locks of Love. Actually, if you go to the Aveda salon where I went they donate it for you. Even easier. My only stipulations for the haircut were that I wanted it short (to be able to donate) and that it had to grow out good (no mullet for me, thanks) since I refuse to pay the prices for a hair cut here. Oh, and it had to look good straight or curly. That is all. I think the stylist did a great job. It is so easy to do! There are a few self-portraits in this week's collage. 
In addition to that mundane stuff we also had the great pleasure of Brian's sister coming in to town early (at our insistence) from Montana. It made for a fun time. James loved playing with his cousins and having older kids to follow around.
On Christmas eve we all sat around and ate (I made homemade chocolate mousse with real Swiss chocolate)! And we sang some Christmas songs together (which the kids loved). We also wrapped. In case you didn't know. I love to wrap presents! That is putting it very lightly. My mom and Brian's mom are both under strict instructions to not wrap any presents till I arrive. It is my thing. As long as they provide the supplies I will do the wrapping. It is a win/win situation. So on Christmas eve (between the two families) I think I wrapped about 150 presents. (My mom has 5 kids (4 married) and 9 grandkids and Brian's mom has 6 kids (5 married) and 13 grandkids so it all adds up)! And I also wrapped all of our presents and some for my sisters and Brian's sister and Brian's brother. It was my dream come true! But I was tired after it was all done. (Good thing I had all that chocolate mousse to give me energy)!
One of our traditions is to open a present on Christmas eve. James opened a present from Mommy and Daddy. It was a pack of Dr. Seuss books. He immediately demanded that Brian read! James and Max and Zoe enjoyed the stories. James loves Wacky Wednesday, Ten Apples Up On Top and Hop On Pop.
Oh and did you know that the cardboard rolls that are left over from wrapping paper are great toys for kids. James used his as a (you guessed it!) LEAFBLOWER! Here is our Christmas Eve collage.
On Christmas morning we got up at a normal hour. I was the first on to get up with Johnny because he still wasn't adjusted to the time zone. Then we were joined by Max and later by everyone else. We all got everything we wanted and even a few things we needed. It was a great Christmas and fun to be able to spend it with family. 
Around noon we headed out to my parent's house for some more Christmas fun. James was much more into the present thing and ended up opening a few (like 5) presents under my parents tree while we weren't looking (none of them were for him). James got a "real" (toy) leafblower which he was pretty excited about. He was really excited about all his presents and wanted to try them all out. We had an awesome family Christmas dinner and only one of my sisters was missing (they moved a week before Christmas to San Diego). James also enjoys his cousins here too. He follows them around and they are very nice not to be bugged too much!
On the 26th we had a huge Gillespie family party (since most of them arrived that day). Only one of Brian's brothers was missing. It was lots of fun. Lots of good food (All the girls in Brian's family are great cooks)! And lots of fun! Brian slept over while I took the kids home (a little late) to bed. It was great to see everyone together! Family is what holidays are all about for me. 
Can't wait to do it all again!
This year we celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday Nov. 21. Since it isn't a holiday here, Brian doesn't have the day off of work. I decided to host--what was I thinking?--and it turned out to be an awesome day! Of course, we missed family most but when we can't have family we still celebrate with the next best thing! Great friends!
This is a picture of the table just before we sat down. I made the turkey--yes, me!--and the stuffing (from scratch with fresh herbs) and the rolls and the gravy and the mashed potatoes and some sweet potatoes too! My friend Harmony made cranberry sause, green beans, a most amazing roquefort, pear and pine nut salad which I made for my family on Christmas and some awesome desserts.
A close up of the turkey. It was my first time. I brined it and everything. It turned out quite awesome. The only unawesome thing about it was the price. I paid $83 (yes, dollars) for it. And it was only about 10 pounds. Still worth it!
Here is my awesome stuffing. I bought 3 different kinds of bread about 4 days in advance and let them dry out before cubing and toasting them. It was the most yummy stuffing I have ever tasted! (I'm not much of a stuffing person and I was really eating this stuff).
A few of us chilling and snacking before dinner. In addition to having our super cool friends, the Roundys, over for dinner, we also had two missionaries and an investigator (who finally got baptized after 7 months of investigation)!
The elders. Not sure why this picture is so small but I'm not worried enough to figure it out.
Johnny-Lu.
Everyone at the table (except me). 
Everyone at the table (except Harmony).
The kids enjoyed a dessert of homemade cupcakes. They mostly enjoyed my chocolate frosting. It is super yummy! They got to frost the cupcakes themselves and put sprinkles on.
Can you tell which part of the cupcake James likes best? He could probably do without the cupcake and not even notice it was missing.
These are the desserts that the adults enjoyed. Classic pumpkin pie and a to-die-for pumpkin cheesecake! Harmony makes the best desserts!
As y'all can plainly see, we had an awesome Thanksgiving celebration. And we have lots to be thankful for. This day really got me in the holiday mood. Can't wait to do it all again next year!
(October 25-31). This was a fun week! There are lots of pictures cuz I felt like putting them all on. On a side note, I owe a huge thanks to Harm for telling me about Picasa and how easy it is to resize my pics so they upload WAY faster!
We started the week off by going to the park (Big surprise, eh?). James discovered a new game. It actually took me about 5 minutes to figure out that my kid was not having some sort of breakdown but that he was actually playing a new game. He still plays this game often. Only now it isn't just sticks that are leaf blowers anymore. Anything can be a leaf blower. A fork, a toothbrush, a broom, whatever. Here he is in action.
My little leaf blower!
John-Luke sleeping peacefully in his stroller at the park. Man I miss those days!
This week John-Luke turned 4 months old. Yep, 4 big fat months! He is so yummy I could just eat him up!
This week we also discovered Hippo Park! This is the best park ever! Small (but not too small) with all the best toys and a few cool hippos thrown in the mix. Oh, and it is in a beautiful location overlooking the river too. James was fascinated with the huge hippo's mouth.
See how beautiful it was? Lovely. And totally enclosed with a fence.
Two of James' favorite people. Paisley and Cado! They make being a kid look like so much fun and James adores them both (and "Denevie" as he calls their baby sister, Geneve).
James playing on the hippo's. He was trying to jump like his cool friends. He chickened out every time. Good thing too.
A great example why I need a new camera. It was an awesome day at the park!
Just a cute pic of my two boys in the morning. James is eating a made-from-scratch crepe. Aren't Johnny-Lu's rolls coming along nicely?
On Halloween, we scheduled a full day. We had a family photo shoot with Harmony in the morning in Genthod, Switzerland. I traded with my friend Harmony. I took her family pics (on her great camera) and she took ours (also on her great camera). She does an amazing job. I will be posting those pics soon!
Then we went to a "pumpkin patch" nearby to pick out some pumpkins to carve. Let's just say that this wasn't much of a patch and more like a little heap of pumpkins dumped on the side of the road. We got some pumpkins anyway. Brian helping Bimmy chose some pumpkins.
They had other kinds of squash as well. Bubba liked this one. Notice the pile of tiny pumpkins behind him. They were NOT cheap! We got 4 small pumpkins for $20 (yes, dollars since the CHF and the dollar are pretty much equal these days).
The cash register. It was an honor system. We just pushed our money into the tin can. Actually, there are a lot of things here on the honor system. Like newspapers. It is kinda the same thing where you just drop your money in and take your paper. Notice how the place was really just on the side of the road.
Since Bubba is too young yet for knives (much to his daily chagrin, I might add), we decided to try out painting a pumpkin. He enjoyed it very much. Here he is in the begining. Quite clean actually.
Mid painting James decided to take a taste (much to my chagrin).
More painting.
"Ta dump!" That is how Bimmy says it.
Then he turned on himself with the paint. Oh well. We also had Daddy actually carve a couple of our pumpkins. James was very fascinated with this.
John-Luke. Pretty much bored out of his head watching from his bouncy seat. He is so darn patient with us all. Seriously a saint!
James wouldn't touch the insides to help Brian take them out. His exact word was, "Yucky!" He did try and taste a seed but was not impressed.
Happily holding our first carved pumpkin.
He is a saint but not perfect. He finally had enough and demanded some food and a bed.
Later that night, we headed out to the church for the English ward's annual Halloween party. We don't go to that ward but we do go to some of their activities and I hang out with a few of the momma's with kids. James was a bumblebee! He was so excited to put on that costume. Thanks, Pink, for giving it to us.
Here is James with Elder Escalona (I was his mom's VT in Dallas before we moved). Yes, it is a small world. Funny to move to Geneva and have someone we knew from Dallas called over here.
They did a little cat-walk show of all the kids in their costumes. Bubba stole the show (in my professional opinion).
Don't you agree?
Johnny-Lu was a little Swiss cow (complete with cowbell). And he was happy again after his nip and nap.
Me and Brian with Lil' Captain.
James from the side. Just to get the full effect of his costume. Don't you love the stinger? The only issue with the costume was that he was so cute that I had about 5 people refer to him as a girl.
James also decided to try on a few other costumes as well. Here he is with a gnome hat and a fairy wand. We left just before they started the trick-or-treating. James had a blast!
A full body view of Baby's costume. Yes, we really do call him "baby", a lot! Isn't he a luscious little cow? (Another thanks to Pink for this costume too!)
Hope y'all had a Happy Halloween! We did!
