November and December in Switzerland

Here are some photos that we took of our daily happenings during November and December (before we went to Utah).  It became coat weather but we still played outside all the time when it wasn't too bitter cold.

Happy Johnny.

There was a lot of yard work to do.  James loves using his leaf blower.

Johnny preferred to mow.

If only this was our private yard and it was fenced in.  Alas it is not.

We went to the Natural History Museum one morning.

James pretended to be interested.

I think he just wanted up so that he could jump off.

Does this one need a haircut?  I think yes but Brian was adamantly opposed to it.

It snowed quite a bit in December.

Making chocolate cookies.

What a smile!

Playing in the snow.

Chasing daddy.

What a fun game.

Never gets old.

Trying to catch the snow in his mouth.

More treat making.

It was a fun time but we like summer better!  I can't believe how fast the time flies and how much the boys have grown!

James turned 3?...

On November 15th we celebrated James birthday in classic Gillespie Family style.  We stayed in our jammies and partied all day with just our family. Here are the boys "helping" me make the cake.  By helping I mean they did the dishes!! (or licked them anyway).

And they liked it!  They love cooking for this reason.

Here is the finished cake.  We didn't have a 3 year old candle so we improvised.  We also got pizza for dinner to celebrate because that is what James wanted.

Look how excited he is!  Love it.

He could not have been happier with his presents which were all based around construction stuff.  He got a tool set, a flashlight and a "chainsaw".

Johnny was just excited that something was going on.

He could hardly contain himself!

I also took his annual picture next to his pillow that I got for him when he was a baby.  Look how he has grown.

At 2 weeks old.  What a cutie he is/was.

We love our little "Bubba" and we would not be the same without him.  He is the best brother and protects Johnny fiercely.  He loves to snuggle and give out kisses.  He also likes to growl at strangers and cannot be stopped from talking to every person that is close enough to hear him.  He is extremely friendly and is generally the happiest of kids.  He also has a lot of energy and keeps us hopping.  Life is more interesting with James around for sure!

Halloween 2011

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.

James was a little Swiss mountain man and Johnny was a bumblebee (recycled from James last year).

Becky's Birthday Bash!

Last year for my birthday I decided to party like I had just turned 30 (I had only been here for 1 month when I turned 30 and I didn't have as many friends yet nor did I know of any cool places to party for a married woman).  I invited my friends and shared my party with my good friend, Caroline.  It was an awesome night.

Here we all are at dinner. (Laetitia is taking the picture here but is pictured above).  Going around the table from the left.  Celine, Sonia, Janaina, Samantha, Lisha, Katia, Tabitha, Andrea, Marie, Caroline, Me, Ana, Catalina and Harmony.  Harmony is my one and only American friend who was able to make it to my party.

The girls at the far end of the table. (Lisha, Tabitha and Andrea).

The other birthday girl, Caroline.

Me (being a dork).

Harmony, who takes our pictures here, gave me a collage of our latest family photo shoot.  Love it.

Us posing with our presents that we got for each other.

I'm looking sorta pastey white here.

Marie with Caroline.

Harmony being herself.  Love this crazy girl.

My birthday cake!

This restaurant has a DJ on the weekends with dancing (which is why I chose it) and we all stayed late and danced.  No pics of the dancing but it was fun.  I'm really going to miss all my ladies here in Geneva.  We play way too often and I'm going to miss it.  I'm constantly leaving Brian with the boys for a girls night (well, about once or twice a month and sometimes more when I'm lucky).  We have a lot of fun.  It was a great birthday party.

Random fall 2011 pictures.

I must admit that after Grandma Shelley left we put the camera away and didn't get it out for a bit.  Until they started tearing down the building next door.  This was an awesome process (it took them like 3 months to demolish this building) and the kids could just watch this all day long.  They don't just blow up a building and call it good here.  Nope.  They have to take it apart and recycle everything they can.  And then when they have it torn down to cement they grind it up and continue to sift through it until they have separated every last piece of metal.  Waste not, want not, I guess.

At the beginning of October my mom and Aunt Nancy came.  They had taken a family history trip down in Italy (yes, I am part Italian on my mom's side) and then they took a bit longer to really sight see as well down there.  They arrived here and immediately took over my car and headed off on some day trips here in Switzerland.  Aunt Nancy went home a few days later and we had a couple of lazy weeks with my mom.  I mean really lazy since this is literally the only picture I got of her while she was here.

Yes, James and Johnny jump naked on my bed every night before I manage to wrestle them into their jammies.

We did a lot of kids stuff while my mom was here.  We went to Espace Junior which is a seasonal bouncy house place here in Geneva.  They have about 50 huge bouncy houses.  The kids love it!  James at the bottom of the huge slide.

Johnny (last year he was too young to really enjoy himself) having the time of his life.

Look at that smile.

I took his socks off and it helped a lot for his grip.

Sorry for the overload of Johnny but he is just too cute!

We played play dough.

More playing on the bed.  Looks like I posed them but I did not.  That would be weird.

Now, I feel bad that I didn't do more with my mom.  Perhaps I can tempt her to come back out and squeeze these boys some more (and go to Prague with me)...Mom???