First Harvest

Arugula has arrived! We harvested our first batch of Arugula and made grilled pizza. I wish I would have taken a picture of the pizza…it was so good! Anyway, as you can see Christine was very proud of her harvest.

New Camera

I love, love, LOVE my new camera! Here are some of my favorite pictures so far. I think it really helps that I have such a cute subject to photograph!

How does your garden grow?

Well, we are officially staying put in Atlanta! It's good news and bad news. Bad news - we are still far from family. Good news - we don't have to worry about selling our house in this market! Other good news - we get to stay with the Atlanta weather!! Speaking of the weather, because we are in a warmer climate, we've learned we can still plant a vegetable garden in the fall. We were planning on doing this in the spring, but then our house went on the market. So, now we are attempting it! We are getting so domestic….or old…not sure which one. :)

Christine and Brian digging the hole for our box…Christine is making sure it's level

Christine super proud that she got the level on the board

helping DaDa fill the buckets with dirt

finished product

planted carrots, arugula, broccoli, and peas

Christine helping Mommy plant the seeds

peas are all planted!

She was very proud of her little shovel

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma!

I am incredibly fortunate to have Donna Chappell as my Grandma! She is an amazing women! Her life has been far from easy, however her faith in God has not been shaken. She loves the Lord and her family with all her heart. She's definitely one of my heros and someone that I look up to! And hello, for 80, she looks incredible…hopefully I inherit that as well! :) I love you Grandma! (I realize she'll never read this as she only plays solitaire on her computer…but I just want the world to know how lucky I am!)

I'm horrible at blogging....

Here are our summer happenings thus far:

May - We went to Grandma and Grandpa Sampsel's house in Beach City for Memorial Day weekend. Christine was also able to spend time with Great-Grandpa Sampsel and GG.

At the Memorial Day Parade

Build a Bear with GG

June - I went to Tennessee for a girl's weekend and Brian spent the entire weekend as a single dad. And of course, he rocked it! I'm so lucky! They had a great time together. Then, we went to Seaside, Florida. We were a little worried that the oil spill would ruin our plans, however we had a great time. There were tar balls on the beach one day, but they had it all cleaned up within 24 hours. We were very impressed! Both sets up grandparents all came down.

July - I finally spent my "fun money" and am now the proud owner of a DSLR. I LOVE it! It takes amazing pictures! We've gone to the zoo three times this month. Christine absolutely loves it! Her favorite is the Zebra. :) We've also celebrated 3 birthdays this month: Sarah, Colton, and Nina. Nina was our neighbor for a while and now she lives 5 minutes down the street. Colton and Sarah are our friends from the library. Christine and I still attend the library class every Wednesday and have made 2 very good friends from the class. We've been swimming many, many times at Sarah's pool this summer. Anyway, Christine now will randomly sing Happy Birthday to Sarah and Colton. She had a blast at all the parties!

Colton, Sarah, and Christine

at the zoo with the Zebras

my favorite new camera picture so far

Christine happenings:

- She talks non-stop! :) She knows over 100 words and has started making sentences. We are really working on "Please" and "Thank you" right now. I'm amazed by how much she knows.

- loves babies. She likes to rock them, change their diapers, and feed them.

- loves playing in her kitchen and having tea parties.

- has discovered Elmo and Winnie the Pooh.

- loves playing computer games...especially the one with Elmo and the "Sheep" game on the Ipad

- loves to swim

- can count to 5, has trouble with 6 and 7, but can then count from 8-10

- still working on the alphabet, but she knows D is for Doggie and E is for Elmo. :)

- Loves, LOVES animals.

- she can run and gallop...still working on jumping.

- loves to be tickled and will sometimes ask you to tickle her

- still takes a 2 hour after nap... thank the Lord!

- sleeps until 8:30/9 and goes to bed at 8pm

- finds it fascinating that milk comes from cows

- has to be outside at some point in the day

- Favorite foods: cheese, bread with apple butter, peas, corn, pasta, rice, chicken nuggets, apples, broccoli, cake, and m&ms.

Paris

Brian and I had the opportunity to go to Paris back in Feb/March. It was amazing!!! Paris definitely does not disappoint! And can I just say that I have an amazing husband who takes care of our finances in such a way, that when we find out 2 months before that we can go to Paris, we can go without worrying about the costs. Dave Ramsey would be proud! :) Anyway, Here was our itinerary:

Day 1: Brian met Sandy (a co-worker) in Paris. They ate at a cafe for lunch where Brian had "gelled ham." Yummy!

Day 2: Brian went to the Paris office for his conference. That evening they went on a dinner cruise.

Day 3: Bethany meets John (Sandy's husband) at the airport and we make the adventure to the hotel. (Luckily almost everything is in English!) We then find a little cafe close the hotel and I eat my first nutella crepe....so amazing! Brian and Sandy get out of their conference that afternoon and we all decide to go out to dinner around the Tour Eiffel. The Eiffel Tour is huge!! Maybe it's because I pictured it to be like the Kings Island Eiffel Tower, but it's not...it's a lot bigger. :) We then found a little italian restaurant for dinner and decided to go somewhere else for dessert. John and I mention the crepe place...that's right, I had 2 Nutella Crepes in one day! P.S. The hotel we stayed in Thursday was very cute, however there wasn't a shower. Plus, you couldn't stand up in the tub because we were in the room at the slant of the ceiling...very funny...especially for Brian.

Day 4: We switched hotels and headed out to Versailles - Sandy & John, Stacy & Mark (Sandy's sister and brother -in-law), John (a co-worker) and Brian & I all took the train to Versailles Palace in the morning. Of course, this was after I had my first "Pain Chocolate." I wish I could have one of those every single morning, well, I had one every morning in Paris; I just wish I could have them every morning in America. It would make me so happy! They are the best things ever! Anyway, we took the train to Versailles. Again, the place is HUGE! Brian and I decided to be tourist geeks and we took the audio tour. After the tour we decided to tour the gardens. The gardens are supposed to be the best thing about Versailles, however we were there in early March. Nothing was blooming so we didn't take the tour, but I would love to go back some day and see it! After Versailles we ate at a little Mexican/Pizza/Dance Club place and then took the train back to Paris. Once in Paris we went to Sacre-Coeur, which is a cathedral on top of a hill. After many steps we realized why people come to see it. The view was incredible. You could see all of Paris! Then we walked around the little town and decided to walk to Moulin Rouge. Not that all of us needed to see it, but we had time. Then we went to Notre Dame where we took my favorite pictures of the trip (see below). Of course, due to taking those pictures, we missed going to the top of Notre Dame. They closed it right in front of us. Then we headed over to Sainte Chapel. However, they closed that line right in front of us too. :) So, we decided to call it a day and headed back to out new hotel that had a shower. Our little hotel (Hotel Beaugency) was so cute! The elevator held 3 (skinny) people and our room had a view of the Eiffel tower. That evening, our group also met up with Brieana (another co-worker) and we headed back out to go up the Eiffel Tower. After that, Brieana took us on a little adventure to find a restaurant. It was very cold and we walked a lot! By the time we found a place, it was 9:30pm. All the tables were taken inside, so the server turned on the heat lamps outside and set up a table. At least there were blankets we could use to warm up as well! I decided to be adventurous and order Steak Tar Tar (RAW steak). It was actually good. It had a lot of flavor and the texture did not bother me, however all I kept thinking was "I am eating raw steak, I am going to get sick in Paris" so I couldn't finish it, but the french fries were awesome! Around 11pm, our group was able to move inside the restaurant for dessert. We left after 12am.

Day 5: Brian and I set an alarm, but obviously didn't hear it, because we woke up at 10:30am. Opps! John and Sandy had already set out for the day, but sent us a text to meet them at the Louvre for lunch. Brian and I thought it would be fun to start at the Arc de Triomphe and walk the Champ de lysee to the Louvre. It was fun, but it's a LOONNNGG walk, especially when you are rushing so you can meet your friends for lunch! :) The Arc was (again) huge and very fun to see. We then strolled, jogged, walked fast, down the Champ de Lysee to the Louvre. We did stop at the Louis Vuitton store just to see it (are we really in a recession, because there were a lot of people buy $500 wallets?). Finally, we made it to the Louvre, or so we thought. Brian called Sandy and told her we made it, however once you get the front gate of the Louvre, it's still a 20 minute walk to the door. Crazy! Anyway, we had lunch and went to see Venus and the Mona Lisa. The Louvre is overwhelming to say the least and the Mona Lisa is like an 8X10. After the Louvre, we headed to Musee de l'Orangerie (the orange museum as we liked to call it) where Monet's Water Lillies are on display. Then (at John's suggestion) we walked to Sainte Chapelle. Umm...a very far walk. If you go to Paris, in March, when it's cold, and windy, do NOT walk from Musee de l'Orangerie to Sainte Chapelle. We saw Sainte Chappelle...amazing, highly recommend it and continued walking to a little island and walked on Ile Saint Louis. It's a little street with cute little shops and is very much what you picture Paris to be like. We visited the Berthillon ice-cream shop, which claims to be the best ice cream in Paris. It was So, so good! After ice cream and a little shopping we headed back and had dinner at a little cafe near the hotel. Can I just tell you how much I enjoyed eating in Paris? You go to these cafes and nobody rushes you out and you can just sit and enjoy being with friends and enjoy good food. It's lovely!

Day 6: Sunday - we decided to go shopping. All of us were so excited about shopping. It was the coldest day...I think I had on at least 5 layers of clothing. We FINALLY find the department stores, super excited about getting inside, and they are closed. EVERYTHING was closed. Not even the little shops were open. There is NO shopping in Paris on Sunday. Plan B: There is no plan B, we've seen everything we wanted to see. So, we find a cafe and have coffee and come up with a Plan B. Plan B: Musee d'Orsay. Musee d'Orsay is an old train station turned into a modern museum. It turned out to be my favorite museum, so I am somewhat happy that Paris shuts down on Sundays. Brieana had to leave after the museum and Sandy & John and Brian & I headed back the Eiffel Tower to take pictures. On our walk back we stopped for a snack and I had another Nutella crepe. Sunday night was date night. Sandy & John went on a dinner cruise and Brian & I decided to take an illuminations tour. It was a lot of fun!! The only thing was we booked it last minute (at 4pm) and needed to be on the tour by 6:45pm. Brian still needed to find the local Paris soccer jersey (he collects them) so we decided to find somewhere fast to eat...that's right, we went to McDonalds. :) I know, we are in Paris and we ate at McDonalds; we're lame; but we really had to hurry! After McDonalds Brian found a local soccer shop and got his jersey. We then went on our tour. First, you ride a bus around the city and see all the tourist attractions lit up and then you get on a boat and go down the Siene...very romantic! Since we ate an early dinner at McDonalds, we then stopped at a cafe near the hotel and shared a pizza and dessert. It was a great evening!

Day 7: We had a couple of hours before our flight, so we woke up, had our last "pain chocolate" and headed out to do some shopping. We still didn't have anything for Christine or for my parents (who were babysitting for us). Again, the shops were closed. Apparently Monday is a lazy day as well! We heard there was good shopping at the airport, so we checked out of hotel and hopped the train for the airport. After finding our way around the airport, we found a little souvenir shop and bought a puzzle for Christine and a few other gifts. Once we got to our gate there was a ton of shopping, but it was Louis Vouitton, Rolex, Dior, etc, so I was super happy that we bought our souvenirs outside the gate. :) After going through 2 security checks, we made it on the plane and said goodbye to Paris.

Highlights and Learnings about Paris:

1. Take a winter coat if you go in March.

2. Pain Chocolat is the BEST breakfast, ever!

3. Parisians have the best bread

4. Ask for "craft" water at restaurants

5. Do not shop on Sundays

6. Two things I can now say in French - Bonjour & Merci

7. the train can take you anywhere

8. buy a museum pass, it's worth it!

9. be prepared not to spend a lot of time in the hotel room, it's super, super small

10. wear walking shoes!

P.S. No, we didn't meet any rude people in Paris.

Library Class

Christine and I attend a library class every Wednesday. She LOVES it! I have to admit, the first time there I felt a little awkward doing the Hokey Pokey, dancing to classical music, and singing the Wheels on the Bus, but the progress Christine has made has been amazing. She now does the Hokey Pokey, dances, and looks at books all by herself. If you have a library close by that offers free classes, take your kiddos! It's a great way to spend time with them!!

Christine loves to play with the basket of books

singing songs

Dancing! (notice none of the other kids are dancing in the background...just mine.)

At the end of the class the teacher always blows bubbles.

It's Christine's favorite part!

Showing off after the class

PaPa reading books with Christine

(my parents were in town and attended the class with me)

In the Words of Christine

These are just a few of the words Christine says now. I was finally able to record a little bit of it. She usually won't let me record her! By the way, when I ask her to say "Da Da" she actually does say "da da," even though at first I thought she said "pa pa" which is what she's been calling my dad (grandpa walden). I've been practicing Grammy and Grandpa with her since my parents are coming down next week to watch her.

Daddy's Day

I had to go to Cincinnati for work, so Brian was on Christine watch. He took off work on Monday to stay home with her. I'm so lucky to have a husband that is willing to stay home with our kid when he needs to! They hung out in the morning, then ran some errands, went to lunch at Chick-fil-A (I swear chick-fil-a will be Christine's McDonalds...Brian and I are a little addicted!), had nap-time (Christine, not Brian), and then went outside before dinner. I think they had a really great time! Also on Monday, Christine received a care package from Grandma & Grandpa Sampsel. It seems I am not the only one encouraging the "doggie" obsession.

Christine opening her package

Her new "doggie"

Brian said that Christine thought the peanuts were the best part~

Lions, Tigers, Bears....and Ducks!

Yay for good weather! Christine is ready for spring and I'm pretty sure this spring and summer we will be outdoors at all times. We finally got rid of the snow and the 50s & 60s have returned to Atlanta. On Friday we went to the park to feed the ducks and play on the playground. Christine loves all animals (especially dogs) and she was so excited to see the ducks and get the chance to feed them. I think she would have jumped in the water to pet them if Brian didn't hold her back!

Daddy & Christine checking out the ducks

Christine feeding the ducks

Then on Saturday we took a family trip to the zoo. It was so much fun! I think it freaked Christine out a bit to see the animals moving, but she seemed to like it over all. She roared like a lion, bounced like a monkey, and said "sssss" for the snakes. We even ran into my good friend from college, Kara and her family. How random to see someone you know at the Atlanta Zoo?

Chrisine thought riding the duck was so much fun!

very excited to pet a pig