Visit from Grandparents - Take 2

My parents were out 2 months ago in hopes they would be here for Lily's birth. Even though they stayed a week past my due date Lily wasn't ready to come out, so they had to leave before meeting the newest grand baby. They took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to fly out here again to finally meet this little girl

Nana and Poppie with Jack and Lily

We had 3 whole days with them and we tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather. Saturday we drove to Gruyere

Beautiful view of Gruyere

Gruyere castle

Jack enjoying the view from the castle

Of course we couldn't make a trip to Gruyere without having some authentic fondue

Jack and Lily with Gruyere city centre
in the background

On Sunday I thought it would be fun to take my parents to the Christmas market in Montreux since they had never been to a European Christmas market before. Even though Montreux is probably my favorite Swiss city, as soon as we got to the Christmas market I was ready to leave. The place was unbelievably crowded and it was impossibly to enjoy anything when you are drowning in a sea of people

The only picture I could get at the market. It shows just how
crowded that place was.

On Monday we decided to stay local and visit the Creux du Van above Neuchatel. According to wikipedia:
The Creux du Van is a natural rocky cirque of approximately 1,400 metres of width and 150 metres of depth.

Walking to the edge (the ground drops off right behind
that small wall in the distance)

Luke (and Lily) next to the drop off

Walking along the edge

The Creux du Van

Luke and Lily 

It was freezing cold that day so we sought refuge at a nearby deserted farm and started a fire to stay warm and have a picnic

Everyone by the fire

Poppie and Jack

Nana, Poppie and Jack

Luke staying warm with Lily

My folks had to head back home early Tuesday morning, so it was a short, but fun few days!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are getting geared up for Christmas. Jack is really excited about everything this year and it is so cute to watch. When I ask what he wants for Christmas he usually says "presents" and then when I ask what kind of presents he usually just says whatever he is looking at that moment: "toys" "water" "books" etc. I just hope his wish list stays this easy for the next 14 years ;-)

The other day we had some friends over to make gingerbread houses.

Jack's house before candy

Loving this game!

Jack and his friends

Trying to fit as much candy as possible

Jack helped me set up our little Christmas tree and asks everyday "when will presents be under there?"

In the meantime, Lily is growing bigger and cuter by the day. She went through a week or so of what we thought was colic, but thankfully it went away (for the most part). She is still fussy at night but from midnight - 6am (sometimes 7 or 8) she is OUT! It is pretty awesome, so I can't complain about the fussy nights.

Pretty in purple

Love the baby smiles

Trying to get in some "tummy time" 

Most of tummy time is spend face down like this

It is so funny how different Jack and Lily look, but every once in a while I get a glimpse of similarities. 

Jack around 7 weeks

Lily around 7 weeks

Escape from the fog

Living by the lake has its downfalls, one of which is the fall fog. Somedays it is like living inside a cloud and you never see the sun. I don't really mind the fog, but it bothers Luke so this past weekend he was determined to escape it and drive up the mountains. We didn't have to drive far before we were out of the fog cloud

In the mountains above Neuchatel looking down on the
sea of fog below us

We drove up to the city of La Chaux de Fonds where they have a free zoo

On the playground at the free zoo

It was great to feel the sunshine!

All bundled up with little Lily

At one point at the zoo I told Jack that there were reindeer (not sure if they really were reindeer or not, but they sure looked like it) and Jack told me "no mommy, those aren't rain deer, they are fog deer." I love the things that this boy comes up with!

 My little animal lover

 Having fun in the leaves

 My guys

 And here are some more pictures of Lily with her cute bow a friend made for us

A good way to keep Jack from being a camera hog
is to give him his own camera!

Smiles for daddy!

My pretty girl

"Does this bow make my cheeks look fat?"

Loving the double chin!

Happy girl

Basel Herbstmesse

This past weekend we drove up to Basel to go to their annual Autumn fair (called the Herbstmesse in German). It is Switzerland's largest and oldest fun fair, dating back more than 540 years and attracts over a million visitors.  

One of several squares throughout Basel with rides and food

Taking a look at the Rhine river

Jack and Mabel eating hot dogs

Hundreds of booths were scattered throughout selling
all sorts of things. I picked up several tasty treats for myself.

Jack and Mabel were able to enjoy the kiddie rides

I loved how this one was like a mini-prison. I wish we
could have let them ride in this for several hours while
I got some Christmas shopping done ;-)

We couldn't leave without riding the pony

It was a good afternoon outing. Surprisingly Lily did great and slept the whole time we were at the festival and did pretty good during the 90 minute (each way) drive.

I wanted to post some updated pictures of Lily. She just had her one month check up and is weighing in at just over 11 pounds. I haven't been able to take as many pictures of her like I did when Jack was a baby... and here is why

Taking a picture of Lily is no easy task. Every time I get ready to take a picture of Lily, Jack wants to jump in the photo too:

That's not so bad, but eventually he wants to be the only one in the picture so he'll try everything possible to block Lily from the camera

And then there is the smothering. It's really hard to get a good picture of Lily when Jack is always trying to get right in her face:

Every once in a while I can get a picture of Lily by herself:

But then Jack is always asking me to take a picture of what he is doing:

And then, if I am taking pictures of Lily, I cannot watch what kind of trouble my 3 year old is getting in to

But every once in a while I get some good shots:

I love to see Lily light up when she sees her brother:

But then again I have to be careful of the 3 year old who thinks it's fun to launch Lily right off her little rocker:

And it's time to put the camera away...