So much personality...

Mark and I have said many times that Adam would be quite comfortable on stage in High school plays... What do you think? =)

Adam's turn!

I was not as lucky this time at JC Penney as they did not give me access online to all the pictures of the session... so we just have the pictures that I ordered but it turns out that these are about the only pictures where Adam was having decent smiles... I think Adam did not feel like taking pictures that day!!

My favorites are the first two! He looks so grown up all of a sudden!

Our cute 21 month old boy...

I went this morning to JC Penney Studio to have Antoine's pictures taken now that his skin is much better and these are the thumbnails that I got online following our session... The quality is not the best on these small prints due to the low resolution but it allows you to see the many expression that our sweet boy has...

Beautiful Fall...

The sun was out today as we came home and it seemed like it was a perfect moment to catch the beautiful colors of the leaves and the smiles of our cute boys...

Fall Family FUN...

How embarrassed am I to start this post after being silent for almost 6 months... I guess it is never too late...

My reason for not writing anything was "I have so much to catch up and so many pictures I want to sort to post my favorites..." Well, it did not get better but I have decided that I need to move on with the present and maybe I will go backward afterwards...

We have been enjoying the Fall weather (besides the last four days where it has been raining constantly) by going out every day to playgrounds, parks and meeting with friends.

We have also spent a lot of time in front of our yard and the boys have had so much fun playing with their newly purchased scooters, tricycles and cars (thank goodness for consignment sales and Craigslist!)

Adam loved our Burke Lake outing to the fishing pier and had his second experience fishing (his first one being at Myrtle Beach last April)... and he caught a fish! He was so proud of himself but also would not get close to the fish at all! It took a lot of talking on our part for him to stand by the fish to take the picture!

Adam and Antoine are obsessed with firetrucks, police, taxis, garbage trucks, motorcycles and buses... Each time we are in the car driving somewhere we all play the game "who is the first who will see...".

So a couple of weeks ago we went to the Firestation open house and the boys had a blast... They were able to go into the trucks, ambulances, and police cars and pretend they were driving them, got their blood pressure checked and loved being around firemen and police officers...

Rock Creek Park Horse Stables

The boys and I met Lisa Crawford and her girls at the Rock Creek park (a beautiful and huge park/forest in D.C) to visit the Nature Center (which was closed) and the Horse Stables. Adam and Claire had a blast watching the dozens of horses...

Antoine loves animals (he follows dogs who are walked on our street) and was very happy to be so close to the horses too but I could tell that he was glad however to be

in my arms... =)

A beautiful day for a fun picnic among the trees...

Sunday afternoon at the playground...

We started teaching Adam how to swing by himself and he is beginning to get it (I was going to send videos but it doesn't seem to be loading...I am still learning!) but we think it will take practice for him to swing high on his own!!

We had a good time as a family and enjoyed being together, watching Antoine discover the slide and Adam rolling down the hill... It reminded me that life is full of simple and joyful moments...

A beautiful day at the park...

When we saw Saturday morning how wonderful the weather was, we wanted to take advantage of it and do something outdoors... We called our friends Robert and Kristin and made plans to meet at a new park and have a picnic together... The temperature was ideal and the place was perfect! We chilled, played with the kids and enjoyed our last minute picnic together... I like to say that life is full of simple joyful moments and Saturday was one of those...

Antoine is not used to going outside yet since we have been "forced" to stay indoors for the last 5 months... He stayed mostly at the same spot the whole time and observed everyone around him... He was just so adorable that I could not stop taken pictures of him!!

We love snow!

We had a blast today with our 6 or 8 inches of snow (the most we have had this winter) and Mark decided to stay home to play with us, go sledding and build a snowman with Adam. We took our annual family pictures in the snow and had a great time!

Antoine had such a good time on his baby sled... He loved being pulled by Mark down the hill and racing with Adam who was on his own sled... until Adam crashed into his brother and his sled hit Antoine's mouth and chin... If you look closely at our family pictures (taken after the crash!) you will notice Antoine's bruised and red chin...

Wonderful news...

My sister Emmanuelle just had her first baby today and I am so excited and happy for her, especially because she had to wait 15 years to experience motherhood.!

Her name is Zelie... She is so beautiful!

Cold, Colds, Ice Cream

Last night we finished our extended celebration of Elodie's birthday with a trip to Baskin Robbins. We all have little colds, it was cold outside, so what better to do than go eat ice cream? (Okay, we were motivated by a free scoop and buy-one-get-one free cones.) The whole family, even Antoine, were treated to frozen delight on a cold winter's night.

Adam was so enchanted by his ice cream he decided then and there that he wants to go back for his own birthday, and he even chose the flavor of ice cream that he'll get--Rocky Road.

Fun, fun, fun...

Poor innocent Elodie

Mark: Last night we went to dinner to celebrate Elodie's birthday. We went to an Afghan restaurant that several people had recommended, and for which she had obtained (of course) a coupon. We were excited to be eating out just the two of us. After carefully reviewing our choices, Elodie chose a chicken Kabob. An innocent enough choice, right?

When the food was served Elodie's plate was heaped with delicious looking chunks of marinated chicken with miscellaneous vegetables, all piled on a long piece of Afghan bread. She was smiling with delight. She innocently picked what she thought was a slice of green pepper for her first bite.

Except it wasn't a green pepper, it was a slice of jalapeño pepper. Her smile turned to horror as her mouth began to burn. Soon her eyes began to water and turn red. "What do I do?" she implored in distress. "It burns."

I lamely suggested she drink water. It was kind of funny and I couldn't help but laugh except very soon tears began to stream down her face. She tried eating the bread, drinking water...but nothing was helping. I got serious, hopped up to see the manager, told him what had happened and asked if there was something they could give her to counteract the jalapeño. He dashed into the kitchen and shortly returned with a plate of rice and sweet carrots--thinking the sweetness would help. But the carrots were warm and the heat only added to her suffering.

Poor Elodie. Her birthday dinner had definitely taken a bad turn. Soon another server rushed out of the kitchen with a rather large vanilla custard. That did the trick. It was cold and sweet and creamy. Both of the waiters in the restaurant apologized, the manager apologized...everyone felt bad for her. At least 10 minutes into the ordeal, and after eating half of the custard, Elodie's tongue finally felt better and we were able to enjoy our delicious meal together.

"It didn't know that was a jalapeño; I never cook with them. I didn't know what they look like," Elodie explained to everyone.

Poor innocent Elodie. She knows now.

Antoine is officially a toddler!

Antoine has wanted to walk for months and months and months in order to keep up with his brother! Since December, he has been cruising and walking holding our hands but on Valentine's day, he found the courage or the confidence to let go and wander on his own! He is just so happy to walk all over the house!

Antoine turned ONE!

I started making a month ago Amish Friendship bread and Antoine loves it so I decided that it would be his birthday cake this year (not too sweet and not too messy...)




I added this musical candle on top which he was really intrigued by (see the puzzled look on his face) and really did not know what to think about.

Adam had asked for days to be the big helper and blow the candle for his brother... =)
We had a very simple and sweet birthday celebration for our Antoine.

I can't believe a year has already gone by!