6 months later.

We were so blessed the day Evelyn entered our lives, in person, SIX months ago!  We have been so blessed to have her in our lives and cannot imagine our lives without her.

Here are a few of the first pictures we saw of Evelyn - just ONE YEAR ago (March 11th)...

2 days old!

8 months old.

and then the day we started to actually know her (August 27th)...

14 months old.

and then the day she was officially a Blomgren (September 16th)...

15 months old.

Evelyn has obviously had drastic changes in her life over the past six months and it has it's taken some time for her to be comfortable in new surroundings.  Our family in general has also had many changes, both good and bad, in the past year, and we are extremely thankful for all the support from our friends and family, both near and far.

18 months.

One of the really fun things to look back on is Evelyn's blossoming - as I like to call it.  She's definitely blossomed into something so much more than when we first met her. I'm sure she was a happy babe in her foster home and well adjusted to her life there but when we met her she was not herself (for obvious reasons).  So as time slowly passes we see her true colors come out and it's just so fun.  For example, she only really smirked for us until about 2 months ago and now she SMILES and giggles often.  It's not that we hadn't seen that smile because if anyone could actually coax a laugh out of her she had a smile to go with it. But now, she freely gives them both.  When she was first home she was only expressive in her frustration and grief, but now she's become expressive in her happy, sad, mad, hungry, giddy, scared, tired and everything else in-between... we love it all and are thankful she can communicate with those emotions.

20 months.

Evelyn Jae-in, we are so thankful for you in our family and love you very very much.  You are a major blessing in our lives and we are excited to see you continue to blossom :)

paris for a day.

During my Mom's visit we took the opportunity to get away without our kids - two nights in Paris? Yes, please!  Thanks Mom for making the trip possible for us.

We took the ICE train in late one evening and arrived after midnight our first night - the train only takes about two hours! How convenient?!  The following day we saw as much of the city of Paris as possible  and felt pretty successful too.  We started the day off with a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral.

We then made our way to the Louvre.

 This amazingly huge museum (nearly 35,000 objects to see) was beautiful on the inside and out.  The architecture was really stunning and we enjoyed walking around for a few hours.  Of course we couldn't see everything - that would take a few months - but we saw some of the highlights....

The Mona Lisa

 One of my favorites from a series of four by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

 ...and one of David's favorite's by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson and a painting he saw during his Royal Servants trip before I met him!  You can see how huge this painting is from the blurred person walking by below...

 One of the really neat things to see was people recreating some of the paintings... so fun to watch and see art being made in front of you!

Then we moved onto the famous street Avenue des Champs-Élysées we grabbed Starbucks (yes, it's true we did... but it's been a long time since we've had Starbucks so, why not?!) and lunch and then took a few minutes to watch some pretty terrible street performers.  At the end of the street was the Arc de Triomphe.  We walked to it and saw the large traffic circle (with 12 roads out of it), the grave of the unknown soldier but we didn't pay to walk up to the top of the monument.  While we were there David told me that a pilot had flown a plane through the arch but I was having a hard time believing it... and then David was second guessing the fact but, it turns out he was right on!  If you ever see this arch in person, imagine a plane going through that arch (crazy) and the pilot who was to do it died practicing... and the feat still went on!  Interesting fact, I thought.

 Many more blocks of walking and we finally saw her... the Eiffle Tower... there she is.

 Resting on a bench with a great view.

After walking around the Eiffel Tower area we took a boat tour down the Seine where we could see most of the sights we walked by that day - just from a different angle.  When the tour ended the tower was lit and our day felt complete :)  We were pretty beat and headed back to our hotel for the evening.

buongiorno.

To help pass the time during my mom's visit (haha) we decided to visit Roma!
It.was.awesome.

David had a few (read eight) speaking engagements during the time my mom was here -- they were timed terribly but when work gets in the way of life... we get back at it by taking leave to Italy :)  So, David went to Venice for work for a few days and then met us in Rome for the rest of the week to explore.  While he was in Venice he was able to walk around the islands for a few hours and admire some of the rather invested costumes from carnevale (the classy mardi gras, so it seems).  Here are some of his pictures from his day there.

 

 

 

Us ladies flew to Rome and met David at the apartment we were renting for a few days.  The day we arrived my mom unfortunately did not feel well so she layed in bed for the whole first day while we walked about taking in the beauty of the ruins around town and seeing the colosseum (about 3 min from our apartment!).  After the girls were safely tucked in, David and I went on a date!  It was a fun few hours of just having a classy dinner in Italia and drinking delicious wine and catching up from his time away.

The first full day we had scheduled a tour of part of the Vatican.  It was very overwhelming and we were soaking in as much as we could in the 1.5 hours we had with a guide - what a beautiful place with more history and art than we could absorb!

Trying to focus and take it all in... while David manages both crazy girls :)

After our tour inside we moved onto Saint Peter's Basilica where we shortly walked through on our own and took our time in the courtyard in front of the church where the Pope addresses the people.  Again, so beautiful and so much unique art to appreciate.  

And, what's it's REALLY like traveling with two toddlers. It's not easy or always fun but you just have to make it happen if you want to see and do things :)  Isn't he da man?

Thankfully, as the day progressed, my mom was feeling more and more like herself and was able to really start to enjoy Rome too.  For dinner we went to a little hole in the wall restaurant down the road from our apartment and took our time eating and talking.  Norah gets a little crazy at restaurants so David was kind enough to head back a bit early so she could run around our apartment while my mom and I stayed and talked.

Near our apartment.

On the second day we started off with some scrumptious cappuccinos!  I had three or four in one day (probably not the best for the bod but it sure went down easy!).

After that great start to our day we headed off to explore the most well known colosseum.  It was really neat to see the inside of it and learn more about the details of the games and the building itself.  The small museum inside was well done and helped us understand a part of the sequence of history surrounding the building and the land it was on.

The half covered ground shows where the area's "floor" was and underneath it was a maze of rooms and halls and cages for animals.

Gelato was next on the list... one of three times David was able to enjoy it (only two for the rest of us)!  Gelato is really really good, if you haven't been able to try it, you should take the plunge.  And again, for dinner, we tried another small hole in the wall place near our apartment.  There is a lot of amazing pizza to be had and anywhere you go... they seem to really know their pizza (of course)!

The colosseum is just above Norah's head.

The best way to travel with kids... the Ergo. They are happy to be close and can't get away and we have our hands free to hold each other's too!

Our third day started off with some exploring of Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum where many ruins lie untouched.  We were able to walk through some of the old parts of Palatine and "see" what the old city was somewhat like.  

Inside Palatine Hill area.

After the hill we walked towards the Pantheon to this wonderful open square where there was so much life!  Music, dancing, art and lots of tables outside!  It was a gorgeous day to enjoy another cappuccino at a cafe.

We stopped by the Pantheon, then had more pizza (outside!), more gelato and then all rested back at our place.

The Pantheon is behind us.

Italy is so lovey dovey :)

During the girls' naps my mom and I went out to the little boutiques and shopped around (had another cappuccino, of course) for some unique finds. We both ended up with a scarf and I even got a dress (super duper on sale!). So fun.  Once the girls were up we walked over to Trevi fountain where the crowds were big and the fountain was beautiful.

We weren't that hungry but we tried to get some food at two different restaurants and got kicked out of one and left the other because the servers was incredibly rude. It was sorta a flop of a night for food and we got a pizza (again) to go for the girls and me and my mom and David stayed at the second place and had a beer!  We flew back to Germany in the morning to cold weather and a bit of snow.

Rome was so wonderful - my favorite place we've been during our time here so far.  I would go back if we have time.