Friends I very much love

I want to thank everyone for coming out Sunday night, I had a wonderful time and I got to see some great people. My roommate Jessie put a lot of effort into that awesome party, complete with everything I love. There were cupcakes, games, egg hunting, egg dying, fake tattoos, bright colors & wonderful friends! I have to refer to it as the "Easter Party" because I cannot bear the idea of a "Going Away Party". 

Here is a picture of me & Jessie.

This is Jessica, Noah, Elijah & Lance, our Singles Minister & neighbors. This is not good for a nanny when neither twin wants to be held by you. 

I'm not sure how this tragedy occurred, but I failed to get a picture of the most beautiful cupcakes in the world. This was our staging area for cupcake decorating. Well actually I spy them in the upper left corner way in the back on the counter. We still have a dozen left so maybe I will get a picture yet.

This was the outside of the house, the balloons almost did not survive the windy night. Jessie & I went to the storage shed to dig out the Easter Egg wreath that I used to leave up year-round at my old apartment. Many people could only find my apartment because of the egg wreath, so we continued with tradition.

Here is the Easter egg dying table. (Thanks for the Bunny drying rack Dad, everyone loved them.)

 

Almost everyone that came. Thanks Everyone!

Jessie had the idea to have people write messages to me in German using "Google Translator". The idea is I can't read these until I learn German. I have peeked at a few of the ones written in English and I was really touched, weepy even. 

I was pretty touched by Daron & Jessie's thoughtful gift. (The wiener dog coaster was made on a previous trip to The Art Element, but the "LJD" couch coaster was specially made for me, those are our initials sitting in the same positions that we always sit in to watch movies.

This is random, but I also made a video of me & Jessie on a normal night. These are the moments I will treasure forever. 

Thanks for reading!

Christopher's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my cousin Christopher!!!

Here is a picture of him when he was much younger. These are all my boy cousins. Christopher has his tongue out and the bright red cheeks.

Cute pics and videos

I have lots to share from the past couple of months so it might be awhile before this blog is up to date. To continue from my last post, I want to post a few pictures of Jack & Edward, Julie and John's kids that I babysit for. 

This is Jack (age 4) and Edward (7 mos). Poor Baby Edward had a very high fever the day we did this because he was getting his first tooth!

Such a happy baby! And quite an imaginative 4 year old!

Ok so those were some more super cute, super fun kids. Now I have a few more random events to share. 

We are all eagerly awaiting the birth of our friends' baby boy. Chris & Shelley are expecting him any day now. Today is the due date, so I thought I would share a video from her baby shower. 

I know that was gross, this is why most of the time I am very happy to be the one behind the camera and not the one participating. 

Just a random side note I wanted to share. My roommate, Jessie & I had a very random very fun day of arts & crafts around Valentine's Day. We made some shrinky dinks, clay animals, & Valentine's Day cards for the kids. I'm quite proud of how everything turned out. 

The stand out feature of our Arts & Crafts day, was definitely this snail made by Jessie.

I made this shrinky dink, just to illustrate just how much I adore my roomie.

I sent this one to my brother in France. 

Ok and now, this is probably the best reason to visit this blog: The videos I have made with Sam & Luke (and a little bit of Baby William fussing in the background.)

Glad I have this on video, Sam says Ketchup just fine now.

How this all started...

Ok, it is finally time for me to start blogging about my adventure. I will probably have to back up a little bit before I can begin. As you can see my very 1st post was in September. I have been doing a lot of planning since then. 

So...how this all started. 

I have always known about au pairs and thought it would be an interesting job to do one day. About a year ago I realized that someday was now. My life has lined up in a way that has allowed me to pick up and leave the country. I figure I may never have this opportunity again and I am taking advantage of it. 

I moved in with my awesome friend Jessie and put most of my furniture in storage. I took a job as a photographer with Picture People, which has been awesome and super rewarding. I also began babysitting for Julie, who I used to work with at The Adams Group (another very fun job).

Julie helped me get a job babysitting everyday for her friends. 

Now I would like to take a break in my blog and do a little "show & tell" about Luke, Sam, & William. (By the way, my blog will probably be mostly stream of consciousness, but for anyone who has spent 5 minutes with me, you already know this is my normal mode of operation.)

The following are a few pictures that I had taken at Picture People where I work. I just think people need to understand how seriously cute these kids are.

Below is Sam (age 4) on the left and Luke (age 6) on the right. 

This is William, or otherwise pronounced Will-yum. Quite adorable right?

Ok, that's enough for today. ignore the time post on this blog. I've accomplished a lot today. Tomorrow I'll be adding pictures of Julie's kids, Jack & Edward, also some videos of Luke & Sam.