Deutschland, Deutschland

The Eggenberger Women

(the three on the right were not part of our group)


Easter was so much fun this year since we decided to take a trip to Stuttgart (Germany) to see Etienne's sister Roberta and her husband Wolfgang. As a last minute addition, Etienne's parents and sister Susanna decided to join us which made for a lot more fun.
We left on Sunday after church and got there in the late afternoon. The weather was beautiful, so we spent the evening out in the country in Wolfgang's sister's garden/yard. (Here because of space restrictions in the cities, people often rent or buy pieces of land in the country and make them into whatever they want-- gardens, or just a yard away from home.)
We stayed the night at Roberta's and the next day we went to Ludwigsburg to see the castle there which was amazing. Apparently the guy who used to live there loved fairy tales, especially Rapunzel, so he built what he thought her tower should look like on the grounds. Now the castle and grounds are more of a museum and they've even built an entire village made up of an assortment of fairy tales. It was a lot of fun, but after the walking around the castle for several hours we were exhausted. So we headed back to Roberta's for a late lunch and then said goodbye. We had a lot of fun catching up since we don't get to see them that often and hope to visit again soon. Thanks guys for letting us crash your Easter festivities.

Hansel and Gretel

Rapunzel' Tower

As for me....

And now for the reasons I haven't been blogging...I've been pretty busy too I guess. In January I went back to work teaching English, but only started with one student again--one hour a week---not too bad. I started taking Pilates which you still can't tell from my waistline or any other part of my body for that matter. I've also been doing a lot more photography. I've done about7 or 8 shoots in the last month alone, one of which was Dani's (Etienne's brother)engagement session. Congrats Dani. I'll post some of those pics later. I've thrown one baby shower with my co-host Stephi and will be throwing another one tomorrow actually. The first went really well and I'll let you know how the second goes. Sean and I have been working on my website. I say I, but really it was all Sean's talent, and my nagging. Sorry Sean. I will also post on that. We went to Germany for Easter-- lots of fun with Roberta and Wolfgang (Etienne's sister and bro-in-law) and I've been having fun with Siena. She is pretty amazing. Keep reading there are many more posts to come.

First Foods

At Siena's last Dr. appointment, the doc encouraged me to start her on solid foods, so.... we have. Here is the video of the first attempt. The doc said to try zuchinni or carrots to see which one she liked better. (I was secretly hoping for the zuchinni since it isn't so sweet.) So we tried it and here is the result. This is actually the second video which is when we gave her the carrots. It was pretty obvious what her choice was.

Survival Weekend

Some time ago, Etienne became obsessed with all things Native American and reads everything he can get his hands on about them. Because of this fascination and one with the human body and it's miraculous abilities, he decided that one day he wanted to do a survival weekend, where he would sleep outside on the coldest night of the year with no sleeping bag and just the basic necessities. He has talked about this almost from the time we were married.
Well a couple months ago this is exactly what he did. He had warm clothes, a blanket, food, a machete, and our close friend Oli. They hiked, cut down a tree so they could cross a river, hiked some more, cut down some more trees, hiked into a valley, set up camp and cut down a lot more trees (firewood). I must say that not all the trees were big, but really I'm surprised there were any left in the area. All in all, he loved it and has planned to make it an annual event. If there are any other adventurers out there interested, let us know. I'm sure he could take you along next year. The only catch is it is in the Swiss mountains, but if you can make it, I'm sure he is game.

(No, that isn't where they needed the tree.)

Blog Backlog

So over the next several days, I will be backlogging all the many htings that kept me from bloggin over the last few months, so get ready and here we go....

3 months of nothing

So guess who's back?!? Well hopefully me. Things are busy, but really there's no excuse. I am sure everyone else had plenty of busy to keep them blogging. I am just a slacker. So what has happened? Siena is now approaching her 5 month mark rapidly which really doesn't seem possible at all. She is getting so big and is active in that she always has something she wants to be doing and is trying to move, but no rolling over or crawling yet. We're waiting, but are ok with her not growing too fast.

Moving on

So we are trying to figure out when is the best time to move Siena into her own room. When she was born I remember saying that I only wanted her in the room with us for a month but as that month drew closer I felt some anxiety because it just seemed too early for her to be so far away from us.

(no that isn't our nursery)
Now however, I think it is the right time to move her---despite still feeling like it is a bit far away-- but there are a million litle reasons stopping us from doing it. So give a sista some advice. When did you move your kids into the nursery and why was it best then?

Waiting for the Twilight

When oh when will I be able to see it. This is a serious problem with living in der Schweiz. You never get the good movies on time. It still isn't out over here. The frustrating thing is hearing from all of you about how wonderful the movie is. Seriously give me a break. But don't, I love hearing about what everyone thinks. It just makes me a little bitter is all. The thing worst thing about it is I totally didn't think I could bear leaving Siena to watch it, but then I got my self all psyched up and decided I could do it since it would only be 2 hours. Then I found out it they delayed it coming out here. So it won't even be out until next month. AAAAHHHHHH. C'est la vie. Oh well, but please do tell me what you think and at least I can live vicariously through you until I can see it myself.

ObamAnnoying

Seriously, I thought that since I can't live in America right now, that I would at least have the benefit of not having to hear about Obama 24/7. WRONG. In fact I am pretty sure that the coverage of him here surpasses that of the coverage in America. It is borderline obsessive.
I will be curious to see if the media does it's job this time around and doesn't just give him a free pass. Unfortunately, so much of the world shapes it's opinions upon what is hand-fed to them, and not on any true factual study of the issues. The media is extremely powerful and very often only half truthful.
The world has crowned Obama as a savior, and nothing could qualify him as anything near that. Regardless that fact, he has done nothing as of yet other than winning a popularity contest. Now the hard part begins.
Despite the delusions of grandeur so many of my fellow Americans, ex-patriots, and members of human society may have concerning who he is or what he can possibly achieve, I do wish him the best and stand behind him. He is all we've got for the next 4---probably 8 years. (I'm not holding out any hope.) I grateful for his enthusiasm in jumping into the presidency. However, I am pretty sure that although the media depicts him as if he is the only new president to ever be anxious and excited to jump in with both feet, that in fact, that is how every presidency starts. After the promises he made today that he would live up to everything he said during the campaign I am highly skeptical, but all I can do is hope that at least he can live up to the good promises he made.

Not that the election matters anymore, here is one of the many reasons I didn't vote for him for any of you who care....

2 Sides of Siena

Since I know most of you won't even get to meet little Siena until she is almost a year old, I thought you should see her now. So here are a couple videos of her that show a bit of her personality. The quality on the first on is not the best because I was holding her and shooting it. On the second one I think I'm talking to someone on the phone in the background and Etienne didn't realize he was shooting a video at first. Enjoy!!!

My Life

I always swore I wasn't going to only blog about my baby once she was born, but now I realize I have no life other than her at the moment. So since this is the case and also because I keep getting requests for more piccies of the little one, here goes.

FOR JESSICA...

So a while ago, I got a cool surprise----- a comment from Jessica Lewis, a Sista that served in my singles ward who I became friends with. Anyway, I was really excited because I had lost touch with her. However, that excitement was quickly squashed when I went to look at her blog and found out she doesn't have one....SO, this is a post especially for Jessica. Here is my email address. Write me. j_3xe@hotmail.com Then get a blog, so I can spy on you too!!! And for anyone else who reads this blog (who I know), write me, or at least get a blog (so I can spy on you too)! Love Y'ALL!!

About time...

Well it seems I never have enough time these days, but really I can't complain. I have a good excuse now!!! Siena Maria Eggenberger was born on Saturday, Nov. 29th at 11:04 am after a bit of an ordeal.

For those who follow this blog, you know that I went in to the hospital on Thurs the 27th to be induced. At 7:00 pm that day they started a round of pills which continued every 4 hours through the night. This was supposed to start the contractions, but nothing came of it. That ended at 7:00 the next morning at which time the doctor came to check on me. I recieved the news that we couldn't continue with inducing until 24 hours had passed for fear of a there being a complication with the differents drugs they were using to induce me. Then they told me I had to wait in the hospital to be monitored during that time. Then next morning at 5:00 am they started me on an I.V. to try inducing me again. This time the contractions came, but after several hours nothing was happening and the doctor reccomended that we go ahead with a c-section.


So, after all is said and done, the c-section was not at all what I wanted, but I have no regrets. I look at Siena and can't help but feel happy for every day and every minute I get to spend with her.