Happy Father's Day: My Husband

This is officially the celebration of Zach's first Father's Day!!  We celebrated last year because he was already a father, but this one is special because he has his little son here to love on him and remind him of what a blessing he is to Carter!
I have been blown away watching Zach so easily take on the role of Daddy.  He was made for this!  Zach is a very loving man towards family and that is just magnified with his son!  It is very apparent that he would do anything in the world for the safety and well being of Carter.  Carter will grow up feeling overwhelmingly loved, supported, and encouraged. 

Daddy gives Carter lots of kisses and love

As soon as we found out we were pregnant, we began imagining our future life with our little one.  Many men (and women, honestly) freak out at least at some point of the up coming reality that will be their lives.  Zach never had one of those moments, or if he did, he never showed an ounce of fear or nervousness.  He was elated!  Every conversation was filled with joy when discussing our son and parenting and how our child will grow up.  Zach said from the beginning he was going to be a very involved Dad and he wanted his child(ren) to know that they were the most important part of his life (....besides me of course hehehe). 

Loving on Carter before he's even here

In labor and delivery, Zach showed characteristics that were very telling of how he would father.  He encouraged me the whole way through reminding of the good that was going to be our outcome.  It got tough in there and he stayed very positive and focused on helping me through it.  Zach is already like this with Carter.  Each little milestone that Carter moves towards, Zach is there rooting him on and encouraging him.  Every night when he gets home, he practices walking with Carter, he watches him get better and better at crawling and is genuinely excited at his growth.  He plays with Carter and finds himself doing extremely silly things to get a smile out of him. 

First moment with his son

Taking his baby boy home

I've mentioned before the bed time routine that we do which is bath, feed, story, bed.  Zach has been a part of that every single night (that he's been in town).  He is commited to being there for Carter and being in Carter's childhood memories.  He doesn't even do it out of "I just know I've said I'm going to" kind of mindset, but he is excited to do it!  There have even been nights when friends or family have been over and I've told Zach that he can be with them while I do bedtime and he always says no!  I want to do it too.  :)  Not only that, he makes it fun and exciting for Carter by playing bath games with him or singing goofy songs to make Carter smile.  He is amazing with him.

Zach flying Carter and zooming him into kisses!

I think one of the greatest things is just how Zach wants to be such a big part of his life.  He shares the parenting duties with me to his greatest ability and I couldn't imagine being in any different situation.  I couldn't imagine not having him here to help with every task and decision.  Granted, there are many times that he lets me decide how we should schedule or handle certain things, but he is always ready to share ideas of what we could do or try and he is always there to be a part of implementing them! He always tells me he doesn't care what he's doing with Carter, he loves every opportunity to be with him.  This works out great for me when I've been battling a nap fighting kiddo and would love a break.  It's not the most fun moment to spend with our little love but Zach jumps on the opportunity to tackle naptime because it gives him another moment with his lil man!  He is joyful in every thing he does with Carter.
I love being in the kitchen cleaning, or upstairs, and hearing Zach and Carter playing.  It usually fills the house with giggles and "yay's" and excitement!  I know they have a blast together and their relationship will only grow stronger through the years.

Snuggles before nap time!  Carter is fascinated by Daddy's nose.

Something that is precious to me is that Zach LOVES dressing him and Carter alike.  It's not like they wear exact matching outfits, but he loves to coordinate them in either colors or patterns!  It's pretty cute!  He used to love playing superman with Carter when he was littler and fly him through the house.  He loves any firsts he can do with Carter, like experiencing his first snow, feeding him his first foods, watching his first moves.

Dressed like Daddy for Christmas

C's first snow!

Daddy feeding C peassss!  ewww



Carter watching his Daddy at his baby dedication

 Zach is a wonderful Daddy and our little one is soooo lucky!  He has the smartest, most loving, most hardworking Daddy to grow up with and that's a blessing.
And I'm sure lucky to have this man by my side as we experience life together and parenting!  What a rock he is for me!  I love you Babe!! :)  Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day: My Daddy

Well, Father's Day is right around the corner!  I love this holiday because I get to celebrate the amazing Dad I have!  I am the luckiest girl in the whole world to have the Daddy that I was blessed to be given to!  My Dad is a wonderful man!  He has shown me the way a man should love both his wife and his family.  He's smart, funny, hardworking, loving, encouraging, a blast to be around and the greatest example of what makes a man!

Dad deep in thought!  He's a very brilliant guy!

Always having fun no matter what there is (or isn't) to do!

Fun to hang around with Dad!

I remember growing up watching my parents love on eachother with handholding, flirting, kissing, etc and being completely DISGUSTED with it!  Especially the older I got and the more embarassing it was in front of my friends.  It was clear that they were completely in love, and that part was great!  They got a kick out of myself and my siblings "ewwww" ing and proclaiming how "grosssss" they were.  And it didn't stop them.  Today, I am soooo glad that I witnessed that with them my whole life.  Dad was always making an effort to make Mom feel special and loved.  He treated/treats her amazing!  It set a very very high standard for what I was looking for in a partner.  Someone who stood by my side, encouraged me, loved me deeply, put me first, and never forgot the little things were the most important.  He showed me how a man should love a woman.

Dad and Mom at their highschool prom

Loving on Mom (and being silly) this Christmas

In fact, one of my favorite memories with Dad was when I turned 16 and he took me on my very first date.  I wasn't allowed to go on dates before 16, and when I did go on one with Dad, he demonstrated how lovely I should be treated.  He was a gentleman.  He knocked on the door and handed me a flower and we went off to the car for our date, after of course telling Mom what time he'd have me home by.  We arrived at downtown Fort Worth for dinner.  We had a blast talking together and thoroughly enjoyed the funky restaurant we ate at.  He opened doors, paid for dinner, and gave me his full attention.  He took me on a horse and carriage ride through the lit up city after dinner too.  Which, ironically, Zach proposed to me in NYC on a horse and carriage ride.  We hung around Ft. Worth for a bit after that enjoying the rest of our date.  I knew then that I would not settle for less than a gentleman because I knew they existed!  I thank Dad for the man I married because I didn't settle, I waited to find the man that would love me the way Dad loves Mom.  And isn't it ironic that they thought the same way about being romantic (or showing what romantic looks like) with a sweet, tender horse and carriage ride?  I'd say I married a man like my Daddy, which I think is something I couldn't ask for more!

The image every girl loves to see:  Her Daddy and Hubby having a blast together! 
Thanks Dad for loving my Husband!

Dad also showed me how to love a child.  He was always a very involved, loving father.  He had to work a lot when I was younger, but I don't remember that being the overwhelming memory.  I more so remember learning to ride a bike with him running after me and being there to pick me up when I crashed into the parked car, I remember him tucking me into bed and telling me he loved me, I've had lots of snuggle time with him, I remember walks with him where we just talked about what was going on in life-we even did this when I was in high school, I remember family road trips with Dad calculating how long it would take at the current speed we were driving and figuring how to get there fastest without stopping-which meant timing lights.  He got a kick out of doing that and it always made me laugh.  He helped me with homework, especially stinky math homework.  I give him a TON of credit for that because I was awful at it and it was like talking to a brick wall when trying to teach me, but somehow he stayed very patient and attempted new ways to teach me.
He is also very wise and reliable.  I turn to him with a hundred questions.  "Dad, what do I do when my car broke down AGAIN for the 20th time in college?"  "Dad, how would you budget ______?"  "Dad, my computer says something odd, what should I do?" etc. etc. etc.  Yes, these might be just the mundane questions, but no matter what pickle I got myself into, Dad would always fix it.  He is a genius with cars, computers, etc.   I would in my I-know-nothing-about-cars-or-computers state, call him and vaguely describe whatever was going on and he would either tell me how to fix it or come himself to help me.  He is very selfless and giving.  He is there to help at any point in time for any reason.  I always know I can turn to my Dad.

Something special about him was he was great at getting the point across when we did something wrong.  I felt deep sorrow when I made a bad choice and got the talking to because I hated letting him down.  Sometimes that ended in me crying after being sent to my room.  But what was special was that in the next 5 minutes, Dad would always come to my room, hug me, and tell me how he loved me.  He hated seeing me cry, but was strong enough to let the lesson sink in before comforting me.  I felt so loved when he would come up, even when I would still act angry at him.  And it never failed, he always came.

Special Daddy hugs

Still getting Daddy hugs

My wedding day was something I always looked forward to experiencing with my Daddy.  It was a very special day and I dreamed of walking down the aisle with my Dad and later getting that special Daddy/daughter dance.  It was one of those moments walking down the aisle where I felt overwhelming love for the man that has been the biggest, most important man in my life taking me to the other man who would be the other most important man in my life.  It was tender.  I swear Daddy had a tear, though he says the photographer just caught him scratching his eye.  Whether that was the case or not, I like to tease him and believe that he had a moment where he was so touched he shed a tear.  :)  You tell me....

Dad and I love to use being together as a great excuse for eating sweets! :)  We both have a sweet tooth and indulge it when we are together.  When I go to meet him at work for lunch, we use that as an opportunity to try the restaurants most delicious, calorie packed, chocolatey-ist desert we can find!!  When I spend the night there when Zach is gone, we have bowls of ice cream together.  Come to think of it, I should plan way more slumber parties to get way more ice cream! ;)  We loved watching 24, the show together so we often scarfed our desert down while watching the drama packed show. 
My Dad loves Carter!!  He is so sweet with him.  His ultimate goal is to get a smile out of him so he plays goofy faces with him, lets him hold his cold beers--don't worry that's as far as it goes, bounces him, talks to him.  He is a great Captain to my little man and I am so blessed that Carter has such a strong role model to watch and learn from.  Hopefully Carter will learn determination, humor, and love from his Captain.

Meeting Captain and Gigi on his birthday

 
I love you Daddy and am so blessed to have you in my life and the strong relationship that we share!  I couldn't ask for more!  Thank you for being such a role model and loving father and helping guide me down the right paths in life.  You are truly the best man I know!  I love you!

Some of the best times of my life!

I'm not quite sure why today everything is causing me to remark "It's just like when I lived in Europe", but for some reason that moment of my life is on my mind.  I moved to Vlissingen, the Netherlands my senior year in college in August 2005 with my best friend, Selia.  We were the only 2 Americans who were participating in this particular study abroad program.  It was the greatest adventure.  We spent every weekend traveling Europe, visiting our foreign friends' families in their countries, and living unforgettable moments like Oktoberfest in Munich.  I'll need to write up about each of the travels individually or you would be reading this for hours.  Today though, I have some favorite moments of being in Vlissingen that I want to write to remember.

This experience was so amazing and I couldn't have hoped to spend it with anyone other than Selia!
We had a wonderful time together and got even closer than before! 
This is on the beach right aroud the corner from our house!

1. The Adventure Getting to Vlissingen
Selia and I decided to spend 10 days traveling London and Brussels before heading to Vlissingen where we would attend school.  We had a blast introducing ourselves to life in another land.  We had some exciting run ins with locals who loved us, couldn't stand us, showed us the uniqueness of their area.  We felt jet lag (in fact we slept until about 1 the first day we arrived to London), we ate new food (including Indian food in London that made me extremely sick), and we met new friends in Brussels who we spent the evening with taste testing platters of Belgium beers in the city center.  At the end of our 10 days, we headed to the Netherlands to meet our new friends, find our new school, and move in to our new home with our new roommates.  We arrived at the dock and jumped on a bus to take us to Vlissingen, but somehow missed our stop and ended up in Domsburg, the Netherlands.  Oops!  But it ended up being exciting and very worth it.  We couldn't find a hotel or a place to stay, but luckily a kind local on the street instructed us to go down a road where a bed and breakfast probably had an opening.  It did!  That meant we got to sleep in a tiny room together with a gorgeous windmill right out our window. Just the way you would picture the Netherlands! In the morning, we had breakfast with a German couple who slept in the room next to us and the owner served a delicious spread and mingled with us as well.  We rented bikes and roamed all around the coastal city, stopping to take photos of quaint cottages, beach restaurants, and indulge in the gelato.  We had a blast!  Off to Vlissingen we go. 

The windmill outside our room

2.  The Meet the Study Abroad Students Day/Night
We arrived to Vlissingen and found our campus.  It was a tiny little campus, much like a highschool.  We went through all of our check in, including our house assignment.  We bought bikes because that or walking were the way that most navigated through this small city.  We found our house, which was about 1.5 miles from our school.  We arrived to a 3 story house which had rooms, bathrooms, and a kitchen on each floor, except the top which was more like a large, finished attic.  Our floor had 4 rooms and the attic room shared a kitchen and bathroom with us.



Selia and I in front of our flat

  Selia, me, a Spanish guy named Ricardo, a Chinese girl named Rebecca, and a Polish guy named Michal were who resided on our floor.  We had quite the mix!  My room was HUGE!  Each room had a twin bed in it, mine had a desk and a huge "dining room table".  That's what we ended up using it as most of the time for our family dinners at least.  We excitedly settled in and went back to campus to get some classes set up and meet the others! 

Roomies!  Marina, Selia, me, Michal, Rebecca. 
Marina was our roomie until Ricardo moved in

Our roommate, Ricardo

Immediately, we met a very enthusiastic, chatty Canadian named Michyl.  Selia initially was overwhelmed by her bubbliness and I loved her right away!  In the end, the 3 of us became inseperable and still see eachother at least once a year!  We talked about all the interesting people we met and couldn't wait to get to know them all!  That night the campus had a dinner for us so we could get to know one another.  It was unforgettable!  You take about 50 people from all over the world and put them together and conversation sure is fun!!  Add in dinner, a few drinks, and a dance floor and things get exciting!  We danced the night away with our new Canadian friend, Gencer and Lena who were our new friends from Germany, our Spanish roommate, Ricardo, and many others!  We loved everyone we met!  Whewwww....that was just the first night!

We just met this wonderful crew and now are great friends!  Ricardo, Lise, me, G, Selia, Wade on the beach right by our house.

Study abroad Students dinner

3.  Family Dinner Nights
Definitely a VERY favorite living in Europe.  Our house would take turns cooking meals from our country.  We had some delicious nights!  One that sticks out the most  was when Rebecca, our roommate from China cooked.  She made a very unique spread including sea food with eyes still on them.  Some of it was delicious and some was too much for me! :)  But it was wonderful hearing the ways they cooked, what were their favorites, and really just spending time with the roomies.  This expanded to our close friends and family dinners became get togethers at eachother's houses.  I loved that because it opened the meals up to even more cultures.  Lise and Farid, our friends from France cooked, G made Turkish tea often, and the list goes on and on.  Of course all of our meal gatherings were topped with some delish wine!  It was a favorite past time of ours there.  And why wouldn't it be?  Wine was cheaper then water in Europe!!  Perfect reason to bring on it's deliciousness.  I'll never forget the conversations we shared over such interesting meals. 

Nina, Michyl, Lena, another German girl and I gathered for dinner.  All are Germans but Michyl and I

4.  Sven and Our Beach Dinner Spot
Vlissingen was a beach village.  We could walk to the beach in about 3 minutes.  Selia and I spent several mornings running on the beach to get ourselves going.  It was beautiful because it was such a small town that not many people were ever on the beach.  We arrived in August when we could still take advantage of the perfect weather but even as the winter turned, we found ways to make sure we took in all that beach side living had to offer.  Michyl, Selia, and I often went to a little restaurant across from the water that had quite the European romantic flair called Stefano's.  It helped that the waitor was very dreamy !  :)  We were sure to sit in his section each and every time.  His name was Sven and he had shoulder length thick wavy hair, accompanied by bulging muscles and a thick accent.  Overall, the scenery-both of the water and waitor, food, good wine, and great conversation made this a place that we continued returning to night and night again.  We even took my Mom there when she came to visit- she had to be exposed to Sven! ;)  I have so many wonderful memories there.

Our trusty 3some at our usual beach spot

Dinner at Stefano's with a larger group!  LOVE Nina

Good convo with Lena

5. Cafe-ing
Why is it that food is always one of the toppers of any of my favorite lists?  Yes, I LOVE to eat and try new flavors but I also love the social side of eating.  The 3 of us girls made the word cafeing a verb.  We often went cafeing after school, before a night out, as a shopping break, or during trips where we wanted to take a moment to take in our surroundings.  Cafeing usually meant enjoying a cappuccino together.  OOOOO the Illy coffee that Vlissingen served in coffee bowls basically made my mouth water every time.  Even in the cold winter that we experienced, the coffee could always be had!  It made the perfect break for any situation.  Our city center was pretty small and was made up of store after store.  On the weekends, the flower markets and veggie markets were set up and made it quite a neat setting to sit and cafe.  Because Vlissingen was so small, most people congregated here during their free time.  It was literally a 1 minute walk from our flat.  So, we spent a lot of time at the cafes.  Our other study abroad friends would be passing by and stop and have coffee with us or chat briefly on their way to whatever they were shopping for.  Again, it made it so easy to chat with and get to know all of our fellow foreigners.  Cafeing also though could mean french fries and mayonnaise or a pot of mussels shared.  These were some of the food choices we often indulged in. 

Coffee served in Martini glasses! :)

french fries and mayo---yum!

Roads around our city center

City Center: the bars and restaurants part

City center: the shopping part

When we didn't make it to a cafe, we cafe'd on the benches in the city center :)

6.  Lise's Speech
Many of us were enrolled in a business class with this Professor who was merciless when it came to presentations- and everyone was required to research and present on the subject he gave.  This made the best of speakers shake in their boots.  He was so tough, that he would critique us in front of our whole class, most of the time cutting down every aspect of the research and presenting.  THEN he would ask questions that were so tough that I swear only an EXPERT would be able to answer.  Maybe that was his point, maybe he wanted to see that we had spent grueling hours learning every detail there was to know.  Needless to say, after his critiques and grades, many students found themselves presenting a second time in hopes of raising their grade.  Lise was one of them.  I like her moment specifically because she was so nervous out in front of Hogeschool Zeeland, our college, before her presentation that she asked for wine.  We took her up on it and sat on a bench in the middle of the morning and drank wine with her before her presentation.  :)  We had a blast making her more comfortable by laughing at this crazy Professor and reliving tough words he told each of us.  She did great in her 2nd presentation and her grade sky rocketed!  Pretty cool that is not illegal to do in the Netherlands.  Or is it?

Relaxed yet Lise? 

7.  Halloween- American Style
Halloween was approaching and after asking many of our foreign friends what they were going to be for Halloween, we realized that Europe doesn't do Halloween NEARLY like North America.  We took that as a great opportunity to expose our friends to the holiday in the spookiest, most done up way we could.  We invited allll of the foreigners to our house on Halloween night with the stipulation that they must be dressed up.  :)  We explained to them how most people dress up and told them to just get creative.  It was a blast hearing their questions and ideas about what to dress like.  The 3 of us girls went searching for the largest pumpkin we could find so we could carve out a jack-o-lantern to place in our kitchen for a spooky effect.  We found a pumpkin patch outside the city so our friend who had a car drove us out to load our massive pumpkin.  He actually had to do the honors because of how huge it was.  We had our friend Gencer make a CD with spooky Halloween songs, we mada a witch's brew drink, roasted pumpkin seeds, and hung scary decorations from the stair wells and lined them with flickering candles.  Our friend Sandra, from Spain came over to learn how to carve the pumpkin.  Her and I took on the task and had a great time giggling over the messiness of the project.  She asked if she could wear her "fancy dress" to the party?  The answer of course was YES! :)  Dress up!  When it was party time, we had people arrive in all different home made outfits including bussiness men, a tooth fairy, a gypsy, cowgirl, D&G model and many other creative costumes!  It was such a fun night and everyone had a great time!  The party was so great that the cops showed up to quiet us down and unfortunately, since they had to make a house call, Selia and I had our names taken down in the little black book.  That was our warning! :)

Homemade costumes and with our GINORMOUS pumpkin!

A model?, a cowgirl, a businessman, and a soldier

8.  The Bike Theft
When we arrived to the Netherlands we were informed that the biggest crime here was bike thefts.  We witnessed it happening to people in our classes and knew it was true.  But it hadn't happened to us.....Until....
Selia and I were preparing for one of our dinner party nights that we were hosting, we were having a great time drinking wine and preparing the food.  We realized we needed to run to the grocery store right down the street from us for some of the ingrediants we had forgotten.  This was just a quick bike ride away.   On this day, we set out the same way.   We bought our groceries and began walking back to our flat.  Our dinner party went wonderfully!  The next morning we were headed to school and when I walked downstairs I realized my bike was not there!!  I immediately ran up and told Selia it had been stolen.  She didn't believe it and came down to look, when she realized HERS too was missing!!  We were victims of the most prevalant crime.  We laughed about it and told Everyone how we were bikeless and joked about finding the culprit.  A day went by and we were all still talking about it.  Late in that afternoon, our friend Wade came walking quickly down the street towards us yelling that he had found the bike thief- he had just left the grocery store!  We started running to him and at that moment, it hit me!
Wade began describing the fight he had with the "bike thief" and I was watching my friends' reactions and started rolling with laughter.  I remembered that Selia and I had ridden our bikes to the store to pick up the ingrediants, but being too bogged down, walked home.  WE had parked our bikes there, locked up, and just forgotten that we had done that.  Why we forgot neither of us knows?  But, we found it hilarious that our bikes were safe and sound right where we left it.  We didn't live that down for the longest time, especially because we had made such a big deal about the crime! :)  A moment to remember.

Happily loving on our bikes

Spent many hours with our bikes

Reunited after the "theft"- it feels so good!!

9.  PannekoekenBoot Tour
A group of us decided to take a pancake boat ride that allowed us to eat as many pancakes as we could in the hour long boat ride.  Amongst us, we were having a competition to see who could eat the most.  We had the most wonderful time stuffing ourselves with delicious pancakes while taking in the scene that Rotterdam had to offer.  Shayne, our Canadian friend won the competition!  After our hour of indulgence, we shopped through the larger city and compared finds amongst us.  We took the train home that night and recalled the unique experience. 

The pancakes in all of their glory!

The boat

Lena's boyfriend, Lena, me, Michyl, Selia, G, Shayne

Pancake Champion!  Way to go Shayne!

10.  Biking On Nights Out
What a blast it was biking to friends' houses for parties, bars, dinners, etc.  We rode our bikes everywhere and sometimes that was the greatest part of the night.  We were dressed up, wearing heels, and riding a BIKE with wind destroying our air and coldness giving us quite a red glow from the chill.  One night biking to a bar, we found an old 70's looking van and used that as a great photo opp.  We laughed harder at that then anything in the night.  I will never forget being pulled over on my bike by a police officer.  He told me I had to walk my bike the rest of the way home because I didn't have a front headlight, if he saw me on it, I would receive a ticket.  We had many friends receive biking incident tickets.  It was quite hilarious each and every time it happened! 

These were just some of my very favorites of my time in Vlissingen, but there are many memories that will never be forgotten!!  Thank you Europe for the life long memories!