Our little buddy is growing

I can't believe how quickly Asher and Eve are both growing; but with Asher, he changes almost every day. Eve is now all about dancing. She follows the dance routines in her two favorite shows: 'Easter Parade' & 'Meet Me in St. Louis'. She has to get her pretty shoes on and dance her little heart out. She even will sing along with the songs, in fact last night while helping me make dinner she was wishing me a 'Happy Easter' in song.
Asher loves to smile and make as much noise as he can. He will now copy me when I coo at him. He will try and make his little lips vibrate as well. He is so bright eyed and smiley that it is alright that he is still waking up 3-4 times a night. One look at his big blue eyes and huge smile and my heart melts.
Eve is a lot more cuddly now that Asher has come along and I am soaking it in. She loves to sit on my lap and read books. I can't get enough of it. She will even lay her head on my lap and let me hold her- she usually isn't that cuddly. Well, even if it was jealousy that started it, I will take it.
Eve is now (almost) completely potty trained. She only messes up if she thinks she isn't supposed to bug me (like when I am putting Asher to sleep). She will let us know that she doesn't have to go when we ask her by saying 'No, I'm bine!' (I think she has a bit of an adenoid problem.
Anyways, here are some more pictures to enjoy.








Poor little Evie got a big mosquito bite right by her eye. She is so sensitive to them that her eye swelled up and is all red. Poor little lamb.

She's a NUT!

Where to begin... well, this picture sums up Eve's personality quite perfectly. She loves the camera and the best part about the camera is making faces for the camera. Eve could spend all day in the pool if I let her. She sings while dumping the water over her head (she's afraid to sit down in the water, but not dump it over her head).



Eve chooses her outfits herself and if my sunglasses & hat are within reach, they go on her.

I promise she did the 'Charlie's Angles' pose herself, I was just lucky to have a camera to capture it.


I should have taken a video of her. She is sitting on the deck playing with her water works toy and singing at the top of her lungs. She had been doing this for over 20 minutes when I finally got the camera.


Apparently singing can take a lot out of you, check out her cheeks!

More Pictures of the Cuties

Well, as you noticed Asher has now started smiling. After he eats he is full of smiles. Eve makes him smile with her singing and dancing when she sneaks into his room in the mornings to keep him from crying. I decided that I needed to capture this moment (especially since he is still colicky and cries often). He has also started cooing when he smiles. I absolutely love it!!!

Eve and Asher's glam shots

My lovely kiddies, it was torture trying to take these photos. Eve had to be in everything and she had to adjust Asher's head the right way, then she wouldn't hold still when I finally was ready to take the photos. She is so helpful




Eve had her own camera and she was taking shots too; too bad it actually doesn't take photos perhaps they would have turned out.


I was racked with guilt that I didn't have a lot of photos of Asher so we did our best to get a couple. I am no photographer and so these are the results after taking over 100 and photo-shopping all of them. Good thing my babies are adorable.

A Brand New Addittion

Our Asher Jordi Struk. Born @ 1:05am Sunday, April 26th 2009. He weighed 7lbs,6oz. and was 20inches long. We were a bit surprised (to say the least) that he was a boy. After 7 or 8 ultra sounds you would think that the Doctor would have corrected his first assessment that he was a girl. Oh well, we are happy to have our wonderful baby boy and besides having to purchase a few extra things we were set.





Mark was able to stay with me during my stay at the hospital, so when Eve came to see Asher we were worried that she would be upset because she hadn't seen us all day. On the contrary she had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and was as happy as can be to spend time with us at the hospital. When it was time to leave she gave us all kisses, said good-bye and was off to play with cousins. No looking back.


Eve immediately fell in love with Asher. She can't get enough of him. She loves holding him, patting his head, and soothing him when he cries. We just have to watch her because she also like to climb on him and lay on him (she thinks she is laying beside him). She is not yet aware that she is stronger than him and that he is still delicate.

Graduation& Adios Barcelona

We can hardly believe that the time has come to leave Barcelona. Mark has finished his MBA and now a new adventure awaits us in Texas (the culture might be just as new to us as Spain was).
Graduation was so much fun and the last few days of our time in Barcelona we spent taking in as much of the sights and the beauty as we could. We woke up early on the Sunday we left to go to Montjuic one last time. It was so peaceful and quite at 8am on a Sunday morning.
Here are some of our pictures of Graduation.

This was the graduation brunch at ESADE campus the day of graduation. It was so beautiful outside...thank goodness, it had been raining for a week and a half.
Mark was the poster boy for ESADE and so here is a shot of him and his friends enjoying the larger than life photo of Mark...It is hard to tell but Mark is actually wearing the exact same outfit, good thing he had a sweater that day.


Since Mark will be working long hours, maybe we can get one of these posters for our home so the kids will know him when they see him.


Our good friends and some of their family at the graduation brunch


Mark giving his speech for graduation. He was asked to speak on behalf of the english section of the MBA program...he did an amazing job.


Mark receiving his degree. YIPEE!!! We are so proud of you.


Mark and Tricia at Graduation


Guillermo & Nicole and us at the after-party


Spouses and friends at graduation


The building that graduation was held in. One of the first stock exchanges in the world.


Mark and some of his classmates



Mark&Rob


Mark&Novak


Christian, Adriana, & Us


Our good friends the Deweys, they came as guests from the American Consulate.


Sylvia and her lovely daughters (they were so sweet to babysit Eve for us while we went to graduation).

Valencia

We took a day this last week, our last week in Spain, and headed for Valencia. Even though it was very chilly, we had a great time. I can only imagine how beautiful and fabulous the beaches are in the summer. It made me a bit sad that we didn't take this opportunity when we were on our road trip this past September.

This is us at the beach in Valencia



This would be the main attraction of Valencia, the Futuristic City of Arts and Sciences. I would imagine in the summer when it is nice and warm and all the flowers are out, it is a great place to visit. However, when all you go to is the Science Museum (not Science Center), you find that it is a bit of a 'let down'. We did our best to have fun; and now know how tall we all are, how much we all weigh, what our blood pressure is, and that Mark & I have Egyptian feet while Eve has Greek.


Ahhhhh, the beach. It is so huge. We really should have come in the summer... (did I mention that already?) Eve loved it though. She spent her time running to the water and running from it as the waves came in.


We love getting photos of the castles here, so many are precariously perched on hill tops and mountain sides. We finally pulled over to take this photo. I would say that we have seen at least a dozen such castles.


Valencia is where Spain has most of its orange orchards. Some are picked regularly, some not. We spent so much of our drive back trying to pull over and get a great shot of one of them. I only wish we could have snuck over the fence and picked a few...I bet they were De-licious!


No these last two pictures are not of Valencia, they are of our dinner out with our friends Jay, Kjerstina, and Emmie from NYC (via Calgary). This would be one of our favorite (Mark's FAVORITE) restaurants in Barcelona, 'Cervezeria Catalana'. The tapas here is unbelievable. YUM YUM YUM!



Our two favorite dishes would be below: Solomillo de Ternera & Gambas a la Brocheta. Their Patatas Bravas and Asparagus are pretty darn good too!