The wonderful world of Harry Potter!

If you know me well, you know I love me some Harry Potter!! 

One of the items on my sister Liz's bucket list (and mine too!) when she came with us to London in December was to go to the Harry Potter tour at the Warner Brother's Studio.

Thankfully, our friend Aileen, was able to hook us up with some last-minute tickets on Christmas Eve, so Liz and I boarded the Harry Potter bus from London and rode for about 45 minutes to the Warner Bros studio.

Let me tell you, this was AMAZING. Totally worth the trip if you love Harry Potter! We were there for most of the day and could have stayed longer. The amount of detail they put into making these movies was incredible. 

They basically let you walk through all of these sets that were used from the movies, let you see how they made all the characters, all the costumes, props, etc...it was awesome!

So, sit back and enjoy the many pics from our day at Harry Potter!

The Great Hall

Costumes from the Professors

The bedchambers for Griffendor 

Griffendor common area with Ron and Harry's costumes

The Weasley's house

Voldemort and his crew

The Ministry of Magic

creepy!

Butterbeer! Which was actually quite disgusting, if you ask me- it was essentially carbonated butterscotch.

Harry's house

Diagon Alley with Ron's brother's game shop

Hogwarts

We moved to London!

I've definitely been MIA for the past two months. Sorry about that. We just had a minor change to the Frizzell family- we moved across the pond to London last week. No biggie. 

WHAT?!?!

I know. It's crazy. 

It's been crazy-times around here, but things are starting to slow down and I can actually take a breather and attempt a blog post while the girls are sleeping.

Frequently asked questions about our life right now:

1. Why did you move to London?

Mike's company won a proposal that moved our family to London for a year. We knew in early September that there was about a 10-20% possibility that this would actually happen, when they submitted the proposal. Well, that 10-20% turned into 100% on November 2, when we found out that his company won the proposal! 

We flew into high gear and ran around like chickens with our heads cut off to get everything in order to move. This included getting passports and visas for the girls (envision trying to get passport pictures and visa pictures taken for your squirmy 2.5 year old and 7 month old- not the most fun I've had), selling my car, figuring out what to do with our house, sorting through our stuff, getting stuff packed to be air-shipped to London, getting stuff packed to be moved into long-term storage, figuring out who would rent our house, finishing up repairs/improvements to our current house, etc.

2. What are you doing with your house in Richardson?

My lovely sister, Liz, and her two friends are renting our house for a year. Truly a win-win situation!

3. What about your job at Children's? Will you work as a nurse practitioner in London?

This was quite a bittersweet choice. There was no option to take a leave of absence, so I had to resign. Very sad as I'd been at Children's for almost 10 years and loved what I was doing in the out-patient endocrinology clinic. But, I know that God is bigger than our circumstances and am looking forward to spending a year a home with my girls, as I will not be working while we are in London. We shall see what I'll be doing when I get back home, though (I have to work 200 hours a year to maintain my NP license in the state of Texas). 

4. Where are you living now? 

We are living in a lovely 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, two-story mews house (meaning, has a garage) very close to Hyde Park in London. Once everything is set up, I'll post some pics. Our house is unfurnished, meaning that we've had to start from scratch in regards to furniture, dishes, etc. I spent a stressful 2 hours online the Wednesday before we left (with the movers there), furnishing our house from IKEA, so that it would be delivered by the 27th, right after we arrived, before Mike had to leave for a week-long business trip. Crazy-times, people. 

We are loving the close location to lots of fun things to do here- Mike is about a 20 minute walk to work, Paddington tube station is about 10 minutes away, Hyde Park is about a 10 minute walk from our house. It's been wonderful, so far. We won't have a car while in London, so everything will be by foot. Hence, having a house close to everything was important!

5. How long will you be living in London?

Mike's contract is for a year, so we anticipate returning back to Texas right before Christmas of 2014. 

6. When did you all leave? What about all your stuff?

Mike left for the UK on December 1st. The movers came on December 2nd to pack up all our stuff that was air-shipped to London. My last day at work was December 13th.  Another set of movers came on December 18 & 19th to pack up our stuff that was moving into permanent storage (not all our stuff is being stored, as Liz and her friends are using most of our furniture, kitchen stuff, etc- like I said, a win-win situation!). 

The girls and I and Liz (my sister) boarded a plane for London (with a 2.5 hour lay-over in Miami) on December 20th and arrived on the 21st. We had 10 checked bags, including a pack and play, double stroller and breast pump, plus we each had one or two carry-on's. It was insane. 

Another post to come about that lovely plane ride. Not for the faint of heart, my friends. Needless to say, I was VERY GLAD to see my sweet husband waiting for us at the Heathrow terminal. Imagine the opening scene of Love Actually- it was kind of like that.  

Like I said, more posts to come on our adventures here! I just got a UK phone and am trying to figure out how to sync it to iCloud to upload my pics. But until then, here's a pic that Liz took as we boarded the double-decker bus to go on the Harry Potter Tour at Warner Brothers Studio. It was AMAZING. 

Lucy at 2 1/2 years

It's time for a post about my oldest, my sweet Lucy. 

She's now 2.5 years old! I cannot believe we're only 6 months away from her being THREE. 

Lucy LOVES her sister. She truly has done so well adjusting to Annie. She loves to sit and play with her, says cute things like, "Hi, Sister!" in this really high-pitched voice. She gets so excited when I tell her that Annie is up from her nap- she will run into Annie's room to see her. Annie loves to see Lucy too- she smiles so big when Lucy comes in the room.

 Lucy likes to try and pick Annie up sometimes and recently has taken to trying to squeeze her cheeks. I'm often having to tell her to be careful when she plays with her and be gentle. 

Lucy LOVES her footie PJ's these days, especially the elephant ones (thanks, Treadaways!)

She can put her shoes and socks on herself, as well as her undies and short/pants. Shirts are sometimes hard. 

She's 90% day-time potty trained. (We did the three-day potty training process over Labor Day weekend. It's not really a three-day process, it's more like a month-long process, just sayin). We're not night time or nap-time trained yet (although most days at school, she doesn't have accidents during nap time!).

Sleeping-wise, she takes one nap a day, from 1:00-3:30 pm or so, then goes to bed around 7:30 pm, wakes up for the day around 7:00 am. 

 Lucy seems to be really enjoying school- she still attends Breckenridge Montessori, where she's been going since she was 3 months old (Annie goes there as well). They have really fun activities, like gardening (here she is with her eggplant she picked!), cooking, Spanish class (she can count to 10 in Spanish and sing some other songs in Spanish), art, lots of coloring, etc. 

I went to my very first parent/teacher conference last Friday. They told me she is doing really well, her verbal skills are great and she's right on track for her age. 

But the best thing they told me was that she is kind towards other kiddos, gentle and sweet. That made my heart so glad to hear that. Above all else, I want my girls to love others, be respectful and kind, to show the love of Christ to others. I love that she is on the right track. 

 Lucy loves her Daddy! She loves to go on walks with him, to water the garden with him, play Legos with him, go on donut dates on Saturday mornings with him. Here they are playing with one of Mike's birthday presents (a big Nerf gun)- she thought it was so much fun!

She loves to rough-house with him, kick the soccer ball, throw the softball, etc.

 Oh, my sassy girl! She is independent, speaks her mind, knows what she wants and will let you know.

She loves to be read to, likes to sing all sorts of songs (and has pretty decent pitch!), likes to hold, feed, rock, pat and nurse her baby doll (she spends a lot of time around her Mommy!). She loves to be held ("hold me Mommy!"), especially when she is feeling sad, hurt or needing to poop (no kidding on that one). 

Other favorites: coloring, stickers, watching PBS Kids on the iPad (this we have to limit only to when I'm getting ready in the morning or other extreme circumstances), going to the library for story time, reading books, playing with Legos, going on errands. 

She's very much into the process of things, such as telling us which car we are going to take, who is dropping her off and picking her up from school, where we are going, where we are NOT going, etc. 

She's really good at memorization and you can often stop in the middle of a phrase in a book and she will finish the rest of the sentence. It's kind of weird, but neat.

Favorite foods: applesauce in the squeeze packs, shredded cheddar cheese, apples (she can eat the whole thing), tomatoes, grapes, canteloup, watermelon, cucumbers, green beans, quesadillas,  (made with refried beans and cheese), tortillas, spaghetti and meatballs, meat loaf, crab cakes, broccoli, carrots, yogurt, macaroni and cheese.

 Meat is sometimes hard to get in. 

Our current bedtime ritual is having books read by both Daddy and Mommy while drinking her milk, then brushing her teeth (she's learning how to spit out the toothpaste!), then getting in bed with her baby, her lovie, her water and a couple of books, then being tucked in, while I sing "Jesus Loves Me," "Amazing Grace, " and "Doxology," then praying. If you do this out of order, she will let you know. :)

Some favorite quotes as of late:

-"Mommy, hear me!" (when she wants my attention)

- "No, I not." "(this one gets her into trouble sometimes)

- "Don't worry, Mommy, I do it. Don't worry." 

Lots of fun!

We've been having lots of fun, lately!

We had a play date with some of my friends from my old floor at work (Deborah and her two girls who are identical in age with Lucy and Annie, and Christie, who's little boy is about 8 months younger than Lucy).

Mike and I attended the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center's 30th Anniversary Banquet and listened to Mercy Me perform for about an hour. It was AMAZING and such a wonderful time of worship. 

We are so thankful to be able to have a very small part in this ministry. 

What a blessing DPRC has been to so many women and babies!

It was fun to get all dressed up for the banquet! 

Honestly, the day of the banquet had been "one of those days"- I got peed on, Lucy dropped a bottle of nail polish on the kitchen floor, I had taken Annie to the pedi for a possible ear infection earlier that day, etc....
I was really glad to be able to get dressed up and go out for a night with my honey.

Lucy has been wanting to wear my old Mexican dresses- they fit her perfectly!

Always fun when Daddy tickles you!

Last weekend, we went to the opening of the Curious George exhibit at the Ft. Worth Science and History Museum with our cousins, William, Kathryn and Nathan (and Aunt Amy!). Lucy had a great time! She LOVES Curious George, so this was really fun!

I could not get her to smile next to George- she loves to smile on her own time, but not on mine. :) 

Lucy and Kathryn liked to play in the grocery store at the museum.

We spent the rest of the day at The Cecil's house celebrating the Frizzell fall birthdays. Kathryn was so sweet with Annie and loved playing peek-a-boo with her. Annie thought it was hilarious!

Cousin Emma also wanted to get in on the fun. 

6 months = 1/2 a year old!

This little cutie-pie is 6 months old! 

Seriously, time please slow down. How can she be 1/2 a year old!?

Annie did a great job with her 6 month photo shoot. She's typically a sweet, happy, easy-going child!

Sometimes she sleeps like this:

 Sleeping habits right now:

She wakes up between 6:30-7:00 am, takes a nap about 8:30 am, then another around 11:30-12:00, then one more about 3:00 pm, then down for the night around 7:00-7:30 pm. She's been waking up once a night most nights, but we've had 3 nights in a row last weekend where she went anywhere from 7-10 hours without eating, so I know she can do it. 

Naps are lasting from 45 minutes to 2 hours. 

Love, love, love my blue-eyed girl! Her hair is also lighter than Lucy's was, and her complexion is more fair. 

She's started to "talk," saying "da da da," and "ba ba ba" very clearly. 

She can hold her own bottle and I've just introduced a sippy cup with small amounts of water. 

With the cooler weather, we've enjoyed several picnics in the park.

We started solids about 2 weeks ago.

We started with butternut squash, then tried green beans, then sweet potatoes, then carrots and finally applesauce earlier this week. So far, she has liked them all (the girl is putting down 3 to 6 ice cubes of food at a time- NOT at all like her big sister!). So far, I've been able to make all of her food, which I've enjoyed!

We are currently eating solids 3 times a day and nursing every 3 hours. 

Check out her downward-facing dog yoga pose!

She is SO close to crawling! She will get up on all-fours, rock back and forth and literally try to stand up. She can go from lying down to sitting up, as well as rolling both ways. 

She's a pro at sitting up on her own (started doing this consistently at 5.5 months old).

 See! I can sit up!

And I can scootch back-wards and get caught under furniture! 

Some of my favorite moments have been watching Lucy interact with Annie. She will take Annie's lovie and cover it over Annie's face and play peek-a-boo with her- Annie thinks it's hysterical and laughs with this big belly laugh at Lucy. It's precious! 

Annie loves to watch Lucy and interact with her. She loves to look at the books while we all read together. She is now grabbing everything (watch out for your dinner plate if she's sitting on your lap!)- she's also putting EVERYTHING into her mouth!

We go on Wednesday for her 6 month check up- my guess is that she's 15 pounds. 

We've had some sleepless nights around here due to a nagging cold that (I think!) might have turned into another ear infection (this would make ear infection #3!). I took her in a week and a half ago thinking she had another infection, but it was just fluid. 

I foresee an ENT consult and possible tubes in our future.....