Snow? You Have Got To Be Kidding Me...

**********PLEASE NOTE: This is one of four new posts. If you haven't read all of them,
you may want to start with the IKEA post and work your way up.**********

This past Sunday, Troy went to see a Ben Folds concert with our friend Paul. He had not been gone for very long when he called me to let me know that it was snowing. Sure enough, I opened the front door and our front yard was blanketed. That was 7:00 PM. By 9:00 PM, the school system called to let the parents know that school would be canceled. Ugh!!! When we woke up Monday morning, our neighborhood - well all of Charlotte and the surrounding area - was a winter wonderland. There was nothing I could do but get the boys suited up and take them out in it. We had about 4", but the yard was pretty slushy because it had rained for 2 days prior and our yard holds water. We still had fun. They tried to make snow angels and snow balls. If the yard hadn't have been so wet, we would have had an awesome snowman. The twins ended up sitting near a puddle, throwing snow into it and watching the snow melt. Like my mom always says, "it's the little things." Enjoy the pictures from snow day #3 in Charlotte. Who would have ever thought we would get so many, especially one after spring had started to bloom here!













P.S. It is supposed to be in the 70s next week. Living in the South is wackadoodle!

Sylvia's Big Day Out

Two Saturdays ago, Maria and I took our dogs for a "girls day" to Barkington Park. In this world that is overrun with testosterone it was wonderful to spend some quality time with each other, Sylvia and Ruth "The Tooth". The pups had a blast and we can't wait to go back and do it again. Although, we both felt guilty about leaving Baxter behind, so we will have to take him next time.

It was a gorgeous day, so there were tons of dogs and dog lovers out and about. Sylvia and The Tooth were a little overwhelmed at first, but they caught on quickly and made friends with everybody they could. Sylvia kept trying to take a ball from this one little boy who just wanted to play fetch with his pooch. Silly me, I didn't even think to bring her ball.

So this is the only picture I captured of the two girls together, and, of course, Sylvia is peeing in it. She felt it was necessary to mark her territory everywhere - perpetually the alpha. A lesson learned is that dogs move too fast to take good pictures!

...unless they are sniffing each others butts which was the beloved pastime of every dog there. Humans wave hello. Dogs sniff each other. I am thankful God made me a human!

Maria of course came prepared! She had lots of water on hand much to Sylvia's delight. What is that on Sylvia's nose? Oh that is just a big string of ooey-gooey spit. She was so over excited she started frothing at the mouth with shoelaces of spit coming out of the corners. I am not quite sure of how it ended up on her nose though.

Playtime...

When we aren't going to IKEA, we are doing lots of other fun stuff! Here is just a glimpse of what we have been doing with our days.

Daniel helped Papá put the TV stand for the living room together. The plan is to move the TV (and pretty much everything else) out of our loft, convert the loft into a playroom and turn our "formal"/never used living room into a "lived in" room. Hopefully this will give the boys some more space, and give us parents some more time away from toyland. The other big change is that Sam is moving into the guest room. He has been sleeping in there for a week already. We will be converting that room into a space just for him. The first night he slept in there, he sat up, declared with his arms raised in the air "Mamá, I'm a big boy!" He's absolutely right!

Luis helped with the TV stand too! He was in charge of organizing and stacking the parts - a fitting job for him indeed.

I finally put the train set together for the boys. Nana and Pop Pop Peregory got it for them for Christmas. The boys love taking all of the pieces and configuring it in different ways. It has become a fast favorite. So have their Lincoln Logs from their Tio Rico and Tia Amanda. Anything stackable is always a hit.

The new favorite game is "doctor". In this case, Sam was the patient. They love to use all sorts of toys as their medical instruments. It is hysterical. It is also incredible to see their imaginations at work. I know I ramble on and on about this, but if you all could have seen how deprived and almost unchildlike our children were when we met them...In just these few short months they have opened up and blossomed and have learned to play like little boys. It is simply amazing and I am truly thankful for it and blessed by it everyday.

They often make their stuffed animals the patients. Here Mami Popoino is the patient. The face mask was actually given to Luis as part of his pre-op preparation. It smells like bubble gum!

Welcome IKEA!

For those of you who know me, you know that I am absolutely in love with IKEA. I love everything about the IKEA experience - from sitting on the furniture, to carrying around the paper measuring tape, to eating in the café. Sadly, I have never lived close to an IKEA. In fact, I have always been at least four hours from one where ever we have lived...until now. Hello Charlotte IKEA!!!!

I had been trying to talk Maria into camping out with me for opening day (which it turns out was a downpour), but fortunately we didn't have to. Thanks to our husbands' connections in the city, Steve was able to secure a pass that enabled a carload of us to attend a special preview. I have never been more thankful for our minivan. On the Saturday before the grand opening, February 14 to be exact, we loaded up the 'bergers and Freys and headed to IKEA for some good old-fashioned shopping. What recession? You can get placemats for $1 each!

The majority of photos below are courtesy of Maria. ¡Muchas gracia Miss Maria!


Waiting in line until the doors opened. The boys were kind of confused, and Luis got a little lost once the crowd started to move, but he caught up quickly.

We felt like rock stars as the staff cheered for us as we walked through the doors. Again, the boys were perplexed, but they just went with it.

Luis did not want to get up from this table. He loved that it was just his size. In fact, we are turning the loft into a playroom and will be purchasing their play table from IKEA because you can by the table top and legs separately.

Who knows what Samuel is doing, but he sure was having fun!

Luis enjoyed measuring things with the paper measuring tape.

Daniel wanted to work like Papá. SIDENOTE: I did not intentionally dress the twins in blue and yellow (the IKEA colors), but because of it they got their pictures taken and video too! Who knows, maybe they will end up on some promotional materials. That makes my marketing heart proud!!!

Samuel is chillaxin' as my good friend Sherry likes to say.

I think we let them watch that So You Think You Can Dance clip of the little B-Boy one too many times.

I will own this chair one day. I will put it in our bedroom. Once I do, I will never get up from this chair...ever again.

Troy is so handsome! I had to throw this one in here.

Steve and Maria!!!!

Daniel eating breakfast.

Samuel sharing his breakfast with the rest of us.

Luis shovelling in his breakfast.

My favorite part of the day was that I got to leave the kids in their playland for one whole hour! I am not so sure the boys loved it, but I certainly did.

All in all, it was a successful trip. Troy got a much needed dresser for very cheap. That is the best part about IKEA. You get great furniture, for low prices.

My favorite picture of the day though has to be this one. Luis has his finger up his nose 90% of the time. Thank you Miss Maria for capturing the true essence of Luis!

Finally, The Missing Christmas Pictures

So, I have been waiting for a couple of months in hopes of posting family pictures from our holiday visit. It seems there was some confusion as to how I would acquire these photos because our camera batteries died (poor timing, I know) on the day we were able to get the boys settled enough to pose. Long story short, I finally fished the following pictures out of Troy's email when I realized they had been sent to him and not to me. So without further ado, here are some more pictures of our trip to PA and the boys meeting more of Troy's family!

Here are the boys with their Pop Pop and Nana Eisenberger. They had a great time getting to know their abuelos.

They also enjoyed getting to spend time with their Pennsylvania primos, Riley and Pierce. I think Samuel referred to them as "the boys with the toys" for weeks until we could get him to call them by their proper names.

Our Year So Far...

After much harassment and (not so) gentle reminding from a myriad of people, I finally conceded to the fact that it is indeed time to update the blog. Sorry for the delay. Our year has been a bit crazy. But before I get started I have to give a BIG shout out of CONGRATULATIONS to two friends who had babies this week:

-The Baughns (Stephanie and Ryan) welcomed their fourth boy, Jasper Emile, on Tuesday. Having three boys, I have to give them props because I think one more would drive me over the edge.
-The Carlbergs (Sheila and Chris) welcomed Lincoln Edward on Wednesday. We used to have a link to Sheila and Chris's adoption blog, and just when their Khazakstan adoption seemed to stall God blessed them with their pregnancy.

OK, onto La Familia Eisenberger happenings...

Luis and I spent several hours on the evening of New Year's Day in the hospital after paying a visit to our pediatrician at his house (yes it pays to be friends with your children's doctor). It turns out that he had pneumonia and RSV. Poor boy was completely miserable and hacking up a lung - not to mention his 105 degree fever. Happy New Year! Fortunately, with some strong antibiotics and a handy dandy nebulizer, he recovered pretty quickly. We did have a string a sicknesses after that as we all passed around a cold. The rest of us escaped the RSV which was excellent.

The weekend of January 23rd, the boys and I headed home to VA Beach for Nana's birthday celebration and some much needed R&R for all of us. Troy got some Papá time and I got to spend time with my family. The boys got to wear themselves out with their primos, and we all got to play the Wii!

The most recent events include "our perfect day" this past weekend and Samuel's broken tooth. On Tuesday, I received a call from his teacher informing me that there had been an accident on the playground involving Samuel, a pole, and his teeth. The tooth he broke was his brand new permanent tooth! This led to an emergency trip to the dentist which turned out to be helpful becuase this was the last appointment I needed to make for all of the boys and now we finally have a dentist (and she is wonderful).

Here is the rest of our year in pictures. They always tell a better story than I every could anyway!

Troy took Samuel to get his hair cut at Sport Clips. They both came back looking very dapper, and Sam keeps asking when he can go back.

He is so handsome!

We built a fort! Samuel and Luis loved it. Daniel was so confused by it and kept wanting to play right at the entrance, but he finally caught on and was OK with it by the end. The dogs were especially confused because it blocked the couch, so they didn't know where to lay down.

Samuel has a ridiculous amount of homework for being in kindergarten. He can write both his first and last name on his own though - a feat he is very proud of!

We had a snow day. We have actually had two, but only went out to play on one of them. Troy worked from home that day so he could enjoy the boy's first snow. We got completely bundled up for our 3/4" and went outside to make snowballs. Samuel even made a snow angel.

Someone gave us this snowsuit and I didn't think we would ever get to use it. Thankfully, we did!

The twins can entertain themselves anywhere. I dread the day they lose this quality!

Too, too cute!

Papá and Daniel had a great time hanging out in the snow.

Samuel got stuck in one of the Crepe Myrtles. It was kind of funny!

The dogs even went out to play. This was Baxter's first snow too! It took him forever to go to the bathroom because he didn't like the way it made his paws feel. It was hilarious to watch him walk around on the grass!

Nana Peregory's Steelers fans! I knew I held onto this stuff for a reason. That's "Messie's" Terrible Towel. We celebrated the Super Bowl with our friend's Matt & Jessie. When the boys try to say Matt and Jessie, it just comes out "Messie".

This one is for Nana Peregory too! I couldn't resist putting Luis in this "little Ben" jersey. Too cute!

Troy wasn't giving up hope though. He was rooting for the Seahawks until the end...um...even though they weren't even in the playoffs/Superbowl this year. The jersey Sam is wearing is Troy's Steve Largent jersey from when he was Sam's age. He was very proud to pass it down!

Last weekend is why I love February in the south! Random 70 degree weekends! We hit the greenway, went for a walk to the playground and let the boys play to their heart's content. Then we went to get a bite to eat. The greenway is wonderful because the boys can run/walk and we don't have to worry about where they will run/walk off to.

Swinging and swinging and swinging. I think the twins stayed on the swings nearly the whole time!

One of my favorites!

Daniel can be happy just about anywhere!

Luis has some of the best expressions!

Hopefully, I will be able to keep this more up-to-date, but I am not making any promises. Although we do have some exciting things in our future, including the opening of the Charlotte IKEA and the Carolina Alpaca Celebration!