It's February today so when the boys are born we will have four birthdays in February.

We weren't quite sure if we would have this weekend for ourselves so it was a bit of a bonus weekend. We tried to rest as much as possible to prepare for the crazy next few weeks and months.

After lunch Nora and I went for a walk together. To the library and then back over Fairfax. She walks so well that we've officially retired her stroller now and I put it in the basement.

Last night Nora and I had an 'argument'. She said she "didn't need her water bottle in bed". I said that I expected her to wake up later that night and then call me to find her water. And of course that's what happened -- around 1.00 am I had to bring her the water. She'll tell me to store it "in the kitchen" but I secretly keep it around the corner of her door so I don't have to go downstairs in the middle of the night.

Still, not ideal of course so tonight we had the discussion again. "No no, I don't need the water and no, no, I'm not going to cry". Yeah, right. I told her I would laugh at her if I had to bring the bottle at night and that seemed to have worked, because after I closed the door she yelled that she did indeed want her water. And meneer prascho.

I installed the car seats for the babies and our backseat is now occupied by 3 car seats. The good news is that they all fit. The bad news is that the driver's seat had to be pushed to the front so my seat is not as comfortable anymore.

It might be a sign or something -- the moment I was admiring our three car seats I saw four minivans and SUVs in front of the YMCA.

Together with about 80 others from 24 countries I became a US citizen today at the USCIS offices in Fairfax.

It was a beautiful naturalization ceremony, but efficient. We started at 2.00 pm and were done before 3.00 pm. Eric, Ginny and Judy were my guests and afterwards we had a slice of mocha cake at home.

When I came to the United States in 2003, I was working using an H1B visa. I applied for my green card in June of 2007, and we received the green cards about a year later.

Sasha became a U.S. citizen in September last year. Around the same time I went for my biometrics and then in December I had the formal interview.

Tomorrow I'll become a US citizen and I'm very happy about that.

I first came to the United States in the summer of 1998, where Sasha and I met. We worked in Antonio's, a resort in Tannersville in upstate New York.

Six years later, in November 2004, I came to the US to start working at a small consultancy firm in Rosslyn, while Sasha worked at the World Bank. Leaving the Netherlands was not easy -- I miss my family and friends -- but it is a move I don't regret.

America has been very welcoming to us, and it is a great place for our family. I look forward to the ceremony tomorrow very much.

We’re preparing to welcome a fourth and fifth member to our little family!

Two boys are expected to make their appearance in the near future and we're looking forward to meeting them.

The age difference with their big sister Nora will be about three years. She is very interested and "has babies her belly" also. "Lots of them!".

Last night we saw "American Hustle", a funny drama and two con-artists and their biggest swindle ever. Very entertaining. I particularly liked the Louis CK with his "ice fishing" stories in a brilliantly played role as mid-level FBI manager.

We had a real 'date-night' together. We put Nora in bed and use the baby monitor, then watched the movie in our TV room for the first time. We don't have a subscription but through Roku and Amazon Prime we could see the move for $13.

An important aspect of learning Dutch is memorizing the gender of the words. "De" for most words, but "het" for a significant amount. So Nora is learning this also and I correct her mistakes.

Sometimes she tries to find the easy way out with "een", haha.

"Papa, papagaaitje-leef-je-nog zit op de zadel van het paard!"
"Het zadel, Nora, het zadel"
"Een zadel!"

I didn't think the snow would be bad enough to stay home for, but Sasha's work recommended it and on Twitter I saw various reports of bad traffic.

Well, I'm glad we stayed home for sure. When checking my email, I heard a loud bang on Lynnbrook -- a driver lost control and hit the parked car of our neighbor, sliding down. When Nora and I went to clear the deck of snow, we walked around the neighborhood. A minivan in front of the YMCA was spinning its wheels and getting stuck, and just as we walked down we heard another loud noise and later saw four cars bumped into each other on the slope of 13th St, going down from Johnson to Kirkwood. A little down Kirkwood two drivers were exchanging insurance information for another fender bender. What a mess.

A school bus was stuck on 14th Street -- it couldn't get up the hill -- and the driver had blocked the road (which explained the extra traffic on Lynnbrook).

On the bright side, Nora showed great enthusiasm for clearing the snow on our deck.

We celebrated the New Year the three of us. Nora's afternoon nap was unusually long and she woke up at 8.00 pm. We had a late dinner together and opened the champagne. Nora's "champagne" had bubbles in it also and she wasn't a big fan ("is scherp"). But she loved the oliebollen.

She had her first bite before dinner. In fact, her dinner consisted mainly of oliebollen and lukanka, haha.

We had made home-made banichka with Lelya Snezha and a shopska salad. After dinner we danced to welcome the New Year, on Abba's tunes.

We wish you all a happy 2015!

Christmas fell on a Thursday this year so I took today off to make an extra long weekend. Since we were working on Wednesday we started early with the budni vecher preparations -- I started the dough for the pitka on Tuesday night. When the Zanes arrived around 7.00 pm we had the table ready.

We had a great budni vecher although sadly some of our guests couldn't make it. The coins fell to Jonathan and to Sasha, a lucky sign. We made kadaif for the first time, that recipe needs some more work. But the zele surmichki were absolutely excellent and we had nice stuffed peppers with beans. Irena brought grape leaf surmichki and for dessert butternut squash with apples.

Nora was delighted to see Julian and Ilana again and they had a great evening together. Her English is getting better.