Swedish Summer Update1

Last year Samuel and Sofia enjoyed swimming lessons for 2 weeks with sun everyday at the local pool across from grandma's house. This summer Samuel (Sofia's too young) is enjoying swimming lessons for 3 weeks in the rain everyday (minus maybe 2-3 days of slight sun) at the local beach 7 minutes away. I love that he is enjoying it just as much despite the warm-ups they have to do everyday so when they jump in the cold ocean water, they don't get muscle cramps, and despite having to bring a thermos of hot chocolate and sweatshirt so that after as they're shaking with blue lips, they won't freeze. :) Samuel has been quite the trooper!!! As has his 3 cousins who are in the same class. It's been a fun summer activity for them!

...some days can be like this one day...

...and this the next! So unpredictable!

Can you get more picturesque?! Have you ever "sauna-ed"? (noun: sauna. verb: sauna-ed.) The idea is to jump into the cold water, stay in until you're really cold, then jump out and run into the hot, nearly 160F sauna and warm yourself up, until you're dripping sweat instead of lake water and then do it all over again :). Despite the blue sky in this picture, it wasn't that warm outside, but I have to admit, I LOVED it. So did the kids. Well, all except Emmy who thought the heat-wave you felt from the moment you open the sauna door was too much and "Emmy not like hot". (She stayed in the water for a good half hour until her lips started turning blue and we made her sit in the sauna). It was fun though. First time in nearly 9 years of living here I've done this...definitely will not be the last.

This has summer written all over it! (It was just as good as it looks!!!)

Entrance and Kitchen done (pretty much)!!!

ENTRANCE

Before

After

KITCHEN:

Before

After

Here are projects number 2 and 3 done (and by done I mean, of course nearly done. Small boarders missing and loose cabling here and there! :)) Next two projects: Splitting our room into two so Samuel can have his own room, and our front yard (and when I say yard, I mean tiny spot in front of our house where we park our car). fun, fun...! (more pictures of the kiddies to come.)

click here to see progression and rest of Final Kitchen

2.01

Close to 60,000 signed up with high expectations. A mere 45,000 actually ran. Still one of the world's largest half-marathons! I crossed the finish line disappointedly two minutes over my goal. (Chris ironically finished 2 minutes quicker than planned with 1.28) :) Every time I run this race, I think it's the last time I'll do it. It's a tough race. Lots of ups and downs. The main thing that keeps me going is the crowd. This year, I might be serious. I might just stick with 10km races. Those are fun!

Make-up Fun

So, I have a make-up artist friend. She got a group together. Divided us into 4 teams. Had pictures and let us loose. Now, for someone who only wears make-up on Sundays (and even then, it's only eye-shadow and mascara), I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated by the smörgåsbörd of color and options on the table. However, i found myself slowly getting into it and having a lot of fun!


Our picture we had to recreate...



Final results...

(I had one with my eyes open, but it's too big and won't let me upload...:( )

Easter and BBQ's

I am in the YW presidency in our Stake and girls camp is just around the corner, so last Saturday we ladies in the presidency decided to have a little BBQ with our families at the place we'll be camping to scout it out and get some inspiration. It was great! I was reminded again how healthy being out in nature is. The kids LOVED being outdoors andit made Chris and I excited to take our kids camping this year!

For the first couple hours, Emmy refused to look up at anyone. She sat there either cuddled with mom, dad or staring at the ground with her "mad face" on. Finally, she warmed up and was the life of the party.

Someone brought fishing poles and the kids had a fun time "fishing" in the near-by swamp. They actually caught a little water lizard!

I forgot we had a couple more Easter pictures I never posted. After church on Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny had left some eggs in our backyard and the kids had a fun time finding all of them!

What kind of big sister would Sofia be if she didn't help shove huge chunks of chocolate in little Emmy's mouth?!

These dresses and Samuel's shirt was sent by grandma (of course!). The girl's LOVED the dresses and Samuel thought he looked pretty handsome in his new Easter shirt. These picture frames were also sent by grandma and grandpa last year for Easter. They've started a little tradition that each year they'll send a new little Jesus picture to put in the frame to remind the kids how special Easter is and how much Jesus loves them. (Emmy refused to hold her picture...she was too busy holding her purse and couldn't possibly hold both...).

I just had to add these two pictures as well. well. This is Emmy's bed-head. I love it! We'll be using these pictures for her wedding or some sort of blackmail someday. :) It just describes her to a tee.

again random!

So, again, time seems to move too quickly these days! Here is a quick update on our lives through pictures. Last week, I was in Frankfurt for a training meeting. I'm working 8 hrs/wk as a secretary for the CES coordinator and once a year all the secretaries in Europe have a training meeting! I look forward to this trip once a year. Hence, a couple German houses and the German Temple. Also, in connection to this trip, I was able to meet up with Chris in Berlin as our good friend was getting married. The family stepped in at the last minute to help with the kids and we were able to spend a wonderful couple days together down there. The other pictures are simply of different things we've been doing. Including Easter. The weather this week has been amazing! I think it even reached 70F today!!! We are basking in this sunlight and trying to soak up as much as we can, because we never know how long it'll last!

Anyway, hope everyone had a good Easter!

Emmy turns 2

Newborn

one year old

two years old

Wow, time flies!!! We celebrated Emmy's second birthday nearly 2 weeks ago. She turned two on the 12th of this month! Our little Emmy is getting big!! I've never had a two year old without being pregnant and I have to say, this age is A LOT more fun when I'm not dealing with morning sickness! Emmy is a complete mixture of her two older siblings. Somewhat easy-going, she's still got her will. She's easily comforted and loves cuddles. She's quick to laugh and is quite social! :) It's so fun for me to watch my children grow and get to know their little personalities. Two, Four and Six are perfect ages and I wish I could freeze time and keep my children at this age forever!