Christmas Day!

This morning Adam woke me up at 9.30. I have been sleeping badly because of coughing for hours at night so it was nice to sleep in. Isak woke up at 9 and Jakob a bit before that so Adam, who woke up at 5 had a very quiet morning all by himself. Anyway, kids awake means them wanting to open presents, becuase today was Australian Christmas. I was still sleepy when they were opening presents so I forgot the camera but at least grandma, poppa, Jason, Karen and the kids got to watch it all on Skype. Both Jakob and Isak were very happy with all their presents from yesterday and today so another very successful Christmas is coming to an end.

The hits of Christmas was Isak's car, he has played with it all day, and Jakob's (and Isak's) games that he wants to play as often as possible. Even Isak is starting to get the hang of it and today Jakob and Isak managed to play from start until end without us getting too much involved.

Thank you everyone for all the great Christmas presents! both children and adults are very happy and satisfied with another nice Christmas!

Christmas

Finally the day Jakob and Isak have been talking about for a long time, Christmas Eve! We started the day with a nice breakfast at home with hot chocolate and candles. -21 degrees outside and lots of snow made it all very beautiful, but not the best weather for playing outside.

Before lunch we headed to Ale and started with a walk down to the sheep shed while the grandmothers were getting lunch ready inside. The kids where very happy to pose for the camera. Especially Jakob who put his hands down again as soon as I had taken the pic.

Isak struggled a bit poor thing, I don't think we had dressed him enough because he kept complaining that he was cold.

Åsa showing us the sheep.

All the kids (and Maggi) at the kids table.

Helena and Lucas (Lucas it not asleep and he is not breast feeding).

Moa

Isak and mormor looking for Santa!

Jakob looking for Santa!

Someone is knocking on the door!!!

Santa came with presents for everyone and Isak wasn't at all scared, he even gave Santa a hug.

Jakob excited over a Luleå Hockey towel. Yes he loves hockey.

Bye bye for now Santa!

Isak got a doll for Christmas and even though Jakob didn't want to admit he quite enjoyed playing with it too.

After lunch and Santa's visit we headed home again and had a very nice and quiet evening just relaxing watching tv and then later in the evening playing games.

Baking

I am not much for baking but making ginger thins with Jakob is something I don't want to miss. We did it one night after Isak had gone to bed and Jakob loved it!

Finally home!

Adam, Jakob and Isak have now been home for nearly 2 weeks and we have spent a lot of time together. It took Jakob and Isak almost a week to start sleeping through the night and not waking up around 2am wanting breakfast. They must have picked up something on the plane over because it started with Isak getting sick and then the rest of us, one by one, and me last. I thoguht I would be ok but no, Monday last week I could feel it coming, went to work but left early and had to stay home for another 3 days. That has never happened before. I have never been sick and home from work for that long. I pretty much spent those 3 days in bed apart from helping with the kids in between. It was kind of a strange feeling that all 4 of us were together and didn 't leave the house for that many days. The kids were amazing though and seemed to enjoy the quiet lifestyle.

When we started feeling a bit better it was time to put up the Christmas tree! the kids were of course extremly excited!

Life back to normal, healthy kids at home chilling on the couch.

All alone...

Nearly 5 weeks all by myself in the big house... so how did it go? I survived and kept myself veeery busy, but missed the family a lot! the good thing is that the kids didn't seem to miss me at all, they just enjoyed the holiday and didn't quite understand why I wanted to talk to them or see them on skype. They all had a great time over there and I filled my time with work and a couple of work trips, lots of girls dinners and "fikas", the movies, riding club meetings, cleaning, putting up all the Christmas decorations etc etc.

First and also second of advent I celebrated by myself with some julmust and lussekatter.

Here we go again...

A year ago Adam and the kids went to Australia without me and today I once again dropped them off at the airport and went home to an empty house. Or I went to work first but got home to an empty, very empty house in the evening.

Happy children excited about going to grandma and poppa in Australia!

Sad mummy and children that don't quite understand what the problem is.

Time to say good bye... Have a wonderful time in Australia and see you in 5 weeks!

Mum helping out

Last week I was away for work 3 days and mum helped out a lot with the children so that Adam could work and play floor ball. She also had the kids Saturday night when Adam and I celebrated his birthday by playin ten pin bowling, having dinner and going to the movies. All in one night! we don't go out by ourselves often but when we do it we do it.

I am back!

After a few months of no blogging I am back! at least for a day. It has been a busy few months and I am not sure where time disappeared. My work has been very busy with long days and lots of travels. Adam's work has luckily slowed down so he has done a great job taking care of the kids, cooking, shopping, washing etc.

Isak is becoming more and more independent. The good thing is that he is still so cute that it is hard to get angry with him, and he and Jakob are playing more and more together, not just Isak watching Jakob. Isak adores Jakob though and wants to do everything he does. Everything. He is also getting a stronger and strogner mind and from being this extremly easy going child he can now be very very stubborn and if I have moved his milk glass on the table that could be the end of dinner.

Jakob has started training ice hockey once a week and to I need to say that it is the highlight of his week. Apart from all the Luleå Hockey games he watches either live or on tv. He has had his first injection since he was a baby and did it SO well. No crying or complaining at all.

In only 11 days Adam and the kids are going to Australia again for nearly 5 weeks. I don't know how I am going to survive but as last time I am trying to fill the time they are gone with as many activities as possible. This time it is harder though because there will be no girls weekend like last time and no trip to London :-(

I think it is great that they are going, don't get me wrong, but it is bloody hard being away from them all.

Dream come true...

As you all probably know, Jakob just loves sport. He is completley obsessed by ice hockey and he also loves floor ball. Today I had booked the gymnasium at work for a couple of hours in the morning and Jakob (and Isak) just loved it.

Jakob is really competitive as always but his energy is just never ending...

Even Isak was pretty impressive and ran and laughed and ran and laughed.

Adam and I had a game of table tennis while the kids were watching and after that they also got to try.

At the end of the session Isak was exhausted and not very happy....

Dinner at mums

Last weekend we had dinner at mum's with Anders and Helena and the kids. Isak and Lucas seem to get on really well when they meet which is nice. Here they are watching Moraträsk together.

Moa and Jakob kissing....

Group photo!

Lingonberry picking!

For the last 3 years we have been talking about going lingon berry picking and this year we finally did it! Mormor, Jakob and I packed sandwiches and drinks and buckets and headed towards Ale where we had heard there were lots of berries. I haven't picked berries since I was a child and it brought back lots of nice memories. I just love being out in the forest especially on days like this one. Jakob seemed to really like it to. Next year we have to bring daddy and Isak as well.

We met up with Andreas, Karin and her parents as well.

Jakob took the job very seriously and worked hard trying to find as much as possible.

UGL

About a month ago I attended a course about groups and leadership. The coures was held at a castle south of Stockholm in the most beautiful surroundings. During the week nobody was allowed to leave the place and we worked from about 8 in the morning until 9pm.

Me and a collegue had to leave on the Sunday to make it to the start Monday morning. The first thing I saw when I looked through my window in the morning was this cute deer. Not quite like home.

This is the room we spent lots and lots of hours in. The course was great and I learnt lots!

In the castle we had all our meals and the food was fantastic. I put on about 3 kg in 5 days. It was worth it.

The view from the castle.

Autumn

At the end of summer we finally bought a trampoline. We have been talking about it for years but not managed to agree on what to buy. Until now... That the kids love it I don't think I need to say. Here is Isak with Carina and Nelly.

Hidden inside our red currant bushes there is a small rasberry bush. I haven't seen it before so this is the first summer we have had fresh rasberries from our backyard. Nice.

Summer is over and autumn here. I love it. Cosy evenings with candles and a fire and hopefully happy kids.