Easter cards...

Me and the boys made Easter cards today. First I felt pretty good about myself for doing them in time to send out. Then I realized that Easter is less than a week away! So much for doing it in time... Well, it was a very fun project and I hope people will enjoy them whenever they receive them :-)

Gabriel's first night in the crib

As you might know Gabriel has been sleeping in the stroller bassinet since he was born. It has worked so perfect - it is small and cozy, I can move it around the house (or outside too for that matter) and I can rock it if he wants that. We also bring it when we travel. However, he is growing and the stroller is starting to get a little worn out (the bassinet is not really flat anymore...) so I thought it was time to upgrade and he is now sleeping in the crib as it is the most natural thing in the world :-) It has been standing here waiting for him for for most six months :-)

Marlee just turned FIVE!!! and lots of other fun stuff!!

Before saying or writing anything else I must let you know that Marlee turned FIVE two days ago! I feel bad not announcing this earlier, it is a big thing!, but we just have not had the time. We have been too busy doing fun stuff, seen friends and tried to catch up with the normal life after having visitors and vacation for about 5-6 weeks. We have had so much fun, and I am so thankful for all the good times that we have had, and all the wonderful company!! Now we are trying to go back to a normal life again and we did that by starting with Spring break. Marlee had this week off from school as all other kids around here so off course all the fun continues... We have been to and Indian festival (or more correct Native American festival), seen several friends, enjoyed the beach, enjoyed an hotel pool since a friend stayed there and not for forget - Alex book arrived today and I think it looks really good!! Now, lets see what reading it is like! ;-)

Turtle at the festival

Marlee was so brave and went dancing with the Indians alone since I had to stay with the stroller...

Deep fried Oreos!!!

 

 

MARLEE's BIRTHDAY, MARCH 23!!!!
We celebrated with gifts in the morning and ice cream cake for breakfast :-) The birthday party will be later in April since all people are on Spring break now.

Beach for the birthday boy!

Marlee and Noah had fun with Lexi on the beach

Alex's book!!!!!

By the pool with Lexi :-)

Noah fell asleep :-*

Chilling in the front yard

One of those days?

I know it has been a while since you last heard from us. We ended our wonderful ski weekend in Colorado and went back to Miami. I am in love with Colorado!! Marlee did so good on the skis and Noah enjoyed sledding more :-) Buddy was a great chauffeur bringing us back and forth to the slopes and Kathy acted like a great hostess, making sure everyone was good.

When I look back on all the "bad" things that happened in the beginning of the vacation I have began to see it differently because what if
- they had not realized that the plane had something wrong
- my skis and Alex's snowboard had broken while we were skiing or in the lift instead of before
- the breaks of the car were bad and we had had problems when everyone was in the car and we were on the road, and not in a small parking lot...

 

On the way to the top!

 

 

Going down a double black

Napping on the plane on the way back to Miami

 

So we came back to Miami. I had a very nice day with the boys, swimming in the pool and buying shoes for Noah. Alex and Buddy were struggling with the Internet company all day since it did not work and Alex missed an important workday. In addition to this the AC did not work properly. 

 

Daily exercise

 

 

Now we are back in Ormond and a friend (Karin) from Sweden and her family has been visiting with us for two days. It has been so much fun! Her daughter (Elin) is only 5 days older than Noah. We had a few nice hours on the beach before the fog took over yesterday. All the children except Gabriel played ball and built sand castles with Elin's dad (Olof) so me and Karin could sit down (and take pictures).

 

<3 <3 <3 Gabriel is not as squeezed as it looks!

A well deserved bath in the kitchen sink :-)

This little dude is learning too quickly!!! Not crawling yet but he surely wants to...

My friend with her family :-)

 

 

So why the somewhat negative headline when everything seems great!? What do we have to complain about? Well, while having a great day the following things happened, too: my eye glasses broke in the morning which I temporarily fixed with some tape... the AC broke down (for the third or fourth time!!) at some point and the temperature in the house is rising... the door to the guest room got looked somehow and it can only be opened with a key, which we don't have... After trying to get the lock to open with a variety of different tools and things Alex finally had to break down the door which made part of the door frame break. On the bright side, the room needs to be painted and fixed anyways so after the small fire we had a while ago in there and with the broken door frame we might just get started sooner than later, which otherwise seem to be our cup of tea... (nothing I'm proud of)

Now we are on our way to Chick fil a to enjoy some good fast food! We are doing pretty good not worrying about broken things :-) I'm afraid it would be too overwhelming at this point, looking back on everything that have happened lately ;-)

 

 

Great day for the boys

Today I enjoyed spending the whole day skiing with the boys, first Noah in the morning and then Marlee in the afternoon. Noah was said that he had fun but was not very smiley and he wanted to go home pretty soon. He still seems a little too young to ski and does not have the same "go" as Marlee did at that age. Marlee, however, did great progress again and Alex and I took him up on one of the big lifts. We found a very good green slope for practicing and I am sure that he will go down blue ones before we leave :-) Noah will hopefully be happy skiing and sledding in the neighborhood here.

On the way up for the first run today

Not on the top but on the top of one of the big lifts

I think the birch trees here look so cool!! How about the dude in front? :-)

Marlee is teaching Jillian and Noah the Swedish alphabet

Noah's first time on skis!!!

Today we took both Marlee and Noah to the slopes and they both did great progress. It was Noah's first time on skis ever and he was so good. He was really tired and only went about 5 times. After that he fell asleep in my arms. What a trooper! 

 

Marlee did great progress today with farmor and papa. I do not have many pictures of that because it mostly happened while I was sitting with a sleeping Noah :-) However I hope to see him skiing tomorrow :-)

Noah's first time ever on skis!

Noah having fun with Lo while Marlee skis

Passed out after skiing. So cozy!!!

When we got back to the house me and Lo took Noah for some more skiing on a near by little hill. First he was really grumpy and did not want to go at all but after going down one time on his own he just wanted to do it over and over again. He did so good!! And he did not complain one time when he fell. He does complain when he walks in the ski boots, though, but who can blame him...

 

Going skiing next to the house

 

 

 

I hardly dare to say it, but nothing broke today - no airplane, no skis and no car...

Third time is the "charm"?

So we thought we were done with things breaking down... But no... When going to the slopes this morning we got into a car wreck. No worries, no one is hurt, no kids were in the car, but it gave us a lot of trouble. We had to go through a lot of trouble with getting a new car and I had to take a cab to go back home and feed Gabriel. Apart from this I had a great day with a lot of skiing while Alex stayed home all day working and playing with Marlee and Noah in the snow. Tomorrow is my turn to enjoy the children and it is time for Noah to try skiing!!!

 

 

The bloopers keep coming!

Our vacation started out with a very bad for me where all the boys woke up several times and I ended up waking and getting up about 15 times during the 6 hours of sleep I had. Luckily Alex could take the boys in the morning and I slept another hour or so. It probably saved my day! He was the first one to save my day...

 

After getting everyone ready in the morning (which takes forever with 4 kids and 6 adults) we all went to rent skis and buy the ski passes. After getting everything we needed we went home where a babysitter was waiting to help out with the kids while we went skiing. Super nice to get some skiing without the boys but also felt strange to not enjoy the sloped with them.

 

Anyways, it took me and Alex a long time before we could actually enjoy the slopes. As soon as I took out the skis from the car one of the bindings fell off!! Well, good that it fell off there and not when I was skiing. We really did not want to driver all the way back to where we rented it so we decided to go and ask for help at a rental place by the slopes. They could not help us since one ski was missing a screw and the other one had a screw with the wrong dimension. The second binding fell off in there... They were incredibly nice though and LENT me a pair of skis for FREE!!! That was the second time my day was saved!

 

So back to the lift. I put on my skis and.... Alex tried to put on the snowboard, but both his bindings broke!!!!! Is that even possible that both our gear brake at the same day!? Back to the rental place. We picked a different one though since we felt a little stupid ;-)

 

Alex trying to fix his bindings before he gave up and rented a board

 

 

After that we had an awesome day and Marlee came to the sloped later and skid a little with me and farmor. I think both me and Marlee expected him to remember more of the skiing so I think that he got a little disappointed and frustrated when it did not work as good as he had expected it to. But he did good! Tomorrow I hope to bring both Marlee and Noah to go skiing. I just love watching them making progress and having fun!

 

We finally made it to the top!!!

Nice view

 

Are you talking to me?

Marlee going down