Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas. Girls slept in until 7 am and Nana and Papa came to watch them open gifts. We have done this for 2 years in a row. We have enjoyed having them be a part of our Christmas morning. When Eila opened her new blanket she was SO EXCITED. She cuddled right up. It was nice to have Hannu with us also because we don't get to see him much.

Santa came for Christmas Eve!

This was so fun! Santa walked all the way from the North Pole to visit us. Eila happened to be sitting in the window when he walked up... She said and I quote: "Santa's walking down the sidewalk... Santa's coming up our driveway.... HEY SANTA'S COMING TO OUR HOUSE!!" It was very fun. She really enjoyed it. Liana not so much but she did watch.

Visiting Joulupukki

Of course Liana hated sitting on Santa's lap but Eila was starstruck. She was so excited to tell what she wanted. Eila had forgot to mention she wanted a new blanket because we had lost her original so since the line was so long to go back around we just decided to have her whisper it to him across the mall and he would hear it... Worked well :)

Craft day!

I saw these very inexpensive wooden toys that I thought the girls would love. They both picked out thier own. Liana picked a train and Eila picked a boat. It was a lot of fun to see them so happy.

I know, I know.... Halloween is over

I just wanted to show you how cute our girls were!! Liana was a unicorn and Eila was a horse.

It will grow back..... I hope!

In October of last year we took the girls to get a shorter haircut because it was just becoming to much to deal with the screaming and crying over tangles. We took off at least 6 inches on Eila and 3 on Liana. It was a lot of hair and I was sad!!! It has been 4 months and I am not seeing to much regrowth yet but I hope for the future :)

Witchapalooza!!!

We took the girls to witchapalooza at Gardner Village after we went to the doctor and it was so fun. The little stores there are filled with cute baby items. We started looking at girly stuff and found a pink and brown peanut shell harness that would be great for shopping and walking. I will be getting that soon!!

OH BABY... Girl!

So my Mom came with us to the ultrasound and also to my doctor's appointment. It was a fun day. We got a DVD made of the baby and she is so cute already. Looks a lot like Eila and Antti. Here are some pictures of our day:

The first snow!

We are fortunate to live in a city where it snows more than in the valley. We got our first snow storm on October 11th. We immediately sent the kids out to play and they loved it! Liana tried to eat as much as she could before it was gone...

Oh what joy children can bring!!!

So I had some friends over for a baking day and my 2 year old and my friends 2 year old were playing outside. We got to talking and must have been oblivious to our children because we noticed some dirt on Liana's hands. Then we followed this trail of dirt that led downstairs to our loveseat! All I can say is I wasn't mad... I was in SHOCK. We couldn't believe we were only 6 feet from them and didn't hear or see a thing! They managed to bring in Eila's dump truck full of dirt more than 1 or 2 times to fill our carpet and loveseat with dirt! We had to use a shop vac and will have to get the carpets steam cleaned soon.

The reward of planting a garden!

In late spring I planted my tomatoes and pumpkins. I wasn't sure if the pumpkins would be ready before halloween but they surprised me!!! Here in this picture it shows about half of the pumpkins we got. The plant overtook my entire garden and in fact killed my green beans. So next time I will have to remember to space out my pumpkins from the rest. My mother in law used to make pumpkin jam in Finland and it was so good. I thought, "why don't we do that in America?" I mean we eat a lot of pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies. Why don't we eat pumpkin jam.

I found a recipe for pumpkin butter that was written by a woman in England. I guess they don't eat pumpkin pie much so when they do get pumpkins they are creative with what to do with them. I copied the recipe and made about 20 jars. It is so good!!!! I have given it away to many neighbors and friends and have heard nothing but compliments. 2 have made a batch themselves and one friend created a recipe from it. Pancakes with pumpkin butter and whipped cream... Easy pumpkin pie... Also my butter is very healthy and has a ton of fiber. You can even substitue sugar for a synthetic sweetener.

Arches National Park

The Arches are just beautiful. I could spend all day here.

Mesa Verde and Moab

Our family decided it was time for a family vacation. We decided to visit Colorado for Labor Day. Antti had work off and also took a day to spend time with us. My parents came along as well and it turned out great! The kids had a DVD player to distract them on the ride and we just talked and talked. We arrived late to our hotel so we just went to sleep and prepared for the next day. First we visited Mesa Verde and the Indian ruins. They are so cool! I can't believe they are still in such great shape. We want to go back sometime without kids so we can see more. They let you climb and go through the houses but we couldn't do that with kids.