Merry Christmas!

Looking back over this year, so much has happened. We have been truly blessed and are amazed that life is as settled as it is. Some of the things we are most thankful for are: our wonderful family, Håkon's job, the friendships we have made, our church, the opportunity to spend time with my family, my parents, and this beautiful house we get to live in!  

It still amazes me that Håkon got a job so quickly, and one that he enjoys so much and learns so much from. It also amazes me that we have so many good friends just one year after being here. Friendships take time, so we were prepared for a hard year, but God has really blessed us. We have met these friends through our church. There are so many churches in Abbotsford that it was a bit overwhelming when we first came here, but the first church we tried, a Vineyard church, felt like home!  So our Sunday mornings are spent there and our Sunday afternoons are spent with my extended family. My parents, my sister and two sets of aunts and uncles get together with my gramma and have a visit and a light dinner. It's nice to be able to get together with everyone, and for it to be a regular thing as it just becomes a part of our schedule. I feel really lucky to be so close to my parents as well. It is so nice to see the relationship built between them and our boys. Elias and Aksel get so excited to see them, even if it's only been a day since we last saw them! Aksel doesn't say many words, but Gramma and Grandpa are definitely two of them! It has also been lovely for us to have such ready babysitters! And without them, we would not have this house to live in either. We took over part ownership of my parents house in the summer and have been busy renovating since. Slowly, but surely we are getting there. The house is great for us with lots of space and a nice big yard for the kids to play in.

It is truly a joy to watch Elias and Aksel grow and to see their relationship with each other develop. Elias is such a caring boy, always looking out for people, making sure they have what they need. He takes care of Aksel, tries to distract him when he's grumpy (much to mamma's delight) and is very into his imagination, constantly providing us with hot chocolate, cookies and icecream! Easy to see what his favorite foods are! Aksel is a charming little boy who gets away with a bit too much because of his smile! He still isn't the best sleeper at night, but "this too shall pass".  Playing outside is his favorite thing to do, besides giving Elias a hard time.

So what have we done this year? Looking back we really have had the opportunity to do a lot of things and experience new things. Here is a short and random collection of things that happened this last year:

• Trip to California for a wedding in Pasadena, our extended family, and at the same time visiting friends from Trondheim in Mission Viejo. Håkon tried to ride the waves, only partly successful
• Mexico holiday while Grandma and Grandpa were babysitting kids with hand, foot and mouth disease. 
• Cabin trip to the interior of BC enjoying swimming, ATV driving, and relaxing.
• Ice Hockey: Being introduced to the NHL and AHL has sparked a new sports interest for Håkon in addition to following the Norwegian soccer league through early mornings on the computer or TV.
• Knitting: Kari is impressing Abbotsford with Norwegian knitting and teaching knitting lessons.
• Skype: through Skype we have been able to keep in touch with family on a weekly basis. Very nice!
  
• Visiting with kids: yes it is possible. When in Norway we always left to go home for the kids bed time. Here we have learnt just to put the kids to bed wherever we are visiting and then just bringing them home when its time to go. It actually works and increases your social life after having kids.
• Unexpected Norway trip. Håkons grandpa died after a short period of being sick. It was good to be able to go home to spend time with family and celebrate his Grandpas great life. Truly an example and inspiration for us. 
• Visits from Norway. Eirik and Lina (Håkon's brother and sister-in-law) visited us this summer and right now Håkon's mother and father are here. Such a treat to spend time with them and the kids are loving it.
• Donuts and coffee: We are now pretty good at ordering coffees, bagels and donuts at the drive through. ;)
• Swine flu - no we didn't get it, yet anyway.
• Gardening: yes we have a garden, but don´t quite know what to do to keep it nice. Thankfully grandma and grandpa is giving useful tips and help. 
• Raging MAD: Yes sometimes, at least a couple of times a week, the kids drive us nuts, and wondering why on earth we wanted this, but it passes and then we remember why we love these kids so much.
• Provision: We realize how once again God has provided for us in abundance, we are truly grateful.

We wish you all the best for this next year. We hope we get to see some of you (live or on Skype) and hope you get a wonderful Christmas season.  

   

gingerbread house decorating

fall

Again, many things have happened these last few months! For example Aksel's first birthday!! We had a wonderful day celebrating with family and a few friends - and I think he enjoyed his first piece of cake all to himself!

We went to California in the beginning of September for a very good friend from Norways wedding as well as to visit some other friends from Norway! So we had a great week of being "norwegian" with speaking lots of Norwegian and eating Norwegian food - as well as laying on the beach and spending time with good friends.

One of my closest friends from New Zealand came to visit me together with her hubby and kids. It was amazing to meet her kids for the first time and spend some quality time together after so long. Can't wait until next time!!

Soon after that, Håkon and I had the opportunity to go to Mexico along with some people from his work - which we gladly accepted! So we had a 5 day holiday in Cabo San Lucas in an all-inclusive resort. Without kids! We had a wonderful time, but unfortunately the kids got super sick while we were gone with hand-foot-and mouth disease. Which basically meant that they had sores all in their mouth - no food, no soothers, no bottles = not a fun time for my poor poor parents. But they survived and the children survived so I guess it all ends well. So unfortunate that our first time away from Aksel turned out like that. Hopefully it will be better the next time we go away!

As I'm writing this, Håkon is on his way to Norway. His grandfather died on Sunday so he is going for the funeral. I am sad that I'm unable to be there to celebrate his life but am so glad that Håkon will be there with his family. He'll be gone for a week so hopefully I'll survive with the kids without having a nervous breakdown!

Birthday boy!

Beach time in California - Orange County

Elias and Ezra - good buddies

Sunset cruise in Mexico

summer

This summer has been very full - even with the lack of holidays! I think when I look back on this summer, the thing that I will remember the most is the heat! It was crazy warm for about a month - the temperature was in the mid 30's every day, with the humidity it felt like it was in the low 40's. So the heat was intense to say the least. We have enjoyed the weather as well :-) days on the beach and at the water park! We also had a long weekend up at Green Lake, about a 4 hour drive from here, together with another family that we have gotten to know quite well. That was loads of fun - we stayed at a house right on the lake and had long lazy days. Truly a break from it all, besides Håkon's wallet going missing! But it was thankfully found a day later so all was well.

Other highlights include celebrating the marriage of my brother Jim and his new wife, Doreen. They were married in Hawaii in March so we had a family celebration at the end of July. The first family do at "our house"! Quite fun!

Also, Elias is finally out of diapers! We finally had enough and took them away and 3 days later he was pretty much trained. I am still so thrilled everytime he uses the potty and I don't have to deal with diapers anymore! It was quite funny, he picked out a pirate ship as his toy after filling up his potty chart - he was playing with it upstairs and I could hear him "ahoy ladies"!! instead of "mateys"..very cute.

Aksel is now walking - much to his and our delight! He's been taking steps now for almost a month, but now these last few weeks, especially these last few days, he's been walking more and more. He will now get up and keep walking if he falls down instead of crawling further so I think the crawling is on it's way out quickly! Otherwise he is saying a few words and is obsessed with putting things in and out of their containers. Elias and Aksel are definitely fighting quite a lot, much to my dismay and amusement. I can't believe how much Aksel deliberately bugs Elias, already!! But I guess this is how it will be for the next 20 years!

Picking raspberries with Gramma and Grandpa

Cooling of in the summer heat!

Beach time with good friends!

Our cabin at Green Lake

Elias is still loving the water

Elias is very proud of his pirate ship and potty going!

Our garden full of cucumbers, squash and tomatoes!

Water park

The weather has been beautiful this last little while and the water park is a favourite place to go!

busyness

What a crazy last few weeks! The absolute biggest highlight has been Eirik and Lina who came for a visit. They were here for a little over a week and we enjoyed every single second of it! Elias was so excited to see them and loved playing with his aunt and uncle. He even started speaking more norwegian, which was great! We had lots of fun exploring different parts of the Vancouver area and just hanging out. It was incredibly sad to see them go :-( anybody else want to come???!!

One sad happening in the middle of it all was that my gramma was admitted to the hospital after falling. She was pretty touch and go for a while, they even had to revive her at one point, but she is now doing better. Unfortunately she will no longer be able to live in her apartment. So this was all a bit of a shock.

We have all been a bit sick as well. I had bronchitis and am still trying to recover from it. The kids have been coughing and not 100% for over a month now, so that's a bit tiring. Elias has actually been using an inhalor to see if that will help him.

My parents have moved out now so we are in full reno swing. We have ripped out the carpet in the living and dining room and will be installing hardwood floors this weekend in those areas plus the kitchen. Yay! We're also in the middle of painting the rooms as well, so we've had some late nights.

Other than that, we are enjoying life. Aksel is getting close to walking. He is letting go sometimes and standing. He is also obsessed with light switches, and is even saying "off"! Elias and him are having lots of fun together, and definitely starting to fight a bit as well!

Fish and chips in White Rock

On the boat to Granville Island

Aksel practicing walking with a bit of help!

hot hot hot

It's been hot this week! It's been over 30 degrees this whole week - hot! So the days have been a bit long and tiresome - with the nights being even longer and more tiresome. To top it all off, Aksel has been sick with a cough and fever.. thankfully the weather has been slightly cooler today. We have had some fun in the midst of it all though! Yesterday we went to an "ice-cream farm" and enjoyed a cold ice-cream in the heat.

17.mai

Our first 17.mai in Canada was quite nice! We went to the Skandinavia house in Vancouver to join other norwegians celebrate their national day! It was quite bizarre to sing the national anthem and see other norwegians parade around in a "tog", some in bunad's, others in shorts..it was nice but it really made me miss the real thing. Especially the part where you can eat as much icecream as you want! But fun to be a part of it all.

Gramma and Aksel looking quite similar!


Aunty Doreen getting the smiles