Snow is here...

Here I am with my pregnant belly for those who are eager to see it :)

Timo wants to be the star and loves to be the center of attention.

It's been a while since I wrote last. life gets crazy and busy, or at times I feel like there is nothing exciting to write about. I am excited about Christmas getting closer, especially since my parents are flying in from Finland. They are coming the 23rd of December and visiting for a week. It will be very wonderful to have them visit us. It was fun to get a Christmas tree, this time we got a fake one, but it was more convenient. The kids enjoyed decorating it. Matthew made some ornaments at school, that I got today.

Matthew and Timo are doing great. Today Matthew had his Christmas party for preschool. I took Matthew and Timo and they both had great time. Our boys love to sing Jingle Bells and that has been the bedtime favorite song for the last year :) so now they have it down pretty good. On Wednesday we went to Oscoda (the same town we go to Church) to a community Christmas party. One of the young women, Asley in our ward was in the Christmas play with her brother and we thought it would be nice to see it. They also had some other music performances, light show etc. Our boys loved the light show, and electric guitar solo (the guy who played was very talented). Timo was totally into it and was pretending that he was playing too. I wouldn't be surprised if he will play guitar in the future. We got finally home at 10pm and the kids were so hyped up by the program that they didn't fall asleep until 12am! They still woke up early the next day, but on Thursday night they crashed at 7pm which was nice :). 

Bobby's job is going well. The office is getting busier. The business has put out a competition between the different offices giving a bonus for the highest selling office and last week Bobby's office was the winner so that was pretty exciting. This week we got a ton of snow so many people had canceled their appointments, so this week their office didn't do as well, but today was a very good day. I have been busy managing all the billing and paying off student loans. I hope to have the loans paid off as soon as possible, since the economy is not great. Even if we are making more money, we don't have much extra since a huge portion goes to paying off student loans. Also we are trying to build savings, and hopefully buy a house in the end of summer. With the economy being what it is we hope to build up food storage and prepare for future.

I am doing pretty well. I am getting huge with my pregnant belly. I still have two months to go, but I already gained 30 pounds! Let's just hope I can get rid of after I have the baby. My days are busy by taking care of my family. When I have some time for myself I take a 30 min nap, since I find myself tired being pregnant and all. I have slowed down my web business.  I feel very out of touch with design stuff and hope to work on it more in the future. I feel like I have now time to emerge in design, and I feel too tired to make a serious effort in it. I hope sometime in the future I'll have the desire, motivation and chance to strengthen my talents that are pretty rusty now.  Right now the most important thing for me is taking care of my children and supporting my husband, and taking care of myself. Sometime down the road I'd love to go back to school and take some classes on art and design. 

We got a ton of snow this week. School was actually canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We got about a foot and a half of snow. It is so beautiful. It looks like a Christmas card. People I was very grateful that Bobby shoveled the drive way :) I would do more if I wasn't pregnant. I took some pictures of the snow. 

I also have some pictures from Halloween... wow it's been a long time since I posted last...

I saw this list on Camille's blog and thought I'd try it out too- you're supposed to mark the things on this list that you've done- I marked the things I've done in red. Bobby marked the ones he did with an *.
1. Started your own blog *
2. Slept under the stars *
3. Played in a band *
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower *
6. Given more than you can afford to charity *
7. Been to Disneyland *
8. Climbed a mountain *
9. Held a praying mantis *
10. Sang a solo *- when I was little, no one would dream of asking me now
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch *
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning *
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables *
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight *
22. Hitch hiked *
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill *
24. Built a snow fort *
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse *
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset *
31. Hit a home run *
32. Been on a cruise *
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors *
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language *
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing *
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke *
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt *
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight *
46. Been transported in an ambulance *
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud *
54. Gone to a drive-in theater *
55. Been in a movie-no, but have been on a TV commercial *
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia *
60. Served at a soup kitchen *
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason *
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma *
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check *
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy *
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial *
71. Eaten Caviar *
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London--no, but seen it in Sweden
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book *
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper *
85. Read the entire Bible *
86. Visited the White House *
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox *
89. Saved someone’s life- technically I work really hard to protect my kids and keep them safe
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous *
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one *
94. Had a baby *
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake *
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone *
99. Been stung by a bee *

There are a lot of things I still need to do in life....

I got tagged...7 interesting/weird things about me...some are more exciting that others...

1. I am youngest in my family, but have the same birthday as my oldesr sister who is 9 years older than me. We both majored in graphic design at BYU, both worked at Creative Marketing at BYU, we both had our first child (boy) when 26 years and second boy 18 months later. Also she has 3 boys and her youngest is a girl and my next baby that is due in February will be a boy too! 

2. I used to beat guys in armrestling in elementry school... yeah that's pretty weird...

3. I lost my airplane ticket in London when I had a layover there, but I was still able to fly to US without a ticket...I have lost stuff few times, but I think that was one of the worst cases.

4. I signed up for New Testament class at Ricks and found out in the beginning of the first class that it was Ancient Greek class and we were there to  learn the language. I decited to keep the class, I would have never signed up for the class without the accident.

5. I have very fast deliveries. The last one I got to the hospital at 9am and Timo was born 9:45am.

6. A month a go we were staying at our branch presiden't house for a week before our house was ready to move in and while we were there  were these  two men that came to move a fridge. I was with Timo and Matthew and the mover guys thought that I was a babysitter and that I was 12 or 13 years old. I take that as compliment since I am turning 30 in 6 months. People usually think that I look younger, but I think that was a strech. Bobby should give the movers some new glasses ;)

7.  I had 'boy hair" when I was young, and short hair all the way until I was 15 and ever since it has been long.

This weekend we had a nice ward activity at a fellow members house. We had a combined chili pot luck with a hay bale ride. The pot luck was great. We had several great chili's to try, some casseroles, and Petronella decided to bring a dinner in a pumpkin, a recipe that we learned while we were in Oregon. The kids especially loved the desserts, especially the doughnuts. It was a great activity that we could spend outdoors before winter came.














After dinner we all piled in for a hay bale ride in the trailer. For the first 20 minutes it was pretty calm and relaxing, in spite of the cold temperatures.
















At one point the deacons started getting bored and led a chant that all the kids joined in to go faster. Well, we did go faster, and earned a little adventure. I realized this may be exciting when we hit the road labeled "Seasonal road." A short time later we realized that the trees weren't very groomed here. The driver did his best, but even still, we started getting pummeled by low branches and trees in the sides of the road. The right side of the wagon got hit first, then the left side got it pretty good, then some low lying branches came right up the center.




























(Notice the arms upstretched to block the low branches.) So for about 30 minutes people were ducking and dodging branches from all directions in the back of this hay ride. I gotta tell you it certainly wasn't what I expected, but it made for an adventurous ride! We can all hardly wait till next year.
P.S. None of these pictures were photoshoped!

Fall is here

Finally I feel like things are starting to settle down. I have been quite stressed out with all the changes in the past year. I feel like our boys are doing a lot better after we moved here. They are playing more together. They are getting into a good routine. Having Matthew in preschool for few hours 4 times a week really helps us getting into a routine. I have been able to get some things done while Matthew is in preschool and I feel like my life is not constant chaos all the time. I also find myself being more patient with our kids and playing more with them.  Timo enjoys the one on one time he gets when Matthew is in school. I'm enjoying the beautiful fall colors. However, we have a ton of leaves on our yard and I need to do some racking....but that can wait :) My neighbor fixed our rack..do you think that was a hint?:) I actually racked last Saturday, but then the next day a bunch of more leaves fell down....

Last night we had a young women's activity at our house. I am loving my new calling. Bobby was very kind and took the kids shopping with him. We made  lemon squares and they were delicious.  Well there is not anything too exciting going on, so this is all for now...

Happy 2nd Birthday Timo!!!

We made Timo our traditional pancake birthday breakfast. He loved it.

I attempted to make a train cake for him, and even if it didn't look all that perfect Timo loved it. He loved blowing the number 2 candel on the cake.

Timo had his birthday almost a month a go, but I missed posting photos of his birthday. Timo is such a sweet boy. He was very excited about his birthday and kept singing happy birthday song all day, and just had a great big smile on his face. He got a tricycle and a fireman costume for his birthday. He loved blowing the candles on the cake. He has grown up to be such a charm and makes everyone happy around him. He loves to help out and today when Bobby was moving furniture around Timo was helping to move the couch ;) He loves his new big bed he got too recently and it makes him feel like a big boy. 

Timo had great time at the park

Matthew hanging on the top of the slide.

Matthew and Timo love the lake and have been swimming in it few times already, but the water is getting too cold!

It has been forever since I wrote on the blog last. Things have been busy, The big news is that I am pregnant and it's going to be a BOY! I had my ultra sound on Thursday. With all the crazy moving we have been doing I wasn't able to go to the doctor until two weeks ago. I'll be due Feb 11. It certainly will be interesting to see how we can handle 3 wild boys... Matthew is in preschool 4 days a week for 2.5 hours and that gives me a nice break. Timo and Matthew are playing better together and are listening to me more and that helps a lot. I'm sure it will be chaos for a while..or forever, but we'll adjust :) Bobby took the kids to the park today and he took some pictures. It looks like they had lots of fun. We have this cool park a mile from our house and the kids love it. 

Today Bobby and I had talks in church, and Bobby also played the piano. We stayed in the Branch President's old house this past week (they are renting in out in the end of next week). Of course our branch president had a good opportunity to asks us to speak :) This was our second Sunday, so he will make sure that we won't get too relaxed. We are happy to be in our branch. Everyone is super friendly. We also found out that santa attends our ward ;) We have an old man with long white beard and after sacrament meeting he gave cards to Matthew and Timo with his picture on the front in a santa outfit, and it said Merry Christmas:  From: Santa. That was pretty funny. He is a very nice man and said that would visit Bobby and I next week. 

Yesterday we took the kids to the beach in lake Huron. The lake is great. The water is clean, and it looks beautiful. The kids were excited to jump in. It got deep very slow, so Matthew and Timo went ways into the water. Matthew was in water neck deep. We better teach him to swim soon. The kids got to play in a park too. It was so beautiful, when I get my camera unpacked I'll take some pictures. 

So tomorrow our plan is to move to the house we are renting. Hopefully I have the energy... I am way behind with my web design stuff so I hope I get an early start tomorrow on that.

Welcome to Michigan!

This will be just a quick blog. We haven't had Internet for ages, because of moving..etc.. I just wanted to give a quick update. Bobby got a job in East Tawas, MI. It's a small town of 2000 people. He interviewed with a doctor that had bought 6 new offices. We got an offer in the East Tawas office which is full scope growing practice. Bobby will have more details about it.. Anyway they have him working there 3 days a week and he will work 1-2 days in West Branch, MI that is 35 min away. I was so happy that Bobby got a job where he doesn't have to work on Sundays. Several of the places he interviewed said that he had to work on Sundays, or at least they would like to have him work on Sundays. Now he has a great schedule from 9am-6pm Monday through Friday! The town we moved in is small, and we have to travel 25 min to get to Church, but the branch is wonderful and everyone is so happy that we moved there. They luckily have a nursery and primary. We get about 70 people at Church on Sunday, so it's not too small. We had 4 families call us before we even moved in to see if we needed help with housing and etc. I hope we can return the favor in the future and serve well in the branch. Housing is very cheap in the area, and we would like to buy a house, but want to make sure that Bobby's job will be solid, so right now we will be renting a house (it's 4 bedroom house and only $675/month) It's an older home, but looks nice inside. These pictures are actually from the renter, but when I have a chance, I'll try to get some pictures. This week we are actually staying at our Branch President's old home, and won't move to our house until 2nd of September. Bobby is starting work tomorrow. I'll try to post more updates this week since we have the internet available here.

Timo and Matthew on Treasure Island with a scenery of San Francisco in the background

Matthew doing some serious shoveling

Bobby was very happy to be on the Beach

Matthew admiring the Ocean and Jimmy working on a Cassle in the Backround

Timo with his truck

Trip to Montera Beach, Treasure Island and Golden Gate Park

Bobby wanted to visit the Beach before we make our long move to Michigan, so we packed our car with beach toys, towels and kids and headed to the California Coast. Bobby's bothers Ben and Christian and niece Ellie also came with us. We traveled two and half hours and got to a nice beach called Montera Beach.

We spend maybe 5 hours there and you can tell. I didn't put sun screen on my face and so It's very red today, even blistering.... Bobby and the kids had also reddish faces today. It was a bit embarrassing at Church since it was our last Sunday in this ward with our red faces ;)

After the Beach we spend some time in Golden Gate Park. We walked around the park and spent some time in an art museum. 

Little Dog with a big stick on the Beach

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is most memorable.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you... either on your blog, in my comment box, or I will email you back!

Whitewater Rafting Trip

We had a very exciting day yesterday. Grandpa and Grandpa stayed with Matthew and Timo while we headed to Auburn to pick up some raft, equipment and kayak for river rafting. I was a bit hesitant of going since I don't like roller coasters, etc and get car sick easy, but Bobby had convinced me to go and I wanted to make him happy. Bobby was in charge of the trip, and he had spend quite long to prepare for the trip to set up the rentals, getting food. I helped make the sandwiches and prepare the food the night before. We had a group of 11 people going. All Bobby's siblings were there...Gregory, Christian, Benjamin, Jimmy, Billy and Cynthia. Also Erika (Gregory's wife), Jen (Cynthia's friend), Pete (Billy's friend) and Bobby and me :)

We got an early start. We woke up at 6:30 am, had pancake breakfast and headed to the raft rental to pick up the equipment. Before everything was all set up and we were ready to start paddling it was past 9am. It was the South Fork of American River. We had a 20.5 mile trip a head of us with lots of rapids including class IV- rapids. As I told before I was pretty terrified and kept saying I hope I'll stay alive. However, it didn't take too long until I realized that I loved river rafting! I loved seeing the beautiful nature and river was amazing. We had 2 small self bailer rafts so often the raft got totally filled with water. Since the boats were so small we could feel the rapids really well. We had to do a a lot of baling to keep the water out. M

ost of us got to swim too... On one of the rapids called Meat Grinder all the people except for one fell off from Benjamin's boat. Cynthia and her friend got to swim for ways in the rapids since it was a very long area. They got pretty scraped up. I had my swim in one of the last rapids when our raft hit a huge rock and all the people fell out except for one. I got hold of the raft pretty quick and I was holding the paddle with my legs trying not to loose it. I through the paddle in the boat and Pete helped me back in the boat. Some of the highlights were going down the Trouble Maker backwards on our raft, having the rafts filled with water all the time in big rapids, and I kept sitting on the bottom of the raft so I wouldn't fall out. It was so much fun. We also learned something about teamwork and following the leader. 20 miles was a long trip! When we had returned all the equipment and got back it was 9:30pm.

Great thanks to Bobby getting the trip so well together...WE ALL HAD GOOD TIME!

IN ALL LIVING HAVE MUCH

       FUN AND LAUGHTER
LIFE IS TO BE ENJOYED, NOT JUST ENDURED  (GORDON B. HINCKLEY)

I saw this quote today and I wanted to put it up as a motto for these sometimes hard and easy times. Last year was certainly a challenge for me, and things seemed hopeless at times, and I felt pretty depressed often. However, we were able to move forward and I am so proud of Bobby for graduating from optometry school. Things will work out one by one, but not on my time table but on Lord's...I need to be patient and stop worrying so much!  We have a lot of changes ahead, but I am facing them with renewed strength. I keep in mind that the best is still to come and not give up. Things have worked out in the past and will also in the future. I am so lucky to have Bobby as my husband. He is wonderful with our boys. Timo and Matthew absolutely love when he sings to them. They love their daddy so much!!!

Timo has always loved blackberries, but he loved Finnish blueberry soup even more. Looks like someone needs a bath!!!

TRIP TO LAS VEGAS

 We made a trip to Las Vegas to see Petronella's sister Reina and her family. Petronella's brother Esko had come to visit USA the very first time and we got to spent some great time together.

Reina's family had moved to a new beautiful house with a great yard with lots of trees and a swimming pool. The pool was great because the weather was so hot. Matthew loved swimming with his daddy. Timo didn't like the water as much, but we still made him wear the life jacket all the time while he was outside if the swimming pool was uncovered. Timo enjoyed playing soccer.