Saturday, October 03, 2009




Here are few random pictures.... I'll put more on later when I have time.





Timo was happy to wake for pancake breakfast on his 3rd birthday and loved his guitarr birthday cake.




I love blueberries, do I need to say more...




Jared as cute as he can be.

Monday, September 28, 2009

I have been busy with life so I haven't been able to write on the blog very much. However, this morning I find myself on front of computer chceking messages on Facebook with an ice cream container, so looks like I could do something... ;)

Matthew and Timo are in Head Start (preschool) 4 days a week in the the morning, so I have a little chance to get some things done, and take a little break at times. Life with 3 young boys is so hectic. I love our 3 adorable, smart and energetic boys a ton, but activities at the school and friends is perfect change of scenary for them and I love them even more when they get home from school (after getting a chance to have a peaceful morning with just Jared).

Our kids are doing great. Timo loved his birthday and is very happy to be 3. Timo is a very smart and charming boy. He says some really funny and cute things. Yesterday I was getting a bit stressed out when I was trying to get the driving instructions from mapquest how to get to the stake center. I needed to be there between 4 and 5pm and it takes and hour and half to get there. I was worried that I couldn't make it (or I would get lost...I always do). Timo said: You can do it mommy and he said it 3-4 times. That made me feel happy, and I was able to make the trip bymyself and didn't get lost on the way there...but did get lost on the way back :). That's ok, since my biggest worry was to be there on time and I made it. I always forget the funny things Timo says but remembered one from yesterday... Just before going to the doctor Timo said: Jared is going to the doctor and getting a haircut. I thought that is pretty funny, especially because Jared has only a little hair. One time Matthew told the same doctor that he likes to go to the dentist because he gets candy and cookies there (which was not true). The doctor found it pretty funny too :)

Jared woke up....gotta run...
Ok, Jared is doing great. In just last few weeks Jared has learned to crawl, sit and pull himself up and is already cruising. He just turned 7 months. Seemed like it all happened all at once. One time he was just like a noodle happy in one spot and the next minute he is all over the place. I think he is quite a surpriser. He keeps pretty low profile, and then breaks all the expectations. Jared used to be chubby baby, but now he is this tiny thing always on the move. Changing a diaper can be a challenge because if you are not fast enough he crawls on the other side of the room.

Matthew had a chance to sing "I am a child of God" in Sacrament meeting. He did great and many were touched by his singing. We had a primary sacrament meeting, and Matthew did great on his part. Our family joined Matthew singing I am a child of God.
Matthew is very happy to be back in preschool. I went to his class on Friday and his teacher said that he is doing great. She said that thst Matthew surprised everyone when he was showing how far he could count and he went all the way to 48 without any mistakes :) Matthew is a very bright boy.

I am enjoying our new home. I still have some unpacking to do, but I''ll get done eventually... I have a lot of cleaning to do..there is always more cleaning for moms.... I am certainly not going to run out of things to do.

Sorry, I still don't have the card reader for the camera, so pictures must wait.

Have a great week everyone!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

This was a pretty exciting week for us. Here in Tawas City things are starting to cool off a lot and everyone is getting back into the routine of things as school starts up again.

Timo just had his birthday last week on September 14. We celebrated by waking him up to a pancake breakfast in bed with candles. He had to eat it pretty quick though because the bus was about to pick him up! After I got home from work, Petronella had made dinner and a cake for Timo and we gave him his presents. First we gave him and Matthew a Nerf sword so that they could play with them together. Then Timo got his favorite present, a small six string guitar. Being three years old he hasn't learned figer postitions or anything like that on the guitar, but at least he can play along with the wiggles when they pull out their guitars!

Saturday we had a birthday party for Timo that we invited some friends over. I set up a croquet course at Petronella's request for everyone to enjoy. It was a little rough for the kids at first, but I think that they enjoyed it. I learned a little about how to play croquet, but I'm sure there are a lot of rules that I don't know. Kinda seems like golf to me.

Saturday, June 13, 2009











































Few days ago I took Matthew and Timo outside for an attempt to take some photos of them. I haven't had professional pictures taken of the kids for a long time..actually I am embarrest to say that we have only have a picture of Matthew when he was 3 months and his school picture when he was 3. So I was very motivated to see if I could try to get a good picture of Timo myself. I was pleasently surprised that the pictures turned out so good. I still have to do some editing in photoshop (if I ever have ANY TIME...)

Sunday, June 07, 2009







My Sisters Visit
Reina and Kirsti came to visit us a week a go for 3 days and it was great to have them over. It was fun to be together again after the long time. We had a fun time playing scattegories with motified rules that you could write stuff in Finnish or English. We went to see few local attractions. The weather was rainy most of the time so we couldn't do all we wanted, but we did see the Iorgo Springs, The Lumberman's monument and drove by the beaches. I also showed one of the houses to them that I put an offer on, but they didn't accept the offer...oh well... I was very grateful that my sisters came to see their youngest sister all the way in Michigan. Reina came from Las Vegas and Kirsti from Finland. We also were able to bless the baby last Sunday which was a special experience. Here are some pictures from their visit.










Thursday, April 16, 2009

Easter 2009



                    



Here is few pictures from Easter. The funny thing was that I had the date wrong for Easter, so we end up having it twice this year :) First at the conference weekend and then the week after that. I never did double check... oh well, the kids loved it. 

Matthew's Birthday party

Here is pictures of Matthew's birthday party that we had few weeks ago. Jay, Matthew's friend from school came and also Robby that is from his Sunbeam class. Matthew turned 4.







Boys reading...I thought this one was a cute picture that Bobby took.








Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Here is a little update. Our family is doing well. Jared is growing fast and his personality is coming out a bit more. He loves attention and gives lots of smiles when he gets it.

Bobby has been playing in a Tawas Community Band for 2 months now and last night Bobby had their first performance, It's theme was American composers. I was very surprised how well they sounded. Since we live in a small town I though that would affect the quality, but the band is full of people that are very talented and have played for years, or teach music, etc. There is several members that have retired from down south and moved here. Our town is a touristy town, and the population doubles in the summer time. Bobby will be playing with the band every Monday night at near by park by the beach. Bobby is enjoying the band which is great. Sometimes he feels that being here in Michigan there is nothing to do, especially in the winter time when it's all cold, so it's nice he found a hobby. Yesterday when I was at the concert I had a flash back when I first met Bobby. The very first date we went to was a faculty Jazz Brass concert at Ricks College. When we went on the date I thought it was a bit strange thing to do, since I wasn't into that stuff, but anything can grow into you. I was happy to see Bobby playing trumpet again, since he hasn't played it for 8 years. The kids love it too when he practices, and Bobby plays fun songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" etc..

Spring is finally in the air. The grass is starting to turn green, and it's really nice to have the sun out after the long cold winter. We have been looking to buy a house for few months now. We are thinking we'll stay here long enough to make it worth it to buy a house. Of course you can never predict the future so I hope that things will just work out. The house prices are low here and the lot sizes are good about 0.5 acres or more. However, there is a lot of older homes on the market and not that many new ones, also most homes are too small. We found that had a nice open floor plan with 4 bedrooms and a basement that could be turned into more space with some work. However, the house needed some work...new carpets, paint. We gave a ridiculously low offer and we got counter offer, and gave an other counter offer, but I don't think that we are going to find happy medium. This house is going to be foreclosure soon, so maybe if things work out we can have an other try on it when it will be auctioned off. So we are still looking for the "perfect home". We hope to make a really good deal since it is a buyers market and our student loans are still huge, and I want to get a very good deal also that when we move out of the area, we wont make a loss on the house. We'll see what happens in the future. 

Let see, what else has happened... Matthew had his birthday and turned 4 years old. Matthew is doing great. He loves going to preschool and it has helped him a lot this year. He is speaking so much better. This is area that I was worried about him, but he has been catching up in leaps. It's fun to hear him say funny things and his reasoning, he also does better playing with other kids, and talks about his friends in school. Timo is still as social at can be. We went to a children's museum and Matthew was playing with all the displays, but Timo run where some girls were and tried to amuse them and they played right along. Timo is such a charmer and we are up for a trouble in future ;) Timo is talking pretty good. I think he is about where he should be for his age. Recently he has been a bit jealous about the baby. He says put the baby in the swing, and then he wants me to hold him. The boys are doing a lot better with the baby though what I was expecting. Jared is loving all the kisses and smiles he gets :). OK, Jared is up gotta go...

Saturday, April 04, 2009


Matthew is learning to spell!
Yesterday I was on the phone with my mom and afterwards I went to living room and saw Matthew's name spelled out on the floor, wow, he has never done this before, and this morning he did it again. He doesn't quite get it right yet, but he has been very interested lately on what letter different words start with. 
The General conference will be today and I am excited about it, and hope to be able to listen to many talks :)


Sunday, March 22, 2009



I have been pretty busy, so I haven't had time to work on the blog. Bobby, I, Timo,  and Matthew were sick for a while too, so that didn't help much. I am still getting over the cold, but there is hope in the horizon. Jared is a very early smiler, he smiled first time when he was two weeks old. Also, Jared was 7 pounds 9 oz and he was 20.5 inches long. He was our smallest baby.  When I have more time I try to catch up with the blog...

Sunday, February 22, 2009


Our Newest Addition






Jared Elijah Blankenbehler

Sunday, January 11, 2009


Pictures from Branch Christmas Party...a month late...


We are lucky to have Santa in our own branch ;) Brother and Sister Kramer are a very sweet older couple. Yes, Brother Kramer's beard and hair is real. He used to be Santa for many Christmases, and evan was in People's magazine few years back. Our branch party was a month ago and they had all the branch members take pictures with him, which was great. I was meaning to use these photos for Christmas cards this year, but end up being too busy, so it never got done... Thanks for all the cards that were send to us though.