Cousins Updates

[note: Beatta posted this at our own site, but in case you missed it, I wanted to re-post it here, too.]

While looking for the picture of Salla for the birthday post, I found so many good photos of the kids in the past few years, that I had to just share a few...starting with Henkka about 3 years ago:


Here's my little boy in November of 2007, during our little turn-around in Orem.
Here he is playing with his new friend a little after we moved back... I think either Jan or Feb of 2008.
Salla was born July 25, 2008.
Salla is about three months here.Henkka, Salla, and Hallie in December of last year.
January of 2009.

For Hallie...

...and her sinful ways.

Salla

Pictures here. More to come when B gets a few minutes to add some.

Trip Activities

As you may have heard, Henkka and I went to visit Mom & Dad over the weekend. Above are a few photos of Henkka. Observe them carefully. Pictures such as these would make you believe that he was very active and engaging during our trip. However, pictures such as these would mislead you. Mostly he just wanted to sit in my lap, watch videos of steam engines on YouTube, refuse to eat, and cower in terror before his grandparents. Fun trip.

From the second photo from the left, you can see Henkka observing the wildlife, as Mom mentioned.

A Fun Weekend

Ryan, April, Ian, and Molly came up to Norfolk this weekend. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had. The kids played in the fountains at the Botanical Gardens and we rode the Paddle Wheel Ferry across the Elizabeth River and got to see the draw bridge go up. What fun cousins. Too bad Henkka has been told he can't go near his cousins!!!!! Maybe we will just have to go see him!!!!

By luck, we also got to see the International Azalea Festival Parade. Hallie loved waving at the princesses and was sad when we left.

Bathtime for Bonzo

Project

Now that we are both almost totally unemployed, I've decided to finish those projects that have been pushed aside for years (some of them for too long). The project of choice this week is to send out those photos I took of us at Easter in 2006. They are now obviously outrageously outdated, but hey, they are better than what we had before -- which is nothing.

So be on the look-out for some mail with a picture cd.

On a more cute note, Henkka can now recognize his cousin Hallie from the picture we have posted on our fridge -- and can say her name as well! Now we'll start working on Ian and Molly, whose photos also occupy the fridge door.

Firsts

The last few days has brought a lot of firsts to our house. Molly has finally figured out how to get her hand in her mouth and also toys. As I was taking pictures of her playing yesterday, she also rolled. So, here is the photographic evidence of both firsts.



I also finally remembered to buy her cereal finally, so she got her first food, which Ian thought was great. He was very excited to help feed her—and he didn't ram the spoon down her throat.

Hiking

Ian, Molly and I went hiking today. We had a very lovely time. Ian made the request yesterday and he made it around a .8 mile loop today. We saw squirrels, a bright lime green colored snake, which jumped off the board walk when we got too close, two deer, and a green lizard that let Ian touch it several times and thus became "my friend". Here's a picture of Ian in his hiking hat and shirt waving the two leaves that he carried around the path to show daddy he had been hiking.

Christmas

Hope this works for everyone for Christmas. Ryan gives to Scott, Scott gives to Alison, and Alison gives to Ryan. We will just rotate each year. Feel free to give stuff between the kids, I know April wants Ian and Molly to give to all the cousins.
If anyone has any special needs or requests or ideas for presents let everyone know.
On another note....keep an eye out for a tropical storm off the coast of South and North Carolina and Virginia. Norfolk is supposed to get quite a bit of rain Sun-Wedneday. Not so much wind, as rain, which is supposed to be a good thing.
Alison

Ian announces:

I am a bear sitting on my log thinking of honey.

(Think Winnie the Pooh.)

Watching Fish

This is one of Molly's favorite activities. She will watch the fish swim around for a long time. We currently have 4 tetras. Alas, our algae eater died today. He may have starved to death—a sad way to go, but at least the tank is clean.

Friday Night Racin'

I took Ian to Wake County Speedway to see some short track (1/4 mile) stock car racing. The track is only about a mile from our house and since we can often hear the cars on Friday nights, I figured we should go see them.















Ian had a great time and so did I. Very loud and smelly and redneck-y. Ian made friends with the 4 year old son of one of the drivers. He would yell "Go Charlie! Go #21!" and clap in a cute way.

Cousins

We are enjoying a visit from the McMurdie Family and thought you might like to see some pictures..

like uncle like niece

Hallie has taken up scowling. She can hardly keep a straight face while trying to do it....it just reminded me of the "Bubster".

She was scowling at church and the guy sitting behind us scowled back and scared her and she fell off the bench. It was pretty funny....

She also has taken a real liking to her Uncle Ryan. She was looking out the window this morning and saw a cardinal and I told her she would have to tell her Uncle Ryan about it because he likes birds. She said " I like cardinals too, like Uncle Ryan". Everything the past few days has been "Uncle Ryan...." If only she knew the true DWEEBUS that Uncle Ryan is.....Does everyone remember him pulling his pants up to his armpits and chasing people around the house?

We are loving the beach! We went again yesterday morning and caught 3 crabs. Hallie thought it was the greatest and wanted to spend her whole time digging for crabs. It was quite windy so the waves were HUGE. The life guards didn't let anyone out too far. (Mom, we went to VA Beach again and Hallie kept saying...this is where I come with Grandmeme....Where is she?)

Our weekend

This weekend we went up to visit Alison, Tobin and Hallie. It is about a three hour drive for us. We found that while we were not particularly well practiced in this area—I had counted on two sleeping children as we drove during nap time—we all survived and Ian had a great time playing with Hallie.

We went to the Living Museum, which is kind of a small scale zoo with primarily native North Carolina animals. My favorite was the little green Heron flying around outside near the board walk. There was an aviary housing various herons, ducks, and other water birds. There were several Night Herons roosting in the trees. After we pointed these out, Ian pointed out the "morning time" ducks.

We went up Friday afternoon and came back Saturday evening. This morning Ian wanted Hallie to go to church with him and during the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting added "bless Hallie" to the official prayer. He has been parroting phrases in prayers and sometimes the whole prayer, so it wasn't totally unusual to hear him praying aloud with the opening prayer, but it was heart-warming to hear him add his own personal blessing on Hallie—I'm sure the rest of the congregation enjoyed it too.

Cousins

"Want two Henkkas." That was Ian thoughtful request a few minutes after we had been talking about cousins. We were looking forward to seeing Hallie again in about a week. Apparently Ian has not seen enough of Henkka, because he now requires two.