Eric and Tagen

It was so fun having my bro Eric and his wife Tagen stay with us for a week. We've gone to visit them near San Francisco a couple of times and we love hanging out with them, so it was fun to have them come here. My kids LOVED playing with them! We got to go to Neilson's Frozen Custard, because they are as big of fans as we are, and we ate at yummy places, (including my Mom's! ;) ) Some of my favorite things with them and the boys were: Elliott of course started counting down the days until they got here (I guess I should have made  a chart!), and once Ollie was talking to Eric when Tagen wasn't here yet and said, "Hey EricTagen, look at this!" Now when Ollie sees a rocket or space shuttle in a book he says, "It's going into space, it's flying to California." And they came to church with us and Ollie said, "Where will I sit?" I told him he could sit by whoever he wanted and he said, "By Eric." 

Thanks guys for staying here and playing with my boys and Tagen for teaching them more about bugs and nature! You guys are great and we can't wait to see you more often!

I hardly ever play the Wii with the boys either, and Eric was a fan- so they played like crazy. 

Family Time

It has been such a busy and fun couple of weeks while all my Finnish relatives have been here. It is really fun to mingle with them. Even though some of us have no idea what the other is saying, we still communicate and feel each other's love- it's pretty cool. They are some of the most kind people I know. Such love!

Some of my favorite things that have taken place are, Uncle Kalevi making a delicious potato/sausage soup and fish another night. Marketta using her English skills with confidence and proudly showing us pictures of her grandkids. Ilmi trying to understand all of Adam's jokes and her and Eero playing with Ollie (tickles and teases need no language!) Maarit giving Halloween socks with spiders on them to my boys (even though Halloween isn't celebrated in Finland...) Seppo climbing into the clubhouse in my backyard and going down the slide while Eero took his picture. My mom speaking in Finnish to me and English to the Finns, while we all look on with blank stares. Ollie pointing out each person as I say their names and then giving them fives and knuckles. 16 year old Essi translating for all of us. Maarit and Marketta giving all of us girls roses, for no reason (they smell so good!) Seeing their finds from their shopping trips each day. (My mom said they all just want to keep shopping all the time.) Having my Mom and Aunts prepare Finnish potato bread and me eating so much of it that my stomach hurt (I just can't get enough of it!) I can't believe the time has gone by so fast, and they only have this weekend left before they go back home. Then it will be our turn to visit them. :)
(Above Picture) Front Row: My mom- Leena, Ilmi and Eero, Maarit, Essi and Seppo. 

Back Row: My dad- Jim, Kalevi and Marketta.

My Mom and her sibs (youngest to oldest)- Seppo, Marketta, Leena and Eero.

Linds, Tagen (Eric's wife), Eric and Sini.

Eric adjusting my Aunt Marketta. We were all able to benefit from Erkki's Chiropractic skills, including the kiddies. We can't wait for them to move back to Utah and go to him regularly.

Big Brother??

I love these two pics. Big brother Elliott holding a new (yet big) baby Ollie.

Two and a half years later, Ollie is definitely a bigger boy than Elliott, even though E is taller. We keep telling Elliott he better watch out because Ollie will be bigger someday... The bottom picture was a rare, but sweet moment between the boys. They were watching something and Ollie said, "I have nowhere to sit!" Elliott offered his lap to him, and they watched the whole little 20 min. show together like this. I kept asking E if he was okay because he looked completely smooshed. But he said he was fine. 

Rock Band

I think I was the last person to ever try Rock Band. But thanks to my sister Michelle we got to play for a while after a yummy dinner at her house. It was so much fun! I was the worst player but it just made me laugh so hard!

Some of my sibs: Linds, Michelle, Sini, Eric

So fun- we didn't want to stop and stayed until 11;30 even though we had all of our kids!
Nice butt shot, but Michelle was awesome on the drums, Erkki was a great singer and Linds was just good at everything...

Cute Linds and Addie.

The Finns have arrived...

We have been extra busy lately visiting with my Finnish relatives who arrived in Utah late Friday night. My Mom came to the United States when she was 21 (I think??) while the rest of her family still lives in Finland. She has been back many times, but finally convinced all of them to visit her here. She has been so excited about it and took 2 1/2 weeks off of work to show them around. She redid her whole house too (Paint, new trims, new basement flooring, and cleaning like mad!) Like I said- she is super excited!

This is my cousin, Essi. She is 16 now, but the last time I saw her in person was on my trip to Finland 15 years ago, and she was a little one year old baby! Is it possible to look EXACTLY the same from babyhood? She is so tall and beautiful now and speaks amazing English!
Elliott the climber. All the trees around us are so new, so at Grandmas he goes to town! (Cousins Ryder and Trevan in tow.)
My Mom, Leena and her siblings- Ilmi and Eero (brother), Maarit and Seppo (brother) cont...
Marketta (sister) and Kalevi and Cousin Essi (Maarit and Seppo's daughter.) I would love to hear how everyone pronounces these names. Ask me in person and I'll tell you the right way! :)
I couldn't keep him out! The funny thing is he would climb up and then couldn't get down.
Thanksgiving Dinner. Yummy- I think we should do this more often than November. When we all get together, we eat outside, since it's a little squishy inside. Thank goodness for great fall weather and my parents magical backyard!
Cute little Addie in her baby legs. She was licking and blowing the flowers. And some of her favorite snacks that night included sticks and rocks.

She is so, so cute, and such a good baby!

Looking at Linds' pictures from our trip 15 years ago. 

My Mom has been showing them all around our fabulous state. On this day we went shopping at the mall. I was originally going to take my cousin, but then all the girls wanted to go. Boy did they shop! We left a couple of hours before them and they bought lots of new things! It was fun seeing all those ladies shopping together. They were so excited. Next stop is Las Vegas... I opted to stay home since I would be slowing them down with the kiddies where things take five times as long!

Birthday Bliss

This is Elliott's birthday countdown. He started asking months ago, so we finally made this so he could cross a day off, and then count how many days were left. He was so diligent in keeping it up. It was the first thing he did every morning.

We had some fun birthday parties with our fam and Elliott's first friend party.

This is Elliott begging to open his presents from Grammy and Grandpa and his aunties before we were even finished with dinner.

I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said, "round" so I made my favorite- chocolate!

E didn't end up eating much cake- but oh..the frosting! ;)

We had a "Speed Racer" birthday party for his friends since Elliott is obsessed and since he was turning five and the car is named "Mach 5." So we played a little race car game and had yummy red Mach 5 (strawberry) cake.


Elliott loves his friends and had so much fun- but it was so crazy and LOUD! Thank goodness Linds stayed to help me out.
We got Elliott a ramp, (he was always asking to use the neighbors) and a skateboard. He likes using the ramp with his bike every waking minute that he can. 

He has been practicing his skateboard a lot too. We have these awesome little neighbor boys who we watch skate all the time, so he already wants to do it like them. It will be a while before he can use it on the ramp though...

"The Launch"

This is his latest trick (No legs!) along with his "one hand" riding. He really loves his bike!

Little Elliott turns 5!!!

Happy Birthday to my big 5 year old Elliott today! We have been counting down the days for the last month- he is so excited to be 5. It really does feel like yesterday that he was born, although it's hard to imagine life before he was in our family. I've often thought what a funny relationship a first kid has with his parents, because we are learning and growing at the same time he is. Elliott is a very thoughtful, smart, energetic, interesting boy...and sometimes a stinker. We love him so much! 

September 8, 2003   9 lbs 6 oz.

Big eyes since the day he was born. Everyone we ran into- even strangers would tell us how big they were, but maybe now he's growing into them a little more. (I'm sure the camera flash didn't help things in this pic.)

Three days old, and still in a little newborn ball.

2 Weeks Old

1 Year 

2 Years

3 Years

4 Years (with cousin Kenzie)

5 Years!!