Earth hour

Saturday night we participated in Earth hour and switched of our lights for one hour. Had a nice chat with the kids about utilization of electrical energy but also about consumption in general. They totally responded to it and I think we will do this more often.

Michael is really discovering different music these days. He likes to expand his horizon, he says. Funny little guy. During Earth hour, he went through some of "the old folks" cd-library and decided to rip some Pink Floyd albums. He loves his mp3-player that he got for Christmas.

 

The girls

Some recent photos of the girls! Natalie got a hair cut - and mom DESPERATELY needs one too.....

Ward activity day

Saturday was our ward activity day. It was an ski/sled down hill and hot dog BBQ thing in wonderful spring sunshine. Hopefully this kind of weather continues throughout Easter. The kids were so busy, I hardly got any pictures....

Natalies snow angel

We LOVE hot dogs!

Hitting the slopes again......

No red pepper, please.......

Pizza Grandiosa (also referred to as Grandis) refers to the most popular frozen pizza in Norway.

The pizza is subject to a lot of humorous debate, and is unquestionably a piece of modern culture, loathed and loved by Norwegians. It has has been called the "modern national dish" by some, others claim it is "a piece of cardboard", "laziness in a box" and even "refrigerated evil".

A total of 260 million pizzas have been sold. Twenty million units of Grandiosa are produced each year for the 4.67 million citizens of Norway. The average person eats about 5 Grandiosa pizzas per year. A limited tryout release from January until May 2009, Grandiosa Without Red Bell Pepper; Out on Parole, is now available as a demand to those that pick off the red bell pepper on the original Pizza Grandiosa. Michael and I are definetely in that target group, so we do our best to make it stay! 

Stabburet has released singles as part of a large scale marketing campaign for Grandiosa, the latest one is for Grandiosa without red pepper, a spin off of Norwegian Idol, quite amusing...or annoying......

March madness

I have no clue where last week went. Spring is here and we have enjoyed some sunny weather. Michael and Natalie got their bikes out and ride them every day after they are done with their homework. I barely get them to come in for dinner and then they disappear outside again. Melissa and I go for long walks when everyone else is at school. It's wonderful! Melissa is now three months old. She is such a delight! 

What else is new? Not much. Glenn went to his last appointment with the oncologist and is now officially in remission. It has been three years since he was done with chemo treatment and all tests look really good. And here we are blessed with our little miracle girl. We are so grateful for that!

I was busy preparing a presentation for our RS enrichment night. 

Last but not least - we are thrilled that my mom got here safe from the US today and is going to stay for 4 weeks! Yeah!

Shopping

After we moved we live closer to the city of Kongsberg and I decided to explore the possibilities of shopping there. Stumbled across Name it, a children's clothing store and got some new outfits for baby Melissa. Got a few of these bibs, they are really practical!

Vaccine

Melissa got her first vaccine this week. She got high fever and was totally wiped out the next day. 

Twitterpated

I just love learning new words. Recently Imaginisce released the Twitterpated Collection with cute little critters and I was curious to learn what Twitterpated means and here's what the dictionary says: twitterpated

1.the happy jumpy feeling you get that causes you to smile uncontrolably. 

2.the way birds and other animals act during mating season (as seen in Bambi)

3.to be completely enamored with someone/something.

4.the flighty exciting feeling you get when you think about/see the object of your affection.

These three children are my reason for feeling twitterpated! :)

So blessed to have three precious children!

Melissa looks a lot like her big brother!

They have a special bond!

New curtains

I hate ironing. I do very little of it and for me it was a new personal record when I spent more than three hours ironing my new curtains. I asked Natalie to take a picture for the blog and she said: Mom, you need to smile. Well, I did my best all though I really didn't have any fun. I survived and now the living room is decorated for Easter.

*LOL*

~ Melissa is discovering her voice these days ~

Masquerade

Saturday was masquerade-day! Fun games like pin the nose on the clown, throw balloons in the bucket, relays and more. Also a fun sketch about Lovely Dolly, Sam the Villain and Harry the Hero acted out by the adults at the party was a huge hit. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the event and just shot a picture of Natalie in her Cinderelladress on the parking lot on our way home. Michael didn't feel too well and stayed home.

Sleep over fun

Michael was invited to a birthday PJ-party on Friday. Natalie invited a friend to a sleep over at our house so we were entertained with SingStar and tons of giggling all night. Natalie got the movie Ella Enchanted this week and watched it for the second time with her friend. Both our kids are discovering Queen these days and Somebody to love was on the movie soundtrack and has been played over and over again lately.....

Book buddies

~ Happiness is having a big sister reading to you! ~

~ That bear is just hilarious ~

The Girl with the Magic Socks

Natalies homework from today.

Here's a Norwegian story she wrote, just learning to write in cursive.

Det var en gang en jente som var på skolen. Hun var så lei seg for hun hadde mistet sin aller beste venn. Hun satt på skole trappa. Plutselig kom en meteor som styrtet fra verdensrommet. Den landet rett foran skoletrappa. Meteoren åpnet seg. Det lå et par sokker der. Hun plukket dem opp. Sokkene glinset. Da hun kom hjem fra skolen prøvde hun dem. Hun lurte på hvorfor de glinset. Hun ønsket seg noe. Hun ønsket: Jeg ønsker å få min venn tilbake og plutselig kom venninnen hennes på døra. Ding dong sa det og når hun åpnet opp døra sa hun: skal vi finne på noe sammen? Og så ønsket hun sa: jeg ønsker meg noe spennende og så kom en sklie og de sa: førstemann på sklia. Hun med de magiske sokkene kom først og de lekte med sklia.

Grandparents

Grandparents are such important people in our children's lives. On Sunday we went to spend some time at Glenns parents house. Lots of fun things to look at and explore for the two oldest, Melissa enjoyed sleeping on grandpas lap and we had fun looking at old pictures and enjoyed a wonderful dinner as always!

Snow everywhere

On Saturday Glenn took Michael and Natalie to see BOLT. From what I heard, they liked it pretty much.

We are just amazed at how much snow we are getting this winter. Such a flash back of my own childhood when it always seemed to be snowy winters. Except from all the hazzle of shoving the snow and chaos in traffic, snow is just a lot of FUN! The kids have built their own houses with different rooms and make it cozy outside with candles and cookies.

Walking to school

Where we used to live, the traffic was so bad that we drove our kids to school every day. One of the benefits of moving here, is that Michael and Natalie can walk to school on their own. Nice exercise and a great learning experience. They are lucky to have friends to walk along with and so far it has been a nice experience for them. Michael went cross country skiing at school yesterday and went skiing home from school. Fun! It is a new situation for mom, though, and I have been on the look-out to see when they arrive, waiting and waiting, the first day I even went out to meet them, I thought it took sooooooo long for them to come home.

A walk around the neighborhood

Melissa and I went for a long walk the other day in beautiful winter sunshine weather!

Sisiken

Our address is Sisiken (pronounced sea-sick'n) *lol*, Norwegian name for the bird Pine Siskin. Some interesting facts about the siskin:

• The name Siskin is derived from its sound or chirp. Thus, this bird’s common name is really “pine chirper”

• Pine Siskins are very social birds. They will build nests adjacent to each other, with only a few feet in between them.

• When eating from conifers, the Pine Siskin usually hangs upside down from the tips of the trees.

Other bird streets around here are the wren, blackcock, the chaffinch and yes, we have the cuckoo.

Odds and ends

If I was a city planner, I think I would get grey hair walking around this neighborhood. It is absolutely a crazy mix of different house styles. I can't make up my mind whether I find it a bit charming or just plain crazy. I guess every one got their house dream fulfilled. Now, let me show you around.

Our neighbor house ~ we call it the Mansion ;)

Tyrolean styled house

The ski lodge

Brick house ~ one of my favorite houses around here

Kind of functionalism styled house

I don't even know how to describe this one... a little bit of this and that.

Lodge house with grass roof


Terrace houses

Baby blessing

Today was Melissas baby blessing day! She was very happy and quiet.

Melissa and mommy

Melissa and daddy

Three wonderful children!