Welcoming Natalie to the Blogging Community :)

http://nataliesnyheter.blogspot.com/

A very independent project ~ and she insists on writing in English. Good job, sweetheart.

6 months update

In honor of the 6 months milestone we hit yesterday, a photo shoot was called for. As before proudly announced, Melissa repeats sounds like: ma-ma, but ba-ba and bu-bu are randomly used as well. She is moving around now. Loves to push herself backwards and once she hits reverse, she is all over the place.

She said mamma

Sweet baby Melissa! Today you cried and suddenly you stopped and "said" mamma! And I hurried to come over to pick you up and give you a butterfly kiss and an eskimo kiss. I love you!

Swim tube fun

These pictures speak by themselves, I guess! Summer! Sun! We love every minute of it!

Check out the rays of sun smiling and shining down on us!

Remembrance

Michael Jackson was one of the first artists Michael and Natalie discovered and became fans of. We were all sad to hear of his passing away and listened to his music all day. There are so many Michael Jackson memories in my life. I can still remember the time and places of the first time I heard Billie Jean which was at a friend, Kristins, birthday party, seeing Thriller for the first time at the Fikke residence, listening to I just can't stop loving you in the car with Tonjes big brother when he picked me up at the train station. Also the Michael Jackson look-a-like that we saw in Berlin in 1992. Never saw the original in concert though and was really tempted to go to London this summer with the two oldest kids. I have played Heal the world, Earth song and Black or white a lot with my classes at school. Although I didn't always understand things going on in his personal life, to me he will always be the King Of Pop.

Natalie found a dead fish while swimming today. We named him Michael Jackson. She didn't want to touch him because of germs and ironically she found a Coca Cola paper (not Pepsi) in which she picked him up, wrapped him in to bury him. She conducted the funeral service and now he rests in peace. Yes, we are influenced by Michaels passing away. His music legacy will live forever!

Årbogen

Michael and Natalie invented this role playing game last summer playing on their air mattresses and they were looking forward to play it again.

New floating mattress. Natalie saw this in a catalog and really wanted a yellow one this year. Her favorite color these days.

Life is peaceful and relaxing!

Another vaccine shot

Melissa loved being at the child health center today! They had some fun toys and most exciting was the chance to interact with other babies. She was in heaven. Such a social butterfly.

Kiss the frog

Our little princess has started her search for her prince.

Hoensvannet

We are exploring sights in our new local area. Glenn, Michael and Natalie are hiking every day taking new routes and finding new paths. They have heard the cuckoo bird which Natalie thought was pretty exciting! The last day of school, Michaels class went biking to a small lake and with this lovely summer weather we are having, we needed some cooling and decided to check it out. It is called Hoensvannet.

According to Michael the temperature was just fine!

He was chasing this duck around the lake.

Natalie likes to explore everything!

Melissas first outdoor bath.

Potato salad à la Nancy

This midsummer's eve was nice and warm and perfect for a BBQ. We ♥ homemade potato salad! So to my brothers if you are out there; this is the recipe. 8-10 potatoes, 1 red onion, 4-6 eggs, pickles. Dressing is made of sour cream, mayonaise, mustard, some juice from the pickles, garlic salt, paprika and black pepper. Hopefully we will have plenty of occasions for more BBQ's during the summer. Yummy!

More WOW! worthy facts :)

Melissa is sitting up more straight now, finding her balance and not leaning forward so much. She is talking a lot in a high pitch voice. Future chatterbox?? I think so.....

New stroller

Melissa has a new stroller! It is PINK. She loves it! And so does her mom. It is an Emmaljunga Duo Stroller and Melissa loves to sleep in it.

Da girlz

Just a couple of pictures of the Nystad girls. We enjoy playing on the mattresses that we have in the middle of our living room. Not very interior fancy schmancy ~ but very practical.

Freezing cold outside

Brrrrrrr! Can't believe it is June! Isn't it supposed to be summer outside? On the more positive side we get to enjoy our fireplace and it is perfect indoor reading weather. Glenn is cruising through his Terry Pratchett books and Natalie is reading Fantastic Mr Fox. It is her first book in English. Go Natalie!

♥ Manor Chicken ♥

Every once in a while we get a new favorite meal around the household. For my birthday I decided to try a recipe I have had for quite some time but never tried it. It was YUMMY! We had fried potatoes, white bread and a nice salad to go with our Manor Chicken. You should try it! Recommendation of the Nystad's.

This just in..

Not much blog time these days. Am busy taking care of the little ones. Natalie got a mosquito bite on her eye and got an allergic reaction to that. She has been home from school a couple of days not feeling well. Melissa is not sleeping as good as she has been and with less sleep, I do not function too well. Sometimes it feels good just to crash on the couch with a huge bowl of Ben & Jerry's™ cookie dough ice cream!

Glenn and I are working our way through four seasons of the Office, the US TV Series. We are big fans of the original BBC series but the US crew also has its charm.

Lazy days.........

삼성

Todays Korean lesson: the meaning of the Korean word Samsung is "tristar" or "three stars".

And we have a brand new one! 

Our favorite TV-shows:

Glenn - LOST

Nina - Extreme Make Over Home Edition

Michael - The Simpsons

Natalie - The Simpsons

Melissa - Little Einsteins

The Leven Thumps Series

Michael is hooked on reading! He is reading the first book in The Leven Thumps Series. Leven Thumps is a popular children's fantasy series by writer Obert Skye. The series, projected to have five books, deals with an orphaned 14-year old boy, Leven Thumps, who becomes involved in a battle between good and evil. Michael got the first book for Christmas from Grandma. We thought it would be quite a challenge for him to read the book in English but he is just cruising through the pages. Michael says: I am on page 199! :) 

No milk today

Norway is country #5 in the Top Ten Milk Consumer list.

The average cow produces 90 glasses of milk each day.

Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.

TINE is Norway's largest producer, distributor and exporter of dairyproducts. Their newest advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow's milk invites both professionals and the rest of us to an online recording studio where you can make your own version of Herman's Hermits song No milk today. The web site is quite fun. Michaels drawing of a HaPpY CoW is pretty good advertising too, don't ya think??

Bubble bath

I emptied my bubble bath into the tub,

Determined to get myself thoroughly scrubbed.

The bottle had said "ONLY ONE CAP OR TWO",

So I poured in the lot to see what it would do!

That still didn't seem quite enough to get clean,

So I followed it up with another fifteen.

Then three bars of soap and a dozen shampoo,

And two broken bath bombs to finish my brew!

I'll cut to the chase, this did not turn out well,

As the burbling, foaming bath bubbles did swell!

It wasn't all bad, I was clean and smelt sweet,

But outside my soap suds had buried the street!

The BEST soccer team ever

Is of course Ham-Kam! Today we were treated with the coolest outfits from uncle Arild. He made sure we looked sharp and ready for Natalies first live soccer game. Our team from Hamar was playing the local soccer team where we live and we all went to the game to show our support and enjoy a nice football match on a beautiful summer night!

Ever so optimistic and positive although our boys didn't impress today.. Doesn't she look fabulous in green and white?!

It was great to have uncle Arild explain some of the action going on out on the field.

Four commited and loyal fans!

Thank you, uncle Arild! :) Melissa likes her scarf a lot!

Beautiful summer wedding

On Saturday Natalie and I attended a beautiful wedding. Very romantic! :)

5 months old

Development at 5 months

This week Melissa hit the 5 month mark. She is still a very happy and content baby. She is getting stronger every day. Her physical developments are coming fast and furiously. She now pushes herself up so part of her chest and stomach are off the floor, grabs her toes and play with them and loves it when we help her put the toes in her mouth! She does even  sit momentarily without assistance leaning forward.

Favorite toys at 5 months old are the peekaboo Bible where you open flaps to reveal pictures, the bunny she keeps in her crib, the Fisher Price keys, new bath tub toys. She likes to be bounced on the knee while singing.

Melissa is showing more signs that she's ready for solids. She likes fruit purèe. And we have introduced the sippy cup and bottle with water. She likes to "chew" on it. She can hold her own bottle now.

Her ability to interact with  her surroundings is growing daily. She likes to get attention by babbling and babble for longer periods. She can recognise her own name now, something Natalie claims to have taught her. 

It takes her a little longer to fall asleep at night. She will calm down when I sing to her which is a huge boost for my self esteem as my two older children would tell me to stop when I would sing them lullabys. Melissa still loves to sleep outside in her stroller.