The Turners blog

Winter fun!

2012-02-05T20:19:00.004+01:00

Today we decided to explore... or rather go somewere close to home we had yet to se :-) We went here (sorry only in swedish), A very nice ski slope only about 20 kilometers away. We all agreed it was worth the ride! Next time perhaps we bring the skis as well, not just the snowracer!Forgot the camera so the pics below is from my cell phone!

Aiden also had his miniskis... not as successful ride this time, fell flat on his face first try and scraped up his face! Poor thing! After this he didn't want to try again!

What we've been up to!

2012-02-03T20:57:00.002+01:00

The last 2 weeks have not been as empty as it looked like here, but rather full of planned things, then it might be a little difficult to find time to blog, but here's a recap.
On the Sunday after the Chinese New Year celebrations, we had lunch guests in the shape of Aiden big cousin Cissi and her boyfriend Tobias. Aiden had a chance to show all his toys and all his belongings in his room (took a loooong time :-)). The lunch was appreciated but I forgot to pick up my camera to document the event.

Last weekend we had a visit from mormor (my mum) all weekend. Saturday we spent with my brother, Niclas & sister-in-law Maria in their home and celebrated Marias birthday (although a day early).
We started Sunday with Aiden dance class and I was looking through the house after my thermal pants that I could not find anywhere. After much searching, both me and mormor came to the conclusion that I probably left my slalom skis in her storage room last winter, maybe thats were the thermal pants were?
We then went to Västerås to a store that was moving in hope to make some unexpected discoveries there (they had 50% of everything!) Aiden nagged about buying mini skis and we came home with them and lots of good-to-have things. Then we drove mormor home and found indeed my thermal pants in the storage room!
All though we've now found 2 thermal pants out of the 4 we had last winter so I can’t even guess were the last 2 pairs are!

This week has Aiden been home from day care two days because he had a terrible cold. Today, however, he was better but because he never goes to daycare on Fridays, he was at home again today. Me and Aiden has been a trip to Stockholm for haircuts (Me) and some testing of the mini skis Aiden bought this Sunday! When we went home the clouds were billowing up and it looked promising to be lots of snow so we left early, but the weather cleared on the way and here at home we have not seen much more snow at all! We'll see if there is more to come this weekend!

Me and mum getting stuck on the floor laying a 100 pices puzzle after Aiden got tired of my dare on who was going to finnish his/her puzzle first (his had 30 pices so i guessed he would win!).

Aiden & mormor trying out Marias new exercise "bike"

Maria explaning something...

Darling Luna!

Aiden making smoothie!

Like father like son!

He had so much fun! Didn't want to go home!

Xīn nián kuài lè! - 新年快樂

2012-01-21T23:31:00.002+01:00

Today we've celebrated the Chineese new year with good friends in Stockholm.
We're entering the year of the dragon.

"The Dragon personality The Dragon is a creature of myth and legend. A symbol of good fortune and sign of intense power, the Oriental Dragon is regarded as a divine beast - the reverse of the malicious monster that Westerners felt necessary to find and slay. In Eastern philosophy, the Dragon is said to be a deliverer of good fortune and a master of authority. Therefore, those people born in Dragon years are to be honored and respected."

Play, show and dance at the east asian museeum then take away dinner at a place we rented near one of the families.

Scary dragon...

...and cute dansing dragon!

Making new year cards and hand held dragons...

Riding the dragon.

Some of the kids puting up with having their pictures taken!

A nice day in all!

Longing for more snow!

2012-01-14T20:29:00.002+01:00

I finally loaded the pictures off the camera(s) now, have not done it for a couple of weeks... found a few i wanted to share!

This is what we did new years day... Aiden saw the 1 cm snow and wanted to go play out sledging... uhm just enough to slide without ruining the law! Someone is really longing for some more snow!

2 yrs ago today...

2012-01-10T10:35:00.000+01:00

... we held Aiden in our arms for the first time!

Our daling Aiden.

We love you more than ever!

2011 in perspective

2012-01-01T18:04:00.003+01:00

I've noticed the popularity do do summarys from the past year now at the and of the old and start of the new, I decided to do the same.
/ Isabel

January
I start work again after 6 months at home with Aiden. Paul was with Aiden for the start at the nursery. He was home for 3 weeks in January and to start with Aiden was only there for a few hours a day then slowly increasing the time.

We shoveled a lot of snow in January, went up on the roofs and shoveled down a part of it as it began to look heavy.

We had our one-year as a family anniversary.

February
My grandfather passed away.

We were finally off to Huskvarna to visit Mia, Lenne, Leo and Max, our travel companions to Xi'an where we got our beloved boys ( our Aiden and their Max). We had a wonderful weekend with mild sorrow edge because of my grandfathers passing.

March
Grandfather's funeral.

Our first meeting regarding a preferred sibling adoption was canceled. The social service officer was sick. We got a new time in April.

We went off on our long awaited trip to Thailand. The trip was perhaps not quite as expected (a lot of rain!) But it was nice.

April
Spring starts a little late arriving.

The new sofa we ordered gets delivered.

We learn that we will not get a recommended YES on a home study for a sibling to Aiden. The reason is age. We were basically told that they would do everything possible to dig up everything negative they could find if we insisted on doing the home study anyway. Felt uncomfortable! We could not get a fair home study, would not be easy to have slightly negative to start with even if you had chosen to fight. We take a month to think, but decide in principle at once to put the idea on the shelf. We realized that it would get more grief than happiness from a try.

May
I “dive into a black hole” and are both angry and sometimes sad. I’m having a hard time seeing the positive in life. Otherwise we try to live normally with family life and meeting with friends.

Rebecca turns 11 yrs and we're there to celebrate her with the rest of the familly.

I become an aunt again to a little Norton.

June
We’re given a “frame-pool” by my oldest brother Jörgen (who in the summer installs a "real" pool). It will be used much this summer.

Aiden turns 4 years old and this is celebrated with a new trampoline fitted up in the garden the night before the party in the pouring rain. Many happy little & large friends come and celebrate. The day is sunny and we can all be out in the garden!

July
We go to Teo’s birthday party, he also turns 4 yrs.

We will meet up with friends Carina and Fredrik and big brother Alvin at the airport who adopted a little sister Ling also from China.

My mother Monica turns 65 and this is celebrated with a big party with big brother Niclas and Marias nice house.

We go on a camping trip to Gotland and then traveling on to "Astrid Lindgrens Värld" and Huskvarna for a few days with Mia, Lenne, Leo and Max.

We begin our roof project Part 2 by building the scaffolding at the back of the house.

August
We still difficult to talk about our “NO”, just gets angry when the subject comes up.

I cut off my long hair. I now have short hair for the first time since I was 4 years old. Have been thinking about cutting it for the last two years but it took time to get the courage. Very happy now though!

I'm away at a kick-off at Vemdalen with my job.

We are working on the roof every spare moment and every spare weekend.

September
We celebrate the cute guys Alvin and Theo who turns 4 yrs in the beginning of the month. The guys have pirate party in the playground.

Paul turns 50 and we have an open house for friends and family. A nice afternoon/evening sitting in the garden.

We celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary.

Aiden has appointments with the team at the Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala for an evaluation. He can’t focus on all the steps he ought to do and we have to come back later on in the year to visit speech therapist.

We are continuing with the roof, but it was not finnished before Paul's party.

We celebrate the Moon Festival with good friends.

We have a weekend visit from our good friends Mia, Lenne, Leo and Max from Husqvarna. The house get filled with the lovely noise from three wild boys!

October
We finish the roof renovation. The scaffolding is finally taken down!

We do the autumn clean up in the garden, continuing renovation of the house.

Our good friends and almost neighbors Tina and Calle with their darling son Teo travel to China and adopt little brother Charlie.

I fall down in my black hole again, pain, tearing, and I grieve that Aiden will not get to be a big brother. We rejoice in our friends' happiness but it is difficult for us at the same time.

November
We go to the airport and meet TCTC when they come home from China. All the kids get euphoria and running around hand in hand.

Little Norton baptized.

We celebrate Marcus, who turns 4 years, with another pirate birthday party, this time in the home environment.

We re-paint Aidens room. He chose a red feature wall the rest is white and we bought a large loft bed to free up more floor space.

It’s the end of Aidens dance classes and its finnished with a big show weekend. It was so nice to see the little sweeties on stage.

I have a generally bad month with my longing for an other child. Many bad days.

December
We go to the Skansen Christmas market, our own family tradition. It is bitterly cold so we did not stay long.

Aiden is in his first Lucia procession in kindergarten. It goes just fine and all the kids were so cute and talented.

We go on “glöggis” with friends Rille and Pehr in their more than christmassy home.

Aidens visit with a speech therapist at Akademiska in Uppsla to see if he needs to correct slightly in the back of the palate is moved to January, the uncertainty continues, but the speech therapistat home in Enköping is in favor of speech development.

We celebrate Christmas with Christmas Eve at home with mom (grandma) and Christmas Day at the home of big brother Niclas and Maria. Aiden got lots of Christmas presents, as expected.

We celebrate New Year's at our house just the 3 of us. Sends up Khom Loy instead of rockets.

I decide to try to see everyday life more positive, nothing will change course, because I go and mourn month after month. Positive thought normally leads to happiness. Negative thoughts normally leads to depression. So more happy thoughts 2012!

OK so generally speaking it been a good year with lots of fun with family and friends!
I still want an other child, but that is not in my control to get, not via adoption.
The options we now have to increase our family is back to IVF or fostering, the future will tell... perhaps 2012 will be our year!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T08:50:00.002+01:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T19:13:00.004+01:00

Stuffed with nice food and happy after opening all the pressies Santa left under the tree. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Lucia

2011-12-14T20:03:00.002+01:00

Today we've been to Aidens daycare to se all the children celebrate Lucia. It was the first time really for Aiden and they had been practiseing for weeks with all the song and they were so sweet!

Best buddies!

Maria (who normally dont like her pic taken, thanx Maria), Aiden and me.

"Fredagsmys"

2011-12-09T21:03:00.001+01:00

Today we baked pizza for dinner. Aiden took great pleasure in helping rolling the dough out and putting on the cheese and ham. ;.) He also ate quite a fair share!

Putting lots of cheese on!

Note the tie, we´re going fancy!

...and then came the attack of the pirates... lots of them!

Big show weekend

2011-11-27T19:31:00.001+01:00

This weekend Aiden's had his big show. Hes been dansing with a group called "Streetfeet" since late august and now was the first time we parents got to se the result.
Well saturdays performance was great, lots of hopping and dancing perhaps not exctly with everybody else but then every body was equally out of sync! :-)
Sunday was the day of less action, but all was fine in the end! All the little ones was so cute!
The bigger kids was also good, many are very talented so it was a nice show in all!
Can't wait for next year!

Mammas little helper

2011-11-22T20:06:00.001+01:00

A trip down the cellar to look for the christmas decorations resulted in this merry little helper whilst cooking dinner. Every now and then accompanied with christmas songs learned at daycare... so sweet!
Life is good!

Happy fathers day Paul!

2011-11-13T21:13:00.001+01:00

What we've been up to!

2011-11-12T22:58:00.001+01:00

All the week we've been working on Aiden’s room and he now finally got it painted the way he wanted. We've still got a few details to fix but the walls are done and he wanted to move back in instantly!
Happilly helping with the decorating

Me probably winning awards for my hair!

Close to the end result

Reclaiming the space!

Today saturday we've been away all day for my nephew Nortons batism.We took off around 10 down to mums first for lunch. Then, since i reallised we'd forgotten the pressie to Norton at home we then quickly drove down to the shop for a new one (luckilly I still have the receipt for the first one, hopfully it can be returned without any problem!) and then we were off to find the church. Since we were a bit early and Aiden had a hard time staying awake driving around we stopped off at the mall close to the church for some refreshments first!

Aiden showing off his new haircut, did'nt want i cut short, would'nt sitt still so the result i think look a bit south american indian... still not sure whether to try to correct or not!

Aiden took this one of "mormor" rather good aim...

... and this one, but was aiming a bit low here so i dived down.. hence the odd angle for me :-)

Then off to the church for the main event of the day!

Elenore, Rebecca, Jörgen, Norton & Eva.

Elenore & Rebecca sang a song for their little brother.

Norton Anthony happy in the arms of the minister. He was very happy and smiling all through the ordeal, even when the water appeared!

Little sweetie smiling at great grandmother Aina.

After this we drove granny home, then had dinner at our old old lokal chineese (next to the place we lived at about 10 yrs ago!) then home to mums for tea then home. A long day and Aiden crashed out in the car on the way home.

New hat!

2011-11-02T05:57:00.004+01:00

Our darling!

Time to tidy up the garden!

2011-10-29T13:50:00.002+02:00

Even though we do like the colors...it time to get some of the leafs away... not our favourite past time I can asure you!!!

Trimming the apple tree that we didn't cut last year.

Running around a little!

Helping putting the leaf away!

Playful shopping

2011-10-21T13:38:00.000+02:00

We took a trip to IKEA yeasteday to buy an other "Billy" for the "library"... I also found some new wipping bowls.... or so i thought! Aiden have decided that they really are nice new police helmets!

Fun game!

The game continues... Daddy looks like he´s really enjoying this!

The Weekend

2011-10-16T22:11:00.004+02:00

Since friday was my friday off (every other week I'm off on the friday) we headed down to Stockholm. I had i time at my hairdresser and we ha a ew shops we wanted to go to... On the way we stoped at Mulle Meck, a very good playground, one of Aidens favorites!

Cool car!

Saturdaystarted with a artistic session on the kitchen floor. We all painted hands & feet and obviously we had to clean the place afterward but it was worth it! Great fun!

Washing the feet inbetween painting!

Doing puzzle...

Sunday started as alway with Aidens dans class.

After this we were to have met TCT before their trip to China tomorrow but poor Tina was feeling Blaa with sore throat and wanted to spend the day getting better. NOT fun to be sick whilst flying!! Hope its better tomorrow! Soon they will meet their little boy in China and they will be a familly of 4! Cant wait to se them again!

Anyway... we made use of the day and finally got the skirting boarad up in the upper hallway, started painting the doors etc.

Look now daddy, this is how you do it!

Our little helper!

The pine doors is soon a memory!

Thats all for now!

Our roof project

2011-10-13T09:12:00.004+02:00

During August-September, we have spent every spare weekend and finally lots of evenings to repair the roof that desperately needed it to not rain in again (last summer unpleasant surprise!). I, Isabel, has been on the roof with my mother Monica (on a few critical occations). Paul & Aiden has performed ground service and cut the roof paper and wood for the tiles to lean on. Now it's finally DONE .... And no one can see any difference, such ungrateful job, but now it should keep the water out for the rest of our lives out! Or at least long enough!

This is us starting back in August. Taking all the tiles down on the platform.

Dirty job!

Aiden helping daddy!

My exelent helper.
Did i mention that she turned 65 this summer!

This is how bad off the roof was!

Aiden and daddy getting the wood up.

Happy lunchbreak.

Putting the tiles back!

Resting...

Two exhausted roofers finally done!

Aiden wanted to come up and have a look!
Daddy stayed below!

Ok, so whats the deal here?

This is how happy you are when you finally get to join mummy!

Is there anybody out there?

2011-10-03T16:56:00.001+02:00

I've been wondering if anybody is reading this blog anymore, almost never any comments... Yes we do blog mostly for ourself to keep track on what we do but if nobody reads it i might as well make it a diary or close the blog, make it only for familly and a few friends with password.

Please let me know if i should keep going here or not.

The weekend

2011-09-25T21:14:00.001+02:00

This weekend we've enjoyed the company of Mia, Lenne, Leo & Max who drove up from Huskvarna to spend the weekend at our place.

We had a "quiet" night in (saturday), had a BBQ and lots of talking. The boys had to try to fit in to Aidens little baby bath!!! They did but we're unsure of how much water was left!

Sunday we drove out to our favorite spot (same as last weekend) had ourself a little fire and had a few sausages for lunch. Then we drove to a nice playgound close to home before they had to head home again.

Lots of fun as always!

Max, Leo & Aiden trying to find a way to get wet...

...and the finally succeding when home again!

Mia, Max, Aiden, Leo & Lenne mezmerized by the fire.

Paul, & Lenne showing Max how its done...

The boys are climbing again!

Aiden

Had to let you se this video of Aiden at the playground! Ha wanted to do it again, and again!!!!

Our version of Zhongqiu - Chineese Moon festival

2011-09-17T23:38:00.008+02:00

This evening we've been celebrating the moon festival - Mid autumn fesival together with dear friends.

Alvin, Tina, Eva, Theo, Ling, Elsa, Carina & Teo.

Carina, Elsa, Theo, Henrik, Eva & Paul (or at least his hands :-))

Tina, Carina, Teo, Aiden & Henrik

Me!

Calle & Tina finally got some good news about
when they can expect to go to China next!

Cozy around the fire.

Herik & Paul sending away an other Khom Loy.

The kids got a few sparklers each.
Aiden burned his finger, his glove melted on 3 finger. Dangerous!

Having fun with torches!

Great evening! Thanx everyone, lets do it again next year!

10 yrs ago today

2011-09-15T08:38:00.005+02:00

Aiden finally got it!

2011-09-12T20:24:00.002+02:00

Happy happy happy!

What we've been up to...

2011-08-04T08:57:00.003+02:00

We spent a few days at Ingarö with my mum.

Happy on the tractor!

Down the seaside...

Sun decided to get behind a cloud when we got there, but it was nice anyway!

We met up with the China gang at Taxinge castle for some nice cake, coffie and play.

Calle trying to run away with alla the kids!

Paul, Fredrik & Eva

Carina, Alvin, Elsa, Tina, Theo, Teo, Henrik & Aiden

Pity the car decided to break down on the way home, had to gegt it towed home. Luckily Tina & Calle offered to drive me and Aiden home (paul had to take the train) so it ended ok. Thank you again dear friends!

We took a trip to Eskilstuna Zoo again, got to use our season ticktes...

Aiden decided to spank the tail of the lion... weird :-)

We had to try the boats! Aiden turned the boat round and round so i got all dizzy!

We've also just been lazy round the house, playing in the pool...

And been swimming at the lake, here at Härjarö.

Aiden have also cooked us all breakfast

Our week of camping!

2011-07-23T15:23:00.008+02:00

Gotland

We started off our holliday with this little boat leaving Nynäshamn on the evening of July 15th....

The following day we spent a lot of time here, the sun was slightly absent so we almost had the beach to our self!

Didn't stop Aiden from digging for hours!

"Mummie, I want to go to the beach!" was repeated often here!

Aiden found an alternate way to use the cook pot!

On the way to explore Visby.

Posing!

On an other beach!

Why eat the food ordered for you when you can eat daddys?

Hunting for an anoying fly!

We decided to go driving day 3, ended up at the caves at Lummelunda. I had been there once before but Aiden wanted to try going down...

Not so easy to take nice photos in a cave but its rather young cave, only about 10 000 yrs old stalagtites and stalagmites...

After this cold experience (+7 C) we had to have some coffie and cake in the sun!

Paul & Aiden with chocolate all over!!!

We had a nice sunset this day!

The last day we spent at the beach again, since this was a hot hot day it was packed!!! But very nice! We took the ferry back to mainland in the evening and drove to Vimmerby inte the evening.

Astrid Lindgrens Värld (world)

We met up with Mia, Lenne, Max & Leo. And spent the day having fun, climbing oversized furniture, in and out of miniature houses and meeting all the caracters from Astird Lindgrens storties.

Pippi!

Aiden loved the little houses, wanted to hav one for himself at home in the garden...

Great fun!

Turing the wagons into a train!

After a long day we drove home to M, L, L & Ms place in Husqvarna.

Husqvarna

Igge, Pigge & Sigge who currently lives in their garden Mum seems to be lost so they are beeing fed by our hosts (after we left it turned out there is a 4th one (Tagge) as well!)

The day after we took the boys up to

Stadsparken in Jönköping to play. The weather forecast said rain but we only had a few spits!

Round and round we go!

Running in the maze!

Pit stop. Ice cream!

We had a barbie in the evening and still didn't se much of the "promised" rain. Lucky us!

Nice food :-)

We decided to treat Mia & Lenne to a bottle of champagne since it turned out to be their weddingday! 7yrs, always room for a little bubblie!

The following day we headed home. The weather forecast said rain rain rain and that is not very alluring when sleeping in a tent! Had a lovely week away with loots of fun, Aiden really liked camping so perhaps we'll do it soon again!

Weekend of fun!

2011-07-13T11:14:00.005+02:00

This weekend past we celebrated my mums birthday. Me and Aiden dowe up friday lunch and P joined us saturday. Lots od fun, lots of familly and lots of food! Good party!

Aiden is intrigued by his new cousin Norton. Keeps compairing the size of him with his own :-) So sweet!

Happy Friday!

2011-07-01T21:54:00.005+02:00

Aiden is gettig more confident in the water!

Happy weekend y'all!

4th birthday!

2011-06-22T21:11:00.004+02:00

Saturday we celebrated Aidens 4th birthday all day. We had guests from 12 till 21 aproximately! So much fun, so many very nice gifts... Aiden is discovering new things every day!

Morning started with Aiden giving us a short spurt concert on the piano.

Some of the frieds exploring the new things with Aiden.

We bought the trampoline for him, assembled it the night before (Aiden was soo surpriced in the morning though, well worth it) but gave up about 23.30 tired, wet (raining all the tim) and it was actually to dark to see (amacing since it was so close to sommer solice, lots of clouds!) Anyway, ni jumping without the safety net, with a few helpers it was soon done! Thanx!

Hamid volounteered to do the hotdogs.

Alice & Aiden trying the trampoline out.

The obligatory blowing out the candles. Mummy had bought the candels that relit over and over again so he had to do it a lot of times! :-p

Since the sun was blazing all the kids decided to try the pool as well, with or without swimwear....

... didn't stay in long though, not very warm water!

Well that was it... the short version. After all the kids and friends had left a few familly members came for dinner... and more gifts!

Armed up!

2011-06-11T22:40:00.003+02:00

Paul came home with a pressie for Aiden friday, from a friend at work... so now we'd better watch up when in the pool...we might get squirted!!!

2 yrs ago today!

2011-06-09T18:07:00.003+02:00

2 years to the day, we got THE call from our agency about our darling son Aiden. We were obviosly trilled but didn't really think it would be 7 months till we'd get so hold him in our arms!

This is on of the 2 referall pictures of Aiden. A bit blurry but worth gold and it would be some time untill we could get hold of some more up to date pictures! In this pic he was about 18 months old.

One of the update pictures! In this pic i belive he was 2 yrs 4 months old.

Since homecomming we've taken thousunds of pictures, all precious!

Our darling!

Love you forever!

Lovely day in the sun

2011-06-02T20:42:00.004+02:00

Today we've had a sneakpeak at my grans new apartment (we're helping her move there saturday) since we helped et the stuff from the freezer over with a few boxes. After this we met up a few friends in a park nearby for a lunch picknick. A very nice day in all!

Aiden wondering why great granny's got 2 apartments?

Looks a bit empty but will we great when all is moved!

After this we were hungry and headed to the park for som lunch and chat with our dear friends!

Extra gueasts!

Love this pic!

The Weekend

2011-05-31T06:36:00.003+02:00

We've had a somewhat sunny but chilly weekend. My mum stayed over and saturday we had familly (brother Niclas & Maria, their daughter Cecilia & Tobias)for dinner, very nice! I'd forgotten to charge the battery for the camera so not many good pictures from that event! Saturday we also had the cultural festival in Enköping with the parade through town. Unfortunately the wheather early saturday was not the best with a few dropps of rain and very chilly! We only had a quick visit.

Sunday was sunny all day but just as cold. We took a walk/bike tour and played a bit down by the football (soccer) fields.

Running a lot!

Playing with the helicopter, unfortunately it broke so we'll have to try finding an other one!

Aiden is starting to get the hang of riding the bike now!

The Weekend

2011-05-24T17:46:00.007+02:00

Saturday we went to Emmas birthday party!

Birthday girl! 6 yrs!

Emma explaning to Tina how old she's getting now!

Olle and his car

Aiden & Teo racing...

...and craching...

... and playing!

Since we were already in Stockholm I'd decided to meet up with a friend I had'nt seen in a while, it got to be a rather late night but fun! I slept on mums sofa so the boys had a guys evening at home!

Viewpoint beetween places

Sunday i rushed home on the train cuz we had guests for dinner. The weather was lovely and we could have our first meal outside in the garden for the season. The boys had fun running around and us parents had a nice time in the sun!

Looking like a pro golfer....

... comparing wheels! In a "few" yrs time perhaps its about other whicles!

Love this picture! They are laughing their heads of looking at their own reflection in eachothers sunglases!

Been a while...

2011-05-17T22:05:00.003+02:00

Well we've been busy... but now always having the camera at hand :-)
This last weekend though we had mum over friday to saturday. Early saturda we drove up to my brother N's place and then further on to an auktion. Nice for us, Aiden was less impressed! He did look forward to and enjoy the picknick we'd brought though1! After auktion (and loading our stuff we bought) onto our trailer we headed to my other brothers J's place to celebrate Rebeccas birthday!

Aiden and "Mormor" blowing kisses?

Rebecca opening one of her pressies.

Aiden jumping!!

Aiden with the girls and all the fun toys in Rebeccas room!

Glad Påsk - Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T17:58:00.006+02:00

Happy Easter everybody!

Some eggs the easter bunny left in our house...

Aiden found a BIG egg the bunny had left...

The way to watch TV with daddy!

We took a trip down town to the carnival thats visiting this weekend.
Aiden liked the cars best we think!

We ran into Teo, Tina & Calle and the boys wanted to go on the ferris wheel together!

High up!

The weekend

2011-04-17T16:29:00.004+02:00

Friday

We, Aiden & mum, met up with Anna & Lasse with their 2 darlings at the relatively new play place in Infra city. I think it opened last autumn but we had not been there before.

Great place, huge! The kids had great fun.

Climbing up the vulcano...

...up up...

...then down down... a bit to much for Aiden & Olle, but Emma masters it fine!

Saturday

We had to get some stuff from Bauhaus, and fancied looking a the new IKEA that opened in the week at Västerås so we did! As always you get home with lots of stuff thet wasn't exactly on the shoppinglist!

Sunday

Today we've "spring cleaned" the garden, tried the bike for size (needs adjusting, he's grown!) among other things! Spring is sooo nice! Especially after this loooooong winter!

Happy biker!

Future florist!?

2011-04-12T18:59:00.004+02:00

One Proud little man presented this little flower arrngement to mummy today after daycare. Today they had had a florist show them how to do and all the kids had followed the instruktions and been very good! Great idea! Perhaps a future profession!?

Springtime!

2011-04-10T21:26:00.007+02:00

We've now been home fore more than a week and Thailand feels so far away!

At least the snow is now gone, the rhubarb is on it way up and lots of flowers are up in the garden! But i do miss all the green leafs, grass and the flowers!

This weekend we've just taken it easy, we were supposed to have dinner guests saturday but unfortunately 3/4 of the familly were sick so we're going to have to take it an other weekend! In stead we took a trip down to Stockholm for a mideval market I had read about... NOT worth the trip unfortunately! But we met up with my mum, had a nice coffie and cake and then back home for the first BBQ of the season!

Today we decided to work a bit with one of our renovating projects that had been "resting" since december... perhaps with a bit more effort we'll be done soon! Hopefully!

Homeward bound

2011-03-30T10:58:00.009+02:00

We left Koh Phangan in an even worse rainstorm than before. At breakfast it felt like the plastic rain covers would blow the whole restaurant away!

The ferry we had tickets to were cancelled due to the weather and we had to take the other (but that's ok, we'd rather go on the catamaran in high winds, not as much swell!) Bye Salad Hut! Hope to see ya again but perhaps with more sun! On the way down to the pier. Latest fashion in rain couture! High winds and lots of rain. We got a lot of smiles for our outfits but they worked, didn't get wet! When we came to the pier it turned out that it was uncertain if that ferry were going as well, it was almost an hour late but we got on, and after about 40 min (should have been about 20 min) we were at Koh Samui again! Our taxi driver informed us that in the morning all the roads to the airport had been in accessible due to the heavy rain, about 50 cm of water on the main roads!

Luckily we were down to about 15-20 cm when we came and could not only get to our airport but were on time away from an island that we now know is deemed as a disaster zone!

Waiting for our flight to Bangkok. Koh Samuis airport. Our plane.

We arrived in Bangkok very tired! After check-in we took just a short walk to get something to eat then back to the hotel to sleep. We decided to skip any night activities that possibly were an option (floating market etc).

We had a leisurely morning, late breakfast and then we stored our luggage in the hotel until the evening Aiden had a dream about going on a Tuk Tuk so we had to do that, and walk and look at shops and be the average tourist! Come evening we picked up our luggage and headed to the airport for the last 2 legs of the journey...

View from our room at the 10th floor. Walking around Bangkok. Drinking fresh coconut juice. A buddist temple. Seems there was lots of action in all the temples this day, dont know if that is always so or if there was something special going on. Riding Tuk Tuk, Aides choose exactly this one... ...perhaps this was why.... but he cant read so perhaps it was just meant to be! :-) Bye bye! You get tired from all the exitement. I'm writing this as we sit in transit at Beijing airport, but since Blogspot is not open in China (unless you do something that I don't know how to do) I'll have to upload pictures and post this when we're on home grounds again! Didn't want to wake up! We decided to try an old "friend" at Beijing Airport for our breakfast, didn't give any better impressions this time (we were at this one for dinner going home from Beijing last year after adopting Aiden), still the worst Pizza Hut we've ever been at.

Rain, rain and lots of fun!

2011-03-26T09:01:00.011+01:00

We've been drenched the last few days. It's not only the northern hemispher that are experiencing "up-side-down" weather, it seems... Thailand is also affected. Totally out of season it has now rained for 3 days, about 60 mm of rain every day! Yesterday me and Tina to a taxi into Thonsala for a day of shopping whilst the boys stayed at the hotel. BUT its still warm, we can still swim in the sea and have fun!

Trying a bucket. Mixing Mekong (named after the river, since it have the same color as the water!), soda water & pepsi.

Calle testing the blend.

Aiden takes a picture of us all!

The guys doing the bootie dans!

Paul with his new dance partner, the broom.

On the beach, a few hours of sun and blue sky.

Under the sea.

Teo defending Aidens truck from the intruder!

Finding a little shell! We're not bringing it home!

In the resturant.

Photo "China style"

Playing!

Two islands & a ferry

2011-03-23T08:32:00.014+01:00

Sorry, we've been buzy the last few days, no time for blogging :-)

Koh Tao - Day 6
We rented 4-weeler again.

Stop for some cold drinks. High up!

So many lovely flowers!

Posing at the beach.

3 happy guys!

Stunnig view.

After all this we were hot and sweaty and it started to rain again so we decided to take a dip in the pool in the pooring rain.

Some air hockey before dinner.

The moon shining 30% brighter, they said, this evening.

Koh Tao - Day 7
Bright and sunny again.

Construction going on.

Dinner down the beach.

Sunset.

Koh Tao - Day 8
Still nice and sunny, we spent this day also down the beach.
Working on our tan!

Travelday.... moving to Koh Phangan

Hot hot hot, waiting for the ferry.

Something funny?

In the V.I.P lounge, the way to travel according to the Zds, we're bound to agree there!

Our rinde to Sald Hut.

Holding on for dear life!

Our bungalow.

Drink before dinner.

An other drink before dinner.

Salad hut special, tasting like after eight mints.

In the hammock.

Koh Phangan day 2
A little overcast but very warm, expecting rain so no use trying to take a boat trip out to the coral reef as planned, instead we take a walk to se some elephants.

Banana plants.

Up the hill.

Gas station.

A little spider we found, about 5 cm long body.

Feeding the elephant

Aiden not to sure.

Warm after a long walk.

Monkeys!

So many colorful butterflys but the alway fly when oyu try to take a picture! Not this one though!

Koh Tao - Day 5

2011-03-18T15:43:00.011+01:00

Since the bad weather seems to stay for a bit, today not so much rain but overcast, we've decided to rent quadbikes for a day, mabe for 2... we'll se how the weather fare tomorrow.

Teo kitted out...

Aiden kitted out.

This is how happy you get when you get a helmet on!

On the bike trying to get us all in one pic whilst driving (not me but Paul)

Aiden trying "his" bike

Forward view.

BIG rocks!

Shake stop.

View over to Koh Nanguan.

Doing the bootie dans.

Banana plant in full blossom.

A place for privata contemplation.

Up the tricky hill. I had to jump off and walk half the way, Paul got stuck and got help to get up the hill by a diggertruck who were widening the road (also the reason we had to stop which was the reason we gor stuck in the first place).

Lovely view from the viewpoint. Our hotel is visible.

The Z family posing.

The T familly posing.

Teo Fell asleep when we were almost home, how can you sleep with the head like that???

After all this we took a quick dip in the pool, way to cold now the sun's been gone for 2 days so had a hot shower and tried the fuzzball and the airhockey game for a while before going for dinner. Early night for us all since the boys hadn't had that much sleep.

Koh Tao - Day 3 & 4

2011-03-16T16:02:00.015+01:00

Day 3
Today we've been trying out the beach. We had a nice few hours before lunch splosching and playing down the beach.

After lunch and a try to get Aiden to sleep we spent the remaining of the day by the pool. Efter this dinner at the hotel resturant and then a littel walk after. A relaxing day!

Lots of digging in the sand and swimming!

Lunch!

Aiden likes his Mango Juice...

...and, we think, the reclining pillows!

Day 4

Today, whilst we were sitting having breakfast it started to rain a bit. A very tropical kind of rain! Since we were expecing i bit of rain today we'd already decided to postone our plans for the day and decided to go and have the massage T&C wanted to treat me and P to. Aiden and Teo got to go swimming in the pool in the rain for a while. The thai style massage we had was very nice!

After picking up Aiden from T & C we had lunch, gave up trying to get Aiden to sleep and took a walk along the backstreets of our hotel ending up having a shake ontop of the resturant at the hotel were there is also fussball and pool tables etc. The pooltable was buzy with 3 guys having some sort of tournament but Aiden thought it was fun to watch. We tryed the fussball but Aiden didn't really get the idea! But had fun!

Yet an other yummy shake!

I tried the fresh coconut shake an got a whole coconut!!

Since the rain had now stoped we decided to go down the beachfront for dinner and then a few drinks with the Z family.

Can I have a sip? No? Oh well I'll have one anyway!

Yummy dinner!

What shall we have to drink Aiden? Uhm... Banana shake?

Photo me, photo you! Photo Aiden

The mumies (??) Photo by Aiden

Having nice time! Photo by Aiden

Papparazzi!

Koh Tao - Day 1 & 2

2011-03-16T09:06:00.016+01:00

Day 1
Warm, sweaty and tired we arrived at Koh Tao monday afternoon. And in my case, slightly seasick since the sea was rather choppy!
The hotel is nice and our dear friends had arranged for us to have a room on the ground floor, for which we are eternaly grateful... can't imagine having to walk up and down 3 flights of stairs several times a day (as was intended)!

Beatiful sunset at the beach.

On the way to dinner

The boys plaing with their pink tuk tuk (also made in china!)

Paul admiring the view.

I'm enjoying the company and the seat "puffs"...

Lots of plaing going on!

Calle finally got his "puff" just right!

Late evening for 2 little ones.

Day 2
After trying out the buffet breakfast we tagged along Tina, Calle & Teo who were going for a walk.

Our new pet, living in our bathroom.

We had to take a little pit stop along the way for some cold drinks!

Aiden & Teo wanted to sit at an other table for a while...

Cant sit still for long!

Sucking up the last dregs of chocolate shake.

We girls decided to check out the shops so the boys found other things to amuse them!

The smaller boys decided to take a dip whilst the bigger ones took a beer (or two?) at the beach bar.

Splisch splasch splosch.

Later on that evening Tina & Calle took us to an other very nice resturant by the sea.

Waiting for dinner to arrive. Teo & Aiden was telling Tina a story about crocodiles and the moon...

Aiden was sooo tired he fell asleep just after the foof had arrived!

Thailand - 3 aeroplanes and Koh Samui

2011-03-15T16:43:00.013+01:00

We were up at 4 am to catch our flight that was supposed to leave at 8.25... well, it didn't! It was delayed to 10.20 and Aiden was very inpatient to go, kept asking were was his airplane!

Im ready!

We were rather stressed up since we were supposed to change planes at Kiev and the time between the flights were 2 hours!!!!

Here we are waiting for our plane in the "lovely" airport Borispov in Kiev.

Interessting signs in cyrillic writing but thats about it!

Luckily we made our flight to Bangkok with a few minuites to spare!

9 something hours later we landed, Aiden managed to sleep a bit and Paul caught a few winks but not me!

Not fun sitting still so long time...

Arrived in Bangkok

Happy travellers almost there! Photo by Aiden.

Very tired we arrived in Koh Samui, the airport is very cute, but we were not up to taking photos by now...perhaps on the way home!

After finding a taxi we got to our hotel, only to find out that the reception was unmanned between 21 an 08...we were there about 7.30 in the morning so we had to wait. Worth the wait since we were well welkomed and shown our superb room and we could finally have a few hours of sleep!

Exploring Koh Samui, Aiden was still very tired but we could not sleep all day!

Checking out the water, might it be ok to swim in?

Yup! Clothes off and into the wawes!

Night has fallen in paradise!

My boys.

Mummy goes nuts!

Waiting for the ferry transfer from Koh Samui to Koh Tao. Taxi service included in the ticketprice but we had to wait for 1.5 hours at the pier... not fun!

Lots and lots of luggage... not all ours though!

We got to go onboard first as we were travelling with a youngster.... So we go to take a pick on were to sit.
I was happy when we were finally there... the water was rather rough!
Stories of further adventures to come!

The weekend

2011-03-07T21:44:00.004+01:00

Talking to Teo on the phone.

Weekend away

2011-02-14T07:37:00.013+01:00

This weekend we finally got away to visit our friends from Huskvarna. We've been planning to do so for about a year since we were in Xi'an together last January!

We drowe down friday night... it was cold outside, the road was full of packed snow and ice but the snowing had stopped so the road was not to bad. Took a bit of time to drive though, 4.5 hours or so. We were tired but had a warm welcome, food served almost instantly and perhaps best of all... a glas of wine the miniute we steped inside :-) well perhaps not that quickly but you get the picture!

Saturday morning.

A bit of fresh air was needed.

Saturday afternoon we took a walk downtown Jönköping and the coolest thing (double meening) was the totally frozen, iced over pier!

Saturday evening

Sunday before lunch

After lunch we drowe home. We all had a great weekend and hope to se our friends soon again.

This trip was also a welcome distraction for me since my grandfather was deemed not to have many hours left friday (he passed away in the night friday to saturday). We visited him in his care home friday before we left but we don't think he even notised we were there!

R.I.P morfar! Sven Eckerberg 1918-11-23 – 2011-02-12

The weekend

2011-02-07T06:28:00.004+01:00

Saturday we decided to get a bit more done in the upper hallway, been a bit slow going there since early december when we started... it always takes more time than you think we you start!

Aiden helping...

Sunday we decided that we better do something Aiden enjoys so we packed the bags with swimwear and headed to Uppsala and Fyrishov adventure swimming. All though I think Aiden would enjoy any swimming pool area as long as they have a hot pool! Thats were we allways end up!

Chinese New Year

2011-01-31T19:10:00.007+01:00

This weekend past we celebrated the Chinese New Year (a few days early) together with dear friends at the east asian museum and then at a restaurant afterwards. The children didn't enjoy the museum part that much (apart from a bit of running around in the workshop area!) but liked the running around like mad at the restaurant afterwards more.... question is "what did the others at the resturant think about that?"... mmm well, who cares, we had a great time!

Running at the museum.

The Hope Haven Boys. Aiden, Teo & Theo.

Calle & Teo Z.

The dragon dance.

Some of the gang...

Mum and the little bunnys, uhm... i mean jumping boys!

Aiden happy with a huge glas of fanta!

Running wild in the restaurant.

An other one year mark...

2011-01-20T20:29:00.008+01:00

One year ago we landed back home and could finally start our journey to become a familly of three.

One year ago two very tired little boys met again on the other side of the earth.

One year ago, that feels like a lifetime and like yesterday at the same time, we started the rest of our life.

A Year ago today!

2011-01-10T05:59:00.005+01:00

This day a year ago, we were given the care of our beloved littel boy in a very buzy little office, with to many desks, in Xi'an, China.

He didn't look too happy but didn't cry that much, we think he was ready and prepared after having looked at our pictures for a few months by then.

He have developed so much in this year, and grown from being about 86 cm tall to 100 cm tall!

We can not imagine life without him!

Diggin in...

2011-01-06T17:03:00.005+01:00

We were out this morning for a few runs in the slope wiht the snowracer. We met Tina, Calle & Teo there and we all had fun for a while until the snowfall made us all feel to cold! Then off to the shops for a few bits then home for lunch. Unfortunately we got stuck with the car in the driveway and had to spend about 2 hours after lunch trying to get the car lose again and also to be able to drive out again later on!

Boy had we had lots of snow this winter!

Paul decided to do a snow angel but then could hardly get up cuz the snow just shiften beneth him...

Now at least I'm tired and acheing after all that! Resting in the setee with a cup of hot cocoa! The boys are in the kitchen baking muffins.

A new year!

2011-01-01T17:03:00.004+01:00

Today has been a slow day.... I suspect we're not the only ones to take it easy this day! But we had to go out and clear away some of the snow we had yesterday!

Oups..... Paul picked up a bit more there!

Christmas Day

2010-12-25T10:57:00.005+01:00

Santa came!!!!

Thank you Grandpa & Granma for the mecano and the floor puzzle!

Thank you Nanny and Granddad for the game and the doodle board!

Thank you Auntie Jane for the cool torch!

We had visitors in the garden just now....

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T21:36:00.005+01:00

Today is Christmas Eve, since this is the day we're celebrating here in sweden (for you out there who didn't know) we've had nice food and been opening pressies from santa and been generally merry!

Tomorrow comes part 2, we're also celebrating the english version! Even more pressies from santa!

We hope you all have a merry one, whenever you're celebrating!

This is the favorite so far... he got it from my mum and it turned out to have sound and blinking lights... OH JOY!!!... it didn't say on the box so we its not really her fault! but BOY is it loud!

The weekend

2010-12-20T09:57:00.005+01:00

Friday
I whent to my firms Christmas party in Stockholm so Paul and Aiden had a guys night in. I sleept on mums setee. Had a nice evening with all the work colleges! In only two weeks time I'll be back to work again!

Saturday
We finally got away to go to the Christmas market up at Skansen (it's our tradition since we met), mum came as well. It was nice as always, we bought the cheese and salami we like and just enjoyed the atmosphere! Aiden met some horses (the very very BIG kind that pull the sleighs up there) and was totally mesmerized!

Me, mum & Aiden taking a break for hot chocolate and some cockies. It snowed constantly when we where there!

Aiden got one trip on the "Red baron", cant say I enjoyed that ride that much though, too cold!

Sunday
After snow clearing and shopping we made some ginger bread cockies and the ginger bread house.

Concentration!

I'm not supposed to touch but its very tempting....

The "naked" house assembled....

We normally go for "less is more" but Aiden thought othervice!

Hello.... anybody home??

LUCIA

2010-12-13T12:49:00.007+01:00

Today Aiden have experienced his first celebration of Lucia, he was nicely dressed as a Santa (or his little helper) but unfortuaneately he was NOT in the mood for doing as the other children and refused to walk in singing with them... oh well, better luck next year!

Not very happy, mummy forced the hat on for the photo!

The children were sooo cute!

Love of our life!

2010-12-08T19:15:00.002+01:00

Productive weekend!

2010-12-06T19:39:00.007+01:00

We've been in all weekend and have with a little help from our dear friends finally finnished the lounge/TV room and also painted the diningroom and started on the stairs and the upstairs hallway! Not Bad!

This lovely wallpaper is now a memory only in this room...

...cuz we've turned it all white now!

In the lounge/TV room we've now had the electrics fixed and furniture moved in. Its soo nice to have the room back after (almost) 5 months!!!

This week we'll have the final visit from the social services who are going to do the 1 year report to China in time for our aniversary as a family in january. We had to have it rather early since christmas and new year makes the december really short work vice!
Tomorrow is my brother Niclas' birthday (he turns 40) and on saturday we're going to his place to celebrate him and his stepdaughters (25 yrs next week) birthdays! We're really looking forward to that party! We'll also try to go to a christmas market during the weekend, hopefully! Well its only monday and who know what this week'll bring!

Cold, cold, cold COLD!!!!

2010-12-01T07:36:00.005+01:00

We woke up to this this morning.... according to the weather sight its even colder were we live, -22c there! Seems today is a day to stay inside unless one really needs to go out!

Yesterday me and Aiden met up wit Tina & Teo for a bit of playing in the snow with the snowracers. The boys had fun most of the time, we put up with it for about an hour, then it got to cold to be outside! T & T popped by our place for a warming drink for a while before heading home for dinner.

More an more snow!

2010-11-28T17:51:00.005+01:00

The last few days all of sweden's been drenched in snow! And it has been cold, still is! For the time beeing we have about -12 celcius.

We've been rather occupied indoors though...

Aiden "helping out"

Aiden "hanging out"

...turning this...

...into this...

... an then into this...

And this walls been getting its final color!

Here it is!

Not all done yet, the whole familly is now down with a nasty cold, nothing is done with any speed, but we're getting there, the plan it to finnish off in there this week. We'll see if we manage!

Wordless wednesday

2010-11-17T15:58:00.003+01:00

Winter is here!

2010-11-10T15:13:00.011+01:00

"- Mummy, Winter is comming!
- Ok, how do you know its winter, how is it comming?
- By truck!" -Teo Z 3yrs

The cutest comment i've heard in a long time! Yesterday winter came to sweden, not by any truck as far as i could se, or I would have told the driver to dump the load of snow straight on the garden instead of all over! Would have saved me and everybody else a few hours of backbreaking snow shoveling!

Unfortunately it does not seem to be staying... its melting already but tonight its going to clear up and get colder... sounds leathal for everybody driving! I do wish it would stay though.. so much brighter and lighter with snow outside!

Friday last we had Tina & Teo for dinner (well and mum, but she stayed the weekend) anyway the boys had fun as usual, Paul played a bit on the piano with them...

When it was time for them to leave it took som time to go out the door... the had to have a little wrestling in the hallway!

A few bits of what we've been up to lately! Now its time to go wake up Aiden from his afternoon nap!

Last few days in UK

2010-10-29T08:16:00.008+02:00

We've had lots of fun the last few days of our stay!

Playing with Nanny and Granddad in the morning.

Pauls cousin Debbie stopped by for tea.

We took a trip down to southend.

We stoped by R & M's to meet up with Jane.

Aiden found a hairbrush and began rearrainging Rons hair.

We had lunch down at the pub

Then we were on our way home... Aiden liked flying and looking out at the moon and the clouds.

Bye for now England!

Futher adventures

2010-10-24T11:21:00.012+02:00

The last few days we've been buzy shopping, walking and meeting family.

We had dinner and playtime at granpa Ron & granma Margrets place...

We had a shoppingday in the city... we did Hamleys, Harrods and Covent garden etc.
I lugged the camera around town but didn't take more the a couple of pics...

Friday we spent at Rompford market and had a shopping spree at Primark.

Pitstop for lunch at the Golden Lion.

Aiden wanted to try my pint.... perhaps a bit early but he didn't like it so no risk of him doing it again any time soon!

Saturday we were helping out a bit in the garden, clipping the apple tree, picking the apples etc. (I've tried to up load a video from the morning but it doesn't work for some reason!) In the afternoon R&M picked us up for a playing session up at the police club, ending with a pint in the bar.

Hello from London

2010-10-20T10:08:00.009+02:00

Yesterday we spent our first full day in London with Lotta, Fredrik, Maja and Lukas who spent their last day....
We had a nice fish'n chips lunch at the Dickens Inn down at St Catherines docks and the headed to Princess Dianas memorial playground in Kensington gardens for a few hours of play.

Waiting by Tower Bridge for te others to turn up...

Eagerly awaiting the fish'n chips!

Lukas

Aiden now ready to go playing!

On the pirate ship

Jumping

Spinning

Spinning some more!

Stormy weather in a small boat!

Aproaching the Loch Ness monster!?

A playful day

2010-10-16T23:11:00.011+02:00

This morning we woke up to frost all over... I left it to late to take the last of the rhubarb!

Today we've been to Lida, a nice place close to were I grew up, with a few of our china friends.
A nice fire, BBQ, playing with the children and lots af talking. Day finnished with pizza at Eva & Henriks.

Aiden happy in the new chair in daddys car!

Playing with all the fallen leafs!

Elsa waiting for her burger...

Calle amusing everybody!

Hiding under the leafs

Had to get on the swing!

Building a tower "up to the celing"... well almost!

A very nice day!

A few autumn days!

2010-10-11T20:40:00.004+02:00

The last few days have really felt like autumn is really here... today we woke up to frosty grass and a white car!
Sunday we took a trip down the country house were the familly were clearing up for winter.

Favorite thing down at the country house! TRACTOR!

Hitching a ride to the other side of the garden...

... on the wheelbarrow as well!

Today we've planted a few bulbs that'll turn the garden really nice come spring!

Paul & Aiden weeding before planting.

Nice day!

2010-10-06T22:07:00.006+02:00

Today Aiden and I have been on a trip to Stockholm, first to pick up an exercise bike I had bought for Paul on the net, then to have lunch with Sussie. We had a really swell time, lots of talking... nice lunch and Aiden got to run around so much he fell asleep before we hit the motorway on the way home.

In the afternoon we had an parents night at Aidens new preschool to go to. He's starting there in January so we're trying to get him there as much as we can so he'll be more familiar with the place before he'll have to start getting used to it!

House fixing and weekend visit

2010-10-05T07:43:00.008+02:00

This weekend we've put some nice new panels on the balcony extension of the house. It was needed since we had to remove the tin cover in the summer when we were doing the roof repairs. We've made god progress and are almost done... hope to be able to finish it this week! After this we can probably concentrate on the inside for the winter!

This pic is taken before we fixed the roof... se the brown tin cladding, thats what we're taking away now.

In progress...

Saturday we had Alvin and his parents + grandma on coffee. They were on their way to a 40th birthday party in our close vicinity and popped in to finally se our house!

The boys had fun running round and round...

Monday we spent the morning at the hospital to yet again evalute Aidens Cleft lip & palate surguries, his speach etc... since we've moved we now belong to a diffrent hospital and had to redo all we did in the spring!

We had no surprices there, but Aiden didn't feel like cooperating that much so we'll have to come back to the speach therapist in January...

This morning we had a early start, driving Paul to the hospital to get his knee operated on to hopefully soon not have so much pain... hope is up! Will get back to how that whent when we know!

中秋節 - The Moon Festival

2010-09-24T22:15:00.009+02:00

Today we've celebrated our first Moon festival. We've had a great evening together with friends and their family.
We had set up with soup, rice, tea, mooncakes and lots of other nice stuff, all as round as possible to please the moon down by the lake... had a nice fire lit for warmth and comfort.

Lovely sunset!

Playing with little Molly

Food set up, lots of round things!

Tucking in!

Aiden and Teo admiring the moon cakes. Aiden loved these... Teo preferred the rice cakes.

Looks nice!

Aiden & Teo playing with their lanterns

Lightening the balloons..

Up and away!

Higher...

... and higher!

Fantasic weekend

2010-09-13T21:09:00.007+02:00

Sarurday we whent to a wedding between two friends. It was fantastic, beatiful , great party and the food was delicius!

The beatiful brides!

Paul looking his best!

Sofia and me, waiting for the wedding to begin.

I took so many pics this day, but I'm not going to post them all here
Aiden spent the day with mormor (grandma), beeing separated from us for the first time since january. It was no problem, apart from him beeing determined to stay awake untill we came home, but luckily he fell asleep well before that

Sunday we spent at the funfair Gröna lund. It was Aidens first time there and he really loved all the rides.... wanted to go on the biggest ones, but he'll have to wait several years before he can go on them!

1 visit + 2 birthdaypartys

2010-09-06T16:03:00.012+02:00

We've had an other bizzy week and weekend. We've done som work on the roof since the weather's been rather nice. I've tried to recover from a cold, Aidens gone down slightly with a cold (I think Paul's getting it now). Thursday my friend Cia came for a visit and stayed the night, we stayed up late and had some good chatting!

Friday I spent 4 hours on the roof putting the last of the paper down, now it's just the wood and the roof tiles to go on... well not so just but its now not going to rain in so easily!

Saturday all 3 of us piled in to the car and drove to Stockholm for 2 birthday partys and sleepover at my mums.

First we celebrated Theo A's 3rd birthday outside in the park, the weather were on our side!

Aiden watching birthday boy Theo opening his pressies...

We got served burgers, sausages coffie and juice and cakes... nice!

3 boys in the big swing...

... not to sure!

...not here either!

Alvin liked the cake!

Teo & Aiden eating sausages and playing at the same time...

The fishing was good, all the kids got a bag of goodies!

After the party we whent shopping for new shoes, changed a dress for me, looked on a new suit for Paul (we're going on a wedding next saturday) and then up to mums for dinner and 2 baths for Aiden (He had on first, then wanted to join me when I thought it would be nice with a bath...).

Sunday we had the next birthday celebration for Alvin, turning 3 yrs as well. But first we bought the suit Paul needed for next weekend.

Alvin liked the xylophone we bought him, and treated us to a serenade, using the empty box as an add on drum!

The birthday candle was a blast!

All the kids sitting down for ice cream!

Alvin monitoring the fishing, making sure everybody got the same?

Friends for lunch...

2010-08-30T09:11:00.005+02:00

Yesterday we had som friends over for lunch, it was the first time the were in our new home, and it was great to see them all again! The kids had a great time playing in the garden!

Peter got turned into a buffalo...by all the indians...

...we all looked and were amused by it...

Aiden caught Lukas...

...who managed to escape minus one shoe!

Playing with lots of water!

2010-08-20T15:23:00.005+02:00

Monday we drove R & M to the airport and have since then been doing little jobs around the house that needed doing.
Yesterday we decided that we'd better do soemthing more fun for Aidens sake...he was getting way to little fun... hence we packed ourself info the car and drove down to Södertäje to go to Tom Tits. We all had a great day!

You get soooo tired though!

3 more days of fun!

2010-08-15T23:06:00.014+02:00

Friday we all squeezed in to the car and drove to this handy craft place we'd been recomended was nice...

It looked rather deserted when we arrived and we soon found out why... it didn't open for an other hour so we decided to go for a drive and ended up at Kungsbyn (nice place in the middle of nowere where you can buy lots of nice stuff) and after strolling around and playing in the playground (well.. mainly Aiden) we had lunch and a bit of shopping and then after this we didn't feel like going back to the handy craft place so we drove back to Enköping, dropped R & M off at the hotell (for the afternoon snooze) and then went back home to prepp for our crayfish party in the evening!

Home again we found a pressie for Aiden hanging on the door... it was from Teo (with a bit of assistance from T & C we can guess!) and Aiden had to try it out straight off!

Grrrrrrrrrr......!

In the evening we had our crayfish but i forgot to take any pictures just then... Aiden was sooo tired he fell asleep in the middle of dinner, poor thing! He then slept all night ( well after waking up and beeing moved up to his bed that is!) The lighting we rigged for the party looked really best after sundown!

Saturday we had 2 partys planned. We once again squeezed in to the car and drowe away... First it was a birthday party for our dear friend Kristian.

Aiden managed to spill water on his shirt (as always!), we took it up an hung it on the balcony to dry... and Aiden saw the perfect opportunity to take off the rest... well apart from the sock's surpricingly!

Aiden got hold of the camera...

Birthday boy in the kitchen fixing!

Then we were off to a party at the summer house... lots of family, friends and neighbours were there to celebrate the newly renovated house!

Today Sunday we've just taken it easy... Maria came by to meet R & M before they go back tomorrow.... we all had lunch in the garden and generally didn't do much... in the evening we went out for dinner at a very nice tapas place!

The sun is back!

2010-08-12T20:26:00.010+02:00

We have Paul's dad Ron and stepmum Margret over visiting from England for almost a week. We picked them up at the airport in Västerås and drove them to their hotel room.... it didn't take long for Aiden to stop beeing shy!

Later on, we picked them up and gave them the grand tour of the house and then we had dinner in the garden since the sun decided to stay for the day!

After dinner we were all invited down to Tina, Calle & Teo for a few drinks. A very nice evening!

Note the flags in the lemons!!

Today we had a slow start... all of us slept in late, then we took a walk down to R & M's hotel and then off to lunch and a bit of windowshopping. After lunch we walked back to the hotel, R & M wanted a little afternoon nap, and Aiden was also in need of one.
After napping we drove to an outlet center and got some nice totally nessesary tings (dont you always!?) and then back to town for dinner.

Aiden really liked the sauce!