First Day in Finland

Our first day started at 4 am this morning. We tried to keep it quiet for a while, but finally we decided to go for a walk. I didn't think the greenery wouldn't be as shocking since we live in a green place now, but I am still amazed by all the trees everywhere.  Saku was so worried that Aleksi would touch nokkonen. Eerika got a bit cold, but Aleksi enjoyed the walk.

By 8:30 am, Eerika was ready for bed. I followed her and by 11 am everyone was napping. And everyone had a nice deep sleep and it was so hard to wake Aleksi and Saku up. They just kept sleeping no matter where they were. 

We spent the evening on the beach. All of the kids loved playing in the water.  Eerika would actually dip in all the way while the boys stuck to staying only knee deep. Aleksi started signing "car" which means that he was the first one to want to go home. 

The day included eating ruisleipa, eating too much candy, Eerika writing letters and drawing pictures, Saku playing chess with isi and ukki, sauna night.

Saku's last day of 1st grade

Saku's last day of school party was on a cold rainy, windy day. The school had planned water balloon toss and watermelon eating. They still went ahead with the water ballon toss and the kids enjoyed it but fortunately we got to go inside for the water melon eating. Eerika got to sit next to Saku and his friends and she seemed happy to be part of the group.  Saku played with these boys the most; James, Preston and Zachary. Zachary is moving which is too bad since he seemed like a nice boy. And James will be around as he is in our ward and not plans of moving.

Saku had a great year. It is mind blowing to me that just a year ago, we didn't know anyone and anything about this area. Saku loves school. He sometimes struggles to get up to go to school and pretty much each day he would say "today was absolutely awesome/fantastic/great". He loved his teacher  and other than having too many tardies and two "fights" (boys playing rough) at the playground, he didn't get in trouble. Not that I thought that he would get in trouble. 

He has become independent about after school pick up and the other day, he ended up walking to the Stettler's house and wasn't even worried that no one was there to pick him up. Grandma had been wedged between two cars and Saku didn't know to look for Grandma. 

I was able to look at some of the work that his reading enrichment group does and I am very happy how he is being pushed in that aspect. If all of his school work could be like that, it would amazing. But I still think that it is the most important thing that he loves reading and he loves school. Everything else will fall into place. He did make a comment about being "one of the smartest kids in the class". So Troy and I emphasized how we want him to be hard working. 

Favorite thing about school: friends

Favorite lunch: pizza

Least favorite thing about school: missing recess

What are you excited for 2nd grade: new friends

Eerika's First Love

It should be noted that on Friday May 27th, Eerika fell in love with Luke. Luke came over for a play date and the kids happily played. When it was time to take Luke home, Eerika came to me  "guess what, Luke wants to marry me and I want to marry him too". Both of the kids are smiling at me and looking. So I happily respond, it would be awesome if you got married after your missions and going to college. Both also wanted to become doctors.  Just as we are about to step out of the door, I can hear Eerika whispering to Luke "do you really want to marry me" and he smiles and nods his head.  He also wrote down his phone number for Eerika and later Eerika said that she needs to keep the paper so she can call him as a teenager.  When we came home few hours later, the first thing she did was write  "Luke and Eerika fell in love" on the piece of paper where Luke had written his number.

We did reminder that she can't be kissing Luke until she is married. Troy said not until after her mission. And she cant really date him until she is 16. 

Let's hope that she will be this open about all of her crushes. 

Eerika's Last Day of Pre-K

We survived two weeks of sickness. We have never had anything like this.

Eerika had her last day of Pre-K today. She got to the leader and do show and tell. She took a treasure box that she had made with Grandma yesterday. She took Goldfish and marshmallows and fruit snacks. There is a girl, Piper, in her class who has a milk allergy. Last time Eerika wanted to be so conscious of Piper and wanted to make sure that she could have whatever the snack was. I made a mistake and made pumpkin cookies with milk. Eerika was so sad. SO this time, I made sure that there were original gold fish that don't have milk so she could have the same snack as everyone else. After the program at the school, Piper's mom came up to me and tearfully thanked me for including Piper in the snack. It was pretty awesome experience, not because it showed anything about me but just the reminder that little things make a difference.

Luke has been Eerika's most talked about friend. He is sort of a crazy kid, but he draws people to him. He loves to joke about hair and diapers; you know the typical boy stuff without being inappropriate.

I bought this dress for Eerika the day before her last day and I love it. Something about it's simplicity just compliments Eerika.  She also rocks the high bun look. 

Eerika enjoyed playing with Reagan at school. 

Mrs. Morton and Mrs. McDonald were so personally engaged with each student. This picture sums up Eerika's love for school, friends and her teachers. 

Troy was so sweet and wanted to share Eerika's last day. He ended up being five minutes late and missed Eerika's spotlight moment.  But the fact that he shows up for these types of events, shows his amazing dedication for his kids. I was too busy taking pictures and didn't quite listen carefully enough about the things Mrs. McDonald said about Eerika but I remember she mentioned how Eerika loved school, probably wished that she could do school during the summer, how she is very smart and ready for kindergarten. 

 

Eerika and Piper; I remember seeing an art work from Piper that was about Valentine's Day and I think it said something along the line s "Love is...playing with Eerika".

My precious ones

Troy is traveling to Baltimore. Ironically, I look forward to the kids going to bed and once they are in bed, I dont really do anything productive. But I have realized that about myself, I am not "to-do list" type of person, I don't feel more accomplished if I had worked all day at home doing different projects. I truly feel accomplished when I feel like I have been with my kids and connected with them. 

While I don't feel like I should be scrubbing our bath tubs at the end of the day, I dont also want to waste my time. And I find much joy in reading our blog and remembering the different things that happen to our family. 

I see these two every day but somehow today it really struck me to see these two brothers next to each other. They are 5 years apart but they are brothers and I think this will give them a bond for years to come. It is also crazy to think that Saku is almost 7.

Aleksi enjoys the trains. He loves putting the little guys in the trains just like he loves to put hats and helmets on lego guys. He has quite the excellent fine motor skills. 

Saku stayed home today from school since he had had fever yesterday. He was well enough to practice piano, do his homework, read books with me and finish his chore list from last week.  

Sometimes unstructured days can seem long, but I realized that I need to embrace these long days. It means more time to read, play games, for the kids to play together and just be together. We ended the day with a game of Go Fish and a Shopkins matching game. Eerika was a bit tired so she was tearful and neither one of the games was super successful. 

  

We were outside for about 5 minutes before the kids asked to go back. It was a bit windy and the kids got cold. It is crazy for the weather to be in the 40s in May, but I guess this is the reality of Spring in Colorado. 

I find Eerika's jacket, jeans and rain boots combo so adorable. We got the razors for free from someone in our neighborhood who had left them by their garage for anyone to pick up. I feel that this was a blessing as both of the kids like to ride them and their old ones were getting too trashed.

It had been raining in the afternoon so I asked if the kids wanted to go and jump in the puddles. There was no puddles and Aleksi wore Eerika's old Hello Kitty rain boots that were a bit too big for him and kept coming off. 

Eerika was ignoring Saku so he came outside and expressed his frustration. Fortunately this frustration only lasted about two minutes.

Aleksi loves being in the front yard. This picture shows how crowded our garage is. It is not well organized so it could be better if we put some energy into it, but we are really just excited for our 3 car garage. Aleksi also loves to jibber jabber while he plays which is shown here with his open mouth.

Aleksi likes to climb up on the trampoline and "jump" which is really him sort of skipping on it. He has a pretty good common sense not to go too close to the edge but it will be nicer to have a new trampoline with a net around it. 

A long week

I just got sucked into looking at pictures on instagram feed of a family who lost their little girl. I am not much a cryer when it comes to movies or books, but this is the second time that I have looked at an instagram feed of a family in this type of situation and I just want to cry. 

I just love our kids so much. And then I get tired after a week like this week and I feel guilty because I want few hours to myself while other parents have experienced the loss of a child. But I do have to give myself the permission to need a break so I can empathize and be patience and loving to them. I think that is what makes parenting so hard; it is an on-going job that wears you out no matter how much you love your kids. 

 Both Saku and Eerika are sick. They have fevers and they have literally slept most of the day. I don't remember this ever happening before. Saku doesnt ever nap, so the fact that he hasn't moved from the couch since 9 am is crazy. Eerika is a bit more perky and she actually ate some cereal, but even she just slept most of the day. We missed our last weekend of soccer games which was a total bummer since Saku has really enjoyed playing soccer and he has gotten very good at being midfielder and defending his goal.

Eerika has been so brave for the past four days since she got sick. She barely whines at all. In fact the only time she would was when Aleksi would jump on her while she was laying now. I think that is a good excuse to get a bit whiny. 

She didn't feel quite right on Wednesday but I took her to school anyway. She ended up falling asleep in class and has been sick since. She didn't have a fever yesterday but today it was back. 

Saku rocked his first week of doing his jobs. Today he didn't complete anything except piano since he was sick. I am proud of him. I can't wait to pay him after he completes his last job of vacuuming his room. Eerika missed many days because of her sickness but she rocked her sight word practice on Monday and Tuesday. 

Aleksi is doing fine. He loves being outside so I left Troy with the big kids and Aleksi and I did two exploration trips around the neighborhood. Aleksi loves being in the front yard and walked up and down the side walk. 

Aleksi learned another word. He now says "Go". He loves to say it. Our word count is up to four now: ball, yay and yeah and go.

Aleksi knows to put his shoes away to the shoe basket and he knows where to find his shoes. He signs "äiti" though it is his own version of the sign. He will now ask for me by signing "äiti" when I am not around.  Aleksi loves eating scrambled eggs, and sausage. He is weaned off from bottle!! He throws his tuttis at bed time which can be annoying because then he wont fall asleep without one. 

He continues to love dogs and balls. He goes to nursery and child watch at the Y without a problem. 

I ran 8.7 miles with Audra this morning and felt strong the whole time. We averaged 8:55 per mile. That is pretty good since we are talking the whole time. I have never had a running friend and I am super grateful to have someone that I can meet up with and run and get to know each other more. I feel like I have been able to reach out to more people since we moved here. I feel like I have found a social place that feels comfortable and where I feel like I am needed and people around me can rely on me. It feels really good. 

Cookie Thursday Picnic

We visit our house about once a week. Last week I had the fun idea of going there for a picnic for our Cookie Thursday. Saku and Aleksi find the basement creepy so they won't go and play there. The kids mostly just love playing in the dirt around the house. Saku loves finding random pieces of metal and whacking the ground with them. It is so fun to see the house with drywall. It is crazy to think that we will move in in two months. I really try not to think that somehow this house will magically make everything perfect but I am very excited for it. 

Also I should mention that while Troy is not a sweets person, he does love Cookie Thursdays. 

First week of Allowance

We started allowance with the kids this week. They each have a check list for each day and in order to get their money on Saturday, they will have to do all of their responsibilities each day. We decided that each kid would get their age in dollars; 10% goes to tithing, 50% to savings and rest they can spend. 

Saku is thriving with this. He is counting how much money he will have when he is 16 and he plans to buy a car. Eerika has completed her tasks but she needs a bit more direction. 

Let's see if we can keep this up.

Super Saturday

I attended a women's conference today and I found it very inspiring. I have felt a bit unsettled in my parenting. Somehow without a direction while we are doing many good things with our kids. 

Two of the classes that I attended got me fired up about being more intentional in my parenting and the way I teach our kids.

I also felt more committed to have planned FHEs and make sure I read the scriptures more. 

Lisa Johnson talked about the importance of communication and while I do think that Troy and I spend a lot of quality time with the kids, I needed to get this extra push to make sure that I am spending my time well with the kids and truly listening to them. 

So tonight, we gave them the special treat of falling asleep in our bed. They haven't been allowed to fall asleep there for a while because they were being too silly and loud last time they were falling asleep in our bed. As we laid in bed, I asked both kids what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Saku said "if things weren't dangerous in the world, I would want to be an Air Force pilot". Eerika responded "I want to be a mom, or maybe not because some people cant have kids".  Isi said he wanted to be a skier and a hockey player.

When I asked Saku what kind of girl he would want to marry, he first didn't know and then he said "I dont play with that many girls" but in the end he responded that he would like to marry "a nice girl".

Eerika answered that she wanted to marry Luke because "he is funny." 

Saku scored a goal in his game today. They won 4-2. Eerika seems a bit apathetic and also defeated in her soccer games. When the other team is better, she gives up. It is frustrating to watch because we feel like she has much athletic potential, but maybe she needs to mature more.

Aleksi didn't get a nap today but was such a happy boy all day long.  He enjoyed Chick-Fil-A, playing at the park, reading books with me and he went to sleep without a beep while holding three tuttis. 

Troy had cleaned the house while I was gone, which was a nice treat to come to after being so inspired spiritually.  I also ran 10 miles this morning which is the longest distance I have done in three years! My hips started feeling a bit tired, but I finished the 10 miles and felt good. 

First Week of May

Life has been busy this week. I don't like the word busy nor do I like being busy. I dont want life to be busy because then the important things get forgotten or overlooked.

Monday was Eerika's last day of gymnastics for a bit. She liked it overall, though she had some tears over how bridges were hard and she would get distracted at times when she was supposed to be working "independently" at a station. However, she learned to do a good bridge and she could climb up the rope all the way to the ceiling.  It was interesting to notice that she had a bit of a hard time doing vault and figuring out how to use the spring board. We would just stay at the gym and watch her practice; sometimes it meant extra screen time for Saku, sometimes I had to entertain Aleksi a lot but overall, the boys did really well. We will see if Eerika is interested in starting up again after the summer.

Saku didn't have piano lessons on Tuesday so we went to park and had a good time enjoying the spring weather. Saku and Troy practiced soccer. Aleksi wandered around doing whatever perked his interest and Eerika used her awesome imagination and played on her own. 

Saku told me today that he had "a sweet life because he got two new video games (free games to the iPhone)" He gets 15 minutes of video game time each day after he has done his homework and piano practice. And then he talks about the planes and battles a lot. I need to learn to get interested in this type of stuff.

The other day he actually put an alarm at 5 am so he could play some storm raiders before school. So both kids were up, dressed and had brushed their teeth just little after 5 am. By 7 am, Eerika started to fall apart and we made a rule that this wouldn't be happening again. Now they have to wait until the sun comes up to get out of bed. It is nice though that they dont always automatically wake us up when they wake up in the morning. 

We went to have lunch with Saku for the first time this year.  It was fun to see him in his school environment. Eerika was excited to be at the school and Aleksi didn't get too frustrated that he couldn't get to the balls. It was a pretty hassle free experience so I will try to do it more next year. It is good to see Saku with his friends and see how the school staff knows him.

Yesterday Eerika had Ivy and Sophie over for a play date while Jess had a PT appointment. Then she went to Grace's birthday party at the park for a bit before heading over to Clara's house for a play date. What a blessing to have so many awesome friends. 

 Because of all this social stuff, Aleksi didn't get down for a nap at his usual time, so I texted Betsy, our neighbor, and she came to sit at our house for 20 minutes so I could pick up the older kids without waking Aleksi up. I am glad that I was bold enough to ask for help and I am so glad that she was able to help out. 

We are so blessed. That is the bottom line. Our house in Tucson doesnt have renters right now. It is occupying a lot of my mental space but I try not to stress over it. I have to keep telling myself that money is just money and this is why we save so we don't have to worry about money when things come up. 

Aleksi and Eerika

Eerika takes such a good care of Aleksi. Most of the time, she is willing to play with Aleksi to distract him when he is being needy and wants me to hold him while I need to do things such as make dinner.

On most mornings, she asks "can I get Aleksi when he wakes up?" and she loves to walk into his room and in a sweet voice talk to him.

She often offers him things like milk, tutti etc to appease him even when we don't really want him to have them. I think her favorite is "Aleksi wants a movie" in the car because she wants it just as much or even more but it makes it look better when she is taking care of his needs. 

She will often get down from dinner table when Aleksi wants to play with balls. We have to remind her to stay and finish her dinner.

Of course she gets frustrated when Aleksi comes and messes with her toys and there are plenty of times when she closes the door and Aleksi cries a sad cry outside.

However, the years between them and gender difference haven't affected their friendship. 

End of April

Past week was full of fun things. 

Saku didn't have school on Wednesday so I took him on a special one-on-one date to bowling and lunch. We had a babysitter come over, and Saku and I enjoyed two hours of being together. We bowled three games; I won two out of three but Saku ended up with the highest score of 112. He did bowl with bumpers. It was funny to see his "cool dude" attitude when he played. He didn't get upset when he missed bins, which was a huge thing. We enjoyed some pizza at Costco and few samples. 

I also gave in and let Saku play one game of car racing at the bowling alley. He was just so interested in it so we spent 50 cents on it. I didn't have two quarters so I had him take my dimes and nickels to the clerk to change into a quarter.  It took me a long time, and I still dont love it, to get used to talking to strangers or asking for information or help, so I am trying to have it be a natural thing for our kids.

Missie organized a girls' night for my birthday. It was so sweet of her to think of me in that way. We went out for dessert at Marigold Cafe and Bakery; it is a French restaurant that everyone seems to love. It was delicious. I had Creme Brulee and brought Raspberry Cheesecake home to share with Troy and the kids. Our party crew included Missie, Nicole, Jess, Saralyn, Kym and myself. Since it was a school night, there were some other scheduling conflicts but I truly felt so blessed to have these girls come and spend the night with me. We stayed half an hour past their closing time. I am looking forward to an excuse to go out there again.

Since things "have" to be equal around here, I ended up taking Eerika on a date on Friday during Saku's soccer practice. We went to Target during the day to choose an art project to do and chose some new nail polish colors. Once the boys left, we painted "Eerika" on wooden letters and painted our fingernails in matching color. Then we dressed in very similar outfits, wore a bun and headed out to get some frozen yogurt. A random woman came up to us and commented how she loved our matching outfits. We also saw Nicole and her family, which was fun. 

 Saku has gotten quite good at chess so it is a fun way for the boys to spend time together. Aleksi has mastered the art of climbing on the stools. Now he even wants to sit on them for meals. This morning I let him eat his fruit loops on it and when I went to get a

Easter Egg Hunt in Gilbert

I snapped some pictures at Trent and Regina's Easter Egg hunt. As always, Regina was such a gracious host with plenty of delicious food and each kid ended up with so many eggs. 

Since the kids are the youngest group with their cousins, with the exception of Cambree, it gets a bit tricky as the older kids get older. Right now Aleksi is the biggest hit as McKenna likes to take care of him. Eerika seems to notice it the most as she likes to tell us "no one is playing with me" and she really hopes that Cambree could be in Phoenix when we visit Grandma.