A Fabulous Date night!

I started a blog called Life with Licorice. I have felt the need or desire to have something that is my own and writing is something I enjoy. So I launched the site right after New Years. I have enjoyed it so far. There have been moments when self-doubt has kicked in and I have worried that what I write about or share is silly or irrelevant. I need to figure out when to work on it, put boundaries on when to engage on social media and all that, but overall, it has been a positive experience.

Troy and I enjoyed an awesome date on Saturday night. We went to TILL for dinner. I have felt that it has been overhyped but our dinner was delicious (and pricey). Troy had the daily special which was baby back ribs, beans, coleslaw, corn bread and a roll. I chose a pizza with the following on it: Seasonal mushrooms, gruyere and fontina cheese, crema, caramelized onion, rosemary. It was so amazing! We also chose an appetizer with some cheese, poblano jam and sourdough bread. Again it was delicious. I wanted to lick to jar that the cheese spread came in. 

Miio doesn't take a bottle so we had to come back home to nurse him and put him to bed. He was so tired that even before I had a chance to put him in the zippy, he rolled to his tummy and was about to go to sleep.

We quickly went to Target to buy sour patch kids and milk duds for movie candy. I just can't go to the movies without candy.  We watched the Greatest Showman and loved it. I am not always sure if movies is worth the money when it comes to a date but this night was all worth it!

We came home refreshed andfound Aleksi up at 10:30. He had taken a nap earlier and obviously wasn't tired. Troy and I assembled our built-in shelves and counter together and it looks amazing.  Aleksi ended up coming to our bedroom around 11:15 when we finally went to bed and said "I have a deal, I will sleep in your bed and I don't need my camping bed". He ended up sleeping on the floor and up by 7 am the next day...which meant he was a bit more tired and cranky at church.

Troy let me sleep in until 7:38 the next morning while he was up with Eerika and Aleksi. Miio kept making noise in his room but didn't cry so I let him be.

Eerika's Birthday Skiing

Isi and Eerika had their third annual birthday skiing. They went to Breckenridge and it was freezing at nine degrees.  They got to the mountain late because Troy had to take care of our phone situation (someone bought brand new iPhones on our account and our phones got disconnected from service). After the first run, they had lunch and Eerika said she was ready to go home. They ended up doing few more runs. This is where having the season pass pays off as you don't have to worry too much about not getting a full day of skiing in.

She had her new ski poles with her. Saku mopped floors and shoveled snow and earned 20 bucks so he could buy the ski poles for her birthday. 

Troy said that he had noticed girls having braids sticking out of the side of the helmet so we did that with her hair.

She did a yard sale and came home with some scratches on her legs. After that, she was more cautious with her skiing but still had a good attitude. 

They splurged on some hot chocolate and hot hands to keep them warm. She also got watch some netflix streaming on Troy's phone while they were driving, thanks to a deal that Troy signed up for with AT&T. 

So it wasn't the best skiing day, BUT they still had a great time. 

Nicole took pictures of the kids for our Christmas card and then took few pictures of just Miio. Since Nicole has started taking our pictures, I have truly started to value the happiness that I get from these prints. 

We borrowed pants from Isaac for Saku and you can see how short they are on him.  Aleksi had two different socks on. 

Miio at 6 months could not be any cuter. 

New Hair Cut for Me

I am loving my new hair cut. In the past several years the only haircuts I have had have been done by Troy (several times), great clips with Eerika a year ago and then Missie graciously trimmed my hair in the fall.

I had talked to Angela about cutting my hair and I finally made it happen. She was amazing. She cut off at least 6-8 inches and I feel so free and confident in this hair cut.

Joulu 2018

Our first official year of hosting Christmas was a success. It was full of Finnish candy, thanks to Aino and Tatu bringing it. Game nights with ticket to ride, and the new version of it made us work hard! Troy and Miio were usually the winners. I didn't even bother counting my points on most nights.  

We had an amazing Christmas Eve dinner with Pasteija, ham, lohi and salad bar. We had left overs as usual and were able to eat them the next day. 

On Christmas morning, we had cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, smoothies and scrambled eggs with bacon.

There was too much soda drinking.  There was ton of dart wars in the basement. Both Tatu and Mio were amazing about playing with the kids. 

Selja was a sweet baby. And it was so precious to see Mio being a dad. And she slept like a dream! I will admit that I was envious of the 8 pm-5pm streak each night!

We had modpizza night, electric safari at the zoo while it was cold, girls night making gingerbread houses, men and big kids went to the movies to watch Star Wars. 

Emil and Miio with matching Christmas PJs.

Big kids having a sleep over in our bedroom with their little Christmas tree and Saku up until 11 pm. And then up at 7 am to check out presents.