The crazy beautiful of our lives

Today was a hectic day. Saku was supposed to go to school at 7 to watch a musical with his choir; however, when I went to his room at 6:20 and he was exhausted because he couldn't sleep well with his braces on. So he came to snuggle me in bed and we slept until 7 am. It was actually sweet to have him right there by me and to know that I was giving him comfort.

Saku has a rough time eating breakfast. I gave him some ibuprofen and he seemed okay enough to go to school. I did write a note to Senorita Jarnigan that said that I would be happy to pick Saku up if needed.

When I got the kids off to school, I got a text from Mary asking if I could watch Samantha. So Samantha got dropped off around 8:30. At first, Samantha had a really rough time but she eventually settled down and was happy and then Amy picked her up.

After Miio's first nap, we went swimming at Villa. We met Nicole and Missie there, and then I noticed a phone call from Saku asking to pick him up. So I left Aleksi with Nicole and Anders and drove to the school to pick Saku up. I called the orthodontics office on my way and got an appointment at 12. We went to the appointment and Saku's mouth started to feel much better. 

So he went back to school, and Nicole was awesome to take Aleksi home with her so after I put Miio down for a nap I was able to fold some laundry, do an instagram post and some overall cleaning. I got another call from the school and when I saw the number, I thought they were calling about Saku again. However, this time it was about Eerika. She got kicked in the eye and had a cut. She was okay to stay in school. It ended up being Ivy who kicked her, but 

Aleksi came home and we hung out for a while before big kids came home.

They were both pretty tired. Saku did go and play with Luke for a bit.

The other kids took a bath at 4 pm. We had pannukakku for dinner. Eerika was tired. Saku was hurting. It got a bit crazy for a while but we settled down ok. Saku watched some Olympics and Aleksi and Eerika watched a movie upstairs until 7:15 or so. I put Miio to bed. Saku fell asleep on the couch and I actually carried him upstairs to the guest room.

Aleksi is sleeping in Saku's bed. Troy is in Provo for a recruiting trip at BYU. I need to clean the kitchen but I wanted to write down about my life. 

Miio is all over crawling. Tonight he crawled all the way from his bedroom to the playroom and then stood up against one of our stepping stools. 

He is seriously such a sweet and amazing little baby boy. 

Saku has been truly brave during this braces situation. He asked me to be with him when he was getting the braces on. It was sweet to hold his hand. He chose black and red rubber bands because he thought it would be a "good combination".

Aleksi is so lucky to have his group of friends. He is such an articulative boy with so many clever things to say.  He plays very well with Anders. He and Jaxon are a bit more like so they either play really well or disagree and both are stubborn. 

Fall Colors

The last weekend of September, we drove to check out the changing colors in the Mueller State Park, about an hour away from us.  It is so nice to have the change of seasons. I am sure there will be days when I will miss the Arizona sun, but so far, I am embracing the gloomy weather and the temperature changes.

I take a lot of pictures of Aleksi because he is just an easy target. Saku seems to get a shaft and he appears in very few pictures. Maybe it is because he is having so much fun and doing things that I can't keep up with him and snap pictures...

October 2015

Saku's project

"On a scale from 0-10, how much I want to wear my pajamas I am five. So I can't make the decision."

Saku had a project to build a community building. He ended up doing a ski resort. I thought it was due on October 23rd, so we left nice and early so we wouldn't be rushing while carrying the project. Ukki was even here so he came with Saku. And then we get to school and realize that he is the only one walking with a project and we were bringing it to school a week early. He didn't want to stand out so I came home with it and he took it to school the next week.

October 2015

The First Lost Tooth

Saku lost his first tooth today. It happened at school, which probably made it even cooler since he was surrounded by his peers when it happened. When you are six years old, losing a tooth is a cool thing!

He wrote the most adorable note to the tooth fairy. Yet the more darling part is the fact that he wants to show it to isi so he will wait until tomorrow night before collecting his reward from the tooth fairy. I wrote a note to the tooth fairy to inform about our special situation. 

Saku is not convinced that tooth fairy is real, but I think he is pretty confident that he will get something cool for his first tooth.

October 22, 2015

Family update

Aleksi has been diaper free for the past six days. We just decided to try to say "bye bye to diapers" as we have had him go pee in the potty every once in a while.

On Tuesday we had one kakka accident and several pee accidents as he was wearing pants. But he was also peeing in the potty and stayed dry during nap so I wasn't feeling too discouraged. I canceled volunteering for Wednesday and went to the gym at 5:30 so we could stay home all day and not put pull ups except for Eerika's gymnastics lesson.  He went to pee at the gym three times. 

He did wake up crying  around midnight after the second day because he had a huge poop in his pull up. Poor kid had probably been holding it all day so it must have been a very unpleasant way to wake up. He slept the rest of the night in our bed. 

Friday was a break through when he went kakka on his own in the potty and pulled his pants down and sat down on the potty to pee while I was downstairs. We went to the park for an hour and had no accidents. He learned the art of peeing by a tree. 

So we braved Saku's basketball game and church without a pull up. And no accidents. He did have a poop accident while playing outside. I wasn't nearby so I don't know if he tried to say he had to go. He definitely thinks it is so gross when he has an accident. 

Eerika has become much better about letting me her hair. It is a small thing but it does make me happy to see her hair put up and looking nice. She wears her non-prescription glasses every day with few exceptions. She is liking her new gymnastics gym. She has done new skills and I like how they do a variety of things each week. Her favorite thing has been her coach Isaac because he is a boy and he is funny. 

Saku loves video games. He becomes very responsible and dedicated to getting stuff done when the reward is a video game time. He has also really enjoyed listening to General Conference talks when he goes to bed. He says that he can feel the spirit and it helps him not have nightmares.

Written June 3, 2017

Thoughts on Newborn Time

Written on August 6th

Having a newborn has always been one of the hardest times for Troy and I. I am tired. I get stressed out about baby's sleep. He gets frustrated that I am stressed. He feels like he doesnt get enough time with me. I get frustrated that he doesn't understand how tired I am. We are aware of this and we talk about it openly. 

Obviously it has only been two and half weeks but I feel like Troy and I are working really well as a team. It started from Little Moose's labor and birth. He was so helpful both physically and mentally that I really felt connected to him in a way that I haven't felt with the other births. 

I have made an effort to focus on him, even if it is just for 10 minutes before going to sleep so he feels loved and important. He has been great about helping in the mornings and often he will ask "how is your night" if he wakes up and I am feeding Little Moose. The other night I fell asleep with Little Moose on my chest and he woke up and saw it and gently put Little Moose in his bassinet so I could sleep more comfortably. 

I am grateful for the unity and team work we have right now. I am grateful that I am able to be less stressed out and he is being 

Monarch Ski

Gatorade mustache seems to be the look when the kids go skiing. Cliff bars, PB&J sandwiches and trail mix are the snacks.

Troy and Saku went on the Wolf Ranch Ski trip to Monarch. They went with Saku's classmate Elliott's family.  They had a great time and Saku really liked Monarch.

Troy watched 6 episodes of Taken on the bus since he didn't have to be driving. 

The HOA provided bagels for breakfast and pizza for dinner. They also had tons of snacks and Saku reported that he ate 12 rice crispy treats. He also threw up that night...

Saku is a very skilled skier. He can do black diamonds and Troy even said that he thinks that Saku could keep up when he goes skiing Kyle and Trent.

Christmas Presents 2017

Christmas Morning was a success.  

Eerika's presents from joulupukki were art supplies and kiwi crate about the body.

She got "pet" dog and cat, Little Mermaid movie (now that I think of it a month after, I don't think she really cared for that one), new underwear, new clothes, and now I can't think of what else.

Miio only got one present from us! It was a bag of yogurt melts:) He did get a book from Mio& Bailey and super cute pants and a shirt from Aino and Tatu.

 Eerika was super concerned about getting everyone a present.

Saku's Christmas list was all about Nerf guns and he got two! Joulupukki got him one and then Eerika found one from Goodwill for less than 10 bucks! Joulupukki also gave him a crate with spin art that he was eager to do. He got the first three Harry Potter movies, (I don't think we have still seen the third one),  a two sets of pants and shirts. He got Pokemon socks that he has loved.  He got a pocket knife from Mio&Bailey. The third HP illustrated book from Grandma, and X-wing (star wars) books as well. 

Eerika got a nightgown, a mug with "E" and pumpkin spice hot chocolate from Grandma and Granpa.

Aleksi's number one desire was to get Jackson Storm. And Joulupukki delivered! He also got a crate to build a music set. He got tons of new underwear and tons of CARS cars (Thanks to Jenni Anderson) , and Lighting McQueen shoes. He loved them all. And just the other day he told me "Thank you for giving me these shoes" He also got new ski gloves from Aino and Tatu.

Eerika got lipsmackers and a necklace from Bailey and Mio. 

 Saku does this funky thing with his hands when he is nervous, bored, or really at any time. 

Our mantle was full of stockings!

Troy got a smoker for Christmas. It got delivered two weeks before Christmas and he saw it so there was no surprise on Christmas morning. It made me pretty sad.  I also did 12 days of Christmas for him.  He got a pair (2) of socks, "One HOT steamy shower", 4 lbs of trail mix, 11 candy canes, $10 gift card to Amazon, six Cliff Bars, Seven minutes in heaven. Now I can't remember what number 8 and 9 were!

 Troy got me biking shoes for my cycling classes at the gym and a really nice down jacket. 

New Year's Eve 2017

After hosting family for most of December, I was not up for a New Year's party so it was nice to be invited to the Creason's family party. We were there with the Stettlers and Tanners and had a great time.

We did the countdown at 10 pm as we watched the ball drop in NYC.  It was about 11:30 before we went to sleep. 

The kids played happily the whole evening and ate too much candy; just like we did.

Jenny brought candy to snack while playing games and my tongue got a bit sore from so much sour patch kids:)