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:)

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.