Happy Birthday Tindra

Happy Birthday Tindra. We simply cannot believe that you’re now four years old. When I showed your photos to the girls this afternoon they instantly remembered your visit a few years back. We hope you have a great birthday and a happy new year, a special year since you’re going to become a big sister. Congratulations Håkan and Eva-Lotta and thanks for the letter and picture.

Happy New Year to All

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, best wishes to each of you for 2012.

Shown below are a couple of recent pictures that never made it on here…

Milestones......

As we progress through family life we achieve millstones, albeit sometimes mini-milestones. We achieved two of those in one week and I know they may not seem very big to you, but to us they are big steps.

We transitioned Connor out of a crib (cot) and into a “Big Boy Bed” and with his new level of confidence and abilities (or dare I say stubbornness), we were also able to remove the stair gate. This stair gate and crib removal is a big deal, they have both been a permanent fixture in our lives for almost seven years. Now that they’re gone, their absence seems weird…..that’s weird…

Try Anchor Porter......

It’s wintertime and some of us reach for the darker beers. I tend to gravitate toward stouts and porters but unfortunately the options in those categories are limited in central Indiana.

Thankfully we can get what I believe is a very under appreciated beer and that is, Anchor Porter. This beer from the famous San Francisco based Anchor Brewing Company. They are most famous for their Steam Beer and Liberty Ale (both of which are very good), however, in my humble opinion; this Porter (or ugly sister to these two flagship beers) outshines them both.  If you have a chance to taste this great beer please do. The folks over at Beer Advocate also agree, they too rate it higher than the more famous “sisters”.

Relaxing Week at Home

We have all been relaxing here in West Lafayette, each day trying to do a few different things. The girls have been playing with their Christmas present whilst Connor is buzzing around busily trying to disrupt that play. Anja was very proud playing with her snap electronics set the other night, she copied the diagram on the box and built an AM radio from the components in the box (it actually worked). Isabel has been playing with her block counting game which she loves (game to help kids learn the principles of addition using blocks of different sizes).

Lynne has been doing all sorts with the kids too. Sewing and doing a few crystallization experiments to name a few. I have read a couple of the books I got as presents and have been playing with my new software toy, Aperture. I also managed one run this week and even baked a couple loaves of bread, something I have not done in way too long.

We have also had snow which provided a great morning of activity. I trust you’re all having a good holiday.

Christmas Report

We had a great Christmas Day yesterday. We had a house full of people most of the day, Kaisa, Kevin and their three children together with Brad and Lisa with their two. Thanks for coming guys and making our day an occasion. Alden, a special thanks to you for being such a good help playing with Connor.

Of course the highlight of the day was the excitement of Santa and the presents he left. The girls could not contain themselves and any picture I took could simply not tell the story. It’s hard to capture continuous present ripping in any one shot.  These Christmas mornings with small children are so very very special. If you think Isabel's hair is a little odd, well it's just missing some. Evidently Santa does not consider cutting your own hair as naughty an activity as parents do :)

Hope you all had an equally exciting and relaxing day. Today we took it easy.

Merry Christmas

The veggies are prepared, the stuffing ready, turkey prepped, cakes made, kids bathed and in bed….all we are waiting for now is Santa.

We’ve had a busy day here. Coupled with doing all of the above, we had Steef, Ginette and Matt over with their kids to watch The Polar Express and stay for dinner. It has been hectic and the kids were exhausted.

After leaving cookies and milk out they all trotted off to bed without any issues (except Connor who was overtired and kicked up a fuss at every step).

Merry Christmas Everybody, hope you all have a wonderful day.

Excited Children

Got the girls and Connor off to bed tonight after a busy day. They are hyper excited about Santa coming in a few days, it’s literally all they can think about. They are off to the movie theatre with Brooke tomorrow as a special treat to see the new muppet movie. Should be interesting since I don’t believe they have ever seen those characters.

I took these pictures this evening as they were having a bath and reading before bed.

Christmas Week

Our week before Christmas is going well. I have been off all week and it’s really nice getting a chance to wind down before the weekend. Earlier in the week I did some final shopping, took Isabel to the doctors, went to Anja’s class party, played racquetball for the first time in ages and even managed to get out for a couple of runs (the weather has been crazy warm for December).

Lynne has also been in full gear with present buying and wrapping in addition to some baking and sweet/truffle/fudge making. It’s now quite a tradition for her. Brooke too has been busy doing holiday activities with the kids. Yesterday they decorated cookies which is always a big hit.