Happy Birthday Lana!

Happy Birthday little Angel!

Two years ago today you were born and then returned to live with Heavenly Father again. We had such a short but precious time with you here on earth. We learned so much about life in the two hours that you lived. I know that you we send to be part of our family and I also know that it was part of Heavenly Father's plan that you returned to Him so quickly.

I am sure that you are quite busy playing with all your relatives and friends and being an angel to those that need you. How grateful I am for the knowledge that families can be together forever! We are a forever family and we are working on that every day.

Today we celebrated your birthday by going out to eat for breakfast. They had these Kids glasses and Finn and Tiig were playing with them. I wondered what you would have looked like wearing them. I bet you would have looked so cute! I miss you very much some times. But most of the time I am thankful that you did not have to suffer a lot here. And now you get to be in heaven where I hope to be with you again some day. We also got you some balloons. Pink ones. We send them off in our backyard but it was very windy and cold today.

Lana, I am so comforted in knowing that you are in heaven. I feel at peace when I think about you and know that you are well. I love you very much and I thank you for all that you have taught me over the last two years.

Happy Birthday!

Fresh Powder (Nor-Eastern Style)

I came home from work Wednesday morning at 3am and there was no snow on the ground. At 10am Finn ran in our room to wake me up because he wanted to ski so we looked outside and it had snowed about 12 inches! It was a lot of heavy, wet snow, not the dry powder that we are used to from Utah, but it was fun to play in. We started off by going on a walk with the boys' sleds. This was Tiig's favorite part.

Finn and Tiig's first sled ride together (thanks Aunt Melinda for the sweet sled that you gave us last year for Christmas).
After the sled ride it was Finn's turn to show off his skiing skills. This kid is a natural and I'm proud to be his dad!

Tiig had a front row seat to watch his older brother tear it up.
Just one more picture. As Finn was skiing we saw something crawling around on the ground under the snow. It turned out to be a mouse! Hanni was brave enough to pick it up so we could get this picture.
We had a great morning playing in the snow although we were all soaking wet by the end of it all. I am sure that this will be the first of many big snow storms for us up here but with 2 boys they will always be fun!

Finn's First Day/Night of Skiing

We finally received our first snow of the winter so I took advantage of the inch or so that was on the ground to get Finn out on his skis for the first time. He was awesome!


The hill behind our house is pretty short but a perfect to learn on. Everytime that he would fall he would get right back up then ask me to carry him to the top. Someday, when he is a pro skier, I'm sure he will thank me for being his personal ski lift.

I explained to him what "first tracks" are and that is what he wanted to get the rest of the time. That's my boy!

The snow is still falling here so tomorrow I will try to get a movie. He was loving it! (Hanni is still not feeling well so this is Adam's second post ever.)

Elf Yourself!

So I saw an "Elf Yourself" movie on my cousins blog and thought it would be fun to do the same for Finn and Tiig. It is really nice to have some time off of work so I can do more important things like turn my boys into elves. Merry Christmas everyone!

See the video below. (this is Adam's first ever blog post, hope you enjoy it)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday Tiig!

It's already Tiig's birthday. It feels more like nine or ten months since he was born but I guess my little baby is not so little anymore.

Some fun things about my little birthday boy.

He has ten teeth and is working hard on getting the top two molars through too.

He likes to drink carbonated beverages until his eyes start to water.

He is a good crawler now and also cruises on furniture. When you hold his hands he will take off running and knows exactly where he wants to go.

He loves to be outside. Anytime you open the front door he will charge. He will also get very upset if you do not let him out.

His favorite foods are grapes and fries. He does not like baby food at all.

He laughs super hard when Finn is silly around him.

When he gets upset while he is playing on the floor he will lean forward until his head is almost touching the floor and cry. It works. He looks so cute that I always have to come and comfort him.

He likes to crawl up the stairs and is staring to figure out how to get down too.

When he is done eating he will fling the food off the high chair.

His favorite toys are balls, cars, and now his new basket ball hoop. He likes to throw his toys and get them and throw them again.

He does not say any words yet. Not even mama or papa. But when we sing songs he will sing with us and make noises in the same rhythm.

He sucks his right thumb. He does not have a lovey.

He likes to cuddle with me and usually smiles at me when he sees me.

Half Vermont Journey

Adam did his second half iron distance race of the year. He went out the night before to camp there but since it was raining all day long I stayed home with the boys. We came the next day to see him race. He had a great swim and bike but by the time he was half way through the half marathon part he was running out of steam. Still, I am very proud of him for even finishing such a long race and even more because he did it in under six hours. Good job, Sweety.

After the race we went swimming in a beautiful lake. The swim portion of the triathlon was in this lake too.

Before we headed back to camp we went to get some well deserved ice cream. Tiig loooved licking our ice cream.

Adam had a different race at this same location last year. We got a picture of Finn eating some ice cream then...

....and now this year. He looks so much older now.

Back at camp the men were reading triathlete magazine together.

We stayed one more night at camp together and had tasty smores around the campfire. The boys slept great (us not so much) but we had a fun time.

Just the two of us

While Adam and Tiig were gone, Finn and I did a lot of fun things.

We had a super long and fun day at the Great Escape...



Went on a 4 mile bike ride...





Went to the Washington County Fair and saw all kinds of animals...
(the sign says: Please don't pet me, I'm VERY grumpy today)



We watched a demolition derby...




And of course went on lots of fun rides at the fair...



But Finn's favorite part was that he got to sleep in our bed.

Funny Finny

Adam and Tiig are in Colorado right now. Since I'm still nursing I have to pump or esle es no bueno. So I was pumping and along comes Finn. He looks at me then at the pump. Then asks very curiously: "You peeing, mom?" So I told him that I am pumping milk for Tiig cause he is not here right now. So Finn asks "You peeing milk!?" I guess that's one way to look at it.

Happy Birthday Finn!

Happy Birthday Finny! You are three years old now! This past year sure had it's highs and lows, I'm not gonna lie. You were in the terrible twos full force and are likely to continue this trend for a while. You can be so sweet and happy but unfortunately you chose to be grumpy and moody a lot lately. You freak out when Tiig touches your toys yet other times you make sure he has toys to play with and bring him new stuff. "I don't want anything!" That phrase pretty much sums up your attitude lately and even when we do something fun and you have a blast it's very unpredictable if you will express your joy or be grumpy again. To be honest I was not excited to prepare for your birthday. Anything fun that I tried to do for you lately you shot down with your bad mood. But your birthday was special. You were so excited to see the decorations and all the presents for you. A couple times you stopped and looked around and said "I can't believe it this room. I can't believe it. This awesome. I can't believe it this room, mom." And that made it all worth it. I love you very much Finn, and I hope that this next year will be filled with more laughter and less frustration.

(Sorry for all the negative information, but I wanted to post something honest)

Opening presents

After Finn had opened a couple presents he looked at one present and said "this one is for Tiig"

You can be so sweet, Finn. I love you!

Finn was very excited for the food. He kept rubbing his hands together and giggle.

Trying to blow out the candles

Henry Hudson Quadathlon

For my last race of the year Adam and I did a quadathlon. Run- Swim- Bike- Paddle. Adam slowed down for me and we raced side by side for the whole race. It was quite fun to do something different than a triathlon. We had never really kayaked before so that added to the excitement. And as an added bonus- we both won our age group.

Nine Month Check-Up

Tiig had his nine month check-up. He is doing very well, just a cute healthy baby. He did not need to get any shots which made the doctor's visit even better. Other great news was that he still fits in his infant car seat. Yay! He slowed down on the weight gain since he started crawling, just like Finn did.

Here are his stats:
Height: 29 1/4 inches (75%)
Weight: 21 lbs 0oz (50%)

Some things I want to remember about Tiig at this age:

• he still likes to nurse and at night often falls asleep doing so
• he rubs his thumb over my knuckles when he nurses or plays with his ear
• he will not nurse when Finn is around. he is way to excited to watch Finn
• his favorite toys are whatever Finn plays with at the moment. That drives Finn crazy.
• he loves to play patty cake and "so big"
• when he is done eating table foods he lifts his hand up high over his head and then smashes it down on his tray and is very pleased when it makes a loud sound
• he loves to take baths with Finny. Tiig just starts giggling when I put him in the water
• his shirts are all stained because he drags his belly on the floor
• he still has some tender spots on his feet from pushing off
• he recently started pulling himself up to standing and then lets go. I have to dive and catch him before he nails the ground
• he sleeps great!
• he only takes one nap but it's three hours long
• he hates formula! He will take breast milk from a bottle but absolutely refuses formula
• he has eaten more french fries than any nine month old should have