Christmas 2012

  Christmas season around here started out with Lucia Day on Dec 13.  Asher and Mattias were wonderful about getting up early and helping Sylvia get dressed up.  They brought Sean and I hot chocolate and saffron rolls in bed, while singing  "Natten går tunga fjät", in Swedish.  If you don't know that song... it sounds like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu8YgWPrUT4

Sean and I were cracking up though, because Asher's voice has dropped low this year.  It is not often you hear a bass voice chiming in on a Santa Lucia song.

    That night Sean acquired a Christmas tree, and Sylvia and I set about decorating.  Even though we miss going out to the forest to cut our own tree.. as I watched Sean trim branches in the warmth of our own home, I realized that there are some benefits to buying a tree from a parking lot.

Decorating with Sylvia was a party, as always.

 The decorating was a success.  I think we had the prettiest tree this year that we have ever had.

 
     A couple days before Christmas, we got hit with "Blizzard Draco" and received 19 inches of snow.  We were soooo glad to have a White Christmas!  Sylvia and I discovered a new favorite activity - dog sledding!
     We put Maya's harness on her, and hook it up to the sled.  I attach a leash to her, and jog along with as she pulls Sylvia.   Jogging through snow is a major work-out.. but very fun.  We have a beautiful trail just down from our house, along the river, that goes through snow covered trees.  We can almost imagine we are in the Iditarod.   - Someday... 

    Christmas eve brought Sylvia (in the role of Mary), riding to Bethlehem  (the couch), on a donkey (Sean).  The older kids were good sports, and filled in as the needed shepherds, wise-men and King Herod.  Maya filled the role of the general population (that the shepherds ran and told about the birth).

Later in the evening we had a visitor...Blind Santa.  Apparently his beard wouldn't stay on unless it was tucked under his hat band, thus covering up his eyes.   He handed out gifts by feel.  It was very funny.  Mattias should try his hand at acting sometime, we all enjoyed the performance.

 Christmas morning brought lots of happy smiles on kids as they opened their gifts.  Sylvia was thrilled, and bouncing up and down as she opened her first Barbie... from my mom.

     Later that morning, Sylvia had a tooth drop out over breakfast.  She had received a set of fairies from Santa... so we put the tooth in the hand of one.. just in case it was the real tooth fairy.

 Sylvia was quite satisfied with her new loot: several my little ponies, fairies, paper dolls, and of course, the pair of Barbies.

   Mattias was excited about a new computer mouse, and a remote contol. He needed the RC controller to continue building his robot.

Asher was pleased to see he got exactly the MTG cards he needed to complete his deck.  He now plans to go up to Madison, enter some tournaments, crush the opposition, and rule the world.

 Noel was happily wrapped in her new sweatshirt, and glad to have a new doggie calender to keep track of her social life with.  She was also the recipient of some very gourmet hot chocolate packets that everybody in the family envies.

After starting with gift opening at 6, we had plenty of time to enjoy them.  We got several new games, and tried them all out by lunchtime.  Here Sean and the boys are trying out Ticket To Ride, a gift from my brother Daniel.

 After a quick lunch, Sean took the kids sledding while Noel and I stayed home to get dinner ready.

   We had a couple friends from church over for a Swedish Christmas dinner.  It was very festive.   The menu included Meatballs, Jannsons Frestele, Ham,  Lingon Sylt, and a wonderful almond cake... yum!  That is the taste of Christmas for us.
    We sang all carols afterwards and heard the boys and Sylvia play some Christmas music on their instruments.  It was a wonderful end to a beautiful day.

Life With Sylvia

    We have called Sylvia our dessert-baby.  She was the child we could really enjoy without all the chaos that comes with having multiple children in diapers at the same time.
      But, on the downside,  were really worried that she would be lonely. The other kids are so much older than her, and they had always had each other to play with.  We prayed for a long time that Sylvia would have a creative mind, to be able to entertain herself.    Obviously our prayers were answered.   Life with Sylvia can be...


                                                                    wacky....                                                                   

 

startling...

creative...

 

                                                                        exuberant...

                                                                      cuddly....

                                                                  surprising...

                                                                       charming...

                                                        .... but always full of smiles.

Our whole family has been richly blessed by this imaginative girl who is always ready with a belly laugh.

Grandma's Fall Visit

 My mom came out to Wisconsin this fall to visit.  One of the places the kids wanted to show her was Aztalan, and old Indian fortress/ city from 400 AD.  We hiked all around the walled perimeter and up and down the temple mounds.

 The best part of the day though, was playing at the river.  The Crawfish River runs along the village, and was used as a way of transporting goods, and keeping in touch with the other Mississippi River indian settelements further south.

 My kids viewd the river as a treasure trove of beautiful mussel shells.  Sylvia had a blast squishing around in the warm water and mud.  It was a perfect fall day, with the autumn color at their peak.

 Noel was at her best, hiking along with a stick, exploring for new freshwater mussel clusters. The river was so low from a summer of drought, that the older kids could walk clear across the river, with the water staying below their knees.

 My mom and I finally decided to join the kids.  We are glad we did!  The water felt great on our hot feet.  We too got caught up in the excitement of searching for the beautiful pearly pink/purple shells.

 On the way out of the river, my showed Sylvia how to make squishy mud worms squirt up from between your toes.  She explained that she had loved to do this when she was a little girl. 

 The next day we visited a the WI Historical Museum in Madison to see artifacts from the indians that had inhabieted the area.  Sylvia thought the maple sugar display was interesting. 

 My mom thought some of the games looked like ones she might need to try out with her 4th graders back in Idaho.

 We also visited Olbrich Botanical Gardens.   The Thai pavillion shone beautifully in the autumn sun.

 If there had been real elephants, we would have taken a ride... but this was all we could find.

      On another day, we visited the Milton House hotel.  It was hotel that has been used as part of the Underground Railroad system.  We were able to walk through the tunnel that lead to a cabin in the back of the property where the runaway slaves were loaded into wagons, and taken to the great lakes, to ships with sympathetic captains.  They shipped them to freedom in Canada.  (Unfortunately, I didn't take photos inside the museum.)

  After the museum, we went to picnic in the park across the street.  Grandma was feeling adventurous, and tried teetertottering with Sylvia and Mattias.

 We ended the day with a visit to our favorite pumpkin patch.  It was just starting to rain, and Sylvia was freezing.  But, the giant pumpkings grown around here are pretty impressive to somebody from back west, so I'm glad we stopped.


     It was a busy few days, but we loved having my mom visit.  We hope to lure her back for more adventures another year.

Fall activities

Noel became scuba certified this year.   Here are pictures of her doing one of her open water dives in one of the big lakes in Madison.

    In the lakes around here, the you can't see more than a couple feet in front of you.  She had thoughts of being a wreck diver, but you have to be over 18 yrs old to go down to the depths the ship wrecks are usually at.  We'll have to wait and see if she decided to do more with this in the future.

 
     Sylvia has started learning the violin this fall.  A music store was going out of business, and we found a great deal on a 1/4 size violin, with small purple flowers painted on the it.  The purple flowers wee the signal that this violin was meant for Sylvia.  She has really taken to it quickly.   Below, you can see her in Rock-Star -Violinist pose.

   Mattias has been working on building a remote control robot that will..... well, who knows what it will actually do when it is finished.  It could fling things or take pictures of things.   Mattias keeps changing his mind.  We will certainly post the completed project.

  This next shot is a picture of our traditional start of the day.  Sylvia will get out of bed, and then cuddle the dog for a few minutes on the stairs, until she is awake enough to continue down the stairs to breakfast.  It is a cute little tradition.

  The boys enjoyed hosting another "Magic the Gathering" booster draft party this fall.    It is a fun time to get together with friends from near and far.

   The competition if fierce at times, but everybody keeps a smile on.   We are really blessed with having some good friends for the kids.

    Halloween brought  much excitement to Sylvia's world.  I think age 6 is the best time for holidays.  The decorating and the preparations for the big day are all so wonderful to a 6 year old.  I love having Sylvia around to keep that joy in our holidays.

   We went trick or treating this year with a group of homeschool friends.

     Sylvia was a fairy princess, and Mattias was her loyal servant.  He was great about helping her up and down steps, and waiting for her to walk along with him on the sidewalk.  He never spoke a harsh word to her, and was very patient.  He was the perfect big brother.

 
   One of Mattias's favorite annual events is helping another family make pounds and pounds of hand crafted chocolates.  They hold "chocolate party" every year, to entice people to view the products of their pottery studio during the Christmas gift buying season.

      Mattias loves the science of chocolate making (getting the sugar crystals to the perfect stage,  raising and lowering the temperature the exact amount of times, and being sure the right amount of liquid is added and boiled off).   He also likes the artistry of it all.   The experiment with making new combinations... vanilla truffles, wasabi chocolates, dipped mint leaves, etc.

The rest of the family enjoys eating the chocolates, but Mattias actually enjoys just the process of making them.

The Best Reason to visit Rexburg

The best reason to visit Rexburg is.... (drum-roll please).... my parents!

 They are even more wonderful that all the other local highlights, the cheap cotton candy and water parks. They were good parents, but the have become fabulous grandparents.

 When we visit, the whole world revolves around what the kids want. My parents go out of their way to make it a wonderful time. They set up slip and slides in the backyard, keep scooters in the garage, keep stockpiles of treats around, take us to see the fun local sites, and are always asking ... "what would the kids like to do?" Would they like to swim? How about some shopping?

 They find out the small things the kids enjoy. Mattias loves going to farmers markets and sampling fudge. So, on the last couple trips, my dad has taken him and supported his fudge sampling. When Sylvia saw some cute flower hair-clips at the market, my dad of course bought here some saying "Flowers for my pretty flower."

 My mom cooks feasts that will satisfy the stomach of any teenage boy. She  always pats them on the back and tells them what wonderful handsome boys they have become.

 When I wanted to go up to the temple for an evening... they didn't just "watch" Sylvia for me. They had a whole party evening focused on her.  Sylvia's favorite movie, snacks, reading books, etc.   She was in heaven.

And when one of the grandkids gets the stomach flu, it certainly doesn't phase my mom.  This time, she drove Mattias home while I stayed and finished watching Asher's concert, and got him tucked comfortably in bed.

When we visit, my parents make the kids feel like they are the most important thing in their world.  This is priceless... every kids needs to feel that way.  They are definitely the best reason to visit Rexburg.

Rexburg Highlights: Third - The Zoo with cousins

   The Idaho Falls zoo is small enough to not exhaust you, but big enough to be interesting.  It also has the classic lion drinking fountain, that we have been taking pictures of our kids at for the last 15 years.   This time... it was Sylvia's turn to experience the fountain.

   We visited the zoo  with my brother's family. (Dave) We have been absent for a lot of their kids lives, so it was good to get to know them.
    Here is Darci, Colette, Felicia, and Joel, riding a tiger with Sylvia and Mattias.  My parents stand behind them.

The goats at the petting zoo were pretty spunky. 

Sylvia loved brushing their coats, over and over and over again.

Even Mattias thought it was pretty neat to get to pet the goats.

The cousins had a good time climbing around the play area together.

Here we have Joel, Darci, Colette and Sylvia trying to fit in a nest together.   They had a lot of fun.  Dave's kids are creative, adventurous, and love to laugh.  Sylvia had a really good time being around then.  Too bad we are 1500 miles apart.   They are really fun kids.