ha ha ha!

Christmas

We had a lovely time when Anneli and Vincent was here and Christmas was lovely and stressfree with good food, but I didn't really get to enjoy it until after because I was doing the cooking and felt 'full' already. But I think I've made up for it- have been stuffing myself everyday since! House was so full of life and feels very empty now, we miss you so much!

It's not been that nice after they left, pipes burst and no water for a few days=no heat! thankfully it's 9c+ outside now so house is nice and warm anyways.

For more pics from Christmas and Erik's christening go to my facebook page!

christmas preparations!

Loooove Christmas and this one is gonna be great!! So excited!!! Tree is up and beautifully decorated by me and Leah (who put about 3-4 baubles per branch!) The whole room smells lovely!
Little Erik is growing so fast and is walking backwards in his walker and is rolling around on the floor drooling on everything! Leah is simply the BEST! She is so helpful and loves her brother, don't know what I would do without her, or if she was like so many other older siblings who would hurt the little ones. She is quite an artist too- makes portraits and adds touches like necklaces and lots of circles (don't know what they are but don't want to ask in case I offend her)
Have to go now, making pepparkakor!!! Leah said 'I wanna help you make pepparkakor- can I, can I?' so off I go!

Snow!

Had so much fun today- me and Leah we're playing in the snow, making snow angels and a snowman and had a snowball fight! Loved it!!

caramel and chocolate tart

Was going to make a chocolate tart the other day and decided to add caramel to it, and it was such a success that there was no left to take pictures of it :) Any way here is the recipe

Basic sweet pastry
200g flour
100g chilled butter
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/2-1 egg

Caramel layer
60g butter
55g brown sugar
1 can condensed milk

Chocolate layer
100g sugar
2 eggs+2 egg yolks
250g chocolate (i used half milk and half dark)
150 g butter

For the Pastry
If you don't have a food processor, pinch butter into flour and sugar until evenly mixed then add the egg slowly until it all comes together nicely and not too sticky. Put into clingfilm and chill for about 30 minutes., then roll out and put into a 23 cm pan and blind bake for 15-20 minutes, then take out beans or whatever you used for blind baking and brush with egg or milk and in again for another few minutes until dry and golden.

For the caramel layer
Add all ingredients in pan and let it bubble for a few minutes, the longer you let it boil the chewier, I just left it for say 5-7 minutes. Let it cool.

For the chocolate layer
Melt the chocolate with the butter in microwave for about 2 minutes and set aside to cool. Whisk eggs with the sugar until thickened and add the melted chocolate and butter and blend until it's glossy.

Add the cooled caramel to the pie crust and add the chocolate mixture and bake for just under 20 minutes in a preheated oven to 180C fan. Serve with a dollop of cream or vanilla ice-cream- ENJOY!!

happy, happy kids!

Videos of the shrieker

Halloween

After a bit of a disappointing start to our Halloween celebration we had a lovely time walking around the neighbourhood with Leah. She's really brave now and walks up to the houses by herself knocking on the doors saying 'trick-or-treat'! A few of the kids were really nice and took her with them, boy was she thrilled!! All in all we had a good time, but you could tell Leah was sad that she didn't have friends to go trick-or-treating with so next year we'll probably throw a party for the kids!

Erik is NOISY :)

Pretty pics

Too lazy to write something today...

Leah snuggles with Erik

Erik gets two injections and Leah gets a dress!

Today we went to the Dr's for Erik's second vaccination, he was very tired and had to be woken up for the whole thing, he cried less this time (thank God!) and was instantly soothed by the bottle and then fell asleep for a few hours...
We went shopping afterwards and I found this beautiful dress for Leah- supposed to be for Christmas but try to keep it away from Leah!!!

Big boy- big girl!

Leah's been going to nursery school for a week now and looooves it- only wish they kept the kids for longer like in Sweden, but I'll take anything! She is a sweetheart and always want to please us and tries her very best to help and Erik gives her his biggest brightest smiles! She's learning some very nice songs which she sings with gusto!

Erik himself is an angel- eats and sleeps! He even sleeps from 10 (after bottle) 'til 4-4.30 anf then to about 8am!! I am thrilled! He likes to sit up and for us to do silly songs/voices and tries so very hard to talk and manages sometimes to make a sound. He very rarely cries.

Engaged!!

We are engaged!!

Visit from mormor!

Mormor was here to see us and it was great to see her and have her here. Leah was in exstacy and stayed withing 2 feet of her for the first few days and would not stop talk. It was 'mormor, mormor!!' and lots of swenglish going on- love it! It was really nice to have mom here and she helped out alot and I could take naps and relax a bit! Can see the appeal with a nanny now- if I could afford it I'd probably hire one :)

Thanks again mom, it was great having you here- we love you!

August pics

We went to Michel's friends wedding in August and it was lovely- beautiful setting and ceremony. Good company and lots of laughs. Erik stayed asleep almost the whole time except for when eating. Everybody was marveling at how good he was, which he is. He loves his grubb and his sleep! But I think that Leah was the one who enjoyed herself the most- was a few other girls there and they played non-stop from 2 in the afternoon 'til 10.30 at night, and yes she was exhausted to the point of the angry cry but could fall asleep in 2 seconds! Lots of fun- and we stayed the night, tried to get some nice pics of all of us but Micky's friend must have been more hungover than he looked cause the few pics he took was not on the camera, must have pressed it lightly thinking he took some- great photographer! :)

We are also enjoying Anna and Sasha's company before the move back home- Leah and Sasha are fighting like cats and dogs one minute to give each other hugs and kisses and holding hands the next!! We are gonna miss them!

Itchy gums?

Erik sure does like his hands and will sometimes spit out the dummy in order to gnaw at his fingers/hand and has at a few occasions gotten it too far in and made himself retch!

pick n' mix

We haven't done much- but somehow there's no time to do anything :) It was Les' birthday on the 15Th (same as Chiquita's!) and we went over for coffee and cake, but first we had to leave cause Leah wanted to be alone with Farfar and sent us away.

Erik is growing and getting very strong and likes to 'stand' up not 'talking' yet though but he's noisy enough so we can wait. He still has a very gentle nature and likes to eat and sleep but now he also wants to be entertained and likes his gym or windows, or lamps!

We are all feeling good and it is getting easier every day, but I might start to give more bottles now and start to cut down on breastfeeding. Someone asked me if I was feeding him myself and I'm like 'yeah off course I am' (not like I have a nanny) but that was their way of asking if I was breastfeeding him...

You don't love me

Last night I was giving Leah a bath and said:
-'I love you, you know that right?'
-'No'.
-'What do you mean no?'
-'I don't think you love me anymore'.

Well I don't think I need to tell you but this broke my heart and as I am still very emotionell I broke out in tears yet again while trying to convince this stubborn little girl that I do love her and always will. Honestly think she said it just to see how I would react though but it still hurt.

Noisy Erik

Erik

At 3.23 tonight Erik will be 1 week 'old'. He is so cute and cuddly, but doesn't open his eyes to much yet, he loves to sleep! His black hair is super soft and I think he has a hint of green in his eyes- hard to tell. He also has lots of black hair, not only on his head but on his shoulders and back- little monkey boy! He is a very good boy and doesn't make too much noise except for when he's not getting food, and boy is he hungry ALL THE TIME. You know how breastfed babies usually lose weight the first week? Well not Erik, he gained weight!

All in all we're OK, I'm feeling very emotional, finding it difficult to balance Leah with Erik stuck to my boob and I've noticed a change in her as well. Thankfully we've had Michael's mom to cook us dinner for a week which helped loads! Even though Leah loves her baby brother she cries a lot easier (like me!) and seeks attention more. So today we took her out to do groceries and left a sleeping Erik home with grandma and I think she loved it (although I was stressed out of my mind thinking about Erik) cause she said next time we should leave baby brother home too!

Oh Baby!

Woke up this morning by painful cramps in my leg. So sore, but after rubbing for a few seconds it stopped but then baby was awake.
- Oh awake are we? Good. Wanna do some dancing? How about some waltz? Nice and slow to warm up. Da-rum-da-ra-rum-rum-rum-rum-rum. (arms and legs moving slowly across the belly, looks like they could pierce the skin alien style)
-No? You don't like it, OK...? how about some quickstep then or perhaps some disco, Swedish ey? ABBA, you are a dancing queen!! (moving much faster now, whole body is swinging around in there)
-Not a favourite? OK...oh I know Rock'n'roll! Keep hearing it so you must like it! (headbutting me now and it is sore!)
...pause...
-Don't wanna dance?- that's OK we'll do some karate!! Haiiyyyahh!!! (punching and kicking me hard!)

and this is just within a few minutes of me waking up...Good Morning!

Garden pics

Our garden is looking so good and is almost all done- looks a bit different since last June. Leah wanted me to make sure I got her shoes in the photo so I had to go closer! :)

My herb garden is probably my pride and joy- love it, it's great to be able to go out and pic herbs for dinner and I use it every other day! Love my Lupins in the garden too- reminds me of when we were at Mormor's and picked them, house smells great!