Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year again, time to find the perfect pumpkin! I just recently realized how much I love the fall! It is a beautiful time of year... leaves are changing, the weather gets a bit cooler which means it's time to bundle up (cozy), evenings snuggled up on the couch with candles lit (relaxing ambience) and there's the fun holidays; Halloween and Thanksgiving!! What a wonderful time of year!... Fall, why didn't I appreciate you more before?! Here are some pictures from this years trip to the pumpkin patch!



We were accompanied by some friends, Dan and Maria. We encouraged them to carve a pumpkin this year, it'll be a first.



Taking a break to collect some rocks... our little rock collector!

Another Weekend in Karlskrona

We made another trip to Karlskrona this past weekend. It was Nene's birthday (Mattias' stepmom) as well as farmor's birthday.
At farmor's house all the siblings met up with their darling children and it was a blast for Enzo, he was hanging with the big boys. Mattias' oldest brother Patrik has twin boys, who will be 5yrs old this November and then Andreas (the middle brother) has a 3yr old and an infant. As you can imagine, there was a lot of life in the house.

Enzo's favorite word Saturday afternoon was "FARMOR"! He called her name, constantly! He wanted to keep tabs on her at all times... I don't think he wanted her to engage too much time with the other boys... JEALOUSY! Of course, farmor was at his beckon call and he just eats it up... he sure does have his farmor wrapped around his finger.

In the backyard, kicking the ball with Theo, Pappa and Lasse


Trying to stuff a rock in his pocket. He has become our little rock collector. At his farfar's house he managed to stuff 11 rocks in one pocket. Yep, his pants were hanging drastically on one side.


The boys; Sam, Theo, Noah and Enzo


Can't go anywhere without his bag of rocks...see left hand


We had the honors of recieving this rocking horse from Mattias' mom (farmor). Mattias and his brother's had it as kids and she saved it. We gladly accepted it and are hoping to fit with our stuff to the states.

Legal Alien

Mattias is now a legal alien!! After a ton of paperwork and a lot of money the process is complete. Mattias was in Stockholm last Thursday to have a final interview and upon completion they congratulated him on becoming a legal alien...yippie! Sometime this week he should get his passport back with his green card in it. Now the ball is really rolling...

Side note: After 3 years of living in the states he can apply for American Citizenship.

By the way, who came up with the name legal alien? In my opinion it is not such a welcoming term to someone chosing to live and work in the country. What about legal immigrant or just plain immigrant... Alien makes it seem like he is strange and unlike other "humans", he is just a citizen of another country yet chosing to reside in America. I vote for chaning the title "legal alien", what do you say?

Face Paint

Today, Mattias picked Enzo up from daycare. He was greeted by this little munchkin. Isn't he cute? Guess they had a party at daycare, just for fun! Isn't life grand!

Nature at it's finest

This morning was one of much spontaneity! I must say, at first I was in a bit of a funk! I think this mostly stemmed from a busy and long three day work week, which actually was four days this week. Completely exhausted and wanting to sleep in until Monday morning, which is impossible since it is Sunday and I would then need to sleep more than 24hrs to make it until Monday morning plus my little prince surely wouldn't allow for that...so, I'll pulled my eyelids open and got out of bed. Only to see the laundry from last night waiting for me to fold it...UGH!

While finishing up breakfast, I said to Mattias, "Let's pack up and go to Stenshuvud." I asked in attempt to get myself out of a morning funk that had the possiblity of lasting all day long! You are probably wondering what is Stenshuvud. It is the tallest mountain in Skåne, the district where we live. With much suprise at the fact I had even suggested it, he replied, "Yes" a bit hesitant at first. We packed our stuff for a day trip and headed towards Stenshuvud which is an 1.5 drive from where we live. It was absolutely beautiful and we were in absolute shock at the fact we hadn't been there before. We have lived in Malmoe for 4 years and never made the trip up there...embarrasing, to say the least!

Oh yeah! We went up there, into the nature, with our city stroller! Very silly of us since this was no place for a stroller but more for hiking. I meant to pack our carrier but in a haste to get out the house and see what Skåne had to offer, we ended up with only the stroller. We managed, but kicked ourselves a few times at our foolishness. People were cheering us on at times for carrying and pushing the stroller through such rocky terrain. Guess you can take the people out of the city but you can't take the city out of the people :)! However, to my surprise, on our way down from the mountain we saw another couple, who too, had a stroller in tow, there's was substantially larger than ours so I was glad to be in our shoes at that moment..phew!

Today was a day of seeing nature at his finest and purest...enjoy the pics! Here are only a few of several taken but right now I am having trouble figuring out how to make it into a slideshow. Enjoy these ones in the meantime...Happy viewing!

What a wonderful imagination!

The other morning, we woke up bright and early from our automatic alarm clock (read between the lines, that means ENZO)! Well, I went out into the living room laid on the couch so he could play with his toys while I got a little bit more shut eye.

He screams, "MAAAMMMMAAA!" seems to be his thing early in the morning, he is so bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

He proceeds to ask me, "Mamma bygga (build)?"

I replied, "Yes, can you build mommy an airplane?"

With eagerness he says, "JA! (yes) as if he was hoping I would ask him to build just that... an airplane.

Here is the result, imagination at it's best!

Här om dan vaknade vi tidigt av våran alldeles egna alarmklocka (läs mellan raderna... ENZO!). Jag gick ut och la mig på soffan i vardagsrummet så att Enzo kunde leka med sina leksaker och jag kunde slumra till lite igen.

Då vrålar han, "MAAAMMMAAAAA!" vilket verkar vara hans sätt att kommunicera med mig på morgnarna... Han är så otroligt morgonpigg!

Han frågade mig: "Mamma bygga?"

Jag svarade, "ja kan du bygga mamma ett flygplan?"

"JA", svarade han precis som om det var det han hade hoppats på att jag skulle säga.

Här är resultatet, när fantasin är som bäst!

Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork!!!

So, as many of you know we have been going through the process for Mattias' Green Card. This process officially started about 5-6weeks ago and now we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just to give you an idea of all the requirements:
(1) birth certificate *check*
(1) police register..just in case he was a criminal in his past life :) $25 *check*
(1) military certificate (yes, he did his year of duty...a requirement here in Sweden) $20 *check*
(1) medical examination $600 *check*
(1) sponsorhip from Carmen (yes, one has to sponsor him to come into the country so they are assured he will not become a financial burden on the society, unfortunately we do not have $60,000 just lying around so Dearest Carmen helped us out) priceless *check*
and you have the idea, right?

Not to mention flying up to Stockholm two times to personally hand in the papers and have an "interview".
Next week, on the 18th, Mattias heads up to Stockholm to do the final step, the interview and pay $400 and then it's done, hopefully! Don't even want to know what this has costed us when it's all done...close to $1500...OUCH!!!

It's for a good cause right?... who wouldn't want to have an American Green Card and the possibility to become an American Citizen 3 years later, I know my Mattias does...and my entire family as well as myself!

Smoothies are DE-LISH!!...

... and so are the banana chocolate cupcakes mamma made

all gone!!

Thank you Farmor!!!!

Farmor (again, it means father's-mother) came all the way from Karlskrona (2,5hr drive) to us in Malmö on Friday to babysit Enzo so Mattias and I could go to a wedding outside of Gothenburg. Enzo was very excited to see his farmor and spend the day with her. We left early Saturday morning and while preparing to leave we became non-existent for Enzo as he was so captivated by his farmor. It was actually nice to know we could leave him without him wondering where we were and when we were coming back. They had a fun filled day with long walks, playing at the park and lots of coloring and reading books. We truly appreciate farmor coming and allowing for us to go away and enjoy a day for just the two of us not to mention being a part of a beautiful wedding. Congrats to Kajsa and Tobias!!
Here are some pics from our trip to Gotheburg.

Almost to Gothenburg


the right food for a car ride


the newlyweds... Kajsa and Tobias

Charmer

Class photo

Today, the mailman delivered Enzo's very first class photo!! I was so surprised and a bit overwhelmed to see my baby sitting and looking like a big boy! Where does the time go?? We will treasure this picture, being the very first of many to come. However, I must say I am not looking forward to having photo albums filled with the annual class photo. They are never that great and who really wants one? Being a typical biased parent, I think he is by far the cutest in the bunch. Don't you agree? They all look really cute though with their rain gear on, all ready for a storm... Yes, he still goes to the outdoor daycare and loves it!
Oh yeah, excuse the picture... we don't have a scanner so I took a picture of the picture.

Daisy turns 4!

On August 31st, Daisy turned 4 years old. She is getting so big...hee hee! We did the usual, sang and spoiled her rotten with liver paté to breakfast and dinner along with lots of love and doggie treats! This was the first year we didn't have a candle to put in her liver paté... Mattias, however, did a great job of decorating the paté with doggie treats!

Father & Son

We went as a family down to the dog park last weekend. It was nice to have Mattias along on our weekend walks...he's usually sleeping from having worked. It was nice to sit back (aka take pictures) and watch my boys throw rocks together.



And on our way home, Mattias spotted a crane. A rare sight! I know the picture isn't so clear, we blame our sucky camera!

Enzo & Emme

We had dinner guests over last Friday. It was a friend from my "mamma group" and her family. Her daughter, Emme, was actually born the same day as Enzo. They had a great time playing together, especially jumping on the bed.

Is soccer in his future?

When Enzo was first born he received a Chelsea soccer uniform and it fits him now with room to grow. Chelsea is Mattias' favorite soccer team. I put the uniform on him as a little surprise to Mattias and to add to the uniform, I put Mattias' toddler sized soccer shoes (Chelsea soccer shoes which Mattias got when he was a baby)on him. Mattias was of course VERY proud! Enzo almost fits the shoes, I'm hoping his foot won't grow too much in the next few months so he can wear them playing beehive soccer one day.



check out the shoes... from 1977

hydrating a bit

crying?...there's no crying in soccer

Tragedy

Ok, so I love blogging and I love reading other people's blogs, especially the ones that have to do with interior design, family life etc. Yesterday on a mission to find design/furniture stores in Seattle who have the more modern, minimalistic style as well as cool hip clothing for kids I stumbled upon a disturbing/tragic news. How do I begin to tell the story... Well, there is a lady named Stephanie Nielson who is a blogger among many other things and she has a website. Her and her husband were in a private plane accident on August 16th. They are in the hospital in Arizona, in critical condition, her husband, Christian has burns on 30% of his body and Stephanie has suffered over 80% burns on her body. They have four beautiful children, the oldest 6yrs old and the youngest a year old. From what I have read on her website they have an amazing family and a deep rooted, strong faith. They request our prayers and faith and if you feel the need to do more you can donate by clicking on the button "donate to nie nie" to the right or do your own silent auctions. Whichever you chose they will greatly appreciate it. They also have requested cards to fill their hospital rooms. Please, go in and read about this family, check out their websites...if you click on the button Nie Recovery I believe it will take you into their site otherwise you can navigate from there. I was truly moved after reading and getting a glimpse into their life. You never know the day nor the hour in which God calls upon you...