Hello!!! Remember me? :) I don't know what I have been doing lately, but obviously not blogging! I haven't even checked blogs in months. Shocking. I know.  This fall has been a fun one with lots of birthdays and soccer.  We have had four birthdays in the house in the last month, five if you count the summer, all five kids played soccer this fall with two on traveling teams, and all are in school(with three different schedules!).

Here are some pictures to help me document what has been going on this fall and catch you up to speed. That is, unless you are on Facebook! ;) Facebook is just so quick and easy!

Kir & I got to go to the store opening of Hot Mama and watch Kristina in action.  

At the end of the summer, Greta and Justus's soccer teams both came in first place in  a soccer tournament.

She just makes me smile, so I had to post this picture. :) This was her trial outfit for back to school(I told her she needed something longer on)

Kristina came to visit and Kwame(as well as the rest of the kids, love her).

This is how you do pre-teen bday parties. Give them airsoft guns and let them go to town. ;) Yeah  right! 

Kristina's protege's :)

Loved this idea that I stole from my friend Anji and Becky and I was so happy the the kids humored me.  If you wonder why Fia's number is so small, it is because I thought I had a 2nd grader and ran out of poster board, so I had to cut the 2 down to a 1. LOL! And yes, I am saving these numbers and just adding on the missing digits.

Our school mascot-an ORCA! 

My mom and I got to road trip down and do some shopping together too at Hot Mama.  Super fun!

Myself and these lovely ladies(plus Joyce  who's taking the picture) got to get away  on a Women's Retreat  for a weekend.  Lots of great times with late night chatting, worship, canoeing, paddleboarding, and maybe some trouble. ;)

Daron took his annual Fall Harvest trip back to the farm in MN and this year it was Greta's turn to go with and help.  She got on the combine a little bit, but I think she mostly helped watch the kids with Grandma, which she thought was fun too!  It's so neat that her Aunt Sarah is doing the farming with Grandpa now.

Fia is the first of the fall birthdays and she turned 7!!! I can't believe when I first saw her picture she was only 3! Time has gone so quickly.

Fia is in 1st grade now and doing a fantastic job.  She seems to get an award every  other day for her hard work and helpful spirit.  She is such a good friend to everyone!

Fia had a birthday party and got to have some of her friends come and play for a couple of hours.  What a blast they had!

Ella was the next birthday and she turned 9!! I can't believe it! Ella is in third grade now and loves music and art.   For her birthday party, she decided to have a cooking party, so we made ice cream, smoothies, and had fondue.  We also went on a hike up to the local park and got to run around for a bit too on a beautiful October day.   

This was the last game of the season for Ella.  She had a great team and alot of fun.  Fia and Kwame had a fun season too with a few of their friends and a great coach(haha-me!) Greta  and Justus are still playing through December. 

Halloween-enough said. 

'Double you pleasure, double your fun' -Randi and I were the  Doublemint Twins for a GNO and we had a good time! She made the shirts and these awesome sparkly skirts for us, but I don't have another picture on my computer now, so this will have to do!

Greta and Daron's birthdays were next and they always go on a date  on the day between their birthdays.  They had a great time and I think Greta felt special on her 11th birthday.

And Daron, well, this was his 40th birthday!!!  Enough said. ;) 

One major downer this winter was that Grandma Bev broke her foot in many places this fall, so she has been  off her foot and healing for a LONG time.  So, one day off of school, we grabbed her and took her on our errands.  Of course, Starbucks was the 1st stop for us. :)

One major highlight this fall was meeting Steven Curtis Chapman again.  We went to his concert and got to volunteer at the www.showhope.org booth.  Show Hope gave us a large grant to help bring Fia and Kwame home and while we were at the concert, they asked if we could go up on stage as an example of where the money they raise for Show Hope goes. Of course we said yes and the kids were nervous and excited at the same time.  SCC is an amazing person, and we had the best time getting to talk to him again and listen to his music.  Josh Wilson and Andrew Peterson were also there too.  Amazing musicians and great storytellers, so we were also thrilled to see them in perform in person and also meet Andrew Peterson after the concert.

SCC performing songs and answering questions at a Q&A before the concert

Up on stage....

I was touched by this...Justus 'dressed up' on Veteran's Day in honor of his Uncle Joel who is currently deployed in the army.

Well, there you have it! There is obviously more that I have left out, but this is already a super long post! We are healthy and with have a lot of thankfulness in our hearts as we come up to Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am so thankful for my family, friends, and good food and football that we get to experience tomorrow.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Daddy Daughter Dance

 (Do I have posers or WHAT???!!)

 It's that time of year again and the three girls just left on a date with their Dad for the annual Daddy/Daughter dance.  The girls got ready without Daron seeing them and he drove around the block, rang the doorbell, and whisked them off to the dance.  I am sure they are having a great time together now dancing away with all their friends (and their dad) and I can't wait to hear all about it. The girls were so excited and they all looked beautiful! To be honest, the primping part was a little crazy and I can definitely wait to have three teenage girls getting ready for a dance!

What Is In This??

Hmmm....what is in this box??














To give you a little background, after we were in our car accident, the kids decided to write letters to Toyota thanking them for making such safe cars. A few weeks ago, Greta ended up getting a personalized letter from the USA President of Toyota replying to her letter. It was awesome!! It definitely wasn't a form letter as he addressed many of the things she wrote about in his letter to her, and he signed it. I was so amazed that he actually took the time (with everything else that is going on with Toyota right now), to respond to the kids. We were, however, a bit perplexed by part of it. It was just regular letter head in a regular envelope and he mentioned that he included some toys in the 'cubbies' for Greta to share with her siblings ??!!! Huh??? (Greta had mentioned in her letter that she loved the cubbies in the van to put her toys into) Ha!! What was he talking about though? We didn't have a van anymore! Honestly, for the next couple days, I kept looking outside to see if a new minivan was pulling up...uh...Kristin, YOU HAVE WATCHED TOO MUCH REALITY TV!!!! Btw, no minivan came. Then, I just laughed it off that they wrote the letter, but forgot to put in the little toys he mentioned, but that was no biggie, as it was already cool enough that they wrote the letter to Greta in the first place.



But---much to my surprise, I came home today from my women's Bible study group, to this box!! I can hardly contain myself with excitement to see what is inside it, but we are waiting for the kids to get home. Ughh..Definitely Daron's idea. I thought we could open it and tape it back up! What kind of toys do you think are inside? Little minivans? Toyota stickers? It really doesn't matter. I just think it is super cool of them to follow up on our letter with this-THANKS AGAIN TOYOTA!!! YOU HELPED SAVE OUR LIFE!

Date with Dad

How cute is this? Our town parks and rec. puts on a very fun and usually sold out 'Daddy/Daughter' dance around Valentine's day. This is the first time that our crew was able make it work, so Daron decided to take Greta and Ella this year and Fia will get her turn with one of the girls next year.
Greta and Ella had a fantastic time and Daron really set the stage so well by literally driving around the block, ringing the doorbell, and bringing the girls corsages for their date. They felt so special! It was so cute to see their excitement build as they got ready(they didn't want Daron to see them until they were READY!) and I also realized even more how awesome their dad is!

Another positive note...he is helping to set the bar high for how they should be treated when they are older and really go on a date. Hopefully they won't settle for less than they deserve.

St. Lucia Day!! (and a preschool Christmas song)

Today is probably the day of the year that Greta looks forward to most in our home. Swedish tradition has it that the oldest daughter in the home wakes up before anyone else and serves pastries(we do pepparkakor cookies) and coffee to those that are sleeping. It is a tradition that Sweden has celebrated for many years, but they have actually adopted it from the Italians.

In order to help our 9 yr. old out(in case you're wondering), the coffee is set up to brew for her in the morning and after she gets dressed in her Lucia gown and crown of (battery operated) candles, she wakes her siblings up to join the Lucia train, and eventually ends in Mom and Dad's room. I think it is one of the BEST traditions ever!!

This year we decided to surprise a few friends and family before the sun was fully up and deliever cookies to them to. Our rule of thumb was that if the lights weren't on, we wouldn't wake them(I didn't want any friends mad). So, a few of you got passed by and I think we only broke the rule at one house because Ella said, "I know she is awake, she wakes up at like 6am everyday!" Don't worry, we didn't get to most homes til close to 8!

Later in the morning we headed out to the church where Fia goes to preschool for their Christmas program. The preschool sang a song for us and Kwame got to join in too! They both thought it was so much fun to stand on the stage and sing out for all the parents -what joy kids have! I love it!

P.S. Happy Birthday Aunt Ingrid!

Ahem...perfect angels by night

So, the kids had a babysitter tonight (thanks Rockstar!!) so that my mom and I could go and see Julie & Julia (or was it vice versa??), since Daron and Justus were already at the first Huskies game of the season -Go DAWGS!

Ever since my kids were little, they have been trying to pull the wool over the poor, innocent babysitters. Justus(age 3 at the time) once told his babysitter that he couldn't go to sleep without his bear-HE HAD NO BEAR! So, the poor babysitter searched the house with this seemingly pudgy and innocent little boy to try and find his bear. No luck. Another time Justus and Greta (age 4 &3) kept asking the babysitter to read them more and more stories about Jesus before they could go to bed. Of course, our babysitter(who we went to church with) couldn't say no to the pastor's kids when they asked for more Jesus stories and they got to stay up much later! Ha! Every time I come home, I wonder what the story will be....

Tonight I came home to the picture below: SO SWEET!! I guess the babysitter was told that he ALWAYS (never happened before to my knowledge) sleeps with his big sister when big brother is away and he is scared in his room by himself. Hmmm....not sure about the truth to that, but they sure looked sweet.

On a side note: I loved the movie and laughed at the whole blogging connection. I was a bit convicted by the narcissistic slant 'Julie' was given being a blogger and the reality that I too am pretty self centered thinking people actually want to read or see what I have blogged about. But...ha! Who cares??- I am documenting our life (mostly for my purpose) and it has become a moment of my time that I love to sit and reflect on our happenings in life. It was an especially great avenue to have throughout the adoption process, but now that we are living in 'the new normal', family and friends (cyber or the ones I can pinch) can choose to read it if they want.

Greta is doing great!

Sorry I never gave an update regarding Greta's surgery, but she is doing just great! Greta is such a trooper with things like this and she really impressed me once again. It was her mom that broke down once they took her out for anesthesia and for the surgery. The doctor asked her if she needed one of us to come back with her (they preferred going without a parent, but we could if it would make Greta feel better). She said, no, she would be fine and they walked out with her (cue the breakdown by her mom). I realized fully that it was very minor but it was still a surgery where she was under, there was an IV, breathing tube of some sort, stitches, forms to sign 'just in case', so it just hit me. The doctor came back within the hour and said that everything went well and they took off the questionable growth on her cheek and sent it to pathology. He said he was glad they took it off but at this point it did not look cancerous. We should get results in about 10 days. In the meantime, she has a scar of only about a centimeter on her cheek but we won't see it until the steristrip falls off. We will head back over to Children's at the end of the month for a post op visit.

Children's Hospital is such an amazing place and I was so impressed with how the staff actually talked to Greta and asked her if she had any questions before us. They are very kid friendly and she felt very relaxed with them. It is pretty sobering being there though. This hospital sees it all and they are a good teaching hospital, so many times during the day you are reminded that so many people are hurting and going through very tough issues with their children. It was humbling.