Pippi Långstrump

A few pictures of Pippi Longstocking and her grandparents. Not pictured: the mountain of presents for the grandkids (who btw have been in an excited frenzy since Monday night). After being completely outfitted as Pippi, Anja wondered "Where is the horse?" More pictures to come! Isak and Elina were at school when this was taken.

Mormor and morfar, Anja (Pippi) hugging the Pippi doll... and Julia.

The identity switch has been complete. She would have slept in the wig and costume if I had let her.

Three more days!

Anja at the park during one of the many heavenly rainy days we had recently.

My mom and dad arrive on Monday evening! Our whole family is psyched. Mark is working all day Saturday and Sunday so the cleaning will be minimal with me having all 4 kids by myself. And definitely no street-sweeping. Mark always jokes that this is part of any good Scandinavian cleaning job. That joke has roots in reality of course, though I myself have only swept the street a few times...

Some more pictures in the meantime.

Julia all dressed up for church. Before the bib was put on. This kid spits up more than all our previous babies combined. She should just wear one mega-bib.

Julia and Anja in the stroller.

Happy Anja with a ring-pop during the school Jog-A-Thon fundraiser.

After running laps at the Jog-A-Thon. Isak, Elina and Sam.

Cloudcover

Trying to sit up

It's been heaven, this weather. Perfect t-shirt temperatures and rain every single day for over a week, I think. I feel peace even though our car is in the shop and will cost us about half its blue book value and the washer broke down the very same day. I am buying a new used one this weekend. Laundry for a family of 6 at the laundry mat gets old quickly. But we've been through so much worse during our construction years that these types of things don't really have the power to stress me anymore. I have this Jedi mind trick when things feel tough. I am sure I'm not alone in doing this. If I feel inclined to whine about anything in particular I imagine how much worse it could be. For example, when I want to gripe about not being able to wear anything but backless, flat, boring shoes or being very limited in what type of physical activity I engage in (like no long walks) because of my chronic Achilles tendinitis, I imagine that I have been a paraplegic until TODAY when I could walk for the first time. When I feel like whining about excess pounds left to lose from pregnancy (daily), I imagine that I was 300 lbs formerly and I reached this wonderful (ahem) weight today! So with issues regarding [lack of] money, I imagine having been homeless with the kids and suddenly landing my current life. WOW! So much better now.

Anja 2 yrs, Julia 3 months

When we moved this spring Mark rewarded himself with a very cheap dirt bike since we now live right by the onset of the path that goes to the river. He and Isak ride it about once a week. I have found that it is quite relaxing to go up and down the street 3 or 4 times (bet the neighbors love us). Gets my mind on something completely different. Anja is okay when Mark rides, but throws a giant fit when I do.

Isak can shift the gears. And yes, cool cat daddy needs a helmet, too...

The picture of Elina and the pony, below, we took today. Elina has been BEGGING me to let her go and feed a horse a carrot. So today we did. Awwww, horses.....

A Date!

Completely shocking and out of the ordinary, but Mark suggested a date. Bless him! He took me out on Labor Day. We dropped the three oldest kids at my sweet mother-in-law's house along with a Monday Madness $4 large pizza from Little Caesar's. (Why complicate things?) We then dashed off with Julia to a restaurant to eat like adults.

The Middle Girls

In Norwegian bunads. Adapted with short sleeves for Oklahoma climate, as opposed to starched long sleeved blouses. And those aren't proper bunad shoes. Still, the girls are cute, I think. But almost IMPOSSIBLE to photograph. Sit still, smile, look at the camera - all at the same time, and both together. I need a valium, or I'll just be happy with this: