Mmmmmm...

Fresh peaches with vanilla yogurt.

They've left :(

My aunts and uncles left early this morning to go back to Finland. I'm so glad they were able to come and visit us.
On Saturday we all went out to breakfast and then all the girls and kids went up American Fork Canyon for a drive. It was so pretty. There was about every shade of yellow and orange. My pictures aren't very good. It was PRETTY.


We stopped by the river for a bit to let the kids play and to smell the fresh mountain air.

Addie did NOT like being in this thing. She told me she was too old for such contraptions.

Ollie, my mom, and Marketta

Elliott, Ollie and Sinika

Ilmi, Essi, and Sini

Now she's happy! She thought the mountains had delicious rocks and dirt.

This was the van my mom rented to drive everyone around in for the 2 weeks. I thought I got a picture of the whole thing but you really can't see all of it. It seated 10 comfortably. It was big.

Marketta and Addie

On Sunday we had a dutch oven dinner at my mom's. It was very yummy. There were just some beautiful moments on our last night that I will always remember: My uncle Seppo playing catch (koppa) with my nephew Ollie; my aunt Marketta teaching Elli the Finnish words of things; everyone laughing at Addie as she babbled and laughed and smiled and marched all over the room; my uncle Kalevi starting to cry when we all were hugging goodbye (that made us all start to cry); my aunt Ilmi telling me "Sina something tule something Suomi." The three words I understood were "you, come, and Finland" and I love that she told me that in Finnish. I could just feel the love from everyone. I LOVE them all! 15 years is WAY too long not to see them. I don't know how my mom does it. Living so far away from her family. She is very strong. We will definitely have to plan a trip to visit them soon.

Ben's getting excited for Halloween

He drew this picture on the computer. (Well, I helped with the bat and pumpkin. He couldn't figure out how to draw them.) The yellow things in the tree are glowing eyes.

Weekly menu board

So, I know I am a nerdy nerd. I love to make lists of things. I have lists of ideas of what I could for dinner, then I have my list of groceries to buy for my dinners, and I have my list of what I'm going to make for dinner each day. (Of course there are those weeks when I don't plan and don't have anything to make for dinner.) But I just couldn't resist making this for our super saturday over the weekend. These boards always look like fun when I see them in restaurants. So now my weekly list is a little bigger than before but I'm excited to put it to use.

Future vegetarian?

I was telling Ben that hot dogs are made out of pigs and he gave a gross look and said:
"I been eatin' pig?!"

A family visit

I don't know if I've just been too busy or just super lazy but I haven't felt like journaling lately. My Finnish relatives came late on Friday night. Saturday we went to my mom's and had a dinner with everyone. I got a little choked up when I first saw everyone! I can't believe it has been 15 years since I've seen them. That is WAY too long. I was 16 when I went there last and the last time one of my aunts and uncles came here to America was 20 years ago. (One of my cousins, Maija, who is not here this trip, came for a summer 10 years ago.)

On Sunday we had a mini Thanksgiving dinner to show them what we eat during that holiday.

Here is my cousin Essi and her mom Maarit. Essi was 1 year old when I went to Finland last. Next to them is my American niece Stacey. Essi and Stacey are 1 month apart in age. By the way, Essi speaks English very well and sometimes has to be the interpreter when my mom isn't nearby.

Here are my uncles, Seppo, my moms younger brother and the husband of Maarit, then my mom's sisters husband, Kalevi, and my moms older brother Eero. (pronounced like 'arrow' with a rolled 'r')

Essi, Maarit, me, Stacey, my mom, my 'little' brother Mike in the front, my sister Lisa, her husband Troy, and my brother-in-law Adam. Addie on the floor in front.

Everyone loves Addie because she doesn't know any languages yet so they can just say whatever they want to her and she doesn't understand anyway.

Here is my uncle Eero, his wife Ilmi and my aunt Marketta (my mom's only sister). In the back is my step-dad and my sister Lisa and Troy. Every once in a while everyone pulls out their cameras and we all take pictures of each other.

On Monday all the Finnish girls (Essi, Maarit, Marketta, and Ilmi) and me and my mom and my sister Sinika (and our kids) went to the mall to go shopping. All the guys (Seppo, Eero, Kalevi and my step-dad) went to a tool store and then out to eat lunch at Golden Corral. I would love to have been there and seen how that all went down because all my uncles speak ZERO English and my step-dad speaks ZERO Finnish. Ha ha! I just wonder how he explained to them that you go back again and again to fill up your plate. Hee hee.

Then, Tuesday me and my kids went again to my mom's house after dinner to visit. My sister Lisa was leaving then next day so I wanted to see her one last time before she left.

It's been really fun to hang out with everyone. Essi speaks English very well and my Aunt Ilmi speaks pretty good so we can figure out ways to communicate. I have said anything that I could when I have known the Finnish words for it thanks to my neighbor Jessi who just told me to "DO IT". :) And we always have the 'sanakirja' handy. (dictionary)
Today my mom and all the Finns started driving down to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon and a few southern Utah sites. So my kids can get better sleep for a few days until they get back. Then it's back to visiting every night! I love it!

Anteeksi, puhutteko suomea?

I'm trying to teach myself Finnish. I'm trying to study my book/CD set every day. I have 3 sets of aunts and uncles coming to visit this Friday! (They are staying at my mom's house, not mine.) So of course, I can't do anything unless it's last minute, so I just started this week. He, he. They will be here for 2 weeks. I know I'm probably not going to be able to hold a conversation with any of them with my last minute studying but I'm hoping that maybe I'll be able to guess a very small portion of what they are talking about. My title above is from my book and it says, "Excuse me, do you speak Finnish?" When really I should be learning how to say, "Excuse me, do you speak English? Because I won't be able to communicate if one of us doesn't." Oh my goodness! Why haven't I been studying for the 10 years of my adult life? I have always known that I have family who doesn't speak English, why have I not put all my efforts into learning their language so that I can hold a conversation with them? I'll probably do my best learning after they are gone. It's like when someone comes over unexpectedly and my house is a mess. I'm so embarrassed, that when they leave I clean everything up the way it should have looked before they came, but by then it's too late. Voi, voi, voi! (Oh dear!)

I swear they're not mating...

These were on my computer desk today. Elli just has this thing about stacking her toys. She does it all the time and she's done it since she was little. She seriously knows nothing about animals mating (as far as I know) she just likes to organize and put things in size order. But we are often suprised with different stacked scenes. At least this one was all the same animal...

Sweet baby girl

Addie is so much fun! She is getting so smart. She is 11 months tomorrow.

She knows the sounds of lots of animals. She knows the sound a doggie makes the most. She makes a really high pitched uhh, uhh when she sees a dog.

When you ask her what a cow says she makes a B sound and blows air through her lips.

She can make the sound of a fish: she pops her lips together.

She knows that a lion, a dinosaur, and Daddy growls.

She tries to make the sound of a horse and a lamb. It sounds like a fake laugh: hehehehe.

She loves to point to the moon when you ask, "Where's the moon?" And she points to every airplane that she hears flying overhead.

She makes the sound of a car when she sees a car or if we ask her what a car says. "Brrrrrrm"

She loves books so much. We have a basket of books by the rocking chair in her room and if we ever try to rock her she has to lean over and point to the books and says, "Aaaah," with a big smile like she's just discovered them and would love for you to read one.

She is just always go, go, go. Which is very different from my other two babies. They were content to just sit and watch the world go by. She is just barely starting to walk. Sometimes when she's headed in one direction she ends up accidentally turning to another direction. Example in the video below (she was trying to come to me.) :

I can't believe I need to start planning a birthday party! She's so little! I'm thinking that maybe I'll do a bee themed party because she loves to watch the bees in our flowers.

I'm not that strong a skater

You know those sidewalk bridges that go over large roads? I don't know if they're called sky-walks or what. Well there was one that was newly built near where my friend Brynn lived. It feels like I was 16 at the time but, sadly, no. I was 20. Not much of a difference, I know, but I wasn't a teenager anymore. Well, me, Brynn and my cousin Maija thought that those fun long slanted slabs of cement would be really fun to play on with roller blades. So we all got some roller blades and drove on down to the bridge. None of us were experts on roller blades, in fact I probably only used them a few times in my life (on flat ground). So it wasn't as fun as we thought. It was a lot of work to go up the slant. We had to hold on to the fence to help pull us up. Then there was the way down. SCARY!! What were we thinking? Maija went first. There was a blur and some screams. Luckily there was a patch of grass at the bottom. Unluckily, she got grass burns all over her knees. But at least it wasn't cement. Brynn went down (very fast also) without falling if I remember right. And the scaredy cat (me) went down the same way I went up. Hanging on to the fence. There was a church parking lot nearby and we roller bladed around there for a while so that we could get some use out of them. I guess I didn't realize how steep those things were. I thought it would be a gentle coast down a long sidewalk. Maybe it would be funner with a bike cause you'd have brakes and you could go the speed that you want.

I only like tasting part of the rainbow

I really don't like yellow skittles. But I always eat them. I guess I feel like if I want my favorites, (red and purple) then I have to eat the ones I don't like too. I don't want to make other people eat only yellow ones so I don't pick around them. But they are just horrible. I try to mix them with other flavors to make them taste better. They don't. So I finally decided today that I am just going to throw them away. Why make myself eat them when I don't like them? It's just extra sugar that I didn't even enjoy eating. No more! I must enjoy my sugar!

Ben's first day

Ben's in Kindergarten! He was SUPER excited for this day. He kept asking, "How many days until school starts?"

Addie's making a few phone calls before we start walking.

He wanted to wear his "monster shirt". I have a feeling he is going to want to wear it every week. Or maybe twice a week. I'll just have to use the "it's in the wash" excuse. Don't get me wrong, I like the shirt, but I just don't want him to wear it every day.Ben's friend Wyatt from last year's preschool class.

Waiting in line to go into class. He was so brave! When he got home he said, "I LOVE Kindergarten!" I asked him if he was nervous when he went in and he said, "No." Which is good because he says that a lot. ("I'm nervous.") I heard that every day on the way to preschool last year. Maybe he feels better at this school because his big sister is at the same place and we have walked her to school so much that he has spent a lot of time there. Anyway, he had fun in class. He drew a picture of himself wearing his monster shirt. It was so cute!

Benny Poika

Poika means boy in Finnish. We call him Benny Boy in English and I also call him Benny Poika. (From hearing my mom call my brothers this.) This little boy is a crack-up. He is always making us laugh. In church the other day he was drawing the funniest pictures of babies with mustaches and he was laughing so hard. I had to stop him because he was getting too loud, but they were funny (I found myself laughing a little too).

This is a spider and a balloon head baby


This is a spider baby with a mustache

Right out of the tub one night he put his hair up like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals. (He pronounces it "Alfa-falfa") He was laughing so hard at himself. I told him to stop laughing for a minute so I could take a picture and he was just bursting into another laugh as I took the picture.

He stuffed two soft footballs in his pants and he was walking around for a while, laughing hysterically of course. Showing us all different views of his largeness. We called him Benny Big-Bottom. (from the movie, Robots)

I love my little funny, cute, smart boy!

2nd grader

Elli started school today. Ben will start Kindergarten next Monday. We walked up with some neighbors. Elli was a little nervous when we got there. She'll be okay I'm sure. There are a few kids in her class that were in her classes the last two years. It's just so weird after having her home all summer to have her gone for so long in the day. Hopefully she can last and not get too tired. Last year in 1st grade she was so tired for a few weeks untill she got used to it. I make sure she gets enough sleep at night but it's just so much school.

Funny girl...

Last week when we were driving through Logan Canyon we saw some cows down in a small field. Elli was extra excited and said, "Look, wild cows!"