The Norway Games

Our growing house continued + kitchen

2012-01-14T16:41:00.018+01:00

Steve having a little coffe break after having moved lots of boxes containing our new kitchen.

The kitchen after the carpenters had put the walls and ceiling back up :0)

The kids playing Wii in the midst of all the boxes

Some of the boxes that will be our new kitchen in a few days...

Our workmen: 2 carpenters and 1 electrician working hard!!

The kitchen after the walls and ceiling were taken down!!

Ingvard was the answer to my prayers, and took our old kitchen out, together with Steve.

Our "old" kitchen

Our house seen from the garden.

Ice skating

2011-12-19T17:08:00.000+01:00

Our house

2011-12-10T15:26:00.000+01:00

Our house is growing!!

2011-11-28T17:07:00.006+01:00

Our lovely kids!

2011-11-18T16:28:00.000+01:00

Our lovely children: Julia (12), Benjamin (10), Mattias (8) & Sarah (4,5)

Steve in Japan!

2011-10-26T15:09:00.017+02:00

Earlier this month, Steve got to go to Japan to visit his big brother Andy, who has been living and working there for almost 20 years. Below are some of the photos of the fab time they had together: Enjoy!

Paddy fields!

Marine Tower!

Dinner ! The food was great (no sushi in sight). Lots of noodles, chine-easy and even a KFC !

Andy-san !

Tokyo ! Lots of people, lots of noise ! But nice place ;0)

Sankeien Gardens in Yokohama. A beautiful place.

On the saturday evening we went to a Mexican restaurant. We ended up being a group og about 35 people and had a great time! The food was fantastic !!

Andy preaching at church! I got to hear this sermon twice!!

Beautiful Yokohama - by night!

And we`re off.......

2011-10-04T15:47:00.007+02:00

Today, just as Steve was going to bed after the nightshift (beginning to see a trend here), the carpenters arrived to start work on the foundations. Six hours later they were done, and our new "house" looks like this:

The foundations!

The spectators!

Exciting times!!

2011-10-01T12:46:00.014+02:00

Last monday morning, at halv past 8, just as Steve was getting ready to go to bed after 3 nightshifts - the builders turned up. 6 hours later - they were finished, and we wait for work to start on raising the actual building. On monday (we have been told) work starts on the foundations - and two weeks later we`ll be ready for the carpenters (the builders, not the singers!)

Below are some photos of the JCB in action, and what our driveway looks like now!!

The JCB in action!

On the right is where our new lounge will be. On the left there will be a car port, and three columns suporting the 2nd floor.

Our front door is temporarily out of action!!

Getting ready...!

2011-09-24T18:46:00.011+02:00

We love our house, but have for a few years noticed that it wasn´t exactly build for a family of 6 ;0) ! So nearly a year ago, we went from dreaming to planning towards having an extension build, to give us some more room. We applied to the council in March, and two weeks later they told us "YES!" We have been waiting for a while now, but after the summer we were told by the building company, they were gonna start soon. Here are a few photos from the process of getting the outside ready for the digger to come -like removing the decking, and moving the shed from our garden to my brother BK´s garden! It´s all great fun and very exciting!! :0)

Fields of barley

2011-07-08T11:55:00.004+02:00

The fields of barley are one of the highlights of my summer...They´ve got such a lovely green colour, turning gold, and the smell when I pass them is so amazingly sweet. I never get tired of looking at, and taking photos of, them...

Ida Sofie

2011-07-03T00:47:00.004+02:00

My newest little niece, Ida Sofie, was born on the 17th of May, 10 weeks premature. We are all are delighted that she´s doing so well -she was able to come home from the hospital over a week ago, and seems to be enjoying life at home with her mummy ELisabeth, daddy BK (my brother), her big brother Joakim and big sis Amalie. She weighed only 1170 g when she was born, but now weighs in at just over 2 kg! She is such a little beauty, and is loved so much.

My lovely parents´ 40th wedding anniversary

2011-06-26T23:39:00.000+02:00

My gorgeous parents!

My dad sent their grandchildren to give my mum 40 beautiful red roses!

Joakim, Benjamin, Sarah & Amalie

Steve and Mathea Elise

We bought them a tree for their garden, that the kids helped plant.

My gorgeous niece, Mathea Elise and me

We had so much good food...and this the dessert...yummy...!!

Beautiful little Ida Sofie slept through most of the party, but I managed to sneak in and take a photo of her anyway!

Sarah & Amalie asked Bestefar to pick them some strawberries...

Happy days with the family in England

2011-06-22T18:59:00.000+02:00

Happy cousins on the roundabout!

Abi

Matthew

Abi, Julia & Sarah

Sisters-in-law: Me, Sam & Rebecca

Nanna & Gramps aka Avril & Phil

Sarah climbing

Brothers on the see-saw

Steve, Jonathan & Andy

3 generations on the see-saw: Sarah, nanna Avril & daddy Steve

Aad &...

...Lottie

Nanna & Julia baking

Anna & Sarah having breakfast

Julia enjoying one of the many english books she read on her holiday

In beautiful Swanage, enjoying chips one lovely Sunday afternoon....

Benjamin´s plaited white bread (fletteloff)

2011-06-04T14:04:00.000+02:00

As Benjamin is one of the two non-coeliacs in our family, I (mamma) have decided he needs to learn how to bake his own bread. He already loves baking, and a while ago I bought him a baking book. He read it, and decided to bake this plaited white bread first. He did a brilliant job, making two of these. They looked so good, and the few people in this house who can eat gluten bread, said it was very yummy! :0)

17th of May

2011-05-20T16:16:00.029+02:00

Fennefoss -happy days with the family in the south!

2011-05-19T10:42:00.037+02:00

The children, Ingunn and I had a wonderful weekend with our family in the south.
(Comments under photos will be posted later!)

In my garden

2011-05-15T10:30:00.003+02:00

Cousins visiting!

2011-05-08T22:22:00.003+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of two of my lovely cousins visiting us for the day! The two are Gunnveig (my mums oldest brothers youngest daughter) and the other one is Ingunn (the youngest of my mums two older brothers oldest daughter!) ...did you get that..? ;0)
It was so lovely to see them both and be able to spend some time with them!

Our beautiful 4

2011-04-30T19:14:00.005+02:00

Julia Rose (11 1/2)

Mattias Oliver (7 1/2)

Benjamin Stephen (9 1/2) and Sarah Linnea (4)

Tinghaug & Krosshaug

2011-04-25T20:01:00.011+02:00

Jo, Julia, Mattias, Sarah, Sol & Benjamin under the old stone cross.

One of the days before Easter, I took our 4 and our little friends/neighbour kids for a trip to Krosshaug and Tinghaug. We had such a good time there, and thouroughly enjoyed it, all 7 of us!

Sol & Sarah

Mattias & Jo

At Tinghaug, admiring the view.

Jo thought Tinghaug was a great place for playing with his tractor and farm animals.

Mattias & Mamma

Family trip to Skeie beach

2011-03-19T14:58:00.013+01:00

Mamma & 4 beautiful kids

Steve & Benjamin having a stone throwing competition

Julia enjoying one of Mammas homemade "skoleboller", a roll with custard (glutenfree of course ;0) )

Mattias & Benjamin, our lovely lads!

Snow covered beach

2011-01-06T20:58:00.004+01:00

This is Orre beach this winter, covered in snow and still so beautiful. It was very cold though, so wasnt tempted to go for a swim ;0) -but lovely to go for a walk! The swans were in a field I passed on the way home -they gather around lakes here in the winter.

The lovely Jensen family

2010-12-31T20:54:00.000+01:00

Mummy Maren, daddy Bernt, and lovely little Mathea Elise!

Excited children on New Year´s Eve

2010-12-31T20:30:00.000+01:00

Julebukk /singing Christmas carols

2010-12-27T20:21:00.001+01:00

Our children enjoy the norwegian tradition of knocking on the neighbours´s doors and singing Christmas carols to them (and to us) in the days between Christmas and New Years Eve -and of course the fact that they get sweets as a "payment" is no disadvantage ;0)

The Game boys

2010-12-11T20:34:00.000+01:00

The day that I met Ingrid Espelid Hovig!

2010-12-10T20:43:00.001+01:00

One day in December, Steve and I decided to take the kids for a trip to Stavanger to enjoy some family time. We walked passed a book shop, when Steve said we should go inside. I had just seen a poster saying that the two most famous chef´s in Norway, Ingrid Espelid Hovig and Eivind Hellstrøm, were in there, signing their new book. I tried to say that maybe we should just leave ...(..as I´m really too shy to talk to famous people...), but of course, when Steve heard that, he dragged me into the shop and shouted that I needed to get one of the books and of course get it autographed. I couldn`t say no... Anyway, Ingrid was the first cook who had her own cooking program on telly, and I used to love watching it when i was little. Eivind Hellstrøm is a norwegian gourmet chef and the only chef with Michelin stars in Norway (-and he does the norwegian version of Gordon Ramsey´s shows).

Our lovely 4

2010-12-05T20:15:00.001+01:00

Nanna & Gramps visiting

2010-11-29T20:06:00.002+01:00

Nanna loves reading with the kids, and the kids love being read to!!

Nanna is very good at sewing, and Julia was eager to learn -and made her own doll!

Gramps and Mathea Elise

Our newest niece /cousin!

2010-11-10T19:56:00.003+01:00

6th of November, we had the great pleasure of welcoming our newest little cousin and niece into the world; my sister Maren and her husband Bernt had their 1st child, and my parents had their grandchild number 10! Her name is Mathea Elise, and she is such a calm and contented little girl! She is a beauty, and such a blessing to us all!

Sarah Linnea & cousin Amalie

2010-10-25T19:45:00.002+02:00

These two little cousins have been best friends since they were born, and just love being together.... The cutest litle girls!

A walk in the forest, Sandtangen, with Benjamin & Sarah.

2010-09-25T12:35:00.013+02:00

We heard some angry noises, and saw two red squirrels running up and down a tree, fighting! Just managed to catch this one in a photo!

Family time at the beach, Nærland

2010-09-22T11:14:00.011+02:00

The Game family

The beautiful Nærland beach.

Looking for tiny crabs!

My lovely parents, Magnhild & Kjell!

A few weeks ago, we spent a Sunday afternoon on the beach. We don´t often take family trips like this to the beach when it´s not summer, as its often too cold and windy -but this day was just lovely and sunny, and we so enjoyed our time there.

Picking blueberries

2010-08-18T21:16:00.011+02:00

Sælandsskogen

2010-08-18T20:48:00.012+02:00

Painting the house

2010-07-20T22:02:00.002+02:00

Steve started painting the house last week. The colour is a bit darker than the last one, but we like the change! Now, if it would only stop raining....!!!

Glutenfree breakfast!

2010-06-14T21:17:00.004+02:00

Our family of 6 now contain 4 people with coeliacs! 3 of our children, Julia, Mattias & Sarah all got diagnosed last month. So now it´s not only May Elin who has to eat glutenfree food anymore! This photo was taken Saturday morning, when we had our first glutenfree family breakfast.

Afternoon walk with Sarah Linnea

2010-06-03T10:28:00.008+02:00

Kanaan & the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary

2010-06-02T20:48:00.010+02:00

The mother chapel

The most beautiful and peaceful garden

Jesus praying in Gethsemane

Last Saturday, in Germany, Ingunn and I went to Darmstadt, and there we also visited a lovely place called Kanaan. I´m sure the sisters who live there spend a lot of time praying, because it´s the most peaceful and beatuiful garden I´ve ever been in. And although we spent a few hours there, we both agreed we could have stayed there for a week and not get bored for one minute!
This is taken from their web-site:
"Kanaan is the home of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, an international, interdenominational organization founded in 1947 within the framework of the German Evangelical (Protestant) Church."
If you want to read more about it, follow the link:

http://www.kanaan.org/international/default.htm

Ingunn & May Elin´s weekend away

2010-06-01T09:36:00.016+02:00

Ingunn by the Main river.

New buildings and old buildings.

Delicious caramel frappucinos!

Enjoying thai-food by the Main.

Ice cream and coffee...We LOVE it!!

Ingunn knitting!

The trumpet man, playing beautiful jazz for us.

A beer bike! We knew we had to be in Germany when we saw this ;0) Had never seen anything like it before...!!

An old building in Frankfurt and Ingunn (-as she decided she wanted to be in this photo as well ;0)!)

7 years after our trip to visit Rebecca in Haarlem, we decided to take a trip again -this time we had a long weekend in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. An interesting choice, some people said, and we can confirm that the reason for our choice was simply that flying from Stavanger, you really don´t have a lot of opportunities for a cheap flight! But we knew we´d have fun -as always when we´re together -and fun we had!
It started out a bit nerve-wrecking: on the train on the way to our hotel, at 10pm, we phoned the hotel and found out that there was no reservation for us, and the hotel was (of course..) FULL and CLOSED!! Strange, as we had our booking confirmation in our hands! Anyway, we prayed for angels to help and guard us, and they did! We were taken to another lovely hotel, that turned out to be in the middle of the city centre, a very nice and clean hotel, and where the most delicious breakfast was included (-we always take it as a good sign when good food is included!!)
We had a lot of fun exploring Frankfurt the first day, and on the second day we took the train to a town called Darmstadt. We had a lovely day there, walking around the town, sitting in various out door cafés, enjoying fruit juices, ice cream and delicious food, and also visiting a beautiful place called Kanaan -the home of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary.
We had a lot of fun listening to Ingunn trying to squeeze some German words out of her brilliant brain (-like when she asked one of the sisters in Kanaan where the train stop was -and it came out "ist es dieser or derer weg"?) She did brillantly, and made herself understood many times, and made us both laugh quite a few times as well :D
We had a lovely time together, and I´m already looking forward to our next trip!! Ingunn, you´re the best!! :0)

Morgedal

2010-05-25T10:19:00.027+02:00

Last week, Steve was going to work nights, so the kids and I decided to go on a little holiday to Telmark.

Snow in May!..in the mountains.

Julia was my very good helper, unpacking all the kitchen stuff, and making dinner for us without me even having to ask!

Julia making fruit salad.

Playing "Geni" (like Trivial Pursuit for kids)

Playing football (soccer)

Good morning! Sarah was already having her breakfast when the other 3 woke up.

Fetching water for mamma :0)

On our way home, we stopped in this beautiful place in Setesdalen, for an icecream.

Benjamin discovered (-nearly trod on ;0) !) this snake, called hoggorm, which is the only venomous snake in Norway. Follow the link for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipera_berus

Steve, Benjamin & Sarah in England

2010-05-07T09:47:00.002+02:00

In the airport, all excited!

Steve and his newest niece, lovely little Lottie Sarah (born 30th April)

Benjamin & Sarah admiring their new cousin!

Lottie with her lovely big sister, Anna May

The original game family:
Andy, Steve, Phil, Avril, Jonathan & Rebecca

Julia Rose

2010-04-25T09:44:00.000+02:00

...relaxing with a good book.

The beach boys

2010-04-20T09:31:00.000+02:00

Orange juice!

2010-04-19T09:22:00.001+02:00

The other day we decided to make our own home made orange juice. Sarah thought it was great fun, and it tasted nice...although a bit sour ;0)

Our pink princess is 3!

2010-04-01T09:18:00.001+02:00

Spring..at last...!!

2010-03-18T13:55:00.004+01:00

Sarah loves playing café outside -just like her sister and brothers did when they were little. It´s actually one of the earliest signs of spring in our home, when I all of a sudden feel the strong need to put their little table and chairs on the decking so they can play. And the best part of it, Sarah thinks, is that she can serve "real tea" (=water):0)

The longest winter ever...

2010-03-18T13:31:00.013+01:00

Cousins and good friends: Sarah & Amalie, our two lovely littlest girls :0)

A walk in Kleppelunden with Elisabeth, Joakim & Amalie.

Sarah taking her dolls out for a walk.

I don´t know how many times this winter Steve has had to dig us out...!

The snow came on Dec 19th, and just left a couple of weeks ago! The kids absolutely loved it, and especially Benjamin and Mattias spent a lot of time outside, skiing and snowboarding every day -and even I went skiing a couple of times (..for the first time since ´95!), and kind of enjoyed it..

Christmas with Nanna & Gramps

2010-03-18T13:02:00.015+01:00

Yes, I know Christmas was a loong time ago, but time flies, and it IS better late than never, don´t you think? ;0) We had a lovely white Christmas with Nanna & Gramps visiting us. Here are some of the photos we took:

Nanna baking mince pies with the boys!

Winter wonderland

2009-12-20T20:17:00.000+01:00

On the 20th of dec, we woke up to this amazing winter wonderland:

Of course, our car was covered...

..and so was our drive..so a bit of work to do there..!! (It took Steve about 2 hours to dig the car out..)

Julia brushing the snow of the bird café.

Baking for Christmas

2009-12-15T20:00:00.000+01:00

Our lovely 4

2009-12-10T19:48:00.000+01:00

Trip to the forest (Sælandsskogen)

2009-12-03T21:16:00.018+01:00

We love this forest called Sælandsskogen, and even in the winter it´s a lovely place to go for a walk. This time my dad brought some dry wood and made a fire for us. We were glad, because it was very cold!! The kids -our four and cousin Daniel- loved it, as always.

Sarah & Mali

2009-11-08T17:37:00.003+01:00

Sarah loves being with Amalie -or "Mali" as she calls her. They are very good friends and have so much fun when they´re together!

My little helper.

2009-10-03T19:58:00.006+02:00

Since I (Steve) had over a week off from work, I decided to try and get a few things done around the house. I completed my tasks ahead of schedule, thanks mainly to my little helper.

Washing the windows.

Stacking the wood for the winter.

Vacuum cleaning.

Today, as it was raining cats and dogs outside, we turned to baking one of our favourite cakes

And the proof of the pudding !

An unbelievably cute cook

2009-09-30T20:57:00.007+02:00

The other day, Sarah helped me (Mamma) bake muffins and make taco. She did a brilliant job, both with the muffins and cutting cucumber and other vegetables. And she´s so much fun to be around -we had a great time, cooking together!
(PS: just so you don´t get any night mares -the knife wasn´t sharp ;0) !)

On the beach, Reve

2009-09-28T22:48:00.007+02:00

Birthday party by the lake "Melsvann"

2009-09-28T22:17:00.014+02:00

Mattias & Mamma visiting Ingunn

2009-09-16T12:07:00.015+02:00

Mattias waiting for Ingunn...

Ingunn made taco for us..yummy!!

..and the view wasn´t bad either! Could nearly see our house in Orre from her appartement on the 15th floor ;0)

Playing Skip-bo, one of Mattias´ favourite games.

Hiding under his duvet... ;0)

..and nearly laughed his head off when we pulled the duvet off him again :D

Mattias, still laughing -and he´s got the most contagious laugh ever!! Gorgeous boy! :D

Breakfast...

..followed by a few games of Skip-bo, of course!

Guess who won this time?! :0)

At the playground!

Picking apples in Bestefars garden

2009-09-08T13:24:00.009+02:00

Bestemor & Sarah Linnea

2009-09-08T13:15:00.007+02:00

When a little girl is tired, what is better than a cuddle with Bestemor..?! :0)

Happy birthday, Mattias Oliver!

2009-08-30T12:56:00.001+02:00

Mattias is now 6!

Mattias, Benjamin, Julia and Sarah..all in their jim-jams, excited about all the presents!

All 6-year-olds get a book from our church -but Mattias is the only one so far who got his on the day he was 6! (Notice his hair; Mattias said to me that morning, Mamma, you need to make my hair spikey!!)

Brothers and best friends :0)

Sarah´s 1st day of kindergarden

2009-08-18T13:07:00.003+02:00

Bless her, she was excited about going to her brand new kindergarden, but fell and hit her knee just before we had to go...so not so sure anymore...

Ready to go!..with her little boots on the wrong foot..but she doesn´t mind, as long as she can do it herself!! :0)

Mattias´ 1st day of school

2009-08-17T12:39:00.001+02:00

Mattias outside the school on his very first day, together with Julia (5th grade) and Benjamin (3rd grade).

A very happy and proud schoolboy!

Mamma and little Sarah could come too (-and daddy, who took the photos). Sarah was very happy she could go to school for one day, and brought her little lunch box :0)

Mattias gets a name tag from one of his teachers, Tora.

Mattias trying to concentrate...and is probably glad that mamma and Sarah aren´t coming to school to distract him every day ;0)

Happy birthday, Julia Rose!

2009-08-13T12:33:00.000+02:00

Our beautiful Julia is now 10!! She baked and decorated muffins to have at her party...

..and this was the result! :0)

Lovely days in the south, Solstrand, with the family

2009-08-11T20:58:00.000+02:00

England, July ´09: Family & friends

2009-08-10T22:36:00.022+02:00

The first Sunday we were in the UK, we had a family get-together at Rebecca & Aad´s house, with lots of relatives. It was lovely to see them all again!

Playing football: Julia, Benjamin, Joel (Liddy & Mark´s youngest son) & Aad.

Julia, Zack (Liddy & Mark´s oldest son) & Steve.

Zack enjoying his cake!

Carol (married to cousin Wes) & Mark (married to cousin Liddy)

Phil, aunty Irene & her husband, John

Cousins Wes & Paul

Lovely aunty Irene & Andy

Phil, my lovely dad-in-law, and our kids´ Gramps!

Liddy & Zack

Irene, her daughter Liddy & Zack

Julia & me

Sam, one of my sisters-in-law

Anna & Matthew on the trampoline!

Playing football again!

Girlies playing football: Liddy & Julia

The day before we left UK, cousin Mark and his family came down, Here´s Steve & Mark!

Mark & his 3 beautiful girls: Emma, wife Karen & Bethany.

England, July ´09: Adventure Wonderland

2009-08-10T22:07:00.018+02:00

England, July ´09: Little fire people

2009-08-10T21:49:00.012+02:00

England, July ´09: A day out to lovely Swanage & Corfe Castle

2009-08-03T20:45:00.023+02:00

England, July ´09: Sushi!!

2009-08-03T20:42:00.003+02:00

Sarah & cousin Matthew

2009-08-03T20:32:00.004+02:00

England, July ´09: Funny Sarah

2009-08-03T20:12:00.010+02:00

England, July ´09: Farmer Palmer´s

2009-08-03T19:47:00.016+02:00

England, July ´09: Poole quay, the harbour & the best chips in the world!

2009-08-03T19:35:00.011+02:00

England, July ´09: Sarah Linnea posing to the camera ;0)

2009-08-03T19:29:00.005+02:00

England, July ´09:

2009-08-03T19:24:00.004+02:00

England, July ´09: Street fair in Milton Abbas

2009-08-03T19:05:00.012+02:00

A weekend away in Valle

2009-06-20T17:52:00.000+02:00

Our lovely 4

2009-06-03T11:25:00.003+02:00

Here´s our lovely 4: Julia (9 1/2), Benjamin (7 1/2), Mattias (5 1/2) and Sarah (2).

Weekend at Fennefoss

2009-06-03T10:55:00.024+02:00

Last weekend Ingunn joined us, and we all headed south to Ingunn`s parents house at Fennefoss. A weekend of aunt Lindy`s delicious food (eaten under the apple tree), lovely people and beautiful summer weather. Here are a few photos from the trip (didn`t have space to publish all 200 of them ;0) !):

Picnic by the old stone brigde is a must!

Beautiful Fennefoss

Ingunn´s favourite trees :0)

Enjoying the summer morning on the stairs.

Uncle Kåre

Aunt Lindy and Julia reading the papers.

Ingunn and the children on the way to the river for a swim.

Ingunn is a very brave woman!! This was exactly as cold as it looks..only 10 degrees C!!

Sarah Linnea and Hannah Linnea :0) Our Sarah can´t get enough of babies, and just LOVED little Hannah! She kept cuddling her, saying "babbi!" and taking away and giving her the dummy. They were soo cute together! :0)

Lovely mummy Synnøve with baby Hannah.

3 good friends: Ingunn, Fanny and myself

Lovely couple: Fanny and Ivar.

Ingunn and Sarah admiring little Hannah on mummy Synnøve´s lap.

Julia, Benjamin and Mattias in the old apple tree.

Daddy Steve enjoying life :0)

Ingunn and Julia

Ingunn made this absolutely delicious Chicken Korma for dinner! It was so good, we had to use a lot of will power to stop eating...!

We had all the meals under the big, old apple tree in the front garden. Can´t think of a better place, it made the delicious food taste twice as good!

Benjamin, Synnøve and Mattias enjoying the pudding!

2nd-and-a-half-cousins: Harald, Mattias, Nelly, Julia, Benjamin and Sarah.

Ingunn, myself and the children by the old barn door

Ingunn came back home with us, and Monday morning we enjoyed yet another breakfast outside...even though this one was a lot colder due to the ever-blowing north wind in Jæren..

The Aanensen clan

2009-05-21T16:11:00.003+02:00

17th of May, we took this photo of my parents and their offspring with families. There´s 18 of us now, and one more due in June.
From back left: Kjell (my dad), Magnhild (mum), Steve, me (May Elin) with Sarah, Bernt (Marens husband), Maren (my sister), Arild (my brother), Laila-Marie (Arild´s wife), Bjørn Kjetil (my brother), Elisabeth (BK´s wife).
From the front left (on the bench): Mattias (5), Amalie (18 months) on Ida Christine´s lap (12), Benjamin (7), Joakim (4), Daniel (4), and Julia (9).

Ida Christine and Daniel are Arild and Laila-Marie´s children, Joakim and Amalie are BK and Elisabeht´s, and the rest of the gang are ours :0)

Click on the photo to see a larger image!

Sarah visiting the horses

2009-05-21T16:01:00.008+02:00

Every morning when Julia and Benjamin have gone to school, and Mattias is in kindergarten, Sarah says "Ut!!" Hester!" -meaning "Out! Horses!". We live in "farmer country", and there are lots of fields with horses around us. Sarah and I go to see them nearly every day, and she loves it! Some times she also takes her little doll to see the horses ;0)

Sælandsskogen -Trip to the Sæland forest 1st of May

2009-05-05T09:23:00.008+02:00

Easter trip to Melsvann...

2009-04-13T15:52:00.013+02:00

...and to Sikvaland.

2009-04-13T15:40:00.009+02:00

(..I just realised that the only photos we took on this trip was of us all eating...sorry about that, Andy ;0)! We also went climbing and had lots of fun here, but it´s not easy to climb, look after kids and take photos at the same time.. ;0)

Happy birthday, Sarah Linnea!

2009-04-01T13:08:00.005+02:00

Our precious little Sarah Linnea is 2 today! She is such a lovely little girl, active and happy most of the time. Her favourite actvities are singing, dancing, playing the piano and baking! She is learning new words every day now, and yesterday she was going to help Mamma bake her birthday cakes, and she told us, "Æ´ da´ bate!" -meaning "I´m going to bake!". She can be quite a stubborn little girl, but we think that´s a good thing, being the youngest of 4 ;0) We think our Sarah is a beautiful little ray of sunshine, and we all love her so much!

A week in England

2009-03-15T11:16:00.029+01:00

Poor little thing

2009-03-05T20:28:00.004+01:00

Our little Sarah hasn´t had a very good week so far. She got a fever Saturday night, and has had a temp around 40 C since that, and a max temp of 41,5 C /106 F. She has been to the doctor´s several times, and also spent an afternoon in the hospital to try and find out what it is, but little was found. As she´s eating and drinking very little, she´s getting weaker and often just wants to lie down or sit on our lap. Yesterday she all of a sudden got up and played a little, and we thought maybe she was getting better,but last night and this morning she had fever again. She seems to be slowly improving, and we´re hoping that the fever will go soon, and that she will be back to her happy and bouncy little self. We know that many people are praying for her, and we so appreciate that!!

Winter days with Nanna & Gramps

2009-02-19T22:18:00.008+01:00

Last week, Nanna and Gramps came to visit. The weather was cold but sunny all week, not getting above freezing, so we had lots of fun, playing in the snow.

Yummy...?!

2009-02-18T15:31:00.004+01:00

Mattias likes many kinds of food..but especially enjoys eating food that makes the rest of us laugh! Like this piece of bread with ham, cheese and strawberry jam... :0)

Baking bread with Bestemor

2009-02-07T20:37:00.007+01:00

"Bestemor, shall I help you bake bread?"

"I´ve got my very own little dough..."

"..but, hey, that´s not fair, you´ve got loads more than I have!"

"I think I´ll have this one instead!"

"That´s more like it!! ;0)

Teaching Mamma new skills ;0)

2009-02-07T20:32:00.002+01:00

Benjamin and Mattias got Nintendo DS for Christmas, and although they love playing it themselves, they take just as much joy in trying to teach Mamma how to play it too..and she´s actually starting to get the hang of it! ;0)

Julia´s homework

2009-02-07T20:25:00.006+01:00

Julia has quite a lot of homework now that she is in the 4th grade. She often finds it a bit boring, and is delighted to be distracted -here by Sarah :0)

Tractor drivers

2009-02-07T20:07:00.005+01:00

Sarah is blessed with two big and helpful brothers! She loves sitting on Mattias´ tractor, and as she can´t drive it herself, they help her out. Benjamin pushes whilst Mattias sits on the front stearing backwards -and afterwards they swap places.

Our lovely 4

2009-02-01T12:35:00.003+01:00

Cuddle time

2009-02-01T12:29:00.003+01:00

Sarah isn´t really the one to sit still on our lap a lot, but when she is tired, she loves this: Sitting on Mammas lap, sucking her thumb and cuddling her little bunny blanket. Mamma´s enjoying it too!!

Sarah´s hair cut

2009-02-01T12:22:00.004+01:00

A while ago, Sarah went to the hair dresser for the first time. She thought it was quite scary at first, but when Tonje (our lovely hair dresser, who has been our hair dresser since Julia was 1) gave her a lolly, she gave in and started smiling ;0). She was a very proud girl when we left, and thought she looked very pretty. Im sure you´ll agree :0)

Sarah & Bestefar

2008-12-26T16:35:00.003+01:00

Sarah loves singing, and here she´s singing her heart out to Bestefar.