Kaija's Princess Party and Girls' Weekend

So last weekend all of my sisters, my mom and I got together in Texas for an extended girls weekend. I had a blast and it was a much needed break, thanks to my friends and Teem for taking care of the kids. We started with some shopping, then dinner followed by an evening at a dueling piano bar. It was amazing to watch those guys play and I couldn't believe they knew the words to the songs they played. Anyway, if anyone hasn't been to one, I highly recommend it. My poor sister, Holly got picked on a lot and she had to go up on the stage to do the hokey-pokey.
The second day was jam-packed with a whole lot of nothing (which was planned that way). We actually played a little tennis (some of us) and spent a good part of the day at the pool. I can't remember the last time I laid at the pool without any kids to constantly watch. That night we went to see Mama Mia. Overall, it was a perfect day. The last day we did a lot more shopping, yay. And we ended it at The Cheesecake Factory, yum. Thanks mom and sisters for the good memories.
The day before I had to leave for the girls' weekend, Kaija had a princess party and I even baked her cake. The girls were so fun and cute. It all went pretty smoothly. She wanted to be a mermaid-fairy princess, so she wore an Ariel costume and added wings and a crown and Voila! Instant mermaid-fairy princess. I'll attach some pictures of the pretty, pretty princesses.
This past weekend we went camping at Lake Roosevelt with some friends and had a marvelous time. Camping is fun when you have running water and flushing toilets (we had both).

A long overdue update

Once again, I've been a major slacker with my blog. The last few months have been crazy busy and summer is just nuts. Most recently we just went to Portland for a couple weeks to spend time with Teem's family. We spent 4th of July weekend camping with the fam. I had a great time with his sisters and the kids. Our days were spent berry picking (mmmm, so yummy), going to free movies, playing in a fountain downtown Vancouver and just hanging out.
Life with three kids, for me, is so much fun, but I've had a really hard time taking pictures, journaling and all that. My kids constantly make me laugh and I've failed to write down all of the funny things they say. Luukas' favorite phrase when he's excited about something is, "Holy, moly smokes!" And he always says it with gusto. Also, when he talks he pronounces his f''s as w's (super fast becomes 'super wast'). Kaija is still very much a princess, usually in her own world. She was coloring in church last week and humming to herself and singing her own made up songs, albeit a little loud. A few months ago she approached me looking very sad, almost teary. Here's the conversation:

Me: What's the matter?
Kaija: Mommy, I don't want to die.
Me: Sweetheart, you aren't going to die anytime soon. (and we had a short conversation about heaven and all that)
Kaija: (still on the verge of tears) But mom, I don't want to die because there are no dress-ups in heaven.
Me: (trying very hard not to laugh, since the comment caught me very off guard) Well, I'm sure Heavenly Father would have things in heaven that make us happy.
Kaija: Oh, okay. And off she went to play.

So that sums up Kaija pretty well. As far as Miia, she's a beast. At her 9-month appointment, she weighed 21 pounds. Her favorite thing is bath time, but it doesn't last very long because it's kind of like trying to keep hold of a slippery, squirmy fish. She literally flops all over the bath tub. She's crawling and eating EVERYTHING, especially sand, when she can sneak a handful. I know, gross, huh. Well, I'm going to do my best to stay more updated with my blog so some of you can get off my back. :)

Happy Birthday Luukas!

Last weekend we celebrated Luukas' 3rd birthday and I have yet to post anything. (Pictures will be coming). Teem's parents came in town and we went to our favorite breakfast place (Old European Breakfast House) for a birthday brunch, then that evening went bowling. Sunday night we celebrated with a nice Sunday dinner (flank steak terryaki...yumm...thanks Teem) with friends. Teem gave Luukas a slot car race track and he also got a spider-man bike. So the big man is three and is so proud to be a year older. Now he likes to eat things in threes (like grapes or crackers) to match his new age. Funny boy!
On a side note, I have to share a couple new recipes I found online that I love. One is a copycat recipe of Panera's Cream Cheese potato soup and the other one, a Glazed Salmon recipe, we tried tonight. Teem went to Seattle a couple weekends ago and brought back a bunch of yummy seafood that we froze and tonight we had a smorgasbord. Just thought I'd share these good finds.

Picture Perfect

Here's pictures as promised. I love the first one of Miia. Fat and Happy. That pretty much sums her up. The bottom ones are Vegas pictures. I was able to go to my college friend, Larissa's reception (and her new hubby Ignacio) while we were there. It was so nice to see her and to meet her man. Teem and Andy (Holly's husband) took the kids on a hike one afternoon and also to the hoover dam. And the adorable girl under the umbrella is Tessa, my niece. She has the cutest little voice I've ever heard.

Success (sort of)

We had the opportunity to spend a week with my sister, Holly, and her family in Las Vegas. They moved there in the summer, and finally finished building a house in November. It was nice to see her new place (totally jealous) and spend time with them. Kaija and her daughter Natalie even played without any major drama. (That's a miracle with any two girls being around each other for a week). We had a great adult evening out at the Cheesecake Factory (YUMMM) and Teem and I did an early anniversary celebration and saw Phantom at the venetian. We were hoping to get away from our freezing winter, but unfortunately it was pretty cold there, too. Despite that, we still enjoyed ourselves. So thanks Holly, for the good times.
The day after we got back, I decided to tackle the dreaded potty training for Luukas, who is approaching his 3rd birthday next month. He did great the first day but went about 15 times. So the next day I told him he could try holding it in a little longer so he didn't have to go so often. He took that advise to heart because he held it ALL DAY LONG. It was around 5 or 6 pm and he was in pain he had to go so bad, but he didn't want to get his underwear wet. I tried eveything, then finally I had him try to 'shoot' cheerios standing up. He went immediately and had a blast doing it. Now he thinks it' s a game every time. I'll have to work on weaning him from the cheerios. As a mom, I feel like I've accomplished something getting this far with potty training. It's all about the little things, right? At this point we are still having #2 issues. (He just won't go at all). So I'll take any pointers and tips that any of you may have. HELP ME PLEASE!
Miia has just started rice cereal and just smiles and kind of spits it right back out. But she sure is cute with her messy face. I'll get some pictures up soon. She really is a chunky monkey. You can't help but squish her and kiss her chubby cheeks. Luukas cheers up right away when she is around. He is quite fond of Miia and is always looking our for her.

It's been a while

I'll have to add pictures from the last 2 months sometime, but if I don't start small, I won't start at all. It has been a wonderful couple of months. We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with friends and family and we had a great time. We even drove and it wasn't too bad. (Thank you DVD player). Miia was an angel baby...slept most of the drive except to eat. We stayed with some friends from dental school, spent Thanksgiving at my Grandma Lowder's house, got to see some good Michigan friends, the Quinns, and I was fortunate to have a lunch date with some college friends (aka Divas) so thank you Cafe Rio. I love Utah because we get to see so many people when we go. Everyone seems to have a connection to that place.
December came and went so fast. We took a quick trip to Portland to see Teem's family a couple weeks before Christmas. When we got back, I decided to host an Ugly Sweater Party and we had a great time. There were definitely some uglies there. (Sweaters, not people) :) The monday before Christmas, we flew to Dallas to spend the holidays with my family. We survived the trip and my kids even got to sit first class on one of the legs. Long story short, Teem flys a lot so he and the kids got upgraded (there were only three seats left). Teem offered his seat and I gave him the choice to take all the kids to first class or be in coach alone. So, I got to sit in coach all alone. Wow, so much better than first class. I even slept for part of the flight.
Christmas was great! The kids enjoyed opening all the gifts, although Luukas was a little overwhelmed and Kaija asked at the end of the madness, "when do we get more presents?" I just looked at her and laughed. We were also blessed with a few fabulous warm park days. Kaija is already wondering when the snow is going to melt here so she can go to the park.
Speaking of snow, before we left Coeur d'Alene, we got record snowfall (I think around 3 1/2 feet). Then we came home to even more snow. My friends told me that even Walmart was closed for a couple days. Walmart? They never close. Teem had to dig his car out of mounds of snow so he could get to work the next day.
For New Year's Eve, we tagged along with my sister, Shelley to her friend's party. Thanks Mimi and Poppy for watching the kiddos. It was pretty fun because we did a white elephant exchange with a twist. All the wives brought something of great sentimental worth that belonged to her husband (without the husband knowing). The looks on the guys faces was priceless. It wasn't until about halfway through that they realized the joke was on them. (They were a little slow to catch on). One of the gifts was a box of very valuable baseball cards. My sister brought a picture of her husband with Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders that was on his "wall of fame". Another had a signed BYU helmet and seriously I think I saw tears in the guys eyes. I brought Teem's collectible star wars light saber (it was actually Luukas' that Teem gave him for Christmas, but Teem was rather attached to it). The funny thing was that the light saber was the first to be stolen and all these grown men looking at it with envy gave me a good chuckle. I decided they are all just oversized kids in disguise. Oh man, it was a hoot, so I'd highly recommend playing this version of a white elephant game.
Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas and holiday season for us. It's nice to be home but we are already planning another trip to Dallas to get to good weather.

Happy Halloween!

If you want to see any of the pictures better, just double-click on them. I need to explain one of them before I forget. The one in the middle set on the bottom left of Kaija and her shiny face had a story behind it. So Friday morning, I put a little blush and shimmery eye shadow on Kaija to enhance her princess look. That evening when we were getting ready for bed I asked her to go get her and Luukas' toothbrushes ready. We were busy chatting with family and I realized 10 minutes or so had passed by and still no Kaija. Shortly after she came out quietly with a look like, "I know, don't I look fabulous." I wasn't sure how to react. Should I be upset? Should I laugh? It took all I had to not show any emotion and I told Teem to grab the camera. The shiny eyeshadow what ALL OVER her face. The picture doesn't do it justice, but at least you get the idea. She put it on her cheeks, lips, all the way around her eyes and even her forehead. It was a little clumpy and a bit much, so we had a little make-up lesson about where exactly eye shadow is supposed to go. That's my little princess. So back to my original post.
I just love Coeur d'Alene in the fall. I only wish it would last longer before winter comes. We had a great weekend. Most of Teem's family (there were 16 of us at our house) came to stay with us for Halloween and Miia's baby blessing. Friday started with Kaija's preschool party. She was one of the last ones in the classroom and she walked in as if the party could now begin since she had graced everyone with her presence (princess mode). One of the parents even said, "wow, I guess the Queen has arrived." Then that afternoon we went with Teem's family to trick-or-treat downtown at the shops. It was crazy busy, but lots of fun . Luukas was a bit overwhelmed so he just shadowed kaija and mumbled a quiet thank you every now and then. We came back to the house to eat dinner then some of the group went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood which was lots of fun with all the old homes around here.
For anyone that knows Teem, you will not be surprised by his enthusiasm for this holiday. He and his staff dressed up for work. (That was the Orkin man costume). I couldn't even give him a goodbye kiss...he just looked like one of those guys you would never let into your home. But it was a good disguise. Then when he came home he changed into the other costume (bloody scary guy with two missing fingers). I don't remember what he called himself. The kids didn't seem to mind, but when we got back and he took his makeup off, Kaija said, "Daddy, your back."
On Saturday we went to a nice brunch at the Old European (yummmmmmy) then went for a walk to the park. We truly enjoyed our time with the fam, so thanks to all of you for coming. We spent both nights playing games and got a little wild with Pit. I forgot how much fun that game is. The kids had a blast with their cousins and Miia even let me sleep a little. My sister-in-law, Sanni, and I were pretty much just milk machines all weekend (she had a baby girl three weeks before me). Overall, things are going well and I'm truly enjoying this three child thing, so far. It's amazing what you can cope with when you get 5 hours or more of sleep.