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.

Miia Kate has finally arrived

First of all, there were a lot of questions about how to say the name (since it is a Finnish spelling). It's pronounce like Mia, not Maya. I'm sure she'll get all variations of her name, but it goes with the Finnish heritage. Speaking of names, we were in the hospital two hours more than necessary because we didn't want to leave without a name. We were down to two again, both of which we liked, so we finally had our nurse take a poll of about 20 nurses and staff and that was our decision. It suites her, though. She looks like a Miia. Actually, she looks like a Kaija, but that one is already taken. :) Seriously, everything about her, except the nose, is 100% Kaija, which is a good thing in my book.
The labor and delivery went really well. I was induced on Monday morning and Miia was on her own timeline. I was only dilated to a three until 4pm, then everything happened within 2 hours. I literally pushed twice and she was out. (No tears, no pain...thank you epidural, and not a single stitch needed, yay) It was almost a pleasant experience, relatively speaking, of course.
Besides the sleep thing, everything is going well, thanks to my mom being in town. She's my lifesaver. I'm sure reality will sink in the day she leaves, but for now I am enjoying my precious little angel. I probably won't be very diligent in posting pictures regularly, but I'll do my best.

The things people say...

So I had to post this, because I know someone out there will appreciate it. First of all, what is it with people around really pregnant women that makes them think it's okay to say whatever they want about them?! So, I was getting gas at Costco yesterday and the guy behind me moved a little closer and said, "I know I don't need to point this out, put it looks like you've got some junk in your trunk." Then he chuckled and went back to his car. So, for my own self confidence, I'm going to assume he doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase, but if he did, why in the world would you tell an extremely pregnant woman she has a big booty on top of the enormous belly hanging out. I'm well aware my bum gets bigger when I'm pregnant. (I like to think of it as nature's way of keeping me from tipping forward). Anywho, I'm sort of laughing about the whole thing, but still, come on people, have a little courtesy.

Playing Catch-up...again

Here's some pictures from Kaija's birthday party (from about 3 weeks ago) and also Teem and the kids' trip to California. I figured, when baby comes, I'll have enough other stuff to blog about that I needed to get caught up quickly. Also, Kaija started pre-school last week and is loving it.

A week by myself

Only three weeks until D-day and I am all alone in my own house. My niece is getting baptized tomorrow, so Teem took Kaija and Luukas to LA to visit his sister. Since I cannot travel this far into my pregnancy, I had to stay home, which really hasn't been a bad thing. I've been nesting and taking care of all of my unfinished projects. It's a little weird and definitely quiet around here, but how often does an opportunity like this come along. I've been pampering myself with a massage, a haircut, a pedicure (tomorrow) and LOTS of shopping. Not that I am buying much, but I forgot how much fun it is to browse. Browsing is not a usual activity when you have kids. Tomorrow I've organized a girls night out to dinner and a movie. Overall it's been a good week, but I'll be glad to have my kids and hubby back. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I'll post pictures from the last couple of weeks. Kaija even had her birthday party that I haven't posted yet, but it's on my to-do list.

Another month flies by

I'm not proud of it, but I've come to the conclusion that I am not a summer blogger. Since my last post, we've done quite a bit, so I'll try to recap it briefly. We spend about 5 weeks with my parents in Texas and had a great time. I'm amazed how quickly the time went. At the end of our trip there, my dad planned a surprise party for my mom's 6oth bday so all the kids/grandkids came down and we stayed in a nice home on Lake Travis (in Austin) for a weekend. For various reasons, it ended up not being a surprise (except my mom didn't know my grandma was coming) but we still enjoyed our time together on the lake and the weather was nice and hot. Luukas even went tubing with Teem (if you could call coasting at 5 mph tubing). And the kids had a blast with their cousins. Unfortunately my mom and dad weren't out on the boats because my mom had carpal tunnel surgery and my dad had some skin cancer removed from his face. There's a classic picture to illustrate the pair of invalids (as they called themselves). On a more serious note, after my mom's heart attack (back in march) and my dad's recent skin cancer, I am just thankful to have them around and that both of them seem to be on the upswing of things. It really puts things in perspective when you think you might loose somebody, especially family. So we have counted and recounted our MANY blessings and took advantage of our time together, even if it wasn't as originally planned.
A couple days after returning from Texas, we had Teem's sister, Tarja and her family come stay with us. Then, the rest of his family joined us the next weekend back at Loon lake (again at his office manager's house). I'll post pictures of that when I get around to uploading the pics. We had a blast and Teem even learned to wakeboard. Go TEEM! We still have a few plans for these last couple weeks of summer, but I'm sad it's almost over. Where did the time go? At least that means this pregnancy is coming to an end soon...by the way, still no name there.