Espen's 2nd Birthday!

Espen turned 2!!! I can hardly believe it, my sweet baby 2 years odl. he is so sweet. We had a little celebration for him, with very few family members around unfortunately, even though we were living at grandma and grandpa's house, where Jordan and his family were also living. Oh well, we still had a wonderful time. We had lightning McQueen and his friends as 'theme', adn I made some puzzles, crafts, 'pin the wheel on McQueen', and some other small games planned, and of course, he was able to bash his cake (chocolate of course, he loves chocolate!). We all had such a good time, and I would like to add that this was mainly due to the girls always being such good sports. They still love the 'baby games' simply because they love their brothers enough that their happy smiles satisfy them enough to enjoy it all. Amazing big sisters they are!

 Note in the pictures that I think Espen really enjoyed the games and his favorite present was definitely the dump truck!!!! See that smile!

Halloween and Thanksgiving Time

Who doesn't love Halloween and Thanksgiving time. I sure do! The kids' excitement over Halloween of the past years really has been contagious and now I am smitten. Not really enough to dress up myself, but the excitement is there. We decorate the house, make treats, go to pumpkin patches, make jack-o-lantarns, read halloween books (for kids) and scary Disney stories. The girls dressed up as vampires, Beautiful ones), Jasper as a pirate (the cutest pirate I have ever seen or dreamed of) and Espen as een aapje (Monkey), the very sweetest and smiley monkey anyone has ever seen. I loved being able to reuse 2 previous outfits (monkey has been used 2x before, and pirate several times) too! Yes, I am really Dutch! :)

My favorite part of it all is the part of Thanksgiving. The kids learn about it early in school and have a little performance with songs, telling the story of the pilgrims and how the indians taught them to hunt for turleys and harvest corn. Jasper's class did that again this year witha  feast afterwards, so cute. As a tradition, we celebrated with Josh' parents, and had a round where everyone had the opportunity to sahre the things they were most grateful for. Thsi year I was expecially grateful for my family and children of course, my parents, Josh parents, particularly for letting us stay with them for 6 weeks!!!!!!!), and for the opportunity to be able to move to a beautiful home in utah. More on that later!