Oregon Christmas

Merry Christmas!

From Nov/Dec 2010

We spent the beginning of our Christmas holiday in Eugene, celebrating with the Howe/Baumgartners. We all enjoyed seeing and playing with everyone.

Reading books with Jessi.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Playing “Away in a Manger” – Rachel is Mary, Annikka is Joseph, and Eila is baby Jesus. :)

From Nov/Dec 2010

Getting to see Dan and Lori again.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

Hanging out with Grandpa.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Lots of playing with Aunt Rachel!

From Nov/Dec 2010

Snuggling with Grandma.

From Nov/Dec 2010

The girls got LOTS of great gifts (thank you everyone), and really enjoyed opening their stockings.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

Annikka was delighted to get a Christmas hobo to add to her “Away in the Manger”. Here he is saying hi to baby Jesus, along with Mary and Joseph.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Annikka was very happy with the musical glow worms Santa brought for the girls.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Eila in her adorable new hat.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Eila's latest stats

From Nov/Dec 2010

weight: 15 lb, 6.5 oz (21 percentile)
length: 26.5 in (56 percentile)
head: 43.5 cm (65 percentile)


Other Eila notables (6 months, 3 weeks):
- She now has two bottom teeth - the second one just suddenly appeared a couple of days after the first.
- After a slow start, she really loves eating (cereal, sweet potato, avocado, prunes, carrot).
- She has been getting herself around the play mat for a while and clearly wants to crawl, already working on her "army" crawl.

Who was that?!

Oliver creates a lot of excitement around our house. All he has to do is simply walk by and this is the kind of reaction he gets.



Needless to say, he keeps his distance from her; I guess he doesn't appreciate her enthusiasm. But I would recommend a cat to anyone with a small child, the pure joy is priceless.

Christmas program

Annikka was in her first Christmas program at church today. She was a little lamb, baaing and all.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Her preschool group sang Away in a Manger, so the past 12 months of practicing really came in handy.



(When Annikka watches this video, she waves back to herself - so funny.)

From Nov/Dec 2010

And Eila, who got MANY inquiries about being baby Jesus, slept through the whole thing -- would have been perfect for baby Jesus, except they wanted a boy.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Oh, and Eila's first tooth has come in!

Tree's up

From Nov/Dec 2010

It seems we officially started Christmas at our house today ... we bought our tree this morning, decorated the tree in the afternoon, and played around the tree before bed.

From Nov/Dec 2010

As we all know, Annikka is a BIG fan of Christmas, especially the baby Jesus, but Eila's excitement was pretty apparent today too.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

Annikka was also very happy to find Mom's "Away in a Manger" set, something that she hadn't remembered from last year.



It's nice that Annikka's Away in a Manger obsession can be highlighted more these days. :) And we found out from one of Joel's partners that he also sings Away in a Manger EVERY NIGHT, to his 8-year-old! So this might not be something she'll grow out of any time soon.

Happy girls

From Nov/Dec 2010

I can't explain why, but I am continually surprised by how well the girls get along and like each other. I guess I was just so worried about rivalry or jealously, but we luckily have a very happy house.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

6 months

From Nov/Dec 2010

It's going by so fast!

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa's house filled with story and snuggle time ...

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

and lots of cooking with our little helpers.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

But the big highlight for Annikka came the day after Thanksgiving. She got to help Grandma start decorating for Christmas by unpacking the cresch -- Annikka has been waiting for baby Jesus' return for months and months.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Then Grandma gave Annikka her very own Away in a Manger, just what she had been hoping for.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

Side note:
We also had a small accident where Annikka nearly lost her front left tooth from falling on the stairs. All is well, except that now her tooth slants backwards giving her a "cross bite". The dentist said it was good it didn't fall out because she would be toothless until ~8 or so, and it shouldn't affect her permanent teeth. Hope she's right.

Snow day

From Nov/Dec 2010

The girls and I spent an unexpected day together because we had a snow day today. We started by playing inside, and Eila showed us how she is now able to sit by herself.

From Nov/Dec 2010

Then Annikka and I got out to play in the snow during Eila's morning nap.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

All the neighborhood girls were out sledding down the road/hill (before too many cars tried driving on it and wore all the snow away). Lillie took Annikka for her first sled ride, and even pulled Annikka up the hill.

From Nov/Dec 2010

I know this may seem a bit dangerous to the non-Oregon observer, but people really stay indoors when we get snow around here; besides there were 3 parents out there, too, making sure that no one was on the road if a car came by.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

Later in the day we went to visit Mika and Katriina and play in the snow that Mika's mom had brought him (how cute is that).

From Nov/Dec 2010

The bundled up babies enjoyed watching the big kids running and the snowflakes falling.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

Then warmed up by playing inside again.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010

And Joel didn't want to miss out on all the snow fun, so he and Annikka made a "baby snowman" when he came home from work.

From Nov/Dec 2010

From Nov/Dec 2010