January Wrap-up

So here we sit on the eve of January 31... and I blogged like twice? #blogfail. It's been crazy getting back to Norway, getting over jet lag, and getting back into a routine. Plus with two babies starting to be mobile and sleeping less, my days are pretty busy! The result? A giant picture overload of the past month. Enjoy. :-)

1. A Sunday shake at Red Robin after church.

2. Daddy snuggling his girls.

3. Madi loving on Jazzy, my mom's shelty dog

4. Madi entertaining baby sitters

5. Madi at Gymboree class. We went quite a few times while we were in OKC and she loved it!

6. Happy girls!

7. Our last Sunday at Quail Springs Church before we left for Norway.

8. En route at the KLM lounge in Amsterdam

9. Jet lagged babies being forced to hold their own bottles. ;-)

1. Happy babies!

2. Adorable Madi

3. A not-so-fun start to the week when I burned my hand on the bottle sterilizer and blistered four of my fingers. :-/

4. Playdate with Levi!

5. Madi making sure kitty and baby sisters were asleep on our late afternoon walk. 

6. Seriously? Sooo happy. I have the best job ever.

7. Madi holding Olivia's hand on the sofa. Heart melt. 

8. Zoey getting some love after missing us!

9. CeCe acting awkward.

1. Practicing sitting up.

2. Discovering each other. It's so fun to watch them interact!

3. Again - so happy.

4. Evelyn crawling to and deciding she'd rather eat the empty wipe container rather than her toys.

5. What happens when you toddler takes your phone for pictures? She takes better ones than you of her baby sisters. 

6. Again, photo compliments of Madi. (Never mind the 30 others I deleted that were blurry - she nailed the shot!)

7. Ikea playdate with the Stohlmann family!

8. Madi and Sara with Hans the puppy dog.

9. Introducing Xander to gymnastics class and the song "Bjørnen Sover" (The Bear is Sleeping)

1. More kitten love when we caught them snuggling.

2. Mommy and her mini: Olivia

3. Daddy and his mini: Evelyn

4. Sweet girl

5. Madi wanted to sit by her baby sisters and hold their hands! Precious.

6. "Are you serious?!"

7. Evelyn doing her nightly stretches. Girl has perfected the army crawl and is getting up on her knees and rocking. UGH. 

8. Lunchtime!

9. Mom miggghhht have missed the nap window and let Olivia accidentally fall asleep on the playmat. Whoops. 

Happy January friends! :-)

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Snowy Stavanger

Today was rainy. And overcast. And considerably warmer than it has been the past two weeks. Sigh. So it's only fitting that I sort through and reminisce about the unusual and blissful snow that we had here in Stavanger!

It normally does not snow here in Stavanger because of how close we are to the water. It will get to freezing, but not often and so when it has snowed in the past it was a light dusting that stayed for maybe 2-3 days.

So when it snowed a couple weeks ago and showed snow the rest of the week in the forecast, this Colorado girl got super happy! Here's some pictures of the beautiful snow we had here!

Here's a slo-mo video I took when it was really coming down with huge, beautiful snowflakes! :-)

I did panic a little bit and wonder if it was still okay for the babies to take their naps outside. I called the barnehage and asked them - phew - as long as it's 14 F they can sleep outside. ;-) So in wool and snowsuits they went!

We now return to you your regularly schedule dreary and dark rain... :-/

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2016 Word of the Year: Trust

So a lot of legitimate bloggers are picking words for the year - a word to focus on for the year or a theme for their lives for the year, etc. The idea intrigued me and got me thinking what I would pick for a word of the year. Quickly one word stood out to me and I knew it was what the Lord was calling me to focus on this year -

A lot of people have asked when we are moving, where we are moving, what job is Jason going to be doing, am I returning to work, etc. And the answer is... we have no idea.

We know that Jason's work contract is up this March and that his residence permit (along with the girls) is up before May. So we have to be out in that timeframe. Unfortunately it's not a good time in the oil industry and Jason's working with Baker to try and secure a job when we return. We are open to location... we just want him to have a job. I am currently on unpaid leave while we finish out our assignment. If we return to Houston there's a chance there won't be a job for me. I've stayed in communication with ConocoPhillips and we will just have to trust and see what happens.

So this year we are going to focus on trust - 

• Trust that the job situation for both of us will work out - even if it's not in the way we expect or hope it would
• Trust that He has a plan for us and will take care of us
• Trust that the timing of everything will unfold in His time and not our own
• Trust that wherever we end up we will make it a home

ANYTHING ELSE??

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Evelyn and Olivia: Six Months

Happy half birthday precious girls!! Believe it or not I am still amazed that I have two babies - ha! (We'll pretend your shocked too since this photo appears that way! ;-) You have grown so much this month and it's been a lot of fun!

- I feel like a broken record on this one, but you are still drooling and chewing like crazy... yet no teeth have made an appearance...
- Olivia is now also rolling from back to stomach and vice versa like a pro. Both of you roll to sleep on your stomach at night.

- Both of you are starting to bully each other - but especially Evelyn! We've caught her stealing Olivia's pacifier from her mouth and put it into hers. We've also caught Olivia stealing Evelyn's toy s they are both guilty.

- We finally got Olivia laughs! We've only been able to get them three times, but it's as adorable as Evelyn's. We will have to try and capture some on video in the future when we get them more often from our serious girl. ;-)

- Both of you are holding your heads up high and grabbing at everything. Time to start watching out for my coffee and my necklaces and basically everything around me!
- Evelyn has started to do 360 turns on the play mat. We also caught her scooting herself backward and then the next day every so slightly pushing herself forward on her tummy. Mommy is not ready for crawling so take your sweet time please.

- We ran the tally and so far you gals have been on 16 flights and visited six countries. Not bad for only being six months old, but I don't think you will reach your big sister's 30 flights, but you are over halfway there! ;-)

Evelyn Grace

Height: 25.2 in (64 cm)
Weight: 13.8 lbs (6.245 kg)
Head: 16.1 in (41 cm)

Olivia Ann

Height: 24.0 in (61 cm)
Weight: 13.3 lbs (6.015 kg)
Head: 16.9 in (43 cm)

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Big Sis - Lil Sis

Y'all - let's be real here for a minute. Is this not the most adorable thing you've ever seen?! Look at these girls?? The love they have for each other is so amazing! Madi is a fantastic big sister and gets smiles and laughs out of these two that her Mommy and Daddy just can't. It's such a blessing to watch them interact with one another!

I'm excited to watch them grow and change in 2016! Happy New Year!!

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NYE 2015

We got to go out for New Year's Eve while my mom and Jeff watched our little ones. It was another fabulous treat for us! We met up with my best friend Chelsea and her husband Ryan at a new restaurant called Ember. The food was delicious and we got to see the fancy rooms that were recently renovated in the hotel.

Afterwards we headed to Heritage Lanes Bowling to ring in the New Year. It was a ton of fun hanging out with these two, laughing, and catching up on our lives, and a great start to 2016!

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