California

Let's see if we can start up some of the blogging again. We've been bad at it ever since most of our families starting connecting with us on facebook instead, since it seemed like a quicker way to share some of the everyday stuff.

Anyway, we've all made it to California now. The house has been sold, the movers have picked up all our stuff and most of it is in storage, and we're now in a surprisingly large 2-bedroom apartment for 2 months while we start searching for a house to buy. Sniffle.

Being in an apartment again is a lot of adjustment. While it's pretty roomy, there's definitely less space to get away from the rest of the family for a bit (for all of us), so there's less downtime and more friction. Also, while the everyday stuff works quite well, Henrik hasn't been having a great time. From sleep adjustment (waking up at 5.30 is starting to get old :) to more frequent tantrums, he's also quicker on his mood swings and doesn't listen to us the way he used to. It's all part of adjusting to a new place, etc, we know that. But it's still taking a toll on all of us.

Unfortunately most of the week has been rainy, so we haven't had a good chance to get out and do much as a family yet. We did dare the crowds a little bit yesterday to pick up a new winter jacket for Henrik (see the post below? Yeah, it's still missing, and he needs one). We also got a car GPS (TomTom) for Brandy, since she'll probably spend most of her time being lost otherwise. :-) We hope to go explore more soon. First real touring of houses with our Realtor is tomorrow!

have you seen this coat?

I can't seen to find his jacket and am wondering if I lent it out to someone. So, if I did and you have it, could you email me :)

Thanks :)

Boo!

Uhm, long time no post! Wonder if anyone still has us on their readers? :)

I'll do an update tonight or tomorrow. As I was loading up pictures from last nights, we looked back over Henrik's 3 Halloweens and just had to share the cuteness with the world!

Henrik the monster and his buddy Rhett the Monkey! (7months)

Henrik the penguin (19months)


BamBam and Pebbles (Audrey) (2y 7m and 2y 10m)

I made the costumes!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun halloween!

Dinner and a movie with Audrey!

We've been busy not selling our house, but keeping it clean for the last month. This house not selling is really wearing on us, but on the bright side, Henrik is back to his old happy go lucky self.

I think Henrik just had his first chaperoned date!

After nap time Audrey and her mom and brother came over to spend the afternoon/ evening with us. We decided to bake cookies (from scratch), make pizzas and watch Wall-E.

So dinner + movie = date...

Baking with kids (while messy) is a ton of fun. The kids are pretty interested in creaming the butter and sugar in the giant mixer. While this is going on I combine the dry stuff so they can scoop it in the mixer. Henrik and Audrey were great helpers in the kitchen!

They added the flour perfectly and each got to dump a bag of goodies into the cookies. We ended up with chocolate chip, butterscotch and heath toffee cookies! Yum!

As the bazillion cookies were baking, they ran off to play and make a giant mess. It was wonderful. Henrik has been so timid to make a mess and it's just been the last two weeks he's loosened up. Today they pulled stuff out from top to bottom and the look of joy on his face was wonderful to see.

Next, we heated the pizza stone up and got the dough ready for them to top. Both kiddos tasted everything and either liked it or put is back on the plate. It was so fun to watch them pick and choose. They used pepperoni, fresh basil, black olives, pineapple and CHEESE glorious CHEESE!

We turned on the movie and brought them out their pizzas on predesignated plates. Audrey said she gets the very clean (cleaned by herself) pink plate and Henrik gets the blue plate. They were super cute eating pizza and watching the movie.

My heart was melting all over the place and then I looked at the photos we took during the afternoon and seriously... puddles of love all over the place.

Here is a link to the highlight reel from today. Make the browser window as large as you can before clicking on it, and enjoy. :-) You have to see Audrey's super cute little brother chomping on some pizza!

Click me Click me!

Another month has passed

So, first to follow up on the previous post: We did get the house on the market in the two weeks we were gunning for. It was a LOT of hard work, and we had some very much needed help from some of Brandy's friends.

We've had some showings in the two weeks it's been on the market, but no offers yet. Traffic has picked up in the last few days though, so we're somewhat hopeful again. We'll see what happens in the next week or two.

One thing we've been bad at doing is to bring our camera along. We've taken snapshots with our phones and posted on facebook, but the "real" camera has been sitting at home a lot. We've tried to get better at it lately and here are a couple from today. :-)

We swung by Precision Camera today to look at lenses, and this is how grumpy Henrik was. He had his nap cut short due to a showing. Grumpy, but cute. :-)

Some friends of ours had their baby last night, and we went to see her (and them) today. She was very very cute, and Brandy will be doing a newborn session with them this week so keep an eye on her photoblog for sneak peeks from that later on. But this photo of Henrik and mommy was cute enough to share as it is. :-)

No posts, what's going on? Lots!

We've been very very bad at blogging lately. Most people we know already know why but I figured we would update here anyway.

First things first... When I left IBM for a silicon valley startup 4.5 years ago, we agreed that I would travel for a while but we would eventually move out there. Things ended up dragging along though, and circumstances were never right. They still aren't ideal but we've decided that they probably won't get better if we wait either.

I started a new job back a couple of months ago, with a larger company out in California. They want us to move out there, and we've decided to go ahead and give it a shot.

This means we've been CRAAAZY busy. We're working with a realtor, we've been working on getting the house ready for sale (it should be on the market in about 2 weeks), and on top of that I of course have a new job with all that it entails.

Most of our friends who follow our blog are these days friends with us on facebook, and the regular trickle of updates from our life (and Henrik's) gets posted there, which has also meant we've been less active on posting here.

It will be really hard to leave Austin. I have personally grown tired of the heat and a few other aspects of living here, but we've made some really good friends here over the years and it will not be easy to leave. We will definitely have to come back to visit every now and then. :-)

So, we'll try to keep the blog updated, but there's a good chance we'll be bad at it in the upcoming weeks.

-Olof (and Brandy and Henrik too)

Playdate at a fun park

Friday Henrik and I met up with my old buddy from DE, Mitra and her super cute little guy Adrian.

We went to a park and Henrik had a blast. Not only was there sand (and sand at the park isn't that powdery sand you have at the park in Texas, but nice big grains that shakes off easy), but there were also swings, slides and a stroller to push! With a kid to feed in it! Holy Fun times Batman!!

Hey there!

So cute!

Where to buddy?

Lots of traffic, want a snack?

Hello? ! ?

Greetings from California!

Uhm, so lets pretend it hasn't been over a month since I posted. I have been reading all of your blogs, but since I read them in google reader, there isn't a quick way to comment. Sorry if you guys think I've forgotten you!

So, in the last month lots has happened but that's not the post for today.

Let's talk about running late to the airport.

Thursday we needed to leave the house by 6am to get there in plenty of time.
I was ready to go at 6:05. I went up to get Henrik and he had a full on fit about leaving the house. It seriously took me 20 minutes to get him to let me touch him/ pick him up. So leaving the house at 6:30. Not cool.

Got on the toll road and see 40 miles until empty tank. I think that's ok, we'll fuel up when I get home. Nope. Around Cameron Rd the car was on 0 miles left and the needle was pointing below the 0. Crap Crap Crapity Crap. I figure there is nothing for a while after Cameron so I exit and have to drive out to Parmer to f ind a gas station. Ugh.

Fueled up a bit then headed to the airport.

Parking men make me park way far away. I strap Henrik into the beco and get ready to run to the airport. The bus was waiting so I figured I'll just take it. It's probably faster than me running. We get loaded and I see the clock on the bus, 7:26. Plane starts boarding at 7:30. Crap.

We run to the counter and they lady gives me priority pass so I can just walk right up to the first security checker dude. I get lots of dirty looks from people that have been waiting. I feel horrible, but my plane is boarding so whatever.

We run to the gate and get on the plane. I put H down in a seat and fiddle with the Cares Harness we borrowed. No one was booked in the seat behind H so that was nice. I didn't get it right but I was so freaking hot from running, the humidity and well Henrik is like 10000 degrees F. As I was strapping him in I think a few beads of sweat dropped on him and he laughed at me. Thanks Kiddo ;)

So after we got to cruising altitude and the seat belt sign was released I fiddled a bit more with the harness and got ti on right and tight! I think I like it, but I'll reserve judgment for after the return flight.

I was so stressed out, but we got here and Henrik was super happy to see Olof so that made all the morning stress worth it.

Glad Påsk

We had a fun day today. We hung out at home most of the day, but in the afternoon after Henrik refused to nap, we decided to take a few eggs and go up to the park at the top of our street. Henrik had a blast. We were invited to dinner at some friends' house later, had a great time but Henrik finally hit the wall of tiredness and we made our retreat home.

We brought the camera to the park, it had been sprinkling on and off today and the light was a bit funky. But I can't seem to whittle down the number to a small one. So here's another big batch of photos. :-)

Playing after dinner

We went to dinner with Frank and Catherine tonight, and we played a bit in the parking lot afterwards. Well, not in the lot, but in the grass between two of the lots.

We did a lot of spinning around


Which makes for a dizzy Henrik


Splat!


More? Ok!


... but not too much. Need to keep dinner down.

Some people say we look alike. I don't know what they're talking about. :)


Aaand we're done. :)

Birthday Party!!

Henrik's birthday party rained in last weekend, so we had to reschedule it. Today was the day, and while it was nice and warm (in the sun), it was windy. Not only that, but it turns out that the pavilion we had booked at the park was in a spot that had no protection at all from the wind. Still, we think most had a pretty good time!

I was running around like crazy getting balloons and ice and this and that (and Henrik was with me, trying to get a little nap in the car seat). I got there just in time for them to go on the train ride! :)

Here's the train rolling into the station. Henrik is sitting with Hadley and Mar in the first row!


Second car of the train full of friends :-)


Jack always knows how to have a good time.


Heading back towards the party, Henrik holding hands with Anabel


Of course, when you are 2 years old, there is no such thing as "quickest way from point A to B". :-)


"Look mom, I'm sitting down. Can I have my cupcake now?"


Light the candle, already! (It was very windy indeed)


Haaappy Biiirthday dear Henrik, Happy birthday to you!


The cupcake passed the Henrik quality control.


Wyatt and Mason were there too


Cupcake and bubbles. Can it get much better than this for a 2-year-old Henrik?


A view of the pavilion and the crowd :-)


Dennis and Kenzie


Travis and Alex


Isabella running on the field


Rhett on the soccer field next to the pavilion


Brandy was trying to hand out balloons to the departing guests. She did a handful until at one of them, the whole bunch slipped her grip and went bye bye in that cruel way that only balloons can. Luckily, no children were traumatized by it this time. :-)


A few of us (Me and Henrik, Monte and Rhett, Abby and Kim with Wyatt and Mason) took a last trip on the train before we finished packing up and headed home!

The hunt is on!

The easter egg hunt, that is.

Today was the easter egg hunt at Emma's house, and we had a lot of fun. He got to see the usual crowd there (besides Mya, who couldn't be there). There was also a new member of the gang there. :-)

Here's the whole group on the back porch



Kenzie and Annie hanging out



Shelby and Madison



Henrik having a blast, like always. :-)



Kenzie and Kristen



More Henrik



Emma and Kristen



And one last Henrik to finish off the set with. :-)