Decorating

We decorated the gingerbread house yesterday. Lots of fun and loads of candy it was....



Outside it's not that sweet, but we've surely got loads of snow and loads of fun!
Today we've been skiing and digging a snow cave.

Fianally it stoped snowing for a while

So we decided to put out the lanterns we made.
one of them didn't survive more than a few seconds after taking it out of the bucket... An accident. It's in the freezer for recovering.

Here is a photo of the other two:

Did I mention?

Did I?
Did I tell you we were out ice-skating again this weekend?
We were!

All the five of us and our friends too. We also met lots of other friends on the ice rink. It was lots of fun!

Gingerbread

Yesterday we lit the second candle.
We also baked lots of gingerbreads, and we all had to taste them. Wonderful!

Second Sunday of Advent

Ice lanterns

As a part of the advent calendar, we give the kids activities instead of all little gifts.
Today the activity was making ice lanterns.
We pour the boiled water in little pails, and color it with water paint in colors we like.
Next we put them outside (or in the freezer if it's not cold enough outside) and wait for them to freeze.
More photos are coming once they are done and we lit a candle inside them.

We can hardly wait until tomorrow!

Iceskating

Another way of embracing the freezing cold winter ;-)

It's cold, and it has been for a long time. Most of the time it is so cold preschool don't even let the kids outdoor. It was 3-4F today (-16C), and not much to do.
But iceskating is always fun :)

Skiing

Saturday we went out skiing - all the five of us.
The weather was beautiful but a bit cold and windy.
Here are some of the photos.


We also had a campfire and ate lots of foods.

Leader training

Youths in our area are attending a seminary to become leaders in our congregations. Here are some pics from one of the weekends this year.

Good things about working late

Indeed there are good things about working at night and in the weekends!
One of them is puting the fuss of making dinner on someone else. But I'm not so sure hubby himself thinks it is the best that ever happened to him.
Another thing I choose to like, is the way the kids' faces shine up when I tell them I'm not working tonight.

There certainly are some drawbacks too, but today I prefere thinking about the good things!

Cross-country skiing in Winterland

Wow!
One week and a half ago we got loads of snow, and it lasts!
I can't help loving the beautiful winter terrain. It has been pretty cold - like 8-9 degrees F or -13 - -14 degrees C. Now it is more like 28-29 degrees F or -2ish C.
We had to figure out where to buy new skis, boots, and poles for the boys. They had outgrown everything. Luckily my daughter could have skis and poles from the boys, she only needed new boots.
The little one has been cross-country skiing all the way back and forth to preeschool every day the last week.
And we have also been out in the ski trails two afternoons. We do a 2,5 km (1,5 miles) loop in the afternoons. They all seem to enjoy it.
Unfortunatley it is dark when we go to preschool, dark when we go home and dark when we do our loops with our headlights on. Therefore I don't have any photos from these happenings. But I do have a couple of pics from earlier years that'll show you all what this is like.

Something I want to show you

My kids love drawing. All the three of them.

But the last couple of weeks we haven't had any plain white paper at all. They keep asking for it.

Here are some of the drawings from last month.

A bad blog keeper

That's me!
I'm not shooting much these days, and when I do, there are not lots of keepers among my photos.
Hope it will be better. Hope for some bright and cold days because I just love the bright and cold morning light!
I still have some pics in my memory card, guess there are a few to be prosessed. But when?

Conference

I've been to an awesome conference.
Open your arms and warmly welcome Grethe! Give me a hand!
Now I'm practicing showing off and making people se me and commend me for who I am and what I do!
I had a great time, learning and spending time with friends from the collage years and coworkers.
Thank's to everyone for making these days so good!

And coming home was also an experience itself. Everything was covered by quite a layer of white powdery snow. Beautiful, but very cold!
It seems like winter is here. But I guess it's just a few days before the icicles and the snow are all gone.

Hope the weather is going to be like this for some days, because I'm so ready for some good winter shots with my camera!

Lots of weather

While some members of this family is enjoying the tropical climate in places the others are loning for, we have to accept wind, sleet and even big stones of hail.

But I have to tell you I love the colors of this season! And the rainbow that showed up yesterday was stunningly beautiful!
When the ground is covered by leaves of all different colors, the trees are becoming naked but still keeps a little bit of its beauty. It's awesome! It makes me smile!

I love the fall, as I love the diversity of all the seasons!

On our walk to preschool this morning

My 5 years old daugther was in a very good mood this morning, and the walk to preschool was a pleasure.
Usually she rides her bike, but this morning she planned going home with one of her friends after preschool, and figured out biking was not a good idea.
I'm glad she made that decision today. I'm pretty sure the storm would have blown my big girl off of her bike.
The funny thing was all the leaves falling. Nope, falling is not a good word. Flying is much better. To her amusement the leaves flew around our heads. It was hilarious seeing her joy over such little things, while she were dancing toward preschool. And she was singing "Leaves are falling, leaves are falling, on he ground, onthe ground. Red and green and yellow, red and green and yellow, orange and brown, orange and brown."
Kids way of enjoying life and the simple pleasures makes me remember how much I can learn from my wonderful children!

And yesterday I promised to come up with some pictures from our camping.
Here they are:

A great weekend!

We loaded all our backpacks with foods, tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads and tons of warm clothes. We carried it all for about a mile until we found a great place to camp and pitch our tent.
The sun shone brightly, the temperature was pretty good, but it was quite windy.
But the wind could not stop five kids from 3 to 9 and four grown ups from enjoying.
Sitting around the camp fire listening to the sparks that crackles around the fire and the wind in the treetops, it feels so good! I just can't help loving that feeling of living, that feeling of being free!

Then comes the night. The tent makes a perfect shelter from the wind. We all snuggle in our sleeping bags waiting for the sleep to come. For the kids there seem to be no problems. The grown ups have a bit more trouble. I lie and listen to the kids breathing and the wind trying to lift up the whole tent. I'm glad the tent stacks are firmly rooted in the ground because the wind does not go easy on us!
The wind dies down a bit and my daugther is coughing, I am coughing too - as silent as possible, not to wake up all the others.
The zipper of the tent opens, someone has to go... I prefere to stay in my sleeping bag.
Everything becomes qiuet again and I try to fall asleep. Then some tiny little birds start chirping, a beautiful song to praise the very early morning and the raindrops I can clearly hear falling on the tent.
From now I must have fallen asleep for a short while. The kids are suddenly all awake. So are everybody else.

Halleluja! It's a new morning!
Time for another fire, fetching water, making porridge for breakfast.
We continue eating. And right before we are all ready to head home, it suddenly pours. Within minutes we all get soaked. I'm glad we have good clothes!


There will be pics - but not now :)

Scout camp last weekend.

Here are a few pics from a geat camp last weekend.

Show off time :)

Here we go!
This is the overall or baby suit I'm knitting. Lots of braiding. And I promise you - this is nothing for a relaxing night in front of the TV. I've been knitting backward a lot, just because I was watching TV while knitting... The sleeves are left - at least one of them : )



And theese are the fabrics I bought for the sleeping bag:
Outside brown nd inside green.


I'm also planning a dress for my daughter, and I hope this will make a good one.

I'm still knitting!

Yes, I am!
Still knitting for my little nephew - or the truth is - he isn't that little anymore!
2 days ago he was about 7 weeks old and about 6,2 kg or 13,6 lb. That's a pretty big boy!

Anyway he needs some wool for the atumn and winter coming up.
I've promised to knit a pair of pants that goes with the jacket I made for him. But I found a one piece suit I just had to make first... So that's what I'm trying to finish up now. Then I'll focus on the pants again.

And by the way - I promised to make a winter sleeping bag that fits in the buggy too. So today I'm off to find som fabric I can use for a neat sleeping bag. It's been a long time since I even touched the sewing machine!

I'll show you what I find!

I have to show you

I shot this pic a while ago - the day the boys started 3rd grade.
I just have to show you their new backpacks.
They are very proud of them, picked them out themselves and had them as a gift from all the grandparents.

In this area all the 1st graders get an orange backpack from the county. This is a project to uniform all the firstgraders, and more important, to make them more visible to the drivers.
But somehow it turned out wearing this orange backpack in 2nd grade is emberassing, and nobody wants to do it.
Usually second graders get a brand new backpack for their second school year. But of course not our kids. They didn't attend second grade here in Norway, so they therefore "had to" have a new backpack for starting third grade.
That's the story, and here they are:

At work yesterday

Yesterday I was working again.
We invited all the 14 year olds to a pilgrimage walkabout along the pilgrim way nearby.
We stopped to hear about the pilgrims and to draw lines between their life long time ago and our lives today.
It was a beautiful hike in wonderful weather.

Here are som pics