Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Hi there! Yes, we're alive and kicking! Sick and pitiful but happy to have survived and enjoyed the first Christmas in our cozy little house... And here's a few highlights from our preparation and celebration of Christmas of 2013...

 Lovisa getting in Christmas shape with my Core training DVD...

Christmas is certainly about seeing your dear ones and since my dear grandmother is to old to come see us I was happy to see her over a lunch when I visited my hometown over the day, the week before Christmas. She's 85 years old and she's always been there for me when I was growing up and she has a special place in my heart...

 Lunch with grandmother

Since we had the Christmas celebration at our house we did a lot of cleaning, well at least more than usual anyway, and the cleaning H and the girls enjoyed the most was of course cleaning the car...

 No snow...

Our tree is incredible beautiful and it was a major treat to buy it, bring it home and decorate it together with the girls... 

 And finally Christmas Eve came and the girls found new dresses in their Christmas socks. The guests arrived and this year Santa was to busy to come in, he just pounded on the window and waved to three very excited little girls and then left a big sack with gifts on our porch.

Lovisa opening gifts in her new dress...

Lena, Andréa and my mother keeping themselves busy with one of Andréas Christmas gifts...

A real downer is that both girls been sick since a week before Christmas, H got sick on Chistmas Day and I got sick yesterday... A good thing is that now I really can't do anything but relax and recover and I have more than a week of Christmas Holiday left!  

Merry Christmas to all of You!

Christmas hysteria, Saint Lucia and finally disease...

The closer to Christmas it gets the crazier our lives seems to be... At work it's the busiest time of the year, at daycare it's all kind of activities like pottering evening and Saint Lucia celebration, at home it looks like a bomb struck and in the middle of this chaos we're suppose to get into the Christmas spirit... And H and me communicates more by SMS than actually talking to each other and when we finally think we're going to have a moment together after the girls fall asleep we're to exhausted to say anything... Friday evening I fell asleep around 8:30 pm... But hey, one week to go and then we're off for two whole weeks!

And even if I'm complaining about the girls daycare activities it is cozy and beautiful watching them at the Saint Lucia celebration:

 Lovisa insisted on being Lucia while Andréa wanted to be a Santa...

It strikes me again and again how fast they grow up and the other day I discovered that Lovisa actually writes her own name now... 

 She even got the S right...

We were visiting good friends yesterday and I was bragging about how healthy the girls have been all fall and of course after that Lovisa fell sick with high fever and an aching body... At least she had the energy to celebrate 3rd of Advent with me while H and Andréa attended a birthdayparty...

Ricepudding is yummy!

And I found some yeast in the fridge that I needed to use so I baked some more Saffron bread...


Now I just have to write 12 Christmas cards before I can go to sleep... Better get started...

November check-up!

January: 50,1 km
February: 42,3 km
March: 39,7 km
April: 38,5 km
May: 61,0 km
June: 103,9 km
July: 165,6 km
August: 84,5 km
September: 106,1 km
October: 118,5 km
November: 197,2 km running, 178 km cycling and 4 strength training

Total so far during 2013: 1007,3 km

This means that another goal of 2013 is accomplished and I feel really proud about that! To run over 1000 km total during 2013 seemed pretty hopeless around May before I really started to speed up but now I'm here and I can honestly say that I never in my entire life ran so much during one year...

Now it's bedtime because guess who's defying "Sven" tomorrow morning and is running to work? Goodnight!

First of Advent.

Welcome December! Welcome bright lights, gingerbread, saffronbread and minus degrees!

 Gingerbread in the making...

 Saffronbread in the making...

 These turned out to be delicious and H managed to squeeze down 3...

If you look carefully you can see not only my Christmas decorated window but me taking the picture, our kitchen and our lights in our hedge outside... What a professional photographer I am!

Now I'm pretty stuffed with goodies and exhausted from decorating, cleaning and baking... And this is just the beginning...

One month to Christmas!

And that statement could make any full-time-working mother to get an ulcer and that's why I'm happy to say that today I bought all the big Christmas gifts and all the Christmas cards. After debating whether the girls should have Ipads or cross-country skies we finally decided to go with the skies. I really want us to be a healthy out-door family and then it doesn't feel completely right to buy and Ipad to a 2,5 year old, even if it probably would be convinient to have when we travel to Canada next summer...

The rest of this week has been extremely busy as usual. I worked, cooked, cleaned, picked up the girls from daycare, ran 54,3 km (!) and then it was Friday evening and time to decompress... On Saturday we attended my stepmothers vernissage and even though the girls were screaming and running all over the place we actually manage to buy a painting. That feels so grown-up, to walk around on an exhibition and decide that yes, this would look good in our guest-toilet (well, not in the toilet but on the wall facing the person sitting on the toilet...), lets buy it! The exhibition is on until December 13th so you still have plenty of time to stop by and see some lovely art.

And after this crazy Sunday when I got all the Christmas gifts, cards and tons of groceries, H made us a lovely meal - fondue. And this is the only picture from this week, the girls just took their bath and were all excited over the fondue and the fact that they could eat supper in their robs...

Another November week is to an end and next week we're entering a brighter month thank God...

Faster and darker.

Another crazy week has come to an end. We had inauguration of our new MRI camera and I had trouble finding clothes for the occasion, when you usually always have working clothes it's hard to be private at work... Anyway, I found some clothes, the band was cut, champagne was served and everyone was happy...

After the inauguration...

It's getting darker and darker, a colleague of mine fell on her bike the other morning because it was icy and unfortunately it's just a matter of time before I have to store my bike away for the winter. My colleague got away with a few scratches and a sore shoulder but it's starting to feel dangerous to cycle when it's completely black and icy in the morning... A bit of cold and ice doesn't stop me from running though and my plan is to keep running about 3 times per week all winter. I'm trying to run faster and faster and one morning I actually beat my record to work, sub 1 hour and 15 minutes! And in case you're wondering it's not snot on my GPS watch, it's mud from the ground...

This weekend we had good friends over that spend the night and slept over. It's nice to have people sleeping over, the girls thinks it's a big adventure. They were so excited yesterday that they didn't fall asleep until after 10 pm which made them extremely tired today and they managed to fall asleep during a 10 minute car ride home from the store and they kept on sleeping after we carried them in our house placing them in our armchairs... Talk about tired...

My sleeping beauty's... Now time to put the rascals to bed and prepare for a new week...

Honesty.

We're surrounded of November darkness, the worst kind of darkness that goes in to your head and slowly breaks you down... The girls insists on sleeping in our bed every night still and both H and me looks more dead than alive... I've really tried to reason with the girls, explained that mum and dad needs to sleep and we don't sleep well when they're in our beds. They seem to understand it but of course every night they forget it.

During their bath tonight I said "Tonight you can sleep the whole night in your own comfy, cozy bed" Hence they both shouted in each others mouth "NO! WE WANT TO SLEEP WITH YOU!"

Before bedtime Lovisa asked me what day it was and when I said it's Tuesday and tomorrow it's Wednesday and you're going to daycare she sighed loud and said "Do I really have to go to daycare tomorrow again?!? I've been going there for 70 years now, it's tiresome".

At least they're honest about their feelings, something that we grownups seem to have a hard time being...

September and October check-up!

September and October have been two amazing running months. Many kilometers, two races and a personal best. I'm just going to keep on running!

During the halfmarathon in September

January: 50,1 km
February: 42,3 km
March: 39,7 km
April: 38,5 km
May: 61,0 km
June: 103,9 km
July: 165,6 km
August: 84,5 km
September: 106,1 km. cycling 444,9 km, 5 strength training
October: 118,5 km, 504,2 km, 1 strength training
Total so far during 2013: 810,2 km

In September I ran Stockholm halfmarathon and by doing that one of my goals of 2013 was achieved. In October I beat my personal best in 10K during Hässelbyloppet and yet another goal of 2013 was achieved. The only goal that's left is actually to run 1000K total during 2013 and I have it in reach, as long as I don't get sick or injured I might just make it...

Hello November!

And just like that it's November and less than 2 months until Christmas, that's insane! But also good, the darkness doesn't get any darker than right now and hopefully we'll have some snow to lighten up our day soon. I'm kind of happy even without the snow though because as long as it's plus degrees, snow- and ice-free I keep on cycling to work, every day in rain and wind, and that make me feel so good...

The past week's been crazy busy as usual, work, work, work, Halloween with to much candy, a weekend filled with socializing with family and friends. Friday afternoon my mother arrived from Värmland and the girls were over excited.

 Welcome mum!

On Saturday we had a Halloween party with good friends and we ate, ate and ate some more. Snacks, fishsoup, applepie and pumpkinpie with icecream and on top of this lots of candy! But as H said "it's only Halloween once a year"... And I can't help thinking "yes, but it's also Christmas, Easter, birthdays and Vacation when we tend to over-eat" but I kept my mouth shut. But this with candy is a struggle, the kids get manic when they now we have candy at home, they just keep asking for more, just one more, just one last candy, please, please, PLEASE!!! And when I refuse I'm the stupidest mum in the whole world and everything sucks big time! Phew, it is good it's only Halloween once per year... Anyway, Saturday was nice, it's so lovely to see friends and have a good time and look at the beautiful flowers we got:

And all of a sudden it's Sunday, mum went home and we tried our best to do something useful on a boring, grey Sunday like cycling, running, eating left-overs and making a cozy fire in our fireplace...

Now we've given two tired girls their bath, I cut their hair, read them fours books and sang them four songs. I'm so ready for bed...

Coughing out a blogpost...

I know I had the same feeling last fall... A feeling that I just want to fall asleep and wake up when it's all over, the darkness, the cold (well, not so cold yet but just the feeling that's it's getting there) and the bloody infections from hell! Wake me up in March when it's brighter, healthier and happier...

This weekend the girls have been waiting for something more fun to happen than me trying not to cough up my lungs, H has changed the car tires so we can be safe when the first snow falls, we did tons of groceries, we cleaned the house and probably did at least 10 batches of laundries. I bought a beautiful pumpkin that we carved up and just like last year I managed to forget how much work it is to take care of the pulp and carve out the little funny face... It's a work-out, at least when you have a cold from hell...

The girls making faces on the trampoline, maybe for the last time this season?

My perfect pumpin!

 Practicing...

And here it is all lightened up in the dark October evening...

I'm sorry I don't update the blog more frequent nowadays but unfortunately this is all I have time for right now and maybe this is the way the blog is going to be from now on, updated about once per week. In the "blogworld" one week is an eternity but in my world one week goes by in the speed of light... Swish!

Beam me up.

It's not a good time for blogging. My life's to busy with challenging things and leaves no time for extras. This week's been insanely challenging. My new job takes a lot of my energy and I'm exhausted, nor am I used to work full time. Once the weekend is here H and me think we're going to be able to do all these things that we didn't have time for during the week but the weekend is so short and the girls demanding. Today was the worst day in a long time. We've been arguing about everything, the girls been fighting over everything, from tiny stupid details to big fist fights...

At least we manage to bake a delicious apple pie and we manage to eat it without anyone shouting or yelling to...

Lovisa's new thing: making a face...

Andréa is in her worst terrible two's, doing everything she's not suppose to...

I was so pooped this evening I wasn't far from crying, the house is a mess, the girls impossible and H and me exhausted and outside it's dark and cold. Could somebody please just beam me up to a warm, nice place were nobody yells at me?

Well, at least I bought myself a nice pair of compression socks and "ran them in" today. They're not the sexiest socks I've seen but very comfortable! Now tea and sleep...

Hässelbyloppet - 46:15!

One year ago I ran Hässelbyloppet in 50:24 and felt a little bit disappointed that I didn't manage to run sub 50. Today I ran it again in 46:15! New personal best and a real surprise for me since a had a couple of stressful weeks behind me with to little sleep, a cold that doesn't want to go away completely and a sore ankle... But somehow today just worked out anyway, it was so beautiful, clearblue sky, fresh air and a lot of motivated runners!

I prepared by eating oatmeal and painting my nails pink (now that I've started with this ritual before a race I can't stop) around 11 am, then I walked to the start around 11:45 am, the first seeded runners went off at 12 am and I had to wait until 12:30 pm to start running. I didn't mind waiting, the sun was warm and the mood high. The start went well but it is annoying that the first kilometer, that was my slowest, is so crowded. After 2-3 kilometers it loosened up a bit and I could run in my own pace. I felt pretty soon that I was dressed to warm in my long-sleeved running top with long-legged pants but it turned out OK in the end... Last year I stopped to drink some water around 7 kilometer and I remember regretting this because it steals quite a bit of time and got me out off pace so today I skipped the water and just kept running - a good move, I certainly don't need fluid on a 10 K race...

Getting closer to the goal I started to look around for H and the girls, they were suppose to stand close to the goal. When I entered the arena, Hässelby IP, I was so tired, my legs numb, but I had a great feeling knowing that I was close to beat my personal best. And there they stood, my beautiful little family and I heard Lovisa cheer me on and I waved and screamed "Hi!" and made it all the way into goal. Close to tears with a happy but somewhat pained expression I got my medal, a banana, energy drink, water and a cinnamon-bun - all tasted heavenly!

Hässelby IP, the crowd cheering on the runners during their last meters...

H did his best to catch me in a photo and there I am, in the blue top, on heavy legs reaching for the goal!

Giving my fans some cinnamon-buns after the race...

This race was definitely harder than the halfmarathon, a shorter race means that you have to run faster and being on the edge of your capability and that makes it more challenging. But I made it and I'm so proud over another personal best, I can hardly believe it...

She's cycling!

Today was a beautiful fall day. Blue sky, warm colors and fresh, cold air. We were outside taking care of two kubicmeters of wood that we're going to use for cozy fires during the upcoming dark months... The girls were cycling in the street and I asked Lovisa if she wanted to try cycling without her support wheels and the answer was of course yes. We removed them and after a few trembling attempts she just cycled off like she never done anything else... Our little hero...

I'm convinced that the reason for her managing to cycle right away is the result of cycling all summer on a balance bike, she already had the balance, she only needed to pedal and push the breaks and that was a piece of cake. Another milestone passes by in the speed of light...

The four-year old.

Having a four-year-old in the family is interesting, fun and challenging. She wants to know everything from tiny details to big, universal questions. She's capable of so much but when she sets her mind to it so little, for example it could easily take her an hour to put her outdoors clothes on, just because she decides not to and in the end H and me are putting her clothes on even though she's very capable. Stubborn as no one else she can drive us insane one moment and the next make the whole family laugh. Lovisa questions everything and leaves nothing unexplored.

Where does stoves comes from?

What's inside the body?

Does ducks have a butt?

How did you and dad meet? Followed by Are you in love?

Where does paper come from? When I answered trees she gave me a skeptic look and said Trees?!? Like the one in our garden?

Does monkeys eat food?

She has big debates about everything from what we should eat for supper, what you can and can not do, what she likes, what's cool and what she thinks of our neighbors, friends and relatives. She talks nonstop and it's almost impossible for H and me to have a conversation. One moment she seems so grown up in her way of thinking and in the next so immature... For example yesterday evening I was putting the girls to bed and usually I sit on a chair in their room until they fall asleep. After a while Lovisa looks up from her bed and asks Why do you just sit there mum? I explained that I was waiting for her to fall asleep like I always do, hence Lovisa said It's OK mum, you can leave, I'll fall asleep on my own. Chock! Suddenly she seemed so grown up... I said goodnight, left the room and after 10 minutes she came sneaking down the stairs wanting me back... Not so grown up after all...

The last quote from Lovisa before she fell asleep just a few minutes ago was If you dream about marshmallows you can't really eat them... 

Sleep tight my little heart...

The puzzle of life...

And just like that another week past and I didn't write one, single blogpost. I'm way to busy with the big, challenging puzzle called life. To summarize what happened since I last gave you any news here's a few headlights from the past week:

H and me had one of those amazing and rare date-nights. We did a rerun of one of our favorite things: bowling night!

 H making his bowling moves!

Me and my bowl...

H had a craving for burgers and ate the biggest burger I've ever seen, mine was half the size and I was so full I could hardly walk to the metro after...

H:s burger...

Sunday we went to IKEA and on our way home we bought some "fika". In a weak moment I let Lovisa chose what she wanted and of course she picked the biggest cookie in the whole patisserie... 

Today I threw the cookie leftovers away. Next time I'll pick the pastries...

Monday I started a new job. I'm going to work 50% at my old job and 50% with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a really cool way to examine your heart that provides a lot of information without any radiation. This is an exciting and challenging experience for me and I've gone from working part-time to full-time and that's one of the reasons our life puzzle is more challenging right now. This means longer days for the girls at daycare and it also means that H and me spend almost the same amount of time at work, something we didn't do since before the girls arrival...

For me it means getting up at 5 am in the morning so now it's time to say goodnight...

Cold, darkness and some rewards.

It's suddenly cold and dark in the morning when I cycle to work. This morning I needed wool socks, mittens and a hat. It was just a few weeks back that we were strolling around in short skirts and sandals and it's a chock for everyone when we all of a sudden need winter clothes. Now we have to find all those thousands of little mittens for the girls, the thick socks, the hats and the scarfs. In the same time it's a bit cozy, the air is fresh and we all sleep better when it's cold and dark...

I was a good girl this evening, going out for interval training in the darkness. Sometimes I do miss a partner to run with, especially during these heavy interval training sessions, God knows you need to be stubborn to finish running up a steep and long hill 10 times in a row... After this heavy evening training I rewarded myself with a good stretch:

And some fast carbs:

It is Thursday after all...

It might be a good thing winter is coming...

Lovisa got a late birthday gift from my dad and his wife. They think they found the perfect gift since Lovisa is such a physical little girl... Secretly I think it might be a good thing winter is coming, just thinking about all the accidents and scraps these rollerblades will cause makes me weak...

Grande visit from Canada!

We've had the most amazing weekend. Thursday evening H:s sister and husband arrived and unfortunately they've already left but it was so great to see them. It's hard to know what to prioritize when you want to spend time together and get the best out of Stockholm from a sightseeing point of view. We were lucky with the weather and the Abba museum was one of the highlights of this weekend:

 Dani and Real as Anni-Frid and Benny!

H and me found a heart...

 The girls found a helicopter that they didn't want to get out of...

Dani writing in the guest book...

My cool family...

Yesterday we went to my dad's place and the Canadians got to try a bit of the Finish sauna tradition. 15 degrees in the lake and it's starting to feel a bit cold when you jump in the water after a nice sauna...

Beautiful Dani

It's sad to notice that the children completely lost their French. When we moved to Sweden, almost two years ago, Lovisa only spoke French. When she started daycare a few months after that, she started to speak Swedish and somewhere along the way she completely stopped speaking French. I do believe she understands quite a lot but she doesn't speak a word... She's making an effort though, the book before bedtime is now the Swedish-French dictionary (completely voluntarily)!

This weekend was filled with laughter, talk, joy and love. It's tough to be apart from your family and it's hard to catch up when you only have a few days together. But we did our best and to summarize I'd like to say: "Thanks for all the generous love and thanks for all the fun"

Have a safe flight home.