Summarizes 2015 and saying goodbye to the blog!

It's been 5 years since I started this blog. Quit amazing five years if you think about it. Lately I have been to busy with life and I hadn't had the time to update the blog and a blog that nobody updates it's just boring... So instead of feeling boring and guilty about not updating the blog I decided that it's time to turn a page and end this blog. But first lets summarize the past year with a few unpublished pictures...

2015 started with a lovely trip to Dubai where H popped the question and after saying no (in pure chock) I finally said yes!

The spring was a lot about planning for the big event. Buying the dress and the SHOES!

On a warm day in June my closest friends surprised me with a bachelorette party, a memory for life...

And in July Hs sister and mother finally arrived all the way from Canada to spend a few precious weeks with us...

And of course also to attend our wedding. The rain was pouring down and it was the most perfect and wonderful day I could ever have hoped for...

The summer ended way to fast and it was time for Lovisa to start school and for me to start a new job as a university lecturer at Karolinska Institutet. It's been a busy fall indeed. We finished the years with a few weeks Christmas break and although we didn't get a white Christmas it was a well needed break from our everyday life.

After the Christmas break I decided it was about time to throw the wedding bouquet out and it was a nice way to end 2015. 

It's really fun to have the blog to look back on the last 5 years. My dissertation, Andrea's birth, living in Canada, moving back to Sweden, starting to work after almost 3 years of parental leave, buying our house were we live now, seeing the girls grow and develop, turning a page with starting my new job - it's all so much that it's not strange I feel a bit overwhelmed and exhausted. Anyway - thank you to all my readers for being a part of our life, writing comments and following us. Take care and hope to see you all in another forum some day! Love to you all!

Drunk animals.

The animals finished the wine and got drunk. Good thing they saved the champagne for us. Have a great weekend everyone!

Small girl getting big.

She's been waiting and waiting for this. Several friends already lost a tooth or two. And suddenly today when eating an apple...

My little girl is growing up...

Friday morning irony...

After being home with Andréa on and off for a few days I looked forward to sending her to daycare this morning. Only to discover that Lovisa has a headache and a bit of fever. On top of this I just discovered that we ran out of coffee. Red alert! Good thing they entertain eachother so their mother can work a little bit...

I hope you´re well out there and I wish you all a very nice and relaxing weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all our Canadian family and friends - happy Thanksgiving! We made a Turkey a la Sweden with lingonberry jam and it worked fine.

We have beautiful sunny days now with crisp air, cold nights with minus degrees and icy mornings. October delivers! My view on my morning run:

With fall and coldness comes unfortunately infections and fever and I picked up a very feverish Andrea from daycare today. Hope she sleeps it off fast...

One of the most amazing days.

Yesterday was one of those beautiful autumn days when you realize that this is the nicest time of the whole year - a high blue sky, the air is so fresh you want to inhale a bit extra and even if it's a bit chilly the sun warms you up and the girls took the fleece of after a few minutes in the park...

Suck in the sun and load up the last of the vitamin D...

Could we stop the time for a few days and just enjoy this precious time before darkness and cold takes over?

Isis new adventures.

There once was a little girl that got a very white and soft polarbear on her one year birthday. She loved that polarbear and named it Isis. She took care of it, cuddled with it, she even cut his tiny brown claws with a nail cutter and then cried when she realized they didn't grow back out. The little girl grew up and stopped playing and cuddle with Isis but he followed her to new places and moved with her around the world even if she didn't pay any attention to him anymore. One day the little girl was all grown up and had two little girls of her own. When the girls were big enough the grown up girl explained to them that this polarbear was very special and old and if they treated him nicely they could have him. 

Once again Isis was cuddled with, played with and carried around. He goes with them to daycare and school and this Sunday he followed the little girl called Andréa to Andréas friend for a playdate. On the way home after the playdate the little girl dropped Isis somewhere along the way. The little girl cried and her mother felt sad. 36 year old Isis was gone just like that! The little girl and her mother decided to look for Isis and off they went - searching and looking. And all of a sudden the little girl spotted Isis. Somebody put him in the middle of a cross-section where she probably dropped him and there he was. Highest up on a roadsign he had a good view over the whole traffic situation. Isis on new adventures...

The first interview with a 6-year-old!

Lovisa turns 6 years old today and I can't believe that I'm the mother of a 6 year old! Besides from Lovisas chocked mother the 6 year old herself is very content. Canadian pancakes for breakkie, icecream in school, her favorite dish for supper and cake for desert. And the best of all: a Barbie house with an elevator. She's not going to fall asleep anytime soon...

I did a interview with a very happy Lovisa after supper:

What's the most funny thing you know? To climb and hang in you knees in a climbing frame. To do somersaults on the trampoline.

What's the most boring thing you know? To be sad, to hurt myself, when somebody hits a child and when I don't have a friend to play with.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to work in a store that sells jewelry.

What's your favorite food? Fish sticks with mashed potatoes.

What's your favorite desert? Cake.

How many children do you want? One.

What do you think about school? It's fun.

Whats the most fun part? The breaks when we play in the schoolyard.

What do you wish for? A barbie house and two barbies, a boy and a girl.

How does it feel to be 6 years old? Really fun.

Favorite book? The pancake (a story about a pancake that escapes from a hungry family but finally gets eaten by a fox... Very exciting indeed)

Favorite TV-show? Rock'n'Roll Barbie (the latest Barbie movie)

Happy birthday to our lovely, stubborn, funny, happy and best Lovisa. We love you so much!

Identity crisis...

New job, new car, new name, new marriage, daughter in new school - what happened with the life I knew?

Slipping through my fingers...

Lovisas first day at school. My little baby when did you get so big?

Vacation of 2015.

Last hours of this summer vacation and to sum it up I wanted to share a few good memories:

We spent three wonderful weeks with H:s mother and sister that came for our wedding and then stayed for vacation. We visited castles, they tried Sauna at dad's place, we ate and drank good but most of all we spent valuable time together.

Lovisa at the Royal castle and "livrustkammaren":

We visited Skansen and the girls tried horse-riding for the first time ever, it was a pure success!

And they also got to taste cotton candy for the first time...

We went on a boat trip and watched Stockholm from the water and we all jumped in - lovely!

Tomorrow we start our ordinary life again with a few big changes, this soon to be 6 year old starts school and her mother starts a new job... Exciting!

Our wedding.

One of the most amazing and wonderful days of my life happened to be the 25th of July 2015. When I got to marry the love of my life and become Mrs Bouma.

It drizzled when we took the photos before the wedding ceremony. H and me just felt happy and giggled through the whole thing. It all felt a bit unreal, like we were in a movie and the world around us were standing still...

My hair was fixed before lunch and I had about 4 litres of hairspray in it... Or at least that's what it felt like. But my hair was perfect until the bitter end and survived rain, dancing and kissing :)...

The moment of truth, our girls were so cute and walked up the aisle like real professionals...

I just love my ring, it's the most beautiful jewelry I ever owned. The bracelet was my something borrowed.

When the ceremony was over the rain was pouring down and all I could feel was warmth and happiness. It was such a wonderful day and the perfect supper and party after. Thanks to everyone that made our day special! An additional gigantic thank you to our photographer Robert, our musicians Mats, Åsa, Titti and Cecilia, our toastmaster Pär and our family. We love you all!

Last hours as miss Loiske...

Thank you Karolinska University Hospital!

I published this blogpost without any text at first. Because it's hard to set words on 7 years of work. Now I'm going to have a leave of absence for 6 months so I'm choosing to see this as a trial period and not as goodbye. But if this means the end of my career at Karolinska University Hospital the first I want to express is my gratitude to my wonderful colleagues, that really took me by surprise when they arranged a goodbye party for me on my last day 2 weeks ago. I've learned a lot, I experienced a lot and I'm going to miss you all! Thank you!

Summer of 2015.

Thank God for infra-heat and fleece...

We got a little break...

In between planning a wedding, taking care of wild girls, washing, cleaning and working I got a well needed lunch with mum. A delicious vegan salad.

Supper on the beach.

After a long workday I cycled to daycare and picked up two overheated girls. We fixed a quick pasta salad and then we spent the evening on the beach. Swedish summer at its best.

The first day on the beach!

Way to cold in the water for my taste but I managed to jump in. These two maniacs however were in the water for hours...

Is summer finally here?

Sudden death in a bucket...

Last nights big event was when Andrea found a bird and it's baby drowned in our water bucket in the garden. The task to fish them up and bury them in the forest I quickly delegated to H. The law of nature is hard.

Sweden in June.

Well if we can't use our new swimming gear in the lake we just have to try them out in the bathtub. It's been a very cold start of summer 2015...