Busy busy busy

Well, it has been a very busy time and I have been a bad bad blogger! But, I did spend over 1 hour tonight on this very blog just to have all of it deleted! I am not too happy now, and will try to just pick up on the highlights! Oh, and it will be in reverse chronology due to the fact that I am unable to move the photos without deleting everything!

We finally made it to the Austin Steam Train ride, only to find out that the steam engine is in parts all across the country. So we rode a diesel and Yes, Markku did notice the difference and asked to ride the steam engine! He still had a great time though. We rode about 3 hours through the hill country to a town called Bertram. Then we rode back to Cedar Park.

Here is Heikki and the kids outside the train

Markku and Suvi watching the scenery go by

Heikki's mom has a photo of each one of her 4 children in this cute red outfit holding the same teddy bear. So we have one of Markku when he was a baby (still need to get it scanned onto my computer) and this one of Suvi:

I love her smile on the left (she is wearing a back pack, one of her favorite things), and on the right I think she looks just like me when I was a baby! The funny thing is this outfit is from the 70's so it could have been a picture of me!

We went to the children's museum in New Braunfels (about 30 miles south of Kyle). They had cute mini furniture where Markku wanted to read to Suvi.

My mom and I were busy putting furniture together for my new house. The kids loved the boxes:

Markku is not much of a drawing/coloring person. he likes it for about 2 minutes then he is done. Suvi loves to color and draw. Especially if she can eat the crayons! Look how well she holds the crayons:

Here is a photo of the 2 of them helping me and mummo with a futon chair:

I will rent out these two helpers for a reasonable price! (Mummo NOT included).

We finally celebrated Markku's birthday party in early July. It was a pool party at our neighborhood swim center. It was a blast. He had 2 cakes-one yellow rescue truck made by me and a train made by his mummo Frederick! 2 cakes-what a lucky boy. He had lots of friends to help open gifts as well:

We did make it to Kyle's fireworks this year. It was lots of fun-the kids enjoyed it. Last year Markku was afraid since they sound like thunder, but this year he was ok. He was worried about Tillie at home since he knew she was afraid!

It has been an unbearably hot summer with 65 days of 100+ temperatures here. The record is 69 so we are definitely going to beat that! We have a good month of really hot temps then it is usually in the 80s by October! We have a severe drought going on, so we have to put a hold on any landscaping at our new house. Things are getting very dry.

Markku is talking up a storm these days-in English and finally starting in Finnish as well! He pretty much says every word in English now! He even tells me he loves me. He tells Suvi as well. I hear him say "I love you Suvi. Do you love me?" He is starting to teach Suvi and he even was teaching her Finnish the other day! "Say kissa Suvi, kissa" That means cat. Suvi says "Meow!". She is also starting to talk. She has several words now-mama, meow, bye bye, night night, back pack, she growls for bears and other growling animals and neighs for horses and goats. She LOVES to read books. You will almost always find her sitting in a chair reading a book, or she brings you one to read to her.

Markku is now sleeping in a big boy bed and is starting to go potty on a potty. He isn't trained to either yet, but we are getting better and better each day! Hooray! But where did my little boy go?!

Markku now weights about 35 pounds and was 39 inches in May. He is taller now as his 3 year old pants and PJs are to short for him. But he still wears 2 year old shorts since he is so skinny! His BMI was 15.5 in May. No body fat there. He is a true Texan as he wears jeans everyday he can and is freezing if it goes into the 70s.

Suvi is now about 26 pounds and was 32 inches (90%) at the end of July, but she too has recently had a growth spurt. They are both tall children for their ages. There was a teacher at the park the other night who thought Markku was in kindergarten this year!

Heikki was away for most of this summer. He spent 2 1/2 weeks in June in Corpus Christi for the coast guard and then spent July 14-Aug 14 in Virginia in a training course for inspections for the Coast Guard. It has been a long time without him here-the kids were really missing him! Of course in between he still has his work with ExpressJet to keep him away 4 days a week!

I too have had some changes. We have been real slow at work. And actually it has slowed down since they hired me 2 years ago. So, like the rest of America, my job was downsized and I was let go. I am still stunned and frustrated and angry. I am going to be doing relief work for the time being, but now there are 35 of us relief vets (there were 20 when I was reliefing 2 years ago) and with the economy much less work around town. Add in my non-compete clause for 2 years and I am not seeing a whole lot of work come my way! We will see what the future brings. For September it means a lot of emergency work!

Well, after another 30 minutes trying to re post everything-I am exhausted and afraid it will all disappear again! So, good night!

I guess We are up to May

Things are happening too fast to keep everyone updated! I need more time, more sleep and more patience! So please bear with me! To save time, since I downloaded pics in chronological order, they of course have most recent at the top of the page. I could rearrange but that would take forever (which I have already mentioned I have no time!). So, I am going from most recent back to May!!

Heikki is doing his 2 weeks active duty for the Coast Guard down in Corpus Christi, TX. We went down to visit him for Father's Day weekend. Here we are going to breakfast on the Navy base in Corpus. Markku was having a bad day, so he wouldn't look at the camera!

Suvi was playing on the playset. Markku was off crying or pouting so no pics of him! I did mention he was having bad day! He was really tired-we kept him up late the night before, and boy did we pay (both kids were tired on Sunday as were we!). Saturday we had gone to the beach and had a perfect day! The kids were so much fun to be with! They loved swimming! They loved the waves and the sand! The water here is REALLY warm and it is around 100 degrees and Corpus is VERY humid. I really wish I could figure out how to download video as they were having such a blast and I would love to share it with y'all! But here are some photos instead (not quite as good at capturing the pure joy, but they will do!

Of course there was also planes, helicopters, kayaks, boats and you name it here on base! This is an old trainer-not used any more.

Just about 2 week before this trip, we were in Portland, OR for my sister Jenn's wedding. She and Dan finally decided to tie the knot after something like 12 years of dating. They still live in different countries, but maybe that can be rectified now! Markku was ring bearer, Suvi a flower girl and I was Matron of honor. We also visited my in-laws. Here is Suvi on Puget Island with some sort of elf hat on-something her Aunt Liisa made or wore or I don't know, I didn't get the whole story, but Suvi loved it!

Markku fits in Portland so well. He loves public transit, something Texas is sorely lacking! Here Markku is waiting for the street car-it is FREE downtown so we rode it around. Notice also he is carrying his model airplane. The streets are of course wet-it was raining. What a surprise! I just love the intent concentration-he did not want to miss that train!

Of course the reason we were there to begin with, Jenn's wedding. I don't have any of the professional photos yet, but here are some Heikki took...

This is of course the wedding party. Jenn wore a beautiful blue dress and the whole color theme was brown and blue. Even the cupcakes matched! My mom made the flowers out of felt.

Suvi loved her job as flower girl, but she preferred Jenn's bouquet-it was the biggest! Markku was very busy playing trucks and being bribed with candy to be good, be quiet, walk down the aisle, sit still, don't cry, etc to get too many pics of him! But he looked pretty cute himself!

We have seen Ukki and Mummo Frederick very little (except at the wedding), but back on May 31 we went to their house and swam and celebrated my birthday.Once again pure joy-my kids love to swim! Markku is mostly a blur and he jumps in swims, gets out and repeats over and over. He swims all the way across the pool.

Markku just jumped in-I just got the splash!

May 12 was Markku's third birthday. We celebrated with Mummo and Bill-my parents were not there and no party as both Suvi and Markku had had fevers just 2 days before! We had to cancel his party. (Don't worry, we have another one planned for July 5 and it is a pool party!)

Of course even if you have a fever you get to open presents!

Wow! A recycling truck!

Look at his cake that I made! No party but we had a really cool fire engine cake! My mom helped=but I did most of the decorating. Now I have to try again for the July 5th party! Yikes! Markku wants a yellow one next time he told me! He didn't like red Icing!

OK I think that gets everyone caught up. Now for some cute things that Markku has said:
1) We are learning the sounds that letters make (r says errrr!) So one night in the tub he asks, "What does 2 do?" I tried to explain that 2 is a number and doesn't have a sound. I am not sure he believe me!

2) We have been having some trying days sometimes. I can get overwhelmed and may have a few instances where I may raise my voice in exasperation (or desperation)! One night, I was trying to get Markku to listen and stop splashing water out of the tub and onto his sister. So I got mad after the third time. I yelled. Markku started to cry. So I explained that he has 2 choices, he can obey me with 1-2 warnings and get a nice mommy or try to push it and disobey me and get a mean mommy. "Your choice, nice mommy or mean mommy!" Well I of course felt guilty as soon as I said it, and figured he didn't really understand. But he did. The next day or so we were watching a Care Bears video and a mean ghost like creature with red eyes and a hood appears. He tells me it is scary. Then he tells me it is "mean mommy". Nice hunh??? By the way, the character's name is No Heart.

3) Markku was telling me he was all done with dinner. He says, "My belly way top!" He didn't eat much so I asked, Are you sure? He replies as he is lifting his shirt: "Yes, see?" He points to his tummy!

April

Since I am still so far behind, I guess I will update everyone on April!
First off, we moved! We bought a house in Kyle, Texas (about 18 miles south of our previous home). We just love our new house and neighborhood, Plum Creek. There are hike in bike trails, stocked fishing lakes, playgrounds, pools, basketball courts, family activities, and more in our new neighborhood. We even have a playground right across the street!

Our new house and the park across the street!

Then on the 14th Suvi had her ear surgery to have the ear tubes placed. This is her at the hospital, riding in a wagon while we waited her turn. It was better than Markku's surgery day-we got to arrive several hours later and it was a surgery center just for kids. Everyone was very nice and Suvi did very well. So far, no ear infections!

Then, one week later on April 20, 2009 we had a very special day. It was Suvi's first birthday! I can't believe a year has gone by. She has grown so much and so has Markku! Suvi really enjoyed her party-especially the ladybug cupcakes I made myself! Yes, everyone, I made them. See the photos?! They look pretty good if I do say so myself! I will turn into a homemaker yet!

Here is the birthday girl eating her cupcake! And look at the cupcakes!

She really like opening presents. Markku could have cared less at his first birthday-but Suvi started tearing the paper off right away. She really got into it!

And of course, here is Markku eating Suvi's cake. He was almost as messy as Suvi!

At the end of April some friends and I (and the kiddos) went to the Weiner dog races in Buda, TX. It was fun to watch the races...I still cannot figure out how to upload video so I can't show you all the races, but here is Markku and his friend Donovan playing at the races. Then we got a family shot (well, minus Heikki) in front of a firetruck!

Technically the petting zoo was an event in early May, but it is a yearly event my new neighborhood puts on. It is called Front Porch days. They have a petting zoo, pony rides, jumping houses, 2 stages with concerts, food and more! It was a lot of fun and it was all free!!!! Suvi loved her first pony ride. Markku has yet to ride a pony. He went with Heikki to Oregon this weekend. He ran his first Marathon in Eugene! Go Heikki go! He did finish, not in record winning time but a very respectful time of 4 hours something--sorry hon, I forgot the exact time! So anyways, Markku was having fun with his mummo and Bill and Aunt Kaisa and Uncle John. Suvi and I stayed home and enjoyed some quality girl time. It is amazing how special that little girl is! I missed Markku so much. He was always too busy having fun to talk to me on the phone whenever I called. It made me so sad, but I was glad he was having fun! I guess on the last night Bill said something about momma and Suvi and Markku got real quiet, his lower lip started to tremble and he started to cry. He really did miss us!

Lastly, we finally went to see the bats fly out from under the Congress bridge in downtown Austin. We have been meaning to go forever, (or for 3 years at least!) and finally did it. It was an amazing site! There are millions of bats there-all of them were mommies and their babies stay up in the concrete under the bridge while mom goes out hunting at night! The black waves in the sky are all bats!

So anyways, I will next update everyone on May and I guess June. Maybe I will catch up soon enough!

Back up to March...

Since I am sooooo far behind, I thought I would take it month by month to catch everyone up! So, back to March! We went to the Kite Festival in Zilker Park, here in Austin.

Markku flew his first Kite. He was pretty good at it-it stayed up in the air and he even took down another kite! He could be a Kite Runner!

One day in early March Markku was out with me drawing on the driveway with chalk. He decided to draw Tillie (our dog). He came up with this picture:

It was his first drawing that actually wasn't scribble! See her body, legs nose and tail?

What a cute boy. He was playing in the closet while Heikki packed for a trip and found Heikki's old Navy cover (hat). He liked wearing it.

Here's me with kids, hanging out:

On March 25, my mother in law got married in Maui, Hawaii. We had a grand adventure with the whole Laukkanen family (well, almost everyone...). Here is a sampling of photos-I took a lot!

Markku and Suvi meet the Pacific ocean. Markku is a little fearful. He told me: " Mar no like dat water. It's too loud!" What a great description of the crashing waves-too loud! Suvi on the other hand loved the ocean. She even surfed for the first time! Markku loved the sand and the kayak:

Here he is playing with his cousin Dashiell. They did ok-except both wanted to play with the one truck we had!

Markku and Suvi were adorable in their wedding attire-Suvi a pretty pink dress with polka dots for her mummo, and Markku in an aloha shirt and khakis.

The wedding was at a ranch on top of a mountain, overlooking th eocean. It was a beautiful day. Mirjami was a gorgeous bride and Bill looked pretty great himself! The Laukkanen's can really clean up!

Isa loves to put on a show with the kids. Look at Suvi fly! We tried hard to get a family pic, but the kids would not cooperate. So this is what we got!

Suvi and her aunt Kaisa, and Suvi with Aunt Liisa and her boyfriend Johan. I mean Suvi's boyfriend by the way. They were very smitten with each other! Suvi just loved him!

Aunt Liisa, cousin Ava and Suvi with a happy Dashiell.

Markku spelling out the sign we found. Quiet Trees at Work! Hidden semi-private beach.

Hiking, sight seeing, trip to the aquarium, hanging out and eating, and watching sunsets rounded out our great vacation! If you think our March was busy, just wait until I post April! Aloha!