We Bought a House!

Ok, this is a really really long time in coming. I bet most people still think we are in Finland! We came home July 25th. We were only in Georgia a week, and then we moved out to Utah to try and get settled before Tony started a job. We went straight to work trying to find a house. We had a great realator who let us look at houses everyday morning to night with Leah in tow. After looking all over Utah valley, we finally decided to buy the house that she had told us to put a contract on while we were still in Finland! The house is less than 3 miles from BYU, but it is in a nice family area. The area is a collection of newer homes surrounded by older homes because it used to be an orchard that someone owned and finally sold off about 1o years ago. Tony is excited that he can continue biking to work, and I'm excited to get to know all of our new neighbors. There is a 5 year old boy across the street who Ryan plays with, and another one directly behind us. They go back and forth to each others houses. Ryan is glad to have boys to play with after 7 months with me and Ben as his only playmate.

So more about the house... It is a ranch style house. Things I love about it are the vaulted ceilings, the open kitchen, and the three car garage for all the bikes and strollers. The house is on a cul-de-sac so the boys can play out front. I also love that the boy's bedrooms are all downstairs along with all their toys in the play room. We've separated the floors into kid floor and adult floor. I'm still in the midst of unpacking which is proving difficult with Leah attached to me like glue lately, but we are so happy to be here and feel so blessed to be in our new house.

Some of these pictures are from before we moved into the house, but they were the only pictures I could find!

A Hard Days Work

The boys find various ways to fill their day.

Ben makes sure the plants get watered, even if it means throwing on your boots and running outside without telling mom.

Ryan and Ben worked hard manufacturing grenades, and "testing" their effectiveness on the deck outside.

There was a lot of dirt that needed to be moved that day.

After a big day, there is nothing like unwinding to a little Star Wars.

Frisbee Golf

What should we do this weekend....play frisbee golf. A couple of weekends ago, we went with our friends to the beach to play frisbee and enjoy the good weather.

Tony is showing you one of the different Frisbees available for playing. Who knew, but there are putter Frisbees, long range Frisbees, and others! The Finns take their Frisbee golf seriously. I saw guys carrying around duffel bags with over 20 Frisbees in them! I guess you can join teams and compete and everything.

The boys warming up.

One of my winning shots!

Another perfectly aimed shot on my part. That Frisbee was never found, and was basically the point when I let the guys play on and took the kids to the beach.

What a beautiful place to play Frisbee, right by the beach.

The boys went exploring after our game was done.

Leah is getting ready to crawl!

Warning! Leah is getting ready to crawl. I am not ready for this to happen yet. I really want her to wait until we get back to the U.S. in one month. I am not equipped to baby proof this house, but she is determined. For all who are interested, I included a video to show her attempts at crawling.

Leah gets up on her tip toes like she is doing pushups. Gathering strength for the big day when she becomes mobile.

Very proud of herself.

Houses and Trampolines

I've been looking for houses around Provo that I like for when we come back and want to buy a house. I found this one house that I like so I looked it up on Googlemaps to see the satellite view. I can already tell there are lots of kids in the neighborhood judging by the number of trampolines I can see from the aerial view! I guess were moving to Utah! I can't laugh to hard though, because the first Christmas after we get a house, we're getting a trampoline.

Bike Ride and Day at the Park

Ben has just discovered that he can ride his tricycle without any help. I have been pushing him on it while I call out, "Turn Ben.... we're going to crash... turn the other way... TURN!" At the same time I am also trying to push Leah in a stroller with my other hand. A couple of days ago though, when I went to push Ben on his bike, he told me that he could do it, and he took off. It was an overnight success story.

Ben goes as fast as he can and steers perfectly and follows Ryan on his bike for 10 minutes to the park and all the way back home. Sometimes twice in one day! Here are some pictures from our most recent trip to the park. We had already been once that day, but in the afternoon Ben watched a Calliou episode where Calliou was riding his bike. Ben looked over at me with an expression on his face like he just had a great idea. He said, "Ride my bike!" and he raced out the door throwing his boots on as he went.

Ryan the climber

The boys like to play soccer together.

Ben makes this face the whole time he rides his bike while making car sound effects.

Jumping in Puddles

It was raining the other night when we were going out so the boys got to try out their new rain gear. They had lots of fun running and jumping in the puddles.

Family Bike Ride

On one of the first beautiful days of spring we all decided to go for our first family bike ride. First the boys tried out the bike seat attached to the adult bike. Then we tried out the kids bikes. This house we rented is great. Who would have thought that there would have been bikes for the kids to ride just their size!

Everyone in Finland has bikes and toting their kids along behind them is the natural thing to do. A lot of the families only have one car, so the other parent goes by bike. Many parents drop their kids off at day care on their way to work by putting them in the bike seat and biking to daycare and then to work. During the day at the park you can also see moms and dads with bike seats on their bikes and a bike trailer for two hooked onto the back of the bike. I love the idea! It's great to put Ben on the bike and take off.

Leah is always up for an adventure.

On our bike ride we decided to all go down to the local grocery store so the boys could pick out some treats on our special day.

Ben enjoying his candy after we got home.

Super Mom

I took the kids to the indoor play group again. They have so much fun there that I'm willing to endure the tiring process of getting their and back. This is how you get around without a car when you have three kids. One double stroller and one 5 month old baby strapped to your body! I have to walk like this to and from the bus stop about 15 minutes away when your going like loaded down like this. And would you believe that this bus stop is up and over one of the ONLY hills in Oulu. I would have Ryan walk, but he apparently, so he tells me, only has enough energy to run around the stadium for 90 minutes and then all his energy is gone. Oh well, they do play hard.