Catch-up!

We're looking April into the eyes and I have not posted since December 20th! Time for some catching up I guess.

Morfar og Mormor 2010

My wonderful Grandma Solveig passed away right before Christmas, so Kaia and I flew home for the funeral. This also meant we spent Christmas in Norway with our family there, but not with Kevin, Michael, Victoria and Madde here in the US. It was a weird Christmas for certain. The first one away from Kevin, and the kids for that matter. Kevin missed Kaia's first Christmas, but I am SO glad we were able to go home for the funeral and be with my family!
The awesome birthday gift I got from Kevin was put to good use (my iPod touch) since we allowed the older two kids to open their Christmas gifts from us on the 21st (night before I left for Norway) and they got iPod touches as well. Those amazing gizmos have Facetime, so a lot of our time was spent chatting on Facetime while I was gone. It helped Kevin see how much Kaia changed while we were gone, as well as helped Madeline not be too sad about missing us since she could see us on the iTouches. I arrived in Norway on the 23rd of December, just in time for Santa's little helpers to arrive with candy for the kids, decorating the tree and preparing for the feast the next day.
Christmas Eve was spent at my parents' house with my siblings and their children.

Mormor's (grandma's) funeral was on December 29th, and was a beautiful, although very sad occasion. My entire family was gathered to celebrate her wonderful life.
After the funeral we all gathered at my grandpa's house for some foods and conversation. In the evening we had a cousin gathering at my Aunt Siv's house. It was so great to hang out with most of my cousins on my mom's side! We've all grown up running in and out of each other's doors and have a close relationship, and being with them all to remember mormor, and rekindle some of the relationships that have kinds of dwindled a bit was very good for all of us. We started writing down stories my mormor used to tell us, and hopefully, over the next year, we can gather most of them and have them bound in a book along with stories from and about my morfar (grandpa) for all of us to have.
Below is a picture of my awesome cousins (minus Silje and Sondre).

I returned to Norway on January 9th (same day as we returned from Norway the year before I was told by the dude in passport control):)

Madeline turned 2 years old on the 12th of January. She is getting so big and constantly amazes me and cracks me up! She loves her baby sister, although is getting into the stage of not wanting her baby sister to take any of her stuff, which is a problem since Kaia started crawling and standing up while in Norway.

Kaia is turning 1 on April 17th. My little baby is not so little, and it just scares me how fast they grow up!! She is always happy and content and loves her siblings and her daddy!

Victoria and Michael are great help with their siblings and around the house! They started Norwegian class online in January and are making great progress. Hopefully our stay in Norway this coming Summer will leave them speaking Norwegian fluently:)

Kevin and I have been working on our house, finishing a 4th bedroom in the basement, and listed our house for sale again in mid March. We've also started looking at houses that we are interested in and have found one that is VERY interesting:)

My cousin Marthe came to visit for a while (her stay in Arizona did not turn out the way she was hoping) and we were lucky enough to have her come here. She is leaving for Phoenix again tomorrow and will return to Norway on Wednesday. Poor girl has been put to work her, helping up paint our new bedroom, watch kids and making Dronning Maud pudding now renamed Kevin's pudding:) It has been soo good to get to know her better and hang out with her since she was only 9 when I moved to the US.
I hope that despite the lack of things to do in Rochester during the winter months, Madeline and Kaia's naps for 3 hours during the day and everything else going on, she has had a good time!

Dronning Maud Pudding aka Kevin's Pudding due to his obsession with the dessert!

Saturday we visited the Spam Museum in Austin, MN (see picture below), Monday Quarry Hill, Wednesday Oxbow park and Zollman Zoo. Today will be spend scrapping morfar's birthday gift and just relaxing. Tomorrow we'll head to the Cities, and to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America before taking Marthe to the airport. I am not ready to send her on her way, but it helps to know we'll see her and many others again this summer!

 All of us, plus Marthe and Victoria's friends Breanna at the Spam Museum