Saturday, December 31, 2011

The great Christmas visit of 2011

Bjorn's mom rallied the troops and brougth everyone to Texas for Christmas. It was awesome to have everyone under one roof. The kids, in particular, had a blast! It was so fun to have us all together although I think by the fifth day, everyone was itching to get back to their own places, and not just because the stomach flu made an appearance. Since then, we've been busy washing all the sheets and towels and hot water, folding up the air mattresses (and buying new ones since half the ones I borrowed broke this week) and finding left items in random

Here's Fafa giving out some presents.
Simone, Meg, Andy and Zane.
Bjorn, Tor and Erik and Zane. We went to my parents' for Christmas dinner. They were fantastic to host 15 people!

All the "BBs" on the stairs. Barnbarn is Swedish for grandchildren so these are all the BB generation.

Up in Dad's new office where he was showing off his guns.

Out of sequence but so damn adorable - this is Meg's hoilday pageant. Is was so damn cute!

Andy and Mrs. White at his school holiday party.

One of the dad's reading a story at the holiday party.

Erik and Fafa on Christmas Day.

Fafa and Jennifer making fantastic Swedish cookies. I ate all of them.

Jennifer in the "Forever Lazy." She really rocked it.

The obligatory bathtub picture. Zane is far too mature at 9 to have any part in this, but the other kids had a blast.

Zane and his glow in the dark mouthpiece.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Vermin in paradise

Our house backs to a creek and a park. We love it. It is absolutely awesome to have this area. Downside? We have animals and not the fun kind. We have a possum that semi-regularly ends up in a trash can. And today, I saw an armadillo crawling across the pool cover and then into the bushes. Naturally one of the cats was sitting outside and watched the whole thing happen while yawning. These guys are obviously natural killers.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Best neighborhood ever

Sure, we liked our old neighbor loads. Great people, friendly and all that jazz. But dang, we have it all here in Southlake. I love the mix of people from everywhere, kids of all ages and parents of all political and religious affiliations. I also love the enthusiasm for community which just makes me darn happy. At Halloween, we all exchanged "boo" treats for the kids which they loved. And just today, I got some homemade Christmas treats, an offer for Andy to house sit some dogs over Christmas and an invitation to a New Year's party.

Even Bjorn had found a few guys that he likes well enough to go out for beers with on occasion. For a guy who tries so hard to be a stoic, non-joiner, that's pretty impressive stuff.

Friday, December 09, 2011

Fancy pants camera

I am still loving my fancy pants camera (and the fancy pants husband who gave it to me). I'm now coveting a new device that will let me post pictures even faster. In the meantime, here are some recent fancy pants pictures.

This girl can move! Here she is jamming at Andy's soccer game.

Classic father-son photograph. Classic picture of Mark refusing to smile.

The "boys", our boy kittens Perry and Mittens. I thought they were so cute asleep like that.

How good looking are these folks?

Our friends Jenny and Sean who were kind enough to ply me with wine and let me stay at their house last time I was traveling.

Andy getting a badge for his work at the last Cub Scout meeting. The whole Cub Scout business is really adorable. It also satisfies Andy's need for outdoorsy stuff that's not necessarily a competitive sport.

Mark really needed a haircut.
Dad in Arizona. We climbed "A" mountain in Phoenix right next to Arizona State University. It was a nice hike, and short, but staight up. I really dug Phoenix. Next time Mary does a triathalon, I want to bring the family and stay for a few days.

Sun Devil stadium from "A" Mountain.

Mary and Mom before race day.

Mary's car all decorated. Elizabeth and I did this after a few drinks and a $100 win at the casino. We are very cool and have fantastic talent.

Mary after the 1.5 MILE swim. That's right, 1 1/2 MILES in the water. And that's just the first leg of this Ironman triathalon. Seriously, it was amazing and inspiring. And naturally, I haven't exercised since.

Cool picture of the bridge and all the bikes.

The bridge at night. As you can see, I was really loving the fancy camera. I thought it turned out really nicely.

Mary after 1 1/2 miles in the water, 112 miles on the bike and 12 miles running. I was tired and I walked a mile. Seriously, it's amazing.

Bjorn putting the star on the Christmas tree.

Andy doing his spelling "sort."