Lucia...

13:th of december it's time for Lucia! I will tell you all about the tradition later... We started the day very early and the two girls had a cozy and wild Lucia morning Before we head to Natalie's preschool for their real celebration. Both girls were so excited about their White dresses and were dancing around in the livingroom while we watched the Lucia celebration on tv...

 At the preschool I must admit that it was hard not to cry when all kids were singing as pretty as it can be with 4-5 yera olds. My heart melted completely!

 

A week in Gothenburg...

From 14th of december...

We had a really nice time in Gothenburg together with my Dad, his wife and their son Hugo! My big brother also joined us for half the week. It felt good to live alittle "city life" for a while. I lived in Gbg a year and it is definately my favourite city in Sweden. Very pretty now before Christmas!  Since this friendly city is located right by the ocean it can be windy and also quite rainy. We had a little bit of both..
The plan was to do alot of kid friendly activities during the week. And since I had "babysitters" I also planned to actually spend some time without the kids in the evenings..just be me again.. not only a mama!

We went on a two-day trip to a  waterpark resort "TheReef", in Denmark. I can highly recommend it to families! We started with a
3.5 h trip with the ferry to Fredrikshavn. Already on the boat Hugo and Natalie had a lot of things to do and Curious George also came and played for a while. The resort is a theme "Pirate hotel" with an inbuild waterpark. So you take the elevators from your room to the pools! Very good for kids of all ages!

We also visited Universeum (universeum.se) , and had a fun half day there with oncle Mikael...
And I got to go out and had a few drinks with my loved friend Carolina!  So nice to catch up on our lives!♡♡♡

Except from a few planned things that a storm and sickness unfortunately put an end to, our week was memorable and fun.. And we will definately be back soon!

Once again..only pics from my phone.

  

 

Almost Christmas. ..

Time just fly by..and Christmas is getting closer...

We had hope of spending the Holidays together overseas, but that's not gonna happen so this year we will have a Swedish Christmas. It seems like it takes forever to get my visa done, and its very hard to understand how the process is so slow when we got my approval already in June... Right before we left for Gothenburg I finally heard something from national visa center (after several emails...)
(NVC dep. that handles the visa processing after US immigration , USCIS,has approved the application) NVC also book interviews at the embassies all over the world...unfortunately US embassy in Stockholm has nothing to do with it until they get all my documents from NVC... Anyway before the final stage of my process I have to send in a few more documents again from Skatteverket, that we already sent to USCIS last winter.. and also Criminal records from the police (utdrag ur belastningsregistret). I dont know why we didn't get this request earlier!!  Luckily I am "clean" at least that I am aware of...I got a speeding ticket once, but that shouldn't be in there or make a difference. It takes quite few days to get this so before NVC get all documents it will be a few more weeks.. so my guess now is that it will be done mid january..We hope. .dont dare to plan anything right now! I guess the girls have to put on their nice christmas clothes and get the gifts later that we have in Montana...a second Christmas!

Lets hope for snow then, here its just green, gray and foggy not so much Christmas feeling over that...
Well, we are trying to get in right mood for the Holidays and afterall it's gonna be nice to celebrate with my family here. The girls made some decoration with things we found in the woods- very appreciated activity for Natalie. I'll show the result later.. We also baked some and yesterday we got this year's Christmas Tree. Natalie loved decorate it and she did a good job even though it might not be picture perfect... but it's more important they have fun making it. In the future I think the girls will have their own in each room so they can get exactly what they want in the tree...

Here are some pics from my phone.

Over and out...

  

Jamie 1 year...

From 16th of nov..

I can't believe it's already been a year since we got our little girl! Time is running so fast this time. I guess it has something to do with the bigger sister... With the first child you can be totally drawn into the magical time with a baby but when you already have another one its so different... but still magical♡..

Anyway we had a small birthday party for Jamie and she got to eat chocolate cake for the first time! It wasn't the prettiest cake in history, but at least I put my heart in it and made everything from scratch...Jamie liked the rasberries on top most!

To open presents was very enjoyable and I can say that big sister was very helpful. Surprisingly not as jealous as I imagined. The reason for that might have been that she also got a few late birtdaygifts by herself.
I think its very important for the girls to get the best from both "worlds" USA and Sweden, so I encuraged family to get swedish design, books, movies and so for gifts, and I also try to buy that as much as possible while we are here. Alot if BRIO, Astrid Lindgren, and danish LEGO! Good and sustainable toys!

( Longing for a computer so I can put up real pics not just from my phone...will post more later but this is better than nothing though!)

Cold day..

From 27th of nov..

So far we have had nice and relaxing two weeks in Sweden. November has been alot warmer than usual, and also more green. Moms neighbor mowed his yard yesterday... But it will be cooler.

It's really nice to see all friends and family again, I wish all people were of work though so we could just hangaround..but thats not how the real world works...Only when you are parentfree with your extremely wild 1year old..
One of my best friends, Annika, is also home with her little daughter right now so we can admire our girls together!  It's truly a unique and such a big advantage swedish parents have overhere. Parents can stay home with their baby for a long time without worries for losing their job or not pay the bills. The swedish law give you rights to stay home 480 days ( each parent must at least take 60 days, the rest you can split however you wish between the mom and dad). For 390 days you will get almost 80% of your salary ( depending on your average salary the last 240 days before the birth). The rest 90 days you get 180 sek minus tax (so only like 20 usd/ day). And you can plan to "take" as many days a week you need to save days for future until the child is 8. All in all unbeatable benefits for swedish parents...

I put up some pictures from my cellphone...All taken in Hörvik, where we stay right now.