My 1st Grocery Shopping Trip in Norway

We grabbed lunch at McDonald's and after spending roughly $40 US on that lunch it was time to go to the grocery store for the first time.  It was a quick trip to a small store, it turns out stores in Norway actually close on Sunday. We want to be able to eat dinner at home tonight.  I got pasta, sauce, ground turkey (I think it is turkey, it is some kind of ground meat), broccoli, bread, hot dogs, chips, apples, bananas, cereal, jelly, milk, apple juice and orange juice.  I spent about NOK325 or just over $50 US.  

I also found out that you need to bring your own bags to the grocery store.  They ask you if you want bags, but they don't bag your groceries for you.  

I am curious to see how things go at a bigger grocery store when I have a little more time.

This is our rental car, it is a Nissan, kind of like a Murano.  We can fit 2 car seats in the back seat and Addie sits in the third row.  It is also a 6 speed manual which is lots of fun on all of the little roads and round abouts that we have been on.  

This is our house!  We got the keys today and we are planning on staying there tonight.  I have more pictures that I am putting on facebook right now and then I will do another more in depth post on the house when we are a little more settled.   I will say that this house is amazing!  It is perfect for our family and I am so glad that we decided to go with a furnished house.  I feel like we will be able to get settled much sooner.  

So far we have had a few stressful moments, but we are doing well.  We are having fun too!

On Our Way

We are sitting in the lounge at the airport waiting for our flight to leave.  This whole move has happened so quickly it is going to take some time for me work through all of the information I have learned and all of the emotions I have felt.

In the mean time here are some fun pictures from our last week in Houston.


Here are some pictures of our last time at the house as a family.

 We have taken so many pictures in front of this house.

It has been a good home and we will miss it.  

Here are all our new boots.  We have done some pretty major shopping in the last month getting ready for an Oslo winter.

 Grandma and Poppa flew out for our last night in Houston.  It was great having extra hands to help with the kids.

 The kids love riding the 'horse'.

 One last photo op with Grandma and Poppa.

 Here we are all loaded up in a 15 passenger van.  It took this big of a van to fit all of our 10 suitcases, 6 carry ons, 1 stroller, 3 car seats and 5 people!

We are very fortunate to be flying business class on our way over.  That means that we get to have access to the lounge.  The United Lounge at George Bush Intercontinental has a great Family Room.  They have a tv, dvd player and movie library.  We have made some fun friends already and our trip has hardly begun!

Hopefully our next post will be from Oslo!

Going Back to Summer

As our family prepares for a lot of changes, I am looking back at our wonderful summer beach trip.  My Mom is here to help us prepare for the final stages of the move and I was able to download the pictures from her camera.  This is going to be a long post or series of posts, but there are so many amazing memories from this summer that I just don't want to forget.  

This is what fun looks like, a van loaded down with goodies and good kids ready to hit the road for a night of driving.  The overnight drive has been our friend for the last year.  The cargo hitch on the back was full and car top carrier was full of beach toys ready to hit the sand.  

 The kids are great travelers, especially when they just sit back and watch a movie and sleep.

 We hit the ground running with Jon's family coming over for the day.  They were vacationing just down the beach so we were able to get all of the cousins together for a day.  Here are Halyn, Gracyn, and Addison getting ready to jump in, again.  

 Jon and his brother, James, played some serious pool basketball.  

 Uncle Joe got there and everyone was so excited.  

 Poppa got pushed in.

 Aunt Shana had to do some work.  

 Addie had so much fun playing with her cousins.

 The kids played so hard playing in the pool, after lunch everyone needed some down time so the girls curled up in Nannie and GeeGee's room for a movie.

 There was some book reading too.

 Poppa and Garrett shared a drink.

 Then GeeGee and Garrett shared some ice cream.

 More ice cream!

 Uncle Joe got out his guitar and he and Josiah sang a song.  It was a very fun time.  

 Garrett was mesmerized by the music.

 Sweet times listening to good music.

 GeeGee and Garrett played ball, I think this picture is just precious.

 By the end of the evening all of the kids ended up in Nannie and GeeGee's room to watch a movie.  I love this picture of all 7 grandkids, all of them 8 and under.  

 Uncle James packing up at the end of the day.

Family pictures like this make me so happy.  Even though we only got one day together, it was a great day.

Go Gators!

This weekend we were able to go up to Dallas and see some family.  

Garrett fell asleep with his shades on, so sweet.

 Addie got a tiara from Nana and Aunt Wendy, she wore it all weekend and tried to wear it to school this morning.

 This is Garrett in the middle of throwing a fit.  He is so sweet so much of the time that when he throws a fit people are taken aback.  I know this is a phase that will pass, but it is not my favorite part of this age.  

 A big part of this weekend was football, Saturday Florida played Texas A&M.  Jon was a nervous wreck during the game.  

 Garrett had fallen down and bumped his head, I was trying to get to smile.

 Garrett and Daddy watching football.

 I love this picture, this was toward the end of the game.  

 Garrett was off of his normal sleep schedule, so he laid down with Bumba and Ah Ah.

 Ben was in heaven with all of Mikey's weapons.  

 Still pretty tense.

 Garret using his new Buccee's cup.

 Nana and Addie working on some project.

 Uncle Joe, Mikey and Ben.

Ben's favorite gun on this trip, it made noises and lit up.

 Go Gators!!!

Thank you to Nana and Uncle Bim for putting us up in their new house this weekend.  I can't believe that was our last trip to Dallas for a while.  We had so much fun visiting with everyone.