3 Years

Last night as we celebrated the 4th of July we realized that we have lived here in Texas for 3 years.  To some people that might not be much of an accomplishment, but for me and my family that is a big deal.  The longest I have ever lived in a home is 4 years.  I moved a lot growing up.  I was a child of the Air Force (I don't like the term Air Force Brat).  I wouldn't trade all of the experiences I had moving around and all of the neat places I got to go to, but it has been nice to have a little continuity for our kiddos.  

Just for fun I went back and found pictures from July 2009.  Addison had just turned 2 and Ben was about 4-6 weeks old in all of these pictures.  

 Addie's first summer at the pool.  It is hard to believe that she can swim the length of the pool by herself now.  

 Our handsome little Ben-Ben.  

 He was such a chunky little baby, he was exactly 5 weeks in this picture.  

 And here is Jonathan on his first day at ExxonMobil.  I remember how excited he was that he didn't have to wear a uniform to work, and I thought he looked so handsome.  I still do!

 I had to look to find a picture of myself from that time, so here is our little family.  It is amazing the difference 3 years makes.  

When we moved into this house we didn't think that we would be here this long, we thought we would have moved overseas on an assignment already.  We did not think that we would have added another precious little boy quite so soon.  I can't imagine our life if we were the ones making all the decisions.  I love to see how God has directed our life and I can't wait to see where we are in another 3 years.  

Happy 4th of July

Today we were able to have some wonderful friends over for brunch.  I didn't realize until after they left I didn't get any pictures of their sweet family, but Brenden took plenty of pictures so hopefully I can get some from her.  

I did manage to get pictures of the food.  Many of my ideas were inspired by different Pinterest pins.

These yummy kabobs were fun and tasty. 

We were able to eat out on our back patio this morning, it was so nice.

I had fun setting up the kid's table.  All the kids loved their cups with the fun straws.

I love the American Flag in the back.  

I found these letters from an old printing press in Forney, TX.  

The spread, Strawberry Pecan Salad, Hashbrowns from the waffle iron, watermelon and blueberry salad and Baked french toast.

The french toast was good, but I think I will try tweaking a few things the next time I make it.  

My favorite part about cooking, watching my family enjoy eating it.  

Brenden was sweet and took this family picture for us.  I love it!

After our friends left we had some rest time to power up for our evening activities.  

At the park with more friends from church, there was a play ground, a splash pad, and enough room for the dads to play football.  Everyone was happy.  

Garrett eating some fried chicken and lemonade.  He is such a cheesey boy when the camera comes out.  

Garrett was super excited when he saw the watermelon.  I love his little grin.  

After the park we just came home. We really wanted to go and watch fireworks, but this year we just didn't have it in us to battle with three tired kiddos in the Texas heat.  We came home and gave baths and sat on the couch and watched the NBC 4th of July special and the kids were mesmerized by the fireworks.  

Jon and I both love the 4th of July.  We love this country and I am so proud of Jon for the part he played in defending our freedom.  I love that we are able to spend nights like tonight together enjoying our amazing family.  I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July.  

Randoms

To you ever get your camera out and find random pictures that you have taken and not done anything with?  This morning I pulled my camera out to document our 4th of July fun and I found these images.  I am going to try and catch up with these so I am ready to unleash all of our patriotic fun later today, or tomorrow.

Nannie reading a story her last night here. 

 Nannie's parting gift to us was an arsenal of water guns.  

 Garrett was getting Nannie with one of them.  

 Garrett doesn't quite understand how a water gun works though.  He spent most of the time shooting himself.  

 The toppings for our tacos one night this week for dinner.  I thought they were pretty.  Tacos have been a challenge for me since I can't use cheese or sour cream on them.  I have found that avocado helps add in the creaminess that I miss and cilantro and lime add so much extra flavor I don't miss all of my cheesey friends.  

 We have been making many trips to the pool again this year.  The boys were heading to the pool with Daddy the other night and this is how they left.  I love these crazy little guys.  

I haven't been taking many pictures lately, but don't worry, I am making up for it today.  

Observations on Oslo

Originally I had hoped that this trip to Oslo would be more of a house hunting trip, but our move dates keep changing.   So instead, I tried to use this trip to explore the city and check on a few specific details that will be important to us while we are there.  

This was my dinner the second night we were in Oslo.  We went to a Spanish restaurant and I had the paella.  It was delicious, but expensive.  Everyone will tell you that food is expensive in Oslo and they are right.  Once you get over the shock you are able to enjoy yourself.  

These flowers were at a roadside farmers market on Bygdoy, right across from the Norwegian Folk Museum.  We ended up grabbing some fresh fruit to go with our lunch, it was so good.  

The colors were just gorgeous.

This is the style of stroller that almost everyone has in Oslo.  Women in Oslo get almost a year of paid maternity leave so there are a lot of babies.  People don't drive that much so they don't need the infant car seat so all the babies are in this bassinet style stroller.  They all have pretty rugged tires on them, but I guess you would need that for the snow and ice in the winter.  Norwegian parents were pros at getting the strollers up on the trams, buses and subways that traveled around the city.

This is a day care group out at the park.  This was a very common sight around the city.  The children were adorable, it made me miss the kids so much.

One thing that I was very curious was grocery shopping.  Our family eats a lot of food and I spend a lot of my time planning, buying, and cooking food.  I went into about 6 different grocery stores that were in different neighborhoods, different brands and different sizes.  This was the biggest store I came across in my travels and it was still so small.  The Norwegian currency is the Kroner or NOK.  The exchange rate while we were there was about NOK 5.93 to $1.  That would make that container of OJ almost $9.

I did not see milk sold by the gallon.

This was the extent of their cereal aisle.  

The price of Pampers seemed about the same to the US.

That yellow bag had frozen chicken and it was the only chicken that I could find in the meat section.  They had two cases of frozen fish of all different varieties.  I know it makes sense that they sell a lot of fish, it was just surprising to see so little chicken and beef.  

You could buy prawns by the pound.

This razor set is almost $40  I know what I am so thankful for my stockpile right now.  

Apple Juice was more reasonable.  

The cucumbers worked about to about $2.50 per cucumber.
The one item I didn't see at all that I was concerned about was peanut butter, we eat a lot of peanut butter.  I asked one of Jon's Norwegian co-workers and they said they do have peanut butter in Oslo, but it is not as popular.  

In all of my exploring I did find my favorite kind of store, a second hand store.  They had books, and beautiful dishes, and odds and ends and furniture.  I loved this little corner cabinet.

And it was on sale!  NOK 800 works out to $135 US.  Can you believe that?  I think I am going to have fun  furniture shopping.

This yummy tower of seafood was dinner for Jon and several of his co-workers one night while we were out.  There was a lot of seafood and the guys enjoyed it, but one surprise was that they brought it out and everything was cold.  The server thought they were a little crazy when the guys all asked for warm melted butter to dip everything in.

Our last night there we had the privilege of visiting this amazing place.  The Holmenkollen Hotel is right next to the ski jump that is visible around most of Oslo.  The hotel was originally built as a TB sanitarium in the 1880's and was used the Germans during their occupation in WW II.  The inside had been restored and it was just gorgeous.  It was a little bit of a trip to get here, but it was well worth it.  

You could see almost all of Oslo and into the fjord from up here.  

The banisters inside that had been restored.  

After a fun 5 course meal Jon and I headed outside for more pictures.  The sun was finally setting well after 10 PM.  

Everything was so beautiful.  

I took a picture of the sign so I would remember how to spell it.  

I loved the attention to detail.  

A view of the city, it was so spectacular.  

This is Stephen and Jon.  From here we went and did a little more exploring around the city, we still had some day light and the guys had seen very little of the city because they were working so hard.  In the picture you can see the end of the ski jump right behind the hotel.

I really did have an amazing time in Oslo.  I feel much more prepared to move when the time comes.  I feel like our family can have a lot of fun exploring here.  As for timing, we are still waiting to hear.