Happy Valentine's Day!

...to all who celebrate it :) We don't, althought the tradition is slowly getting imported to Iceland from America LOL I guess we all like to get romantic once in awhile - not bad to have a designated day for it :)

February 11Lovisa Lin and Matthildur Inga dancing on the living room floor :) Lovisa had dance lessons at school the other week and now she decided it was time to teach her little sister the moves LOL They had fun - so did I watching!! Notice the bandaid on Matthildur's leg? She has scratches all over from the cat. They just can't keep away from each other, must be the attraction that youngsters have for each other - at least they keep seeking each other out. And when Matthildur gets a little rough, the cat gives her a little pat with her claws, Matthildur gets a bandaid and then they keep on playing LOL

February 12Trausti got home early this morning afther having worked all night and slept very little for the past 3 days. Obviously he was tired - so when nighttime came around, he decided to let the girls sleep in our bed and they all fell asleep while he was reading for them. Even the cat - but the cat woke up when I snuck in with the camera. I thought this was altogether too adorable to not be the photo of today :) Poor Trausti only got 2 hours of sleep because he went back to work at 10:30 that night - and he's not coming back until Sunday night.

February 13

I didn't take these photos, our au-pair did. She is cooking Chinese for us today. Last night she marinated the chicken wings with some spices she brought back from China on February 1. This smells wonderful - and I've been looking forward to this meal all day :) She took these photos last night when she was making the marinade and after she coated the chicken. Looks delicious!!! And she is busy cooking right now - so the house has a wonderful aroma - mmmm!!!

February 14

Today is my birthday and this is the card I got this morning from my daughters. They also sang Happy Birthday to me all day LOL Their dad took them to the store on Thursday when he was home and they each chose a birthday present for me. When their dad had convinced them that I would maybe not appreciate Playmobile the same way they did, this is what they got me...
Matthildur Inga got me a fluffy pink cat - and she wrote on the card herself, with a little help from her dad :)

Lovisa Lin also got me a pink cat - more of a princess cat, but that's also because Lovisa is pure princess :) She also wrote on the card herself and wrote "To the best mom from Lovisa Lin"I love these - they are so cute :)

That's it for now - thank you so much for stopping by!!! BTW, it's nighttime and dinner is over with. The chicken wings tasted divine - as did the accompanying Beijing style Garlic and Koriander flavored cold noodles...yum!!!

4 Days...

I'm slacking - not with taking photos, but with blogging and blog hopping!! I'll be around commenting today...

February 7

Saturday we went for a long walk and the girls got tired. This is what happens on tiring walks...DH gives them each shoulder to rest on LOL I think they quite enjoy it - all three of them :)

February 8

Sunday was another walk - we went to the beach, which isn't far, with my BIL and his black lab. The girls love them both :) We found this dead fish on the beach - it was completely whole and had probably been washed ashore by the strong tide during the night. We don't usually find whole fish on the beach, just parts of fish in different decomposing stages - so this was an exciting find for the girls. And the dog - who just loved the smell and didn't understand why he couldn't play with it and eat it LOL

February 9

The reason for this photo of Lovisa Lin, is that she is eating vegetables like there's no tomorrow!! I made fish risotto with a fresh salad for dinner and she just ate and ate and ate. Not the fish or the risotto - she just ate the veggies. And she usually hates veggies. This time, she filled plate after plate of greens, tomatoes and cucumbers. It was amazing to watch LOL

February 10
A trampoline photo. It's getting to be part of the girls' nightly ritual to get on the trampoline and jump around for 15-20 minutes after dinner. Lovisa is quite good and Matthildur gets very into it. I think it's a good excercise for them - and it tires them out before bedtime LOL

Missing days...

The weather has been nice around here so far this year. It's actually unusually bright and still and we've had hardly any snow - just the perfect amount (knock on wood!!). But, it's been cold and the girls have had runny noses and sore throats, so we haven't been able to take full advantage of the good days yet.

February 4

So we spent Wednesday inside reading. Lovisa is already an almost fluent reader and reads for joy. She still has to read her school books, though, and when I get home from work we get the books and crawl onto my bed and she reads for me. Usually Matthildur goes and gets her own book to read beside us, and lately the cat crawls into bed with us, plomps herself down next to Lovisa and purrs of all her might LOL It's a very cozy moment - until Matthildur insists to read out loud too :)

February 5

Thursday I had a meeting after work and didn't come home until late. DH was preparing dinner and Matthildur Inga was cleaning up after him LOL It just amazes me how easily kids can squat for a long time!!

February 6Finally, yesterday, we got a chance to go out for a bit of a walk. I actually had quite a few photos to choose from for photo of the day, but decided to use this one. This is Lovisa pulling Matthildur on the sled - which she did for a LONG time to both of their amuzement :) Lovisa was just a bundle of energy yesterday, pulled Matthildur on the sled, then when we came back home, she went sledding with a couple of friends from school - and then she spent the rest of the evening jumping on the trampoline!! Matthildur, however, fell asleep on the sled and then vegetated in front of the TV, watching Astrid Lindgren's Emil of Lönneberga. Matthildur is a bit like Emil - so if you've ever seen the show, or read the books - you'll know she's a handful LOL

Here's my week 5 layout - I used Gina Marie Huff's Life 365 kit and template. I love this kit - totally fantastic!!
And now it's Saturday, the weather is good again - and we are off on a walk in a little bit.

And it's February!!

I can hardly believe it's February already!! The days are getting longer, and the end of the fishing season is drawing closer - which means DH will be home again every night, so everything is on the up LOL I never get depressed during the dark winter months, which is very common here in Iceland, I actually kind of like the dark most of the time. I do, however, love it when the days are visibly getting longer - mostly because it means that summer and warmer weather will be here in not too long :)

We have had fabulous weather for the past 2 weeks or so, bright sunny days, slightly chilly and hardly any wind. I have tons of outside photos, of our glacier, of the snow and of our ocean - but I'm not posting those now. I might keep them as "cheating" photos if I ever forget to take my photo!!

February 1Sunday was a lazy day, and since Lovisa still had a sore throat, we didn't go out much. However, the girls insisted on hot dogs for lunch, so we did venture out to the store to get some. They love it. A hot dog, a bun and lots of ketchup - yum LOL

February 2

Yesterday was not a good day for Lovisa. She has a huge temper, and once in awhile she seems to need to burst - like a volcano :) Yesterday was that day - and she cried and yelled quite a bit (to put it mildly!!). She usually uses some (or any) excuse to get herself wound up until everything is terrible and she does not know how to calm herself down. When she's ready, I just sit with her in my arms and help her breath deeply, until she relaxes and gets some control over her emotions. Thankfully, this doesn't happen very often, but yesterday was especially bad, probably because she was also feeling miserable due to a sore throat and lack of sleep - so at dinner time, when she had calmed down, her eyes were red and swollen from all the crying. I gave her a couple of slices of cucumber and told her to put them on her eyes - which she did, and she found it just too funny LOL But it helped :)

February 3These are the toes of my sweet girls, dressed in woolen socks knit by their grandmother. They got them this morning and insisted I take a photo of their feet in the socks to send to grandma. I did that - of course :) Grandma was very happy when she got the email this morning! Lovisa is in light pink and Matthildur is in dark pink. Matthildur insisted on putting them on herself - so, of course, the heels are in front LOL

Thanks for looking - and thank you for all the comments - I so love reading them :)