All the best pleasures in life!

Wonderful romance

(Berit, mother-in-love; Terje, father-in-love)

Getting a hold of God's creation!

Thank you, PAPPA!

Love of the outdoors with family


A Princess named, Ingrid Marie.
Ever seen such beauty?

Waking up to a Birthday breakfast for my mother-in-love, Berit!
This day was a day built for her! We took our time walking in a national state park, seeing a nature center, going to the Cheesecake factory for dinner, and finishing it all off with a night at the Ryman!

This is my nephew, Bjoernar. He lives to eat pancakes! Finding them anywhere but in his kitchen at home has never happened. Here, in America, he gets to enjoy them out and about! What a concept!

Bathing...
These are the simple pleasures of life!
Even more so, with your far away cousin!

There are just no words for the pure joy!

A grandpa with his hands full of all his favorite things!

This Christmas we are blessed beyond measure!

More on the littlest man I love!

I am a Lion...hear me ROAR!

Last year , as you may remember, we went to the pumpkin fest and Ethan was a cow. This year Ethan was dressed up as a Lion. He was the cutest little Lion Ever! We have so much fun at this festival and i can't wait till next year when Ethan can ride the rides, climb the rock wall, enjoy new foods, pet and feed the animals and WALK ON HIS OWN! That boy is heavy.

Am I to be Dorothy then?

Two year's in a row with Aunt Jessica at the festival!

a little walking.

All Opa needs is a little face make up and he would fit right in with this crew!

a great shot of ethan as he danced in front of the stage.


Being a Lion is very exhausting! (yawn) I think i will just take a little nap and call it a day. I hope the tin man, dorothy, and scare crow don't mind.

It was a late Friday evening, as i was driving Ethan and I to my mom's for a little sleep over so she could watch ethan the next day. There is no feeling as aweful as the feelings i had during the end of that drive. Ethan was fussy and coughing. I could tell he was working hard to breath as the congestion in his chest was worsening. Suddenly, i hear an aweful gag and i am undone. Then i hear him breathing fine. VERY RASPY, but fine. I speed up to get us home as fast as i can. I have to get there. When is this long drive going to end. I need to get him his meds that the Dr. gave me today. How did he get so sick so fast? He was fine when we left the Dr. office. Maybe, they missed something and he is worse than they thought...oh God, heal my baby! I pull up in the drive way and throw gear into park. Opening my door and his as fast as i can to grab him and get him inside. MY HEART SINKS, in disbelief! There he is, my darling one, with throw up all over the place! The gag I had heard was him THROWING UP! OF COURSE!!! How could i have not known? He was just limp as a noodle and helpless as could be and there was nothing i could do to take it all away. He didn't cry or fuss, he just looked up at me in all his misery. I imagine he was wondering, what the heck is going on??!??
As of late, Ethan has been diagnosed with RSV and an ear infection. He caught some Bronchiolitis virus that turned on him and we had a few scary moments. There is nothing like seeing your little boy struggling to get air! This is nearly the worst feeling i have ever had. Then to be driving in your car in the dark while your son is coughing, working hard to breath and throwing up in the back seat... I have never felt more powerless. Your heart sinking is like hitting the lowest floor of life, from light to total darkness in a matter of a second! The end is not here! I had to tell myself.
Now, we sit and do breathing treatments for 20 minutes or so 3-4 times a day. He is sweet about it and is getting better. Please pray for his speedy recovery as this has been a period of 5 weeks in total that he has been unwell. We are SICK of being SICK!

This is a favorite moment with his Opa, playing music and jammin. He is so happy with his opa and some instruments!
Several weeks ago we took him to the zoo for the first time! He loved it and so did his opa. Ever since, ethan has been so excited to learn about animals and sign there names! My favorite is when he signs, "fish"! Sooooooo, incredibly cute.

Can you feel the music this good?

There is nothing like seeing Ethan getting his groove on!
Sorry, to all of you ethan fans, for not posting in a very long time. I think i just needed a break. Once he started walk/running...sitting down and writing time just disappeared for me. I always have something i have to be doing and this kind of relaxing just doesn't make the cut. Today Ethan is sleeping in very late so, i will enjoy this sweet and peaceful moment by sharing my joy in him with you!
He is learning lots every day! He says lots of words like; mamma and pappa, apple, banana, cookie, of course, and bottle, ball, doggy, grass, hot, hammer, and a few more. And he is learning new sign language every day. We have this great "learning to sign" DVD that we rent from the library. He LOVES to watch and try each move! So, very sweet. So, he of course signs all there is to sign in relation to food! His first love is food, by the way! He also signs fish, bear, go, no, yes, sleepy, bedtime, potty, thank you, please, ball, doggy, cat, thirsty and a few more that i can't think of right now. But, what fun it is to see him learning all of this and putting all these things together! I will soon try to catch him in the act and video it if i can. It is hard to hold a camera and sign to him in order to get him to sign to me! We have had some recent sickness that is really had us in some pickles lately. I will write more on that later i think. Good day for now!

Life is like a stagnate blurr to me now that we are back. We have been back for a month now. It feels like everything has changed. Friendships are different. Day to day is different. Ethan is so different. Being a mom feels different...harder. People's lives are too busy. It has been hard to write anything lately. I feel like i am a little disoriented as the American ways are slapping me in the face right now. As i look out my window of life, there is such a strive all around me for perfection. To be the perfect mother, to have the perfect body, house and even to have the perfect schedule in your day. Living and loving lost it's simplicity a long time ago as "convenience" became the goal as a life style. Now we add this new intensity for perfection. What if all we did in a day was love well? we lost our organizer, did not do all the perfect little arts and crafts lessons with our kids, house did not get clean or dinner made on time, we were late to car pool, forgot to check our calenders for birthdays that we should have sent a card out for, but we loved and we loved well!
I don't know if i can ever measure up as a perfect mom and be so impressive as those who were and are so successful at it. I think i will just have to go ahead and admit that i will fail at it miserably. That is OK with me. Life isn't perfect...it is messy. It is a false reality to put that image of myself and of life, in front of my kids all the time. Rather to say, here is me...a mess and in need of God's merciful hand at every turn. Here is life...an often hurtful mess, in need of God's merciful hand at every turn.
At the end of the day, at the end of all this, at the end of being at home with young ones...no matter how wacky my day was...I hope i loved well and that i was able to show them the perfection of Jesus and his marvelous love! God, just give me that and i will surrender all my needs to perfection. This is my prayer, teach me to love as you love!

Snow Man Walking!

Ethan Snow started his walking career on July 15, 2008, in Norway, but he didn't really take off till we were back in Nashville and jet lag had really set in. So, we went to Borders 2 days in a row and just let him walk the isles till he couldn't walk anymore. Which took so much longer than i thought was possible! I never realized how that babies really don't want to do anything else, once they have learned this skill! how much fun we had with him! It was the perfect medicine for being jet lagged and sad to end a beautiful summer vacation in Norway!