Our Golden Child

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I promised to devot an individual blog to each child. I started first with Maedi, and now I am finally following through with a post about our golden child. This is an aptly entitled post as he has a golden smile to match his golden curls, which of course set off his cool blue eyes.

Well, when I first drafted this post the date was June 2011.  While sometimes one day feels like a lifetime, it now feels like last year was a lifetime ago.

During the summer of 2012, Mikko played t-ball for Wuori League.  He didn't always want to go - he did go - and finally received his medal.  He is so proud of his medal that he has worn it often. 

Aside from t-ball, Mikko loves playing with his big brother as well as with other kids from the neighborhood.  He has lots of thoughtful questions, but takes offense to being called a chatterbox.  He always has time for a hug and kiss and is just the sunshine in my day. 

Look at my muscles!

I love my mommy!



CHEESE!

Rolling Right Along

This is such an appropriate title, not only because life has been rolling right along since my last post, but also because Miss Maedi is quite good at rolling along to where she needs to be: like today during Mikko's naptime when she rolled out of my room, where I was putting away laundry, almost intentionally toward her brother's room "announcing" her arrival. Usually I am telling the boys to be quite since she is sleeping. Today, however, she began to get her revenge. Luckily, Mikko kept sleeping and she went down for her nap right before Leif got home from school. I so treasure my quiet time with my Leif'r. He didn't stick around long though. This nice weather meant lots of kids were outside. Being the social man he is, he was off!

 





Leif and his friend giving me their best scary faces! And, above,

Mikko.  What you don't know is that he is chanting "Hockey!

Hockey! Hockey!"









Of course, we have had Halloween.  Leif went as a

Storm Trooper (Star Wars), which meant that Mikko

also went as a Storm Trooper.  As you can see, they

scored a lot of candy. 







  







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True Love!



Out for an October Stroll.  I LOVE fall!

Three Sunny Ones

Growing up I sometimes wondered if my parents ever "loved" my brother more than me.  I know now as a mom of three that you love your children more than words can explain.  That feeling upon their arrival in the world that you could never, ever, ever love anyone else any more.  Then, when I have had another child I realized that while I could never love one child more than another I can love them as much and they have each endeared themselves to me in different ways.  So, for the next three posts I am going to dedicate it to one child each.  I think this will encourage me to (1) make sure my camera battery is charged; and (2) try to get some great pictures that represent the distinctive personalities of my babies. 


I choose the newest Sunny One to do first, only because I am in LOVE with this picture.  Might I also add that she is a very happy baby ~ so smiley and already inquisitive.  She finds her brothers to be quite amusing and entertaining.  And they, in turn, adore her and literally smother her with love.  We are so thankful for our little girl!



Isn't she sweet?






Best Friends

 



Just chillin' at Split Rock Lighthouse.

 


This girl believes in beauty sleep...even on the go.



The Last Six Months...

Where oh where have the last six months gone?  I guess time really does fly when you are having fun - and when you have three kids!  I cannot believe that today was Leif's first day of school.  He was excited, and started his day with his favorite muffins (made by mom - pumpkin chocolate chip) and got off to school in the cold and the rain. 

We enjoyed the last day of summer vacation visiting with my parents in Ely.  The boys really enjoyed themselves there - four wheeler rides, releasing their tadpoles, and discovering bugs.  A boy's dream!

Mikko, the entamologist, checking out the (gross) bugs that grandpa found when he cut down a tree.

Miss Maedi also spent some time outside - with her beautiful white hat.  Isn't she cute?  And she is so smiley!

Although she can't sit on her own, she is working on it.  She loves to sit up and watch those brothers in action.  Though she wants to crawl, but isn't, she can roll with the best of them. 

Did I mention she is well loved by both brothers?  My newest phrase is "give her some space."  Oh well, I guess a whole lotta love never hurt anyone. 

Our Little Lamb

In my previous post I stated "In like a lion...." and we DID end the month of March with our little lamb -  our sweet, sweet little girl Maedi Marie.  My water unexpectedly broke at 8:30 p.m. and after a quick call to Grandma Carol to come and stay with the boys, Karl and I rushed off to Duluth.  After the resident tried to determine if I was really in labor we were admitted.  Labor progressed really quickly - too quickly for medication.  Luckily, active labor lasted a total of 16 minutes and at 12:27 a.m. on March 26, little Miss Maedi arrived.  She had lots of dark hair and lots of excited family and friends.  Even though she arrived late at night, we were able to share the excitement with family (excited grandparents) and good friends who we were in touch with via text from the time we left home.  We had been under neighborhood watch everytime we left home together, and made sure we let our friends know when the real event was underway. 

Maedi's brothers LOVE her to pieces.  We have been lucky that they adore her so much.  Leif loves hearing that she looks like he looked when he was a baby.  And, Mikko loves helping.  He is still little enough that he will even help with the diaper changes!

Maedi arrived right before Easter.  And, being the grand parents we are we allowed chocolate bunnies for breakfast!  Leif LOVED that.  He, unlike his mom, is not a breakfast lover.  He most certainly takes after Karl.  Chocolate bunnies sure hit the spot though!  The boys also enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt in Ely the day before Easter. 

 

Easter was followed by Mikko's second Birthday.  If you ask him, though, he will tell you that he is three (free).  On his actual birthday he wanted to go to Duluth and play with the boats.  I took that to mean he wanted to go to the aquarium.  So, I ventured out with he and Maedi.  We had fun at the aquarium and stopped at McDonald's for a quick lunch - his choice - before heading home to greet Leif as he got off of the bus.  We had a nice little family party on Sunday.  Mikko got some great presents and especially enjoyed cake and ice cream time.  I'll post more pictures as soon as I get them off of my new camera.

Leif loved helping Mikko open his presents.  Mikko got his own camera but still goes searching for mine.

In Like a Lion...

Here's hoping that we get to blog about another Sundquist child in March, and not as of April 1st, which is my due date.  I am feeling like a very pregnant mother of two active boys.   Luckily, my guys are so cute and charming that I sometimes forget about this big old belly. 

Leif has been busy between playing with his friends in the neighborhod, skiing at the Ridge (on Satruday he went down the big hills with dad ~ thank goodness mom was NOT there to see it!).  He also played basketball this winter ~ Saturday Morning Fever.  The Virginia Varsity Coach ran a great program!  Leif LOVED it.  He even got to get his certificate during half-time at a varsity game.  Of course, I am sure he liked it as much as he did as he had a couple good friends in it with him. 

Whatever big brother does, Mikko wants to do too.  He took his time to practice during basketball practice and picked up the skill of dribbling.  How many not-even-two-year olds can do that?  Of course, he has us a little worried as lately he has been walking around the house saying "hockey player."  We don't even have a hockey stick for him, so he has taken to batting balls around on the floor with a lightsaber.  We will support him, but are not sure we are up for the title of "hockey parents" as we hear that it requires a lot of weekends!  We'll see what our little Mikko decides. 

Here is hoping that our next post includes details of the birth of our newest family member.....there is a chance that this sweet little Finn could come on St. Urho's Day!  (hee hee). 

Christmas Fun!

On Sunday we took the boys to Bentleyville.  We enjoyed some shopping at the mall first, where Leif and Mikko got to see Santa.  After a long discussion about the pronounciation of Leif's name (and Leif Erickson park) Santa assured the boys he would be dropping of their gifts on Christmas and then he gave them candy canes.  That made a big impression on Mikko, who was still talking about those tammy tames at bedtime.  Leif was thrilled to get his picture taken with Frosty and Santa's Reindeer.

Daddy and the boys.  It is so difficult to get everyone to look at Mommy, but in fairness to them, there was a lot to see there!  WOW!

Leif and Mikko ready to explore the rest of Bentleyville!

And we truly live in a small world.  We ran into our neighbors and we moms had the boys pose for a picture.  Aren't they all cute????