It's December!

It's officially December, and I'm already behind :-)

I really love all the Danes tradition that surrounds Christmas, and I'm very proud of my roots and where I come from. I try very hard to keep the Danish traditions up, so Lucas can experience it all.

But we really try to combine Danish and American traditions, and it's pretty easy, because in Denmark the whole Christmas celebration is done on Christmas Eve. So that's when we do all the Danish traditions - we eat duck, walk around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols and we open presents. On Christmas Day we do all the American traditions, which most of you are very familiar with :-)

We also celebrate Advent. Lucas is not opening a present every single day. It would be fun for him, but not so much fun for my vallet. He's getting a present every Sunday in Advent and Christmas eve morning. So five presents is easier than 24. And we can actually give him something that he can use and not a little junk item. The 1st Sunday he got a little Lego airplane that also can be made into a boat. He was very excited.

I was gonna start decorating for Christmas today. Lucas thought that meant getting the tree. He's so excited about buying the tree. We'll probably do that Friday after work. We didn't really get started, because we had to go to the doctor, because Lucas got pink eye. But I did manage to do one thing.

In Denmark we make Christmas decorations. It's kinda like a flower arrangement with a candle in it. In Denmark you can buy a candle with the numbers 1-24 on it. You burn a number each day - a little countdown to Christmas. However you use clay and then you place whatever greenery etc. you want to put in it. But since Americans don't make them, it's pretty hard to find cute things etc. for them. Here's just a few examples of how they look like.

In the past I've used silk greenery and flowers, but this year I decided to do the real thing. First I had to get some clay. I paid over $7 for it. It's a little hefty since in Denmark it's only like $1, but it's a clay made just for making the decorations. Of course the clay I bought is modeling clay.

I had some greenery in my yard, and we have woods behind us, so today Lucas and I ventured out in our woods. We didn't really find much. I was hoping we could find some acorns etc. We did find some red berries and moss. I also sliced an orange and put it in the oven so it could dry, and I used a couple of slices in my decoration. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I want to make another one too, but that has to wait till the weekend.

Ok, here's my attempt at it.

And Lucas playing with some clay. It's so much fun to have him hang out with me doing my stuff.

Halloween 2009

Last year for Halloween Lucas was an Indian. I made the costume myself, and I just loved it. I have so much fun with planning the costume, finding what I need for it and making it. I thought his indian costume turned out soo cute, and I wanted him to look as cute again this year. But I didn't know if I would succeed in doing so.
A couple of months ago, I asked Lucas what he wanted to be for Halloween, but he didn't know. He loves playing his DS and especially loves playing Super Mario. So I mentioned that he could be Mario or Luigi. He kept going back and forth between Mario and Luigi, until he decided that he
wanted to be Luigi for sure.
As I did last year I wanted to make the costume myself. I guess it's a tradition I started last year when I was shopping for Lucas's costume. I think that the boy's costumes all look so cheap made and there's nothing special about them. And then they ask so much for them, and I just knew that I could make it cheaper myself or maybe for about the same price.
The Luigi costume was being sold at the stores this halloween season for a whopping $40. I knew I could make that cheaper, because this costume don't consist of much - pants, shirt, hat, gloves.
I was planning on making the pants and buy the rest. I started searching for a Luigi hat online, and the best one I found was on Ebay. The seller was located in Hong Kong. I could not find a single hat that was located in the US. The hat was very cheap - $1 and the shipping was $7, so $8 total for the hat. I'm glad I was planning his costume early, because the hat took 3 weeks to get here.
I bought the fabric for the pants at Joanns for $8. And I only used about 3/4 of the fabric for the pants. I had a pattern for pajama pants, and I used that and I then freehanded the bib part of it. In order to get two yellow buttons for the pants, I had to buy two packages of different colored buttons. (They only had one yellow button in each package). So it would end up being about $5 for two buttons - too much. Instead I bought two plain wooden buttons and painted them yellow.
The hardest part was finding a shirt that would match the hat. The shade of green was hard to find in a shirt. I looked at Walmart, Target and gave up. I decided to make the shirt myself. I went to Joanns (again) and was searching for fabric that would match. They didn't have any. But then I thought of looking in the clearance section. I couldn't believe it ! They had fabric that would match for $1.50 a yard and a yard was all I needed. Now that's cheap for a shirt.
Last was the gloves which I bought at a halloween store. After that though I saw white gloves at Walgreens and Joanns.
So I think the costume cost about $25. A lot better than $40 and I plan on selling it on Ebay next halloween just like I did this year with Lucas's indian costume.

Catching Up

It's really been a long time since my last post. I've kinda been discouraged about writing. I started this blog, so my family and friends could keep up with us. But it seemed like no one was reading it, because they never commented or never said anything about what we had done. Then a few friends wanted me to start writing in English, so I did that, but still I don't really know who's keeping up with me. But a friend told me to keep at it, since it will be a wonderfull scrapbook to look back on...so here I am.

We went to Denmark in August to attend my brother's wedding. We had the best of times. It was just awesome to be with family and friends. It was wonderfull to meet my little niece, who's not so little anymore - she's 2 already. I feel like we bonded and we got to know each other as well as you can do while visiting for two weeks. And really weird that this little person I don't know as well as the rest of my family ended up being the hardest one to say goodbye to. I truly miss this little girl, she was so much fun. It was so much fun to see Lucas play with his cousin. Even though they didn't speak the same language they still had so much fun. The only thing I tried to get a good picture of the two of them together, but I never did. Oh well, maybe next time.

The wedding was so much fun. A lot of tears were shed, but still so amazing that we could be there. I had the big honor to be placed next to the groom at the reception. That was a huge honor, and I did not see that one coming at all.

The day of the wedding my mom and I went to the hairdresser to get our hair all done pretty. And no, no real picture of my hair from that day. I totally forgot to take a picture. That was fun - my mom and I of course don't get to very often do any mother-daughter things together. It was so nice that it was just the two of us hanging out - even if it was to get our hair done. Also, we went to my hairdresser that I used before moving to Missouri. I haven't seen her in probably 10 years - at least. So it was fun catching up with her.

When I came back, Lucas was awake. Dwayne spend the night with my brother and dad, so Lucas stayed home with my stepdad. I was wondering how he would feel, that neither his mom or dad wasn't in the house, but no big deal. All he said when I came back was "where have you been. I looked everywhere for you". Yeah, right...he was sitting and watching tv the whole time.

I got Lucas ready, and he looked so handsome in his suit. I think all three of us looked pretty good. It's not everyday you get to look so glamorous, so it was a lot of fun.

The rest of the day went by so fast. The nuptials were beautiful. My brother and his wife was such a handsome couple. You could just see it in their eyes how much they love each other.

The reception was a blast. One big party and Dwayne really got to see how a Danish wedding is done.

I'm not very good at speaking in public. But being the sister of the groom, I had to do something for them. So I gave a speach along with my brothers. At least I could lean on them for support. I was really stressing about this speach for a long time. Every now and then while driving back and forth to work, I would try and think of things what to say. But it was really hard. My brother and I didn't grow up together. He stayed with my dad after our parents divorced and I with my mom. I had finally gotten my little brothers to commit to do this thing together. They are in the early twenties, so they are typical young men...do I have to say more ? ;-) The only time my brother's and I could get together to write the speach was the day before the wedding. Talk about last minute. I will truly treasure that day for years to come. The three of us met up in one of my brothers apartment, and we just had such a good time talking about good ole' days. And I think we got an excellent speach written. It truly came from our hearts, and we wanted people at the party to let them know how our brother was to us while growing up. And I think we accomplished that.

But back to the reception, I was sooo nervous about this speach. I figured I'll just drink - you know that gives you a little bit of courage, but I couldn't even drink, my stomach was in knots. Finally it was our turn, and I think we did good. I had a hard time saying a few things because of emotions, but then my brother's were good to jump in. I love them! After that speach I could finally relax and have some fun.

It was a long day, and I can't remember the last time I stayed up so late. Lucikly the reception was held at an old hotel, so we could stay the night right there. That was awesome that our bed was just down the hall. The next morning it was wonderfull to wake up and look out the window and the view was the ocean.

It was truly a beautiful wedding - thanks to my brother and his wife.

The rest of our stay in Denmark went by wayyy too fast. We had a good time with a trip to Legoland, the ocean, shopping etc. Which hopefully I'll tell a bit more about later.

Preschooler

Here is my big boy getting ready to start preschool. Dwayne took him on his first morning. He was nervous, but he did so good. He didn't cry when Dwayne left. He's been twice this week, and every night at dinner he's telling us so many different stories from his day - I love that! I love hearing about how much fun he's having.

Working at the Great grandparents

Lucas was so excited to get to drive on the tractor. Dwayne did some work for his grandparents, and Lucas and I went with him today to help clean up.

Exercise!

I would say we're pretty active family. Of course we all love bikeriding. However when Dwayne is not home I've been walking this spring/summer, because Lucas don't fit on the back of my bike anymore, and the trailbike is hooked up to Dwayne's bike. I try to get out a few times a week just to get the heart rate up. I feel so good afterwards.

This weekend Dwayne was gone for his 24 hour mountainbikerace in WI, and congrats sweetie - he placed 3rd in Mens solo single speed! I'm so proud of you!

Anyways, while he was gone it was just Lucas and me. Saturday we went for a walk. Usually we head to the local park, and Lucas can run wild, but I've been wanting to check out the local high school's new football field. When we got there a man was running, so of course Lucas had to get out there and run. He ran around the whole field once, and he had a blast doing it. After a while I had him sit down and cool off, because he was sooo sweaty. And perfect timing because while sitting there a few high school boys came to practice. Lucas loved that! I want to go back in the fall and watch some games and take some pictures.

Afterwards we went to the park and played a bit. We were gone for three hours, but we had so much fun.

Again today we went for a walk but this time we did the normal which was just a trip to the park.

I finished off the day by making chocolate chip cookies for Dwayne. He'll defiantly need to get fatten up again.

Again a swinging picture of Lucas, but I loved the angle of this one.

This picture don't have anything to do with this post, but I just love his long eyelashes.

What a Weekend!

Warning: A lot of pictures to come. We had a fun weekend (yeah, I know it's almost a week ago, oh well.) It was very relaxing, and we didn't do too much - the kind of weekend I like :-)
Ok, so a little bit of cleaning we did do. Here's Lucas helping daddy get some cleaning done.



I was in my garden doing some weeding. This is my squash, and it has flowers, but I don't see any squash yet. I also have cucumber, tomatoes, green beans and corn. I'm wondering who will eat the vegetables first - us or our "friendly" animals?


Just a puurty flower.


Saturday evening we had lasagne and wine. It was such a nice meal, we sat and ate and talked for a couple of hours. Lucas was happy to watch tv, so it was nice to have some grown up talk. We both enjoyed it, and the wine was flowing :-)


Don't he look happy?

And here's me and Lucas enjoying some running around on the lawn.

Fabulous

Lucas has a new hobby....brushing my hair. Last night after shower he brushed my hair until it was dry.
Quote by Lucas - he wanted to make my hair look fabulous. Big word for such a little guy.

Fireworks Extravaganza!

That's what the carnival was called which took place last weekend here in "beep" town, but we did not stick around for the fireworks, because it was so bleeping hot! It said in the local paper that it would start at 9:30pm and about 10 minutes or so before starttime we had found a nice spot on a grassy area to watch the fireworks from. But around 9:40 when the fireworks hadn't started yet, we or should I say I was ready to go. I get sooo irritated by the heat, I can't stand the humidity. I thought being at 9:30 at night I would be okay, but still at that hour the heat was terrible, and we were sticky and sweaty. (I guess that's me being the European where nobody knows what humidity is). So we left, and we got home right at 10, and we could see the fireworks begin from our house - couldn't be any better than that :-)

Here is a good picture of Dwayne wiping the sweat off of him, and this was taken after the sun had set. Lucas could care less, he was having the time of his life on this ride.

Yeah, I'm such a dork. I was the only adult on this ride, but hey dad gets a ride with his kid and gosh darn it, I want that too!

After a couple of rides we finished off the ride with some funnel cake and popcorn..mmmm...

A Racer In The Making

As some of you know, my hubby loves his mountainbike, so I guess it's only natural that he wants his son to do the same.
So with no further ado - please allow me to introduce to you the newest member of the Gary Fisher's 29'er crew - my sweet kiddo :-)

A Dane in Town

I'm a member of the Danish Club in St. Louis, and in a recent newsletter they said that a Dane was coming to town to give a carillon concert. For those who don't know what a carillon concert is, it sounds like this and here is another one to show you how they actually play . The guy giving the concert - Peter Langberg is from my hometown. My little hometown - Logumkloster which has a population of about 7000. Yep, pretty small.

I also sang in the local church choir which his wife at the time was the director of.

He still lives in Logumkloster, and in Logumkloster we have this tall tower where he would give weekly concert when I was a child. When we go back to Denmark in August I'll take a picture of the tower.

The concert lasted an hour, and like in the first youtube video, you just sat on the lawn and listened to it. He was sitting in this tall tower playing.

And it was no big deal that Lucas was running around and not being too noisy - it was just a very relaxing atmosphere.

(I had to a couple of times go chase him down though )

Oh, and the place where they held it was absolute beautiful. I could have stayed there much longer just taking pictures, but I'm sure Lucas and Dwayne wouldn't have thought that that would have been so much fun.

Barbecue!

I love our backyard. We've been working really hard at making it a place that we want to relax and enjoy. We started out with nothing! That's right, the owner's before us had grass, a dirt area where their dog ran around and a dog house. We're pretty stoked about how it's all coming together.

One of my favorites is the firepit that Dwayne made. I love to cook our meals there and just enjoy the outdoors.

Danmark

Jubiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, saa har vi kobt flybilletter til Danmark. Vi ankommer i august. Vi glaeder os saadan. Det bli'r saa dejligt at se familie, venner og ja, bare mit land igen. Denne gang har vi taenkt os at tage meget til havet. Det er ikke noget vi bare lige saadan kan gore her - med mindre vi har lyst til at hoppe i bilen og kore 12 timer ;-)
Og ja, saa bli'r det da ogsa dejligt med en masse godt mad, og jeg glaeder mig til at skal i fakta, brugsen, fotex og hvad butikkerne nu hedder.
Kun sma to maaneder!

Who's the Boss?

I thought this was a pretty funny little talk - my husband probably didn't think so, hehe.
Our evenings are pretty crazy around here. We get home from work, gotta get dinner ready, straighten up the house a little bit so it don't completely fall apart, some play and then ready for bed.
Lucas always showers with his daddy, and daddy was already ready for shower when I told Lucas to get his butt in gear. I guess Dwayne had been calling for him because Lucas all of a sudden said: "Daddy is not my boss". I said of course he is - you have to listen to daddy.
Out of curiosity I asked Lucas: " well who is the boss then". That's when my child gave me the most brilliant answer, and of course the correct one "You are". Ahhhh, music to my ears, my child is learning sooo quickly. His wife will be very happy one day.
All right, all right.... I'll stop now.

Perfect Day!

Or as pretty close to perfect as can be. We haven't been to the zoo since last year, and with the temperatures supposed to be in the mid 60's (18 celcius) and which it turned out to be, we decided to head to the zoo. We also decided to bring our bikes and lunch too, since Forest Park has so much to offer.

We quickly found a parking lot and walked to the penguins first (Lucas's request).

It was so cool because it was feeding time while there. I guess we got lucky because they are only fed twice daily.

We also saw lion country and rivers edge (that's where the rhino's, elephants are).

We didn't even see half of the animals at the zoo. The St. Louis zoo is just so awesome, and has so much to see, and we just love to visit.

Around lunchtime we headed back to the truck, got our food and sat and ate lunch on the lawn overlooking a beautiful lake and the art museum. Lucas loved it so much. It was truly amazing to see him be so content just looking at the water - and we enjoyed how quiet he was ;-)

After lunch we jumped on our bikes and rode for 8 miles (13 km) around Forest Park. A lot of people think it's so neat how Lucas sits on the back of Dwayne's bike. He had gotten too big for his baby seat which sat on my bike.

Lucas loved that he got to see so much construction equiment on the loop. They are completely redoing one of the highways in St. Louis, and it was so strange to see the highway we take to the zoo completely gone and just a lot of dirt instead.

We returned to the truck and headed home. We were all tired after all that fresh air. Lucas took a long nap in the car on the way home.

Flickr!

I love taking pictures, and have had a lot of fun lately with posting pictures on my flickr account.


Please leave a comment if you visit. I would love to know who's checking out my pictures.

Thanks!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bettinag/

Foraar undervejs!

Ja, nu er foraaret kommet til St. Louis. Endelig kan vi nyde lange gaature til legepladsen. Vi har ogsa haft en picnic allerede - dejligt! Der er jo nok nogle af Jer der ved hvor meget jeg holder af at tage billeder. Dwayne's hobby er hans cykel - min er mit kamera :-) Og jeg har taget mange billeder i den sidste maneds tid, sa her er et lille udvalg.
Her er en lille blomst ude fra min have.

Jeg synes, at disse traer er sa flot om foraret nar de blomstrer. Der er to store af slagsen foran vores lokale highschool. En dag tog jeg kameraet under armen og Lucas i klapvognen og sa gik vi en tur derhen.

Dejlig blaa himmel. Flaget er fra highschool.

Denne fugl hedder en eastern blue bird. Den sad en morgen ude pa Lucas's gyngestativ, og med min nye lense kunne jeg fa et rigtig godt billede af den. Den sad forst med ryggen til mig, men det var som om at den lyttede til mig, da jeg paent spurgte om den lige ville vende sig lidt.

Og sa om foraret sa skal vinduerne jo lige pudses.