Adam & Mica

Dada's cousin came with Mica who I kept calling "Nuka" because I just couldn't remember her name. We had so much fun! They brought their two dogs and that was the highlight for Sofia. We went to Park City with Mica and rode the trolley. I got to ring the bell! We were really sad to see them leave.

The Lucy-Lussi reunion

It happened one sunday evening for dinner. No one could have guessed that an entire year had passed because these two picked up where they left off and played all night barely stopping to eat dinner.

Cottonwood Heights, Utah

So here we find ourselves at the bottom of the Cottonwood Canyons in a suburb of Salt Lake. It is one of mixed demographics but probably not the mixed you are thinking. We live among "Bro's" who are the skiing dudes here living to ski thus the nickname of our neighborhood is "Broburbia". But the other half of the neighborhood is the all day Sunday church going Mormon folk. So we often hear, "Dude that was some sweeeet pow-pow today!" meaning the dude got some great new snow powder skiing in. And we also hear "Praise the Lord!" from the Temple down the street.

Kona-the Alaskan Malamute

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Our house here in Utah belongs to Dean Cummings who runs a guiding service in Utah and a Heli-ski company up in Alaska. Kona is his dog and we spent a week with him before he left for Alaska. He is a gentle giant but his size makes even the biggest of dog lovers a little cautious.

Words words words...

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For a while it seemed like Sofia wasn't saying much but now that we understand that she just can't pronounce some sounds we have realized that she can and will repeat almost anything you ask her too. She just can't say "Lussi" L's and S's are always changed to something else. We are having so much fun with her and listening to her say new words everyday.

Doodle-Doos & Coyotes

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Visiting the Hazleton's in Ft Collins

I couldn't wait to see Graham and while I was there he lost his 5th tooth! I want my teeth to fall out now. I think about it everyday because Graham got money from the tooth fairy and I want the tooth fairy to come. I ask my Mom "When will mine fall out?" She says she didn't lose hers until she was almost 7. I didn't like hearing that. Graham and I slept in the same room, we stayed up late giggling and we had lots of fun playing again. I missed him!

animal popcorn

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Green Eyes

Like my hat? My cousin Maggie gave it to me and I really like to wear it! Mama is surprised because I usually don't like hats. I say "hot" and put my hand on my head. This is also a good picture of my now green eyes! My eyes were blue until about 13 months and then they started changing and they have now settled on this wonderful shade of green.

Heading West

Mama got me this backpack for Kindergarten but since I needed something to pack my toys in for Utah she let me have it early. I have been playing Kindergarten all afternoon and in fact I am heading to the bus stop right now. I say "Bye Mama I'm going to school!" she says, "Have a good day honey!" We kiss and hug and I pretend to get on the bus. I am getting really excited for next year.

A much needed haircut...

My hair was getting a bit out of control. My Grandma Gladys gave me a much needed haircut. When my Mama asked me about it I got all excited and told her about it in my baby speak. My Grandma also asked my sister Lussi, "what's special about today" and she said "Today's the day Obama becomes President!" My Mama was proud of that.

Northland sledding park

We've been spending quite a few afternoons hiking two blocks over to Northland Country club and going sledding. It's the perfect distance to go and on this particular day it was only 2 degrees above zero. Man... we are of hardy stock and it feels good!

Playing "together"

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Lussi and Sofia have recently started playing together. It is still mostly parallel play but Lussi tolerates Sofia in her space and they just kind of do their own thing.

Summer 08

With the temperatures staying on the frigid side of the thermometer, I couldn't help posting these lovely photos from the summer. Some days we walk straight down to the lake from our house (about four blocks) and find ourselves on a secluded rock Lake Superior beach. It's a nice way to spend an afternoon with the girls.

My latest tricks

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Cookie time

My friend Maren and I made Christmas cookies. We did all the cutting and decorating ourselves, Mama just put the cookies on the cookie sheets for us. We really liked tasting the special sprinkles but Mama was not a fan of our technique. I had to make a BOO cookie because we forgot to at Halloween.

Museum tour w/ Lussi

Dada had no idea that I was such a fan of art. We went to the Minneapolis Art Institute and I loved so many things. I asked Dada if he could take my picture by some of my favorites so I could remember them.

Table talk

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Little singer

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Sofia likes to sing... both baa baa black sheep and twinkle twinkle. It is hard to tell them apart however she carries a much better tune than her mother. (not a hard thing to do though!)

Dress up at its best

I had so much fun on Halloween. I usually hate walking and really make a fuss about walking more than a block but Halloween night I was motivated to see what each house looked like and of course to get some candy. Not only do I love dressing up, I love candy too... this was so much fun! My Grandma made me this beautiful dress and when it was done I discovered it looked like sleeping beauty's dress so I got to be Aurora or sleeping beauty and my little sister Sofia was a fairy. She sure was cute!Halloween night I even went to a neighborhood haunted house with my Mom and Grandpa... I didn't like the scary clown though and I slept on my parents floor because I was a little too scared.

Tricksters in motion

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Beautiful Fall day...

Our first raking party at our new home proved to be less work than it looked. However, there was a lot of re-raking the same pile after all the "help" from Lussi.

tubby time

Our cousin Silo is a fish and loves to put his face in the water. He's so much fun to swim with!

I don't know!

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I am beginning to copy exact phrases and Da Da taught me this one. I also sing "bough bough baby" lullaby in my own way.

All by myself

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I do not like bottles or sippy cups and often demand to feed myself. The results are usually quite messy but I'm getting the hang of it.

No longer a baby...

Well it's hard to believe but Fia is acting more like a toddler than a baby. She communicates really well through almost words and some words. Most of her words are the first syllable. All Done is "ahh Daa" and more is "ma". She loves to say "hi Di" which we think is Hi Guys. She is full of expression and energy... walking from our front steps to the neighbors and back. But what am I going to do with that hair?

Playing dress up

I am so happy I have a new friend Maren. She has a dress up box just like me and so we run between houses and change costumes all day long. Our favorites are tinkerbell and our "marrying" dresses.

The stonedragons win again!

22 paddlers, 1 drummer, a dragon boat and 1/10 of a second. The race was too close to call, the photo finish camera was needed to show that the stonedragons won by a dragon nostril or to put it in layman's terms... Michael Phelps fingertips.

Dragon Boat race(part1)

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Dragon Boat race (part2)

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swimming with our cousins

We spent a couple of days with our cousins Hanna & Maggie. One day the lake was calm and warm and so we swam all day. Even Fia got in the water to swim. I loved making the long train boats with the inner tubes. We called it a train boat because we couldn't decide if it was a boat or a train.

surfing the net

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For about a year now, Lussi has been obsessed with two children's websites. I am amazed at how she surfs around to find stories & games that interest her. The most amazing thing to me is that she learned how to print and she will come running from the computer with some project she just printed off yelling " mama help me!" She learns all kinds of skills from identifying letters to math to art and the other day I walked in to check on her and she had her left hand placed on the computer in the way you would learn to type. She was playing a game that she found that teaches her the proper way to type. I was shocked... thinking back on my childhood, I learned to type in 10th grade! She is of a different generation, that is for sure.

I'm officially walking more on my feet than my knees.

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I can make sounds but not a lot of words.

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New friends

Mama's friends from the Olympic team came to visit. I had lots of fun with Antija and Henrik. Henrik and I liked playing pirate and princess. I set up the tea parties while he practiced his sword fighting. We also biked around on the sidewalks and ran around the house.

I'm walking... sort of

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Well I have taken after my big sister Lussi and have spent the last month knee walking. My Mama and Dada think it is caused by some quirky gene combination of the two of them because no Grandparents recall anyone else ever doing it. I never saw Lussi do it but it gets me to where I want to go. I do however walk like the rest of my household occassionally when I feel like it.

Giving kisses

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rockin & a rollin

Untitled from karasalmela on Vimeo. I love music and this is just an example of how I act when I hear it.

Sand, Sun & Fun

This was Sofia's first time at the beach. She has been in enough sand boxes to be over eating dry sand but the wet sand was a whole new experience and she began by shoveling it in by the fistful... yuck! By the end sand eating took second seat to crawling head first in to the waves. (Talk about a relaxing time at the beach... don't forget your toddler!)

Lussi's self portrait

For Silo (part 1)

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Watching the super cute Silo singing videos reminded us that we made one for you a while ago and forgot to post it for you so here it is super boy!

For Silo (part 2)

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I came across this video recently. I remember what a challenge last summer was with the fragile baby in the house and a sometimes "rough" three year old. However, the girls are so comfortable with each other then and now.

Looking back... a year ago

Happy Birthday to me