A not so happy Australia Day

I am sad to see what is happening over in Australia, especially in my former home state of Queensland. One area was hit by five tornadoes in a day and an ex tropical cyclone is causing severe weather and flooding in the very same areas that flooded so badly just over two years ago.

I am thinking about all my friends over there and I am hoping that they will stay safe.

Some images from people in and around the affected areas here and here.

2012 - The year of the family

2012 was indeed a year of the family, not only did we add to our own by welcoming a little baby girl, but we also got to spend lots of time with our parents, siblings, aunties, uncles, cousins and lots of other relatives. I have to say that I use the term family very loosely and in my understanding of the word I also include lots of my wonderful friends. We are blessed with such great friends both near and far, I have said it before but I will say it again, many of them are so close that we consider them family!

Here is a look at 2012 in pictures, oh what a year it was...

2012 kallar jag för familjens år. Inte bara för att vi själva blev stolta föräldrar till en underbar lite flicka, utan också för att vi kunde tillbringa en hel del tid med en massa släktingar, föräldrar, syskon, mostrar och fastrar, kusiner mm. Sen ska jag tillgga att jag använder uttrycket familj väldigt generöst, jag inkluderar också en hel drös av underbara vänner i denhär kategorin. Vänner som bor både nära och fjärran, och som vi anser vara en del av vår familj!

Här får ni en titt på vårt 2012 i form av ett bildkollage, vilket år det var...

January - enjoying the winter weather in Finland
Januari - Njöt av vintervädret i Finland

February - Visiting my husband's brother in Canada. Who knew that my better half would be such an ace on skates?
Februari - På besök i Kanada hos min mans bror. Jag hade aldrig kunnat gissa att min bättre hälft skulle vara en sån rackare på att skrinna!

March - Enjoying the outdoors in Saudi Arabia before summer kicks in. I was very pregnant and very over it at this stage
Mars - Passar på att njuta av vädret innan sommaren slår till! Men jag var mycket gravid (tyckte jag då) och tyckte att det sku kunna vara dags snart!

 

 

April - Celebrating our niece's birthday
April - Vi firar vår systerdotters födelsedag

May - off to the hospital to have a baby, yay!
Maj - dags att checka in på sjukhuset, de e dags att vräka babyn :)

June- so in love with our baby girl
Juni- kärleken och babyn växer varje dag

July - Taking a bazillion photos of our little darling, also trying to get the perfect shot for her passport
Juli - massor av bilder tas av lilltjejen, i synnerhet som vi försöker få till ett acceptabelt passfoto

August - The first trip avec baby, we are in Medina
Augusti - första resan med babyn, vi besöker Medina

September - Off to Finland, a pram form the 80's induce the best naps ever
September - I Finland, en Emmaljunga från tidigt 80-tal där lillflickan sover många, LÅNGA tupplurar

October - Both big and small suffer from a cold, I medicate mine with buckets of coffee
Oktober - Flunssa för både liten och stor, min medicineras med mycket kaffe

November - We are mezmerised by the magic that is Scotland
November - Vi är fulla av beundran på vår resa genom Skottland

December - More family time spent in Canada in freezing temperatures. And no, baby # 2 is not on the way
December - Kalla vinterdagar tillbringas tillsammans med familjen i Kanada. Nej, rocken gömmer inte en babymage!

Red Bull Baby?

Maybe this kid is getting Red Bull instead of milk. She's slept half an hour since she woke up at 7.30 this morning. So technically she should be very tired by now. This is what greets me when I look over towards the cot :)

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Kanske dethär barnet får i sej Red Bull istället för mjölk. Sovas ska det i alla fall inte... Det verkar vara mycket roligare att gå runt längs kanten på sängen!

Victory, even if it's a small one

Dealing with red tape is frustrating in any country, but in Saudi Arabia it is especially challenging. Just before Christmas we lodged the application for my family to come to Saudi Arabia for a visit. Getting this approval can some times be very quick, just a couple of days. But sometimes the process is long, usually for no particular reason at all. Unfortunately my family's application was subject to the latter.

But after having gotten all the right stamps (you need a lot of them over here, the more the better it seems...) in the right places and having resubmitted some of documents (this happens all the time, I guess they just cant be bothered looking for the paper so they ask you to give it to them again) we now have the government issued invitation letter in hand!

So now all that remains is for my family to trot over to the embassy in Finland, submit their applications with a wad of supporting documents, be willing to depart with some money and THEN a visitors visa should be granted. If all goes well they all be here in one months time. Can. Not. Wait.

The night shift (so far)

I have no idea how I got the idea in my head that baby clothes should be ironed... So here's the result of my last 45 minutes

I should probably hit the sack as I will for sure be called for other duties along the night :)

Sweet dreams everyone!

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Jag har ingen aning var jag fick iden att man ska stryka babyns kläder. Jag är nämligen så lat att mina egna skjortor är ostrukna, men lilltjejens kläder stryks med en nästan beundransvärd trägenhet.

Nu e de dags att försöka få lite sovet, jetlagen plågar fortfarande både stor och liten i dethär hushållet.

Half a decade and a day

Yesterday marked our fifth wedding anniversary. We celebrated by being completely jet lagged all of us. We had a great trip, I'll try to share some photos from it very soon :)

For now I'll share a photo of a very tired baby recovering from a long trip!

Happy New Year from Canada

A belated Happy New Year from Montreal. The weather here is a lot cooler than Toronto. No problems keeping a bottle if water cold. Leave bottle in a parked car for a few hours and you will get yourself a decent size ice cube :)

Today we're going skiing and snow tobogganing. Wish us luck!