Mira Hope

Our little Mira Hope arrived on Sunday morning, the 28th of November after 12 hours of uncomplicated labor. She is a beautiful addition to our family and already has numerous adoring fans, her greatest admirers being Linnea and Sonja. I say "little" because she was our smallest baby yet. She weighed in at 8 pounds and 5 ounces, 21 inches long. Still a pretty good size nonetheless. At her 2 month check-up last week, she was 11 pounds and 23 inches long. By comparison, Linnea was 11 pounds at 1 month and at 2 months, Sonja was nearly 13 pounds. So she still remains our little Mira.

Her adoring fans

Our first significant snowfall last month

Linnea and Sonja both continue to enjoy school. Actually, they were bummed that today turned out to be a snow day. I'm not quite as exciting as school. We can't believe that Sonja's 3rd birthday is right around the corner. How times flies! Sonja has a great sense of humor and cracks us up daily. She's our little spit-fire. Here she is at her school's Christmas program.


Linnea is growing like a weed. I think she must have grown about 3 inches in the last 2 months. Most of her cloths are now too short and she just looks so long. Must be the long legs!

Linnea, the roving photographer, takes a snapshot with her baby sister

Mira is a really great baby. She sleeps well at night, nurses well, travels well and is a happy, smiley baby. Must be because she's the 3rd child. I don't remember getting this much sleep so early on with Linnea.


In about 3 weeks we are taking our first vacation as a family of 5. We are driving down to Pagosa Springs to meet up with my mom, dad, sister and brother-in-law for 3 days of skiing at Wolf Creek. Linnea is going to try downhill for the 1st time and maybe Sonja will too. The best part next to seeing family and skiing is that Pagosa has wonderful outdoor, natural hot springs. I can't wait for a nice long soak. We'll let you know how it goes!

Our Move To Colorado and the End of Summer

Well, we've been in Colorado for over 3 weeks now and are really feeling comfortable and settled in. The move from Minnesota was not exactly fun (when is packing and moving ever fun?), but the 2 day drive to CO went off without a hitch. The girls were just fine and even got to ride in Daddy's big, yellow truck!

Packing boxes in Minnesota

Sonja in the moving truck

Some sister time

Sonja and Daddy in the truck

Just a few days after we moved in, Linnea started kindergarten. The kids actually started a week earlier, so Linnea had her own "first day". The elementary school is very close by and I have been enjoying walking her to and from school. She goes to school 2 and 1/2 days a week and she has so much fun!
Little Miss Linnea ready for her first day!

Outside on our front porch!

The following week, Sonja started preschool and really loves it. She goes 2 days a week, which seems like just enough for her. On her first day she came home all smiles and covered in paint. Here she is getting ready to drive with Daddy to her first day of preschool.

We really, really enjoy living in a house and feel truly blessed. Since we've arrived in Colorado, we've felt welcomed and loved by the church community. We feel like we are fitting in well and are looking forward to the next couple of years.

On a pregnancy note, I've been feeling just fine. I'm starting to feel the tiredness that comes with the third trimester, but with both girls in school a couple days a week, I've been able to take rests and relax a little. When both girls are home, however, there is little relaxation; they certainly like to keep me on my toes! I was excited to pass my 1 hour glucose tolerance test (a first for me!), so I don't have to go through the undesirable 3 hour test. We are all getting really excited about meeting are new little girl!

The weather since we've been here has been hot and sunny, but not at all humid, which is a nice change from MN. Now that the evenings have been cooling down considerably, we are looking forward to what Fall in CO has to offer.

We're hoping to keep you updated on a more regular basis, but we'll see what happens!

What's New?

So, I've been really, really behind on the blog posts. But that's good news! That means that we've been super busy and will have lots of exciting news to share. The first batch of pictures I took about a month ago and thought they were super cute. The photos at the end are of Linnea's 5th birthday party back on May 15th. Once again we had beautiful weather.

Now, on to the news. We are moving to Colorado for two years in August. Matthew was assigned an internship at a church in Littleton, CO. We are all very excited about this decision, as this was his first choice of internship sites. The other news is that we will be adding Erickson baby number 3 the the family right around Thanksgiving. We will find out next month whether we're having a boy or a girl. The girls really want a little brother, but I think they'll be just fine with another little sister as well. They are both very excited about the new addition to our family.

I recently took the girls with me back to Massachusetts to visit my family and we had a great time. It was great to see all of the family and for the girls to visit with their cousins. I will have to post some of those pictures soon.

Back in Minnesota Again

It's been so long since our last post and a lot has happened. We spent 3 weeks in Mass and the another few weeks in Washington before our half- country trek back to the cold, snowy Mid-West. On our way back we stopped at beautiful Yellowstone National Park for a few days. There we went on a snow-coach tour of the park and saw some amazing things like Old Faithful and bubbling pots of mud. It was really amazing and the girls enjoyed the trip. We also went cross-country skiing and outdoor ice skating, and took advantage of the indoor pool.

Since we've been back here, it's been pretty cold (compared to what we were used to in Sweden) and we've had a decent amount of snow. And we're loving it! It is so sunny here most days and that I really enjoy. The girls and I have been outside almost everyday (sometimes twice a day) playing in the snow or taking trips to the local libraries. I love to keep these kids busy. We've also been reconnecting with our friends we met here over a year ago and it's been fun to catch up with all of them.

Now Matthew is in the process of interviewing for internship next year. We won't find out where we will be moving to next until after April 1st. Seems like a long time off, but I know it will go quick. I've signed with girls up for swim lessons starting next week and I have a feeling that they'll love them. These girls really love the water and I love how it tires them out!

I've been working on doing a lot of homemade projects in addition to the regular cooking. That means all of our bread (gluten and gluten-free), yogurt, buttermilk and granola is homemade. It's fun to do with the girls and they really enjoy the food. Today we made homemade play-dough, which we didn't eat. ;-)

I'll end the post with a few pictures of the girls and our adventures. Check out the video as well. Enjoy!

Linnea bowling back in Mass

Sonja snoozing

Hiking with farmor in Washington

Linnea on the mountain (Mt. Baker)

Snuggle time

Yellowstone at sunset

Skiing out

Skiing with Sonja

Our snow-coach

Eating ice outside our building

In the tunnel

Heading West

After Wayne and Ellyn left us in Stockholm to fly back to the US, we were all sad. It seemed so quiet without them. Linnea complained that she didn't have anyone to talk to while riding in the car. We all felt a little lonely without them joining us on our adventures. The same day they left Stockholm we headed west towards Norway. We stopped to stay a couple of days at a cabin on the Northern tip of one of Sweden's largest lakes. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy so we didn't even get to go swimming. So sad. Instead we went hiking and hit the mother load when we discovered all of the wild blueberries everywhere! We packed up a few containers full and enjoyed them for days.

A bus we saw on the road

Out on a hike

Then it was time to move on again, but we were all eager to escaped the rainy weather. We took a half a day and kept on west to Norway. There we stayed with my very distant and very nice relatives Nils and Vesla on the family farm northwest of Oslo. They were so gracious and hospitable - great people! They are a retired couple that have moved out of the main farmhouse into a very cozy home on the property. One of their daughters, her husband and 3 children now live in the main farmhouse and run the farm. We also visited Ola (their son) who lives on another farm not too far away with his wife and daughter.

View from across the fjord

The girls loved playing with their "cousins" and the weather was just gorgeous. I had stayed there back in 1998 for a week after I completed my term in Germany. It was great to see everyone again, how the kids had grown and to meet the newest family members. While there, we also visited the glass factory and an old silver mine. Very fun. It felt so nice to stay in a home with great hosts after staying in cabins and hotels for the past few of weeks.

Annette, Linnea and Sonja

The two familys at Ola and Anna's house.

From there we set off for a week up to Flåm and then Bergen where we saw some absolutely amazing county. Stories and pictures to follow.

Farewell Already?

We can't believe it! We'll be leaving Sweden in just 11 days. Could it really be that soon? Of course we are really, really looking forward to getting home and seeing family. We are also sad to say "goodbye" to the good friends we have made over the past year. We hope that we will see them again someday! Perhaps they'll visit us in the US?

Our plans for the holidays are to spend 3 weeks in Massachusetts over Christmas, my birthday and New Year's, and then about 2.5 weeks in Washington. Then we will begin the long drive back to Minnesota. This time however, we will be making a stop for 4 days in Yellowstone! We are so excited, I've never been. There we hope to do some cross country skiing and hot tubbing. It'll be interesting to move back into our old apartment building in MN. Some friends are still there and we are very much looking forward to reconnecting with them. Of course, we'll have to get used to the extreme cold again, but I'm really looking forward to some snow.

We are trying to make the most of our remaining time in Sweden and participating in some Advent festivities. Next week Linnea has a Santa Lucia performance at her school at 7:00 AM while it is still dark. That'll be cold. Pictures to follow. Tomorrow we bake Christmas cookies with some friends. And we've done a little Christmas shopping here as well. The girls made a gingerbread house which was quickly devoured.

Hope to see some of you real soon!

Polar Circle, High Coast and Stockholm

Our time with Ellyn and Wayne continued on to more northern Sweden into Lappland. We stayed 3 nights in Arvidsjaur and during that stay traveled north to Jokkmokk, which is north of the Arctic circle. Up there we saw many reindeer and visited the Sami museum that we found very interesting.
After our time up north we started to make our way south down the east coast, also known as the High Coast. Here we stayed another couple of nights. We were originally going to stay in another stuga but the reservation got mixed-up. Apparently, they had us booked as 4 dogs and 2 children instead of 4 adults and 2 children. Not quite sure how that all happened but it was pretty humorous when we were trying to check in! Luckily, there was room at a hotel and we stayed there instead. On the high coast the girls took their first chair lift ride up a mountain. From there we had a beautiful view and they feasted like bear cubs on wild blueberries.

Another day we took a wild ferry ride to one of the islands just off the coast. It was a choppy ride and while both girls felt sick, it was only poor little Sonja that puked all over me. Yuck! The rest of the day was much better until it started to down pour and we all got soaked, especially Wayne who saved our spot in line to get back on the ferry. Luckily, the ferry ride back to the mainland was not as choppy.
Then it was down the coast again to Stockholm where we spent a couple of days doing the usual touristy stuff. We saw the royal palace, walked along the old cobble-stoned streets, took a canal boat ride, and everyone except Sonja and me visited the Vasa museum. It was by far the most touristy destination on our trip. English was spoken everywhere.

We stopped at IKEA on the way for a break and some Swedish fish

Linnea admiring the crown outside the Royal Palace (2nd largest working palace in Europe)

Listening to the narration on the canal tour

At the Vasa Museum

After Stockholm it was back to the US for the Farfs. We continued our summer adventure traveling west over towards Norway where we would stay for 2 weeks.