baby love

I'm a little bit in love with baby Karsten. He is just so teeny and so perfect. The love affair is mutual too - he told me so himself when he was snuggling on my shoulder. Though he was born premature he is doing so very well; drinking like a pro, hardly ever crying, weening himself off the extra oxygen in no-time, and sleeping lots and lots. It almost makes me want to have another one myself. But not quite. Can't wait to see him again.

 Yesterday Sander and I gave talks in church, and the response was overwhelming. So many sweet people came up to us to show us their appreciation and love! We are definitely made to feel at home, it's so nice. One sweet lady even made a point to remember what Sander said about his patriotic love for the color orange, and came over a few hours after church with home made chocolate cookies.... covered in bright orange frosting! Also, they are making such efforts to pronounce our last name correctly. They even succeed once in a while! The language shift is a funny thing, quite literally. For instance, the kids call the Lifesavers candies 'light sabres'. And Max loves to belt along to his favorite Coldplay song (ew, I know) with the words:
Paraaaa, Paraaaa... PAIR O' GUYS. Speaking of that song, I'm sure you've all heard the wonderful cover by The Piano Guys, feat. Alex Boye. Take a listen if you haven't:

I know Alex! We attended one of our church's Young Single Adult's camps - the most epic one there ever was, I might add - and had lots of musical fun together. We also each had parts in the hilarious Star Wars satire, called "Vla Wars", which was shot and edited entirely at said camp. I would add a clip, but alas, they are nowhere to be found on the internets anymore. Alex, well done for getting so far in your music career! (not that he'll ever read this now he's gone on to international youtube stardom.)

EDIT: There IS a video of the Vla Wars film online! YAY!! My google was just too stoopid to find it. Thanks to the amazing Liz for pointing it out to me. Now, without further ado:

I am available for award ceremonies on Friday nights.

streetview

I got a little antsy one day last week. The girls were in school, the boys were in bed, and outside it appeared to be a beautiful day. So I grabbed my camera, threw on my coat and mittens, and went for a walk around the neighborhood. On that walk I smiled at strangers, encountered the frozen marsh of the Junior High baseball diamond, was barked at by Don Draper's dog, and took some pictures. I really have been taking pictures regularly, even though I haven't had very many to show. One reason I don't show many anymore is because my lens is all messed up and ruins just about every picture I take. This makes me incredibly sad. So here are some of the pictures I have been saving up, all taken around our new neighborhood, some even on our street. It's so beautiful around here. Quiet too, but not too quiet.

My mother painted that Dutch mailbox. People are serious about their mailboxes here! I have seen some very interesting ones. There is one that looks like a bomb, some people decorate their mailboxes to the different holidays (St. Patrick's Day is the current theme), and one has a curvy chain for a pole. I think I'd like to be a mailman someday. But first I need a nap.

the good, the iPad,

and the mountains. The mountains in Utah take my breath away, as I have lately been happily telling anyone who will listen. I have also been asking all kinds of people who have lived around these majestic natural occurrences for years and years, if it ever gets old. Could it be possible that there will come a day when I walk out the door, look up at their snow-covered tops, and think to myself '....'? I hope not. Every car ride is a pleasure thanks to the views. Views which, I might add, are ever changing in the different types of weather and times of day. On Tuesday night for instance, I made a discovery. As I was driving up the hill to attend a meeting in a house somewhere at the top of it, I looked up and saw that when you are going up that hill and the sky is clear, the moon peeks out over the edge near the top of the mountain, giving a sharp, eerily beautiful edge to its already impressive profile.

As for the good and the bad: Sander got his first paycheck and it was considerably more than we had hoped for, which was very, very good. Then I went to sit down on our bed (read: a mattress on the ground) and my knee hit our iPad that I had overlooked, and the screen made that horribly sickening cracking sound. So guess where the extra money is going?

ya r/w n

Not as boring as it sounds... Or maybe you think it is, in which case I strongly suggest you skip this post altogether. As you clever cookies may have figured out by now, the more hectic life gets, the more yarn this gal needs. So you can guess how much of it I have been going through these past months. Quite a bit, my friends. Quite a bit.

I have been knitting so much that I haven't even been taking pictures of all the things I've made. Luckily I do have some snaps of a couple of recent projects that I am reasonably proud of. Pride is a sin, you say? YOU try successfully completing a knitting pattern full of abbreviations like k2tog, slst, psso, wyib, pfb and k2tbl, without a feeling of pride in your accomplishment, and then we'll talk.

While still in Holland I finished a pair of cotton baby booties + mittens for a pregnant friend who has since given birth to a healthy baby boy. She emailed me to let me know my booties were the first things to go on his tiny little hands and feet - and they fit perfectly. Things like that make me all mushy inside. I only managed to get a picture of the booties:

Because we were a little low on funds for our Christmas presents last year, I decided to knit something for all four of my little nieces and nephews. I made warm hats with big fuzzy pompoms on top for the boys (they call them their snowball hats :). Sassy Kylee got 2 different hats: a black and hot pink striped one with a knit bow sewn to the side, and a purple hat with green hearts worked into the pattern and smaller pompom on top. Cute Ella got a similarcolor work hat to Kylee's, only in baby pink with light green hearts and a green/pink pompom. To go with Ella's hat I made her pink and green mittens in the style of Bella's mittens from the first Twilight movie. I promise I'm not a Twi-Mom, I just really like those mittens (see also my next project). This time we only managed a shot of Ella and Benson with their new winter accessories.

And last, but not least, I finally finished my own pair of mittens, after having given away the previous 4 pairs (with love!). I need them here all the time, especially to keep my fingers from freezing to the steering weel of the car until the heater kicks in. And it's not even a cold winter for Utah standards!

Ah, I love them. I'm currently making the exact same ones for my amazing cousin Courtney who recently entered the Provo Missionary Training Centre to get ready for her mission in Texas. Apparently it snows in Texas - who knew?

The final project is the one I am most proud of. It was the one of the hardest patterns I've ever followed and a lot of time and swearing love has gone into making it. It's a little sweater to keep a little baby warm on a cold day - and not just any baby. This sweater was my special present to tiny Karsten Joseph May, born to my sister Marissa on January 19th of this year. He was a month early so I doubt he'll fit into it before April. I'm a little in love with the wide range of craft supplies available around here... this button for instance, too cute!

In other news: Max just woke up from his nap and scared the crap out of me by sneaking up behind me and loudly declaring 'I need to poop.', after which he spray-sneezed all over me. Gotta go.

operation US residency

Job: check. Sander started last week and is loving it so far. The commute is only 20mins.
School: check. We started Lara in 1st grade and Julia in Kindergarten so they can catch up on the language.

Cell phones: check. Comment or email if you'd like our numbers.
Bank Account: check.
Credit Card: almost check. We just have to wait for Sander's first pay stub.
Car: check. We bought a 4 cylinder '95 Honda Accord station wagon yesterday. Should give us great mileage!
Driver's Licenses: half check. Bad news: we had to take new tests. good news: the tests are a joke and take less than 15 mins, and the whole process is very cheap.
Holland House sold: -

US House bought/rented: -
Calling in church: half check. I'm the new Relief Society Secretary (yay!), and they're still working on a good one for Sander.