Goodbye Sweden....Hello Finland!

It has been a crazy last few weeks for us, filled with lots of packing, traveling and moving. Once the decision to leave Sweden was final, we got down to business going through all of our stuff. We finished sorting, trashing and packing late the night before we were due to leave. Reese must have had an idea of the changes to come as she didn't sleep well that last night in Sweden. That, coupled with the fact that we stayed up until almost 3am packing, didn't allow much sleep for any of us. We had a taxi waiting the following morning to haul all 6 bags and us to the train station heading for Stockholm. As soon as we unloaded at the train station, we found out the train was delayed an hour which would have caused us to miss our flight. So we loaded back up into a taxi and headed for the airport. We realized after checking in, we wouldn't be able to gate check our stroller as we had hoped since it was such a short flight to Finland. We loaded Reese into the carrier and headed for our gate, only to arrive a minute after it closed causing us to miss the flight. We would take the next flight out, a few hours later. Since we had no stroller for Reese to sleep in, we had to make due with what we had as you can see in the pictures. Later that night, we finally made it to Finland to face yet another setback, our luggage did not arrive with us! Luckily, the team had arranged to have a car seat waiting at the airport for us.

Our time in Tampere was short-lived and after hearing the team would not be signing any other players, we packed up again and headed for Joensuu, Finland. We drove 5 hours across Finland to what we hoped would be our final stop for the remainder of the year. We spent a few nights in a hotel while our apartment was being prepared. I am happy to now report, we are finally feeling settled again in our apartment at last. Reese was a real trooper with all of the traveling, adjusting wherever we went. However, all the changes are finally catching up with her as she has not been sleeping well at night. We are hoping this is not a permanent change as she was sleeping through the night when we were in Sweden. Please cross your fingers for us, we all need to get some better sleep!

Scott's new team is now in 2nd place with 5 games remaining in the regular season. Play-offs start early March. We hope to have a better idea of when we will be returning home soon and will keep you all posted.

Here are a few pictures of our latest adventures!

Reese in action!!

Here's a compilation of a few videos we've taken over the last couple of months but haven' gotten around to posting. It's crazy how fast time goes by these days....but I guess better late than never. As you will see, Reese is growing and changing so much!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! We have so much to be thankful for in 2010, obviously with the birth of little Reesey our lives have changed in so many ways since the turn of the last new year. Speaking of the turning of the new year, Catie, Reese and I had a pretty quiet New Year's celebration this year. We made a bunch of appetizers throughout the day, Catie had a couple of glasses of wine, I had a few beers, and we rang in the new year with the smallest bottle of champagne I could find at the System Bolaget (Sweden's answer to Canada's "Beer store"). We woke Reese up just in time for a quick countdown to 2010, toasted our new bundle of joy and quickly got her back to sleep without her missing a beat. I'm not sure she even really woke up!!

On that note, Reese has really turned a corner in the sleeping department over the past couple of weeks. She started by sleeping from 9pm - 7:30am with Catie or me having to go in and calm her once or twice a night, but without having to feed her. She has basically stuck to this new sleep routine for the past 7-8 days and the last 2 nights she has slept through the night without either of us having to go in at all. What a dream!! I had my first uninterrupted night of sleep last night in over 3 months!! I felt amazing this morning. We have tried to keep her on a better, more grown up schedule and really watch her sleep cues during the day and things couldn't be better (outside of one hiccup night where Catie was up with her about 8 times!!!). She has also made progressions on some other new milestones, as she is rolling over from belly to back with ease (whenever she feels like it!!) and starting to roll from her back to her side, guess she'll need some more coaxing to get to her belly. She is becoming more aware of her surroundings everyday. She is laughing and giggling and 'talking' more and more and grasping at her toys on her play mat. She will never be that tiny helpless baby we held a month ago...so many mixed emotions!

The weather here in Orebro has been FREEZING cold for the last month or more. It has gotten as low as -30C, which is -22F. Typically during the day it's been somewhere in the -10C to -20C range and there is lots of snow everywhere. It can be beautiful at times, when you forget about the bone chilling cold. We have tried to get Reese out for as many walks as possible, but as you can imagine it's not easy when you freeze after only 5 minutes!! Catie had her out for an hour long walk last week and had Reese bundled in about 3 or 4 blankets! Just another day in the great white north.

The year has absolutely flown by, as Reese just turned 3 months old. In only 2 short months we will be back stateside and many of you will get to meet Reese for the first time in person. We are very excited about our arrival back in Michigan and look forward to seeing all our friends and family once again. Until another blog entry, cheers from Sweden. Scott - Daddy

Christmas Fun

All dressed up for Christmas dinner
Family pic Christmas night (good thing Scott is sporting his Christmas purple!)
Thanks for all my stuff Grandpa Lewis- love you!!
Opening her first gift
Christmas morning
Stocking time!
Reese and mommy
The guys hanging with the kids
Family pic on Christmas Eve at the Kurtz's

We had a great first Christmas with our little Reesey bug. Spent Christmas Eve over at our friends, Nikki and Justin's, place for a big turkey dinner, drinks and a little game of catch phrase. Since we're so far from home, it was nice still being able to celebrate with friends.

Christmas morning we woke up early, opened our stockings and got breakfast started. Then we all went back to sleep for a morning snooze. Woke up to bacon brunch, fresh cinnamon rolls and gift opening. Scott had a practice in the afternoon (boo to skates on Christmas day), but we enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner with friends when he came home. Even though Santa was good to Reese, think she loved all the pretty Christmas lights most of all.

To our friends and family near and far- hope you all had a great Christmas and wishing you the best in 2010!

Grandpa Lewis!

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas with shopping, baking and decorating. It's been great to have Grandpa Lewis here to join in on the festivities and help out with Reese. She's been loving spending time playing with him and is already getting spoiled. She definitely has the most presents under the tree!

We have tried to get out for some fresh air as much as possible but it's been bitter cold here so have only managed a couple good walks. Grandpa goes out everyday but Reese has only been able to tag along once. We have been to town and the local mall finishing up our Christmas shopping- which really tuckered Reese right out. Despite the cold weather, we managed a quick trip out to pick out a tree. We also had some friends here yesterday for our annual cookie bake which turned out to be lots of fun. Daddy had a home game on Friday so the three of us headed over to cheer him on. They pulled off an OT win and celebrated after with a team Christmas party. Reese was great at the game, sleeping the whole time. I think she must have sensed the 'party' after because she decided to wake up and join the fun for a little bit. Good thing she was decked out in her cute Christmas jammies (thanks Paige!!).

We are planning on heading downtown tomorrow one last time before Grandpa has to head back home. Hopefully we will make it to the castle and maybe find a souvenir or two for Grandpa.

Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks. As you can see, we will be enjoying a white Christmas this year!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us here in Sweden. Hugs and kisses to all!

2 Months

It was great having Grandma Sue here and so helpful in so many ways. I don't think we lifted a finger the entire time she was here. Of course Reese thoroughly enjoyed her special bonding time with Grandma too! We were actually able to get out for a dinner date which was a nice treat and easy to do knowing Reese would be in such loving arms. Next up is Grandpa Lewis who is due to arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed he got off the ground and gets here safely!

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas and are looking forward to Reese's first one. We are waiting until Grandpa is here to get the tree and decorate it. Also in the plans with Grandpa is our annual cookie bake. We have lots of treats on the list for this year- way too many for just the 3 of us but it's much too hard to make cuts!

As Grandma sue reported already, Reese is quite the smiley little girl. She is full of smiles all the time and it sure doesn't take much to get one. She is such a happy baby. She surprised us on her 2 month birthday and rolled from her belly to her back. She's done it a handful of times but still isn't a regular occurrence. Can't believe how fast she's growing up.

Yesterday we took our first road trip as a family of three. Headed to the U.S. embassy in Stockholm to report her birth and get her citizenship and passport in order. Want to make sure it's all taken care of before we head home in March. Reese was such a great little traveler. She slept the entire way there with just a quick pit stop for food. After we were done at the embassy, we headed downtown for some Christmas shopping and a late lunch.

Here are some of the latest pics!