After a brief hiatus....we're back!

Wow!  I can't believe how much time has flown by since my last post.  Its been a crazy whirlwind last few months, but boy, have we ever enjoyed having the Daddy-man's undivided attention that entire time without the distraction of work and flying.  The kids absolutely blossomed and adored spending time with Daddy and I think Daddy enjoyed the time spent getting to know his babies even more!

For Thanksgiving, we decided to make the 23 hour road trip from Maryland up to Minnesota to see family.  The kids did AMAZING for all the time they spent strapped in their carseats and we were incredibly lucky to have the gift of amazing friends who opened their homes to us half way through in Indiana.  Our friends,  the Silverbergs, live in Indiana and are owners of a beautiful red porsche....or also known as Lightning McQueen to a certain two-year old little boy.  We spent the first day's car ride watching "Cars" and when we pulled up at dinner time with Mr. Silverberg showing Haakon the red porsche, we were certain that Haakon's eyes were going to pop out of his head with disbelief!  He was so excited.  Since returning home, Haakon has since referred to our friends' car (their son and who also happens to own a gray porsche) as Lightning McQueen's cousin.  This observation is then generally accompanied by a low rumble from Haakon as to signal the start of the engine.  Our friends, Jon and Tiffany, are tickled to death by this compliment :)

Lightning McQueen

For Christmas and New Year, we decided to keep it low key and stay home in MD.  But since we live a mere 2 hours away from my grandmother, aunties, uncles and a bucket load of cousins, we meandered to the DC area on Christmas Eve to celebrate our first Christmas with my mom's family EVER (I know, its terrible, but traveling from one snowy place to another was never a huge temptation and our families are so huge).  It was the best big family Christmas that I could have asked for for our children.  They got to run around, play with their big cousins, great-aunts and -uncles, chase around Lucy-dog, stay up late and open tons and tons of presents!  We are so so incredibly blessed to have a family who utterly showered us so with  love, affection, and gifts.  And the cherry on top of the season was the last minute visit from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Byron (also affectionately known as Mima and Bumpa).  It was so lovely to see and spend time with them both.  And as always, house and personal projects are always accomplished with them in our corner.  Thank you!

A few days after New Year's, reality had finally settled in on us: it was time to return Bjorn back to the Navy.  It was an incredible two months of having him selfishly to ourselves and the five of us savored and stretched every moment of it.  He traveled down South to get qualified on a training jet and I got to figure out single parenthood in a new state with three children three and under....talk about baptism by the fire!  But our survival was not without help.  Grandma Charey came out to help me (actually just spend time with the grandkids) for a week and it was so much fun!  She was instrumental in helping me keep sane after so much time with Bjorn.  So really, I only had three weeks of single parenthood.  Looking back on it, it was probably the best "welcome" to the next 12 months there could have been.  I still very much love the kids and the kids love me right back.  We're good!

So we're very much well into TPS and its everything that everyone told it would be.  We are LOVING Southern Maryland and everything it has to offer.  Although its not exactly the pristine-ness of the Pacific Northwest, its a good imitation :)  We are looking forward to the next few years here and all that is in store for the Anderson family!