Christmas and New Year

Thank you Matthew and Lauren for visiting! It was great getting to know you better and we hope to see you again soon!


The frenzy of opening presents.


I bet this type of photo has never been attempted before (yes I am joking).

Skiing

Henrik is quickly picking up the winter sports. He can ski and skate now!

Mosjön

Skating on Mosjön near Lit a week ago. It was really windy and if you made the effort of skating upwind for while you were rewarded by being able "sail" all the way back again!

Birthdays

I haven't been posting many photos lately. Just lack of time I guess. Anyway, here are some photos of recent birthdays. The whole family was born in September. Yes that's right, Virgos RULE!

Henrik is still a bit camera shy so I have to catch him when I can. For his birthday we took a whole lot of his friends and his little sister to a playhouse called the "Jungle House". You rent a birthday room with a theme (Henrik chose the Pirate room) and kids eat cake, sweets and open presents. And play like mad in all the tunnels and slides etc later of course.
Rhiannon didn't have a party in the same sense, but enjoyed being woken up to lots of presents.


Lorienne taking Rhiannon down the slide


Blueberry Monster Cake


Not a bad hair day, but she was fast asleep 10 minutes earlier

Summer Photos

Rhiannon and Henrik's aunt Delia


Henrik is a fast runner and is getting increasingly difficult to catch, even with a good camera


Ballet in the field

Assortment of Holiday Photos

Another trip to wonderful Laholm in the summer. This time my Dad and his family joined us as well and gave me the opportunity to take a Hagström guys family photo. The only one missing was 12 year old Brodie who lives in Australia with his mother.
Here is an assortement of holiday photos.

Dad


Dad and male offspring


Relaxed holiday mood




My favourite girls




Don´t worry, I helped him shortly after taking a few photos


My niece

Gåxsjö

We visited a little village called Gåxsjö on Saturday. It celebrated it's 600th anniversary!

Henrik's friend and Henrik (centre) checking out the lake.


Gåxsjö church shortly before a rainstorm.


Parkour Henrik!

Midsummer

Midsummer fortunately doesn't mean we've reached the middle of summer yet, summer only arrives up here in July and lasts until the end of August.
We attended the midsummer festival in the village which got off to a rainy start and forced us to seek cover in the old church.
The rain didn't last for long though and we could go outside and enjoy the show again.

Waiting for the hail and heavy rainfall to end from inside the church


Lorienne and Rhiannon taking a look at an old memorial stone


The rain quickly ended and the festivities carried on

Summer(?) Outing

Occasionally the temperatures have reached a balmy 18-20C, warm enough for an outing to Indalsälven in Lit at least.

Elusive Subject

Finally I managed to take a photograph of my son Henrik! Lately, whenever he sees the camera, he seems to evaporate into thin air and it's only his teasing laughter that lets you know he is still around somewhere.
I could take this photo of him because his mother promised to let him spray her with water afterwards as a reward.



Rhiannon on the other hand can't wait to have her photo taken, or rather, can't wait to see the photo of herself.

Spring At Last

A spicy scent outside, shifting weather, misty forests and birdsong...Spring is here!

Crocodile boots?


Flower watch


Where's the fairy?

Spring soon!

What a winter it's been with both Rhiannon and Lorienne getting pneumonia. Lorienne even got admitted to hospital for a week where they drained 3 litres of fluid from her left lung!
Apart from illnesses it's been the coldest winter we've had since moving here in 2002 with temperatures staying well below -20 C for weeks. The Land Rover has thrown a few problems my way too with strange noises from the front axle and failing clutch hydraulics. Not much fun working on the car in the winter darkness and icy cold.
Only now these last few days it´s been much warmer, the sun shines, Lorienne is much better, I fixed the Land Rover and the days are getting longer and longer.
Needless to say my photography has taken a step back in all this. There's been a lot to do around the house with Lorienne out of our routines and system, but things are getting back to normal again and I'm looking forward to a long hot summer with plenty of photo opportunities!
I did manage a few photos of family though:






Rhiannon does the face but Mommy blows the bubbles




Lorienne in hospital

Home

"Ain't no sunshine when she's gone..." Those are the words from a song, I forget the name of it and the rest of the lyrics, but while Lorienne is in hospital the evenings are lonely and the days are long. The kids must think they have a weird dad at the moment. My mind is out of focus while worrying about my wife who's ill and I'm not good at entertaining my children right now.
Until she's back home again an important part of our tightly knit family is missing here in our house.
Get better, come home, we miss you, we need you.

Chocolate Cake

So what's nicer? The mixture or the cake itself?

Wrong Photo

Taking family photographs when there are little kids involved is not always an easy task. I try to make the process as quick as possible before they get bored, but usually it takes a few tries before I'm happy.
In this photograph (one out of 9 attempts) everyone is doing the "wrong" thing, but it's my personal favourite!

Henrik's and Rhiannon's big cousin Chris and his girlfriend Mel visited us over New Year. As you can see there was seldom a quiet moment!

Short Day

Today is the shortest day of the year. The sun only showed it's face for a few brief hours. But who cares when there are bright little faces and Christmas around the corner!

Henrik

On the odd occasion I get the chance to take photos of Henrik, but usually it's Rhiannon who steps into the limelight.
She had to take a step back today though when Henrik tried on his santa suit. It's "Lucia" and the kids dress up and...actually I have written about this before, click here.
Anyway, Henrik still prefers to observe and take notes rather than joining in.


Rhiannon can't yet climb up on the toy basket


Watching the Lucia procession and taking notes

The Big Lamp In the Sky

Today Rhiannon made me realise how little we see the sun during this part of the year.
The sun was shining just above the horizon (around noon!) and she pointed at it and said one of the few words she really knows: "Lampa...!" (Lamp in English).
Three weeks left now until it starts getting lighter again.

Icebound

With winter approaching, the long dark nights and short days that follow it, I have been feeling trapped at home lately. I try to think of things to do and places to go, but my creativity doesn't stretch very far right now.

It's the early winter that disappoints. It comes and goes.
It snows, it melts, it snows, it melts. Last week brought lots of fog followed by subzero temperatures, the perfect recipe for amazing frost!

Creative Chaos

My biggest worry while at home with my kids (besides figuring out what to cook and how to cook it!) is trying to keep them entertained.
I don't mind the cleaning and tidying up, in fact I see it as a sort of challenge trying to create order out of chaos. I feel a sense of panic when one of the first things Henrik asks me in the morning is what we're going to do today and when am I going to play with him in his room? I don't know. I haven't a clue.
We should be doing something which stimulates their minds while at the same they'll grow up thinking they have a great dad and what fun it was to be at home.
But my mind comes to a standstill. I can think of a hundred things and at the same time nothing at all. So when I answer Henrik's question it's usually with: "Eeeh..."

On Friday we tried being artistic. I taped some paper to the floor and we all had a hand in trying to not let any white paper show through. I think this picture describes what it's like at home at the moment.


One of the artists