The Harrison-Helins

Hudson 7 months - Now also with extra bounce!

2012-01-28T18:05:00.002Z

1 year in Sweden!

2012-01-28T14:33:00.006Z

Guess what! Yesterday marked our 1-year anniversary in Sweden! Hard to believe it’s already been a year since the moving truck rolled up to our brand new home here in Sweden! It’s been a busy year filled with lots of ‘news’ and looking back; we couldn’t be any happier with our decision to close up shop in the UK and move over here.

We decided to celebrate by having our good friends and neighbours Helen & Miguel and the kids over for a pizza party. Homemade pizzas were had and the kids got sugared up well and good!

Oh and here's a poster that I found which shows everything 'typical Swedish' for your reference, just in case you need to refresh your memory. ;)

Presentable and rentable

2012-01-26T15:26:00.006Z

Only a few trembling days left of my 2 month paternity leave now unfortunately. The days and weeks have just flown past but we are definitely satisfied with how we’ve spent this time and we are most definitely keen on more! So, an idea of a longer multi-stop trip over to North America has been born and we have dusted off the old imaginary drawing board to see when it would be best to go, where we want to go, what we can afford, what our best travel options are etc. Stuff like that.

As the idea is to be away for maybe 2 months; we are also looking into the possibility of renting out our flat for at least part of that time and Shaena (you may have heard her gospel or seen shared links fly by already) has fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with this website called Airbnb.com. Basically it’s an accommodations rental website, only much cooler.

Airbnb recently sent out an offer to their members for a photo service where one of their photographers would come out and take photos of your home for free. Shaena of course jumped right on that and signed us up and today we actually had a professional photographer coming home to us to snap what we hope will be some cool, selling photos.

To prepare for the photographer's arrival we’ve been tidying and cleaning and been trying to keep our home clutter free at least until after the photo session (not the easiest with a 2,5 year old tornado and his mini-me in the house though). Shaena went around the flat snapping some preliminary photos earlier today before the guy got here and we think we are in good shape! We should have access to the photos in a couple of days so we’ll of course share some of them here as well.

The photographer’s name is Rob Schoenbaum and he is a native New Yorker who’s been living in Sweden for the past 8 years. We obviously checked him out beforehand and he looks like a pretty talented guy! Check out some of his work here: www.robschoenbaum.com

Anyway, this photo session and the flat rental may be a smaller piece of the puzzle for this next big adventure but we are sure excited about the prospect of a big trip!

So, North Americans… who would like a visit!? Drop us a comment and maybe we’ll pin you on our map! ;)

Snowy fun!

2012-01-25T15:15:00.000Z

PULKA TIME!

2012-01-25T11:14:00.002Z

Boys weekend at home

2012-01-21T22:19:00.003Z

When the cat's away...

Whilst Shaena is off to Edinburgh for a rendevous with her girls, me and the boys have literally set up camp in the livingroom. A tent to me more precise.

As soon as the tent was set up; Ethan kindly contributed to the interior by bringing my laptop in there and proceeded to request one Youtube clip after the other! In no particular order: planes, trucks, roary, monster trucks, the happy birthday song, cars, garbage trucks and tractors. He then refused to let us out. King of the castle!

Funny enough; Ethan is usually quite stubborn when it comes to bedtime but in the tent, he somehow just falls asleep straight away! It might just become a permanent fixture in the livingroom...

January in Kallhäll

2012-01-21T22:09:00.004Z

Weekend away!

2012-01-20T16:40:00.003Z

This is how I wish we could pack all the time! Sure does make traveling easier and a lot lighter! You think people overpack for most flights?...I do!

Smoosh face likey pasta sauce!

2012-01-19T19:25:00.004Z

'An Ethan by any other name...'

2012-01-18T19:04:00.003Z

Ok, how weird is this! Right below the listing with the Hudson-article, there is an article about the name Ethan; basically saying that Ethan is one of the most popular names in Canada and North America right now. Who knows; if we keep looking we might just stumble upon an article saying that Harrison-Helin is the most awesome double barreled last name right now?!

'An Ethan by any other name...'

'Who names their kid Hudson?'

2012-01-17T17:42:00.003Z

When we first announced Hudson’s name to friends and family, a few eyebrows were slightly elevated and comments like ”Hudson? To me that’s a car or a river!” were dropped. In all fairness though; Hudson is not the most common name for a baby boy, especially not here in Sweden. Funny enough; there was an article published in the Winnipeg Free Press recently (thanks Great Grandma for spotting it) where other parents have had similar reactions to the name Hudson:

'Who names their kid Hudson?'

Needless to say we agree with the lady at church who thought the name was "strong and sturdy but warm and inviting."! ;)

Hi Great Grandma!

2012-01-17T14:35:00.001Z

Raspberries!

2012-01-12T19:34:00.001Z

Mmm... Spaghetti Bolognese!

2012-01-12T11:38:00.001Z

Wouldn't leave home without 'em...

2012-01-07T11:17:00.001Z

Hudson 6 months

2012-01-06T18:30:00.006Z

Photos are coming in thick and fast!

2012-01-06T11:52:00.015Z

We promised to post photos from our trip once we were back home and had better access to good internet, so here we go! Photos from the trip will be added below so go ahead and scroll down and check out some of the previous blog posts that have been updated with photos. Enjoy!

4 generations of Helins

2012-01-06T10:07:00.005Z

Ethan, Peter, Great grandma Linnéa, Hudson and Grandpa Stefan

Come fly with me

2012-01-04T22:05:00.001Z

New Years celebrations have come and gone and the time has come for the Harrison-Helins to head back home but before we do, I thought I'd share one more thing with you.

Yesterday we got the opportunity to go visit the airforce base up here to have a look at the jet fighters and also to try their state of the art flight simulator; which in my geeky opinion is probably one of the coolest things since Michael J Fox's garbage-fuelled DeLorean!

Imagine that an imax cinema and a jet fighter simulator would make a baby and you get to be the cinematographer-top gun-pilot. That's pretty much what it was like sitting in that cockpit; surrounded by a detailed aerial photo of Sweden that you are flying over whilst controlling 'one of the world's most advanced weapons systems'. Can you tell I am excited about these things? ;) Both Shaena and I got to take it for a spin and we both managed to take off, fly and land safely again; thank G*d!

Anyway; after our flying sessions we each got a diploma and got to go out to the actual airplanes in one of the hangars with our guide Micke. I pretty much grew up on the base and have been running around the hangars countless times but I still get excited about these machines and the whole vibe of this environment.

Ethan on the other hand instantly spotted the trucks that pull the planes out of the hangar and was mostly interested in sitting in the driver's seat, pushing buttons and honking the horn! Micke let Ethan loose on one of the trucks and at one point everything from the headlights to the wipers to the blinkers and the rotating light on the roof were going at the same time!

Tomorrow morning we have a 6.35am flight to catch from the same runway we took off from in the simulator, so it'll be a 4am start to the day for all of us. Wish us luck!

* = (trying to keep our J*sus-rating on the Next-button under control!) ;)

10 minutes to go...

2011-12-31T22:54:00.002Z

Happy New Ears!

2011-12-31T17:18:00.003Z

From the Harrison-Helin's

Getting ready to end 2011 in style!

2011-12-31T15:04:00.005Z

On this table, an incredible 3-course New Years dinner will be served shortly. Grandma Gertrud as gone all in and will treat us to what could possibly be my all time favourite main course and dessert:

A cognac flambe'd fillet of ox with duchesse potatoes and for dessert she has whipped up her own homemade ice cream for an oven baked(!) glace au four!

Looking back on 2011, we have had a tremendous year with lots of exciting changes and we can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!

We would like to wish all our friends and family a fantastic New Years Eve and an even more fantastic 2012!

...and this is how it ended:

Bamse got to lick the plates...

...a glass of bubbly was had...

...and fireworks were fired off into the dark northern skies

Two tired boys

2011-12-29T12:50:00.003Z

After a nice visit to Great grandma with lots of fika, playtime and Christmas pressies, our two lads fell asleep simultaneously and in near record time!

Hej hej, Haparanda! & Terve terve, Finland!

2011-12-28T22:22:00.007Z

The Christmas buffet coma is slowly releasing its grip on us after days of continous feasting on meatballs and ham and we've made our way even further up north to Haparanda for a visit.

We arrived yesterday noon after driving through a bit of a blizzard and hardly even took our shoes off before we were out the door again to go burn some energy and calories at the Candy World playland. Ethan has been once before but that was a year and a half ago and you can definitely tell that he enjoyed it even more this time around as he could be more independent and go nuts on tougher climbing structures, taller slides and even ride the tricycles by himself.

Once E-Machine was played out and had accepted our bribe of a visit to the adjacent Candy World shop we swiftly moved on. Ethan got his usual 'Pim Pim' godis box and Shaena found a slice of home when she stumbled upon a bunch of 'American' soda pop cans so we filled a tray with Mountain Dew, root beer, Dr Pepper and more... oh, and we also scored a nice bottle of Cars kids bubbly for New Years!

Afterwards; 3 Swedes, 1 Canadian and 2 Swenadians drove across the river to Finland to pick up Chinese food (most likely made by a Turkish dude) and went back to the house in Sweden and shared this tasty dinner with Ritva, who is from Finland. How very international, eh! ;)

Today's adventure turned out to be something really special and we've had a fantastic winter-themed day! We decided to drive up to Rovaniemi in Finland located pretty much right on the arctic circle and visit 'Santa Village'.

We visited Santa Village last time we were here as well but that was in the summer and this place is just soo much cooler when it is dark and wintery (no pun intended). The whole Santa-theme just works better in the winter! ;) All kidding aside; they had done a fantasic job with creating an atmosphere with amazing lighting, Christmas trees, huge snowmen, ice sculptures, icy slides for the kids to play on, reindeer rides, a Sami camp complete with... well, Sami people, and warming camp fires. The only thing we missed out on was an audience with the Big Guy himself as he had a constant 30-40 minute queue to his lap, so we decided to skip that.

All in all; another very good day out!

Santa Village, Rovaniemi Finland:

Where to next?

Ethan and mommy on an ice slide

Santa lives in the main house in the back

Santa's sled, waiting to be deployed

A white reindeer on 'Christmas World Road'

Sami people by a camp fire

A classic self-photo by a camp fire (notice Shaena's antlers!)

Santa's reindeer after a long day at work

Frosty

Winter wonderland

Candy World, Haparanda Sweden:

Ethan on a bouncy slide thingy!

Ethan and Grandpa on the big boy slide

On the agenda for tomorrow: A visit to great-grandma Linnea!

Actionboy Ethan (Quadbike sold separately)

2011-12-27T22:04:00.005Z

Who would have thought! Little Ethan has now officially graduated from just watching planes and trains and monster trucks on Youtube to actually having ridden both a quadbike and a dirtbike!

It all started last week at auntie Ida's school's horse class Christmas show where Ethan got to ride a buggy behind a one of those massive timber-pulling workhorses and sit on another full size horse. Each kid got to go two laps around the riding hall before it was someone elses's turn but Ethan wanted to go again and again so he kept sneaking back into the queue and you could really tell that he loved it!

After that, the new quadbike at the summerhouse was started for the first time and Ethan did not hesitate to jump on and wait for someone to take him for a ride. He went on several rides. First Roland took him, then Ida, then I went with him and lastly Shaena took him for a ride! The joy in his face was priceless so the morning after Roland took him for a ride on both the quad and the dirtbike AND he also got to go on a ride behind the quad on the little wagon that came with it, accompanied by Bamse and Chippen. When he came back to the house he was so excited he just kept saying "cycle, cycle [as in motorcycle], wroom, wroom!" and held his hands in front of him as if he was still holding the handlebars!

Based on this experience I am guessing we are setting ourselves up for years of expensive hobbies for E-man! Yikes! ;)

Winter as winter should be

2011-12-26T21:37:00.013Z

Ethan meets Santa (Tomten)

2011-12-26T17:02:00.005Z

"Wait, someone's coming!"

"Yeah, who did you say you knew at this party again?"

"Alright, I'll read the label but from a safe distance"

"Santa old buddy!"

"Give us a hug!"

Treating the Mrs to some good ol' anniversary-hockey-card-sorting fun!

2011-12-26T15:18:00.001Z

Taking the Mrs out for a fancy 4-year anniversary meal at 'Sunes'

2011-12-26T10:54:00.004Z

4 years ago today Shaena and I got married in the Orlando County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida; wearing our Mickey & Minnie ears from Disney World. Lots and lots of wonderful things have happened since then and these 4 years have been the most amazing ride to be on!

Ever since we met under ‘less than classy circumstances’, we’ve had a thing for celebrating anniversaries, Valentine’s Day and so on in fast food joints, so today I figured I’d take my dear wife to a fast food restaurant that has become an institution in Piteå over its 40 or so years in business: ‘Sunes Gatukök’. We both had a massive bacon burger meal and it was awesome!

Love you so much baby!

God Jul önskar Darth Vader med familj!

2011-12-24T15:04:00.001Z

God jul!

2011-12-24T13:40:00.001Z

This is it at 2.30pm!!

Twas the night before Christmas

2011-12-23T23:09:00.002Z

Christmas in Sweden is mainly celebrated on Christmas Eve as opposed to celebrating on Christmas Day as you do in pretty much the rest of the world.

So tonight we were invited by Grandma Gertrud and Roland to a 'uppesittarkväll', which is basically a 'night before the big night' celebration where you eat lots of good food and sweets, drink mulled wine and other beverages, maybe sample the newly roasted Christmas ham, watch 'uppesittarkväll-specials' on the TV and just hang out and have a good time.

Let me tell you; they went all in on the goodies tonight and we were treated to seveal different crust based delicacies, crepes, wine and sweets. I think I speak for most of us when I say that we rolled from the dinner table to the couch!

Ethan had a great time playing with his aunties and Bamse and Chippen, two out of the family's four four-legged members. Tonight he went to bed full, happy and maybe on a bit of a sugar high!

On the agenda for tomorrow: Fun in the snow, Christmas lunch, the annual Christmas Eve Disney special at 3pm (never ever phone anyone in Sweden between 3pm-4pm on Christnas Eve - we are busy watching Disney reruns!), a Christmas smörgåsbord and last but not least a visit from Santa.

For us, Santa's visit will definitely be interesting as E has never had a close encounter with Santa and we are not sure if he is going to a) help Santa hand out pressies, or b) freak out completely. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Personally I am very, very excited about celebrating a traditional Swedish Christmas with family (not to mention mom's Christmas food!) as we've been abroad on other Christmas adventures previous years, so this will also be another 'first' for us as a family. Stay tuned.

Christmas tree - Check!

2011-12-23T12:31:00.002Z

Hudson is checking out the newly decorated Christmas tree and seems to approve. Bring on Christmas Eve!

And this is what I found...

2011-12-23T10:39:00.001Z

So it's all quiet in the house and when I went to look for my boys I find them sneakily eating all of the cookies!

Kinda incommunicado but all good!

2011-12-22T23:07:00.002Z

As you may or may not know, we are currently up north in Piteå visiting for the holidays. As the summer house/cottage that we are staying in is located on an island outside of Piteå, our cheap-o big city mobile plans don't really cut it and there is also no internet or landline out here, so we are a bit off the grid right now. On the flip side; that's kind of nice as well as you get a bit of distance to everything from daily horrors in the news to emails and Facebook status updates.

On the negative side; the winter scenery up here is absolutely stunning right now and we are having a blast with the kids in the snow (which is not negative in itself, read on!) and have of course snapped a bunch of cool photos that we would like to upload and share with you... but as the sporadic connectivity would never allow us to upload; we'll have to make due with mobile photo uploads for now and you'll just have to check back in with us again later for these gems fit for National Geographic! ;)

So, don't worry! As soon as we are back in the land of Mbits and www's and @'s, we'll upload like mad again.

Oh, and don't think for a second that I don't see the irony in blogging from a mobile phone about not being able to blog... ;)

Winter lalaland

2011-12-20T13:09:00.000Z

Winter wonderland

2011-12-20T13:05:00.000Z

Firsts

2011-12-19T17:37:00.003Z

Hudson's first airplane ride, Ethan has his own seat and we are blogging in the sky!!! How cool is that!?

Here we are at...

2011-12-19T15:44:00.003Z

Ethan & Hudson's airplane to see the grand parents.

Christmas comes early for some

2011-12-18T20:11:00.004Z

As we are flying up north to celebrate Christmas this year; we figured we’d avoid the hassle of dragging any heavy Christmas gifts for the kids up there and back home again and instead give those gifts early at home. Therefore we let our little train-lovin’ buddy Ethan open his first Christmas pressie yesterday morning and surprise, surprise: It was a Thomas the tank engine train set! Since then he’s either been playing with his train or been carrying the engine and carts around non stop. Guess we have a winner!

We are also getting reports from up north on 10 inches of snow and sightings of a Santa with an eye for cool toys so I believe we are in for a treat!

No junk mail... or else!

2011-12-18T19:47:00.005Z

Ever since we lost our last ’No junk mail please’, or ‘Ingen Reklam Tack!’ as it’s written on Swedish mailboxes; we’ve been getting heaps of junk mail every day and week and especially now when it’s building up to Christmas, the amount of advertising and leaflets that’s dropped off in our mailbox is just insane. So, Shaena figured we’d try a different approach on our new note in order to deter the mailman and crafted this ransom note inspired sign! You like?

Merry Christmas from us to you!

2011-12-17T15:00:00.004Z

Working hard or hardly working

2011-12-16T12:24:00.002Z

Yesterday and today I've been out on the island of Sandhamn in Stockholm's outer archipelago with work on a conference/Christmas party thing. Just thought I'd share a few photos with ya'll from this very scenic place. No doubt we'll be coming here in the summer time for a day out with the kids!

Party times 2 on a Sunday afternoon

2011-12-13T21:09:00.012Z

It’s not often we are invited to two shindigs in one afternoon but this past Sunday we were. We were invited both to little Jack’s 2 year birthday party as well as our friends Kelly & Göran’s winter open house party.

We started off at Olle and Linda’s, Jack’s parents, where Jack was in full form and gladly entertained his guests whilst opening gifts. He was turning 2 but man can that boy talk! A vocabulary like you’ve never heard! Ethan enjoyed himself with Jack’s toys; he had honed in completely on Thomas the tank engine and Jack’s various trucks.

Thomas seems to be the toy of choice at the moment as Ethan insisted on bringing home not one but two identical Thomas trains (which in the end, we talked him out of) and later on at Kelly & Göran's, he again insisted on bringing home Aia's two Thomas trains (which we managed to talk him out of once again).

Later in the afternoon we headed over to the winter open house where we were treated to hot Glögg (mulled wine), freshly made saffron buns and other Christmas delicacies. Shaena and I had a great time mingling with the other guests whilst Ethan found a partner in crime in Aia and the boys chased each round and round the apartment.

Jack's 2 year birthday party:

Jack the birthday boy, a handsome fella!

Ethan had a blast at the party and looked very sharp in his Christmas cardigan

...and Hudson seemed to enjoy himself as well!

Winter open house at Kelly & Göran's:

Daddy & Hudson

Race! Ethan and Aia ran around the apartment racing each other until they were both zonked!

Ethan helped himself to the delicious saffron buns

Little Nora hid behind the couch and mostly just minded her own business

Ethan's first Lucia performance at dagis

2011-12-13T20:19:00.008Z

December 13th is 'Lucia' or 'St Lucy's Day' here in Sweden and Ethan's dagis had invited parents and family to a Lucia performance this afternoon. This was Ethan's first school performance so a huge milestone for us of course.

Getting all these kids for follow directions, walk in a line and sing on cue can't be easy and I am sure Ethan and his group had no clue why they were dressed up in funny looking outfits and marched out to stand in front of a crowd but everyone did great and Ethan seemed to have a good time; even though he did break away from the group and came running a few times when he spotted us! ;)

Love how all the kids look like they just got fired or yelled at during prep for the Lucia performance

Our little Santa boy!

Ethan was mostly excited because he saw us, and definitely not because he had to wear a silly hat

"Mommy! Daddy!"

The Lucia parade

If you are trying to find Ethan in the line-up, don't. He ain't there anymore! ;)

Ethan much prefers operating vehicles over singing in a choir

Ethan and mommy doing their crazy-faces

Ethan & Hudson

2011-12-13T18:49:00.002Z

Grandpapa Stefan's got the hook-ups!

2011-12-13T10:55:00.002Z

Look what just arrived at the post office! Grandpapa Stefan had found a very nice pair of Merrell Gore-tex winter boots up in Haparanda and went out and got them for me and shipped them down here so I wouldn't have to freeze this winter.

Unfortunately I may not get the luxury of warm and dry feet anyway since Shaena immediately locked on to the boots and subtly suggested that they fit perfectly on her as well! ;)

The 'Next'-button – your next Christian family-blog is just around the corner

2011-12-11T20:07:00.004Z

Sometimes when I am working away with updates to the blog I’ll take a moment to click on the ’Next’ button on the menu bar at the top of the page. ‘Next’ is a feature that’ll present you with another random blog that has similar content as the one you just read, i.e. ours.

Anyway, for some odd reason; 9 times out of 10 when I click Next I’ll get a Christian family blog with loads and loads of references to God, Him and the Lord. Nothing wrong with that at all of course; I am just curious if it is more common for Christian families to blog about their lives or if for some reason the content on our blog is written in a very ‘Christian way’? Or are we, as non-believers, maybe a minority in the family blogging segment?

Just as a social experiment, dear reader; go ahead and click ‘Next’ once or twice and see if you land on a blog with Christian references and report back with a comment. Would be cool to compare notes and see what the Christian/non-Christian blog ratio is! ;)

These are my latest hits:
http://scottandjessicamoody.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year.html
http://brysonandjamie.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

Sneak-peek from Santa's workshop

2011-12-10T09:16:00.002Z

Daddy & Hudson's day out

2011-12-08T08:04:00.010Z

"We started the day by dropping Ethan off at daycare and then we went for a nice long morning walk. I laughed. A lot."

"After picking up my shiny new passport at the police station, we had a nice lunch with uncle John. I entertained. A lot."

"After lunch we went to the grocery store. Daddy shopped. A lot."

First snow

2011-12-07T20:37:00.005Z

The snow has made it to Kallhäll and winter is officially here!

Oh, and guess what: We are now going even more mobile as we've figured out how to email text and photos from our phones and straight onto the blog. How cool is that!?

Inside El Flaterino - Part III

2011-12-07T19:01:00.014Z

Thought we'd share another few photos from this place we call home:

There's no denying it now, Hudson has definitely moved in!

A rare piece of Shaena-art

Shaena 7 years old. See any resemblance?

One out of many, many teddybears and stuffed animals in this household

Nini's quilts on display in the kids room

The kids love it, we love it and Ethan is now even using to learn about colors and numbers!

Ethan made his first Christmas ornament at daycare today. Pretty!

A lego-tower. A common sight/obstacle/death trap on our floors these days

Same t-shirt different kid

2011-12-07T10:37:00.002Z

Ethan 11 months old | Hudson 4 months old

Ethan zoned out

2011-12-06T09:13:00.005Z

...on this:

The Harrison-Helin Crew

2011-12-06T09:08:00.001Z

Roadtrippin' down memory lane

2011-12-03T21:08:00.013Z

For the past 2 weeks we’ve had my sister Ida staying with us as she’s been doing an internship for school at a nearby stable and yesterday morning it was time for her to head back home. After dropping Ida off at the airport we figured we’d go for a drive and have a look around, and as the airport is halfway to Uppsala we decided we’d make a roadtrip out of it.

So, off we went. First stop: A nearby grocery store to stock up on supplies (lunch and snacks) for the drive. For those of you who have followed this page over the last couple of years, you know we are avid ‘carstauranters’. In other words, we are fans of carstaurantism; which refers to the convenience of either eating takeaway in a car or preparing your own food in the backseat of a car. And no, it’s not trashy ‘to carstaurant’ if you do it in style! ;) One of my fondest carstaurant memories was during our roadtrip through the UK with Grandma Michelle when we parked outside a local chippy just north of Blackpool and chowed away on our purchased goods. I believe this was also the time when the word ‘carstaurant’ was coined.

Anyway; enough ranting and raving about the carstaurant! …but seriously, try it!
I realized when we were on our way to Uppsala that I have family in the outskirts of Uppsala, out in Farmville really, so we decided to go check it out. My Grandma’s sister and her husband used to own a farm and acres and acres of surrounding land.

When I was a kid we used to go there every now and again when we were down in Stockholm in the summers. I remember (or so I thought) the huge mansion house vividly, the adjacent huge garage for the tractors and combines. It’s funny how everything seems so much bigger when you are younger and smaller and how that HUGE mansion house in fact wasn’t HUGE, just big. That never ending, massive garage was also just big and not huge. Either way; it was really nice to revisit the farm and it definitely brought back memories!

After that blast from the past we headed in to Uppsala city centre for a stroll and after walking through the quaint cobblestone streets in the old town we ended up at Uppsala Domkyrka, a massive and very old church. Inside they were playing live music and we decided to check it out. Really nice church and Ethan had a blast running up and down the aisles!

All in all a great family day out and Uppsala is definitely worth another visit!

The carstaurant is open for business. Please wait to be seated!

The HUGE mansion house (at least it was when I was 7 years old)

Uppsala Domkyrka - the guys in front did a Saturday live music gig. When we walked in they played 'The Man Comes Around' by Johnny Cash. Pretty cool.

A pulpit

Just add Holy Water

Creepy angel kids of death

"The upside down tree" with candles

A real viking runestone!

Hudson 5 months

2011-12-02T13:09:00.003Z

Hello December!

2011-12-01T18:51:00.002Z

It’s the 1st of December and my first day of daddy leave has come and gone. It’s been a great first day and I am so looking forward to these next two months! Us boys started the day by cuddling up on the couch watching a “Wewe” (read: movie). Thomas the tank engine is now the flavour of the month. After that we all had breakfast and Ethan and I headed over to dagis where Ethan met up with his friends and didn’t even bat an eye when we said our hejdå’s.

Today’s mission was to get Hudson’s passport sorted so we headed over the police station in Sollentuna where Hudson was first propped up in a highchair for the passport photo and when that didn’t work (his boasting 70cm was not quite tall enough for the camera), he sat in my lap and I had to hide behind a big white sheet of paper to avoid getting in the photo. About 57 takes later he finally looked straight into the camera. He looked particularly dashing on the passport preview screen, if I may say so myself!

The rest of the morning we browsed the adjacent shopping centre and had a nice lunch before we headed home for a chill-out session.

Life could be worse. Much worse.

Ethan & Hudson's Kallhäll posse

2011-11-29T19:18:00.010Z

We thought you'd enjoy a few mug shots of Ethan & Hudson's posse out here in Kallhäll... you know, get to know the bandits that our crazy fun-loving kids hang out with.

So, meet...

...Kieran

...Hayden (Kieran's brother)

...Stella

...Karl (Stella's brother)

...Elve (Alli's brother... photo of Alli's gone missing though)

...and here's Ethan & Hudson as well of course!

Two is the magic number

2011-11-29T18:53:00.003Z

The long awaited ’pappa-days’ are finally here! Only one working day left and then I am off for two whole months! Two. Months.

Two months of holidays. Two months of relaxation and family-hang out-time. Two months of recharging batteries after an intense year filled to the brim with new this and new that. Two months of lovey-dovey time. Two months of watching our kids grow up. Two months of not having to commute to work through crazy weather. Two months of not thinking about work and clients and if deals are likely to come through or not. Two months of dancing and baking. Two months of sleeping in *yeah, not very likely*. Two months of snow castles and snow fights. Two months of games and silliness. Two months of actually making it through a movie. Two months of tag-teaming it… you get the picture!

Nobody puts baby in the corner!

2011-11-25T18:57:00.002Z

This always makes me smile!

2011-11-23T13:06:00.001Z

A Royal visit to our playground

2011-11-14T20:23:00.008Z

Seems there’s always something exciting going on in our neck of the woods, isn’t it? Well, today’s big excitement was a visit from our esteemed Crown Princess Victoria and her hubby Prince Daniel who visited our big playground here in Kallhäll. Supposedly a tour of Järfälla (our municipality) was Järfälla’s wedding gift to the newlyweds and they decided to cash in now, over a year after the wedding. How could they ever delay on redeeming such an amazing gift?! ;) (Read: “Really Järfälla, really?!”)

Kieran and Ethan were waiting patiently...

...and so were a million ducks

...the Royal couple checked out our royally awesome slide

Victoria did her thing, waving to the people

Closely watched by a bodyguard

Ethan and his BFF Kieran wrestling

2011-11-10T21:28:00.001Z

Sneak preview of something really awesome...

2011-11-10T19:06:00.005Z

Today Huddy had, through the workings of his social butterfly mom, the opportunity to go for a baby photo shoot at Hayley's. Hayley is a very talented photographer who is, believe it or not, snapping super-awesome photos like these just as a hobby and not as a profession! Anyway, the girls and our little lad had a great time and from what we hear, the rest of the photos are just as awesome or even more awesome. Awesome.

A bit of this, a bit of that

2011-11-08T15:56:00.005Z

Date night!

2011-11-04T20:00:00.003Z

Last night all the waiting and anticipation was finally over. Last night was Roxette-night, VIP style!

The initial plan was to go and grab a nice bite to eat and have a drink before the concert. Instead; we ended up grabbing a quick hotdog from a hotdog cart on our way to the arena, after which we proceeded up to the VIP lounge for a glass of wine to then finally hit up a private celebrity event where we scored free drinks whilst eyeing up the Foreign Minister of Sweden and other random TV personalities! And the concert hadn’t even started yet! ;) Yep, that’s how we roll!

The concert itself was absolutely amazing and Roxette belted out hit after hit after hit… and they’ve still got it after all these years! I think they played pretty much every huge hit they’ve ever had and that’s what people are expecting as well of course. Take a moment to check out the video clip at the bottom of this posting and listen to Marie perform 'It Must Have Been Love'. Stunning!

All in all a great night and it is also really nice to be able to go out just the two of us, knowing that the kids are in good hands.

'It Must Have Been Love'

Halloween @ work

2011-11-04T19:57:00.013Z

Lord almighty, today was an interesting day at work to say the least! Reason being that today was the annual Halloween dress-up day and this year it had been decided that the theme would be ‘wingmen’ and everyone got assigned a character and a partner. It was all very hush-hush and no one was allowed to tell anyone who they were dressing up as.

My character was ‘Ronny’ from a Swedish cult comedy show from the 90’s called 'Byhåla' and our HR girl Clara got to be my wingman as ‘Ragge’.

It was definitely interesting that people almost forgot that they looked completely ridiculous and watch them just get on with everyday work, attend meetings in the office etc. Clara even had 3 face-to-face interviews with candidates today and it was even more interesting to see her in action and watch these poor unknowing candidates facial expressions and reactions when they were being questioned and scrutinised by a girl dressed as a guy with thick sideburns!

Britney & Christina were there

Fred & Wilma were there

The pimp and his ho were there taking care of business

Pee and Poo also made it to the party

The mouse and his cheese were there of course

Little Red Ridinghood showed up without Grandma as Grandma had to go on a business trip to Norway. So instead, LRR spent the day playing his/her flute, posing for the camera, offering the other guests at the party a sip of his/her bottle of 'The world's smokiest whiskey'... and peeing on the floor!

The ho

Christina

Team meeting

My wingman(woman) Clara

Ronny & Ragge

Yours truly

The original Ronny & Ragge from the Swedish cult show 'Byhåla' from the 90's

Ethan's first school photo

2011-11-04T19:39:00.003Z

Our awesome little buddy

Our blog's 3rd birthday!

2011-11-02T21:24:00.006Z

Well what do you know! Yesterday, the 1st of November marked this blog's 3 year birthday! We've had a lot of fun keeping you, our friends and family up to date on our various trips, outings and adventures and for us, the blog is also a great way to keep track of how our wonderful little boys have developed and continue to develop through photos and videos. We hope you've enjoyed reading about it and following us as much as we have enjoyed living it! ;)

Here's this blog's first ever entry on November 1st 2008:

http://harrisonhelin.blogspot.com/2008/11/time-for-some-blogging-cpr.html

2011-11-02T14:35:00.000Z

Soon...

2011-11-02T08:29:00.001Z

Pumpkin carving party - Check!

2011-10-30T19:19:00.014Z

Well dadgum, that was a hoot and a half! Kelly and Göran’s pumpkin carving party this afternoon was awesome! We had dressed Ethan and Hudson up in their respective doctor’s outfits and when we got to the party, there were loads of kids there to play with, all dressed up as pirates, spiders, a princess and a skeleton… and the hostess herself was face painted as a tiger!

“What about you then? What did you dress up as?“ you ask. Well, Shaena and I decided to dress up as something arguably even scarier than all the pirates and spiders in the world: 2 Canadians! Shaena in a lumberjack shirt, me in a hockey shirt, a Canada-napsack, a Canada hat, and apparel with Canadian flags all over… the works! And our gift to the hosting couple: A bottle of Canadian maple syrup of course!

Anyways; besides loads of cool kids to play with, Kelly and Göran had prepared food and drinks and party snacks for everyone and as we all know; keeping a) the blood sugar levels up for the adults at all times, and b) the kids occupied with toys or games or something they can stuff their little faces with, is the key to a successful shindig involving kids.

Shaena was on carving duty and I was on kid watch/play duty and we had an absolute blast!

Kelly

A selection of pumpkins that the other partygoers carved

Yes, it is the Fabulous Hudson Hornet!

Hudson and Hudson

And this is how it's done:

1: Start by posing for the camera with your pumpkin

2: Open up the top and gut the pumpkin.
If you are really ambitious, you can oven roast the seeds afterwards.

3: Cut out a really scary face in your pumpkin

4: When you are done, pose with your pumpkin again!

Say hello to The Nightmare Before Christmas-pumpkin!

Christmas is just around the corner!

2011-10-29T21:57:00.006+01:00

Some people find that statement depressing. We are pretty stoked about it! So far Shaena and I have celebrated Christmas in Winnipeg, Orlando, Green Bay and Edinburgh. We figured it is about time we celebrate Christmas in Sweden, especially since we actually live here now!

So, said and done. We’ve scoured the web for cheap transportation options up to Norrbotten, the county where I am from. The problem every year in Sweden when it comes to domestic travel around major holidays is that prices are cranked up to ridiculous rates before, during and after the holiday and you pretty much have to resort to selling your kidney on the black market in order to afford to travel.

In the last couple of weeks however; this obstacle has kind of resolved itself and the puzzle pieces have slotted themselves into place quite nicely. As I am going on daddy leave in December and we are therefore no longer limited to certain dates, we were able to book a flight up north on a date when it is still cheap and home again when the prices have gone down to normal rates again!

The plan now is to simply fly up there, hang out for 2½ weeks, go visit, relax, go snowmobiling, check out the northern lights, build snow castles, go visit some more, eat loads of holiday food, drinks lots of mulled wine, meet Santa, fire off a few rockets on New Years and just have a jolly good time. How is that for a plan!?

Another major happening that is just around the corner:
The Roxette concert at The Globe next Thursday!!!

Tomorrow's Sunday fun: A pumpkin carving party!

2011-10-29T20:12:00.011+01:00

Tomorrow we are invited to a pumpkin carving party at a friend’s house in town and the party is BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) so today’s mission was to go out and find us a good carving pumpkin. So, off to ‘Hemköp’ we went!

Mister E on his way to buy a pumpkin

Sometimes it's more convenient to hitch a ride on mommy

Pumpkin stuff...

...and the real deal. Which one to choose?

The chosen one safely transported away in Ethan's basket

Hudson figured he'll just leave the decision to us and go for a nap instead. Good call!

More falltime fun with Ethan and his friends

2011-10-29T18:23:00.000+01:00

Ethan got really upset when his BFF had to go home!

Giggles and googles and shmoogles

2011-10-26T19:47:00.001+01:00

Hud Man - 4 months

2011-10-26T14:45:00.002+01:00

Falltime fun with Ethan & Elve

2011-10-23T20:03:00.008+01:00

Ethan

Elve

Ethan and his buddy Elve

Ethan happy as ever!

Ethan and Elve again. Ethan is blurry and Elve is not due to Ethan's OCJD (Obsessive Compulsive Jumping Disorder).

Creative problem solving when both kids want the only kiddy swing at the same time!

2 | 724 | 20964 | 3627 | 90 | 1240

2011-10-17T21:34:00.005+01:00

Here we go with the numbers again! I thought I’d give you a quick update from my beloved geek-tool Google Analytics, as I (and I am probably the only one!) find it really interesting to keep track of how many visitors we have on our blog, where they come from, etc. So here we go:

Over the past 2 years our blog with a total of 724 entries to date has been visited by 20964 visitors or 3627 ‘absolute unique visitors’ from 90 countries or 1240 cities.

So there you go.

Whirlwind visit from ”Ammo!” and Roland

2011-10-17T20:05:00.006+01:00

This past weekend Grandma Gertrud and Roland came down for a visit with the kids, to hang out and to help us build shelving in our storage. No visit from Grandma and Roland is complete without either a) a huge batch of cinnamon buns for us in their luggage or b) a home cooked meal of our choice from by Grandma, who is a chef by trade. This time we went for the latter.

Shaena has recently discovered a well kept Swedish secret called a ‘Smörgåstårta’, which translated is a ‘Sandwich cake’. A Smörgåstårta is basically layers of white bread soaked in goodness and dressed with vegetables, cheeses and delicacies like smoked salmon, caviar, smoked ham… whatever your heart and taste buds desire really. Divine!

So, whilst Shaena and Grandma were working away on the Smörgåstårta, which we got to stuff our faces with for dinner later that evening, accompanied by Uncle John and Mikaela; Roland, Ethan and myself converted the old broken futon from our apartment in Edinburgh into awesome shelves in our outdoor storage and also built shelves in our indoor storage at the same time. (Well, truth be told; Roland did most of the building and Ethan and I did most of the swinging and most of the playing in the nearby play structure!) Ethan and I figured that that was the most fair and even distribution of workload for everyone involved and in the end; the shelves turned out really, really nice.

We had a great time, a great banter and the kids definitely got their fair share of attention and playtime this weekend! Oh, and now we are also officially booked for Christmas and New Years up north. Very much looking forward to that!

A day in the life...

2011-10-17T14:58:00.008+01:00

As many of you family, friends and more frequent readers know; Shaena and her group of mommy-friends are avid patrons at most of the playgroups and open pre-schools in the area. Today they headed out early to check out this new open pre-school that was rumoured to be pretty sweet, and man was the rumour ever true!

This one supposedly took the open pre-school cake of awesomeness by a mile and the boys had an absolute blast! It is so nice that these really cool venues and groups are available, free and just around the corner from us! We heart Sweden!

Cool dudes on a bus

Pretty sweet venue for kids, eh!

...and a great place to crash too!

Very fitting backdrop for these multi-national kids! Ethan who is (obviously)half Swedish, half Canadian and Kieran who has an Irish dad and a Swedish/Lebanese mom.

Boom!

2011-10-16T13:57:00.001+01:00

Huddy Buddy is a happy little camper

2011-10-11T21:01:00.001+01:00

Papa-days with the kids and Roxette concert, comin' up!

2011-10-11T20:26:00.006+01:00

It’s decided! After a year filled with a lot of change, excitement, new challenges and more change, we decided we wanted to end the year with a bit of a break for the both of us. So, as of December 1st; Ethan and Hudson’s dad will be on paternity leave for 2 months! I am so very excited and can’t wait for December!

As I never really had any paternity leave with Ethan in Scotland, this is going to be extra awesome and the four of us get to hang out, maybe go see and do, and recharge those batteries for whatever 2012 holds.

Oh, and less than a month till the Roxette concert! We have scored a couple of pretty sweet VIP tickets; which means that we get to enter through the VIP entrance, we have the best VIP seats in the house right below the row that is dedicated to the Royal family, and we have access to a VIP bar where we can purchase VIP beer and VIP wine and mingle with our fellow VIP’ers.

Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer
She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter
Tasty like a raindrop, she's got the look
Heavenly bound cos heaven's got a number
When she's spinning me around, kissing is a colour
Her loving is a wild dog, she's got the look

Awww!

2011-10-08T15:10:00.001+01:00

Who are they? Only the coolest cats in town!

2011-10-08T10:56:00.008+01:00

Doc Hudson

2011-10-08T10:44:00.004+01:00

Ethan and his buddies!

2011-10-07T20:03:00.001+01:00

Ethan flies a helicopter

2011-10-06T15:32:00.001+01:00

Our kids will never know the link between these two:

2011-10-06T14:40:00.004+01:00

So true.

Schwing!

2011-10-06T14:26:00.000+01:00

Pick 'n' Mix from the past couple of weeks

2011-10-02T07:26:00.012+01:00

Bad bad bloggers! Once again we've left you hanging for over a week without updates! So, to kiss and make up we've put together a bunch of Ethan-snaps from the past couple of weeks:

Ethan at the Kallhäll city farm. Yes, we have a farm right around the corner from us:

Resourceful goat

Ethan at his BFF Kieran's birthday party:

Ethan with his Lördagsgodis. Pick 'n' Mix. Literally:

Ethan-art:

Hudson 3 months

2011-10-01T20:45:00.001+01:00

Our muddy little man

2011-09-22T15:38:00.004+01:00

Poor Ethan fell face first in a puddle of mud today:

Our typical Monday

2011-09-19T17:11:00.001+01:00

Fire!

2011-09-18T15:46:00.005+01:00

Today, some of the fire stations in Stockholm county had opened their doors to the public and people could bring their kids and check out fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, try out fire equipment , learn more about fire safety and also check out displays where the fire department showcased how a typical fire callout could look like. Needless to say; Ethan was in seventh heaven!

Ethan's face and toe cloth

2011-09-17T11:59:00.003+01:00

The expression “you learn something every day” is definitely a saying that holds true when you have kids, especially crazy and funny ones like Ethan! Nowadays when we ask him if we can wipe his face off with a cloth after a meal; he is only ok with that if we also wipe his toes off with the same cloth(!)

“Toes, toes!” he says and we’ll give his little toes a wipe down as well. Adorable and weird at the same time.

Ethan, you are “appom”!

Story time with Ethan

2011-09-15T18:54:00.004+01:00

Housecoat Hudson

2011-09-15T18:23:00.007+01:00

(slippers sold separately)