The Girls with family and friends!

The girls with mom.

Elizabeth Jean with Jennifer (Friend).

Anna Cecilie with Aunt Tanya (Jakes sister)

Elizabeth Jean with Aunt Linda (Jakes aunt)

Elizabeth Jean with Aunt Tanya and her cousin Jonathon.

Elizabeth Jean with mormor (grandma in Norwegian - Elins mom)

Anna Cecilie with Grandma (Jakes mom).

The girls with mormor.


Elizabeth Jean with Grandma.

Elizabeth Jean with her cousin Skyler.

Anna Cecilie with Skyler.

Elizabeth Jean with Grandpa (Jakes dad).

The girls with dad.

The girls with the Easter Bunny.

The girls with Uncle Eric and Aunt Missy (Jakes sister).

Anna Cecilie with Isaak (son of Jakes friend Jason)

One month old!

I can't believe it - but the girls are soon 6 weeks old!!!!!!!! And they are doing well.

Here are some pictures I took the day they were 1 month old.

Elizabeth Jean (top) and Anna Cecilie on there one month birthday!

The girls are sitting in a rocking chair that belonged to their Great Great Grandma Pedersen, she got it was pregnant with the girls Great Grandma Shirley (Elin's grandma)

They are here!

We started this blog because I was pregnant with twins. Needed to keep friends and family from all over the world informed on what was going on.

So Friday March 30th was the day. For me it was a long day. And at 9.35 pm (21.35) Elizabeth Jean was born. She is the smaller of the two. She weighed 4 lbs and 11 oz (2126 g), and was 18 ½ inches long (47 cm).

Anna Cecilie was born 40 minutes later at 10:16 pm, weighed 5 lbs 6 oz (2455 g), and was 20 inches long (51 cm).

Both the girls are named after family members. The fun thing is that the name Elizabeth/Elisabeth and Anna is in both mine and Jakes family. Cecilie is my great grand mother (Elisabeth Cecilie) and Jean is Jakes grandmother.

But before I show you some pictures, I have to share some good news with you. One of my best frieds is going to be a father to twins. So I will not be the only one that will get doble up of blessings and love...

Here are the girls:

Anna Cecilie - 2 days old

Elizabeth Jean - 2 days old

Anna Cecilie - 15 days old

Elizabeth Jean - 15 days old

Mommy with the twin girls - 1 day old
Elin, Elizabeth Jean and Anna Cecilie

Anna Cecilie at home in her crib

The Girls with Grandma Donna and Great Aunt Linda
(2 days old)

3 generations of Menk.
Mormor (grandma in Norwegian) - Diane
Mommy - Elin
and the girls - Elizabeth Jean in pink and Anna Cecilie in purple

Elizabeth Jean and Anna Cecilie (3 days old)

Anna Cecile - 2 days old

Elizabeth Jean - 2 days old

Just some pictures from our life!

Here are some pictures from our lives. And as usually I am behind the camera!
Elin

Jake - New Years Eve 2006

The Bevans Family.

Isaac having fun!

This is the one thing Kit Kat and Jake does well together - sleep!
They are the sleeping buddies!

Jake painting the babys room!

The walls are done - now we have to put the cribs together!

Twin Update!

Time for an update on the twins. Both of them are doing fine. And so am I. I am now 32 weeks into my pregnancy, and still going strong.

But this is not about my - but about the twins. So here is the latest information I have about them.

This is the estimated weight on February 2.
Baby A: 2 lb 12 oz - 1273 gr.
Baby B: 2 lb 14 oz - 1326 gr.

Baby A.

Baby A's Heart beat.

Baby A.

The top of the heads of the twins.

The bodies of the twins.

Baby B.

Baby B.

Elin

Christmas in Michigan!

This year we celebrated Christmas with Jakes family. And we all got together and had a great time. I am going to let the pictures do the talking.

Jonathon opening a gift.

Missy and Skyler

Missy, Skyler, Grandma (Donna), Kody and Aunt Linda.
The boys are loving all the gift they got for Christmas.
(Sorry about the sun in the picture, but there was nothing to block it coming in,
and my flash was to weak)

Jonathon and Uncle Jake




Uncle Jake and Skyler

Uncle Matt and Skyler playing with a new toy.

Rocky just wanted to be in the picture.

Rocky

Kody

Our Christmas tree!

Elin

Christmas in Norway!

A lot of people ask me what I miss about Christmas in Norway. And when I started thinking about it, the answer surprised me. It's not family and friends, not the food, not the music, not the rice porage but the peace. Yes you read it right. I still miss all the other Norwegian Christmas stuff. But it is just something about that peace. If you live in Norway you may just take this for granted. But after 6 years in Michigan I wish I had it back. Let me explain....

This is at least how it used to be... Things may have changed. Christmas eve me and my mom would go to the grocery store and pick up the rest of the food we would need over Christmas. And with Mike drinking as much milk as he did, she needed help. But we had to go in the morning, because the grocery store and everything else closed at noon and will not open again till December 27th.

Then I would get ready for church. All dressed up in my Christmas best. Hair and makeup done. And if there were no snow (normal in Mandal) I would put on my heals and my nice winter coat and walk to church. It was a nice walk, a peaceful one. We lived down town, so I had to walk thru the shopping area (a street were no cars are allowed) past the tall Christmas tree in the center of the town, under all the light up garlands that’s hung from store to store. Framing the town in joy.

If I had time I would look in the store windows. And take a good look at the decorations for the millionth time. But this time it was only me and the windows. Some times I would meet somebody that also was on there way to church, and we would walk together. Cars - not a lot of them. I would maybe see two or tree cars on my way to the service. It was peace full.

Mandal Church has two services. I liked going to the last one. Because after being at the church service with about 1200 people singing Christmas carols and listing to the Christmas story, I could walk home listing to the church bells. In Norway every church bell rings from 5pm to 6pm to celebrate the start of Christmas. A nice tradition.

Then the fun began. Usually we would go to my grandparents for Christmas eve, have fresh cod for dinner (the local Christmas meal), then open gift and have a great time with the family.

Next day I would wake up to my American Christmas. With a stocking filled with candy and lots of gift under the tree (from Grandma). I feel like I got the best of both worlds.

The peace - the silent Night of Christmas is lost in most of America. But it lives in my heart..... And I hope that people in Norway will keep it alive in their hometowns. Hope you all had a great Christmas.

Elin

THANKSGIVING 2006

Before the Cowboys and Indians were killing each other, the pilgrims and the Indians celebrated Thanksgiving together. It is nice to know that it all did not start bad.

The pilgrims was original from the Netherlands and came over to America they celebrated the harvest with the Indians. They all came together to share a big meal. The started a new tradition.

In America Thanksgiving is now the biggest family holiday. It tops Christmas.

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma's house. It was the first time in a very long time that we all had gathered at the farm. We had a lot of food. We could have feed the family for the next week. Grandma made sure we all had what we love the most......

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a great one.

Jake, Verlie and Uncle Art

Diane, Brad and Bryan

Brad, Bryan, Shirley, Laura, Uncle Dan, Aunt Linda and Verlie.

Uncle Dan, Aunt Linda, Elin, Jake and Verlie

Elin