Joel & Mollie: Our 2015 in a Nutshell

JANUARY:

We visited Utah last Christmas, and we came back to Sweden at the beginning of January. During that time my parents adopted two sweet little girls and they were sealed to my parents while we were visiting. Such a special experience!!

Emma meeting my grandpa (my morfar)

FEBRUARY:

Not too much happened in February other than taking a little photoshoot with my sister-in-law Eva and her cute kids. I also found out I was pregnant with little Will this month! My first sign I was pregnant was feeling morning sickness, which was weird for me since I didn't get very sick at all when I was pregnant with Emma. That was the first instinct I had that I was sure I was having a boy since this pregnancy was already so different.

MARCH:

Emma turned one on March 8th!! She seemed so big at the time, now looking back at these pictures she looks so small! I had a lot of help decorating and planning her party, all thanks to Eva who loves to plan and throw parties!! I couldn't have done it without her.

Pictures of her party are HERE.

I spent a lot of time deathly sick on the couch. Luckily Emma was so cute and loved playing by herself at this point!

Joel and I accidentally dressed the same for a date we were going on, oops!

I was still feeling SUPER sick at this point. Luckily I tried out these sea band wristbands that are used for motion sickness, and I felt like a new person with these on! Joel and I were headed out for a day long date to Denmark and back, and I was extremely worried about being on a boat on top of morning sickness on our date. Luckily I found these the day before! I don't know how many times I said I felt like a whole new person haha.

Pictures from our date day trip to Denmark HERE.

On our date in Denmark

Yay for playdates!

APRIL:

Easter party at Joel's grandparents house in the countryside

You can find more pictures from our Easter party HERE

My attempt at trying cloth diapers didn't go all too well ;)

Emma started walking really well in April! We went on lots of walks and to say she loved it is an understatement.

We had our 12 week ultrasound in April! When we saw everything looked good we announced we were having another baby. Too bad William didn't come until November... Little stink ;)

We went on a date with Joel's brother Sebastian and his wife Eva to see the most recent Mission Impossible movie. Yay for spring coming!

Emma broke her leg soon after learning to walk, poor girl! She broke her leg falling off of a step at Joel's parents house. We didn't think anything was wrong until the next morning when we noticed she wouldn't put any weight on her leg. Just in case we wanted to have the doctor check her and take an x-ray. Sure enough, it was broken! I was extremely surprised, I didn't think a little fall like that could break her leg. Luckily it wasn't too bad, and she only had the cast on for a couple weeks. I'm really glad we went with our gut instinct to have her leg checked!

The day after Emma broke her leg we went on a 2 day temple trip up to the Stockholm temple with our ward, where we stayed the night at the guest home. Emma was such a good little traveler, broken leg and all!

MAY:

I took these pictures to remember our apartment since we were moving in June to a bigger apartment.

I saved up enough money and bought my dream stroller!! I love that you can take away a side and this stroller can be one or two seats.

JUNE:

My dear friend and old college roommate Kamille came to visit! She stayed with us for four days. It was so much fun to show her around Sweden and show her all my favorite places. You can see more from her visit HERE.

We moved to our bigger apartment and Emma got her own room! She now sleeps SO much better on her own.

We celebrated midsommar with the sister missionaries serving in our ward!

This was a great day. I felt it was finally warm enough to put Emma in shorts!

My little belly was growing. So weird to think about little William being in there, and that it was him the whole time!

PICKING STRAWBERRIES! My ultimate favorite summer activity. I bought this dress specifically for Emma to pick strawberries in. Emma was in heaven eating strawberries while we picked! She had a hard time going to the grocery store after picking strawberries... she didn't understand that we couldn't eat them, because we had to pay for them first ;)

There are more pictures of us picking strawberries on another post HERE.

JULY:

We bought our first car while Joel was on his 3 week vacation! We are still in love with it... that's a good sign, right??

The same day we bought our car we decided to go to the beach even though it was freeeezing. We just had to go and do something with this newfound freedom!

Unfortunately Emma slipped on the slide and cut her lip. Not only did we get to go to the beach with our new car, but also the emergency room just to make sure her lip was ok.

Joel had his first CrossFit competition!! He did really good for it being his first. Emma was stressed with all the loud music and Joel not being able to play with her. She was so confused as to why he was there and she couldn't run out to play with him! It was hard for me to hold her and try to take pictures of Joel with my big pregnant belly, but it all worked out!

More pictures from Joel's first CrossFit competition HERE.

First swim of the season! Emma did so good. I was paranoid about the waves knocking her over, so I stayed close to her side.

More pictures from our first swim of the year HERE

The highlight of our summer was driving an hour north to Marstrand. We loved walking around the little island and touring the fortress. We ate delicious pizza and soaked in the sun! I'm so glad we decided to go last minute since the weather was best the day we decided to go.

More pictures from our trip to Marstrand HERE.

AUGUST:

Joel and I started the Whole30. Since we couldn't bake a cake, we made this cute sister missionary a fruit cake for her birthday! ;)

Our last time going swimming. It was very last minute and way past Emma's bed time, but that is what summer is for, right?? Emma was the one dragging me into the water! She didn't mind the cold ocean at all. She definitely gets her love for water from her dad ;)

Joel told me we were going on a date Friday night and bringing Emma with us. He said he needed to take the car to work before our date, but I didn't think anything of it. Little did I know he picked up one of my best friends at the airport to surprise me!!! I walk in front of our apartment where Joel was filming me when Alyssa walks around the corner!! Best. Surprise. Ever. I met Alyssa in college and we have been good friends ever since.

Saying goodbye is the worst.

Matching for church is one of my favorite things!

Joel's younger brother Christopher was leaving on a mission, and we had his goodbye party at Joel's grandparents house out in the countryside. We couldn't resist a little swim after dinner of course ;)

This cute family asked me to take their family pictures! I'm not a professional photographer at all, but I am happy how their pictures turned out! Especially considering the fact they are from Belgium... I'm just glad their boys understood a little English ;)

We went on a little getaway night! I really wanted to have a night away before baby Will joined our family. It was so nice to just be the two of us.

Joel had his second CrossFit competition!!! This time was a bit easier since Emma wasn't with us, I was more relaxed and could actually enjoy watching Joel compete!

SEPTEMBER:

Emma turned 18 months old!

33 weeks pregnant

My favorite part of this month was going out picking mushrooms. We didn't really pick a whole lot of mushrooms... but it was fun to pack a picnic, drink some hot chocolate, and enjoy being outside!

OCTOBER:

This month we found out baby brother was breech, and I needed to go down to the hospital in Varberg 30 minutes away to get him turned around. I mean, it's nothing compared to labor... but it was still painful and extremely uncomfortable!

I went on lots of walks with Emma trying to get labor going... of course it didn't work ;)

The cute sister missionaries in our ward came and cleaned my apartment and gave me a foot massage.

We had our family pictures taken right before little William came into our family! I wanted to take some family pictures while I was still pregnant.

38 weeks pregnant! Last picture I have of my belly before William came at 41 weeks.

November:

I woke up at 4 in the morning with some strong contractions, and I knew baby brother was on his way! This is us trying to leave the apartment around 7 am to take Emma to the in-laws mid contraction...

You can find Baby William's birth story HERE

First picture as a family of 4!

William had a cousin born 2 and 1/2 weeks after he was born! It's been so fun to have babies so close with my sweet sister-in-law Eva.

We had a Thanksgiving party with a bunch of our American friends! Such good food!! :)

DECEMBER:

Ward Christmas party

Baking saffron buns! One of my favorite Christmas traditions.

Christmas dinner at Joel's parents house!!

Swedish Christmas food is one of my favorite things!!

We ended the year of 2015 and started 2016 with my parents visiting, especially to meet baby William (who is named after my dad, but he goes by Bill). It was so wonderful having them here to meet and play with their cute grandchildren! They haven't seen Emma in person since she was 10 months old... and she has grown quite a bit since then!