Easter Fun!

Elsa had an egg packed Easter weekend.



On Saturday morning, on our morning walk, we saw a line of kids outside the Palo Alto toy store. We headed over and found out they were doing an egg hunt. Elsa got her free bucket and learned how to pick up eggs.



That afternoon, we headed out to Cuesta Park and Ally's Easter hunt. I enjoyed making a lemon Easter Bunny cake.



Elsa once again enjoyed picking up eggs (and playing with Daddy).



On Sunday morning, after a photo shoot with Arne's 'Foxy' Foxgloves that he planted from seed a year ago, we headed over to Karen & Pat Anderson's house for breakfast and Easter fun.



Morgan made Elsa her first Easter basket and then yes, another hunt.



On Sunday afternoon, we headed up to my Mom's house and Elsa got to pick up and play with the eggs my mom dyed for her. Elsa was the star of the family and so cute in her Easter dress from Auntie Amanda.

On Easter Monday, I headed out to Boston for work. Arne captured Elsa laughing on the swing for me. It was just another reminder of how lucky we are to have such a great baby girl.

Elsa April Adventures

April has been an amazing month for Elsa. She turned 9 months old and is now 18 and a half pounds and 28.5 inches long. She has her 2 bottom front teeth, but no top teeth yet.



Her weight gain has slowed down as she now feeds herself and does not like us to help her.





She does enjoy dinner with friends and we enjoy have other families over, like Gavin's family and Oliver's family.



This month she started waterbabies swim class. She has a lot of fun in the water and I have a lot of fun dressing her up in cute swim outfits!

Elsa is also learning. She learned from the dogs how to go out the dog door and has almost mastered coming back in. We finally captured this on video and will post a link soon.





Like her uncle Paul before her, Elsa has discovered toilet paper. It is the most fun to play with!



At daycare she had her first art show and both of the grandmas attended. She was quite the star with them.



Elsa continues to explore everything and it is a joy to watch her grow.

Elsa at 8 Months

Elsa is now 8 months old! It is just such a joy to watch her getting bigger and bigger and seeing her explore more things. In the last month we have seen such exciting developments, like her first tooth!



Elsa loves eating food with the big kids at daycare and looks so cute sitting at the table.



At home, of course, she makes more of a mess.



When we went to the garden, she helped us weed by eating the flowers!



Elsa was a big help to her dad in his garden plot, helping him get it ready for spring planting.



One of her favorite things is bath time, which she needed after a trip to the garden. She loves playing in the bath and will play as long as we let her. She is always crawling over to the bath and pulling herself up to look into the tub and smile.



Elsa worked with her daddy and granddad on building a closet shelf area. She really enjoyed the power tools!



Now, she has her own closet area and a super fun decorated play area to explore. It is wonderful having her room now all set up for her.



At night and nap time I am amazed by how Elsa sleeps. She will just crash wherever she is having exhaused herself.



She also puts herself into crazy yoga poses when she sleeps, which is almost through the night.



Elsa is just a joy!

Ski Weekend

For Elsa's 7 month birthday, we headed up to Tahoe with two other families for a wonderful Ski Weekend.



On Saturday, the Moms went skiing at Squaw Valley, while the Dads stayed home with the babies.



Arne got to take Elsa out in her snow suit and let her play in her first snow.



Elsa also got to play with with the other babies: Syndey (4 months) and Gavin (5 months).



Arne created a wonderful video of the weekend that can be found here: http://www.vimeo.com/stokstad/tahoe password: goodtimes

Elsa at Six Months

Elsa's now 16 pounds and 11 ounces and 27 1/4 inches long. Mobility is the new thing. She was early to turn over, and she's early to crawl. A few weeks ago she improved her inch-worm/army crawl to real hands-and-knees crawling. Pictures don't do this justice so I've made a video (below). She's also able to pull herself up to standing on a coffee table, sofa or pants leg. There's now a baby gate at the top of the stairs. Next up is latches on the cabinets.

Kris holding Elsa in an outfit Karna wore as a baby:

Here's Karna in it:

And here's the video of Elsa at Six Months.:

Elsa at Six Months from Arne Stokstad on Vimeo.

Elsa's Christening

On the Sunday after Christmas, the Nisewaner family and Stokstad family headed to Ocean Beach in San Francisco to baptize baby Elsa.



It was a perfect day. Elsa was a well behaved and happy baby the whole time. Erik (Arne's brother) and Amanda (Karna's sister) became godparents for Elsa.



Grandma Julie performed the baptism with water from Lake Michigan. Elsa's cousins Erika and Sonja were also baptized by Julie, on the beach at Lake Michigan.



After the baptism, we took a walk along the beach and grandpa took lots of pictures. We did manage to get one of him with Elsa.



The grandmas were happy.



And we got a shot of 3 generations of Nisewaners.



We ended the morning by having a lovely brunch at the historic Beach Chalet at the west end of Golden Gate Park.



It was a great day to celebrate baby Elsa.

Elsa's First Christmas

On Christmas Eve day we headed to Arne's parents home in Berkeley to join up with the rest of the Stokstads. Paul and Paula brought their daughters Erika and Sonja from Michigan and Erik was in town from Washington DC. Sonja enjoyed playing with her newest cousin.



We went to the 5 PM Christmas eve family service at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, during which all the children participated in a nativity play--Erika was an Angel, Sonja a sheep, and Elsa a cow.



Back at home and out of her cow costume, Elsa had some quality grandma time



and participated in a long standing Stokstad tradition: the Christmas family picture in front of the hearth.



Here's an example of an early 1980's version. Julie (Arne's mom) is not in the picture - maybe she was behind the camera. The bottom three on the right were guests. Arne's uncle Paul is in the top left and his grandparents are in the middle.



Christmas morning, Elsa got to open her first Christmas stocking.



Then we opened presents under the tree. Elsa had a lot of fun.



Then we headed to Millbrae for Christmas morning with my Mom



and sister Amanda.



In Millbrae, Santa filled all our stockings. Julie (Arne's mom) knit stockings for Arne and Elsa to match mine.



Christmas Afternoon we spent in San Francisco with my aunts



and cousins



at my cousin Matt & Warren's home. It was a wonderful Christmas night.



The holiday season was even more joyful with Elsa. After the events were all over, she got to play with all of her gifts.