Mother's Day and More Family Fun

May was a wonderful month with many family adventures. Mother's Day was a beautiful day, filled with fun sunny times at the beach and the annual making of strawberry jam.

We went to Gilroy Gardens for rides and water fun.

Swim lessons continue and Liam is so excited to be in KinderGym while Elsa is in the 3 year old New Stars class.

Liam and Elsa are playing more together now and Liam loves to copy his sister in everything she does, including being a fairy doctor and making food art.

As Elsa puts it, Spring-Summer is great!  The best part is all the popsicles.

I just really love how much Elsa loves her baby brother and wants to be with him.

We are looking forward to a wonderful summer!

Easter 2014

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.


Watch Easter 2014 from Arne Stokstad on Vimeo.

We had a great Easter afternoon egg hunt and brunch at my Mom's house with Amanda and my cousins.

Elsa was a master egg hunter. 

Liam enjoyed looking for eggs.

It is nice our babies still sometimes let us hold them.

 

 We had a nice brunch after the egg hunt.

   Everyone was tired after a long but fun day.

April Fun

This month has been a lot of fun.  Earlier this month we headed out to Filoli to enjoy the tulips.  The flowers were beautiful and Elsa had a great time exploring.

The weather has been lovely and we have had a chance to play lots of games.  Last weekend, Elsa made friends with some girls in the park and they played a game called Mommy monster attack.  I had a lot of fun being captured again and again.

Both Elsa and Liam are having lots of fun at school.  Liam now has music class.

Elsa likes to make things.

 
We said goodbye to good friends who are moving to New Zealand and at their farewell party, Elsa just played and played in the pool with all these 9 year olds.  She was in Heaven.

Elsa is very excited for Easter. She enjoyed hopping around the Stanford mall for an egg hunt.

She also got dressed up in her Easter dress for school picture day and potluck.

The kids also both like music, and this video show just how much fun they can have at the keyboard.

 

Since the days are getting longer, we go out more in the evening, enjoying wandering around town.

Elsa also created a new game, based on a picture from one of her coloring books, called Tea and Cupcakes.  She (sometimes with Liam's help) makes cupcakes and tea with me.

Then we go to the table and pour tea for each other.  I love her little accent here.

 Almost every night the kids start out now in the same room.  While Liam does not always last the night in his room, it still makes me smile to see them sleeping together.

Liam is a Toddler

 

This month marked Liam's transition from baby to toddler.  At 15 months, he now mainly toddles about, seldom crawling.

He has clear expressions and is starting to develop a strong personality. 

Happy Liam

Pouty Liam

Hide & Seek Playful Liam

Liam Loves to Grab Mommy's Glasses

In particular he likes to be doing everything Elsa does, including brushing his teeth.

He eats more than Elsa eats and loves chocolate.

He also loves milk, regularly drinking 20 ounces of milk before bed.

Liam enjoys being outside, playing with Elsa, helping her and Arne garden, and smelling the flowers with grandpa.

He and Elsa still love to sleep together and every once in a while he will sleep with her through the night.

 I miss my baby, but it is fun getting to know my toddler Liam.

Sleeping Babies

On of my favorite things is watching my babies sleep, particularly when they sleep together.  It just makes me happy to see them so peaceful.  Here are a selection of fun pictures of Elsa & Liam (sometimes also with Daddy) sleeping over the last months.

Elsa helping Liam sleep

Hands together

Christmas Morning

Daddy fell asleep first.

Then both kids moved to a different bed.

Liam sleeps on Elsa

Elsa sleeps on Liam

Back to back

Belly to belly

It's a Zombie Jamboree!

Elsa runs hot like her mom :)