Liam is 2!

Liam is now 2! We are very excited to see how Liam has grown into such a big and wonderful boy.  In the morning he got to open presents.  One of his gifts was a foam roller and he knew just how to roll on it.

There were also books.  Right now Liam really likes to read.  One of the words he uses a lot is READ.  Every night we hear READ, READ, READ again and again before bed.  His favorite thing in books are pictures of chickens.  He calls chickens balk balks.

Today is also Liam's last day with bottles.  Now that he is two, the bottles are all going away, so he will have to get his 24 ounces of milk before bed from a sippy cup.

 

Grandpa came over and brought a cord monster.  The are cords, switches, plugs, all the thinks a growing boy wants to play with.

The party really started when several of his girlfriends arrived and everyone got to eat yummy foods.

Elsa was very good at directing the group in play activities.  First there was a treasure hunt, then jumping on the bed, then a puzzle, and finally drawing at the table.  Liam enjoyed all the activities, and all the girls, yes, the party was 6 girls and Liam, seemed happy to follow Elsa's instructions.

 It was great to sing Liam Happy Birthday.

Elsa helped Liam blow out his candles.

Liam really enjoyed his blue ballon!

Liam also enjoyed opening his presents.

Grandma Stokstad made him a cozy nest blanket.  Liam loves making cozy nests with soft fleece blankets.

We are so excited to have a two year old!

November 2014

November was a wonderful month spent at home, enjoying family and friends who visited from near and far.

Liam continues to grow bigger and bigger and continues to enjoy playing on the phone, which is anything he can hold up to his ear.

Like Elsa before him, Liam also liked playing phone in Daddy's office.

Elsa continues to just have fun with everything.  She loves climbing and jumping and imaginary play.  She and Liam had a lot of fun for several weeks in their amazing rocket ship.

She contends to love to dress up and just be silly.

Both kids love hearing stories.  Liam will get a book and then when you are done get another, and another and another.

They do so much together now, from mimicking each other eating,

 to super fun bath time.

 I love how much fun they have together.

 A happy Thanksgiving from all of us!

Halloween 2014

Elsa and Liam started out Halloween morning as a beautiful princess and a scary pirate!

Our pumpkin family just made it to Halloween.  Elsa called them Daddy pumpkin with two mommy pumpkins and a lot of baby pumpkins.  They were a good family.

 For trick or treating, Elsa dressed up as Belle and Liam addressed up as a puppy dog.

It was fun to take them out on the town.

We saw a giant pumpkin at the Halloween maze at one of the neighborhood properties.

Elsa really just liked going up to all the doors and getting candy. Liam wanted to open and eat the candy after every stop!  Finally, after many doorbells, Elsa told me her bag was too heavy and she needed me to carry it.  That is when I knew if was time to go home.

Once we were home, Elsa and I went through all the candy, splitting them into the Chocolate and the Non-Chocolate.  It was fun to organize the candy for the Switch Witch who is coming tonight to switch all the candy out for a present, while they sleep the night away!

Fallen Leaf Lake and October Fun

October was an amazing month.  One weekend we went to Princeton in the Sierra Camp, which was held at Stanford's Sierra Camp at Fallen Leaf Lake.  It was beautiful.  

 We enjoyed paddling around in the lake and taking boat rides.

 We had fun hikes, exploring camp and creeks. 

It was also an exciting month because it was my 40th birthday, or as I like to say I turned 28 in hexadecimal.

 Both Liam and Esa really enjoy cooking project and I really enjoy cooking with them.

One of Liam's favorite things to do is to take out bowl and have his own cooking projects.  They are usually messy.

Elsa continues to love to face paint.  Here she is a monster.

I continue to love to watch them sleep, particularly when they have maching outfits on.

 Liam often snuggles up to Elsa in bed, it is so sweet to see.

Liam's big joy is trying to drive the car, along with pushing every button he can.  It makes starting the car always a lot of fun.

Elsa is doing well in school and is now one of the big kids, leading games and activities.  The school went on a fun trip to Happy Hollow and played with goats.

We also went to the local park with Elsa's school and Liam had fun playing around like the big kids.

October was also fun, because I went to a confernece in New Orleans, speaking on Open Source Software licensing.  The real fun for me was walking to the Cafe du Monde and getting beniets every morning.

We had a wonderful October.