3 is the magic number

This Birthday was so very special to me! Even more so to our precious little Ethan! He was experiencing something for what seemed like the very first time, to him. He took it all in, a way that i never imagined. I have never seen him so excited, so full of joy and so very full of expressions. And Jon David and I have seen a lot of expressions coming from him...not this! I think I was even more surprised than he at just his reactions!

We ended up having two parties for him. One was just with family on the day of his birthday and the second was the 2oth of this month with friends and family. He had the best time with his family...with oma and opa! The balloons, the card they made and the gifts...but he really loved the singing!



Popping out of the gift bag and playing hide and seek!
Oma and opa made Ethan a card that just made his day! He wanted opa to read it and read it again and again! So,i really do have to post the video of that right away! It was so precious! He loved his card and would kick and dance over ever word!

Our cutie pie, who is playing his saxophone and hasn't yet, had his hair cut. He is a die hard for music and such a hansom little boy, even with his long hair!



His big party was last night and unfortunately, i do not have the photos to show you of that day. I had a photographer, who is a dear friend of mine and it may be a while before i get those photos. For now i share with you what I do have!

Here is one for ya ...

We were listening to a sample of a song about "Bath time", his favorite time! And he fell in love with it. I finally started taping after he had already asked up to play it "again" like 5 or more times. I love the part where he cuddles his bears! Too bad i didn't start taping before, he was dancing so hard! have fun!

I love family! I love how it grows and develops. This is my first time to actually be able to take in the beauty of our family growing. I mean the extended family as much as my own. To see your child have a cousin (even if it is your cousin's children..) to play with and explore social behavior with. To see your cousin's starting their own family and the room filling up with more beautiful faces every time you get together. It is something I have never tasted of before and I am suddenly captivated by it and addicted for more. In the last 1 and a half year, since Ethan was born, we have had family visits 11 times and from all over. You have heard of most of our visitors and friends, as I tend to write about them. Two of those visits were from my sweet cousin in Plano Texas. She has a little girl named Ava, 1 month younger than Ethan, and another little lamb, named Abbey, 13 months younger than the first! WHEW! Myy cousin, Ashley, and Ava, her firstborn, first came to visit around Ethan's first birthday (how many times can I say first in one sentence?). I never got to post pic of it because we were off to Norway immediately after that and I was in a packing frenzy. Now, we have had the GREAT pleasure of having her whole family here, along with my parents, for dinner the other night. I was in heaven! Holding sweet little Abbey, seeing Ethan and Ava play together and even give a sweet kiss on the lips! PRICELESS is not even a good word for these moments.

Do all 18 months old have an understanding of music styles and fluctuations? It seems as though we have a music major on our hands. He listens to us play a beat on a drum and can imitate it exactly. He likes to be the conductor of music and will play that role out entirely. As a conductor and dancer, he even knows when to crescendo. In this video, I played him several different styles of music and his body naturally knew to move differently! At the end you see him signing "more, more, more, more," over and over again!We have a good time with him and all things musical. After the video, I posted pictures of him watching "The Lawrence Welk Show" from NPR. My mom started the custom of watching this show with Ethan whenever he was over at her house on a Saturday night. We decided to turn it on one night and were amazed at how absolutely captivated and into it he was. This is when he first started to conduct!



The Lawrence Welk Show!

totally absorbing it all!

This is a VERY FUNNY video of Ethan watching and LEARNING from his cousin and Jon David playing cards. It is all in Norwegian, but that shouldn't stop you from laughing your "head off"! At the very end, Ethan immediately gets up from his fall laughing!






This video is just more of his utter joy and excitement to be with his cousin!

Farewell and Thank you all for coming for Christmas 2008 at Hotel Manly Lane ( as Hanne-Gudveig liked to call it). We loved having you and having created moments in time that are not easily forgotten. I think we all have favorites. Mine are all the times that the cousins laughed, played and enjoyed each others company. It can't be too long before they see each other again...they are already close friends. The one thing i know..it is fun to be a kid! The bible talks about having "child like faith" and in these hard times we are living in, I will draw from our own little ones to do just that.
I asked everyone visiting to post a little something of their own on the blog. You will find it below.
I hope everyone reading had an incredible Christmas, celebrating our Savior on his very own special birthday. The day he decided to be a spec of dust in his father's great house! I relish the day when i will truly see how big Papa's house really is!


Today is our last day here in Manley Lane, Nashville. It has really been an incredible visit, and a special Christmas for our family. I have been here once before, but the rest of the family has never been to the US. It has been special in many ways. First of all because it has been so nice to be able to spend such a long time together with Jon David, Karissa and Ethan, and celebrating Christmas with them. It was also nice to spend time at Phil and Victoria's house for Christmas, and it has been fun to go to different places, and experience some of the things that this area has to offer. We have been doing so many things - concerts at the Ryman and Third and Lindsley (The Wooten brothers) and the Christmas Spectacular show at the Grand Ole Opry. We have been to Percy Warner park, Radnor lake, Franklin, Opryland hotel (where we also had a wonderful dinner), Opry Mills and we have been eating in different restaurants. We spent Christmas at Phil and Victoria's house, and had a nice new years eve at Karissa and Jon Davids house. I cant believe that we are leaving tomorrow, the time has passed so quickly. It has been so nice to see the cousins playing together, and getting to know each other. Ethan and Ingrid Marie are almost the same age (six months apart), and they have been interacting in many ways. Bjoernar is really enjoying to play with Ethan - tickling, playing hide and go seek and a lot of other fun things. We will always treasure these days that we spent together, and I hope it won't be too long before we meet again. It has been such a good time. We want to thank Jon David and Karissa for making this Christmas a very special one, and especially Karissa for all the good meals she has prepared. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hanne-Gudveig (Jon David's sister)


Jeg likte aa bygge lego. indiana jones, kystvakten,batman masse lego. Aa spise ute; pannekaker, egg, bacon, is og muffins var deilig. Juleshow med nissen var goy. Bjoernar(nephew)