The Stavdals

After satisfactorily preying on our pc mouse, she's here comfortably dozing off using the key board as pillow, and she is prone to staying until we move her by force. Emmi, our 11 year old cat, loves placing herself at...

Despite chilly and snowy weather, we took part in the celebration of the Norwegian Constitution Day. Actually, since wife and toddler were in Finland that week, the rest of us boys and my dad visiting from Arendal, rose early to...

Perhaps the grass is greener on the other side! While May 1 is usually associated with warm weather and spring flower blossoms, we're still grappling with snow. And, yes, I am complaining, and, yes, I'm fully aware it won't do...

Although children below the age of ten do not receive podium recongnition (fortunately), according to the score sheet Mathias came first in his age-group in the North Norwegian Gymnastics Championships 2008. Happily he didn't make too much of it other...

While singing, playing, acting out Bible stories and listening to the teacher, Niklas' mom couldn't resist holding one little 10 month old baby girl on her lap. Niklas didn't mind that at all. He actually applauded this temporary addition to...

After a photo shoot of Andreas doing a special handstand on the parallel bars, his little bitty brother was quick to attempt an identical position. In his mind, I'm sure the attempt was abolutely impeccable. To the rest of us...

Today Niklas joined us outside with his sledge. Thomas pulled him up the long, sloping hill and together they swished down. Click and see them accelerating down the hill-side....

Easter is upon us and being outdoors skiing is a part of the deal, at least in Norway. So today we went up a hill and skied down several times. If you'd like to, click and watch a one minute...

Yesterday, Niklas said the stranges word, and we couldn't quite figure it out at first. His eyes were fixed on something on the table while over and over again uttering the word: "Brrriiim". The "Brr" sounded like a car-engine and...

Gathering the stamina to undo and re-lay the entire parquet floor isn't easy. But when a friend of mine, Allan, generously rang me up to give me a hand, I didn't hesitate to happily and overwhelmingly accept his proposition. It...

We are in a way fortunate to have snow coated wildreness in our back yard. So, today we clamped down our boots and set out for a quick trip primarily to see the stunning view from the mountain a stone's...

Our little "baby" sure makes us burst out with laughter sometimes. We noticed one morning that while his mom and dad were getting ready to go out, to our convenience he was patiently sitting on the floor by the door....

This is what may happen in the morning just before heading off to the kindy, particularly if you really love the bath-tub. We turned around for a couple of minutes, and before we knew it, Niklas was back into the...

The enthusiasm with which an eight year old celebrates his birthday, simply needs to be experiences first hand. To the left is his Photoshop made birthday invitation card. Also you may read on and take a look at a few...

We really had a great laugh when Niklas suddenly started dancing like crazy to the High School Musical 1 song track "We're all in this together." Click and watch the footage :=)...

We've been trying to implement some kind of chores system for the boys to make them realize that things don't happen automatically at home. This sounds fair enough, doesn't it? But I don't blame them for protesting when setting the...

We would like to wish our family in Finland, Norway and Switzerland, friends around the world, rediscovered friends on Facebook, colleagues and of course random readers of this blog all the best for the new year! The boys had fun...

Our Christmas Eve involved a peaceful morning (for the kids, somewhat stressful for the parents), a rather hectic afternoon, a beautiful Christmas Service at the SDA Church in Tromsø, a delicious meal with the family and last but not least...

The day before Christmas is packed with excitement and anticipation for the kids. It was particularly exciting to see Niklas' reaction to the lights, garlands and the ornaments. And decorating the tree proved to be one of the high-lights of...

....and may Faith, Hope and Love be treasures in the New Year! Rather than the traditional (and slightly boring) "Merry Christmas"- greeting, we fell for a more Biblical, yet universal wording. Please click and be greeted by our Chrismas card!...

We are really thankful that our boys are finally getting two Finnish lessons a week at school. As you know, our kids are simultanious bilingual speakers of Norwgian and Finnish. Unfortunately, it took us several years to discover that people...

At the end of September, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and set the orange leaves ablaze. I grabbed my SLR-camera and ran through the forest towards the sloping hillside a few hundred metres from our house where the...

Who could have imagined that we would be trudging through the snow before mid-October? This past week, heavy snow and chilly winds have been causing havoc in Northern Norway. Although the snow showers are dying out, ice on the...

Yesterday Niklas didn't cry his heart out when we dropped him off in the kindy. Neither did he cry frantically at the end of the day when we came to pick him up. It's really comforting for us to know...

Settling Niklas in the kindergarten has been quite a challenge for both him and us. Even after many an introductory session, the SA instinct is hard to fight. During the many introductory sessions, we tried leaving the room for increasing...

Finally Mathias was accepted by the county's music school. His preferred instrument was actually the drums, but this summer the school called and said there were no available places. Instead he applied for either violin or cello-lessons hopeing for...

When arriving in Finland a few days ago, finally having our long awated summer holiday, we were particularly excited to see Antti and Minna's newborn baby-boy, Olli. This charming little two month old fellow made Niklas seem like a giant...

Our next-door neighbours just had two adorable puppies, and we couldn't resist paying them a visit about a week ago. Niklas was completely enthralled with them, and they certainly loved him. But he got a bit fidgety when they started...

Yesterday, 27. June, Niklas turned ONE. Today, 28. June, Andreas turns 13. It goes without saying that we are proud to celebrate Niklas entering his second year in life and our oldest son becoming a teenager! Time flies! Scary!...

Baby's first smile, first steps, and first words are exciting events that are certainly worth recording! Niklas has for quite some time been able to stand unsupported, and finally on 12. June he took his first solo walk....

I would like a picture of your balcony view/favourite veiw from your place! You might argue, I presume, that your place or a site you have some degree of ownership to, is the most beautiful, stunning, breath-taking, dazzling or...

Our oldest boys watched The Matrix recently, and Mathias was allowed to peep through just a few cool scenes from the film. He was fascinated by the dodging of bullets. Soon after, he appeared in the doorway of our...

Just when winter appeared to be surrendering, it decided to strike back one more time with chilly gusts and another 20 cm of snow. This made skiing in the mountains a high risk we didn't dare take. Spending Easter skiing in the mountains is, by the way, an activity popular with Norwegians during the Easter holiday. It's the last chance of having both relatively warm weather and good skiing conditions.

Today is the last day of the paternity leave. The salaried six weeks off and an additional two weeks transferred from my wife's maternity leave, gave me the privelege of staying at home with Niklas. The time was worthwhile and the two months have been unquestionably fantastic! We have bonded and love has blossomed.

I was devastated to receive a groupmail from one of my friends where he tells he was recently rediagnosed with cancer after 17 years of good health. He initially decided to create a blog to keep his friends and associates up to speed on the situation, but he soon found himself sharing his every-day life-experience with cancer including his first encounter with the disease seventeen years ago. His vivid and descriptive language coupled with both reflections and the inevitable search for answers and meaning make this Christian blogger one you must read. Join him on his journey by visiting "En vandring har tatt til". He writes in Norwegian. May I encourage my readers to keep him and his family in your prayers and send him a message of encouragement.

It's absolutely spectacular having the sun back after three months of polar night here in the northern part of Norway at a latitude within the Arctic Circle. The first time the sun peeps over the mountains where we live, is on 20. January. To relish the sweetness of sun-rays, we went for a stroll and to capture the moment I took a few pictures with my tiny Canon Ixus. Read more to see what it looked like!

Over a week after turning eleven, Thomas threw a birthday party to which all the boys in his class at school were invited. No girls this year. It was his own choice to serve the guests veggie-and turkey hot dogs, and ice-cake for dessert. After singing "Happy Birthday" and the food-phase of the celebration, watching "Bruce Almighty" more or less consumed the remaining time of the party. Judging by giggling and laughter throughout the film, Jim Carrey's aptitude for comedy definitely appealed to them, and they appeared to catch the serious themes of the movie as well.

After having decorated his pirate cake-ship and set the table for his birthday party, nasty weather made it difficult for the guests to come. Although only less than half of the guests arrived, the ones that made it through the heavy snow fall saved the day. Here he is proudly blowing out the candles.

Sorry to break the sad news, but Christmas is over, and writing this on the evening of New Year's Day, I realize the usual jog trot is lurking around the corner. And now we elicit those already somewhat romanticized memories of the Christmas season, brought to life by pictures and home videoes. Here are a few pictures taken a couple of days ago that I thought were so nice I just had to show them to you!

We would like to wish our visitors a blessed Christmas season and a happy New Year!

At five months, he now has the milestone master skills of smiling and laughing. He grasps toys and today he rolled over from his back to stomack entirely on his own for the first time after practicing the mini-push-ups for a month. In addition, as most babies the same age, he can bear weight on his legs, and coos when we talk to him. We are waiting for his imitating sounds.

Naming our baby boy certainly didn't turn out to be easy. After an almost agonizing process, considering several favourites of ours on the top five list of names, we agreed on Niklas. Now all the four boys' names have the suffix -as.

On Sunday August 20, the boys climbed Troms?'s highest mountain, Tromsdalstind. It was their first time on the peak of the mountain. Even Mathias, 6 years old, did the whole round trip without much complaint.

Andreas is celebrating his 12th birthday today! Congratulations! "I'm older, but I don't feel bigger" he remarks smilingly quickly adding: "At least I'm going to be a 7. grader in school. One of the disadvantages of celebrating in the summer holiday is that most of his friends are on vacation. Anyways, he will be celebrated!

A week early, he decided to say hello to the world. Mother and child are both doing just fine. They are both at the hospital hotel and should be home in four days. Yeeeehooooo!

On Friday June 23 the house became ours. And finally we're moving in. Still, as you can see in the picture, there's heaps of work waiting to be done. We're excited about settling in, and yet dreading all the work we have to do. Equally exciting is awaiting the big moment of the birth which might take place any time.

Closing up on the due date, this fotball-shaped tummy is steadily increasing in size as Anu now is in the last month of the pregnancy. We're obvously extremely excited to meet this individual conceiled in the womb in person.

After weeks of wiggling the tooth, it gave into the eagerness of a six-year-old. Finally Mathias can truly live up to his kindergarten club title: "The The toothless club club" as he has now started shedding his milky teeth. The new tooth has already made its way up through the gum. According to Mathias the new tooth is gigantic.

...but with both the roof tiling and the metal furnishing for the chimney finished in addition to the exterior panelling being halfway up the ladder, we're nearly shooting ahead of the all too much delayed project plan.

Over the past years I've tried through trial and error to obtain that good tasing pizza recipe. But I always end up with a taste that doesn't exactly reap the best consumer responses. Now, that's why you might help me!

Having endured terrible skiing conditions for weeks, luckily the winter holidays offered fantastic weather and snow conditions for both cross country and downhill. The boys went downhill and slalom-skiing in the slopes of Kroken alpine center. Forcing the skiis through untouched snow up the mountain side of Kval?ya towards the bare peak for a fantastic view was awesome.

After a long wait, finally the constructers are back on the job! The framework of the second and third floors have been erected. It was high time things got back on track. Now it is starting to look like a house rather than just a black box. One problem that needs to be handled is how to make the time for the work we are responsible for since both the winter and Easter breaks do not seem to coincide with the project plan of the constructers.

Here is the ultrasound image of the baby taken today! Things seem to be thumbs up and normal for this wonderful, little person judging by the technician's interpretation of the scan. We feel really blessed that things are going well. At 15 centimetres crown to rump, and weighing eight ounces/ca. 250 kilograms, the baby is getting big. When comparing this image with the scan of Mathias we cannot but admit a certain resemblance.

Happy birthday Thomas! Thomas sure had a wonderful time on his special day on January 24! Another year wiser, among the top wishes were money - because he is really good at saving.

Blissfully turning six, Mathias got out of bed early to open those magic presents. Enthusiastically he unwrapped the presents, and although Lego was at the top on his list of wants, he was surprisingly equally happy about the soft presents.

Already a thing of the past, the Christmas of 2005 was undoubtedly one to remember. Having my parents over the week before X'mas and my brother in law with his family the following week, definitely contributed to a fine holiday season. And since all the boys unwrapped indoor bandy sticks on the 24th, this was probably one of the healthiest Christmases we've ever had playing bandy in Ekrehagen school gym almost every day.

We're expecting! Yep, we're getting ready for our baby, our fourth. Isn't that just increadible! And being in week 16 of the pregnancy, it's now showing. Anu has had awful nausea the first 14 weeks, but fortunately that seems to...

The operation was being conducted in secrecy. For months our too-good-to-be-true trip to Sharm El Sheik was kept a secret, because my mom wanted to surprise my dad on his 60th anniversary. While dad was aware that he would be travelling with mom and my sister, he hadn't got the faintest idea that the five of us would be joining them! Since my brother and his girlfriend live in Egypt, not only would this trip be an unbelievably swell birthday present, but a family get-together.

We're probably moving into a new house at the end of May 2006. Here's a brief account of the process so far. When a friend of ours, Bjart who is a construction engineer, called us one and a half years ago saying he had come across a perfect building-site for us, we were both thrilled and flabbergasted. Having had a number of rented flats the past 14 years, it was high time we moved into something of our own.