Merry Christmas

Christmas definitely gets better & better each year. This whole month has been so much fun: decorating, looking at Christmas lights, checking to see if the Elves came each morning, so much magic when seen through Kate's eyes!

Opening presents Christmas morning. (Favorite gift overall? Pink hand soap!)

Enjoying a breakfast of cinnamon rolls.

New backpack packed and ready for the trip to Grandma & Grandpa Vogel's.

Busy watching all the excitement.

Our favorite gifts overall?

I bet you can guess.

Frosty

Kate was really excited that we got enough snow on Christmas Eve to make a Frosty the Snowman. I was really excited that I got a new zoom lens for my camera and could take photos from the warmth of standing in the doorway.

Busy at work.

The finished product (luckily Aunt Alisha and Uncle Marshall saved the day by bringing a carrot for the nose later that day)

Com'on Mom!

First the monkey suit, now you got me in this reindeer outfit? You're killing me mom!

Sledding

Today was the first sledding experience of the season. We kept it simple by just using the small hills in the back of our yard.

Rollin'

Today Andrew surprised me by rolling from his tummy to his back. I thought it was beginner's luck, but he did it 2 more times to prove me wrong. How can we be at this first milestone already?!

You Can't Catch Me...

...I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Today we experienced our first real taste of winter, so I was glad I had bought this giant gingerbread man kit to keep away the cabin fever.

Kate did a great job decorating it, and she had no hesitations about taking a chomp out of his head.

A reference shot to show scale:

(anyone else see some similarities between cookie and boy?)

'Tis the Season

Christmas was in full swing at the Vogel household today. Kate was so excited to decorate the tree, she never fell asleep for her nap. After almost 2 hours of her playing in her room, I gave up on the idea of her sleeping and let her get started. She wanted to put up the star first!

Lots of concentration...

...every time I asked her to look at the camera she said "but I'm busy."

Admiring her work

Andrew is also loving the lights.

And remember when I said she didn't nap? Here's the results tonight:

She fell asleep in the doorway!

First Snow

Kate has been really into the seasons lately, mostly because when she asks to go swimming I explain that it's winter and we can't go again until summer. So today when she saw it was snowing, she knew exactly what she wanted to do:

make a snowman with buttons, a carrot nose & a hat.

She was pretty bummed when the dusting of snow wasn't enough for her vision. I am quite certain that we will have another chance soon!