Calee's new big girl bed!

Calee got a new big girl bed. Carter moved downstairs into his new room in the basement (which he loves), and Calee moved into Carter's old room. We painted over Carters green walls and now they are pink for Calee. We bought Calee a new bedroom set called "cottage retreat" from Ashley furniture. It is so cute to see our tiny, little Calee cuddled up in a big bed of her own. She is so excited for her new room and she has to show everyone that comes to the house. Cambree is also excited to have her own room all to herself. I can't believe how fast they grow up. Calee turns two years old on the 23rd of this month. She is getting to be such a big girl!

Calee and her baby!

Calee got a new American Girl Doll "bitty baby" for Christmas, and she takes it with her everywhere she goes. She is so cute when she talks to her baby and takes care of it. She also has a little backpack that came with her baby and she always packs it with a blanket and little bottle. These are pictures of her as we were getting ready to go somewhere one night, and she just had to take her baby.

Fun in the snow!

We spent New Years Day playing in the snow. We had snowball fights until we couldn't throw any more. We also built a cool tunnel in the snow next to our driveway. The kids had fun climbing through it over and over again. Our kids love playing in the snow!

New Years Eve!

Emmy singing and Calee dancing

Calee was dancing

Christy concentrating on the guitar

We spent New Years Eve the same way we always do. We stayed home where it was warm. We ordered Pizzaria Pizza, had friends over and played games. We had a blast playing Rock Band Country and Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. We stayed up late eating lots of junk food and playing cards while the kids ran around the house playing. Our kids stayed up till midnight. We went outside and lit sparklers and watched the kids run around the driveway with sparklers. We had neighbors lighting off lots of illegal fireworks and Carter wanted me to light off fireworks, but all we had was sparklers. It was a fun night.

Calee and her new Phone

One of Calee's favorite presents this year was this silly little princess cell phone. She carried it around and talked on it all day long. She is so silly!

Christmas Day

We had a really nice Christmas this year. My only complaint is that it came and went way too fast. We spoiled our kids rotten this year. Every year we say that we aren't going to go overboard, but we always do. It is way too hard not to spoil them. It was so much fun to watch them get so excited for Santa Clause to come. They were so excited to set out cookies and milk for Santa and to set their stockings out and get their own little "areas" of the family room ready for Santa to come. This year Christy and I bought each other clothes and few little things, but our main present to each other was a new snowblower. I'll have to say, I am proud of my kids. They really know what Christmas is about. They know we celebrate it because of Christ's birth. Each night we tried to read a Christmas book with them and feel the Christmas spirit, so they can remember that Christmas is more than just Santa and presents.

Cambree and her new "American Girl Doll" Chrissa

Calee with her new "American Girl Doll" bitty baby

and her new pink Radio Flyer bike

Making Christmas sugar cookies

This year Christy made sugar cookies to take to Cambree's kindergarten class. They each got to frost and decorate a sugar cookie. It was a real hit. The kids loved decorating and eating Christmas sugar cookies. Of course we had extras, so Carter and Cambree sat and frosted and decorated the rest of them to take around to family and friends.

Cambree's Christmas concert

This year we got to Cambree's Christmas kindergarten choir performance early so we could sit up close to the front. She looked so pretty in her red, sparkly Christmas dress. She is the little singer of the family and she did such a good job singing all the Christmas songs. Her favorite song this year was "We wish you a merry Christmas" that they changed to say "We fish you a hairy Christmoose" complete with actions. It was very cute.

First Big Snow Storm

Our kids love the snow! The second we got home from church yesterday, they wanted to be outside playing in the snow. Our neighbors and good friends, Bryce and Amanda bought our kids a Snow Castle building set for Christmas. Carter and Cambree were very excited and spent the day building a snow castle. They were upset when we told them it was time to go to Grandma's house for dinner. They wanted to stay and keep building on to their castle.

Gingerbread House

One of our kids' favorite things to do at Christmas time, is to build a Gingerbread House. We always buy a kit and help them build it. They get to do all the decorating with the icing and candy. This year Calee kept trying to take the candy and eat it. Our kids did a really good job decorating their Gingerbread house, and they had a lot of fun doing it.

Cabelas

We took our kids to Cabelas on Friday. We ate upstairs at their restaraunt (the food was amazing). We wandered around and shopped for hours. Our kids loved all the animals and they loved feeding the fish. Their favorite thing was the aquarium. They kept wanting to go back over and over again. We had a lot of fun. I am pretty safe in saying it is our favorite store. I wanted to buy one of just about everything in there. I am glad that we are a family that loves to go camping, fishing, hunting, and be outdoors.

Skating at the Ice Sheet

Yesterday, I went with Carter on his field trip to the Ice Sheet. We had a blast ice skating. It has been awhile since either of us has been ice skating. Carter was a little shaky at first and falling a lot just like most of the 2nd graders I saw, but by the end when it was time to go, Carter was skating from one end of the rink to the other like a pro. without falling. I was really proud of him. It was fun for me to break away from work and go be with him and have some fun.

Flow Rider

Friday night Kyle called and asked if we wanted to come do Flow Rider down at the Salomon Center. Christy and I took the kids down and We had a blast taking turns body boarding. Carter was really brave and rode with us for about a half an hour. Even when he would have a bad wipe-out he would keep going. Cambree would ride on our backs from time to time. I had fun but I forgot how tiring it was. By the time we left, I was worn out. If you haven't tried Flow Rider, I highly suggest it. It is an absolute blast. Thanks Kyle for the opportunity. It is so nice to have such great family and friends and always nice to have connections at the salomon center.