Christmas morning

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! Santa came to our house for a visit, VERY exciting.  He feels at home here in Grand Forks, due to the frigid temps and tons of snow --- it's virtually the North Pole, lucky us!! Soren was in complete shock that Santa was inside our house, but as you can see Ingrid was a little less impressed.  

We are feeling very blessed this Christmas to be in our cozy home with our healthy, beautiful  children.  Much LOVE to our wonderful families and friends- God Bless Everyone!

Mailman

Soren has many jobs...firefighter, hockey player - and now, mailman.  We have had to get pretty creative around here over the last week because, well, it's cold...not just a little, but very cold - basically hovering around negative 10 degrees over the last three days.  So, we've been stuck indoors.  We also experienced our first blizzard, which was kind of exciting actually and gave us the opportunity to finish up those christmas cards.  These pictures show Soren pretending to be a mailman.  In the picture where he's sitting down, he is sitting in his "mailtruck" and driving with his steering wheel (a.k.a. my pot lid).  He is cleaning his mail truck in his other picture.  I set up a bunch of boxes (or mailboxes) with various shapes on them and then he would "deliver" my letters and packages.  He loves going back and forth and putting things in their "proper" locations.  Anyway, I have felt myself going stir crazy once in awhile with this weather, especially when I consider the long winter ahead of us.  My strategy is to stay in the moment with Soren and really engage in his play - when I do this time flies. 

my little beauty

Isn't Ingrid beautiful!  I just can't take my eyes off of her.  These pictures don't show it so well, but her hair is just crazy, it sticks straight up into a large poof.  People comment on it ALL the time.  The thing that I find so endearing is that she has no idea that her hair is such a riot, it's just her!  She is such an easygoing and sweet little person- and so funny, I don't remember Soren laughing like Ingrid can laugh.  She can really crack up.  I like to blow zerberts on her belly and she just hoots and  hollars, she's a real good-time girl.  That's not to say that she doesn't cry or get angry - oh my, she can get very upset if I leave the room, especially if she is in need of something.  It always amazes me that someone so small, with no words, can really get her point across.  This last month Ingrid has grown her two bottom teeth - so we had a could rough days when they were cutting thru the gums, but overall she did well with this.   I also included a picture of Ingrid's Christmas present, we bought her a "tree" - it's actually a sticker mural for her wall.  It really brightens her room up.  You can see her sleeping in the corner of the picture, so cute. 

Baking cookies with a curious monkey

I made an attempt to make cookies with Soren... this was not as easy as I had hoped, he was more interested in throwing the dough, rather than making fine round balls for the cookie sheet. We had fun though, especially since it was a snowy day and we were cozy inside.
Last weekend Chris took Soren to meet Curious George at Barnes and Noble - Soren LOVED it!

rest time

Practicing hockey

Soren has moved on, for the moment, from being Fireman Frank, to Hockey player Hank. He went to a hockey game with Chris and learned all the lingo that goes along with it. He wears his "sweater," plays with his "stick" (or baseball bat), wears his "skates" (rainboots), and hits his "puck" (ball)... he is using his toy cars as his "zambonies" and calls the floor his "ice." My laundry basket his his "goal." He can be at this for a very long time!