Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve had us at Britt's sister's house for dinner and then her parents house for dessert after church. The tradition is that each person gets to open one present from Gaga and Papa and then we usually exchange gifts with the older siblings and kids since we will all be at our own homes for Christmas.

Karsten was gifted a tent with a crawling tube from her Aunt Traci, Uncle Rich and cousins. After about 15 minutes of Karsten's major wrestling and thrashing in the tent, in her Christmas dress of course, she was told she had to get out by Daddy. The next picture says it all...

Fun with Auntie Kimi

Karsten had a BLAST with Auntie Kimi over Christmas. She was totally enthralled with her boots and just HAD to try them on. The boots were longer than Karsten's legs! Too funny :-)

Karsten playing in the windowsill!
Playing in and out of the french doors.
The pictures are blurry as she was moving so quickly!

Peek a boo!

Full Moon

The night after the lunar eclipse we had the most amazing moon rise. It was HUGE and unfortunately these pictures do no justice for how beautiful it was in person.

Tackling Daddy

Hannah can't have all the fun with Daddy. Karsten wants in on the action too!

Karsten's Christmas Program

Karsten was a crack up again this year for her Christmas Program. Talk about "blessed bedlem" with 30 kids ages 3 months-5 years trying to coordinate singing Christmas Carols. It was a hoot and after each song Karsten would stand up, clap and say YEAH! (Sorry about the weird pictures, not sure what happened).

Karsten was so excited when her cousins showed up that

she bolted out of her chair and tackled them for hugs!

This picture was after the program when Karsten wanted

to put on a show with her cousins on stage!

Journey to the North Pole

This year we decided to take Karsten on the Holiday Lights Cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. We were greeted by gingerbread and frosty and then the Grinch chased the cruise boat out of the docks! We could hear Santa, Mrs. Clause and the elves talking as we were headed out to see them. The trip across the lake was fun and so exciting with the countdown to see the lights turn on!

All bundled up for the ride. We sat inside and watched a

Charlie Brown Christmas until we made it to the North Pole.

Welcome to the North Pole!
Santa reading off all of the children's names that were on the boat-how did Santa know?

The spectacular World's Largest 161 foot Christmas tree covered with over 30,000 lights.

More than 1.5 million lights sparkle across Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Christmas Dinner with Santa

We enjoyed an early Christmas dinner with Santa and a variety show for entertainment. It was yummy food, great company and a good time had by all!

Karsten with her cousins

So Santa was a big hit...from AFAR-the only thing Karsten wanted from him was the candy cane! She still is not too sure what to think about him.

Tommy was providing MUCH entertainment for all dinner guests as he hit the dance floor with some SWEET moves. Karsten even went out to join him in the action. She mimicked everything he did-all the while sucking away on her candy cane. She ate the ENTIRE thing and we had red drool down her chin to prove it! Also notice that she was dancing so hard that her head band just about popped off of her head :-) She is quite the character, much like her cousin Tommy.

Dinner with the Taylors

One of Karsten's best friends from school is Mason. We have gotten to be good friends with Mason's parents and they invited us over for dinner. The kids had a blast and as we were dishing up dinner in the kitchen, this is what I walked out to find in the dining room! Pure 2 year old antics-they were so funny! (Yes, that is Karsten under the placemat!)

We also brought Dawson along with us to play as his Mommy had her Christmas Party that night. Needless to say, the host's kids went to bed just fine and Karsten and Dawson wanted to stay up and PARTY! This was one of many attempts to get the kids to quiet down. Needless to say, we took a rain check on playing games and will have to plan better next time!

Christmas Tree Day

Today we made the trek in the HUGELY deep snow to go find Christmas Trees. A tradition in our family we chop down Charlie Brown trees that barely can hold ornaments-but they are free and we enjoy it!

Karsten and Mommy were taking a break in the sled while Daddy was getting the tree!

So here is the finished product-see what I mean, Charlie Brown!

Winter Fun!

Here are some fun times that we have had in the snow this winter.

Karsten loves her monkey hat!

Such a DIVA!
Bundled up for a ride!