New Year's Eve

We decided to try out our new snowshoes and went to Farragut State Park between home and Sandpoint. It was a clear, sunny and beautiful day-but COLD! We got some great exercise and had a great time. It was a quintessential North Idaho winter day. Just fabulous!

The creek that we kept hearing along our trek finally found its way to the surface.

This was looking up out of the blanket of trees that we were in to

see the amazing sunshine on the snow covered trees.

The sneak peek of Lake Pend Orielle
Beautiful scenery
Such clear blue skies and COLD-I think it warmed up to a whopping 11 degrees!
This crazy guy came out of the boat cabin and yelled "Hey over there,
Happy New Year"...well it's 5:00 somewhere, right?!

MERRY CHRISTMAS morning

We had a great Christmas Morning at home. Gaga and Papa came over early and were there to help us wake Karsten up. We had quite a few presents to open at home and a wonderful time together.

A new easel from Gaga and Papa with magnetic letters.

She also got construction paper and pictures to color on the other side of the easel.

Santa brought Karsten a new kitchen set.

What kitchen set is complete without a shopping cart?

Note the new Snow White high heels that she has on over her jammies!

Clip clopping around the house with her high heels and cart!

Using her new coffee pot to pour Papa some more coffee...what service!

Mmmmmmm, candy cane.

Thanks Great Grandpa and Grandma for the new baby stroller. K LOVES it!

Ballerina puzzle from Auntie Lizz, Uncle Blake and Abby.
Mommy received new snow shoes from Santa.

And Daddy too!

Skyping with Auntie Jenn from her hotel room in Lake Tahoe.

She got a front row seat for opening presents!

MERRY CHRISTMAS evening

After quite the morning of presents and our favorite Ebleskiver for breakfast we headed home for nap time-for ALL of us! We came over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the afternoon and evening and opened presents all over again!

Hooray for a new hat and gloves.

Special new blankie

WOW! What a surprise hit Elmo was. Karsten went CRAZY when she opened it up.

Who knew?

New sled that gave some pretty good magic carpet rides.

And then came Noah's Ark books and...HOMEMADE ANIMALS! Yes, Grandma spent months hand making an elephant, monkey and 5 ft+ tall giraffe for Karsten. These animals are amazing to say the least-impressive just doesn't even touch it!

And last but not the least, Daddy received good old fashioned Hershey's syrup from his mom. Guess his wife buys the cheap and or lite version that just doesn't cut it...

hmmm, did not know that!

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.