Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas to our family and friends! This year was a great year for our family. We were blessed with another daughter, Sydnee, in May and despite her challenges, she has blessed our family with her sweet little spirit. We had a mini Voge reunion at Sydnee's blessing in August, which was so much fun to get together with everyone. We have enjoyed travels to Michigan many times to visit G&G Drake and the aunt and uncles. We enjoy living in Indiana and have found out that we will be permanent here for a few years which we are happy about. Here is a glimpse at our lives in 2008...


Cameron
Cameron is really enjoying his job at Avery Dennison as the Master Production Scheduler. He plans on attending school next fall to get his Master's Degree. Cameron is a great husband and the girls love him as their dad. Cameron played on Avery's soccer team this past summer which he enjoyed and Hallie loved being his little cheerleader. Cam ended this year undergoing surgery (one day before the New Year) on his ACL that he tore on Thanksgiving Day playing in our church's Turkey Bowl.

Shannon
I am busy being a mom of two girls. A favorite past time of mine this year has been a good night's sleep but what mom doesn't have that as a favorite pasttime? I keep the girls busy with teaching Hallie the alphabet and doing crafts during the day, and storytimes at the local library, and attending our church's playgroup. When I have a free minute, I spend it cleaning, cooking, or blogging. Motherhood has been a wonderful blessing to me and I feel incredibly blessed to have two girls.

Hallie, 3 yrs old (in January)
Hallie's biggest accomplishment this year has been her hair growth!!! I can put it in pigtails now, which has been so fun. Hallie is our drama queen which she's getting quite good at. She is such a girl and loves to watch Little Mermaid and Cinderella. She has started learning the letters of the alphabet and can actually write her name (thanks to mom's hard work!).

She loves to sing!!! She is singing anywhere, anytime, and about anything, literally. She loves to sing "I Am a Child of God" with Daddy before she goes to sleep every night, which is quite cute. Her favorite game to play is "I Spy" and she loves to pretend play, which Mommy isn't sure whether to be excited about that or not since she constantly wants to play "the Mommy who yells and puts the baby in timeout." Hallie is the best big sister Sydnee or I could ask for, she is so loving and so gentle with Sydnee and is always willing to make her happy when she cries.

Sydnee, 7 months old
Sydnee was born in May (yes, our family is perfect now since Hallie and Cam's birthdays are in January and mine and Syd's birthdays are in May) at 7lbs. 8oz. Sydnee's 7 months of life have been challenging and full of worry. At four months old, we realized that Sydnee has an allergy to soy, after she had been on soy formula for two months which caused her to have cold like symptoms for months, as well as reflux and some colic. After a long process of elimination she is doing great on a hypoallergenic formula now.

Just when we thought her problems were solved, we found out at her 6 month checkup that her brain had stopped growing and since she hadn't reached important milestones yet, she was diagnosed as "Failure to Thrive" and underwent many tests on her brain's function and body's development. After much prayer and many blessings, we learned that Sydnee's brain and body development and function are perfectly fine!! In that same week, she learned to roll over and was accomplishing many other milestones which was a much needed miracle.

Sydnee is just blossoming now, and is the happiest baby! She loves to play with her big sister and loves bath time. We still await the day to hear her laugh for the first time and are still awaiting further testing with a genticist in January which will hopefully answer some of Sydnee's developmental delays as well as her allergies to a lot of baby foods. Aside from her challenges, she is just such a joy and a delight to have in our family. Her challenges have brought us closer as a family and we are grateful for that!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,
Cameron, Shannon, Hallie and Sydnee Voge

A Winter Wonderland

We've had a few flurries come and go a couple of times this winter, but the other day, we woke up to a winter wonderland. Hallie was so excited to go out and play, so I put her snow gear on over her pj's and let her play in the snow while I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. It was fun to wake up to all the snow. And as expected, school's were closed since we live in Indiana... the state that literally closes everything down including highways (no joke!) with only a couple inches of snow!? That is something Cam and I will never understand!?

Above: My little snowbunny is bundled up so tight, she had a waddle to her walk.

Gingerbread House

Daddy was in charge of Family Night last week, so he decided to make a gingerbread house with Hallie. I thought that was the best idea and figured it would not take too long, until I realized that they still had to go shopping for all the ingredients, including graham crackers!? So, Hallie and Daddy headed to the store...

An hour later, they arrived home ready to make their masterpiece. Cam decided to buy Cadbury Eggs (who wastes Cadbury Eggs on the roof of a gingerbread house is beyond me!?) to put on the roof which made it cave in. Cam and Hallie were pretty bummed, but not to worry. They attempted one more time and this is how it turned out (notice Daddy decided to use M&M's this time on the roof!). I think Cam had more fun than Hallie did decorating the house, but it was fun to sit back and watch them create their own little tradition.

Above: Hallie's mouth and shirt were covered in more candy than the gingerbread house was.

Play 'Til Ya Drop

Who ever said Hallie doesn't need naps anymore??? This gives "play 'til ya drop" a whole new meaning.

Santa's Nice And Jolly (From Far Away)

I took the girls to see Santa last week at our mall and Hallie was so excited to see him, until it was her turn. I bribed her with a cookie if she sat on his lap just so I could get a picture, and this was the happiest face she'd give me. I tried numerous times to get her to smile better and with every attempt, I noticed Santa's head kept drooping lower and lower. In frustration, I finally walked over to Santa to see why he kept looking at the floor and not at the camera, and I noticed that Sydnee had his beard in a death grip... poor Santa! It wouldn't have hurt, except Santa's beard was real, so poor Santa had a few hairs plucked that day, thanks to Sydnee. If you look in the second picture, you can see Sydnee very interested in his beard. It was pretty funny! Hallie did get her cookie that I promised her, and she even told Santa that she wanted a kitchen for Christmas, but not just any kitchen, she says it has to come with "a plate, a cup, a spoon, a fork and a knife with pancakes and eggs." Did you get all of that Santa??

Above: I LOVE having two girls because I can dress them the same!!!

Above: Hallie would only tell Santa what she wanted if she didn't have to look at him. Notice Sydnee's interest in Santa's beard?

Hallie's Idea of Playing With Sydnee

I was in the shower the other day, and I could hear Sydnee crying in her bouncy seat, so I asked Hallie to get Sydnee a toy and play with her. When I came out of the shower, this is what I found! Thank goodness Sydnee is such a good sport. Hallie was just laughing hysterically with every toy she would put on top of Sydnee. How could I not laugh with her!?

An Eventful Thanksgiving Day

My family drove to us for Thanksgiving this year, which was so nice that we didn't have to travel, but also nervewrecking since I had never before cooked Thanksgiving Day dinner! The dinner turned out great... because my mom ended up doing the whole thing (well, okay, I stuffed the turkey!) since shortly after putting the turkey in the oven, I got a phone call from Cameron saying he needed to go to the ER after getting injured in our ward's Turkey Bowl. Four hours and a torn MCL later, we arrived home just in time for dinner! Thanks Mom for taking over... next year, I hope to cook the whole thing (yes, that means no more football for Cameron. In Hallie's words, "he's in timeout.")

Other than Cam's sprained knee, it was a fun weekend. We visited the Festival of Trees downtown and we ate and ate and ate... did I mention we ate too? Since Cam is the wonderful baker in our family, he made some delicious desserts: his famous cheesecake, pumpkin pies, and a raspberry chiffon pie (that he saw on a cooking show... how funny is that!?). Yes, they were to die for. I've just gained 10 pounds just from saying the names of each pie!

Above: We caught Hallie tasting the cheesecake. She thought she was in heaven... until she got caught!

Above: Hallie loves playing with my sister, Stacey. Stacey is the best aunt and is always willing to play whatever silly game Hallie thinks of.

Above: One of Hallie's favorite games is playing catch so anyone that will play with her (especially in the house without getting in trouble) she loves. Before playing catch though, she actually reminded everyone, "Don't hit mommy's hearts (they are hanging on my FHE board), that's naughty; and be careful of mommy's picture!" It was pretty funny... at least she knows the rules right!?

A Second Twilight Movie Is Confirmed!

I was just on www.twilighters.org to see what the ticket sales were on Twilight this weekend, and they just announced this today. So I guess the film made the money it needed to go on with the second movie... let's cross our fingers and hope that the second movie, New Moon, will be better than Twilight! Second time's a charm right!? See you at the next premier.

Press Release: Summit Confirms New Moon Movie (Nov. 22, 2008)
In addition to Rob and Kristen’s announcement Summint has officialy stated that they will be moving foward with a New Moon movie, see the announcement on their website, here!

Los Angeles, CA November 22, 2008 — Summit Entertainment announced today that the studio is officially moving forward with the production of NEW MOON, the second installment of its filmed franchise TWILIGHT, the action-packed, modern day vampire love story.

Stephenie Meyer stated, “I don’t think any other author has had a more positive experience with the makers of her movie adaptation than I have had with Summit Entertainment. I’m thrilled to have the chance to work with them again on NEW MOON.”

Twilight Midnight Premier

Well, the countdown was over... it was Thursday night around 8:00pm, and I was getting tired... not a good start to the night since the very anticipated Twilight premier was at midnight. Thankfully, I had Yoga that night, so I went to Yoga class, and that woke me up and kept my adrenaline going until premier time. At 10:00pm, my friends and I piled in my van and we headed to the premier, only to find a long line already forming to get into the theater. You could feel the excitement and anticipation in the air, as many girls wore their "Bite me" t-shirts and had on any and every "Twilight" t-shirt ever made. Fans just couldn't get enough. At 10:50pm, they opened the doors and people were literally running to their seats to get a good seat. Once inside the theater, we broke out "Catch Phrase" to keep us busy for the last hour which seemed to last forever!! Finally, the lights dimmed and I felt like I was at a concert; people screamed and hooted and hollered in excitement until the previews started and then, it was quiet. Not a noise in the theater, as the "Twilight" saga began...

It was so fun being there with everyone else who was just as excited as we were. It was fun to be in an audience who clapped and laughed at funny parts and said, "awww" at sweet moments. It was such a fun experience! Although the experience was good, the movie wasn't; we were all a little disappointed and it seems the critics thought so too... bummer.

My "Twilight" Critique: one thumb down
I read a lot of critics' reviews, and unfortunately they weren't great. The film was enjoyable to anyone who has read the book, but to those who haven't, I felt like they would have been lost through the whole thing because a lot goes unexplained. I felt as though the movie was very rushed and no characters were developed enough for you to understand the relationships between them. They really missed the boat on developing a loving, passionate relationship between Bella and Edward (which is what the book is about!!!), and when she admits that she loves him, you are thinking, "WHAT??? Why? You don't even act like it!" They never hold hands or really touch each other, which bugged me. I think they did great at picking the characters; they matched what I had pictured to the "T", but they need a new director if they are going to do anymore movies from the Twilight saga, because although it wasn't directed very good, it has the potential to be a great second movie (if there is one!).

That being said, since I read the books, it was fun seeing it come to life, and if there is a second movie, yes, I will be seeing it again at it's midnight premier because I'm hooked and I LOVE Edward's character! And yes, I have to say, I will be buying the movie when it comes out, despite the fact that I was disappointed, because in the end, I'm still a big fan!

Above: My friends Virginia, Sarah, me, Marci and Tara who stayed up to watch the premier with me! Thanks for coming, it was such a blast being there with other "Twilight" lovers!

Turkey Craft

Last week at our playgroup, we made these cute turkey's out of wheat rolls and graham cracker covered marshmallows. We used toothpicks to hold the marshmallows into the roll and the only thing we had to glue were the eyes, and wallah.... too cute! That was such a great craft, thanks Tara for letting us make those! Cute idea!

Disclaimer: If this turkey looks a little on the "lean" side, that's because Hallie had already taken a huge bite out of the front of the roll before we got home! She didn't understand that it was meant to be a decoration, not a snack!

Sydnee's 6 Month Portraits

I've been meaning to get the girls' portraits taken professionally for a while now, but one of them either gets sick or is not happy the day of our appointment. So today, I took advantage of how happy the girls were and decided to take their portraits myself. I must say, they turned out dang cute and are definitely Christmas gift worthy! Sydnee has just blossomed this past week, which has truly been an answer to prayers. She is cooing all the time, and is just full of smiles which melts my heart every time I see her face light up at me... that is the reason why I'm a mom. Sydnee turns 6 months old at the end of this month, and every month is such a delight.

Hallie's 3 Year Portraits

Sydnee's All Smiles

How cute is she!?

Video: What a Great Dad Looks Like

While Sarah and her kids visited, Cam was nice enough to give Sarah and I a break from entertaining the kids on Saturday night, so he played "hide-and-seek" and "duck, duck, goose" with them. The kids had fun playing with Cam, he's such a good dad for playing their games willingly, and he was a great husband for letting Sarah and I relax a little! In case you're wondering, that is Cam laughing like a goofball in the background while he's getting chased. He and I can't watch this video without laughing!

Video: Museum Fun House

While our friends, Sarah, Jonny and Jessi visited from Ohio, we took them to our science museum and one of the kids' favorite exhibits was this fun house where everything was slanted, making your center of gravity completely off. It was the weirdest feeling! It was so funny to see the kids try to walk up to other side of the room since the room was slanted. Jonny was the only one who seemed to make it every time without falling downhill. The camera doesn't do the slant in the room justice, but it's pretty funny watching Jonny just slide backward out of nowhere! Sarah and I were laughing pretty hard!

The Hallie and Jessi Duo Are Reunited

This past weekend, my good friend, Sarah, came to visit from Ohio with her kids, Jessi and Jonny, in tow... Hallie was so excited to see them again since it has been about 6 months since we last saw them. Hallie and Jessi were best buds when we lived in Ohio, and of course, Sarah and I clicked like sisters, so it was such a treat for us to see them again! We took the Jackson's to the science museum, the mall to play and ride the carousel, to Sonic (always a must when Sarah visits), and Cam gave us two mom's a break on Saturday night while he entertained the kids by playing "duck, duck, goose" and "hide-and-go-seek," yes, he is the best dad ever!

It was a great weekend, one with a lot of fun memories, and the quote of the weekend has got to be what Jonny said when he looked at my painted toes and said, "Your toes are bleeding!" I laughed pretty hard, because if you know Sarah, you know why Jonny would not know what nailpolish is! I'm sure Sarah and I gained a few pounds over the weekend with the yummy meals, and two trips to Dairy Queen after kids were in bed, but man, was it worth it! Thanks for coming, Sarah, we miss you already!

Above: Hallie and Jessi

Above: The science museum

Bella & Edward Invite You To... Twilight

Okay, so I know I'm just as excited as a teenager about Twilight coming out, but who isn't!? Being the creative person that I am, I had the novel idea to create an invitation for my friends who are also planning on attending the midnight (yes, midnight!) premier of Twilight with me. So, after a few minutes of thinking, I came up with these cute invitations to attend Twilight.

I got fake apples (they happened to be cheaper than real apples) and tied the invitation that I printed up on my computer to them with ribbon. The invitation reads, 'Bella and Edward invite you to..." and then the inside reads, "The midnight premier of "Twilight." The rest of the invitation invites them to meet at my house so we can carpool to the theater and it also asks them to buy tickets in advance so they can get a free download of Bella's Lullaby on iTunes. I had a lot of fun making them, and even though it was a little over the top, my friends LOVED getting the invitation and it made them even more excited to see the movie at its premier!

Indiana Friends

The past few months, we've had a couple families move into our ward with kids Hallie's age, which she loves! We've become good friends with the Stewart's and Hallie loves to play with Marci's kids Alena and Kerra. I was watching Marci's girls the other day and they were playing so well together (which doesn't happen very often with toddlers!) so I just had to take some pictures :)

Sorry Fellow Bloggers!

Since I've been trying to figure this "blog list" thing out which allows me to see when all of my friends and families blogs were last updated, I have left a few family/friends blogs out of my list... by accident!! Thank goodness for the blog stalkers we know, otherwise I wouldn't have realized which of my friends blogs I left out until later! I hope that I now have everyone's blogs on my list that I had before, if not, can you please let me know so I can add your blog to my list of "family and friends blogs?" Thanks and sorry if I have left your blog out until now!!!! Don't take it personal, just consider it a blonde moment on my part :)

Rub-a-dub-dub, Two Cuties in the Tub

Sydnee LOVES bath time. Even though she gets soaked from all the splashing her big sister does, she still loves the bath. Hallie is always pouring water over her saying, "She's cold mommy... here, Syd, I'll make you warm." Even though most of the water goes in Syd's mouth or her face, it's nice that Hallie tries to keep her warm!

Fire Station Tour

For playgroup last week, I arranged for the kids to tour the local fire station. Hallie was looking forward to it all week, and when we finally got there, she was so excited to go inside the fire truck. The firefighters did a great job at showing us the fire trucks, their gear that they wear and they gave the kids a quick emergency lesson. Hallie left the fire station with her very own fireman hat and a coloring page... she was a very satisfied tourist.

Sleeping Beauties

In the same week, both of the girls fell asleep in the weirdest places... which just screamed "photo opportunity!" It was nice that Hallie fell asleep but sad that she fell asleep on the kitchen floor of all places... don't ask how that happened, because I don't know! I was talking to her one minute and then a few minutes later, I asked her a question and she was quiet. I rushed over to her and checked to make sure she was breathing and then I started laughing... who falls asleep on the kitchen floor!?!?!?

Then, a couple days later, I was bathing the girls and I always get Syd out of the bath first then dry her off and get her dressed, then I bathe Hallie. And somewhere in between bathing Hallie and getting her out of the tub, I found Sydnee fast asleep on the bathroom rug... it was pretty cute, so of course, this was another photo opportunity! Obviously I'm wearing my girls out by the middle of the day!!

Halloween Party

I got into the Halloween spirit and had a crazy thought... let's throw a Halloween party! So, we invited some of Hallie's friends over for a fun Halloween lunch. We had "mummy dogs" for our main dish, then veggies and dip with a hand coming out of the dip, then a creepy hand filled with popcorn for dessert! It was so fun, the kids had fun eating the heads off of the mummy's and it was a sneaky way to get the kids to eat at least one healthy meal before filling up on candy.

After we ate our yummy lunch, we headed over to Cam's work's Halloween party and as soon as we walked in, everyone "ooo'd" and "aaaa'd" over the girls' costumes (thank you very much!). Then, we had time for a quick dinner before going to our ward's trunk-or-treat. Cam took Hallie around to each car to get candy, and they would ask her, what kind of candy do you want? Cam would tell the candy-giver that she wasn't going to have any anyway, which the candy-giver replied, then what kind of candy do you want, Dad? Very sneaky, Cam.

Above: Hallie had fun seeing her friends dressed up too. This is Hallie's friend, Makenna at our ward's trunk-or-treating.

Carving Pumpkins

Cam and Hallie carved pumpkins together for Family Home Evening before Halloween. Cam drew the faces, cut the pumpkin top off, dug the seeds out and carved the faces into the pumpkins...all while Hallie sat there in awe since she was allowed to hold a knife (a pumpkin carving knife, that is) and actually use it without getting in trouble. Once she got over that, she had fun helping Cam pull the seeds out.

Fall Is In The Air

It was definitely fall while we were in Michigan because it was so cold! Grandpa got to spend some quality time with Syd at home while my mom took us to an apple orchard for some yummy fudge and fresh apple cider. They also had a petting zoo there, where Hallie got to ride a horse named Fred and she got to feed some goats and a llama!

A "Great" Aunt

While we were visiting my parents, we were able to see Cam's Aunt Kathy who lives in my parents stake (which we didn't find out until after Cam and I got engaged)! We showed up at church with my parents (late as usual! That's a Voge thing!) and we noticed that Kathy was sitting next to my parents when we walked in. It was my parents' ward conference and since Kathy is the Stake Primary President, she was able to spend all sacrament meeting with Sydnee and Hallie. That was such a treat! Kathy just loved seeing the girls and Hallie loved spending time with her before we left church.

Chick or Treat!

This past weekend, Cam and I were able to go to the temple in Detroit and stay with my parents. I made the girls' Halloween costumes early so they could wear them to my parents' Halloween party at their church. This year was especially fun doing "trunk-or-treating" at the party because Hallie understood the whole dressing up in a costume and getting candy thing better than before. After "trunk-or-treating" I asked Hallie if she would share her candy with me and she said, "No! It's MY candy!" Yep... she definitely understands the Halloween festivities!

I am so proud to say I made these costumes! They were the cutest chickens in the coup!


Above: They had all the kids walk in a costume parade so they could show off their costumes. Hallie kept asking, "Where's the candy, Mommy?" Her mind was focused on only one thing.


Above: Grandma and Hallie played some games and made some crafts at the Halloween party. Hallie then enjoyed a piece of candy that she worked hard for!

Cutie-Pa-Tooties

Above: One of my favorite pictures of Sydnee.


Above: What a smug face; but she's still cute, even when she's acting two. When one of my girls is pouting, the other is smiling...thank goodness for that perfect balance!!

Toddler Yoga

It's about that time again...where I start losing my "pregnancy" weight....only to do it again in another two years!? In an effort to get back to my pre-preg body, I am not only running, but I started doing Yoga with my friend, Marci. While I do Yoga, Sydnee usually cries next to me, and Hallie plays with Marci's girls. The other day, after we got home from doing Yoga, Hallie was doing some stretches on the floor so I asked her what she was doing. She said, "Doing my exercises." I laughed when I realized she was trying to do some of the Yoga poses, and said, "What are they called?" Hallie replied, "Go-ga." So here is Hallie's version of Go-ga.

Hallie is even doing the "downward facing dog" pose, too funny!

Twlight Movie Countdown: Are you ready?

Video: Jump, Jump, Jump

At the pumpkin patch, there was a giant moon walk that the kids could jump in. At first, Hallie wasn't so sure about it since Cameron or I weren't able to go in with her, but once she got in, she had so much fun. Here's a video of her jump, jump, jumping away!

Cutest Pumpkins in the Patch

I may be a little biased, but these two were definitely the cutest pumpkins in the patch.

Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to a pumpkin patch today. This was the first year that Hallie actually understood what we do at a pumpkin patch and she loved it. We expected a crisp fall day (since it has been pretty cold lately) but we were surprised when it turned out to be 80 degree weather! We were pretty hot, but we had a lot of fun. It was the perfect way to get the girls out of the house and to give Cam a break from studying.

Above: At the pumpkin patch, they had this giant face painted onto a huge bail of hay. Hallie got to ride a pony, go inside a hay teepee, go through a hay maze, and go on a cow painted wagon ride with Daddy.

Above: They had a petting zoo there and as you can see, Cam felt right at home petting the goats.

Above: I took Hallie through the hay maze and at the end, we had to climb this two story-high stack of hay, which Hallie did over and over again!

Above: The cream of the crop.