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!?