Uncle Nate Brings in the New Year

Cameron's brother Nate came to visit us on New Year's again (like last year... it's becoming tradition!) and this time he brought his friend, Marie. They came for only a couple days but we did so many fun things.


Like a true Voge, Cameron finished this project: putting in our microwave above the stove just minutes (literally) before they arrived. I was a little stressed, but nevertheless, I was so impressed with how it turned out since Cameron had to shorten the cabinets above by about 4 inches and had to remove the cabinet doors to make it fit right... you'd never guess huh? Just another step closer to updating the kitchen.

The two things they wanted to do was see an Amish person (there's a lot of them around here) and eat at Steak N' Shake. So, on Saturday we spent the morning driving around trying to find an Amish person on their horse and buggy and finally we did! After that, we headed to Steak N' Shake where Marie really wanted to eat at. That afternoon Nate and Cam took Hallie ice skating downtown while Marie and I enjoyed the peace and quiet at home.

We're PUMPED and ready to go!

Hallie needed a little break...

Hallie and Uncle Nate...

At night, we played games and watched a hilarious season of "Arrested Development" that Ryan and Nicole gave us for Christmas.

Hallie loves it when her Aunts & Uncles visit. She spent lots of time with Nate, she even got him to play with her dollhouse and play her new Memory game... he's a good uncle! Nate also taught her to make the classic Voge silly faces.





We had lots of laughs together, it was such a great and relaxing visit, thanks for coming Nate... Hallie misses you already!

Hallie's a Sunbeam!

Being a new year, Hallie was able to become a Sunbeam in church this year and is no longer in nursery! She's such a big girl... time flies too fast! She was so proud to be in primary with me and loved her sunbeam class where they learned about being a child of God, which is what it says on her crown. We also put Sydnee into nursery on Sunday for the first time and she did great too! It was so nice to have a little break with both our kids in primary or nursery and not having to take them out constantly during the 2nd and 3rd hour classes!

Polar Bear PLUNGE on New Year's Day

This is how Cameron celebrates New Year's Day: participating in our city's Polar Bear Plunge!? Every year on New Year's, our city does this "Polar Bear" plunge into the St. Joe River, ice chunks and all!!??!! They of course have ambulances nearby to treat all those stupid enough to do this... which included Cam and two of his work buddies this year, Andrew Hobson and his daughter, and Aaron Makin. Luckily the ambulances were not needed this year, and Cam claims he warmed up quick after dunking himself in these frigid waters (below), but I think that was the early stages of hypothermia since it was a chilling 14 degrees outside when he plunged into the river!?

We couldn't believe how many people participated in this Polar Bear Plunge... people of all ages, even senior citizens!??! It was kind of funny watching them run into the river after singing the National Anthem.

I don't have a video of Cam going in since we were too far away, but these videos give you a pretty good idea of how everything went down...




Here's Cam after he dunked himself in the river... The guy behind us was cheering him on saying, "Way to go Man!" Everybody kind of just feeds off of one another's energy... all I have to say is it was crazy but fun! On the way home, Hallie kept asking why he did that so I just kept telling her that he was playing a Daddy game that ONLY DADDY's DO!!

Christmas Day... and Santa's FIRED!

As you've read from previous posts, Hallie has been incredibly skeptical of Santa Claus this year, so Cam and I had to work extra hard to make it believable. We let her get Santa's cake and milk ready on our Santa plate before going to bed and said goodnight. Hallie was so excited to open presents so on Christmas morning, Cam and I awoke at 3:00am to little feet running into our room asking, "Is it time to open presents yet!?" We were more annoyed than anything, but it was cute how excited she was. We made her go back to sleep and at 7:00 she couldn't wait anymore so we got everyone up to go downstairs and see what Santa brought... here's the girls waiting patiently on the stairs in their cute Christmas pj's that they opened on Christmas Eve.

To Hallie's surprise, she got exactly what she asked Santa for: a dollhouse; with furniture, a Mommy, a big sister and a toddler... but NO DADDY!?!!?

Yes, this is where Santa has been FIRED this year because on Christmas Eve, Santa remembered the he forgot to buy the Daddy for the dollhouse!!!!!! Not yet being worried, Santa hurried off to the store to buy the Daddy. Three stores later, Santa stood in the toy isle at Meijer, realizing that all the Daddy's have sold out, except one African-American Daddy... do you think Hallie will notice?" Santa wondered. In tears and disappointment, Santa promised to do better next year and started plotting what Mommy was going to tell Hallie on Christmas morning when the Daddy isn't there. So... back to Christmas morning....

Hallie noticed quickly that there was no Daddy to her dollhouse, so she asked where he was? I quickly told her that Daddy is working, the Young Men's president and he's studying for his Master's Degree, just like our Daddy. I cringed waiting for the whole "Santa isn't real" speech from her, but all she said, was "Oh, okay!" and finished playing. PHEW!! I guess Santa got away scotch free this time.Grandma and Grandpa magically knew that Hallie was getting a dollhouse so they gave her the minivan to go with it. And Sydnee got her very own grocery cart from Grandma and Grandpa Drake. Thank you!


Sydnee got a Leapfrog doggy named Violet who sings her favorite songs to her, says her name and talks to her! She LOVED her!

Sydnee also got her first baby doll... can you tell how she felt about her? So precious! We all had a great Christmas. Cam got the one gift he wanted: a blu-ray DVD player for our HD TV (it's a guy thing!), and I got what I wanted: a digital scrapbooking program and a huge clock with our last names on it from my parents. My Mom actually took the clock apart and added our names to it herself... isn't she good!?

Grandma and Grandpa Voge gave the girls matching dresses which Hallie is so excited to wear to church this week. Thank you!

The girls lately have been really into dogs, so they both got numerous dogs including matching dogs from Aunt Stacey.

We had a great Christmas! Thanks Mom and Dad and Stacey for coming to us this year!!

A Christmas Eve Production

We hosted Christmas this year! Our first year of ever hosting, and we LOVED it!!! It was so nice not to have to travel, pack suitcases, pack presents, etc. My parents and sister, Stacey, stayed with us during the Christmas holiday and we had so much fun with them.

On Christmas Eve, it is a tradition to act out the nativity in costumes that my Mom made and everything. So we invited the missionaries over for dinner (where we made Aunt Mary's famous meatballs of course and Grandma Carol Drake's German chocolate cake for my Dad's birthday) and our nativity production and the missionaries made it so fun with their impromptu lines and jokes.

Above: Here's the Voge and Drake crew. My Dad always narrates the nativity.

Above: Here's the actors: Elder Skabelund, me, Cam, Sydnee, Stacey, Elder Miller, and Hallie.

Hallie took on the role of being Mary very seriously and was the only one who brought reverence to the whole thing. She was so cute!

Sydnee just wanted to be held and didn't like the angel halo on her head. And Cam and I played the wisemen while the missionaries played Ceasar Augustus, Joseph, and the shepherds... with swords!?

Above: Elder Miller and Elder Skabelund.