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
