Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's

The Hoefer family got together on Saturday (12/27) to celebrate Christmas. Although we haven't grown in numbers since last Christmas there was sure a lot more activity with the two youngest now being over 1. We have a tradition of walking down the stairs in chronoligical order. But, Sylvia was asleep when it was time to open our stocking so we postponed the required tradition until she woke up. After stockings (which I must say my family does an amazing job at) we did one round of gift opening (youngest to oldest) before Sylvia's nap ended. Then we headed upstairs so we could take a video of all of us headed downstairs before we continued.

Sylvia loves playing the piano. Unfortunately, ours is still sitting in our garage since we remodeled.


It doesn't look like Carl likes me as much as Sylvia does.


The gift openings begins. She is really getting the hang of this.


Sylvia got a Leap Frog talking, singing worm from Grandma & Grandpa for Christmas and she loves it.






A peek at the cousins...
Evan (7 1/2)

Katie (6)

Margaret (5 1/2)

Ben (3 1/2)

Zander (3)

Carl (16 months) He's the one in the middle opening the gift.

Sylvia (13 months)

I will post some Christmas videos once I figure out how to get them off of the camera and onto the computer. I'm going to need Dan's help for that, and he's been busy studying for his licensing exames recently.

Christmas at Nana & Papa's

After Sylvia's morning nap on Christmas Day, we headed over to Dan's parents' house. We opened stockings and gifts. Thank you all for the wonderful gifts. Sylvia slept while we ate Christmas dinner, so I got to join everyone at the table. Dan's parents bought us a new digital video camera so I'll hopefully be posting some higher quality videos sometime soon here.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning Sylvia slept in until 6:30 or so. Dan made french toast for the three of us and Sylvia loved it...even though her's didn't even have butter or syrup on it. It was hard to get her to eat anything else. After breakfast, we read the Christmas story while Sylvia sat somewhat patiently. With her recent birthday, Sylvia is figuring out how to open gifts. Sylvia enjoyed playing with the first few gifts she opened so we ended up saving a few for the following day.



I had to undo the tape for her but she was able to take the paper off herself.




We reuse boxes in our family. Sylvia did not get a pair of K Swiss for Christmas.


There was actually a new dolly in the box. One of my coworkers, Connie, made it. His name is "Art."


Sylvia loves looking at books. Here's a new one she got.

Merry Christmas

(I just have to brag that this dress was a half price Goodwill find.)

Spaghetti

I think she liked the spaghetti.

Christmas Tree

We went Christmas tree shopping on Saturday. Sylvia enjoyed getting out and looking at all the trees.


After debating between two trees, we finally chose this one.


Dan set the tree up while I was out and said that Sylvia cried and didn't want to be left alone with it. She's warmed up to the tree as you can see. Sylvia likes to look at the lights and ornaments but hasn't really tried to touch the tree too much.

Snow Day

School was cancelled today because of the weather, so I got to spend the whole day with Sylvia! This afternoon we tried out the snow gear for the first time. She didn't seem to mind, but I think she'll like it better when there's actual snow to play in. She did enjoy slipping around on the sidewalks though.

Birthday in a Box

Last week Sylvia received two large boxes in the mail. One from my friend, Emily, and her son, Parker who live in Texas. The other from my friend, Rachel, and her two children, Abi and JD, out in Pennsylvania. I believe Sylvia enjoyed the packing peanuts the most but she also liked finding the birthday gifts that were hidden inside. I guess one good things about having such good friends live far away is that you get real mail and packages from time to time...although I would much prefer they were my next door neighbors. I miss you both a lot.

Coming Home

One year ago today we brought our Sylvia home from the hospital.

1 Year Pictures

Dan and I took Sylvia to get her 1 year pictures taken yesterday as well as a family. This was by far the easiest photo shoot to schedule now that she has establised a napping scheduule. We went at 5:00 so she could have her afternoon nap and dinner ahead of time. Dan had to take off from work a little early, but it was well worth it for a happy baby. Our photographer did not do as good of a job as ones we have had previously but the pictures turned out nicely. My one complaint about photo studios is that they deleat some of the pictures before they show them to you. They only left two of our family pictures to choose from and Sylvia had a funny face in one of them so that narrowed it down. Enjoy our cutie pie. I know we sure do.

1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Sylvia's 1st birthday on Saturday with a family birthday party at our house. Here's some pics from the festivities...

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What's a birthday?