White Day

Sylvia's white picture for preschool.  It's a little hard to tell it's even her.

 

Sylvia's class singing The White Song.

Run, run as fast as you can...

Shortly after Christmas I found these giant gingerbread men on sale.  The Gingerbread Man has always been a favorite book of ours.  Last year at preschool, Sylvia's class made a gingerbread man that "ran away" while being baked and sent them on a hunt around the church looking for him.  As Christmas approached, she asked when they'd be doing that again at school.  She was a little sad to hear that they don't do that every year.  We ended up having a great time doing one ourselves.  While Eric napped and Sylvia played outside, the gingerbread men (and I) wrote notes and hid them around the house.  There were also cookie crumbs, sprinkles and frosting kisses left a couple of places.  We finally found our gingerbread men down on the treadmill getting a post Christmas workout.

 

 

Our Dad Rocks

This was one of Dan's Christmas presents.  It took quite a few pictures to get one where they are all looking at the camera and smiling but I love how it turned out.  I set them all down, ran behind the couch and then jumped out from behind it to take the picture.

Our Favorite Characters

Sylvia, Eric and I stopped by at the end of the One Book, Two Book Festival to meet some of our favorite book characters.  Eric kept going down the line giving them each multiple hugs.  He even stopped and played with Clifford's tail for a while.  Curious George is still a favorite of Sylvia's and both of them really like the Llama Llama books.

 

Hoefer Family Christmas

The Hoefer family celebrated Christmas together a few days late on the 29th.  Things may get a little loud and wild when we're all together but it is fun to see the cousins

 

Reading a few Christmas stories before heading downstairs.

 

We have a tradition of walking down the stairs in order by age.  I had trouble getting these two to wait at the top.  I see a little family resemblance although they look quite different.

Sylvia looks a little more excited than her cousin.

Check out those dimples while she looks through her stocking.  Stockings are a big deal in the Hoefer family and I love it!

Drake and Eric checking out there new front end loader from Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Dan got a new book for Christmas, The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale.

Looks like he's starting to get the idea of presents although this one was a little too heavy for him to get by himself.

 

Okay, maybe he doesn't actually know what to do with his presents. But this is pretty fun too.

Eric was very excited to get a new sleeping bag after Sylvia got one for her birthday.  They both sleep with them every night.

Eric digging into one of his gifts.

Just in case the pictures of individuals don't give you a clear picture of what the day was like...here you go.

One highlight of the cousins' time together was playing video games.  I'm guessing there is a game of Sonic going on here.

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

After spending time as a family on Christmas morning, we headed over to Nana and Papa's and spent the rest of the day there.  We were blessed to have aunt Ginny and her fiance, Stephen in town over the holidays.  They also brought there dogs along which was a big hit with the kids.

 

Watching patiently as Sylvia opened a gift.

 

Papa spent a lot of time making something so special for the kids.

Playing with the monkey ladder from papa.

Drake still needed a little help opening his gifts.

Although it makes for a funny picture, I believe there was actually a new shirt in that box.

Eric checking out his new dinosaur floor puzzle with daddy.

Christmas Morning

The five of us spent Christmas morning at home and enjoyed opening our stockings, eating french toast, reading the Christmas story, opening our presents and playing with new toys.  It was fun to see the kids get excited about what their siblings were opening.

 

We inundated Sylvia with art supplies.  According to her she got more than a hundred million papers.  Eric got a set of three wooden puzzles from us.  There was a train, construction equipment and a fire truck. The train puzzle quickly became his favorite.  We bought some new blocks for Drake to add to our set.  Dan made me a growth chart that looks like a school ruler.  It's now hanging in our bedroom and is ready for me to measure the kids.  He also got me a new Iowa shirt.  Sylvia helped me pick out new shoes for Dan and Eric chose a new gym bag for him.  As well as their gifts from us, the Sylvia and Eric picked from the World Vision catalog as part of the Christmas gift.  Sylvia chose to purchase chicks and medical supplies and Eric picked out ducks and seeds.



Checking out the new computer game he found in his stocking.

Drake got a new bib and sippy cup in his stocking.



Sylvia got an orchid in her stocking from daddy.



Sharing her new book about the solar system with daddy.

My and my pajama babies.

Eric opening his new puzzles.

Sylvia made us an ornament at preschool and we waited to Christmas day to open it.

Drake was pretty sure his blocks were made for banging together.

I mentioned that Sylvia picked out the color, right?