Amundsons

Christmas in NY was a wonderful time . My parents, brothers and their families were all there and it was great to be together. The girls love their sweet cousins, and this year Claire was right in the middle of pack (throwing elbows and keeping pace). They are building some amazing Christmas memories and I am so thankful for the blessing that we have in our family. The cousins ready for Christmas Eve service Gingerbread houses (fancy head tilt) Adventuring at the neighbors cabin (sorry Claire, but you are so cute when you cry) and with the neighbors goats. and the cookies and the Frosty. Even though the snow was a fail this year, my dad was bound and determined to make Christmas magic happen. The Kettelkamp crew

We headed out to the Daniken Tree farm this year again. I giggle when I realize that we have lived in Greenville long enough that we are starting to get traditions. Daniken will give you a ride on a hay wagon out to the fields to look at thousands of trees that all look basically exactly alike. But this way you can spend an hour arguing over a thinning branch here and a barely bare spot there. For me it is all about the smell... I love the smell of a real tree and wouldn't care about the look, but I do enjoy in engaging in the annual Christmas tree debate... so an hour later We ended up with this beauty. It smelled great and it was prickly enough to keep the 2 year old and the dog away, no matter the glitter. Score. Just realized I never took a picture of it up in our house decorated... bahh. well if you really care (and I am thinking you dont) just check out our one last year. Its basically the same. The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is to sing loud for all to hear. ...

She did it. Turned 2 with such charm. Charlotte made her a cake- decorated it all by herself. (Nana's #2 cookies) Charlotte was super excited to give Claire a present she had found. Up until now Claire used a baby blanket, which had gotten too small (or Claire had gotten too big, not sure which I am ready to admit) that her little feet could not fit under it anymore. However, she was so in love with it that I never thought we were going to be able to move on to another. But as usual Charlotte knew. She had picked out a super soft purple "big kid" blanket. And since I am writing this 3 months after the fact- I can tell you that it is by far Claire's favorite gift ever. It has become her new blankie which is nice, cause her feet are nice a toasty this winter.

Claire turned 2 and it is a party year (we are an every other year party family). So it was a 2 year old birthday party- but it was an awesome 2 year old birthday party. As in I would go to this party and have fun even if I wasn't 2, even if I didn't have a 2 year old- it was that fun. Way too much fun for a kids birthday party. I thought I was supposed to be worn out and crabby at the end... instead I was sad it was over. We did a couple things right: 1. We combined the party with our good friends- who have twins that also just turned 2. We would mostly have the same people at the party anyway. Divide and conquer my friends. Divide and conquer. 2. We picked the right friends- I love Carrie, she did way more than I did (I was clearly the slacker in the team- or winner in getting the best partner depending on how you look at it.) 3. We picked Yo Gabba Gabba . It was gender neutral, all three kids were obsessed with DJ Lance and his crew of... still not really sure what t...

I ran into Andi after church and asked if she would take some more pictures of us. She had taken some of my favorites ever of my girls last year. So I was super excited when she said she would meet us up at the gullies. The gullies- as in the place that Jake and I used to sneak away during college to... um... look at nature. Now here we are with our babies, my soul rejoicing . (Note- giant dog... just getting bigger every day) Andi was of course amazing. We just walked down the path a little and then back up again. So many to pick from but here are some of the ones that make me smile the most. Turns out "nature" in the gullies is still wonderful...

my cousin Miranda got married... This was my favorite of them. Even though you cant see her face, you can see how stunning she is in his whole face. Jake took some beautiful pictures of our girls, or Jake took some pictures of our beautiful girls... depending on if you are rooting for Jake's photography talent or my girls faces (I like both). At any rate, I had to post them. Garrr... sometimes she thinks she is pirate. even at a fancy wedding.

My girls are different. Very different. As Claire grows older and shows a little bit more of her personality each day I am amazed at how different they are. I love this about them. Every morning as Jake and I lie in bed we can hear them through the wall of the bedroom playing. They giggle, yell, run around and tackle each other. Playing together is one of the things that they do best and I am sure that they get along mostly because they are different. I didn't realize that this year when we went to the pumpkin patch that Claire was wearing the same shirt that Charlotte had worn when she went at a similar age. I hunted down the old photos. Thought it would be fun to show some of the differences- and well there are some similarities as well.