Cold Winter Day

We are snuggled indoors today protected from the cold.  Perfect time to wear her new sweater vest made by my long-time friend Laura St. Onge.  Thank you, Laura!  It is so beautiful.   

I've been putting tights under her thin pants for warmth.  Yesterday I heard her getting pretty mad about something.  I went to see what she was up to, and she was just a pulling and pulling and those dang socks weren't coming off!!

Christmas 2012

First flight!

Thankfully, she was a great flyer.  Ate, slept, played. Whew!

She was quite interested in the paper and was able to rip out the tissue paper from gifts.

I didn't think Annabel was going to be able to sit by Christmas as she was quite tippy just before we left.  But, she must have thought she ought to get her act together as she had people to impress.

Baby's 1st Christmas morning!

New blocks from Uncle Nick  "Look, I did this myself!" (not really!)

Christmas Day at Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa's

Playing with my cousin Robyn's Julia and Jack

Christmas Day in the evening at the Micheels' Christmas

Aunt Chelsea

Sisters--Eric's Aunt Karen and mother June

Made sure to maintain a firm grip on Sophie.

We were able to have Annabel baptized on Dec 23, 2012.  It was a wonderful service and she was so good the entire time.  Immediately after the service, however, she had "had enough."

Neil and Jodi (Eric's brother and his wife) are expecting a baby girl in February!  

Our favorite.  I found this outfit in storage at my parents.  It may have been my baptismal outfit, but I couldn't find pictures to prove.  

After the baptism, she was very serene, soaking in the event.  Or, very tired!

This adorable outfit was a gift from our friend, Imke, in Saskatoon.  The booties were made by Annabel's Great-Great Aunt Doodie.

My favorite part of Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas; so thankful to have been able to fly home to see family.  We traveled to Minneapolis for Eric's mom's family Christmas and made multiple short trips between Ridgeland and Colfax.  Gratefully, a lot of family and friends came to us for visits.  The Moen family Christmas had 83 in attendance--the brothers and sisters and their children (and now their children).  Three generations of Moens in one building (we had it at the community center, as we obviously cannot comfortable fit in anyone's house anymore).  I think Annabel was held by 75 of them; one of my cousin's 2 year-old even held her!  She was such a trooper and seemed to enjoy being passed around.

Eric was able to get together with some high school friends for dinner out a couple of nights.  I was able to meet some friends for brunch one morning, where they were able to meet Annabel.  Very fun to catch up in real life!

Annabel slept a lot when we got home.  It's funny that even babies can run on adrenaline.  She just kept going and going over Christmas and crashed when she realized the only two people she had to entertain was me and Eric.

Thank you to all who made Christmas very special this year.  

Christmas...what fun it was.