Dobelstein Christmas Newsletter

We are trying something a little different this year with our Christmas letter, saving paper and writing it on our blog! If this is your first time visiting us, welcome! For those of you who visit regularly, most of this will be old news.

Our year in review -

• We found out we were expecting our second child, days after the New Year.
• This pregnancy was a doozy for the Mom, so winter was spent mostly in doors trying to keep a 2 year old entertained.
• Spring was a welcome relief and also when we we found out we were expecting boy #2!
• While the Summer weather was not nearly as nice as we had hoped, there were still many days spent outdoors, playing in the sandbox, gardening (Kristofer's new hobby) and barbecuing. 
• We made our annual trek to Black Butte, OR with Sarah's family in addition to some good friends tagging along. We rested, swam, enjoyed the heat and were sad to come home.
• We welcomed Owen Philip into our lives on September 7th. To read more about his epic birth, click here.
• The Fall has been a season of adjusting to life as a family of four (+ the craziness of our dog, Emma)!

Kristofer is still a hardware engineer at Dynon Avionics, January will mark his 6th year there. He continues to fix broken hardware and dabbles in some hardware design as time permits. Over the summer he began the Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma certification program at Everett Community College. He took a number of classes and is looking forward to resuming them soon. In his spare time he has enjoyed gardening, planting perennials in our yard, fly fishing with his father-in-law and being an all around awesome dad!

Sarah is in her second year of being at home full time. While the addition of a second child provides more challenging, she is still loving it. She has had more time to work on sewing projects and enjoys craft days with her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. She also started an all mom's book club and while they are currently on "baby hiatus" (3 of the 6 moms had babies this Fall), she is hoping to pick it up again in the new year. She continues to enjoy reading and as of last count has "devoured" nearly 70 books this past year.

Aaden turned 3 at the end of October. His personality is definitely all 3 these days! He is still the sweet, caring and easy-going guy most of the time. But, the occasional fit is a sight the behold. We are working on listening! He is definitely working on figuring out what he wants! As for being a big brother, he is warming to the idea. With prompting and a little reminding he gives his sweet "Owee" kisses and hugs. Just yesterday he told us that he can't wait for his brother to be big enough so he can play cars with him. Melted our hearts.

Owen is the sweetest, most content baby. He's growing nearly as quickly as his older brother and eats/sleeps like a pro. For his recent update, see the blog post below (3 months).

We are looking forward to the year ahead, thankful for our health and for the support of our families.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! ~Kristofer, Sarah, Aaden and Owen

Photos taken by: http://www.lifedefinedphotography.com/

3 Months

Today marks Owen's 3 months. I know everyone says that time flies, but wow does it! At the same time, Owen fits so perfectly into our family that I can't hardly remember it without him.

A few highlights:
1. Owen is sleeping through the night, usually 7-9 hours and than another 3-4 hours after one quick feed. I'm loving the extra sleep finally!!

2. He loves his naps. He usually naps between 10-12:00pm, 2:00-4:00pm and than another short nap around 6:30-7:30pm. He's also been going to bed consistently at 8:30pm every night. The schedule is working out perfectly for us!

3. He is a chatty, smiley and happy little guy. During his awake times, he loves to look at your face, talk to you and laugh. He is perfecting his sweet chuckle, which will just melt your heart when you hear it.

4. He LOVES his big brother. He watches his every move and tries his hardest to get him to interact with him. Aaden is getting better at showing him affection, but is usually more interested in playing with his toys.

5. He's a chunk, just like his brother! He's also lost most of his sweet red/brown hair. Excited to see what it will look like when it starts to grow back in.

6. I keep saying..."I can't believe he's an even more easy-going kid than Aaden". We are truly blessed!

Trimming the Tree

This year we didn't make it out to cut the tree as a family. I'm sad that we didn't get a chance to have Owen out hunting for his first tree this year...but between an infant's feeding schedule, a toddlers nap schedule and all the weekend errands that needed to be run...we just didn't make it out there together. Kristofer thankfully was able to make the trek out alone and hunt for, cut down and come home with a pretty little Fraser fur.

When we got Aaden up from his nap, he was in awe! He remembers last Christmas and was very excited to start the decorating for this Christmas. He helped me during the week get the house decorated, Sunday all that was left was the tree. We snapped a few pictures of him helping put up some of his favorite ornaments. I'm so happy that he has such fond memories already of some of the same ornaments that were my favorite as a child.

 His favorite airplane ornament...

 Hanging with care! 

Loving the 4 stockings too!!

 The wagon is almost 30 years old, one of my favorites!

Taking his job seriously!

Owen Philip's Baptism

The long holiday weekend was topped off by having Owen Philip baptized at my parent's church by the pastor who married us. It was so special to have both of our extended families and close friends there to celebrate. Owen wore a baptismal gown that was 130 years old, he was the 6th generation of children to wear it (on my mother's paternal side). My brother Jonathan and his wife Megan are Owen's God parents. Here are a few photos that other's snapped for us on the special day:

Thanksgiving

This year we are very, very thankful. We have our health, a warm home, food to eat, a precious new son and a wonderful family. We got to celebrate all that we are thankful for with my extended family in Portland. It had been years since all of us have been together for a holiday and never before had it included ALL of us married with children. In all there were 26 people at my Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Michael's house. We had so much fun. Aaden got to play with all of his cousins (from 18mo - 4 years) and Owen got to meet more of his family! Of course the day was so busy that I only snapped a few pictures.

The next day we celebrated the impending arrival of two more BOY cousins...

His/Hers

What Kristofer enjoys doing on weekend afternoons....

Making GIANT pumpkin pies and little pumpkin pies!

What I enjoy doing on weekend afternoons...

Sewing a little project from Pintrest!

November Sun

Someone is enjoying the 60 degree, warm November sun!

Owee's 2mo. Stats

Owen had a fabulous 2 month check-up today. The Dr. kept saying he couldn't find anything to say but how "great" he was doing. Makes a mom happy, especially when the sweetie was scheduled for 4 immunizations today. He did great though, only slightly fussing. This afternoon though he is zonked out, poor guy!

Here are the much awaited stats -

W: 13lbs 4.4oz (90th percentile)
H: 24.5" (95th percentile)
Head: 40cm (50th percentile)

This compared with Aaden at 2 months -

W: 14.5lbs (95th percentile)
H: 24.75" (95th percentile)
41cm (75th percentile)

I was sure Owen was trying to catch up with his brother in weight and size with all of his eating, but alas he was still nearly 1lb shy. Owen has grown 4.5", while Aaden started at 21" and only grew 3.75". Love comparing stats. The Dr. said I just grow "big bubba" boys. :)

Such a kissable little love!

Crafting Projects

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I finally got around to another craft day. It has been nearly a year since we've had time to do it, but we love to do it!

Our goal projects this time around:
-Banners for our houses (I made two for the boys' rooms)
-Fall wreathes
-T-shirt scarves

Here are a few pictures of our things (unfortunately I didn't get everyone's finished projects):

 Renee's Christmas banner

 Lacey's "Love" banner

8 Weeks

Owen is nearly 2 months!? He has his check-up next week, so we'll see how much he's grown. I'm pretty sure he is trying to reach his brother's weight of 14lbs because he's back down to eating every two hours and only 3 hour stretches at night (this from 5-6 stretches). I'm pretty tired, but happy he's so healthy. One significant difference lately is that he is ALL smiles and coos. His awake times are usually 2+ hours and if he's fed, he's happy!

I was able to snap a few pictures of our jovial boy this morning while he chatted with his big brother:

 This was my favorite outfit on Aaden, so glad to be able to get more use out it on another sweet boy!

Halloween/Reformation Day

We aren't big into Halloween around here, usually celebrating Reformation Day. With the advent of a 3 year old around here though we thought we should at least participate Halloween in a small way this year. Aaden dressed up in his engineer/conductor outfit and he and his Daddy set out to trick-or-treat at the neighbors' houses. They were pretty cute:

Owen donned his pumpkin hat and hung out in the Baby Bjorn with Mom and helped answer the door (while our crazy, barking dog was locked upstairs in the bathroom). We had nearly 100 trick-or-treaters (hence my hesitancy to participate other years, the barking at the door bell alone could make you mental). I think all-in-all, we had fun though.

Happy 3 Aaden!!

Saturday was Aaden's 3rd birthday. We celebrated in a big way, by taking him {and all of our close family} to the Northwest Train Museum in Snoqualmie. Aaden wore his engineer's costume and was thrilled to be able to ride the old train from N. Bend to Snoqulamie and back. The day happened to be their Halloween train so many people were dressed up. He did crafts, drank apple cider and wandered around the train yard during our picnic lunch.

After our adventure we all headed back to our place for naps/snacks and a train-themed birthday party. We had all of his favorite foods {hot dogs, burgers, corn on the cob, pickels, broccoli and cake} for dinner/dessert. He was very spoiled/loved on and has been talking about his birthday for days now.

He had a great 3 year check-up on Friday too - hadn't seen the Dr. since his 2 year check-up and was told he was an extremly healthy boy. He was 37.5 lbs {95%} and 39" {90%}. No wonder everyone thinks he looks older/bigger than 3!

Thanks to all of our family for helping us celebrate our sweet, loving Aaden!