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!