Christmas video

Instead of posting a ton of pictures I decided to make a video of our Christmas. Since we are away from family this year I thought this would be nice for family to watch. It was really fun and I plan on doing this more often. I'm deciding if I want to tackle the whole year of 201...sounds pretty daunting and it would take me a while but I think it would be neat to see the changes in the kids and to have over the years. Hope you take a moment to see our little Christmas! We had lots of fun this year and we are excited for 2012! Started it off by giving a talk tomorrow in church on Sunday! 

Happy New Year!!



Christmas  2011 from stephanie vogel on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas!

 I didn't plan on sending out a Christmas card , actually I didn't even think about it until a few days ago....when I started receiving some. It's much too late and I don't feel like spending the money so I whipped this digital card up (with the help of this blog) in place of sending out a card.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!! We for sure are. It's been very relaxing and simple. Because of the lack of cold and snow it really doesn't seem like Christmas but we are in the desert. Multiple stakes hosted a live nativity and it was amazing. I look forward to seeing it next year. I've heard the story 500 hundred times and always understood the humility of Christs birth but to see the story acted out was something else. As I watched Joseph in the play with anxiety rushing to find a place for Mary to give birth it truly was humbling. My eyes were wet and the spirit was felt. I was reminded ever so clearly what Christmas was all about. I love this gospel, I love God and Jesus Christ who make themselves very present in my everyday life.

So many changes for us in 2011. Despite all the moving around and chaos 2011 was good to us. We are looking forward to the stability 2012 will bring (fingers crossed...PLEASE). We look forward to sticking around here and hopefully settling down in a house but ya know...who knows. For us that could change in a blink of an eye so keep checkin' up on this little blog because nothing slows down over here!

January to March our little family of 3 waited and waited for little Baron to arrive and once he did we were overjoyed. His little presence in our home has been calming....now that he will be walking in a few months that is sure to change! We packed up everything and stored it for 6 months while we worked for Vivint. We enjoyed a lively summer in the midwest, at parks, in sprinklers, seeing national monuments, more parks, the bugs, eating out WAY too much (or out of microwaves) and we were in the car a lot driving.  We didn't really enjoy the last three :).We survived that adventure but realized it wasn't for us. Maybe it would have been before we had 2 munchkins but right now it's not our thing.

In October the summer selling season was over and we stayed home for 2 weeks to rest then hopped back in our car and went on another road trip. Crazy?? Yes. We went to UT, AZ, and CA. It was fun and our kids are now officially pros driving across country. We were home for about 2-3 weeks and realized we need to head to Las Vegas so here we are. We have been here since November 14 and we are loving it. Our ward is great there are about 10 sisters my age and there were only2 or so in Washington. We already got together for a girls night and we discussed it being a weekly activity so woo hoo! Levi discovered which night people play basketball so we are definitely getting settled.

2011 was a crazy year and there is no chance that 2012 could be that crazy. There is just no way! Looking forward to Christmas, we have been getting Lydia excited about Sanata Clause and we use him for every excuse around here. He will bring presents if you go potty in the toilet, be nice to your brother, and listen to mom and dad. (She has accidents every now and then but it is getting better. Major milestone! yay!) I am looking forward to ringing in the new year with Levi all cozy on the couch with popcorn, a few treats, and a bottle or 2 of Martinellis. I hope everyone is surrounded by their loved ones and enjoys Christmas and New year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Yosemite !!!!

 We woke up in Fresno grabbed some snacks and hit the road to Sacramento! We stopped in Yosemite for a bit. We didn't think we would stay for very long but the scenery was so beautiful. Levi was in heaven. He kept repeating himself "I will come back and hike all over this place." He couldn't get enough and made me take a crazy amount of pictures....and he doesn't care for pictures.

 

Yosemite was possibly one of the most amazing places. It was incredible and I didn't expect it to be so awesome. It was beautiful and everything was huge. Half dome was so cool to see and all the random waterfalls. We didn't spend hours too much time there the park is huge. Lydia had a blast and wasn't the least bit interested in taking any family pictures so she isn't happy in the one where I snagged her.

If you have the opportunity to go to Yosemite do it. 

Awesome experience!

 Lydia wanted to rinse her feet in the water for some reason.

 Bah she is so cute!!

Such a trooper !

San Diego Zoo!

 Here I am blogging again about our vacation we took in October. I've got my hot chocolate, Christmas music, and sleeping babies and my hubby is playing basketball. Peace and quiet means for some effective blogging and I am taking advantage of it!  First I have a story. A few weeks ago I was completely crushed...I thought I had accidentally deleted all of our pictures from this year while I was updating our Iphoto. I was somewhat hysterical. I was devastated and really angry with myself because I hadn't finished blogging about our trip and I couldn't stop thinking about Barons pictures and blessing pictures. I thought I had lost everything and then a few days later Levi got them all back, he is seriously AMAZING!! He kept searching (he is so sweet) and he found them. He made me sooo incredibly happy!!! Now I have a new attitude towards blogging and how one day I am going to need these pics for something.

OH by the way I skipped AZ because there are some pics on Levi's phone I need so I will do that when I have the pictures. The day we left AZ a couple hours later we stopped in San Diego for a few hours to get out of the car.

 Love that we can't get a group pic together when we are on vacation. bah!

 Gorillas are officially CREEPY. They were amazing to see in person but oh my word I am so glad I will never come face to face with one these beasts! The little monkeys weren't around and we were bummed because we heard they were the best part of the zoo. :(

 Long line for the trolley around the wild park, it was warm, we had little snacks, and a little girl with a lot of energy!

 Those droopy little eyes! Oh my goodness makes me want to go cuddle with him right now!

 

When I was thinking about seeing awesome huge elephants I didn't think I'd see all if it's junk as well but I guess that is nature. yuck. I just wanted a cool pic of an elephant.

We wrapped up our evening with some In n out on the beach. It was Levi's first time having the pleasure of In n out. It was such a cool sunset and moment on the beach. We hadn't been to the ocean since Hawaii and it was so nostaligic. It literally brought me so much happiness and it made me get all misty eyed. That moment my senses were going crazy, my heart was pounding, sand was all over my feet and the cold water, and the cool air. My heart ached. ACHED for Hawaii. I haven't felt that since we left. That ocean is powerful stuff. I now 100% understand why people pay crazy amounts to live in California. Teenagers were playing football in the water. It was amazing and I am so happy Levi and I were able to stop at the beach. The kids were sacked out in the car so we took turns checking the beach out.

That basically wraps up that day. We headed up to Fresno and stayed the night in a hotel and then on to Sacramento to see the Blacks!!