Happy Christmas!

2007
Dear Family and Friends,

On December 30th, just sneaking in to 2006, Emerson Theodore Skogen made his entrance into our world. He has changed so much of our family dynamics! Emerson is a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. At around 8 months old he decided that crawling was for babies and he was ready to begin walking . Ever since, he has been on the run! Instead of going around obstacles, he just plows right through. Recently he has been expanding his sign language skills, in addition to the funny noises that come out of this mouth – we think we may have heard him say dog! He is a daddy’s boy and is so ecstatic when Ryan is with him. Among his many favored activities: he enjoys running around with an X-Box controller and pretending to play like daddy. In a pinch, the TV remote will do…

Norah has made many leaps this year – figuratively and literally! She loves all forms of music and dance and to her great delight she began ballet/tap classes in September. She has been entertaining the family with her moves ever since. Norah also began violin lessons this fall, enjoying the associated music games (aka daily practice). As she grows, so does her sense of adventure. She loves to read books and manages to keep us all entertained with her imaginative stories and playtime. She is wonderful about involving everyone and is especially happy to have so many of her family members nearby. We spend lots of time talking about everyone!

Some of our favorite activities this year have been visiting our local parks, the Oregon Zoo, Columbia River Gorge, story time, marching in our first Rose Festival Junior Parade, the Clark County Fair (Norah won her first blue ribbon!), lambing season in Corvallis, Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch, our first ice skating adventure, and more. Most recently, we enjoyed a weeklong Halloween trip to Disneyland – much to the delight of the entire family.

Throughout the busy year we keep our blog updated with our adventures...
please join us there! http://skogenfamily.blogspot.com

With love,
Ryan, Heather, Norah, Emerson and Jones