Happy New Year!

We rung in the new year at 8pm. After some kitchen fun with balloons and noisemakers, we headed outside to light the sparklers. Bundled up the kids and sat on the front steps. Woo hoo! It's a party!
Rob lighting the sparklers







Outside in pjs after dark! How fun.

Holiday Fun

We spent the last few days in S'toon with Nanny. Lots of post Christmas shopping deals to be had. Some new clothes for the kids, winter boots that should fit Isaac and Ruby next year, with Norah on track to get Isaac's hand me downs from this year. Some fun accessories for the kitchen set, the Elefun game that all 3 are enjoying, a couple new books and dvds we have been wanting. So much fun using up the Christmas money. Oh, and a pair of ice skates for mom - now her and Isaac can hit the rink and practice. Not sure who will be holding who up.... ;) We also enjoyed the Enchanted Forest drive through light display in S'toon. Almost a million lights, and lots of fun displays to look at. Isaac and Norah were enchanted, Ruby was asleep.





Playing Elefun









Exciting news was waiting for us in the mailbox when we got home. French Immersion seems to be a go! If the numbers pan out as they currently stand, Isaac will be in a K/1 split class of 17 kids. Nice and small class, with what will hopefully be some good academic challenge for him. Not only that - they are going to hold it at the closer school to our house! Not that the other one is really that far, but closer is great.

We are hoping for a fun (if early!) New Year's eve tonight. Finger foods and fizzy drinks and sparklers in the backyard. Norah is a little sick with a fever, so not sure if she will make it until our adjusted "midnight" of 8pm though.

Happy New Year to everyone!

more on Christmas

What a great couple of days!

December 23 was rather quiet. Dad was preparing for 3 services on Sunday, one on Monday. The last minute shopping was done. The kids were getting excited. The gifts were assembled with minimal stress and swearing. ;)

Christmas Eve was busy for dad, and kept him on the go most of the day. The kids were excited, but all napped. We all enjoyed a 7pm service on Christmas Eve, followed by a drive around town to "see the pretty lights". Kids were late to bed, but that was ok. Final preparations on the gifts requiring assembly were done, stockings were stuffed, wine was consumed. Ruby got an early exposure to the "big gift", and was beyond thrilled. All slept, not quite long enough, but all slept.

Christmas morning arrived just before 8am. We were all up and unwrapping by 8:30. Took a break for breakfast at 9, then all headed out to church. Home again for more presents and a sorry attempt at napping. Overtired and excited is the theme for today. As I type, Isaac is playing with his new "overhead rejector", Norah is dancing to the Wiggles, and Ruby is sort of jumping on the new trampoline and the turkey is smelling delicious. What a wonderful couple of days this has been. Christmas is so much fun with little children in the house.






Strong man Isaac doing his weight lifting












The kitchen. Only one fight over it so far.













Ruby joining in with Dad in leading worship












Hanging out in the pulpit (after the service). Following in dad's footsteps?

Merry Christmas!

Enjoying the new gifts. Spinning on the new Bilibo seats.

we survived this week!

Oh yes, we managed to make it through this very long, hard week. The death of a beloved church member, along with the funeral and other services involved. The funeral in the middle of a snowstorm. The Christmas pageant, along with the lunch afterwards. General life with kids, who always seem to pick on the stress of their parents. It's good to hit Sunday night without losing our minds.

The pageant went well. Isaac was an adorable shepherd. This photo was the only one I got without the crook in front of his face. Norah was an angel. She wandered down the aisle right after this photo was taken, sayin g "see Daddy, I go see Daddy". At which point, pretty much the whole church stopped listening to Rob and "oohed" over Norah. These aren't great shots, but they were all I could get while holding Ruby, directing the kids, and leading the songs. Norah, however, is convinced she was a princess, not an angel.

today we had a lot of snow

took the kids out to play for almost an hour. All 3 loved the slide in the yard. lots of fun, but were we ever snowy afterwards! not the best job of videotaping - but it was one adult to 3 kids, one of whom needed to be carried.

what happens when you skip a nap

busy days

We had an emergency trip to S'toon on Monday. A favourite church member was dying, and Rob was rushing to be with the family, and we all tagged along to keep him company.
So glad we got there when we did, and Rob was able to spend some time with her before she died Monday night.


Saw an interesting sight just south of town. We were told to stop and pull into the road access off to the side. I saw this coming in the distance and couldn't NOT jump out of the van to take some pictures. It was going SO fast! The pictures don't do it justice to how close it was to us.










Today, the kids were thrilled to recieve Christmas cards with "my name on it! It says Isaac right there!" Thanks, Nanny - they loved them!

oh the fun we had today!

We've been picture happy today.

As per Isaac's begging, we followed (somewhat) the directions in his most recent Chirp magazine for Rice Krispie snowmen. A great mess that was.

Wax paper and sticky hands.







Ruby sat and observed, while being terribly rude. :)














Isaac's finished product.












Norah's snowman













Ruby's hair has grown so differently than that of her siblings. By this age, Isaac had already had a haircut to get the front part out of his eyes, and Norah was having her bangs swept to the side. The front is short - but I managed to put it in pigtails tonight! She kept them in for close to half an hour...maybe this will rub off on Norah, who needs to let us do something with her hair, or we will need to think about cutting it shorter (sob!)

we got camera batteries!