Christmas 2008 - My Longest Post Ever!

So, you are going to have to scroll down to the bottom and read up if you want hear about our holidays in chronological order. I decided to do one massive post with my pictures so I could get it all done at once so get ready for a long one. :) We had a great time, fit lots of stuff in (including getting sick) to our two weeks and still did not get to see everyone and do everything I wanted to. Oh Well! I guess we will just have to go back this summer! :)



Connor with Brenda. We got to have lunch with our friends Kevin and Brenda. They are such a blessing and encouragement to us!

Mom and Dad at the party. These are the only pictures I took! :(

More decor

Table decorations for the anniversary party. I think the place looked really cute and western!

Nan, Madalyn and Lilly having a tea party. Guess who's idea this was and set it all up?

Connor getting frosting everywhere! He really liked his first cupcake! Surprise, Surprise!

Auntie KK and Lilly

Love them in their hats! Couldn't resist! :) They had on their hats but were in their own little world talking and catching up. It was so great seeing our friends Kirk and Nat!

Connor did not like his hat!

Me and Connor with Red Robin. I look pregnant. Thankfully, I am not but sad that it looks that way! :) I wish we had a Red Robin in Calgary!

Anutie KK and Lilly with Red Robin

Sweet one year old boy! I have decided that I each year for Connor's birthday I will have his party on Jan. 28th with his friends. It will give it a little space between Christmas and give us something to look forward to so be looking for an invitation if you live close.

Opening a present

They were singing to the birthday boy and girl

Chloe, Madalyn and Camille - These girls play so well together and Madalyn loves them!

Birthday party at Red Robin for Connor and Lilly. Nat, KK and Lilly

I have to talk about what we did on Monday after "the sickness" passed because it was one of my favorite days of the trip. My mom and dad have some really good friends, Barbara and Kerry, and Kerry works for Columbia Sportswear. Columbia has an employee store that is so much fun to go to because the prices are so great. Malcolm got a 200.00 jacket for 90.00 and it's Columbia! Employees can put some of their friends on a list to be able to go to the store and my mom and dad made the list and are able to bring some friends as well. Yay! So, Monday we all got to go on a little shopping spree at the store and then ended the day eating dinner at P.F. Chang's (my fav Chinese restaurant). It was the perfect day and I did not take one picture!

Bath time! He is just too cute!

Remember on my Thanksgiving post I talked about the horrible apple pie I made Malcolm. Well I made him one to redeem myself and I think it looks pretty good. Malcolm got to have a piece a couple of days later after "the sickness" and I did not have one bite of it and I think we threw more than half of it away! Oh well! I should confess that it was a combined effort in the making of the pie. My Mom did most of the crust and my dad peeled the apples for me! Thank you!

Before the sickness! We worked so hard all day long on this meal and in the end it was for nothing. We did not even get to have dessert before it struck!

Funny Connor boy

Malcolm's new golf bag

Connor and Papa - He wouldn't sit still for long!

Nan's present - a digital frame

A flurry of activity. I think we all got sufficiently spoiled!

Nan opening a present

Sweet Lilly girl

Auntie KK and Madalyn

Nachos anyone? I think I had too many of these so I did not have room for the great dessert below. I thought we would get to bring it home but we didn't which was probably for the best! :)

Nan and her sopapilla cheesecake for dessert. Very good and I did not get any that day!

Fiesta Dinner on Christmas day. My mom and dad have some friends who invited us over for mexican food and it was so good. I could get use to that tradition! Especially since we all got sick after our turkey dinner! :{

We finally got to be with sweet Lilly girl again! She is too precious and Madalyn LOVED her so much!

Listening to music with Nan

Madalyn and her MP3 player which she calls an ipod. :) Santa brought her a Hannah Montana one but we could not figure that one out so she ended up with a pink disney one. When we told her we had to get her a different one she could not understand how Santa brought her one that did not work.

Sweet Connor and some of his stocking stuffers

Papa, Madalyn and Connor on Christmas morning. I am glad that Santa knew where to find us!

Cookies and milk for Santa. Santa got his favorite chocolate chip made that night. Lucky guy! ;)

Beautiful drive but horrible roads!

Connor and his new front facing car seat. He loved it and smiled almost the whole way!

The cute little log hotel in Bonners Ferry that we stayed at on the way. It is so cute and at a great price too!

The gingerbread house our family made at our care group the Friday before we left. This years was the best one I think we have made since we started making them a few years ago.

Mom and Dad Anniversary Video

Christmas Concert and Cookies

Trying to get Connor to hold a cookie cutter for my picture. His fav thing to do while we were all making cookies - drop the cookie cutters on the floor. :)
Our Moms group (that meets every Thursday morning) made Christmas cookies together today. It was messy but fun!

We made sugar cookies one day at home when it was FREEZING outside. I love Madalyn in these pjs! She got them for Christmas last year and they were way too big but fit great this year.

I did not realize that this picture is so blurry. It is the best one we have of her performing. In the video you will see her come in late with another girl. She tells the parent volunteer like two minutes before they start that she has to go to the bathroom. She missed the whole first part of the song! lol What a girl. :)

We are heading to Portland for Christmas with my family on Monday. I will be so happy when we are in the van and on our way because that will mean that I have completed my to do list! Wow! So many activities and things to get ready for that it makes me tired but they are all really fun. The weather has made it hard for me to get stuff done away from home too. I don't like driving on the roads and being out in such cold weather dragging the kids everywhere. The other night I ventured out on my own intending to get a few things crossed off my list. The roads weren't great but okay and I was half way to my destination and had to turn around because I left my wallet at home. I just stayed home after that and Malcolm did one of my errands for me the next day. Oh well! Such is life in the great white north. :) Malcolm does not like it when I call it that because this is really not the great white north but where I am from it is! ;)

I don't know if I will blog while we are gone but I am going to try because then it won't be so overwhelming when I get back. In case you haven't noticed I basically blog about the pictures that are on my camera. I think that is a good way to update on what we have been up to and show recent pictures of the kids. Which is the main purpose of this blog. So there you go - nothing to deep or enlightening here! :) Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Photo Shoot

Today we tried to do a photo shoot at home in front of our tree. I was not feeling the Christmas spirit during this process! It was quite the endeavor! I am surprised that Malcolm and I were not mad at each other at the end of it. lol We did end up with one to use on our card so all was not lost. I don't love it but it will do. In the end it is just about wishing our family and friends a wonderful holiday and giving them an updated glimpse of the kids. These are funny for me to look at now. Enjoy!

Santa Pictures

We went and got our Santa pictures done yesterday. We went and had some taken at Superstore in the morning (did not go well) and then since they were all dressed and ready to go I thought we would go see Santa too. It turned out to be "just one of those days" where you feel like you can't catch a break. We had to wait in line to see Santa for a while so I took some pictures to pass the time. Madalyn was not thrilled with this idea but I took them anyway. :-) I really like the Santa picture I purchased so the day was not a total loss on the picture taking front. Plus, Madalyn really wanted to see Santa and tell him her wish list. She told him that she would like one of these three things: a Barbie boat, a princess I-pod or a game girl (other wise known as a game boy but she is not a boy!) lol We really did have a good day and I am so thankful for my two sweet kids.

The video below I put up because Connor looking up at Santa is so funny to me. He had been on his lap for a couple of minutes when I took this. He never cried just keep looking up at him trying to figure him out. He was so tired but was such a little trooper. I really like the Southcenter Santa. He is very sweet and has a real beard.

Malcolm and I are going to the Journey staff Christmas party tonight so I better go start getting everything ready for the sitter plus myself!


My Handsome big boy! He got his first haircut on Wednesday.
Sweet girl. I barely got her to look at me. I think these could have been some really great pictures. Oh well!
This one would have been good too but Connor was distracted by his cheerios.

Spaghetti

I thought I needed to put up some pictures of Connor since he just turned 11 months old. Today he feed himself his spaghetti for the first time and was having such a great time that I had to video the fun. :-) He is such a happy boy. I can't get enough of him!

Last night we had our movie night and watched Miracle on 34th Street (the newer version) and Madalyn kind of liked it. She may still be a little young for it but she really liked the ending. I can't wait until our sweet Connor boy can join us for family movie night.

Have a great day!

Jingle Bells and More

Wow! Where did November go? Time seems to just be flying by on me. My sweet little boy turned 11 months old last Friday! He is just growing up way too fast. He is babling all the time now and is still just so sweet and easy going. He can walk behind something while pushing it but is not very interested in doing it on his own yet. I will miss the pat, pat, pat of his little chubby hands on the floor while crawling when he starts walking. It is such a sweet little sound. :-)

So, we had a fun November. Journey had a retreat out at this camp with all kinds of fun stuff to do like pony rides and archery. It was just a 24 hour thing so it was quick but fun. I had piles of laundry to do when we got home because of all the bedding and everything we had to take for the night but it was worth it. Madalyn had a great time with her friends and cried when we got home because she missed Cheetah the pony she got to ride.

We also made a day trip to Medicine Hat with Heather to go meet baby Canyon. It was a fun day! Madalyn always has a great time with cousin Ronan and it is always a fun time at Auntie B and Uncle Todd's house. I really would like to steal their new eliptical trainer.Canyon is so tiny and sweet. Man, you forget how small they are right after birth. In the video you can see the little jingle bell jam session that we had while there. It was so cute and I am so glad that I got it on video. I think Madalyn is keeping the beat pretty well. Doesn't Auntie B look great for just having a baby a couple of weeks before?! I was not doing that well and I did not any of the complexities that she did. Wow! Way to go!

We are getting into the swing of Christmas today. Decorating our tree, house and getting the lights up outside. Madalyn is loving it! Tonight we will have a family movie night and watch Miracle on 34th Street (my favorite). I am trying to start some traditions for our family so if you would like to share some of yours with me it would be much appreciated. I love hearing what other people like to do and maybe steal some too. ;-) Happy 1st of December!

Riding Cheetah at our church retreat
First snow in November! Yay! Last year it was middle of October.
Sweetest Boy Ever
Archery with Daddy at the retreat
Friends
Sister got him again! Red is a good color for him though!
Playing blocks with Daddy

Meeting baby Canyon for the first time. He is very sweet!
My big boy in a cute little chair. I think he might be getting one of these for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal with our friends Chris and Jodi and Suzy. The turkey and everything else turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. :) I did not even attempt to make my mom's corn bread dressing! I figured we would have it a few short weeks so I have bypassed it yet another year. I do want to learn how to make it so I can pass the tradition on to my kids. Malcolm really wanted an apple pie because he had a piece of our friend Robin's on Canadian Thanksgiving and loved it! The one I made for yesterday was horrible! I am really not a pie maker and I just kind of mad this one up and it really was not good so I owe my hubby a good apple pie. He does not ask for much so I think I should try and oblige. :) I think if I put a little more effort into it I can make a good one. We had a really nice day and I am always so glad I put the effort into celebrating up here on our own because I find that If I don't I get really homesick and sad.

I kept Madalyn home from school yesterday and we had a lazy morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and then somehow the dog show. Surprisingly, Malcolm did not give me a hard time about that at all. ;) (oh, yes he did!) I really should have changed the channel because there is nothing like the sound of a football game on while preparing the meal that brings back so many Thanksgiving memories to me growing up. Madalyn loved all of the dances that they showed during the parade and would join along with them as evidenced in the video below. Please excuse my little mishap in the beginning! (Something else that my funny hubby does not give me a hard time about. :) It is his way of flirting so I secretly like it!) I have been calling her my future Rockette. :)

Hope you all had a very blessed day! I have more pictures I need to post so hopefully I will get that done soon. I don't know though. I have a cookie exchange this weekend and I don't think the planner realized that people have to bring 12 dozen cookies if you invite 12 people! I have lots of cookies to go and make now! :)

We did pull Connor up to the table after this. Poor Boy! He loved the turkey.

My future Rockette