New Year's Night Out

This year Len and I went out for New Year's Eve (can't even remember the last time we did that!) We went over to our friends, the Stevenson's for a delicious dinner party with 12 other friends. It was fun ringing in the new year with them!


Jenn babysat the kids for us and when we got home close to 2 in the morning she, Noe, and Teague were still up partying. They had a fun night too!

Post Christmas Fun

This is another catch-up post, I'll post more about each event soon.


Boxing Day Birthday Girl!


Ice, Ice Baby!


Dear friends from Gatineau and Smiths Falls came to play!

A few of our favorite things

Every year we get spoiled with gifts from friends, family, and Santa. Here are the favs.


Len finally got book 12 in The Wheel of Time series.


Jen got a projector to help with all the paintings she wants to do.


For 2 years Kaleb wanted a cupcake maker. He was so excited when he opened 2 big boxes full of cake mixes, frosting, food coloring, sprinkles, all the supplies to bake up a storm! He also liked his Hot Wheels color-change cars, and globe.

Noe loves all things dolls and all things tiny, so she was so happy to get these darling Yummi-land girls. She also liked her new cheerleading uniform (complete with pom poms) and her jewelry box.

Gavin loves Little People and was thrilled to get the airplane to add to his collection. He also liked his huge giraffe and huge coloring books.

Teague is our little tiger and he loved his huge tiger to snuggle up with. He also liked his new peek-a-block train and fisher-price mailbox.

Everyday I'm thrilled with the gift of having these people in my life. I also loved our family photo frame from Grandma & Grandpa Green Eyes.

The ones who make Christmas so fun!

Remembering whose birth we celebrate this day. So grateful for our faith in our life everyday too!

Love the Santa Babies!

Tree Huggers

Our annual pics in front of the tree and with our stockings.

Sweet Dreams

After we left the Martin's we hurried home to get ready for Santa.


We left him some yummy treats.


The kids hurried off for their slumber party (no Gavin and Teague didn't stay for long, but aren't they cute all snuggly together?)


The next morning we found that our dreams came true and Santa did come!

Getting Merry at the Martin's

We sure miss our extended families during the holidays, but it is so nice to have friends who are like family to share them with. We spent Christmas Eve at the Martin's with the Cameron's too. Laura and Mary are sisters and I've just adopting myself into their family.


Me, Laura, and Mary (2 of my favorite gals in the world).


Teague was snuggling with Leonard, and Kevin decided to join them =).


The missionaries, Elder Yates and Elder Eslick joined us for a delicious dinner of homemade pizzas.

After eating, we sang Christmas carols. We started with the youngest and we each took a turn choosing the song for all of us to sing. It was really fun and I loved holding 2 little sweet babies on my lap again.

Then it was time to act out the nativity story. Emma made a lovely Mary, and Kaleb was Joseph, with the sweet little baby Jesus.

The shepherds and sheep were astonished by the appearance of the angels (isn't Noe a cute little lamb?)

The little wise guys- so cute!

The finale of the evening was when the kids all opened up new pajamas. Aren't they so cute and festive?

The beautiful Martin family.

The beautiful Cameron family.

The beautiful Reil family too.

4 old friends. Kaleb and Noe started having play dates with Emma back when they were all just 10 months old. Quinn joined the group about a year and a half later. If you look above Emma's head you'll see a picture of the 4 of them that was taken back in 2004. It's so nice to have good friends!

Christmas Festivities

Here it is a month after Boxing Day and I'm finally putting some Christmas pictures on here. The week before Christmas we tried to cram in as much fun as we could.


One of the best things about Christmas time is the 2 week break from school. Kaleb & Noe brought home lots of little crafty treasures on the last day including these Santa and Mrs. Santa ornaments they painted. They're kinda cute and kinda scary- tee hee.


We donated to the Toy Mountain this year. Kaleb donated some little cars for a bigger boy, while Gavin donated a bigger car for a smaller boy.


Noe donated a Barbie doll, while Teague donated a baby doll (but I'm keeping my baby doll!)

We went to a live Nativity Pageant performance in the -20* freezing weather. Our fingers froze and our nose and toes, but our hearts were warmed. We really missed performing in the pageant in Taiwan though.

After the pageant we went inside the church to see the beautiful creche displays from around the world. We shared one of ours as well.

We warmed up some more with some hot chocolate and timbits!

We were spoiled with yummy homemade gifts of soup and cookie mixes from friends at church.

The kids also got these adorable snowmen (Smarties) from their Primary teacher.

The kids put on the cutest Christmas play with our sweet neighbors. They wrote a script, memorized it, had several scenes and in between each scene played corresponding Christmas music. I was really impressed!

The stars of the show- Santa, Rudolph, Baby Elf, and Head Elf.

We went Christmas carolling with the Matthews family and it was so heartwarming to watch the kids get in to it and to see the sweet surprised faces on the other side of the doors.

We also drove down Taffy Lane to see the amazing Christmas light displays.

Christmas Eve pics coming soon!

Balance

"Sometimes you just need to hear it...You are a phenomenal woman, a beautiful mother, doing an extraordinary job, making things happen for those you love, and although you might not always feel it, you are loved and appreciated!!"

My friend sent me this on facebook and it brightened my day. I just wanted to share it here for all the amazing mothers who balance it all, and really to all women, because we're all mothers whether we have children or not. And to the fabulous men that are loving and supporting their wives and children, you are loved and appreciated too!

Not the Love Bug

Last Thursday night I came home from Ward Council to find all of the kids in bed. I got to visit with my honey for a bit before we called it a night. I woke up in the middle of the night FREEZING, and asked my honey to snuggle me (he is a furnace). He rolled over and wrapped his arms around me, and they felt cold. He tells me that I am on fire. Oh NO, I think, the flu bug has found me again. I spent the next 2 days and nights pretty much living in the bathroom (although I didn't have the strength to shower or even brush my teeth, too much info, I know). Now I think he has moved on as my stomach is no longer nauseated, but my body feels like it has been punched by Mike Tyson on both the outside and inside. The only good thing about being sick is that I lost 7 pounds. The bad thing is that once my appetite returns I'm sure I'll gain it all back plus more. Ugh! I hope the flu bug doesn't find you this winter.

On another note, I took about a jillion pictures during the Christmas season (ok, it was really only 400) and it's been a month since I posted any of my own pics on here. Hopefully, soon I'll have the time and energy to at least get some previews on here.