Boxing Day

Ah, boxing day...no plans, pjs all day, games and puzzles...

We have quite a few new games and puzzles to keep us busy over the school break.  I'm looking forward to breaking open the Disney Trivial Pursuit.

playing pengoloo

Leah loves her new leapster explorer...she can already get around on it on her own for the most part.

Later in the day the girls put on snowpants for the first time this year (seriously...that has to be some sort of record!).  They had fun with the little bit of white stuff we woke up to on boxing day.

 The roads were still clear enough for Kyle to try out his new ripstik...it's tricky but he finally got the hang of it.  I'm sure he'll be a pro by summer!

As for me, I played around on my new laptop, played some games and did puzzles with the girls and ate far too much chocolate.  I also took advantage of having Jeff home to deal with the constant kid needs and cleared out the storage room and a storage closet in the basement.  The kind of task I find difficult to do when I'm constantly hearing "mama" "mommy" "MOOOOOM!!"

Chistmas!

Christmas Eve

Cousins

The kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve present (new pjs and a book) and we headed to Nana's house for a party with aunts, uncles and cousins.  The kids were spoiled by my 2 Aunts as usual, including some cold, hard cash.  Then we headed to church for a fun evening with good friends.  And finally home to put on pjs and get everything ready for a special visit from Santa!  Leah was very excited to get cookies and chocolate milk (her choice) out for Santa.  Our kids were so optimistic they'd been extra good this year we moved furniture to make room under the tree.

Every year I like to take a picture of the kids under the tree on Christmas Eve in their new pjs

I snuck downstairs after I heard some jingle bells on the roof and sure enough Santa had already filled the stockings and been under our tree...I must have just missed him!

Christmas Day

After waking up the last sleeping person (me!) we all headed downstairs together to check out our very full stockings. 

In our house Santa brings quite a few needed items like socks, toothbrushes and winter hats and gloves along with all the fun stuff

These are my favourite pictures from Christmas Day.  Leah had pulled an ornament out of her stocking and wanted to hang it on the tree.  This was her first time seeing the tree with all the gifts from Santa.  I watched her walk into the room (which in her defence was still quite dark), push past all the gifts (she literally had to move things out of the way to get to the tree) and hang her ornament.  Then as she backed away from the tree she finally seemed to notice all the gifts.  She was in quiet awe as she scanned all the toys then loudly asked me to turn the lights on.  Kyle and Jillian joined in and let the squeals of joy begin as Kyle found his Skylander Wii game and Jillian saw the big barbie house filled with furniture and barbies!

After a yummy breakfast it was time for church to celebrate what this day is really all about.  We loved seeing everyone in our church family, the kids have so many friends there and it was lovely to share a nice morning service together.

Then it was home to open presents from each other. Leah was over the moon...more presents!? And since we open youngest to oldest she even got to go first. Everything was a big hit.

A leapster explorer for my littlest one who has been jealous of Kyle and Jillian's DS's

A girl after my own heart...excited about new boots!!

My little princess kissing her frog prince

Star Wars DVDs for Jeff from Kyle

a pokemon gift box for Jillian from Kyle...pokemon cards, book & stuffed Piplup

Opening presents at Nana's house with Aunt Chris & Uncle Sam

French pokemon cards from France...cool!

Alicia is the centre of attention

End of the day, Kyle is settled in reading his new Harry Potter book from Nana after a yummy dinner (turkey and all the fixings) and dessert (Christmas pudding and custard, my favourite).

It was a wonderful Christmas, full of blessings, family, friends and fun.  I hope all of our friends and family also enjoyed a fun filled Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

* this was posted from my new laptop...Santa was very good to me as well!

This week...

This week...

* I was about to explode in frustration with the whininess at bedtime one night (and just to be clear, that was one night this week...it happens regularly)
* my heart melted as I listened to Kyle read bedtime stories with Leah one night
* I was frustrated with Leah as I tried to work on letters with her
* I realized she is learning at her own speed while we were grocery shopping and she was pointing out all the letters she could see, and asking me what the words spelled and was happily sounding them out with me (I foresee more learning out and about in the new year rather than sitting at the table at home)
* I felt overwhelmed at not having the house all cleaned up and ready for Christmas
* I was grateful for my husband who cleaned up the basement playroom (it may not sound like much of a task, but believe me it was a HUGE task, the place was an absolute disaster)
* I have been smiling at my children's excitment about Christmas, especially Kyle who definately has the Christmas spirit
* Kyle and Jillian have been happily talking to Leah about Santa and Christmas...they know the truth about the Santa myth and I love how excited they are to keep it going for Leah with fun stories
* I finished my final bit of shopping and wrapping
* I finally got Christmas cards in the mail (although late...apologies to friends and family!)
* I was disapointed one of my online orders hasn't arrived on time to make it under the tree (it includes gifts for Kyle, Jillian & Jeff)

* Since there's no white Christmas in sight, the kids made marshmallow snowmen...much yummier than the snow kind!

* I have been especially grateful for all the blessings in my life...being able to enjoy the holidays with friends and family, having a full fridge and pantry with yummy goodies and wrapped presents under the tree are things I try not to take for granted

And finally...I can't believe it's only 2 more sleeps until Christmas!! 

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family, I feel blessed to have each and every one of you in our lives!

my little linus

Leah has a soft white blanket she calls, wait for it, "the Leah blanket".  This was given to her by my good friend Lisa and has her name embroidered on the corner.  Just as a note, anything personalized I think is a thoughful gift for children, especially second, third and subsequent children since they so often get hand-me-downs.  Jillian obviously had a lot of new things being our first girl.  And while Leah loves to use things that used to belong to Jillian, she really enjoys hearing about things that were bought just for her.  Needless to say, the Leah blanket is quite dear to my little third child.

Ever since I've been at home Leah has been enjoying our lazy mornings.  She comes down the stairs in her pjs with her blanket trailing behind.  And before she's ready to eat breakfast or start the day she wants to be snuggled onto the couch with her blanket and stuffies.

Stuffies can be any assortment of animals/dolls but always includes pink bunny.  Pink bunny has been with Leah for a long time.  It was a little something I threw in my cart at wal-mart to put into Leah's stocking for her first Christmas...I was trying to fill it up with a few things as possible since she needed absolutely nothing so her stocking mainly consisted of soothers (still in the packaging to take up more room), kleen kanteen sippy cup and this bunny.  There might have been some plastic cutlery thrown in there just for fun. 

Pink bunny has not left her side.  Leah became very attached and started falling asleep rubbing bunny's soft ears.  Thinking I was quite clever I picked up a few extra bunnies at the store as they were relatively cheap.  Little did I know the bunny style had changed ever so slightly...the new ones have some dark pink inside their ears rather than being all light pink.  For a long time the bunnies were all interchangable and the world was great...with 4 bunnies on the go we were always able to find one at naptime and bedtime.  But for some reason in the past year Leah decided only the all light pink bunny was good enough to sleep with, and has since shunned all dark pink eared bunnies.  Can you believe even in the dark of the middle of the night Leah can tell when I've grabbed the wrong bunny...true story!  Bunny has been through a lot with Leah, even getting a hospital band to accompany Leah into the operating room when she had her dermoid cyst removed.

While I may get slightly annoyed at bedtime doing the light pink bunny and Leah blanket hunt in order for Leah to get snuggled into bed, I do love she has her bunny and blanket because it reminds me she's still little.  I adore seeing Leah each morning with bunny under her arm and blanket trailing behind her on the stairs.  The day she stops asking to be snuggled in on the couch will be a sad one indeed.

That being said, Kyle has had Doggy since he was a baby and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to having him in bed (don't you just love my kids' creative naming skills?  I can't wait until they have children).  Doggy was a present from Grandma, who is now gone, which makes him all that much more special.  Kyle may not drag doggy around the house the way Leah pulls her blanket and bunny behind her, but he does still like to have doggy by his side at bedtime.  I'm fairly certain doggy is going to literally disintegrate one day because he looks about a million years old and I'm always a tad afraid he'll come out of the washing machine in pieces (so far so good!). 

Kyle with Doggy at just under 3 years old playing on the computer

...some things never change!

And the reason Jillian isn't pictured here with her special stuffy?  Is because she doesn't have one!  Jillian's favourite stuffy changes week to week.  Whenever she gets a new one, that's the favourite until something else new comes along.  Or sometimes she rediscovers an old favourite and they end up as her bedtime buddy for a few weeks.  I find it interesting some kids gravitate to one particular stuffed animal and/or blanket, while others like Jillian are content with whatever is available.

a few of my favourite things...

This picture has a few of my favourite things all together...

1. spending time with Leah during the day...I absolutely love my new stay-at-home-mom status which means I get to hang out with my little buddy every day

2. Three year olds...seriously how cute are they?  I love Leah's imagination, she loves "cooking" among other things

3. Old Navy's collectibles shirts...I admit, I'm a sucker for almost anything Disney and I do love their shirts.  The girls each have 2 cute Minnie Mouse themed holiday shirts and Kyle has a few of their super hero shirts

4. Getting a great deal...besides online shopping for good deals I also scan kijiji when there's something specific I need want.  We had an old play kitchen which was handed down to us when Kyle was a toddler and quite frankly I didn't like it very much.  However I couldn't bring myself to spend a lot of money on something that wasn't reeeaally needed, even though Leah adores pretend cooking and all the pretend kitchen accessories.  Then I came across this deal on kijiji, this Step2 kitchen for only $25 and it is in fantastic condition...score!

A neat and tidy craft table...seriously I love seeing it cleaned up (it really doesn't take much to make me happy!).  Of course the craft table actually looks like this most of the time.

My new storage bench in the front hallway with a coloured bin and paper slot for each of the kids.  This is keeping school papers and library books in their place and hats/mittens/scarves contained.

Seeing my girls this happy about their new dresses from Nana.  They tried them on to make sure they fit and are so excited to wear them to Nana's house and church on Christmas Eve.  I even managed to get Kyle into a picture with Nana (he's not nearly as happy to pose for pictures as my girls).

No list of my favourites would be complete without Things 1, 2 and 3 (Leah's current favourite show is Cat in the Hat, we've been watching it a lot...one of the downsides to being a stay-at-home-mom is the limited access to adult oriented topics!).