Eight

This little girl is now eight years old!  And what an amazing little girl.  She's a bundle of joy, frustration, intelligence, laughter, tears and smiles all rolled into this adorable package.  In the past year Jillian has continued with gymnastics (and can now climb the rope all the way to the top), joined Brownies with a bunch of her good friends and started horseback riding which she adores more than anything.  She started grade 3 this year with several good friends in the same class, and has a really nice teacher.  It's been a good year!

A birthday party is planned for the first week of January.  And not just any birthday party, a slumber party with her closest friends.

We started out in the morning in with our traditional birthday kid opening presents first thing in the morning. On Jillian's birthday we had no plans and told her she could pick our family activity.  She picked snow tubing.  We got up early and headed north to the ski hill for a morning of sliding down the hills at a really high speed.

 

After stopping to eat and warm up on our way home from the ski hill, it was home for wii play and cake.  Nana & Granda joined us for the family fun.

Making a wish on her birthday candles.

My wish is Jillian has a fantastic year ahead filled with family, friends & fun!

Snow Tubing

Jillian's choice of birthday activity was snow tubing.  After a morning of gifts and breakfast, we gathered up our snow gear and headed north to Snow Valley Ski hill for some family tubing fun.  I was excited as this was the first year all 5 of us could go down the big hill.  When we arrived they measured Leah and she only JUST made the height limit.

After 2 runs down the big hill Leah was done, but Jeff, Kyle & Jillian enjoyed another 2 runs.  And we have a few extra tickets for another trip this winter.

Jeff, Kyle & Jillian on one of their runs down the hill

 Lots of smiles and rosy cheeks

After 2 runs down the big hill (and needing to be talked back into her tube at the top of the hill both times), Leah decided she was done and wanted to check out the smaller little-kid-friendly hills.  This was great because she was able to pull her little tube up the hill by herself and she loved the short ride down. 

 Overall a great way to spend this winter morning.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day aka Christmas Day part two.  We headed to London to celebrate with Tara, Bob & Brent (didn't get a chance to see Sheldan, Cameron or Patrick this time).

Aunt Tara with her girls...

There was barbie toys, clothes and pink hair extensions...considering Aunt Tara is a fashionista and has only boys, I think she enjoys doing some girl themed shopping (and my girls love it!)

Jeff & his big sister

 It was a wonderful afternoon.  Unfortunately the drive home took longer than usual due to a snowstorm, but we did arrive home safe and sound (thank goodness for electronic toys to keep kids occupied).

Christmas dinner

After a morning of opening and playing with new toys and going to church, we came home to clean up a bit and get ready for Nana, Aunt Chris, Uncle Sam, Alicia & Noah to visit for Christmas dinner.  Unfortunately Granda was working but we did get to see him on Christmas Eve.

Alicia with her new fairy wings and phone

all ready to enjoy dinner with family

Christmas morning

Santa made a stop at our house to fill the stockings and put a few gifts under the tree for Kyle, Jillian & Leah...it looks like they were all quite good this year.

The first thing we do is check out the filled stockings left in the family room.  We leave them hanging on the mantle on Christmas Eve, but Santa fills them up so much they end up on the floor.  Stockings were a favourite part of my Christmas morning when I was growing up, and it's so much fun now to watch my kids get excited with the fun surprises inside their stockings.

after the stockings are empty it's time to go into the other room and see what Santa left under the tree...

 

some big hits for the kids this year were skylanders giants for Kyle, for Leah a fairy house including Tink, Periwinkle, Rosetta & Fawn and many outfits for the fairies, and a purple Furby for Jillian!

"Santa ate the cookies and the reindeer ate the carrots!!"

8:00am...we've gone through the stockings, we've checked out all the fun new gifts under the tree from Santa and it's time for breakfast.  Check out the snow in the backyard, Jillian certainly got her Christmas wish

After breakfast we all take turns opening our gifts to each other.  There was even a special delivery from Santa for me under the tree...a new mini ipad!

 

Once everything was opened and played with it was time to get dressed and go to church for a really nice service with wonderful friends.

 

The kids spent the afternoon enjoying some of their new toys...

Jillian combined two of her favourite things by using new craft supplies to draw a picture of her furby.  Leah crawled around on the floor with her new Go-Go dog.  And Kyle hung out on the couch reading on his kobo touch eReader.

 

It was a wonderful and full Christmas morning.  While watching my kids enjoy themselves I didn't take for granted how blessed we are to be able to enjoy such a wonderful morning with many new toys and games, yummy food, and most importantly sharing with friends and family.

Between new movies, books & puzzles we are all set for entertainment over the rest of the holiday break