Santa Claus Parade

We took the kids to Fort Macleod to see the Santa Claus Parade this morning.  We didn’t tell them what we were doing, just that it was going to be a surprise.  They were more than a little excited when they started hearing the marching bands warming up.  We found a little spot and cuddled in to keep warm.  Ben was content to sit, but Emma wanted to be up and looking at everything.

 

Lennard managed to get one picture of us bundled up together before the parade got started.

I was a little surprised at how little candy was thrown out this year, especially when the theme this year was Candy Land…

Ben loved all the fire trucks, although they got a bit loud.  They both loved getting to see Santa at the end of the parade.

  

As we were loading back in to the truck, Emma turned to me and said, “That was a lovely surprise, mommy.”  It was definitely a fun way to spend the morning together!

Waiting…

Tuesday morning the kids raced out of their rooms asking if they could look in their stockings and see if Santa had come!  We explained that it would still be another month before Santa came and that they would just have to wait.  They weren’t too excited about that.  Then, this morning came.

I hadn’t heard Emma for a while and then she came into the living room.  She sat down by the Christmas tree and just sat there.  I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I’m just waiting here for a minute.”  I asked her what she was waiting for and she exclaimed, “Santa!”  This could be a very long month!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Emma has quit consistently napping.  (So sad).  I was shocked to look into the living room and find her asleep in the rocking chair!  It was even more shocking when I moved her from there onto the couch and she actually stayed asleep!  No wonder she was so cranky earlier!  She slept for over an hour!

When she woke up, this is what she saw… Lennard and Ben hanging Christmas lights!  Ben was so proud to be Daddy’s helper, and mommy just tried not to have panic attacks watching him on the tall ladder!  It didn’t take long for Emma to get her coat on and head outside too.  I stayed inside and enjoyed a bit of quiet time!

After dinner, we decided to keep going and put up the tree for FHE.  I wish I had been at a different angle so you could see that Emma was actually in the air!  They were SO excited to get the tree up and put on ornaments.  I could hardly keep up to them!

Lennard explained to the kids that we would put out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve… and sugar for the reindeer.  It’s so fun this year seeing the kids get so excited for every little thing.  I love this picture of Ben checking out the nativity that they can play with. 

The final product (except for a tree topper… that we still need to buy).  Love it!  We finally put out a few more of our breakable things this year.  I haven’t put much out the last few years, but we are hoping that the kids will be okay to leave things alone.  Here’s hoping!

Snowflakes

So the afternoon got a little better.  We all got dressed and then I found an idea on Pinterest to make cinnamon sugar snowflakes out of tortillas. 

We attempted to fold the tortillas and cut them into snowflakes with scissors.  The tortillas were a bit dried out so it didn’t work great and I ended up having to help the kids cut the shapes into theirs.

     

Then we brushed melted butter onto the tortillas and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top.  We then baked them in the oven until they were crispy.

 

Not only did it work out for craft time… but it turned in to snack time afterwards!  Bonus! 

 

I asked the kids to smile… and this is what I got.  Ben is definitely ALL boy and Emma is our princess!

Random

I'm not sure why I always feel like I need pictures in order to update the blog... but I do.  Since I don't have any pictures for the last couple of weeks, I hadn't updated anything.  I was looking at the calendar this morning and realized that I do want to document what we've been up to though.  Not that it will be interesting for anyone else but me, but tough luck for those of you who actually take time out of your life to read about mine!

On November 11th, Lennard attended the Remembrance Day ceremony held at the high school.  We thought (briefly) about taking the kids, but didn't want to wreck the ceremony for others by loud/busy kids! We will start bringing them in a year or two.  Lennard was able to lay a wreath in honor of his grandpa that was killed in WWII.  He said it was a very nice ceremony.  I spent the morning cleaning, though I did stop at 11:00 for a minute of 'as close to' silence as I could get in our home.  Once Lennard got home, he headed out to Mountain View with the truck to get some help from my dad to put in air bag lifts in the back of the truck.  My mom came over and we worked on a Blurb book on one of their airplane builds that they want to give as a Christmas present.  We worked most of the afternoon on the book and even snuck in a bit of on-line Christmas shopping (virtual window shopping!).  Lennard and my dad finally showed up about a half hour before dinner was ready, and then Lennard took the kids outside to play in the snow (as promised) for a bit.  We had a yummy dinner of meatloaf and then finished off the book and got it ordered.  I love living close to my parents!

Tuesday (the 12th) was the usual.  I've been babysitting two little girls for the last month and a half on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so they arrived at about 8:00.  The kids played for about an hour and then we all loaded up to go to Stay and Play.  The kids play really well together and they have a lot of fun at Stay and Play.  I drop of our little extras afterwards and then get us some lunch.  It used to be naptime after that, but both Emma and Ben have decided that they don't want to nap anymore.  (Sob).  I can get Ben down for a nap still some of the time, but Emma won't give up.  She doesn't want to just play either.  She wants to be wherever I am and usually on my lap or standing on a chair right beside me.  Not the break I am used to, but some of the time it's nice to have the one on one time with her (attitude change... right?!).  I went to a craft night that night with Mishel, Shannon and Katie and though none of us really accomplished anything in the way of crafts... it was a great night out!

Wednesday (the 13th) I took the kids and our next door neighbor's little boy to the library reading program. They learned about the letter A, read stories, sang songs and then did a craft with apples.  It was a fun morning out with them.  As soon as Lennard got home we headed over to the Henline's to put up some new kitchen lights for them.  It ended up being a bit more involved than Lennard expected and we were there until after 7:00 that night.  They fed us pizza for dinner and the kids had a blast playing with their kids.  We even had to take turns running out so that we could get our temple recommend interviews done.  It was a busy night.

Thursday is much the same as our Tuesday schedule, but that evening we had our Flying Club meeting at our house.  We decided to have it be our Christmas social so that we don't have to have a meeting in December. It was a nice evening with a good turn out.  Everyone brought a plate of treats to share and then we did a white elephant gift exchange.  The kids wouldn't go to bed with everything going on, so it was a very late night for them, but they did pretty good not being too crazy.

We didn't really do anything on Friday, which was nice.  Saturday, Lennard went and worked a few hours for Pat (an electrician).  He worked for him when we first moved down from Strathmore and it's nice to get a little extra work here and there.

On Monday, the 18th, we went to the Lee Crest to do a Family Home Evening presentation for the residents on our trip across Canada.  It went pretty well.  Lennard found it a little harder as there was minimal interaction and some of the residents dozed off.  I knew some of the residents, so I enjoyed seeing them and getting to share a few stories.  The kids did pretty good being quiet and not running around, so as soon as we were done we took them to Dairy Queen for a treat.  They thought it was great!

Tuesday evening we got to babysit my nephew, Jeffrey, while my brother and his wife went to the temple. The kids had a blast (so did I).  It was so fun to watch them interact with him.  He was so good.  At one point we got him giggling and laughing.  Too cute.

Wednesday (the 20th) was our big Relief Society activity that went from 1:00 to 9:00 that day.  I went as soon as Lennard got home, but I almost wish I hadn't signed up for anything... it was way more fun just sitting and visiting with everyone.  They had a nice dinner, some classes on gourmet popcorn and things to do with duct tape.  I ended up being there until about 8:30.  It was a great evening.

Thursday was babysitting, Stay and Play and then I got to go out again to my Book Club!  I love my book club.  Seriously one of my favorite evenings each month.  We discussed the book "A Town Like Alice" by Nevil Shute.  Marianne made a cranberry cake with a sauce that was to die for.  So delicious.  I just love getting to know the ladies better every time we meet.  We may discuss the book for an hour or five minutes, but we always end up just visiting and laughing.

Friday was Lennard's birthday!  The kids were so excited to tell him Happy Birthday (about a million times) and Emma exclaimed that she was getting daddy a pirate outfit for his birthday!  Too funny.  She even offered to get him a Dora costume, but then decided that she wanted that one for herself.  Lennard got off work at about 10:00 that day and then around noon we dropped the kids off with my parents at the airport and we headed in to Lethbridge.  We had a good time just being by ourselves.  We did a bunch of errands and then got some Christmas shopping done.for the kids.  We went out to dinner at Moxie's and then headed to the movie theatre to watch 'Catching Fire'.  We ended up having to stand in line for over 45 minutes, although Lennard went shopping for some new shoes while I kept our place in line for most of that time.  It was an excellent movie.  It was nice not having to worry about how late we were going to be getting home as mom and dad had the kids at their place for a sleepover.  Emma called it 'her holiday'!

Saturday, Lennard had to go to Fort MacLeod to work with them during a power outage.  Because they and Cardston are both small utilities they help each other out when needed.  He was gone most of the day, so the kids were pretty excited to see him when he got home.

We had our Primary Presentation yesterday in church.  It was Emma's first presentation and she did such a good job!  She had her little part memorized and stood up there and said it like a pro.  So proud of her!  I was actually really proud of all the kids.  They did an amazing job.  So much better than what the practices were!  We only had a few interesting moments... One little boy landed on an organ pedal and added to one of the songs and then one kid played with the ceiling fan controls and had the fan end up on high speed.  It sounded like a plane was going to take off!  Thank goodness the bishop took care of that one for us!  They sang beautifully and just about had me in tears.  I'm glad it went so well... and that it's done for the year!

As for today... well, I'm still in my pajamas.  I have the second load of Ben's bedding in the wash after he wet the bed last night.  I can't really complain about it though as it's the first time since we've got him potty trained that he's wet the bed here.  Emma and Ben are racing around the house like the wild children that they are.  Life is good.  So there you go... the last two weeks in a nutshell... and no pictures.

Special Day

Yesterday afternoon we had the privilege of attending my nephew Tyler’s baptism.  It was such a neat experience to watch him be baptized.  It has taken a while for him to be ready and prepared to make this choice in his life and it was amazing to feel of the special spirit that was there throughout the meeting.  (Thanks for letting me be a part of your day, Tyler!  I love you!)

 

Another fun thing that happened at the baptism was that every single one of my siblings, their spouses and all my nieces and nephews were there!  ALL of us!  Doesn’t happen very often, so we grabbed the chance to take some pictures.  They’re not perfect, but we’re all together!

My family… youngest to oldest.  I can’t imagine life without them.  They are my best friends.  I am truly blessed.

Famous Kids

Opened the newspaper this afternoon and look what I found!  A picture of Emma and Ben at the library program.  They thought it was pretty cool to see themselves in the newspaper.

A Ward Family

Growing up I never thought of my ward as any kind of family.  Maybe because I was too young to look outside myself or maybe because I was surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, siblings, etc. and I didn’t ‘need’ a ward family. 

When I moved away from home to go to school, the wards changed so quickly that you never really got a feeling of togetherness there.  It wasn’t until I got married and moved away from everyone and everything I was used to that I discovered what a blessing a ward family can be.  We had Lennard’s parents close by for a couple years, but after that (for about 4 years) we didn’t have any family at all that lived anywhere nearby.  We quickly came to depend on our ward family.  One year we had 26 of our ‘family’ over for Thanksgiving dinner!  It was great! 

Then came the day when we moved back to Alberta.  What a shocker!  Most families (not all… but a lot) have family around them.  Church is just that… church.  It’s not your complete support system like it was for  us out East.  I find that people go to church, say hi in the hallways and go home.  There’s not a lot of extra interaction.  At least until lately.  Our ward has recently (within the past 3 months or so) started to have more activities.  We had an amazing Relief Society activity and another one is planned for this month.  The youth put on a Halloween party for the Primary kids.  We have also had a few temple nights.  They started out small with the bishopric going to the temple and inviting a few people.  Then it was the Ward Council going and each inviting someone.  Last night the entire ward was invited to attend the 7:00pm session.  We had a bit of a hard time finding a babysitter and I just about gave up trying, but thankfully about an hour before we were to be at the temple we found one!  The kids were excited and so were we. 

We got to the temple early (about 6:30) so that we had time to change and relax before the session started.  It was fun to see more and more people file into the chapel.  It became quickly apparent that there would be too many to fit comfortably in a session and about five minutes before the session was to start they decided to split the session.  They asked that anyone NOT in the 1st Ward to please go in the first session.  Even with about 25-30 people in that session we had about 70 still in our session!  It was such an amazing feeling to look around the room and only see people from our ward. 

It made me stop and realize how much a part of me this ward has become.  It has taken a while to get to know people, but I love this ward.  I may not know all of them as well, but as I sat through the session I had an overwhelming feeling of love.  I love where we are in our life right now.  I love our home, our friends, my calling, this town… it’s an amazing feeling to know that we are where we are supposed to be. 

We didn’t get out of the temple until almost 10:00 and then headed over to the Nay’s for refreshments.  We didn’t stay very long because we had to get our babysitter home, but it just felt amazing to look around and feel at ‘home’.  We have the best of both worlds… an amazing ward family and our extended family close by too.