Our Christmas Cuties

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. Here are some pictures of the kids dressed up for church on Christmas morning.

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Victoria turned seven years old on December 18. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday she was born. Victoria, you’ve grown into such a sweet, giggly, loving girl and Mommy and Daddy are very proud of you. We love you so very much!

Opening presents at her party:

Party games:

Presents from us:

I can't seem to find the pictures of her cake and birthday dinner . . . I know she had one -honestly!

Working hard in the snow

This was one of our first big snowfalls of the year. Victoria and Austin were at school so Samara was the only one home to help Daddy shovel the driveway. She loved it and was actually pretty good at scooping up the snow, carrying it over the edge of the driveway and dumping it onto the front lawn.

Happy Birthday Austin!

Austin turned five years old on December 16. I can't believe he's been in our lives for five years already! Austin, you've grown into such a sensitive, loving and caring boy. Mommy and Daddy are very proud of you and we love you so much!

Here are some pictures from Austin's birthday party.

Eating pizza for lunch:

Painting wooden Christmas ornaments:

Opening presents:

Christmas Questionnaire

I am so behind on my blog posts. I have a ton of pictures on my camera but we lost the cord and can't get them off. So here's a Christmas questionnaire I thought I'd post for fun. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some fun pics and an update on our busy, busy month.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper . . . and the occasional gift bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real . . . love the smell of a real tree.

3. When do you put up the tree? First Saturday in December . . . although this year it was the last Saturday in November.

4. When do you take the tree down? The first few days of January.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nope. I can't even stand the smell of it!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm . . . good question. I guess I don't really remember. Is that pathetic?

7. Hardest person to buy for? Our parents.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Austin was pretty easy to buy for this year.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't remember any bad gifts . . . either I'm getting old or people just know what I like. :)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Mickey Mouse - Twice Upon a Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All year - if I see something, I buy it.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No - I don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Munchies and my mom's homemade jewel bars. (Are you making those this year mom??)

16. Lights on the tree? Yes. We have a lot of colourful lights on our tree . . . the kids love it!

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We usually travel to Peterborough but this year we're hosting the in-laws for Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? No.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? I think we open presents the whole month of December. Two birthdays, our own Christmas, Christmas at Grandma's, Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's . . . well, you get the picture.

22. Most annoying part about this time of year? It's WAY too busy. Did I mention we have two December birthdays? (the 16th and the 18th).

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the ornaments I got in China but there are a lot of other ornaments that are special too.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I like it all.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A referral!!!! Ha ha . . . don't worry, I know it's not going to happen and I'm ok with that.

Feel free to reply with your answers, or copy these to your blog. I saw this on Dawn's blog.

12 Days of Christmas

I've been hearing this song on the radio for the last few days and I LOVE it. We found it online last night and wanted to post it here. Check it out and listen to the whole thing if you haven't already. It's so fun!

Canada's Most Meaningful Gifts

This year, now that the kids are a little older and able to understand things a bit better, we decided to include them in some of our giving. We headed on over to the World Vision website to purchase some meaningful gifts for people around the world. There are so many different things that you can buy for people in need. We let each of the kids pick what they wanted to give and it was really cool to see their personalities come through in their choices.

Victoria chose 3 Warm Blankets. This didn't suprise us because Victoria always loves to have blankets around to wrap herself up in and loves all things cozy.


Austin chose 2 Mosquito Nets. Seeing as Austin is not a huge fan of any type of bug or insect (although he's getting better), this was a good choice for him.



Samara chose a Piglet. For some reason, Samara has always liked pigs - I think it was one of the first words she said and the first animal sound she learned so this didn't surprise us either.

Mike and I also picked some items. Mike chose an Olive Tree and I chose Antiobiotics for 10 children.

It was a neat experience for the kids and I think they learned a lot about how other people live and how blessed we are. I'm hoping to make this an annual tradition with the kids. If anyone else is interested in purchasing some meaningful gifts as well, head on over to the World Vision website.

Christmas Tree 2008

Our Christmas tree went up last weekend already. We usually put it up the first weekend in December but since we knew we'd be really busy this weekend, we did it early. It was actualy kind of strange putting up a Christmas tree when it was still November.

Since we have a sunken livingroom, Mike always tries to find the tallest tree he can. This year, just the boys (Mike and Austin) went for the tree while the girls (Victoria, Samara and myself) got the room ready and the decorations out. The phone rang while the boys were out and it was Austin saying, "Cut a hole in the roof Mom . . . we got a doozie!" So cute! Sure enough, here's the tree when it was set up - the top needed to be trimmed a bit because it was so tall.

Here are the kids putting on some of the decorations.

Hmmm. . . I wonder who decorated this little part of the tree?!?!

Every year one of the kids gets to put the angel on the top of the tree. This year was Samara's turn. It was a bit of a challenge for her though . . . obviously because the tree was so tall and because she doesn't like being lifted above anyone's head. Mike ended up having to help her.

Oops I suppose I should've taken a picture of the finished product . . . perhaps I'll add that later.

Waiting Mommies Dinner

A few weeks ago we had another GTA Waiting Mommies Dinner. It's always nice to get together with other mommies in the same situation. We're all waiting for our little ones to come home - some from Vietnam, some from China and some (ok, maybe just one) from Ethiopia. Tammy and I drove together again . . . we actually took a different route and didn't even get lost (if you know us at all, this is amazing!).

It was great to see Catherine again as always and I ended up with her gift in the gift exchange. Thanks Catherine - I love the books. She's one of my favourite children's authors and I'm sure our little guy will love them too!

Teagan's first snow experience

We had our first snowfall a week or so ago and Teagan loved it! Since he was born in the summer, he has never experienced snow before. Here he is enjoying the white stuff.

Part cockapoo, part rabbit! :)