Christmas Morning ... Way Way Too Many Bloody Gifts If You Ask Me !!!

Ok there are so many pics of the girls with their gifts, I just chose a few that had gifts in from family ... man these kids were spoilt rotten !!!

Jade with her boombox for her bedroom from Mommy and Daddy.



Amber just starting to learn how to tear things open ... too slow for Jades liking though.



One of the gifts from Granny and Grampa, a stamping set which has kept her busy a good deal of the afternoon but now she wants mommy's stamps and her good ink but I will need to find them, I think they are in one of the few boxes I still have not unpacked since we moved.



A gift from Uncle Sion, Aunty Tiana and her cousins Jessica and Olivia. I know Amber will play with this a good deal as she likes things that make a crinckle kind of noise like this one does.



This was from my brother Gavin and his wife Gigi, you have no idea how much mommy appreciates this one, her old costume had gotten so small for her but she loved it so much there was not getting her away from it, now I can put that one away for Amber one day.



Amber looks so interested in what this one is (hehehe) this was a gift that big sister Jade was more interested in, it's a dual headrest dvd player for the car so now they can both watch movies comfortably in the car and hopefully not bug mommy so much.



Amber trying to see all her new stuff, that ball in the front is pretty cute it has a weight type thing inside and other than being bloody noise like most baby toys are, it wobbles around by itself and is suppose to encourage the baby to follow it which is pretty neat right now while Amber is learning to crawl. The ball and the other Baby Einstein toy is also from Gavin and Gigi.



This is a neat Tinkerbell lunch box, Jade has one that recently actually broke, not to the extent that it couldn't be used anymore but now she has an excuse to replace it :-) This is another gift from the Stanton family.



This one has a cute story behind it, a note came home from school asking us if we wanted to participate the kids were doing a neat math lesson, we could send some money with the kids to school and they were allowed with the money to buy gifts for their family, the gifts ranged from $1 upwards so we gave Jade some money and well just thought we would wait and see what she brought home. Most of the gifts were definitely things Jade liked for herself I think (hehehe) but this little one she bought especially for Amber, it has a flashing light inside, it's probably not the safest gift but while supervised Amber had lots of fun with it, in fact I think it was her favorite gift which is just priceless.



The ball gift from my brother and Gigi again, I just loved her face in this pic, it was a wow face, is this for me ?



Jade really got lucky with all the Tinkerbell stuff this year, that is for sure, this is actually a money box which I thought was so cute, she actually got two money boxes this Christmas but this was the pretty one for sure, it came from Oupa and Nana and the other one was one I bought her, it's an electronic one what counts your change as you put it in, I might claim that one for my own if it's not a hit with her (hehehe).



By this stage Amber had gotten in the spirit of tearing and opening and tasting of course, not sure if she likes the taste of wrapping paper or boxes but we knew they would be more of a hit than what was inside this year ...



Jade was very upset by the time she opened all her gift and she had gotten nothing from Santa, was almost in tears since she knew Santa had been coz she had opened Ambers gift from Santa which was a baby bicycle, so we said he must have left a note and we hunted round for a note which we eventually found next to his cookies and milk which said her gift for some reason was in the laundry, we figured she would better enjoy the other gifts if this one was left hidden till last. She got a Hannah Montana bicycle.



Ok so it's raining all day today so she has ridden her new bicycle and her skooter in the house not thrilling both her dad and I but hey ... what can you do. We told her tomorrow is another day and she has tons of other stuff to play with today which seemed to keep her happy and we can do the bike and skooter tomorrow.



Man this place was a mess this morning but it's not too bad now, you can hardly see Amber amongst all the paper and gifts.



The girls amongst all the gift received this morning.



Sisterly love ...



Dave and I got some nice gift too, Dave got an Xbox 360 from me as well as a moving dolly thingi, you know that thing that you pack heavy stuff on that makes it easy to move ... yeah I know not a great gift if you ask me but it was what he wanted amongst other little things. I got a Notebook (mini laptop) that I wanted, which will make it easier for me to keep up to date while chasing Amber all over the show around here and I got a wok that I wanted too amongst other little things, so everyone is happy !!!

So that is another Christmas over and done with, can't believe it ... best start saving for next year now !!! Merry Christmas to you all.

Christmas Eve Pics ...

After the Christmas show at Church at Charlotte which was very cute, we got a bite to eat on the way home ... yippee I didn't have to cook since I was going to be cooking all day on Christmas day !!! Then we came home and got ready for Christmas, below Jade is throwing out food for the reindeer.



Then we put out Santa's cookies and milk.



Daddy playing and posing with Amber just before bedtime.





Then I am really glad I got this nice one ... earlier there was one of me and the girls but this one is super cute too :-)



The view from upstairs so what the girls would have seen when they woke up Christmas morning ... yep, I wrapped all those, took me almost three hours and it was all unwrapped in probably 30 mins ... I think next year I need a helping hand in wrapping don't you think ?

Two Last Pics Before Christmas - December 24th

Sorry no Christmas Colors here, this was this morning and they were both dressed up in pink so I thought I would take a quick pic ... we had kept Amber up without a nap so that she would go down for her long nap early so our Christmas outing with here this afternoon would be cool ... but by this point she was not happy that was for sure so I didn't get one smiley face but hey ... I guess she can't smile 24/7 right she is such a happy baby I need to be happy with that :-) and I am, believe me !!!



My two bright eyed girls ... very different eyes though !!!



Something I hadn't mentioned two nights ago I saw someone mention the Lake Park Lights and well didn't know what that was all about so asked, knowing Lake Park isn't too far from us. Anyway there is a guy there that for the past four years has done his house up with light and music, take a look at the link and play the video's it's an 18 minute show but is really well done. Definitely something we will look forward to doing every year now :-)

http://www.lakeparklights.com/

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays.

Cookies For Santa and Kitchen Fun ...

Getting into the Christmas spirit we thought we would get Santa's cookies baked yesterday since we knew today was going to be a little hectic, so here is Jade getting started.



Then we all got Christmas hats on and sang Christmas carols while decorating ... and inbetween we danced to the songs we liked best, a messy but fun afternoon just the girls and I.

I love this ... it's an Alice band kind of hat and fits her so well and she didn't mind it on at all.



Still busy decorating :-)



Some of the finished product, she made four for Santa, two from her and two from Amber, did I say ... what a mess !!! And she wonders why mommy wanted to frost one of two of her own, I am so not one of those parents that is happy to eat anything their kids make (hehehe).



Another rare pic but I thought this one came out well since I was taking it myself with arm outstretched (hehehe), it was really a fun afternoon.



It's off to Church at Charlotte for us this afternoon for their Christmas program, can't wait ... there's childcare too yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!

My Girls on the 23rd December ...

I took these pics of the girls this morning, Amber was more interested in the tree behind her so she didn't play along too well, kinda like the day I went to have their Christmas pics taken, she is such a smiley girl but when she needed to smile on cue ... no bloody way, it was terrible :-( Oh well !!! Here you go ...

Making A Gingerbread House.

Yesterday Jade invited little Louis over to build her gingerbread house with her, she was excited for days to do it with him but sadly Jade learned a valuable lifes lesson ... she said 'mom Louis is not helping me build the house, he is just playing DS all the time' so my reply was 'Jade this is how it goes babe, us ladies are always keep our house nice and decorating while all men do is play games' she just looked at me and then looked at Louis and said 'you see Louis ... you need to help' and well he did for a little bit and the end product was something the two of them were very proud of :-)

This was in the beginning when I told them to pose for a pic.



Here's the proof, Jade working hard to decorate and Louis playing DS (hehehe).



The finished product ...



I can't believe that I have never done this before, it seems tradition here, I think we will do this every year but next year we will make it a family affair :-)

Jades Birthday Party Pics ... Better Late Than Never Right ?

We had a face painter over for Jade party, she was amazing but I was surprised at how uncool some of the kids thought it was to have your face painted, very weird, shows you how grown up these kids are at seven already. Thankfully many of them warmed up to it later and had it done or at the very least got tattoos painted on them instead.

Here is Jade, all through the party she had stuff added including purple lips which you will see later but I think like this it looked its best.



This is Jennifer, she lives 5 houses on from us, she is in Jades class at school as well so they are becoming steady friends. Jade was a little upset that everyone decided they liked her butterfly so they wanted a butterfly too, even though Lisa made everyones look different ... oh well !!!



This is Vincent, he lives across the road from us, he is exactly a year younger than Jade, his birthday is the day after Jades.



Here the kids were crafting, I got them a Christmas craft which wouldn't be too messy, it turned out well and I think they had fun :-)



This is my best friend Tina's youngest Layla, isn't she gorgeous, she is a lot younger than Jade but still they play well together.



This is little Faith, she lives 3 houses away from us, her brother Jacob who you will see a pic of later, is in Jades class at school. Faith is also a lot younger than Jade but there are so many boys here that hopefully the girls stick together later :-) Is she just not the cutest little thing ... by the way the girls also had their finger nails painted which is what she is showing off here as well.



I might have gone with the face painting and finger nails been painted for the girls ... but the party theme was Spongebob Squarepants very much to my disgust but he is Jades favorite right now and she thought it would appeal to all the boys coming and not frighten them off :-) So here is her birthday cake.



This is Andreau on the left (yep spelt right) and Jacob on the right, Jacob is Faiths brother and also in Jades class. Andreau is Jades new little boyfriend, he is such a cutie, I really like him, he is very polite and well mannered, he lives three houses away in another direction and is also in Jades class. He was one of the boys that was too cool to have his face painted but we talked him into a tattoo later :-)



A painted tattoo on Jades hand, I love it, this girl is so good !!!



Here Jade is blowing out her candles and the kids are singing to her, here she has the purple lips, oh gosh please don't let my child grow up to be one of those goth kids, it looked yuck !!!



A rare family pic :-)



And unfortunately these weren't all the kids but some of the kids at the party, I had a friend that works with me at the church take pics, I think she did a great job, thanks Ruth Anne. She took tons more but I didn't want to add too many here.



Well that's another birthday behind us ... Happy Birthday my big seven year old. I love you lots.