Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Enough Sleepovers For A While Now !!!

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The past few weeks over Winter Break have been busy busy, golly I need a break.

This past week my neighbors Joe and Colleen went to London to get away for a few days, she got a really good deal so it was almost cheaper for them to fly there and have a vacation than to have one locally, can you believe that.

Anyway it went pretty well, they boys had stayed over here before so we all knew what to expect :-) but let's just say I am so glad I have girls ... if for no other reason I don't have to fight the toilet seat issue, gosh !!! Yuck !!!

Anyways, here are two pics of them hanging out here, the first was them all playing with Playdoh, cannot believe how much fun my girls have been having with the playdoh they got for Christmas, this was not even the half of what they got but everyone got to enjoy it and it kept them busy for a while and taught everyone a lesson or two in sharing, oh boy !!! And believe it or not the mess was minimal ...



Then they all cuddled up in Jades bedroom every night at about 8 ish to watch a movie, they could all stay up, including Amber till 10 which was a huge treat for both my girls since it was a good couple of nights in a row, Amber was the only one that fought bedtime but it was probably past that point of no return on the tired scale. Anyway it's back to school now so back into the routine they are.



Oh yeah, that is some of Jade new bedroom stuff, that is the theme anyway, we need to paint the room and put up the decorations still but that will happen soon and I will send some pics to show you the finished product.

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Forgot about these ...

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Totally forgot about these ... sure I must have made mention of them before though, with Jades last report card she made the A/B Honor Roll which means that she got A's and B's in all her subjects, her little friend made the A Honor Roll though so she wants that too, I am not going to stop her :-) let her keep trying and keep up the hard work. I am happy with A/B Honor Rolls if she can keep that up all her schooling. They get 3 or 4 grading periods a year so it's not like just a yearly achievement they have to work hard at it all year long, it's also not just for exams for grade testing as they call it here, it goes on class test and projects too.



This was the other one she got ... I had to laugh, is this the one they give to kids they have nothing nice to say about (hehehe), I mean I know she is creative, she always has been creative, in fact her 'story telling' at home has become quite creative too so what does that mean ... I am all about the A/B Honor Roll but they can keep this one !!!



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Is that not just the naughtiest face you have seen in a long while ?

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Just a picture taken before school one morning in the new year ...



Is that not the naughtiest face you have seen in a long while ... and that is a true Amber face, we see that face every day, cute as a button she is !!!



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Friday, January 13, 2012

Here Goes The Marathon Of Pics ...

THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE ... HOPE YOU ARE SITTING DOWN. REMEMBER TO SCROLL.

Ok so these pics were all taken on the 4th of December and were taken for our Christmas card so I didn't want to add them here till everyone that was sent a card actually got one :-) But I took so sooooooo many but wanted to add a whole bunch here for the grandparents especially so if there were any more that you wanted to print other than what I sent you, you could use these or ask me to send you the good quality one :-) Here goes ... hope you are seated, there are a bunch of pics.

This one was taken while Jade was still getting ready, Amber wanted a candy, I must have been mad all dressed up and all and adding candy, not a good combination but anyway she had just woken up and was not a happy chappy so the candy helped.



Eventurally Jade joined us and the marathon photo shoot started.







Her hair came so pretty after I washed it this day, some days if I don't put product, yes you head me correctly, if I don't work with her curls she can have dead straight hair but so glad I got it looking pretty for these pics :-)





This is my absolute favorite, so many of these pics the girls have their faces all scrunched up, but this one is totally natural and I love it, best pic of this group by far.







Love these lying down pics too.





Gosh hate this growing out fringe phase :-(



Ok yes I know ... I need a bigger tree, the kids make my tree look even smaller than it really is but yeah we do need a bigger tree in this house anyway, maybe next year. A nice 12 footer would be great.

And the modeling starts, you had to be there, this was all too funny.







Jade doesn't realize that Amber is wearing most of her old Christmas dresses and she feel like Amber is being spoilt with all the dresses and she has none, so I went out and got this what I thought was a more age appropriate Christmas dress for her, she totally loved it :-) hopefully she will still fit into it next year to get some more wear out of it :-)



Ok where'd my tree go ?



OMG it was too funny Amber was trying to copy all Jades 'modeling skills' that she has learnt over the years with moms excessive photo sessions.





You can only imagine how funny this was for Dave and I to watch :-)







My sassy girl growing up so fast !!!





Even thought I got a gazillion pics that afternoon this sweet one below was just taken at the right time and I only have the one ... it was not prompted at all, Jade just turned and kissed her and the moment was over with before I knew it, definitely one of my favorites.



Look how Amber is looking at Jade ... she totally adores her yet they fight like cat and dog you can hardly believe it.



So sweet ... I think they were tired of the pics by this point.



Oh wait ... maybe just one or two more :-)





And the absolute last one of Christmas 2011 is ...



Now that took forever to load so I am done for today, have a couple more to post but maybe another day :-) Hope you enjoyed these.

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One Christmas Eve Pic & One Christmas Morning Pic ...

REMEMBER TO SCROLL DOWN IF YOU HAVE NOT CHECKED FOR A WHILE COZ THERE ARE A BUNCH OF UPDATES FROM DECEMBER.

Yep can you believe you are only getting two pics ...

After we got back from our Christmas Eve tradition at Joe and Anne's house which is a bring and share evening but really they cater so much too that golly they really could feed the neighborhood even thought it's really just a good couple of families that attend, I think the count was about 75 people I think. They put on a wonderful spread of Honey Baked Ham, Pasta and Meatballs, Turkey and too many sides to mention and of course a dessert table to die for but as I was saying when we got home and the kids were asleep ... Santa got busy !!!

This one was take just after Santa visited our house on Christmas Eve, this is what the girls would see first thing in the morning, Amber was speechless by the way and wasn't sure about it all but once she got opening the gifts she wanted to open everyones :-)



Last year I took so many pics while gifts were being opened that it was no fun for me really and the pics didn't come out great and we all looked terrible so I passed on it this year so sorry this is the only one you are getting of the three of them while opening gifts.



Anyway we all had a great Christmas, were all spoilt rotten !!! At about 10am on Christmas morning we went over to Heather and Jonas which has now become tradition, they host a PJ Christmas Breakfast ... not sure if I covered this all in a previous blog, can't remember what I have covered and what I have not at this point. But yeah they do a huge bacon, sausage, eggs to order with amazing omelette's, pancakes, toast, bagels, English muffins, fruit and gosh so much else, can't say enough how much I love our neighborhood. Even Dave which is totally not a social butterfly I think is enjoying it all now :-) December is social overload for him though LOL but he survived that is all that matters :-)

Anyway another Christmas down, with some luck hopefully my brother might be with us next Christmas, hint hint :-)

I am almost up to date :-)

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Cookie Decorating Party At Our House.

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As most of you know, this is a very sociable neighborhood but I have not found that something that I have been able to do at my house that would be fun for everyone, so this year I decided since tradition at our house is to make cookies for Santa a day or two before Christmas, why not open it up to my neighbors and we can all have fun together so that is just what I did, we had about 35 to 40 people over, of which at least half were kids and I put our some cookies and cupcakes and provided all the yummy stuff to go on top of them and then ... they got at it :-) next year though I need to take pics of what some of the cakes looked like, totally forgot about that.

Here are the tables ready for everyone to arrive.



We did three tables, the smaller ones for the little kids Ambers age.



There was lots of stuff for everyone and lots left over too :-( but rather too much than too little.



The first family arrived and got stuck in ...



Then the rest came in slowly but surely too :-)



Can you tell that Ambers having fun ... I just let her do her own thing so I know she had lots of fun.



But just in case you didn't believe me ... here's the proof.



Anyway I think a fun time was had by all and really the mess was not anything like I thought it would be so definitely going to do this again next year, this will have to be one of my things :-)

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Ambers First Christmas Show ...

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On the Thursday the 15th of December, Amber had her first Christmas Show at her preschool, her preschool is part of a church and the hall we had the show in is where the church services are held, we had never been in there before but Dave was very impressed but the huge screen they have up front, nice quality too and they had a coffee shop :-) Pity they were not selling coffee that night though.





Here are two videos from the show, first Ambers class singing Happy Birthday Jesus and the second is the entire preschool singing Celebrate Jesus Is Born Today. Can you tell that I have a little singer on my hands, too cute.

In this first one can you tell how distracted Amber was with the little girl next to her, so very thankful that she didn't join her in messing around. Remember if you can't see this well in here, copy the link and watch it in youtube itself, that way you can make it full screen too.



My future gospel singer (hehehe) she loved it up there, sorry for the unsteady frame, yeah next time I will do the videoing, sorry Dave.



This was afterwards in the foyer of the church. What fun this evening was, can wait to see what the future holds for my singing girls :-)



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Jades Christmas Show & Birthday !!!

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Another busy week ... On Jades actual birthday, the evening we just went out for supper as a family and ate so much that when we got home even Jade said she would rather eat her birthday cake the next day, can you believe that (hehehe) anyway it worked out well that way.

Her birthday was the Monday, on the Tuesday night the 3rd Graders put on a Christmas Show at St Matthews, Jade was an angel, Dave took pics but man the guy needs some lessons (hehehe) they all came blurry except for this one, thank Heavens we at least got one !!! The show was cute but very short.



We went in two cars since Dave met up with us on route home from work, anyway Jade drove with Dave and I went ahead with Amber, they stopped on the way home to watch a controlled house fire which I would have also loved to stop for but it was cold and Amber still had a snotty nose so we went straight home.

This was Jades cake this year.



Then while Amber and I waited we messed around with the camera.





Last year I took so many pics of Amber in so many different Christmas outfits but this year I feel like December was a constant rush and although she had many I just didn't have time for pics but anyway here is just one of them :-(



Eventually Jade got home, this was here and Amber doing candles, this was taken before Jade managed to catch her hair alight ... yep !!!



A rare Christmas / Birthday or Family Pic.



And zoomed in :-)



I guess that is another birthday down, next year is a big one, not only does she turn 10 but she turns 10 on the 12/12/12 ... should have been 12 right :-) but still pretty cool.

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