cousins . . .

Our kids don't get to see my husband's nieces and nephews very often and this Christmas they got to see ALL of them. It was a week of lots of bonding time for them, and my gracious sister-in-law let her house get taken over and turned upside down while we were there.There's only two boys in the bunch and Justin is still a bit young to be a good playmate for our nephew Cameron, but I still caught some pics of them playing together.This one just makes me laugh . . .And here's the whole bunch (minus one) with Grampa & Gramma.

peek-a-boo . . .

Alyssa's Christmas program . . .

what could be more fun than a dishwasher?

the last of November . . .

Fell asleep on her big sis's shoulder

Craft time with Daddy

First time playing in the snow

Book character day ~ Fancy Nancy

Book character day ~ Nancy Drew

if all the snowflakes were chocolate bars and milkshakes, oh what a snow that would be! standing outside with my mouth open wide . . .

my first knitting project . . . sort of . . .

So a group of friends and I get together for coffee once a week and over the years we've tried to make some of these nights productive ~ scrapbooking, card making, sewing, quilting, and our latest endeavor was knitting. So I picked out a sweater pattern for Justin and got started. I soon came to realize though that this is not my favorite thing to do, and one evening a week was not getting this project done anytime soon, or at least before he'd outgrow it. So when we went to visit my Oma recently, I was thankful for her willingness to take over the sweater for me. I had managed to get the back piece and half an arm done, but in no time at all, my sweet Oma had the whole thing finished and on its' way back to me. Thanks Oma for doing a beautiful job on another sweater for one my kids!

a sweet moment . . .

I was just in the middle of my usual morning routine ~ a coffee while I catch up on my emails and blogroll, when I overheard this . . .

Kaitlyn ~ "Meagan is MY sister!! She only likes ME!" (my nieces are here for the day)

So I called Kaitlyn over to me and told her that Meagan likes everyone, including her cousin Alyssa (my daughter).

So Kaitlyn goes back to the other girls and this is what I hear next . . .

Alyssa ~ "Did my Mom make you cry?"

Kaitlyn ~ "No. She told me that Meagan likes everybody."

Alyssa ~ "That's because we're all FRIENDS!! HUG!"

By this time I had my camera in hand and grabbed some pics. These are the kind of sweet moments that make it easy to forget the frustrating ones.

the last of October . . .

first haircut . . .

This is a very "unlike me" type of thing to blog ~ I'm not good at remembering first haircuts, first tooth, or documenting any of them. But Justin's first haircut was out of necessity ~ his big sister somehow managed to drop her gum out of her mouth and into his hair, while Mommy wasn't home. So instead of taking out some olive oil and working it out, Daddy cut out a big chunk of hair from the back of little man's head. And even though giving a haircut to a squirmy one-year old was not high on my list of things I wanted to do today ~ it went not too bad, thanks to a dessert to distract him and a bath afterwards. It wasn't too sad saying goodbye to his curls; and now that it's done, I kinda wish I'd done it before family pictures this morning.

it's Fall . . .

We are thoroughly enjoying the "change of the Seasons" around here. More of a routine, the Summer clothes are officially out of the closets, it's still sunny enough to play in the yard most days, and the furnace has even kicked in a few times in our cozy home. Chantel celebrated her 6th birthday last week with a shopping trip with Oma, and a couple gifts from us. She was spoiled as they always are, and is very excited about her upcoming double birthday party with a school friend of hers. Alyssa also had her very first fieldtrip last week ~ to a pumpkin patch ~ which was a lot of fun.

boys are gross . . .

I'm sure I say this daily, and it's true! Boys are gross! Justin always goes for the germiest places in the house, puts the oddest things in his mouth, and puts his hands everywhere they shouldn't. I don't remember the girls being like this at all . . .

a catch-up post . . .

Wow, these past couple week have been a busy blur. We made the best of our last day of Summer holidays with a trip to a local dinosaur park; then we made an unplanned 4-day holiday out of town because my dear Opa ~ the biggest JP ~ passed away; we then came home to start the girls in school (a couple days late), and host Brad's brother and his family for a few days (and got to meet our brand new niece!). And now that we're finally settling into the school routine, I still haven't had a "real" day off ~ but I've gotten all the kids closets sorted for Fall, my Winter clothes shopping for the kids done, preschool for Alyssa started, and one of the girls already had their first sick day. Such is life!