Week 14

Week 13

Can I say "better late than never" and get away with it??????

What a week so far. With power outages, last minute Christmas preparations, the arrival of my sis and 

beautiful nieces (who I must add, have totally stolen my heart, once again), laughter, fun and more and more laughter. Did I mention the laughter?

More posts coming, including tree decorating, Secret Santa, Reindeer Food, and of course Christmas. Unfortunately the old blog will take a back seat while I spend time enjoying being together as a family (18 months since I last saw J and the girls), coloring with A, teaching E to crochet, drinking WAY too much Diet.Coke, chasing my puppy (boy, he loves Christmas wrap) and spending hours at the kitchen table thanking god I have teenagers who love a good inappropriate joke (their Anti is here, after all and add their dad  to the mix, and hilarity ensues).

I hope you can hear my happiness, as it is brimming to overflowing!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

What a Day!

After 23 hours of no power, a flight from Calgary delayed for 3 hours, a freezing rain storm, and no salt to pour all over the ice, we finally got our special visitors, our ice salt, our power back at 10pm, and the end of a terrible storm.

In the 10 years we have lived  here, we have never seen an ice storm like this. On our travels yesterday we saw such a lot of damage - many branches that had been ripped off trees and were lying in yards, and on the side of the roads. Many trees have been toppled, taking down fences and in one case, landing on a car. I love trees and have grown such an affection for them since moving to Ontario. Coming from a province where trees are in scarce supply, I have found that my favorite things about Ontario are the trees, the water and the mild temperatures. It was very sad to see so much destruction. Thankfully I did not hear of any fatalities, which made my heart happy. While you never want to hear of such tragedy, so close to the holidays is absolutely unthinkable to me.

Jessica, E and A arrived last night after a three hour delay, waits on the tarmac, and de-icing of the plane like crazy. It was a long day waiting for them to arrive. Along with a COLD day with no heat, and only Costco to go to for lunch. Which of course, was no hardship.

Craig and I stayed home while everyone left for the airport, and set up the Christmas tree in the dark. We lit about a dozen candles, and made a meal in the dark, so that when everyone arrived, they would have some nourishment.

What a joy to have everyone here! We feasted on grapes, strawberries, bread, butter, cheese, crackers and Craig fired up the BBQ and re-heated some stuffed-baked potatoes. We also got to sample some profiteroles and chocolate torte for dessert along with some wine, water and chocolate milk.

It was a magical evening and the holiday has truly begun. Today we will have our tree decorating party and tomorrow my new kitchen island is being built. Woot Woot! Gotta love Christmas!

Off to get a pedicure with my two besties!

Daily Grover

Kaedo thought this was so funny. Had to do it. We have this car in our living room. Sterling has been using it to practice driving around the house. NOT! It's a cute little pedal car that I'm sure my cutie niece A is going to want to drive.

Merry Craigmas! (One Day Late!)

Yesterday was Craigmas and we celebrated Craig's birthday in style! After a very busy day of Christmas shopping and wrapping, we sat down to a FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC steak dinner, cooked to perfection by none other than my dad.  To Craig's credit, he did pick out the slab of meat that the steaks were cut from. My contribution was bread, stuff baked potatoes and salad as well as the famous Chocolate Sour Cream Cake - which I must add is already gone.

Craig got a ton of wonderful gifts, including 3 ties, a dress shirt, dress pants, UA Unders, Football socks, UA Hat, Charged Cotton UA shirt, money and his favorite gift, one he didn't want but needs .... a new suit! That's what happens when you're the boss. You have to dress up.

He modeled his clothes for us, including the unders - ooh lala! and we had a very nice evening.

Now he has more Under.Armour than the store does!

Today we finished the last of the shopping, got the gifts all moved out of the mansuite, made up the room for Jessica and the girlies, and did some general tidying.

Tomorrow we put up the tree and have our "Tree Decorating Party".  Yay! Can't wait. Tomorrow at 5, Christmas officially starts.

Did You Know?

1. I get up between 2:30 and 4am every day.

2. I write a list and then re-write it so it looks nice, only to scratch it off as I go along.

3. I still keep an 'Old Fashioned' Agenda - no electronic day timers for me. And I write in pencil!

4. I love to cook. I'm not always successful but I do love it.

5. On Sunday I bought my first ever Turkey. A Butterball, in case you're wondering.

6. My hair is super curly and half way down my back. Don't know how it got so curly, but I love it. Don't know how I let it grow so long, but the men in my family like it best that way.

6. I have a thick white streak that has grown down the front of my hair. I will never color it. I love it. A badge of honor!

7. My favorite part of Christmas is doing the Christmas Stockings. I love finding things that I think each person may like but may never buy for themselves. My dad is going to laugh at his this year.

8. I dance to ABBA on my record player (best flea market investment EVER), REALLY loud, with my dog. He doesn't much like it. I think he feels like he's being held hostage!

9. There is nothing better than thrifting. If I wasn't so fat I'm sure I'd buy all my clothes at thrift stores.

10. I have a brilliant idea for my kitchen table and am just waiting to see what my dad thinks. Hope he likes the idea too.

OK - that's it for now - bored yet?

Happy Tuesday All!

week 12

Sketches

The boys volunteered at a Special Needs Christmas Party yesterday and during the event they had these sketches done. Such a wonderful job. I'm not sure where I'm going to put them, but I am going to frame them.  So cool.

And finally a post without Grover in it!

Week 11

The end of a busy weekend is upon and the boys were gracious enough to get their picture taken before heading off to their volunteer meeting.

Only two weeks left of school and they are certainly on the countdown. Not too much longer until Amma and Baba are back and Jessica and the girlies arrive. We are looking forward to a fun and busy holiday filled with lots of people, screaming kids, glitter, sprinkles and chasing the dog!

The countdown is on!

Grover

Kaedo has had his camera out in full force taking pictures of this little cutie, so I thought I would show some of them off here. He is doing great and adjusting well. Plus he's cute as a button, so that helps.

He's captured our hearts. Just a little!

Week 10

Week 10 and all humans are smiling! 

Grover is saying, "What the hell is this Gnome Picture you speak about?"

There was no option about having him in the picture and it is cool that he arrived on picture day. Ketchup made a few appearances over the years so we are thrilled to have this guy join in the fun.

I got the boys up a little earlier this morning. Giving them each a furry friend wake up. Amazingly it was easy to get both of them moving. hmmm. Grover also seems to like smelly boy feet. Some dogs have no taste!

Welcome Home

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce you to a new love in our lives:

two minutes after meeting him - still a little teary

Craig and I took a surprise road trip today to bring home this beautiful boy. He is a MalShih cross named Grover. He's 16 weeks old and the boys are beyond thrilled. He's 8lbs, quiet as a church mouse and has to wear a bell so we don't step on him. He's wonderfully tempered, quiet, cuddly and since he's no longer a fragile puppy, the boys are able to play with him and carry him every where. The boys are smiling their true smiles today and we've been waiting for them. It has been a hard secret to keep from them but it was so worth it. Kaedo has taken about 70 pictures and some video and these are just a few of the great shots.

We know that next time our families visit they will fall in love with him too. In fact, our friends have already asked when we may need a 'babysitter'.

Anyway, Welcome Grover - so glad you're home!