Newsflash

Recent events have warranted another blog post. :)

Thursday was a busy day. We said hello to Noah Steven (Congratulations Greg & Stephanie!):

And goodbye to Auntie Mel who will be serving a mission in Scotland/Ireland for the next 18 months.

Otiosity

Otiose: words serving no useful purpose; an unavailing attempt to convey meaning; superfluous.

I shall try to make my blog posts less of...that. So let's get down to business.

With many things happening simultaneously, we've been a bit anxious and emotionally worn lately.

Our hearts are with Steph and Brandon as they miss his father.

Our hearts are with Stephanie and Greg who will welcome their little baby on Thursday.

Our hearts will be with Melanie as she travels to England for her mission preparations.

Our hearts are with Natalie as she prepares for surgery and the after effects.

Ryan's overcoming a bout with Internal Disc Disruption that's had him out of commission for quite a few days. Luckily he was able to go back to work today and feels as though he is on the mend. However, I was a bit disappointed with the coincidence of this coupled with the massive amounts of snow we received! Since Ryan always shovels, it was finally my turn to step up and carve a path for us to get out of the house.

Before:

After:

Before:

I was running out of places to put the snow!

Because of the weather, we were stuck at home for a few days and had to miss Mel's farewell talk, Greg's birthday celebration and Rob's jazz concert. Talk about crummy timing for a blizzard.

Dancing, tea parties, movies, music, games and the like have been easing our cabin fever.

Miss Claire loves playing the piano for us.

Miss Madeline's dancing interests have increased due to the new Kinect Dance Central (so much fun!). She's got a whole new repertoire of moves now.

Fun fact: I was reintroduced to the world of sushi by Kathy on our girl's night out. I had it once, about 9 years ago in Las Vegas, didn't like it and have avoided it ever since. Now I feel sophisticated. :)

Obligatory Holiday Recap Post COMMENCE

We've had a very busy holiday "break." It's never really a break from activity, rather a shift in location and schedule.

We started out by celebrating Rob's birthday. We got to visit in their home and eat some yummy food and play games.

Madeline is helping Daddy make crepes at the party. We had both savoury and sweet crepes and they all turned out really well. Ryan is the crepe master.

Rob & Olivia's house is lovely. Notice Broc and his perfect timing, blocking Rob's face. I wish I were better at photoshop to fix that up.

After cramming in some last minute shopping and trying to leave our house as clean as possible (I hate going away and coming home to a messy house), we headed out to Wetaskiwin on Christmas Eve.

We began the yearly traditions with bowling. It's always a fun time and I think we may have started a trend. It was busier this year than ever before.

We even got bowling shirts this year, courtesy of Jim.

Ryan, subtly flexing.

The manly men, off to fight a war, laser-style.

Claire loves the sounds of bowling and she did really well on her turns!

After our hours at the alley, we headed to my parents' house for a Chinese food dinner, reading the Christmas story and opening our annual Christmas Eve gift of PJs. There was less structure for the night this year, due to some people feeling under the weather, but it was nice to have a low-key evening together.

Enjoying the hot tub.

Grandma and one of Santa's Little Helpers. Mom got both the girls these little aprons and they're very cute!

Yay for pyjama pictures in front of the tree! Ryan got me the softest PJ pants in the world. THE WORLD, I tell you.

The night was a little rough. Madeline and I slept pretty well, but Ryan and Claire did not. I guess they were both too excited. :)

Despite the lack of sleep, Claire was very happy in the morning!

We all got spoiled, as usual.

Madeline and Claire both had a very "Princess-y" Christmas this year!

We got to spend time with both families which is always nice.

Auntie Angela is feeling much better and we're all glad!

We're so lucky to get two Christmases!

We spent a fun day out at Sheila's place for Boxing Day. It's a tradition we really love. I'm sure someone took pictures, but I completely forgot. Let's just say there was a lot of good food, family and visiting. The kids got along very well and had multitudes of tea parties all over the house, much to Uncle Don's chagrin.

All that happened in only our first week of holidays. There was much more to come.

Next came Natalie's birthday!

We had fun at Natalie and Travis' house, where we were introduced to the intoxicating game world of Kinect. Madeline and Broc were the pros!

Then it was Ryan's turn to get older. He turned 30 on December 30th.

While the boys went to a movie, I got to play with the girls and Cairo. It was a fun time. We had a "light party" in Claire's room, where we turned off all the lights and played with all her light-up toys.

The kids got along very well and Madeline really took Cairo under her wing. It was fun to watch. :)

Later that evening we had a Hawaiian party for Ryan. It was nice and cheesy, with fun decorations, Hawaiian name tags, leis and beach music. :)

Because we were so taken by the Kinect at the last birthday party, we had to go cash in some birthday money and gifts cards to get one of our own. It was a big hit at the party.

I found cool sparklers for the cake - 3 - 0.

We also used some Christmas money to cash in on a great deal for new appliances for the kitchen. They were supposed to arrive early on Ryan's birthday, but didn't end up coming until after 930pm! Luckily we had Travis and Natalie to help unpack and install everything.

Now we just need a new microwave to match. :)

Madeline was counting the magnets on the new fridge and she got all the way up to twenty. It's the first time she's done it without help so I asked her, "How do you count so high?!" She replied, "I just go on my tippy toes." :)

Our last round of festivities revolves around New Year's Eve. We spent a nice day out at my family's house, napping, watching movies, eating yummy food, playing games, going in the hot tub, enjoying the fireworks from the neighbours yard and counting down to 2011. It was fun. :)

I love holding Claire while she sleeps. It's pretty much the only time she stays still and you don't have to watch out for flying elbows...haha.

Madeline kept asking Grandma where the "pearls" were. It took a while to figure out she meant "curlers," the little foam ones that you roll up in your hair and then sleep in. She kept them in for about 15 minutes. That's almost a record for hair implements though, so we're making headway.

Dad and Claire enjoying some nice hugs.

Luckily Claire has a patient and talented Grandma and Aunty Natalie who cut her hair when it needs a serious detangling intervention. It usually only takes four people to tame the mane. It started out with Grandma having Claire in a leg lock of sorts, Mommy trying to hold Claire's torso still, Auntie Mel distracting her with balloons and Auntie Natalie doing the cutting in quick spurts. The next day, Grandma cleaned up the edges and styled it a bit. Here's her cute new look!

We had a lovely New Year's Day meal. Ryan was hard at work in the busy Apple Store so we missed him. :(

This picture is for Auntie Val. She gave Madeline a Rice Krispie baking set for Christmas and we have put it to great use. We had a lot of fun making these...and we used a lot of sprinkles. I guess those two things DO go hand in hand.

I can't believe it's back to "real life" tomorrow. Trudging through the snow to get to school, scheduled waking times, getting dressed before 10am, packing lunches, assignments, meetings, etc. etc. I'm sure we'd get sick of holidays after a while but it's sure hard to say goodbye to them sometimes.