Christmas Eve

Well it was a perfect Christmas Eve for the four of us. First we had a yummy supper, and read the Nativity story together.

Every Christmas Eve in our town, Santa rides up and down every single street on the fire truck. I absolutely love that our little town does that. Santa stops and gives each kid a candy cane and poses for pictures. It's a highlight of the night. Carter and Hayley were beside themselves with excitement!

Our Christmas Eve tradition is getting new pajamas. Here's the kids posing in their jammies.

They are snuggled warm in their beds right now, possibly asleep... but most likely eagerly awaiting morning and the arrival of Christmas Day. Jared and I are just as excited :)

Merry Christmas to all our beloved family and friends!

A Week in Pictures

Getting pulled behind the skidoos, before and after, lol

bowling

the stunning view out our front door

playing in the snow

Aaaahhhh, I love Christmas Holidays.

Just a typical evening

Wherein I make fun of my crazy day...

We've been a bit busy lately. Not with anything important or exciting, just normal stuff. I realized that fact this morning after opening the cup cupboard to find the eggnog I had recently poured for the kids. In the cupboard, instead of the fridge.

Our poor poor little puppy got "hoofed" (albeit not "to death") by a deer today. He seemed fine, no lasting injuries and mostly just scared. He got alot of pampering and snuggles after the fact. We all felt soooo sorry for the poor little guy. *A few hours later, he chewed on a Christmas present, so now he and I are back to "normal pampering status". *

Isn't he the cutest puppy you've ever seen though???

And see this sweet little girl?

She loves crafts. We do crafts together every single day. And the best part about crafts is writing your name on it when you're done. Duh. Until she writes her name on the white couch in red felt pen...

But hey, GREAT penmanship for a 4-year-old, right?!?

FYI - It came mostly out with some dish soap and a little elbow grease :)

Decked

Yesterday we put up our tree. The kids had so much fun doing it this year. I think every single year just keeps getting better as the kids get older. They are so excited for Christmas.

We also went to the Kids Christmas Party for Jared's work. I am always impressed at what a great party they put on. A big supper, a Magician, Santa and presents.... for 1000+ employees and their families. They go all out every year, and it is amazing.

Great gifts, hey? They were super excited. I woke Carter up for school this morning, and he had that huge sled in bed with him all night :)

The Day I Turned Old.

Last week I had a birthday...

Mr. Handsomepants surprised me with the most amazing present ever:

I feel so inexperienced taking pictures with it though. I would love to take a photography class so I can know what words like "aperture" and "macro" mean. I am very excited though and can't wait to have a new hobby to research :) Any tips???

It was a great day, but why wouldn't it be with my 3 sweeties?!

Could I possibly love them any more? Nope.

Random things that made my day.

* Waking up to 15cm of snow overnight. I'm not a big fan of Winter but it sure looked beautiful.

*Sitting inside and watching vehicles outside slip and slide and spin tires trying to get up the hill in front of our house.

* Watching "Glee" and they sang my current favorite song, Forget You by Cee Lo.

* (this was already posted as my Facebook status, so I apologize for the repetition for some of you)This morning at the gas station, I saw a man who was (no word of a lie) DANCING and SINGING at the top of his lungs. When I commented on his cheeriness, he threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed, "It's the first big snow of the season!". Then he inhaled deeply, looked around, and whispered, "It's beautiful!".... Not even kidding. I thought I was being Punk'd. Looked over my shoulder for Ashton Kutcher.

* Hayley and Riley (the girl we babysit) played "Kittens" all day today and were sticklers about only communicating in Meows. So entertaining!

* I was making supper this evening and Carter came over and asked, "Mom, what are you making?". I told him what I was making and then he goes, "Oh good, I thought you were making a magic potion".

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul...

Before Halloween, my Mom sent the kids a package in the mail. Inside were some letters, Halloween treats, and these funny little glasses...

Thanks Grandma for the endless entertainment!

Happy Halloween!

Trailer Love

I haven't been feeling too wordy lately (is it obvious?)... so I figured I would post pictures of our trailer. In mid-August we sold our little tent trailer and bought my parents trailer. We got to camp in it 4 times before finally winterizing it this past weekend...it made me a bit sad that winter's coming and we can't use it for several months now :)

I love this trailer so much. I can't even explain how nice it is to be up off the ground and warm while camping. And since it has running water/shower/stove/fridge, etc we can actually take it places and it's like our mini hotel room :)

View of the table, which folds down into our bed. kitchen to the right, bathroom to the left:

Triple bunk beds at the other end:

So there it is! We are so so happy with it and can't wait to start camping again in....February...? What? Too early?

Going Dutch

So this weekend we got a PUPPY!!!!! Definitely not a spontaneous decision, everyone knows we have been discussing this for years now, haha. I think the final straw was seeing all of Jared's brothers getting puppies that made us jealous ;) He's a Border Collie/Australian Sheperd X and he is so sweet. His name is Dutch and even though it's only been 2 days, he already feels like part of the family.

To say the kids are thrilled would be an understatement. They are so in love with this sweet little guy already. At our Thanksgiving meal, we took turns saying what we are thankful for. Pretty sure you can guess what Carter and Hayley said!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all our family and friends!

Only in BC...

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the popular "inter-office memos" that get sent around via email. You know the typical "please claim your old rotten tupperware containers out of the staff fridge" or "each employee will recieve 104 personal days per year. They are called Saturday and Sunday". Ya know, that type of thing...

Last week, Jared fowarded me this email that got circlated in the office where he works:

To: Fording River Email Users
Subject: Mud on the Windows

In an effort to stop big horn sheep from smashing through the windows and landing in somebody’s office, we are applying mud to reduce the window reflection.

The rams are in rut at this time and see their reflection in the windows. They issue a challenge by tilting their head and of course their reflection accepts the challenge. So far they have smashed several windows.

Please use understanding and patience in this attempt to deter the animals. This is a temporary measure only and should be a very effective deterrence.

Any questions, please give me a shout.
Senior Environmental Officer


Um...okay. Not your typical office memo, hey?

Lately

Golfing:

Isn't he such a stud???

My first sorta Triathlon (it's blurry, Hayley took the picture):

Baking with my sweet little cupcake:

Park days!

Enjoying the Fall weather and scenery:

Fernie Half Marathon with my teammate:

Arts and Crafts. Every. Single. Day:

Quadding with friends:

We have been busy busy, but with so many fun things! Sorry for the lack of updates, I will try to do better... TRY being the key word here.