All Couped Up

Its been cold. REALLY cold. I dont go out much. We are all couped up!
Heres a little of what we've been doing.



My Sewing Room

 This is my sewing room. Its where I practically live this time of year. My poor machine is practically smoking by the time im done with it. That list you see on the white board? Yah thats only half of it. Now, I cant show you any of the Christmas presents yet, that would just ruin everything, but I can show you a couple of the other projects ive been doing...



The Advent Calendar. Inspired by my childhood.




...the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
I just finished making these.



patching clothes!!! The bad thing about the whole 'distressed' look is that they dont last as long,
The good thing? Very easy to repair!!!



Amoungst my projects i've had to keep 'stir crazy children' happy too. So we've been doing things like this!



Making sugar cookies!




Kael and Naveah had so much fun playing with the extra dough and using the "steam roller".




The cookies.



Christmas Decorations!




Kaels looks somewhat disturbing...
 Perhaps they should have thought of another color for Santa.




Naveah had more fun pressing the felts down so hard the tips would pop up inside.
 This WAS a blue felt...we dont play with these anymore.

 Its not only cooking and crafts the kids like to do. A big plus is that they LOVE to help me clean. So on a day that the house was way overdue for a good make over, I plugged in the Vacuflo and Kael and Naveah spent hours taking turns vacuuming. When they ran out of things to vacuum on the floor, they found other things....like the dining table. It was pretty cute.



Kael vacuuming the dining table!

 The kids are also really into Christmas movies right now. I dont think I can take much more of 'Frosty the Snowman'. So I bought Kael "The Polar Express". There is a constant rotation of those two, "Frosty Friends", "The Grinch" and occationally they throw in "How to train your Dragon". Movies were becoming so frequent for a while that as soon as the kids got out of bed they were plopped on the couch asking to watch a movie. So I moved the TV to our bedroom so it was 'out of sight, out of mind'. Its working so far. Now movies are only occasional and much more appreciated.


excited to all hang out and watch Frosty while I got some Laundry folded.




Who could resist that picture!

 Aside from movies another favorite time for the kids is Bedtime....???? Yes its true. We never used to read books to them at night. We sometimes got grief about it but it was just something that didnt work for us at bedtime. But since we've moved and have had a lot more 'down time' the kids have become quite fond of them. Because time with Daddy has been so scarce lately with his busy work schedule, reading books with him before bed has become an anticipated event. Kael reads one of two books every night. Either his "Discovery Space" book, or his "The story about Everything" book. Naveahs favorite right now is a Little People book I bought a couple years ago. She loves to look at the page that has the grocery store on it and scoop out food and treats from the pages and feed them to us and herself (and sometimes the monsters). I caught this picture tonight. Apparently Kael was reading THEM the story.



Kael reading them the "Story about Everything".

 We are loving Red Deer and its slow pace. So far I dont mind staying at home all the time. I dont mind not having something to do everyday because its given me the chance to focus on my family. Its amazing what you discover about your children when you're only interaction with civilization is them.

Naveah is such a strong nurturing spirit. She Loves everything. I sit back and watch her play with her toys and love seeing how gentle she can be with them. She rocks them all gently in soft blankets. She calls them "Hunny" and "Sweetheart" and gets incredibly upset if a toy falls on the ground or gets stepped on. Her imagination has gone wild lately. She scoops things out of books or out of thin air and is completely satisfied with whatever it is. She also has become good friends with one of the monsters in the vents and often I catch her feeding it treats. She has become quite taken with Jacek and tries to sooth him when he is upset. She loves giving him hugs and kisses. All of this gentle and caring behavior from her completely wipes out the fact that 90% of the day is spent whining, crying or screaming.



kisses and hugs for baby brother.



Kael is becoming quite the individual. He wants to do everything by himself. Getting dressed, getting something to drink, turing on light switches, washing hands, and shoveling the sidewalk! The stool gets carried where ever he goes so he can get what he needs. My help is hardly ever wanted anymore. We have also switched into overdrive when it comes to Tantrums. Man this kid puts on one good show. Many tantrums leave Evan and I holding back hysterical laughter. He says silly things like "My legs arent working cause theres no food left in them". Today when I asked if his lips hurt (because they are very chapped) his response was, "yah, my lips hurt cause I was trying to eat them". (I promise, we really do feed him, though his quotes appear otherwise!). He is so intuned with emotion I get excited to think about the caring Man he will one day be. He is always sure to check to make sure im happy. Hes first to give hugs and kisses when someone gets hurt. He tears up in movies when someone is sad and he always knows when you need a great big hug! Hes eager to make friends and will make sure no one is left out welcoming all kids to come and play with him. What more can I say? I love this little man!

.

Jacek is still too young to pin point exactly. His personality changes daily. What we do now about him is this; He loves to smile and giggle. Sometimes I think the only reason he fusses is so he can smile at you when you come to see whats wrong. He loves watching Kael and Naveah he observes their every move. He likes patterns with black and white and doesnt mind at all being in his carseat. Hes not a fan of being rocked or patted when he needs to be soothed but being in warm water will always do the trick. Even just turning the shower on will quickly stop his cries. He is loved by all who see him and I cant wait to get to know him more.



Mr Handsome Pants

 Evan has become an amazing Father and Husband. Despite the kind of day he has had at work he is always happy to come home and see the kids. He takes the time to call me daily to make sure Im doing okay and any spare time he has is spent with us or working on the 'honey do' list. I love that when hes home he is sure to include Kael and Naveah in whatever he is doing whether it be shovelling snow, running arrands, home improvements, or spinning records.
Red Deer has been such a good move for us. Our relationship with eachother as well as our relationship with the children has improved dramatically.

Growing Up

Its something we cant avoid....Growing Up. I remember doing it, and now I look at my children and see them doing it. In a way it makes me sad. It makes me sad that my childhood is and always will be just a memory. It also makes me sad that my children ARE growing up. When I look at Kael I realize just how fast those first years fly by. Yesterday he was minutes old. Today he is nearly Four.

He started 'pre school'. Well thats what we call it. Its really just a 2 month program at the Kerry Wood Nature Center here in Red Deer. Its 2.5 hours twice a week. They spend the first half of the day playing inside and learning about whatever theme it is that day, then they spend the other half outside...even if its freezing cold and snowing! He LOVES it. When I pick him up hes excited to tell me about the animals he saw. His first class he saw an Owl. Another class he was lucky enough to see a Moose!!! Since then hes just been telling me about squirrels and birds but he is just as excited to tell me about those animals as he was about the Moose. My fridge has become full of little art projects he gets to do and I smile with the thought that these art projects will continue for the next 12 years, at least, and only get better and better. He is really excited about his next class on Friday. The theme is "twinkle twinkle little star". Ill definelty be bringing my camera to that one so I can get pictures of his face when he sees the black out dome filled with the images of little stars!!!

All ready to GO!

Waiting to go inside

Kaels first art project. A Bison. Decorated with recycled coffee grinds and yarn. How fun!

This is a painting he did. (with Crystal Light!!!). Do you know what it is???

its a Helicopter!!!! (obviously)

Todays theme was "bones". Decorated with Q-tips!

Our dear sweet Naveah. Shes a one of a kind type of girl. Such a quirky personality thats absolutely adorable but also so different its hard to get a real handle on her. Her mood changes just as often as Alberta weather and she sways between Tom Boy and Girly Girl. She loves to wrestle, growl, mimic noises and movies, play with transformers, tuck her 'babies' into bed and 'make food'. Shes very imaginative and it can be incredibly intense at times. While hanging out downstairs in the playroom one day she walked up to me with a plastic egg, opened it up and pointed at the 'tiny baby' that was inside. Must have been REALLY tiny cause I couldnt see it. Of course I didnt TELL her that. Moments later she statrted skrieking and I asked what was wrong. Apparently she dropped 'tiny baby' in the carpet and couldnt find her!!!! So with all the spare 'tiny babies' I keep in my back pocket, I simply handed her another one and "WALLA!" problem solved.

Naveahs Favorite, reading books with Daddy at bedtime.

...Beautiful!...


Making herself comfortable! (probably watching Toy Story!)




Jacek. My Big Little Boy is doing very well. He graduated from 'Newborn' to 'Baby' a week ago when we had to move him into size TWO diapers (*tear). We are finally settling into a manageable routine and "sleeping" has become part of my vocabulary once again. Night time feedings are generally only once a night now and I can usually get a good 3 hour nap out of him during the day. Hes a very happy little boy. Loves smiling and 'cooing' at anyone who will listen to him. He doesnt like to be left alone and will quickly kick up a fuss if there is no one in eyesight. Once he sees a face though he goes right back to smiling! I had to take him in for his vaccines today. Poor guy. I always feel so bad for them. He did pretty well though! hardly flinched for the first shot, the second however was a completely different story. We also weighed and measured today. Im not surprised at the results. Hes 10 weeks old, 14.06 lbs, and 24 1/4 inches long. Hes in the 95 percentile (not far behind Naveah who was off the charts until she was 9 months old!) and in the 70 percentile for proportion...so basically hes just big!

Still smiling even though he just got 'poked'.

Big Boy...

His first Band-aid, and he got TWO of them! :(

We all did a fun little craft last night while waiting for supper to be done....SnOwFlAkEs!!!! If you didnt make these as a child, you were seriously deprived. I have made thousands of these in my life time (one year filling my Dad's basement suite ceiling with them). I wanted to see how well Kael and Naveah would do. So this is not only their first time making snowflakes, it was the first time using SCISSORS!!! (I have a feeling my Mom just got a knot in her chest).They did much better than I did at their age and used the scissors for their rightful purpose, cutting paper!!! I had to help them a little with maneuvering the paper around but for the most part they did these ALL by themselves!

Waiting patiently for their turns. Had to show'em how it was done first!



Naveah trying so hard to make her snowflake!

All done!!!

Kaels Turn (he calls scissors`Dangerous`)

He kept saying ``Im playing careful with the Dangerous cause im a BIG boy``

Creating Christmas

My absolute favorite time of year; Christmas.
To me its the most selfless time of year. A goal to make everyone around you feel the spirit you feel. Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. And being so Thankful for everything you have.

Some of my Favorite Christmas memories...

Mandarin Oranges. The smell of them reminds me of Christmas morning. A strange thing to have on a Christmas Memory list I know, but the memory of rushing into the living room to open our stockings first thing Christmas morning is just one of my favorites. And how EVERY year there was a mandarin orange in the bottom of the stocking.

Egg Nog. An acquired taste. You either love it or hate it. I chose to love it.

Slumber parties. Christmas Eve me and my sisters would all sleep in the same room. Not much sleeping actually got done. Instead we sat there all huddled in our blankets reminising about previous Christmas' and what we thought we were gunna get that year.

Santa's Anonymous. I remember every year in Elementary school we would color Teddy Bear cutouts that would get sent to the malls after. A description of a needy family or child would go on the back and then get hung on a tree. People can then pick a teddy bear and buy a gift for that person(s). Im so happy I was apart of it.

Christmas Carollers/Decorations. Something we dont see enough of anymore. I used to love going to the malls at Christmas. Not for the shopping but for the atmosphere. The halls were filled with lights, garland, streamers, bells, trees, nativity scenes and carollers. Christmas music echoed down the hallways. It just felt so Christmas.

Advent Calendar. Not those cheazy cardboard ones filled with stale chocolate. Im talking about the one we had as a kid. Home made with tiny pockets that were filled with tiny glittery ornaments. I remember as the days pass I would put the ornaments back in the pocket just so I could take them out again.

The Nativity Pageant. An event I anticipated every year. I was in it for many years as part of the 'crowd'. I loved getting all bundles up in my winter gear then all dressed up in 'rags'. It was neat to be able to pet the llamas and the sheep.e We would get to roast marshmellows while standing around a fire 'behind the scenes'. I would get my fill of hot chocolate and apple cider then head back to the chapel for pizza! (some nights)

The Nativity Scene. By far my favorite part of setting up Christmas decorations. I loved arranging it and then just sitting there admiring it. White porcelain figures of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. The Little Shepard Boy, the Three Wise Men, the Angels, the Animals....all surrounding a wooden barn placed on a blue satin sheet.

Turkey Dinner. A given with all holidays but for some reason its just so much better at Christmas. It must just be the atmosphere. Or maybe it was those big red goblets that came out every Christmas. (which are now in my possession)

The Tree! Not those ugly fake manufactured kinds. No, im talking a REAL tree. The ones that fill your house with the sweet smell of fresh pine and not nasty toxic plasticy fumes. I loved decorating it as a family. Every year the same ornaments, until they got broken, and at the very end the tinsel. My Dad had a specific way of doing it. Gently draped over his hand picking up only a few strands then strategically placing them on the tip of nearly every branch. He would hand us a small clump and direct us on how to put on tinsel properly as if he was deemed 'tinsel expert'. When we were done we would catch him going back to the tree and fixing any spots we did that werent quite right.

There are many more memories of Christmas I love. Listening to my Mom sing Christmas songs in the choir or even just hearing her over the crowd, Going to Grama's house for more spoil'n, the adventure of finding or making that perfect gift for a friend or family member, Christmas cards. The list really could go on but i just wanted to write down a few that stand out when I think of Christmas.

Today the kids and I set up the Christmas lights. I loved how excited they were getting. They can't wait until tonight so we can plug them in. They are especially happy about the GIANT Santa Claus Nana Jevne brought up for them. We even started our decorations inside and turned on the Christmas tunes! I have so many plans for Christmas I honestly think it will be impossible to get them done but im going to try my best! My goal for this year is to spend next to nothing on Christmas (only using what I have) so we are making stockings, a Nativity scene, and a million Christmas presents! Not to mention all the yummy treat making I want to do! Im so excited to get the kids involved. Hopefully I can get Evan in on some of it too!

Tis' the Season Everyone! Merry Christmas!