Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it? Christmas 2007 is already over. It blows me away how fast Christmas seems to come and go each year. Christmas 2007 was another great one for our family. Jessica is here staying with us for a few weeks and the girls are loving it. Jessica doesn't get a break because the girls are constantly wanting to play with her. It's a good thing Jess is so patient with them.

Once again this year we stayed home Christmas Day and enjoying a nice relaxing time. We all got up around 9:00 and wandered downstairs to see what Santa had left under our tree. Emma was thrilled to see all the goodies waiting for her. After a few quick photos, some coffee and some chocolate we were ready to begin opening our gifts. We always start with the stockings in our house and this year was no different. Emma emptied all her items out on the floor and then slowly picked through them to choose the ones that she wanted to open. The stockings are always my favourite part. I love to see all the cool things that you can pack into one little sock. Emma loved all the treats as well as her nail polish and perfume. Natalia, on the other hand, was really only interested in the chocolate. Everytime she saw a piece she wanted to eat it.


After the stockings were open we moved on to the gifts under the tree. We opened each gift one by one and allowed the girls to really get to see it. If it needed put together we did that or if it was a book we read it. I love that that girls get to explore all their treasures as they unwrap them.

We were finally finished unwrapping all our stuff around 11:00. After that, we cooked up a quick brunch of bacon, eggs and toast. We knew the girls wouldn't want to sit still for long and we were right. They gobbled down their food as fast as possible and then it was back to the gifts. Emma received about 4 games this year so we took the time to play each and everyone with her. She loved the attention.

All in all it was a great day for us. We were sorry we couldn't make it to Fergus but we felt it was better for our family to relax at home so the girls could enjoy all their new stuff.

We wish everyon a very Merry Christmas and we hope to see you all very soon.

We finally found it...

We finally found a program that Emma loves to do. Seeing as skating was a big bust and traditional tap or ballet classes cost around $30-50.00 a month plus costumes and I wasn't willing to pay that we were thrilled to find this Ukrainian dance class.

A few weeks ago, Emma's kindergarten teacher recommended it and wow I am so glad she did. Tonight was Emma's third class and she is doing fantastic. She just glows with excitement when it's time to go. She is constantly wearing her dance slippers around the house. She loves all the cool moves she is learning and the other kids are great. It's so nice to have found a program for her that she enjoys. By pure luck, she also found a brief clip on the internet showing Ukrainian dance and she went crazy showing it to me. She kept telling me, "That's what I'm learning!" Emma missed the first month or so of the program but you would never know it. She has caught on beautifully and just thrives on it. I think it's going to be so fun to see her on stage in her traditional Ukrainian outfit for the performances in July. I can only imagine what she will have learned by then.

This kid makes me laugh!

Each and every day Natalia brings a smile to my face with her crazy, goofy ways. She just loves to be silly. She loves to goof around and she loves it if people laugh at her. Today, I put these crazy pigtails in her hair and she looked hilarious. They were messy and crooked but they totally went with her silly personality. Everytime I looked at her with these silly pigtails I couldn't help but laugh.

It's not easy being the little sister!

Sometimes your big sister does some really strange things to you. Take today, for instance, Emma decided that Natalia needed to take a nap. The only catch was that Natalia was to take a nap in the doll playpen. I think Natalia is just a little too large for it but she seemed quite content being in it. For a while Emma had her all tucked in a tight as possible with blankets and everything. Unfortunetly, by the time I got the camera, Natalia had kicked off the blankets. It was so cute. Natalia loves that Emma wants to play with her but sometimes Emma doesn't know when to back off and Natalia gets really, really mad and screams. Hopefully, someday, Emma will learn that Natalia isn't just a toy but a little person that has feelings and when she says "No!" she means it.

Guess what happens to your child when I babysit?

I take photos!! Yep, lucky me, I had AnnElyse for the entire day and I just couldn't resist taking some Christmas pictures of the little critter. She is such a doll but a very busy little doll. She gets into everything, over and over and over again. In order to keep her in the rocking chair and not standing on it I actually put a seatbelt around her. It worked like a charm and prevented her from falling on her head.
It's a crazy day when AnnElyse is around but Natalia just loves having a little friend to play with. She only gets jealous or upset when I am holding AnnElyse for too long or if AnnElyse is in her highchair. She really hates that. The girls usually get along really well they will occasionally scream at each other over a toy and Natalia loves to copy AnnElyse if she begins to cry. It's really quite funny.

Emma's 1st School Photo!

I think it turned out pretty good. Emma tends to give me really, really goofy smiles if I ask her to smile so I was pretty happy to see that she didn't do that for the photographer. I only wish that she would have given him a bigger smile buy hey I will take what I can get. I was really afraid of what I was going to end up with. I do think that she looks a little stunned in the picture but oh well, I can't expect perfection.

I'm on a digital scrapbooking roll!

I finished up another layout today. This one is all about me. I love my new haircut so much and I love this photo of me I just had to scrap it. I can really tell in this photo just how much weight I have lost lately and it makes me feel so good.

Digital Scrap Pages

Life has been so busy lately that I feel like I haven't had time to do anything. With Gerben going to the gym before work and me going in the evening we are hardly even seeing each other. It's crazy. Last night I was lucky enough to find a small amount of time and completed 2 digital scrap pages that I am really happy with. I make these layouts at a 12 inch x 12 inch size so that I can print them that big if I want but usually I just shrink them down and print them 8 x 8 at home. I really love the no mess aspect of digital scrapping although nothing beats the pleasure of actually touching and working with all the papers and embelishments in traditional scrapping. I absolutely love the pink layout with Emma and I together. She never seems to want to have her picture taken lately or she looks away from the camera and gives me goofy looks. I was more that excited when Gerben managed to capture this fantastic shot. I definitely think it's frame worthy.

A fabulous new haircut for me!

I am soooo thrilled with my new hair cut that I just have to show it off. I had it cut and coloured today and it looks amazing. I love all the colour and I love the cool flower effect that my hair stylist, Brandon, did with it. It's the best. He's the best. I was so excited that I couldn't wait to get home and show Gerben and get him to take pictures. For once, even Emma wanted her photo take and we captured an awesome one of her and I together. I am so thrilled that I am bouncing off the wall. A great haircut and a few fabulous photos.

Waking up to a Winter Wonderland!

Wow! Last night when we went to bed there was not a sprinkle of snow on the ground. This morning we woke up to about 20cm of heavy, wet snow! For the kids it was magical. For Gerben and I it was work. Luckily it was about 0 degrees outside so it was pretty warm out. We bundled the kids up and took them out to enjoy the snow. They helped us shovel the driveway as well as took turns catching a ride on the sled as we pulled them around on the street. The kids had a blast playing the white stuff but poor Natalia just couldn't get the hang on walking in it. She fell several times and did a lot of whining to get us to help her up. It was so nice to have a change in the weather. It's so pretty to see the Christmas lights twinkling off the snow. I hope that the snow remains at least until Christmas. They it's welcome to melt away.

It has been a crazy weekend. Yesturday, we took off to Cambridge shopping and managed to finish up most of it. We only have a few more items to get and we are done. Yeah!!!! I really don't like trying to get through the busy malls at this time of year.

Today was Gerben's 32nd Birthday. Unfortunetly we didn't do much for him. With the crazy weather we spent ton of time outside shovelling and then this afternoon Emma had a birthday party to go to. Poor Daddy, kind of got forgotten so I will definetly have to make it up to him. I hope he understands. I am sure he would appreciate a nice big cherry cheese cake!

We love you honey! Happy Birthday!

Deck the Halls!

It's the festive time of year again and Gerben, the girls and I have spent a few days decorating the house. It's been lots of fun. Natalia is just old enough now to want to really help with everything that we are doing but she also tends to get in the way. At first I think she was a bit confused as to why she couldn't play with all the cool balls that we were pulling out of the boxes. Emma on the other hand loved to search each box of ornaments to see what she could find. There was excitement written all over her face. She really loved finding all the ornaments that belonged to her as well as the ones that she has made in previous years. Of course, this brings up a new challenge for me. Now I need to find a craft for her to make this year to hang on the tree. Overall, I have to say that the decorating went pretty smoothly. Natalia only broke one ball and since putting the decorations on the tree I think she has only removed about 3 or 4. We keep telling her no and we put them back. I think she is starting to get the idea. The one thing that I love about this time of year is the warm, cozy feeling that the house has after we finish decorating it. It always seems so plain in January when we take them back down again.