Christmas singing

A Christmas song sung by preschoolers... From plugged ears to no singing at all, to giggles and full-on enthusiasm! You will see hear/ all of that in this clip- and check out at about :40 seconds into the video when the kids blink their eyes. I love Kyleigh at that moment - its pretty cute!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The girls enjoy playing with the nativity set. Although, perhaps what it really neans may be lost on Kyleigh. When viewing a live nativity at the church last week - as it was starting I whisper to Kyleigh "what do you think will happen?" Kyleigh shrugs her shoulders. I prompt "you know - Mary and Joseph - what's going to happen with them?" Kyleigh says "I don't know that story." Hmmm.

Another funny comment... again from Kyleigh. We had a family home evening on the Book of Mormon people at the birth of Christ. After reading a few verses, explaining them in my own words, showing pictures and singing the primary song... I was testing for understanding. Eden answered her question. I then asked Kyleigh to "tell me one sign that Jesus was born." Silence. "Kyleigh - how did the people know Jesus was born?" After thinking for a bit Kyleigh says
"they had a party?" Too funny!

Kyleigh on the day of her preschool Christmas concert. Yes - according to Kyleigh - purple is the new 'red'!

In addition to the purple, the other thing on Kyleigh's mind that day was if Daddy would be there. I walked into the concert - and she didn't as much as smile at me. She mouthed to me "where's Dad"? Good thing Daddy came! Kyleigh spent most of the concert smiling at him!

Eden at her school Christmas concert!

We had a massive blizzard the first weekend in December. As a result we will definitely have a "White Christmas". This is the street in front of our house. Will drove me around the next day because the streets were almost buried in the deep snow!

Our house after the snow - see the drifts by the side of the house?

Our back yard after the blizzard.

Letters to Santa! Note all the colorful decorating!

The angel on the tree!

Decorating the tree!

Things that bring me joy!

More "matchy matchy" with my girls. And curly hair for church at Christmas time. This brings me immense joy. (I also like my new haircut!)

The girls with Daddy! I love how much they love him!

Attending Time Out for Women in November in St. George Utah with my sisters and Mom. So fun! Here we are with Kenneth Cope - one of my favorite LDS musicians!

Being with my hilariously fun sisters and Mom!

Okay - so call me crazy, but being organized and having things clean brings me joy! One day I cleaned out my craft and desk cupboards / drawers.

The forever messy kid coloring drawer - clean! For at least 1 minute!

My two precious girls! Their beautiful smiles and spirits bring me joy every day!

Eden's art on display at her school. What beautiful art it was! I love it when my kids have success!

Halloween

Halloween pumpkins, expertly carved by Will! His are always so creative!

Our best pal - Dad!

Scary food!

Flower fairy - Kyleigh!

Isn't she pretty?

Spider Princess Eden. I had no idea the makeup would be so dramatic on her. I loved it! She didn't like the feel of the mascara though!

Spider princess. See her cobweb cape I made for her? And her apron made from a garbage bag - with little spiders all over it! Fun idea adapted from Martha Stewart website.

Matchy matchy

Matchy, matchy... That's what one of my friends calls my delight in matching my daughters clothing to one another and sometimes with myself. I know... it's over the top in the world of mommies. But I love it! And, I know I only have a couple of years left before Eden and Kyleigh refuse. So, in the mean time, why not have fun? Eden and Kyleigh like it right now!

Here's the latest "matchy" collection. I started off not matching them on Sunday, but then just had to join the party! I LOVE IT! Just look at my cutie girls!!!

Preserving!

Canning. The work of it... chopping, cleaning, stirring, measuring. And the mess of it. Sticky floors, cupboards covered with cloths, knives, bowls, lids and jar boxes.

What makes it worth it? Rows of beautiful jars lined up on my cupboard.

And the lovely sound of snapping lids. Oh yah... that's a sound I love to hear!

Usually just as I finish cleaning up the snapping begins. "Snap" goes one lid... and I think "ahh... another success". It's a promise that I have done my job well and my labours will be protected through the winter season. It's also a positive reinforcement, right there in my kitchen. And it happens multiple times - with each little jar that seals, which is almost as delicious as what's inside the jars. And let me tell you - my Mom's recipe for salsa is really awesome. The pie filling / apple crisp filling - oh yah!

You can see that I did salsa, apple pie filling and crabapple jelly. I also canned dill pickles and froze whole strawberries / raspberries to make into jam later, or use for smoothies. YUM! I love fall!

More "preparedness"

And... speaking of preparedness (see canning above), Will and I are excited about our most recent addition to our food storage. A large water tanker which we filled on the weekend after we found a potable water hose.

The instructions say to rinse it out before you use it. We did that and aroused the curiosity of one neighbor, who saw what we were doing out of her window and actually came outside to ask us about it. We explained what it was and she said "great, I'll know where to come if we need to". Yet, I know it seems a bit bizarre to those who don't grow up knowing about food storage and preparedness. Made me grateful for that.

Moving it down the stairs was really fun! Fortunately for us, Will's brain understands how things fit together. Unfortunately for us, I'm not in Will's brain. So... although I should understand which way to move my body and the tanker, I learned that my husband has all the strength in this area!

Anyway... the tanker made it down the stairs into our furnace room, and we got it filled before we have to turn off the outside water for the winter. We have water and food. Now we need to work on a heat supply.

Rock stars!

It's amazing how much joy children can bring! I started taping this after the first impromtu and best performance was over, but you'll still get the idea. There they were, Eden and Kyleigh, in their own little world, imagining themselves as rock stars. The entire neighborhood could have been their audience - I'm sure everyone heard - but my girls didn't care - they just were doing it for the joy of it! It's never quite the same once the camera is rolling, but still is something I will love to remember in years to come!

First day of School

Eden's first day of school! You can see the nervous, yet excited and happy expression. I don't think my heart will ever forget that because I felt the same way! Nervous... that she'll make friends, like her new teacher, and feel successful about herself. Excited and happy because I know Eden needs the challenge. What a beautiful little daughter and bright spot in my life!

Kyleigh... what can I say? Dressed in her new purple outfit with her hair done to her specifications... she makes me smile and laugh. I am so glad I have a little buddy with me at home! Kyleigh starts preschool this week. I'm going to exercise in the 4 hours I have without children each week! :-)

Hanging on to summer

Hanging out with the Sheers - we rode the train into downtown Calgary, went to Prince's Island Park and had ice cream. The kids were really 'into it' as you can see!

At the Calgary Zoo late in August with the Sheers and with big sister Raylene and her boyfriend, Levi.

One of my favorite things to do... ever!... is sit on a beautiful patio with people I love, eating and visiting! I'm working on training my girls to love the same thing! Here we are at Earl's in Red Deer with our fancy drinks and desserts soon to come. A fun memory!

Our beautiful yard!

I am so lucky to be married to someone who loves gardening. He finds the work relaxing. I'm glad, because I get to enjoy the fruits of his labour! Unfortunately the camera doesn't do it justice, but I'm still posting this anyway!

Camping!

Me and my girls!

Here we are at the edge of Buffalo Lake at Ol' MacDonald's Resort. We were there for a week and made lots of great family memories. Here are just a few! Enjoy!

Sisters and friends!

The friends part... well.. lets just say they are friends that love each other and also fight with each other on occasion.

On this day, the funny moment was when they figured out the water guns. Here was the play of events:
- Eden squirts Kyleigh.
- Eden laughs her head off.
- Kyleigh runs away crying.
- Kyleigh (with help from Dad) figures out how to load her water gun.
- Kyleigh squirts Eden.
- Kyleigh laughs her head off.
- Eden? Crying!!!
- Mom and Dad? Laughing!
- Start again at the beginning... more laughing and crying.
- Squirt guns are removed from the beach toy collection!

It was so much fun to have visitors drop in on us this year! Our good friend Carrie joined us for supper and roasted marshmallows. You always make us smile, Carrie!

Auntie Chelsea, Uncle Andrew, Corbin and Berkley came to visit us at Ol' MacDonald's (see Corbin and Eden in the background?) Really nice of the Sheers to drive all the way from Calgary! So much fun to hang out with them!

Getting ready to throw shoes into the bucket. Incentive? A free ride on the ever popular merry-go-round!

Consider this the 'before' picture. A large pile of sand, a shovel and a magician named Will. Two hours later....