Christmas Festivities

 I've been inspired to do a big long December post by Lindsay (since I've barely blogged all month), and I even stole her title. :)

This year is our first Christmas staying home by ourselves since we've been married. I've had mixed feelings about it. Earlier this week I was a little sad and missing family. But overall, it's been so fun and relaxing. I'm really looking forward to Christmas Day when our kids can actually stay home and play with all their toys. We've made sure to do lots of Christmas activities to keep us busy and happy, here's what we've been up to.

Our Elf, Star came back again this year. Jayna and Kepler would talk to him about everything. They would tell him where we were going whenever we left the house ("Bye Star, we're going to the library."), let him know what we were up to each day ("Star, today at school I sat by Scarlett at snack time..."), and made sure he knew to tell Santa if they were being naughty or nice ("Star, Kepler just hit me, AGAIN!")

 

The youngest gets to go on Daddy's shoulders and put the star on the tree.

 

We put Christmas lights up outside for the first time. Jayna was really worried that people wouldn't know that we were celebrating Christmas if we didn't have any decorations outside.

Putting "decorations" up inside too

Finally getting some cute smiles from Keira, she's the happiest baby, but I can never catch it on camera

Doing some Christmas baking with Brittany

Writing letters to Santa

 Making gingerbread houses at school 

(Jayna's school is an Apple School, so they used dried fruit to decorate)

Kepler pretending that Keira's bath sling is Santa's sleigh with presents on it

 and that he is Santa on the sleigh

Making ice cream out of snow, it was yummy!

Some Christmas crafts

Making a gingerbread house at home

Finding another use for my empty advent calendar string at the end of the month, hanging my Christmas cards!

Keira wearing the Christmas gown that Jayna and Kepler wore at their first Christmas

Jayna's Christmas concert at school

Gibb and I will need to brush up on our French Christmas vocabulary before next year

Primary kids singing at the Ward Christmas party

I had to add this one in, because I love how squished Keira's cheeks are!

Doing crafts at Jayna's Christmas party at school

Jayna and her teacher, Madame Diane. Jayna LOVES her! She wrote in her Christmas card "You have the best ideas for kids and that's why school is so fun. Thanks for letting us decorate gingerbread houses. You're my best friend."

A ride on the sled (I think we need to get a bigger one)

And finally going to see Santa at the mall today. We left it so late and thought we would be in line forever. But we only waited 10 minutes!!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Times a Comin'

 Baking, decorating, letters to Santa, parties and treats! The excitement is running high.

Fancy Dinner 2011

Tonight we had our 2nd Annual Fancy Christmas dinner. Last year's fancy dinner was so fun, I couldn't wait to do it again. This year on the menu it was fancy lasagna, fancy peas, fancy rolls and fancy water, with fancy egg nog and fancy cupcakes for dessert. Delicious darling!

Keira didn't last long, she napped through most of the festivities

 

Kepler's improved on his pinkies up skills from last year

 Christmas cupcakes

Jayna and Kepler helped Gibb make us place cards

Jayna drew a picture of her and Keira on the back of hers, since Keira didn't have one

And we ended off the night with a fancy dance again

Jayna and Kepler learning to dance fancy instead of crazy

I think that this might be our family's favourite Christmas tradition. The getting fancy part is just as fun as the dinner and dance. Some of the highlights of the night were:

1. Having a relatively peaceful dinner with everyone on their best behaviour

2.  Kepler telling me "Mommy, you're my darling." 

3. Jayna saying that it was the best night ever and asking if we could do it again tomorrow

4. Kepler asking Jayna "May I please have this dance" and bowing (with some coaching of course)

What a fun night! Once again I can't wait to do it again next year.

Kepler

 Look at that cute happy face!!

Kepler, Kepler, Kepler...

He is such a sweet kid and has a heart of gold. He is such a good player, loves toys and has an amazing imagination! He can be so easygoing, fun-loving and laid back.

But he's been having a tough time since Keira was born. He's definitely a bit jealous, and he also misses his best buddy when she's at school all morning and Mom's busy with the baby. It's been a bit of an adjustment. But he sure does keep us laughing and on our toes. It can't always be easy being the only boy between 2 sisters.

Soccer

 Jayna and Kepler have been doing an indoor soccer program this fall. Jayna is loving it! Kepler is on the fence. ;)

And thankfully Keira does this through most of it. :)

All Smiles

 This girl and her smiles melt my heart!!

 Cute sisters!

Dancing Queen

 This girl loves to dance!!

Trimming the Tree

 

So excited to have the tree up and decorated! It feels like Christmas now. 

This girl kept herself busy and entertained like this the whole time. She loved being in on the action!

Jayna lost her first tooth while we were setting up our Christmas tree. She went to her room for a couple minutes and then ran back in the room with her little tooth in her hand and said "Daddy, I lost a tooth!" I was so surprised! I knew she had a tooth that was a little loose, but I didn't think it was even close to falling out, and she just barely turned 5. I almost didn't believe her at first, except there was blood on her mouth and hand.

She was excited for a couple of minutes, and then she started crying, and she said "I'm not old enough to lose a tooth yet!" Haha, I think she was kind of surprised, and a little unsure about the blood too. But after a few tears, she was back to being excited and has been happily showing off her lost tooth to everyone we see.

When we asked her how it fell out she told us that she felt like there was something stuck in her teeth, and so she was trying to get it out, but then pulled her tooth out! Haha, I wish I could have seen her face! I think she must have been pulling pretty hard.

She thought she was going to get a "shiny new dime" from the tooth fairy, I don't know where she heard that. But the tooth fairy was feeling generous that night and she got a loonie instead.

There is no turning back now, this little girl is officially growing up way too fast.

Roots of Empathy

We've been participating in an amazing program called Roots of Empathy this year. Each month starting in September I take Keira in to a grade 2 class. My friend Jody Loose is the facilitator and she talks to the kids about Keira and how she's growing and has feelings and it helps the kids to develop empathy and hopefully reduces bullying. It's been an amazing experience so far and I love having that special time with just Keira. And the kids LOVE having her come in to their class.