Christmas Cheer

Since it's Christmas time I'm going to have a good attitude, and I'm not going to blog about how it's -20C outside and we barely made it to Edmonton last week-end because of the blizzard. Instead I'm going to give you the top 3 reasons why it's Awesome to live in Fort McMurray at Christmas time!

1. We'll always have a White Christmas.
2. If we only turn our Christmas lights on when it's dark outside, we can keep them on from 4:00 pm until 8:30 am.
3. We live so close to the North Pole that Santa is for sure coming to our house first!

Finally December

I'm so glad it's finally December so I can post about more Christmas stuff. We had a festive holiday week-end. On Saturday I took the kids to the festival of trees while Gibb was working. It was pretty small, but still fun for the kids. Jayna loved looking at all the trees, this one with the mermaid was her favourite.

About half way through looking at all the trees, this guy dressed up as a frog came into the room and Jayna was so scared of him. So we moved on to Santa's workshop, where they had all the kid's stuff. But then she saw Santa and was even more scared. She didn't want to do any of the fun activities, and couldn't stop looking over her shoulder and eyeing Santa. It didn't help that the frog kept coming into the room too. Poor girl was so stressed. I finally convinced her to decorate a cookie, and make an ornament.

That night there was a tree lighting and the Santa Claus parade downtown. Jayna almost missed it, since she didn't think she needed to wear any clothes in the nice -10C weather we had. I think she was also scared since it was a Santa Claus parade and she's scared of him, makes sense. Luckily she joined us and we had a pretty fun, but cold, night with our friends the Pratt's. I didn't pull out my camera once that night, but luckily Lindsay got all of us in this picture with her mad photography skills! Kepler cracks me up in this picture, he was so cold and pretty much stayed in this same position the whole night.

The highlight of the night for me was when Santa came at the end, and Jayna was really excited. But then Santa turned around to the other side, and I had to yell so loud for him to turn back around and wave at us. When he did Jayna yelled to him"Santa, I want the Cinderella with the sparkly bottle and books!" Ha ha, I think she knew this was the closest she would get to Santa and had to let him know while she had the chance.

November

Gibb and Jayna's version of a dance party

He's getting big, but he's still my snuggly little guy

Every little brother has to have a few pictures like this

Jayna's starting to outgrow naps...

Being silly

Jayna and Kepler play great together, as long as Kepler does whatever Jayna wants (and he's usually more than happy to)

Jayna's having a pool party with her doll Leah. At first just Leah was going to go swimming, but then Jayna couldn't pass up the chance. Ha ha, watching her try to get up out of it was hilarious!

That in a nutshell has been our month. In some ways this month has flown by and I'm so excited that it's getting closer to Christmas. But we've also had snow on the ground for a month, we put up our Christmas tree last week-end and I'm pretty much done Christmas shopping. I have one more thing to buy when we go to Edmonton next week-end and then just stocking stuff. Also since the beginning of October Jayna says this to me a few times a day:

Jayna: Mommy, guess what?
Me: What?
Jayna: It's almost Christmas, I'm so excited!! (Said in a really high voice with the hugest grin)

So in a way I feel like Christmas can't come soon enough this year. But I am very excited to have nothing else to do this month except celebrate! I'm hoping this will be a very stress free Holiday season!

Birthday time!

Last year was the big 30 for Gibb, but this year feels even older because he is now in his 30's...yikes! He could have a heart attack any day now, especially the way he eats.

We had his favourite german chocolate cake that night.

The next week-end we went out for his birthday and saw 2012, if you haven't already seen it, don't bother! We made up for it with dinner at the Keg after.

Pack, unpack, do laundry, repeat...

I feel like this is all I've done the last couple months. We've lived here in Fort McMurray 2 months now, but I've only actually been here about half of that time. Since the beginning of September I've been to Toronto, Las Vegas back to Edmonton 4 times, and then we just got back from Calgary and Barnwell. And my sister Mona also came to visit for a week. It's been so fun, but I'm so ready to be home for more than 2 weeks at a time...which is good because this time we have 3 weeks before we head back down to Edmonton, I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

The reason for this last trip was to go to my cousin Bailey's wedding. The kids and I flew to Calgary and stayed with my brother/sister-in-law in Airdre for a few days, before driving down to my grandparents in Barnwell. It was so fun being in Calgary and getting to catch up with some friends there that I never get to see, but I'm sad that I barely took any pictures the whole time. Here are some highlights.

Jayna was in heaven at the wedding and loved carrying around the bouquets. Weddings are a 3 year olds dreams come true.

Kohl and Kepler

Bailey, the beautiful bride and me
Jayna was so excited to go to a wedding. The night before the wedding this was Jayna's bedtime prayer: Thank you for Bailey's cake, Thank you for Bailey's dress, and Thank you for Bailey's wedding hat (aka her veil).

Paige, Jayna and Konnor

Kepler with AJ

Uncle David holding Jayna and Mallary's gorgeous new baby Kytara

The happy couple Robbie and Bailey. It was a really fun wedding, I'm so glad we got to be there for it. As soon as we got there and saw them, Jayna told them, "We got you a present, it's not a blender, it's a toaster!"

Aunt Sue & Uncle Rob

My Grandpa with Kepler & Jayna

Jayna with my cousin John

My Grandma was in the hospital that week-end, but she was still able to come to the wedding.

Ella & Jayna
We got to see one of my besties Jody and her 2 cute kiddies. These 2 girls had so much fun and played so good together. It was so fun to catch up.

Jayna threw one of the hugest fits ever when we had to leave, she had so much fun!

We also got to visit my friend Alysha who used to live in Edmonton with us last year. It was such a fun low key day. The babies both slept, Alivia & Jayna and Ella playes so good together, and Alysha and I got to gab away the whole day! It doesn't get any better than that.

Alysha took these adorably cute pictures of Jayna while we were there. Check out her photography blog, she is so talented!!

Thank you to all our family and friends who had us over and let us stay with them. It was a great trip and we miss you already! I'm so bummed I didn't take more pictures. I didn't get any with my friend Melissa, or with Scott, Erin and their kids who we were staying with most of the time. Next time...

Halloween in the snow

Well if anyone still isn't convinced that we live in the North Pole, let this picture do the talking.

We were supposed to have a ward Halloween party and trunk or treat that day, but it was canceled because there was a blizzard and the only road to the church (which is a long steep hill) was closed. So they rescheduled and had a simple trunk or treat in the parking lot of a school right by our house. Jayna was so sad the party was canceled so she was happy that we still got to do something, but even she wasn't so sure about it once we got there. She kept crying that the snow was getting in her eyes.

And Kepler wasn't really loving life either, in fact he spent half the time in the car, where he was way happier.

And then we were still crazy enough to go out again at night. But at least it had stopped snowing and the wind had died down. It was still freezing though, and there was a good 6 inches of snow on the ground at least.

My cute little trick or treaters!

Jayna excited about the candy or "trick or treats"Jayna was so cute, every time we saw other trick or treaters she would say "Oh look, there are my friends!" She loved yelling "trick or treat" at every house, and was very good at remembering her manners. She loved all the houses that were decorated, or "the happy halloween houses", as she called them. I thought she would be scared of them. At every house she wanted to stay and chat and we had to drag her away to the next house. So funny. She has had a total personality change in the last year or so. She used to be so shy, quiet, scared of everything and wouldn't talk to anyone. Now she says Hi to everyone we pass and won't stop talking.

My little monkey, a very fitting costumer for Kepler this year. You can see his new haircut here, we went a little too short :( At least I won't have to cut his hair for a while!She's flying!
My cute little bee!We still had a fun night, it was just more of an adventure!

The best night of Jayna's life!!

Happy Halloween...

...from our little munchkins to yours!

I was just looking back at some pictures from last year, and our kids now seem so grown up to me. I can't believe how much has changed in a year.
I can't wait to see all the pictures of kids dressed up as cute little animals. I love this holiday!

October

 Kepler loves his 2 knit baby blankets! They're his favourites to sleep with and he will go in his room and pull them out of his crib and then snuggle them and suck his thumb, it's so cute and funny!

 Jayna loves snuggling in our bed

I bought Jayna a beautiful new Christmas dress in Vegas and she loves it

Cute and warm new jammies from Aunt Cassandra

The house was quiet and the kids were quietly reading and playing in Jayna's room, that was a nice surprise!

Kepler is obsessed with wearing shoes and insists on wearing them all the time! Even in the house. And even over his sleepers. What a cutie!