Outdoor FUN

On January 4th, Ty was home from Whitecourt long enough that we were able to have a fun family outing at the skating pond/sledding hill near our home. (Ardan was at a buddy's house, which is why he's not in the videos.) Ryder and I sledded for a while, Daddy even joined us for a couple of runs. Then the two of us joined Lena, Gunnar and Daddy on the skating pond (pond? ice surface? rink? whatevs) and Ryder tried learning to skate. He did pretty good, but after about ten minutes (way longer than he's ever lasted before) he put his boots back on and played hockey with the guys that way. 

Mom's Morning Wake-Up

So this was my morning wake-up 'call' from the kids. Good thing I had my cell handy. Little brats! Haha. I guess they opened up the china cabinet downstairs and took out Grandpa Mark's harmonicas, so of course after they were done 'serenading' me I told them all about how Grandpa sure could wail on those things. They walked around the rest of the morning, playing the blues, talking about how they are "just like Grandpa Mark!" 

More Christmas pics/vids

At Deanna's annual Christmas Eve party...

Tyler and Gino (Opie's new boyfriend) were having "fish talk", finally Ty found a guy to talk about fishing with! They were comparing fishing techniques, favorite spots, etc. It was cute. (Also, I could get away with outright staring at Gino and if I got busted I was fully prepared to say it was Hubs I was staring at, LOL!)

Ryder got a sweet marshmallow-gun from Deanna, what does Ardan do? Steal it out of his hand and run away with it! Typical. 

Christmas Day...

At Julie's house, later Christmas day...

Lena chatting with her "new best friend, Kali" about all the awesome makeup that Kal just gave her. Kal cleaned out her makeup case and gave all the excess stuff to Lena, we're talking a HUGE bag of preemo makeup, I'm pretty jealous. There were also some perfumes and lotions in there. Lena was in HEAVEN. 

A Simcoe Christmas

I was just sitting on the couch all by my lonesome; the kids came upstairs and one by one came to sit by me. I just had to get a pic taken to capture the moment... my kids love me!

Is Baby Wyatt not the spitting image of Levi? He is the cutest baby, just wanna cuddle him forever. Well, until he starts fussin', then its back to Mama. Lol

Lena got a Barbie makeup kit from Uncle Trapper and Aunty Becky, she was in heaven!

Opening their gifts from Uncle Levi and Aunty Amber... GTs! 

Wearing her new hot-pink Barbie lipstick.

Playing with Wyatt's gift from us, Christmas finger puppets. Levi played with it for like five minutes! 

Trapper was like, "Aww, poor Ryder, that's not a very fun gift" THEN he saw Ryd's reaction to it: "THOMAS BEDDING, YESSSSS! How did you know I really NEEDED this, Gramma?" Ryder even took it out of the packaging (even the sheets, lol). We thought it was funny that Ryder said 'bedding', not blanket. How grown up.  

Christmas Countdown: 12 sleeps!

Christmas Countdown: 14 sleeps!

Lena's Christmas Concert

Waiting for the show to start.

Having fun, goofing around for the camera. 

When we looked at this pic after taking it, I couldn't help it, I burst into laughter. All these people turned and stared at me, I had the giggles and couldn't stop.

All those pics above, trying to capture the perfect 'kiss' and finally , voila!

Wearing the pretty new Christmas dress that Gramma bought her.

Isn't she the most gorgeous little girl you've ever seen?

Talking to her new buddy, Maison.

So bored. Lying on the floor at my feet, having a conversation with himself.

Note the high heels. HAD to wear them tonight. BUT wouldn't wear nylons, she insisted on those stupid tights. With WHITE socks. *sigh*

Someone discovered the new box of xmas oranges.