It's Christmas!!

Wow...I can't believe how quickly this month of December flew by...and here we are...2 days until Christmas!! We're having our celebration tomorrow and I'm so excited. The saying about "better to give than to receive" is never more true than when you have young children. I think I'm just as excited about them opening their gifts as they are ;). I just love seeing their reactions and excitement. And then, of course, we'll have our traditional fondue dinner. It's kind of neat how the boys are now old enough to know that this is our tradition and they are excited about this meal that we only do at Christmas. It should be a fun day...I can't wait!

So, we decided to stay out here in Alberta for Christmas this year...and I have to say I feel both happy and sad about it. I will certainly miss our families and all the fun and laughter of the Christmas gatherings...and of course the traditional 3 days at Camp Arnes. That's always a huge highlight for the boys. I miss my family like crazy and would soooo love to see them...especially now at Christmas. However, I think spending a quiet, relaxed Christmas here will be very good for us. I think it will be a real bonding time for our family. We've spent so very many years apart that I'm looking forward to having some days just for "us". That may sound selfish, but we need it. We're planning to do some fun family outings over the holidays and give the boys a good time (gotta make up for Camp Arnes ;) ).

So anyway, we went straight from birthdays into Christmas mode...the boys have been celebrating the season at school all month long. They've had so many fun projects and activities to take part in. I don't think they did much work at all during the last week of school. During the last week, Sam had a "pajama day"...a day of crafts and activities, snacks and watching the "Polar Express"...it sounded like a lot of fun..except that the hot chocolate was "disgusting" ;). One evening, all parents were invited to the school to do a craft with their kids, eat goodies, listen to the choir and check out the kids work. Trev has talked about how neat it was to be able to do that...he's always had to miss those activities because he was always out of town. Then the next morning Jonah had "Santa's Workshop"...more crafts and Christmas activities...he brought home some pretty cute ornaments to hang on the tree. The next morning, Jonah's "pod" (group of classes...they have little "communities" within the school) had a pancake and sausage breakfast for those kids and their parents. I had to bring a fruit tray :). That was unique and fun...it involved food so Jonah loved it. Then on Friday they just had school in the morning and they had a swim/skate day. All 3 of the boys wanted to go skating..and I had planned on skating with them but unfortunately Jonah and Sam were both sick the night before, with the whole "throwing up" business. In the morning Jonah said he felt fine but Sam was still not well so just Seth and Jonah went. However, when Jonah stepped back though the door at noon, he was in tears...he was sooo thirsty and his energy was completely sapped. I promised them we'd go skating over the holidays and it would be more fun :).

So, here are some pictures from a few of our Christmas activities over the past few weeks.

Sam made a cute pinecone decoration.










Sam and Jonah made gingerbread houses. All classes from kindergarten to grade 2 made gingerbread houses...and the gym was FULL of kids. It was amazing.


They had tables like this set up at both ends of the school and they were both loaded with gingerbread houses.




My dad and Josh were stuck in Calgary for a couple of days last week so we got to spend some time with them...that was such a blessing for me. I miss my family and it was so special to have them around for a few days.


And of course the boys loved the opportunity to wrestle with Uncle Josh again.


Last Saturday I made and decorated white cookies with the boys. I know making cookies with your kids is supposed to be a fun experience but...wow...have you ever tried it with 3 hyper boys?!? Aye ya yaye...I have no idea what is was about making cookies that hyped them up, but it was one loud and wild kitchen that afternoon. Whew!

Christmas with the Reimers!! Last Sunday Colleen and Jerrie had us over for an evening of tasty or'doerves (is that spelled right?) and finger foods. It was very delicious. And her house was absolutely gorgeous...so "Christmassy" :). Thanks Colleen!! It was a very fun evening.




The crazy cousins ;).


Me and my precious sister.


And here's my little "Santa baby".



Merry Christmas my friends!!! I wish you all peace and happiness and lots of fun and laughter over the Christmas holidays!!

Jonah's birthday!!

Jonah always has to wait the longest but his birthday celebration finally arrived. Actually, after Samuel's birthday last weekend, I was tucking Jonah in that night and he seemed so sad and down. After some asking and prying (he's always the most work to get to open up) he told me that he always has to wait SUCH a long time for his birthday...Seth and Sam got to have fun with their presents and he STILL had to wait. Poor guy. Maybe next year we'll have to switch it around and let him celebrate his birthday first.

Anyway, Jonah's birthday was on Friday and unfortunately that was the same night as Trev's Christmas banquet. We still let him open up his presents from us and from his brothers before we left for the evening. Colleen actually stayed with the boys for the evening (Jerrie and the boys were in Arizona for the weekend), and she brought movies and a birthday cake...so Jonah still got to have a little celebration.


Jonah pretending to faint in excitement while opening his gifts from us. Those are Seth's hands sneakily coming after the presents during Jonah's "faint" ;).





Jonah's very excited about his bionicle.





He knew exactly what he was getting from me and Trev...but he was very excited about his star wars lego set....yes...MORE star wars lego.

We had his actual birthday party on Saturday. He invited 2 friends and we went swimming at the rec center again. Trev was working that afternoon so I took all the boys by myself and therefore have no pictures from the pool...chasing Jude around is a full time job and allows no opportunity for picture taking :). After swimming we came back to our house and played a few games, opened gifts and had some hot dogs and cake.


The boys are playing a racing game.



Jonah and his buddy Ryan. He got more lego from his friends. Once my 4 boys are grown up and finished with lego I'm going to make a fortune on e-bay getting rid of it all;).




My 8 year old Jonah!!



Ryan, Jonah, and Patrick.



Originally, we were just going to take the family to the wave pool for Jonah's birthday but after Sam's party Jonah decided he wanted a "friends" party after all. So....we did both. We went to the wave pool on Sunday evening but unfortunatly it was a "no wave" evening. We didn't know that. Oh well...they still had fun on the waterslide.



Sam wasn't quite tall enough to go on the waterslide by himself and needed someone over 16 to go with him. This time I told Trev I was NOT going and he had to...so he did. I think that's the first time he's gone watersliding with the boys :). In the end I did end up taking Sam a couple of times as well.




The boys loved the long jump off the side of the pool.






1....2....3....JUMP!!!!







It was a busy weekend..but a lot of fun!! Happy birthday Jonah!!

So now that birthdays are officially over, it's time to focus on Christmas...finally. And today I spent the day starting to put up my Christmas decorations....Yay!!

Samuel turn's 6!!!

On Friday my baby turned 6 years old!!! Ok...I know he's not really my baby anymore, but after 4 1/2 years of being my baby I can't help but still think of him that way. Actually I can't believe how big Sam is getting....he's grown so much in the past few months. When I check on him at night and see how long he is lying there in his bed I sometimes wish he'd slow down....just a little bit ;).

Just last week we had his very first parent-teacher school interview. Those of you that know Sam well will probably get a chuckle out of what his teacher said about him. She told me he was a "very gentle, soft-spoken, quiet, courteous, well-mannered young man". Huh....who are we talking about? ;) I told her that at home he was very loud and sometimes a little obnoxious...we're always having to tell him to tone down his voice. LOL!! But actually, when I thought about it later I realized he is very much the boy she described. Really the only time he's loud is when he's with his brothers...I think he's had to be in order to be heard around here. He really is a very tender hearted, gentle and very encouraging and uplifting little boy. He's such an awesome kid...brings lots of laughter to my life.

Anyway...on Friday we had his birthday party. Even though we've only been here for 2 months, he had a whole list of boys that he wanted to invite to his birthday party...we limited it to five. And....he wanted to go swimming at the rec centre....eek!! I was a little worried about taking a bunch of little guys swimming but Trev came home early that day to help me out and it went really well. The boys had a great time.



The party started at 2:30 and we went swimming from about 3:00 to 4:00 pm. Seth and Jonah were great helpers by watching the guys and pulling them around the pool in the raft. Sam has a really great bunch of friends...they were very good boys.



Sam and his friends Tanner and Ethan....Sam calls Ethan his "best friend" :)






Warming up in the hot tub. Lucas, Tanner, Matthew, Sam, and Ethan.




Jude liked the hot tub too.


















After swimming we headed back to our house and Seth and Jonah played some games with the boys, Sam opened his gifts and they had some snacks and cake.





"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Sam....uel, happy birthday to you!!!" I love you Sam!







After the party guests left we gave Samuel our gifts...he was very excited to get the "Naboo Starfighter" lego set he wanted. That's all that all 3 of them seem to want for birthdays and Christmas this year...Star Wars lego, Star Wars lego. Oh well...makes it easy for me ;).



And the boys gave him the Webkinz monkey he wanted....all in all, a very successful day as far as Sam was concerned...LOL.













I have to add a little story about a comment our family received later that evening. After cleaning up the mess from the party we headed into Calgary...there was a midnight madness sale on at Scholars Choice and Jonah wanted to buy something there with some of his birthday money. All three of them ended up buying something with there money from Grandma's and Grandpa's. Anyway...after our shopping we stopped at Wendy's for a bite to eat...and so Jonah could eat his precious "Baconater". LOL. As we were standing in line, this sweet well-dressed older gentleman walks by us, stops and says to me "How nice to have 3 gentlemen take you out to eat". Trev was holding Jude, and Sam was standing next to us. Seth and Jonah were standing off to the side and Trev points over at them and say to the him that those are ours as well. The man looks over at them and then says to us "oh, you have an epidemic happening, don't you?" ROFL!! I laughed for the next 10 minutes...I thought that was priceless!! I love it...my own little epidemic of boys!!