We got SNOW!!!!

So in our little neighborhood, we have this great park, and it has a steeeeeep hill. All the kids in the neighborhood go there, and there are two sections. One for the kids who ski and snowboard, and one for the kids who toboggan. We found a wooden sled at Value Village, and our neighbor gave us one with ski's attached ( the Rocket Ship, BLAST OFF! as Sebby calls it) so this year, we were totally set! Check out the faces on my little family as the rocket through the snow!

This is Maddy and Sebby on their inaugural run without Daddy!

(why are the words blue and underlined???)

Maddy learns about the "downside" of sledding... going back up!

Sebby and Daddy on the Rocket Ship BLAST OFF!

(Isn't Dean's hat the coolest?)

My three loves. How fabulous are they?

Gifts for Santa

Incidentally, this is the note left for Santa. It was hand written (and spelled) by Maddy, all by herself!

DER SANTA

THA COCES R FOR YOU

THA CORITS R FOR WOODOF

LOVE MADD AND SEBBY

Oh, here, I will translate for those non phonetic people... Dear Santa

The Cookies are for you

The Carrots are for Rudolph

Love Maddy and Sebby

Need anymore be said?? Oh, and much to our delight, both kids were in bed, and asleep by eight thirty. Not too shabby!

Sporadacus Blogger....

Sporadacus here! Apparently I have WAY less discipline in my life than I originally thought. I have so many great ideas, and yet...  anyhow...

Christmas at the Chalmers-Owega's place was fabulous! Here is a run down of our good times.

This is Christmas Eve, and both kids are sporting the obligatory (in a good way) Christmas Eve jammies. I believe this tradition was spawned by my mother's intense desire to have us kids looking decent in all the Christmas morning pictures. I completely support that! (Huh... they kind of look like little colorful jailbirds... I wonder if my persistence in buying them striped jammies has any deeper, sub-conscious  meaning.)

We were meant to go to Jake and Becky's for a fabulous feast, where they kids would try out their acting skills in a tribute to Baby  Jesus, and Grandma (my Grandma) who turned 80 this Christmas day. However, after several hours of peering at the weather through our snow - covered windows and chatting with Heidi who informed us of the Upper Levels Hwy closure, we were feeling fairly unsure of making the trek out to West Van. After talking with Dad, who suggested bringing the gifts and some blankets, clothes and toiletries in case of stranding, we decided to brave the elements and head out. As my intrepid husband was braving the swirling snow to shovel our van out of it's two and a half foot snow fort, he discovered a further wrinkle to our plans. Our front left tire was COMPLETELY flat. Like sitting on the rim flat. So, deciding to hear what the universe was telling us, we called in our regrets to the Chalmers clan in West Van, and hunkered in for the evening. We cleaned the house quickly, made some yummy dinner, and sat down with the kids to open their jammies, and watched Wall - E. What a fantastic movie, and evening with my little family! 

 

Backyard Fun or SNOW! WOOHOO!!

I LOVE the snow. To me it symbolizes a break from the norm, from the everyday routine that sometimes gets a little hum drum. It says "Christmas is here!", despite the fact that living in Vancouver we are more likely to get rain for the Holidays. But we are ever hopeful, right? Well... this year, it is already here, and me and my little family couldn't be happier. We have been outside all morning, making snow angels, rolling little teeny balls of snow in the hopes that we could build a mini snowman. Sliding down the icy slide, flinging snow in the air and yelling "Look! It's snowing!" In fact, my kids are still out there, enjoying our scant 1/4 inch of snow that the grass pokes through. But the snow angels sure look cool, with their green wings... here's hoping to LOTS more snow!!! (ps, I am still figuring out how to work the pictures on this thing, and not having much luck yet! Any suggestions Aunt Bea?)

Ummmm, gingerbread! or A Tribute To Papa's Baking Skills

So my kids LOVE it when Papa bakes. And he is really fantastic at it... we often refer to him as "Marty Stewart". This year, he made the best gingerbread cookies I have ever tasted. In fact, I generally don't even like gingerbread cookies. At all. But I had to restrain myself from eating the kids cookies yesterday. It was tough, but I managed. Sebby likes to lick all the stuff off the front of his "liddle guy". And by stuff I mean sprinkles, smarties, ju jubes, jelly belly jelly beans, sparkly edible stuff, icing. In fact, if you check out Seb's chin in these pics, you will see most of those things.

Maddy has slightly different (and neater) way of eating her "little guy". She eats him piece by piece, savoring each and every topping from whatever section she is munching. And often, Papa puts a different topping on each part of the gingerbread man, so there is lots and lots of savoring happening! The down side to this bonanza of incredible edibles from Papa? Now my kids compare every other cookie or treat to Papa's stuff... and you wonder why I 

don't bake... I bet Martha Stewart's kids don't either!

Whistler Weekend '08

Whistler Weekend '08 or

Where We Learned Seb Has A Disconnect In His Brain.

Bill and Anne generously invited us for a weekend of skiing up at Whistler, and we very eagerly said Yay! and packed our bags. At the wonderful condo we stayed at, they had this really cool outdoor pool where we spent a lot of time. This was also the place where we discovered Seb has a disconnect in his brain. A rather serious one, in that he doesn't seem to understand that he can't breathe under water. My sweet, daring, fearless crazy child would fling himself off the side of the pool with absolute abandon, and a frightening, childlike trust that someone, somewhere, would facilitate his return to the surface. Most of the time we got there pretty quickly, but even when we didn't Seb was supremely unconcerned, and would begin to rub the water out of his eyes before we brought him up. Dean and I were delighted (and terrified) by his apparent lack of fear, and his trust in Mommy and Daddy to take care of his basic needs (like oxygen).  

*note - We invested in water wings on our way back home, and Seb will be starting swimming lessons post-haste.