christmas concert

Jacob had his first Christmas concert on Saturday and as we filed into the room to find seats, I had butterflies in my stomach.  He told me earlier that morning that he didn't think he wanted to sing. I said that was alright; he didn't have to sing but he did have to remember to smile.  He told me later that he learned a "good tip" from his dad, which was to just pretend sing.

He ended up doing a bit of everything: singing, smiling and some very obvious lip syncing.  He also did their little dance moves and shook his Christmas bells while Mr. Andrew played the guitar.  It was the cutest.  My favourite was their warm-up of 'shake your sillies out' and 'we wish you a merry Christmas'.  

After the performance Santa came to say hello.  He talked with Jacob and let him ring his bell before sitting down to hand out presents.  Jacob was thrilled.  Avery sat still for the entire thing.  And we all left bursting with pride and holiday excitement.   

cookie party

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without some cookie decorating so we invited some friends over for the festivities.  There ended up being 7 children (ages 4 and under!) and 4 moms'.  It was terribly fun!  And loud too at times.  The kids played and ate sprinkles and decorated some beautiful cookies.  The moms' drank coffee with bailys and doled out the icing.   

Jacob had so much fun he nearly cried when everyone bundled-up to leave.  So it was a success.  The egg nog sugar cookies were devoured and we'll have another cookie party again soon.    

christmas cheer

We finally got our first snowfall - just a skiff, but well take it - and started to spread a few decorations around.  

Most notably, our Christmas tree!  Our first real one.  A douglass fur. My dad and cousin found it and dragged it out of the forest for us.  Thanks, it's perfect!  But honestly, I do feel a teeny-tiny bit bad we chopped the poor guy down.  Hopefully he always dreamed of becoming a Christmas tree.  And the smell of a real tree cannot be beat.  

   

And a few of our most treasured decorations from travels and friends

And a few craft projects too.  We invited a few of Jacob's friends over to make tissue-paper stained glass windows and they turned out perfectly.

jacob + avery

Jacob at 42 months old:

He loves all sports and is always playing pretend hockey, golf, soccer, basketball, curling... I love to watch him and listen to his play-by-play commentary.  He's a good eater, good sleeper, is easy to reason with, follows the rules, extremely observant and gets frustrated when he can't get something right the first time.  He looks out for his sister and hovers around her when she's climbing something she shouldn't be.  He used to follow her up the stairs holding her back, just in case.  He loves to read and easily memorizes books.  Likes dressing himself: shoes, zippers and all.  He dances and sings all the songs at library storytime but prefers when the librarian reads.  He watches things carefully.  He loves his Cuski.  We finally had to replace the old one because he was chewed to pieces.  He is a wonderful sharer with his friends and an alright sharer with his sister.  He gives out the sweetest compliments.  He is curious and full of tough questions.
 
Avery at 17 month old:

Avery is so smiley and so shy.  She loves her soother to death and will do almost anything to get it.  If I turn my back on her, I am likely to find her standing on a table, chair or counter top.  She says Mom, Dada, Hailey, Jake, book, bath cheese and snack.  She signs please, more, milk and all done.  She loves to read but only when she picks the book.  Once she has, she's relentless; she will yell "book" at you until you agree to read.  She would love mom to carry her around all day.  To our chagrin, she likes to wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 am.  At home, she has one volume: loud.  She's loud when she's happy, she's loud when she' mad and she loud in-between.  When we're out, she's as quiet as can be.  If someone talks to her, she will look at the ground and remain statue-still.  She loves the bath.  She is a pickier eater but always wants to eat whatever Billy's eating (which is hilarious because Billy is an awful sharer).  She loves to be doing whatever Jacob is doing.  She's always watching him.  She likes to spin in circles until she loses her balance.  she's quick to copy things.
     
These two bring us so much joy.
Being their parents is such a great gift.

vancouver

At the beginning of October, us girls and kids took off for a weekend trip to Vancouver.  Thankfully my Aunt offered to drive while my Mom and I entertained the kids (with the help of Cars 1 and lots of snacks).  We stayed in a beautiful hotel, had great weather, visited with Aunty Kaity, ate amazing dinners, shopped, walked the city, went to the Vancouver Aquarium and a Canucks game.  It was perfect!  And we're al still talking about how much fun we had.

Getting ready to depart.  Loading the car turned out to be the most frustrating part of our trip.  Avery's car seat was not cooperating.  At all.  But look at these two happy-campers.  They didn't mind the delay.

Avery slept for all of about 25 minutes (!?) of the 4 1/2 hour trip and Jake made a lot of bathrooms stops but we made it with no other troubles.

The hotel was a huge highlight for the kids.  Elevators to ride.  A room full of floor-to-ceiling- windows to look out of.  Three beds to try and jump on.  And a long, narrow hallway in our room that turned out to be a perfect place to play soccer and to run back-and-forth at full speed.  Jake was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement.  

And when they needed a little fresh air, we just popped outside and to run around in the green-space out front.

Eating out went off without a hitch.  No highchairs?  No kids menu?  No problem.  Jake ordered the sushi both nights and we pulled the stroller up to the table (and brought the bumbo for night number two.  So smart).  Our food was delicious.  Good company also helped and we were so spoiled by Aunty Brenda.

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The Aquarium was so much fun.  We saw a million different things but some of the big hits were the jellyfish, octopus, starfish, stingrays, belugas and penguins.

And Stanley Park is always so beautiful.  Next time we'll need to devote an entire day to roam the park, it's forested paths, ancient trees and beaches.

Aunty Kaity babysat (and played and played and played) while we did a little shopping.  And funnily enough, Billy was also in Vancouver for a business trip.  Even though he was in a different hotel we were within walking distance, so he met us for a dinner and he and I were able to sneak out and go to the Canuks game.  Such a fun atmosphere and such a treat to sit and watch a game with Billy.  This is only the second time that has ever happened in over eleven years!

Until next time Vancouver.

halloween fun

This was our funest Halloween yet.  Jake was really looking forward to the whole thing and it helped that they had a party in his class.  He kept telling everyone who asked that he was going to be a "big digger" and although I consider myself a little crafty, I didn't want to tackle that.  So we were happy that Grandma Jean sent this Buzz Lightyear costume in the mail.  It was really adorable.  And so was our little ladybug (Apparently a really popular costume this year as three of Avery's friends were also ladybugs).

These two are just too cute!

       

We also enjoyed pumpkin carving.  It took Avery a while to warm-up to it; but in the end she got her hands a little dirty.  

Jake invited some friends over to decorate mini sugar cookies and of course everyone had fun.  Good work Jake.  If you look close you can see the little ghost and moon sprinkles.  So perfect.  

The most-talked-about-event at the preschool Halloween party was ghost bowling.  Happily Miss Taylor sent out pictures and here is Jake showing us how it's done.  There was also snacks galore, so the party was a success.

And we made these paper spider webs to decorate with, which turned out super.  It was a happy, happy Halloween :)    

our fall summary

You can see that fall is nearing its end.  

Cooler breeze.  Barer trees.  Dark mornings.  Greyer days.  

But we really made the best of all that autumn has to offer...

 there were piles of leaves to jump into with friends on our walks home from school. 

there was golfing in the park.  

bright and sunny walks

more parks, leaf collecting and searching for acorns

    

With our fall leaves this year we pressed them flat (just for a few hours), then ironed them between waxed paper, cut them out and taped them onto our sunniest window.  After we ironed and cut, I thought they looked really dull; but once they were stuck to the window and had the light behind them, they were vibrant and bright.  They kept their colour way better than dried/pressed leaves do, so twenty of them on the window was quite a happy sight. 

We roasted pumpkins, scooped them out, made pumpkin purée and used it to made pumpkin pancakes.  Avery loved them, Jake liked them and Bill and I thought once was nice - to be festive and all -  but we kind of preferred original pancakes.  With the rest of the pumpkin purée we're going to try baked pumpkin donut holes.   

We decorated the house with gourds (and sorted them by shape and colour too).

  

we went to the beach last week - just to throw some rocks in - on our way home from the grocery store.  

and we nature walked some more 

  

See ya next year fall.  We're already looking forward to it.     

thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was full of family and sunshine and food galore. 

My parents hosted and put on a huge feast.  We filled the house with family (all the Wegers, Tucks and great-grandma too) and sat around, knee-to-knee and elbow-to-elbow, to enjoyed all the thanksgiving fixings. 

Jake felt a little under the weather but was a real trooper about it.  He spent the weekend in one of two places: uncharacteristically cuddled-up on the couch under a pile of blankets or playing outside.  

Avery smiled a lot, played shy and gobbled up some delicious apple crisp.    

We spent sometime at the park, strolled under golden-leafed trees and spotted dozen of Sockeyes' heading up river.  A perfect fall family outing.    

On the way to my parents house we quizzed Jake on what he was thankful for, he thought for a while and replied "I'm thankful for lots of people" and? "and thankful for picking cherries and trees and cars".  Well done. 

I'm thankful for lots of people too.  I could write all day long about it, if I had all day long to write ;)  

And I am particularly grateful for this little family of mine who fill my days and nights.  I am thankful to wake-up to these faces and tuck them in a night.  I am thankful for all the hugs and laughs and even the moments when they are driving me crazy.  I am thankful for the richness of their love all the beautiful moments made with them.