Decorating the tree

Baby in the box
trying to get a photo of the kids...
Mimi putting her family ornament on the tree.
We waited to do the tree so that Mimi was back from NYC. The Charlie Brown tree on the year has quietly gotten another year's reprieve. I honestly don't know how many more years I can protect it for. Dave has a keen eye on it.Monkey helped Big C to put up his "baby's first Christmas" ornament.
Preciously nestled into the tree.
We put up our "first Christmas together" ornament.
We put up our family ornament with Mimi in the photo. I think that I'm sure to cry next year when that goes up and she isn't here to put it on the tree : (

The second kid's Christmas party cont'd

The boys had a great time swimming and then it was time to have pizza and see santa and little Rays. The boys happily hopped onto Santa's lap. He was a great Santa BTW.

Once Monkey had his gift in hand he happily hopped off of Santa's lap to go and unwrap it. Big C was quite happy to sit and hang out with the big guy. We might need to stranger proof this kid with a car battery and a Santa suit...The boys had a great time watching the reptiles.
Big C LOVED his gift. It is almost as though the person buying for Santa had a good idea what she was shopping for!!
The Three year old's quietly convened in the closet to compare trucks and then race them down the aisles. I wasn't about to stop them. It wasn't quiet, but they were having fun!!

A great week for Monkey!!

After the WB family reported last week that Monkey's week had not gone well and he had to miss an activity because of it...we are thrilled to say that he had a great week this week. It started off on shaky ground but he pulled it out and did a great job-yay buddy!
He got 13 out of 15 stickers and that is how many he needs in a week to get his reward. This week's reward was a giant caddy of Play D'oh stuff.
He and his brother had a ball. He even made one of the special projects that came with it to make a cat and display it. Heather called while he was doing it and we got out quote of the day:

Monkey: "I'm making a cat out of play d'oh Heather"

Heather: "very cool Monkey, shall we name him?" (very supportive Aunt here...)

Monkey: (using the same voice that you use to speak to folks that don't catch on so quick) "umm, no Heather, it is made out of Play D'Oh"

Our second kids Christmas party

We have a total of three Kids work Christmas parties to attend this year. That is pretty good if you consider that we each only have one place of employment!! This is the second year that we have managed to sneak into Mrs Bussey's work party (thanks!!!). As per last year, it was awesome!!! It starts out with an hour of swimming. Then we get visited by Little Ray's Reptiles and Santa Clause. Here are some great shots of the swimming portion of the festivities.

Waking a sleeping baby

He sleeps so peacefully when he finally goes to sleep. Just look at all of that skin!! How could I not kiss every bit of it!!so I snuggle up beside him...the eyes open, but don't stay that way.
He likes to stay asleep and just enjoy the snuggles.

Self portrait a la Kim!!

Stuck in the snowday world

The snow and freezing ice hit overnight on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning they had cancelled the buses for all of Eastern Ontario. That meant that daddy was to make every reasonable effort to go to work. After writing off a car in 2002, daddy makes a very quick decision.
We did however take Monkey to school since it was in the neighbourhood. E-man's mommy agreed to watch Big C so daddy went in to the school to read to some of the JK students. It was a lot of fun and Monkey got to be the last one to get read to. I'll certainly be taking a personal day or two to go in and read again.
Then we trekked back home in the very deeply snow covered roads and made some carrot-apple-chomocolate chip mini muffins. MMMMMMmmmmm.
Next, we were off to the toboganning hill. Here are some shots of Monkey, Big C, E-man, Mimi and Pineapple al enjoying the snow-covered bliss. Monkey and Big C each took turns taking the GT Racer (Or jump racer as it's called by Monkey) over the bump. Monkey was a super helper at bringing one of the sleds up the hill each time. Mimi decided that it was more fun to go rolling down the hill. I think every time she laughed at the top of her lungs all the way down! Pineapple joined in on the fun too, going down with Mimi on the black sled and erupting with laughter over the big jump. All in all it was a great time until we all got too cold.

Time to get back to getting more work done from home...

Saturday night we went on the traditional horse-drawn sleigh rides through the neighbourhood to celebrate the season. The boys got all bundled up for the cold weather, which actually turned out to not be so bad. The two of them jumped into the 'green train'(which I'll miss when they outgrow it) and headed for the horses. We had a bit of a wait ahead of us, so the boys each decorated cookies to pass the time.
Ok, it wasn't so much decorating cookies as a contrast in styles of using up the available resources. Monkey piled on the frosting and every candy in his cup, then went looking for more to add to his mountain of sugar. Big C on the other hand ate all of the candies out of the cup, then squirted on a little of the frosting and got down to eating that too. It was super cute.
Oh yes, and each boy had to have a balloon as well. They were a huge hit and E-man's daddy was manning the helium!
Soon enough our names were called and we headed out with the B's to go for a ride. The houses were nicely lit - some in just one colour to mommy's delight, others in a rainbow of colours to Monkey's delight. We traded cameras with the B family and took several goofy pictures of us taking pictures of each other. We sang a few carols, saw a few snowmen and then returned all too soon.
We took in the band playing some holiday music and then got back into the Green Train for the return trip. It seems like we just did last year's ride only last week. My how the time flies.

Breakfast With Santa

This weekend was the annual breakfast with Santa at our community centre. Big C and Mommy headed down and enjoyed all they had to offer.

Okay, that isn't entirely true. Mommy enjoyed the pancakes and Big C ate the clementines and a juice box.

Monkey's week was not a good one. His behaviour didn't earn him enough stickers to be permitted to join us.

Crazy Hair Day

Big C has a lot of spirit days at his pre-school. This past Monday it was "crazy hair day". So I got out the coloured hair spray and made his hair pretty funky. Monkey, who loves having his hair spiked and colourful, wanted in on it as well.
As you can see from the photo below, Monkey has inherited his mother's adeptness at having candit, or even posed photos taken.

For Matt-we love you

A special addition, just for you Matt.

This is just the first step. There is so much more to come.

Monkey's Second Shiner

Back in August Monkey got his first shiner. He was pretty upset about the whole thing and had to be appeased.

On Saturday we went to an Ottawa 67's game and he was horsing around. Despite being told not to (he is 4 after all!!) he kept it up. The end result was that he tripped and fell forward into a guard rail and got a decent sized goose egg on his temple. Despite ice and counter pressure it swelled up pretty nicely.This photo was taken 6 days after he got hurt.