Merry 2013 Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our mayhem!  It's been a fun week here, Christmas Eve was really good.  We went to a 4 pm church service, came home for supper, then went to another 8 pm service across the harbour.  It decided to snow for us (Which was AWESOME!!) and driving to the second service in the snow and fog the boys were singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, adding snippets like it was a foggy Christmas Eve, just like tonight, that Santa came and asked for help. Driving on the bridge, Girlie asked where we were heading.  We told her we were going to church and we heard this heavy sigh come from her. "What??!  AGAIN?!  But we already went to church.  And it's bedtime!"  I swear, that girl is 3 going on 13!  But we survived and made it.  Monkey fell asleep on the way there but was awake for the whole service.  Sergeant and Girlie fell asleep during that second service, and everyone was asleep by the time we pulled in to the driveway at about 9:45.  Hubby and I were in bed by 11:30 and the kids were still asleep when Hubby and I put the coffee pot on at 5:30.  Didn't stay asleep long after that, but that's part of the season, right?

We went through the stockings, put together puzzles, made breakfast, read a few new books, ate probably too many sweets before getting ready for church (can you hear Girlie say "Again?!").  We opened one gift each before we left and then we were on our way.  The kids were actually good through all of this.  When we got home was another story.  Girlie knew that we were going to open the rest of the gifts and just tore into the first big gift she saw.  One of Smarty's.  She didn't get the whole thing opened.  We stopped her before she got the chance.  But it made for a serious time out, lots of yelling, tears, and talk between Hubby and I as to whether or not she'd join us for the rest of the morning.  She did, she was properly contrite. Over excitement, overtired, too much chocolate, everything.  Completely understand the why, that's why we couldn't let it go.  Not a behaviour we want to condone.

But everyone had fun, no one was hurt throughout the day.  Hubby went for a walk during nap time and came home to cook our turkey supper.  Just a small enough bird to feed our little family with enough leftovers for a turkey pie the next day.  I'm loving that the kids like turkey dinner now.  Seems like it was forever that they wouldn't touch it!  And I made a chocolate cake for dessert.

It was such a nice week that Hubby lost track of time!  He forgot Friday, so he spent most of Saturday thinking it was Friday.  Normal for alot of people, not for him.  It shows how relaxed he has been this last week or so.  Yesterday afternoon we visited the Natural History Museum, today the Discovery Science Centre.  We will likely be spending quite a bit of time at those two locations this year.  Very fun and entertaining for all of us.  It was nice to go out and do those things together.

Now for some pictures that everyone is looking for :)

Helping Daddy make Christmas Breakfast

Me wearing Monkey's new tiara

Happy for chocolate before breakfast

Eating breakfast like royalty

Playing while eating

Snap bracelet/watch

My view across the table

She wanted to help Sergeant with his puzzle

Matching onesie jammies!

Checking out the Hello Kitty Lego house

Angry Birds Star Wars Jenga

"Daddy help build this?"

Loving the fine motor play

Teaching the boys to play checkers

Building a Skylanders robot

Happy children

Beautiful girls!

Handsome boys!

Ransom!

Smarty and the girls making stuff

Stink eye!

Momma, I can feed her!

Go Fish!

December plans

So a few days ago Smarty was laying in the bed with Hubby.  Just quiet and snuggling when out of the blue Smarty asks "Dad, what kind of light artillery do you think we need to protect our house?"

 Hubby stopped and asked "Protect our house from what?"

"From people who want to get our stuff.  We need to protect our house."

"I don't think we need artillery to protect our house, Son.  It's pretty secure."

That was good for a chuckle!

Yesterday driving to and from preschool, we heard two different versions of Santa Baby on the radio.  Girlie in the back asked both times if it was Christmas tonight or if the singer was "just joking."  Guess she was taking the line "Hurry down the chimney tonight" literally.  I had to explain that the singer was just pretending that it was Christmas night to which she replied "She's being silly!"

It's been a busy week here.  There has been more snow falling which is something that makes the whole house happy.  Even in rain follows closely on  it's heels.  The world is currently white and icy.  Sergeant was sick all last weekend with the flu, and a sore throat for the first part of this week.  All of the kids' tempers are shorter as we approach the holiday, but everyone was happy this morning to know that it's the last school day.  Daddy even has the next two weeks off which is very odd.

There has been baking, baking, and more baking.  Perogs, Oh Henry squares, mocha truffles, shortbread, regular bread, mocha logs (notice two things with the word mocha in them?) and as it is there is extremely little left.  Gifting it all away so we don't eat them all ourselves.  And it's fun.

Monkey has figured out how to get her own diaper off.  After being so lucky that the other three never did, we're paying for it now!  Thankfully she hasn't made a mess, running around bare, but she certainly loves feeling free!  She's been working on getting her own pants on this fall and can get one leg in but not the other.  So she just runs around with one leg in her pants and the other one dragging.  This morning, though, she actually got both legs in and they were on the right way too!  Such a smart cookie!

This holiday is looking so different than usual, I'm almost not sure what we'll do with ourselves.  No doubt that we'll fill the days, though.  I saw some people sledding on a hill near Shearwater this morning and thought that it would be a fun way to spend a morning in the next little bit.  Trips to the library, have friends over, eat popcorn, watch movies, go for drives.  I'm looking forward to two weeks of no school!

Our snow day on Wednesday was fun.  Two minutes after I told the boys they had no school, Smarty had the diningroom table absolutely covered with paper, glue, scissors, tape, crayons, markers, you name it!  Then when they were done with crafting we went downstairs and set up the tent and pulled out the sleeping bags and they watched some cartoons while playing in it.  They weren't happy when we took it down at bedtime, but we'll have it up again soon.  It's going to be a fun Christmas!

long overdue

Long, long, long overdue post.  I apologize for those who have been waiting and waiting for updates.  There has been alot of fog, alot of rain, and now finally snow!  And sunny skies!  Hubby came home and then left again for a 5 day sail on the HMCS Halifax, which is awesome.  When we went to pick him up from it he brought the boys aboard to grab his gear.  They LOVED it.  And this past Saturday he did a baptism on the Preserver and Smarty went with him to assist.

Yesterday was school concerts and today is report cards.  Girlie even got one when we dropped her off at preschool.  She's doing very well, exceptional at sharing toys and playing well with others.  Is this really our girl?  We'll see how the boys are doing, but their parent teacher conference went well and they seem to be well above their class averages.  And they are have new friends!  They still really miss their old ones.  Kinda heartbreaking hearing the random mentioning of missing people from Alberta.

But here are some pictures from the boys' concert yesterday.  I'll make a more concerted effort into posting more regularly.  It's good for me to write these anecdotes down as well for everyone to read them