Oh, What beautiful skin you have....

We got a book about homemade facials, skin treatments, hair help...etc. from the library.   Megan found a couple of things that she wanted to try.... I think that she made a oatmeal/honey/milk facial scrub.  All natural and totally edible. 

She is a little unsure at first....



It was my pleasure to help her spread the goop all over her face.  

Winter Fun

While Christmas holidays were in full swing we decided to spend some time in Sherwood Park at their recreation center.  For $20 we had tons of fun. 

We started off with skating...

Then we moved on to the indoor play area.... indoor equipment, huge blocks to build with, slides, rock climbing wall, toys and other kids to play with. 



We took a break and had some lunch at the food court there and it cost us more to eat than to do all of our activities!

We finished our day with a swim in the wave pool.  Aaron loved to be safe in a little boat that floats and he kept making sure that whoever was helping him was holding on the the rope so that nothing happened to him.  Evan enjoyed the play structure with slides that they have.  Megan was good right up at the front of the waves in the pool with a tube.  Everyone enjoyed floating along in the lazy river. 



New Years 2012

Happy New Years!

Our New Years Celebrations were held at home.  I find it so much easier to do this right now with young children.  Going out and being up all night and then in a terrible mood the next day isn't worth it to me. 

This year I was debating if I should sign up for the Resolution Run that takes place where I live.  It happens fairly early on New Years Day and would be a great way to bring in the New Year.....with a healthy focus.  But my plans changed when I realized that New Years Day would be on Sunday.  So maybe next year we can do it.  Spencer and I could have done it on our own but I really wasn't that motivated to go for a chilly run.....

So we had fondue for our dinner; we tried a Chinese broth fondue which was nice.  We found out that the missionaries in our ward didn't have a place to go, so we last minute invited them over, which worked out pretty good, but they had to be back in their apartment by 6pm.  We didn't start eating until 5pm.  So it was a quick dinner with them.  Then we sent them on their way with a few games that they were able to play. 

I bought some of those Christmas Crackers for 50% off.  That was such a good deal.  We'll definately keep that tradition.  The kids had a blast and were bugging me all day....once they knew what they were, if they could open them.  They had to wait until dinner.  Megan was also eager to break into our Sparkling Apple Cider. 

Our only constraint for the night was one fondue pot for 7 people and we each only had one fondue fork to use.  Next year at least two pots and a few forks each.  I'll also make more side items to eat as I feel the only good thing to really fondue/cook is thinly sliced meats.  We tried to fondue vegetables but it just wasn't the same.  Anyway after the missionaries left and the kids were done.......

Spencer and I sat around and polished off the rest of the meats!  By this time we stole our kids forks and Spencer was even using a regular fork to get the job done!

The rest of the night consisted of watching some tv, playing wii, playing with those punching balloons, and we cracked a bunch of glow sticks and went outside for a brief sparkler display. 



My boys were tired at the regular bedtime and I was only too happy to put Aaron to sleep, I stayed up until 10pm and then wished everyone else a Happy New Year and went to bed.  Spencer soon followed.  Megan and Evan tried their very hardest to stay awake...but spencer ended up taking Evan to bed when he went to bed.  Megan wanted to stay up until midnight and we said that she could, but that right after she needed to go to bed.  She was trying to celebrate the new years with her character on the Wii game Animal Crossing...hoping to get some special new years prizes. 

Well I ended up waking up at 3am with the hall light on, so I went to check on everyone...boys sleeping in their room, check....Spencer beside me, check.....Megan, room light was on but no Megan.  So downstairs I went and there I found her asleep on the couch huddled under a thin couch blanket that we have.  I woke her up and helped her up to her room.  She cried the whole way -- she had actually fell asleep before midnight and missed out on her Animal Crossing celebration.  She tried travelling back in time to retrive her prize but that didn't work.  Poor girl.  She tried so hard, but it just didn't work out.  Maybe next year she'll have parents to support her in her quest to stay up all night. 

Cheers to 2012!



Christmas Celebrations!

Our Christmas was really good.  We enjoyed each others company, the activities, food, weather and of course opening presents on Christmas Day. 
Since Christmas Eve was on Saturday, we did have a few momements in the morning to clean and tidy up a bit for the big day.  The children spent some time playing the Wii then with such nice weather and the ponds outside finally frozen and safe to be on Spencer hauled us all out to do some ice skating.  This was a first for this winter season.  The ice surface was a bit rough but we managed and skated for about 45 minutes.  We brought along a folding chair for the children to push around and then after that we pulled them around in our sled.  Megan got the hang of it again, Evan struggled a bit more and Aaron was doing great since he has 4 bladed skates that strap to his boots.  This will definately have to be a monthly activity for us so we can continue to hone each of our skills.  Megan's word to the wise....remember to wear long socks; that go up past the skate boot; for a more comfortable time. 

It was so nice out that eventually I had to take off my winter coat and Evan's scarf that I'm wearing for him....but not the toque...once a toque goes on my head it can't come off #1  I like it, #2 it keeps my head warm and #3 my hair always look terrible!

We headed home and I hid the pickle on the tree.  Then sent the children back into the livingroom to see if they could find the pickle and thus be the one to open the pickle gift.  It was Evan's lucky year!  He spotted it fairly quickly and proceeded to open the gift for the family......Kung Fu Panda 2.   So we settled down and watched that later in the afternoon. 

We then had our dinner of cheese, crackers, sauages and some mexican type appetizers that I heated in the oven along with some sushi.  As I was putting everything on the table I realized that it was kinda a mix of everything and it really didn't go to well together.  We've had similar food in the past but it doesn't really suit my family's tastes.  So next year we will have to try something else. 


We then played some games; I read the Christmas Orange Story and we shared a chocolate orange then Spencer read the Christmas story as the kids put up my flannel board figures.  It went over ok.  We are also still tweeking our Christmas Eve traditions.  They all had showers/baths and  jumped into their first present of some new jammies.

I had fun picking out these PJ's for everyone.  I think that they look great.  Aaron especially loved his buzz light year ones, Evan is good with his woody ones as long as I don't say stuff like..."ride 'em cowboy or Hi there my names woody or look...there's a snake in my boot!"  he really doesn't like that I enjoy his fun PJ's that much.  Megan was in need of new PJ's and was a good sport to agree to wear some Jessie PJ's.  I only wish that they had Jessie PJ's that actually looked like Jessie's outfit like the other ones do but I'm pretty sure that no 9 year old girl would be too into that!

Next it was off to bed with them.  Spencer and I took a moment to sit down and watch some TV before doing our thing. 

Since Christmas Day was on Sunday this year we told the children that they could open up thier stockings and enjoy them before getting ready for church.  So that is what we did. 

Here is Megan going through some of her stocking.  We put in a few smaller gifts for them to open. 

Every  year we write letters to each other about something that we remember about them and their accomplishments or something we appreciate about each other, then we go through and read them out loud.  It is a lovely tradition and you can never be told too much about how much your appreciated.  Then we had to have a quick breakfast and get dressed and out the door to our sacrament meeting.  Our numbers were few since so many in our ward go away to visit other family members at the holidays.  We had our bishopric speak and a few musical numbers and some singing by everyone else too.  I was glad for the focus that attending church on Christmas Day brought to our Christmas celebrations.  

We quickly drove home to open our presents.  We try and do it in an orderly manner....we all enjoyed some really good gifts and some really useful ones too. The children said that they had a really good Christmas.  It think they enjoyed everything they got and all the experiences that we shared in this season. 

 

Here is Spencer with a runner's ID tag that he can attach to his shoe....since he runs alone early in the morning.   This makes me feel better about him being by himself. 

More tools for our handy man.  Hopefully there will be enough to share with my other handy mans'.

These are my babies....oh how I love, love, love to wear slippers around the house.  Especially in the winter time. 

After we opened presents and before our little Christmas dinner, we had some dear friends stop by to help celebrate with us.  We had a few more treats and some hot Christmasy drinks.  More gifts to open and friendships renewed.

Then I proceeded to make our christmas dinner, we had a large chicken (I didn't want all the time and prep of cooking a turkey, I already had my turkey fill at thanksgiving), mashed sweet potatoes with turnips, buns, salad, Savoy cabbage with sage butter and of course cranberry sauce.  It tasted delicious!  The perfect way to end off a perfect day.