Family Pictures

We had our family pictures done on Saturday and I'm quite pleased with the results. Our regular photographer wasn't in the studio that day so we had someone the girls had never seen before. Maybe that was the key because I think the pictures are excellent (although I am biased)

Wow - the four of us all looking at the camera with smiles on our faces!

Rachel looks like she's hanging on for dear life ha ha

This picture really shows their true colours - they are like this 90% of the time :)

Rachel loves giving Natalie hugs - usually Natalie fights it though ha ha

Date night

Ron and I had a bit of a date night last night. We played in the snow!!! I don't know why but I had this brilliant idea to go outside last night instead of going to bed. I figured that since it had been snowing all afternoon/evening, we should go shovel the driveway before there was more snow added to it. We did that and then we played in the back yard. The fresh snow was just too much fun to pass up :)

The front walkway - I tried to get a picture of the Christmas tree through the window because it looked so pretty last night. However, we have a street light right in front of our house so that was glowing in the window as well.

Pretty deep snow considering Ron is 6'4"
He made his way to the back of the yard to clean the snow off our cedars. They were drooping and very sad looking.

Me being silly and making a snow angel :)

We may not have been outside very long but we had a lot of fun and that's all that counts, right? :)

Christmas Crafts

It was a snowy day on Wednesday so Rachel & I did some Christmas crafts while Natalie had her afternoon nap.

Decorating a Christmas star
She's getting pretty good with using the glue on her own now

Making some artwork for Daddy's work truck

She even made a Christmas card for my staff at work. I think they'll get a kick out of it.

Then we pulled some of the Play-Doh out

Guess who loves Kraft Dinner??

Daddy forgets to put bibs on her and it drives ME NUTS!!!! I think I should get him to do laundry one time..maybe then he'd remember. Or not.

Hanging some of her Christmas stars on the tree. Then she took them off and hung them on the cupboards in the kitchen. Then back to the tree...back to the kitchen...who knows if they'll ever have a permanent home? :)

Ron was playing with the girls later that same day and he watched Natalie pull herself up at this little kitchen. God love her though, she didn't know what to do once she was standing up. :) Since then she's tried pulling herself up at the toy box and ottoman and even the couch but she needs to get those legs stronger to support her body weight ha ha

Have a great weekend!

Children's Christmas party

We went to my work Children's Christmas party this past Sunday. The girls had fun - although they weren't sure what to think of Santa.

Natalie giving Santa the once over
Still not sure what to think of him

Definitely not a happy camper

Opening her present from Santa

Rachel checking her present out

Decorating a cupcake with Daddy

Mmmmmm...eating the candies. She didn't care about the actual cupcake.

We tried to do the skating thing but Rachel wanted no part of it. We were going to borrow a pair of skates from a friend of mine but she forgot one at home. hehe Anyway, as it turned out, Rachel didn't like being out there. Natalie however - LOVED IT! Ron didn't get any pictures of her out there though. I just pushed her around in her stroller but she seemed to enjoy it.

A Santa Poll

Now that Rachel is getting to the age where she understands who Santa is, we're trying to figure out what to do about the gifts from Santa at Christmas.

When I was growing up, Santa always left a bunch of gifts - ranging from small to large - unwrapped on the couch. When Ron was growing up, Santa left one gift - wrapped. I loved walking into the living room on Christmas morning to see what Santa left for me - and the best part was that I could play with everything right away because it wasn't wrapped. It does however make sense for Santa leave one gift because how would he have time to deliver all those gifts to every kid otherwise?!

To get some feedback, here's a poll...

Oh Christmas Tree....oh Christmas Tree...

It was pouring rain all morning and then in the afternoon it turned to snow...it was definitely time to set up and decorate the Christmas tree!

I had to get a close up of Rachel's decorating technique - love how she strung the wooden lights lol

The final product...by Rachel. Ron & I finished decorating the tree once the girls were in bed. We left the decorations that Rachel hung - I don't care if it's not "perfect", I think she did a good job! Next on the list...wrapping the presents (yes, I am done my shopping!) and putting them under the tree. Maybe tomorrow or at some point this week.

10 month pictures

Here's Natalie's 10 month pictures we had taken this morning:

Rachel stayed with Grandma & Grandad because she got up at 4:20 this morning (UGH!!!) and she would have been a pain in the butt at our studio appointment (9am). She's hanging out with them for awhile today while Natalie & I are on our own at home. My goodness, it's amazing what you can get done around the house with only one kid!

A little of this...a little of that...

That's what we've been busy doing - a little of this & a little of that!

Rachel loves jumping every chance she gets. She was pretty excited to be wearing a sweater Oma made her I guess

Rachel sets the table for us every night

Playing in the basement with her car & phone

Natalie eating some snacks her sister prepared for her

Lovin' the oven mitts!

Rachel showing Natalie her flash cards

or is Natalie showing Rachel? :)

Oh dear - a big cookie mess

Fun hair in the tub

Crazy hair - silly girl

Mommy's little helper! She had to drag the stool from her bathroom but she still couldn't reach the pictures. At least she's trying!

Auntie Linda came over last night with a fun surprise - a new shower curtain for their bathroom! Rachel put all of the new hooks in the curtain

"Here Natalie - you do one"

Time to hang it up!

I love winter!

ABC - 123

**Oh dear - I posted the wrong video the other day - see the video at the bottom to hear Rachel say her ABC's and 123's!**

Here's a little video clip of Rachel & Natalie after their bath yesterday. Rachel even recited her ABC's and 123's...well, repeated them after me. My American friends will appreciate the ABC's because I say 'z' like them, not like my fellow Canadians (zed). It just depends on my mood - sometimes we say 'z' and sometimes we say 'zed'.

So glad it's Friday! What's even better than that is Ron will be home all weekend. He is not working like he did last weekend. It's supposed to be rainy anyway - who wants to work outside in that?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Can't get enough of this amazing weather!

It's hard to believe one week ago today we were outside playing in the snow. Today we spent some time at the park again...20 degrees and actually quite warm in the sun. No wonder so many people get sick this time of year - you just never know what type of weather you're going to have!

Grandma joined us today and we went for a nice long walk and then stopped at the playground before we headed home.

I think the girls would stay on the swings all day if they could

Hmmm...can I eat this? :)

Since the leaves are still on the trees in our backyard (and we only have 2 trees anyway lol), we played in the leaves at the park.

One final swing and we headed for home...until tomorrow! That's right, we're going back to the park tomorrow as well since it's supposed to be 20 degrees again. They're calling for rain on Friday and all weekend so we better take advantage of this great weather while we can!