Boxing Day

We spent Boxing Day with Gavin's side of the family, we had a great time visiting with family and watching the kids play together.

It never takes long for all of the kids to gang up on someone - usually Jeff ;)


Gavin with his boys


Noah opening a gift from Jeff, Theresa and Kids


Papa opening his present from everyone.


The next day we the kids enjoyed playing with their new toys, Owen finally was able to use his Blizzard Maker and make us all an ice cream treat. Santa hadn't read the directions and we were missing a few key ingredients - oops! Owen was great about it though and was very patient until we could go shopping for the ingredients we needed. He was so excited to try out the Blizzard maker and wanted to do all the steps himself. That is until he realized that churning for 10 minutes was ridiculously long, then he handed over churning duty to daddy :)


The ice cream didn't turn out quite as thick as it should have - it was kind of like eating melted ice cream. The kids declared the ice cream "delicious" and we all smiled and praised Owen for making us such yummy treats.


Playing with a few other new toys. Such fun! but it amazes me how the boys naturally start speaking in a scary creepy voice when dressed up in costume. Noah's new line is "haha I've got you now, you'll never get away!"


Owen with his new toys


The helmet was huge on Noah's tiny head:) he kept yelling "Help! I can't see a thing!"

Christmas Day

Grayson was the first to wake up Christmas morning and the three of us lounged in bed while we waited for the other two sleepy heads to wake up. Noah woke up and joined us for some cuddles, and finally Owen woke up around 7:30 and came rushing in to announce it was Christmas morning :) I really don't think Noah knew what was going on. We waited while Gavin went downstairs and put the lights on the tree and got the video camera ready.


We didn't have to be at my sister's house until 3pm so we had a good part of the day to enjoy our time together, open gifts, play our new toys and have a yummy breakfast.

Our Christmas Tree













We attempted to get some cute "first Christmas" photos - and while they are cute, not all of them are happy :)




Family photo in front of the tree


The boys playing the "drums" at Maegan and Bill's


We had a great Christmas with family!

Christmas Part 3

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed getting together with Gavin's sister Meggie and her boyfriend Liam. They were hosting an open house and joked that we are always their "earliest" guests, arriving in the morning hours all the time :) Just a reminder of how different our lives have been since having kids - oh well, we wouldn't change a thing!

I love this photo of Noah and his Aunt Meggie! you can just feel the love!


The kids attacking Liam :) what a good sport he is!


More gift opening! The biggest play doh gift pack ever! the kids loved playing with it once we got home :) They also received a Mr. Men story collection - how fun! who else remembers those awesome books? they were my favourite growing up :)


A cute photo of Noah just before leaving for Aunt Meggie's!


After visiting we went home and played with the new presents, made pizza and attended Christmas Mass. The kids were so well behaved during church this time! we really need to make an effort to go more often. I've found that the times we attempt sitting in the pews as opposed to going immediately to the 'crying room' things always turn out better! I think the kids sense that they should behave, when we are in the 'crying room' with other kids things can get a little crazy! Afterwards we stopped home to pick up some hot chocolate and cookies for our annual Christmas Eve Christmas light drive!

Our favourite decorated house - a little blurry


Someday I hope to live here...lol! I can just picture the shiny marble floors now :)


After setting out the cookies and eggnog for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer the kids were fast asleep after our busy day! dreaming of Christmas morning I'm sure!

Christmas Part 2

After our family Christmas brunch we prepared for a friend's Christmas drop-in party! I love the idea of an open house around Christmas to get together with family/friends that you may not otherwise be able to see near the holidays. It's starting to become a tradition for us to attend this annual party and we love it!

The kids especially love playing together and playing the drums downstairs. I didn't get many photos of the fun evening, but plan to next year :)






We made such special friends during our adoption wait, we are always so happy to spend time with these friends - especially during the holidays!

Christmas Part 1

Oh man I'm so behind in blogging! I'm going to try my best to get caught up within the next couple of days, but of course that all depends on how much the little ones sleep :)

Christmas parties started early this year for us and we didn't stop until we rang in the New Year! My brother, SIL, and Niece were home the week before Christmas so we hosted a gift opening brunch that day with my side of the family. It was nice to sped time with my brother's family and especially nice to spend time with my sweet niece. This year she kept up with the boys and is running all over the place!

Grayson's first gift opening experience :)


The last couple of years my dad has taken it upon himself to purchase gifts for the women of the family - hopefully that tradition continues as it's given us some great photo opportunities and a few laughs along the way :)








Gifts are always crazy with my side of the family - this year a total of 29 batteries were needed for the kids new toys! It was great spreading out some holiday parties because it gave the kids some time to actually enjoy their new presents :) This year I tried out a new recipe I found on pinterest - think we've found a new Christmas breakfast tradition! goodbye pillsbury cinnabons and hello pillsbury biscuits smothered in warm syrup, brown sugar, butter and pecans! Yummy! you can find the recipe here. No photos as those sticky buns didn't last very long!

What a great morning we had!

Halloween!

We started our Halloween fun by having Catherine and Hannah over for dinner. We served our usual halloween meal 'pumpkin spaghetti' the kids love it and it's easy to prepare ahead of time. This year the trick- or -treaters started arriving at the door at 6, and they came in big numbers! I was glad we made the last minute decision to pick up more candy "just in case". We had lots of candy left over, but I have no idea how many kids we got they came too fast to count!



Grayson dressed for the holiday by wearing a borrowed halloween sleeper :) super cute! Grayson and I stayed home to hand out candy, but we enjoyed watching the kids trick-or-treating-from the porch.


Our collection of mostly disney themed pumpkins. Catherine and Hannah carved mickey, and we carved goofy and "a ghost with flames" as per Owen's request.


Trick - or - Treat! Gavin said this year was much easier because the kids could go up to the houses on their own! no carrying any young kids up and down the stairs, next year he will have Grayson to carry around :)


It took Noah a few houses to figure out what was going on, but after he did he was so excited! he would run from house to house saying "candy! candy!" heh- I don't think he realized just how much candy he'd be given.




Thanks to Catherine she caught these videos of the kids :)


This spooky house set Owen off for the rest of the night. He wanted daddy to go up to the houses with him after that. He had wanted to come home but stuck it out for the love of candy :) I'm glad he mustered up enough bravery to finish the night and continue to have fun.





Pirate Owen!


Cutest little strawberry, dragon and pirate around! here they are enjoying a treat.


My three trick- or- treaters


My three cuties!


We checked the boys candy to make sure it was safe and took out the candy we don't like them to have (really hard candy and gumballs) then we helped ourselves to some of our favourites :) Grayson snatched this lollipop as if no one would notice, but I was sure to snatch it back just after I took the picture:)


Happy Halloween!

Canada Day Weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend with their family! we had planned on taking advantage of the long weekend to get some work done around the house, but woke up on friday morning and decided to take the kids to the zoo instead! The rest of the weekend was spent doing work that was long overdue (by about a year if I'm honest) like clean the carpets but we did manage to squeeze in some family fun as well.

We packed a picnic lunch and our bathing suits and we were off to spend the day at the splash pad at the zoo. The rest of the city must have had the same idea as the place was packed! I didn't get any pictures of the splash pad fun because Gavin was afraid the camera would get wet :( but the boys had a blast! even Noah got more wet than usual and it was hot enough that I even went in the water :) The boys wore their new ankle bands without any fuss, and I'm so glad to have them! they are bands that are embossed with My Mommy and my cell number in case one of the kids get lost.Thanks Catherine for ordering them for us! hopefully we will never need them but they certainly make me feel better about taking the boys to busy places, especially since Noah has been wanting to walk more than be in the stroller. I ordered some daycare ones as well so we will have them on our outings :)

A Birds of Prey show was starting just after we finished at the splash pad so we decided we would sit and watch the show instead of walking around the zoo in the crazy heat. I was definitely feeling the heat on friday and my hands and feet were so swollen even though I tried to stay as hydrated as possible and sit when I could.

This bird freaked me out a little. We sat in the front row and he got a little too close at times.








The boys loved the show and loved seeing the owls the most, not surprising as Owen knows many facts pertaining to owls because of a couple of books he often wants us to read to him. We had to laugh when he would point out the seagulls flying overhead and thought they were in the bird show too :)