Christmas Eve

We had a great day Christmas Eve. We cleaned the house in the morning (cause Santa doesn't visit a dirty house) and went ice skating at Millennium Place in the afternoon.

 Macy has her own skates passed down from our generous neighbors.

 Learning to skate. She would skate for little, then take a little break, then skate more, then break. 

 Having fun!

 The best part is that Rachel gets to ride around in one of these (and when I push her I don't fall!).

 I think she liked it!

 After skating Grandma and Grandpa Lamont came over for dinner. We had porcupines, tray buns, broccoli and bacon salad, cranberry juice, and nanaimo bars for dessert. Then we got a family present from Frosty, How to Train Your Dragon 2 the movie.

 After the movie we said good night to Grandma and Grandpa. The girls had baths and got ready for bed. We left cookies for Santa, and they both went straight to sleep. I don't think Macy came out once!

Holiday Fun 2014!

We had a great Holiday season this year. We started early, mid November, and went strong through the New Year. This family likes to party!

 Chris and Macy kicked it off at the Community Lighting of the Trees Festival. The community center was packed with Christmas trees, Santa, face paint, crafts, and more. Outside was a petting zoo and sleigh rides.

 Macy loved getting her hair done. Pink and black was her request!

 Later in November we visited Santa at the Sherwood Park Mall. Going early in the season is great, no lines! I think this was Macy's first year talking to Santa and not being shy. Rachel did pretty good letting him hold her, but they had previously bonded when she was just 3 weeks old.

 We put up the tree and lights and Christmas decorations near the end of November, in time for our American Thanksgiving celebration.

 Classic plate shot. It was so good!

 This year we had a family from our ward over, the Fixen's. It was a fun night.

 Not pictured was our sleigh ride down Whyte Ave. It was great. We went on probably the warmest Saturday of the month, and Santa was even on our sleigh. The horse pulled sleigh was right on the public roads with the rest of the traffic. It was lots of fun and something we would do again.

 We decorated cookies and ate WAY too much. Generous neighbours and friends supplied us with even more goodies. We were never hungry during this season.

 I did some Christmas crafts. The girls hand prints! I love how they turned out!

 And of course lots of dancing!

It was great to spend lots of time as a family and making holiday memories!

Candy House!

A few days before Christmas we did our annual family candy house.

 Everyone was excited!

"mmm, candy!"

 "I don't know if I'm ready for the sugar rush!"

 The finished product. We had a little difficulty with this year's model. Halfway through I quit and went for decorating sugar cookies instead. I think we will probably take a break from candy houses and just do decorating cookies instead. The same goodies, but less work/mess and they actually get eaten!

A Cleaning Resolution

So this is my New Years cleaning resolution. I found this online and my goal is to try to follow it all year. What I like most about it is that the bathroom tasks are split up, they always seem like such a daunting task, and there is no major cleaning on the weekend! I'm only on my second day, but I'm hoping since I've posted about it I will stick to it. So feel free to ask how it is going and here's to a cleaner new year!

First Birthday!

It's hard to believe it's been over a year since Rachel joined our family! We celebrated her birthday, November 7th, with a low key family day. We checked out an indoor playground in Ardrossan and Rachel loved the slide! Then we had a simple dinner with strawberry cupcakes for the birthday girl. She loved the icing!

 She got a pretty good haul. The unwrapped gifts were actually Macy's old toys that had  been in storage. Quite honestly I think they were Rachel's favorites!

 We got a great video of us singing to her, she loved every bit of it, too bad it is too large to post.

 Yummy cake!

 I just love that happy smile!

Rachel is now 13 months and still such a joy to have around. She loves laughing, and will just laugh and laugh at nothing really at all. She is cruising along the furniture, and climbing stairs, and I think walking is close. She still scoots around, but gets everywhere she wants and gets there fast! She is a curious monkey and loves to check out what is in all the cupboards and drawers, and loves to have a taste of anything. Speaking of tastes, she is a great eater and eats whatever we do. She eats the same, if not more than Macy, but she is in the 95th percentile for weight!

Happy Birthday Rachel! We're all excited for another years of firsts, and fun, and laughter with you!

Halloween!

We love Halloween around here. For Macy it basically means she gets to wear her dress-up clothes out, run around with friends, and eat candy. Who wouldn't love it!

 Here is Rachel a couple weeks before Halloween when we were checking out the costumes.

 A couple days before Halloween Grandma and Grandpa Lamont, Aunt Pam, Paisley, and Scarlett came over for dinner and pumpkin carving. Pam and I ended up doing all the work while the girls ran around playing!

 Macy had three different occasions to dress up. The first was a family Halloween party where she went as Cinderella. Second (below), was her preschool party where she chose to be a Barbie Fairy, and the third was actual Halloween Trick or Treating where she went as a Lady Bug. If you ask her what she was for Halloween though, she'll tell you a Lady Bug. (Note, these were all things we had on hand, so I didn't care what she went as..except I pressed for Lady Bug for trick or treating, since it fits well over a coat!)

 Macy and Chris did the trick or treating while Rachel and I stayed home to hand out candy.

 Nice glasses Dad!

 Macy trick or treated with neighbour pals, Lasha, William, and Max, and then went out a second time with just Dad. They got a great haul!

 Too much candy!

Hope you all had a great halloween!

Appetizer Night

Wings, nachos, potato wedges, quesidillas.... sometimes it's fun to just eat your favorite appie's!