Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

Hello... I am blogging from my living room couch now that my laptop is hooked up with my new wireless router :-) It is so handy! Except I think I am spending too much time on the internet now...

We have spent the last few days assembling the new toys that the girls received for Christmas. Tonight Dave assembled the 'Bounce and Spin Pony' that Uncle Brad and Kara gave Victoria for Christmas. It is pretty neat... you hook it up to the tv and it plays little games. Victoria really liked the one where it counts higher and higher with each bounce.

We made sure that Victoria got the first turn since the toy was given to her. We explained to Hannah that it was Victoria's gift and that Victoria got the first turn and then she would share it and let Hannah have a turn. Hannah was really good about waiting until Victoria had a turn (what a surprise!) But when Hannah had a turn Victoria stood and cried her eyes out because she didn't want to share! I guess that means she likes the toy so good job Uncle Brad and Kara :-)

Tomorrow is New Years Eve... we are having some friends and their kids over for a Wii party. Jeff got Guitar Hero World Tour for Christmas so we are going to be playing that. There will be lots of funny video for me to post afterwards I'm sure :-)

Christmas Recap

Hannah and Victoria were spoiled once again this year. The amount of gifts that they received was almost obscene. We spent the morning at home opening gifts and having a pancake breakfast. The girls were so hyper and excited!

Santa brought Hannah the Cinderella tea party set that she really wanted and Victoria got the big orange car that she wanted. Plus they also got a lot of other toys, games, books and clothes.

Dave had Victoria's Please Mum modeling poster framed for me with all the different poses around it. It looks great! I can't wait to put it up on the wall... I just have to decide where to hang it.

We headed over to my parent's place around lunch time and we spent the afternoon opening gifts there with my parent's and Brad and Kara. Hannah and Victoria were spoiled there as well. Lots of fun new toys and cute new clothes galore!

We spent the afternoon playing games and then had a great turkey dinner with all the fixings. The kids were pretty exhausted by the end of the evening. Hannah even carried her new couch down the hall and set up camp on my parent's bed.

It's a good thing we have a big van because it was loaded to the top with all of the stuff we had to take home with us!

It snowed pretty much all day on Christmas and Boxing Day. I am getting tired of the snow!

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On Boxing Day I picked up Mandy at noon and we ventured into Vancouver to do some shopping downtown on Robson Street. We scored some great deals on sweaters at RW & Co. and I even got a new coat there too. I splurged on a new Lululemon hoodie for myself even though it wasn't on sale... those never go on sale!

After shopping all afternoon in the snow and slush we headed over to Roxy Burger on Granville for dinner and drinks. If you haven't been there I would recommend it... the burgers are fantastic! Plus it was nice and warm in there so we were able to thaw out from our snowy shopping day :-)

We ventured back out into the cold to walk over to GM Place for the Vancouver Canucks game at 7pm. Mandy has season's tickets and she treated me to the game yesterday. The Canucks lost to Edmonton but we had lots of fun anyways... the people in the seats beside us were great entertainment! Thanks Mandy!

I got a scratch and win coupon for the Team Store for 60% off so I bought Dave a jersey and a hat as well as a toque for myself. Another great deal :-) Since Dave stayed home with the kids all day while Mandy and I were having fun downtown I thought I would treat him to something too. See how nice I am?

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

It is easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the Christmas season, shopping for that special present, rushing around to Christmas parties and visiting with family and friends.

But today is the day to take a few minutes to reflect on why we celebrate this very special day, the real reason for the Christmas season. Today is the day that long ago in a little town of Bethlehem God's greatest gift was given to us in the birth baby Jesus.

(Press play and then pause the video to let it upload completely before viewing to let it play without stopping.)

Have a Wonderful Christmas!

The kids are still sleeping... I am getting ready to wake them up now. I'll blog more of our day with lots of pictures later :-)

A Snowy Christmas Eve

Dave drove up to Chilliwack yesterday and brought Grandma back to our place... good thing he did because it snowed all night and all day today. We have more snow right now than we have had in a long time! Today Grandma and I ventured over to Costco to pick up a few things she needed... we got stuck in the cul-de-sac and Dave had to come and rescue us. We did make it to Costco and back but the roads were pretty bad.

Tonight my Mom and Dad, Brad and Kara as well as Grandma were here for dinner and an evening of Wii entertainment. It sure was entertaining! Grandma even got on the Wii... she tried out the bowling and soccer heading. My mom and my Grandma were both a bit disappointed when Hannah got on the Wii and beat both of their soccer heading scores. They got beat by a three year old. Victoria even got on the Wii fit to try it :-)

The girls are super excited for tomorrow... Victoria has fallen asleep but Hannah is fidgeting around in her bed still. Hannah left milk and cookies out for Santa as well as a carrot for Rudolph. I just checked the NORAD Santa tracker online and he is in Tucson, Arizona right now... he'll be here soon :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Surprise!

The mail lady came by this morning with a parcel for Hannah and Victoria :-) The parcel was from Christy and I let the girls open it up. Christy sent them Disney Princess hats from Disneyland with their names embroidered on the back. They even have veils hanging on the back of them... they are so cute!

Hannah and Victoria LOVE them... thanks Christy!

More and More Snow!

It just keeps coming... it snowed all day and all night yesterday. That added to the big dump we had last Wednesday is A LOT of snow! It is supposed to snow off and on right up until Christmas.

I'm sure that Dave is getting tired of shoveling it and I have blisters on my hands from pulling the kids in the wagon down to the park everyday to go sledding. But the girls are enjoying this blast of winter.

This morning the snow was so deep I could barely pull the wagon through the snow (this is the reason I have blisters on my hands). Victoria can't walk in the snow all the way there so I have no other option than to haul her in the wagon. I was exhausted by the time we got back but I did manage to shovel half the driveway before bringing the kids inside to thaw out. So Dave has a little less shoveling to do when he gets home tonight. But I really think he needs to invest in a better snow shovel which may make the job a bit easier....

Poor Pistol is NOT enjoying the snow... the snow is almost up to her chest when she is out in the yard! The poor dog can't squat to go pee without her bum being in the snow. I think I will go out later and shovel some snow off the grass and make her a little 'potty' area.

Just to give you an idea of how much snow is in our yard right now I took a picture of Hannah and Victoria's playhouse. The snow is almost up to the windows of the playhouse and there is more snow on the way!

I guess I shouldn't complain because there are places up north that have 4 or 5 feet of snow by now but I would still love to be in California at Christy's house right now. They hung their Christmas lights the other day in shorts and tank tops! Nice! Although Christmas would seem a little strange with palm trees adorned with lights :-)

So we are ready for a White Christmas... only a few more days!

A Gingerbread House and A Giant Rocking Horse

Last night Hannah decorated a gingerbread house or 'gingersnap house' as Hannah calls it. Dave, Brad and Kara all helped Hannah out with it. According to Kara we are supposed to keep this thing for the next 20 years and display it each Christmas ;)

This morning Buggy, Tanya and I took Hannah for her first trip on the Skytrain... Hannah was so well behaved it was amazing! She really liked going over the bridge and seeing all the ice floating in the river below.

Hannah got some Christmas money in the mail and we took her to The Disney Store in Metrotown to choose something for herself. She chose a set of Princess figurines that came with little outfits to dress them up in. She waited in the line up and paid for them herself. Hannah also chose a Christmas gift to give Victoria as well :)

While we were at Metrotown we saw a giant rocking horse and for a $2 donation you could ride it. Hannah wasn't tall enough to ride the rocking horse by herself so I had to go with her. She kept saying 'Giddy up horsey!' over and over... she was a bit disappointed that it didn't go faster.

We all had lunch afterwards and then we took the Skytrain back home. My Dad was supposed to pick us up at the Skytrain station but he was out when we called so we took a bus over to Guildford and got my Dad to pick us up from there. There were some strange people riding that bus... but Hannah had lots of fun.

Hannah's Preschool Christmas Party

Hannah had her preschool Christmas party this morning... Buggy and Kara came to watch :-) They had a little nativity 'play' and all of the kids had little pictures attached to a stick to hold up... Hannah was a shepherd. After the little play they sang some songs that they learned this month. Hannah was shaking her hips like Elvis at the begining of one of them it was so funny... I wish I had got it on tape!



After the performance Buggy had to head off to work and Kara took Victoria home and babysat her while I stayed and helped out in Hannah's classroom. Thanks Kara!

I helped out in the class while the kids iced and decorated little Christmas trees. It was such a mess but super fun for the kids! Hannah along with most of the other kids had icing all over her shirt, hands and in her hair. Giving 20 kids a tub of icing is a recipe for disaster!

Each child brought something to share for snack time and after the tree decorating they all sat down and ate lots of yummy treats. They ended the class with watching a short Christmas movie while eating popcorn... Hannah's favourite!

Hannah gave Teacher Vanessa and Teacher Kim each a wooden Christmas ornament that she wrote 'Love Hannah' all by her self on the back. Teacher Vanessa even got a little teary when she discovered that Hannah had written that on the back of the ornament herself :-)

Hannah is now officially on Christmas break from school until the New Year! Hooray for sleeping in! But I am sure by January 6th I will be looking forward to her going back to school :-)

Here's a bunch of little video clips of Hannah singing with her class....

SNOW!

Today was our first 'snow day' of the season... actually I can't believe it is this late into December and we haven't had snow yet.

I bundled the girls up and we walked down to the park to play. It was great because all the bigger kids were in school so we had the whole place to ourselves! There is a big drainage field at our neighbourhood park and it makes for a great sledding hill in the wintertime. The water was frozen at the bottom of the hill so the girls really got a good ride.

Hannah's little Dora sled really gets some speed going down that hill :-) Victoria cried and cried when Hannah was riding down the hill because she wanted to do it too so I put Victoria on the back of the sled and told her to hang onto Hannah. Both of them LOVED it... they were laughing the whole time. Such great fun for them and they were really playing well together... no fighting or pushing. Hannah carried the sled up the hill for the next turn and she waited for Victoria to reach the top so they could go again and again and again and again. We were there for over an hour! I thought they would have been tired and cold long before that but I had to bribe them with cookies to head home :-)

It is still snowing out... but I think it is supposed to stop tonight. I hope school doesn't get cancelled tomorrow... Hannah has her Christmas party and she would be sad to have to miss it.

Awe!

I had to share this...

Tonight Victoria gave Pistol her Care Bear and then covered her up with Kleenex as a blanket. Then she was walking around saying 'Shhh! Shhh!' because Pistol was sleeping :-)

Jingle Jam!

Last night was the 'Jingle Jam' children's production at our church. Hannah was in the first act singing 'Jingle Bells' with her Sunday School class. She stood there and sucked her thumb for the first half of the song but she sang the second half of the song loud while ringing her bell. It was her first real 'performance' in front of a large crowd of people (she even had her name in the program)... I think she did pretty good :-)

Hannah had her 'entourage' in the audience watching... Dave and I, Buggy and Papa, Uncle Brad and Kara, Tanya, Jeff, Tysen and Joshua. Victoria went to the childcare room during the performance to play with her little Sunday School friends.

I took my camera with me all set to take pictures and video as per Christy's instructions.... but the batteries died in my camera! Sorry Christy!

I did however get Jeff to scan our holiday pictures and e-mail them to me since I don't have a scanner... Thanks Jeff! So here they are :-)

Happy 2nd Birthday Joshua!

This morning we all had breakfast with Santa :-) Hannah was so pumped about it! Santa brought all of the kids a gift and spent time wandering around to all the tables visiting with the kids. Hannah and Tysen were following Santa around most of the morning talking his ear off. Josh was good with Santa but Victoria as usual cried her eyes out as soon as she got close to him. Dave had to hold her and stand in between her and Santa so I could take a quick picture.

Santa gave Hannah a new doll and Victoria got a shape sorter house that she likes alot more than Santa right now. Poor Victoria was so upset she was actually shaking when Santa came near her!

Tonight we joined Tanya, Jeff and their families at Red Robin to celebrate Joshua's 2nd Birthday. I can't believe he's 2 already! We ran into Brad and Kara at the restaurant too which made Hannah and Victoria's day... they think Uncle Brad and Kara are the coolest.

After Red Robin we went back to Tanya and Jeff's place for cake and presents. More sugar for Hannah which is just what she needs after the amount of candy canes she has eaten this week. She better make sure she's brushing her teeth well or she is going to have lots of cavities after this Christmas is over!

The kids also exchanged Christmas gifts with each other tonight. Hannah has a couple new board games to play now and Victoria got the music set that she has been pining for. Plus Victoria also got a princess doll that Hannah is trying to claim... I have a feeling it will be the source of many fights! Thanks Tanya, Jeff, Tysen and Joshua for the great gifts for the girls :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHUA!!


WE LOVE YOU LOTS!