Our Christmas Trip Home

Allie and I arrived at my parents house and got to enjoy my parents' decorations. I just love how their house looks at Christmas and it was SO nice to come home to my childhood home for Christmas.

Stockings my aunt Sue made for each member of our family.  This year we had 14 of these beautiful stockings to open on Christmas morning.

Allie helped my mom make Christmas cookies.

We celebrated with Dan's immediate family first.

Allie's stocking had a hat from Minnesota. The photo isn't the greatest quality, but the hat was so cute...and appropriate for us Canadians! 

Allie was quite proud of all her gifts, and there were a lot to be proud of!

Opening presents.

Her Bitty Baby that she loves.

The next day was Christmas Eve and we went to church at my brother's church and then celebrated with my dad's side of the family.

The birthday cake for baby Jesus.

The tray of cookies also for dessert.  I was impressed with my family for baking so much. I did not bake one cookie, but I made sure to taste test every one of them before I left! :)

The next morning Santa came to my parents' house for all the cousins.

The kids were SO excited when they were finally allowed into the room. 

Josiah loved his Mario Kart.  We heard that Santa did not love putting Mario Kart together as much as Josiah loved playing with it.

All the kids got an easel that stays at Poppy and Gagu's.  Allie also got a suitcase, a My Little Pony, some art supplies, and some books.  Her other big gifts left in Canada were an easel and a kitchen that will get its own post someday because it is so cute and Allie loves playing with it so much!

Mercy got a doll house for her barbies.  She loved it.

So did Allie! :) 

Taking a break with daddy. All the presents were a little overwhelming.

Daniel hung out in the middle of the room...bouncing up and down most of the morning.

I got Mercy and Allie matching Stella and Dot necklaces.  Here they are opening them.

Mary got them matching dresses.  Here they are with their necklaces and dresses. Having two girl cousins close in age is so much fun!

That afternoon we we celebrated with the Saunders side of the family. It was a great celebration, even though the presence of my grandpa was sorely missed.

The day after Christmas we went to Dan's parents' house and had a blast. I did not take a single photo, but we went out to dinner with Dave and Vanessa, to the Children's Museum with Barb and Craig, Ryan, Deanna, Brendan and Gavin (or Gavy as Allie calls him), had friends over to catch up, Dan took Allie swimming with Deanna, Craig and the boys while Barb and I went shopping, to lunch and for facials.  

It was a wonderful vacation, but it is nice to be home. Allie slept until 9:20 this morning and I think it is because she is recovering from all the excitement!

Now that you've made it through this long post, I'm working on an even bigger blog entry for tomorrow as a recap of 2011, so stay tuned.

Almost Two!

Allie has always had a spunky personality. Now that she's almost two, it is coming out even more strongly, and we wouldn't have it any other way.  Today she picked what she wore, down to the sunglasses and two pacifiers (which are soon going bye bye, except in her crib, when she actually turns two).  I think Tim Gunn would be proud...or maybe not, but her mommy sure thinks she is cute!

We went to the grocery store and my almost two year old was acting like her future sixteen year old self! She took her driving VERY seriously throughout the store.  She also decided to keep her shades on the entire time we were in the store, which got a lot of smiles from other customers. 

She only took her sunglasses off as we were leaving, after she got out of the car.  I have sensitive eyes, so never drive without my sunglasses and always put them on the top of my head when I get out of the car.  Guess someone has been paying attention!

Allie is so much fun. Every day. I can hardly stand it and am so thankful to be the one who gets to be her mom!  

Merry Christmas!

We just got back to Canada after 10 days in Minnesota (a little less for Dan since he had to stay in Canada to work!).  I will post about our trip soon, but for now, I wanted to wish you a belated Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  

A Girl's Best Friend

Yesterday Allie brought this cut out over to Dan and said Santa.  Dan asked her if she wanted Santa to bring her some diamonds for Christmas and she said yes.  I guess the saying "diamonds are a girl's best friend" starts at a VERY young age! :)

Seriously though, Allie's best friend is Bella. I was thinking I haven't had very many pictures of Bella on the blog recently and I thought I needed to add some.

My "first baby" is such a sweet dog and she is still full of life energy!!!  At the dog park people always think she's a puppy, not a 4 year old golden retriever.

She spends most of the day smiling like this.

Unless she's too busy with Allie to smile!

Best buddies!   

I took these pictures yesterday after Allie's hair cut. Isn't her new bob adorable? She cried through the entire hair cut and every time the scissors cut, she told me it hurt.  She's just a teeny, tiny bit dramatic! I really have no idea who she gets it from. :)

Mom's Night Out

I am so blessed to have met a WONDERFUL group of mom friends in Canada.  They are literally from all over Canada and all over the world. I am just so thankful to have them in my life.  We get together regularly in various activities throughout the week with our kids, but once or twice a month we also go out for a Mom's Night Out. Last night I had a Mom's Night Out, and this is what Dan and Allie were doing when I left for the restaurant:

I can't leave the two of them alone for a minute! :)  Allie often asks for me or Bella to get in the crib with her, which I have always refused.  She is lucky that she has such a fun daddy...who isn't concerned about the weight limit of a crib! :)

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

Allie has been sick since Sunday. I am thankful because compared to last year this fall/winter has been a piece of cake.  By this time last year Allie had been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, had pink eye about 3 times, and I was very sick too.  This year has been MUCH better. That being said, it is never a good thing when your bathroom counter looks like this.

It is a whole new world to live confined in your house with a sick, cranky, and still (after the high fevers went away) busy toddler.  In desperation, I resorted to doing a craft today. Let me explain...I am not a crafty mother. I am jealous of all my friends that are crafty and wish that I was more creative.  My style is a bit more sign Allie up for lots of fun activities that we can do together outside of the house.  But, I think we both had fun, even though Allie lost interest a couple of times. What can you expect from an almost 2 year old?

Getting started.

About half way through I asked her to smile for the camera. Again, this is what I got. I think it is becoming a trend. Maybe she thinks smile for the camera means close your eyes and smirk?

A little better.  You can tell how sick she is.

She loved the finished product.

 Here it is.  It was actually pretty fun, which means I may attempt another craft in the future! :)

We have also been watching more TV than usual. I remember last year being thankful for Baby Einstein. This year, I am thankful Walt Disney.  My parents bought Allie a couple DVD's for Christmas while they were up here last week. Again, in desperation, we opened them earlier this week and have been watching the "princess movie" on repeat the last few days. Soon I will have it memorized. For those of you not up to date on your princesses, below is Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.  According to Allie she is "a beautiful princess".  

All of Allie's babies are sick along with her and this is their hospital.  I predict she'll be a doctor some day! :)

The photo below has nothing to do with Allie being sick, but I wanted to post a picture of what an Advent calendar looks like when a two year old is in charge!  I also wanted to thank my aunt Sue for making us such a beautiful calendar. We are having a lot of fun with it this year as Allie (and Dan) put up the figures and as I read from the "Jesus book" as Allie calls the Bible.

I also had to include this picture that was taken a couple weekends ago when we were out to lunch. If it doesn't say, "I'm a two year old and you can't tell me what do to anymore", I don't know what does. 

Allie definitely has a bit of sassy in her, but she has more than enough sweet to make up for it!