1st Sunday of Advent

Ok, so its officially Christmas time. In my books it starts on the first Sunday of Advent, so lets get things rolling! Its been a busy week, and seemed to really drag out since I was still fighting my lingering cough. Ugh. I am so over this cough its not even funny! Ariel too has been holding on to the cough and frankly the moment its gone we are totally celebrating. Haha.

I guess the last time I checked in here we had just finished decorating our place. The tree was up and looking pretty.


Here is our new medium sized tree upstairs in the hallway, the one from the thrift store for $4!


Thursday we had swimming lessons. It is continuing to be ok. The kids in Ariel's class aren't fans of the water... all 3 of them. So Ariel is the only one into it and she is kinda confused that the other kids aren't happy to be there, which concerns her. When they cry, it REALLY gets her upset and she wants to hug them. Awe.

After class we came home and started work on our American Thanksgiving dinner. Yum. Dad came and joined us and it was really nice. The turkey was awesome, and I must say the leftovers didn't last long thanks to Ariel. The girl loves her turkey, and if we hadn't put a stop to her eating that night I am sure she would have kept going and would have had a nasty tummy ache. She is our little turkey girl, hee.


Friday was a nasty day, lots of rain so we stayed inside and did our black Friday shopping online. Ariel and I cuddled on the couch watching cartoons most of the day. Not much else to do when sick really. She is still a darling, even if sick. Just look at that grin! Can you say trouble?!


Ariel is also starting to make cheesy faces when you tell her to smile. Daddy loves this one, haha.


She was checking under the tree to see what was there. I don't think she really cared about the presents, but more so that she could see me on the other side.


Saturday came and there was a bazaar but we skipped going. Just another rainy day and we were both cranky from the coughing. Ugh. I can handle sneezing and fevers, but not coughing, it sucks! Nana brought us some cupcakes from the bazaar and Ariel was thrilled... ok so was I, haha. Thanks Nana.

Ken got home from teaching and headed out to the single mom's dinner at church. He was asked if he could do a puppet show again this year. Ariel tagged along since she wasn't letting Daddy leave again without her. He came home with a beautiful poinsettia which is now in my kitchen, hee.


Today was Sunday and a busy day. It started with exciting news that my friend Erin was in labor! Looks like a baby on the way today, that is always exciting. We arrive at church early to take part in what we call 'church in motion'. Instead of regular Sunday school time, everyone gets to choose one of the classes that is available. Things like crafts, wood working, music, painting, dance, story telling and media arts to name a few. Its a way for all the ages to mingle together and lots of fun too. Ken is leading a stop motion group and I signed up for crafts. Today we made ornaments, too cute!


Ariel was having fun playing with the ribbons for the dance class... I think she would have liked to have been in this group, maybe when she is a bit older.


We came home and got our Christmas card production line started. Need to be organized with this sort of thing, haha.


We did over 100 cards this year... and still have church friends to do. What a blessing to have so many wonderful friends in our lives. I hope they like this year's card. I will post the picture online once we mail them all off. It was during this time we got the call that Erin and Jeremy had a baby girl, Brielle Kirstin Eve. Congrats you guys, looking forward to meeting her.


While we did cards, Ariel had a tea party with her dolls. So cute!!!!!!!!


Tomorrow is Ariel's last dance class until she starts up again after the holidays. We made some snowman soup to give to her teacher, hope she likes it. If I am feeling better then we may make some cookies tomorrow as well. So I better get to bed and rest up. I will be a better blogger this week, promise. Hee.

Christmas with a dash of Thanksgiving

So tomorrow is the American Thanksgiving, and I will be cooking up a yummy dinner, yay! Dad is joining us since Rita went to celebrate with her family in the States, so it will be nice to have other person to join us. We are feeling very thankful and blessed today... if you saw the news today you may have heard about the terrorist attack in India. Ken was planning a trip last spring to do some promotion for the school there... the plans eventually were scrapped due to costs and scheduling issues. That trip would have taken place this week... and Ken would have been at one of the hotels that was bombed. I just shake when I type that... I can't imagine life without him and I am so VERY thankful he wasn't there. Thank you Lord.

I got a call yesterday from Stella checking up on me since I hadn't blogged since last Friday. I took the weekend off since I was still getting better, sorry. I still have a bit of a cough, but no more fevers, so that's good. Instead of going out much, Ariel and I put up the Christmas tree and decorated it together. She was a big help as she passed me the ornaments... a bit of a slave driver too. I needed to go faster apparently. Haha. Its hard getting a picture of our whole tree since its so tall... I managed to cut the head off the angel, oops.


Yesterday I went to the Moments for Moms at a friend's church. It was the Christmas brunch and we brought a dessert to share. A 3 layered brownie with peppermint cream cheese frosting, chocolate ganache and little chocolate trees. Ariel was eying it up before we left and was very thankful (Ken too) to see leftovers make it home. I enjoyed getting out and visiting with the other moms... not to mention the yummy food that we got to eat.


On the way home we swung by the library to pick up the dvds I requested. Ariel was thrilled to see one was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! That girl loves that show. Its her 'favorite'. That's the new word this week. Everything is her 'favorite' things now. Mention what we are having for dinner, 'oh that's my favorite!' Ask her if she wants to watch a particular show, 'oh that's my favorite.' Haha. Too cute. Here is Ariel and her favorite friends watching her favorite show.


Today Ariel and I made a quick run out to the craft store to pick up clay for Ken's church class and some watercolor paper so I could paint our card. Afterwards we stopped at Nana and Papa's for a visit and to help decorate their place. We joined them for lunch and Ariel made quick work of her soup, waffle with fruit, cubed hash browns, bacon, some of our sandwiches, diced pineapple and a cookie. Yes, she pretty much ate all that... and didn't really want to share either. If we took a bite of her bacon we got the stink eye look, followed with 'That's mine!' Ah... that stage. Lovely.

Came home and rested for a bit until we walked down to pick up a package at the post office and to get some lunch meat for Ken. Ariel briefly fell asleep during the walk, what a little angel she looks like sleeping. Awe. We got an empty box to ship our gifts to Ken's family, so I need to get that all together.

In the package that arrived was Ariel's pettiskirt we ordered way back last spring. There is a long story that goes with why its so late, but I don't have the energy to go into it, so I shall just say that we are glad it arrived and Ariel is one happy princess in her puffy skirt.


So if you are celebrating the big turkey day tomorrow, have a wonderful time and don't eat too much. Remember to be thankful for what you have, because we really do have a lot. Blessings to you all!

Super Model!

Well, not yet, but she is working on it. Haha. Ariel's big moment in the fashion show was tonight! It was a fund raiser for our local museum and by the looks of things tonight it was a success. At the last minute Ariel was asked to model a hockey jersey too, so that was cool.

The original plan was that I would be in the audience to film and Ken would stay with her back stage... well that changed at the moment when I heard her wailing backstage. Thankfully nothing major had started yet and I was able to slip on stage and get back to Ariel. I am not sure what the problem was but I sent Ken on back to film the show and I worked on calming her down. The other girls looked sad wondering why she was crying and kept saying she didn't need to go on... I soon figured out she WANTED to go out and Ken had said no, it wasn't her turn and that didn't make her happy.

I got some paper and we did letters, and thank heavens I found a candy cane in her knapsack and that literally saved the day. She was happy and calm and then woot, it was her turn to go on. I could hear the 'aww' from the audience. The girl who walked with her came back and said she did great. Then we changed into the hockey jersey and she went again. The show was then finished for us and Ariel got ready to call it a night. We went by Safeway to pick up something and I found a little stuffed toy as a treat for doing such a great job.

Here is her big moment on stage, enjoy! (At the end where she tries to come back on stage, they just started playing her fav Madonna / Justin Timberlake song and wanted to come back out, too funny!)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On the health front, I am feeling better. This morning I woke up with a normal temperature. Woot! I was a bit shaky but after sleeping most of the day yesterday I figured that might happen. Stella was kind enough to take Ariel to her swim class and kept her at the pool an extra hour so I could rest. Such a huge help! Thanks again! Ellen even came down with Carter so the kids could play together. When she came home she was tired enough that she took a NAP!!! Yes, She slept for 4 hours! Needless to say so did I. Ken got home and took over and I continued to rest. By morning I was pretty much back to my normal self. Woot.

Apparently, we have a My Little Pony as a daughter now. Calvin (Ken's co-worker and friend) and his wife Sylvia sent a bag of goodies over that their daughter Nikki has outgrown, and in there was this costume. Well Ariel keeps wanting to wear it around the house now, haha.


The back is the funniest part, I love the tail! As you can see, a little big, but she will be able to use if for a long time so yay!


This morning after breakfast with Dad and Rita, we had a play date at Nancy's with all the girls. It was nice to see everyone and have a good visit. 3 of the gals are very pregnant so who knows, the next time we get together maybe some of the babies will be here. After a yummy lunch, we got all the kids on the couch for a picture, as best as we can when everyone is tired. Haha.


On the drive home past the fields, Ariel yells that she sees bunnies. I look over and laugh, she saw hundreds of geese. I pulled off to the side to grab a picture and a chance for her to see they were in fact birds.


Well, that it from me, Ken and I are going to watch ER from last night and have a snack. Have a great weekend everyone!

I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!

Hehe, gotta be funny when your feeling crummy. Blah. I haven't been on the computer much since our week has been super busy and I have been fighting an on again off again fever. Ugh. The funny thing is besides the fever, I feel great. Strange bug, oh well. Hoping its almost over.

Lets go back to the beginning of the week. Sunday was church and Kara danced in church. I filmed it for her on my camera and finally am getting around to uploading it. Enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Monday we had dance class and Nana came to watch the princess do her stuff. She wasn't too distracted with Nana there, but every so often she would want to run over for a hug. Hee. The high light of the class came when the teacher helped Ariel do her tip toe walking. Ariel was smitten with her, and was glowing. Such a sweet moment.


While walking home we found all these beautiful dew covered spiderwebs. Gorgeous! This picture really doesn't do it justice.


Ariel continues to forgo naps in the afternoon and then falls asleep in odd places right before dinner time. I really am bringing to tire of this. She really needs her sleep but she fights it so much. Here she fell asleep during her 2 minute time out in the corner.


Tuesday marked the beginning of swimming lessons. I am not sure yet what I think of the teacher. We have been so blessed to have real wonderful ones in the past, and this one so far feels very new to the game. So we shall see how it goes.

We had to walk across town to go to class because Ken needed the car to go to a high school in the morning to do a presentation. Turns out he ran into my old college buddy Geoff while there, too cool! It was a really cold day and very windy, so that could have brought on the fever maybe... who knows. While walking home we stopped at the 'Christmas' Thrift store they have up at the moment. Outside was the cutest medium sized tree you ever did see! Ariel squealed... so did I! $4 later and it was ours! Now our upstairs hallway has a pretty tree to carry some of my massive ornament collection.


Also in Christmas related news, I made all my new gift tags up. I recycle all the cards from the previous year by cutting them up. Great way to use the beautiful cards without throwing them out.


Last night while I was feeling yucky, Ken was on duty with Ariel. Her new favorite thing to do is to snack on fish crackers from her Elmo tin lunch box.


She also enjoys getting into Ken's guitar case...


...what a monkey!


This morning we picked up Nana and went to Richmond to get some shopping done. Part of the mission was to visit Santa. The night before I kept saying we are going to see Santa, and get our picture taken and get a treat! Well, the treat part was all she needed to hear, all evening it was, 'Santa, knee, treat! Frankly, I would believe it when I see it.

We arrived early, got our shopping done and got to watch the morning elf inspection... yes, seriously! Its so funny, worth checking out. One the elves gave Ariel a finger puppet and she was thrilled! She was grinning and I was excited that she was pumped now. Then she saw Santa... she hid her face in her hands... which is totally her shy routine. As he inched closer I told her to show him the finger puppet and that got her looking at him. He gave her a candy cane and told her to come visit him again. Well she couldn't stop talking about the guy who gave her candy!

After a quick bite to eat, we made our way in for pictures. Mrs Claus was very nice and told Ariel to take her time. This is really one reason we do this early, is that there are no lines and no pressure to move quickly. Ariel started being shy again, her silly shy, no tears. Then Santa produced another candy cane, she RAN to him and next thing you know she is on his lap! I was stunned... and I think she was too because her head was in her hands again. Haha.

The fellow taking the picture started jumping around, ringing bells and being a total goof, it worked! She grinned and poof we had a great picture. I am so happy and so was Ariel. She points out she is with Santa, too cute. Of course she really has no clue who he is, which makes it that much more funny.


Here is last year's pic, look at how much her grew. Wow.


After the pictures, Nana got Ariel some ice cream... serious people, that is a small! Yikes, she didn't finish it, more so just ate the fudge sauce. Yummy.


Well, I need to get some dinner together, Ken is working late, so its a girls night. Also, I need to track down a cowbell to help with my fever, hehe.

Girls Weekend

So Friday morning Ken was preparing to leave on his fun filled work weekend in Seattle. Animation festivals are always a blast for him and this time co-worker and friend Calvin was tagging along. Since Ken was home, he joined Ariel and I on our regular breakfast visit to Dad and Rita's. After some tasty waffles, Ariel and Grandpa built some towers...


...they never last long though. Haha.


We packed up and dropped Ken back at home to finish gathering his stuff to leave, and we went on to our monthly coffee party group. It was probably better that we weren't home for Ariel to see Daddy leave. Tears are never fun. Kara and Ariel had a nice little visit and they played with her new pink cel phone, and the little Winnie the Pooh that she has hanging on it.


By the time we got home, Ken had left so we had a lazy afternoon. I did some sewing and Ariel played with her toys. Since it was just us girls, I thought making homemade pizza would be fun. Ariel was very excited, but then again she tends to be eager whenever food is involved. Haha.

Girls weekend! Woot!

Time for pizza! How is it Ariel?

That's yummy Momma!

I took this little video for Daddy too, love you babe!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Next morning we walked down to attend another bazaar at one of the other churches in town. Nana joined us for tea and sandwiches, Ariel won't share hers with me this time, she got pretty cheesed when I tried to sneak one off her plate.


This time I was very successful, as I managed to get 8 new dishcloths and 2 frozen apple pies. Yummy! Think I will cook one up for our Thanksgiving dinner next week. Oooh, turkey time again, hee.


After we said our goodbyes to Nana, we stopped to return some stuff to the library and picked up some stuff they had on hold for me. Ariel found some movies to borrow, Arthur and some Cinderella sequels. She is really on a big Arthur kick at the moment which thrills me to no end because I love that show. Comes on while I cook dinner so we both are entertained, hee.

As we approached our place, we found a big pile of leaves and I decided to let Ariel go nuts. She ran back and forth cackling with laughter. She kept finding big leaves and holding them up to examine them.

Mommy's little apple dumpling.

During the afternoon I did some more sewing and Ariel watched her videos. She eventually fell asleep on the couch at 330ish. We are really in the middle of the transitions to no naps. Sigh... she just will crash unexpectedly in random places now. I wish she could go back to napping because it seems like she needs it, but apparently she doesn't agree.

For dinner tonight we were invited over to Stella's place. Jack made chili and it was awesome. Afterwards Kara pulled out her game of hungry, hungry hippos to teach Ariel to play. Lol, that was pretty funny.


Ariel at first kept lifting the mouth and feeding marbles to her hippo, then would steal marbles from the other hippos containers. Pretty funny stuff.


Had to grab a bit of video.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

After more playing, Ariel had a fun bath in their tub and ran around naked. Lol. Then into pjs and after we finished watching the Notebook on tv came home for bed. But my sweetie is online, so I will leave you all so I can chat with him. Can't wait to see him tomorrow, yay.

Eek! Its Thursday!

Its been kinda crazy around here... and today I realized it was Thursday, yikes! So lets start back to Monday and Ariel's ballet class. We arrived at our usual time but the door was locked. Ariel wasn't impressed that we couldn't get in and kept asking when she would get to dance. Teacher arrived and wasn't pleased to see the door still locked either, oops. She had to go get someone to unlock it, but once we were in things were great.


I managed to give Ariel a little bun this morning, hee!


Ariel just LOVES this class. She has been doing more and more of the exercises and songs at home which is very cute. These are her favorite things in class, the stretching game and ribbons.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Update on naps.... they are still scattered. For the majority of the time, they don't happen. Randomly Ariel does fall asleep, but its much later in the afternoon, which isn't great either since it messes up her bedtime. I try and keep her awake, but there are times I find her asleep now in odd places. Here she had been playing and looking at her scrapbooks... and got sleepy.


Tuesday was Remembrance Day, so Ken had the day off. Our day started early as Ariel woke up and came into our room. I didn't think much of it until I went to glance at the clock and it was blank. We had no power! Ugh, and it looked really dark outside, so I had no clue what time it was. I glanced out the window and it was DUMPING rain. I went to find my cel phone to figure out what time it was and to call Hydro to get a time estimate when things would be back on. When I turned on my phone I saw it was quarter to 7am! Crazy! The rain made the day seem so much darker. Thankfully the power was back within the hour, so it didn't disrupt our day at all. Except for having to reset all the clocks in our house, ugh.

The next surprise came when the rain just stopped. We wanted to go to the service down in the park, so it being dry made it much more doable. Ariel was still armed with her boots and raincoat, just in case the rain came back.


Ariel really enjoyed the parade, especially the pipers. Good Scottish blood in her, haha. She would stretch her neck out as far as she could to see the people coming down the road.


Yay Mounties! It was a nice service and the rain held off so that was awesome. Lots of people as usual, and Ariel did well. Daddy eventually had to take her for a little walk to find leaves when the talking got too long for her.


When it was over, we took Ariel up to lay her poppy at the memorial. We remember... and never will forget.


Wednesday Ariel, Stella and I made a run back to the fabric store to get our forgotten fabric from last week. Also picked up a few more bits and pieces for more Christmas goodies. I wish I could share more about what I am making, but all my family read this blog, sooooooooooooo I guess I can't spill the beans. Oh well.

We came home and I spent the afternoon sewing and got lots done. Ariel did some cleaning for me... or her version of it. Um, yeah.


Today we had coffee with Nana and got to see Tracey's twins when she came for a visit at the cafe. They are super cute and Ariel was really taken with them. She kept informing me that they had 'binkies'. Haha.

On our way home we stopped at the consignment shop to talk to Kim. She had emailed me about Ariel being in a fundraiser fashion show that is being held next friday night. Eek, sounds super fun and I have a feeling Ariel is going to have a blast. Kim gave us a shirt to wear and told us just to put some of our things with it. After asking my 'gymbofriends' what skirt to pick, this seems to be the overall winner. What do you think? It highlights the shirt and looks really cute, plus her boots look so fab with it. Hee.


Well Ken just rolled in with his new hair cut! Woot! Looks really nice, and suits him. Now he is ready to go away to the animation festival this weekend. He and Calvin leave tomorrow afternoon, so we are going to miss him lots. Sniff.

EDIT: Please pray for my friends Chris and Dianne. They are in the midst of adopting a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia, but yesterday their court date did not go as planned. Pray the waiting that needs to happen will pass quickly, and pray for them to be strong and for their hearts. I can't imagine the pain they are going through. I love you guys!