Christmas Pics

Back to normal!

If has been busy since Christmas!
I am glad it is over. Part of me even wants to take down the tree and all the decorations. I am in a cleaning and organzing mode!
I got rid of one garbage bag of toys to donate and packed another one away for storage.

I think I am in the mode because of the amount of stuff we got for christmas!!! ACK!
I have not even opened most of the kids new toys. they got spoiled.
This has to be the last year for it!!! Soon enough Arianna will start to expect so much.
We are very thankful for what we got. The kids got great toys that will help keep the occupied when I need to study.
It is nice to replace the babyish toys with toys they can use there imaginations with.

We had a great Christmas at my parents. Had some people over Christmas eve. Lots of food and drinks! Stayed up til 2 am as the adults opened their presents.
The kids got up around 8 am to open theres.
they LOVED it. I think they liked the opening part more then seeing what was inside. hehe.
It was great to have everyone there.
I will not even try to list what they got. I dont want people to really know how spoiled they got LOL.

The kids are still sick a bit with colds as am I. Just seems to keep hanging on.
Brandon avoided it all...lucky him!

Today when I went to costco to exchange some things (smaller sizes :) ) James threw up in the store! ICK. It wasnt much but I have NO idea why he did....I hope it passes and was a one time thing.

Overall I think I did ok with the holiday eating...didnt gain any pounds hehe.
I am back on my healthy eating. Just need to get to the gym.
I didnt get to today, due to the puking.
But I think I am burning some calories with the crazy cleaning!

I want to mention how spoiled I got from Brandon. It was super nice of him. Besides my CC, he got my the super duper kitchenaid HD professional mixer in black (already nicely displayed on my counter..you can see it here http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1917054&cp=1331607.1331947.1969028&parentPage=family

AND a diamond tennis bracelet!! It is super nice...looks like x's 0's
I got a bunch of stuff from my secret santa (which was my mom)
It was a great Christmas.

Now on to the new year. Which is making me more nervous about starting school!!!!
I need to start looking for a dayhome for the kids. I saw a couple of signs around the neighbourhood. I will have to give them a call and see what they have open. I also want to give the kids a trial day. so make sure they will like it.

I will upload the pictures now.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
Andrea

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas!
We are of to my parents for a few days.

sniff

I have been battling a sinus cold now for a few days.
It seems to be getting better, hopefully by tomorrow night I will have my appetite back.
I had one sleepless night from a sinus headache....ugh.

I finished the last of my stocking stuffers. All presents are wrapped. So I am good to go!
We will be staying at my parents place christmas eve and christmas night.
Christmas eve we have all the family over and a couple close friends. Lots of yummy appetizers. Adults will open presents late that night.
In the morning the kiddies get their turn. We will have a couple spoiled kids by the end of it I am sure. My mom likes to shop :)

Christmas day we will have the big turkey dinner. I am cooking it this year.
I am looking forward to tomorrow!

Today I have my Almond Roca bars to make and my turtle temptations fudge.
The kids made iced sugar cookies yesterday with uncle natchy(mikey). Natchy is what they called him when they couldnt say mikey...and it just stuck.

I will upload pictures of the camera, so I have room for christmas. Should get a chance to post them later.

I want to wish you all a very merry christmas and a healthy, happy new year.
I really hope we can see some of you distance relatives soon. Or feel free to come visit here ok!!! We miss you!

I hope Santa is good to you all!
All my love

Andrea

So we have a carbon monoxide detector downstairs by the furnace that we got installed with the alarm..so it is monitored.
Yesterday Brandon was downstairs with the kids and decided to check it out.He saw a button on it the said "test" he figured it was similar to a smoke detector where you can test it to see if the battery still works...so he presses it.it sets of the alarm.I am upstairs so I immediately turn the alarm off.
The alarm company calls a couple mins later and asks if we are ok.Brandon tells them yes..he was just testing LOL
So they tell him they automatically dispatch the fire department! LOL They said they would call and cancel that....So I am upstairs about 10 mins later in my bathroom and I think I hear a large truck outside...I look out the window and its a firetruck!!!
they come to the door, tanks on and everything!Brandon tells them what happened, and they said they knew it was called of, but came anyways to really make sure all was ok.
It was so funny.
brandon was so embarrassed.
Brandon told me they probably still came to see if it was a "desperate housewife" in trouble hehe
Did I mention they were young and hot?
I said oh darn you just had to be here Brandon. If you werent I could have told them I wasnt feeling well and needed oxygen LOL....or better yet
Mouth to mouth....hahahahah
It was priceless.

Sore throat

ACK Just in time for christmas.
Of course!
I had felt a cold coming on a few days ago, so I started fighting it. Just when I felt fine, it brews over night!!!!
I hope it is short lived I dont want to be sick for christmas...or worse have the kids be!

James had his last swimming lesson of the session. He got a little report card. It was great.
When he is 2.5 and a bit taller, he can go in the 3-5 class. he is a great swimmer.
Arianna has her last class on sunday. I am not sure if she will pass. She has a short attention span sometimes. AND this was her first by herself class. She made need another round. She still is a good swimmer.

Brandon has the day off today! yay!
Not sure what we will do since I feel crappy.
He gave me the best christmas present yesterday. Lets just say it involves my credit card (used for business mostly)
I was stressed about it, going back to school and all. Now I feel awesome thanks to him. The slate is clean ;) I have never been more happy with things!!!
He can take back all my other presents! ;) lol....It was the nicest thing he has done for me in awhile.

I think the tea kettle has finised boiling. time to go scald my throat! Have a good day!

(oh yes I have made this blog semi-private. It is NOT listed in the blog listings. So no more strangers...I didnt make it fully private as I know some of you dont have accounts. So less worry )

Good Morning

Had a sleepover last night with Uncle Natchy. We watched a movie and were supposed to finish wrapping presents...didnt happen.
I have no idea why I am procrastinating on getting them wrapped lol.
Arianna and I took a trip to the mall yesterday. She ran into santa claus and he gave her a couple candy canes. she was so happy and even told him Merry Christmas.
When I was shopping in Gymboree, she was watching the tv and shared a candy cane with a little girl (I made she to ok it with her mom lol) It was sweet to see she CAN share! hehe
Today we are off to her last gym class. I havent decided what she will do in the new year besides swimming. the next session runs into me starting school (yikes it is coming fast!)
Uncle is coming to. Then we will go do his shopping!
I need to get the baking done too. I have a few things ready to go..Just the time to do it, or the motivation!
I have been going to the gym to help counter all the extra calories I am sure I will be eating on christmas eve and christmas!
My brothers finacee will most likely be joining us for christmas. (was supposed to be going to her parents out of town) It will be sooo nice to have us all together.

Well I better go make breakfast. I will try and get some pictures at Ariannas class today.
Have a good day
Andrea

Mikey is home!

W have been spending the last couple of days with my brother who has come home for the holidays from calgary.
the kids missed him (Arianna mostly, she was all over him!) James took a few mins to warm up..as usual lol.

Last night we watched the hockey game together. It was like old times. I even streaked his hair for him.
Today we are going to our neighbours for a Chanukah party. Yes, that is how they spelled it!
I have never been to one. And we were told not to bring anything. Should be fun!

Arianna has swimming lessons today. Uncle Natchy is coming to watch (thats what the kids call him)
Tonight is the survivor finally too. Should be good!
Thats all thats been happening around here.
Andrea

Our family pre-haircuts LOL

Santa

Arianna loves him...James is terrified.
Arianna and I went to pick up her santa picture from the mall. She loves it, and has it in her room. Her smile is nice LOL...and she is wearing her hat...again!

I spent the day at my parents cleaning out the basement. It was pretty messy! I even steam cleaned the carpets. My brother Mike is coming home on friday, so I wanted to make it nice for him. Arianna and I even went and bought a small christmas tree and decorations for him. It looks really nice now.

James had swimming lessons. He did awesome again. Nobody shows up for class. The last 3 times we have gone it has been only him...or one other kid too.
It is great for one thing, the teacher can see how he is doing easier.
James is well advanced. even better then arianna. If he was a bit taller he could be in Ariannas class.
He loves it anyways. She just gives us more challenging things for him to do.

I bought a bunch of pointsettas today to replace all the ones I killed already lol. I got some good advice this time. So hopefully I have better luck.

Here are a few pics. Arianna with santa...and ones from Brandons christmas party at work.

Andrea

Good Feeling

Last night I just finished putting my big box together for a needy family. A neighbour and I did an Adopt a Family this year. The family has a 7 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. I spent over $100 of my christmas shopping money to help them out.
We definately do all right, so I wanted to be able to give someone else a special christmas too.
I really hope they like it.
It feels nice!!!!
Merry Christmas :)

Must be the weather.

Man I have been feeling cruddy.
It isnt even my time of the month lol.
I am not going to go into details as this is a very public place and I dont want to share my feelings about certain things to the world.

I am just unsure what to do. It seems I live in a vicious cycle. Happy for awhile and then it all goes downhill.
I just dont think this is the way I want things anymore.

Besides that the kids are doing well. And loving the holiday season.
We went to brandons work christmas party on the weekend. It was a breakfast with santa. Arianna loves santa. James still will not go near him! lol He is my shy guy.

I drew a train on the wall of James' room. I am going to paint it. He loves it already.
His room was so plain, I wanted to do something special for him. He loves his trains! I will take a pic when it is done.
I still never finished Ariannas mural. It is half way done.
It is just a difficult one. I think I may end up doing something simple for her. Otherwise I will never do anything. I like their rooms to be personal. not just stickies on the wall like she has now.

I made myself a christmas cd yesterday. yay!
Holiday music always makes me smile.
The Brad Paisley christmas cd is great in case you are looking for a new one :)

Well I better go, I am going to do some more cleaning to keep my mind off the bad.
Big rain and wind storm coming, so it will be a fun day.
Andrea

I have been putting together some christmas crafts for my last craft sale of the year. It is tomorrow at murrayville hall again (langley ladies come see me!)
I made some santa cookie mix in a jar and snowman soup in a cellophane cone. they are super cute. I am proud of how well they turned out. I took some pics, will post them when I get a chance :)

I will be at the sale tomorrow from 9-10 and 1-3. I have to skip out for a couple hours to take the kids with brandon to breakfast with santa at his work. It should be fun! My soon to be SIL Mayra is going to take over for me and stay with my mom. She is such a sweetie!
Hopefully it is busier and I sell some more.
I will have 4 nursing necklaces and a pile of baby shirts from my website for super cheap!

Tomorrow after the sale there is an open house at my brothers. We will stop by for a bit but wont stay too long. I am sure I will be pooped.

I still need to wrap the kids presents. I cant stop shopping for them either. I went to gymboree 2 times this week. Spent over $100 (BUT for $50 in gymbucks LOL) I got good deals. the jammies were on 2 for $25. so I had to go! lol

well time to get to the laundry and make sure all is prepared for tomorrow.
ta ta for now.
Andrea

James new haircut

A few birthday Pics

Well I am 26! hehe
My birthday went well. I was a little dissapointed with grouse mountain. We read on the website about their restaurants. We wanted to go to the bistro one which it said was open til 10. So we get there and find out they closed it at 3 due to a private function! grrr
so we go up anyways (paying $30 a person) to go ice skating and walk around up there.
It was absolutely gorgeous. The ice rink is smaller then it used to be..another annoying thing!
I had fun though. I think I am going to complain about the restaurant thing...I mean they should have some calendar letting you know when it will be closed for private events. We drove all that way!!!

Anyways. I went out shopping and got some new jeans, a sweater, a cashmere sweater (so soft!) a new down jacket and new pjs and slippers! lucky me!

After ice skating we went to the cactus club. Had yummy dinner and too many drinks! LOL
I even got a naughty drink for my bday...called a muff diver! haha. I will post a pic of that and you can see for yourself. It was a shot of amaretto in a martini glass with whip cream...I had to use my mouth to get it out!

I was a little queasy the next morning! hehe

I made some christmas cards tonight...only 9 LOL the rest I will buy. It takes a long time to make them!!!! It was fun though.
Nothing to exciting going on here this week. Enjoying the good ol rain again..

I read some sad news on LP website I belong to. A member was 7 months pregnant and the baby boy died. She has to deliver him tomorrow. I can only imagine the pain she and her family are going through. They have a young daughter who will have a hard time understanding. I cant stop thinking about them. I feel so sad.
If I were in Edmonton I would help out in any way I could.
There family is in my prayers.

Other news...James had a haircut! He looks like a boy again LOL.
His hair was making him look like a girl...according to strangers!
He looks cute now....its short and curly...pics to come...some may have gotten them already in email.

well off to bed I go!
will get the pictures up tomorrow.

Goodnight...
and hugs out to Melanie and her family. God Bless you in this terrible time.

ALMOST 26!

Dec 2 1980. when I was born.
It is almost 11. so in an hour I will be 26.
thought I would post a little update now as I probably wont be around much tomorrow.
I am planning a shopping trip in the morning, dinner in top of grouse mountain and ice skating there as well. The kids are having a sleep over and grandmas.
ahhhh sleeping in!
Tonight I went out for dinner with my mom. we went to a yummy greek place. BUT I a paying for it now! I have the worst breath I swear. it was worth it though..it was awesome.
then we went shopping for a present. but i didnt find anything :(
we were rushed as we had to be home for brandon to go to poker.
I watched las vegas with my mom and now am heading to bed. James got up at 6 am...ack. I didnt nap so I am soooo tired.
Hope you liked the pics I emailed you. I will send along the family pic when I can.

hugs and kisses
off to sleep and turn 26.
lets see who remembers tomorrow lol

Andrea