A Christmas Skate

 The children woke bright and early Christmas morning and raced up stairs to see what Santa had left them. Finley was babbling in his crib so I scooped him up and went to join them. Excitement filled the air and when they could no longer contain it, they ran to wake everyone! Gifts were opened at a swift speed and I tried to capture the moment with my camera and my eyes as wrapping paper flew and shouts of glee erupted. It was hard to keep up! When the last gift was opened, Joseph began to cry wondering why there was nothing left to open. For him, the excitement was found in unwrapping the gift and it took him a while to understand that now it was time to say thank-you and play with the new things. 

My Mamma whipped up a hot breakfast not long after and we all soaked up our time together. The morning was spent in our pj's relaxing and hanging out together. It was so special to be with everyone! Just before lunch we got everyone dressed warmly for skating. We headed up to the neighborhood rink for a good ol' hockey game. Some of us had skates, and some of us didn't, but we all played and it was just so great to be with everyone. With such beautiful lighting us girls kind of went trigger happy on our cameras. Thanks to Naomi and Emma for most of these pictures!

Joseph zonked out on the short car ride, tuckered from the morning events. We left him in the warmth of the van while we laced skates and began shoveling the rink. My Dad soon came to the rescue with the quad and plowed the rest of the snow off for us.

 This is Camilla's third or fourth time on skates and she was so excited to try her glides and work on her balance. 

 Joe was a natural and only took a few minutes to learn how to maneuver on the ice all on his own! We were all so impressed with how well he was doing for his first time on the ice. He was thrilled to be skating around with everyone.

 Hyrum grew out of his skates, but still enjoyed working on his stick handling and shooting pucks into the net!

Hyrum and Daddy played a little one on one while everyone warmed up!

 Camilla adores these two aunties of hers and clings onto them any chance she can get. They are pretty wonderful!

 My sis and I froze our fingers off taking pictures, but had a lot of fun laughing together!

 It wasn't overly warm out and the children's cheeks were soon nice and rosy. They still insisted on skating and I think they were pretty warm from moving around on the ice!

 We got a nice little game of hockey going and even had team captains. 

 Some of us got pretty into it! We had a lot of fun and I'm not even sure who won.

 This guy could have hung out at the rink for the entire day shooting pucks. 

Mike is pretty passionate about hockey, and I love that about him! It's always fun watching him skate around and teach our boys all about his favorite sport. I love that guy and feel incredibly blessed to call him mine!

It wasn't long before the sun started dipping behind the trees casting an orange glow all around. It's warmth soon left us and we unlaced our skates and headed home for warm drinks.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

The Christmas season is upon us again and we wanted to send our well wishes along with a little update on our family. It’s been a busy year full of adventure and laughter. The children are growing fast and time keeps rushing by! 

One of the biggest changes our family has gone through this year was a big move South. Mike accepted a job at KPMG Calgary this Fall and we relocated to the town of Strathmore. Although we miss our friends and family in Edmonton, this change has been good for our family. Mike commutes to downtown Calgary every day and loves his new job. Addie is enjoying all of the perks of a small town including the park and green space behind our house that the children can play on every day. 

Camilla played on a soccer team this Summer and enjoyed learning about the sport and scoring some goals! She started grade one in September and has been enjoying school very much! She loves to learn and always comes home with some fun new facts of knowledge to share with us. She had to switch schools a few months in because of the move but has adjusted well to the change. She takes part in the school choir and has been enjoying the songs.

Hyrum  enjoyed swimming lessons at the start of the year and is now in the same class as Camilla. He also enjoyed playing soccer this Summer on his little Mighty Mites team. He scored a few awesome goals and loved running around on the field. He has become a big help while Camilla is at school. He loves to play with his little brothers and watch Finley for Mommy. He is still into super heroes and Ninja Turtles and will often dress up as a favourite super hero during the day. He also loves to bake cookies and is awesome at rolling cookie dough into balls.

 

Joseph still keeps us on our toes with his “go-getter” attitude and love for life! He talks a lot now and says the funniest things. He loves to tell knock knock jokes at the dinner table and enjoys making people laugh. For the first time in his life he isn’t sharing a room with anyone since our new home has provided us a few extra bed rooms. He is sleeping a little better but still likes to snuggle in with mom and dad at night sometimes! He loves cars, planes, and trains and has a wild imagination! His cuteness makes up for the messes when his curiosity gets the best of him.

Finley has probably changed the most this year since he was brand new last Christmas. He will be a whole year old this month and it’s gone by far too fast! He has brought so much joy to our family with his happy-go-lucky nature and sweet spirit. He is constantly laughing about something and loves to interact with his older siblings. He eats pretty much everything, claps his hands, and takes a few steps here and there when he feels like it. He has yet to sleep through the night, but we are getting close!

Everyone is excited for the Christmas season and hoping for a little more snow to play in! We have a cute little rink a short distance from our house and can’t wait to get the kids on skates this year. Most importantly we have enjoyed teaching our children the reason for the season as we contemplate our Savior and all he has done for us. 

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Christmas Eve

 We woke this morning to snow gently falling outside. A blanket of white, fluffy snow had covered the trees and ground over night turning everything into a wonderland. We watched it fall all morning cozied up in blankets and surrounded by family. As I finished up some last minute wrapping I finally started to feel a bit of the Christmas spirit. There is something about wrapping, Christmas lights, and snow flakes swirling to the ground that makes me excited! 

Mr. Stannix spent the afternoon in the kitchen making up a batch of Grampy's tacos for our traditional Christmas eve dinner. We did up two double batches (over 50 little tacos) and ate the majority of them. It's a fun process, especially when everyone gets a chance to flip them in the air.

The evening brought chocolate making! My mom used to make these at the beginning of December and store them in the freezer. All month my siblings and I would sneak a few whenever we'd walk past the hiding place. We've all grown to love the taste of them frozen!

The kids rolled the fondant into balls and then we cooled and tempered the chocolate for dipping.

Everyone helped dip, and even though they aren't the prettiest, they are delicious!

Uncle Arland took care of this kid while we all got our fingers messy dipping!

Once we finished we went out to the pool room to enjoy the decorations and conversations. Soon after the children began playing we heard a bell ringing in the distance and jolly old Saint Nick himself arrived at the door!

The children were thrilled! They rang his bell and he called everyone by name to sit on his knee and open their Christmas eve present. 

Hyrum wore his shy little smirk and talked to Santa about his year.

Camilla was over the moon!

Finners was a bit worried at first. It was pretty cute watching him!

I got to sit on his knee last for a quick picture. I was pretty sure I had seen this guy somewhere before!

After we said good-bye to our favorite guy we put on our new Christmas jammies.

 With two talented photographers around I put away my camera and tried to stay out of the way! Thanks again for the pictures ladies!

 I love these goofy kiddos of mine!

Not long after they put on their jammies they ran downstairs and tucked themselves excitedly into bed so that Santa could come and fill their stockings. We kissed them each good-night and then played "things in a box" with the adults.