Kitchen

Here are a few pictures of the kitchen.  Now everyone knows why I love this house!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Even when our fearless leader is 3386.5 miles away.

Our Christmas has been quiet and peaceful and just enjoyable. The kids have been sick, but still happy. We got to talk with G on the web cam today and it was definitely the highlight!!

Christmas eve was fun and laid back. The kids and I went to the BXtra (a.k.a. the toy store) with some money from various grandparents (Thanks Marrott's and Grandma Waters) and left with full arms. We went out for lunch and then made our rounds to the post office and bank while watching Christmas movies in the car (gotta love the in-car DVD players, we are so spoiled!). Then we set out delivering Christmas CD's we had made (in lieu of baked goods) to our friends. We came home, had homemade pizza and made gingerbread (don't tell the kids, but they were actually graham crackers) houses and went to bed.

It was great! Don't get me wrong, I love celebrating, we usually do a Christmas Eve party at our house, but it was so nice to have nothing on the agenda and to just relax.

*In order by Artist: Daeglan, Mac, Emeryss, and Brody

I have to tell ya a little about the 'gingerbread' houses though. After making them with my kids, I am convinced that you can tell a lot about someone by their gingerbread house. For example, Mac's house was simple, almost plain and he didn't get frustrated once while making it. Then there is Daeglan's house, or rather houses. He made a total of 3. The first one fell down and he refused to rebuild so it's in the trash; the 2nd was "ugly" and it also went into the rubbish bin; 3rd times a charm though! Emeryss made a "Princess Castle" which she decorated with half-eaten candy and Brody's was a church for the gingerbread man and woman to get married in (guess we haven't taught him enough about the temple, just kidding!).

Christmas Day was almost as laid back, but surely just as fun... ok, it was actually really fun! Hello, Santa came!

Before the Storm.

In The Thick of It!

The Aftermath!!!

We, again, relaxed and just enjoyed the gifts. We played and had good food and our favorite part was talking with all our family! Thanks for loving us! Despite all the flying wrapping paper and fighting over toys and poor, sick tears, we remembered our Savior. He is the reason we have hope, peace, love, and joy in our lives today.

It is our testimony that Christ was born in Bethleham, suffered in Gethsemane, died on the cross in Calgary and took up His body again in the tomb. Our family knows that Christ lives and loves us. We know that if it were not for His atoning sacrifice we could have no hope of returning to our Heavenly Father. We know that He knows us and is aware of our needs and watches out for us when things get hard. We testify that our Father in Heaven hears and answers our prayers and that He has sent us prophets to guide us in these latter days. We know that Joseph Smith was called as God's prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. And we know that Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's prophet on the earth today. We know these things by the power and gift of the Holy Ghost as it witnesses to us the truth of all things. And we share them with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Like I said, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Our new home... finally!

So, it's been a while in coming but here are a few pictures of the new house.  I know, there is more that you have yet to see... but for now, this will have to suffice.

Here is the entry way and hall

From the front door-ish, really this is from the office door.      

 

From the living room.

Here is a few shots of the living room.  The curtains are the ones that where up when we moved... I plan to buy new ones soon.  I love, love, love the fireplace, but don't know what I'm going to put up there when I put my Christmas decorations away!

Here is a picture of the office which is just to the right of the front door.

And here is our dining room.  Yes, we actually have a dining room... in which we can all comfortably sit around the table and eat!

So there you have it.  Most of the downstairs of the house.  I had some great pictures of the kitchen that somehow got erased and now it's a mess so taking a replacement picture today is out of the question.  I'll post one soon.  

Christmastime is Here!

It was Christmas Program/Play day at school today and it was so fun.  I have to give props to the teachers and staff at the Little Norman School and the Norman Primary School for all the effort and work they put into the programs.  It was fantastic to have school programs that were focused on the true meaning and principles behind Christmas.

First, I got to enjoy Emeryss's program with no distractions.  It was so cute.  It was the Nativity Story and the kids were so cute.  Emeryss was an angel and so pretty (thanks to my mom for making her angel dress!).  I didn't have a halo for her, but she was a perfect with her pink headband and pink, feathery wings!

                

Next it was Mac and Daeglan's class play that was also about the Nativity.  All the songs were set to nursery rhyme tunes.  Mac and Daeg were shepherds and since their teacher had them take off their shoes, socks and pants to make their costumes more realistic, and boys do not know how to sit in a dress... it was interesting.  The world (or at least everyone at the Great Hall of the Norman School) got to see Daeglan's spiderman underwear...  his baggy spiderman underwear!  Neither boy could sit still, nor did they sing much, but their costumes were a hit and they made the crowd laugh a time or two by shooting their fingers at the three Wise Men, wrestling with each other and singing opera style when they did sing!  I love my boys!!!

Brody's program was the last on the docket today.  His class did a musical play all about believing in the magic of Christmas.  It was partially written by the class and everyone did a great job.  I don't have any pictures of his program because I used up all my memory stick on videos (that reminds me... I need a larger memory stick).  But here is a clip of his part in the play.  You can hear Brody's voice over the others and pick out his false British accent (I don't think he did it on purpose, he just sang the songs as he learned them, which happened to be with British pronunciations).  And if you pay attention you can tell that he still mispronounces the word remember!  It's too cute.

All in all, it was a great day!  Fun was had by all and the plumber finally showed up and fixed my leaking pipes (which I assure you was very exciting as it's been a long time in coming).  After dinner I took the kids out for some well deserved ice cream for working so hard and doing so well on their programs.  (Well, maybe Mac and Daeglan didn't exactly deserve it for their great effort, but their performances did entertain so...)

Merry Christmas!

Gone Baby Gone

We saw Geoff off at 4:30 this morning.  There were a few tears and sleeping kids in the car, but it is almost a relief to have the goodbye behind us... means we get to look forward to the reunion.  Me and the kids sleep until about noon today and are having one down day missing Daddy and then it's back to life and being strong. 

Just a reminder that G's bday is the 18th, maybe we should see how many emails we can get to him that day!

As I drove home this morning after dropping Geoff off, my mind turned to the Savior. It is because of His great sacrifice, the Atonement, that I am able to have hope and peace that I will be with my husband again and that come what may, I can love it; I can be happy and find joy amongst my trials.

Merry Christmas to all!

oh, and I promise to post pictures soon... well at least before the new year!

Official

We just found out this morning...

Geoff's officially leaving early in the morning on Dec 15th for his deployment.  

Please keep him in your prayers.  It will be a long 6-8 months without him, but we are proud of him and the service he provides for our country.  When we get a post office box number for him we will let you know.  Until then...

Playing Catch up and Spreading Cheer

So we are moved and loving the new house.  We woke up to snow yesterday and it made us all feel a little more at home.  The kids are getting adjusted to the new school and love all the room to play they have at our new abode (both inside and outside).  *Pictures of the new house to come, I promise!*

Since Geoff is leaving mid-December for UAE we decided to go ahead and put our Christmas tree up yesterday.  We had a Christmas movie marathon and decorated the house.  It was so much fun.  By far Christmas is our favorite time of year.  We also watched Finding Faith in Christ yesterday and my sensitive kiddos cried and cried to see what happened to the Savior.  (For those of you how aren't familiar with it, it's the story of Christ through the perspective of Thomas, the doubter.  It is not graphic, but does depict Christ's Crucifixion.)  Brody said, "Mom, why would you make me watch that, I feel so miserable.  How could anyone treat Jesus like that?"  And so I cried too.  Though it is hard to watch I feel it is important to remind ourselves just exactly what the Savior went through for us.  It was a great opportunity to really talk with the kids about the Atonement and the Crucifixion and what that means for us.

So Happy Holidays!  Remember to Keep Christ in Christmas! And try THIS out, it's so much fun!

This is Halloween...

This is Halloween... Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.....

Well, one holiday down.  Only finals, a move, a school change, Thanksgiving, G's deployment and Christmas to go...  oh yeah, and New Year's.  Not to mention Guy Fox day and Boxing Day!  No sweat, right?

I told you about the window decor we put up for Halloween this year and here it is....

*I'm not sure who added the hearts up there.*

This year I broke down and bought the $3 carving kits for the pumpkins.  We had a fun FHE carving pumpkins.  With two kids with severe gag reflexes it was... hilarious.  Brody and Emeryss both started gagging as soon as the first top was off.  The smell alone was enough to get them going, but then to see the gooey, oozy, stringy guts of the pumpkins being torn out...  Well, for those of you who know Brody, you know what I mean and yes, Emeryss is almost as bad.  Oh, so much fun!  And as you can imagine, G and I did most of the work.

      Geoff hard at work.

Daeglan's Spider-Pumpkin          Brody's creation--Red Serpent of Death... I don't know ask him.

Emeryss's Happy Princess Pumpkin     

     Mac's call to Batman!

And my ode to Bella and Edward!      

I know... it's a sad obsession.

And what Halloween would be complete without costumes?  

   The kids in all their glory.  Hulk Mac, Pirate Daeglan, Faerie Princess Emeryss and Dino/Godzilla Brody.

Here are some of the cutest pix of the night.  Wish I had more, but it was crazy hectic doing Trunk or Treat/dinner at the church and house-to-house Trick or Treating around base housing all without daddy.  You'd think I'd have the hang of things by now, but an extra set of hands can go a long way with four little monsters!

       

The Joys of the Season

We've really enjoyed this last week (minus daddy being away).  It's finally truly Fall, my personal favorite season.  This week we made a Halloween scene for our front window (something Nana always does and we decided to make it a tradition for us too).  The other day we journeyed around the village on the walking path collecting fallen autumn leaves.  Also, we've been going through all our costumes deciding what to be (so great that they want to use costumes we already have!) 

                 

Here's Emeryss in her Fairy Princess costume I found at the thrift store for a grand total of $2.00.  This picture was just too cute not to post it!

And today we got to go to the Pumpkin Patch.  It was an experience!  The kids loved tromping through the fields and looking at all the pumpkins.  There was a maize maze that we went through; we weren't aware that a haunted shack was in the middle that we had to go through to get out, but the kids did well considering it was their first time through a haunted anything.  There was some crying and laughing (I'm a bad mother, I laugh when my kids cry).  

We also got to see a magic show and get balloon animals and eat fresh, hot homemade donuts!

                                                      

*in case you can't tell from the pictures, Brody got a skeleton, Daeglan got a spider and Mac got a bat.  Emeryss decided she didn't want an ugly balloon.

And of course, the kids all got to pick a pumpkin.  We already had some bigger ones at home so they each got to pick a small one.

It was just fun to be out and enjoy the weather and this beautiful country we're living in.  Do you ever just have a joyful day?  Today was mine.  It was great to just enjoy my children, God's beautiful world and anticipating my love coming home.  I hope that each of you can find joy in your everyday living.  Life truly is so much better when you can appreciate the little joys the surround you.

The Name of the Game...

... is 6th folder, 6th frame.

Go to your 6th folder and then choose the 6th frame/photo.

Here's mine:

Marrott's o' plenty

Daeglan, Seth, Ada, Cannon, Brody, Genevieve, Camilla, Ondine, Emma, MacEwen, Gabrielle, Marguerite, Emeryss

Tag, you're it:  Melissa

While the Cat's Away...

The mice will play!

Our first day with Daddy gone and this is what I found my little mice doing.

         

          

It's Totally Retro!

Ok, so everyone should do this.  It's too much fun!

YearbookYourself.com

Here is me and Geoff in 1968.  No wonder it was love at first sight!