Will's Ninja Turtle Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Along with celebrating Will's birthday, our friends the Sheridans were able to have dinner with us and share in the celebrating. Carter and Spencer (Sheridan) had similar interests as Fin and Will when  they were their ages....Captain Underpants books, Ninja Turtles and Perler beads. Will loved getting Carter's help with creating ninja turtle characters with the Perler beads. It was a fun evening!

Beamsville Bound

The boys help Grandma at church telling the story of Jesus' birth.

. 

Our Visit with Friends in Waterloo

When we went back to Ontario for Christmas our first stop was Waterloo. 

Our friends the Wilsons (from church) put us up for the night. Their son Gavin and Fin are friends so the idea of a sleepover was very exciting!! It was great to see the kids having fun together and I enjoyed having time with Amy, I miss her. Kevin used to play on the hockey church league with Darryl and Kevin was able to play that night with him. They were such great hosts. The next morning we saw friends from church and the new addition to the building at Creekside church. After church we had brunch with our old small group. It was great to catch up with everyone and meet Hope, the newest baby to the group. Following the brunch we went back to our old neighbourhood to visit with the Kraekers and the Cummings. It was a bitter sweet time. It was so great to visit with them, but such a reminder of the loss and the distance that is now between us. The Kraekers were so gracious to feed and entertain us for the afternoon and supper and then we were able to go to church with them to see Taite in their Christmas pageant....such fun! 

 You can tell that Finley feels right at home dressed up in something from the dress-up box. 

 The girls adore Taite.

We love these kids.

 Our hosts Kelly and Bryce. 

Christmas Festivities

The kids and I make Christmas cut-outs to bake.

 The girls Christmas concert with their preschool friends.

 Maryn sang her little heart out, but Adelyn is very uncomfortable being in front of people. 

I totally relate to Adelyn's uneasiness.

 Fin performs with the first and second graders at his elementary school. They sang songs and they played instruments while "The Mitten," was being narrated. Fin played the drums. It was a great performance, but we had lousy seats, so we didn't get good pictures or videos.

Go Hawkeyes!!

Kevin and the kids got to see the women's basketball team play one Sunday afternoon. After only 3 minutes Maryn asked if it was time to go, but in the end they had a lot of fun watching the game. They all came home with autographs from the players on posters, Will's hat and on Fin's foam finger.

Introducing "Cargo" the cat

Kevin saw a posting for this cat at work. He is a 9 year old ta bi that needed a new home. In the posting it said that he liked children and they were right! He is a sweet cat that loves to visit everyone in their bed or sit with them on the couch in the family room. He loves to hang around during bath time and often eats supper while we are eating. He has lots to say to me in the morning as I am making lunches. He has been a wonderful addition to our family and he came trained!

 The kids love this picture because they think he looks like he is laughing.

"O Christmas Tree...."

This year was one of our biggest Christmas trees, at nine feet. It was a beautiful tree that we all enjoyed, especially our newest member of the family Cargo the cat! He loved to drink from the stand and sit under the tree.

Mommy turns 41!

Grandma and Grandpa came for mommy's birthday which was a real gift. 

We had lots of fun playing and celebrating over the weekend.

 Grandpa and the kids are crushing the skor bars for the birthday cake. 

                                                                bowling with the wii

                One of the big surprises was a gift from Kevin to go and see the Tenors with Rachel Stine in North Carolina in December. It was a fantastic show! One of my favourite songs that they performed was "Forever Young", which I thought was fitting as I celebrated turning another year older.

"if you build it they will come..."

 Kevin, with the help of Uncle Bryce via the phone, set out to build an ice rink for us to skate on this winter. It took a couple of weekends to get the supplies, paint the wood and then build it and we were able to do it before the cold weather arrived. The rink turned out great and we were fortunate to get out on it Thanksgiving weekend. We have had our neighbours a few times and have plans to have various friends and colleagues over this weekend. The girls and boys skating skills have improved greatly with the practice that they have had on it. We are probably the only ones that we know that are praying for colder weather right now!! We can't wait to get back on it. We will post more pictures as they come of the great fun that we are having with it.