Christmas '08 - Our Home, with Mom & Dad Israelson

I won't bother ruining the Christmas spirit by beginning to describe my frusteration with my many failed attempts to place comments beneath each photo, so I've placed all the comments at the very bottom of the page, in order of photo. From Cuddles to chaos, I've never seen so many gifts as I did this year (and they all belonged to Atalie and Aiden!). They seemed to have a blast, however couldn't keep the gift-giving flowing as they feasted their tiny eyes on each gift which came their way:) We had to hide each one as they opened it just so we could get through them all (!!!) Hiyiyi! PHOTO 6: Papa laboured all evening long, trying to fix the new book "that could" - the light wouldnt turn off and we had to watch it die eventually :( PHOTO 7: Aiden will take any opportunity to pick up a phone and say "hewo" while carrying it beneath his chin... so we got him one for Christmas:) He seemed pleased. PHOTO 8: I've got a week's worth of eating to shed now that the holidays are done...ugh! PHOTO 9: The turkey turned out to taste as fabulous as it looked:) PHOTO 10: My first ever, homemade cranberry sauce - SO easy and SO much tastier!!! The snow also comes in handy when you're running a little late and don't have time to chill food in the fridge;) PHOTO 11: Princess Attie tries on her new get-up:) PHOTO 12: Nana makes Atalie's day by helping colour with her new Dora markers! PHOTO 13: Nana & Papa get in some snuggles before bedtime;) PHOTO 14: Games, games, games, games, games, games and.... more games! Literally, every day, night or day....!!! Kevin has informed me many times that he is "gamed out!" I could go for another round of Cranium however! PHOTO 15: Guess who won this game? ;) She was more than pleased with the fact! haha!! Aiden had his ups & downs during the holidays. I think he was a bit sick the whole time! Poor chap... this moment was an "up", however:) The "downs" were quickly cured with a little love:) Nana soaked it up!

An early Birthday:)

Yip Yip! Kevin surprised me with an early (by 10 days) Birthday on Saturday. A party, that is! I don't recall ever having had a surprise party before, never mind a party at which the only purpose was to celebrate my birthday (since being a kid that is). The Christmas/New Years season is a busy one and it seems difficult enough to remember all the ingredients for the turkey dinner, let alone be able to remember, plan, and find people to come celebrate a birthday in the midst of the hubbub. I guess Kevin thought I needed a special day. And I loved it!! I'll throw some pictures of the party in here while writing about my fantastic day! The day actually began with some chores: Kevin finished off some Christmas gifts we've been making while I thoroughly cleaned the house (and was very glad I did when I discovered he had invited 6 people over later!). Then he arranged for a babysitter (our wonderful friend Sandra!!) so we could head out on a date - which I might add, was last had on our Anniversary 7 months ago, and before that was likely the previous Anniversary - life had been busy until moving into our house (and Grandparent-I mean babysitter-less!)... ... we went to the Eagle Ranch Resort for an amazing lunch! Seriously, if any of you ever come to Invermere, GO HERE! It's a beautiful chalet-style building with a great view of the mountains and lake below - georgous! The food (and service) is fantastic (even the price is reasonable, though not necessarily cheap)!!!... ...then it was off to the Kicking Horse Coffee cafe (in the KH factory) for a mocha and cheesecake. Mmmmmm!!!!! Possibly the best mocha I've e-v-e-r had (that's right, eat your heart out Starbucks)!! I'm also more than happy to support this company, as they are local and have quality, organic, fair trade coffee beans! Anyway, we drove into town for a little window shopping, then headed home. I was under the impression, of course, that it was back to life with tired kids and making dinner as soon as we stepped in the door ~ ~ however I opened the front door to an amazing aroma (!) and couldn't quite figure out why or HOW Sandra had been making dinner for us while we were gone. She explained that her boyfriend Vince had decided to come over and make us spaghetti. I was shocked but delighted, once again, at the thought of another effortless and amazing meal! :) :) ..... ... it was about the time that I walked into the kitchen that I turned to see Kevin's expression, which left me a little suspicious and very confused. He had a goofy grin on his face which he was obviously trying very hard to hide. I later learned that he had been standing infront of an infant carseat, in an attempt to hide it from me:) Sandra quickly cut in by asking, "Is there a fan on in your bedroom or something? I didn't want to go in or anything, but I keep hearing a ticking noise." Without thinking twice I said, "Really??? Oh, well you can go in there, it's okay!" and headed into my room to check it out. And as you can guess, there were my friends, jumping out from the dark to yell "SURPRISE!!!" and scare the crap out of me. It worked! I couldn't believe Kevin had pulled something like that off, and been able to hide it for over a week! I am truely impressed:) Thanks to all my wonderful friends (and husband!!) for the day! These last 2 pics are of the next day. Atalie is helping me make a lasagna for a simple, homemade, freezer dinner for Nana & Papa during the holidays to come:) Beautiful in Balloons:)

Whew!

I was a little surprised to see long, thick ice crystals covering the outdoors today!! It was beautiful! Initially I was heading out to clean the inside of the truck while the kids were napping and I wasn't really looking forward to the task at hand (our one vehicle happens to make use as a work truck for Kev when it's his turn to carpool and the dust just piiiiles up sometimes - I actually had an opportunity to look nice for a Christmas dinner tonight so I thought I better go without dust on my nice dress pants!). So when I stepped outside and really stopped to look around, I realized that the fuzzy white substance I saw from a distance through my kitchen window was actually massive chunks of beautiful ice crystals!! Whoda thunk?! I GOTTA get out more often;) The above pic is one of our 5 cedar shrubs which the deer have taken quite a liking to. Perhaps they'll leave em alone for a few days! Rrrrg. There's just not enough time in the day to get to the hardware store and buy some burlap to wrap those poor, dying cedars in!!

Good Lord!!!!

Let me start off this post with a sigh. Excuse me..... ***** s i g h ******! Well I don't know what he can possibly do next (or at least in a 24 hour period). Aiden tripped on the first step on his way downstairs this morning. I caught the initial trip out of the corner of my eye, rushed towards the stairs to see him tumble the remaining 10 or so stairs and ran down the stairs to scoop him up and offer my condolences. Poor little guy must have caught his lip on the carpet going down and ripped his gums just above his top front tooth... blood and tears covered his sweet little face!! He doesn't cry for just anything either. It has to REALLLLLY hurt!! To top that off he already begun the day somewhat miserable. He had four immunization shots yesterday afternoon and didn't wake up terribly happy about that this morning. Then when he woke up from his fabulous 3 hour nap this afternoon.... yes, he catapulted himself right out of his crib and onto his head. How do I know? B/c he was in his crib and then I heard a very loud "THUD" from the basement and ran up to discover him laying on the floor, once again covered in blood and tears. So Mommy to the rescue - scoop him up and offer some more sympathy (even though this one was 100% mischief and nothing I could have prevented). The first tumble he took I tried distracting him from the pain by taking him to his room and asking him if he'd like to watch a movie (LOVES movies, just like his parents and sister!). His response was adorable... covered in tears and sobbing away he says, "moo mooooo" for movie. He only ever tries to say "baba" for bottle, "mama" for Mommy and "dada" for Daddy. I guess that movie meant alot to him:) So I tried it again second tumble around and it worked like a gem. Currently he sits on the floor with a snack watching "Stuart Little" with his sister:) Poor little bup (our nickname for him)!

We took the kids skating at the local rink yesterday - first time! They had a blast - especially Atalie when we took her out of the Chariot to "skate" around in her boots! We realized at the end of our time there that she didn't have a helmet!! Oops~~~ Next time! She did REALLY well too. I think we'll look into getting her some used bob-skates. She was so excited to go skating even though she'd never been - she only knew that Daddy goes skating when he plays hockey during the week. Anyway, here's some pics: OK so he DOES play hockey... which is a good excuse for being faster than me, thus the kids preferring he push them ;) A GREAT way to get a stiff back! Try it some time! No, she didn't fall down and isn't afraid like her face might express... she wanted to be pulled around like this and was thrilled;) Yes, this was what happened when we got off the ice and headed into the changerooms to take off our skates and head home... "I dooon't wannnaaaa goooo h-h-h-hooooome!!" "I want to skaaaaaate!!!!!" The only thing which calmed her down (and immediately!) was asking her if she'd like to invite her friend Zack to come with her next time (we invited him this time too but he couldn't). She was so excited about it that she told the next stranger who came into the room, "Zackary wants to come skating with me!!!!!" :) Hear that Zack? You're officially invited again next Sunday! ;) Aiden took advantage of the fact that I left my dirty, snowy boots out to dry... We made popcorn and watched a movie together after skating:) If you're brushing your teeth around Aiden he will BEG you to brush his too! Funny guy loves to have his teeth brushed:) He'll say, "eh! eh! eeeh!" and point up at the cupboard until you get his toothbrush out too.

Well, little munchkin #2 has struck the tub (no pics this time, sorry!). I mean, 10 minutes after putting him and his sister into the bath this morning I hear (from the next room - not far), "NO AIDEN!! NO!!! YOU CAN'T POOP IN THE BATH TUB!!!! MOMMY, AIDEN IS POOPING!!!!" Sooooooooo....... I take them both out, put on some rubber gloves and attempt to remove the soggy chunks from the water - I look to my right to see Aiden standing on Atalie's little potty, looking downward, his interest switching from what I was doing to what he is now doing: peeing allllll over the potty, tub and floor. ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK. Alright, well I can relax now. It can't get any worse now that they (mostly Aiden) are covered in poopy pee water and splashing around on the tile floor. I Vim'd the bathtub, filled it up again and scrubbed them down with clean soapy water. 2 minutes later Aiden didn't really want a bath anymore anyways so he came out. After all the baths had been had I sent them to the table for breakfast and continued to Vim the rest of the bathroom until it was sparkling clean. Now, all that was for what?????? Someone please tell me!