Finally a Christmas post! :)

We had a few surprises for Christmas. A few gifts the girls were not expecting, the best of all I think :). They got some pretty sweet gifts, spoiled really. I think it happens from starting so early in the season, you end up having more money to spend and also trying to keep the gifts even. This is definitely something I have to work on next year, I mean keeping things simple. I'd really rather have it that way anyway. So that is my goal for next year.

Here's Mikhail. He loved this baby doll in the store too. He is starting out so well rounded as a person, hope it stays that way :)

Mikhail has this book that shows babies doing different things during the day, sleeping, eating, and playing. The babies in his book have a play drum set. At the age of 19 months, every time he saw that picture in the book he would point to the drums and say, "Mama, want that." How in the world does a 19 month old comprehend this! It was amazing, so guess what he got? Yup, and he loves it.

Chastity was a little surprised when we wheeled in her brand new (adult size I might add, fits me!) bike.

And Emma was surprised to see her keyboard. She really wanted one.

Mikhail is gonna be camera happy just like Momma :) This is the little tykes camera that actually works, digital too!

As you all have probably heard, it's been unusually cold and we've been getting more snow that usual. I have photos below but they don't do justice to what it really looks like around here.

Have a wonderful day and

thanks for peeking :)

Challenge 104

How was your Christmas? Ours was filled with yummy food, kids playing and making a lot of noise, lots of family time, cards games, and music. Everyone was spoiled. Great Christmas for us, and we did all end up getting the stomach flu and getting rid of it in time before Christmas and we weren't contagious anymore! Yay.

So here's challenge 104, another sketch by moi :) Have fun playing along over at Lotus Paperie.

I'll post more later (photos etc), I just have to get my studio back in order and do a little catching up to assignments.

Have a fab day :)

thanks for peeking!

Challenge 103

It's time for Challenge 103, use office supplies in your layouts. This is my layout for this week. Go Check out the other lady's work, it's beautiful!


My office supplies were the clip on the top, staples, cardboard, different sized labels, an arrow from a package and I think that's it.


This quote was taken out of a second hand book I bought at a thrift store

Basic Grey butterfly paper :)

The labels are all away around the photo

And I did a few extra quick layouts

Well. we are fighting off the flu round here, yuck. First Emma, then Chastity, and now Mikhail, who seems to have it the worst, they are throwing up and all. :( Hope we get it out of our systems before Christmas, now there's a Christmas gift! :)

The weather is still gross, very cold and getting worse. Also expecting more snow on the weekend.

Also getting our computer updated. We REALLY need to so we are finally breaking down and getting it done. I'm sure we'll be happy when it's all updated. :)

Have a great weekend

thanks for peeking :)

It Is SO Cold!

We have been getting unusually cold weather here. It's been getting to -15 and -17 degrees Celsius at night with the wind!! You should see me and my layers when we go out, lol, I don't like the cold and I'm definitely not used to this weather. Long before it reached this temperature I've been telling Trevor we'll move somewhere exotic and warm in the winter months when we are retired :).A girl can dream, right? The people who are in charge of plowing the roads haven't done the best job either. They waited overnight the first time it snowed and it turned to ice. Then they decided to plow but there is still ice on the roads. They are a mess. We still go out, hate being couped up all day, but the roads sure are quiet because of it. So are the stores, perfect time to finish the Christmas shopping if you need to ;).

Been real busy since it's the time of year to be busy. Seems like I'm constantly baking. Still keeping everything in order so there is less stress. Making sure everything is stocked in case we can't go out to get things. Chastity and Emma are done dance until after Christmas, so that will free up time to spend as a family too. I think we might go tobogganing. We'll cook up some hot chocolate in the crock pot so when we get home it's all ready for us! Yum.

Here's a few photos from the last few days...

Snow getting a little deep for Mikhail, this was only the first day, poor guy :)Emma

Mikhail enjoying the snow as if it's the first time

Mikhail didn't like the snow on his toy so he wiped it off but then he wanted me to get the snow off his glove because he didn't like it there either, lol

Mikhail's Birthday...

The baking I did for the bake sale at school, had to decorate them too :)

Chastity and Emma

The lighting in our driveway was kinda cool

No huckleberries today :)

The kids. Our fence in the background bend from the storms two years ago, a few trees fell on our house and bend up the fence on the way. Happened to be the day before Mikhail was born! It was fun coming home from the hospital to that mess! Definitely coulda been worst though

Have a wonderfully warm day :)

Thanks for peeking

The Story Matters

Just posting my layout quickly for the story matters before my son's birthday party :)

Have a good one

(hugs) :)

Challenge 102

This week's challenge is based on a sketch, here's what I came up with for Lotus Paperie :)

Been keeping pretty busy with all the Christmas stuff. Also have 3 birthdays that are close to Christmas too. Emma's just past, Mikhail' is coming up on the 15th and Trevor's is on the 27th. Chastity is also heading out to a sleepover this weekend. Hope she gets enough sleep to enjoy her brother's birthday too :). We are celebrating it on the 14th so everyone can join.

Remember Chastity and her sprain ankle? Well now it's Emma. Happened in the school playground at lunch. They have a new jungle gym and she fell off of it along with a bunch of other kids. The other kids landed on her already weak ankle, oh the fun :p

Been trying to keep things organized around here too so things will go smoothly at Christmas and I can actually enjoy the time spent with the family. I have a months worth of dinners planned too :) So now I don't even have to think, just get it together and cook it, done.

Here's a little of us lately...

Mikhail playing with his trucks.

Baking together

Getting cookbooks out to bake and cook, organize dinners

The cookies we baked, yum :)

Wanna hear the story? Emma's lips were pretty chapped so I told her to go put the chapstick on her lips, unfortunately for her it was in the same drawer as the permanent marker and she got them mixed up, lol.

Have a lovely weekend

thanks for peeking :)

Challenge 101

More change over at Lotus Paperie. We are alternating the challenges. We are still doing the sketch challenges every other week but on the opposite weeks we will be challenging you to use your supplies in different ways. This week's challenge is to use lots of buttons.

This is also the first week with the new Design Team! Go check them out!!

Here's my layout using a lot of buttons


In other news...

-We are currently trying to rid the house of mice, I'm not a fan of them in any way, dirty little things.

-Still getting those gifts together, have most of them wrapped :)

-The girls battery powered motorbike was stolen! Where we live the person would have to go looking for something to steal, even worse.

-I'm grateful for the well being of my family and friends. Even grateful I was able to go to the photo developer without lineups! :)

-Mikhail is doing GREAT with the tree, go Mikhail :) (my sweet, good little boy :)

Thats it, thanks for peeking

Have a wonderful weekend :)

Wow! We've been up to a lot!

I made up this cute advent calender for the kids. It's the Karen Foster calendar decked out :). For those who want to know it fits three Hersey kisses or chocolate balls just fine, might even fit four! So the kids can share if you can't afford the cost or can only get your hands on one. The three gems on the top represent each of my kids :).

Kids were dancing in the Christmas Parade again this year. They dance all the way down 5th street, explains the rosy cheeks. :) Mikhail is wearing Emma's shirt from when she first started dance. Gotta love the 'cheese' grin he's giving me.

Saw Santa in the Parade

All who joined from the studio the girls dance at

Mikhail watching the parade

We had a sleepover for Emma's birthday party. It was all dance friends so they mostly danced. We also got them to play a few games and they also took over my scrapbooking studio for a while as they scrapped cards etc for their moms. Glad the girls have a table in there to use :)

This was the 'goodie bag' each girl got

These were the cupcakes. Found the recipe on Martha Stuart.com

Emma and her cake

Went out to get a tree for Christmas. I found out that it's a greener choice to go to a tree farm and cut your own tree than to use a plastic tree. Especially if you can find a place where you cut your tree higher. They leave the stumps and let it grow another tree, also if they don't use pesticides it's even better. You only have to squish a few bugs when the tree is in your house and you don't expose your family to chemicals. Love the tradition anyway, I remember doing this when I was little.

Yet another 'cheese' grin

Watching Daddy cut the tree

Love pulling out our special ornaments every year.

This one is Chastity's first ornament.

Mikhail has a thing for this angel with the naked butt. He thinks it's a naked baby and giggles at it because it's naked then kisses it cause he loves babies :)

Mikhail after we got the tree home

Our tree is kinda big this year, looked smaller outside, lol. So I can't even get the whole thing in a picture!

This dog at the tree farm had Mikhail literally belly laughing. He LOVES dogs and this dog got excited when Mikhail did, Mikhail loved that. :)

Our first Christmas living together

We have a lot of dancing ornaments representing all kinds of accomplishments in dance through the years

We also have a ton of homemade ornaments

Emma's handprint made a school

Made these too, back in 2002 with the girls. The girls were so little back then :)

My Mom made these

and my Auntie made this

Emma's first ornament

and ornament from Trevor's parents

Mikhail's first ornament

Yep, it's been really quite busy round here. Guess it's really that time of year:p

keep safe, happy Wednesday

thanks for peeking :)