Happy New Year

Noise makers... check

Funny hats.... check

Ready to P-A-R-T-Y... check

Nice warm fire... check

(Someone was not very happy with all of the cold snow)

Even better...
Winter smores!

A quick warm up dance

OK we are all ready for 2014

Or... we will see it in the morning

The rest of us made it to midnight

I even got a New Years kiss!

In the morning it was time for some Wii Dance Party!

Welcome 2014

Ending 2013 with some white stuff

We decided to head up to the cottage for the end of the year

It was beautiful
As long as you were inside...

And maybe if you were shovelling to keep warm

Or if you were a Bernese Mountain Dog
With a coat all ready for the snow

Everyone else stayed inside

and stayed nice and warm

All ready for the new year!

Christmas Time

 Christmas morning came and the kids were very excited!

Katheryn got to give out all of the presents

 And Nick got to open up all of his presents (his pile was higher than he was).

Then it was on the road

The positive about the recent ice storm was the beautiful landscape. All of the trees have been covered in ice, and it doesn't look like it is melting any time soon.

It is breathtaking, the most beautiful white Christmas!

We had a great family day, complete with our very own Christmas concert!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Twas the Night before Christmas

The day finally came, 24 books into December

The tree was all decorated (even if this is grandma's tree in the picture.... you get the idea)

And we all had our matching pj's on
Just imagine Kyle and Katheryn posing with us

And Katheryn hit her limit with all of the excitement

Ice Storm

Toronto and area was hit by an ice storm.

Covering everything in a thick layer of ice.

Needing to chip off all of the ice before getting into your car (and trying not to scratch the car as you are going at it with a snow brush)

What little trees we have are all covered in ice too

Luckily we don't have very many trees. And our neighborhood is only 7 years old, so no mature trees to fall down on cars or hydo lines.

Our dog loved it, and the kids stayed inside

Many, many people lost power and spent hours or days in the dark without power.

Everyone we knew lost power at some time

We lost power for only about 12 hours.

 Many other families have been without power for days (and writing this a couple of days later, some families got power back after 5 days.... some are still without power).

Fun and Crafty

We had a weekend when no one was sick, and we didn't have any plans, so we did some crafts!

Our finger prints

 Some fun painting

 Mostly on the ornaments

A reindeer

Some hand-print Santa's

(kids provided the hand-prints.... I provided the paints)

 The kids really enjoyed doing this

And then giving them out as well

Christmas Concerts

We were lucky that the kids Christmas concerts were on 2 different days

Nick was very upset that he wouldn't be able to go to Katheryn's Christmas concert, so we pulled him out of school early.
I didn't really get any pictures to post of the actual concerts.
So here are some Christmas pictures of the kids

Katheryn wasn't very impressed about something at her concert, she didn't want any pictures

And Nick really liked the hot chocolate

Nick's Christmas concert involved giving everyone present some kind of instrument. Usually bells, and singing Christmas carols together

 We've been singing Christmas carols for weeks.
Katheryn will only let me sing the "adult" ones, I'm not allowed the sing "away in a manger" or "joy to the world" even though I try!

The kids have been singing a S-A-N-T-A song (like B-I-N-G-O), I've been trying to sing the wrong words (like father - like daughter), they think it is hilarious!
And Katheryn's favorite song is Jingle bells, but with the "Batman and Robert" twist