A Weekend of Birthday celebrations

What a jam packed weekend we had full of birthday cake and fun. Friday night we headed over to my parents place for dinner, cake & ice cream. The kids always have fun with their cousins. Happy Birthday Nana!!
The boys were showing off their muscles.

Saturday we took the kids to Vaugh Mills Mall for the day. The kids had a great time and were so tired they fell asleep on the way home. That night Iain's sister came over to baby-sit them while we went out for B-day celebration #2. We headed out with the neighbours to a place called Havana Nights for some delicious dinner and Salsa dancing. It was such a fun night. We realized this was the first time we have gotten together - adults only. We've decided we'll have to do it again very soon. Apparently some of us couldn't wait to get out on the dance floor.
Unfortunately a few of us paid the price that night and the next morning. (Iain and I were among the lucky ones though)
The next day after a morning filled with public skating and shopping for Ty's new hockey/lacrosse gloves we all went across the street for dinner and cake so the kids could sing to Brent(our neighbour)
It was a fantastic weekend and I did not have to cook dinner once in 3 nights.
Today we are stuck at home since my car is having a tune up and new snow tires put on it. My mom is going to take Ty to his skating lesson so I may just have to catch a nap in that time. Should be a good day. LOL!

Hockey players love their moms

What a great morning. I took Ty public skating, as I always do on Wednesdays. He has really gotten good and now as a treat he is allowed to bring his stick and a puck to play around with once he has practiced his skating for awhile. As I was doing his skates up this morning he said in a bit of a questioning tone, "Hockey players love their moms?" I confirmed that yes they definitely did. I think he was a bit relieved that yes he could in fact still be a hockey player and love his mom at the same time. Man I love this kid!!

Our weekend at the cottage

We are back to reality after a wonderfully relaxing weekend in Buckhorn. We headed up on Friday night and ended up driving in a bit of a blizzard. That is when we realized I really need to get some new tires. (Great timing!) We made it safe & sound though and the kids went right to bed. Iain and I had big plans to relax & watch a movie but after 1/2 an hour we ended up packing it in and going to bed ourselves.
Saturday we had a big breakfast and headed outside for some hockey on the lake (no skates but it was just as fun). Iain and I got cold much sooner then the kids and were begging them to come inside after a couple hours with the promise of hot chocolate. While the kids napped I was able to read 150 pages of my book while sitting at a window overlooking the frozen lake. It was so relaxing.
We did head back outside that afternoon for a small hike and then enjoyed a quiet night in the cottage.
Sunday was a repeat of the same and we finally headed home around 3:30pm. We can't wait to have another free weekend to head up there again.
Trying to teach Vanessa how to make snow angels
Walking on the lake
Iain shoveled a nice little area on the lake to play hockey

Sibling Love

I don't know if it's alwasy been like this and I'm just noticing now but Ty and Vanessa are just loving each other. It is the nicest thing to see. In the morning Vanessa looks for him as soon as she gets up and she lights right up and runs to him yelling "Ty-ty" as soon as she spots him. He gives her big hugs and kisses before he goes anywhere without her and always asks if she can come too when we have to leave her behind. This morning when we came home after skating her greeted Vanessa with a "hello sweetness" and "Vanessa you look so pretty today" It just melted my heart. I don't know what I can do (if anything) to make this continue but I'm really enjoying every moment of it while it lasts.
The two of them are watching a movie in my room right now - this is how I found them...

Christmas Continued...

Ty opening his "real raptor" that he asked Santa for.
Once we finished opening our Santa gifts we got dressed and headed over to my parents place for round 2 of the gift opening.Ty and Nolan on their archade motorcycle that they got from Nana & Papa
All the kids helped Vanessa open her kitchen from Nana & Papa
The kids had a great nap that afternoon and we ready to head into Hamilton for dinner at my aunts. (My camera batteries wore out without warning so I didn't get any pictures of us there.)
The following day- Boxing day - we began round 3 with Iain's dad and sister. They came over that morning with even more gifts for the kids.
That afternoon we headed back over to my parents place to celebrate my youngest brothers 28th birthday. (Man that was a great age...) Anyway we were exhausted again and the kids had more great naps that afternoon.
We took a day off but then were back to visiting on December 28th. We headed over to my Matron of Honour & her families place for a delicious meal and some fun for the kids.

Another day off and on Saturday the 30th we headed up to the cottage with our neighbours to end the year off right. The kids had a blast, the adults had probably even more fun playing "The Newlyweds game" and we brought in the new year with our great friends saying goodbye to a year that we were quite happy to see go.
I'm not able to post more pictures but I am finished posting about the holidays already!!
Ty is back at school today and Vanessa started a new little class this morning so I'd have to say all is going well for us in 2007 so far!!
This year I plan to keep going to the gym, keep spending quality time with my kids and continue to get out with my hubby on our own. I am really looking forward to what 2007 will bring.

Our Christmas

The craziness of the holiday is finally over - or so it seems. We've had all of our get togethers, gone to all of the parties and are now ready to start back into real life. It's kind of nice to have Ty home this week before he starts school again. Here are some pictures of our week in review:

We celebrated Christmas Eve morning with my online friends at Chuck E. Cheese. The kids had a blast!Ty & Jake K watch Iain playing video games Vanessa and Sydney had fun climbing and going down the slide

Christmas Eve night was spent at Iain's mom & stepdads place. The kids were excellent but we could tell they were already starting to get worn out.

Christmas morning got off to a bit of a rough start. Ty woke up crying in his room that "Santa had eaten all his cookies!" He took a while to calm down and even once he saw all the presents that Santa had brough for him his first reaction was "I don't want a bike I want a real raptor". It took all we had in us not to put him in his room for the rest of the morning. He finally snapped out of it and was very excited when he finally did open what he considered a Raptor. (Phweff!- we weren't sure if he would accept the dinosaur we got him as a "Real Raptor" but it seems to have made him happy) Vanessa was thrilled with her Dora house.
(more pictures to come...)