Tis the season to be jolly.......

Well it's official, the kids are out of school and it is now my full time job to keep them entertained, for a whole 8 days until christmas arrives.  Thank goodness my mother is arriving on Wednesday evening, having Nana here will make the task much more and fun and whole lot less work for me :)  The last week of school was pretty darn busy, we had school concert, 3 class parties, projects due, ortho appointments, and the list goes on.  This week is shaping up to be rather busy too, but more fun stuff!!  The girls have a fun dance recital at the old folks home on Tuesday - that will be really fun for them.  The elderly love to watch the girls dance!

 I have lots of fun things planned for this week before christmas (or should I say lots of things planned for my mom to so with the girls when she gets here!)  I want to take them to a movie (maybe even 2 if the first one goes well).  Last year when Leah was not even 2 years old we went to a couple during the break and she was so good.  So I figure it should work out this year too.  I plan to do some baking with them and some wrapping.  I am almost done shopping, really almost done and that is like a miracle!!  I am quite proud of myself for that.  I am picturing the malls to be pure kaos this week with all the kids out of school!

I have some cute picture from the girls Christmas concert a few days ago but I still need to upload them.  as soon as I do that I will add them to a post.  There are some pretty cute ones!!

Christmas Bells are Ringing...

Holy smokes it is less than 2 weeks til christmas.  How can that be?  It feels like school has just started.  The months are just wizzing by at a crazy rate, and for one of the first times in my life I am actually wishing I could slow time down a little.  My girls are getting so big and so old so fast.  I actually am starting to miss having a house full of toddlers!  Now it is a house full of homronal pre-teens!  Really they are getting so old and they want their space and they have an opinion and they certainly don't want mine!  I fell so blessed that so far they are such good kids.  They want to do what is right, they want to please us and they still even like to be around us.  We have such a great time together as a family.

The last few weeks have been especially busy leading up to Christmas.  We have put up the tree and decorated the house, put up our christmas lights and started baking.  Don[t forget the christmas music - we have been listening to that since NOv 1st!!  We have some fun nights out christmas shopping too! I just love the chirstmas sesaon.  Funny though at different stages of my life (like the ones where I was 8 months pregnant) I have found christmas to be alot of work, but this year I am just loving it!

Avri got her braces on a few weeks ago - she was so brave getting them on.  It really was not a fun procedure for an 11 year old but she got through it. She actually looks pretty darn cute with her braces on, I think!  And her teeth should be straight in no time.  She will only need them for 14-18 months!!  not bad!!

Below are a few christmas pictures of the girls around the christmas tree.

Good night for now - will post more soon!

Halloween and Toilet Treating - guess which one is scarier!

I can't believe it is actually November already!  Where on earth is the time going?  Kids are back in school and things are going well for all 3 of them.  I can not believe my little Zoe is in Kindergarden now.  She LOVES it.  She is so happy to go to school each morning, I have to admit though I really miss my sweet little Zoe during the day and Leah really misses her!  She has ajusted to the full school days very well and she loves her teachers.  I am relieved that she is so happy to be at school.  Mika is doing great in Grade 3.  She is one of the best readers in her class and loves to help out around the classroom whenever she gets a chance.  She also checks in on Zoe regularly and keeps a close eye on her at school.  It makes me feel good knowing that their classrooms are right across the hall from one another!  Avri is in Grade 6 and she is having a great year!  She is in a new program called cyber school where they work on line from home 2 days a week.  Sometimes she gets together and works with a friend here or at their house.  She is loving it and she has really come out of her shell alot.  We are amazed at home much she is learning in the program. She has also joined the volleyball team at school and she loves it.

All three girls are back to dance and that is going well.  They had a competition in Kamloops in September and both Avri and Mika placed 1st in all 4 of their dances and won the aggregate for their categories!!  They are now in the next level and have done one competition in Victoria in that level.  Both did great and Avri also won the aggregate for that competition too.  Zoe is still in primary but she is also doing great!!  They have several competitions coming up and are practicing a minimum of 3 days a week.  We have come to really love Highland dance as a family.  I love watching the girls dance.

Avri had her adenoids out a few weeks ago.  It was a scary procedure for both of us.  Josh and I have been blessed so far to never have one of our children need a surgery, so this was a first for me.  I was pretty nervous for Avri and she was pretty nervous too.  It did not help that poor Avri was also fighting a cold that she came down with 2 or 3 days earlier.  She did great during the surgery, I was so proud of her.  They let me go into the recovery room when she was coming out of the anesthetic.  When I walked into recovery and saw her laying there with a little blood stain beside her mouth and sort of laboured breathing with her nose all stuffed up I felt so sad and helpless.  I knew she was still a little out of it, and feeling great and she was very restless.  I stood there holding her little hand and had a few tears.  When she looked over she said "it's ok mom, I'm ok."  What a sweetheart.  Then she said can you text dad and tell him I am ok?  She was very concerned about how worried we were.  Once she go tthe ok to leave recovery we headed back to her room where we had to wait about 2 hours before they would release her.  When we got back she had a couple of popsicles and they we put on the movie ELF to watch.  I climbed into the bad with her and next thing I knew the nurse the was waking me up to say we could go home!! OOPS!  Her recovery after that went fine :)  Now the poor kid is getting her braces on in 2 weeks!

This is Avri right before the surgery.

This is us on our way into the OR 

This is her in recovery - still a tad groggy!

So a few weeks ago I decided that it was time to toilet train Leah.  Fourth time around for me and was totally not excited at all.  But I figured, I have successfully done this 3 times, how hard can it be right?  Surely I know exactly what I am doing and with a little bribery, alot of praise and some patience I can pull this off in a few days......... ya well it's been 5 weeks now and Leah has taught me a big fat lesson in patience and another one in stubbornness.  The one on stubbornness is for both of us.  She is determined not to poop on the toilet - in fact she is pretty much determined not to poop at all now and has the ability to hold it for days on end if she so chooses.  I have cleaned more poop out of underwear in the past month then any human being should ever have to.  I have begged, and pleaded and bribed and you name it I have tried it.  NOPE she will not.  I have spent so many hours sitting ont he bathroom floor with her on the toilet, me reading, singing, entertaining and trying hopelessly to get her to go.


Something I have come to know with toilet training, especially this time around is that you simply can not make them go.  You can try all sorts of tricks and rewards and whatever other things you think might work but if they don't want to, forget it.  SHe did go once - just once on the toilet after I told her that her dad would take her swimming (her absolute favorite thing in the world to do) if she pooped on the toilet and it worked, she did it.  Just like that, climbed on said she had to go went.  I warned Josh that he may be spending alot of time at the pool in the next month but we have had no success.  She has the pee thing down, she can stay dry for the whole day, but as for the poop we have gotten no where.  I haven't given up yet, I wish I started when she was a litle younger and a little less opinionated.  I am praying she will toilet trained by the time she turns 3 in January but at this rate.....I am not too hopeful!  I will however keep you posted.  In fact I actually considered starting a blog that was strictly on the public washrooms in the city of maple ridge.  Since moving here 8 1/2 years ago I am pretty sure that I have been to almost every single public washroom there is.  I am not kidding.  I have 4 girls all of whom I have toilet trained while living in maple ridge.  I thought it would be fun to rate them on cleanliness, accesability, how nice the hand soap is, whether they use paper towel or blow dryers - you get the picture.  Sadly I don't really have the time to do it, but I am sure I could keep you quite entertained.

Anyway onto happier things.  We are less than two months away from my favorite time of year - Christmas.  I love it.  The shopping, the music, the baking, the decorating all of it!  We took down our halloween stuff and have moved on to christmas.  I don't have any pictures of the halloween costumes downloaded yet - I will try and get a few on her.  The girls all looked very cute in their costumes.  It was quite a fun night!

Summer Festivities

The summer is zipping by so fast!!  We have been very busy but managing to relax a little too.  The three older girls were enrolled in the Hammond development swim program which was was every morning Monday to Friday from 9am to 10am.  Normally it is not a big deal to get up by 7:30 and start the day - but for some reason I seriously struggled this year - maybe the fact that most mornings in July this year it was only 14 or 15 degrees and I am pretty sure it was raining one third of the time, but we managed.  Leah loved watching the girls, and although they grumbled a little, I think they actually really enjoyed it.  All the girls had great instructors.  Here are a few shots of the girls swimming..

Little Leah was such a trooper - sitting on the side of the pool cheering the girls on!  She wanted to go in so badly, but she is not quite old enough.  Soon though!!  This is Avri's last year doing it.  She has done so well and she has become such an awesome strong swimmer.

Josh and I took a 4 day trip to Arizona - that was so fun and so HOT!!  We had a great time but I really missed the girls.  Nana came and stayed with them and they had fun but I felt so far away from them.  I really am wimpy when it comes to being away from them.  Arizona was beautiful though - we really enjoyed site seeing and relaxing a the pool.  We stayed in Scottsdale.  It was a beautiful resort.  The temp was about 110.  I actually didn't mind the heat at all - although while we were there I developed a strange reaction to the sun?  It is still bothering me when I go out in the sun here.  I was also stung by a strange bug?  I was suntanning and felt this intense pain/sting on my foot and leg.  I swatted it away so I never actually saw what it was but it hurt like heck!!!  

On BC day we spent the day at Hayward lake with some friends.  It was a beautiful day.  We relaxed and hung out there all day long.  The kids loved swimming in the lake - even though it was COLD!!  They played in the sand, played football and a bit of bocci ball.  We had a bbq and relaxed!  So fun.  This weekend Josh has gone up to Pitt Lake to spend the weekend with his parents and the three older girls - Leah and I are at home.  It is so quiet around here.  I am enjoying the time with Leah - but she misses the girls alot.  They are home tomorrow which is good.  Next weekend we leave for our two week holiday in Veranda Beach (right outside of Osoyoos.  I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Below are a few pictures of the BC day picnic!

Eat Sleep Dance, Eat Sleep Dance, Eat Sleep Dance.....

I will try very hard not to become a boring dance mom who only talks about her kids dancing, but seriously we are eat sleep breathing dance right now.  The girls just had their year end recital it was great!!  The funny thing was as soon as the Piper started to warm up and play Leah hopped up on the band stand stage and started dancing.  She was none too impressed with me when I tried to get her down either!!  This is her protesting and sitting down on the stairs of the stage.

But she did sit perfectly and watch the whole 45 minute recital.  She actually LOVES watching the girls dance.  Zoe did great for her first few dances, then it was time for her to do the sword dance with the whole group of girls and they brought the little ones down off the stage and got them to dance right up in front of the crowd of family and friends that were watching.  She looked at me and her face went red and she started to cry.  I went up to see what was wrong and she just buried herself in my lap so she didn't end up doing it.  Later she told me she was scared she would kick the sword and that it would hit someone who was watching!  Poor child was feeling traumatized!!  She did awesome in her other dances and she won a special trophy for being the happiest dancer to come to practice and get right to dancing!!  She really is like that - she never complains, and she always dances her little heart out!!

Here is the three of them in their kilts at the recital.

Avri and Mika getting ready to dance.... Piper in the background

We also had Avri's birthday party this past weekend.  It was fun, lots of girls, lots of noise but lots of fun.  We had a carnival theme, they played games at stations and they got tickets for each station they went to (everyone got the same amount of tickets because I am all about fairness!)  Then they could trade their tickets in for prizes - see prize table below!

It was fun and the weather cooperated enough that we could have the bbq outside after they were done with the games!

After dinner we had cupcakes, I found Leah kindly sharing hers with the dog - no wonder Piper loves following Leah around everywhere!!

I left Josh in charge of the games - he did an awesome job, the kids loved playing them and I think he had some fun too....

Pin the tail on the "DAD" - ONKEY!!  What a funny guy!!

Well that about sums up the past few weeks - we have a few more competitions coming up, so the girls are practicing tons! I'll keep you posted with the outcomes.

Nailpolish and carpets don't mix

I had to write a post and share some of the funny things Leah has done lately.  First of all she is obsessed - no exaggeration here, obsessed with lip gloss and nail plish (what can I say she IS my daughter!).  Anyhow I go to great great lengths to keep her away from these things but with 3 older sisters and a mom, you can imagine that there is alot of lip gloss and nail polish floating around this house.  I have child safety locks on my makeup drawers in the bathroom and we have the child proof door handle  covers - and I am forever after my girls to keep their doors SHUT.  She looks for every opportunity to slip quietly into one of our rooms and ransack through the goodies.  She also looks for my purse, as she knows I keep lip gloss in there.  Funny though - I have a really nice Sephora Lip gloss that I won't let her use and when she gets lucky and finds my purse on the ground or counter she will rifle through it - eat half a pack of gum, smear her face with lip gloss and anything else, but she won't touch the Sephora one.  Then when she is done having her way with the gloss and stuff she will bring me the Sephora lip gloss and say "here Mommy - Leah no use it, only mommy - OK mommy"  Like I should be grateful that she didn't touch my favorite one!  It cracks me up every time and she looks so darn cute with the big sparkly lips, and really I can't blame her for wanting to use it.

Today I took Avri to an Orthodontist Appointment for her braces (coming June 15th).  It was not a great appointment because she had to have the molds done and Avri gags very easily.  I was sitting in the waiting room and I could here choking and gagging in the other room.  It brought tears to my eyes because I felt so bad for her, and I knew it was miserable and hard for her to deal with.  Finally the assistant came and got me - I went in and saw her and she had big tears rolling down her face and she was scared and worked up because the stuff had dripped down her throat.  She had the bottom molds done but the top ones she pulled out before it worked.  The assistant was trying to convince her to try again and Avri didn't want to.  I was sitting there thinking wow this is a great start to years of orthodontics!!  We were finally able to convince her to try again - the assistant used a small tray and missed the clay really thick (why she didn't do this in the first place frustrates and annoys me but either way I held her hand and helped her focus and we got through it.   I can not believe I am old enough to have a child with braces!!  She will be getting them on June 15th.

While we were at the dentist josh was at home with the younger three.  Always interesting!!    Heck it is interesting when I am home with them but when it is him they tend to be more mischievous and try to get away with more.  This brings me to the nailpolish - remember Leah LOVES nail polish.  She got into Avri and Mika's room and did a mini pedicure on herself and meanwhile got it all over the carpet.  This is one of the few times when I have thought that having off white carpets is actually good!!  Using acetone polish remover and rubbing alcohol and HOT water - I actually got the stains out!!  WOW!  Anyway here are a couple of pictures of her toes and might I add that they are the cutest little toes you ever did see!!  She was so proud of herself too!

Well mothers day has come and gone.  I felt really grateful this year for my 4 girls.  I grumble and complain alot about them and about life as a stay at home mom right now, but they are so wonderful.  They bring me so much love, laughter and happiness.  Sometimes I can't believe I have 4 kids - 4 girls.  I secretly love to tell people I have 4 girls just to see their reaction.  Most people say your poor husband, but I think he gets off kind of easy - I will be the one dealing with all the girl stuff!!  I really dont know what I would have done if I had boys.  I am so girly, I love the dance and piano that my girls are involved in, I love the clothes, the make up and hair stuff.  I LOVE it all.  Sometimes I get a small glimpse of the hormones poking through and I worry about the future and dealing with all that stuff for years and years, but really I could not be happier.  If someone had of let me choose what gender of children I would have I think I would have chose 4 girls - really.  I think of all the great things that the future will hold for me, baking and cooking with them (which they already love to do).  Shopping and going to girls movies and girls night out, actually come think of it they already love all those things!  The poems and pictures and cards that they gave me for mothers day were beautiful - Mika wrote me a song, it was so cute. She sang it to the tune of Happy Happy Birthday from Red Robins!!

We are itching for Spring to arrive around here.  We have already bought some veggies for the garden and we are going to get flowers soon too!!  We just need a little sun.  Zoe is my gardener, she LOVES to help me in the garden.  Leah likes to be outside too - although she is a bit scared of anythign that flies right now.  Hopefully that will pass.

Highland dancing is going great - we are in full competition mode.  I have starting making some of the costumes and I love it!!  I forgot how much I love to sew.  I just never seem to have the time!!  Avri got  1st place in all 3 of her dances at the last competition and got the aggregate (highest score for her catagory).  Not bad for second competition. Mika got a 2nd and 5th.  She did really great too!!  There were even more girls in Mika's category! I am so proud of them!!  Zoe will be competing in June at the competition in Bellingham.  I will keep you posted with how all of this goes, we are having lots of fun with it!!  Below is Avri in the outfit that I made - it is her national costume - used for dancing the national dances.  Below that is Leah being cute (not hard for her) and Zoe at her 5th birthday.  I don't have any nice ones of Mika so I will be on a mission to snap a few nice ones of Mika.

Sew sew sew dance dance dance

Well I am glad that this weekend is over - don't say that very often!!  The girls had their highland dance exams on Sunday.  Avri, Mika and Zoe all did their exams.  It was very stressful for me!!  To start off I decided that I would sew the girls National costumes, all fine and dandy til I pulled out the sewing machine and it didn't work.  Off to the sewing repair shop it went, they told me they could rush it - unfortunately that didn't happen as the guy who fixes them was moving his fix-it shop.  I was so stressed!!  I finally got it back Friday at noon!  Exams were Sunday morning.  I basically sewed all night Friday all day and night Saturday!!  I thought we were all ready on Sunday as I loaded everything in the van ( 5 costumes ) hair stuff, dance shoes, socks, dance underwear, water bottles, you get the picture.  First exam was at 8:30 for Avri and Mika - then Zoe was supposed to dance at 9:40 they had a cancellation at 9am and wanted to stick Avri and Mika in to do their second dance exam (different dance with different costumes).  That might have been ok except that I was in the midst of sewing on the velcro and hemming Mika's skirt.  The top part had not been folded properly etc etc.  So Their teacher was helping me.  Poor Avri was stressed cause she thought that had 4 hours to get in some practice in the studio.  SO we hemmed the skirt with safety pins and pinned them on the girls and I crossed my fingers and held my breath.  When they were done Mika came through the door with her skirt around her knees.  I about lost it then.  I was so frustrated that I hadn't had time to get it finished and she told me that it had been falling down since half way through the first dance (they had 2 dances in this costume.)  She didn't seem to phased by it.  Avri was ok - but a little rattled at the last minute change - she gets that from me.  I was so upset though - I had spent all this time sewing and then it didn't work out the way I wanted it to.  Anyway we got the results today and both girls passed their national and highland.  Mika got commended and Avri got the highest Mark with Highly Commended and the examiner told our teacher that Avri was a very promising dancer!!  The girls teacher also said that this examiner was far tougher than the last few they have had.  Both girls skipped a level and exammed at bronze (as opposed to pre-bronze).  I am very proud of them.  I didn't get pictures of the costumes but they will be wearing them on the 30th of April for their competition and I will get pictures then!

Other big news Friday Zoe got her ears pierced!!  She was so brave and it was her idea so I decided to go for it.  Avri and Mika have their ears pierced too.  I don't have pictures of that yet either - I have been slacking in the picture taking department - need to charge my battery and get on it.  Especially with the nice weather as I love to take outside shots this time of year.  I LOVE the spring - I love to garden LOVE it!!!  This year I am trying to talk Josh into letting me get a greenhouse!  Wish me luck - so far he is not too excited about it!!  I am just in the planning stages for the veggie garden and the flower garden and the perenial garden.  A few years ago Josh gave me some flowers for Mother's day and with it was a card that said he was vowing to never NEVER give me a hard time about buying things for gardening - I have to remind him every year of this but he has been pretty good so far - the greenhouse is sort of pushing it though!  I will have to keep you posted on the outcome...

Hawaii - beautiful even when it rains

Aloha!!!  Well here I am 11 days into our 14 day Hawaiian vacation.  We have been having an amazing time.  Honestly just having the time together as a family - totally uninterrupted by daily commitments is so great!  We had Josh's mom here for the first 8 days and that was great!  Not only did it allow Josh and I some dates without the kids, it was an extra adult at all times.  We have really missed her since she left.  Don't worry though mom, we have kept the condo pretty clean!!  We have spent a great deal of time just lounging by pool, relaxing in the sun.   I could live here.  It is so perfect - not too hot and not too cold, even when it rains it is warm!  The ocean is amazing and I think my absolute favorite thing is the humpback whales.  All you have to do is sit on the beach and you can watch them slap their tales, dive in and out and even breach once in and while.  Then there is the whale watching tours - that is the most amazing thing ever!!  When you get close tot hem you can actually hear them sport and breath!  It is the most amazing thing.  They are so majestic and beautiful.  Brenda and I went out on a whale watching tour and Josh and I also went out on a snorkeling tour that did some whale watching on our way back.  You can also see them as you drive along the coast!!  Here are a few Pictures from my whale watching adventure!

This is mama whale teaching baby whale how to tale slap

This is Baby whale excitedly tale slapping - so cute!!

This is a big Male humpback - he was very close to the boat!

Beautiful Tale!

Yesterday there was a bit of commotion at the resort - people were talking about a beached Seal down on the beach.  At first they were thinking it was dead.  Then the wildlife association came out and roped the area off and put up signs that said Monk Seal resting - do not disturb!  She has been there for over 24 hours now.  We take the kids down and go visit her, every once in a while she lifts her head and looks around.  She even snorted and swatted at a fly that was pestering her!  When the water comes up to high she hops up further on the beach.  The wild life people have been there the whole time, answering questions and sharing information about the endangered seals.  There are less than 1100 world wide.  This one is a female about 20 years old.  She has had at least 12 pups!!  It is common for them to beach themselves to rest and they tend to be solo animals!  We think she is very cute.

Another thing I love about Hawaii are coconut M & M's!!  I am not even kidding they are so good!!  I am not a huge M&M fan but these are so good.  They are a bit of a weakness for me - hence the fact that I am on my 2nd box of 24 packages :)  Don't worry though - I will bring some back to share :)  Maybe!  I have actually even continued running while on holidays.  I started in January - well I have pathetically started about 6 or 7 times in the past 6 months but I really buckled down in January - with the motivation of having to wear a swimsuit in Hawaii!!  I was actually doing quite well so I am pleased that I have managed to keep it up a little.  There is something so great about going for a run at 8am in February, in a tank top and shorts, and being plenty warm.  Gentle breeze keeping it not too hot!  I tell ya I would be in better shape if I lived here - cause running on the treadmill in your basement is not nearly as exciting as running down the board walk in Maui looking at the ocean!!  But the good news is I think I have burned off most of the M&M's ;)

Josh and I have really enjoyed having the extra time off together with the girls, lots of swimming, fun at the beach, movies and games in the room and eating meals together as a family, uninterupted!  Here are a few pictures of the trip so far!

The restaurant's are ok - the good ones are REALLY expensive - and the rest are just your typical family style restaurant.  Even Hard Rock cafe leaves much to be desired.  We do have a great one at the hotel called Duke's and it is right on the beach - we have enjoyed a few good meals there!  I love the Mahi Mahi!!  So fresh and yummy!  We haven't been to any farmer's markets this time - which really isn't such a bad thing as the grocery stores pretty much carry all the same stuff.

I am looking froward to getting back home to the pets - and of course my lovely family and friends, but I will miss Maui, the sunsets, the warm air, the humpbacks and even the tropical rain!  I am sure we will be back.

Time Flies

I can't believe it has been over a month since I wrote - and really the only thing that prompted me was reading my friend Tasha's recent post (Thanks Tasha!!).  I am really terrible at keeping up with this thing!  I don't even know why anyone would bother to read it since it is so darn sporatic!  Anyhow - here goes!  It has been another busy month.  THe girls competed in their first dance competition which went very well!  Mika got two 3rd places.  Avri did not place but she was in a very hard catagory - she was the youngest and alot of the girls had alot more experience, but she danced so well and I was so proud of her!  School is back in full swing too!  We have anew neice - her name is Ally and she is the most beautiful little thing ever! I'll sneak in a picture :)

We have had a ton of birthday's too!  Mika turned 8 and she was baptised!  It was a beautiful baptism - she looked adorable in her white dress and it was a good evening.  Leah turned 2 - so we are now in full swing with terrible two's!  She is a love most of the time - but when she wants to be difficult.......she has no trouble!  She loves her sister, loves to follow them around, loves to ask where they are, loves to get into their stuff and just generally LOVES them!  It is so fun to see.  We had a fun birthday party for Mika - with a fun rainbow theme and a family dinner to celebrate Leah turning 2 - both with lots of fun!

 Something Else funny that Leah has been doing lately (well for quite a while actually is dressing up in her sisters shoes and clothes!  She loves anything that is their's and she loves to dress up.  So below is a picture of her doing just that!!  note the mismatched socks and shows ont he wrong feet - but she was so darn proud of herself "wook mommy - EAH do it"!!

Well one week til we take off as a family for a much needed or at least much wanted 2 week holiday in hawaii.  I promise to bring my computer and blog while I am there with some fun pictures and updates!! below are just a few recent cute pictures!

Merry Christmas - a little late and WOW happy NEW YEAR!!

Shame on me it has been alomst 4 months since I posted - it's not like I am that busy or anything!  I don't even know where the time has gone and that is the truth.  One of my new years resolutions is to be more organized and in doing this I am hoping that it will allow for more time doing the things that I love!  Soooo let's back up a bit here.  The three older girls have been doing highland dancing since September and have been really enjoying it!  In fact they are getting quite good at it!  Avri adn Mika will be competing on January 15th so that is very exciting.  They have also been doing there piano but are on a bit of a break as there auntie/teacher is just about to have her little baby girl!!!  A GIRL COUSIN!!!  YIPPEE - very excited around here!  The fall literally zipped by, I think the months just ran into one another!

This is Avri doing the fling at the old folks residence in Maple Ridge Bailey House.

This is Zoe getting ready to do her high cuts and Pod - a- ba's (that is spelled very very wrong!)  Anyway they are important steps they learn for the other high land dances!

This is Mika getting ready to do the Lilt!!

Christmas was wonderful - it is my favorite time of year!  I truly do love it.  I love the baking, the shopping, the music, the entertaining, the magic, the whole thing!!  My girls seem to have inherited that love for the christmas season as well!  It sure comes and goes quickly though!  THis year I joined a small choir that performed in our Church Christmas service and I loved it!  I am by no means a great singer but I love to sing and I worked quite hard it!  I think the end result was good - at least that is what most people told me!!  One of the things the girls really enjoyed doing this year - as a family was the operations christmas child.  Where you fill show boxes with gifts that are sent to third world countries!  We had so much fun doing them.  Each of us did our own box.  It is very important to teach my girls how to be compassionate and generous and giving.  I also want them to grow up with grateful hearts.  It is a huge goal of mine to raise my children this way.  I don't ever want them to take for granted the life that they have been blessed with.

The christmas break was fun - gotta admit I am a big fan of the no schedule - but 2 weeks is long enough.  They even let me sleep in until 8am a few times!!  We ventured out to the movies twice - and it was an adventure - me with all 4 girls!!  But even little Leah sat though them for the most part, of course the big tub of popcorn helped with that!!  Josh took the older 3 ice skating - which they loved, even though there were a few falls on the ice!  Overall we spent alot of time together as a family, just simply having FUN!!  But I am happy to be back to routine again!

 This is the girls all dresses up for our church christmas party!!

This is the girls in their new jammies on Christmas Eve!!

So here we are in 2011 - I can't believe it.  I hope that this year will be as great as 2010.  I am sure it will bring many surprises and challenges - I hope I am up for them!!  For now I hope that I will be able to some what achieve my resolutions which are first to be more organized and second to find joy in everything - and I really mean EVERYTHING!!  I am a little bit of a pessimist at times and I don't want my children to see me that way so I am going to try really hard to change that!    Oh ya and thirdly - to keep on top of this blog :)