A Very Merry Christmas!

We had a fun Christmas! Last year Deakon was more interested in eating the wrapping paper. This year he loved opening gift after gift and walking around the room showing people. He was spoiled by everyone and their dog and was given a ton of fun toys and cute clothes. Our favorite gifts were Kyle's Wii and a GPS system! I am so excited about NOT getting lost in Calgary anymore. Thank you everyone for your gifts, calls, cards, and messages to us for Christmas! We hope you all had a great day!!!

Deakon playing with his new hockey net:

Every year, Kyle gets a jar of green olives in his stocking.

I gladly let Deakon have any that might be determined mine... Yummy Olives...(gag...)

For Christmas dinner, we went to Kyle's brother and sister-in-law's (Mike and Sherri) house. They have their own ice rink and huge sledding hill so after dinner we went out and watched some of the boys play hockey and Kyle, Doreen, and I went down the hill a few times.
Apparently the marshmallow man and a small elf were also sledding... isn't this picture awful? I had to throw it in for good karma- now that I made fun of myself something good will happen, right?

New Traditions?

Change is definitely not one of my favorite things. I am happy to do the same things over and over and over again. Eating the same food, watching the same shows/movies, and reading the same good books make me happy. This year has brought so much change to our little family. We have moved to a different country for goodness sake! We have had to learn to rely on each other for so much more. We have family here, but we are having to learn how to listen, help, guide, and joke more between just us. Before I think we relied a lot on close friends, family, and coworkers to tell our woes and latest dumb jokes too. For the most part, it has brought us a lot closer. Sometimes, it makes us think "who is this person that I have been married to for so long and feel like I barely know!?" I feel like the last few months have brought years of growth and change to our relationship.

So... after sharing my whole life story I will get to the point. That being: Change can be good... and bring new traditions into our lives. For example, Christmas Eve Dinner. A huge portion of steak, potatoes, caeser salad, and Martinelli's, with cherry cheesecake for dessert. Holy cow, you bet we ate that all up! Kyle and I also decided that we would start a tradition for our little family: new jammies to open up on Christmas Eve. Kyle found some perfect Detroit Red Wings hockey pj's for Deakon and I got a sexy pink flannel set. When Bret and Eva saw Deakon's, they insisted on him opening one of their gifts for him: a puppy robe! It is so freakin' cute and looked great! Enjoy the pics, it is WAY PAST time for bed so our Christmas Day post will have to wait!

Reading Grandma Edie's Christmas Eve book before bedtime:

I totally forgot to mention that Kyle got off early and got to come up before Deakon woke up from his nap. He was so excited to see his daddy! This was them right before dinner, watching "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"

Running around in Mommy's shoes:

5 Things...

I am getting so excited for Christmas. I had a slow start to my Christmas spirit, but the next few days are going to rock. I wanted to share my 5 favorite things about this fun time of year!

NUMBER ONE: EGG NOG!!!

I absolute love Egg Nog. It is a tradition in my family to always drink Egg Nog on Christmas Eve. The creamy goodness brings back childhood memories every time! You better believe that I have been drinking this nonstop the past few weeks!

Number Two: Love

Christmas time just brings an overwelming feeling of love. Everyone at the mall is just a little bit nicer... especially the guy that set aside Kyle's gift for me! :) Neighbors and friends stop by for no reason to drop off yummy goodies. It's awesome!

Number 3: Christmas Music

Number Four: Sitting around the fire on cold nights. I am so glad that we have a fireplace. It is so nice to have a place to sit whilest I indulge myself in my several gallons of Egg Nog!

Number Five: TIME OFF OF WORK!!!

Kyle gets four days off in a row and I am totally excited... even though there is a pretty good chance that he will be doing this for part of that time: It's cool, I still get a good view, plus I will have Deakon wake him up... he just can't stay mad at that kid :)

Santa Claus Is Coming....

Friday, Kyle's work had a kid's Christmas party. I thought it was such a great idea because kids always get left out of the holiday parties. They had everything set up in the show room with treats and a Santa visit to drop off toys specifically picked for each child. The best part about it for me was that we got to hang out with Kyle for an hour in the afternoon!

"Downtown" Cochrane is not very big and we always pass Kyle's work whenever we are out and about. Deakon now can point it out when we drive past. He really amazes me everyday with the things he remembers. He loves going in to Kyle's work and walks around like he owns the place.

Kyle and Deakon:

Checking out all of the buttons in the cars:
Santa came in from outside and started yelling, "Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas. Hi girls and boys, have you been good this year?" and Deakon promptly yelled back, "NO!" It was embarrasing, yet really funny. No is his favorite word. He uses it as much as possible.


Deakon and Santa:

They got Deakon a "Go, Diego, Go" lego car. Complete with Diego, his pet-cat thing, and a lion. The whole thing comes apart. Deakon loves taking it apart and putting it back together. Thank you Cochrane Dodge... ak hmm... I mean SANTA.

Totally Random Pictures

I have all of these random pictures from the last few weeks that I wanted to share. I guess we should have included this picture in the last post:

This is the view of Cochrane from the living room. Sorry about the flash, I forgot to turn it off:

Beautiful, huge (9-feet!) tree:


Deakon helping me vacuum. I never would have imagined how much LONGER it takes to vacuum once you have a little on "helping" you.

Basket Boy

Lately, whenever I leave the laundry basket out- Deakon manages to find a way into it. This is what I walked down to see about a week ago. He was focused on Curious George.

The next day I walked down to all of my clean laundry on the floor...Grandma and Papa bought Deakon a cute Santa hat... I threw this picture in just for you Meri- I hope you get it! :)


I finally got some pictures of Deakon's cute little habit of crossing his feet while he eats. It cracks us all up every time we catch him.

Self Portraits!

These are the result of being bored and having a wet bar with a full mirror... perfect for taking pictures. The last one is Deakon being a "monkey." I just had to throw it in because it is funny... mostly because I can hear his little voice saying "monk...eeeyyy" as he is swinging around.

Today Is The Day

Today is the day....

that I am starting to feel Christmasy

We are putting up the tree tonight...

And I have been adding

my favorite songs to the playlist

I wish that I could sit by the computer all day

and listen to them over and over

while drinking hot apple cider...

...hmm...

...of course Deakon has managed to

wake up early from his nap...

I love you monkey man,

but you drive me nuts somedays...

yet, this Christmas will be the best because of you-

Daddy and I can't wait to see your face!

HELP!!!

I have this huge room for Deakon.... and no ideas for decorating. It doesn't help that these butt-ugly curtains were left by the people before and I have like 4 different colors of wood. I am working with 3 dressers, a white crib, and wood trim. I NEED HELP! Kyle and I can't agree on a theme. I keep leaning towards like a rustic/cowboy look(we have those cute blocks spelling out his name, the star leaning on the one dresser, and some antique wooden picture frames), but Kyle doesn't like that idea. In his old room, we sort of had a sport thing going, but we just have no ideas. So, I am begging for any input... any ideas that you have used, or pictures or websites online. Please help me....