Christmas holidays in pictures

So I thought the easiest way to describe our holiday experiences would be to simply comment on the pictures. Unfortunately we left our battery charger in Florida and we're too cheap to pay $80 for a new one so these are all phone pictures/videos. I wish this one wasn't so blurry because it is absolutely hillarious. Kylie fell asleep and her head always flops over like this. Chelsea grabbed on to her ponytail and was pulling. She thought it was so funny. I'm not sure Kylie did. Who knows....she slept!!

No better way to spend a holiday then to sleep in a sunbeam.

December 20th: Our little Kylie had a bit of cosmetic surgery to fix her droopy eyelid. We had to leave the house by 7:00 and didn't leave the hospital until 2:30 so it was a long day. She was such a brave girl but she said it really hurt and she will never have it done again! Poor thing. Hope the doctor is happy with the results so she doesn't have to go through it again. We had to mark her eye so the doctor got the right one:)

She slept for a really long time after coming out of recovery. It was interesting the way they did the surgery. They flipped the eyelid inside out and made the incision on the inside so all you see now is 2 little dots where the knots were tied on the outside of the lid.

The nurses gave her a Christmas bear to take home with her.

December 21: Post-op day 1, looking great.

December 22: Post-Op day 2, you can tell she is back to her ornery old self.

We have been having the most gorgeous weather so the kids have been living outside!

December 23: We celebrated my birthday a day early so that we could do Christmas on Saturday instead of Sunday. The kids got me some wonderful presents for my birthday. Excuse Chelsea. She has decided that she doesn't like diapers so we've been letting her run in her underware for quick potty trips.

I love that kids pick out what they want so they can steal it after. Haha.

December 24: Christmas came early to our house.

Kylie and Abby showing off their new pajamas. They might fit for the next 3 years as I got them kind of big. Oh well. I find Carters stuff always shrinks so maybe they will shrink in the wash.

Chelsea and Lucky - The singing, talking, ride on horse.

There's always the toys that require hours of assembly before use. Maybe we should have thought of this before we wrapped it!

And the big gift that has been in hiding for the last 3 months!

That evening we went to Japanese Village for supper with Glen and Jess, The Triska family, and cousin Devin and Shauna Daku and family. Then went to Glen and Jess's for coffee and cake. See her blog for Christmas dinner pictures and cake photos as I didn't have a camera.

This is one of those restaurants that make your meal in front of you. It was okay but very expensive so likely not a place we would go back to. We probably could have all had steak dinners for the same price.

Daku family

December 26: So in my birthday card, my wonderful amazing hubby wrote "Kananaskis booked December 27th to 30th!" YAY!!!! So on the 26th, he was so anxious to go that he said 'lets go halfway and shop a bit on Tuesday before heading out.' It was funny because we didn't tell the kids we were going to Kananaskis, just that we had a surprise for them. So we get to this hotel and they think this is the surprise. We went swimming and then shopped the next day so Steve could find some work boots and the kids could spend their Christmas money from grandpa and grandma. By the time we were done it was getting dark so we told the kids it was time to go home but we were going to take a different way. They never clued in until we got there. It was awesome.

Hotel #1. I forgot their pajamas in the other suitcase hiding in the trunk.

Kylie had just woken up when we got there but the other girls were pretty excited.

My hubby is really good at getting free stuff so when we got there, we got a room upgrade to a loft at the same price, and breakfast vouchers for free buffet all 3 mornings. That is a huge deal you see, because their breakfast buffet is $21 a person! The kids are all free except Hayley, but it can be pricey to eat there. We usually bring our own breakfast and lunch. The breakfast was amazing!! Anything you can think of they had. WE took advantage of their wonderful omlette station every day. YUM!!

The girls showing off their new hoodies and slippers from Grandpa and grandma. Can you believe they had gap sweaters on for $10.00????? They are usually $39.50. I felt like stocking up for the next 5 years!

The weather was GORGEOUS the whole time we were there. Hence the sweaters and no coat.

We have been there in every season now except for summer. Was fun to see the pond used as a skating rink now.

Craft time. We made chinese lanterns.

Even Steve got into it :)

We had such a big day that Chelsea just couldn't keep her eyes open to eat supper. Glad supper is free for kids under 6!!

Yup! That's tired when you can sleep with your nose squished against the table like that, sitting up!

The view out our window.

My girls and I. The best girls I could ever wish for. Okay so even though I absolutely LOVE this place, if I could make one small complaint, THE POOL IS FREEZING!!!! You can't do solar heated pools in the mountains folks. Abby and the Christmas tree in Mount Kidd, where we stay.

Another activity we have never done here. Sledding. The hill is narrow so you have to wait your turn since only 1 kid can go down at a time, but it wasn't too busy so that was fine.

Chelsea didn't feel the need to have a nap during down time at lunch so we had to pull her back to the room like this.

Afterwards we enjoyed a nice hot cocoa with whipped cream and chocolate bits on it, and we roasted marshmallows and dipped them in chocolate and coconut. YUM!!

After a really big day we got back to the room and Steve says "Do I have any appointments tonight?" I think this is a wierd question and assume he means "are we going and doing something tonight". So I say no and take my boots off. He hands me his phone open to his calendar and there is a pedicure booked for me!! I like to snoop on his phone but I don't usually read his calendar. I've never had one before due to my toe fungus issue (which by the way is totally clear thanks to the miracle drug sporanox). IT was WONDERFUL!!! The ladies didn't understand why I wouldn't want colored polish but anyhow...can you believe these toes were once a thick yellow nasty mess?

Gotta catch those snowflakes on your tongue.

Saying goodbye to the mountains.

This is Nakiska. The ski hill that is really close by. The lodge has this amazing deal for 256$ a night you get your room and lift tickets and ski rentals and shuttle to the hill! So next year, being that all our kids are finally old enough to ski, we are going to come back for that package. I have lots of good memories of skiing and kananaskis as a kid. At supper one night a lady came up to us and told us she had 4 girls too and how much fun it was even now that they were 33, 31, 28 and 26. So I look forward to those days too!

So that has been our WONDERFUL holiday season in a nutshell. Again, visit Jessica's blog for Christmas day update. She did a wonderful meal and the kids all seemed to get along great. It was fun. Unfortunately they all took turns with the flu. Jess on Saturday, Wyatt on Sunday, and I guess Glen a few days later? YUCK! Poor wyatt was literally GREEN! I have never seen a kid look so sick. Poor guy.

This last video is of Hayley snoring. And the doctor doesn't want to take out her tonsils??? YIKES! I had to video it so I can beg him. Even if it doesn't help her sleep, at least the rest of us can maybe get some sleep??? This was one of her worst nights, and because of it, she doesn't sleep well so she gets up and wanders around and we have to keep taking her back to bed. In the morning she doesn't remember any of it.

Okay so this has taken way too long. I am off to bed with a cup of smooth move tea. Cuz we all know how hard it is to have a good poop on holidays. Hahahaha. TMI??

Love you!

Jen

Christmas concerts....

So Christmas concerts are always exciting aren't they? Well except for the kid who started puking all over the stage. The dad runs up to grab him and as he's bolting for the door the kid barfs all down his dad's crisp white dress shirt and the audience all goes "oohhhhh" Hahahaha. IT'll be funny for the poor little guy when he has kids of his own. He can say "Hey in your dad's first concert he was the star of the show!"

So today I finally lost my Christmas spirit. All I have done is bake for different functions. I have been to 2 different concerts, tomorrow is another one, and Monday is another one and I am SO SICK OF PARTIES!!!! I just can't wait until holidays. I think my big girl is tired too. She fell asleep in the chair today after school and she never does that. Then she started crying at bed time that nobody will play with her at recess. I think a good sleep is needed.

Tuesday is Kylie's eyelid surgery. We were watching a youtube video on the procedure (blepharoplasty) and it was a little too graphic. Kylie says "Well that's not what they are doing to me. They're doing a different one." HA! Well Kylie.... I didn't get to watch the whole thing because I thought it was too graphic for her but it was pretty interesting.

Another stressful job is trying to organize my hubby's company's shareholders meeting in Banff. The guy who was supposed to do it is super busy at the Men's prison and he isn't allowed to bring his phone in so it's kinda hard to organize something during the day so I got the job. I think it's good to go I just hope the hotel is nice because I've never been there!!!

Okay I know it's only 8:30 but I have to go have a bath and get to bed. I'm beat.

Hayley - she's right under the tree

Abby - second row, second from the left. This boy kept pushing her and standing in front of her so it was kinda hard to get a good picture. I was way in the back too so my pics are all blurry. Oh well. Hayley had a reading part. It was great! She was so nice and clear!

Hayley's class song

Abby's song. You can see the dad at the end run up to get the vomiting child. The other kindergarteners did sooooooo good. The piano player kept going and the kids kept on singing while other parents cleaned up.




My little girl is learning some hymns we like to play together.

Christmas concert

Ahhhhh tis the season of the kids Christmas concert! Kylie's was on a Sunday of all things but it went quick and was adorable as always. Abby and Hayley's school concert is next Thursday and Hayley's piano recital on Friday! Then I think we are finally done with it! Looking forward to the Christmas break soooooo much.

The annual shareholders meeting is going to be in Banff this year (January) so looking forward to that too. We will have a day where the kids and I will have to hang out by ourselves while the guys are in a meeting, but that just means unlimited time at the infamous candy store!!! Or maybe we will hang out at the hotsprings?? So many posibilities. Glen and Jess - I see Douglas Fir has 2 new waterslides so I put in my vote for that hotel but they have no meeting/catering facility! BUMMER! Oh well...not sure yet which hotel we will be at.

Busy days still....

Just some pictures of the skating party we went to a few weeks ago. Chelsea's first time on skates. She did great. Can't stand on her own yet, but enjoyed it anyhow.

First of all, Rebecca Watkins, I can't seem to post on your blog :( and I don't have an email address. Can you please send me one when you have a moment? Thanks!!! Enjoy hunting season! My hubby is off to Saskatchewan for 3 days in search of his trophy! I honestly hope he has a great time but the timing is kinda terrible! Hayley has an appointment with an ENT on Wednesday at 7:45 in the morning. Takes me about an hour to get in and parked and into the children's hospital so how on earth am I going to get 4 kids out the door at 6:45 and have 2 ready for school and 1 ready for swimming lessons??!! YIKES!!! Will have to dig out the supermom cape I guess. I am assuming her sleep study was normal and now we talk about whether or not to remove tonsils and adenoids to stop her snoring. Hmmm... not real game to put her through that but we'll see.

So we had an absolutely WONDERFUL weekend. We had the privilage of having Steve's cousin Rob Petersen, who has been laboring in Ecuador, with us for 3 nights!!! and then Specials on Sunday. We are so spoiled. It's like having a little piece of heaven in your home when the workers come to stay. He's great with the kids. They loved him.

Well I have to go get Hayley in an hour to take her to the dentist so I better get off here. Have a wonderful day.

Love Jen.

Final warm thoughts

So I accidently wrote first and when you do that, loading pictures after, the pictures end up on top!! So happy picture looking and then the rest of the 'stuff' is at the end. Enjoy.

lego cities. pictures that should have been on the last blog

and a girl too tired out to go any more. wow. Abby looks A LOT like Kylie in the photo below!

This is Steve on holidays.

2 blogs in one day!! What's this you ask? It's called house clean-supper done-supper cleaned up- outside is blizzarding - fire is going - kids are playing. So here I sit and await my prince. He did my Christmas shopping today since he was already in the city and the sale ends today. He took my list to Toys-R-us and asked a lady where the stuff was - she just walked around and filled the cart for him. Talk about lazy shopping. Or perhaps smart shopping??

So the last day in Florida since we had to do our packing etc... we had a pretty quiet day. Steve and I went looking for an extra suitcase and enjoyed a coffee together, and then headed over for a quick swim at Chris and Michelle's awesome pool. Funny story - Steve and I were browsing and bought something for Chelsea and long story short this lady says "You have 4 kids and you still LIKE each other??!" She was serious and just absolutely amazed. She was further blown away by the fact we'd been married almost 10 years. Seriously? People don't like each other once kids come along? and isn't 30, 40, 50 years of marriage a greater feat?? Sad world we live in. Anyhow, once again I'm off on a tangent. Here are more photos for you. Please pray the snow ends soon or I will get stuck in the driveway attempting to get groceries tomorrow!!