:: Merry Christmas ::

:: BoyohBoy, it's been a super busy couple months for us around our home...but I'll be back once Christmas events have settled down and we're back in the somewhat normal rountine ;) ::

:: Merry Christmas Y'all - Pray you're blessed over and over and over! ::

:: This Last Week ::

:: OHMYGOODNESS!!! I must have been busy over the past month cause this was sitting in my "to be edited file" on blogger...ooopss! Must schedule in doing up a schedule of all the things we've been up to as of late! Better late than never I guess ;) ::

:: Monday ::

:: Cole's 3rd birthday was on Monday - we celebrated with our families in the evening. It was a great day, he was well aware that it was "MY Birfday" and we loved sharing in his excitement {more on his celebration later} ::



:: Tuesday ::

:: First thing {like 5 hours after we went to bed on Monday night} I was up and at 'em getting ready to head to Duncan for the day with the boys. We had yet to meet Paisley in person. So since my parents were going over for a couple days I figured we could park our car at the ferry and walk on with them, then return home later that night. So that is just what we did. Me coming over was also going to be a surprise to my SIL --- and I'm delighted to say we pulled off a great surprise. I showed up at Christy's MOPS group and surprised her. And truly, she was surprised! It was so great. So great to hug her, meet and cuddle Paisley and of course to be with Denay ::









:: My parents spent the afternoon with the kids so Christy and I could catch up. It was a great afternoon of coffee & shopping. This was Christy's first time out with out both the babies, so it was great break for her...and me ;) ::



:: Here are all 4 kids together, almost smiling - obviously God was with us ;) ::



:: Getting in my cuddles with sweet Paisley, she and I are really close to God, look how big our hair do's are ;) ::


:: Sweet Paisley - just being sweet! ::

:: Wednesday ::

:: Was a complete write off! It started off with bible study at church then a meeting with our pastor regarding our Christmas event @ church, then off to pick kids up from classes and home to re-group from the whirlwind trip to the island and all of Cole's birthday events, as well as to prepare for his class birthday the next day! Phew! ::

:: Thursday::

:: Was Mr. L's birthday! He turned 30 something, he get's his birthday off from work {as do all the employees} but decided to take it on the 12th of November as then he would have a 4 day long weekend since November 11th is a stat holiday ::

:: Jacob got to go hang out with Auntie Lisa, Emma & Zach while I went with Cole to school for party day. He was so stinkin' excited to have me at school, to have the class teddy bear home with him for the first time and to get something from the birthday box at school...all so SO exciting for my little guy! ::



:: Here is my little boy talking about the class teddy bear and his show 'n tell...he brought his leash, his leash that Grampy & Grammie bought him for his birthday as he loves anything with clips and the fact that it's expandible is just so much fun to him! ::



:: Here he is blowing out his candles for his class birthday cake {Don't worry that's not really cake, it's just a pretend cake} -- after that we enjoyed cupcakes that I made and then headed over to Aunties house to have a visit and lunch together ::

:: Later that afternoon I dropped the kids off to my parents place for them to have a sleep over {ahh, BLISS!} -- Mr. L met me at home and we got ready to go out to our favorite local restaurant for dinner - we both ordered steak and it was AWEsome! After dinner we headed to one of my personal favorite places to hang out; Starbucks! We both had a red cup of bliss and lovely conversation -- I decided to take pictures of each other. This is the order in which they were taken ::




:: mmmm, our lovely red cups of bliss ::



:: Mr. L being, Mr. L ;) ::






:: Me, being a dork ::



:: Mr. L commented that he couldn't get my "bump-it" in the picture - HA --- he knows that I don't have a bump-it, but I don't doubt that he was having issues getting all that mane in the photo ;) ::



:: And a somewhat normal shot of me :) - and yes, I was wearing white jeans with my black stiletto boots...in November, so sue me! ::

:: Friday ::

:: Wake up, pick up the boys from G&G's - take JJ to school, run some errands with Cole, return to pick up JJ from school, go home for lunch and naps, have a visit with a super sweet friend, make dinner, start making cake for super sweet friend, bathe&bed boys, and die on the couch at exactly 10:09 pm ::

:: Saturday ::

:: I wake at the crack of dawn {which is 5:54 am to me} start back on decorating the cake as it was due by 1pm that day ::



:: Here is the finished product of the 60th birthday cake - cute colors hey?!? I loved it and Mo did an absolutely fabulous job putting all the details for the party together ::

:: Later that afternoon I was off to a baby shower for a life long bestie that had a baby boy a few weeks ago. Malachi is a darling little warm bundle and I couldn't wait to celebrate with her & hold him! ::



:: Here we are, Lisa looks awesome and oh, that sweet boy, I could eat him right up! ::

:: Sunday ::

:: Our boys were up an hour earlier as we had turned our clocks back on Saturday night...which meant that at 4:45 am we were saying our good mornings...hmph. We headed off to church then ran a few errands, then home for brunch and naps. We all needed them but didn't all succeed at getting one. Around 3 pm we headed over the bridge to Mr. L's parents place to celebrate our birthdays {Cole's, Paul's & Mine} with his family ::



:: Here are Mr. L & Me with our cakes -- doesn't everybody need TWO cakes!?!? Ha! ::



:: Here is what our family photo looked like...I should have entered this one into RH photography's loony family photo contest! Look close, Mr. L is smoking a chocolate cigar from the top of the cake, JJ is pulling a "watchalookingat?" pose, Coley is saying "itwasn'tme!" and I'm oblivious to all the crazy antics the boys are up to! Ha Ha Ha! ::



:: Here is a close up of the chocolate cake -- It was oh so yummy and rich! Thanks Mum & Dad for hosting us for our birthday...lemme tell you, the talk of our household has been the train set at Nana & Papa's house, JJ told me today that he dreamed of going to your house to play with the train set last night - too cute! ::

:: Pumpkin Patch {sort of!} ::

:: Due to our Hawaiian vacation in the beginning portion of October, we didn't get to go to the pumpkin patch until it was almost too late! But we fit it in going to a local farm market on Saturday - just enough of a memory to make it fun for the boys and to provide Mr. L and I with something to do while we watched a movie later that night ;) ::

:: Here is my little family & one of the pumpkins ::

:: Out boys with their treats, they were served popcorn and hot chocolate for free --- Ahh, I love this market! ::

:: Lookin' at all the goods ::

:: Off they go to pick out some pumpkins with Daddy ::

:: Later that night Mr. L and I made short work of carving the pumpkins...mine is the traditional Jack O Lantern and Mr. L's is a little more creative. The next morning the boys woke up to see them on the counter and they called up to us, "Mum, Dad...come see! There are Jack O Yanterns on the counter!!!" It was so sweet that they were so excited about them! ::

:: Friday Night ::

:: On Friday night we went out to a local restaurant and celebrated Lyla's birthday planned by her lovely husband Steve. This was a big birthday for her...and we were SO delighted to be invited to celebrate with her ::



:: Here are some of the guys including my super handsome hubby, Mr. L ::



:: JD is Lyla's niece -- I know, I'm surrounded by amazing creativity when I'm with these ladies! ::



:: Lois & Pam ::



:: My brother Jordan and SIL Lindsey ::



:: Happy Birthday Lyla - You're just as beautiful on the inside as out..and let me say, that's pretty stinkin' beautiful :) ::



:: XoXo ::

:: Halloween 2010 ::

:: We had barely been back a week from Hawaii when Halloween was upon us. We had planned out their outfits prior to leaving for Hawaii, but it all needed to come together. Amazingly it came together very well ::



:: Here is our Dragon {Cole} and Knight {Jacob} - they took their costumes quite seriously, Cole was blowing fire at us and Jacob was wearing his hand guards for days - Ha! ::



:: We trick or treated around our immediate neighbourhood first ::



:: The boys thought it was great, we have great neighbours and the boys both love them ::





:: It was a beautiful day for going for a walk dressed up like a Knight and his trusty Dragon ::





:: Later on I made up a big pot of chili and headed over to my parents place to meet up with our friends Steve & Lyla, Matt & Lisa and Paul's parents ::



:: Here are all the kids just about to head out to gather more candy ::



:: Now on to figuring out their outfits for next year! ::

:: Cole's 3rd Birthday ::

:: Back in November my "baby" turned three *insert soft sobbing now* --- We had a digger party at his request...so out comes all the diggers in yellow, a big 'ol digger cake and lots of family
::

:: Here is the cake, it turned out a little differently than I had originally planned, you see Cole wanted to help aka: destroy! My perfectionist tendencies had to go to the back burner for the happiness of the birthday boy ;) ::



:: He picked out this birthday banner, we have always used the same tacky banner over our fireplace, but he wanted two...so here is the second one along with some digger decor ::

:: Coles birthday candy bar ::

:: His birthday photo collage, one photo from each year of his life and two from the months just before he turned 3 ::

:: Traditional photo in front of the fireplace under the tacky birthday banner - ha! ::

:: Nana & Papa L came to celebrate too ::

:: As well as Uncle & Aunty {We're missing Coles other Aunts & Uncles and 4 cousins} ::

:: The birthday boy in all his glory! ::

:: Friend Madelyne & Emma enjoying their lasagna dinner ::

:: Grammie hanging at the men's table ::

:: This is a full set of photos from Cole & Mr. L --- I asked Cole to smile, so he frowned, nice! HA HA ::

:: Our big 3 year old boy and his cake & balloons ::

:: Family photo ::

:: Getting ready to hack into the cake ::

:: This was the first year Cole was really into his cards and unwrapping the presents, it was just pure joy seeing his face open all the gifts ::

:: Thank you to all of our family who came to celebrate with Coley -- to those who couldn't be there, we sure missed you! ::

:: We have already started planning his birthday theme for this upcoming November, it is a Pirate theme party & he gets to invite his school friends, exciting times people, very exciting! We picked up the invites on Tuesday when we were shopping, he is a planner just like his Mama ;) ::