Happy New Year!

Wow!  Here we are on the last day of 2009 already! 

Here's a pictorial of some of the highlights!

We're going to have a fairly low key night tonight with the boys at home and some board games, some Wii and a cheese fondue I hope!

With any luck, I'll have a few minutes tomorrow to do a written review of the year as well and I look forward to what 2010 has in store for us. 

I'd like to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year full of fun, friends and family!

Cheers,

I made the team!

Yes, I had posted earlier that I was applying for the design team for the Christmas Cards All Year Round Blog and I made the team!  You can check out the announcement HERE!  Congrats to everyone that I'll be working with!

Cheers,

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Picture by Photo Expert

Well, it's before 8am on Christmas morning and the tree is all done!  Kyle was up only a couple of minutes after 6am this morning and was ready to get going.  We had him climb in bed with us, but it only lasted a few minutes before we went to go wake up Nathan and check out what was under the tree.

We always do stockings first - just like we did when I was a kid!  And then it was on to the ton of presents under the tree!  This year, we did get the kids a little more than most years and that was partly because we could and partly because of their age.  We decided that maybe if we invested in a little that we could get something that would last them quite a while...

Yes, this is it - a Wii!  Kyle was over the moon and I'm not sure Nathan totally gets it, but he will once it's hooked up and he can play it.  I also got George...

so Daddy can play too! 

He'll just have to fight off the kids once the guitar comes out!

I got a new Canada zip up sweatshirt and awesome goodies from the Body Shop in both my fav, vanilla, as well as the Christmas cranberry!  I had also been asking for a new pillow and got that, so I'm thinking I should go have a nap and try it out! 

George is busy putting together an art easel that Nathan got from Nana and Grandpa and it has a surprising number of pieces!  hee hee  We sure know that it'll be well used in this house though with that crafty boy!

I'm doing the turkey sausages right now and the apple-raisin strata that George made last night is ready for the maple syrup to go on top!  Looking forward to a nice breakfast while the kids try out all their toys and then I need to get my candied sweet potatoes done for dinner tonight at my aunt and uncle's.  There are apparently going to be more than 30 of us for dinner tonight, so it should be fun!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Cheers,

PS  Got sidetracked!  It's now much later than when I started and we've had breakfast, made phone calls and we're watching the Disney Christmas parade!  Better go make my sweet potatoes!

A couple of Christmas cards!

Well, I managed to get a couple more cards done in the last few days here and they were done for a design team call at Christmas Cards All Year 'Round Challenge Blog.

The challenge was to create 2 cards using their blog header as inspiration!  I had so much fun with the round card I did recently that I tried another one with some different papers (Imaginisce for last season) and colours for the challenge!  I found an acrylic snowflake in my stash and blinged it up with some Glitter Ritz glitter too.  The scallops and circles were done with Spellbinders dies.

The new design team will be announced Friday, so I'll just have to wait and see...
Cheers,

Happy Happy Mail Day!

Nathan and I went out with Tracy and the kids this morning to do a little shopping and arrived home to a package on the doorstep!  I knew what it was immediately and can't wait to get a chance to play with them now...

How about that for happy mail??? 

12 brand new Sketch Copic markers that I was VERY lucky to win on Marianne Walker's blog - I Like Markers.  Now I can play some more and try and get better with some more colouring and more markers!  Yeah me!  An early Christmas present for sure, but let's not tell George that in case he thinks he's off the hook!

Hope you're having a fabulous Monday!

Cheers,

A Blog Hop Winner!

Sorry I've been MIA this week, but it's been a busy one and my mum has been around!  Just wanted to post my blog hop winner if nothing else!  So, without further ado....









The winner is.....









Jocelyn!!!
Congrats and e-mail me your info!

Cheers,

Welcome to the Challenge Masters Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the first ever Ch{all}enge Masters Holiday Blog Hop!! The      Ch{all}enge Masters Blog was your 1st stop and you are now at the 4th stop of the hop after visiting Dana!

I have my own little RAK to give away (to someone in the US/Canada). All you need to do to win is tell me one of your favourite Christmas traditions.  I'd love for you to become a follower to see more of you too, but it's not required to be a winner.  You do need to make sure you leave some way for me to contact you if you're a winner!  Leave your comment on this post to be entered to win. After you have visited all the blogs and made a post, be sure to go back to the Challenge Master's blog and post when you are finished. Thanks for hopping with us! Your next stop is Shana.

I have a little something to share with you - a card that's so easy even a preschooler can do it! LITERALLY!  I offered to teach the kids in my son's preschool class a card and this the one we did and this one was made by him (minus the stamping!).

Red paper is Coredinations embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and then sanded off.  The patterned paper and blue paper for the sentiment are American Crafts Merrymint line.  The sentiment stamp is Amuse.  The ink is Memento Rich Cocoa.  The gingerbread man was a die cut from the lss I work in.  The gems are KaiserCraft.  The eyes were just from the dollar store.

I'm really getting into the holiday spirit around here and love this time of year.  We always enjoy getting out for drives with the boys to see all the lights and we want to get to the Stanley Park Bright Lights train again this year!  One of our favourite activities!  What do you enjoy about this time of year?  Remember to leave me a comment to be entered for a RAK!

Be sure to go back and start at the beginning of the blog hop and comment on all the blogs to be entered for a grand prize of a $25 gift certificate to the online store of the winner's choice!  What a fabulous prize!

Cheers,

What a day yesterday!

Well, my day started with being tired after only getting a little more than 4 hours sleep, so I pretty much knew that thr day would become challenging at some point simply because I was tired.

The day itself wasn't really too bad.  The kids were up to their usual and we had a few fights and some spilled milk, etc, but all in all pretty much OK until about 2:35 when I was trying to get Nathan and Sophia to get their shoes and jackets on to go get Kyle.  They tried to tell me they were staying home!  NOT!  I told them I might have to send a letter to Santa explaining that they weren't listening and being good so that maybe he should reconsider bringing them presents, but even that didn't seem to work.  I finally had to get out my stern "don't mess with me" voice and that worked!

We came home and had the excitement of opening our advent calendars (from Nana and Grandpa) for the first day!  The boys were both very excited though I had to explain to Nathan that you only get to open one door a day until Christmas because he was asking for 2 pieces of chocolate.  I put them up on top of the microwave where I thought Nathan couldn't reach, but after dinner, George asked me why all the doors were open on Nathan's.  I told him they weren't because he'd only had one, but...

Apparently, it was still where he could reach it!  I was soooo not happy and even threatened to throw the rest of it away, but he has 8 more to open and he'll have to realize that he just won't get anything on all those other days when Kyle does!  I just don't even know how or when he managed to do it!  It's funny now though! 

I did manage to get a picture of Kyle with his calendar before he went to bed last night too!  He's quite excited about Christmas and can't make up his mind what to ask Santa for this year - he has a list! 

The other thing I did was run out with Nathan to get a little Secret Santa type package in the mail and when I was out, I decided to stop at Dairy Queen.  I had gotten an e-mail earlier in the day about the new Candy Cane Chill Blizzard and I'm a sucker now for anything candy cane flavoured it seems.  Never really used to like it until the last couple of years.  OMG!  It was soooo good!  Their ice cream with candy cane pieces and chocolate bits!  Yummo!  Think I'll have to stay away from there!

That about sums up the day!  This morning started off much better largely because I got a lot more sleep last night.  Matthew wasn't a happy camper this morning though and wailed while we walked home from Kyle's school and then while sitting in the van waiting for me to defrost the van.  Then, all the way up to preschool, he cried!  I know he was just tired - poor little munchkin!  He's napping and I'm relaxing while Nathan and Sophia are at school for a little longer!

Need to try and get myself a blouse tonight for George's work Christmas party this weekend.  Really looking forward to it as we've booked a night at the hotel the party is at and Grandma and Opa are going to watch the boys!  Should be fun for all of us!

I'm also hoping this is going to be the journaling/pictures for a December daily album if I can get my butt in gear!

Better run for now!  Hope everyone's having a good day!  I'm enjoying the lovely sunny, but cold, day!

Cheers,

Challenge Masters Blog Hop!

We hope you'll play along with us!

Many of the Design Masters are offering RAKs at each stop and if you visit all of the stops, you'll have a chance at winning the grand prize which I'll tell you more about a little later in the week! 

Hope you come and join us at Challenge Masters!

Cheers,