A Friend of a Friend

A friend of a friend has Leukemia, and she needs a bone marrow/stem cell transplant.

I redirect you back to my post when Richard was looking for a match.

HERE

It is so easy to get on the registry. You just need to swab your mouth.

Please help.

Winter Vacation and Christmas!

That is some stellar 'wall art' by AJ as he started decorating for Christmas. Yes, I let my child put tape on my walls because "Hey, the walls are all beat up anyhow and I need to paint them." The only problem is when his friends head home, I have to remind them not to put tape on their parents' walls.


The Gingerbread House

Gingerbread house decorating time! Daddy picked one up for the boys and I to do.

(Daddy decorated and built the gingerbread tree with Dexter the night before. I thought I had a picture, but apparently, only video.)


The Elf on the Shelf
So, if you don't already know what Elf on the Shelf is, you'll need to head here...
Elf on the Shelf
and here...
101 Ideas for Elf on the Shelf

Grand-Dan who became oddly just as excited about Elf on the Shelf as I did (maybe more actually), treated the boys and I to our very own Elf on the Shelf.
If you didn't feel like reading about Elf on the Shelf, the gist is that he's one of Santa's many elves. He likes to watch to see if the kids are being naughty or nice and then head back to the North Pole while they're sleeping to report to Santa. When he comes back to your house from the North Pole in the wee hours of the morning, he likes to 'hide' and the kids have to find him and 'what he's been up to' when they wake up.

While I wasn't ready for Baggin Elf (named by AJ and Dexter jointly) to be 'super awesomely creative' in my first year, Baggin did hide in some fun places. This particular morning, AJ found Baggin up in the tree having grabbed the Luke Skywalker ornament.

Baggin was hiding in a Christmas canister one morning.

One morning, he was up on top of the tree in Father Christmas's sack, but I forgot to take a picture.

One morning, he was in Daddy's stocking.

One morning, he went right back to the same spot as the night before. Oops.

One morning, he was hanging from the bananas.

One morning, he was trying to sneak a peak in a present! And he did this the next night too... oops, again. Baggin was smart and decided to start setting an alarm, so he could 'get back from the North Pole to find a good spot'.

One morning, he got into the flour and made a snow angel on the floor.

One morning, he was playing the guitar.

Oh Baggin! You weirdo.

Reading? One of our favourite books, I'll add.

He sneaked AJ's monkey and Dexter's dino out of their beds and stole Daddy's towel spot in the bathroom.

AJ's Off to a New School

So, AJ was to be starting at the traditional school, uniform and all, right after Christmas break. We thought it would be a nice little good bye to his friends at his school if we made freezie-cozies. You know, to keep your hands from freezing when you have a frozen yoghurt tube or a freezie. We put thawed freezies into each one. You guessed it. Pink for girls and blue for boys.


Christmastime Playdates!

Well, the bad part about job-sharing with one of your bff's is that you never get to hang out with her because she works on your days off. Finally, Christmas meant 'the gang' could get back together.

Jen and Kandis' kids' teacher wanted an adult present for gingerbread house decorating day, so I took the younger siblings for a few hours. You should've seen the van. It was PACKED with 6 boosters and carseats (one rear facing, I'll add) all ready so I could pick up AJ from school and have room for all these kids! But, thankfully or sadly, I'm not sure which, Em and Jaxon's nanny came and Madisyn and Ashton's mom came right before I needed to leave to school pick up.

I had to clean Dexter's sheets anyways, so I let all the friends eat popcorn in Dexter's bed and watch a video. They thought that was pretty cool. Makenna, AJ, Jaxon, Dexter, Emerson, and Landon.

AJ and Dexter had a pajama day while friends were over. Do you see AJ being goofy with his jammie pants? I think I need to stop telling him to 'act normal'. I'm so worried that he's a weirdo during classtime, I may be cramping his inner Jim Carey. Seriously, Jim Carey's parents must've gone mental.

Ah, the calm of a movie lunch after some loud, fun playtime!


Duplo and Lego Time

Really cannot begin to explain just how much time is spent playing Lego and Lego Duplo in this house.

Lego house with a spinning tree and some spaceships shown above.

A fish made of Duplo. Looked pretty cool from the side. This isn't even the 'amazing' stuff.

The ships these boys make from their Lego just stuns me. They make way better ships with the Lego and the Duplo than I can.

Another favourite of AJ's is to make 'transformers'. He builds robots or ships that come apart into 6 different robots. Just blows my mind.

How They've Been Spending Their Time

AJ has built a fort and made a window and a door for it. In this picture, he is decorating an origami Christmas tree that he made.

Dexter is working on his masterpiece (thanks Erica for the idea) for me to hang on my bedroom wall.


Christmas!

Do I even need to say that they were excited!? It was another very special Christmas morning, waking up in our own house. The very special part? Richard was home with us and NOT in the hospital.

Stockings.

Pop Up Pirate. His favourite game.

Optimus Prime Transformers Rescue Bots fire station. He was pretty stoked. Next to it, you'll see Dexter's Batcave from Santa.

The gifts they chose for each other. Power Ranger swords with belt clips. Easily, a favourite gift of the day.

AJ opens his 'skatepark' for those little skateboards and miniature bmx bikes from Mommy and Daddy.

Delicious breakfast made by Richard, shared with Grand-Dan. I should add that the night before, we had delicious perogies made by Richard, shared with Grand-Dan. Grand-Dan is wearing his new Bazinga t-shirt.

We headed to Gram and Papa's house.

To Paul and the boys from Richard and I: Rock em and Sock em Robots.

AJ saying, "Why did they buy me clothes?" I forgot to have 'the talk' with him before we headed out. Oops.

Bakugan! (Jared, you are super cool in the background there).

The highlight of AJ's day. Lego Ninjago. Thanks Auntie Kim (and Jared, right?).

Dexter was super excited to open this remote controlled truck and construction site from Auntie Kim and Jared.

Daddy playing Pokemon with AJ. One of AJ's Santa gifts.

Mommy and her boys.

We are not good about remembering to use our camera on Christmas Day. Suffice to say the day was awesome, filled with family and love. Dinner was awesome. Lots of laughing.

I have lots of baby-book to update, but that will have to wait.