Snowman and Santa...

The Adventures of The Snowman and Santa...

Tired Snowman

Silly Snowman

Happy Snowman

Sneaky Santa

Antique Santa

Precious Santa

Sleepy Santa...

O Christmas Tree...

So usually our tree decorating festivities begin on December 1st but as Colin had youth it was postponed until Friday the 4th... a minor set back but I was ok with it. So Friday arrives and I am filled with anticipation! The plan was to go out and buy our Christmas tree from Costco as our previous tree had seen better days, then stop at Thrifty's on the way home for some cheese, crackers, garlic sausage, boursin cheese and some other goodies as has become one of our traditions to enjoy while we decorate the tree. During this time Rupert would have his little evening nap and be ready to have a quick bottle when we got home and be ready for decorating the tree and watching Garfield's Christmas! That was the plan... however it was not how the evening went!

We went to Costco, friends were going to meet us there because they had an SUV and would be able to transport our tree home. We got there, excitement building, only to realize the tree we had looked at the previous night was sold out! what?! are you kidding me! So we regrouped, and decided to take our hunt elsewhere... Canadian Tire, nope, Zellars, nope, London Drugs, nope... finally we found a beautiful big tree at Sears. I was in love and it was 50 % off! But it was still more than we were hoping on paying for... so then Colin and I had a "fun" debate on whether we could afford it or not. Meanwhile Rupert has had it and is ready for his bottle. At this point we decide that we are too tired to keep looking and rationalize that it will last us a long time. So decision made, great! But wait, the box is enormous! How are we going to get it into our car? So we call our pastor and ask if we can borrow his car, and Colin is just getting ready to leave to do the switcheroo when we decide we can just take it out of the box and stuff it wherever it will fit! Alright we are on our way! I am in the back with Rupert with part of the tree on my lap the other part sitting in the seat beside Rupert that is wrapped in plastic which Rupert is desperately trying to shove in his mouth. We get home grumpy and tired. I give Rupert a small bottle as it is almost his bed time and he is supposed to get another bottle before bed... ahhh... we put together the tree oooh and ahhh about how pretty it is. Rupert gives a big smile at the pretty lights. Then I whisk Rupert off to the tub, get him in his pjs, give him his night time bottle, get him into bed and collapse on the couch beside Colin. I then proceed to burst into tears about how it was supposed to be the perfect evening and Colin being the wonderful man that he is tells me that it's ok and we can do everything the next day and for now let's just go to bed. So my sad story does have a happy ending and we got to do everything

I had planned the day after and it was wonderful! It was a great start to our first Christmas together with Rupert! So here is the documentation of our first decorating of the tree together!

Treats? Check!

Garfield's Christmas? Check!

Lights? Check!

My boys? Check and double check!

The perfect cracker sandwich? Check!

Ornaments? Check!

Token photo of baby discovering the tree? Check!

Awe and wonderment? Check!

Extremely adorable moment caught on camera? Check!

Finished product? Check!

I love our tree!!!!!!

Nous petite tradition!

Ever since we got married Colin and I have ventured out on December 1st hot beverage in hand... this year... a peppermint white mocha.... to look for a new Christmas ornament for our tree. Among the many added are airplanes, deer heads, snow flakes, Christmas stockings and many other beautiful little memories! I love our Christmas tree! It is always a mish mosh of ornaments that we both have collected over the years. My favorite part of decorating the tree is unwrapping each ornament and remembering where or who it came from. My mom bought me ballerinas every year to put on a small tree that I got to keep in my room with pink lights on it! I know that that is a tradition that I want to keep with our kids. Colin's ornament from his family was either a snowman or a soldier (which goes perfectly with my ballerinas!)

This year, as we are now a family of three we got to buy three new ornaments on our December 1st adventure. We usually go in the evening but Colin has youth tonight so he came home on his lunch break and took me and Rupert out for our hot beverage and ornament hunt. It was a wonderful little outing and we did not come home empty handed. We found an amazing little felt penguin for Rupert. We have decided that each year we will try to find him a penguin and that will be his special ornament from us! Colin got a cute little Santa as it reminded him of the one from the Rudolph movie... I fully agree! And I also got a penguin this year as I am a proud momma of my little penguin... and it was pink and sparkly... a fantastic combination by my estimation! So now we have these three new little ornaments for our eclectic tree... I think we may need a bigger tree next year :D

Too by Two

"God also instructed Noah to bring into the ark two of all living creatures..."

Two things in my mouth at once...

Two buttons on my new coat...

Two beautiful blue eyes....

Two peacocks... (and yes he picked those two out of the pile of animals all by himself, he is just that smart!)

New size Two soother...

Doing Two things at once... playing with toys and watching cars go by...

Two uses for a cardboard box... storing diapers and storing babies...

Too cute....

And Too funny!

Recap

Well this blog is a bit of a recap over the past couple of weeks since I have not been very disciplined in blogging lately. Firstly... Rupert's room is finally coming together. We've got a rug in his room which really warms it up and allows us to spend some time in there when the boy needs a change of scenery. This is actually one of his favorite spots for tummy time and trying to crawl time. I think he really likes the feeling of his new rug, he will just lay there scratching it. Also included a photo of him standing up so you can see the true girth of his thighs!

He is also a huge fan of the tub. Whenever he is cranky we can just throw him in the tub and he is instantly in a better mood. We just bought him some Thomas the train bath toys and he loves them! He isn't so sure about them when we squirt water at him though... he'll figure out that's it's funny one day! He has also figured out splashing! He did it by accident once and kind of looked at us for affirmation of whether it was a good thing or not and we started laughing so he continued splashing! We love our little water baby.

Another exciting event was heading over to our friend Courtney's house. She has two kittens named Michael J Fox and Annabelle. Rupert was a huge fan! Courtney warned me that the kittens had not had their claws clipped in a while, but I assured her that her kittens were probably in just as much danger as Rupert was. He could not wait to get his hands on them! They were a little more hesitant about him, but were very tolerant of his abuse. We sat Rupert on the carpet and let the kittens wander around, he did not take his eyes off of them. They began to fight with each other and Rupert watched giggling with glee. It was too cute... so sad that daddy is allergic and mommy doesn't like cat fur everywhere... oh well at least he can always go to Courtney's for his animal fix.

And the excitement kept coming! We had a wonderful visit from Aunty Megan and Uncle Steve! We have missed them very much since we moved to the Island and it was very nice to have them over. And although we missed seeing Halle and Maya, Rupert was very excited to have his Aunty all to himself and went right to her for cuddles! We had a delicious lunch of quiche, biscuits and fruit with yummy yogurt... of course all Island Farms products! (found the recipes on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog... very yummy things to be found!) We are very much looking forward to Christmas when we are all re-united once again!

Next was a trip to Grandma's house for our yearly trip to Moonlight Magic. In Courtenay every year Moonlight Magic kicks off the Christmas season. Back in the day... (I think I'm old enough to use that phrase)... 5th street used to close down, there were carolers in the streets, elves giving out chocolate and all the stores stayed open until 11pm with huge deals to be had... and my favorite... hot apple cider given out at the kitchen store. Sadly, some ruin it for the rest... and because of crazies who use this opportunity to cause a ruckus the street is no longer closed off, we didn't see any carolers, there was no free chocolate, the stores closed at 9 and there was no hot apple cider!!!!!! There were however good deals to be had but there were not too many people out and about sadly... but I did run into some people from back in the day :D We also used this opportunity to do a mini photo shoot with Rupert... this first one is of him in my old wicker chair... my grandparents bought all us kids one for our 1st birthdays.

Next is a pic of Rupert in a high chair that my grandma bought for 50 cents... back in the day... and used for all three of her girls. Then we decided to put Rupert in a basket with a singing teddy bear... a little cheesey but he makes up for the cheese by being incredibly cute! And lastly... something that occupied much of his attention while we there... a massive snow globe that plays music and spins snow all around. He was in love with it! Oh I almost forgot the other pic included is of Rupert on all fours trying to crawl. Colin also used to crawl like that... too funny!

And last but certainly not least mom and I's traditional non fat, half sweet, extra hot, peppermint white mocha's from Starbucks... and Rupe gets his own cup too :D

Bears, Grams and cleaning stones...

Well the first piece of exciting news for this week was that Rupert got some mail! A very special piece of mail! It came all the way from Calgary from his buddy Wyatt! Our wonderful friends Todd and Brianne and their little guy Wyatt went to the Calgary Stampede and Wyatt being the selfless little boy that he is decided not to get a huge bear with his own name on it, but to get two smaller bears one with his name and one with his buddy Rupert's name on it! We were absolutely thrilled to get his own little bear in the mail this week. Rupert was so excited that the first thing he did when we gave it to him was... puke on it... yah that's right! He then got even more excited as he played with his bear that he puked again all down his front. Needless to say, the Rupert bear was a hit!

Rupert and Rupert just chillin...

And then our week got even better with an impromptu visit from Grams! It's so nice to live close enough for her to be able to come down for a day and spend some time with us! We did some Christmas shopping and spent some time just hanging out. It was quite wonderful. Rupert enjoyed playing with his Grams and giving her lots of cuddles!

We had a wonderful time together! Many of the things we purchased this weekend are secrets but something that I will share and am thrilled about is a new cleaner! I saw it on the show Steven and Chris and have been looking for it ever since... it's a totally biodegradable and organic product, which now that I have a baby around the house who puts everything in his mouth, is very important to me. It's called the Universal Stone. It's a clay type stone (in a container) and you wet a sponge and rub it on the stone till sudsy then you clean away! And it cleans absolutely everything you can imagine! Counters, floors, walls, wood, chrome, steel, bathtubs.... everything! And because it's full of natural products you don't even need to wear gloves! I am so excited to use it!

I will close with a couple of cute photos of our ever growing little boy!