Gingerbread House

Owen has a lovely, very special teacher this year whom he just adores. Every year, it is a tradition that the teacher bakes all the parts for each student to make their gingerbread house. Students bring in candies to decorate and share with each other, and then when they are complete, they get to take them home.
Thank you Mrs. Flynn!

Christmas Concert

The boys performed in the school Christmas concert earlier this week. Griffy sang Jingle Bells and Owen sang Suzie Snowflake. They did a great job, Owen was even heard singing on the radio the next morning!


Elliot the Elf spent the month of December with us. He arrives on the first and leaves on Christmas eve. He watches over the boys everyday and reports back to Santa that night. Each morning the boys run to find where Elliot is hiding that morning. One morning not long ago was very special, as Elliot had spent the night in Owen's room and left a note and a snowglobe to remind them of him when he is gone. The next night he showed up in Griffin's room with a note and snowglobe as well. The boys were very excited to have their own special letter from their friend Elliot.

In Love with Comet

Griffin just adores Comet, his favourite reindeer of all!
Comet had written him a letter this year telling Griffin he would bring him some of his special cookies on Christmas eve and asked if Griffin could please draw him a picture for him to take back to the North Pole so he could hang it in his room!
Pretty cute picture!

Merry Christmas

The Most Wonderful Time of the year... filled with memories and smiles. I love the build up to Christmas, the anticipation, the shopping, the wrapping, the cookies, the parties and of course the smiles on the boys faces when they walk down the stairs to see a mountain of presents in front of them on Christmas morning.





Favourites this year included a castle for Griffin and an ipod touch for Owen and Tony loved his new vacuum!



Looks like Grandpa has some competition for the drum stick

After dinner, we went for a drive to see the Christmas lights and listen to Christmas carols.

Santa's List

Is Griffin on the Naughty or Nice list:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gA9piNyN_EYoqqEUEvOivEg

Is Owen on the Naughty or Nice List:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gPnmRuHuhj6c27FLtbIqnyA

Visiting Santa Claus

We took the boys to visit Santa Claus tonight. Santa was wonderful and spent time speaking with Owen and answering his questions about how the reindeer are able to fly and letting Santa know he would like a Nutcracker for Christmas. Griffin was happy being silly and trying to sneak candy from Santa's basket.

When we left, Owen told Tony that Santa looked different than the Santa they met last Friday night. Tony did some quick thinking and explained that Santa was in the mall and needed to trim his beard up because it is so warm inside. That explanation seemed to do the trick :)

My Christmas Tree

This year, I have my very own Christmas tree (purchased on boxing day last year)!

I have been having a ton of fun decorating it. I first thought I would use bright blues and lime greens, but it just didn't look right. I then tried red, and it wasn't what I was looking for either. I then brought home neutral cremes and golds and I loved it! There is a hint of green, and even a few red and blue peacocks that Owen just had to have. Owen has turned out to be a great shopping partner when it came to looking for christmas decorations. He knew what his "taste" was and how he wanted to decorate my tree and the mantel. While at Home Sense, Owen had seen a deer that he just loved on previous visit. When we went to look for it, it was no where to be found. Owen was on a mission, when he couldn't find it he asked a sales lady to help him. He described it very well, and she was so impressed she spent a lot of time helping him find it and even going to the back to hunt it down. We were out of look, it was sold. We then went to Winners hoping they would have, and went through the same things. Again, the sales lady was very helpful and felt very bad when she had to tell him they didn't have it, I think the look on his face said it all, he was very upset that we didn't find it. But we did find the red deer on the mantle in the picture below. He is also to thank for all the beautiful peacocks he just had to have!

A wonderful, magical evening spent with Santa and Mrs. Claus

We visited the Safety Village this evening and just happened to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. What a treat... there were hardly any children there and the boys were able to have a great conversation with Santa. Owen asked why Santa didn't get burned coming down the chimney and Santa was good enough to share his secret, but Owen needed to promise not to tell any other children. In case you were wondering as well, I will share the secret with you too.... Santa doesn't actually come down the chimney, he has a magical key that opens everyone's door. Mrs. Claus holds on to this key until the day before the big flight just in case Santa were to lose it :)

Santa also asked the boys how his scout elf Elliot that visits us everyday is doing? The boys were mesmerized that Santa knew about Elliot and had many questions for him.

What a wonderful night :)

Elliot the Elf Returns

Let the Holidays begin...

December 1st is an exciting day in our household. Elliot the Elf returns to stay watch over the boys and report to Santa every evening, all of the nice and naughty things the boys do. Elliot appears in a different location each morning.... and the boys must try to spot him. It is a great activity and they love it! They know they mustn't touch Elliot or his magic will disappear.

December 1st also marks the first day of advent calendars. This year the boys have a kinder egg calendar. Owen had a rough day as he lost his privilege to open his calendar early in the morning. Tomorrow he is working toward earning back his treat.

Mary Poppins

This past weekend, eight of us headed off to Toronto to spend the weekend shopping, and going to see the musical Mary Poppins. We had a great time and the musical was fantastic!

Santa... I've been good!

Some jewelry from RW & CO.


I've heard this is a great read

Canon PowerShot 12.1MP Digital Camera (ELPH 300) - Silver

On Sale:$199.99

or

Wouldn't this be cute with a gift card in it :)

Dear Santa

The boys were very excited to write their letters to Santa and worked on them all week. They both have a lot of requests. Griffin wants a lot of toys and Owen wants a few things to "his taste".


Tonight we went to the Santa Claus parade. It was great! The boys had a ton of fun, and came away with a whole bag of treats. The most exciting moment for them was of course seeing Santa, but because they really wanted to give him their letters. They held them tight the entire parade!

Activities Advent

Out theme this year was to give our kids experiences instead of things... we tried our best, it wasn't always easy but so very important.

I found this great idea. Instead of a candy advent calendar try an Activity calendar.

Here’s the list:
Decorate your tree
Go to the Festival of Trees as a family
Go on a wagon ride through the lights at Thanksgiving Point
Shop for gifts for other children (FSTC Santa’s Workshop)
Unwrap a book to read
Have hot cocoa and cookies with our neighbors (Neighborhood Service Project)
Open your special ornament and put in on your tree
Make a craft with Mom
Write a letter to Santa
Go to the Christmas party at church
Go to Temple Square to see the nativity
Go sledding with Dad
Have a family Christmas movie night with treats
Choose a special treat
Shop for a gift for your preschool party
Have FHE with our BYU friends
Ride on the Polar Express
Have lunch at a special restaurant with our family
Wear new jammies to bed
Have FHE with your cousins
Decorate cookies

I've Lost my Two Husbands to our Front Walk Way

When I asked for the front walk way to be done, I never thought it would be a year in the making! As you can see, this work has been taking place by spotlight late into the evening each night. The project has turned out to be more than anyone bargained for, but certainly worth the wait. Thanks husband #1 and #2!

Yep, Christmas Cookies already!

Beautiful (Silly) Boys!

The Trials and Tribulations of Purchasing a New BBQ

Tony wanted a new bbq for so very long, and if you know him well at all, it troubles him to spend a lot of money on something he wants. You also know he researches his purchase to death. During the month of September, Tony became very good friends with the staff at Lowes, Home Depot and Canadian Tire. Each night he would go to see if the bbq he dreamed of was any cheaper. His dream was crushed when he was told the bbq he wanted was kept in the store all year long and it wouldn't be any cheaper. He decided to let it go until the new year. But the dream wasn't dead just yet. He visited a store in Cambridge where he was told the bbq he wanted was on sale... sure enough he found an even better one for a great price. He measured my parents car to see if it would fit, he gave his deposit and thought it was a done deal to only find out two weeks later when he called that the salesman messed up and sold the last one to someone else. CRUSHED!!! When he called back to tell the man he didn't want the even bigger one he was then trying to sell him, the man brought his dream back to life and told him they found tony the bbq he wanted!!

Today, it was assembled and Tony bbq chicken on his beloved rotisserie for the first time! Love at long last!