Happy Birthday Grandma

2 days after Christmas is Grandma's birthday and we decided to celebrate with breakfast. Lisa made a very yummy breakfast....oh, can you send me the biscuit and gingerbread recipe? We had breakfast at Lisa's place and took every opportunity to bug her about her giant cutlery. Notice Nadia's fork!!

It was very fun to all squeeze around the table and have breakfast. I love that kind of thing. When you have to find chairs and be creative.

Happy Birthday Grandma. We love you....even though you're now 47!!! :)

Christmas on Christmas

We went to Martensville on Christmas Eve and opened more presents on Christmas Day with Tim's family. They were so generous. And we all loved our gifts. Colin just wanted to play with his presents as soon as he opened them.

Nadia got more princess stuff. Dresses and accessories. She was so happy.

Colin also got a huge metal Tonka truck. It's so big that he can ride in the box. He loves it. Thanks for spoiling us everyone.

packages

Before Christmas Nadia was into caring for Colin like he was her baby. One morning I found she had wrapped him up, and was reading him a story and feeding him some sippy cup. And Colin was actually playing along and enjoying it.

We did presents on Christmas Eve morning. The kids spent all morning unwrapping and playing with their new toys. Colin was very excited about his new book from Uncle Rueben.

Nadia anxiously awaits her princess slippers.

A much wanted Strawberry Shortcake doll.

Colin was so excited about presents but tired out pretty quick. I guess we gave him too many clothes to open first. He was laying on the sofa sucking his thumb, so I handed him a present to open.

So we thought we better give him a "fun" present.

Nadia in all her princess stuff.

Colin loving his "fun" toy. Tools just like Daddy's. He didn't even care to sit comfortably, he just played.

And the big lego blocks were a huge hit for both kids. I was surprised that Colin knew exactly what to do with them. Thanks to my family for sending so many wonderful gifts.

Big News....

Well, I know you all think we`re nuts for putting our house up for sale at the end of November, but can you believe we got a call! The couple will be coming Monday to see it, and they`ve already told me that from the photos on saskhouses, they love it. Let`s hope they think it`s even better in person. I`ve never been attached to any place we`ve lived before, so it`s a bit strange, but I feel a little sad to have to leave.
Colin`s big news is that he`s finally getting 2 more teeth. He`s almost 1 1/2 and these 2 teeth make a total of 8 teeth. I think Nadia had about 12 or more teeth at this age. But it doesn`t seem to slow him down. He eats anything, even ketchup chips...yuck! He has ketchup seasoning on his nose. And my little performer/artist was so cute the other day. She found this container and turned it into a stage. The iPod and speakers are right behind her head so the music is blaring and she`s singing along. See her intently trying to memorize all the words, and using her imaginary mic. At the end of Nadia`s Veggie Tale DVD`s there are clips called How to Draw. One of the graphic artist will do a step by step clip for kids about how to draw the main character. Nadia always loves to watch them, but when I ask her if she wants some paper to draw along she always gives me one of those I can`t draw excuses. Which I always think is strange because she loves to draw and does so all the time. Anyway, the other day, or last day as Nadia says, I asked her if she wants to draw along and she said yes. I was so excited. So she drew along, pausing to catch-up and at the end I thought she did a great job following along. She then drew one for each person in the family.This is Larry as Moe from Moe and the Big Exit. He`s got his western gear on with a big hat, blue shirt and red scarf. Hope you can make it out.

since the last post

Nadia's been learning guitar.

We all went to a little hill to try out the new sled. It was Nadia's first time sledding and she was so excited. First she went down with Daddy and then she learned to go down on her own. Colin gave it a go with Daddy too, but it was much too cold for him. So we sat in the car and took photos.
Colin loves to sit on things. He will find something the right height and slowly turn around and carefully sit on it. One day he must have sat on the toy drum about 50 times, just practicing.

Auntie Lisa, Juanita and Kaleb came to visit. Nadia had a fun time hugging and generally smothering him. And look at what a good sport Kaleb was, he's even smiling.
A new game the kids made up. Sliding around on the tea set tray in the family room. I looks really fun, but takes way too much energy and muscle, especially to fly Nadia around the room.
I asked Nadia to clean up the toys and make sure they all go in the proper bins. I guess we have a lot of upstairs toys that migrated to the living room. When I saw the pile so precariously stacked twice as high as the basket I couldn't help but laugh.
Colin's new favourite thing is to play with the water in the sink, and the stopper. He gets soaked and frozen, but he just keeps playing. Nadia looks like she's helping, but really she just saw me taking a photo and wanted to be in it.
Colin's first go at the spoon. One day he was so whiny before supper that I gave him a fruit cup and a spoon to keep him busy. As Nadia and I worked in the kitchen we soon figured out that he wasn't hungry, he just wanted to play in the water at the sink. He can even get the chair over to the sink by himself.

If you're wondering about where we're at, then you'll want to read the following update. I know it's hard to keep track of what we're doing and where we're going so I'll give you what we know. We've been talking to a church in Edmonton about a lead pastor position. From what they've sent us and from what we've heard we would love to go there and we think it would be a fit. We're ready to get going, but the search committee is ready to break for Christmas, so we won't hear anything until after the New Year.

We've had an income until end of November, thanks to the generosity of the church, but Tim has been working on the house until now and just a few weeks ago started looking for work. Turns out this is bad timing to find something in the trades, and so we had a stressful few weeks job hunting and really hoping for anything. He applied at such a variety of companies and finally was offered a job from Ashley cabinets and windows. He's doing the deliveries for now and we're hoping he can move into the shop soon. I, Annalisa, was asked to paint a basement and spent the last week working evenings doing that. Anyone need any painting or cleaning done? So we're scraping by and hoping for things to move along in the New Year.