Braving the elements

Yesterday some warmer weather combined with some moisture brought in a pile of fog and frost.

Today with the foggy conditions still in effect and Sarah and I having to clean the studio I decided to bring my camera to town with us and have an improv photo shoot.

It was about -9C.
Really nice considering it is supposed to get down to -22C tonight.

Our community has a beautiful park with some really nice walking trails so away we went.

At first I just had her walk along. She had her camera with her as well so I grabbed some of her taking pictures also.
Then I told her to dance.
And she did...

Then I had her take her hair out and dance some more for me.

I love both her movement of her hair and her smiles on these.


This was a fun, freezing, half hour and I am so happy I took the opportunity to freeze this moment in time.
Before I know she is going to be moving out. In about 6 weeks she turns 15. Man how times flies.

Jam packed week

As I mentioned on Thursday this was an extreme emotional week. Friday we got even more news that totally rocked our world. However in all of it I did manage to work on my 3 in 30. Or at least some of it. LOL

1. Spend every single day with time in the Word.

Yep managed this. I love getting up and doing my studies. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing what He is saying, but I am learning. I am learning to turn to Him more and more.

2. My blog.
Well no weekend post again and I missed Wednesday. But I did have a sick child and spent a lot of time on the phone this week with family and friends.

3. Our bills.
This month was good. I never did get my budget done, but we were VERY careful and today was the first time we ate out in the month. I am excited about that one!

I can hardly believe that it is almost the end of the month.
I am linking up today with Aurie.

Thankful Thursday

This has been a week. Boy what a week.

A friend's marriage is in serious trouble,
Another friend was just diagnosed with PCOS,
My son just broke up with his long time girlfriend,
My daughter is very sick with the stomach flu,
and let's not forget about the snow storm.

Yep already a crazy busy week or prayer, administering some advice, being a friend, being a mom, being a nurse, what a week.

Yet in all that craziness I KNOW I need to turn to thankfulness.
Because even if my heart is heavy I know HE is there for me.

So today I am thankful for:
A great marriage, one that we worked hard for and saved.

Having PCOS myself so that I could administer advice.

Having my son know that we will ALWAYS be there for him, no matter what.

Knowing that although my daughter is feeling awful right now that this bug is finally almost through our house.

Great reliable vehicles to get us to and from work or town safely.

I am linking up today with Lisa today.

Relationships...Easy or Hard??

I've been thinking a lot lately about relationships.
Why they fall apart?
Why it works for some and not others.

My hubby and I haven't always had an amazing marriage. We both have our faults. We both can get on each others nerves and we've both made near fatal (to our marriage) mistakes.

I'm in no means an expert but I was thinking of some of the things that hubby and I do that has repaired our marriage and made it stronger than ever.

So without further ado here is a list of 10 things I think help and strengthen a marriage.

1. We chose to be together.
Back when our kids were small and I thought that I truly needed him it was rough. For both of us. I was to demanding and needy and he counteracted by distancing himself.
When we found out we could do it ourselves but we didn't want to it made a huge shift for the positive in our marriage.

2. Support each other.
Support each others choices. Even if sometimes it is not what you would chose. This has been true for us. For example my hubby is not a Christian yet he supports the fact that I go to church and bring up our children in that environment. Although I am sad that he chooses not to go with us, I know God has HIS hand in this. All in HIS timing.

3. Take interest in each others activities.
This doesn't mean that you have to all the sudden start loving sports because hubby likes it or he has to come scrapbooking with you. It does mean however is ask him how his team is doing or sit and watch the odd game with him. He will reciprocate. My hubby always wants to see the scrapbooks after a weekend of doing it.
Plus you have the added bonus of perhaps finding and falling in love with something you never thought you would like before. Hubby got me into both snowmobiling and quading. Both which I love and thoroughly enjoy doing with him.

4. Be kind to each other.
This made seem obvious, but its not. Just think about he comes home from a hard day at work, you had something bad happen to you disputing the day which put you in a bad mood as well, he does something that drives you crazy and you snark at him, soon he is snarling back and the next thing you know you are in a full blown fight about something silly.
As bad as your mood might be, remember he loves you and wants to comfort you. Sometimes just sitting on the couch side by side holding hands watching tv can perk up both your moods.

5. Don't let others relationships affect your own.
This was a biggie for hubby and I. We used to do this a lot. When friends were having problems in their marriages and talk to us we would sometimes bounce things off of each other.  However the danger was when we took it to personally. It was their marriage that was having problems not ours. We would get into huge fights about their issues.
After we realized what we were doing,it was much easier to help others because we weren't damaging our relationship in the process.

6. Write silly love notes to your hubby.
When I started this I truly just wanted to let my hubby know how much I loved him and much I appreciated all he was doing for our family. I emailed it to hi one evening and the next morning he phoned me to tell me how much he loved the note.
Now frequently we send notes to each other. There is nothing so awesome about opening up an email from your hubby with him telling you why he loves you.

7. Have physical contact.
I don't mean simply s e x. (Although that helps too. 😉). I'm talking about holding hands. Coming up behind him and giving him a hug. Rub his back when your walking together. Simply just touch.
It amazing what touching your husband will do for your mood, your relationship, your conversations, your marriage.

8. Don't forget that he is important.
For me he comes right after God.
That wasn't always so and that is one of my near fatal mistakes. I was putting him down around the bottom. I mean I get it. The kids are busy demanding 1000% of your time and energy and what's left the house is screaming for or your job is needing you. However He needs to know he's important to you too. Great him at the door when he comes home. Stop what your doing and hug him. Try and occasionally be cleaned up special for him, that means out of your work clothes (whether its jammies or...) and into clothes he likes.
I promise or will mean a lot to him.

9. Forgive
Forgiveness is a two way street. If he had never forgiven me for my stupid mistakes we would not be married right now and vice versa.
This includes remembering to let go of past fights. Do you really want something a mistake you made up every  time you fight for 2 years? Let it go.
This is not always easy by any means. Sometimes it's really hard and takes some time, but its so important to do.
After all if Jesus could forgive us knowing ALL our sins then why can't we do the same for one another.

10. Look past the little faults.
I know that there may be what we think are many of these. He snores, he farts, he watches the game ALL THE TIME, he, he, he...
But what about our own faults. Some of mine are the house always isn't that clean, I tend to stay up in bed reading or playing a game on my iPad and the light drives him insane, I get grumpy, I, I, I...
See what I mean.  He loves me, all of me. He doesn't let the fact that I do these things ruin us, why would I??

I am linking up with Angie today. Come join me and read some other Top 10 posts.

Things don't always go as planned...

I had great plans for today.
I had even sat down and wrote out what I thought I would try and get down today.
I did my bible study.
Even that had some kinks in it.
God is using me, showing me I need Him.

After bible study I sat down at the computer for a bit, just some chill time before I knew I had to get my butt in gear for the day, when a friend texted me.

I knew right away from the wording of the text that she needed a friend so away I went.

I spent the entire day with her until about 4.

So much for my nice little schedule.
So much for me cleaning the house, writing posts, putting supper in the slow cooker.
Things changed.
Plans were interrupted.

Life happened.

Just something else HE is teaching me. He knows my plans, yet they are not always the same as His.
Just when I think I know what I am doing, KABOOM it changes.

Even just as I was writing this post tonight, my daughter comes in and asks me to braid her hair before bed.
Post delayed, plans changed.

He teaches me often that HE is in control.
He is showing me that I need to relax and just let go.
Let go to HIM.

What is HE teaching you today??

Another insane week...

With such another crazy week, I wonder if this is a glimpse of what my life is going to like from now on. Probably.

Well I had some good stuff and not so great stuff on moving forward.

1. Spend every single day with time in the Word.
I only missed one. I hate though that I missed that one. I am so much better when I spend that time. Even if it's only 15 minutes or so.

2. My blog.
I did pretty good I think. I took off the weekend, but I blogged every day this week. I have a few post running around in my head that I want to write for next week so I need to carve out time for that today. Other than that, I am happy. Happy to be letting myself do this.

3. Our bills.
Well I did buy a thing this week that we didn't need right now, but it was on clearance and I know we will use it tons in the future. Still I was hoping to be more frugal. I need to really work on this.


It was a crazy week, Sarah has only schooled 3 times this week, with today being one of those days. I need to focus on us getting more in the routine again. My fault, I let things slide as other parts of my life got busier.

We have had some interesting weather this week. Snow, rain, freezing rain, above 0C which is really rare for January, and up to -30C, all this in a space of a week.

This weekend, we are working on finishing up the little details in our house. EX. locks on cabinets, knives moved up, doors with child-proof locks, etc. Going to be a busy Saturday.

What is on the agenda for your weekend? Anything exciting?

I am linking up today with Aurie.

Thankful Thursday

As I sit down to write this post I can't help but be filled with thankfulness.

Oh sure I could whine and complain, I mean let's get real who doesn't have problems in their life?
I could tell you that money is an issue, but honestly that is the case for many.
I could tell you that it's so hard to have hubby away working, but honestly I am thrilled that he is working, millions aren't.
I could tell you all the bad things, but than really it wouldn't be called Thankful Thursday. Maybe something like Depressing Thursday, or Life is so Rough Thursday. I much prefer Thankful Thursday.

So here are just a few of the things that I am so thankful for:

My hubby
      -He works so hard just so we can have a roof over our heads, food in our tummy and great reliable vehicles to drive.
      -He listens to me. Even when I think he doesn't hear me, sometimes months later he will recall a conversation that we had.
      -He respects me.
      -He loves me. He tells me so over and over again.
   
My children
     -Two of them have grown up into such fine young men. I am so proud to be their Mom.
     -My daughter is growing up before my eyes and I am loving the relationship that we are building.
     -My future children...knowing that one day we will be building onto our family.

My country.
    I am thrilled to pieces to live in a country where I am free. Free to be a woman, free to worship the Lord, free to walk down the street and not worry.


I decided to stop here. I could keep going and going.
The good Lord has blessed me so much. He picks me up and dusts me off millions of times. Times when I refuse to be picked up, He drags me along until I realize just how much I need Him.
I am blessed!!

I am linking up with Lisa today. Come rejoice with me and many others.

Post block

Has this ever happened to you?
Maybe only me.

Today as I was writing a post I realized it just wasn't coming together right. Somehow along the way what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it was getting lost. The message was getting lost in my translation.

I now know how Jesus feels. How many times does His message to us get lost in translation.

We (okay myself) tend  to read the scripture apply it to our lives in a way that make sense.
In a way that makes it easy for us.
How often do we miss out on what Jesus is saying simply because we are trying to make it easier.

I know as I am doing my bible studies I want to make what I read less challenging for myself. I want to somehow think that my behavior can be excused.
Oh don't get me wrong, deep down I know it's wrong when it's wrong, but still I am always looking for that out.

I have come to realize as I am reading Luke right now that I don't trust God enough. I give Him portions of my life and say sure have that part. That part is something I don't mind sharing. However what about the parts that I don't share with Him?
What about the parts that I don't share with many people let alone God?
I want to make it easy.
I don't want to challenge myself.
I fear failure.
I fear vulnerability.
I fear loss. Loss of love ones.
I block myself from God. Silly idea really when I know that He knows all of my life, loves me and accepts me for who I am anyways.

I want to be like Mary. I want to have that Blind Faith that can believe and trust in the Lord.
I want to lay my ENTIRE life down before Him.

I know this journey is not going to be easy. I know I will stumble, fall and be dragged kicking and screaming through parts of it. However I know also that no matter what I will receive the ultimate gift.

Please join me over at Mary Beth's to encourage others on our walk.

Flower hair pieces.

This is such an easy craft to do, you will be wondering why you are not doing it.

You start with a stem of flowers like this. I purchased this from the dollar store for $1. I believe there was 5 blooms on it.

Next you pull of one bloom like this from the stem. It should pop off really easily. You then need an alligator clip and a brad. Brads are often used in scrapbooking.

Next remove the back of the flower. This might take some convincing, but it should pop off.

Then turn the flower over and pull out the center stem.

Make sure to hold all the pieces together, unless you want to mix and match petals which also looks awesome.

Push the brad through the center where the stem was.

Flip over and fold down each side of the brad so it splits in half and holds the petals together and the brad down.

Then take your alligator clip and slide under the fold halves of the brad. This also might take a bit of convincing, but remember you want it tight as this is all that holds it together.
If you are nervous you might want to throw some hot glue on the back of the brad attached to the flower, but I never have and my daughter dances with these in her hair and never had an issue.

This is what the back will look like finished.

The front. Remember depending on the size of your brad, or the type of petals your flower has, it might not be seen in the petals.

Here it is.

My lovely model showing it off.
She often goes and makes her own depending on what color or type she wants to wear that day. She also will often mix and match the different colors and types of flowers.

The total cost for this was under $1. for everything.
About .20 for each flower, .13 for each alligator clip, and depending on the brad about .03 per brad.
So for one complete flower clip it cost me around .36 to make.
All of these items were purchased at the dollar store.

Frost

One of my favorite things about winter here in Alberta Canada is we often get horror frost. In mild cases it can be absolutely gorgeous. If it gets severe it can be somewhat dangerous as it can damage to many things such as power lines.
However that is rare.

One morning before Christmas after I opened up the curtains for the day I say this. The sun peaking through the trees just so. I couldn't resist, I grabbed my camera and headed out to snap a few pics.

I love looking at all the beautiful pictures God paints. What an amazing artist He is.

Wow what a week!

It has been a great week!!
Well OK a great week mentally. Physically not so much. I had a strange allergy flare up. Had sniffles and congestion off and on for a day and then all good. I've had some issues with my body that I will spare you the details of but needless to say I feel a million times better today. :)
As far as my goals. Well actually not to bad.

1. Spend every single day with time in the Word.
On Saturday I started a two day devotion of my YouVersion App, thinking Sunday I would do the second part. Well Sunday hit and I did go to church so I am totally counting that as time in His Word, however as soon as I got home we had friends over and we went snowmobiling all day. However everyday this week I have been faithful and did my HelloMorning bible study. Tomorrow I will do the second half of last weekends study and then Sunday back to church of course. Next week I still have the Hello Morning study plus my Good Morning Girls group starts up again!!

2. My blog.
Alright I am so excited about this. I blogged everyday except for Sunday. I have a couple posts wrote up and waiting for days that are crazy but I still want to post, plus I have a couple ideas that I want to put pen to paper so to speak and write up some more. I have totally let God take the reins on this one. I am having a ball with it. I pray that I manage to keep listening to Him in this.

3. Our bills.
Well I can say that I haven't spent a dime this week that we didn't need too. Not only that but I managed to buy Sarah glasses and six months worth of contacts all for free. Hubby has an amazing health plan. LOVE IT.

So far this month I am happy with how things are going. I have even exercised twice with plans of doing more today. Plus we have had a crazy busy week with leaving the house by 1 or earlier every day.

How are you all doing?
We have some friends coming over again tomorrow for more snowmobiling. (I hope it warms up before then. This morning we were -24F before the wind chill) On Sunday is my Momma's birthday so maybe we can get to see her as well.
What about you? Any plans for this week??

I am linking up today with Aurie. Come cheer on some others with their goals!

About Me...

Thanks Jenilee for this inspiration week.
I love these and have had a blast writing these posts.
Today it all about moi!

This is Jenilee's list.

\My favorite book right now is...
  My favorite pinterest board is...
  My favorite app is...
  My favorite hot drink is...
  My favorite restaurant is...
  My favorite blog post is...
  My favorite time of day is...
  My favorite way to relax is...
  My favorite season is...
  My favorite vacation spot is...

Favorite book:
Well of course besides the bible, I don't necessarily have a favorite book. However I do have an author that I absolutely love!! Karen Kingsbury. I always ask for her books for any occasion that I might be receiving gifts. I have devoured most of them.

Favorite Pinterest board:
All of them. I use a ton of the recipes, lots of organization ideas, done tons of crafts. I love the bible one. 

My favorite app:
Hmmmm... Well I use facebook and twitter of course. My other most used one would probably be the YouVersion bible app. I use it both on my iPad and iPhone daily. Other than that my favorite is my Kindle app. I have read tons and tons of books on here.

My favorite hot drink:
Well at home it is coffee in the morning and then if I want to treat myself it is peppermint hot chocolate. At St*rbucks it is Chai Tea Latte and at Tim Hortons (yeppers I am Canadian. :) ), it is French Vanilla cap. 

My favorite restaurant: 
Anything that serves good Gluten Free meals. Those are hard to come by.

My favorite blog post:
Hmmmmm Well I am not sure this was my favorite post but it was the one that caused the most traffic by far. The real me.

My favorite time of day:
 I have two favorites. I love the time of day that it is just me and the Lord. The second is when I am unwinding after a crazy day. I am in bed, usually reading and just becoming calm again.

My favorite way to relax:
 Usually read. Whether it is others blog posts or a good book that is usually the fastest way for me to chillax.

My favorite season is: 
I think fall. Although I honestly love them all. I love the changing of the seasons. I love the freshness and newness of spring. I love the lazy dazy days of summer, I love the crisp cool air and back to routine of fall and the snow and chilly stay in side temps of winter.

My favorite vacation spot:
Hmmmm good question. Probably in the mountains as I have amazing friends and family that live there. Other than that take me to some tropical destination. LOL

Thanks again Jenilee this was a blast.

Wednesday's Walk

If you have been reading my blog lately, you know that I have been doing a ton of soul searching.

I have burrowed down and tried to ignore some of the things happening around me. 

This as most of you know is not productive, easy or even possible.

The best way for me is to just get up shake up my big girl pants and face it head on.

Again this is not always easy or even possible. 

Some things just are not able to be met face to face.

Or at least maybe best to leave not met and deal with another way.

This past spring 'a friend' of mine for the most part stopped talking to me. She stopped texting me, (something she did fairly regularily), she stopped facebooking me, in short she just sort of severed communication with me. If I texted her she would respond after a day or two but never initiate  Same with facebook. If I ran into her on the street she would talk to me but it was strained. I honestly had no idea what happened. Another friend of ours and I would talk about it and I would wonder what I did. I mean it all seemed good and then poof it was done. 

Finally this winter I am good friends with her cousin and I asked her if she knew why this other individual was upset with me. Well I am not sure if I am glad she knew and shared or not. :) 

She told me that the reason her cousin no longer wanted to be my friend was because I was mean. 

Well that took me back a bit. I never ever thought of myself as mean. So I asked my friend to clarify. She said that her cousin told her that I would tease her and pick on her. I stopped and realized that yes I guess I did. Well tease her anyway. But honestly in my opinion I tease everyone, mostly myself. I try to make sure or at least I thought I did that I wasn't mean about it. I am more than willing to be teased back and I have been by many people. To me it is honestly a sign of complete friendship. 

To my friend not so much.

Since I found out I have thought about it a lot. Am I a mean person? Did I out of vengeance be mean to her?  Even if I honestly believe that I was not being mean does that excuse my actions?

No it doesn't. I truly ache that I hurt this individual. I wish that she could have seen that I was doing it out of love. I wish she could have looked at all the other million ways I showed her I cared. But most of all I wish she felt she could have came to me and expressed the problem to myself.

I feel like a heel. 

This is in part why I have been so absent the last couple of months. It by far is not the only reason but one of them. 

After Christmas I realized something very important. I am a sinner. I am not perfect. I never will be perfect until I am living in Christ's Kingdom. No matter how hard I try, I am going to mess up. I know this. I know I will never ever achieve perfection no matter how hard I try. I am going to fail. I am going to come up short. 

My daughter shared something with me today. She told me that a 'friend' of hers told her after hanging out with her all day that she no longer wanted to be her friend. 

My response to that was something only God could have put in my mouth. 

I said gee between me being mean and you not being a good friend, it is a good thing we have Christ on our sides.

Which it is.

There is always going to be someone that doesn't like me. Or sadly her. There is always going to be ways that we fall short. That we disappoint. That we prove over and over again that we are not perfect. 

However we have God on our side.

He gets it. He understands. He comforts us. He holds us. He lets us know that no matter what He loves us.

He will always be there for us. He will always be there for us. He wants us. 

To me those are some very comforting thoughts.

I am linking up today with Mary Beth

A look at my past month or so...

When Jenilee first posted that she was doing this blog series this week I knew right away that I wanted to post is some if not all the days.
Today it was cell phone pictures.

Well I must say when I went through mine I realized just how remiss I had been for the past month. I really was a hermit.

But here are some of the pics I did manage to capture.

This is the sunset I saw one day on our way to dance. I had to take the picture. I am in love with sunsets and sunrises. Not that I like to see sunrises too much. LOL

My goofy daughter and I playing around. this is one of her favorite things to do. I have had to delete a ton of pics similar to this.

My crazy kitty wanted to curl up with me one morning while I was doing my bible studies. She loves early morning snuggles.

We took these on our way to visit Rob's parents. You can tell that it is still really nice out as both Sarah and I are only wearing our fall coats.

The puzzles we did during December. An annual tradition we have to put together puzzles during Christmas.

A sunset I saw on my way home from the 'city'.

A passage that I found that I love. It is now the background for my iPad.

My hubby sledding. We love doing this in the winter. Loving the fact that we have snow this year. :)

Hubby decided to take a few pics of me while I was out playing.

The sunset to end a perfect day out playing in the snow.

This cartoon basically explains my relationship with Christ some days. Saw and loved it so much.

I am of course linking up with Jenilee. Hop over and check out her family. I am positive you will fall in love with them.

May or may not have been me.

Jenilee at Our Goodwin Journey is having a week long blog link. I knew I wanted to join in if not all of them at least a few of them. Today's topic?? Not me.

So here it goes.

I may or may not have sat down to write this post a few times and got back up as it wasn't turning out the way I wanted.

I may or may not have then decided to do the dishes from yesterday ( not me as we ALL know how clean and organized I am. :) ) and then realized during said dishes what I wanted to write. LOL

I may or may not have wrote my Christmas post this past Saturday. No never me as I would never have waited so long to write said post.

When we were snowmobiling this weekend and I was getting tips on how to carve from my hubby I may or may not have carved too far and fell off of the sled, causing hubby to laugh at me. (It is ok because I was laughing hysterically as well)

I may or may not have finally down loaded pics off of my camera and sent some family pics to my parent-in-laws, and these said pictures would not be over two months old. Nope not me, I am WAY more organized than that.

I may or may not have gone through my cell phone and found videos on there from over 2 years ago. No way not me. I always down load onto my computer and clean up my cell phone regularly  (and I wonder why I have no space left on my phone. )

On the plus side the videos that I may or may not have found were of my adorable daughter dancing. My how far she has progressed in just two short years.

I may or may not have decided this year that I am WAY too unorganized so have started to make daily checklists on stuff that I need to get down every day. Man it is amazing what happens when I make a list.

I may or may not have realized just how much I have missed blogging and how incredibly thrilled I am to be back.

I am linking up today with Jenilee. You need to hop over and read her post as well as some of the other's "Not Me" posts.

Christmas 2012

Yes I realize that it is now past Christmas, even past New Year's, actually even more than several days past the first of the year, but I am now finally getting my Christmas post up.
This year I was remiss with using my camera. To be honest I was just too busy until about the 28th.
We had our two boys home f'or the night Christmas Eve. We even had one of the girlfriend's come out and spend the evening of Christmas Eve with us.
In usual tradition, every one opened Christmas Eve gifts of jammies. Plus there is always also a family movie. This year I through a change in the usual and also gifted the family with two new board games. Qwelf and Scattergories.  Also as usual we had munchies for supper.
After the presents were opened we all sat down to watch the Christmas Eve movie. This year it was Brave. Actually quite a cute story. I really enjoyed it. Then we all decided to play the game Qwelf. Well let me tell you this was a blast.
We all laughed and had a ton of fun. I can't wait to play it again.
After that the girlfriend went home for the night and most everyone else retired. Me in usual fashion stayed up to finish wrapping presents. I promise one year I will be organized and have it all done before the 24th. One year...  After presents were done, I put french toast in the slow cooker and finished tiding up for the morning. Then I crashed. At 6 I woke up and started to get the turkey ready for the oven. At 7:30 Rob started to wake up the kids. My how things have changed. LOL
In our house first it's coffee for Mom and Dad while the kids check out what 'Santa' gave them. They are all very much aware that 'Santa' is Mom and Dad but it is a tradition that we have just never broke. This year I made them all blankets.
Then it is stocking time. After stocking time if anyone is hungry it is a small breakfast time. Ex. cereal. More coffee for Mom and Dad and now also the boys are wanting that as well. Then onto the tree presents.
This year was really nice. I had asked everyone for a list from the following 4 categories: want, need, play, and to wear. I am really glad I did this.
After that it is the brunch time and clean up time. Around 1 or so Matt's girlfriend came back out for the afternoon and the meal. Rob's parents showed up around 4. More presents each time. We were so spoiled. Then supper.
Lots of visiting and enjoying having everyone around.
Here are a few of the pics from the day that between Rob and myself we managed to capture.

Sarah and I were putting up decorations and Pepper decided she needed to help.

The boys with their blankets. You can also see Matt's homemade jammies. The boys jammies were WAY too big, but  since I was just guessing...

Sarah with her blanket.

The tree in all it's glory with a pile of presents all around. 

Sarah with her new toque cleaning up after stockings were done.

The boys chilling. Brandon wishing his girlfriend a Merry Christmas. 

Present time!!!

Matthew getting ready to tear into his gift. I think this was my favorite gift to do up this year.

Umm balloons??? Mom are you crazy?? Nope not crazy, just loving Pinterest. LOL He received American money as he went on a holiday there right after Christmas. 

Rob trying to figure out what is in this gift.

Sarah getting excited to see what this one was. This was my second favorite gift to give this year.

Mom are you serious? I really get this??

She has asked for a good camera for several years. I upgraded mine a couple years ago and Rob took it over. This winter he realized that he wasn't using it that much so we decided to go ahead and gift it to her. She was thrilled to pieces.

Rob managed to capture some of Christmas supper. His dad went off to find their camera.

OK I totally realize that this is a TERRIBLE picture of me but this way I can show off my Christmas present my new Keurig. I love it soooo much. Thank you honey!!