Christmas

It will be hard to top sledding (for the first time ever) on christmas day! Thanks to a crazy-huge snowfall, there was plenty of snow for the girls to play in. Alette loved sledding!



There was a large enough group up in Princeton for the girls to get their own table, don't we all remember those days. True to form, both Alette and Abria had PbJ sandwiches for christmas dinner.



Alette waited all fall to be allowed to wear her 'fancy christmas dress'. I managed to get a half decent shot of the two girls-then it descended into a wrestling match.



Abria had to try out Alette's new princess shoes too! Abria is fascinated with shoes. She is constantly pulling them out of the shoe box, trying to put them on, carrying them around the house. It is very clear when she wants to get out for a walk. She'll grab her shoes, walk up to me and bang them on my legs. If that isn't clear enough, she'll often walk over to the door and start banging. I feel like we have a puppy and need to hide the leash.



Alette got high-heeled princess shoes for christmas! Don't they look great with her painting smock?

The girls (and us) were so blessed by family and friends over the holidays. It is so easy to get caught up trying to get things done - shopping, baking, wrapping, cleaning....It was wonderful to pause for a moment and be at the christmas eve service and reflect on the true meaning of the season-the celebration of our saviour's birth. Speaking of christmas eve services, Alette had her first experience of singing up on stage-well, at least she was up on stage, I think I only saw her mouth move a couple of times, but she did get most of the hand motions in.

and the best toy was...

Laura's camera! The girls had a great time hamming it up.

She's 4!

Alette has been looking forward to her birthday for a very long time...and then it snowed and the party we had planned for the day before. She was okay with it, until her birthday came and she kept asking why no one was coming over. Thankfully Pop-pop, Gma Terry, Auntie Lisa, and Grandma all came by to help celebrate. Like every birthday girl, Alette revelled in the attention, loved opening her gifts, and could not wait to eat her cake and ice-cream. And we'll do it all again at her party after christmas.
Unfortunatley (for Alette), turning 4 also meant giving up her soother-which she still used at night. We had been talking about it for several months and reminded her of the inevitable many times throughout December. The night before her birthday she suggested hiding a soother from the Soother Fairy (I had to blame the inevitable on someone other than myself). Oh did she cry! I felt simply awful. Happy birthday, now relinquish your favorite source of comfort! I stayed in her room until she was asleep and she did wake up and come down to our room many, many times, but....it is gone :) The only soother left are the two in Abria's room and thankfully Alette isn't clever enough to realize that she could just sneak in there and grab one. We are breaking Abria of the habit a lot earlier!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We heard the reports calling for a huge amount of snow, and quite frankly, refused to believe them. After all, Alette's birthday party was scheduled for the weekend....however, it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. Thankfully, Alette's disappointment about postponing the party was alleviated by the prospect of playing in a HUGE amount of snow. Abria has loved it! She often grabs her boots, hands them to one of us, then plops down, ready to get bundled up to go outside. I'm a little less impressed by all the snow. It seems to take forever to get out the door. Then once I'm out, I'm faced with the prospect of icy sidewalks, a cold van, and two girls who always seem to walk in opposite directions. It is so sad to think that winter has only just begun.