Merry Christmas!

Last night we celebrated Jesus' birthday with Grandpa Rob. He brought over a delicious turkey and stuffing. The girls had lots of fun with their grandpa and then after they went to sleep the 3 adults played a game of Nertz - a card game famous to the Lafleur family.

We even sang 'Happy Birthday' and blew out the candles.

Sean and Moo

We visited with Sean and Moo on Christmas eve (Juju calls them "Awn and Moo"). We went to North Langley Church for the Christmas Eve service and then had some appies afterwards.

The girls received some French books, bubble bath and bath fizz as Christmas gifts. Thank-you Sean and Moo!

Jesse Tree Advent

Since November 30th, we have been working on our Jesse Tree Advent Calendar. There is a Bible story and an ornament for every day leading up to Christmas. Each day we learned a little bit about the story leading up to Jesus' birth and the ornament is an image representing the day's story. The girls have really enjoyed doing this and took turns hanging the ornament on the ribbon. Ella reviews all the pictures after each story and has gotten very good at identifying the images. One image is a tower that Ella refers to as "the Eiffel tower"... she must be the daughter of a couple of French teachers.

You may notice that most of the pictures of Juliette show her with a big grin on her face. She now smiles on demand, and she gives a full on grin so we can see all her teeth.


Ella and Juju received some special puzzles in the mail from Uncle Marzi and Auntie Jaynie. They are pictures of the girls that have been made into puzzles. They have been a big hit around here.

Ella is also sporting the new Christmas sleeper and converse high-tops from Auntie Morgan.

Christmas at Auntie Morgan's

Last Friday night we went out to Auntie Morgan and Uncle Jesse's to celebrate Christmas together. We had a delicious homemade macaroni and cheese dinner and the girls received some great gifts from Auntie Morgan and Uncle Jesse, including matching pink converse high-tops and matching pink sleepers. Grandpa Rob and Zoe the cat were also in attendance.

Christmas Get-Togethers

We went over to the Reed's last week. The kids exchanged gifts and the adults played Jeopardy after the kids went to bed. Hudson got Ella and Juju each a new French book and the girls gave Hudson and etch-a-sketch. The kids and adults had a very nice visit.

Ella proudly displaying her block tower.

Ella compte

Ella loves to learn new French words. She has some new French books and has been expanding her vocabulary. She knows a few French songs and can count to 10 in French. Here is a video of her counting in French.

A visit with Natalie...

On Friday, we went for a walk with Laura and Natalie. Natalie is 11-months-old now and she is such a sweet baby.

After our walk, they came over and the girls played for a little bit while Laura and I went through some baby clothes. While we were going through the girls' clothes, Ella decided to see if she still fit into one of her 12 month dresses. It was a little short, but she fit into it. When I told her it was too small, she looked at me and said "I'm just wearing it for a joke". Some of the things she says really make me laugh.

A visit at Hudson's house

Last Wednesday, Melissa watched Ella and Juju while I did some errands. The girls were very excited to visit Hudson at his house and when we arrived we saw that Hudson was happy to see them too. When we came in the door Hudson was running around saying "Ella, Juju, Ella, Juju..."

Visit from both Grandpas!

What's better than a visit from Grandpa? ... a visit from two Grandpas! Today both Grandpas came to see Ella "Jump for Joy" at church and then we had a visit afterwards.

Juliette was sleeping for most of our visit, but she woke up in time for a good snuggle before the grandpas left.

Grandpa Clark brought the girls some great new books for Christmas. Thank- you Grandpa!

Pictures from Uncle...

Here are some more great pictures from Uncle and Jaynie's last visit. Thank-you Uncle!

Jump for Joy

For the past several weeks we have been working on a song called "Jump for Joy" for the Kids Christmas program at church. Ella has been very excited to practice her song at home with Juju, but felt a little shy on stage in front of so many people. We were very proud of all the 2-year-olds for their first appearance in the Christmas play. (Ella's good buddy Jonas is in the white sweater).

Above is the video of the church performance, and below is the video of one of our practices at home. Way to go Ella!

Happy Day

One of Ella's favourite songs is Happy Day and it is one of the first songs that she sang on her own. Juliette loves this song as well and has started to sing it as well. Here is a video of Juju singing Happy Day.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Yesterday we went to Home Depot to buy our Christmas tree. The highlight for the girls was riding in the cart that looked like a car and came complete with steering wheels. They will be sad next time we go to Costco and have to settle for a regular cart.

We chose a very small tree this year, but Ella describes it as a "huge tree".

Tuesdays with Hudson

Hudson spends the day with us on Tuesdays. He is so much fun to have around. Hudson says lots of words and is even starting to put a couple words together. It is so fun to watch him grow.

When it's time for Hudson to wake up, the girls love going to get him. They continue to enjoy playing the hand game together. Every now and then, Hudson wakes up before Ella and Juju are up and he is quite disappointed that it is just me coming to wake him up. He points towards the girls room and says "Yella, Juju."

Uncle Marzi and Auntie Jaynie

Uncle and Jaynie came to visit us last weekend. We had lots of fun and the girls were very excited to decorate a gingerbread man they brought for them. Jaynie is going to be an official "auntie" to the girls. Uncle and Jaynie are getting married on January 21st. Congratulations Uncle Marzi and Auntie Jaynie!

More Reading

Here is a video of Ella and Juliette reading on the white chair. Maybe Juliette got tired of Ella grabbing the books from her and so she decided to dive off the chair. Nobody was injured during the making of this video.

Reading Time

Ella loves to "read" books. Juliette loves to do whatever Ella is doing. Lately the girls have been spending lots of time reading together. They love to share the white chair and flip through their books. It is so cute to watch.

As of a few weeks ago, Ella no longer takes a nap. When she was taking a nap in the afternoon she would really struggle to go to sleep at night, it seemed like she just wasn't tired. Then she stopped napping during nap time. She would sit awake in her crib and sing songs or would ask for a book to look through. We decided to try 'quiet time' instead of nap time. To our surprise, it has worked out really well. The rules are that she needs to stay in her room, and she is not allowed to break anything. I go in and check on her after about an hour and she usually has a stack of books on the floor and tells me she would like "a little more quiet time please". Some things we have learned the hard way (such as not leaving the container of wipes in there), but for the most part quiet time has been a great thing for Ella. Also, she is tired at night and goes right to sleep and often sleeps in a little more in the morning!

Laps

Here is a video of Hudson and Ella doing laps around the ottoman. Hudson, Ella, and Juliette will often do laps for long periods of time... once I timed them and they did this for 20 minutes. They find this activity very entertaining. Every now and then one of them will switch directions and then find it hilarious when they almost run into somebody.

Changing Diapers

Ella's baby has been keeping her busy. She is constantly having to go upstairs and get her a clean diaper. The baby often "does a pee, a huge poop, and has a red bum".

Reading to Juliette

Here is a cute video of Ella "reading" to Juliette.

Grandma Jo-Ann

Grandma Jo-Ann came to visit us this weekend. She spent some great time with the girls and they were disappointed not to see her when they woke up this morning (her flight left early). Ella said "where did Grandpa Jo-Ann go?" and Juju said "amma, amma?"

We went to White Spot with Grandma and had lots of fun colouring and eating eggs!