Date with Dadda

A couple of weeks ago, Spencer took Ella on a surprise date. He took her skating. Just the two of them. She was so excited and LOVED it!

However, when she got home she asked "Mom, can you take me skating some time. You can twirl on your skates, and Dadda's don't do that :)"

These 2 are so cute!

Charlotte the 4th

Around our house, whenever we find a spider we catch it and put it in a jar. We then put things in the jar that we think would help a spider survive. And then we name the spider "Charlotte".

2015 - So far..

The girls continue to love their baby brother. There is no lack of stimulation for Peter. He has few baby toys, because he usually has one of his sisters entertaining him.

During Christmas break we finished reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". This was the first time reading this book for everybody in our family. It was amazing and led to a deeper comprehension of the Gospel. Ella was really grasping the concept of substitutionary atonement. She was very moved when Aslan died instead of Edmund, even though "he was the one who did the no-nos" and then her eyes got very big and she said "that's just like how Jesus died for me, even though I do the no nos." These conversations were sweet moments in the development of her Faith.

Merry Christmas!

Despite sickness running through our house, we had a Merry Christmas. Our poor Karis is still sick, but everybody else is well.

Some of our plans got cancelled, but we enjoyed many of our traditions. It was fun to celebrate our first Christmas as a family of 6!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Waking up to their stocking on Christmas morning. Their favorite stocking stuffer - princess chapstick!

Last Saturday we has a nice visit at Great Grandpa's. Here's Auntie Jan reading "The Gingerbread Baby" to our girls. It's a new favorite around here. Ella was very excited when she saw Auntie Jan - she said "hey, I have matching haircuts with Auntie Jan."

Sickness meant a lot of time at home reading stories, which we love. It also meant sleepless nights and a lot of laundry, I prefer the reading :)

Peter got his own copy of "Little Blue Truck" and his own little blue truck to play with. Thank-you A. Jan and U. Brian!

On Christmas Eve eve we headed out to do a Christmas light tour. You know our girls are sick when we come home with uneaten popcorn and hot chocolate. 

The girls loved the dancing light houses (the houses that had lights synched to music).

On Christmas Eve, the girls helped make a huge Gingerbread man.

Karis is a trooper. She had a horrible cold this week, but she hung in there. She spent many nights in our bed, sleeping between us. 

The girls named our Gingerbread man "Digory". He is a character from "The Magician's Nephew".

All dressed up for church.

We got home early and watched "The Polar Express".

6 stockings :) Our girls have been very busy the past few weeks making stocking stuffers for Spencer and I. My favorite was the snowman puzzle I received.

Ella and Juliette also made wreaths for all of the doors inside our house.

We picked out our gifts for Jesus from the gift guide. Ella and Juliette picked gifts for the church in Ste Rose (Québec). Karis picked the gift of water for a village without fresh water. I picked a wheelchair for somebody in need in Guatemala. And Spencer chose to donate to the Ferguson family who host community meals for youth.

Baby's first Christmas.

We went for our traditional Christmas morning jog. Ella rode her bike. And we came home to eat baked French toast.

And the huge gift for Dadda was a map. This has been in the works for weeks. One day during quiet time I came into the room to find Ella and Juju taping about 50 pieces of yellow paper together. They informed me that they were making "a huge map for Dadda". They copied the huge map we have on our wall and labeled the map with lots of country names and oceans. The first country they labeled was Guatemala. "Dadda loves Guatemala" they said. They kept it a secret right until Christmas morning.

Grandpa Rob came over for Christmas dinner. He brought the girls an accordion. We love it!

We put our final ornament on our Jesse Tree. We loved reading through "Unwrapping the Greatest Gift" and look forward to doing it again next year. 

And today we got into the finger paints from Grandpa Rob. We love to paint!

In case you were wondering how cute our niece Lydia is these days...

Peter

Peter continues to grow bigger and to melt our hearts. We have discovered that he is ticklish, especially on his lower calfs. If you tickle his lower calfs he giggles uncontrollably. I have yet to discover a better sound than a baby giggling.

The girls love going through the bin of boy clothing my friend lent us. They often find things and say "this is sooo cute, can Peter wear this today?" Today they found this hat.

We thank God for our sweet baby boy every day and we truly believe he is going to be used in big ways. We love you Peter.

Things they say...

Today was Spencer's last day of school before Christmas break.

Ella has been incredibly helpful around the house the past few months. She really thrives with the responsibility of helping her siblings. She puts Karis down for nap (she even puts her diaper on for her - and Karis prefers Ella over me when it comes to this job), she reads to her younger siblings, and she can bounce Peter to sleep.

So today while I was prepping dinner, Ella was standing in the kitchen holding Peter for me. She told me that her arms were getting "kind of tired" and asked when I would be finished the dinner prep. She then went on to say "it will sure be a nice break for us having Dadda home for 2 weeks."

Kids Christmas Program

Today was the Kids Christmas Program at church.

Ella and Juliette wore some special coats given to us by my Aunt Peggy. These coats were my cousins' coats. My cousins, Allison and Andrea, are the same age apart as Ella and Juju are.

I love the little hats that match the coats.

And Grandma Jo-Ann bought the girls some fancy Christmas dresses! The girls are also sporting their new haircuts. Ella's request was for hers to be cut as short as possible but still wanted it to fit into a pony tail. Juliette requested just a trim so that she could have the longest hair in the family. And Karis requested for her hair to be cut "just like Moriah's".

Karis' song was "O What a Special Night". She stood on the stage like a deer in the headlights. We felt happy that she had the courage to go on the stage :)

Ella and Juliette sang "Jump for Joy". Afterwards Juliette told us that she was jumping extra high because she needed to go potty. Video coming soon, also due to technical difficulties ;)

This year Ella recited a couple of verses during the program. She recited Isaiah 9: 6-7. She has been working very hard on her verses and we are proud of her.