Let it Snow!

On Monday morning we woke up to a white blanket of snow. Our kids were over the moon excited. We got more snow in one day than we have had in the past two winters combined. 

We built a snowman, went sledding, had snowball fights, made snow angels. We spent the morning out in the snow enjoying it together. In these parts you never know if this will be the only snow of the year, so we made the most of it.

Hello there, Mr. Snowman.

It was Peter's day for a date with Dadda, so they went for a snowy walk.

I then brought the rest of the kids to meet up with Peter and Dadda and we did some sledding.

Today we took a walk around the block to a house that is very decked out for Christmas. They have a donation box raising funds for babies in need. The girls were happy to give some of their giving money to this cause, and they also enjoyed a close-up view of all the decorations. Ella is pretty excited to be able to see the lights from this house from her bunk bed.

And I finally remembered to take Silas out of the ergo for a picture. Our little guy is often sleeping in the ergo so I have lots of pictures with only 4 kids.

Snowy nature journal entry.

We also made "tire d'érable." I think when your last name is "Lafleur" this is a must on the first snowy day of the season. It is so simple and delicious. You heat up syrup and pour it onto a pan of packed down snow. Then you pour a strip of syrup onto the pan and roll it up onto a toothpick or popsicle stick. It makes a delicious taffy tasting candy.

We saw 2 bald eagles on our walk today and Ella enjoyed practicing the poem she has been memorizing.

Ella likes to make lists of what she will do for her quiet time. Spencer and I get a good laugh from reading her lists. Click on the picture for a closer look. She has been writing tons of books these days and then wrapping them to give as Christmas presents. I looked in her desk the other day and saw that she has 25 wrapped presents in there.

We typically learn a new hymn each month. For the month of December we are learning the song "Messiah" by Handel instead. It is so beautiful and I love hearing our little voices singing it around the house and in their beds before falling asleep.

The Night Before Advent

"... and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

Tonight we had our "night before advent party". We are so excited to celebrate Advent and our hope and prayer is that we keep Jesus at the centre of all we do this Christmas season. 

"The children were anxious for His Story to start,

these visions of love dancing loud in their hearts.

And God in HIs glory, and us, in Jesus Christ,

settled only for a Christmas all about Christ."

-Ann Voskamp

We drank hot chocolate and ate Christmas cookies. We gathered around our nativity and the fire and looked over our Advent book that we will be using for the next 25 days (Unwrapping the Greatest Gift - Voskamp). We gathered some branches for our Jesse Tree and looked at the ornaments that we will place on it. I am so excited and thankful for this time of year. It is a gift.

Yesterday we put together our nativity set - thank-you Grandma Jo-Ann!

I also pulled out our collection of Christmas books from our bin and picked up some of our other favorites from the library. Our girls were so excited and greeted them like they were old friends.

Spencer put up our lights today. We all feel so grateful for our new home and can't wait to celebrate our first Christmas here. After our lights were up, we went out on the street in front to see how they looked in the dark. Ella said "if we didn't live here, we would definitely include this house in our Christmas light tour."

And our girls have been in full decoration mode, their desks look very Christmassy!

We put Santa up in front of the playhouse.

We love the way our mantle looks.

My 7-year-old has her Christmas cards ready before I do. But then again, anybody who knows Ella well knows that card giving is her favorite thing to do. Grandma Jo-Ann, keep an eye on your mailbox, her first card is addressed to you.

The wonder of Christmas.

Last December we used to drive to Whalley to see this beautiful Christmas tree. Now we live here. 💕

Our library has an amazing display of Christmas trees sponsored by local businesses. Karis' favorite tree is the Eric Carle tree. She loved the book "The Hungry Catterpillar" and was excited to see all of the caterpillars and butterflies decorating this tree.

I love my little sous-chefs.

We just finished reading "The Year of Miss Agnes" as our family read-aloud. This book was so wonderful and was about a teacher who teaches in a one room schoolhouse in Alaska.  Our family identified with the book because Miss Agnes has a very similar teaching style to this momma. Some parts got me all teary. Juliette loves it when I cry during read-alouds.

We are now reading "The 24 days Before Christmas" by Madeleine L'Engle.

A family game of Sorry by the fire.💜

This girl and our globe. She is fascinated.

From Whalley to Whistler

Last week we went on a very wet nature walk to observe moss and stomp in some puddles. We love going for walks together, even when it is raining heavily - sometimes the walks in heavy rain are the ones we love the most.

I'm really happy with how nature journaling is going this year. I am keeping a journal along with the kids this year and this seems to be making an impact on them.

The "figure" skating lessons that I signed the girls up for are not quite going how I had envisioned ;)

Last weekend Spencer and I went up to Whistler for the Village Church marriage retreat. We had an amazing time listening to great teaching on marriage and we also just loved spending the weekend together. An added bonus was taking a shower 2 days in a row.

And running together is always something we love to do. Running in Whistler was beautiful.

On Monday it was Ella's turn for a date with Dadda. She loved seeing all the Christmas lights in downtown Surrey.

Grandma Jo-Ann watched these 4 while Spencer and I went away. We are so thankful for my mom. And Silas spent the weekend with our friends Jordan and Jessica. We are grateful for fabulous friends. Our kids were well loved over the weekend.

The game Sorry is an absolute hit around here these days. The girls would play all day if we let them. Grandma was the gracious participant in numerous games of Sorry while she visited us.

Karis has upped her Lego game and is making some beautiful princess houses. 

And we have some sickness going through our house this week. I am thankful for my 3 girls who are helping me care for their sick little brothers.