Guess what?!

Claire has a special announcement to make...

We are excited that we will be adding a new member to the family in July! God has definitely blessed us!

So much Snow!!!

We have just survived our first Candaian snowstorm. I feel like I deserve a blue ribbon or something! I haven't seen this much snow since maybe 1998, and I'm not sure Tennessee was hit with this much then. Anyway, the fun started on Friday afternoon and didn't stop until sometime late Saturday night. It is hard to know how much we got, but I would say it is close to a foot. We still have October's snow on the ground, so everytime it snows it just adds to what was already there.
Claire has enjoyed the storm. She has watched Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast and Charlie came back from the store with Snow White today. He said he thought it would be good to have three movies in the rotation, but I know he just wanted to watch Snow White again!
I am  glad we were stuck in all together on the weekend. I would have worried if Charlie had tried going to work. He said the roads were really bad in our neighborhood....so even snow tires have their limitations!

This is the view out our upstairs window before we went to bed last nigh.

Gus, on the other hand, hates the snow. He has been sent out to potty and a few times in the last couple of days and he couldn't make it hardly down the stairs. He just turns around and looks at you like why do you put me through such misery? Poor dog...
Charlie tried to help him by digging him a trench this afternoon. It even has two different routes! So, if he decided he would rather potty by the side of the fence....now he has options!

Checking everything out.

Don't you wish you had a nice trench to potty in? Ha!  

I now have a TWO year old!

Claire's new love lately has been Sesame Street. It's funny because I thought for the longest time that she would never be able to sit still and watch a tv show, but suddenly she can stare with her mouth open for an hour at Sesame Street. So, what theme would be better for a birthday party?
We celebrated the night before we left with family. It was so much fun, and I have never seen Claire so excited! She went on and on about her birthday cake and her cousins coming and how she wanted to tickle them! Isn't that funny?

Can't celebrate without an Elmo cake!

After the guests had arrived, we ate dinner together. I got the joy of sitting at the kids table this year. Just so you know, you could only sit at that table if you were a boy or a girl. Whew! I am so glad I fit into one of those categories!
Then, we headed downstairs to open presents. I admit that Charlie and I were a little worried about the presents. We had already packed our suitcases and weren't sure if we could manage to fit anything else into them. But, we have smart family members. Claire got many clothes, small toys, and things that collapsed flat.

The tent was a huge hit!

After we had destroyed my parents living room, we went back to the kitchen for cake. My SIL took lots of pictures of everyone posing with Claire.

Claire, Mommy, and Daddy

Claire and her cousins...she had stopped tickling them for the moment!

My parents with Claire.

Charlie's parents with Claire.

Claire with Auntie and "G"

Claire and her Great Grams

It was a great party! Claire stayed up way too late and by the time she was in bed, we gave up the thought of ringing in the new year at midnight. Instead, we toasted at ten o'clock and went to sleep. Charlie and I had to get up at three (yes, THREE!) to be at the airport for our first flight. Thanks to all the family that joined us to celebrate Claire's special day!

And we're back!

We are finally back in Canada after a wonderful 18 day vacation in Tennessee with family. I had missed being in the United States and thoroughly enjoyed going to the places we don't have here. Some places I couldn't wait to go to were...
1) Target! Oh how I missed Target...
2) Zaxby's- the big zax snack was calling my name!
3) Chick Fil A....I just wanted a chocolate peppermint milkshake...and it WAS good!
4) Gymboree...and don't fall on the floor when I tell you that I managed to not buy anything! I know, it surprised me too.
5) Pal's!!!!!!!! I know many of you will not have heard of Pal's (they are an east-tennessee thing) but they have the best hamburgers and french fries and milkshakes.

So, it was a good trip. And not just because I got to go to those 5 places...but because seeing the joy on Claire's face when we arrived at the airport and she took of runnnig as fast as she could to her cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandparents was priceless! We decided that we owe all of Claire's familiarity with her family to skype. It has truly been a lifesaver!
Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to share with you. Charlie's jaw just hit the floor when I told him I only took ONE picture while we were there. But, my SIL is a super photographer and she captured every moment! So as soon as I have the pictures, I will recap our fabulous trip.
Today is Claire's second birthday and we had a nice day together. She is now watching her new favorite movie, Cinderella. She has spent all day singing happy birthday to herself!
I hope you all have a very happy New Year! We are happy to welcome in 2011 and see what our next year in Canada has in store for us. We already feel so blessed to have friends, a home, and be attending a great church. Happy 2011 everyone!

Bethlehem Walk

On Saturday we took Claire to a Bethlehem Walk. We heard about it on the news and wanted to check it out. We were really thankful to have gotten there early, because the line was crazy long! Anyway, the whole set up for the event was really impressive. And it was FREE! They just asked for donations to Edmonton's Food Bank. We took three cans of food, and at the end we wished we had brought the whole pantry...our contribution just didn't seem to be enough.

We were ushered into a big room where we were told what to expect and what to do in case of a fire. Then, a shepherd came and led us into another room, which was supposed to be outside of Bethlehem. Claire was excited because there were sheep!

Suddenly, angels flew in and announced the birth of baby Jesus!

Then, we went through the city gate into Bethlehem. It was just like you would imagine a bustling marketplace in those days. Claire really enjoyed the generosity of the "townspeople." By the end she had a piece of leather and soap and had eaten a bisuit and lentil soup. The soup was really good!

Roman soilders...

A Bethlehem petting zoo?

Claire got to pet a bunny. I love those soft, cute bunnies!

Okay, so you know I HAD to ask the innkeeper....I just couldn't resist...so I said, "do you have any room in the inn?" I just wanted to hear him say that the inn was full!

Proof that there was no room in the inn.

We then went outside to the stable. I have to admit that when Claire looked at the baby and said, "hi Jesus" it was an emotional moment for me. "Joseph" said, "Jesus has been waiting for you to come so he could see you!" So sweet....

The real reason to celebrate Christmas!

I couldn't leave out the llamas!

Then, we went back into the church and were led in groups of 8 to a table to eat cookies and drink hot chocolate. There were carolers too!

Guess who loved the cookies?

This was the perfect activity to get us in the "CHRISTmas mood!" Merry Christmas everyone!

Jingle On Christmas Parade

On Sunday we went to the Jingle On Christmas parade. One nice thing about living in a cold place is having an INDOOR parade! The parade went through a mall downtown, which was really something to see. We ended up sitting near some stairs and there was a ramp set up for the parade to walk down.

Pre-parade entertainment.

Yeah, the ramp caused a little chaos!

Claire liked the dancers. It was funny because all of the different groups had someone using a wagon to pull their boom box down the ramp. Most of the music skipped when they bumped off the ramp at the bottom. Oops!

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police captured the Grinch!

I really want to see Claire dance in a parade one day...I can hardly wait to make those bows!

And then a Halloween float. Really? Halloween in a Christmas parade? Weird!

And scary Halloween people in costumes....even more weird!

But the best part was the dogs! Claire loved the dogs! And they were really sweet and gentle.

Finally, after two hours of this parade....the grand finale. I said, look Claire!"

Claire is looking...

And I said, "Santa! Look Claire! Here comes Santa!" And no joke....Claire said, "Mommy hold you!!!" Good grief. She has only seen him once and she is already scarred for life.

Maybe if he had given out more candy canes....

Festival of Trees

Whew! Things have been getting a little busy here. I'm still not sure where the last few weeks went. Wasn't Thanksgiving just yesterday (and I'm talking about Canada's Turkey Day in October!)? Anyway, last weekend just added to the business when we decided to pack in a couple of Christmas activities. I love Christmas activities! We rode the LRT (subway) to the Shaw Centre to see the Festival of Trees. They had been talking this event up on the radio and we were curious to see what it was all about.

Claire liked the Polar Bear display.

The festival had a lot going on. We decided to try letting Claire sit on Santa's lap first. A lady in the lobby gave us free tickets, so her generosity saved us four dollars! Anyway, Claire made it all the way to the front of the line before she starting screaming bloody murder. In the end, we got a picture of her on MY lap. Of course, now that it is all over she likes Santa because he gave her a candy cane! If you ask her what she wants from Santa, she will now say, "candy!"
After that trauma we went to the children's hospital area. There was a bunch of different learning activities here. Claire didn't understand most of them, but I was impressed with what the area had to offer. There was listening to your heartbeat, giving Elmo an IV, looking at xrays, sewing a teddy bear up, and getting a fake glitter cast on your finger.

Look at my fake glitter cast!

She walked around just like that until she realized the cast slides off. It was pretty funny!

Sewing up a teddy bear.

Next, we went to get hot chocolate and a cookie for a dollar. My favorite part! Sometimes it is nice to have a toddler. Claire didn't want her hot chocolate, so I got extra!
We watched some dancers perform and then looked at a few of the Christmas trees.

This one was covered in butterflies!

I really liked this glass tree!

Sorry about the terrible pictures on this post. My camera hates dim lighting. Anyway, before we left we attempted to get a family picture. Thank you to our friend who got nominated for the job!

I think we will be going back to the festival of trees again next year. It was a lot of fun!