Our 1st Anniversary with Isaac!

Early Christmas gift.

Yesterday Avery came home with a Christmas gift for us that she made it school. It was a cook book that her class put together. This was Avery recipe.

Some of the other recipes include:

How to make a bologna sandwich.

How to make beans (out of the can)

And many more wonderful recipes.

Just too cute.

Gotta love Christmas cookies.

Isaac patiently waiting for the Christmas cookies to come out of the oven.

Three weeks ago Cameron came home and told me that he had to do a speech for school. I had these horrible flashbacks of when I was in school and my stomach turned into knots and I though I was going to be sick. My nauseating memories of speech day were shoved to the very back of my brain and in one little sentence Cameron had them all coming back full force. My heart ached for him.
I decided to keep my memories to myself since I didn't want to instill a sense of fear in my nine year old and Cam and I took the bull by the horns and sat down to write his speech. He chose to speak about snowboarding.
This past Monday was speech day.
I dropped Cameron off at school and helped him carry all his snowboard gear in. Just as I was leaving Cam looked at me, he was pale white, and told me he thought he might get sick. I gave him a ton of encouragement and then left him to the wolves. I think I was more nervous then he was.
I picked up a very relaxed Cameron from school that afternoon. He was so glad it was OVER.
Tuesday Cameron comes home, a ball of nervous energy. His teacher pick him out of his whole class to present his speech to the entire school. I was so unbelievably proud of him.
Well today was the day. Cameron was up extra early this morning. He must have recited his speech twenty times before heading to school.
Mike and I were both able to go and watch him in the gym with the rest of the school. He was sooo nervous. As his turn got closer the more nervous I was feeling. I even grabbed Kleenex before going in case I cried (well not in case but for when I cried).
It was finally his turn.
My baby got up in front of a hundred people, head high and chest out, and did a flawless, loud and clear, perfect speech. My eyes are filling up just telling you about it.
We are so very, very, very proud of him.

Check out the new Avery!

Beautiful, isn't she.

Ok, so I know I'm going on and on about the snow but its just insane here. I would really be ok with all the white stuff if it was January...but its November.

Here is a pic of my wonderful hubby in his efforts to clear the driveway. He has been out there for over an hour and a half and the driveway isn't even half cleared. I hope Santa is seeing all this. Avery on the other hand could not be happier.

Can you say "HOLY SNOW"

This is what we woke up to this morning....about a foot and a half MORE of the stuff. This is a picture looking out our back patio door. You can really see how much we actually got, and this is just since last night (the deck was shoveled yesterday afternoon). CRAZY.

I sure hope that Santa brings me the snow blower I asked for.

Snow,

Yes we have a lot of it and the kids are lovin' it.

Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

I had my moment of silence today....did you.

Avery is 7!!!!!

Where did that time go? Wow.

Avery had a great birthday this year. It all started last Wednesday when grandma took Avery, Cam and their cousins horseback riding and then back to her house for pizza and cake. The kids all had a great time riding the horses and talked about it all the way home.

Then we went to Great Wolf Lodge this past Thursday and Friday. Grandma took Isaac for the two days so we were free to hit the water slides as much as we wanted. We had a fantastic and exhausting time. We crawled into bed just before ten last night and everyone here is having a very lazy day today.

Av, Cam and cousin Tiernan. This was Tiernans first trip to GWL and he loved it.

So this is a picture of Averys birthday present from Nana. It's a remote control tarantula. It's a little smaller then a dinner plate, it's all hairy, it's ugly........and Avery LOVES it. Isaac had the honour of meeting the spider this morning and he is horrified of it. Avery was making the spider chase him around and he just couldn't get away from the thing fast enough.