From our family to yours

To show how much the girls have grown I'm posting last year's family picture with Santa.

And here is this year's.

Once again, our family got their picture taken with Santa. We did the same thing last yer because we couldn't get in anywhere prior to Christmas to get a family picture done. We enjoyed it so much last yeat that we just decided to go ahead and do it agian this year. Besides I don't think livy would sit on Santa's knee without us quite yet.

I really don't have a lot to update about. I started decorating yesterday, only a few days behind schedule. We will be getting our tree on Saturday and decorating it on Sunday. I'm VERY excited to do that. There is nothing like the peaceful feeling of a lit up Christmas tree. Also begging on Dec 1st Rob and I will start up our yearly tradition of writing notes to each other for the 24 days leading up to Christmas. This will be the 6th year that we've done this.

Well, livy is determined that I should not be sitting at the computer right now so I guess that's all for now.

family time

Is family time really becoming a lost practise? Saturday we put up our outdoor Christmas lights as a family. Rob did most of the work while the girls and I played tag and ran around acting silly. Then we went for a short walk and just enjoyed the time together. On Sunday at church a man that we do not know came up to Rob to say that he and his wife drove by our home while we were all outside together the previous day and how they thought it was such a beautiful sight to see a family having fun together. He said it's something they don't see anymore. We graciously accepted the compliment but I can't help but think, "why don't families spend time together anymore"? I know we are busy these days. Most families have a mom and dad that both work but come on! What happened to family games and movie nights. What about eating together as a family? I refused to sign Nadia up for a particular activity last year because it would mean 2 nights a week not being able to cook for and eat with my family. Family time is important to me, I think it helps bond our family together. I wish that out society as a whole would put more priority in family time. I'll even go as far to say that if they did maybe more families would stay together.

Tracy

opps

sorry about all the empty space in the post below....i'm not sure what happened there.

a couple of new pictures of my girls

These pictures were taken at the Moncton Hospital when the girls and I went to visit a friend of ours that had just had a new baby.











I love Livy's eyes in this picture. To me it's like they were caught doing something.





















I thought this picture captured the special bond that my girls have with each other.

Christmas spirit

I am so excited for christmas this year!!! i think every year I get more and more excited. I'm more like a kid at christmas then many kids that i know and the older I get the more like a kid at christmas I become! Maybe it's becuase my own children are getting older and and therefore understand the magic of christmas more each year, or maybe it's because christmas is so materialized that you can't help but be bombared with images of the holidays. I don't know what the reason is, but I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I not only love the magical feeling you get over the holidays and the true meaning of Christmas (which of coarse is very important to me) but I also love all the things about christmas the most people hate. i love christmas shopping and I love the crowds of people. I could do without the long lines (i'm not that sick!) but I love watching eveyone hustle around looking for the perfect gifts for their friends and loved ones. I love how that busy time makes you stop and think about other people and what would make them happy. I also love wrapping presents!!! I have absolutly every I've bought for the girls already wrapped this year. It's amazing!!! I am way ahead of schedule. I also love christmas baking. So far I've made shortbread cookies, gingerbread men, and fudge!!! (Maybe I could start selling it or something). I just can't wait for Christmas!!!! I'm totally chomping at the bit to get out all my decorations but I'm showing a little restraint and will wait until November 25th. I will also wait until that day to turn on my christmas music.

i don't really have much to update on the girls today. They both just got over colds and Nadia had a little break from school. She got sent home last Wednesday with a pink eye scare and I kept her home Thursday because she was up coughing so much in the night wednesday night. Friday and Monday there was no school so she got to spend a lot of time with us and it was great! Even Nadia said how much she enjoyed spending "family time" with us.

Life is good!
Tracy

Nadia's school picture

This is Nadia's very 1st school picture! Sometimes it's still hard for me to believe that she's in school now! She is doing really well in Kindigarten and so far hasn't gotten into too much trouble. Although it does seem like she's a bit of a chatterbox (not sure where she'd get that from, ha ha). She has made lots of friends and seems to be learning tons of new stuff. She can now print every letter of the alphabet upper and lower case and can spell small words such as; mom, it, is, a, he, and she. Report cards come home near the end of this month and i'm looking forward to seeing hers.

My baby is sure growing up!

Happy Halloween

Here a couple of pictures from Halloween. These are all from different Halloween parties we attended the week preceding Halloween. I still have to upload the ones from last night to my computer.

I still haven't figured out how to have my words show up above and inbetween the pictures that I post on here.

I'll try and post some more picture later this week and give an update.