January Re-cap

Emma got a new coat from her Auntie Trixie!

Ready for church one Sunday. Andrew's starting to want to spike his hair more often now. Here we go...

Shovelling In January one day, wearing t-shirts the next and then temperatures really dropped to minus 40 windchill. Yikes. Weird winter weather this year!



Mom and tots skating on Mondays. Isaac is starting to get the hang of it but loves hanging out on the bench with his friend Gavin eating snacks and playing cars as well.

This one is getting too big for her stroller and apparently doesn't find the moms conversations too interesting while they skate in circles.

The boys often ask for hot chocolate which is actually like cool chocolate milk by the time they drink it. Often I'm boiling water then adding ice cubes.

Starting to train Emma to do laundry. Can't wait till she learns how to clean the bathrooms!

Classy girl. High heels and Tonka trucks. That's how we roll around here!

Boys playing chess.

Nothing like maneuvering around bikes and mini buses to play hockey. That's how you learn to control the ball/puck I guess.

Unbelievable that it was that mild a few weeks ago.

Mrs. Webber is one of Isaac's speech teacher's. She loves coming to our house as much as we love her coming. A bit of an adjustment telling Luke that she is now Isaac's teacher.

This storage room is my nightmare. Grrr....I've been slowly purging and getting rid of stuff. So much stuff, camping, furniture, clothes, pools, fans, bikes, weight benches....etc.

Sam

Andrew

Lego and I have a love/hate relationship. Can you guess why?

Handsome Sam. Love those eyes!

6 of us went on a road trip to Edm. to surprise Dwayne (Ken's brother) for his 40th b'day. It was so much fun!

 

That was our January!

More December Fun and a great start to January!

 

Andrew snowboarding at the cabin.

Jet tub time with Emma. She loved it. I thought she was going to drown she was so excited!

We took the 2 oldest skiing as part of their Christmas gift. Ken and I shared a pass and took turns.

Our 5 little blessings are growing up.

Grandpa's sled.

Emma's sled.

I was hauling around well over 100 pounds of kids and sleds. Great workout.

 Skating at the Birds of Prey with friends.

 My latest project. A crib from the thrift store for Emma.

 She sits in it more than her dolls but oh well.

 This lasted long enough to take the picture and then was devoured.

 Daddy and his girl!

Mama and her baby boy!

 New year's with friends.

 and our 15 kids.

 12 boys and 3 girls. All the girls were in bed at this point.

 Then the fireworks began.

 What a show!

 

A record we went to bed at 3am. Not bad for us old folks!

Family Joy over the holidays!

 The annual Leffers get together at the school. Sports and appetizers this year.

 Emma had a pretty big stick to handle.

 A pool full of us.

 Ken's brother Dwayne and Hailey and Brennan

 Cousin Bradley.

 Cousin Jason.

 Aunty Den.

 Games with Grandma at the cabin.

 Grandpa making olibollen.

Andrew sampling! 

 Cousin Curtis and Andrew

 The wonderful cabin!

 Kelsey showing us her latest crafting projects. Making bracelets.

Aunty Ang and Andrew and Sam going for a few runs.

Gifts and stockings!

So we as a family have made some of our own Christmas traditions. One of them is that we choose a different morning to open gifts then Christmas morning. On Christmas morning we go to church and after church sing some Christmas carols. Our aim is not to focus on gifts on Christmas day but to focus on our Saviours birth. We still do gifts but don't do the Santa Claus thing either. The kids are still really happy and excited to receive a few gifts but to also hang out with family and do special things together as a family.

 

 

In the kids stockings we buy a new pair of pj's for each of them, a Christmas tree ornament and sometimes socks and underwear.

Ken also makes a trip to the thrift store and picks out specific books for each of the kids.

We take turns opening our gifts and as you can see sometimes the kids help each other unwrap.

Lukey got a new puppy. His old one the stuffing was coming out of and when I tried to fix it I overstuffed it and it was pretty stiff and constantly was leaking stuffing.

Our poser got an awesome jersey from Nana and Papa.

Wow lots of pink this year. A Miss Kitty sleeping bag for Emma and  a pink car.

Andrew got a ski helmet and goggles.

Sam got some goggles too and a lego set.