Gingerbread houses 2013

I bought a gingerbread house kit back in November as way to minimize excuses about their not being the time or energy for this activity. I'm glad we made time. Without fail, it's always a favorite for everyone. And I think this is the first year that it didn't collapse because of the humidity! We've noticed this city to be pretty dry, maybe it's just our perception, or maybe it's just a dry winter. No matter though, we had fun putting our house together. And the kids had fun snatching up candies and icing when their little fingers were quick enough. 

Atticus thought it was a great job to line up the cans for the gingerbread walls to stay in place while they dried.

And for the roof to dry.

While we waited for the house to dry we enjoyed some Christmas books by the tree. Then it was back for decorations. We each had jobs. Atticus was in charge of figuring out, based on the picture we had, where the decorations should go. Jason figured out the fondant.

Milayla sorted, and placed, the gummies. With any ones that she didn't want to put on the house heading into the lovely little smile of hers.

And I iced.

Milayla worked really hard on putting the candies on the roof. 

The bottom section is hers. She was determined to make it all orange until she ran out of orange and realized that she was going to need to add some of the other colors. Good effort though!

That smile.

The kids felt the need to quality control as many candies as possible. I think they passed the test because they kept going back for more.

It was fun. I'm glad we put in the time to do this together. It's a great opportunity for us to work as a team and put together something creative. It also prompted Atticus to talk about our gingerbread houses last year and how Aunt Keely was there to build one as well! And when we asked the kids on Christmas Eve what their favorite part of getting ready for Christmas was, this was one of the answers! So glad that everyone enjoyed it.

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve afternoon was filled with prep work for Christmas Eve dinner as well as Christmas dinner. I planned Christmas dinner this year around dishes that could be made in advance and just be warmed up in the oven (or were to be served cold) when Christmas day came. 

Spreading out the preparation allowed for us to take the preparation a little more slowly allowing the kids to have ample opportunity to help. 

One dish the kids requested was a creamy Kale and Parsnip dish that we like cold. With a garlic tahini sauce it tastes a bit reminiscent of potato salad. The kids are kind of infatuated with parsnip. It's cute. They built little parsnip forests while I chopped them up and they put the pieces into the pot. 

While the kids and I worked on the last little bit for Christmas dinner. Jason diced up some veggies for our Bethlehem dinner. Typically, I don't really take photos of Christmas Eve, but I felt compelled to take a few this year. The kids were pretty stoked about getting to sit at the Christmas tree and eat dinner.

Before I go into the loveliness of Christmas Eve dinner, I feel the need to mention the adventure we had with all our prep work in the kitchen. Jason burnt his hand - really badly. Our oven caught fire. Let me tell you, it's pretty alarming to look into your oven and see big flames inside. Milayla caught her fingers in the cupboard and had a nicely bruised finger. And I know I am forgetting some other items because there was definitely more. It was one very accident prone day. Not to mention my last minute finishing on some Christmas presents that I made. But as the sun set and evening was upon us all the accidents, injuries and stresses of the day seemed to melt away. And we were able to enjoy our evening together as we welcomed the birth of our Savior.

The meal was simple. As always. Veggies, grapes, hummus, pita bread, socca and grape juice. Then we finished our Christmas tree countdown by reading the birth of our Savior. The kids have really loved our Christmas tree countdown this year. All those hours and paper cuts to put that thing together are really paying off.

We talked about our gifts for the Savior that we started at the beginning of the month.

And then the kids opened up their Christmas pyjamas and their new Christmas book. Pretty sure this part is always a hit.

These faces are awesome.

Hugs!

We lucked out and picked a nice treasure of a book for Christmas. It's about trains and giving at Christmas. The kids love trains so it was pretty perfect.

After we read the book together and sang some Christmas songs the kids excitedly went to bed with big anticipation of Christmas Day and they both requested that we get to sing more Christmas songs on Christmas day than last year. That made my heart smile.

I would love to say that we continued our tradition of reading A Christmas Carol into the late hours of the evening but seeing as I was still getting over a sick bug I was just fine with finishing up the wrapping of a few gifts and heading to bed early. We watched A Christmas Carol with the kids earlier in the month so I at least felt fairly filled with "good will towards men" and satisfied that between that, scriptures, The Nativity, and service opportunities that the kids had their hearts filled with that good Christmas Spirit as well. And we slept through the night. It was a good night. A good preface to a lovely Christmas. But more on that another day.

Beginnings - My One Word

This week I am on assignment to put together the next Family Home Evening lesson. One would think this would be a simple task. Lately, I'm so jumbled up that even that seems complicated. Pathetic, I know.

So after a morning of playing with the kids I carved out some time to try to commit to a lesson topic while they worked together building a duplo zoo.

I prayed. I sifted through my scriptures. I sifted through Preach My Gospel then on to our Family Home Evening books and then on to a few online resources that have come in handy quite often. And I still came up empty handed. There were certainly a ton of great ideas, but nothing that resonated with me. Nothing seemed to fit.

So I told myself I was just being silly. I needed to just pick a lesson. Commit. And move on. After all, they were all good lessons. Who cared if it "fit" or not? Maybe it just didn't need to.

Then Atticus came in to show me something he had been working on. After I checked out his handy work he turned to me and asked "And what are you working on, Mommy?". And I said that I was trying to find a family home evening lesson that felt right for our family. He said "okay" and he walked away.

I thought that was Atticus' way of ending our little dialogue until he came back a few moments later with the kids' latest Friend magazine (a children's magazine published by our church) in hand with a page already open and said, "I found this yesterday and thought it would make a good lesson and activity, perhaps you think so to?". As I read the title of the article that he had opened up to it sunk into my heart and I knew that it was the lesson that I was looking for. I thanked Atticus for his help and for sharing his prompting with me and he headed back to playing with a big smile on his face.

Now, I don't know if the lesson I ended up picking was the right one because our family really needs to learn this lesson. Or if it was a chance for Atticus to learn about following promptings. Or even if it was just a chance for Atticus to help. But I do know that it felt right and I needed to follow through on it and move forward in faith that the other pieces would fall into place.

So what does all this have to do with my one word for the year? Quite simply - everything. Trying to come up with my one word went through a rather similar process. I came up with so many great, inspiring words but none of them resonated with me. Not a single one inspired me or gave me that bit of grounding and application that I felt I needed in my one word this year.

Then, one morning as I was doing yoga (my first session after a couple weeks of being quite sick) and the word came to me - Beginnings. It seemed like such an odd word but for some unexplainable reason it fit. It resonated. It put a little spark and grounding in my heart and I knew that I needed to pick it as my one word, even if I don't understand the reasons behind it.

So perhaps it will have an extra special meaning this year. Perhaps it will just be a gentle little guide as the year progresses. Whatever it is. I'm glad it fits. I'm glad it feels right.

So here is to a new year filled with beautiful 'Beginnings'. Whatever that may entail.

A New Year

December was a hard month around here. Lots of sick bugs mixed in with a ton of other stuff that just made some of the stresses of living here (like finding a doctor that doesn't have a massive waiting list..) magnified. How grateful I was that we made the decision back at the beginning of November to simplify Christmas and New Years. I think it was the first year we did not have guests. It felt a little strange. But I wonder if the strangeness wasn't due more to the fact of being in a new country than it had to do with the factor of not having guests over. Hm. Enough about Christmas for the moment though, as I will post more on that later.

Right now, I really just want to take a minute to say a big "hello!" to 2014. We sat down together as a family on our last Family Home Evening of 2013 and each decided on some goals that we wanted to tackle this year. Living in a city that has so many resources Jason and I kind of wanted to capitalize on that a bit by ensuring our goals used those resources (like first aid courses in our first language). In any case, here is what we came up with.

Jason: First aid certification. Wilderness survival course. More time to practicing piano. Get a bed (You read that right...we still don't have one. This pull-out sofa thing is getting pretty madly uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this one is really far down the list of financial priorities. Moving is expensive and so is this city.)

Laura: Learn to play guitar (hahahaha... I know our neighbours are going to love this one. Thankfully for them this one is kind of on the back burner because I need a guitar before I can learn to play one.). First aid certification (I really think all parents should have this!). Carve out some time to start French. Find more fun (and creative!) ways to introduce music to the kids.

Atticus: Learn basic swimming. Learn to tie shoes. Create and build an airplane out of lego. Create and build a boat out of lego.

Milayla: Take swim classes. Use the toilet all by herself.


We're excited to get to work. I'm also working on my 'one word' for the year (last year's word can be found here) and which principles I want to work on with the kids along with my individual role goals (like being a mom :) ). Which means that I better go and get started on that lovely thing called planning.

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year filled with many opportunities to strengthen families, friendships, and faith.

Merry Christmas

A very merry and Christ-filled Christmas to wherever you are - from our family to ours!

Please enjoy this wonderful video about the true Spirit of Christmas that we've been watching repetitively around here; the kids love it. 

Reflect. Love. Give. Merry Christmas! 

Christmas Prep

I realize this is going up less than a week before Christmas but I cleverly cajoled Jason into letting us put up the Christmas decor shortly as soon as we entered the second half of November. We had gone to Jason's work Christmas party and I cleverly used that as my window of opportunity to suggest that the path to Christmas was already open and we better gear up. Sadly, that argument alone didn't win the battle. So I reminded him of the volunteer activities we had coming up, the parties we were planning and the concerts we were performing in and putting up the Christmas decor early sounded like a brilliant idea. 

Truth be told, he probably would have been up for the idea without my clever points, but it was just fun to enforce the goodness of the idea a bit. Not to mention, the kids kind of loved getting to wait with anticipation as to when we would get to put up the decor. 

There was some serious excitement over the fact that we got a new tree this year. Our old tree was decked out with lights for the EU system and when we tallied up the cost of new lights it was nearly us much as the prelit tree we found. We debated using our old tree and having no lights this year, but seeing that we are keeping things pretty simple this year for Christmas we decided the new tree would be our special treat. I'm glad we got it. Of course, it isn't necessary for Christmas but it is nice.

And seeing smiles of excitement like these sure made it worth it.

Milayla watched from the comfort of the kids' little chair while the boys set up the tree.

Then everyone got in to help spread out the needles. We had seriously considered going and chopping down our own, real, Christmas tree this year but I wimped out. I've never had one. Seeing that I struggle to keep small plants alive, I feel rather intimidated by keeping a big Christmas tree alive. Perhaps I'll do some research and brave it next year - maybe.

Nothing like a little Schnee Spray to add some winter fun. I'm beginning to think that this stuff lasts forever.

The kids had fun setting up this nativity that we got from some friends last year. I love that it's durable. Perfect for kids. We also use the figures as little object lessons. Totally multi purpose.

Santa hat discovery.

The kids were such awesome helpers putting the decorations on the tree. We have one corner of the tree which seems to have a much denser display of decorations than the rest of the tree, but it just makes me smile because I know how hard these little munchkins worked getting those things up.

Trying on some beaded garland.

The reason for the season.

We followed up our decorating with a little treat. These pictures show one very excited little boy.

Having the Christmas Decorations up really opened up the way to get started with our Christmas shoeboxes. This is the first year we did them with the kids and they loved it. We made it a family outing to go pick out gifts for the boxes. Then the kids helped me get them all packed up the day of drop off and Jason joined us to drop them off.

I thought I had a picture of them dropping off their boxes at the drop off centre but I can't seem to find them. I'll have to add them later if they turn up. In any case, they were so excited. We had watched some videos about the countries that these boxes go to and the kids were a little sad that they don't get to give them to the kids themselves but seem to understand about it being so far away.

Seeing that this was in the wake of the devastation in the Philippines, the kids were really hoping that the boxes would make their way to a little boy and girl there. Here's hoping!

Atticus has been diligently working on a handmade Christmas present for Milayla. He picked out what he wanted to make (a finger puppet) and asked me to help him learn to sew so that he could make it. I was interested to see how well he would catch on and, even though I expected him to catch on pretty quickly, he still incredibly impressed me. I thought I would need to help him quite a bit, especially with stitching the face but after I showed him how to make a stitch he took over and did it on his own. It wasn't until he needed to do the eyes (which required a french knot) that he asked for some help.

And he loves working on it. He is so focused when he works on it and has already asked if he can make more for Milayla's birthday and for next Christmas. I guess we'll see if he changes his mind before then. I am just happy to see him so determined to make something for his sister. I love seeing him work hard at something and I know that she is going to love a new finger puppet!

I love that furrowed brow!

Look at those little hands at work!

I'll have to post a picture of the finished work when he's done. He's been working this last week to finish the final stitches to get it done and wrapped for Christmas. Pretty proud of him.

I'm kind of in love with the fact that this is the scene we sit by for bedtime books.

I'm pretty excited about how this Christmas is taking shape. We simplified - big time. We've never really done a ton of gifts but this year we are gearing more towards simple homemade gifts with only a few purchased ones. And then we had the kids help us brainstorm ways we can volunteer our time to bring joy to others. They blew us away when they came up with a lengthy list of people that we can help. It's a long list and a bit too much for us to tackle in one month so it sparked an idea; when we put our gifts for Jesus into a special red gift bag at the beginning of December I put forth the idea that we aim to help one of the people from our list (or someone else that we feel impressed to help) in a way a little bit more special than the usual, everyday kindness. We're really hopeful that this will help turn our kids' attention a little bit more to all those around us who are in need of help that we can give.

There is still some more that I wanted to get up here, but that will have to wait for another day. We've got some Christmas treats to go and make.

November iPhone

I feel like I find such lovely treasures on my phone. Like the trove of videos of the kids that Jason finally managed to find a way to get off my phone (they had a data problem uploading). And like all these lovely photos that capture these little kiddos in all those in between moments. Those are the best moments. The small details that amount to so much. 

Like these kids making use of the shoe rack while they wait to say morning family prayer before Daddy heads off to work. 

Or Atticus and Milayla helping in the kitchen. This time it was to make Cauliflower pizza crust. We finally found the perfect recipe!

And the kids did such an awesome job getting the cauliflower ready to go into the food processor. It was hard work! Just look at that face.

And the cauliflower bits got everywhere. We were all covered. It was so much fun.

And then there are our weekly trips to the swimming pool. Those little wet footprints across the change room floor make my heart smile.

And then there was the big wind storm which knocked out the power for a nice majority of the residents of Montreal, including us.

All was well, though. We had plenty of candles and the kids pulled out lego and got to work by candlelight. Atticus is going through a robot phase; he builds so many different styles of robots and comes up with them all on his own. I am so impressed with his creativity. He even thinks through all the parts and how they will use them to function - and what their specific function is. He's pretty proud. I love it.

Let's take a closer look at that beauty!

Pretty sure he's going to be needing a robotics kit sooner than we realize.

We were pretty fortunate with the power outage because the kids and I had just finished making the pizza and put it into the over (which was all ready to go). So even with the power outage, the pizza still cooked enough for us to eat! Lucky us!

While we went and found a few winter clothing items in some unsuspecting places, the kids also found some colorful dragons in unsuspecting places as well. Milayla was pretty excited when her and Atticus got to ride in it together.

This is definitely one of my favorites. We had picked up a book at the library about sights in Paris. And as Atticus and I were reading it, I was explaining to him all the places he had been to there and all the places that Jason and I had gone to together. Then he asked me if lots of people live there and I remarked that even Daddy used to live there when he was on his mission. His response - "Missionaries go to Paris, too!?". Yep, kiddo. They do. And a ton of other wonderful places with wonderful people. Then he raced to the kitchen to ask Jason about some of the buildings in the book that I wasn't very familiar with. It was so cute to see him ask questions for a nice amount of time, and they were very thought out questions, too.

And then there is the week that Milayla made it her favorite hobby to snatch up Jason's glasses whenever he left them somewhere (which is often..). Love her!

Or Atticus' idea of wrapping a gift.

That's packing tape colored with permanent marker, in case you were wondering.

Or there is the mountain of cinnamon that happens when someone (we have no idea who) accidentally unscrewed the cinnamon lid a bit before we went to add some to our muesli. Whoops!

Or these cuties reading together. It was squishy to fit into that chair but they made it work and Atticus is so excited to get to read books to Milayla with his reading skills that are progressing steadily.

And fudge babies. Yum. In the words of the kiddos - they are the perfect family home evening treat.

And the sharing of lollipops from Halloween.

And the silly faces that accompany them.

And then there are the items that Milayla decides to wear during the day. She loves to practice putting on clothes so she is always adding hats and sweaters to practice buttons and zippers. It's so much fun. She is pretty happy about her budding skills and so are we.

And there are more books. Lots of books.

Like books on the reading pillow (after Milayla ran away from Daddy and getting in the bath).

And books on the couch.

And with the Christmas tree now up, we have books on the carpet in front, and books squished into a big bed.

And the kids were so excited to get to send off their stickers for the sticker project. It is such a great project that Sharee started last year. It is an easy way for kids to help kids in another country. If you want some more details you can check --->here<--- a="" always="" but="" for="" get="" i="" is="" it="" late="" little="" next="" out="" p="" s="" stickers="" that.="" there="" think="" this="" to="" year="">

And Milayla's curiosity while we were making guacamole taught us all that you can peel an avocado pit. The things you learn with children!

I decided to cut Milayla's hair short because she likes to have it down most of the time so I thought it would be a good time to try a shorter style on her. She was a superstar while I figured out just how to cut it. I ended up doing it so that it is a little shorter in the back. She liked it so much that when the boys were due for their next hair cuts she brought out her chair for a trim as well!

And then there was the first, and only, casualty in our toilet. Atticus decided it would be a good idea to fly the toy tractor over the toilet. It didn't make it.

I am grateful for metal coat hangers that can be bent to reach into the toilet so that I don't have to put my hand in there to retrieve, particularly when this was post Milayla using the toilet (and before flushing...). Thankfully, there have been no more flight attempts over the toilet.

Yep, I love all those in between moments. They really do fill the day with good things. And always put so many smiles on our faces. Love it.