Dear Santa...

Two 'lost' photos from Santa that I had forgotten I had!

We still think his reaction was priceless!

Our tough little cookie :)

Merry Christmas

Can you believe it is December 24th?!  What a fabulous day :)  Excitement in the air, everyone cheerful and nice to each other, a season of spirit and love!

We want to wish all of you and your families a very special Christmas and a magical jump into the new year!  We hope your celebrations are warm and full of love!

Thank You Safeway!

Our Safeway FINALLY opened so we now have a grocery store near by - which is nice!  To add to that excitement, Tims and Shell have opened too!  Anywhos...Safeway has some pretty cool shopping carts that my car-loving-boy LOVED!  They were different than the usual car shopping cart...and it was fun!  We just buckled him in there and away we went!  He had a horn (correction two horns!  That he learned he could beep simultaneously!) and two steering wheels!  Fun Fun!

Baby Prep!

This second pregnancy has flown by so far.  In fact, last round we were waaaaay more prepared by this point than we are now!  However, we also had a lot more to prepare.  This time around it's mostly the nursery...which is still chalk full of photography equipment, unpainted, and no furniture has been ordered...but in time...in time!

We went to get a pair of PJs for Aidan Tuesday at Carters and poked around for ourselves as well!  Moose picked Baby C's (or is it Baby S?!  We haven't decided but are leaning towards Baby C!) take-home outfit!  Cute, cute, cute!  I got quite choked up looking at the little itty bitty newborn clothes!  With Moose running by my side, it really put into perspective how quickly the time goes and how quickly they grow.  Sigh.  Either way, it was fabulously fun to buy some newbie clothes for our special arrival that we are excitedly awaiting!

Sometimes with how busy we've been lately, we haven't sat back to think about, appreciate, and indulge in the excitement of Baby...and that makes me a little sad!  However, this pregnancy has been so different than Moose's!  More relaxed, enjoyable, settled!  We get to sit and enjoy watching and feeling him move instead of worrying...and it's been bliss!

 We picked up a couple sleepers and cute onesies too!  We have tonnes of amazingly cute clothes from Moose, but sometimes a boy's gotta have some things to call his own too ;)

Uh Oh - What do you do when your turkey's cooked too soon!?

So Tuesday night we cooked a turkey and had a family dinner with the Cottons!  I was all prepared.  Ready!  Until I listened to my husband who made me question my math skills!  Why do I question myself soooo easily!?  The result of listening to my hubs?...A turkey that was done two hours too soon!  Oh dear, what do we do, what do we do...

I called my mom.  Whose suggestion was one I really didn't want to follow.

I asked my husband.  Whose suggestion was one I also really didn't want to follow.

I googled it.  I thought...what the hell!?  Why not try it!

The answer...wrap your turkey in layers and layers of tinfoil and wrap in a towel!  Put it in a cooler if you have one!  I chose to put it in my microwave and randomly turned on the warming lamp.  The principal behind this was to keep the turkey on the bones while keeping it's heat.  My mom's suggestion was to carve, cover, and keep warm with some of the juices...which, from what I read, would likely lead to colder or dry turkey - not the same as the straight off the bone.  Trevor's suggestion was to keep it in the roaster on the lowest possible heat...which, from what I read, would lead to an over cooked, dry turkey with a tough skin.  So...the towel was the way I went.  It worked like a charm and I would recommend it to anyone whose ever miscalculated!  PHEW!

I told my friend Kim what my solution was...and her first response was...'you swaddled your turkey!?'!  I guess I did!

Can I just say that I had the best turkey sandwiches for dinner last night!?  To die for!  YUM YUM!

Dear Santa...

So today we hit up Santa Claus.  This wasn't our first kick at the can this year!  Our other experience ended in tears and in no photo...but Moose grew a whole few weeks older this time - and apparently that makes a difference!  The experience was so adorable!  We put him on Santa's knee and he was immediately not wanting to be there...but would not let ONE tear fall.  You could see on his face that he was using all his energy on focusing on not crying and to 'suck it back'.  Priceless.  In fact, so priceless that CTV was there and wanted to interview us after!  The kicker...we totally forgot to look and see if any of Moose's footage made it through the cut - didn't even turn the tv on all afternoon and remembered later in the evening!  Oh well...we have our 'sucking it up' photo to remember it by.  I'm so proud of him - - - he amazes me!  What a trooper!  And what a big boy!  Doesn't he look so grown up in this photo?!

Moose's Approval

Yesterday morning we took Moose down to check out the progress from the day before.  His reaction?  "Wow"!  He's so good for the self-esteem haha.  I will post the photos from the progress of tomorrow...we have to still haul out the garbage.  But we did do a lot of cleaning last night!  Big thank you to Caitlin who came and helped us clean up the basement this weekend a couple times.  We are very fortunate.  :)

Checkin it all out

Last time he'll be wearing these shoes...too tight!

Now he can sit himself on the pile! 

 He got really playful with the camera.  He likes to take his photo and see it on the screen now!

 Playing peek a boo with Dada as he came down the stairs and then flashing him his adorable smile!

 Going to give his Kia cuddles!

 Checkin out the new tool!

The boys started by taking all the steel studs out of the wall to replace them with wooden ones as the way it stood...the completed wall on the right was shorter than the 'new' wall and we didn't want to have a stupid little couple inch jut out when you came down the stairs...

Now the insulation gets to sit around until we run the electrical on that wall. 

Framing the Basement - Part 2

It's almost 10:30...and I've just climbed into bed!  As promised I took pictures of our progress!  We stayed up late cleaning up down there!  Makes a huge difference.  We ripped up the carpet at the bottom of the stairs, vacuumed, took out all the crap to Trev's truck, moved the tools to one area...and stepped back to take a look at the day's progress.  We're pretty happy with it.  Can't wait to see it tomorrow night :)

Kia trying to find refuge from the ruckus. 

Entrance to photo studio

View from coming down the stairs

The three entrances - 45 degree'd...as recommended by dad!

View into the tv room area

Spare Bedroom

Bathroom

Furnace Room

View from the tv area over to the craft/toy storage/play area

No more wall!  :)

No more carpet :)

View of little area outside studio

 Thanks for all your help Ryan & Casandra!  Hoping for another productive day tomorrow. 

Framing the Basement

We've been waiting for this weekend for a long time!  Probably too long as we are feeling antsy that this won't get completed in time.  But, life happens.  This morning was the start of it all.  We have begun the development of our basement.  Home to living space, play space, and most excitingly - my studio!  Our good friend Ryan came over this morning, tools and all, to lend a very knowledgeable hand in this endeavor...and man, are we grateful!  

Moose is LOVING this.  The noise, the tools, the adventure.  This morning we hung out down there as the boys took the wall that closes the basement in down - - - I'm sure Moose would stay down there all day...but lets be honest, its unsafe and messy!  We take him down for sneak peaks from time to time though :)

 All the lumber that Trev hauled down yesterday after it was delivered :) 

Getting ready to get rid of the wall - this part was exciting for me!

Moose was so interested.  He just watched in awe.  One day he will learn a thing or two about power tools!

The lumber pile that, last I checked, has dwindled already :)

 Those who can't help...CLEAN!

Every time Ryan used one of his (loudest) tools, Moose would turn and look at me like this...

Do you not want to eat that face up!?  He cracks me up!  I love his enthusiasm and expressions!

Down she comes :)

Starting to open things up a smidge

 I will take some photos tonight on the progress. These were taken at about 10 am this morning...so we will see what these two busy beavers get accomplished on day one!  I'm very excited :)

Thanks for all the support! 

We had Trevor's friend, our electrician, back out yesterday...he's supposed to be here in the next two weeks so we can have the drywall go up early January.  If you know anyone willing to do an exchange of service (baby's first year, wedding, etc photography packages) and can help out - - - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know as this has totally thrown a hiccup in our timeline and in our budget.  Ryan is going to help Trevor do some of it to get a head start...but it would be great to have the real deal whiz through here :)

I genuinely can't wait until this is done and behind us.  We constantly talk about how much time we will be spending down here once Baby arrives.  It will be so nice to have some more toy/play space and my own craft space, and the studio, and a place to throw our guests!  It will also be nice to have our main level back to normal; furniture in it's original home, toys in their appropriate place!  OH MY how I can't wait.