Christmas 2011

Another 'better late than never post'!!


Back over Christmas 2010 we all were at Dad & MA's and we all said that Christmas 2011 would be a quiet Christmas and that it was highly unlikely any of us would even make it home at all. Well as the year progressed plans gradually changed and there we were all at home for Christmas 2011!!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas and as the kids get older it just gets better and better:) We also got to see a lot of extended family this year which just added to all the fun. The weather really made this Christmas holiday hard to beat as you'll see from all the outdoor pic's, it was so warm the kids were outside almost every day and even the evenings were warm enough to allow some of the sugar rush of the day to be run off.

The kids and I headed out a bit early for Alberta and got to stay in Calgary with Auntie Keli for a few nights and see some good friends in Calgary. The Cyr's were such great hosts (despite us waking them ALL up on our arrival) and we had a lovely time on some fun playdates with Kristi and Christy. Next time I hope to be around long enough so that we can have time to do the playdates but also time enough that the Mummies can have their own date too ;-) A visit with the kiddo's around just isn't quite the same - but Kailie sure loved every minute and Kolton was always happy to come along for the ride too.

Then we headed North to see Papa & Gramma and soon after Joel met up with us and the rest of the family made their way to Papa & Gramma's as well. We sure fill up the house (and the garage / hotel!!) with our kids and everything that comes along with that (which is A LOT) but Gramma especially takes such good care of all of us and Papa is happy to play and play and play!! We always have so much fun coming home and always leave with such amazing memories.

Our family is really so richly blessed and as the kids keep coming the blessings just keep multiplying (so do the night time wake ups but hopefully that's only temporary)!!! Here are the pic's of our Christmas. Not sure what next Christmas will bring but for now we'll enjoy these lovely memories of Christmas 2011.

As soon as the hat was on we all had to call Kailie "Santa" - she's the cutest little Santa I've ever seen:)

Kailie & Maya on the first of many Justin Bieber trips (or Beaver as the kids call him)! Keep scrolling to see who JB is . . .

Kailie & Papa working on the gingerbread house - lots of creative work and creative snacking!! ;-)

All Done - lots of fun!

Papa's great swing - who says you can't swing in the winter?!!

Look at my big girl - Papa's turn to hitch a ride on the sled!!

Fun in the sun and snow:)

Dance party in the kitchen! Gramma was a real super-star . . . she first made the house SO beautiful for all of us, then worked all day most days we were there, would come home and make sure we were all taken care of, finished off all her Christmas prep around work hours . . . and STILL had time to kick up her heels with Kailie!!

The newest members of the family.

Kailie & Asia really played SOOOOO well together over the whole holiday - it was a lot of fun to watch! "Mummy & Baby" was by far their favorite game!

I'm sure it will be just a matter of time until these two cuties are playing their own games too:)

Great Big Sisters!

Love Her!

Here's the creative eating I was talking about above . . . . !

Time for church - not the best pic of them in their Christmas outfits but as good as we could get:)

JUSTIN BIEBER!!! He came right to the house for a visit (and some carrots)! The kids just loved this little donkey and as he's just down the road from P&G he had many little visitors over the holiday:)

Best Christmas Pressie Ever!

Sisterly Love!

She stole my Chinese Gift Exchange Gift . . . one day I'll get that pretty shirt back . . . . !

The Boys! Kolton has to get a bit older but Chase finally has a boy cousin to play with.

All the Grandbabies - pretty much an impossible task to get them all looking!

Such fun on their First Christmas!

So many pressies to open up - such lucky kids!

Ahhhh - so nice to see how they get along!

Both smiling!

More smiles :)

Oh Chef Stefan - lots of fun cooking up the bird!!! We're so lucky to have such a talented Chef as part of our family - we REALLY feasted like kings and queens!

Sweet little Maya got one of the most favorite gifts (amongst the kids anyway)! She loved it - such a classic too!

Joel & Papa led the crew in making a great Frosty - something Kailie never gets to do in Bermuda!!

My sweet little monkey had a really great 1st Christmas.

Our Christmas Feast!

Dessert!! Ok - no I did not eat all these goodies, it just took me a long time to decide which one (or two . . . or three) I wanted! There are some GREAT bakers in our family - so hard to choose!

Little Princesses:)

This is what happens when we don't bring enough winter clothes for Kolton - he had to borrow Savannah's!!!! Sorry bud - you are not going to be impressed with this one when you get older:)

Disney Cruise - November 2011

This is another post that I’ve been meaning to do for so long but finding the time to deal with SO many pictures has not been an easy task! This post may have a record number of pictures and it is still just a small sample of all the pictures that were taken on this trip – we were having so much fun we couldn’t stop snapping pics, and that was when we remembered to take out the camera!

Back in November we went on a highly anticipated Disney Cruise with Grampa and Janis – and even though we had a bit of a rough start (as soon as we got on the ship Kailie promptly told us she wanted to go straight back to Bermuda, I think all the people and ‘deck party’ were a bit overwhelming!) we ended up having an incredible time.

Disney sure knows how to handle families and it was such an easy vacation as everyone was out with their kids and ready to have some fun . . . and thanks to a great nursery (for Kolton) and some great baby-sitters (for Kailie) there were also some adult-only area’s that Mummy & Daddy had the opportunity to explore:)

It was a very unique vacation and perfectly suited to what we wanted, all the fun aspects of Disney (for K&K of course!!) without all the hassles / line ups that you get at the amusement parks. Kailie was great buds with all the Disney characters by the end of the trip as we could never go too far without having to stop and say hello to one of them.

The pictures will tell most of the stories we have to share, so get comfortable because there are a lot!

We are already planning when we can go again . . . .

This was one of the very first 'characters' that Kailie saw! We were so excited to see that the ship was all decorated for Christmas, it was a great way to launch us into the holiday spirit!!

Best part of the holiday was just all the time we got to spend as a family. All too often on our holidays we are racing from place to place, but the cruise just forced us to slow down and enjoy each other - not that we had to look far for something to do though, everywhere we went there were activities for everyone, our particular favorite were the 'dance parties' we'd often come across - Kailie can really boogie!!

Lots of hugs for Mickey and his gang:)

Our wait staff were just amazing and clearly loved getting (or forcing!) all of us into the Disney spirit!

Family Pic!

It's too bad this picture is so dark but I had to include it as it just shows that no matter what we were doing we were having fun and Kailie was making new friends! This was while we were waiting in line to meet the Princess Entourage! Kailie would have waited for hours as she had as much fun waiting in line with her new friends as she did meeting the Princesses!

The boys! Kolton was actually smiling just a moment before we took this!

Princess Kailie!

My sweet girl:)

The whole gang! There were even a few people on the ship who knew what team shirts we were wearing ;-)

It was so great to have Grampa and Janis along for the fun, and they were such a great help with Kailie and Kolton - Grampa was even willing to take on Lamby ;-)

Kolton's first time in a high chair and he could just see over the table!

He LOVED it!

The guy who took care of our room was incredible (Filindro) made Kailie at least two towel animals every day, it was amazing!

If you look closely one of these little monkeys isn't quite asleep! We were never the first to breakfast in fact we often were the last, but we sure loved our lazy morning cuddles.

Sometimes it was hard to get anywhere as there was always 'someone' to say hi to!

This was the highlight of Mexico - in between all our barter-shopping we stopped for lunch at a local spot off the beaten tourist-track that had come highly recommended by a couple of the shop keepers. It did not disappoint (and none of us got sick)!! The food was amazing and it was so authentically Mexican we just loved it (the yummy margaritas we sampled were excellent too)!!

Family pic at our yummy Cozumel restaurant:)

Kolton's first Coke!

Lots of good food and good fun.

Back on the ship - this is Kailie in one of her Mexico dresses. The Mexicans really know how to do pretty dresses and of course the prices were amazing for these hand-made pieces.

I would have to say that Chip & Dale were Kailie's favorites - I think it was because there were two of them and one of her, she loved the attention she got. We were sure to visit these two whenever we got the opportunity!

My two babes just as we left Mexico.

This guy was very cool - he made a "Kailie-Bear" bracelet and Kailie was practically sitting on his lap while he did it! Joel really demonstrated his keen bartering skills here too, when the guy suggested $5 Joel quickly countered with $8 and then paid him $10!!! It was actually a bit sad to see some of the incredible work these guys did and then to hear how hard some people would bargain down, while my dear Joel didn't get us many deals to write home about he did a good thing by paying a bit more of a fair price for some of their hard work:)

Kick off to Pirate Night on the ship! Thanks for the cool hats Janis!

Another look at my fav Mexican dress for Kailie.

We couldn't visit the Caribbean without getting the braids, Mummy even joined in and had a few done in her hair:)

Pirate Night in full swing:)

My Princess turned Pirate!! Couldn't tell you who had more fun this night:)

Peter Pan taught Kailie how to 'fly' down stairs - Mummy was not too impressed with this trick . . . .

Kolton wasn't awake for nearly as many character visits as Kailie was but he did get a few kisses from Minnie!

Castaway Cay - Disney's own island! The characters were out in full force for some island fun:)

Lots of fun at the beach - I think we were here for longer than we've been at any beach in Bermuda! It's amazing when you're in holiday mode at the things you'll do!

This was our highlight at Castaway Cay - Kailie got to go on a bike ride and loved every moment of it!

Wish we could have fun bikes like this in Bermuda. Oh and in case you're wondering Grampa got a major lecture from Miss Kailie about not wearing a helmet!!

Posin' with Daisy!

The view from our room as we sailed out of Castaway Cay.

One last towel buddy!