Christmas Morning & New Years Eve 2009!

As mentioned, Gord had to work on Christmas Day but he didn't have to leave until 12:30 pm so he got to be home when the girls opened their gifts! Here's a collage of present time!

Since a bunch of the Deputies were working on Christmas Day, Gord asked if I would please make some Pulled Pork for their Dinner that night. Some others were bringing Meatballs and Garlic Mashed Potatoes and other yummy items! So here's a picture of Gord's Christmas dinner!! Apparently the pulled pork went over very well!!!
New Years Eve we did something a little different this year. Cheryl and her family came over and we had a game night! I thought we may play multiple games but apparently Apples to Apples was a hit and we played it for over 3 hours!! It was tons of fun! I think that it looks like Katie is talking a little trash in this picture!!
Check out the two Goofballs in the bottom right corner in this pic!!
And no, that's not Callie's beer in this pic!!
I had a nap this afternoon just in case I was expected to try and stay awake. Believe me, it's a struggle every year!!! The S Family went home before midnight and Gord was tucked in early because he had to work the next day but I did end up making it to midnight and so did the kids! Emily headed straight to bed at about 12:03 and Katie ended up setting off the Alarm but we won't go into that here!!

Happy New Year and I hope 2010 brings Health and Happiness to everyone!!

Christmas Eve Dinner & Outtakes!

Things were a little different at Christmas around here this year. Firstly, we had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve because Gord had to work on Christmas Day. Secondly, it was very quiet.

This is about the 4th year that we have included Cheryl and her family in our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations and it just wouldn't be the same without them!

This is the first Christmas without my Dad and I definitely missed him at Turkey carving time. Gord does NOT carve the Turkey and the job has therefore always fallen upon me with my Dad's guidance. Terence gave it a try this year for the first time and you can read about it here.

Since my Dad was gone my brother invited my Mom to fly to Germany and spend Christmas with his family. My Mom and Dad have spent many Christmas' with us and I thought it was only fair that we shared her for at least one year!!

She left on December 15th to spend 1 week in Germany and then they left for two weeks in Egypt. They spent Christmas in Egypt and then will fly home to Germany for approximately 1 week and then she will fly home on January 15th. I think that this is exactly what she needed this year!!

We ended the evening with a family picture and I thought it would be fun to post some of the Outtakes from that. Please keep in mind that I was only playing with my camera at this point and they are not meant to look good yet. I am trying really hard to master taking pictures without my flash and it takes me a really long time to try and get the right setting. Usually by this point everyone is getting antsy and I give up and switch to Flash.

The one with the Big Red Blob in the middle is me trying to run for the picture. I had set the self timer on the camera and thought that 2 seconds might possibly be plenty of time. Apparently not!! We switched it to 10 seconds after that!!!!







Still more posts coming!

So much for Blogging!!

I feel like all of my posts of late have started out the same way!! I haven't Blogged for a bit and I'm not sure exactly why. I think that Facebook is part of it. I have uploaded some pictures there and I was sick for awhile and had absolutely no motivation. I think that December is the first month in a long time that I have not posted anything. I will try and do a better job!

Way back on November 21st Emily's Soccer team had an end of the year party. We traveled way up North to the Matsqui Recreation Center to go swimming. If you've never been there it is an awesome place for the kids to swim. It is a wave pool, it has diving boards and water slides and is just plain fun! I didn't really get any pics inside the pool that worked out because of the lighting but we did stop for dinner at Bob's in Sumas on the way home and I got a couple pics there. This is of Emily, Emily and Abby drinking hot chocolate and there's one of Katie too!


On Thanksgiving Day we started out with a children's program at the Church. Emily had a speaking part and did some singing. They always put on such a nice program and it's fun to watch the kids sing.

Emily's friend, Callie is at the mike on the left and this is a picture of all of the kids that participate.
We then headed home to start dinner. We were fortunate this year that Gord had the day off and we had a much smaller group this year ~ only 15. The kids had fun working on the wishbone a couple of days later!
On November 30th the girls had their Rededication ceremony at Girl Scouts. Here's Emily with her leaders.
Emily got a chance to light the candles as part of the ceremony.
I am very proud of Katie. This year in Girl Scouts she has moved up to Cadettes and they really encourage the Girls to take a more active role in planning and implementing their meetings. This is very hard for some Leaders but Katie is lucky and she has a really good one that is doing a fantastic job of supporting the girls. Katie emceed most of the ceremony by herself and definitely enjoys taking these roles on. As some of you know, Katie is in one troop (Cadettes), Emily is in another (Juniors) and then I lead another troop (Juniors) at a totally different time and place. We also have Brownies and Daisies that meet at the same time and their leaders need assistance so Katie has essentially taken on the task of being a co-leader for the Brownie Troop. She really does a fantastic job!

This takes us to the end of November and I think that I am going to stop there for now and tackle December in a post or two in the next couple of days. I promise!!

What we've been up to!

Once again, its been a bit since I've posted but I had the time to update today!

This year, for the first time, Katie decided that she didn't want to go Trick or Treating and since Gord was working there wouldn't be anybody home to hand out candy, she opted to stay home and do that. She did a great job with the kids and seemed to enjoy it. Emily got invited out for a party first and then to go Trick or Treating with them. Emily's the witch in the purple!
I'm including the next picture, even thought it's not a very good one, since it was the 10,000th picture with my big camera. I got my camera in May 2008 so I've taken 10,000 pics with it since then. I just wish that my 10,000th picture was a much better one!
Katie had her first band concert of the year the other night and they did a really nice job. Unfortunately I never caught a picture of Katie but here's the 7th Grade band as a whole!
I know that it's not the kids' birthday until December but I tried to be proactive this year and think about their birthdays much earlier. Unfortunately it wasn't earlier enough and all of the weekend slots were already taken so we decided to take advantage of no school on Veteran's Day and have their party then. We invited about 27 kids between Katie and Emily and I think that there were about 23 kids that ended up coming. They were a wonderful group of kids and everyone seemed to have a good time!

Gotta love Costco cake!!
I found some funky candles for the cake and they worked out well!
Gord helped me light them.
Katie and Emily blowing out the candles!
Here's the group shot although I discovered after taking it that there were still a couple in the changing room and they had all skidaddled before I could retake the picture!
Last night was Emily's Father Daughter dance for her school. Gord was able to take the night off in order to attend. This was taken right before they left. Emily looks so grown up!
Gord got Emily a very pretty corsage for the night!
Boogieing the night away!

Gord was having a great time!!

This was taken as the night was ending. They both had such a great time!

Here's a picture of Emily with her friends at the dance!

Before I end the post I need to express an area of concern in the neighborhood. Gangs have moved in and I think that they're about to take over the neighborhood. We now have the Scooter Gang! I'm scared ~ how about you??!!

Clarkenhoven Christmas and more meets!

This past Sunday (which just happens to coincide with Canadian Thanksgiving) we celebrated the Annual Clark Christmas! I managed to grab a picture of all of the grandkids with Nana and Papa.

Katie & Emily loved their new throws that they got from Auntie Pat along with all sorts of other gifts from other Aunties and Uncles!

Last Thursday was another beautiful fall day and Katie had a Meet out at Nooksack. She shaved more than a minute off of her time to get a Personal Best time for herself.

Unfortunately it's hard to be a Mama cheering and taking pictures at the same time so the next two are all I ended up with. Katie prefers to wear her hair down and I think that they turned out to be cool pictures anyways!

Now, a week later, today's meet was at Cornwall Park in Bellingham. We lucked out with the weather again and it was dry and warm. Katie didn't PB today but she was only 5 seconds longer than last week and this was a more difficult course so I think she did really well anyways!

This picture was near the beginning of the race.
This one isn't focused real well but she was just coming out of the woods and ahead of her friend Morgan.
She's just about to step over the Finish Line. Congratulations Katie!

Tidbits and Summer Sleepover Extravaganza!

I just downloaded pictures off of the camera and I found a couple of old ones so I thought I would add it to this post. The last day of Camp was Wacky Day and this is what Katie wore to Camp!
You might remember when I posted here about my cousin David getting married in Japan last year. Well, David and his wife Etsuko welcomed their first baby this week! His name is Kai. Here's a picture of them in the hospital.
Gord is taking part in the Ragnar Relay again this weekend and Katie is vacationing with her friend Haley in Lincoln City, OR so that left Emily and me at home by ourselves. She decided that it was a good weekend to have a sleepover and me being the crazy fantastic mom that I am agreed to have a 6 girl sleepover!!

Here's the distinguished group! They were not happy with me because they were looking directly into the sun and apparently it was really bright!
After eating and getting settled we headed off to the local swimming pool for some water fun! They wanted to relax in the hot tub before we left!
And of course you must get the silly picture too!
After swimming, we headed back for some banana split/ice cream sundaes!
Then they settled in for Popcorn and an American Girl Movie.

Around 11:00 I shut off the TV and lights and rounded them up for bed! By morning time most of them had ended up sleeping upstairs!

We played a game of greed with gifts that everyone had brought.

We had pancakes, bacon and orange juice for breakfast and then they watched the other movie, Open Season 2. By this time parents were arriving for pick up and I now have a nice quiet house!!