Stephen's Day 2016

St. Stephen's day was spent pretty much doing nothing special! we walked Sophie in the park by my parent's house, and otherwise just lazed around most of the day!

 

 

Sophie really had a great time at the park, she loves running around! The kids also love running with her! It's time to take a few days away from blogging now and relaxing with my family!

 

Christmas Day 2016

Christmas day was lovely this year, it was really laid back and relaxed. We weren't up until 6:30 am this year! We are usually called a lot earlier!

 

The kids were so happy with what Santa had brought them!

 

Lauren's gifts

Santa came!

Dylan's gifts!

 

 

We spent the day with Derek's sister and her family, we had dinner together and played games and exchanged gifts. It was generally a very nice day! The kids had the best time playing with their cousins, and to me that is what it is all about!

 

We hope everyone had a really lovely Christmas, we are so grateful that we were able to spend our Christmas with our family and have a really lovey day! Tomorrow it's down to Waterford to spend a few days with my family!

 

~ Merry Christmas ~

Christmas Eve 2016

I can't believe it, it's finally here! it's Christmas eve!! We are so excited here - we have all of the presents wrapped and clothes laid out, everybody has their new Christmas Pj's on, and Santa is on his way with lots of beautiful treats for our little sweeties! 

Setting out our treats for Santa

All ready to head to bed after laying out their Christmas stockings for Santa...

Our family has a tradition of reading 'The night before Christmas' before we go to bed

Our other silly family tradition is to take a family 'selfie' on our way to bed! The kids were so excited they could hardly sleep. I still remember the excitement and thrill of Christmas night, I love to see them so excited!

And look who we spotted on his way, the big man Santa himself, I wonder what amazing treats we will get tomorrow!

~ Happy Christmas Eve to everyone ~

Our naughty elf

Our elf Ben had some lazy days, but here's some of the naughty things that he was up to this week!

Getting his lashes done in Mommy's salon

Making flour snow angels!

Raiding the chocolates!

He's been having a blast this year, unfortunately Mommy and Daddy forget to take photos every day, but these were especially funny ones we had to remember!

Visit to Santa 2016

We visited Santa today, but unfortunately it was only one for Santa this year, but Dylan did still oblige me with a photo.

Lauren all set in her Christmas reindeer jumper

very exiting

 Lauren truly delighted to see Santa

We had a great time visiting Santa today, although a little bittersweet for me with only one going to visit. I am going to fully enjoy every last year that Lauren likes to go, as it just goes by so quickly. It is so magical to see her face in awe and delight when she sees Santa. Christmas is so magical when they are small. I still make it magical for Dylan, and it is always special when we are together.

Our trip to Funderland

Today for our Christmas treat we took the kids to Funderland-  they were mostly indoors and you purchase a ticket that lasts for about three hours. It is very pricey I think, but there are so many rides there and food stalls that it was worth it. Dylan was able to go on all of rides (well the ones that I wasn't freaking out over) and Lauren was able to go on most of the rides, a few she didn't qualify for which made her a bit disappointed! we explained that by next year she will be big enough for most of the rides!!

A nice collection of all of the photos that I took, which isn't many actually as we were so busy having fun!

Derek and Dylan went on a ride called 'Tsunami' and well lets just say they weren't huge fans, and they weren't the better for a while after that one.. safe to say they will be avoiding that ride next year!

It was a great day and the kids said it was 'definitely the best day ever'

Christmas Tree 2016

 Today we put up our Christmas tree, luckily for me they surprised me by having the tree up and ready to decorate when I got home! I was delighted!

Of course baby Hope's decoration takes pride of place at the very top of our tree

My Mom makes bears for Dylan and Lauren, so she wanted to make one for Hope too for the Christmas tree, it is so beautiful. He is a hand knitted little bear with a halo and red wings, Lauren helped my Mom to make it which makes it extra special to us.

Lauren decorating the tree

Lauren the youngest placing the star on the tree, as per our family tradition.

Dylan placing his decorations on the tree 

This is one of my favourite days of the year, seeing the tree standing there beautifully signifying the start of the Christmas season!

~ Merry Christmas ~