Fun with Wawa...Mess for Mommy

Cara was over last night to get her hair done.
Well, it seems that every time Jaxon's auntie Wawa is around there is some sort of fun to be had between the 2 of them, and a mess for me to clean up.
Last night it was painting. Jaxon has wanted to paint for the last couple of weeks, and I have been telling him that we will do it when I was off for the holidays. I had not expected to do it last night, thinking that I might have some time to prepare for it...but not. It was out before I knew it, and done not too long after he was into it. He was in the bath and I was left with the clean up.
I am glad that he loves his auntie Wawa, and loves to do all these exciting things with her, but all I have to day to her is....'payback is going to be sweet'!!!

Family Fun

Curt and I both of the week off, so I thought that since we have been running around like nuts for the past couple of weeks, going here and there for Christmas gatherings it would be nice if we just had some family time.

Tuesday morning I did hair for a few people, and the we went to the city to get some new bedding with some gift cards that Curt and I got. I have been wanting to get some new stuff for a while know and asked from some gift cards for Christmas to help out with the cost. Thank goodness we had them, because before it was said and done, a new duvet cover, 2 pillow covers, 1 accent pillow, 2 sets of curtains, 3 lamps and new sheets our bill was over $300.00. Expensive...yes, but so worth it. After 5.5 years in our house we finally have a bedroom that is nice to go and spend time in. It finally looks like a complete grown ups bedroom.

Yesterday Jaxon went and spent his last Wednesday with his Gammie. For the past year my mom has been working a 5 day work week, in 4 days and has had Wednesdays off. Her and Jaxon have spent every Wednesday together, and the both loved it. Unfortunately that has come to an end as her company has told her that they will not allow this anymore, and she has to go back to her 5 day work week!!! We are not sure if this will be a permanent thing, but for know he will not have his Wednesdays with his Gammie.
Jaxon had a dr. appointment first thing in the morning and then he went and spent the day with Gammie. Curt and I spent the day relaxing around the house doing a whole lot of nothing. It was great to have a rest day after the business of the holidays, and even nicer that we did not have a 2 year old around to interrupt our rest!!!
Today we thought that we would go swimming in Hanover for some fun. The family swim was from 11:30 -12:30 so we were there for the most part of the hour. There was also a hockey tournament in the complex, and Jaxon wanted to stay and watch it. He really has a fascination for the Zamboni lately, and he likes to watch hockey with hopes that he will get to see the Zamboni do it's job. I was not much for sitting there and watching a bunch of children that I did not know play hockey, so I bribed him a bit and told him that we could go to McDonald's for lunch instead of standing around watching hockey. He was ok with that idea, so we went for some lunch and we are know home and fighting with Jaxon for him to have a nape...I think he just might win this fight as it is almost time for him to get up from his nape, which he has never had!!!

Christmas 2010 Recap

I am not exactly sure what happened to the month of December, let alone Christmas.
Our celebrations started the first weekend of December with a family gathering in Stratford for Curt's dad's family.
The following weekend, after our Christmas party we had at our place, we headed to the farm to celebrate with Curt's mom's side of the family. This year the kids did a gift exchange because there is just getting to be too many of them. All of Curt's aunts and uncles used to buy for all of the kids, which was way too much!!! This year the kids drew names and got one gift which was perfect.

Jaxon got a Buzz Lightyear potato head doll, and was in his glory. He really is not into Toy Story, but he did receive a Buzz Lightyear doll that makes sounds and lights up for his birthday, so he knew who he was and was excited about his eyes coming out (oh my!!!, he is amuzing my the littlest things).

We then headed up to Kincardine on the Sunday before Christmas to have our gathering with my dad's family. There was no snow in the air, which was a blessing because just 2 days prior to us going the road to get into Kincardine had been closed for 5 days. We might have got in, only to not get out until April!!!

Christmas eve our tradition is to spend the night at my mom and dads place, and this is where Santa Clause makes his stop. When we had wrote him our letter this year we made sure that we told him that he would be able to find us there, and that he did.
Christmas eve was spend having dinner with my 2 grandmas, Cara and Justin, mom and dad, and us. Curt's parents came over after they were done at church for a little Christmas cheer as well. The flood of gifts also started this evening as well. Jaxon was so anxious to open gifts as soon as we got to my mom and dad place because the living room was full of them. We had to wait for my dad to get home from work to start to open, but of coarse his Auntie Wawa allowed him to open one of her gifts.

He was sooo funny opening his gifts this year!!! With some of them he had to get the paper off, and still get into a box to actually see what he got....but it did not matter what was under the wrapping paper, as soon as the paper come off he was in aw. His eyes lit up and his mouth dropped open in amazement. We could have just got away with wrapping empty boxes and I think his reaction would have been the same.
After we opened our new PJ's it was time to get in them and get our treats set out for Santa and the reindeer. Jaxon has a special plate for Santa, and we loaded it up with shortbread, and peanut butter balls, and of course a carrot for the reindeer.

When we woke up in the morning the cooks were just about all ate, and the carrot had been nibbled on quit well, there was only a dribble of milk left and there was a note from Santa for Jaxon thanking him for the special treat. Jaxon carried around that carrot all morning showing everyone that Santa's reindeer had ate it. The riping then began. Santa wrapped his gifts that he left for Jaxon this year, but I think that maybe next year I am going to write him and ask him not too. It was just too much for Jaxon. With all the gifts that he got from Curt and I, from Cara and Justin and from my mom and dad he really started to lose interest once he got a few opened.

He loved everything he got, but this years big hit was the load of dinky cars that he got with a new mat for the floor to play with them on. He plays with that thing for hours, and he even got a carrying case for all his cars that he can cart around like a suitcase on wheels, and that he does. I find that thing everywhere.

After the excitement of Santa, and all of his gifts it was time to get packed up to head over to the other gammie and poppy's place for some more excitement. We got there early afternoon, and Jaxon needed to have a little rest before his cousin Reed got there and it was time to getinto round 2. He laid down for a nape and 3.5 hours later he finally decided to wake up. This Christmas thing was just too much for a 2 year old.After Reed finally showed up we were able to get at it. It was complete and under kayos!!!! Everyone got their gifts handed to them and the ripping began. I was trying to sit back and take it all in and see what everyone received, but from trying to help Jaxon with his gifts, and trying to get my own opened it was a mad house. I think that maybe next year I might suggest that we go one at a time, and let the boys open their's together. That is how we do it at my mom and dads and it is nice because you get to see what all everyone got. I come home from there not knowing what Curt had received, let alone everyone else.

We were spoiled of course!!! Both Curt's parents and mine are way too generous with their gift giving. We are very lucking to have the parents that we do, and we love that they like to make Christmas what it is.

We had dinner at Curt's parents place with his Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Randy and after we got our phone call in with the rest of them out west it was time to head home and try to organize all of these new things that we brought into our house. On the way home were were talking and decided that we need a bigger house!!!

On Boxing day I got up with Jaxon nice and early and got my tree taken down. It had to come down right away so that I could try to find room for all the toys that Jaxon had got for Christmas. When I decorate for the holidays I decorate in snowman, so I leave those up for most of the winter so for me to take down my Christmas decorations down it really only involves taking our tree down, along with our stockings and a few other things. Once I got tidied up, I decided that it was as good as time as any to get my cleaning for the week done, so finally at 3:30 I sat down, but I had my house put back together from the holiday kayos, and also had it cleaned from top to bottom.

The next day we were having my mom's family celebration, and I was hosting it. I had to have it at my mom and dad's place because there would have never been enough room in our tiny house to fit everyone, so I spent a bit of time over there on Boxing day getting thing ready for the dinner, and then was over there bright and early the next morning getting things ready. My mom was nice enough to get up and get the turkey ready and put it in the oven for me at 3:00am, thank god, and she made the turnip casserole the week prior and froze it. I had to get things set up, get the potatoes done, and the gravy, and the turkey carved...ect. ect. ect. The day went off with no glitches, and I believe that my first hosting was a success.

The kids also exchange names on this side of the family. After dinner they went outside to play but when they come it there was not holding them back any longer...they wanted to get into their gifts. They all had to wait their turn, as we went from youngest to oldest.....

Jaxon was first, and the older kids help the little ones get their gifts and let them know what it was!!!The day turned out great, and it was a wonderful ending to our Christmas celebrations. By that night I was ready to lay my head down on the pillow and not wake up until 2011, but with a 2 year old in the house we were up right on que, 8:00 am!!!

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Call to Santa

This week we have had to make a couple of 'calls' to Santa because a certain someone has been being a not so good little boy. On Monday night he spent the night at Cara and Justin's and would not take his medicine, so they had to call Santa, on Sunday we were going to our family Christmas and he would not get in his car seat...he wanted to sit in the big seat with a seat belt. I had to pull out the cell phone and dial the big guy, and then on Tuesday night when I called my mom to check in on him he was standing on the coffee table and would not listen to here. I told her that she might have to call Santa.

On my way into work this morning I was listening to the radio and they were saying how you should not threaten your kids by calling Santa to let him know that they are misbehaving!!! Ops...chalk one more mark on the board for 'bad parenting'.

Sick, Sick...go away

Well, we are know on our round to sickness # 2 in our house in the last 4 weeks. It stared with Curt being sick around his birthday, vomiting. Then a 3 weeks ago we all had a nagging cough and after taking Jaxon to emerge one day found out he had a double ear infection.
On Saturday Jaxon's cough was back, and would not stop no matter what we did for it. Finally Saturday night we took him to Emerge to see if there was anything we could get for him to give him some relief from the cough only to find out that it was in his chest and he also had his double ear infection back. We got him some medicine and within the 1/2 hour he was cleared of his cough.
Tuesday morning Curt woke up with the flu coming from both ends, and then by Tuesday night I had it the same. Jaxon was to spend the night at my mom and dad's on Tuesday night, and he did so but with the flu as well.
With Christmas only 3 days away, I hope that we are going to be clear of the flu bugs. It is not nice to be sick any time of the year, but around Christmas it is even worse. I think that our house has been through enough this year with sickness, and we wish for a very health New Year!!!

Ho Ho Holiday Cheer

We had our annual Christmas party at our place a couple of weeks ago and it was CRAZY. Curt and I counted the number of people that were there on the Sunday morning, and the total, with Santa was 39. Wow...39 in my tiny house.

Santa made is visit for the kids again this year, and brought them gifts...

(Jazlin)(Knox)(Remmi & Darrah)(Riley & Jack)(Tate)(Gavin)(Jace) (Addy)(Hadliegh)(and last but not least, Jaxon)

Jaxon talked all day, actually all week about Santa Clause coming to his house and when people started to arrive they would try to sit int he chair that Santa was going to sit in and Jaxon would let them know that they could not sit there because that is where HoHo was sitting. He was very excited when all the other kids got their gifts, and even when his come out of the sack he was pretty excited. It was another story when it come to sitting on this knee thought. He wanted nothing to do with it. Really, he wanted nothing to do with being anywhere but at least 5 feet away from Santa.

Maybe next year Santa and Jaxon can be friends!!!

Mommy's Little Helper

We were having a Christmas party at our place last week and I was getting stuff ready for the evening the night before. I had a little man that was very helpful in helping me get some treats ready, reindeer ears and all!!!

The Search for a Sweater

So, my son is obsessed with Mickey Mouse. In the states I got him 2 pairs of Mickey Mouse Christmas pj's and he has to wear them every night to bed. I also got him a Mickey t-shirt and he thinks he needs to wear it every day. I managed to find a Christmas Mickey shirt, so he know has 2 in the rotation to wear, but I am afraid that after Christmas he will be one of those kids that wears the same shirt every day because we will be down to the one again. I guess I could always let him wear the Christmas one after the season, but I don't' think so. It will be going in a box, so it is out of sight and hopefully out of mine.

Anyways, a couple of months ago I was shopping with a friend of mine and we spotted a sweater at H&M that had Mickey Mouse on it. I did not pick it up then because he did not need it.

Know that he has this obsession, I NEED IT!!! I was thinking that it would be good to throw in with his Christmas gift, but of course the store that is close to me does not have any in his size. I have called around to a few other stores and have found one in London. The only problem...I can not get there until next Saturday. The Saturday before Christmas (mad house). I have e-mail a friend that lives in London and will be indebted to him if he is able to pick it up for me. But if not, is there anyone out there that will be near a mall that I could call to see if they might have the sweater????

Santa Visit

Jaxon and Gammie headed to the city on they day together this week and went to see Santa. Jaxon has been telling us since Christmas talk came about that he was not going to see Santa, and he was NOT going to sit on his knee. Well, Gammie got him to do one of those things. She was bound bent and determined that they were going to see Santa. He pleased her by going, but would not sit on the big guys knee.
I guess trying to get a picture was quit a feet as well. They would just get Jaxon to look at the camera and then he would get worried as to what Santa was doing and would have to look at him to check it out. I am not sure how many they had to take to get a half decent one, but they managed.
I remember when Jaxon as a baby and we took him to see Santa at the mall and to get a picture I think it cost us about $18. Not sure what the cost was this year, but in stead of getting a hard copy of the picture, they e-mail it to you and you print it at your leisure. What ever happened to the days of the instant Polaroid picture that you walk away with??

So we have had some bugs at our place lately, and I think this weekend I will be spending the weekend getting our sheets clean and disinfecting.
Last week Curt had the flu, and then this week we are all fighting a cold. Yesterday I got a call from Day Care to let me know that Jaxon had a fever and was not him self. After a trip to emerge (and to my surprise, we were in and out within an hour) we are know on penicillin for a double ear infection.
Hopefully once he has time for this medication to kick in he will turn around, because we have a family Christmas to attend this weekend, and also we were planning on going to the city to get some Christmas shopping done. We don't have time to be nursing all our bugs this time of year!!! Poor little guy.

December 1st...thank god!!!

Not sure if some of you are familiar with the month of Movember, but during the month of November men are encourage to participate in by growing a mustache and raising money for prostate cancer.

Curt was on a team called the Dirty Dusters, which consisted of 12 members who raised close to $3000 for this great cause. Curt alone raised almost $500.

As proud as I am of him for raising as much as he did for the cause, I am not sorry to see his furry little friend disappeared today. That thing was nasty, and I was beginning to get embarrassed to go out in public with him.

Thank you to all of you who have donated to his cause, and for any of you that may still be interested in donating, I think that you are still able to do so by going to http://ca.movember.com/mospace/628730/ and contributing to changing the face of mens health.

Christmas is around the corner.....

Well, know that the birthday celebrations are over around our house, we can concentrate on Christmas.
I have had my tree up for a couple of weeks know, but this past weekend we did our outside greenery. As is the traditions with the Strachan's, the boys loaded in the truck on Saturday morning and headed out the bush to gather the supplies that we would need. My dad had just cut down someones ever green tree for the last week, so he dragged it back to their place and cut it up for us to use. That was one less thing that the boys had to cut down when they were trudging through the bush.
We had a garage full of ladies this year, and by the end of making our arrangements were pretty much out of everything!!!
Know we just need some more snow, and I will get a little more in the Christmas spirit and hopefully get my shopping done.

End of the Celebrations

Last night was the end of us celebrating Curt's birthday. Thank goodness. It seems to have dragged out for over a week know.
Curt's family came over for dinner last nice to celebrate. It ended up that his sister and her family were unable to make it in, and we had all this food prepared. We called up my parents and Cara and Justin from some re-enforcements, and managed to get most of it all ate up.
Happy 29th Curt!!!

November Birthdays

Well Sunday was a day of celebrations around our house. November is filled with a bunch of birthday on my side of the family. My dad's birthday is on the 10th, my mom's is on the 20th and Curt's is today (the 23rd). I had decided when Curt's grandma gave me an early Christmas present of a turkey roaster a couple of weeks ago that I would do my first stuffed Chicken for the celebrations.
Sunday morning I went over to my mom's place to get the lesson on how to stuff a bird. While I was there I also made my first maple chiffon cake, which was my dad's request of birthday cakes.
I had my grandma's over, as well and Cara and Justin and my mom and dad then for dinner on Sunday night. It was great...the bird turned out wonderful!!! We had our cake and did the celebration, and everyone went home.
After everyone left Curt said that he was not feeling well. OH NO!!! Did I poison everyone??? I was not feeling the greatest either, but I contributed it to being exhausted. Curt was up sick all night and all day yesterday, so first think I did yesterday morning was e-mail everyone to make sure they all felt ok. After getting a good report from all I chalked it up to Curt having a flu bug....fewf, thank goodness!!!!

First Sight of HoHo this Season

Saturday morning we bundled up and headed down to Kitchener for the KW Santa Clause parade. Listowel's is this coming weekend, but unfortunately it is on Saturday evening and it is also Curt's Christmas party so we will not be able to take Jaxon to see it. He will be going with his aunty Wawa and uncle Ju instead.
It was a cold day on Saturday, so we took our mittens and hats and scarfs and headed out to see the big guy in red. Jaxon was ok with going to see him, but he insisted that he was not sitting on his knee. That was fine with time around being as we were just going to see him in the parade.The parade started at 10am, so we were there nice and early. We did not take a blanket or chairs because we thought it would probably only be about 1/2 an hour or so, and we would be able to stand for that. Well, 1hour and 45min later Santa finally made his way past us!!!! After the parade we decided that we might had to the mall to maybe do a little Christmas shopping, but that did not get done. I really have not been in the mood to get my Christmas shopping even started this year, which is very much unlike me. This week I have been making a list, and I guess I better start to get some of it crossed off, because by the way the crowds were in the mall on Saturday, I do not want to have to go there in December and try to fight them any more then we did on Saturday.

Let the Christmas season begin!!!

Holiday Greeting 2010

Now that we have our pictures back from our photographer....this should be in the mail in 3-4 weeks!!!

Some of my favs

We received our family pictures from our photographer this week and thought I would share a few of my favourites.....