Message From Santa 2011

Santa sent a video to Loralai again this year! Click the link to view! 

Santa's video message to Loralai

Merry Christmas Everyone. 

Dance Open House

Last Saturday Loralai's dance studio held an open house to showcase what they have been learning up until now. It was adorable! I was so very proud of everything that she has learned, and how seriously she takes the class. I was bummed because I wanted to record the entire class, except that I completely forgot that our SD card was full, and well you know how much space is required for a 20 minute video, so I did spend a lot of the class erasing photo's to make room for some video footage...and bits of video is all I got! 

My cell phone (thank goodness) did record the entire show! But bad news is I am not quite sure how to upload from my phone to my computer. Once I figure it out I will replace the bits of video, with the entire video! This video does not capture nearly enough of what Loralai has learned, and how cute they all are. 

I cannot wait for the recital at the end of the year! 

My Ultimate Christmas Wishlist!

So in our house hold Todd and I do not exchange gifts at Christmas, we basically just get whatever we need or want throughout the year. Christmas I feel is about the children, so I spend money on gifts for Loralai instead. I do however purge some of Loralai's current toys to give to Goodwill, and this year Loralai helped me find some toys that she wanted to give away to babies and little kids that need them. I was really proud and surprised about how many toys she parted with, and she was very good at considering if she still played with them or not, and if she felt that she didn't then she would put them in the give away pile.  

So although we may not exchange gifts, there are still lots of items on my ultimate wishlist, now I call the list ultimate because these items are on the rather expensive side, or something that I could not justify going out and buying on myself. So here we go:

First is the TNA Verbier knee length parka in hemp...and a whopping $295, it is unfortunately not just something that I can just casually go and purchase. But I do VERY much need a new winter jacket, so Santa if your reading this...I have been a very good girl! 

Next on my list is this Lululemon Live Simply jacket. I do have a Lululemon jacket that I adore and wear A LOT, so I thought throwing another super cute jacket into the mix would just make sense! right?! So now although this is much more affordable then the winter jacket, I did have to make a decision between a new Lululemon Groove Bag or the jacket, and I picked the bag! I basically for whatever reason move in and out of work everyday, so I need a place to carry everything but the kitchen sink!

Next is the Lululemon Astro Pant, I have not broken down and purchased myself a pair of Lulu pants yet, even with all my friends saying how much they adore them and could never go back! I still cannot justify purchasing a pair when at my local Zehrs Joe Fresh line you can get ones that look much like the above pair for $24. But of course because I wear black yoga pants so often, I still would love a pair! 

A pair of comfortable Moccasins! I could not get the picture from SoftMoc's website of the pair that I actually want, but do they just not look like a soft bed to rest your feet in?! 

I would then of course love a gift card in any amount really for the following places:

 I just love to walk around for hours in both of these places! There are so many beautiful things that I would love to buy for my home! 

I do have to say that although my husband and I do not exchange gifts, I have been spoiled by my parents (gotta love being an only child! lol) and I did get a laptop, and the Groove Lululemon bag for Christmas...but of course I am already using both of them already...did I ever tell you that I am totally an impatient person?! 

Maybe my next post will be about items that I cannot live without! :) 

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

We went to see a Santa Clause parade yesterday with our friends Maggie, Cory, and Drake, in Anten Mills. The kiddies really enjoyed the parade since it was short and sweet, they got to play, and the town had hot chocolate, cookies, and little treat bags for the kids in the town community centre after. 

We then went back to Drake's grandparents house, had some fun and good food! 

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon! 

Swimming Lessons

Another reason to love sending your child to a home daycare/preschool that just happens to be run by your cousin and your child's godmother, is that she offered to take the little kiddies to swimming lessons on Wednesdays at 9:30am at our local YMCA. So Loralai, Ian, Jack, and Jocelyn started Bobber/Floaters 8 weeks ago, and their final class of the year was last Wednesday 7 December 2011. 

Loralai's report card said that she had successfully passed Bobbers and that she could go into Floaters in the new year! Her instructor Brianna also provided some comments:

"Loralai has shown many of the YMCA core values. She always shows caring and respect by listening to her instructor and following through with tasks, to her best ability. Loralai has worked very hard this session. Her floats are looking great! I encourage Loralai to work on getting more comfortable putting her face in the water. Awesome work this session girl!"

My only complaint is that I took the day off to go and watch her last class, which just happens to also be the only class that you can bring your camera, well all they did was play the entire time.  I get that the last class should be fun, but they at least should have for the first 15 minutes had a showcase of what they have learned up until now, and then the last 15 minutes have the free play time. I mean Loralai had her Grandma, Papa, Aunt Mindy, and Mommy come to watch, and I did not get to see what she has learned so far. So I will be making a recommendation/comment that maybe they could showcase what the kids have learned so far for the first part of the class, for the parents that work, or for the Grandparents that want to watch. 

Anyway Loralai loves swimming! Here are some pictures:

The kiddies are going to start the next session on Wednesday's again in January! 

2011 Christmas Card

So now I have to admit that I do not send out actual physical copies of our Christmas card to very many people, and those people either consist of family members without computers so the great grandparents, I also give one to the grandparents, and Loralai's Godmothers, oh and Auntie Bonnie! Then there are the friends and family who live close and that I do not need to mail. Everyone else gets one via email, Facebook, and of course the blog! It is not that everyone else does not deserve a physical copy of the card, but I am trying to my part and save some trees...and I have to admit that I do not have everyone's mailing address.

I LOVE how our card turned out this year!

If you would like to be added to the list of people that receive a physical copy just let me know and  you got it! 

Merry Christmas Everyone from our family to yours! 

Dear Santa

 Loralai sent Santa an email (Santa is up with the times lol) , she told him that she has been a good girl, and that she has the following wishlist:

1. Bouncy Shoes 

2. Tea Cup Piggy 

3. Barbie Doll House 

I tried figuring out what bouncy shoes were, but I had no luck, I sure do hope Santa and his elves have better luck. 

Santa sent her this email response:

My dear friend Loralai ,

I've just finished reading your lovely email. I'm so happy that you took the time to send me a message.

I have to say that there's the most magical feeling of Christmas all around us here at the North Pole. The elves, the reindeer, Mrs. Claus and, of course, jolly old me are caught up in a whirlwind of activity. We want to make this the best Christmas ever for children young and old.

We took some time off yesterday to play some snow soccer - the elves against the reindeer. Do you know what they used for shin pads? Big fluffy marshmallows! There are very few things as soft as marshmallows, which makes them perfect for shin pads.

Well, I see that my inbox is filling up again. There are so many wonderful emails to read from great girls and boys like you.

From everyone here at the North Pole, have a very Merry Christmas. Please remember to write to me next year.

Your friend,
Santa

We went to see Santa last weekend, and Loralai went and sat on his lap and Santa was very sweet with her, and she told him what she wanted. Santa had a photographer present to capture the moment, but Loralai has this weird, pained looking, fake smile happening lately when you ask her to pose a smile, and we couldn't get a good picture that we could justify spending $12 on a 5x7 on our tight budget this holiday season. I wish they could have taken the picture when Loralai and Santa were looking at each other talking, because now that would have been a sweet, un-posed picture. 

 14 more days until Christmas Eve! 

Hair that has style!

I had been thinking about actually giving Loralai a angled bob hair style for a while now, so yesterday I broke down and we went to Latitudes Salon and Spa, and she got her hair cut!

Before - look how long her hair is!

Only half way through the cut, and just look at all the hair! 

Side profile

The final result! :) 

 My only complaint is that the cut makes her look older *tear* :) 

2011 Christmas Card Photo Shoot

There is a beautiful trail near our house, and it has been really mild considering it was the end of November  (even still now moving into early December) so I decided that it would be the perfect spot to take a prop, put Loralai's Christmas outfit on, and head over there and take some photo's! 

I am not going to give away the photo we ended up using of course, but here are some of the other ones from that day! 

I can't wait for our Christmas card to be completed so that I post it on here! 

Family Christmas Party

Well my last post was done a while ago, and warning here come the excuses: we lost our camera cord, and my computer is super slow and old! Well my wonderful father bought me a computer for Christmas, and didn't make me wait to start using it! Woot woot, thanks Dad! My husband also found the camera transfer cord this today! I am so excited because tonight I could FINALLY order our Christmas card tonight, and of course BLOG!!

Last weekend we had our family (my Mom's side) Christmas party, I was too busy holding the baby Michael that I ended up only taking one photo the entire few hours we were there! This is a picture of Loralai holding baby Michael :)

Loralai actually didn't mind that I was holding Michael, except that she did stick to me like glue, and wanted me to sit so that she could play with him.

We had a cookie exchange, a yummy potluck, and lots of quality time catching up! 

Happy Halloween!

Loralai had such a great time trick or treating this year! Last year we likely went to about 10 homes, and this year we probably went to about 35! It was just Mommy and Loralai walking around since Daddy is still working in Edmonton; Grandma Brenda stayed at our house and handed out candy for us! Loralai and Mommy had made up 65 treat bags to hand out to the kids: 1. to make it easy to hand out the same amount of treats to each child, and 2. its easy to keep track of how many kiddies we had come by our house, and this year we had 61. 

So I told her that the houses that had lights on were the ones that were handing out candy. I let her take the lead in which direction she wanted to go, and she choose which houses she wanted to visit! I did not even have to walk up to the door with her, I waited down the drive way a bit, she went up and said trick or treat and thank you to each house, although I do have to say that I did have to prompt this a few times! Loralai just kept saying after each house "where do we go next?"...so we just kept going until she asked to go home. We then got into the car and drove over to Carrie's house and went trick or treating just at their house too! 

I am just glad that it was a nice night out! It was a little chilly but nothing that a sweater and mitts couldn't solve for me, and Loralai had a sweater, fall jacket and of course her firefighter costume! 

Here are some pictures of my brave firefighter! 

 Loralai at her first trick or treat house (our next door neighbour Dean and Holly's), she even got to pick her own candy out! 

 Loralai at the "spooky" house on our street! 

and last but not least a picture of the new awesome wreath that I got on sale at Canadian Tire on our front door! 

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween as well! 

Time to sneak some candy ;)

Playing in the leaves!

We took these pictures a couple of weekends ago when the weather was a little warmer and when Daddy was home (Todd has been travelling a lot for work over the last about 2.5 months with a return date of November 26th with just two days home in between), but my cameras battery was dead when I went to upload them right away, and well because I have been a busy working single mom I have not had the chance to sit down and download them. So I took the opportunity today! :)

We miss you Daddy!

Halloween is tomorrow night, and my beautiful little girl is going to be a firefighter (completely her choice!). At dancing yesterday morning the girls were allowed to wear their costumes, well all the little girls (and I mean all) were either little princess or fairies, there was one little witch but she also had a tutu! and then there was my little firefighter! lol.

Are they not all adorable?! :)

Fun with editing!

I found this cool little online photo editing tool that makes your photo's have that vintagy feel! So I just took a couple of family photo's and re-created them! Enjoy :) 

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

We gobbled gobbled until we wobbled wobbled on Sunday! We went to Bonnie and Bills house for dinner, and spent a lot of the time outside since it ended up being a gorgeous long weekend. 

We pulled numbers for secret Santa this year. I came up with a game that will allow opening our gift cards to take longer than 20 seconds, so I am hoping that it turns out fun for everyone on Christmas day! I know it is only the middle of October, how can we be thinking about Christmas when Halloween has not even arrived yet? 

Anyway now onto some Thanksgiving day pictures...

Do you notice Loralai's fancy hat? She made it at daycare, I thought she did such an awesome job! 

We then decided to take some fun new family photo's on Bonnie and Bills beautiful backyard grass! 

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as we did! 

Introducing...

Tara Betta Fish Baker! 

(I apologize for the gross looking chalk board, but it Loralai was late going to bed, and I wanted to take the picture quickly, so I did not wait for the board to dry before I wrote on it)

On Thursday, Loralai, Grandma, and I had gone out for a Sushi dinner with our Friends Maggie and Drake; 

I had been thinking for a while that I would really like to get Loralai a fish, and since Daddy is away (working away from home for several weeks now :(  thought that it would be fun to add in another member of the family! So we went to a local fish store, and snatched up a beautiful blue and purple Betta fish, you cannot tell from the photo but she sure is pretty! I asked Loralai what she wanted to name her new pet, and after thinking long and hard, she came up with Tara (not exactly sure where she got that name from, but it works)!  We got the tank, food, etc. on the Thursday, but we went out the next day to a local Petsmart and got some accessories for Tara, you can certainly tell who picked them out! ;)

This next picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but it was too cute not to share!

Loralai with her friend Drake at the park. Just look at how she is looking at him, boy oh boy am I in trouble when she is a teenager! :)

Welcome Fall...

we are glad you are here!

It had started to get chilly, but we were lucky to get a gorgeous long Thanksgiving weekend and we got to take back out our shorts and sandals again. 

Today after Loralai's dance class, Mindy, Loralai, Todd, and I, went to Chappell Farms for a little pumpkin patch fun. We did not actually go into the farm on today's adventure, but Loralai did not notice at all as she ran around in the pumpkins, chased a rabbit, and looked at the baby chickens and goats. We got a perfect pumpkin today, but we will wait until a little closer to Halloween to paint it. 

We will be going to Rounds Ranch Farm in a couple of weeks to partake in all the pumpkin patch activities :)

Dance

"Dance like no one is watching" is one of my favourite quotes because if someone can dance without the risk of feeling embarrassment, it can be so freeing! 

But without further ado Loralai started her first dance class on September 17th! Now she has taken pre-dance classes before at Holly Community Centre that lasted for a 9 week period, but now she has started with an actual dance studio (Borden Dance), that will last for an entire dance season and end with a recital! The class lasts for 45 minutes, compared to 30 minutes with the community centre. Loralai has been taking this class for 3 weeks today and she loves it! She is so excited to go, and practices throughout the week! 

Ms. Susan Loralai's dance instructor is very nice but disciplined, she does not tolerate crying or whining in class; by no means is she mean to them, she has to keep 10 3-4 year old's attention and keep chaos from occurring, so you have to be structured! Ms. Susan has a great lesson plan, and she keeps every dance and songs age appropriate (funny little bunny, rock a by baby, the Wiggles monkey dance, etc), and the girls have fun! 

I am so proud of my little dancer because she listens very well, and has great coordination! 

Now I have to apologize because I did have the camera ready, but I did not grab it on my way out :( so all the photo's were taken with my cell phone. 

The parents were allowed to watch the first two classes, this is so that the girls can get adjusted to the new environment, etc. (although Loralai jumped right in with both feet and had no problems!) but this morning was week 3, and the parents had to wait outside the room, so now I have to wait until they allow a parents viewing day, but I cannot wait to see the difference from the first two classes!