A Palmer Christmas

We were lucky to get to spend Christmas in Edmonton this year at Grandma Palmer's! On Christmas Eve Nicole and Terry hosted a wonderful 'Ugly Sweater' Party with a delicious Asian food inspired dinner.

Nicoel had a gingerbread cake for the kids to help decorate. Eloise and Micheal took this task very seriously and as you can see it turned out beautifully.

Christmas Eve PJ's from grandma. So cute!

Christmas morning Elosie loved opening each gift and the asking for 'mores'. She got a new baby, a toolbox and a backpack from Santa.

By the time Elosie woke up at 9:00 Christmas morning Sam was already down for his morning nap so he slept though most of the present opening madness. When he woke up he got to have his very own Christmas and could not have been more pleased.

Here is how we spent most of the rest of the day in our PJ's relaxing.

The Week Before Christmas

Some of our adventures as the big Christmas holiday approached:

We got a new TV (a bit early due to a good pre Christmas sale at Costco) and the best part was and still is the house/store made from the box. This is Sam making his way inside (which annoys Eloise to no end) and me 'buying food' from Eloise through the window. She still asks me a couple times a day "Mom buy food" which means we go downstairs and I buy cookies, pizza, bread etc. and make sure to pay with monies and mores monies. Always fun every time.

As you can see Sam and Eloise had very different reactions to the Santa at Bryce's work Christmas party. Although Eloise talked about 'Santy' for days with found love in her eyes.

Sam stuck in the heating vent once he figured out how to remove the top.

This is an advent that I made for the kids this year. It was a fun project and I spend many hours creating...it was a real hit until the home teachers dropped off an advent that dispensed candy each day...who can beat that!

Snow Fun

We have been trying to enjoy the snow as much as we can (which means when no one is sick or napping and it is not too cold or dark) here are some of our adventures.

I took the kids out today and Sam was playing in the snow having a lovely time when I looked over I noticed that he had lost his boot and was playing in his socks...whoops!

Our first snowman. The snow was a bit crunchy so it was a small little guy.

First snow face plant of the year.

Helping shovel snow with Ethan.

This was one of the first snow days this year and Eloise was super nervous, she eventually got used to it and continued to clean the snow off all the patio furniture and toys.

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday has now come and gone but here is the story of the best birthday yet!

To start I came downstairs in the morning to a handsome husband and cute kiddies along with an invitation to breakfast. Which lead to my realization that Bryce had planned the best gift of all...him! He had taken the day off from work. We went out for breakfast at Cora's which was delicious and on to some Christmas shopping. Bryce made dinner and I got a new Kindle. Later Bryce and I went on a date to see the new Harry Potter. It was a lovely day thanks Bryce!

2nd Birthday Bash

Our Halloween baby Eloise had her 2nd birthday on Sunday. We invited our Calgary family and had fun Halloween night.

Eloise got a new table and chairs and she tried to get on them but her fish costume made this process rather difficult.

The cousins all waiting by the window to push the button on the fog machine as soon as the trick or treaters approached.

Natalie, Sarah and Hannah in their cute Dr. Seuss costumes. Eloise usually loves these girls but until they took their wigs off she would not go near them.

Eloise helped me make these spider chocolate covered brownies and she couldn't stop talking about them. While trying to blow out the candles she got too close (which you can see in the picture) and quickly jumped back shouting HOT. She was so cute and helped serve everyone dessert. We feel so blessed to have such a sweet happy daughter and can't believe that she is two.

Halloween Trunk or Treat

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year our church held a fabulous Trunk or Treat on Saturday night. We decorated our trunk as a spider web including black light and fog spraying spider pumpkin. We almost won the decorating contest thanks to all Bryce's hard work. Eloise loved going around to all the trunks, with fisherman Bryce, for her candy and especially loved feasting on it after. Sam spent the night as our live spider crawling around on his web in the trunk and I handed out candy in my spiderweb costume.

Spider Sam!

'Bishy' Eloise

Enjoying the Loot!

Carving FHE

Last week we carved our Halloween Jack O' Latern. We (and by we I mean Bryce) carved a spider pumpkin since we have chosen a spider theme for our Halloween festivities. Eloise and I made some orange kettle corn and enjoyed our treat while Bryce slaved away. All this week Eloise has asked to go outside and see the 'spider'.

Smiling Sam enjoyed the action from his regular place crawling on the floor which he is getting more and more efficient at...watch out.

Delicious popcorn!