Christmas is coming

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here again. It has sure been a busy year.

• Hannah
  • Finished pre-school
  • Finished her first dance class, complete with a recital at a big fancy theatre
  • Started French Immersion Kindergarten, complete with a really exciting first day that found her in Grade 1 by accident
  • Started Sparks
• Sara-Lyn
  • Completed her first round of speech therapy and is doing much better
  • Started preschool and dance class and seems to really enjoy doing all of the big kids things that Hannah gets to do.
• Rebekah
  • Continues to grow like a bad weed, and is starting to use a few scattered words
• Carmen
  • Continues to be active on our Community Association board of Directors
  • Has become a Sparks leader
  • Has been working with her sister and mother to build up their sweet little startup: Bedard Creek Acres

As many of our faithful readers are already aware, we have started working with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary as Foster Parents. We received our first placement within days of our home opening, a beautiful and charming little 2 year old girl, who has been with us ever since. Unfortunately, I can't say too much more due to privacy regulations, but feel free to catch me online or drop me an email and I would be happy to tell you all about her.

As for me, I haven't had much of a chance to do anything other than work for as long as I can remember. A few movies with the kids here and there, and few quick trips out of town to visit family, but otherwise not a lot new. On the topic of work, things have been good. My job continues to provide me with enough of a challenge to keep things interesting while affording me the latitude necessary for me to be an active participant in our family. Despite the sagging economy, CGI has done a lot to try and keep their employees engaged and happy, and I am happy to say that I am still glad to be working there today.

I think the single biggest event, other than essentially becoming new parents again, is that my parent's celebrated their 30^th wedding Anniversary in November, and my Sister, my aunt and I (well, Carmen really) put together a little surprise party for them back home. It was really great seeing so many of our family members and our closest family friends come out to celebrate. I want to send a special shout out to the Swartz family for helping pull the thing off and to the Yaehne family for their help and (more importantly) not whisking my parents off to Las Vegas on a last minute flight.

I am sure that there was lots more that happened this year that was blog worthy, but with facebook, twitter and more recently Google Wave blogs seem to be less and less of the place of choice for people to to stay connected. Hopefully with the new year, we can muster a new sense of commitment and start keeping our faithful few more up-to-date...

Neglected Blog

So how sad is it that it took me until today to realize that my birthday post for Sara-Lyn was only saved as a draft? It seems with all the business of life, and the convenience of Twitter and Facebook, we are never on our blog any more. Just out of curiosity, how many people are still checking us out over here? (Please leave a comment)

Happy Birthday Sara-Lyn

So Sara-Lyn is 3 now. One more of our babies who is no longer a baby. It's a little scary how fast they are growing up. We went to Calaway Park on the weekend with Katy and her family along with another family that Carmen is friends with through Calgary Moms.

For the record, my children are all absolute adrenaline junkies - Hannah and Sara-Lyn have both begun showing a major preference for the more intense rides, all of which require them to ride with an adult: ME (I have also discovered that I can't handle those rides as well as I could when I was younger...)

As icing on the cake, Auntie Kerri and Uncle Jay sent a balloon-o-gram today, and as luck would have it, Sara-Lyn was the one to answer the door

Happy birthday Rebekah

I know Rebekah actually turned one on Wednesday, but I am in denial. I don't want my littlest baby to be one already. We had cake on Wednesday for her, and she had a blast mushing it between her fingers, and then she opened a few presents on Monday. We have pictures, and I will post them soon. Just not today.

Busy month

It has definitely been a busy month for us, well more like two months, but whose counting. The holidays were great, I found them a little overwhelming this year with all the traveling we did, but it was well worth it to get a chance to visit with everybody. Hannah has been absolutely obsessed about Christmas since the beginning of December when people starting turning on their Christmas lights. Everyday she asked if tomorrow was Christmas for pretty much the whole month of December. Even on her birthday, the birthday barely distracted her from the goal of Christmas. I had hoped that when Christmas was over the onslaught would end, but it hasn't. She has been making decorations for next year's Christmas tree since the day we took this year's tree down. It doesn't matter how many times I try to explain how far away next Christmas is, she wont be deterred. I'm hoping valentines day may provide some relief. I find it hard to believe that Hannah is 4 already. Ever since her birthday it seems like she is growing up so fast, of course it probably doesn't help that I registered her for kindergarten the other day. Now I have to face the reality that in six months she will be off to school. It seems like too much for my little girl to handle. She is loving pre-school so much that I know she is going to love everything about kindergarten. She is even excited about getting to ride a school bus.

Sara has had a very exciting month as well. She enjoyed Christmas as well. In a different way then her sister though. Sara has been really enthralled with this Santa guy, even now she talks about Santa bringing her candy. Of course it probably doesn't help that Hannah is still jabbering on about Christmas. I think Sara's most exciting news for this month is that she is now officially a big girl. Complete with a big girl party at chucky cheese. We started potty training her last friday, and she was pretty much done within a week. Tomorrow will be two full weeks, and she is doing great. She is very proud of her new panties, and takes great pride in showing off the pictures on each pair. Of course Sara has to add her own brand of independence to everything, and she has already decided that she doesn't need help going potty anymore. When I try to help her she either tells me to go away, or that she wants privacy. While I am proud of her for being so independent, I just don't know if I am ready to let her handle the bathroom all by herself yet. Sara has also started speech therapy this month. It has been an interesting experience. The speech therapist was really impressed with how much Sara had improved from when she was assessed back in November. While she was labeled as severe at the assessment, she is almost into the moderate category now. It is difficult though going to the classes and watching Sara struggle so much with something that should be so simple.

Rebekah is a completely different baby from the last time I posted. Christmas was a big time for her. Over the holidays she perfected sitting by herself. she cut two teeth, and started making attempts at crawling. She still isn't crawling quite yet in the typical sense, but she is fully mobile now, she either pulls herself forward on her belly or scooches herself forward on her bum. Rebekah has also moved into the world of table food, and with a vengeance, she has become a very picky eater, and only wants what we are eating. Unfortunately she also doesn't like some of the typical finger foods you give to a baby such as cheerios, so sometimes finding her quick snacks can difficult. I pretty much have to cook a whole meal just to feed her. In the last week she has figured out how to pull herself into a sitting position from her belly, and she thinks it is very amusing to sit up and push on the bars of her crib, when she should be sleeping.

Me and Dan are doing great. I think the most important thing happening with us right now, is that we are finishing our basement. In the last 2 months we have put down a subfloor, framed in a bedroom, an office, rupus room, utility room, laundry room, and what will one day be a bathroom. We are also two thirds done the electrical. So hopefully we will be able to start putting up drywall soon, and then the fun really begins.