21 questions (year 2)

It seems that year has already flown by since I last asked Maddy these questions. Here's a link to last year's answers. She had a great time listening to what her answers were from a year ago.


1. What is something mommy always says to you? "Be careful."

2. What makes you happy? "Kisses."

3. What makes you sad? "When Mama and Papa aren't here."

4. What makes you laugh? "Tickles"

5. How old are you? "Four"

6. How old is Mommy? "I don't know. Mom, you're so big I don't even know your number. Are you 7:30 pounds? No, you're not 7:30 pounds."

7. How old is Daddy? "I don't know."

8. What is your favorite thing to do? "Art."

9. Who is your best friend? "Um...Ethan."

10. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A ballerina."

11. What are you really good at? "Art."

12. What are you not very good at? "Handwriting"

13. What did you do today? "Went to the eye doctor"

14. What is your favorite food? "Macaroni and cheese."

15. What is your favorite song? "Twinkle, twinkle little star."

16. What do you want for (holiday or birthday) this year? "Go to the carousel."

17. What is your favorite animal? "Bunny."

18. What is love? "You love somebody." What does that mean? "If you love somebody, you give them hugs and kisses."

19. What does mommy/daddy do for work? "Work hard. Mama teach and Papa works on games."

20. Where do you live? "Canada, Burnaby"

21. Where is your favorite place to go? "Oma and Opa's"

"I'm your venus, I'm your fire, close the dryer...."

So we are all guilty of this. You know, singing the lyrics to songs and not really singing the correct ones. Sometimes you know it's not the right one, but just go ahead and put something in there. Other times you have no clue that what your are actually singing is SO not the right lyrics.

Anyhow, Maddy and Ethan love to sing. Ethan's lyrics are still a bit of a mystery to us at times, or if they are not a mystery to us, they are at least a mystery to the general population. Maddy has an incredible ability to remember the words to all sorts of songs. I sometimes think that I should put her future school work to tune and she'll learn the content with no problem. There are some songs where if she doesn't know the lyrics, she'll just sing what ever makes sense to her. I wanted to remember these lyrics for her, for later on when she's older.

Song: O Canada
O Canada, Our home and nature land.
True patriot love, when all the suns come out...

Song: I am a Pizza (French version: Je suis en pizza)
Swiss cheese en pizza, swiss cheese en pizza
Avec du fromage, avec du fromage....

I'm keeping an ear out for more. As I'm SURE there are more. What I find more endearing about them all is that she sings the songs with such gusto and confidence. I love it!

Christmas in Revy

On the 27th we packed up our car and headed to Revelstoke to spend our last Christmas of the year with the Blommesteins. We got off to a very late start (10:45am) and were very worried that we'd be arriving in Revelstoke well after dark. The last part of the drive from Salmon Arm to Revy is especially yucky with many turns and a single lane highway. We decided to just stop at Subway for lunch and that saved us a lot of time. Putting Ethan in a night time diaper and Maddy's iron bladder also meant that the stop for sandwiches and one quick pee/get more gas break was all that we needed. The kids did really well considering we were in the car for just short of 6 hours. This is definitely a record for us in our "after having the kids" era.

There wasn't much snow in Revelstoke this year, but we didn't let that stop us from heading out to play. In the craziness of Christmas, hosting dinner and packing, I forgot to pull the packed bag of our snow gear out of the closet. Oopps! We didn't even realize this until right before getting ready to play in the snow. Luckily Auntie Kim was able to find some of Kaes' old gear and we improvised with the rest. We had a great time in the backyard. Josh and Pascal made an awesome "snow Mr. and Mrs. Claus" complete with sack full of toys.

Kim and Kaes

All Ethan wanted to do was to help Oma clean the deck.

We celebrated Christmas that evening with a full turkey dinner made by Pascal. I'm still thinking about those awesome veggies Pascal. Thanks for cooking. After dinner we opened presents for the kids and then played our traditional present game.

This is Pascal before dinner...

...and here he is after dinner.

Getting ready to open presents.

Kaes did a great job reading the name tags and handing out the gifts this year.

Lucky boy!

The rest of the week went by in a flash. We went swimming at the pool, sledding on the golf course and had lots of cousin time. Maddy's favourite activity was spending time in Oma's new craft room. She's already asked Josh if she can have a craft room one day. I told her to get in line. :) You and I can share one Maddy! On new year's eve Oma made Oli Bolle and this year Maddy and Ethan got to help Oma with the dough. The kids loved it! Almost as much as they loved eating them.

I was asked by Maddy to leave the craft room. I certainly had a lot more time to relax this year. Gotta love independence!

Lego was a big hit with all three kids this year.

Pure joy on Ethan's face!

The drive home was just as fast thanks again to Subway and good road conditions. Thank you to the Blommestein clan, we had an awesome time. Now that the holidays are over, we look forward to whatever the new year may bring. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas we wish you all a happy and healthy 2012!

Christmas Day

The kids were still recovering from being sick so they thankfully gave us a nice sleep in on Christmas morning. They were amazed that Santa had come the night before and delighted to see that he and the reindeer enjoyed the snacks we left. Santa did not disappoint and brought both new clothes for Taryn and a bed for Woa Woa.


In the afternoon, my family came over to celebrate. Maddy has been waiting a long time to play dolls with her cousins. The girls quickly went to Maddy's room and dumped out all their clothes. It was a clothes changing frenzy and Maddy was in doll heaven. We opened presents before dinner and the best part was all the hugs going round. We chose to just do presents for the kids and so they took turns opening, hugging and then playing.

Gotta love those kinds of reactions!

Dinner was so yummy. Turkey and the fixins' along with a traditional Lee-Young rice. Ethan was still under the weather so he wasn't his usual ravenous self. I did see him take a few bites on his own, so that must have been a sign that the food was yummy.

Fun times at the kids table

I think it was Shauna who started the Christmas cracker tradition. Here it is, still going strong. Yes, we look like dorks.

After dinner we played a game instead of exchanging adult gifts. The kids played too by rolling the dice and choosing the gifts. They did very well and no one cried when they didn't get t to keep their stash of presents.

One of my favourite parts of the evening was at the end of the game when everyone was opening the gifts. I have it on video and hope to have it uploaded soon. It's not all that interesting, I just wanted to share it was Shauna and Calvin so that they could be part of the fun.

Christmas Eve

We like to open our presents on Christmas Eve and so sticking with tradition we did it again. The only thing was that since we were hosting Christmas dinner the next day and leaving for Revelstoke shortly after, we decided not to wait until the evening of the 24th. Our thinking was that the kids would be so busy playing with their new presents that it would free Josh and I up to clean and prepare for the next few days. The pictures look like they all happen in the evening, but truth be told the kids just spent the ENTIRE day in their PJs.

Ethan, just checking that Santa's food is up to par

One last "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before bed.