Winter Concert: Ecole Le Ruisseau Style

Max, Sam, and Elle all took part in the Winter concert at the school this year. In fact, I believe they were all in the same number. There was a lot of dancing and singing in french so I didn't really understand. Luckily, though, cuteness knows no language!

Terrible picture, but this is Elle with Mme. Ghislaine, her pre-school "teacher". Elle loves her, but the first few weeks were touch-and-go, because Mme was "tricking" her. In fact, she was speaking french and Elle didn't understand. Herego: tricking. Anyway there is Elle, holding her "plain puppy".

Jarom, rockin' out on the keyboard…but not really. He's faking it.

So, blogger won't allow my video, but I will try again. I didn't even take pictures of the boys because we did the video. Let's hope it will work!

Girls' Weekend: 2013

I forgot to include our girls' weekend pictures from Calgary this year. These are three of my very best friends and I don't know how I get through my daily life without seeing them. So, needless to say, seeing them made my heart happy. I received my dose for the next few months, and we can get together again soon. I will say we have a real talent for getting together away from our families on the suckiest weather weekends in history. We should get a cookie or something? Or a donut from that place that we never went to… We were so happy to let these little babies look at each other, and randomly smack each others' faces. Totally adorable. Anyway, I love you girls! You're like sisters to me and I am so happy we're bonded together by our harvest half marathon memories, and the many years of school, basketball, babies, blizzards, halloween and birthday parties, and inside jokes we can re-hash every time we talk. You really are three of my tender mercies, gifts from above! 

Oldest to youngest: Ady, Ray, Grif and Scar

Just about the cutest picture ever. You missed the boot memo, Rob!

Elevator picture: FAIL!

To next time: in the summer and without frigid temperatures!

Dustin turns 32!

Dustin wanted a really relaxed birthday this year. He got his wish! His mom and dad came up the Friday night before, and when we woke up I made his favourite breakfast of hash browns, bacon, eggs, and toast. That day, we kind of puttered around the house, doing this and that. I made gingerbread dough (recipe for gingerbread and icing here) with the kids and his mom. It was way fun! We had a slight stomach bug going around the house and sadly, Dustin caught a touch of it in the afternoon so he laid down. While he was resting, Lynn prepped some delicious Thai food (he helped her make it when he got up) and we rolled out the gingerbread and baked it for a house. We made some burnt sugar syrup to stick the house together after supper. We brought the cake out and sang happy birthday (x3), and as he blew out his candles, a fire call came in and off he went! We ate some cake without him as he was gone most of the night on the call. He loved it though, and was happy that is how he spent his evening. We decided to decorate the house the next day after church. It was a nice, quiet weekend at home. We enjoyed having his mom and dad stay at our house. We are so lucky to have such supportive family.

Happy Birthday, Dust!

Best Birthday, ever!

Thanks for taking the pictures, Mom!

Dustin's side

Elle's dide

concentrating on the roof pattern

Sam's side

Max's side

Ta-DA!

Max's Baptism

Max was baptized December 7, 2013 in Brooks Alberta. We invited everyone to attend and even sent out invitations to friends and family far away. He asked his Grandma Wilson to speak on Baptism and his Grandma Wilde to speak on the Holy Ghost. He really enjoyed both of the talks! Dustin baptized him and he didn't even need to go under twice. (I'll let you in a little secret: Dust and Max practised in FHE the whole two weeks before.) Max wanted milk and cookies as our refreshment, and we were happy to oblige!

He loved all the gifts he received at his baptism: A quad combination, a "great to be eight" necklace, and tie pin from his Wilde grandparents; A scripture case and "good turn" journal from his Wilson grandparents; A clip-on tie from Sister Hanson.

We are so proud of Max. He is such a happy boy. He loves his Heavenly Father, and wants to Choose the Right all the time. He is learning the Articles of Faith, and working on his Faith in God for primary. We are working all the time on repentance and serving others. He is a great example to his little sisters and his brother. We are lucky to have him in our family and we love him very much!

Max's Birthday

2013 was a special year for Max: he turned eight and was baptized! He was so excited for such a long time. Most of all, he was anxious to be able to begin going to Cubs every Thursday night. I think he's been wanting to build a KUB KAR for like, three years. Needless to say, he was over-the-moon excited about that.

We had his party the Friday after he turned eight. We invited all of our family that was able to make it, to go swimming at the Leisure Centre here in town. Max wanted a Minecraft party, so we made a banner, and attempted a "building block" cake, but it failed.  It was so exciting to have all of his Wilson cousins there for his party. They had a blast with grandparents Wilson and Wilde and Aunties Amy and Lise-Anne. We ate pizza afterwards and a DQ blizzard cake.

Present Time!

A Microscope Science Kit From Grandma and Grandpa Wilde

Thank goodness for DQ.

Watch the gradual deterioration of the cake… Dustin told me that he would try to take over and see if he could make it work. A few minutes later he said, "Don't be surprised if what I did made it worse. WAY worse…" Then, it fell apart.

Believe it or not, it got worse after this. As in, obliterated.

A note should be made here about the weather. Max was born in December. In Saskatoon. It was -35C when we brought him home. I remember watching the smoke plumes from the hospital rise out over the stiff, grey winter sky. I thought, "how can I take my baby home in this?" Well, that night as we all went in to go swimming and get wet, the temperature plummeted to -44C. I believe later that night, it dropped to -53C. We were the coldest place on earth. So, coming out of the Leisure Centre wet, with 3 wet kids (my parents took Ady home early, thank you!) and sitting in the car to let it warm up felt like the world would cease to turn. I laughed at what I thought was so hard with one baby in SUMMER temperatures. Ha! Anyway, it was cold. Colder than cold! We made it, though, and we have one happy little eight year old.

Hallo-weinie 2013

 Here are some pictures from our Halloween this year. I'm happy to report the weather was beautiful! This is the first time in all my life that I remember trick-or-treating without coats. We were able to go as a whole family and the kids loved our neighbours on our street. It was great, and we are so lucky to have creative kids. Max was Enderman from Minecraft; Sam was a fox; Elle a pink unicorn; Ady was a spider. The Young Women auxiliary in our ward put on our trunk-or-treat, so Dustin and I even dressed up for that. We did an opening song, prayer, scripture and costume parade. The kids then went around inside the church to different rooms that were decorated like houses. Clever!

Max's helmet lights up with purple lighting around the eyes. It was a box with his bike helmet attached with zip ties, so it wouldn't fall off. That was Dustin's job and he did super awesome!

Max's lit-up face!

Yep-those are twigs from the back yard. #costumeinfiveminutesorless

That is a rainbow on that cute little face!

"What does the Fox say?"

TBT