Photo updates

I'm sure lots is going on, but I thought I'd just sum it up with some new photos.  Enjoy!

Amy making a snowman.  This was taken at Sherrie's colleague's house on Sunday - we had a weenie roast in their backyard.  Seems that most people have fire pits in their backyards and have weenie roasts as social events, kind of like the winter version of a social barbecue that we have in the summer. 

The finished product.  See the mohawk on him?  cool.  (editor's note:  I have no idea why this looks like a hyperlink.  can't seem to make it normal text)

Sherrie shoveling the shnow.  tee hee.  

A beautiful scene at our friend's house.  The girls were playing in the snow just to the right.  I think Amy's in the treehouse too.

There they are!  

Erin in the snow

Do you know about Sadie and sunglasses?  She's got two pairs and most mornings won't go to breakfast without them on.  She finds the lights in the house too harsh when she first gets up, and must have her shades on at breakfast! 

Ok ok no problem figuring who made this snowman.  What can I say?  He's already melting in this photo, his right hand was holding a snow skull originally....

Some more Steve art:  you know that hard snow you have to chip off the driveway?  I thought I'd make something out of it one afternoon.  This is known at our house as 'the obelisk'.  I'm quite proud of it, actually.   It stands about four feet high. 

Erin's photography

Erin got a digital camera for Christmas.  Here are some of her shots:

Deer on the sidewalk

Sherrie at the table

Amy

Paul, Christmas morning

This one's got a funny story to it.  I give her photography assignments, for which I pay her.  The deer is one of those, it earned her a loonie.  The next assignment was to photograph a sunset.  As we live in a valley, they're not visible to us here so I told her she'd have to bring her camera with her whenver we drove somewhere and hope that she would get one.  Instead, she went through her books and found a sunset picture and photographed it.  Smart.  I think Sherrie put her up to it.  It got her another loonie anyway.

HNY

We've had a great holiday and have probably spent a third of it cleaning up the flotsam and jetsam from the excessive partying.  Here are some highlights:

• Too cold to really do much outside with the kids (without as well, come to think of it) so lots of time was spent visiting with folks, playing games, and generally doing low-key indoor stuff
• Paul (Sherrie's brother)got to the ski hill only twice.  Once it was open (because the temperature had risen above minus twenty) and once because they let him walk up it to give 'er.
• The girls got tons of presents, from Santa, us, and family back home in Ontariario.  Thanks everybody!  Sherrie tells me we were making up for the rather lame present scores they had over the past few years, but I actually think it was much better to see them so happy with not as much stuff.  
• I got an XBOX 360!  WOO HOOO!
• The required turkey dinner was a success, but I was more impressed with my creativity in the days that followed:  Turkey Tacos, Turkey Tortellini, Turkey wraps, Turkey soup....
• My mom and Paul seemed to have had a great time - Mom would probably say her highlight was seeing the girls and us, and Paul would say it was playing Risk at Shane's place.
• The holiday was truly magical for the girls - they had so many great times that I can't possibly count them.  They just loved having Paul and Nana over, loved seeing their friends outside of school, and loved all of the excessive goody eating and present unwrapping.

I must apologize, as I wasn't nearly as diligent as I should have been with my camera over the past couple of weeks.  Same reasons I wasn't posting on the blog, too, I suppose - just having a blast with the fam.  Regardless, here are some photos that I did manage to take:

Here we have some kids from the neighbourhood playing in the basement with some of ours.  There was a lot of that going on this holiday - the place was often a shambles with all of the toys scattered everywhere.  

Paul at the ski hill, Misery Mountain.  Ask him how appropriate THAT name is....

My mom and Paul on one of my attempts to get them outside - a photo taking excursion.  We got a couple of nice shots, but not that many.  That's the river in front of them.  The ice was moving very fast.  

She often shouts "SUPER SADIE TO THE RESCUE!!!"  and It's really cute.  There's Amy knitting too - something she learned from Nana this holiday.  She's made Howard a scarf already!

Ah yes, Paul's highlight, playing Risk at Shane's place.  That's Shane there on the right.  

Present opening.  It was around 8:30 am, but that's how dark it is up here at 8:30 am.  The plastic boxes are for the girls to keep their hauls tidy - great idea Sherrie - it really worked!

I never knew my mom was so apt at playdough creating!  Here are some of her animals that she made while doing play dough with the girls:  a snake, a bird of some sort, and I think a mouse.

Well, with the holidays coming to a close, I hopefully can get back to doing this regularly.  Thanks and keep watching!

Steve