Easter

We again spent Easter in Canada this year and as usual we had the Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.  Aunt D helped with hiding all the eggs.  The girls had a blast looking for all the eggs, even though I forgot their Easter baskets at home and they had to improvise.

On Sunday morning we all went to church and when we returned Q was fast asleep and Y, after waiting several hours, couldn't wait any longer and wanted to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.  

We took them on a wagon ride to the park where, among other things, Y enjoyed pushing Q on the swings!

We weren't able to get photos of the girls in their Easter outfits because Q was fast asleep and Y didn't want to stay "dressed up" for that long, she wanted to go out and play.  So we took photos at a later date, but since I'm writing this post after the fact, here they are:

Can you tell that Y is a lil' diva already?

Christmas!

 On Christmas Eve we baked and decorated sugar cookies for Santa!  Aunt D and Y were very creative and thus their cookies came out a lot prettier than mine.

Q, while she couldn't really help us decorate all the cookies, she did more than her fair share of eating them.  She managed to find the perfect spot around the table we were using to decorate and each time I looked at her she had a different cookie in her hands (and mouth).

In the late afternoon/early evening various family members started to arrive.  We ate, laughed, played a had an all around great time just hanging out together.  Aunt S recently bought a new camera and she was able to take lots and lots of great pictures!

We put the girls to bed, and shortly thereafter Santa arrived...

The girls (mostly Y) woke all of us up bright and early to head down stairs and open all the gifts.  They did a pretty good job of waiting until everyone was gathered together before they started.  Here's a photo taken amid the chaos.

It snowed a little on Christmas Day but the next day (Boxing Day in Canada) we were walloped!  We had read one report on Christmas Day that told us we'd get several inches at home (Michigan) but only a couple centimeters in Canada so we thought we'd try to head out early.  However, the following morning when we checked the weather reports we read that the snow wouldn't begin until later in the evening with a 1 inch accumulation and the rest coming later in the night, so we decided we'd be safe leaving after dinner.  And then the snow started falling, and falling, and falling and we realized there was no way we were going anywhere!

Y begged and begged to go out and play in it but we hadn't brought along any snow gear.  So we finally settled on placing plastic bags over her feet and socks (to at least keep her feet dry) and then letting her wear her NON-snow boots out.  Luckily Nana B. is really short so she was able to fold the legs of her snow pants up a few inches and make a few quick adjustments at the waist and Y was able to wear those out.  She attempted to run in the snow, she fell in the snow, made snow angels in the snow and build a snowman with Nana B. (which actually looks more like a snow duck).  All of these while Q and I watched them outside of the window.

Uncle L, knowing that Aunt D wasn't feeling well decided that he would go out and brave the freezing cold temperatures to build a snowman for her.  Coming from Peru this was the largest accumulation of snow she had ever seen, and she was too sick to even play in it :(.  But luckily for her, there will surely be plenty more opportunities!

Meeting Aunt D.

B's brother, L, was married in July 2011 - just days before Q joined us.  Shortly after they were married L returned to Canada to start college and D remained in Peru (her home country) while they began the visa process.  They lived apart for 15 months before her visa was finally granted.  She arrived in Canada on November 9, 2012.

We (especially Y) were so excited to meet her so we planned a trip up to Canada the following weekend.  She is truly a doll and we are so very lucky to have her join our family.  Y absolutely adores her and she can often be heard talking about her or asking to call and talk to her on Skype or even on the telephone.  She is wonderful with children, so it's really no wonder that the girls came to love her so quickly.

Having left my own family after getting married I can understand how difficult it is for her to be so far away.  But my own distance from my family is small in comparison to hers.  Not only did she leave her family, she left her entire culture to travel to a land that was totally unknown to her - it's almost a whole different world for her, literally.  I am glad that she is here and very fortunate for the opportunity to know her.

Y - The Flower Girl

Well over a year ago, B's cousin asked us if Y would be the flower girl in his wedding.  Y had no clue what a flower girl was at the time but I was through the roof with excitement and once I explained to her what a flower girl was and what they do, she was thrilled as well.

We were asked in Spring of 2011 if she could do it and the wedding wasn't until late summer 2012 so we waited until February of this year to go and try on dresses.  We tried a couple, took some photos and then sent them on to the bride and groom for approval.  They were satisfied with them all and we were told we could pick whichever one we wanted.  With that, we let Y choose which she liked the best. 

Fast foward to May 2012 and we went in to order the dress!  Y didn't really understand that we wouldn't be taking home the dress she tried on that day.  I had to explain that we were just trying on two of them (a size 3 and size 4) to see which one would be the best fit for her in a few months - we went with the size 4.  The dress came in several weeks earlier than expected, we had been told mid-late July but it was in about a week or 2 after we ordered it.  As happy as I was with the quick service I was not happy to have to tell Y over and over again that she couldn't wear it yet.

The wedding day, August 11, finally arrived and I've never seen a little girl so excited.  She loved every moment in that dress and every moment of the wedding.  She had a little hiccup with throwing the flowers and getting down the aisle quick enough but once that was over she was all ready for the reception.  She pretty much stayed on the dance floor the entire night, yes, even during dinner!  It seemed as if everyone at the wedding was taken by her, when time came for everyone to start dancing she was right there in the middle of them having a blast.

Unfortunately we weren't staying in Toronto for a second night so we ended up leaving the wedding right around 10pm.  Y was exhausted, she had had a full and very fun day.  When we asked her what her favorite part of the wedding was, she replied, "dancing!"



It had been raining all day and suddenly 5 minutes before the ceremony was due to start the sky cleared!





Y posing with the Birch arch that Uncle R built for the wedding.





On the dance floor during dinner.

Still there...

The life of the party!





She was a big hit, everyone loved her and she loved every minute of it!



Easter 2012

While I miss celebrating Easter with my family in North Carolina I am so grateful that we have family close to go share the holiday with!  It is awesome to be able to sit around and laugh and joke with family, even if you have to depart early due to a 3 year old that won't quit yelling - she had too much sugar AND it was almost her normal bedtime.

We had good food, good laughs, good company and I wish we could all get together and do it more often but since none of us are rich we all must return to our normal lives. 

This year, for the first time, we had the Easter egg hunt on Saturday!  We asked Aunt S to hide the eggs and she did an absolutely amazing job!  They were hidden in places and ways that I never would have thought to hide them.  They were nestled in branches of bushes, perched in window seals, sitting in chairs, leaning up against trees, behind brooms and rakes, and I believe there was even one placed ever so perfectly on a piece of plastic piping!  I was so happy that I asked her to do it because I had planned to just put them in the grass and that requires absolutely no creativity at all!  So now, Aunt S will be the designated egg hider each year!

Y, of course, found the majority of the eggs and she did most of it with little help.  Q found 9 eggs with my help but she would have been more than content had she only found 2 - one for each hand.  She also had little interest in the chocolate that was inside the egg, Y was an entirely different story...which ended in that yelling and screaming mentioned above.

On Sunday morning the Easter Bunny arrived before heading out to church.  Y's basket had lots of princess items mixed in with a little Tinkerbell and Strawberry Shortcake, plus a beautiful towel embroidered with her name and a chocolate bunny.  Q's basket also had an embroidered towel as well as some bath toys, I guess the Easter Bunny knows that Q can't have chocolate yet so he didn't bring her a bunny.  Both also received a really cute stuffed friend from Uncle B and Aunt S which they can sleep with in their bed/crib.

Since we celebrated with Easter Dinner on Saturday we were able to have a nice relaxing day after church.  We received so many complements on the girl's dresses this year.  They are from The Children's Place (big surprise) and I loved that they were so similar but slightly different in design at the top.  I also knitted each of them 2 shrugs, one in pink and another in purple, and had them each wear it in the opposite color.  Y got to wear purple because it happens to be her favorite color...for this month anyway.



The Fox Boys

Visitors

Nana B.'s sister, Tia Edith (tia means aunt in spanish), came to visit for a week while her husband, Uncle Darrell, had to work in Toronto.  We were able to go and spend the weekend with them in Canada.  We hadn't seen them since we last went to Utah in 2009 so it was great to get together to talk and spend some time catching up.  It was also just plain nice to get away for the weekend as we haven't been to Canada since New Year's.  It was warm and so we were able to spend lots of time outdoors which always keeps Y happy. 

Now we just need to convince more family members to come for a visit...

fun with Grandpa P

Enjoying a trip down to the bridge.

Christmas 2011

We had an awesome Christmas spent in Canada with our family and friends there.  We arrived on Friday evening, had dinner and just relaxed for the night.  On Saturday, Christmas Eve, we went to spend a few hours with a friend who's visiting with her new husband children - it was great to catch up and just sit around laughing and joking.  After returning in the early evening we had dinner and then again sat around talking, mostly laughing at each other or something Y said or did.  She also put on her new princess apron to help Nana B. in the kitchen but really ended up doing pretty much everything but what was intended.



Christmas Eve

 We awoke on Sunday, Christmas morning, to go to church.  I had been preparing Y all week telling her that we would go to church first and then come back to open presents.  Preparing her beforehand as well as her being only 3 and not quite as impatient as she could be helped us attain this seemingly impossible task of convincing her to wait.  Once we came back we even got her to cooperate long enough to take some family photos!

She received lots of gifts and enjoyed slowly unwrapping each one.  She got all the things she requested from Santa, which was really only a Belle Tea Set and princess stuff.  After all the presents were unwrapped she played and all the adults relaxed until it was time for dinner.  Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, it was observed on Monday so B got that day off work too, it was nice to have him for an extended weekend!

I'm still patiently awaiting that year when we'll get to spend Christmas in North Carolina with my family, holidays make me miss home even more.  But we are grateful to have family within an hour's drive of us in which we can go to spend holidays with and be able to enjoy their company. 

Easter...A Few Weeks Late

This year (well pretty much every year) we spent Easter in Canada with family.  These are all the pictures I actually took which is kinda sad...I'm slacking on my picture taking habits.  I didn't really get photos of Y's Easter Egg Hunt, partially because she surprised me and fell asleep when I wasn't expecting it (she was wearing big girl underwear) and had a little accident while still wearing her Easter dress.  The other part was due to the fact that it was pretty stinkin' cold outside and Grandpa P had put some fertilizer on the grass a few days before so we figured it was safer to do it indoors as opposed to doing it in the yard.  It didn't seem to matter to her at all though, she loved searching for the eggs just as much!  Next year she'll have a little sister crawling behind her grabbing eggs of her own!