HAPPY NEW YEARS

Once again the holiday season is coming to a close.  Christmas has whipped by and it is now New Years Eve.  One of my Favorite nights of the year!  This year we have opted for a quiet family night in.  The hustle and bustle of the holiday season has zapped our energy (or was it the awful sickness that descended on us over Christmas?  or may be the fact that I worked all Christmas weekend which put a bit of a damper on things)-  Its most likely a combination of all these things.  But I digress...
New Years eve is here!  A time that I love because it means NEW BEGINNINGS, FRESH STARTS, and a moment to remember the great and not so great of 2010!

Lets only do the GREAT- (as one of my New Years Resolutions this year is to focus on the POSITIVE)
- We survived 1 full year in Whitecourt.
- We have both been successful at our jobs and have been able to learn new things.
- William has grown... A LOT... and has given us tonnes of wonderful moments (Top of the list for Clay I'm sure was 2 nights ago, when Clay said to William, "I love you buddy." and William said "Love you Dada". Tears)
-We were able to cross off travelling with William on a plane before he's TWO from my Bucket List.
-We were able to see all our family at some time this year.
-We finished our basement development.
- We participated in the Fallen 4 --5km fun run and didn't die!
AND SO MUCH MORE!

As usual I have a full list of Resolutions for 2011.  We as a family have came up with a Family MOTTO for 2011 (an Idea from my friend Robyn Beazley's ezine and blog http://myemail.constantcontact.com/3-Tips--Video---New-Motto----Living-an-Amazing-Life-ezine.html?soid=1102662752445&aid=Atktro8xmjM)

So DRUM ROLL PLEASE...  The Russell Family's 2011 Family Motto is....

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

The Banner I made with our Family motto- Has our goals written around the motto



The Motto on our Family planning wall in our bedroom, Also on this wall is a picture of my happy place and our dream house.


(monumental I know! lol!  but it is very meaningful for Clayton and I and sums up the majority of our life, family and personal goals we have made this New Years.)


To sum up our Holiday Season...

Christmas was good to this family.  Santa spoiled us, along with the rest of the family.  THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR EVERYTHING!!! William was a joy (NO SARCASM HERE!) he loved all his gifts and has been actually pretty good this past week! 

Christmas Eve (minus me because I'm at work)

Present opening is a tough sport!

This is Christmas eve, William making sure that Santa's cookies are tasty enough.

My Kids! ;)

Christmas also allowed us to finish a few projects that we were wanting to get done before 2011.  This includes Williams BIG BOY ROOM!  Although we have a few things to get still (sheets etc) it is finished and he loves it.  I have yet to try to transfer him to the big boy bed, a task I'm going to attempt after the New year, and closer to his 2nd birthday.  But it is so nice!

Loves the big boy bed!

The New room, Just books and a bed!

The whirlwind that was the holiday's this year allowed us to keep our up coming trip to Disneyland out of our minds.  But that is only one short week away now!  So this week we will be trying to get Christmas decorations taken down, the house in order and everything packed so we can JET off to California for 8 glorious days of relaxation (hopefully) but FUN for sure!

Hope all of you Have a SAFE, FUN and PRODUCTIVE 2011!  If you are the type of person that makes New Years resolutions I challenge you to KEEP THEM THIS YEAR! LOL! and If you are not the type of person to make New Years Resolution I challenge you to take this weekend and lovingly look back on 2010's trials and tribulations and find JOY in your Life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



This Week's You CANT TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MINUTE!
We found William "brushing his teeth" in the middle of opening gifts Christmas Day.



Snow Pretty!

I'm a born and raised Alberta Girl, thus the changes in weather that are so common here do not usually phase me.  I grew up for 26 years dealing with Calgary area (southern Alberta) weather conditions.  And I'm sure I don't have to explain how volatile, annoying and sporadic they are.  It snows at least once in the summer, the temperature can fluctuate 10-20 degrees either way in a day, and the wind has two speeds 'gail wind' or 'breeze'. And If you don't like this then wait 10minutes!   I am well versed in dealing with Calgary winter.  Snow, Chinook, wind, cold. 

I always knew Northern Alberta's weather was cold and white, so I figured it would be 2X worse then what I was use too.  So when we decide to move up to Whitecourt last fall, I had a slight panic attack and made sure that I had a good snow suit for William (SIDE NOTE- this 'panic attack' included me looking for weeks for something I deemed cute and extremely warm). 

So i was all geared up for nasty Northern Alberta Weather.  I however have been pleasantly surprised!  Its cold, yes... Its white, yep... but its BEAUTIFUL!  There is minor fluctuations in temperature... No nasty wind (I can probably count on one hand how many times Ive noticed Wind this year).  And when it snows the entire town does NOT shut down!  I can get to work, I can go shopping, I can still go out and not worry that I may perish on the side of the road, or sit in traffic for hours and hours!

There may be other down sides to living in Northern Alberta which I will not get in to at this time but the Weather is not one of them.  Maybe Im still naive, I was told last year that they didn't get the snow they usually get, I think we have more this year already. There was a few -30 to -40 days.  And yes, August weather kinda sucked (it Rained... I mean really rained not blowing, nasty snow like rain... REAL RAIN!)  But I'm not going to complain.  Its all perspective.

I have lived through many white Christmases,  lots of Brown ones too.  This year its a White one.  And oh my is it awesome! 

Prior to shoveling

He struggled to get over to see this Reindeer, But he made it!

Snow angels, Snow balls and Fun!

This Weeks You Cant Turn Your Back for a Moment Proof:

William did this as I was trying to wrap gifts.

Tis the Season!

December is Flying by and the Christmas Season is in FULL SWING at the Russell House!  We have been participating in the common Christmas Cliches this holiday season. 

I hosted the 2nd ANNUAL Cookie exchange the first weekend in December and had a great exchange again this year!!!  Thanks to all that participated and a SPECIAL thanks to Cindy who show cased Epicure for us!  I love cookie exchanges!  We had some different cookies this year including a new favorite of mine called NEIMEN MARCUS cookie!! mmm it's sooo yummy!  Kinda like the most ultimate Chocolate chip cookie ever!

My kitchen as I baked my cookies for the Exchange

William, Clayton and I have also enjoyed the great out doors with a couple toboggan excursions and some nice walks with Tessa in the snow!  William has taken to drag his hand in the snow as we pull him in the sled.  He also really enjoys eating snow... However this means that he likes to suck on his boots and eat the snow that falls off the shoes at the front door.  YUCK!!! 

Yummy snow- the appoved method of eatting snow

Clayton finished putting up the Christmas lights and I think it looks really good!  Of course we always add each year and really wished we could have icicle lights on the peaks of our house... HOWEVER have you seen the price of those things!?!?!  The LED ones we want are SOOO PRICEY!!!  Even with this slight dilemma the house looks great (thanks HONEY!).

Back deck Lights

Clay and I went to his Company Christmas party again this year!  It was WAY more fun now that we know some people and the alcohol was nice too!  (Side note- last year I was still nursing so I didn't really get to enjoy the drinks).  It was a great night out!  We were still home by midnight, thankfully William went to sleep this year for our babysitter!  Clayton won a telescope in one of the raffles at the party which totally made his day! (SIDE NOTE- not 1 month ago Clayton said to me " I would really like a telescope" my response was " No- freaking way!!! You don't need another 'Hobby' that sits in the closet!")

So Happy

All dressed up and a little drunk!

William wrote his letter to Santa this year.  He was actually really good, and made a couple marks on the page!  We also went to sit on Santa's lap.  I was expecting 'cry-fest 2010';  As most of my Friend's kids pictures involve screaming kids.  But he totally surprised us!  He kept trying to run up to Santa as the kid before us was doing his thing.  When it was actually his turn, he did hesitate... But he really wanted one of the goody bag's that Santa was handing out, so he humored us and got closer to Santa.  I had to place him in Santa's lap for the picture, but no Tears... No Smiles, but No tears!  He was very brave and got his goody bag ( He loves suckers!).  Check out his Santa picture on my Face book page. http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=170736546300535&set=a.170736006300589.31526.102893369751520

Concentrating hard!

More worried about the Felt markers going away then my Picture

Williams Special Message from Santa
http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/watch/sH205UXdIsGVF79oZb9d3w

As you can see we are in FULL Christmas Mode!  The next few weeks will continue to bring excitement and anticipation. 

 However Cliche it is my favorite thing about Christmas is that Warm, Sparkly, cozy feeling that sits in your heart as you sip eggnog, watch your son destroy your Christmas tree and loose count of all the wonderful things that Christmas brings!

Hope your feeling that sparkly glow in your your house too!

This weeks Proof that

"YOU CANT TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MOMENT!!"

Thankfully My Cats tolerate my Son's craziness well!

A Mixed Nut Christmas

It was time to Christmas-fy the House once again! Slightly earlier then usual for us (SIDENOTE:  Clayton has a strict rule of no Christmas decorations before DECEMBER 1- which is actually good because by New Years I'm totally done with the decorations, but this year we decorated a couple days before December as we had a busy week and I had planned a party for the weekend we would have normally decorated the house).

Uunfortunately decorating the tree didn't feel the same this year.  Usually I decorate the house independently, and I always have MIXED NUTS with Steve Martin playing in the back ground (We only have this movie in VHS not DVD, Which i "borrowed" from my parents when I moved to College, which proves how long of 'Tradition' this is!).  This is the one time of year I watch this movie, as My husband does not like it.  I find the dry humor great and by the time they make the dead guy in to the Christmas tree, my tree is almost completely decorated and usually always looks way better then the dead-guy tree!

Anyway this year, I was not able to watch this Christmas favorite while decorating the house, as we no longer have a VHS player.  I attempted to download it from the Internet, which proved too much for my low tech mind to comprehend.  So there I was MIXED NUT-LESS but surrounded by my husband and son, who both opted to help this year!  (Maybe I was surrounded by some NUTS! lol!)

We had bought a 7.5ft artificial Christmas tree last  year after Christmas so It was our first year setting it up.  Luckily its dummy proof to set up, A-B-C (LITERALLY!)   After 'fluffying' the branches (oh the dreaded FLUFFING!)  we proceeded to start putting on our decorations.



Getting Ready to "fluff", Section C

 

Post Fluffing, Pre decorations



William was very helpful, and we quickly learnt what decorations needed to go higher and which could be set with in the bottom 3 feet of the tree.  I LOVE decorating the Christmas tree.  We have a special tradition that my mom started were we buy a Christmas ornament from each place that we have travelled too.  So each year when I decorate my tree I get to re-visit my memories from our travels!  Those ornament are so special to me (and they went on the top 4 feet of the tree this year!)

Little knot here...

          

Of course William got to put the star on



So my tree looks a little different then usual this year. The bottom 3 feet of the tree is pretty bare, (and is getting more sparse as the days go on!)  Plastic Christmas balls and ornament's have been my saviour as many of them have found themselves sailing through the air already.  

To be fair William is not the only hazard to our tree, I have been chasing cats and dogs away too, The cats were trying to chew on the branches (which are pre-lit now; I really don't want a Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation KITTY BBQ!)   And Tessa keeps trying to paw the cats out from under the tree and hits the branches knocking things off as she attempts to help.  I'm doing better then my cousin Teal however, I got a text from her a couple days ago and her tree has hit the ground already courtesy of her curious little 2 year old!  



NO KITTY BBQ!!


Tessa Not interested at this point





So although I didn't get my Mixed Nuts and My tree seems to be in more danger this year then previously, our house is merry and our hearts are warmer from the twinkly lights and glittery-ness of our environment!

The Russell Tree 2010

 

PROOF THAT YOU CANT TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MINUTE!

Minor disagreement about Throwing things

ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS!



Hair, Scissors and Tears!

My son is like me in many ways... MOSTLY the AWESOME ways! HE HE, however one downside is He has inherited my side of the families hair line.  He is "blessed" with what we affectionately call the "PRESTON HAIRLINE".  Basically its a very severe widows peak, it is common among the men on the Preston Side.  Along with the "Preston Hairline" William also has very slow growing hair just like his mommy.  (Side Note- I am continually told that I didn't have hair until I was 3). 
William fortunately has hair it just hasn't grown incredibility fast.  As most toddlers usually have their first hair cuts around 1 year of age, William's first Hair cut was at 20 months.  (Side note- there was an earlier attempt at a haircut, however it ended with two small clips with the scissors and a large shouting match between Clayton and My self.)

(The Before shot- Notice the Infamous PRESTON HAIR LINE, sort bald on each side of center)

So this week we cut Williams hair, he was developing a pretty good mullet (Side note- Clayton and myself have vowed to never allow our Children to have a mullet!)

  As patience is another virtue that no one in our house has, we opted to use the hair clippers, to be more efficient.  So I 'affectionatly' detained our son (which is kinda like trying to wrestle an alligator), as Clayton used the clippers to remove all the soft little baby hairs on my baby's head.  I shed a couple tears... and there was only one slightly heated discussion on how Clayton was ruining my baby's hair. 



(Action shot- prior to me having to detain the busy arms and legs)

However all worked out well, and in the end we transformed William from a sweet little baby boy in to a busy little boy! (well the transformation happened prior but now he looks like a little boy).  William did really well, no freaking out with the clippers and other then the difficulties we had holding him no issues!

Hopefully future haircuts will go this smoothly!

(After Shot- Notice the towel used half way to lovingly bundle the child during the clipping)

(Yep, that's all the hair)



Our Little Boy





(This is just a random shot of how you cant turn your back for a minute!)