HO! HO! HO!

We did this kind of last minute and heard that Santa was at Canadian Tire here in Okotoks.  We surprised Parks...he was so excited to remind Santa that he really really wants Flynn the Fire Engine for Christmas:)  Grace wanted nothing to do with him...he should have tried to talk to her before grabbing her and sitting on his lap...well she probably still would have freaked out, but still.  Next Christmas we will venture out of Okotoks and hit up a mall with a little more effort put into the Santa set up...not that I'm dissing the blue tarp backdrop that the Canadian Tire Santa had;)  He just wasn't a very believable Santa..I have issues with Santa's that have fake beards...if my kids were a bit older he would have had some serious questioning!

December Catch Up!

We've been fighting through the sickness that has been going through our family, and getting ready for Christmas!

Parks loves playing out of the back deck..

We kept to our tradition of decorating the tree on December 1st...the kids were so excited, Grace would just stuff the balls into the tree, but Parks was really good at actually hanging them...they were all in one area on the tree but its progress:)

All done the tree and looking so cute with their cheesy smiles:) lol

There it is! After Momma put her finishing touches;)

The kids and I on a good day:)

This is our official 2011 Family Christmas picture that we sent out in Christmas cards...it turned out pretty good considering..

and this was the not so official 2011 Family Christmas picture that was sent out only to a select few;)

Matt and Parks built this huge Fireman Snowman;)in our front yard...who has since lost his head due to the mild weather..so Parks and Daddy pushed him down in preparation for the next big snowfall!

The kids were so pumped to make sugar cookies...it was messy but so worth the kids being so proud of themselves!

Parks and his cousin Anderson collided into each other and because Parks doesn't have his 2 front teeth...his lip took a beating and swelled up instantly...:(

He was tough..and got to eat lots of freezies, the swelling lasted 2 days

Hunting Season is OVER!

I'm really late posting this post...Matt had a great hunting season this year, we bought a new freezer and it is full!  All of September, October and November...I get to hear about elk, deer and moose AND the pesky coyotes...unfortunately the elk weren't around to much this year, so Matt has yet to shoot an elk EVER.  Mid October he got a small bull moose and in early November he got a nice white tail 6x6 buck scoring 145 gross.  He also started a new tradition of pheasent hunting with his Dad and Cam on Cook's property.  All and All he can NOT complain...with lots of opportunities to hunt and having a week of hunting at the beginning of November while I was away and than close to a week again at the end of November with his brother Paul and some family friends...

Grace at 18 months old!

My little baby girl is not a baby anymore:( I dont know when it happened, but I look at her and she is a little toddler now...We had to move her out of Parks' room about a month or two ago, she was waking up way too much at night time because of endless colds, an ear infection and lets not forget the first problem, beaver fever...that I swear lowered her immune system so much hence why she keeps getting so sick!! She weighes 24 lbs...which means she hasn't been gaining much weight from having endless diahhrea for the past 3 months.  Looking back to the last time I weighed her which was at 13 months old (somehow I missed 16 months old) she weighed 23lbs 11oz...5 months later only 24lbs:(  It hurts my heart so much to see her always having some sort of sickness...and yes she is a little toddler and yes I know they always get sick, but really enough is enough!  We have been home from Utah now for 2 1/2 weeks and Grace has been sick that whole time (granted we all have been really sick with whatever we caught out there...and it has been horrible ever since we left...trying to get better, but it just always seems like we all get better and Gracie is the one still stuggling).  So I've decided to take matters into my own hands...with the diahhrea situation.  I've googled a lot of things... and after discussing it with our Doctor, she suggested putting her on a lactose free diet (well mostly just switching her 2 bottles of homo milk to soy milk...there is a good possibility that from the beaver fever and having diahhrea for so long that her digestive system may be finding it too hard to deal with the lactose/dairy. BUT I've heard soy milk @120 cals. is not all that healthy for you and I dont think it has nearly enough fats in it for Grace (who needs a few more pounds on her...that's why I like Homo with160 cals).  I'm also trying to cut back sugar and processed foods from her diet since apparently sugar feeds the bad bacteria in your body.  Lastly I'm giving her probiotic drops everyday (aswell as plain yogurt which she hates)...this will help her to feed the good bacteria in her body and hopefully be rid of diahhrea!!!  This is probably very boring to most people reading this, but it is very important for me to journal and remember.  PLUS I am stumped on what to do for my poor little girl...I'm thinking we will get her stool retested again for the 2nd time just incase and maybe do bloodwork.  I just have this motherly gut feeling that something isn't right...on a good note though...last night was the first night that Grace didn't wake up with a cough attack:)  I think after almost 3 weeks she is finally getting over this cold!!!