Christmas 2011

Another Christmas has come and gone in the Rogers/Taylor household. Here are a few highlights from this year's festivities.

We kicked off Christmas with a visit from Santa.

The kids got a U Draw for the Wii and a couple of games to go with it.

Even Will got a little something - a bottle of whiskey. I guess Santa must have thought he was good this year.

On Christmas Eve, Jimmy and his family came over to open presents in the afternoon.

Jimmy sporting the new scarf Moira sewed for him

Polly Pocket Car from Liam

More cars!

A pink Snuggie for Moira

Christmas morning saw more presents and stockings filled from Santa

New ramen noodle bowl

Oh, boy! More cars!

Christmas afternoon I got to take a nap. Will took the kids over to his dad's to see their gift from Uncle Jimmy.

A new 4-wheeler that he bought for all the kids to share. Will hooked a trailer up to it so the kids could for a ride together.

Here is our annual favourite present photo. Moira chose her Nerf gun that she decorated with hearts and butterflies. Kyla chose her pink arm warmers. Will's choice was his Morrissey record and Liam chose his new picture for his room. (The funny thing is, except for Moira, the others had other gifts that were their true favourites, but I think they may have been too embarrassed to have their picture taken with them. Kyla and Will both liked their new underwear best and Liam's was a Transformer truck that he got from Moira.)

As for me, it was a hard choice, but I decided to go with...

the sewing machine that Will got for me in November. My other one died on me when I needed it the most so Will bought me a new one as an early Christmas present.

And now for the clean up...

And this is only one room that got partially tidied. I still have the kitchen and the family room to tackle as well. I knew I should have asked for a maid for Christmas!

A Letter of Apology

Dear Blog,

I'm really sorry that I haven't visited you in a while. You see, life gets so crazy busy that there is very little time for extra curricular activities. I have thought about you, though, and haven't forgotten about you. There have been so many times when I've wanted to share photos or a funny story, but, alas, finding spare time is proving difficult. I've already had to break my day down into manageable time slots so that I don't wake up with massive headaches because I'm already feeling overwhelmed before I even get out of bed. My days go something like this:

• Get up at 7am at the latest to get Moira ready for school.
• Mornings are spent taking care of household chores.
• 12:30 we take Kyla to school.
• In the afternoons when it's just Liam and I, we run errands and work on stuff for my Etsy shop/Green Chutes/upcoming markets
• 4:30 we meet the girls at the bus stop and get ready for dinner.
• By 7pm I am starting on homework.
• Around 8pm I help put the kids to bed.
• After that I work on more homework until about 10 pm then I read for book club.

Weekends are a little less organized, but I usually do more homework and less sewing. And this schedule doesn't include anything extra that comes up that I have to deal with like Avon deliveries and taking Moira to dance class. Somewhere in all of this I'm also supposed to volunteer in the girls' classrooms, but I've been flaking out of that lately.

Don't give up on me yet, dear Blog. I will try to make a better effort at visiting you more often.

Sincerely,

Robyn

Trip to B.C., Part I

The kids and I spent the last two weeks traveling. We drove up to beautiful British Columbia to visit my family for a week and a half. It was a fast paced trip, but we all had a great time.

We arrived on a Monday evening and Thursday morning, Liam and I were on the ferry headed to Vancouver Island for an overnight stay with Nana.

It was really windy on deck, but Liam loved walking around.

We took Nana on a drive to Lake Cowichan.

Me and my Nana

The trip back was very long and boring. Not only did we have to wait forty-five minutes for a ferry that we didn't get on (we missed it by three cars!), but then we had to wait two and a half hours for the next one. It's a two hour trip across and another two hours back to Chilliwack. It was almost 10pm by the time we got back. It was a long day.

Wildflowers at the ferry dock

Liam was thrilled that we got to park on the "outside" on the ferry trip back. We could see our car (the black one with the roof-top box) from the deck and the bow windows.

Nanaimo

On Saturday, Mum and I took the kids to Harrison Lake to play in the sand.

Views of Harrison, Agassiz and Chilliwack:

The mighty Fraser River

Easter 2011

This past Saturday we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt. The weather was finally nice for this day and we had a wonderful time. We invited some friends over to look for eggs with us and there was lots to eat and drink. It was one of those perfect spring days that I wished would never end.

After the hunt was over and our guests had gone, we spent the rest of the afternoon outside. The kids blew bubbles and the girls and I played many rounds of Bocce.

Will let the chicks out of the coop for the first time. It gave them a chance to roam around the yard and to meet our other chickens.

Liam and Will digging in the garden

Viva Las Vegas

This past weekend, Will and I, the kids and Will's dad were in Las Vegas. It was the annual Highland games and we went down as vendors again. The weather was so wonderful. It was sunny and the temperatures stayed between 82F - 89F (27C - 31C). It was glorious especially considering what a cold and wet spring we've been having. I actually got to wear summer clothes and I didn't even need a sweater at all even early in the morning or late at night.

Our urban campground at Main Street Station. We had a freeway and an on-ramp behind us and the Las Vegas Fire and Rescue to the left of us. I had a lot of sleepless nights.

Friday night we drove down to the Belagio hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard and walked around. There were lots of people in costume on the sidewalks. The idea was that you could take your picture with a showgirl or Superman or some other "person" for a tip. We passed a lady who had two little rabbits that kids could have their picture taken with. Liam was brave enough to hold one.

The Belagio Hotel with the pool in the front. This is where we watched the fountain show.

The fountain show was amazing. After this one, we hung around to watch another one. The second one was choreographed to Elvis's "Viva Las Vegas".

Inside the Belagio is a conservatory that is supposed to look like a park. There was a pretend ferris wheel and a little carousel and lots and lots of flowers. This photo is of a "butterfly tree".

Inside this greenhouse were butterflies.

The ceiling in the main entrance was filled with giant Chihuly glass flowers.

My first gelato. I had tiramisu.

Kyla got a strawberry gelato cone that was as big as her face.

Saturday night Will and I left the kids with Jim and walked down to Fremont Street. We gambled a little, but we mostly just took in the sights.

Some of the pipebands from the games were playing there. This is the six time world champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band.

On Sunday night after the games were over and we had dinner, I took the girls to Fremont Street so we could do a little shopping.

The lights and the sounds and the sights all make Las Vegas so exciting. But another reason why I like it so much is that it's pretty. It's like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Everything is landscaped and pleasing to the eye. Take for example the cement walls surround the freeways:

they all have some kind of painted designs to look at.

The big empty spaces near the freeway on and off ramps were beautifully landscaped.

This tree? It's really a cell phone tower in disguise.

And the city is surrounding by low mountains.

The whole reason why we were in Las Vegas was for the Highland Games. This year I made lots of new products including pocket mirrors, buttons and bottle openers.

I also added magnets and notebooks...

and brought back my greeting cards.

There are lots of peacocks wandering through the park. This one was showing off for Kyla.

Besides music, food and shopping, one of the attractions is the athletics. This man here is doing the weighted throw.

Most games have some athletics for the kids to try. Moira, Kyla and Liam got to try out the caber toss.

In Las Vegas there is piping and drumming competitions as well as drum major competitions. The drum majors did their performances near our booth so we got to watch them.

We love going to Las Vegas and always have fun at the games. I'm already looking forward to next year.