Welcome Winter...

We got our snow day yesterday!  We had some friends' kids staying with us and we had some more friends come on over and had one big snow day over here.  The kids had a blast playing out in the snow.  Olivia is my biggest snow girl.  She loves to spend hours outside building snow forts and such.  She reminds me of me at that age!  Today there is an arctic outflow warning.  There's whiteout conditions and temps are -24 with the windchill, but there's no more snow in the forecast. I am happy to look at the beauty of it all from my warm house while I'm in my warm pj's!  The kids are off to school and Isaac and I have a few chores to cross off our list this morning.  

Snow...

I wanted to title my post as 'Snow Day', but technically it isn't!  There's close to a foot of snow here now but the public schools are open!  The kids are off to school and Isaac and I are enjoying the beauty out each window.  We had a little snow on the weekend, and we're in for a bunch more this week by the sounds of it.  There'll be many more snow pictures, but here's a few for now.

A Beautiful Way to Start Our Day...

Tuesday Timeout

Kim and I decided to have our regular Tuesday Timeout yesterday because today I'm fieldtrippin' with my Grade 1 girl!  So I guess yesterday was more of a Make-it-Monday!  I hummed and hawed about what to make yesterday.  I have an order I still need to finish, but I rarely use Tuesday Timeouts for orders...they're more of a fun day!  I dug out a bag full of cuts I had ordered online from the 'Bliss' line.  I got the bag of fabric for uber-cheap but didn't know what to do with it.  They're not the exact cuts I would've chosen from the line, but hey, beggars can't be choosers!  I decided in the end to cut the fabric for more 'Swoon' blocks.  I've seen lots of beautiful swoon quilts made and although I liked the 4 blocks I previously made here, I didn't think the fabric was the best for the project.  So, I started cutting this bundle today and hope for different results this time!  The cutting for these blocks is insane, but I got it done!  Next week I hope to start sewing!

Here's a few pics....not much to look at...YET!

Cutting for 8 completed blocks, here's cut number 1:

And...cut number 2: (poor photo quality..didn't realize it at the time!

Annual Skate

No Christmas Season is complete without our annual Church Christmas skate!  Isaac, in particular, had anticipated this event for months already.  He was determined that HE was going to skate this year.  I, on the other hand, had decided I might take a 'year off' from skating.  You know, sit on the sidelines, drink Starbucks, visit with my fellow ladies in waiting....So, off we went with our plate of goodies and our winter wear.  We got there, fought the crowds for skate rentals.   Side rant -->  No, we don't have our own skates.  Yes, we live in Canada.  Truth is, it hardly ever gets cold enough in our parts for our pond to freeze over long enough for skating so skates would be a wasted investment...especially for the kiddos who's feet grow every time I'm not looking! <--end of rant.  Ok, where were we?  Oh yes, in line to get our skate rentals and Isaac is adamant that he will NOT be skating.  This was, of course, after we'd already paid.  Sheesh, 3 year olds.  Anyway, long story longer, I got skates simply based on my frugal nature.  If they're paid for then SOMEBODY'S gonna wear them!  What do you think happened?  I was out there, doing my jumps and twirls best to stay upright and Rob skates up to me and says, 'Isaac wants to skate'.  Of course he does.  So....back for another skate rental purchase and alas the Hildebrandts were all skating.  Fun night with peeps.  I am thoroughly enjoying our church community.  Seeing the kids grow up together, seeing the new generation of 'young marrieds' make connections as they start their little families, and feeling at peace with the gift of friendship of so many.  We ended the evening with caroling and goodies, then off to home to put some very tired kiddos to bed.  Ahhh...another memory made!

It Was a Memorable Tree!

Well, our 2011 live Christmas tree will sure go down in history as one of our more memorable trees! 

I'll sum it up in point form:

- It was a beautiful, full tree with a wonderful aroma

- We purchased it from our friends Mark & Sarah, in honour of their brand new baby daughter, Megan.

- The funds for the tree went straight to Mark & Sarah's work at the Music for Life    School in Ughanda. 

   (Where the African Children's Choir children are educated)

- It was a huge tree!  So huge we had to cut the trunk way down to fit in the iron tree stand!

- It fell over.  A lot.  I finally got mad enough that I tied it to the wall in 2 places.

- It was infested with spiders.  A lot.  I find about 6 each day crawling on the ceilings all over the house.  And, I walk through cobwebs all over my house. blech.

- It was a beautiful, full tree with a wonderful aroma.  (I had to end on a good note, didn't I?)

A parting shot of our kids with the beautiful William's kids!
(I think they were wondering why Daddy was letting us cut a tree down in their yard!)

Sarah was the ever-gracious hostess who made us hot chocolate.
We all had a nice little snuggle with one week old Megan!

Um, Hon?  Do you need a hand?  HON?

Like I said, memorable.  We had a lovely, quiet evening here where Uncle Ken untangled lights and the kids and Rob decorated.  The carols were on and I was snapping pictures.  I love Christmas, and the tree is a part of that!

The Family that 'tubes' together...

Ah, I'm back!  Did you miss me?  It's been ages since I've blogged but it's been for a few reasons.  Reason number one:  I love blogging but family and friends come first and they've been all consuming (in a great way) through this past month.  Reasons two:  I really, really wanted to update the look of my blog and start the new year off right.

Oh, speaking of which, Happy New Year!  I had to write '2012' on a form for the first time today and it felt weird.  Even though my brain knew it was 2012, my hand hesitated!

We had a busy and fun Christmas Season.  There's lots I'm going to have to catch you up on but I'll start with our most recent adventure.  Monday was the last day of break before the kids headed back to school so we decided to head on up to Hemlock Mountain for a fun day of tubing in the snow.  The Tam family joined us and we had the most excellent day!  We packed up the snow gear, lunches, and the camera and headed on up the mountain.  We are so fortunate to live in a place where we can drive one way to the ocean and the other way to the mountains!   The kids enjoyed the trip up, but didn't believe us that there would, indeed, be enough snow to tube on once we got there.  The last 15 km of the drive were steep switchbacks on a gravel/mud road.  Great fun!

We made some awesome memories and enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun.  We ended the day with hot chocolate at the Tam house followed by a take out dinner with our wonderful bro Ken.  Fabulous, fabulous day!  We'll definitely do it again!