Our New Pets

 So, for several weeks, Carter has been begging and yes, I mean BEGGING for a degu.  What is a degu, you ask?  Well, take a look at the pictures below, because apparently, his mom and dad are big suckers and at Christmas time, they gave in!



This is Carter holding Buddy.  Buddy is a little more friendly than his brother Spunky.  Look what a snappy dresser Carter is too! 

So, once the crazy parents (yea, us)  decided to get a degu, we found out that degus do much better in pairs.  What?  Those crazy parents thought they had only agreed to one degu - not two!  UGH!  Anyway, two degus were purchased and on Christmas morning, Carter received the gift of degu food.  Well, actually a bag of chinchilla food and a bag of guinea pig food (they mix them together for degus).  When he opened them up, he looked at his parents like, "What is this for?"  We had to explain to him what it was for.  He was pretty dumbfounded as those parents pretty much shut him down telling him he was not getting a degu for Christmas.  Ha!

 Anyway, as you know, Christmas was on a Saturday, so the troop got to pick up our two new furry friends on Monday.  Well, as you can imagine, Monday did not come soon enough!  We headed into town (we were still staying at Grama's) and collected our two handpicked furballs.  Since then, we have discovered that one degu - Spunky - is true to his name.  He loves to eat food out of your hand - particularly sunflower seeds, and even chirps when you run out.  But, Spunky does not love to be handled (we think Tyler may have had something to do with that as Tyler was bit by one of the degus a few days after we got them.  He is not allowed to handle them anymore).

Wow, this is long winded.  Anyway, so far, so good.  Carter is loving them and so are the dogs.  Yes, we have to claim them (as per the dog whisperer) and that is slow going.  In other words, we need to make the dogs know that they are not allowed by them and certainly shouldn't be excitable around them. 

It is a good thing that the boys already know how to take care of degus - they know more than we do because the grade four class pet is a degu (that is where the longing came from).  All three older boys have had the same grade four teacher and have all had a chance to take the class pet home for the weekend.  In fact, when Jaren was in grade four, he had it for Christmas and summer holidays.

Are we crazy?  Maybe.  Want to know something else?  They are both boys.  So it is now 8:1.

Halladay Family on Christmas morning!

Here we are on Christmas morning - the Halladays in all of our splendor!  Well, I guess we are missing Kaiser (sorry buddy).

This is what Wriggers looked like Christmas morn.  "Ah, come on guys, can't I open a present now too?"



Um, so I guess this playmobil was the right thing to buy for him...




This is all you get of me - my new boots that I have been coveting.  OOOH, thanks Grama and Grampa - I love em!



Kayden is checking out his new ear phones from Santa.  Now he won't have to "steal" everyone else's!



Jaren, also checking out what the man in red  brought for him...



Carter, loving his Playmobil Roman Ship.  He was so pumped to get this!

Linds showing off his muscles, I mean new anti-vibration gloves from the (wo)man in red!

Well, this was us on Christmas morn.  We were totally spoiled and had a really great day.  Poor Linds was on call and had to go to work for a few hours, but he was able to open gifts and have breakfast with us, so that was nice.  Later in the day, we had a fabulously yummy Christmas dinner with John, Val and Jerry (we stayed out at J & V's).  It was a nice, quiet day.  I would have traded the quiet to have all the rest of the gang though!!!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a time I look forward to all year.  I love seeing tons of our family, having the traditional "Home Night" meal and participating in the program.  It truly focuses on the Saviour and the real reason for Christmas. 

 Many years we have had the nativity with sparse amounts of participants, often without any girls.  This year, it was the Halladay - Bourne show.  As you can see above, Joseph - played by Carter, is much older than Mary - played by Maddy.  But, don't they look so cute?

Even Kayden was a good sport and donned an angel costume.  What a great time we had sharing the Christmas story.

Here are my boys in their traditional matching Christmas Eve jammies.  It was a great night, followed by a great Christmas day!  Bet you can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow!

Hair today

Okay, so this is what happens when you let your boys (including, and especially, the biggest one) style your hair.  I think they were going for the nineties look.  It was pretty scary and funny too - especially when our friends came to the door to deliver our Christmas gift!

These are my boys...

Handsome and silly, crazy and fun.  These are my boys. 

Max

Isn't he just the cutest puppy you have ever seen?  All the grade one classes at Tyler's school had a Grinch day the week before Christmas holidays.  Everyone dressed up as a character from the movie, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," and then they watched the movie.  As you can see. Tyler is Max, the Grinch's dog, before he gets weighed down with the big antler/horn in the middle of his head.

It was great fun for the kids - and cool to see all the people dressed up!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYDEN!!!

 It seems like it was not that long ago that we brought home this bouncing 10 lb baby boy - and now, he is a TEENAGER!  I can hardly believe that Kayden is now 13.  I catch myself staring at him often - wondering, where did the time go?  He is almost as tall as me and his feet are mens size 10!  Yikes! 

 For his birthday this year, Kayden really wanted sushi - one of his fav foods.  So, here are some pics of Kayden and his "yummy" sushi (FYI - the rest of us wimps had pizza - well me and the little boys).



mmm....sushi!




Eating his tasty dinner and anticipating his gift opening!





Do you think he can put out the candle with chop sticks? 



Guess not.  Good old fashion "breath" will have to do!

HAPPY happy day Kayden!  We love you and we are so blessed to have you as part of our family!