Prepping for Company

Dinner at the Lampard's - the question asked right before this photo was "who wants ice cream?!" And these were the cheers received haha! These three girls amaze me. So different, so beautiful, all so full of life and joy! Quinny and Madi are getting so big and not babies at all anymore. But Makenna is who truly shocks me - she is a Grade 1-er, so big and smart and not at all a toddler. At our wedding, she was just a few months old. Where in the world does time go?!

 The two littles watching a movie together, shirts off. Little Lampard women! 

 Brandon and Shelby were coming to visit in a few days, and once Neil got here too, we had planned a little mini family christmas! So that meant I needed to get on Christmas baking! Oh how I love Christmas baking. I find it so therapeutic and fun. And having a little mini helper is the best. She is so keen to do things, and just wants to help so bad. I like giving her jobs and having us do it together, laughing and being silly. She really liked rolling out the dough

 And then when I was trying to put the cookies on the cookie sheets she was yelling "MAMA ME DO IT! ME DO IT! I DO THE COOKIES!" So I handed over my spatula and she put the shapes on the sheets, with a bit of assistance from me

 What a big helper! The funniest thing was teaching her what a "snowman" was. She had no clue and it was pretty funny. She couldnt figure out why he had a hat on "Snowman has a hat? Hat off! No hat!" Not sure why she didn't want him to have a hat, but it made me laugh!

 Cute butt! She wiggles it around and yells "Nakie butt! I am a nakie butt!" She is so much like her dad sometimes! haha! Her hair is what shocked me here - it is SO LONG when it is pulled straight!!!

 Sleeping baby with her Elsa Baby. Those curls. She is so beautiful. She was also snoring and drooling here. I love when she sleeps hard because she is OUT and nothing can wake her and there is drool everywhere. Again, so much like her dad! haha! When she sleeps in the car, its a nice break for me, because we share the music. Yes, you read that right. At two years old, she demands certain songs and wants to listen to specific music. So we have a system - mom gets a turn, then Quinny gets a turn. She will wait patiently and quietly during my song and the SECOND it is done, she will yell "MY TURN!" and then tell me what song she wants to listen to. Often, she picks songs from Taylor Swift's album. I have brainwashed her and now she uses it against me and I don't even like that music anymore thanks to her overplaying it! haha! But it is quite funny to listen to her sing LOUDLY to "Shake It Off"... yep, she knows the words. Yikes.

 Look who made the brochure this year. Quinny, out on a canoe adventure with her dad one day this summer. She loved the canoe days, and would sit in those canoe for a few hours a time, just totally into it. So I thought it was pretty awesome to see her on the Wildside page!

 Bingo Night at youth group! I have wanted to do this for a few years and Jon always tells me no because he didn't think it would be very fun. Finally, he gave in and let me do my thing! I went out and bought a ton of prizes, all in varying degrees of awesomeness. We got tons of bingo dabbers and found online sheets. I got to be the caller, which was so fun! We also had the biggest turn out for youth that night that we have ever had at 39 kids! And they were totally into it - who doesn't love winning prizes?! We put the prizes on the table in the middle so they could all see them, but as the night went on, we pulled more prizes out, and they got better each time. It was pretty fun!

 Wednesday was Remembrance Day, so Jon had the day off. We went to the service in Chemainus and spent the day together. It was as bit sad to not be in Victoria, because the Lampards are always together on Remembrance Day. Tim and Lois stayed home, but I heard that Jon's siblings all went out for lunch together. The sad part of living upisland is missing out. But it was nice to have a day off together and stick around town.

 We went to a park in Crofton that we haven't been to yet - its an awesome park. Perfect for little climbers! She loved it

 Teetor-Tooter (is that how you spell that?!) with Daddy! Should have gottten a video - there were a lot of giggles happening here!!!

 Back to baking! Time to decorate the cookies we had made! I mixed up different colors of icing, and I just let her go at it. Eventually, she was wasting more icing than she was using by getting it all over the counter, so I would hold the cookie for her over the bowl of whichever color she chose, and then she would decorate. I also pulled out sprinkles and edible eyes. She had the best time!

 She was so focused and intense, just like she tackles everything. Her incredible determination and focus when she's doing something really does shock me!

 The finished products! She did SO good!! My favorite was the candy cane with eyes haha!! I used my Grandma's sugar cookie recipe and icing recipe, and they were SO good. My issue with sugar cookies is that I can't stand when they get all dried out and crumbly. But these ones stayed good for days- so soft and chewy and delightful! Brandon pretty much inhaled them all by himself haha!

 Bathtime in her own bathroom! It is so nice to have her toys in a separate bathtub and not taking over all my space haha. I bought her that frog thing on the wall recently, and its the best for holding all her toys. She loves bath time and will stay in there for so long. Watching her play makes me laugh. She is so precise with everything she does - look at those toys all perfectly lined up. And she talks to them and will pet their heads. Pretty stinkin cute. Although washing her hair is becoming an issue - she yells about it and doesn't like it. Too bad kid, you need to have your hair washed!

 These cookies were the first ones gone. Jon went wild for them. They were a sort of peanut butter cookie with a mini reese cup pushed into the middle. Delicious

 And this cutie is little Micah!! My friend Jen gave birth to him a few days before Norah was born! He is not completely adorable?! My goodness! This means that the three girls I consider to be lifelong, closest friends who all stood up for me in my wedding - Shayna, Jen and Courtney, now all have husbands and babies! When we got married, we were first out of our friends and it was fun to watch them all go through that stage as well. Now, we are in the stage where everyone is having babies and thats a fun stage too. Its amazing to watch these beautiful women that I love so dearly change and soften by becoming moms.