Friday 30 December 2011

Boxing Day Pt 2

And here are the rest of the Boxing Day Photos.

Nathan is opening up his Canuck PJs! He loved them and wore the shirt right away.

My cousin Dennis holding Landon.

Little Caleb.

Here Opa is asking Jacob to help him open a present.

Tyson with his baby boy.

Matt serving dessert.

Erin posing pretty!

This happens quite often in that house! My brother attempting to strangle my dad. All in fun of course!

Photogenic or what?!

Laura with her gingerbread man!

There's no stopping him now.

Or her for that matter!

Jacob eating his masterpiece.

Joyce now has Caleb, he sure got passed around a lot! But I guess that's what happens when you're the smallest!

Finally, I'm all caught up, now to try and scrapbook Landon's first year...oh boy...big job ahead!



Thursday 29 December 2011

Boxing Day Family Dinner Pt 1

**Disclaimer: After learning (today) a bunch more about how to use my camera outside the "Auto" setting, I realize that these photos could be WAY better! Also, I received a new lens for Christmas which I used for all except the first few photos. However, until today, I did not know how to choose my focal spot, so there are definitely some issues with focus. Bare with me as I learn to take better photos. I know someday, I'll be able to look back at these photos and (trying not to be totally disgusted) see how far I've come!

So this is at my mom's house and we've discovered that the lighting there is very yellow. Therefore I need to set my white balance, but did not.

A few years ago at the family BBQ in the summer, my parents had just gotten a new appliance of some sort and still had the giant box. They decided to leave it in the family room for Jacob (right) to play in it. It was a HUGE hit as some of my cousins got into it and played with it as well. Ever since then, if my parents can find a box, they'll keep it for family gatherings. I believe this is the 3rd or 4th box now. And obviously it isn't just Jacob anymore, but also his brother Nathan (left) and Elijah who are old enough to play. Next year I'm sure Landon will be into it!

Nathan did this on his own, he's giving the ceramic dog a hug! So cute. I quickly learned how photogenic this kid is!

I was sitting on the couch with my Opa, with Landon in sight one moment, and then out of sight the next. Usually, no big deal in the family room, no where to go really. However, this time I turned around to find him up on the 3rd (out of 4) stair all by himself!! Yikes, okay, time for a baby gate? This photo is of him once he was safely on the top and not making any moves to go back down thankfully.

As you can see, they even made a slide out of the box.

Mind you, Jacob and Nathan were both inside the box when Elijah slid down, thankfully no major injuries.

Elijah fooling around with his daddy, or rather his daddy fooling around with Elijah!

Some of the food!

The table was set so very nicely.

Landon and Daddy playing tug-of-war!

Ready to eat in his booster seat. He's wearing a teething Amber necklace in case you were wondering.

I really like this photo. My cousin Joyce.

Hi Marco! My cousin Erin's husband.

Elijah with his kissy face. He was trying to get his Daddy to kiss him, which he did and I got a photo but it was blurry as they were moving too fast for me!

Jacob is slouching here, he's not that short!

Some more food!

Matt made friends quickly, they were watching the hockey game.


Tyson put Elijah in the box which he loved for a split second. Then he started to get excited and yell "No!" and shook his finger!

Yup, he takes after his Mommy, so many faces!

This might have won the prize for the best gift. Nathan (and Elijah) was enthralled over this guitar!

I love this photo of Opa and Laura.

Uncle Ralph and his grandson Caleb. I have a feeling my mom will like this photo!

I took a wack load of photos that night mostly because kids are easy to photograph and I had to try out my new lens. Therefore, I had to split this into two parts as I simply could not edit all those photos tonight. I believe there are about 18 more and hopefully I'll get them done tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Christmas Day, Eggs and All!

I took a break from the camera to open presents with everyone on Christmas morning. However we decided to feed Landon scrambled eggs for the first time. THIS, I had to take a picture of, and to top it off, Matt (the hater of all types of eggs) was the one who fed him! And I have pictures to prove that too!

Oh and did I forget to mention? He loved them!

He, however wasn't too thrilled about it all!

Later that evening we went to my Uncle's house for Christmas dinner. My Uncle and Aunt spent most of the time in the kitchen, so I had no chance for photos of them. We did take a few group photos at the table but as it turns out, there were lots of bad faces and eyes closed that I could not salvage any of those photos.

Jeff and my mom with Landon


Finally a normal smile from him (my brother). He notoriously frowns or gives a really odd/goofy grin for photos. This looks good on him though!

My mommy and daddy.

Eating with us at the table.

After dinner Grandma tried to put a Christmas cracker crown on him, but mommy wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch that photo op!

I got earings for Christmas that actually do not bother my ears for a change! (Oh and remind me to tell you about the wrapping job to get to those earings!)

Landon went to bed around 8:30pm, so when we were about to leave, we got him up and since he doesn't stay sleeping whenever we transfer him to the car, we decided to let him open his Christmas present from the Pearsons. Go figure, it was a noisy toy!!

Well I've kept up with one day's photos per day, so with any luck, I'll have boxing day photos up tomorrow night! Stay tuned...

Christmas Eve festivities in the USA

I'm amazed at myself for getting these done so quickly! We had three full days of Christmas as we do most years.
Christmas eve is spent in the USA with Matt's family, Christmas day is us at home in the morning, then to my parents for the morning/afternoon (opening presents and eating "specials" for brunch), followed by dinner with my dad's side of the family, and finally Boxing day is celebrated with a dinner with my mom's side of the family. And to answer the obvious question lurking, no, my parents are not divorced, they just have large families so we do not combine the two!
So today, I only have photos from Christmas eve to show you at this point.

This is how we found Landon sleeping at the end of a nap. Matt says this is the norm now for Landon sleeping.

Landon with his Auntie Sarah

Landon with Matt's cousin Justin

This is my gingerbread man. Can you guess who it is?

Justin is doing his part!

Sarah is finished her gingerbread man! (or woman!)

Auntie CJ and Christy

This is Matt's gingerbread ...um (not man)

The football game was on and Uncle John said this was one of the players...

Dean pulled out all his artistry skills on this one. It won the prize for the best decorated gingerbread man!

These two were Shawnie's and Justin's as they were married this summer!

Sarah's finished product

Christy's finished product

My handsome husband!

First time with a Santa hat on!

Hey Wally, there's Rice Bavarian out at Grandma's house..."Rice Bavarian?!!"




One of my favourites!

My other favourite!

Opening presents!

Also a favourite!

Top Row: Dean, Christy, Eric, Sarah, Shawnie & Justin
Bottom Row: Robyn, Grandma Jo, Grandpa Lyle, Landon, Matt

Another gift for Landon, what could it be?

Yup, a drum set!

 Which he took NO TIME at all to figure out!



And there ends a beautiful Christmas eve spent with special family. We all had a lovely time.
Now we're just recuperating at home!