Merry Christmas!

May your season be filled with love, peace, happiness and Christmas miracles.

End of Year Catch Up

It's been busy since Bryn started Kindergarten. School, field trips, dance, two rounds of swimming lessons and every day life has kept us all hopping for the past few months.

Bryn has grown up so much since starting Kindergarten. She's suddenly not even a little girl anymore but a school age girl. She loves, loves, loves school and is soaking up everything she can. She reads on her own now and writes stories and draws everything she can think of and more. It's like her imagination has exploded.

We had a beautiful fall -- summer weather in September. And December has been unbelievable. There's hardly any snow and we're worried it might be a brown Christmas. Bryn and I are hoping for snow!

We're now almost ready for Christmas. The gifts are wrapped, the tree is up, the baking is done. Bryn's school concert is Monday and she's been practicing for weeks. And to say she's excited about Christmas is a huge understatement. I'm sure she'll bounce right up to the ceiling by the time next week rolls around. I love seeing her so excited.

Here are some photos of what we've been up to in the past few months. Watch for Bryn's annual Christmas video coming next week!

School picnic.

Papa was here for his birthday and Jacey

moved to Saskatoon to start university.

Fun at the beach.

Nana and Pubba were here for a visit.

Making s'mores.

Jessie is famous! Her photo was chosen

to be in the 2012 365 Dogs calendar.

Jessie turned 10 and Bryn made her a cake.

We finally had professional family photos taken.

Girard's cousin's wife, Amy, did an awesome job.

Fall fun.

A witch for Halloween.

And Jessie is Yoda. Again.

Jacey turns 19! We love you, Jacey!

Loving the first snowfall.

Dance class.

One of Bryn's letters to me.

I came home one day and found this on the fridge. Yikes! Thankfully we didn't have to have "the talk" because all she wanted to know was "how do people get love in their heart?".

A new tradition -- choosing our Christmas tree at a tree farm.

One of Bryn's many drawings. A campfire with a horse (note the hoof) and the moon complete with craters.

It's time to decorate the tree!

Our annual tree decorating gang.

Making chocolates.

Kindergarten

This is Bryn's big year. Much to her delight, she started kindergarten. We were a bit conflicted on our feelings about it -- I was sad for me but happy for her, Bryn was super excited and Girard was somewhere in the middle.

Registration was Monday, August 29 and her first day of actual class was Tuesday. Registration was basically just a time to meet the teacher and show the kids their classroom. Piece of cake.

The real first day was a bit harder. Bryn was so excited she was finally going to kindergarten. I was a bit teary but actually thought I'd be fine, especially since we'd been there the day before. Bryn's teacher, Mrs. O.K., had told the parents that we should plan on staying for the first 1/2 hour of class.

The kids had a tour of the classroom, were told some basic rules and we took a little tour of the school. Then we went back to the class for storytime before it was time for the parents to leave.

When I saw the book The Kissing Hand sitting on Mrs. O.K.'s chair I knew I was in trouble. I love that book but it makes me cry every time I read it. It's a beautiful story and perfect for the first day of kindergarten but hearing it really hit home. My girl is growing up. Sniff.

Bryn loves school and is so ready for the new challenges. Her only complaint is that it's only half days rather than full and she can't go on weekends. She now has 3 full weeks under her belt and she loves it more every day.

Registration day.

First day of school. Yay!

Sniff.