Little Girls and Photoshoots

With tomorrow being Valentine's Day I think it's now safe to share my granddaughters gift to her Daddy.  Elyssa's Mommy asked me to do a photoshoot with Elyssa and I excitedly said for sure!  Whenever I do anything with Elyssa we're sure to have a blast. 

Here's a few of our photos...

Auntie Michelle had Elyssa laughing so hard, it cracked all of us up! 

After a ton of shots and plenty of laughter Elyssa decided to work with me and got into her posing mode, here's a few of the 'model' shots. 

One for Daddy...

And one for Grammy...

Happy Valentine's Day. 
 I already have my Valentine looking at me and she's so adorable she makes my heart melt! 

Love Is In The Air

My son and his girlfriend have announced their engagement and what an honor and privilege to be asked to do their engagement photo shoot. 

A few of the tons of photos I shot! 

You know it's true love when a diehard Oilers fan proposes to a Leaf's fan. 

I'm totally elated by this news! 

Sam I welcome you into our family! I wish you and Derek immense happiness, tons of joy, plenty of laughter, and the strength to get through the challenges in life and always walk side by side... even when the Oilers win! :-)

Celebration

YAY! More exciting news... 

My middle child and his girlfriend have announced their engagement! I'm absolutely elated with this exciting news!  Soon we will do the engagement photos, until then here's a photo of their Save The Date!

Life is absolutely amazing! What more could this Mama Bear ask for? 

Ten Years

This year marks ten years I've been going out to buy myself a new tree ornament after Christmas, I do this for two reasons:  the first being they're all on sale for ridiculously discounted prices, more importantly each year I've chosen to continue walking the Red Road I celebrate in some small way.  

This first one spoke to me...

Back in the day my mother would talk endlessly for hours on her CB radio, her handle was Foxy Gal and today I smile as I think back to those days.  Really how much has changed since then?  Meeting people in unconventional ways has become the conventional way for our younger generations and some of us baby boomers, many new friendships begin online.  Interestingly enough my mom met her husband via the CB in about 1981 and they remained married until she passed into the spirit world in 2002.  I sure miss that Foxy Gal, but she lives on in my heart

And me, well being me, at the price of the ornaments I had to get two! If I keep this up I'll need a separate tree for these special ornaments.  Now this is definitely something to work towards! 

And today I leave you with this wee bit of sage advice:

And I say dance on, in my opinion life is far too short not to dance! 

Happy New Year

May this brand new year bring loads of joy and immense fun
into your life.  I wish you and your loved ones a sweet and warm New Year
filled with tons of love, plenty of laughter, 
and an abundance of good health!  

Happy New Year, from me and my sidekick Abbie! 

Our Christmas

Christmas Eve is when we celebrate our Christmas at my place, and yes I go overboard but what the heck... it's Christmas! 

We start our celebration with a bit of a visit, then me, well being me, take the family photo.  This year my middle son couldn't make it for our dinner so even though we're down two in our family picture, both him and his girlfriend are in our hearts.

After the family photo it's dinner time! 

My oldest son was put to work carving the ham.  Thank you Shayne! 

And dinner is served with a menu of appetizers (shrimp, smoked oysters, pickles, cheese, and crackers), then the main course of ham, two types of homemade perogies, cabbage rolls, whipped potatoes, glazed carrots, fresh homemade gluten free cheesy garlic buns, a special cream sauce for the perogies, and way too many baked goodies! Nobody leaves the table hungry at my place EVER. 

Elyssa tracks where Santa is...

Then it's time for our gift exchange. 

A pleasantly surprised young lady! 

Another pleasantly surprised young lady! 

Even our pets get gifts, can't be leaving them out. 

And this is a portion of our Christmas.  I hope your holidays were as rich and blessed as mine have been.  Family, a warm home, tons of good food and immense love... what more could I ask for? 

Wishing you all a blessed and Happy New Year! 

Annual Family Christmas Party

A glimpse into our amazing Christmas

The first weekend in December our family comes together and we celebrate Christmas all together as a larger family unit.  A few years back we decided to go with a theme for our parties, the host chooses the theme and this year it was a North Pole Theme.  There's prizes for best costume, as well as second and third place.  Talk about a fun time! 

Santa and two Mrs. Clause's showed up, as well as one adorable elf.  

Make that two elves! I'd shown Elyssa what I was wearing to our theme party a week or two before the event and she told her Mommy and Daddy my secret, but it's totally forgivable... Elyssa wanted to dress like Grammy and also be an elf! :-)

My daughter, the reindeer, won first place for her costume

As you can see from the following photo, the family that plays together

stays together! :-)

Now this is a definite first, we did our family photo outside and it was December 5th this photo was taken outside of my son's house.  It's never been warm enough to do an outdoor shot in December!

Thank you Shayne, Sandy, and Elyssa for your gracious hospitality.  The Jeopardy family game was a blast, heck, the entire evening was a blast! 

In Hopes Santa Will Soon Be Here

Wow, where has this past month gone?  I can't believe it's been a month since I've visited my blog.  I know one thing which has kept me busy this past while, I've been doing a ton of baking in preparation for our Christmas celebrations. 

Here's a bit of what I've done thus far. From left to right on the top is Butter Tart Bars, Hawaiian Cheesecake Bars, Date Squares, Gluten free Cheesecake cookies and on the bottom is Nanaimo Bars. 

I've also made gluten free brownies, whipped shortbread, both regular and gluten free and last weekend I had a helper in my kitchen.  We did up Elyssa's special cookies and had us some fun doing so! 

Some of the finished cookies...

And perogies are also in the freezer, the kids came over and we spent an afternoon pinching perogies, which is always such a good time and an early feast! I'd also prepared an elk stew and was it ever delicious! 

So now that most of the cooking is done, all of my holiday gifts are bought I'm wondering what in the heck can I get into next?  I have to behave or Santa won't bring me anything...
 sigh, what to do! 

Campbell River, British Columbia

Last week I went for a short trip out to Campbell River and my goodness, what a stunning place!  I have a friend who moved there a few months back and he invited me so off I went. 

One of the first things we did was I grabbed my camera and off to the shores to take a walk, my friend lives two minutes from the shore and it's absolutely stunning! 

A large piece of driftwood to me is an excellent photo opportunity... 

One of the days I was there we went out fishing, it was gorgeous til we were on our way back and it started to rain, I was shivering cold but it the fishing was worth it.  I caught three fish, now that's a first since I was a teenager. 

This is the boat we were out on, a friend of my friends took us out and even though I was a bit leery at first I soon saw how competent he was and relaxed.  We pulled the boat in here and the only place to go was up so off I went climbing places which I probably shouldn't have been but the view was breathtaking. 

Another day we took a drive out to Elk National Park and went down to the waterfalls, there's a suspension bridge which only freaked me out when I looked down, so I tried really hard not to look down as I crossed. 

Everything from walking down the piers, hiking to the waterfalls and braving the suspension bridge, you bet I had an amazing time.  The only complaint I have is my trip wasn't long enough, but as I told my friend, I shall return! 

The trip was one of those trips where I just don't know which pictures to post, but I'll stop right about here, if you're ever in B.C. definitely take in the Island, you won't be disappointed! 

Thank you Jerry, your hospitality is immensely appreciated!  

Children - Our Gifts

I had the sheer enjoyment of doing yet another baby photo shoot and what a handsome wee man he is!   It's hard to pick one or two of my favorite shots but I'll try to limit myself here, try being the key word! 

Engine, engine number 9...

Get this thing off of me! 

And Santa don't forget my Harley please...

See why I had so much fun, my friends boy is an absolute doll! 

Children truly are our gifts, they bring a sense of joy which lies deep within the heart and I believe children keep our spirits youthful.  

See you in January little buddy, then look out, it's cake time!