Christmas with the Archdekins

January 1st was spent at my aunt and uncle's farm.  We weren't able to get together on Christmas eve as per usual, so we decided to make it a new year's day celebration.

The kids had a great time.

From left to right - Jayden, Hunter, Crystal (in the back), Michael, and Drew

I can't believe how big they are all getting.  It's fun to see them play together now.

After our afternoon with the family, we headed back to Nana and Papa's for some train fun.  There was a Thomas movie on TV and then the boys played with their new Cranky crane.

Hunter does not look pleased.

Another fairly low key day for us.  It's usually the low-key ones that are the most fun!

Here's hoping 2012 is the best year yet!!

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve was pretty low key for us.  James was working.

We went to Nana and Papa's for dinner and an early countdown (7:30).

The boys wanted to put some change in their piggy bank for the new year.

Once the boys were in bed at home, I did some cleaning and shortly after that, James came home!  He was home fairly early (10:30) so we watched the top 10 weddings of the year and then the party in Niagara Falls (much better watching it on TV, it looked COLD there!  lol)

I didn't make it to midnight...I very rarely do.

Happy New Year everyone!  Here's hoping 2012 is a great one!

Thursday December 29 and Friday December 30

On Thursday we drove to Aurora to visit my step-grandmother, Florence.  It was a nice visit.  James left early, with my parents car, as his boss had passed away and he was going to the wake, which was just around the corner from Florence's condo.

I drove part-way home, and by part-way, I mean a few hundred meters to the nearest Winners where my mom and I left my dad and kids in the van while we ran in to look.

I made my dad drive home from there.  Frankly, he was being annoying about my driving.

It was just as well, as the roads had gotten pretty bad.

We made it home and then dad got the van stuck in the ditch on the way up their drive-way.

Drew and I played outside while we waited for James to come home to help get the van out of the drive-way.

I took this pic on our walk down to the van at the end of the night.  They were able to pull it out of the ditch, but weren't able to get it up to the top.

After all of the driving trouble, we decided to stay put the next day.  We played in the snow, played games, and had a great day.

Drew asked me to go get the camera to take a picture of his tunnel.  While I was in getting the camera, Hunter started freaking out.

I get him inside and he has snow all down his back.......mean big brother had thrown snow at him.  Poor little one.

It was quickly forgiven though....

We also took the decorations off of the tree......so sad.

December 27 - Night at the Hilton in Niagara Falls

We've been meaning to do a night at the falls with Nana and Papa for a while now....it finally happened on the 27th.

We stayed at the Hilton, they stayed at Fallsview.  They are connected by a walkway.  They had a free room there, so they opted to stay for free.  Can't say I blame them.

We had the most awesomest 2-bedroom suite.  It was one of the best rooms we've ever stayed in.  

I didn't want to leave.

They upgraded us to a fallsview room because there was a bit of a wait when we went to check in.

Totally willing to wait for this!

The boys wanted to bring all of their toys.  We  only let them bring what we could fit in the van.....it turned out to be a lot.

The pool was cold, but the boys didn't seem to mind.

We went our seperate ways for dinner.  Nana and Papa had a free dinner at the casino and since the kids weren't allowed in, James and I went to the hotel restaurant.  With our room deal, we also got a $40.00 voucher towards food....the food was delicious.

After dinner, we met up at Nana and Papa's hotel for another swim.  Their pool did not have a water slide, but it was warm.

After our swim, we got dressed, headed downstairs for ice cream which Papa bought for us and then we headed back up to our room where Nana played for a bit and then read the boys their bedtime stories.

After all that swimming, the boys slept fantastically.

it's tough to get up and dressed when you've got two king sized beds to lounge in!!!

Along with our deal, we also got free breakfast.  Since Hunter is only 2, they also only charged Nana and Papa for one breakfast.  It was a yummy buffet, made even yummier by how free and (cheap) it was for my parents!

The pool was on our agenda next, followed by a swim in our jacuzzi with all of their floating toys.

Originally we had planned to head across the border for some Olive Garden for lunch and some shopping but the wait to cross the border was horrendous and the weather wasn't that great, so we all just went home.

We weren't home for more than 15 minutes when James announced that the kids were heading to Grandma and Grandpa's and he was taking me to see the movie, "New Years Eve".

I did a happy dance.

The movie was great, but time alone with James was very much needed and a nice surprise!

Once we got home and the kids were in bed, "Adjustment Bureau" was on TV.

A perfect night with 2 great movies!!

Boxing day with the Bonney family.

Boxing day started out with the boys opening their gifts from us.

That was, of course, followed by some work in the barn and then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Christmas with James' side of the family.  We were late, but it's better late than never, right?

Grandma and Grandpa got Drew this.

The kids had fun with it.

Aunt Lisa and Uncle Norm gave H a lightning McQueen car.  He is OBSESSED with CARS lately.

Books too!  So exciting!

 A whole crap load of lego.....woohoo!!!!

Can I just say how I LOVE that they have each other?!?!  Cousins are the best.

Grandpa lighting dessert on fire.

We stayed all day...Hunter fell asleep on the ride home.

Perfect.

Another successful family Christmas visit!