In the Holiday Spirit

Who would have thought that a trip to the grocery story would put us in the Christmas spirit but today's trek out pick up some weekend goodies did just that. There were carollers, elves, and samples of goodies galore. Natalie even met Elmo - she couldn't take her eyes off him, as you can see.

I'm a bit of a Christmas Cheermiester - I thoroughly love the holidays. We've been listening to Christmas music, making Christmas crafts and baking cookies for a couple of weeks now. And while my mom was here last weekend we even donned our silly Christmas hats and strolled around the neighborhood enjoying everyone's decorations. I love having a mom that knows how to enjoy the little things.

This weekend we'll be taking our family Christmas photo, singing some Christmas songs to the music of Dan's guitar and hopefully joining the Halifax Art Gallery for Gingerbread Sunday!

What are you doing to get into the holiday spirit?

Bee-Nastics!

Natalie love, love, loves her gymnatstics class. Here's a little taste of the fun.

Besties

Nap time is always better with friends.

Say that again...?

I was just reading an article on the Canadian Parent website about writing down all the funny things your kids say so you don't forget them and thought it would make a good blog post to share some of Natalie's favorite sayings and mis-sayings.

Ham-ga-burger {hamburger}

The libaby {the library}

"Look mommy, I'm doing something really good."

"Super, calla, fra..gahlish..." {supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - someone loves Mary Poppins right now}

"The yitsy, bitsy, pider"

Yimnastics {gynmastics - she's loving her new gymnastics class}

mommydaddy {all one word, when she's excited}

I'm sure I'll think of more. I'll add them to this post as they trickle into my memory. I know they'll be so much fun to read even just a few months from now. :)

Chocolate chip cookies and a hurricane

High winds, driving rain and ten hours without power - that sums up our first experience weathering a hurricane here on the east coast. Hurrican Earl struck early yesterday morning knocking out power to over 200,000 homes. But other than a few toppled trees in our nearby woods Earl took it fairly easy on the McMahon household. In fact, it was actually a fun day. We watched a few movies on our laptops (hooray for charged batteries), had a BBQ in the garage and sipped some beer by candlight.

And thanks to the power outage our lovely neighbor Karen shared some of her to-die-for potato salad since she wasn't sure it would survive the night in her powerless fridge. Don't you love how a good storm gets the neighbours out and chatting?

So to repay the favour, and appease our craving for chocolate Natalie and I whipped up a batch of Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip cookies. I found the recipe over at Buns in My Oven - you should check out the site, it's adorable and the recipes are fantastic - especially these cookies. This was Natalie's first time mixing up a batch of cookies and she loved it, especially when she got to dump in the chocolate chips. They're baking in the oven as I type and they smell so yummy.

Here are a couple of recent photos, including one of our hurricane BBQ.

Summah time!

It's been a long time coming but this will be Natalie's first full brace-free summer! And we are stoked... we've definitely been making up for lost time.


Playing at the beach in her best beach bum duds



















Riding in every car or airplane shopping cart we lay our eyes on



















Playing a funky beat for her fans




















Rocking her fairy wings



















Spending more time playing at the beach

And strolling through the "daisy flowers" as N likes to say.

We are definitely loving this summer.

An oldie from the brace days

I found this picture while I was cleaning out my inbox today. It was taken May 24, 2009 - almost a full year ago. What a whirlwind of changes since then. It's hard to see but this was back when Natalie was still wearing her brace (this was her first brace actually). The velcro was so worn out that we used to put duct tape on the straps so it would stay closed. It was a pain in the butt but to be honest it seems like something that happened ten years ago not just one.

I think that's mostly because now she's so busy, running, hopping, climbing, dancing, twirling and lately "flying" as she likes to squeal while running around the kitchen with her arms outstretched.

It was a tough road for sure - but it sure is sweet when you make it to the end of that journey.

Paint!

I took Natalie to a new playgroup this week - in the hopes of meeting some kiddies (for Natalie) and some moms for me. Choosing the group was a bit random, I found it online and thought what the heck let's check it out. And I'm so glad we did - it was fantastic.

There's an open play area, a sandbox, a puzzle station, a train table and..... Natalie's favorite.... a painting station. It's complete with smocks, easels, lots of paint colors and line to hang your paintings to dry.

Now everday when we leave the house she looks at me and says "Paint?" It's so sweet. We'll have to make it a regular part of our week.

It was great for me too, I met two moms and next week Natalie and I have our first official Halifax playdate.

Rain, rain...

We've had some serious rain for two days so Natalie had a chance to test out her new raincoat (thanks Nanny). She gets really excited when I pull it out of the closet. I can't wait for the rain to ease up a bit so I can take her outside for some puddle splashing.

Sunny days

The weather here in Halifax was amazing this weekend (11 degrees) so we decided to introduce Natalie to the city. We took the ferry from Dartmouth to Halifax (Natalie's first boat ride) and spent the morning touring around the waterfront. Natalie was a social butterfly introducing herself to every kiddo in sight with a giant "Hi kids!" She was absolutely hilarious. We played at the pirate ship playground, checked out the boats docked in the harbour, danced to a few accordian tunes and then had lunch on the waterfront. I think Natalie is going to like it here :)

Wagon's east

After ten years of life in the west, we're moving back east. In fact we're already in Nova Scotia searching for a house. We'll stay in Cape Breton until we find our abode and then we'll be Halifax bound. Hooray! We can't wait to put down some roots and start the next chapter in our little family's life. Looking forward to new year filled with cozy nights watching snowstorms, lots of visits with grandparents, summer days at the beach and even rainy days for splashing around in puddles.