The New Year

Last year I resolved to become healthier and set a goal of losing 50lbs a year for the next three years. At the time it seemed impossible, but with supportive family, friends and strangers I hit that goal.

So now I am on to year two of my plan. Fifty more pounds to go this year and I am so excited about it! This is the first time I have such success with weight loss.

A couple more resolutions/goals to add to my list for this year:

• to delete the crappy photos as soon as I download them off of the camera!
• to finally put the rubbermaid full of photos into albums.
• to have more patience when dealing with Trouble 1 and Trouble 2.
• to learn a lot more French!
  

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next year!

Healing, Hope and Happiness

The last year was an absolutely amazing one for me and my family. I want to say it is the best year I have ever had! My boys are growing and entertaining us daily. My husband enjoys his job and we have financial security, but still heaps of family time. I pulled myself out of a deep depression and took control of my eating issues and lost fifty pounds. After three years of living in Faro we feel at home and our house and yard are really coming together.

But 2010 was not a good year for many of my friends. There was so much loss in the last year that at times I find it completely overwhelming. A number of friends suffered miscarriages, another lost her beautiful baby days before birth and another found herself saying goodbye to her lovely baby girl when she was just six months old. More tragedy struck this summer when a pregnant friend lost her husband in a drowning accident. All around us friends are suffering and here we are having the best year imaginable. It just doesn't seem right.

To all of my friends who are grieving and suffered heartbreak in the last year, I hope that 2011 brings you healing, hope and happiness.

New Purchases

Since I didn't have to spend all of my mitten making money on a new camera this Christmas, I was able to spend my money on other treats! Check out this gorgeous wolf and huge coyote I bought. They have been dried and I just need to ship them out for tanning. I am hoping to pick up a lynx next week in Ross River to ship out with them. Oh the plans I have for these furs!!

Hunter loves them, although he was a little concerned that the wolf might eat him!

At Peace With My Dust

I was putting away some of the Christmas decorations and I couldn't get over how dusty the shelves had gotten in just a couple of weeks. I was just about to wipe a shelf down when I saw something interesting in the dust.

Do you see it?

There in the dust, peace. A green, wooden decoration, given to me by the lovely Indigo, had been there for the holidays. I wouldn't have noticed the outline if the sun hadn't been shining on it right at that moment. That dusty shelf made my day.

A few more cute ones...

A friend took some awesome pictures of my boys that I just had to share. Thanks Heather!

Three little elves:

This train lives at the dayhome that Hunter goes to sometimes. He absolutely loves it and his head nearly exploded when my friend let him take it home for a few days!

Santa's mischievous little elf:

Buddies:

So how do I de-rail this sucker:

One happy boy:

One of my favorite photos of the holiday season:

Christmas Photos

Christmas was amazing this year. Hunter understood that Santa was coming and bringing presents and Cavan was excited just because of Hunter. Hunter had even requested to sleep on the sofa so he could see Santa and that Santa had asked him to drive the sleigh this year. How sweet is that?

On Christmas Eve we went outside to leave carrots for the reindeer and we also lit up giant sparklers and waved them around so Santa would know where we lived. I have video of that and I will post it up soon. Both kids were asleep by 7:30pm on Christmas Eve and up at 6am and raring to go!

Christmas morning was fun, relaxed and the boys loved every minute of it. Matt was happy with all of his gifts and was rather spoiled! I made a big Christmas supper that we enjoyed with some friends and neighbours. It was a perfect holiday this year.

Excited little boys getting ready to take carrots outside to leave for the reindeer:

I am pretty sure Santa was at our house!

Can we open them yet mom?

Just what I always wanted!!!

Ohhhh- skates!

The kids wanted to use knives to open up all of their presents. I gave them both butter knives and they cut the paper off. Odd children!

I bought them bead and lacing kits so they can sew!

Dad fighting with toys on Christmas morning. Pretty sure the toy won.

ahahahah My husband trying to push the table apart!

Cavan ready to scarf Christmas supper:

Enjoying dessert:

The cutest Christmas kids ever:
Lilou, Hunter, Quillian and Cavan

How I Ruined the Surprise

I guess my presents every year. Every single year. Well sometimes I cheat and peek, like the year I saw my GT in my parents closest. But most of the time I know exactly what I am getting. My husband says it doesn't help that I make up wish lists with only one or two items on them.

This year was different. I completely cheated months ago and bought myself a new leather sewing machine and said Merry Christmas to myself. I was expecting nothing other than a few items in my stocking, like earrings, because of that purchase.

I had decided a number of months ago that I would really like a new camera. My husband said ours was perfectly fine and was completely unwilling to pitch in the funds to buy one. So I saved up my mitten making money and was all gung-ho to nab a new one on a Boxing Day sale. I was impressed that I had saved up the funds since I am known for letting my money burn a hole in my pocket.

Well online Boxing Dale sales start on the evening of the 24th and I was going through all of the websites I had favorited seeing which store had the best deal on. Finally I decided on the store and was about to punch in my VISA card and make my purchase. I was pretty darn giddy! Then my hubby yelled at me to get off of the beepity-beeping computer and something along the lines of who the frack does online Boxing Day shopping on Christmas Eve. Hmmmm... what is this?

Well it turns out that there was a rather large conspiracy taking place! Matt, along with my parents and his parents, had decided to buy me a present, not for Christmas, but for losing 50lbs during the last year. I had been harassing my parents that they should get me something to celebrate my weight loss- ahahah I will pull anything to get more presents! I wanted a new gun to shoot coyotes and had my fingers crossed that I could sucker my dad into buying it for me. So I figured if anything I would get a new gun in the near future. I had no inkling that a new camera was in my house!!

I am impressed with my husband. Not only did he order something online, he asked the post office workers to call him when it came in so I wouldn't pick it up with the mail. He also told many of my friends to make sure I wouldn't buy it if I was with them and shopping. He had also gone to a lot of work wrapping it all disguised in a huge box filled with text books and random items that would jingle if I shook it. The plan was that the gift would sit there to be opened last just to drive me nuts.

But instead he cursed at me that nothing is ever a secret in this house and then he brought out the box early. Of course I had a big grin on my face when I figured it out. Then my brain also went right to work on figuring out what my mitten making money could go to next (well it went to memory cards, a fox, a fox headband that I want to copy, a raccoon, rabbit fur, beaver fur, a wolf and coyote that need to be tanned, and a new camera bag with money still left!).

Thank you so much Matt, Mom and Dad, Jonna and Les, and everyone else that was in on this. I love my new camera and appreciate all of the work that was done to keep this a secret. Sorry I ruined the surprise! *grin*

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies!

Well baking with boys is about as entertaining as crafting with boys. Although, no icing went up anyone's nose.

Since Santa will be here soon, it was time to bake him some cookies. Chairs were brought up to the kitchen counter. Boys helped add the ingredients. Dad smacked hands that kept trying to reach into the KitchenAid while it was running. Boys yelled and yelled louder to lick the spoon. Finally they were each given a spoon with dough to eat.

Next I rolled out the dough. Cookie cutters were fought over. Cutters were squished into the dough again and again, usually overtop of where it was just placed. Little hands reached in to steal and eat more dough. Finally dad took them both to the bath and I cut and baked the rest, pulling them out of the stove and into the freezer for quick cooling.

Clean little boys then sat at the table. Dad dipped the cookies and tried to show the boys how to add sprinkles. The little boys just dipped their hands in the sprinkles and ate them. Then they each devoured two cookies each, grabbed a sippy cup of milk, and retired to the sofa to watch Might Machines while mom decorated the other 86 cookies.

Perhaps next year they will have more interest in helping versus eating? However, gauging from my husband's enthusiastic eating of the cookies, I doubt it. Ah well. It was still heaps of fun tonight.

Tomorrow we will be delivering cookies and Christmas cards around town to our friends and neighbours. A few will be saved for Santa to eat too.

COOKIES!

Craft Time with Boys

We haven't left the house all day and here are some photos of what we have done to entertain ourselves so far:

Boys and craft time don't really mix. Cavan found one of the smelly markers and thoroughly enjoyed it:

He also bit the nubby end off of the green marker- check out the green lips and teeth:

Mommy got creative today and made 26 fish out of cereal boxes, coloured paper and magnets. Fishing rods were once cat toys and a have a washer attached at the end of the line. Each fish has a different letter of the alphabet on it. The boys loved catching fish!

And then the game just turned to trying to catch/hit each other:

I got crafty again with a small fleece pull-over:

My unimpressed son modeling it for me. I believe he is telling me to frak off, that purple is not really his colour and this isn't his size at all.

And an hour today was spent playing in a dark room with glow in the dark bracelets. We pretended we were camping as well as landing a plane. Fun times with little boys.

Cold!

Winter is most definitely here in the Yukon and it has been for a while. We are currently in the middle of a cold stretch that has kept temperatures between -20C and -40C for the last couple of weeks. The kids and I are going a bit shack-wacky, as my husband calls it! Thank goodness the rec centre has been open so we can go and let the kids run off their extra energy.

We are almost all ready for Santa to arrive. Tomorrow we will bake cookies for Santa and his reindeer and I still have a few more presents to wrap. First I need to get tape from the store. I let the kids go through four rolls of tape one day so I could do more sewing. I figured it was pretty cheap entertainment! They had a blast wrapping themselves up, chasing the cats, and sticking it to anything they could find.

The cold weather seems to bring out the creativity in our house. Today the boys were playing with an old fishing reel. It was turned into a helicopter, a train and a camera. Yesterday we had a sock fight with all of the mis-matched socks. We need to find some fun ideas for today since it is a frosty -37C outside. A friend suggested putting arms through plastic bags and running around the house pretending they are parachutes. I think it will be a hit in this house! Perhaps that will entertain the boys long enough that I can get to a couple more projects in my sewing room.

So that is it! Nothing much exciting in the Went household this week. The build up to the holidays are always very low key and relaxing at our home. Now I just have to wait patiently for presents!

Photos from the last week

Two naughty boys pretending to sleep under the Christmas tree. Today Hunter named our tree "Gordon" and I spend most of the day telling them to stop throwing blocks and balls at the tree.

Check out this load of laundry- five puppies, one squirrel, one marten and two favorite blankets. Watching with looks of concern were two very upset little boys!!

And check out this combination- a monkey tail, rubber boots and no pants:

Today's sewing project- beaver gauntlet mittens:

Keeping Busy!

I have definitely become a sewing addict! My housework and children have been a little neglected over the last couple of weeks while I have been doing custom orders and trying new projects.

Attempt #2 of cute fleece hoody.
I have since pulled the hood off and made it come together in the front.

Attempt #1 at fleece hoody:

And I am finally happy with attempt #3! It is about a size 3T and now I will be trying to make some smaller ones.
My helpful little model:

Another model in my mink hat! This one sold quickly.

Otter with moose and rabbit trim:

White rabbit and pink leather. I also made another pair out of grey rabbit and purple leather.

Seal, moose and rabbit trim:

Black seal, red leather and rabbit trim:

And my new favorite mitten- Lynx!! The lynx was bought off of a local trapper. They have moose leather and rabbit trim.

Seal, moose and rabbit trim:

Cavan trying out the lynx mitts!

SANTA!

Santa came to Faro on the weekend and had presents for every good girl and boy! Hunter has been so excited for Santa this year. Every day he asks about him, talks about his sleigh and reindeer, and ohhs and ahhs over the decorations. Hunter's giddiness has been rubbing off on Cavan as well.

Hunter and I had been practicing for a week what he should say to Santa when it was his turn to go and sit with him. And all the practicing paid off! When his name was called he ran up on stage all by himself, crawled up beside Santa and loudly exclaimed, "I've been a good boy all year, Santa!" So darn adorable.

Not impressed with the hat I found for him:

Cavan walked up to Santa all on his own too! No screaming at all. In fact, he didn't want to leave and Mrs. Claus had to take him away.

Hunter chillin' with Santa:
Very impressed with the present Santa brought him:

Cavan was actually more interested in the candy cane from Santa than the present:

Just watching Santa up on stage: