boxing day dinner

we hosted a boxing day turkey dinner at our house for andrew, heather and miles, and poppa & diane.


mellenger family cuddle


miles walking towards the camera


miles enjoying his new clothes from us


and playing with the circus truck from us


diedre trying to open up this gift bag from the mellenger grandparents


diedre opening from andrew & heather


its a cool "tuff n tiny" cabriolet car


the kids "sharing" their toys


poppa & miles enjoying a new truck


grandma diane with grandpoppa holding the kids

christmas dinner at susan & bruce's

time for christmas dinner!


opening a gift from susan & bruce


she loved to rip the paper and flap it around like a wing.


here she is playing with the new globe toy


my cousins kristy, juli, melissa and aunt susan

Merry Christmas!

some of diedre's gifts from us


our stockings were hung by the computer with care


diedre opening a gift from marsha (marsha asked if we'd taken any pictures of diedre opening presents and we realized we hadn't, only video, so i began right then & there!)


derek's new jacket from marsha...very slick


playing with her new dolly


noah's ark little people toy. she loves the little animals

derek got me some animals too: the willow tree nativity set! i have been wanting a nativity set for years. its is really nice. it comes with mary, joseph, jesus, one shepherd, 3 sheep and a donkey.

christmas eve.

diedre asleep on the way to the mellenger's christmas eve party at Richard & Bev's.


awake and ready to party. the outfit & toy are from grammy & grampa salmon. derek forgot what to call her new toy so he called it "Christmas Cookie Bear" rather than "Gingerbread Man." our family is so funny with nic names, that the gingerbread man already has two nic names: Ging & Christmas Cookie Bear.


diedre (10 months) & rowen mellenger-brown (8.5 months old, her mother is faith mellenger, my uncle richard's daughter)


diedre laughing it up with rowen's older two sisters, aiden (7 years old) & greer (5 years old)


the four girls together


diedre checking out aiden


just before leaving, alexa arrived with her two kids, danika (4 or 5 years old) & luke (1.5 years old)

our tree.

derek being silly with stockings on diedre's noggin.

too cute to stop

at andrew & heather's

ok. i will apologize in advance for the many many pictures to follow...but my girl is just sooo cute, i couldn't help it!


no, diedre, you are not allowed by the fireplace.


ok, i'm coming to get you!


flying faery


fun times


diedre can walk now if you hold her hands. its really cute watching her figuring out her feet.


g'afternoon miles


oh dear, these kids are too cute!


what a nice cousin


my baby is getting so big


sweet girl


ruby red lips

at aunt deb & uncle mike's

we went to aunt deb & uncle mike's for a christmas lunch. it was really tasty and diedre got to play with a basket of stuffed animals.


my two sweeties

its times like this when i wish i could somehow preserve how cute diedre is to me right now and put it in a bottle for safe keeping. its so exciting to see her grow but so sad because i want her to stay little!

new party clothes

diedre got to open up an early gift from grammy & grampa salmon. there were several cute christmas outfits that will be featured shortly :) here she is playing with the gift bag & fraser!


here's our tree, and sleepy derek enjoying his cup o' jo


here is diedre playing cardboard swords with daddy in one of the new outfits. we were getting ready for a christmas party with some people from our former church out in Cloverdale.


here's daddy taking a big swing


family shot "Merry Christmas!"


pretty auntie heather


"i found a little mouse under a table!"


time to get changed for bed! she crawled right into this serving tray. what a silly little girl


bon appetit. wearing a new christmas sleeper

reason to celebrate

i slept ALL night!

for the first time in close to a year :D wow i can't believe it!

diedre is 9.5 months old and at the end of my pregnancy i did not sleep all night because of bathroom breaks and feeling uncomfortable.

diedre slept all night too, but she's done that before. usually i wake up wondering if she's going to wake up and listening before going back to sleep. and i've also had a few bouts of waking up and staying awake for several hours while she sleeps, for no apparent reason. just feeling too awake for sleeping.

poor derek woke up at 12.30am and got dressed for work! but i slept through that too :) yay! sorry honey

we got christmas photos of diedre done on december 3rd and have been handing them out a bit here and there. they are so cute! i guess i should probably try scanning one to show it here since the hardcopies are limited.

luncheon with some prenatal class friends

stacy hosted a lovely luncheon for some of us from the prenatal class. rachel and the twins were there too (they were born feb 25 05) but i forgot to get their picture--argh.


stacy with aiden (born feb 24 05--currently weighs 30 lbs!!!), me with diedre (born feb 26 05--currently weighs 20lbs), natalie with riley (born april 11 05--also from our prenatal class but born a little later that aiden, diedre and the twins)


showing off the length of our beauties. diedre is waving at aiden i think. she is really waving alot now. its so cute. we'll say "say hi to the kitty" and she'll wave and him. its sweet. she's so smart ;)

a special tree topper

our rascally rascal fraser climbed right up the center of our christmas tree (it was still wrapped in twine). it was really cute and funny. we decorated the tree and diedre has barely noticed it. it is not on the floor so that probably has something to do with it.

our warm house

we had a great turn out to our housewarming party. the furnace did get fixed yesterday so it all worked out.

derek and i worked really hard to get the place ready. he installed hardwood in the hallway and laminate in diedre's room and did a garbage run among other things.

i was surprisingly stress free throughout the party and was able to get snacks out in a timely manner. it was really fun. our house was thoroughly child-proof tested today! there were several families of 5 that stopped buy and lots of friends with babies and toddlers. it was great listening to them running around and playing.



diedre's room was the messiest it has ever been and here she is chewing on some books she didn't even know she had. the boys had the habit of stringing out all her toys all over. it was pretty funny. cleaning up tonight was interesting, finding her toys from the bedroom at the other end other end of the house under something. it was a really good time and the kids played really well together.


party pooped out

ready to venture out

its been snowing lately and our furnace died in the middle of the night. it was very cold. service master leant us 2 space heaters to try to tide us over until tomorrow when they can fix it...we are working furiously to prepare for our housewarming, which we literally need at this point!