The best days of my life....

I have been feeling quite philosophical lately. It must be because of the holiday season. I love spending so much time with family, hanging out and visiting. I have been thinking about how I have everything I ever wanted.  Now I know I am lucky to have everything I have and I am very grateful for that but at the same time I am sad.  I am sad because these are the best days of my life.  My kids are young and they live at home. I enjoy doing all the mommy stuff, all the running the kids around and living a crazy, stress-filled life. (remind me that next time I have a stress induced break down... oh ya, I have drugs for that... Anyway...)
I have never been the kind of person that can't wait for retirement and can't wait until my kids "get out of my house and let me live my own life again".  That is just not me. I actually dread the day that my kids are gone.

So I asked my parents "If these are the best days of my life, when they are over what do I do?"
Their very wise answer was "Pray for grandkids!"

I also asked my very compassionate and sagacious friend and fellow teacher who shares my feelings. She told me that we just have to live for today and to soak in each and every memory that we create with our children during this special and short period of time.  And as for what to do when they leave... she said that is when we finally have the time to scrapbook all those wonderful memories.  Right now is the time for making the memories... when we retire, that is when we remember the memories.  Isn't my friend inspirational?

Now I want to share all the holiday memories that we made this holiday season... Enjoy!

Christmas Eve at the McClelland Farm...


Mike hanging out and visiting by the Christmas Tree.



The McClelland Granddaughters... it's not very often we have all
Nine Granddaughters together!



Christmas Morning at the McClelland House...

Hmmm... notice that Mike and my stockings are
Empty... I hope Santa returns to fill them ;)

Good Morning Girls!!!

Christmas Day at the Worsley Cabin...

All 11 of Grandma and Grandpa Worsley's GrandChildren..
Do you only count 10?
That is because the 11th is in Auntie Robyn's tummy!

"Patiently" waiting to open presents!



What is that I hear???????



Santa stopped by on his way
home to the North Pole!

Santa is soooo tired from his long trip.

The kids had so much to thank
Santa for.

Shallen LOVED Santa!

Grandma proved that you must
believe to receive!

Finally time for the parent's to party. 
All of the Worsley sibling and their families
were home this Christmas and I must say it ROCKED!
What a very special time.

Off to the Bartake Wedding in Melville for New Year's Eve.  It was so much fun to dance and visit with all the cousins, aunts and uncles and families.

The happy couple,
Bert and Megan Bartake

The Teeny Boppers!

The little "party girl"



The little party girl taking a nap!



Rhiannon and Jorja had my camera hostage all night so there were very few pictures of them.... though I do have a few interesting photos they shot.



Amanda and Addison
(Amanda is the one who makes the cute TuTus!)



So there you have it... my holiday memories.  Hopefully I will be back soon with more special memories to share!

Say Cheese!

Shallen and I did an impromptu Photo Shoot tonight. I was cutting out the big girls school pictures to give to family on Christmas and I realized that there was NO picture of Shallen... so here are some shots I took tonight!

Say CHEESE!!

Come on just give momma ONE nice Smile!

Man you look like your Daddy!

I am SOOO cute!

The final Product... thank goodness for digital cameras!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!!!

"It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!"

I love this time of year! I have had my house decorated since just after Remembrance Day (which is a good thing since I would never have time to do it in December) and my baking exchange was at the beginning of December so that has been done for awhile (although I still have some other things to bake... of course).

I am basically done my Christmas shopping. I have a few small things to pick up but all and all I am almost done!  I love wrapping gifts.  The kids and I have been busy wrapping a few gifts each night.  I still have a closet full of them to wrap.

 Last weekend was the Church Christmas Pageant. Makenna, Rhiannon and Jorja were all angels. (just like always) Rhiannon was the angel Gabriel so she even had speaking lines.

Shallen enjoyed watching from Mike's knee.

After the pageant there was a visit from the man in red. 

Jorja jumped right up on Santa's knee!

Shallen wasn't even scared at all!

Look at that "toothless"grin... wonder what she wants for Christmas!

Even big girls can sit on Santa's knee... you know if you don't believe you don't receive!

This weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year. Now some people may say I am crazy but I actually love when we have our annual McClelland Christmas party. We split it up into a two day event this year. On Friday night, Makenna had 6 of her friends over for a sleepover. They made Christmas cut out cookies, decorated ornaments and watched Christmas movies.

On Saturday afternoon, Rhiannon and Jorja had their Christmas party. They each invited some friends to come over. During the afternoon we decorated the cookies the big girls made the night before, painted our Christmas banner, made decorations, colored and had a gift exchange.

Some of the cookie decorators!

Guess who got caught eating the icing!

And the best part is eating the cookies!

Painting some ornaments!

Creating the Christmas Banner!

It might seem insane to some of you that I organize and do all this by myself (with a little help from Mike) but I really do enjoy doing it. My kids look forward to it and it does, hopefully, create some lasting memories.

Coloring some Christmas Pictures.

This year for Christmas Day all my siblings and their families will be home! We are all going to hang out at the lake. It is going to be so much fun! We are so excited to all be together on Christmas Day. That has not happened for a long time.

I am looking forward to some down time over the Christmas holidays, even though we have two weddings and I have a pile of marking!!! (like always) I have recently opened an Etsy site for my Bows and Gurls Hair Accessories. (I know, as if I don't have enough to do) I also started a Fan Page on Facebook so you can check them out there if you are addicted to Facebook as I am. Anyway, I am planning on making some bows over the holidays too.

I plan on spending more time blogging over the holidays and maybe that should be one of my New Years Resolutions!!! (maybe not since I never seem to keep them!)

Here is a Christmas Funny for you....

And talking about "flat tires" I almost forgot to tell you about our new addition to the family.  Mike and I bought a New-to-Us 2010 Dodge Caravan! It is pretty overwhelming with all the new technology and touch screen and what not, but the kids seem to love it! It has the built in DVD player which I think will be great!

Anyway, I am counting down to school being done on Tuesday... who am I kidding... it is not like we are going to do much for those two days anyway!!! LOL

Oh, and if you are waiting for a McClelland Christmas Card/Letter you will be waiting for a long time! I will not be sending one this year... some how it got left out of the preparations this year. Since you are reading my blog right now I can assume you don't need to be updated on my less than exciting life anyway!

Finally... An update.....

Well as you can tell I have been unable to balance work and life.  In order to keep my sanity a few things have had to slide and my blog was unfortunately one of them. I have been kept busy trying to get my homeroom website going for my 801-derful class.  It has been a bit more of a challenge than I thought it would be.



The Princess Vampire... So Scary!



Now I would like to update you on some of the goings on over the last month or two! i  can't believe I have neglected to post to my blog for that long!!!



The Little Devil!!! How fitting!



My Halloween Monsters!




The Little LadyBug... she was going to be a witch but refused to wear the costume.
Luckily I have lots of extra costumes her size!



Jorja and Lily were enrolled in Sparks (the youngest Girl Guides)

Makenna got her second year pin at Girl Guides.

I was enrolled into Girl Guides as a Leader for Sparks (got my ONE year pin!)

Here is Makenna's Girl Guide group with Leader Auntie Andrea!

I am the worst mom! Rhiannon was enrolled into Brownies and got her second year pin. She was in Sparks last year. However, I forgot my camera and took pictures on my phone and they turned out crappily!!!! 

Rhiannon finally lost her front tooth.  It has been loose since August!

So in a nut shell that is what we have been up to! I hope to get back on track with the blog!!!  I know you are all waiting on pins and needles!