Brand New Year

 A new year has started and it's been great until that deep freeze came in!!  Brrrrr, seriously! I would first like to reflect back on the last month as I am a bit behind on my blogging.  We had a wonderful Christmas filled with presents, family and yummy turkey dinners.  McKinley couldn't get enough of opening presents.  He was more excited just ripping presents open as apposed to seeing what was inside.  I think next year I will just wrap some empty boxes! (And a bonus to that will be saving money, which is always good.)   Gabriella really enjoyed her first Christmas.  She was really caught up in McKinley's excitement.  It was such a joy to watch her grab at all the presents and giggling at all the toys she got.  She's such a girl!   All that excitement did get to her though.  We had to put her down for a nap before we could continue opening presents.  The biggest surprise present that I got this year was a new Mac Desktop.  I love it!  I also got a new digital rebel camera with manuals to properly use it!  I needed a nice one and I hope my pictures come out looking better.  McKinley got some nice flames hockey sticks, a flames jersey that he calls "Hockey Day" when he puts it on and we also got him a stuffed Buzz and Woody.  These have become his new favourite toy and show to watch too. (We watch toy story 1-3 at least 15 times a day.  Drives me crazy!)  Val got a 3D TV and he also got a new Air soft gun.  This has become his new hobby.  (Plus side..............we can defend ourselves with plastic balls??)

I wanted to put up a craft that I was making my older brother and sister-in-law for Christmas, but I couldn't put it up until now.  I had so much fun making it.  I got this idea from my friend who got it off Pinterest.  If you don't know what Pinterest is, google it and you'll be hooked!  It took me two days to make this.  After all the kinks and burning my hand every now and then, it turned out great!

 I made it out of cardboard, insulation, black ribbon, mod podge and a hot glue gun.  I printed the pictures 4x6 size.  Then I just started making a collage affect and cutting the pictures to fit the S shape.  I plan to make one for my home since it turned out so nicely.  I also made a "DAD" collage for Val as a present but used wood from Walmart instead.  I folded the pictures over the edges instead of using ribbon and I loved how it came out.

Kicking off January I decided to get back into dance!  I signed up for Contemporary, Ballet and Hip Hop.  So far I love the classes that just started this week and I haven't forgotten as much as I thought I did.  It was like riding a bike again after taking a break and it just felt right!  I missed dance so much.  More then I thought I did.  Moving my body again through the different movements, made me feel like an artist again.  Painting a picture with my movement.
Coming up at the beginning of February, I will be certifying myself as a Zumba instructor for Good Life Fitness.  I'm really excited and can't wait to teach a class!  It's perfect for making some extra money and doesn't require me to stick my kids in daycare all day.  Free membership, free daycare and I get to pick my own hours!  I really have to thank my cousin Jenny for getting me a shoe into this.  If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't be doing this so thank Jenny!!  Val has been doing extremely well with work.  He's put in a lot of hours and works very hard.  Back on January 7th, we went to his Christmas Party.  It was nice to see everyone again, catch up and letting them know how motherhood was treating me. (I used to work with Val before the kids came)  McKinley has been one rambunctious character.  From pushing his independence to being a huge cuddle bug.   He's just growing so fast!!!  The things that come out of his mouth are just hilarious!! (Not always) Gabriella is just one talkative baby.  Her vocabulary consists of: Babababa, Dadadada, Mamama, and clicking, squealing, screaming noises.  She is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on furniture. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with her.  Both of them, to be completely honest! 
Well, here's to a new year in experiencing new things, learning from past experiences and growing more and more each day!

Ready for Christmas

I always get carried away when Christmas time comes. The decorating, baking, the singing of Christmas Carols and of course........The Presents!!!  I just need to start making a list every year and then I won't buy so much!  I got all the decorations up and it makes my home feel more like Christmas!

I had a lot of fun putting up the decorations.  And with a little help from my dear friend Marisa Smith, my home was turned into a magical Christmas wonderland! 

I wanted to start a new tradition to make Gingerbread houses, so we did one this year.  It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was messy and a lot of fun!  It only lasted a day since McKinley started picking off all the candy as soon as it was applied.  He had fun making it and we will definitely be doing it again next year.

We had our ward Christmas Party a couple of weeks ago and Santa came!  McKinley was so excited, he could hardly enjoy anything else that was going on.  He just kept saying, "Santa coming!!  Santa Clause is coming!"  I don't blame him.  Santa is pretty cool when it comes to getting candy canes!  This Santa that came was really good.  He wore a really nice Santa suite that was tide with a rope instead of a belt and it had a hood on it.  Very authentic!  And McKinley was lucky enough to see Santa when he first came in.  Santa came right up to him and patted his head and McKinley just stared at him with big, huge eyes of curiosity.   Santa then sat in his chair to talk to the kids and McKinley sat down still staring wide eyed at him.  When the kids were called up to see him, McKinley, again, got to see him first.  He went right up there on his own and sat on Santa's lap.  Santa gave him a nice bag of candy.  McKinley was so happy to get it, that he ran up to me to open it for him as soon as possible!  After that, he wouldn't stop talking about how he got to see Santa and the bag of candy!



Oh the joys of Christmas time!  I say this not because I have little ones, but the fact that this year, we decided to do our OWN Christmas with just us four.  It's fun to start our own traditions and make Christmas memories.  And it's also nice not being pulled in all four different directions!  I wanted this Christmas to be stress free and to have a nice, relaxing, Christmas Eve and Day.  If Christmas had a flavour, I would say it tastes like candy canes and toffee.  If Christmas was just a song, I would choose Silent night every time.  If Christmas was just one present, it would be the Saviour's love!  There's a wonderful picture that I stumbled upon while viewing my beloved Pinterest. The saying goes like this, "Santa is the servant, NOT the main event."  And it is so true.  We sometimes get wrapped up in all these Christmas traditions and SHOPPING, (guilty) but we must always remember the CHRIST in Christmas.  I hope we all have a Merry Christmas and to keep the Saviour in our Christmas's.

Fernandez Family Happingings: Winter Wonderland

Fernandez Family Happingings: Winter Wonderland: The first real dump of snow came and we couldn't of been happier!! McKinley couldn't wait to get outside and start shoveling up the snow. ...

Winter Wonderland

The first real dump of snow came and we couldn't of been happier!!  McKinley couldn't wait to get outside and start shoveling up the snow.  He was more then happy to put on all the winter "deep sea dive" gear just to get deep in the snow!  Gabriella was a little confused at first with having all the gear put on her and then be set down in a big pile of white fluffy snow.  She eventually warmed up and had a ball.  Only downside was she couldn't really crawl around in her snowsuit and did end up doing a face plant into the snow.  Hahaha!!  It was quite funny until she started crying :-(

It was such a beautiful day with the snow everywhere and the snow all gathered on the trees.  This is one of the many things that I love about Christmas!  We then decided to go into the backyard and play on the swings and slide.  It was pretty deep in the backyard but we managed to get there and brush off the snow.  Gabriella loved being in her swing!  All the giggling and smiling made this day even better.  McKinley ventured around the backyard with stomping all over the place, going down a piled up snow slide and doing the superman on the swing.

All and all, it was a fantastic day!  We can't wait for more snow to come.  Next thing to do is get a sled to make winter even better.

Fernandez Family Happingings: Introducing the Fernandez Family

Fernandez Family Happingings: Introducing the Fernandez Family: Well hello everyone! This is the first time we have ever posted our life on a Blog. So I hope we can keep it as current as we can. To sta...

Fernandez Family Happingings: Halloween Adventure

Fernandez Family Happingings: Halloween Adventure: Pumpkin guts!! Whats inside a pumpkin? Halloween was a hit! We started it off with craving the pumpkins. It was McKinley's and...

Halloween Adventure

Pumpkin guts!!

Whats inside a pumpkin?

 

 Halloween was a hit!  We started it off with craving the pumpkins.  It was McKinley's and Gabriella's first experience with a pumpkin.  McKinley loved pulling out the pumpkin guts and he couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear.  Gabriella was pretty amused herself.  She loved the pumpkin guts as well and even put some in her mouth to taste.  (Yucky!)
Val craved his pumpkin in what McKinley called a "scary pumpkin" and mine was a "happy pumpkin."  I made sure we saved some pumpkin seeds and roasted them for a tasty treat afterwards.  

Its so big!  Orange is my new favourite colour!

Yay for pumpkin carving!

These two had so much fun carving together.  It really turned out to be a fun family activity.

Scary Pumpkin

Happy Pumpkin

McKinley was so excited to be Spider man!  We even got him a Spider man trick or treat bucket.  He had so much fun gathering treats.  When he started to catch on what was going on, he started running to each door with his hands outstretched, waiting for that piece of candy!  It was a hoot watching him.   Gabriella was a quiet observer but she had a lot of fun.  She was adorable as a bumble bee!

I'm a pretty bumble bee

Trick or Treat!

Lets start trick or treating Mom!

We can't wait until next year to go door to door and get more candy!  And Gabriella will be able to go door to door herself next year.