Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. Hoping this festive season has brought you much joy and love and provided you with time to spend with family and friends. As 2010 comes to a close we reflect that it has been a year of growth, hope and more healing for our family...challenges and change all around. The ending has been tough but filled with love and hope. We are wishing everyone a healthy 2011 filled with joy and love.
Below is a LONG collection of pictures from the month of December...hopefully in order.
Enjoy!
Christmas Concert at the school...Zack's class did baking christmas cookies
And Brycen (looks a bit possessed doesn't he) did Christmas ABC's.. his line was "M is for mistletoe but you won't kiss me".
Christmas pageant at the church

visits with Santa at church too...




first ever hockey game...this is Zack
and there goes Brycen
Gingerbread houses are an annual tradition at our church.
And eating them till you feel sick seems to be an annual tradition in the Tummers' house LOL!!!
Opening presents at Ireland Christmas.
Silly Brycen!!!
Skating with the Ireland gang at our big family Christmas on Dec. 19th.
Daddy and Cameron skating
... Zack in the front, Brycen in the background.
We decorated a gingerbread sleigh just before bedtime on Dec. 24th...
The boys wondered if Santa would eat some of the treats when he stopped by.
YUMMY!!!
Just after Santa came... a good stash but not too overwhelming!
Remember Rock 'em Sock'em Robots... Santa brought that for Zack...was he excited!!!
Cameron checking out the toy Santa brought... a water toy that uses batteries...scary, I know. But it is the coolest thing!!! It sings, squirts water and teaches shapes, colours and animals in the tub! Santa is such a good shopper!!What's in here...a cool vest and shirt!!
Even clothes are a huge hit in our house!!! We celebrate Christmas a bit different than some other families. Our kids have a 'Jesus' Christmas... Jesus got 3 gifts from the wisemen on his first Christmas and the Tummers' boys get the same. It makes the appreciation for the gifts they get so much greater.
The tree at my parents house with only about half the presents under it...crazy eh!
Brycen got LEGO...he loved it..until it started to fall apart after it was built. Then he asked why we can't glue it together????
Mac and Brycen playing with Cameron's new toy...it was a hit!
Laura, our exchange student from Finland got an amazing first ever Christmas present...holding a baby who was only 3 days old. This is my new nephew, Tyson, born on Dec. 22nd. He's MY baby brother Josh (and his lovely wife Marjan)'s son.
Papa Ireland and his 2 almost 2 year old boys... there use to be such a difference between them...Joel has always been so much bigger, talked more, walked earlier etc. It is so awesome to see them growing up together and Cameron catching up more now. Love you both so much!
My whole family that resides in Ontario....wonder how we get the kids to look at the camera LOL!!!

Pathetically behind...I know

So here are a ton of photos from the last 6 weeks or so...I hope to update with these now and then will add holiday ones in a few days. Sorry to those you near and far (Jenn this one's directed at you...) who've waited so long.



Let's start with Halloween (you know since it's Christmas and all!!!).
We grew our own pumpkin this year....note I said pumpkin singular...only one grew and it was HUGE!!!! So big that Geoff decided to get power tools out to carve it!!!
Cameron LOVED the pumpkins and kept peeking in them all...looking for spooks and ghosts I suspect!!!

I love this shot!!!
A cowboy and his horse!!!
Who are these three crazy kids???
Always the clown!!!
Geoff and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in November and decided to enjoy a night away in Niagara Falls. This was the view from our room.


And this a shot we took the next day...I love the rainbow!

Auntie Charlotte (my very bestest friend ever and also Cameron's godmother) came for a visit in November...all the way from Phoenix, Arizona. It was so awesome to see her and her adorable daughters and sweet husband, Kerry, again!

My boys LOVE to wrestle and attack daddy.

In early December, just hours before the largest storm to hit the London area in a very long time arrived, the boys and I traveled to London for a Christmas party and took Cameron for his very first haircut. He sat very well and looked so handsome when it was all done...and of course refused to sit for a photo afterwards!

Decorating the tree.

Cameron LOVES the tree, the lights, the presents, the candy...everything about Christmas!

In general our boys are doing well. Cameron is having issues with his ears again and will have surgery to have tubes put in again in February. He is also having breathing troubles... lots of coughing and struggling to catch his breath. He's on 2 different inhalers for this and seems to be doing much better now. He's talking up a storm...despite having ears full of fluid. He cracks us up with the new words he tries each day.
Zack is glad to be off school for a few weeks for the holidays. He is doing very well there and loves to read. It's often hard to get him to go to bed at night as he enjoys reading so much.
Brycen is loving hockey and skating as well as school. He is tired (VERY TIRED) most days but still loves going to school and to Cheryl's.
I will add more pictures... Christmas concerts, family Christmas etc. in the next week or so.

Until then, Happy Holidays from our family to yours!!!

Fall Update

As promised, here are some 'fall shots'...okay LOTS of fall shots!

Brycen is now a big boy and goes to JK...he was so excited to finally be going to school! So far there have been many tears and tantrums at night because he's so exhausted from being there but other than that he is doing awesome. Each day he comes home with a new letter or sound he's learned, a song to share and a story of an adventure that he's been on with his new and old friends at Elma.

Our family has spent some great fall days up at mom and dad's farm in Teeswater cutting wood and loading it up. During a break a few weeks ago the boys and I went on an adventure to the bush and I took 'just a few' pictures!!!

I LOVE this one!

or was it this one??? I have to share a story about Cameron here with this picture. I was throwing leaves into the air and taking pictures as they fell on him. I'd say ready when I did it and then suddenly I heard 'leady' and then watched him throw the leaves himself. It's now one of his favourite words and is often heard just before he propels himself off his change table into your arms. He is finally saying two word sentences but they mostly focus on food...'want some' seems to be a favourite. He still uses a lot of single syllable sounds for words (Za for Zack, Da for dad, Ba for Brycen) but there is full words like baby, cheese, done, bye...they all just make me smile!

I love this shot...too bad the big boys who know to look at the camera weren't looking at me like Cameron was!!!

Cameron is super super active lately.... or should I say as always. He's running, climbing everything he can find and now learning to hide. He's been having issues with colds, fevers and breathing lately and is now on a puffer every 4 hours. It helps a bit but he still sounds like a 3 pack a day smoker. Hopefully we get rid of the cough soon!

Zack is 7 and in Grade 2 and loves school too. He is my bookworm and reads, on average, 3 mini-chapter books a week. He's suddenly become super helpful...I can't get over the difference in what he can actually help with as opposed to what he tried to help with and I just redid later a year ago. What a great feeling it is!!!

Brycen is full of emotion and expression lately. School is good for him but the moods at night are hard on all of us, especially me. Geoff is working a new job and isn't home at night until after they are all in bed....Brycen seems to be the most affected by this.

On a positive note, Brycen is full of good emotions and feelings lately too...he wants more hugs, more tickles and lots of fun times with everyone. He loves to be read to and loves showing us what he knows and can do.

He just cracks me up!!!

Couldn't put fall pics in without some great nature shots. These were taken on mom's camera as mine wasn't with us that day.

Our newest fall adventure...HOCKEY!!!!

Both Brycen and Zack are playing for the first time this year. They are on the same team, an instructional team. Zack may play for another team later in the year but for now we are just running once to twice a week and dressing and undressing two kids at the same time (yes it is crazy sometimes...especially when Geoff is at work!!!)