Catching up with Emily

As a Johnny-come-lately to this blog thing, I want to do some retro-posting to familiarize you with our pride and joy... our kids.
Emily (aka Princess Emmers) is the perfect final piece to the puzzle that is the Buzza family. She's little, but don't let that fool you. She is not the least bit intimidated by her two older brothers. Rather, she adores them and wants to do everything they do. This includes: climbing ladders, wrestling daddy and eating at the big table. Life is grand when she gets her way. When things don't quite go according to her plan, however...
Emily is walking and talking (sort of). Just last night, the entertainment in the backseat of the car was the boys trying to get Emily to say such profound things as, "poo-poo", "diaper", and "tu-tu". She was more than happy to do it because the boys were very quick to laugh at her prodigious linguistics.
Emily is beautiful... and she knows it. One of our nightly rituals is to tell her how much we love her when we put her down to bed. I also like to tell her how pretty she is; how beautiful she is. Recently, she started to smile when I'd tell her these things. Even more interesting is how she would start to nod when I'd tell her how pretty she was. She knows...
Another trick of ours is to tell her how pretty she looks when she wants to take off her shoes, her hair thingie, or a hat. She usually "falls for it", but sometimes there's just no fooling her.
Emily is the perfect answer to two testosterone-filled boys. She's been such a blessing.

Catching up with Connor

As I described in our family Christmas letter, Connor is a lot like a roller coaster. He's really fun, but he can also be really scary. With him, the good always outweighs the bad, but Conbo likes to keep us on our toes. In fact, recently Connor has developed the habit of asking us, "Have I been good today?" In a way, it's heart-breaking that he could think of himself as anything BUT good, but it shows that he wants to do right.
Connor has started preschool and is right in his element. One of Conbo's many gifts is his charisma. He loves people and - generally speaking - people love him. (Especially the girls - yikes!) Most recently, we were driving one of Connor's buddies (Katie) from church to our house for his party and the conversation between Connor and Katie went something like this...
"Connor, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
"Mmmm... a doctor."
pause
"Really?"
"Yep."
pause
"You know... I really wanted you to be a prince."
"Nope. I'm a doctor."
Connor is really getting better at his skating, too. He and David go every Friday morning and Connor is really motoring around out there! We've just signed him up for ball hockey and he'll be doing soccer between now and ball hockey as well. (We're keeping him busy.) I really think that he will continue to love sports because it gives him another avenue for meeting people.
Connor has really developed as an artist as well. Many of you will have already seen his first published piece, but I've attached it here anyways. This one was done by Connor, then he coached me through the little characters he saw on the canvas. I did what I could to highlight them with pastels on his acrylic paint and this is the result!

Catching up with David

Our firstborn seems to have stepped out from under our wings and directly into life. David has started kindergarten, started soccer and started making friends outside of our choosing. This is not to say that he's choosing bad friends - far from it! - but he's now got friends outside of family and church.
At school, David is blowing us away with his love of reading and math. He is reading EVERYTHING! Similarly, he's a math machine! He truly loves a challenge where he can show off his abilities.
That same competitive spirit carries onto the soccer field. I am so proud of the way David plays soccer. Whether it be pride in the way David never complains when he gets the short end of the stick regarding playing time (because he's the coach's son) or whether it be the way David ALWAYS looks to pass first (which is almost unheard of at this level) or whether it be David's streak of at least one goal in every game he's played in, I am very proud of him.

We got snow!

In late November (the next couple of posts are making up for lost time) we got a bit of a dump of snow. It was enough to cancel school (for me). In this picture, the kids are sitting on our bench which overlooks the pond in the front yard. In the background are the trees standing between us and the creek which flows along the north side of our yard.

Christmas Kickoff Weekend...

The passing of Conbo's birthday is the official starting gun to the holiday season for us Buzzas. This Saturday, we hopped in the Golf and drove to the Alouette Christmas Tree Farm. This has become our traditional haunt for choosing and cutting down the family tree.
Both of our burly boys helped with the sawing, while Emily played with a couple of really cute puppies. We ran into our friends the Caldwells and had hot chocolate. It was a fun excursion.

It was supposed to be a day of Christmas light adjustments as well, but - aside from stapling a few loose strands - it quickly turned to a clean-the-gutters day instead.

On Sunday, the festivities continued after lunch. CaraLee put up the lights before the kids plastered our tree with every ornament known to man. The angel on top marked the transition from decorating to dining on our "traditional" Christmas fondue. We pigged out on steak, meatballs, chicken and mushrooms before pigging out some more on chocolate fondue! Add to the party a game of Zoofari, (David won... the stinker), and it was a full, fun night.

Connor's Birthday Party...

Every year, we try to celebrate our Conbo's birthday a little early. This year, his December 17th birthday was celebrated on the 4th & 5th. We had a blast at his "Pond Party". We played games like "Toss the fly in the froggie", "Fish Pond" and had a playdough and colouring table. Kids could even colour on the walls while posting their birthday wishes for Connor.

Days before the first "Friends" party, Connor was abuzz with anticipation. He gave all the positive reinforcement you could wish for, making mommy & daddy feel like heroes. :)

We got to meet some new friends from Conbo's preschool. Maddison & Matthew were cute kids.

All-in-all it was a great celebration for our very special boy. Pictures soon to follow. :)