Stanick Family Updates: Happy New Year

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! We hope you had a good Christmas and holiday season.

We kept busy. We spent the holiday season in Whistler. Ken's parents and Neice, Crystal, and her boyfriend, Chris, came for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see Crystal as we have not seen her in over a year. So it was the first time she met Makenna:) It was also great to meet her boyfriend, Chris:)

We also had friends from Quesnel (Dwayne and Lori) come for a quick visit between Christmas and New Years. It was the first time I met their little guy, Jack (about 15 months?). He is a little cutie. It was fun having them over and the big boys managed to get a fun cross country ski before they left. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos from their visit :(

For New Years we had some North Vancouver friends come up for a few days. They were great fun and there was a lot of yummy food. Once again we didn't take photos. I guess we were photoed out after Christmas?

Whistler had about 6inches of snow when we arrived on Dec. 22nd and by the time we left on Jan. 3rd we had about 2 ft of snow in total. So there was not the normal 5ft of snow or anything. Well, when we got home to North Vancouver we barely made it up the last hill to our house and we were unable to drive down our street because of all the snow! We had to unload the girls and all our stuff from the end of the street and it was not easy walking in the deep snow to our house. It took many trips! We couldn't even open our side door to our garage because so much snow had piled up by the door that it couldn't open more than a few inches.

We got everything into the house, put Makenna down to sleep and then we went outside to start shoveling the driveway. We spent 2 hrs. shoveling just one lane down our driveway and we were still not done. We almost quit at 1o:30 at night but decided to keep going because rain was forecasted and we couldn't imagine shoveling this snow when it was heavier with rain. But then a backhoe came down our street and sort of plowed our street and then amazingly he cleaned up the end of our driveway for us. We were soooooo happy. It was a great Christmas gift!

We included photos from our visit to Manitoba in November. They didn't make it into the last blog because we accidentally left our camera there and we didn't have it back by the time we did the blog. So there are some older photos in the mix:)

Well, once again my photos are out of order. I guess I am rusty at how to do this and I don't have the time to reorder them so here goes.... :)

Makenna at a school playground earlier in December when the weather was unseasonably warm.

Makenna continues to crawl super fast! I don't know how she does it! She is not quite walking yet. She cruises along furniture and has moments when she is standing on her own. She can kind of walk when we hold one of her hands and she can walk using her push toy. She may be walking soon.... we will keep you posted:)

Anika playing in the snow while I shoveled the snow off the garden tables that we never got around to putting away:)

Ken after about a hour and a half of shoveling. He had to smile because it was so crazy how much snow we had to shovel just to get one lane of the driveway open. He is sporting his annual Christmas beard:)

That is the van 'parked' at the end of our street

This is our driveway before we started shoveling

Makenna playing in a toddler bouncy castle thing that was set up in the Telus Centre in Whistler over the holidays. It was great! We took the girls there many times. Makenna is too young to play outside in the snow and it was rather cold anyways. So, this was fabulous and it was free!

Anika playing in the snow outside the cabin.

Ken helping Anika learn to ski

Anika and Ken taking their very first ride up the 'magic carpet'

Anika having fun in the snow at the local school in Whistler

Anika sledding at the local school in Whistler

Anika and Grandma and Grandpa Stanick during Christmas dinner

Chris, Crystal and Ken during Christmas dinner

We put Chris to work Christmas morning, feeding Makenna

Anika loved her race car set

Makenna liked her talking/singing dog

Anika loved her humungus stocking! Thank you Grandma Stanick:)

Our tree Christmas morning

Anika enjoying the slide on one of the many bouncy castles in Whistler

Makenna enjoying a dinner out with us

Makenna enjoying the gondola ride up Grouse Mountain to take in some of the festivities before Christmas.

Anika continues to enjoy her ballet:) She keeps putting the tiara on her forehead. I can't convince her it is supposed to be on top:)

Makenna and Anika playing under the dining room table:)

Anika, Ken and Makenna sitting with Ken's Grandma Stanick in Manitoba

Ken, Anika and Makenna sitting with Ken's Grandpa Stanick in Manitoba. I think he is about 95 years old. He is still very sharp and we enjoyed visiting.