Our Family of 5

Sears Portraits

2009-05-11T21:39:00.004-04:00

I just realized that I never posted the portraits of Zach and Juliana. So here's all 3!

Zachary's

Juliana's

Kayla's

And all 3!

Kayla through the years!

2009-05-11T20:32:00.005-04:00

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 months since I last updated! Bad me!

Since I've updated last, Kayla turned 5! I can't believe that my little baby girl is 5! I honestly don't know where the past 5 years have gone. She has grown up so much. She is in school, plays soccer, reads, draws really well and is so sweet! We took her for her 5 year portraits at Sears a couple of weeks ago and I can't get over how old she looks! I thought I would do the looking back over the years with her too!

Birth
3 months
6 months
9 months
1 year
1 1/2 years
2 years
2 1/2 years
3 years
3 1/2 years
4 years
4 1/2 years
5 years!
It's amazing to see how much she has changed over the 5 years! Happy belated birthday baby girl!

Happy 1st birthday to Zachary James Jeffrey!

2009-03-18T11:31:00.001-04:00

Ok, question. Where did the last year go???? Honestly it seems like it was just yesterday that I was waiting on pins and needles for the hospital to call me to have me come in! This past year has been so wonderful. Zachary is such a blessing to our lives and he really perfectly completes our family. He is so much fun, he's got such a goofy personality. And he is so sweet, always willing to give cuddles. I can't wait to see who he'll be as the years go on. He really loves his sisters and always wants to be around them. And he's a mommy's boy, which I love cause the girls always wanted and still want daddy! Happy birthday big man, I love you!!!

Here's some pics I took this morning! We also took him and Juliana for their portraits last night and I'll post them once we get them back!

Waiting for breakfast
Being goofy!
Looking so big!
Being goofy again!
So sweet!
And goofy again!
My sweet baby boy!

And here's some pics of him through out the past year!

Birth
1 month old
2 months old
3 months old
4 months old
5 months old
6 months old
7 months old
8 months old
9 months old
10 months old
11 months old
1 year!

Happy 3rd Birthday Juliana Grace!

2009-03-10T11:33:00.001-04:00

I honestly can't believe that my little Nona is 3 today! (That's her nickname cause Kayla couldn't say Juliana when she was first born so it came out as "baby nona" and it stuck!) She is such a blessing. It's hard to believe that she caused so much trouble when I was carrying her. She's so much fun, so sweet and smart! She has such a goofy personality but can be super stubborn at the same time. She's definitely her own person! Here's some pictures over the years :o)

Birth
1 month
3 months
6 months
9 months
1 year
1 1/2 years
2 years
2 1/2 years3 years

Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you so much!

Juliana's birthday party

2009-03-09T21:35:00.001-04:00

We had Juliana's 3rd birthday party on Saturday and it was lots of fun! Here's some pics from the day!

Juliana's My Little Pony Cake (covered in fondant and then fondant bows and ribbon and an icing sheet on top)
Another of the cake
And the big girl with her cake!
Waiting for all the guests to arrive!
She's even wearing a birthday girl ribbon!
Waiting for her presents!
Zachary and Kayla watching as she opens her gifts.
(And Zachary looks like a little dude standing there, LOL!)
Zachary making a mess of all the garbage that was in the bag!
Juliana waiting to blow out her candles!
Blowing them out! (With mommy's help of course!)

Our snowmobiling weekend away!

2009-03-03T11:48:00.002-05:00

We had a great weekend! It was interesting though! We left Wednesday night from our house to go to my parents around 8:45 cause Jeff had a meeting that night, thinking that the kids would go back to sleep on the way there, nope! Only Kayla slept for a few minutes but Zach and Jules were wide awake! Actually Juliana ended up staying awake until 11:50!!! Zach thankfully went back to sleep once I put him to bed around 11.

We got up in the morning, and waited for our friends to meet us there. We left around 10 and headed up. We got to the cottage around 4, and ended up getting both vehicles stuck in the driveway. That took the guys a while to dig out! It was about 1/2 hour of winding dirt roads covered in ice and snow to get back to the cottage. Well, the guy that was supposed to go and heat the wood stove to thaw the cottage out 2 days before had just done it a few hours before so the water pump was frozen and it takes 2 days to thaw so we decided to call around and get a hotel room in North Bay. It wouldn't have been too bad without water, other than the bathroom situation! Each couple had their own "potty" to use, that was interesting! I made sure to not drink too much so I didn't have to use it too much! We had a quick supper and crashed early. Jeff and I ended up pulling the mattress out in the living room and sleeping near the wood stove cause otherwise we would have been an icicle in the morning! So the guys got up early to go shovel off the roof cause it was so deep. They did that for a couple of hours, it was up past Jeff's waist. Then we tried to get out again and it had snowed a few inches over night. We got our van out but our friend's truck was stuck. So we all piled in together in the van and left the truck there. We got stuck going out cause it was very hilly as well as very deep snow. Luckily after trying for about 20 minutes the plow ended up coming and we were able to get out. Then we headed to North Bay to drop the guys off at the ski hill for the day. Well they didn't open until 6 that night (fluke thing, they are always open around 9) So we all went to the hotel and then had showers cause we were all so thankful for running water! We went for lunch and went back to crash for a bit. The guys went skiing later on and we just stayed in the hotel. It sure is interesting sharing a hotel room with other people! The next morning we got up and drove to the snowmobile rental place (Uncle Dave & Aunt Nancy's!) We left from there on the sleds around 10 and headed towards the hotel (a couple of hours) to have a bathroom break. Our one friends decided to stay there cause she was too cold. So me, Jeff and our other friend headed back out. I was so cold towards the end of the day, especially once the sun went down. We finished sledding around 8 (I think) so it was a long day, but lots of fun! Next year, I'll definitely make sure to buy some real boots and lots of those heat packs you put in your gloves!!!

We left to go home around 10 and got to my parents around 3:30. It was so nice to see the kids! Zach came walking up to me when I walked in, it was so cute! He really got better over the few days we were gone. Then we packed up the kids and left and got home around 6 or so. Here's some pics!

I always take a pic of Jeff driving every time we go away!
Here's Jeff calling hotels to see if there were any rooms available.
Our friend Jason running back from his truck with his helmet on! LOL!
The hotel room. Sunset Inn in North Bay!
The room (our bed was the double near the window)
The view from our room (that is Lake Nipissing right off the parking lot, obviously frozen)
After heading out snowmobiling! (I'm in the blue, our friends are in the red)
Going across a lake
Absolutley frozen! I have my hands on the hand warmers on the handle bars trying to thaw!
On top of a lookout near Bonfield.
Still cold! We stopped for lunch and I thawed out a bit! Just to let you know how much I was wearing I had a tank top, long sleeved shirt, t-shirt, hoodie sweatshirt, fleece coat and my winter coat on, and I had thermal undwear, comfy pants, jeans and my snowpants on and was still cold! It was -23 in the morning!
The sunset on top of another look out

Happy 11 months Zachary!

2009-02-18T15:04:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I am posting that my baby boy is 11 months old today! I can't honestly believe how quickly the past 11 months have gone. Really, I can't believe how fast the past 2 years have gone. Next thing I know I'll be sending him off to school!

Here's some pics I took this morning for his 11 month birthday! Enjoy!

Another cake and walking pics!

2009-02-11T16:15:00.001-05:00

I made a fire helmet cake for Jeff to take to work. It wasn't as nice as I was hoping, the proportions are off but it was fun to do! It only took me about 1/2 hour to decorate. I'm bluring out the info on the shield mainly because I don't want just anyone knowing who my hubby is. Hope you enjoy!

Oh and here's some pics of Zachary walking around! He's getting so brave!

Some pictures!

2009-02-02T12:12:00.001-05:00

So, the last couple nights haven't been as good as the first 2 with putting him downstairs. The first 2 nights he slept from 8 until 7:30 without waking up once! He's still sleeping through, but Saturday night he woke up around 5 (well, I guess it would be Sunday morning!) and sounded so sad so I went down and picked him up. He clung to me like he was never going to see me again! And he would just look up at me, kiss me, then put his head back down on me. It was very sweet! After about 5 minutes, I put him back to bed, he cried for a few minutes and then slept until close to 8.

Last night, would have been ok, except for Jeff got a fire call around 3:30. He got home around 4:30 and then had a shower and went downstairs to watch tv to tire him out. So I usually can't sleep when he's not in bed with me, so I went down to see if he wanted to come to bed yet. He did, but then we both just laid there, not sleeping! So around 5:30 we decided to go downstairs to watch tv. And then Zach was up around 6:30. So I have a feeling it will be an early night tonight.

I really hope he starts sleeping like he did Thursday night, cause once the weather warms up a bit I plan on starting the Couch to 5K again. I really miss running. I miss being all by myself with the sun shining down on me, with my mp3 player and just running. I know I will get there again, but it will be a hard start I'm sure.

I thought I would post some pictures since it's been a while. Enjoy!

Finding a metal bowl so interesting!
Using it as a drum!
And a hat!
His new face he's been making! He crinkles up his nose all the time now!

Daddy with his girls after tobogganing. So pooped out!
Juliana was wiped!
Daddy giving Zachary his bottle. He always crosses his feet!
Daddy and his boy!
Practicing to be a daddy someday! (He enjoyed walking with the stroller but it didn't have any weight in it so I added the baby so it wouldn't tip on him all the time!)

Update!

2009-01-29T20:04:00.002-05:00

Well, the sleep is going ok. I ended up putting the playpen in the craft room downstairs and when he wakes up in the night, instead of going to the bottle like I used to, I just put him down there. Most nights, he goes down fine with no crying. The first night he slept from 8-3:30 and then went downstairs and slept until 6:40. The second night, from 8-4:20, then again until 8. So I thought that we maybe were going to get a break and he'd start sleeping through the night. Well, nope! He's not up like he used to be, but he's been waking up around 12-1 and won't go back to sleep in his crib. He screams! So I bring him downstairs and he goes right to sleep. Great, yes! But I would like to sleep with my husband in our bed, instead of in the recliner or on the couch. The only thing I can think is, maybe the kids room isn't as dark as he likes. There is a night light and lately Kayla has been having bad dreams so we leave the closet light on with the doors shut. Whereas the craft room only has a little night light in the hall and the door is almost shut. Tonight I might try to leave him down there with the monitor but that makes me nervous since we are upstairs. I don't really like the idea of leaving him down there, but we'll see how it goes.

I've been researching cakes and things to make for Zachary's and the girls birthdays and I came across a recipe for Marshmallow Fondant. I've always wanted to try fondant but never did cause I thought it would be hard. So I made some of the MM Fondant and baked a cake and tried it! It was awesome! So easy to make, tint and it is pretty yummy too! It took me about 1 1/2 hours to do this cake, which is nothing compared to the buttercream cakes I usually make that take 5-6 hours. What do you think? (I made it white, red and black cause I wanted to try tinting red and black since I need those for Zach's firetruck cake)

The Marshmallow Fondant just made
The cake iced with buttercream (to help the fondant stick)
The fondant rolled out
Draped over the cake
Now trimmed off (with a pizza cutter! So handy!)
Finished product!

:o(

2009-01-22T21:18:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm back from the doctor's with Zach. I'm bummed :o( He said he is completely healthy and doesn't have a thing wrong with him but -- he said he is overweight and that I shouldn't be feeding him during the night. He's not unhealthily overweight but he said that babies grow fat cells when they are young and the more food you give them, the more they grow which could cause problems with them when they are older, with weight. I'm so scared that I've put my son on the road to obesity. I know that he is only 10 months old and I'm sure it won't end up that way, but what if he does end up really overweight???? I'm so upset. I know that it's not like I've been force feeding him to make him get big, but the doctor said that I should not be giving him food during the night. So what I need to do is put him somewhere that he won't wake the kids up, and harden my heart and let him cry. It's a behavioral thing that I need to train him out of. The problem is is that when he wakes up, I don't want him to wake anyone up so I automatically go to him and either pick him up to comfort him or feed him. So he has learned "When I cry, mommy comes to me with food!" So he said that it may be a rough thing to go through but eventually, it will work and he will sleep through the night. I know with Juliana when she was around this age, I would take Kayla in our room with us, turn the fan on, shut the door and let her cry, checking on her every few minutes to make sure she was ok. And it worked, she eventually learned to soothe herself to sleep and slept through the night, other than when she was sick or something like that. So I need to do that. What I'm going to do is once I move him to his crib (we start him off in the playpen in our room so that he can go to sleep since Juliana stays awake for a while after they go to bed), I'm going to move the playpen downstairs in the craft room. Once he wakes up in the night, instead of giving him a bottle, I'll take him down, put him in there and I'll go down with him, and sleep in the recliner in the living room so I'll still be close, but he won't see us and won't wake anyone up. The doctor said that he should not be in our room with us, and that may be a big reason why he wakes up and gets upset. So, I'm a little nervous to try it since he'll be going from having 1-2 bottles in the night to nothing. I know that babies are made to not eat in the night - Juliana gave it up around 8 months or so - so I know that he's not going to be starving. I just know how I feel when I start trying to lose weight and cut out calories. I'm starving for the first few days! So until his body gets used to it and starts taking more calories during the day, it will be hard. Wish me luck! It's going to be a hard few days I'm sure :o( I'll keep you all posted.

An update and some pics

2009-01-21T11:55:00.001-05:00

Zachary is now 10 months old! He's such a big boy! He weighs close to 28lbs (Juliana is 27) and is very tall too. He's almost as tall as Juliana was at 18 months! It's kinda funny, Juliana is very small, so she still can wear some 24month size stuff. They were both wearing a size 24 month shirt yesterday! LOL! He's being a butt head about sleep lately though. He usually wakes up several times a night and has at least 1 bottle in the night. I think he may be working on his molars though so that may be why. I'm taking him to the doctor's tomorrow just to make sure he's not sick or something and that may be causing his fussiness at night. He's taken 2 steps so far, but won't do anymore! He's kinda lazy, LOL! No, I think it's cause he's so much bigger that it's a lot harder for him.

We've started patching Juliana's one eye so it can get stronger. She's done pretty good about it, only takes it off once in a while, now that we patch her glasses and not the patch directly on her skin. She wouldn't keep it on for longer than 3 minutes that way. I took her to the opthamologist last week and there is improvement. So we have to keep it on for another 3 weeks. She's really starting to talk well. The cute one yesterday was she was trying to say pepperonni but it came out as "pope-li-own-wee"! It was pretty cute!

Kayla is still loving school. Although her teacher retired at the end of December so she did have to adjust to a new teacher when she went back in January, but she likes her so it's going good. She is really becoming crafty lately. She got a whole bunch of old Christmas cards from a friend of ours and she cut them all up and made a big picture out of them. It was pretty good!

Not too much else new, just wanted to update you all. I'm so sorry I never post, I just find being very active in the board, takes a lot of my time away. Plus I'm sure there aren't many readers left, so really, is there a point???? LOL! I'll try to post more often.

Here's some recent pics!

The 3 cuddling (you can see Juliana's patch here)
Kayla being sweet
Juliana being crazy!
Zach's sweet smile
How big is Zachary?
He seems to fall asleep with his arms up a lot lately, LOL!
Such a sweet girl!
Flirt!
Being cute
Hey!

2008-12-08T22:01:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally put up our decorations! It was put off way too long for my liking (I like to start in mid-November) but at least it's done now. It would have been sooner except for we painted and plus with Zach all over the place, it makes it hard! Here's our tree!

Our family in ornaments
Our tree
The kids first Christmas ornaments

And I finally got to do our picture for the Christmas cards. I think it turned out pretty good! (Although I have to tell the truth, Zachary and Kayla are originals, I just cut and pasted Juliana out of another picture cause she had a goofy look on her face *blush*) It goes to show you that you can't trust any picture, LOL!

We also went to the Santa Claus parade here in town on Sunday. It was pretty fun, cold, but fun! Here's some pics of it.

The girls playing in the snow waiting for the parade to begin
Zachary trying to sit up in the snow (the snow suit wouldn't let him really bend)Laying back!Watching the parade go byJuliana covering her ears cause the fire trucks were too loud! LOL!
Me and my man!

Here's a cute picture of Zachary's new trick! He just sits there kneeling!

So tonight I put the kids to bed and didn't hear anything from Juliana for a while. I assumed she was asleep so I thought nothing of it. Well, Jeff just got home from a meeting and she comes walking out of her room, like this!

You can see it all caked on her forehead!The wall
Her bed

I now know not to leave any thing like diaper rash cream or vaseline in their room again!

Some pics!

2008-12-05T09:56:00.006-05:00

Zachary is getting so big. He's got 8 teeth now (as of yesterday) and moving all over. He weighs 27.4lbs, and that's huge considering his 2 1/2 year old sister only weighs 27lbs! He's a tank! I have a feeling he'll be eating us out of house and home when he's a teenager. He's a sweet boy though, he gives awesome kisses! Here's a cute picture of a new outfit I bought for Christmas for him (except this is a size 18month, 26lbs and I had to exchange it for the 24month, 30lbs one since you can see the buttons are popping, LOL!)

We recently painted all of our upstairs. That was a big job. We painted for 4 days, and got it done. I didn't enjoy part of it though. 2 walls go downstairs so they are 2 stories high. Jeff held the ladder while I climbed to the top to cut in along the ceiling. I was glad when we were done.

Before

After (it doesn't look too much different but it's quite a bit darker)After

After
After

Kayla got her first report card, and it was very good! They don't do grades yet, it just says demonstrates all of the time, most of the time, starting to demonstrate or not yet. She got mostly all of the times and a few some of the times. We also met with her teacher and he had nothing but good things to say about her! He said that she's very smart, she doesn't hesitate to answer a question and even some of the SK's look at her like "how did she know that?". He said she's one of the first ones to grab the broom for clean up and go to the carpet for circle time. I was very proud of her! So when we were away we bought her a special toy! Here's her first school portrait!

We took the kids to see Santa the other day. It was pretty funny. They have a couch for all of them to sit on and Zach was on his lap. They all did well, except for Zachary kept grabbing Kayla's hair! Here's some pics!

Here's Zachary trying to get his sister
Trying to get all 3 looking is impossible!Trying again!Close up of ZacharyAnd here the elves told them to wave bye, Zach didn't care, and the girls were too shy!

We hope to put our Christmas stuff up this weekend. I would have loved to do it sooner but since we were painting I didn't want to do it until we were finished. And plus with Zachary all over the place I didn't want it all up too early. I'm planning on getting a picture of all 3 (if they cooperate, if not, Photshop!!) to send in my cards, so I'll post it here!

2008-11-21T11:01:00.003-05:00

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I posted. I really don't mean to take this long, time just flies by for me. Here's some pics!

Zachary was a penguin for Halloween
Kayla was Belle
Juliana was a bee!
Zachary has really started to climb up on everything!! Even the wall!
Against the gate
Rosey cheeked after waking up from a nap!
Zachary on his 8 month-birthday! So big!The three amigos!
Having fun in the bath!
His teeth (you can see the new one on the left of the top 2 middle ones!)

Some pictures!

2008-10-22T10:48:00.001-04:00

It was my birthday yesterday and it was really sweet, Jeff and the girls baked me a cake but didn't have time to ice it before the girls had to go to bed on Monday so me and the girls iced it and decorated it with sprinkles. They had so much fun!
I went on Kayla's first field trip yesterday with her! It was at Colasanti's Tropical Gardens and she had so much fun! They did an animal show first and she held a huge snake! I was so proud of her! She wasn't even afraid at all! Then they did pumpkin painting. It was so fun to see her in her element of school and with her friends. I hope to go on their other school trips. Here's some pics!

Kayla holding the snake, there were about 10 kids and she was at the head end!
Another pic!
Painting her pumpkin
Juliana icing the cake
Kayla icing the cake
Kayla putting sprinkles on
Juliana putting sprinkles on
Showing off their masterpiece!
The finished product! (Kayla's side was the left, Juliana's the right)
Zachy being festive!
Juliana, Kayla and I blowing out the candles (Yes, Jeff made me wear a hat too!)

Zachary's 6 month portraits

2008-10-13T21:09:00.001-04:00

Well, here's the cute 6 month pictures we just got done of Zachary. They turned out so good. It was almost too hard to choose the portraits, again! He was such a happy boy for them, the only thing that sucks is that we didn't get a good shot of his teeth.

Whoa, long time no post!

2008-10-09T10:50:00.007-04:00

I came on here to look and realized that it's been 3 months since my last post!! Sorry! Life has just been busy!

New things since posting last, Kayla started JK! She loves it! She goes every Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday. We just have her in regular school but are looking into doing Christian school in a few years, too expensive right now. She's having so much fun, and comes home with lots of stories every time she goes. She says she has a Hannah and an Emma in her class and Emma is her best friend! (For those of you who don't know, my sister has an Emma and Hannah!)

Juliana is growing up, it seems like she can say something new everyday! She is starting to show how smart she is too. She'll remember things that I don't even remember, just like Kayla does. But then again, I don't have much of a memory, LOL! She's 2 1/2 and just tiny! Her brother is almost the same weight as her!

Zachary has done lots of new things. He crawls around now and can sit up pretty good. He's got 2 teeth on the bottom and 1 coming in on the top. He's really starting to get his own personality, and it's funny! He likes to sit there and screech all the time! He'll be 7 months old next Saturday! I took him for his 6 month check up and he was 23lbs 7 1/2oz! Juliana is only 26lbs! I'm sure by now he's 24. He's got a cold (and has for about 3 weeks) so he's not sleeping too good right now.

We went away on vacation for a week in August near Peterborough to a cottage. It was a crazy week, with 3 kids! Jeff did get lots of fishing in and the girls had fun in the sand. Next year will be tons easier since Zach will be older.

Jeff and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on the 5th, so we went to Niagara Falls for the weekend. That was wonderful! Although we did too much sightseeing so what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend away from the kids, ended up being exhausting!!!!

Here's some pics. I'll try to upload a bunch more over the next few days so you can see how much my little munchkins are growing! (They aren't going to be in any specific order)

Kayla on her 1st day of school
The three amigos!
Kayla sitting at her table
We put the bunk beds up about a month ago to make more room in their room, they love them! (Now all 3 are in the same room!)
Zachary on his 6 month birthday!
Big smiles! (cute teeth too!)Cheese!
Zachary looking at his daddy!
Being a goofball!
Best friends walking to the park
Zachary driving the boat on vacation
The girls ready to go fishing with daddy
Waving from the playground
Blowing bubbles waiting for the campfire to start
Out in the boat
Daddy and his boyStanding on the back of a fire truck for the parade in St. Thomas (obviously not while driving! He actually fell asleep on me in the cab of the truck!)
On a ride at the Fire Muster

That should be good for now! LOL! We took Zachary for his 6 month portraits a couple of weeks ago so once we get them back I'll post them too. Hope you enjoyed!

Zachary rolled over!

2008-07-08T15:35:00.004-04:00

"

Well, it looks like life just got a little bit harder! Zachary is rolling over now (other than the accidental times he did it when he was just a few weeks old). Here's a really cute video of it, and you can hear his sisters cheering him on!

He's getting so big, already almost 19lbs, and he'll be 4 months old next Friday. I take him for his shots and check up next week so I'm curious to see how much he's grown these past 2 months. He's really starting to talk a lot, especially to the baby on the wipes box, lol! I can't wait to start pablum with him! That's always so much fun seeing babies react to the new taste and texture of food!

We went for our first swim of the season and Zachary's first swim on Canada Day. Lots of fun! Here's some pics. Zachary loved the water, he almost fell asleep on my shoulder!

And here's some pics of a hat that daddy bought him at Bass Pro! It says "My First Fishing Hat"

Video of Zachary giggling

2008-06-18T10:13:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that my little man is 3 months old today! I really can't believe how fast these past 3 months have gone. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was waiting for the phone call from the hospital. He is such a good baby, always so happy. He smiles and coos at anything and is such a sweet little boy. I took this video of him giggling last night. He gave his first real giggle to Daddy about a week ago but then started some for me last night. Too sweet! And it's really cute cause all of a sudden he notices the camera and is like "hey, what are you doing?"

Sunday was Jeff's first Father's Day with his little boy! It was a nice day, we let him sleep in and then made him bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yum! Here's some pics.

The girls waiting to go wake daddy up!
Jeff opening the card from the 3 of them.
Jeff opening up a statue we bought him. (He also got a new guitar for Guitar Hero, lol!)
Jeff with his 3 angels!
Jeff with Zachy on his first Father's Day!

Zachary had his first bath in the big bath tub the other day! He was just getting way too long for the baby bath tub, he would always kick the water all over the place. He wasn't too sure of it at first but then he realized that he could kick his feet and splash and then he started having fun! I can't wait until I get to put all 3 together! That will be cute!

Shocked by the flash!

Here's some other misc. pics.

Kayla laying beside her brother, he looks so big!
Zachary sitting in his sister's chair. So proud!
First time in his exersaucer!

Kayla's 4 year portraits!

2008-06-11T18:58:00.001-04:00

I keep meaning to post these! We got her 4 year portraits back and they turned out awesome! They look a little dark but I scanned them in, they look better in person.

Video of Zachary talking

2008-05-23T10:57:00.001-04:00

Here's a video of Zachary cooing at me the other day. Sorry it's so long but I tried to cut it down a bit! He talks so much now, it's so sweet!

Zachary is 2 months old!

2008-05-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

Zachary turned 2 months on Sunday! It's so hard to believe that he's already 2 months old. I honestly don't know where the past 2 months have gone. He is such a wonderful baby. He always talks to me and coos and smiles all the time. It's so wonderful to have him do that. Now if we can get him sleeping completely through the night, even better! I can't complain too much though. Most nights he goes to bed at 11 and sleeps until anywhere from 3-4. Monday night he slept from 11 until 6:10!!!! I was shocked!

I took him to the doctors on Tuesday for his 2 month check up and shots (boo!) and he is so healthy. He weighed 16lbs 3oz (typical 6 month old!) and was 25 3/4" long, he was 21 3/4" at birth so he's grown 4" in 2 months! That's a quarter inch per week!!!!! I asked him about some moles and stuff that he has and he said that the one on his forehead should disappear within a year. And he felt his soft spot and said that it's still pretty big so that means he's got a lot of growing left to do! How is that possible, LOL! And Zach had to get 2 shots. I really hate that. The poor guy cried so hard after the 1st one and then got calmed down and then the nurse came with the 2nd one! I wish they would just do both at the same time. It took him a while to calm down. He didn't seem to affected by the shots, he did sleep quite a bit yesterday but that could be because of the Tylenol. It's crazy to think that in 2 months he'll be eating solid food!

Here's his portraits from when he was 6 weeks old, we finally got them back!

And the one of the 3 of them!

Juliana's glasses!

2008-05-14T10:32:00.000-04:00

We got Juliana's glasses yesterday. She wasn't interested in them at all when we first got them but I think it might have just been because we were in the store. I tried a bit once we got home and she kept them on for an hour! I wasn't home last night so Jeff didn't try cause she kept taking them off. This morning she's kept them on for over 2 hours now and she seems to like them a lot better. They are a very strong prescription so it'll take some getting used to. I hope they help her see a lot better. Here's some pics.

We took Kayla for her pictures on Monday night. I curled her hair in soft ringlets and she looks so sweet! It was so fun taking just 1 kid out and spending time with her. She was so good at the pictures, she was like a model with wire in her arm.s The lady would pose her and she would stay right there. They turned out really good, I can't wait to get them back!

Two nights ago Jeff put Zachy on his tummy on the floor and he rolled over 3 times!! I couldn't believe it! I took these pics of him, he looks so cute!

He looks so surprised!
On his way to rolling over (we moved the couch out of the way)

I made this diaper cake for a baby shower I went to last night. It was so fun to make. It isn't too expensive to make either, I was surprised. I used almost a whole pack of size 2 diapers, socks, bibs, wash cloths and travel size shampoos and cleaners.

Zachary's smiles, big girl beds and glasses!!

2008-05-02T11:19:00.000-04:00

Zachary started smiling a couple of weeks ago but I haven't been able to catch it on the camera until a few days ago, such big smiles!! It is so sweet having him smile at me all the time. I know it was all worth it before but once they start smiling, it just feels great! He is very smiley too, I can get a smile out of him pretty easily. Here's some pics!

Zachary staring at Kayla, he loves her so much!
And at Juliana, I think he's more afraid of her, cause she's so loud! LOL! No, he loves her like crazy too!
A small smile
Sorry his hand is in the way but it was a cute pic with his tongue sticking out!
Here's the real smile! It is so sweet!!!
And another one!

So we started putting Juliana in her big girl bed Tuesday night. We didn't have any luck when we tried before cause all she would do is climb out and touch everything! But we wanted to get her moved over soon so we can put Zach in the crib in a month or so. She actually stayed in the bed and fell asleep! It took her about an hour to fall asleep but that happens in the crib too. She didn't get out at all so that was promising! So now she's slept in it 3 nights and 3 naps during the afternoon!!! I'm so proud of her! It's so sweet to see the 2 of them sleeping next to each other!

We took Zachary for his portraits last night. It was so cute!! They turned out really good, I had a very hard time choosing which ones I wanted! I don't get them back for 2 weeks but I can't wait! We took one with him wearing a fire helmet and a dalmatian by his side, too cute! And we got 1 pose with all 3 of them together before Juliana threw her tantrum! It was interesting going out with all 3 of them. This was our first real outing that we actually took the kids out of the van. It went pretty well at first but then Juliana didn't want anything to do with it anymore.

We took Juliana to the ophthalmologist's on Tuesday and got her prescription for glasses. Then we stopped at the glasses store and had them order some frames in since we need really small ones, they didn't have too many in stock. She looked so adorable in them!! Hopefully she'll have them in a week or so and I'll post a pic.

Kayla's 4th Birthday

2008-04-28T19:45:00.004-04:00

Sunday was Kayla's 4th birthday, and I really can't believe it! I can't believe that the little girl we brought home from the hospital 4 years ago, is going to start school in the fall! She has become such a little lady, she is so smart and every day makes me crack up because of the funny things she says. We had a bunch of people over on Saturday night for a party so I thought I would post some pics.

Blowing a party blower and sporting a pretty cute hat!
Opening up Candy Land!
Some pretty cute clothes
I think she was excited and surprised about a jewelery box!
A pretty bracelet from Grammy
The two of them blowing out candles!

These pictures are from Sunday when she opened our presents.

A dry erase board book to help her write letters and numbers
Some gum, she was pretty excited about it!
A pretty blue skirt (her favourite colour) and shirt for summer!
And I just had to post this pic of Zachary too, so cute!

I thought I would post pics of her on her birthday's over the past 4 years to see how much she has grown up! WOW!

About 2 months old

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday
3rd Birthday
4th Birthday

1 month old!

2008-04-18T11:19:00.002-04:00

Zachary is 1 month old today! It's hard to believe that it's been 1 month already. He is such a sweet baby. I can't wait to see who he is going to be! Here's some pics!

This isn't a real smile, he does this a lot when he is drifting in and out of sleep! He's only given me a few real smiles but I can't wait until he does it more!
The 3 of them!
4 weeks old!!
And a big yawn!!!
Watching the toys on the mobile
What a big boy!

Video of Zachary

2008-03-31T21:29:00.001-04:00

Here's a video I just took of Zachary. He is so alert when he's awake! Hopefully since he's awake now, he'll sleep good tonight!!!

Some pics of the little man!

2008-03-28T16:37:00.001-04:00

Here's some pics!

This was taken when he was 5 days old, I think it's so cute!
Here he is 1 week old!
His first outfit!! (The pants were too long so I had to roll them up!)
Me and my little man!
Jeff with all his angels!His first bath (had to sponge bath him before this since he was circumcised)
He liked this part, I was wiping his face and neck with a warm cloth.
Still happy here!
But then it changed! LOL!
And content in his swing, nice and clean!

We're home!

2008-03-20T10:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's taken so long to post but I've been pretty tired! I didn't get the call to come in until Monday afternoon around 4:30 so it was a long day! Zachary James Jeffrey was born Tuesday March 18th, at 2:38am, 10lbs 6oz, 21 3/4 inches long. He is such a perfect baby, and I am so in love with him! I don't have a lot of time to update with the details of the birth but he was born in 2 hours and 8 minutes, and after only 3 minutes of pushing LOL! And the most amazing thing, even though he was so big, I didn't tear at all, so the recovery is a lot better this time. I feel pretty good other than tired and achy. Here's a few pictures to start you off, we didn't get a whole lot since he was born in the middle of the night but both in-laws did so once I get them, I'll update with more. Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm home. We came home yesterday around 2pm.

Happy 2nd birthday Juliana!!!

2008-03-11T09:28:00.001-05:00

These ones are from my parents when we went down a couple of weeks ago.

My dad is in February so we celebrated them both together, I thought this was cute!
Blowing out the candles!
A baby she got, and she loves it!
See! LOL!
A table and chair set she got from my parents, they love it!

These are from Sunday night

I thought this was such a cute picture! Shows her typical frown, lol!
Waiting for gifts!
She loves Dora right now so she got a huge sticker book!
The cake I made for her!
She's thinking "YUM!"
And stealing a lick of icing!
Big breath in!!!!
And finally enjoying the cake!
Really enjoying it!
Playing with a fire truck she got!
And dressing up in some clothes she got! She has 3 layers on!!!
Kayla showing off a watch she got for an Easter gift! She's so pretty!

And these are from last night, her actual birthday with us

Daddy reading her her birthday card
Opening a gift that Kayla picked out for her!
We got the girls some Dora play sets.
And Juliana sitting in her Dora chair that we got her
And opening another.... Dora gift!

I still can't believe she is 2! I went in her room during her nap, and just stared at her around 2:00, only about 20 minutes after she was born, thinking back to how much she has grown up! Here's a pic of her the day after she was born, just about to go home, what a difference!!!!

The basement is finished!!!!!

2008-02-19T10:03:00.004-05:00

The basement is now finished!!! We finished up some final pieces of trim and hung the last door on Saturday morning and started moving furniture down in the afternoon!!!!

Here's Jeff showing off his hard work!! So proud!!
Here's the living room area (excuse the dust in the air, I had just finished
sweeping up some dust on the floor)Another of the living room area
Here's the computer area
Standing by the computer desk looking towards the play area/exercise area
And the hall! Such a great place to store DVD's and books!This is what the upstairs looks like now.
(Excuse the toys all over, I hadn't cleaned up yet!)
Upstairs
What the living room used to look like! Very cramped compared to now!Where the computer used to be.
This is the best picture I could find that showed how the computer was.

My 34 week ultrasound!!!

2008-02-11T13:10:00.000-05:00

I went for my ultrasound this morning and all I have to say is I am sooooo in love!!

He was so big! He's measuring a week ahead (they need to have the radiologist look at the measurements to determine the weight so I'll find out at my next appt). And he is definitely a boy! We got to see his "parts" several times which makes me feel better cause I was still worried that it was wrong! He was practicing breathing and looks so healthy! She focused in on his face several times and I could see the cute little lips and the chubby cheeks! And she went around his head and you could see he has hair already! He's definitely head down and now I know exactly how he is laying. His feet are in my right ribs, his bum is in my left ribs and his back is along my left side. He's face is pointed towards my right hip and all those pushes that I get around my belly button are his elbows! She wanted to get a picture of my cervix so she had me put my hands on either side of his head and pull up and you could see his head move up off of it on the screen, it was pretty cool! I really really can't wait to meet this little guy! He was so precious! Here's the pics from it.

Here's his side profile

You can see he's all cramped in there!

Here's his face. It's hard to see so I labled it in this one and then in the next you can kinda see it. She got a lot better shots of it during my ultrasound but this is the best picture. He had such kissable lips and cheeks!Same picture but not labeled as much.And his cute little foot!!!!

Juliana's growing up!

2008-01-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

We put Juliana's big girl bed together a couple of nights ago. She really loved it, we had a hard time pulling her out of it! So we thought we would try and let her sleep in it at night. We gave her 3 chances and she failed each one of them, lol! All of a sudden we'd here "mommy, daddy, Juliana's out of her bed!" It would be nice if she was in it by the time Zachary came but there's no rush. Here's some pics. They look so cute together!

I bought some wooden letters to hang above Zachary's crib. I painted them and I am so happy how they turned out!

Here's pics of the bedding so you can see how it matches!

Basement Pictures!

2008-01-11T15:36:00.000-05:00

I just realized that it's been about 3 weeks since my last post! Bad!!! So I thought I would post some pictures of the basement. My dad came down a couple of weeks ago and him and Jeff put the drop ceiling in and put down the laminate floor. It really finishes it off!!! Now all that is left is trim, doors and touch ups!

The hallway (coming from the stairs)

The hallway

Part of the living room
Living room
In the living room looking towards the computer area.
Standing near the bathroom looking towards the living room/computer area.
The finished ceiling!!
Jeff putting the first ceiling tile in!
Jeff and my dad laying the first few pieces of floor!
Jeff putting in the last piece of floor!!

So hopefully we'll be moved down there within a month, definitely before the baby comes!

Third trimester, baby!!

2007-12-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

Well, as of today I am now in my 3rd trimester! Yay!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that I'm here already, 27 weeks, crazy!! And with it being Christmas, the next few weeks will fly by and then all of a sudden I'll be 30 weeks!!

We tried to take the girls to see Santa on Monday night. We got to the mall (which is 35 minutes away) at 7:20 and we went up to the line there were quite a few people. The lady in front of us must have worked there cause she said that Santa was closed, the wait was over a half hour and he had to leave at 8. So we walked away and told Kayla that we couldn't see him. Her little heart was breaking and she started to cry, which of course made me almost start to cry cause she was so excited to go see him. So when we got home Jeff emailed the mall and told them how upset he was and that it was ridiculous that they would have the mall open until 10 yet Santa was only there until 8 and that they would turn kids away. We were both pretty mad. So luckily I had my OB appt the next morning so we took her with us and stopped on the way back. She was happy. We get home and there is an email from the mall waiting saying how they were sorry that happened and they told us that we get a free family package! So if we're brave enough we may try to go up Saturday and get a both of them on his lap! I'm happy they did something about it, or else we'd be pretty mad. If it wasn't for Kayla being so excited, we would have just said screw it. Here's Kayla's pic!

Anyways, I don't know if I'm going to be able to post again before Christmas, we have a busy schedule for family get togethers so I wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday!!!!

26 week belly pic

2007-12-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

I'll be back later to post pics of the basement but I thought I would post my 26 week belly pic! I'm looking and feeling huge already and really wondering how much bigger I'm going to get!!! LOL!!!

The basement is partly painted!

2007-12-13T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well, the guys finished mudding and sanding on Friday and then Jeff and I went down and put a coat of primer on the walls that night. We stayed up way too late doing it! I was so tired in the morning but it was so nice to see the primer on. Then Saturday we put another coat on and did the bathroom, closets and ceilings and then did a second coat of primer on the walls at night. Then Sunday afternoon we put a coat of the top coat colour on and it looks awesome! We were going to do more Sunday night but we were both way too exhausted. Every muscle in my body hurt and my joints really hurt too, especially my hips from standing up so much. I calculated it and we each painted for 12 hours on the weekend! Here's some pics of it!

The family room
The computer area
The hall (looking towards the stairs)
The hall (looking towards the bathroom)
The family room primed
Towards the hall primed
Here's my big belly while I was painting, Jeff thought it was funny to take it!The family room top coat (it looks really orange, but it's not!)
The hall (towards the stairs)
The hall (towards the bathroom)
This is a close up of a piece of trim and one floor plank with the wall,
gives you an idea of the finished product!)
The same spot, just further out!
(this is more what the colour looks like in person)
And here's Kayla helping to paint the bathroom closet!!!
So cute!! (she's wearing one of my t-shirts!)

We plan on doing some more painting tonight, finish the 2nd coat on the walls and start the basement. Hopefully it will be all done by this weekend! And then Jeff is going to start on the drop ceiling, install the floor and then put the trim and doors on and it will be time to move in!! (Mind you that probably won't be for a couple of months yet!)

The Bumble look-a-like!

2007-11-28T21:05:00.000-05:00

Zachary's bedding came on Friday!! It is so much cuter than in the pictures!! I really can't wait to put it on the crib, but obviously I have to wait until we get Juliana out of the crib! I think I've taken it all out of the package 4 or 5 times already! I just had to post pics of it!!!

Wall hangings and pillow

Bumper pad
Quilt
Toy hanger and diaper stacker

We took the kids to the Santa Claus parade on Saturday night, boy was it cold!!! And Juliana being the stubborn little girl that she is didn't want to be in the stroller with a blanket over her, or be held with a blanket around her. She wanted to stand up on the ground even though she couldn't see anything. Jeff ended up taking her back to the van even before Santa got there cause she was screaming bloody murder cause we wanted to hold on to her so she could see!!

Kayla & Juliana (and Kayla's best friend Breanne)
Juliana during her one of her stubborn moments of standing up
Kayla all smiles (excuse how geeky I look!)

Last night Jeff says to me "Do you know who Juliana looks like? The abominable snowman from Rudolph!!!" At first I didn't understand but then when I thought about it, she does!!! She is our little Bumble!!! Every time I look at this picture, I crack up!!! I think I need to print it out and put it on my fridge so when I get cranky or stressed out I can look at it and let it cheer me up!!!! I was almost crying this afternoon when I first made this comparison!!! This is her new smile when we tell her to smile for the camera. What a goof ball!!

Anyways, now that I've bored everyone beyond tears with my rambling, I should go and work on some more cards. The kids are in bed and Jeff is at a meeting so it's quiet!!! And the guy is coming tomorrow to start mudding our basement!!! So hopefully we'll be able to start painting in a week!!! Have a good one!!!

Fireworks and Christmas!!

2007-11-20T15:15:00.000-05:00

Well, we put up all our Christmas decorations on the weekend!! I know it's early but I love having them up. I one of those people who don't like to take them down either, cause I love how wonderful our house looks with it all up! And next year we'll have 2 trees cause the basement will be done by then! Here's a pic of me and the girls in front of it and me. I don't know why it's so dark, sorry!

The park near our house always has a Fantasy of Lights every year and they do fireworks to kick it off so I took the girls on Sunday night. Jeff came for a few minutes because he got a call and ended up meeting us there. They really enjoyed it! Although the first big bang, scared Juliana really badly! She jumped and then clung onto me for dear life!! LOL!! They just stood there in awe of the lights!

Kayla staring up at the fireworks!

Juliana after a big bang!!!!

Jeff, Kayla and Juliana watching the fireworks!

We bought the flooring for our basement!! It's called Natural Oak and it's an 8.3mm laminate. We got a really good deal on it. Most decent ones cost at least $1.50sq/ft. They had this one in stock so we got it for .99sq/ft!!! So the guy who is going to do the taping and mudding is coming next week and he'll be done in a week, so we can start painting after that!!!! Here's a pic of the floor and the paint colour. I know it's dark but we have lots of white down there and lots of light so I'm not worried. I just love dark colours!!!! What do you think?

Ultrasound pics!!!

2007-11-06T14:37:00.000-05:00

I went for my 2nd ultrasound this afternoon and it was so amazing!!!! At first he wouldn't open his legs, he kept them crossed so tight! But then I went and emptied my bladder (thankfully!!) thinking he would move, but no!!! So just as she went by the area, he opened his legs for us!! And Jeff just came in at that time, so it was perfect timing!!! He is getting so big!! He was constantly moving all over, she had a hard time measuring him! He's measuring right on with my due date!! It was so nice to see him again. He kept looking right at the us, we could see his eyes and mouth, and even saw him yawn once! So now the shopping begins!!!

Trick or Treat!!!

2007-11-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

Here's some pics from last night! The girls looked so cute!! Kayla just loved being a Fairy Princess! I put sparkles in her hair and put some make up on her! But Jules, that was another story! We had to fight with her just to get it on, then to realize that I forgot to put a long sleeved shirt underneath! And then another fight to get it on again!!! Once it was on, she sat fine for the makeup, but when we tried to put the hood on, NOPE!!!!

Here's Juliana as Tigger!

Here she is for the split second that she wore the hood!

Kayla in her Fairy Princess costume!! So pretty!!!

And the 2 of them! Just before the hood came off!

Here's Jules in the van!

This picture is really blurry but I thought it was cute to see them with daddy!

And running around!

And Jules running around!!

Another pumpkin

2007-10-31T15:18:00.000-05:00

I thought since the other pumpkins went all saggy I would use the other side of the pumpkin to practice a picture that I wanted to maybe do next year. It turned out great!! (I photoshoped the background out since you could see the other pumpkin carving in it and it took away from the real picture.)

(It's Juliana's 6 week picture. I've tried to find a picture of Kayla's that will work but they won't)

Lots of pictures!!!!

2007-10-30T17:54:00.000-05:00

Both girls were sick last week with some sort of bronchial infection so they couldn't breath that well. One of the nights, Jeff built a tent and put the vaporizer under it to try to help Kayla breath. Here are some pics of it! Kayla really enjoyed it, it's all she asks for now is a tent, so Jeff said if she's good they'll do one Saturday night for fun!

I thought she looked like a little papoose!

This is the tent!! Lots of sheets on our bar stools!!

Kayla all cuddly in the tent!

My poor baby girl!

The next bunch are of our pumpkin carving fun!

Here's Kayla and I posing! She didn't like putting her hands inside cause it felt too gooey!

Here she is painting her little pumpkin. It's very colourful!

Here are the pumpkins. I waited until the next day to take a picture so they had shrivelled up a bit. The holes are bigger than what they should be. They are of 2 Backyardigans characters.

And this bunch is of some bath time fun! Jeff thought he'd hop in with them. It was pretty crowded but they had lots of fun!

Here they are smiling for the camera! Crazy hair after taking their pony tails out!

Here's Jeff squirting Kayla. I love the face on Juliana, I don't know what it was all about!

She's trying to grab the water here. I love the smile!

And they were both laughing really hard!

I've found the bedding!!!

2007-10-16T12:22:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! I seem to be into blogging more lately, I guess I just have more to talk about! LOL! I just wanted to share this adorable bedding I found for the baby. I wasn't planning on buying anything new cause we have a set that is Noah's ark that we used for both girls, but since this is a boy, I wanted to get something boyish. Plus the bumper pad for the other set is basically ruined from the 2 of them using it. So I went online and found this adorable set!!!!

It comes with 12 pieces!!! Everything in the picture other than the lamp and the mobile (and there are 2 valances instead of just 1) I know I won't need some of those things but it's a good deal! $149.99US for all of it (it retails for $299). The only thing that really sucks is the company that I found it from doesn't ship to Canada and the companies that do, charge $80 for the shipping charge. So I have a friend on a forum that will let me ship it to her place in Michigan and then she'll ship it to me. The site that I can get it from only charges $2.95 to ship in the US so even if it costs $40-$50 to ship it from her, that's still way cheaper. I did find it on another site that will ship it to Canada for only $20 but it sells for $229 so I think I'll just go the cheaper route and save some money! Isn't it adorable!!!! When I saw it, I knew it was the one! I'm going to wait until my next ultrasound to double check that it is a boy before I order it, cause sometimes at 16 weeks, it's mistaken. At the 20 week ultrasound, it's hard to mistake the organs. I'm so excited!!!

Our crazy girls!!

2007-10-13T20:49:00.000-04:00

The girls found a fun game of jumping off the slide! It's pretty funny to watch cause they just go flying off of it (I know, I sound like a bad mother, but they don't get hurt :oP)

I posted both videos cause in the 2nd one, Kayla comes up to Jeff and says she has a booboo and then Juliana gives a really cute smile to the camera.

He's getting big!!!!

2007-10-12T08:12:00.001-04:00

Fetal development - 17 weeks pregnant

Written for Canada
Approved by the BabyCenter Canada Medical Advisory Board

Your baby is now nearly 5.5 inches/ 13 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighs approximately 5 ounces/ 140 grams. Her skeleton is mostly rubbery cartilage, which will harden later. A protective substance called myelin slowly begins to wrap around the spinal cord.

With the help of a special stethoscope, you can now hear your baby's heartbeat. There's almost nothing more comforting or exciting than hearing your baby's heartbeat galloping along. On days when you're worried about how your pregnancy is progressing, hearing the heartbeat lets you know that your baby's developing and growing. For times when boredom strikes and you feel as if you'll be pregnant forever, it can be a pleasant reminder of what will come at the end of 40 weeks of waiting.

Your growing uterus has shifted your centre of gravity and you've probably been feeling a bit off-kilter. Be careful and wear low-heeled shoes. Finding it hard to settle when you go to bed? Check our tips for sleep in the second trimester.

Ultrasound pics and a belly one too!

2007-10-09T17:17:00.001-04:00

I'm back from a great weekend away and thought I would post the ultrasound pics now that I have time. I'll post later about our weekend.

And here's my 16 week belly pic. I seem to have shrunk a bit out front but it's gotten rounder up top a bit. (I'll post my 12 week too so you can see the comparison)

12 weeks

16 weeks

Ok, so I couldn't wait!!!

2007-10-04T15:42:00.001-04:00

Quick update

2007-10-03T16:52:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! I'm not even sure if anyone is even reading this blog anymore, since I don't post very often. But I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow afternoon is my ultrasound, where we might be finding out the sex of this baby!!!!! I won't have a chance to update this blog afterwards for a few days cause shortly after we get back from the ultrasound, Jeff and I are going to be going away for the weekend to St. Jacobs for our 5th anniversary!! It's our anniversary on the 5th, so since it's a big number we thought it would be fun to go away together (without the kids!!!!). So I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday to update you all on the sex of our baby (fingers crossed!) and our wonderful weekend away!!! Have a great Thanksgiving!!!!

Oh and I had to add this picture of our little trouble maker. I was off doing something and Juliana was being very quiet, so I come out into the kitchen and see this ---

Thankfully it was Crayola and every single mark came off of both her and the wall!!! I couldn't help but laugh at her, she even posed for me when I got the camera out!!! And when I first came up to her she does her usual thing of pointing to what she did and going "Dah!" (which is her saying tada). So cute!!!!

♥♥♥ Baby has a heartbeat ♥♥♥

2007-09-25T15:27:00.000-04:00

I went for my first OB appointment today and I am so relieved to hear the heart beat!!! I wasn't overly worried that there wouldn't be one, but it's so nice to hear it!! It sounded so strong and consistent!! And if I can remember correctly, it sounded slower than the other 2, which by old wives tales standards, that could mean it's a boy, LOL!!!! It was funny, when the OB first walked in she said "Weren't you guys just here?" cause it was only 1 1/2 years since we had Juliana! It seems like it was just yesterday we were sitting in that room and she told me she was going to induce me! Man, how the time flies!!! She booked an ultrasound for me for next Thursday, October 4th to check my due date. And it's awesome cause I'll be 16 weeks the next day and there is a chance they could see the sex of the baby at that time!!! So, if baby cooperates, we could know what we are having in 9 days!!!!! And it would be a wonderful anniversary present cause it's our 5th anniversary on October 5th, the next day!! I also have to go get some blood work done to check for Downs Syndrome and Spina Bifida (not that it matters, cause if our baby had anything wrong with it, I would still carry it to term, aborting it is no option!) and then I go for my next OB appointment on October 23rd. And at that appointment, she'll schedule another ultrasound for 20 weeks, so if baby doesn't cooperate next Thursday there is always that ultrasound. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going!! I am already 14 weeks, it seems like yesterday I was so excited to be 6 weeks!! I'm only 6 weeks away from being halfway!! So that's my exciting news for now, I know I haven't been posting much, but I haven't much to say. The girls and I are all sick with colds and of course I can't take anything so I'm not getting the best sleep at night. Hopefully it won't last too much longer.

Wow, long time no post!!

2007-09-07T09:08:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that it's been this long since my last post! I honestly don't know where the time has gone! Not really anything new has happened here, that's how exciting my life is!!!

Well, we had another biting incident at our house last night. Juliana was pushing the bar stools around the kitchen and Kayla being her bully of a person sometimes decided to get in on the action and took over. She was holding one of the stools from Juliana so she couldn’t push it and Juliana decided to retaliate. Luckily, the skin wasn’t broken this time, but I think that is because I was able to intervene in time and stop her before she did (Last time, she bit Kayla on the calf and it bled, and of course Kayla freaked out when she saw the blood!). Aw, the joys of having a 3 year old and a 1 ½ year old (note the sarcasm!) Life should be interesting in 6 months when I have 3! Let me just say, bring on October 5th when we go away for the weekend for our anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was pretty funny after Juliana let go, I slapped her hand and told her “no biting” so what does she do? She bites her own arm several times! She really is strange!

(Sorry for the quality of the pic, for some reason my camera wouldn’t let me get a very good close up shot of it. At least you can an idea of the bite, perfect indent of every single tooth!)

Jeff has been busy working on the basement for the past few weeks. For the past week every free minute of his has been spent down there. He'll get home from work, go straight down there, come up and quickly eat supper, go back down and if he has a meeting or something that night he'll come up 10 minutes before he has to leave and then go back down when he gets home and he stays down there until at least 10! The girls miss him but it's to the point it will slow down now. All the electrical is done, and my parents are coming down next weekend to start the drywall!!! YAY!!!! I can't wait until it's done. It will be so weird living with a second floor. Right now we have 1100 square feet for 4 people (2 of those being crazy chickies that leave toys everywhere!) It will double our house when it's done! And the toy room will be downstairs so I'll actually be able to walk around up here without stepping on any toys! We're hoping that we'll be done the whole basement with drywall, painting, drop ceiling, flooring and the bathroom by the time the baby comes. So that gives us 6 months! Here's some pics of the progress.

Here's Jeff finishing up the last piece of tape!

This is where the tv area will be

This is looking at the computer area and the bathroom and bedroom

This is where the kids play area will be and our exercise equipment.

The hall and stairs

Kayla is now almost potty trained!!!!

2007-08-13T11:06:00.000-04:00

I am so proud of Kayla!!! I have tried many times over the past year or so to try to get her potty trained and never with any success. So about 2 weeks ago I decided that since we didn't have anything like vacation or anything big coming up I would try again. I talked to her about it and figured out that she was interested in putting the seat on the toilet and using that instead of the potty. So we talked about it over and over and I told her that big girls use the potty and little girls go in their diapers (she has this thing about her being a big girl and NOT and little girl!!!). So Sunday morning last week I thought I would try. I put the seat on the toilet and she sat on it but didn't go (a huge step forward compared to never wanting to sit on the potty before). Jeff was gone to the fire college so we didn't go to church that morning. So a little later she came running up to me and said "mommy, I almost peed in my diaper!" So I thought we would go on the potty. She had said that to me before but she had already gone in her diaper so I thought I'll just put her on the potty just to see. And she went!!! A lot!!!! She was so proud of herself to hear the pee going in the toilet!!!! We had a chart on the wall and she put a sticker on it and was proud of it!! All day, she would come running up to me and say the same thing "mommy I almost peed!" She didn't have one accident in her pull up all day!! It's now a week later and she is still doing awesome! Her diaper is completely dry at the end of the day and she can do it all on her own! She goes in the bathroom, does her thing, pulls up shorts, washes her hands and puts a sticker on her chart! It's so cute!!!! She hasn't quite mastered the pooping yet (Sorry if it's TMI!) so I'm going to wait until that happens before I put underwear on her. But I have a feeling it won't be too much longer! I asked her before we started potty training what she wanted as a treat when she was all done and wearing big girl underwear and she decided that she wanted a Belle tea set that another little girl she knows has. So when we were at Wal-Mart the other day, there were only 3 left so I thought I would buy it but she knows that she doesn't get it yet, it's an incentive for her to keep going!!! It's sitting on our counter right there for her to see!!! She is so proud of herself and tells everyone we see that she goes on the potty!!! Now, the goal is to get Jules trained to before the baby comes!!! I think it will be easier to do her cause she sees Kayla doing it and is already jealous of Kayla when she goes in the bathroom and shuts the door! I'll give her a couple of months and try!!!!

Here's a pic of Kayla with her chart (as you can see, she didn't put the stickers on the right days, just all over the place!!!) Look at that proud face!!!!

Get those olives away from me!

2007-08-03T13:09:00.000-04:00

Ok, so this is how I feel and I have felt for the past few days. In the beginning I wasn't nauseous at all and I thought "great, this is going to be like my other pregnancies" but then all of a sudden it turned on me. Now, basically all day long I am on the verge of puking, although I haven't yet, but it sucks to feel this way. If I turn my head too fast, I feel the room spinning. If I smell something that doesn't agree with me, I can feel the swirling of my tummy. The other day I was having some soup for lunch and Jeff came over to kiss me good bye before he went back to work and I nearly gagged! He had mint gum in his mouth and the mixture of mint with vegetable soup really did not go over well for me!! (sorry babe, it's not you!) And then the other morning I was getting groceries and I walked by the stand they have olives and stuff like that, oh man, I couldn't get away from it fast enough!!! If I would have spent 1 more second by it, they would have had to call someone for a clean up in aisle 3!!!! LOL!!! I really hope it gets better. Although this could be a good sign, I wasn't like this with the girls, so maybe this means it's a boy????

It's not just the nausea that's bad either, I've really been feeling so dizzy lately. I have low blood pressure to begin with and when I get pregnant it gets worse for me. I remember when I was pregnant with Kayla and we would be in church and I couldn't stand up to worship for more than a minute or so cause I would feel all hot and sweaty and the room would start spinning. Right now I feel so useless cause with the nausea and the dizziness I can hardly do anything. The house is certainly suffering, and the laundry too -- I've had the same load of Jeff's work uniforms in the dryer for 3 days now, every morning he goes down there to get dressed! This baby is really taking a lot from me.

I forgot to post the other day about Juliana's hives. I think it's a reaction to either strawberries or raspberries, but I'm not 100% sure what it is. On Wednesday last week she started getting small hives. Then the next day there were more. On Saturday they were basically covering more than half of her body and even on her face. Her face was swollen because of them, she looked like a sumo baby (I wish I would have taken a picture but I forgot). Sunday morning they were even worse, really red and very raised. I was freaking out cause I didn't want them to be affecting her breathing. Luckily it was all superficial. I started giving her Benadryl on Thursday but it didn't seem to be working, it almost seemed like it was making them worse. So I talked to Mary (Bob's mom, the nurse) and she said to try liquid Gravol cause it has an antihistamine in it, like Benadryl, I was worried she was reacting to it instead of it helping her. So I gave her some on Sunday night and Monday morning they seemed to be getting smaller. I also left the air on Sunday night (I usually turn it off at night if it's cool enough) to keep her cooler and just in case it was something coming from outside that was bugging her and let her run around in just her diaper to keep her cooler too. Tuesday morning, they were almost all gone and today there were only a couple on her legs left. I am so thankful they are almost gone, I felt so bad for her. Luckily she wasn't affected by them, she still ran around and played and was really happy. I will remember to never give her raspberries again!!! Here's a picture of what she's looked like the last few days, almost naked!!! And I started putting pony tails in her hair. Too cute!!!

Guess What???

2007-07-26T09:09:00.000-04:00

Well, it looks like I'm not having surgery for my gall bladder (I need to get it removed, I was having really bad stomach aches) because...
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I took a test on Friday the 13th, and it was positive! As of right now, my due date is March 21st, 2008. I am still in shock, big time! We had been trying for a couple of months and didn't expect to get pregnant so quickly. I'm really sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately, but I've just been busy. I only found out that I needed my gall bladder out 2 days before I got a positive test. Otherwise we would have put trying on hold. And it's kinda funny cause this was the only time in my life that I've wanted a negative and low and behold it wasn't! So I think I am crazy, I will have 3 kids under the age of 3 for about a month cause Juliana will turn 2 on March 10th, this one will be born around the 21st and then Kayla will turn 4 on April 27th!!! It's going to be a crazy house around here!!!

So I'm almost 6 weeks pregnant (I will be on Friday) and the baby is really small right now, only about 1/4 inch and it's little heart starting beating this week! I still can't believe that I am pregnant. I haven't really had too many symptoms yet other than I'm really tired, I actually fall asleep almost every afternoon! And I have been a little nauseous here and there and light headed but other than that I've been feeling great. So, I just wanted to share this wonderful news with all of you wonderful people who read my blog.

I'm back!!!

2007-07-02T14:37:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted!!! We just got back on Saturday from a 2 week vacation up near Huntsville. We went to a cottage resort called Dayspring. We rented a cottage with Jeff's parents the first week and Bob and Mary the second week. The drive up was pretty long, we left our house at 6:30am, stopped 2 times and got to the cottage at 4:00pm. The girls were really good for the whole trip, I made sure to bring lots of cookies and lots of DVD's to keep them entertained. The drive home wasn't quite as long, we left the cottage at 10:15am and got home around 7:00pm. The weather was pretty good, it only rained a couple of days and it wasn't too hot except for a couple of days. We did lots of fishing, boating, playing in the sand and relaxing! We went shopping to Huntsville a couple of times and took a day trip to Dorset. It was really nice to be up there for 2 weeks. When we got home, it felt like I was walking around someone else's house cause I got so used to living in the cottage! It was nice to get home to our house though. I really missed my own shower!!! Alright, time for the pictures!!! I'm sorry there are so many, it was really hard to choose! We took over 500 pictures so these are only a few!!

Jeff with his Father's Day present,
a stepping stone that we made for him!

Me (before my nice tan!), Juliana & Kayla on the beach.
There was a canopy over part of it so it was nice for the kids.

The girls playing in the sand.
Jeff doing some much need relaxing!
Me, Juliana & Kayla in the boat.

Juliana helping Grammy do the dishes!
She stayed up on the chair for the whole time!!
Juliana & Kayla at the base of the Dorset Fire Tower

Looking up at the tower.
Kayla, Me, Juliana & Grammy on our way up the tower.
Me, Juliana & Kayla at the top of the tower
(as you can see by our faces, very windy 100ft up!)

Kayla & Juliana at the top of the tower!
Me, Kayla, Jeff & Juliana at the top of the tower.
So in love!!!
The view from the top of the tower.
The town of Dorset (about 15-20 minutes outside of Algonquin Park)
On the look out at the tower, Peek-A-Boo Rock. What a view!
My two little angels!!!
Me and my girls walking back to the van.
Kayla painting some "sunny catchers" (that's what
she called them!) that we bought in Dorset.
Juliana in her life jacket on a cruise down the Magnetawan River.
Kayla waving!
Jeff driving the boat.
Jeff with his fish that he caught (2.9lb pike, hopefully the trophy winner!)

Playing at the park near our cottage. Nice view too!!
Kayla swinging!
Juliana, Jeff, Kayla & Papa blowing bubbles.
(Sorry there was a fingerprint on the lens,
so it's kinda blurry!)

The owners of the resort had a beautiful dog named Bailey.
He didn't care when Juliana was playing with his
ears or poking him. He just layed there!
Kayla & Juliana with Grampa Bob.

Kayla and I fishing!
The girls in their bathing suits!! Too cute!!!
Juliana walking in the water at the beach.
Kayla was a brave little girl and jumped off the dock into my arms!
It was really fun!
Kayla and Jeff building a sand castle. They were putting a pool in!
Gramma Mary pushing Juliana on the swing.

Kayla on a stump at the Lion's Lookout in Huntsville, Ontario.
The family at the Lion's Lookout.
Kayla, Grandpa Bob & Jules at the look out.

So cute! My girls sitting on a rock behind our cottage.
Me doing what I love best! Reading in the sun
while watching the girls play in the sand!
Kayla and Jeff fishing together.
Kayla with one of the fish she caught.
Kayla talking to her friend Dragon
(if you've ever seen the show Miss Spider's Sunny Patch,
you'll know who I mean!)
Kayla standing up and driving the boat!!
She loved to do this and she would always sing her abc's while driving.
Kayla and "Grampa Bob" leaning over the deck.
Our room in the cottage while we were packing up.
It was surprisingly big, lots of room to move around.
This is the girls room. I put the play pen up for Jules,
there was just enough room for it!
The kitchen in the cottage. The little hallway
to the left is where our room is.
The living room in the cottage. The right door was where the girls slept.Another picture of the living room.

The view from our bedroom window. Not bad!
The tree was kinda in the way but not too badly.
We stopped at a Wendy's in Barrie and had lunch on the way home.
A fun little picnic to end the wonderful vacation!

Another picture of the picnic.

Kayla telling a story!

2007-06-09T10:28:00.000-04:00

The last few nights before Kayla goes to sleep she likes to tell us stories. So this morning I grabbed the camera and thought I would record one cause they are so cute!!! I'll translate it for you cause it's hard to understand some of it.

"Long, long time ago, I was a baby. And....I....go in the crib, and I cried, and I grew up, and you put me back to sleep, and I grew up, and I was able to talk!"

I asked "And now what are you?"

"A big girl!!!! I like that story! Right?"

Kayla's New Glasses!!

2007-06-05T22:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry for all the weird things happening with the blog posts last time. I don't know what happened????

Anyways, I took Kayla to the eye doctors about a month ago because her right eye kept turning in if she was trying to focus. At first she just did once in a while and we thought it was because she was being silly, but then it got to be more often. So I took her in and he said that her vision was pretty bad (worse than mine even!) so he had me take her back a week later to perform some more tests just to see what prescription she needed. She was so good at the eye doctors, she wasn't scared at all (actually she was quite the talker!) and sat really still for the doctor. He even said she sits still better than some 11 year olds!! So we got a prescription for her and went and ordered her some glasses. They finally came in today so we went and picked them up. They are a bit big for her but they were the smallest frames in the store. She got used to them pretty quick, the only problem is her ear started to hurt towards the end of the day. I think we need to take them in and get readjusted. She looks pretty cute in them! And I was amazed at how well she is took to them right away. I put them on her before we left the store and she has been wearing them since. When she first had them on it was like a light bulb was turned on, she could see so much better! She was looking all around at everything like she had never seen any of it before. And in the van, she read books the whole way home!!! I feel a lot better about her having them cause I know they improve her vision. It was pretty cute, she was looking up at the screen for the DVD player and said in awe "Look mommy, it's bigger!" Then she moved her glasses up and said "Smaller!" and kept doing it over and over. Then she looked at me and said the same thing!! Here's some pics of her in her glasses. There is still one pair coming in this week.

I just hope and pray that kids will be kinder to her than they were to me when I was a kid (I wore Coke bottle thick glasses with bi-focals in them for years). I guess only time will tell!

Fun in the pool!!

2007-06-03T23:16:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been hot here the past few days!! We blew up the girls little pool yesterday and let them sit in the cool water for a bit. It was pretty cute, Juliana kept splashing the water and then it would go in her face and she would need to catch her breath, and then when she did, she would giggle! I have a feeling I'll be pulling that pool out a lot this summer. Although I should probably buy a bigger one so they have a little more room! I thought I would post some pics (sorry there are so many but I just couldn't pick!)

Juliana showing off her bathing suit

Kayla in her "mermaid" bathing suit

The girls in the pool

Juliana was having a hoot in there!

Now Kayla is laughing like crazy!

Juliana kept hugging the blow up faces
on the side of the pool!!

Here's Juliana sitting in her chair (Thanks Aunt Christie!)

Kayla lounging in the pool! Such a hard life! LOL!!

This is Juliana just after getting water splashed in her face
(her own doing!)

She fell down and didn't want to get back up!
Must have been the way the grass felt kinda funny,
she didn't want to put her hands down!!

The girls playing with the ball.

These are some other pictures that I thought I would post too, since it's been a while since I've posted.

Kayla helped me make pizza on Friday night
and she was so proud of it!!!

This is a cute picture of them just hanging out on the couch!

Juliana fell asleep in this position the other day and I
couldn't resist taking a picture of it!!

Lots of fun!

2007-05-21T20:06:00.000-04:00

Well, we have now officially joined the ranks of the Loser Cruisers (ha ha, just kidding!) We signed the papers on Saturday for our van and we get it on Thursday! I'm actually very excited to get it and I never wanted a van! I always said that if we got one it had to look nice and this one does! It's red with tinted windows and has the DVD system in it. It will make life a lot easier, not only for vacation with more room but it will be so much easier to put the girls in. Right now I kind of have to hoist them up and throw them in their seats and then I have to bend over to do up their harnesses. This will save my back especially when I get pregnant again.

We went to St. Thomas for a few days last week. Jeff had a course in London so we went with him and we all stayed at my parents. It was lots of fun! I got to do lots of visiting with people and was busy most of the time. On Tuesday I took the girls to Pinafore Park with my sisters and their kids (minus the 2 oldest, they were in school) and my parents. Kayla and Juliana had so much fun, running all over and playing with their cousins. It seemed like Juliana grew up all of a sudden and became one of the big kids. I thought I would post some pictures of the morning.

Juliana petting the dinosaur

Kayla in mid jump on the trampoline thing.

Kayla by "Tedo"

Juliana playing peek through a hole at my sister.

The outside view! Too cute!!

Kayla, my neices Hannah & Laura on a swing! Big smiles!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

2007-05-14T10:48:00.000-04:00

I wanted to wish a belated Happy Mother's Day to any of you reading this that are mom's!!! I hope you all had a wonderful day with your families!!!

We have had a busy last couple of days. Friday night we quickly went to Windsor after Jeff got home from work and did some errands (we picked up Kayla's pics, I'll scan them in and post them when I have more time). Then Saturday we were a little late leaving cause we found a van that we might be buying so Jeff went to go look at it. We aren't in the market for one but we will definitely need one before we have another kid. I'm pretty excited cause it will give us lots more room. It's not for sure but Jeff is going today to see what they'll give us as a trade in for our car. Then we went to my parents for the day. It was fun, Kayla was outside for hours playing on the play set that my parents have and running up and down the hill in their back yard. She was filthy but having so much fun! Then my sisters and families came over and we all had a BBQ for supper and then did cake and presents. It was really fun, before the campfire we were all kicking soccer balls all over the place. It was funny to see the adults (I'm the youngest at 25) playing like that, but so much fun! We had a campfire once it got dark and sat around it until after 10:30. We had a good time, it almost felt like we were on vacation! We came home this morning and Jeff and the girls gave me my Mother's Day gifts -- a new kitchen tap, which I've wanted one with a pull out spout for ages, and a new shower curtain rod, the kind they have in hotels where it's curved out so you have tons more room. I loved the gifts, they may not seem like very Mother's Dayish gifts but they are just what I wanted!!!! I thought I would post some pics from the weekend.

Kayla playing in the stones under the swing set.

My dad, mom, me, Kayla & Juliana on top of
the hill in my parents back yard.

Kayla driving my dad's lawn mower! She was so proud!

Juliana watching Kayla wishing she was big enough.

All the grand kids!

More Outside Fun!!

2007-05-08T15:25:00.000-04:00

Jeff came home last night, he was in Toronto since Saturday for a Fire Department trade show so it was nice to have him back again. And of course Saturday night with him not being here, Juliana woke up a few times with diarrhea and throwing up, the poor thing. I had to change her crib sheets and sleeper so many times I was tempted to just leave her naked! Just kidding. That's something that I haven't had to deal with yet. Kayla has never thrown up or had diarrhea so this was something new. It was not fun watching my baby gag and do dry heaves. Poor thing. Kayla had diarrhea too so I've changed about 40 poopy diapers since Saturday and am really glad it seems to be all cleared up today! They were still their normal happy selves, running around and playing. (Sorry if it's too much info!)

I went for an hour and 20 minute walk with the girls this morning. It is 25C (77F) here and just gorgeous! I love that the girls are now at the stage where it's fun to go outside with them. Last summer Juliana was still really young and she would get fussy if we were gone for too long. We stopped at the park and I got some pretty cute pictures. I got home and looked at them and I had taken 32 pictures and a 30 second video clip! Thank goodness for digital cameras or else I'd be broke!!!

Juliana on the swing

Kayla climbing up the play equipment
Kayla on the play equipment (she's wearing
the t-shirt that daddy brought back for her
it says "I may be small but my fish never are!")

"Hello up there!"
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Juliana wasn't interested in going down the slide,
just putting stones on it!
Big smiles!

Feeling like a big kid!

2 love's of my life!

Getting ready to finish our walk

Outside Fun!!

2007-05-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

Kayla had some fun outside cutting the grass with daddy. She got to take her little lawnmower out and she did a pretty good job! It was cute to watch her follow Jeff around. You can see in the end of the video that she all of a sudden realizes that I'm standing in the window.

You can see Kayla pointing and showing daddy that Juliana
and I are in the window.

She's trying to catch up!! "Wait for me daddy!"

Two peas in a pod!!

Juliana is wishing she could be outside with them. The whole time they were out there she was standing in the window watching them.

I love this picture of Juliana, she has such kissable cheeks!!

Kayla's birthday celebrations!!!

2007-05-01T18:34:00.000-04:00

Well, we had quite a busy weekend with Kayla's birthday! It seemed like we were partying it up non stop!! LOL!!!! Friday night it was just us with her, opening presents and I made a little cake for her. She was pretty excited to open presents. We spoiled her!! She got lots of Play-Doh sets from us so we had some fun playing with those later after Juliana went to bed. She had lots of fun! Then Saturday morning we went to Windsor and got her 3 year portrait taken. She did so good, it was almost like she was a model. The lady taking the pictures would just move her body all over and tell her to smile and she would. We get them back in a couple of weeks so I'll post them on here. Then Saturday night we had Jeff's family over for cake and presents. She got spoiled again! Sunday my parents came down for the afternoon and then we had some people over for pizza and then afterwards cake and presents, and she got spoiled again!! On Monday she was so sweet and said "My birthday is all over, no more presents" with a cute little pout on. I told her that her birthday would be coming again in another year. Jeff told her we would leave all the balloons and streamers up until the weekend. She was happy with that. Here's some pics from the weekend!

Here she is hugging the Max & Ruby dolls we got her. She was
pretty happy to see these since the last time we were in
Wal-mart she saw them and asked for them.

Here we are reading the card I made for her.

She's opening up a fun Dora horse trailer toy from that they both love!

She's showing off the cute bathing suit and game from
Grammy & Papa! (Jeff's parents)

This is the cake I made for Saturday night, Wish Bear
(she loves Care Bears!)

I know this picture doesn't have anything to do with her birthday,
I just thought this was a cute picture of her with her arms
wrapped around daddy during story time.

Here she is opening the cute "meemo" (Nemo) lamp from Grandpa Bob. The funny thing is that night we put the night light part of it on and she woke up in the middle of the night screaming because of the "eye". I think she wasn't used to it and it scared her a little. She was fine the next night with it! LOL!!

Here she is modeling the cute Minnie Mouse coat from
Papa & Gramma (my parents)

Look at that smile! Here she is showing off the Love-A-Lot Bear cake I made for Sunday night's party. Can you guess what her favourite cartoon is right now???

During the party we looked over and saw Kayla & Grandpa Bob reading books. Curious George books, her favourite!!!

Well, that just about sums up the weekend! She had lots of fun! It was a wonderful birthday for our girl. It's hard to believe that it has been 3 years already since she blessed us with her presence! God blessed us with such a wonderful, fun, smiley angel that has become such an important part in our family. She is so smart and I know she will go far in life. She has such an awesome personality and makes me laugh daily at the things she comes up with. Jeff and I thank God everyday for the 2 angels that we have. We love them so much!!!! Happy birthday, Kayla boo!!!

Just some misc stuff

2007-04-23T15:03:00.000-04:00

We bought the girls some new life jackets this weekend and put them on, and couldn't resist this perfect picture moment!!! They looked pretty cute with them on!

Juliana got this cute shirt from her Oma for her dedication and we put it on her for a bike ride so she wouldn't be cold. Isn't it cute!!! I love the little ears!!

Juliana is in her climbing stage and she seems to forget about other times that she falls when she decides to climb things. This morning as I was coming out of the bathroom all I saw was the bar stool going over and she was tangled up in the rungs. She must have tried to climb it. As you can see, she now has a black eye and in the 2nd picture, you can see the bruise-to-be on the side of her face that is in the perfect shape of the rung. Poor thing! Hopefully this will make her learn! I'm sure it will be all black and blue tomorrow!

Since the weather has been beautiful (mid 20's C, mid 70's F) we have been going for lots of bike rides! The girls are so cute just sitting in the trailer looking around. Kayla actually falls asleep most of the time. On Thursday she fell asleep in the beginning of it and didn't wake up until we were home and then got upset cause she wanted to go for a bike ride! We had to convince her that we had been gone for almost an hour! Jeff usually pulls the trailer on his bike but he was getting tired so we switched off, wow, it's hard work! It's 55+ lbs to pull! It's not too bad when you're moving but when you have to stop, it's hard to get the momentum going!!! I'll take some pics of us on a bike ride next time! Have a great day everyone!!!

So relaxed!

2007-04-21T16:06:00.000-04:00

Well, we are back from our wonderful night at the hotel and it was amazing! I had won a free night at the Radisson in Windsor at a banquet last year and we finally used it! I am so relaxed! We had a busy day yesterday, lots of shopping! We went to The Running Factory and got me a new pair of running shoes! Yay!!! I got a really good deal! I'm really excited to wear them on Monday when I go running. Then we went to The Outback for supper (we change our minds a lot). I haven't wanted to go there for a while cause last time I went, I was a pickier eater and didn't really like their menu. But now that I've expanded my tastes, we thought why not. Boy, do I wish we would have gone there sooner! I got the Cyclone Chicken Pasta, yum!! It was penne in Alfredo sauce tossed with sliced grilled chicken, smoked ham, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic, topped with gouda, provolone and Parmesan cheeses. I couldn't even finish all of it, I was so stuffed! Then we went to the mall and did some shopping there too. We didn't end up going for a walk along the river cause by the time we were done shopping it was close to 9 so we just went back to the hotel and went for a quick swim. Then we went up to the hotel, showered and then crashed in the bed and watched a movie. Unfortunately the movie sucked (The Departed). I actually fell asleep for part of it cause I was so bored. I'm sorry if any of you have seen it and liked it, I just didn't. We didn't end up getting to sleep until after 1:00 but we did sleep in until 9:00. It was nice, we were on the 11th floor facing the river. We thought that because we had a voucher we might not get a nice room, but it was awesome! A king bed with the sleep number thing in it and we had a beautiful view. We slept with the curtains open so we had the lights from Detroit shining in all night, very cool! And look at the view we had when we woke up! Nice eh!

View of the Detroit sky line at night from our room

The view from our bed!!! Wow, eh!!

View of the Detroit sky line from our room

Then we went to Golden Griddle for breakfast (pancakes, yum!) and went home for 11:00. It was a very nice time away. We had tons of time while we were shopping and didn't feel rushed. It was nice to not have a real schedule to follow. But I missed my kids so it was nice to come home. I think we might try to do this again at least once a year. This is my first time away from the kids, other than when Juliana was born, but as we all know, that didn't count cause it certainly wasn't relaxing!! We really enjoyed ourselves.

Easter Fun!!!

2007-04-09T11:52:00.000-04:00

I bought Kayla a Disney Princess egg decorating kit so we thought we would have some fun decorating them!

See the big smile showing how proud of them she is!!!

We had our Easter egg hunt this morning and the girls had lots of fun! Juliana didn't quite understand the concept behind it but she kept putting the same eggs in her basket over and over! Kayla had fun finding all 48 of them!! The were the plastic eggs filled with stickers and candy! Lots of fun!!!!

Here's Juliana putting an egg in her basket!

Here's Kayla showing off her stash of eggs!

Here's Kayla wearing her Princess stuff she got in her basket!

Here's Juliana wearing the tiara like a true princess that she is!!

Choo Choo!!!

2007-04-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

We went over to Mary's house for a visit on Friday and the girls had so much fun! She has a train that they can ride around the living room on and they just love it! I thought I would post some pictures!

Here's Kayla talking into the antenna that she pretends is a phone!

Here she is riding on it!

Here's Juliana sitting with Grandpa Bob watching Kayla go around the track.

Here's Juliana smiling huge while she's riding on the train!

What a wonderful weekend!!!

2007-04-02T20:11:00.000-04:00

I'm so bad, I said I was going to post before the weekend and the week just got away from me! Thursday night Jeff and I went to Windsor to buy new pants for him and a new dress for me for the dedication and a wedding that is coming up in May. Then Friday night and all day Saturday I was gone to a conference for a few hours in Windsor. I wasn't sure what the topic was about because the only info we got was the name of if (Becoming Beautiful) but it was apparent once we were there for a little while what the idea behind it was -- not worrying so much about the beauty on the outside, more on God's love shining through us from the inside. There were some amazing speakers there that shared their testimony's, like one lady who was a proud atheist her whole life and was addicted to drugs and alcohol until she was 30 and she became a Christian and eventually helped her whole family become Christians too. She gave us an awesome verse that I thought was just beautiful: Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5 There was also a hilarious Christian comedian there, my stomach hurt because I was laughing so hard! She is from Manhattan and worked near the Trade Center. She had tried her hand at being a stand up but she felt convicted of the topics she talked about so she stopped. Years went by and then she got about 5 calls from people asking for her to do it again, but with her clean act. She felt it was God's plan for her so she agreed. Normally, every morning at 8:50 she would be getting a coffee in the towers but because she was out of town doing her act, she wasn't there on September 11th. What a miracle, eh?

Then on Sunday we had Juliana's dedication! It went really well! I was very proud of both of the girls, they were so good in church. Juliana was so content up in the front of the church (I had a hand full of cookies, just in case! LOL!) and Kayla actually stayed in the sanctuary for the whole service. She was sitting with my mom, cuddling and when we took Jules to the nursery, she didn't want to leave! She stayed quiet as a mouse the whole time!!! Then we had a bunch of family over afterwards for gifts and lunch. Juliana got some really cute stuff! I thought I would post some pictures of the day. There are quite a few pictures! The last few are ones that Kayla took with my dad's camera. She is quite the little photographer!!!!

This is our family in the front of the church after the service. I can't believe it but this was the only shot with this camera and it turned out awesome!

Oma got the girls some bunny ears, aren't they too cute!!!

This is a cute outfit that Oma got Juliana. It says "Miss Purrrrfect", so true!!!

Kayla and Juliana got this Veggie Tales castle from Papa & Grammy (Jeff's parents). They both loved this so much that it has caused a few battles!!

This is the really cute frame that my parents got for Juliana. It says "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" and this is so fitting for Juliana and the blessing she is to us!

Here's a picture of all of us (well, almost everyone!) watching the video of Juliana's dedication that Papa (Jeff's dad) took. It was pretty cute, Juliana sneezed at the front of the church!!!

Here's the start of the pictures that Kayla took. I like this one cause the whole picture is blurry other than us! It's kinda cool to see things from her perspective!

I guess she found the punch bowl exciting! What a cutie!

Here's Papa (my dad) taking a picture of Kayla taking a picture!

When Kayla was going to take this picture she kept calling out "Nona, Nona, look over here!"