Losta Lake Fun

Our Student, Hiroki, arrived on Wednesday. The boys love him...of course! It's going well.

Yesterday we went to Aldergrove Lake after picking up Hiroki from school. We had a swim and BBQ.Gabi has enjoyed our outside time too...now 3 weeks old. Where has the time gone?

Today we went to Cultus Lake after naptime. The boys loved the docks, the little fish and as you can see we are raising our own school of fish...look at these boys!

Jumping off the dock...and not just Elijah! Samuel did it too, holding Jason's hands:I asked Jason to take the camera out and take photos of Elijah swimming so I can scrapbook a page of this achievement... he got some great shots of him, check it out. I'm still so impressed with Elijah, my little fish!
and just because, here's my Sammie too

Celebration of Three

Tonight we went to Kurt and Dana's for a little get together. Three of us have had baby's recently, so it was a little celebration of life. Thank you to Dana and Jen for hosting a lovely evening! The dessert was scrumptous...and the weather finally cooperated today so sitting outside was most enjoyable.

Thank you for the gifts...! Gabi is so well-dressed, it's so much fun! And Korinne, for baking those great cookies! You are amazing! And it was so wonderful to meet Baby Isabella, 13 days old today... you are beautiful!

Here is a little poem about Mother's, it's on the candle in the photo of gifts. We each got one from Dana, thanks!
"A Mother is the hand that reaches out to help...
The smile that comes with each success...
the eyes that see us as we are...
The heart that wants our happiness."

Where the Wild Things Are

...in the middle of a city?! LOL. We basically live in a downtown area and so you would think that it would unlikely to find "wild things" in our area. We have lots and lots of birds (they like the red berry trees, right Teresa?!), a number of squirrels and now apparently racoons.
On July 4, in the evening when Kurt and Dana came to meet Gabriella, we heard a whole lot of racket out back. We looked out to see why the birds were being so loud and there in the corner was a racoon!Unreal! And then this morning when I was up to feed Gabi I heard some rustling in the backyard again. I peeked out to find a or the racoon! Crazy! Who'd a thought?! (no, I didn't go and grab my camera for a photo this morning, this was taken on the 4th) And hey, Sarah has a Racoon Story on her blog too!


So Gabriella almost slept "all night" (according to many, to sleep through the night means sleeping 6 hours consecutively)!!!! She went 5 hours for me! Hooray! I didn't have to get up with her until 4:45am (going to bed about 11:30). Sweet! I've heard Girls are better and faster at this nighttime stuff. Let's hope she continues. Although her regular self up until now hasn't been bad either. 3-4 hours, I can live with that! (of course, I was up last night with Samuel before I was up with Gabi, but such is life! I don't mind.)

And I see I haven't updated my sidebar yet. I thought about it on Sunday and should have just done it. I will get to it soon. Today I am working on getting the Girl's bits and pieces out of "their" room so that the Student we have arriving tomorrow has the room ready for him. Yup, we have a Japanese boy, Hiroki, coming for a short trip to Canada, only 11 days.
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Gabriella Day 18

Today we went to church, already Gabi's third time in church; not bad for 18 days old! :) Anyway, I found this outfit I bought for Gabi yesterday... thought there might be a chance it would fit her even though it's a size 3mo, washed it up and voila, it worked! It is a bit big, but not really (strange since she is only 2 weeks old and not big at all) and it should still fit her for most the summer.(this photo makes her seem quite big already. In fact, she she has grown, but she's still very tiny. She weighed 8lbs3oz on Tuesday at her 2 week check up)

Ashley and Dominic gave us a gift this morning in church... when we first saw Ashley after Gabi was born I said that I would love to get her some clips for her hair b/c it's almost long enough already to put clips in it... and wouldn't you know, in the gift today Ashley gave her a package of Snuggle Bug Baby Bows. I right away put one in her hair and it worked! Too adorable, IMO.
These Baby Bows can be found locally at a very cool (never been yet, though I've heard) Baby Store called The Baby Giraffe Children's Boutique and you can click on that link above to see more about themIn the gift was also this too cute sleeper from Baby Giraffe. Thanks Ashley!!

Goat's Pride Dairy

This afternoon we went to a local Goat Farm for an open house, Family Day. We went when Elijah was barely one, but haven't been since.In this barn we saw a goat getting a haircut in preparation for the local Fair (show) it will be going to next week"how do I do this, Mom?"
Then after dinner we went to visit Jason's Sister, Lorraine. Elijah and Samuel love to go there for a visit with their Aunt Lorraine because she has three dogs and she has a big bowl of cheezies to share with them! Here is her son, Jason's nephew (our kids cousin), Mike and his girlfriend, Kylie meeting Gabi

more things of interest

To add to Alexa's list of upcoming ideas of Thing to Do...

• TOMORROW: "16th Annual Chilliwack Flight Fest... Free Admission, Gates open at 10:00, Preshow at 11:00 and Airshow from 1:00-4:00" go to http://www.chilliwackairshow.com/ for more info (we are considering this event, if the rain stops!)
• Next week Sunday, July 28th... Sumas Day Family Event at Upper Sumas Elementary School 2:00-9:00 Food and Refreshments, Entertainment and Free Children's Activities
• Then in the paper today I read that MAX and RUBY are coming to town! Not until October, but tickets at Ticketmaster are on sale now. October 21@ 2:00, tickets are $22.50 each.

Superstore Portraits

Here are the portraits we did at Superstore last Friday... three pose package, next day service (LOVE that!) and this is what we came up with:



Samuel at 18 months

Gabriella at 9 days

All three kids (Sammie is so serious! We had a hard time cracking him. He gets real shy at times and b/c the Studio Photographer was there he wasn't cracking very easily... oh well. And in case you are wondering, Elijah's turn will come in October when he turns 4... I do portraits at birth, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months then each year after that...)

Thank You to Alexa who enabled me to update my profile picture! She is the one who has trained me how to do a blog, a year and a half ago... thank you! I love blogging! :)

Catching up...

As promised, here is a picture of Grandpa with his first and only Grand-daughter! Taken last week Wednesday, one week old.
And today when we came home at dinner time, there by my front door were 2 packages for Gabriella! Yea! How fun, who doesn't love getting parcels in the mail?! (Uncle John, we all love the "you-pee-ess" driver! Really!) So here is Gabi, day 12, posing with some more recent gifts...thank you to Noah and Katherine for the cute bathing suit! ...to Laurie & Family for the princess dress Gabi will soon fit, F is for Flower outfit and PM Crib Shoes! ...and to Jamie & Family for the so soft and so pink Gabi-personalized blanket (!) and not shown b/c I forgot to grab it and remembered after I put all this away, a jar of Epicure Fruit Dip Mix. Funny b/c Laurie and Jamie rave about "Epicure" and Epicure Home Parties (they both live in Sask!)... this company is from Vancouver Island and I have never, not once been to an Epicure party (invited once, but couldn't make it)... strange eh?! Can't wait to try this dip out!
Thank you Friends for these parcels!! Oh, and the "Cherish" album also in this photo is from Alexa. Couldn't be a more perfect word on a Brag Book than that! Thanks!
This morning we went to Costco... we found these toddler ready-beds (inflatable) on for half price, $15, and so we grabbed two of them. I blew up Elijah's right when we got home so he could nap in it...he was pretty excited!

We are doing well! We had Samuel's and Gabi's portraits done on Friday... I hope to scan them in and show you one of these days. First I am working on getting her annoucements completed and mailed out... and thank you's written and mailed out too.
Before we sit down to watch the Survivor Finale tonight (we borrowed the season with Rupert in it from the Library last week and have managed to polish off the entire season this past week!), I plan to update the sidebar for you.
Cheers!

Gabriella has a new friend already!

This morning at 8:30, Marcus and Sara welcomed a precious Baby Girl into their Family! Welcome Isabella! You are only 1 week apart from Gabriella; we look forward to watching you grow alongside Gabi!
she is beautiful, Marcus and Sara! Way to go! And Declan, you are such a big brother, that's awesome! You are even sharing your birthday (today) with Isabella! Happy Birthday! I'm sure it won't be long and you will be able to teach her about bugs and animals like you told your Daddy.Can't wait to meet her! Congrats!

I can't help it!

This afternoon when I said I'd go lay down, I did and had Gabriella laying on me. I was boiling hot, but it was and is still so worth it to hold my baby. I called Jason to come upstairs with the camera because I thought it might make a good shot of her, from what I could see looking down on her on me. Was I right? Who needs Superstore Portrait Studio anyway?! Just kidding, I do!! And we plan to get there this week yet. :)(these are basically the same, but you can see my hand in the first one and the angle is just a bit different... I think the first one is a bit cuter though)Then this afternoon we went to "the fountain" and let the boys run around and get wet on this very hot day... Gabi rested on her blanket. (Patti, this is the dress from you. I love it!)so peaceful

what we've been up to...

On Saturday we went to Langley for Declan's Birthday Party. He turned 4. His actual birthday is tomorrow, Happy Birthday Declan or Fireball ~whichever one of your 500 names you are today (!), and to Marcus and Sara (his parents) who are going in for a c-section as well tomorrow! How exciting, we are waiting anxiously to hear the news! I don't have a picture of him, but while we were there Bethy T held Gabriella. Bethy's Mom (Jen T) said in an email to me shortly after receiving Gabi's birth annoucement email that "Bethy's approves of her name. She says it sounds like a Princess". On Saturday Bethy told me that Gabriella is one of the mermaids (right? I hope I remember this correctly) on one of her Little Mermaid videos... she uses sign language to speak. Very cool! Thanks Bethy!And here is Sammie while we were at this outdoor Bug Party!Here is Gabi meeting her Great-Grandma Grace (or Beppe Beppe as we call her in 'Dutch')

Here we are today. I posed Gabi with some more gifts she has received. Last night, as I mentioned, she came with me (of course) to a Stampin Up night at Sarah's. Sarah said there was a new stamper in the room and her name was Gabi! Very fun! So she got a little gift of ribbons, a rubber stamp and some stickers perfect for her scrapbook (no I haven't started it yet). You can see this in the photo. Thanks Sarah! Patti was there too, so I got to introduce Gabriella to her. Patti gave her the cute dresses on the right hand bottom side of the photo. Thanks Patti! I tried on the white one already and it is perfect! AND I finally got to meet Cindy Keery. You may recognize her name from my sidebar of links of "fellow bloggers". I have never met Cindy but love to go to her blog for inspiration and to see what she is up to that particular day. This woman is one talented woman... AND she had a feeling I'd be there last night too, so she actually brought a lovely gift along for Gabriella! Unreal! It is the beautiful knit sweater in the bottom left of the photo! She is sooooooo creative, talented and uses these gifts from God to bless others like us. Thanks Cindy! It's adorable, it's beautiful and even has little pink kitten buttons... can't wait til she fits it!
Other gifts that are just as wonderful and we are grateful for in this photo are the two picture frames... one from Beppe Beppe and one from Marcus/Sara/Declan ~ THANKS! And Jen T, see what onesie she is wearing? One of the two Princess onesies you gave her on Saturday! You were right, it fits her perfectly already! Thanks!
and the MilkShake sleeper for when she gets a bit bigger is from Deanna and Family ~ it's so soft! Love it! Thanks! And the Scrapbook magazine from Sherry for me as I get going with Gabi's pages... won't be long! Thanks Sherry!

Today Wendy stopped by with a meal for us... yummy, Wendy, thanks for getting your kitchen all messy for us on this hot day! We're going to enjoy it. I had to show you of course, this beautiful blanket she made for Gabriella too... see it? Soooo cute! Love it, Wendy! You are so good with a sewing machine... thanks for blessing us with this girly blanket for Gabi!Gabi on Day 6, now weighing 7lbs 14.5oz. yea!
And I can't stop posting photos of my boys, of course... so here is Elijah from this morning. I heard him singing outside a song from the Donut Man video we are borrowing from Carla... "Jesus is Alive, Jesus is Alive, Jesus is Alive, shout Hosanna! Hosanna!" and there in his hands were these "palm" branches. What a little blessing he is!
That's it. I've got three napping and should make that 4 of us... so ttfn!

Hi Everyone!
Just a quick update to say i had a chance today to update my sidebar with a new "theme" for this week. We've been busy going to birthday parties, making raspberry jam and napping... so forgive me for not getting on here. I have a post to do and hope to get to it later today after I get a certain photo taken.
Gabi had a check up with our Midwife this morning and weighed in at 7lbs 14.5oz. That's GREAT! The "thing is" to gain your birth weight back within 2 weeks, so we're covered! She's doing great... enjoyed her first Stampin Up Hostess Appreciation Night last night at Sarah's with me...
until later! Have a most wonderful HOT day today! :)

A is for Adorable

I mentioned on my very first post of Gabriella's entrance, that Elijah was so in love with Baby Gabi already. He is soooo in love with her, it's beautiful. If she makes even a peep, he's quick to say "it's okay, it's okay" in that kinda higher pitched, quiet baby voice... and today Samuel even started mimicking Elijah saying that and repeated it too...
Here are the boys today... Elijah is helping out, as you can see and Samuel notices her, but isn't reacting in any sort of way, which I figured he wouldn't, being so young.

During Samuel's morning nap, Elijah and I set up Gabriella with the gifts she's so graciously received this week... thank you so much for the lovely outfits and cozy, cozy blanket, shoes and "My First Teddy"...it's very fun, I agree Jamie, to get to "do pink"!

Last night it had been planned for weeks that my Girlfriends and I: Anita, Alexa and Miriam, would go for dinner to celebrate my birthday. This was the closest date that worked for all of us and for sure by now I thought I'd be bringing along my 2-3 week old Baby Girl. LOL. Oh well, Gabi was only 1.5 days old but I decided it wouldn't hurt for us to keep this dinner date. It was great... and a perfect way to introduce Anita and Miriam to Gabriella.

Thanks for the A&W dinner in the park last night girls, and the yummy cheesecake!

Gabriella Grace Laurette

As promised, here are some closer up photos of Gabriella. Alexa has seen her already 3 times, and says each time she saw her she had already changed... so I did a few at different hours of growth already! I know, I know, she's only 2.5 days old as I speak!

Gabriella Grace Laurette... where'd her name come from? Well, we wanted to pick another first name with a significant meaning and including the 'el' meaning Lord. (like ELijah and SamuEL)... so we came up with Gabriella (note the A at the end of her name). Then we chose Grace for her middle name. My middle name is also Grace, after my Grandmother (my Mom's Mom). Then a couple months ago I was saying her name aloud and realized (I've realized this before when saying my own name with my married last name) that the Grace with our last name doesn't sound very good b/c of the "sssss" sounds... so we added in Jason's Mom's name too, which was Laurette. We are happy with her name, although long, it's pretty I think! Gabriella Grace Laurette... a princess from above!

And her birth story... well, a shortened version of it but actually the length of her delivery might make for a short story anyhow!
At 1:30am, I woke up, with a contraction I think. I had one or two, then went to lay back down on the couch. I fell asleep again and awoke to another one a bit more stronger 10 minutes or so after. I woke Jason at this point, 2:15am, to get him to help me figure out or keep track of how far apart they were coming. I went in the shower at this point, thinking I may be in active labour now or shortly and that I'd be off to the hospital soon. I called my Midwife at 2:30 and we agreed that we'd meet at the hospital at 3:00. My Dad dropped off my Mom (how nice!!) to stay here with the boys...and off we went. When they assessed me at 3:30 (the hospital was being a pick weird that night, they wouldn't admit me by Jason [i was pre-admitted already back during Spring Break when I took Jade and Sara there to see] until they knew for sure I was in labour, not normal) I was only 3cm dilated. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart already and coming on stronger and stronger. I don't know how long after this they checked me again to see...maybe around 5:00am. I was then 7cm dilated and they broke my water for me. I asked for the gas and did that for half hour or so. When I had the urge push, I wasn't allowed (again, this happens each time) until my cervix had melted away. When I was allowed to, I gave it about 3 or so pushes to get her out and into the world! Not bad.
Her cord was wrapped around her neck as was both her brothers. Family Trait, I suppose. BUT, this time she didn't have to go straight onto the sidetable. She was put directly onto me. Jason was not able to catch her, again, but this time he was able to cut her cord (should I be spelling chord like this?). I remember asking if it was a girl shortly after they placed her tummy-down onto my stomach. Had to be sure I was now a mother of 2 boys and a girl... and not a mother of 3 boys, which would have been fine too. Yeppers, she was/is a girl!
We had to stay the 3 hours under my Midwife's care, but then she said we could go home if we wanted or at that point be moved into a recovery room (which apparently there were none available anyway and the nurses were happy at our decision to go home)... I figured we'd stay til noon or so at the most, so then why bother... it was really nice to come home instead. We (Jason, Gabi and I) all napped for 2-3 hours in the mid-morning/afternoon, which is more than I would have done in the hospital. (of course, AFTER I updated my blog! Priorites, c'mon!)
So there you have it! I think that's it. This labour goes down in the records as 3 hours... can't complain! However during it I said to Jason, "how am I going to do this? I can't do this again. I'm scared..." But I did and who knows, maybe I'll do it again someday...LOL.

The Fourth of July with Gabi

When we got discharged from the hospital, we went straight to Grandma and Grandpa's... to introduce them to Gabriella and to leave the boys with them for the day. I see I don't have a photo of Grandpa with his newest Grandchild...will have to get one yet!
The rest of that day we were able to get a nap in and introduce Gabi to some other special Family and Friends...

(birth story still to come and more photos since this day... I think we're over 150 photos already!!! Can't help it! I better remember to upload a bunch to photolab.ca while prints are only 15cents each, til tomorrow I think. All is well, as an update and I'll be back soon!)

We are thrilled to introduce...

our Baby Girl, GABRIELLA GRACE LAURETTE ~ ~

She arrived this morning, July 4, at 5:58am weighing only 7lbs 5oz. (not too big for a 10 day overdue Baby!)


I won't get into her birth details yet... but just to let you know she arrived safe and sound and we are HOME!!! :)

Going to go to bed now...
Proud Daddy!Samuel doesn't get it... but Elijah is SUPER excited and is already SO in love with Baby Gabi! :)

sidebar n' more

Hi there! First of all an update for you... July 3rd today, mid-afternoon and I'm still pregnant. Obviously! Unreal. Who'd a thought? Not I! I went to my midwife this morning and we tried again to "sweep" but it didn't work. that's not to say I won't go into labour on my own, but not due to this. We shall see. My Midwife suggests that I make up that cocktail tomorrow morning to see if that will help. She also made an appointment for me to have a Non-Stress-Test tomorrow too at the Hospital. Tomorrow is Jason and my anniversary too... so maybe we'll have to share our day with a Baby's Birthday... that's fine with me.
that's about it... we shall see. If nothing happens by Friday, my Midwife will try to get me in for inducing consultation or whatever they do.

Sidebar: I am going to try to weekly put up some ideas for you for this summer. Lots of you out there have young ones and lots of you have school-aged children too, who obviously are out of school for Summer, beginning this week. All activities can be adjusted to fit any age really (preschool & elementary). If at any point this summer you are inspired to do one of the activites I've suggested, please share!!
This week I'm suggesting Watermelon as a "theme". I don't know yet if we'll even participate this week, but I guess if I have to go to Superstore yet to get the ingredients for this cocktail, then I could also pick up a pack of watermelon flavouring. Oh, another idea with the flavouring is to make a fresh batch of playdough and put that in it... man, does that make it sooooo smelly and fun to play with! We'll see. :) So come on back each new week for a theme and some listed ideas...

Happy Canada Day!

Here is Elijah this morning after I put on the tattoo he got from the Canadian Tire cashier this week...

(10:00: nothing happening still, so off to the festivities we go...)

(now we are back and so I'll add more photos to this post from our day... and yes, less than 5 hours to go for July 1st, so I'm thinking there is NO chance of another "first of the month" Baby, shucks)

We went to the parade first. It takes 2 minutes to walk there from our house so Devin, Sherry and Marayah, Kurt, Dana, Danika and Alise met us at our house and we walked over. Grandpa, Grandma, Paul and Carla met us there too...

Kurt and the kids...and you can see Dana in the background tooDevin, Sherry and MarayahLook at what I got, Momma!

Devin and Sherry stayed at our house for a BBQ Hotdog lunch then we headed over to the Festival for Canada Day...
We started out on the huge down-hill slip and slide in the Water Zone... so fun!The local Newspaper photographer asked me Elijah's name after he came down... I think he got a good shot of him sliding, so we'll see if it makes it into the paper.Jason and Samuel liked this too, of course!