A long long time ago...I can still remember...well kinda

So most of my posts start off this way...it has been way too long!  Almost a year kind of long...even longer I am sure since a proper post; but what can you do when you are a mother to two kids who are about a year apart...blame them ;)

The past year has been a crazy one, full of running after babies/toddlers, continuing work on one business and then buying another.  If anything this past year ahs taught me is that I need to start asking for help more and accepting that I need the help.  Raising two kids so close together while living away from family can seem so daunting sometimes, but thankfully family is only an hour away and are always willing to help, which certainly makes my life easier.

Isabelle is growing by leaps and bounds all the time.  Almost every time we have a conversation I am in awe that this is the same little baby I held in my hands and nursed and loved and still love.  She loves making up her own songs and dancing away and at times being nice and playing with her sister, which is such a wonderful sight to see.  She has a very loving, polite side but can be a little firecracker when she to be.

Charlotte has gone from a crawling baby, to a walking toddler within the past year.  She was late walking (around 20 months), we think it may be from being extremely flat footed though, so we will see how that wil play out over the next year and reevaluate around her 3rd Birthday.  She is such a cuddly little girl, who can have so much energy and loves exploring the world around her.  It is adorable to see her want to copy and be like Isabelle; hopefully they will grow up to be the best of friends.

I miss blogging...a lot, it is something I keep telling myself I need to do, because it is nice to look back and see some of the things we have done.  It is a need more so too lately because I find it is nice to just write things down and either get thoughts out of my head, or even just another way to be creative, without pullin gout all the craft supplies and making a mess that needs to be cleaned :P.  Sometimes I wonder if putting all this stuff out there in the world for everyone to see is a good thing or not, but then realize that this is sometimes such a great way to put words down and let friends and family know what is new in our lives.  It is really just great therapy :)

Anyway hopefully this will some what make up for the lack of blogging lately.  My hope is to do it more often, I won't make promises as to how frequently, but we'll see how things go :)

Here are a few recent-ish (yeah I totally just made up a word :P) pictures (from the past year)!

Enjoy!

 

Crusin' around

 

I will eat you!

Mmmm....ice cream

See ya later Mom

Hanging out waiting for the Backyardigans

This is what happens when you ask Izzy to smile and say cheese 

Happy Charlotte

Being chauffered around

 

We're ready for food

 

Yummy apple....

 

Playing at the beach

 

We caught a big one!

 

Bucket girl!

Portrait of Charlotte taken by Izzy :)

Isabelle's doll (taken by Izzy)

 

Fairy Isabelle Halloween 2011

Charlotte the giraffe Halloween 2011

 

Izzy and Papa having a snooze

 

Picture of Isabelle's favourite toy monkey (taken by Isabelle)

 

Playing around!

 

Building sand castles with Daddy

 

Lazing around while apple picking

 

I want to be just like Izzy :)  <3

Happy Birthday Aunt Janet!

A little something for Aunt Janet in Australia :)

Happy Birthday...Love all of us!

New Kid on the Block

Yes...I know...I have yet again gone almost another two months since the last blog post, but hey, it has been a VERY busy couple months, so can you really blame me? The last couple of months have been months full of new things.

As you are all aware (or at least you should be) we had a new arrival to our family on June 18th, Izzy's little sister, Charlotte, was born. It was a normal...well as normal as a c-section can be...surgery. We all did pretty well with the transition to a family of four. Isabelle has been a wonderful big sister. She will rub Charlotte gently on her head and say "Hi Arlotte". If Charlie is crying she will take a blanket over to her to cover her up, or sometimes she will just tell her "No!", which sadly is from me saying no to the dog when he barks for no reason...lol. She likes to help us change Charlotte's diaper too...to bad she couldn't change it for us.

In July we moved into our new house. Isabelle (and Charlotte) now have a big backyard to play in, as well as a swing set to play on. It is great having some extra space for everyone to roam in. It certainly makes for less stressful days. Isabelle loves playing on her swing and crawling up the stairs; unfortunately she did have one big tumble down them, but luckly she did not hurt herself...thank goodness.

In other big news Isabelle has finally decided to use walking as her main mode of transportation! She started walking towards the middle of July, and since then she hasn't looked back. It is so amazing to see how much she has changed since she started walking. It seems she is learning new things and words everyday. Some of her new words are...no (her favourite), good girl (although it sounds more like goo gur), Charlotte (Arlotte), okay, ball and I am sure there are many others.

Another new favourite passtime for Isabelle is singing. She will go around the house with her head back and her eyes closed "singing", I guess the best visual I can give you is the way that Stevie Wonder looks while singing, it is quite adorable. The other night she was in her crib singing and was just singing "No way" over and over...a true toddler I think! :)

Isabelle has been gaining weight well now. She is up to about 23 pounds, which is great, seeing where we were sitting just a few months ago.

She has grown into a wonderful little toddler, with a very BIG personality. Mostly sweet and kind hearted, but with a little stubborness thrown in (well...sometimes a lot)...lol. But we love her dearly and often at the end of the day when she is in bed, Mike and I will just talk about how great she is and how lucky we are to have two wonderful girls.

I must say, having the girls certainly makes me realize why parents do the things they do. Do I agree with everything when I look back at things that happened to me...well no...but I certainly understand the reasoning. Children are these little things that you bring into this world and love with all your heart. I truly believe that no one REALLY understands that love until they have children of their own. Hopefully Izzy and Charlie will realize how much they are loved (of course when they are older...lol), but for now we will love them just the same.

Anyway that is all for tonight...don't worry there are pictures too!

Enjoy!

Amie

Playing with Daddy in the pool at Aunt Barb's

Having her first horse ride

Meeting Mario...more for Daddy then Izzy ;)

Loved eating corn on the cob on her own

Helping Mom with the cleaning

Getting the mail with Daddy

Big Smiles :)

Hitching a ride with Auntie Amanda

Playing with Charlotte

Being goofy at Nana Sue's work picnic

Taking some of her first steps

Wake up time...look at that crazy hair :S

I knew she loved bananas...but didn't realize she wanted to be one

Our last picture as a family of three...that belly was huge...taken the morning Charlotte was born

She's here....well...over 10 weeks ago!

Charlotte Elizabeth was born on Friday, June 18th by cesarean section (scheduled) at 5:51 pm weighing 8 lbs 7oz and was 21 inches tall.

We knew that Charlotte would be born on the 18th (also Nana Palmer's birthday). The days leading up the the 18th were filled with lots of packing and cleaning as we had purchased a new house and would be moving a couple of weeks after Charlie arrived.

The day she was born we went to the hospital at 10am, in order to have a lunch time delivery. I was pretty nervous going in. I knew what to somewhat expect, seeing that Izzy was born via c-section, but I was also on some good drugs when I went through that with her. When we got to the hospital they took all my vitals, they hooked me up to all the fun things (not so much :S) and then they had me wait in recovery. While waiting they needed to take someone else in for an emergency c-section, so they moved me to a delivery room. We then went on to have to wait through two more surgeries. The doctor came in at about 4:30pm and said they wanted to get me in by 5pm, seeing that I had been fasting since midnight. We still hadn't heard anything by 5:15pm so things weren't looking good and that I would go home for the night. At 5:30 pm though the nurse cam rushing in and said they were just getting everything ready for me (the day surgery staff was gone, so the nurses in L&D volunteered to help the surgeon so I could have the baby). They whisked me away to the ER and gave me the epidural and hooked me up to more machines. I must say that was probably the quickest and most surreal 10 minutes of my whole life. I was very, very nervous but luckily things went very quickly. By 5:51pm she was here...with a beautiful dark head of hair.

Our hospital stay went very well. She was a pro nurser just like her sister, which made things go very easily. We were all very happy to go home, even though it was ridiculously hot that week (40+ with the humidex).

We are so happy to have a little family of four :) Isabelle has been a wonderful big sister and Charlotte has been a wonderful baby. We are very lucky and fortunate parents. We have gone through alot of bad things over the last few years...but...these two little girls have brought so much happiness into our lives, and we are extremely blessed...they made everything worth while!

Welcome to the world sweet Charlotte!

Love Mommy, Daddy and Izzy

Here are a few pictures of Charlie...enjoy!

Welcome baby Charlotte

Sleeping at the hospital

Snoozing with her gift from Aunt Janet...a Koala Bear all the way from Australia

Cuddling with Nana

Hanging out with Auntie Manda

Her first day at home

Looking good in her new outfit

Sticking out her tongue

First bath in her tub

Just after her bath wondering what the heck just happened to her

Sisters

Silly baby

Sleeping Sweetly

Little smiles