Another Perfect Little One!

This is wayyyyyy overdue! Like 5 months overdue, but better late than never! I am introducing our second little one! A girl!!!! Baby Rachel arrived April 16, 2013. She came 2 days before my due date (unlike Aiden....who was 8 days late and induced). 

My contractions started on the 15th around 6:45pm. Earlier in the day I had an OB appointment and after checking me, we discussed induction as it didn't look like I was going to go naturally! Little did we know, it would happen that day!!! 

To be honest, I had no idea they were contractions at the time. I just thought I overdid it through the day. I looked at the clock an hour later and realized I had 5 "contractions". I called my mom and she told me to start writing them down. By 8:50 they were coming every 5 minutes (this is when I say active labour started). 

I called my husband and mom (to watch Aiden) to come! When we got to the hospital at 10pm I was already 5cm. I immediately asked for an epidural! I couldn't believe how fast things were happening (with Aiden I was 6 hours and 47 minutes from the time they broke my water until he arrived). I finally got it at 11:15pm and at was already 8cm!!! 

They had to break my water at 12am on April 16th. I started pushing at 12:25, 8 pushes later and she was born at 12:38am!!! In totally it was 3 hours and 38 minutes of active labour. 

8 pounds, 13 ounces and 20.5" (momma brews big babies!!!)

So far she has been a pretty good baby, although the first 3 months she had severe seperation anxiety. And since then she has been fighting sleep. (She does sleep most of the night though. Just up for feedings). 

Thankfully I was blessed with pretty good babies!!! (Most of the time!) 

Aiden loves his sister!!! I think them being so close in age (19 months) made it easier on him since he doesn't remember being an only child! 

(Left: Aiden at 1 week; Right: Rachel at 5 weeks...think they look alike!)

Family Trip!

Sorry I have been MIA for a while! We went on a pretty awesome family road trip to western Canada and through the States. I was a little nervous about the drive. Sitting in the car for 14 days with a baby that hates the car... Luckily Aiden did amazing!! He had his moments, and trust me, by the time we got home he just wanted OUT! But for the majority of the drive he was great! We tried to do most of our driving in the morning so we could catch his naps. I had to get in the back a couple times a day to entertain him, and a friend lent me a DVD player which helped a lot! In 14 days we put about 9000km on our car!!

While we were gone we decided to buy a little notebook so we could track our trip. It was a great idea!! And I will be using it for all of our trips so we can look back on them! So here you have it :) This is what we did!

Friday June 29:
We left our hometown around 7pm and drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan. We arrived around 2am, and both Shawn and I were exhausted! We crashed at a Red Roof Inn for the night.

Saturday June 30:
Originally we planned on taking the ferry across Lake Michigan, but I forgot to look at the departure times ahead of time. Luckily I looked before we left our hotel! Turns out we would have to wait pretty much all day if we took it. So after a little discussion we decided to drive around the lake. We drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota and stayed at another Red Roof Inn (they are reasonably priced and a fairly decent hotel). The drive was really long, probably the longest we did in a day.


We enjoyed buttered burgers at Culver's in Wisconsin...yummy!

 Sunday July 1: HAPPY CANADA DAY!!! :)
In 2010, Shawn had an abscess on his lower spine that he had to get drained. Unfortunately it came back. He felt it on Friday but thought he might have just hurt his back, but my Saturday night it was definitely back. We didn't get travel insurance - Our travel dates were not set in stone and I didn't think we would need it. Apparently we did :(
After a bit of research I found out we could get the same medical attention in other provinces as we would get in Ontario. Our best option was to drive to Manitoba so we could get Shawn to a hospital, and that is exactly what we did. After 3 hours of waiting Shawn saw a doctor, had the abscess drained and immediately felt better. We went to Boston Pizza for dinner (Shawn's favourite), and then found a hotel. We stayed at the Greenwood Inn, it was such a nice hotel!!

Monday July 2:
Shawn felt MUCH better! Aiden and I had a swim at the hotel and then we carried on with our trip. We have a friend staying in Grenfell, Saskatchewan so we drove there to visit with him and spend the night. He took us on a tour of the countryside and the farm he is working on. One place he showed us was this beautiful valley. It was honestly breath taking. As we drove into it, these horses were walking on the edge. What a picture perfect moment!!
We have another friend working near Regina, so we all drove into town and had dinner at Red Lobster.

Tuesday July 3:
Shawn knows the people our friend works with, so we had a nice visit with them and their kids in the morning. It was nice to let Aiden have a little play! He really missed our friends at home and our play dates! We left the farm a little later than we would have liked, but it was so nice to chat with them. We drove to Edmonton where we stayed for two nights at the Travelogue. Our drive there was pretty scary. There was a huge storm! We even saw funnel clouds, and apparently a tornado touched down. Thankfully we made it safe and sound! We even saw bison on our way!

Wednesday July 4:
It was a pretty crappy day! So what better way to spend a rainy day than at a mall! We spent the whole day at the West Edmonton Mall. We watched the Sea Lion Show and a bit of a hockey tournament going on. I was a little disappointed that Marine Life was closed (until September...who closes an attraction like that during the summer?) but we did have a great family day at the mall! We even had dinner at Hooters on Bourbon Street.

Watching the Sea Lion Show

Aiden's new boots and Wranglers!!! So cute :)

Thursday July 5:
Aiden LOVES animals, so we took him to the Edmonton Zoo. It was a little zoo, but perfect for what we were looking for. They even had an elephant (Lucy)!!! Thankfully Bob Barker hasn't relocated Lucy so Aiden had a chance to see one!

(The backpack we left in Madison...)

I love this picture!

We drove to Jasper - what a beautiful village!! I loved Jasper :) On our way there, we stopped at the Maligne Canyon and saw long horned sheep on the side of the road! We stayed at the Filia Inn...we actually got an upgrade, so Aiden had his own room! There was even a roof top patio that Shawn and I took advantage of. Before we put Aiden to bed we walked around the village and got a bottle of wine and a few beers from British Columbia and we had dinner at the bistro below our hotel. We enjoyed our beverages while watching the sun set on the patio :)


Long Horned Sheep



Maligne Canyon



View from our room









Roof Top Patio

Friday July 6:
We had breakfast at the Bear Paw Bakery in Jasper. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!! We went to the Athabasca Falls and saw elk and deer on the side of the road. We went on the Lake Louise gondola where we saw a bear! Then we drove about 20 minutes away (into British Columbia) to see the Canadian Pacific spiral tunnels. Next it was time for some relaxation. We went to the Upper Banff Hot Springs and then carried on our way to Calgary where we saw a mother moose with her two babies! Before we hit Calgary we took a little detour to the town of Cochrane. Another cute town! We went to the Cochrane Ranche and had a little photo shoot with Aiden. Once we got to Calgary we stayed at the Comfort Inn.

Elk

Athabasca Falls

Touching snow in July!



Cool picture of my car :)




Gorgeous



Bear!



View from the top of Lake Louise Gondola








Spiral Tunnels in BC




Look close! There is a moose!


 

Upper Banff Hot Springs



Saturday July 7:
We took the train to Stampede Park. We watched the rodeo, vintage tractor pull (well attempted to, but we only saw the show and shine), team penning and the chuckwagon races. I even had a chance to preg check a cow!!! (It was fake....haha). It was a long day! We got back to our room around 11pm, where we watched three firework shows :)

This is how Aiden sleeps in his stroller - always with one foot up!

Preg checking a cow!

Sunday July 8:
We drove back to Grenfell and stayed with our friend again. It was nice to have a home cooked meal :)

Monday July 9:
We drove to Fargo North Dakota where we stayed at a Super 8, ordered pizza and watched the Home Run Derby . Aiden and I went for another little swim!

Tuesday July 10:
Since Marine Life was closed in Edmonton, we decided to go to the Mall of America in Minneapolis so we could check out Sea Life! We actually really liked this mall. It was really nice, and not a lot of duplicate store (unlike the West Edmonton Mall). After the mall, we drove to Madison Wisconsin and stayed at the Red Roof Inn. We had dinner at Applebee's (really good), went back to our room and watched the All Star Game!

Jelly fish at Sea Life

Wednesday July 11:

My parents ride Harley's so on our way through Milwaukee (where Harley originated) we stopped at the House of Harley to get them a couple shirts (and Aiden a pair of shoes).

This is when we realized Shawn left the diaper bag back at the hotel :( We could have drove back but we decided to carry on and hope that when I called them they would be able to ship it back to us when we got home. (Thankfully they did!!! It wasn't that big of deal, but the value of everything in it adds up, and there are a few things in our bag that I wanted back. Not to mention we just bought a new Roots bag to use when we were in Edmonton, and of course that is what we left).

After that ordeal....we went to Chicago where we had the BEST deep dish pizza at Giordano's. We continued to drive to Lansing Michigan and stayed at another Red Roof Inn!

Ohhh soooo good!!!

Thursday July 12:

We made it home!!

Overall it was such a great trip! We truly enjoyed every second of it, with my favourite being Jasper...I seriously loved it there :) I can't wait for our next trip...probably Disney in a couple years!



Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day :)

These past 8 months have been amazing!! Obviously there has been some hard times, but the good definitely outweighs the bad!! The first 3 months were probably the hardest. Aiden is very attached to me...he wanted to be in my arms all day long!! I am sure I am going to miss those days when he is older and wants nothing to do with me, but at the time it was hard for me. I like to keep my house relatively clean, and obviously I like to cook. This was VERY hard with an infant in my arms! After 3 months though, he became a little more independent each day. He still loves to be held, but he can also entertain himself a bit - playing, exercauser, jolly jumper, even just hanging out in his crib for a bit after he wakes up!! Which was HUGE progress! Every day from 3 months on, he was changing. Rolling over, laughing, enjoying his carseat, eating, getting teeth (he now has 3!), belly crawling (ALL over the place...and I love it!), sitting up, babbling like crazy! I have said for awhile I think these will be the moments I miss the most - the fact that he still loves being cuddled up in my arms, or in my wrap, but also that he likes his alone time as well. As much as I hate night time feedings, I secretly love them :) I get to sit in my glider nursing and cuddling with my little man, enjoying every second that he wants to be in my arms. I love that he wraps his little feet and arms around me, and plays with my hair. He is absolute perfect <3

My Mother's Day was exactly the way it should be! Our little family spent the whole day together <3
First off, Shawn let me sleep in!! Now, this usually happens every weekend, but it felt extra special yesterday! When I (finally) woke up Shawn handed me my first Mother's Day card and got me a very thoughtful gift. He got two lilac bushes so we can start a garden at the front of our house. He says it is a "gift that keeps on giving" which is so true! Every year they will bloom and I can remember they are a symbol of our family. Apparently Shawn reads my blog!! He corrected me on this, so I have to add something to keep the husband happy! *I* think it keeps on giving because of them blooming every year, but *HE* says they will keep on giving because every year he can get me something to add to our garden :-) (Happy babe!)

After we got mobile we headed out the door. We had my favourite breakfast of all time...McDonald's!!!! Then we made our way to little green house where we bought some more flowers for the front of our house. When we got home I planted them in our urns and in a rock that Shawn got me for my birthday a couple years ago.



Planters in the urn! I've only ever planted a veggie garden, so hopefully I don't kill them!



The planter rock that Shawn made me for my birthday a couple years ago!

We then headed to my moms for a late BBQ lunch with my family. It was so nice to sit outside on a beautiful day and enjoy the company of my family. Both my brothers came and my grandma. My mom is the most amazing woman in the world! She is my best friend...my rock. I hope I can be the mother that she is, I have a great role model!

My Mom walking me down the aisle <3

After our lunch we headed to baseball. Unfortunately we lost the game, but we got to spend some time with our friends and my in laws. Shawn and I came home, cuddled on the couch and I wanted the finale of Survivor!! All in all a perfect day <3

Christmas Dinner

This is a little late, but back in December I hosted a pot luck dinner (I would have made everything, but with a 3 month old...I opted for help this year!) for our friends. I have wanted to post about it and share a few pictures for awhile, but I am just getting around to it now!

As usual, we all had a great time and Aiden was so good! He went to bed around 8:30 and the rest of the night I was able to share a glass of wine with my girlfriends! He is the only baby right now, but he gets a lot of love from everyone!

I made the turkey, stuffing, gravy and bread. Everyone else made amazing food, including a loaded lasagna (seriously this is probably the best lasagna ever, and I make a pretty wicked lasagna!), corn bread, meatballs, mashed potatoes, a veggie dish, ceaser salad, and much more!! For dessert a friend of mine made a tray including this fabulous pumpkin bread. I didn't think I liked pumpkin, but damn this bread was good!

FOOD!

Enjoying dinner

Dessert

 

Girls :)

My card display

Our tree <3

I seriously love my group of friends! We always have such a great time when we get together. In the summer we hang out all the time, but then the winter comes and we all become a little dormant! I am hoping to make this a yearly tradition and this first year went over really well. We already have our next big event planned. We are all going snowtubing at the end of January. And I am thinking we are going to let Aiden have his first sleepover at my moms. I am really looking forward to a solid 8 hours (he sleeps great, only getting up once...but I really want 8 hours!), but I am also really sad about leaving him. Hopefully it goes smooth!

Turkey:
I made a big turkey so I would have leftovers to make pot pie. I use a big roasting pan, stuff the turkey, season with seasoning salt and pepper. I put about 1" of water, garlic and onion around the turkey and cook at 350*F for 20min/pound of turkey. I also have a meat thermometer I keep in the oven to make sure it is cooked.

Stuffing:
I don't really have a recipe, I just mix everything together until I get the right taste! I break up a loaf of cheap white bread into small pieces, add chopped onion and celery, salt, pepper and sage. I then mix in melted butter. I seriously LOVE stuffing...even uncooked!! Whenever my grandma has turkey dinners she always puts some uncooked stuffing aside for me. AMAZING!!!! (yeah I'm weird like that!!)

Gravy:
Once the turkey is done I remove it and use the drippings to make gravy. I use Bisto (it is a dark gravy, but I love it with beef, chicken or turkey) and strain to make it smooth.

Remembering 2011

I love the idea of looking back on the year. I really wish I did this for 2010 since it was an AMAZING year for me. We bought our first house, got married, went on our honeymoon, I finally got a full time position at my job AND we found out we were expecting!! I think it will be really hard to top that!! BUT 2011 came close!! Our little man increased our family by one and it has been such an exciting time! I am going to look back on each month and highlight :) Enjoy!!

January

A bunch of my girlfriends went to the city to watch Rock of Ages. It was such a great time :) I have an amazing group of friends!

February

My mother in law celebrated her 50th birthday on groundhog day!! Happy Birthday J!!!! <3

My husband took me on a weekend getaway to Ottawa. It was honestly one of our most favourite trips!! We just hung out and took in a lot of sites. It was so relaxing and a perfect trip for our last one as "non-parents"

March

My husband FINALLY got a new job!! (He really started on February 28th, but we will just say it happened in March!). His previous job was really hard on our relationship. He literally worked 24-7 and got no appreciation for his hard work. His new job is AMAZING!! I am so happy he took the plunge and found a new "family-friendly" job where he is actually home! AND gets vacation time!!!

April

April was a pretty low-key month...we were just working on the upstairs to get it finished for the arrival of the little one.

May

We went to our first Jays game of the season! They lost, but we still had a blast :)

June

I turned 25 and my belly kept growing!

I also went on a trip to Nova Scotia to visit a good friend of mine and family. I have wanted to go for a long time and this summer was the time for me to go! I had such a good time, what a beautiful province!!

I have always wanted to go whale watching and I finally got a chance to go. We even saw 3 whales :)

July

A good friend of mine and my mom hosted (one of) my baby showers in my backyard! It was a very hot day, but we made the best of it. We were spoiled and got everything we needed (and more) for the arrival of the little one.

We also went to a friend's wedding, which was located at their family farm. It was a beautiful wedding! Here is a picture of us :)

August

I was due August 29, but the little man had other plans!! My step-brother got married on August 20th at a beautiful venue. It was very small and intimate. And the food was the best I have ever had at a wedding!! Absolutely amazing. They also had some great wine...actually the only wine I have come to like!

September

FINALLY!!!! Aiden made his appearance on September 6 at 4:37pm. It was a quick and relatively easy delivery. Not only did I fall in love with this perfect little man, he also made me fall in love all over again with my husband. Shawn has been such an amazing husband and father. I couldn't ask for a better family. I love you <3

We took Aiden to his first Jays game when he was only 12 days old! We went with a few of our friends and meet my step-sister there. Aiden got to meet his Auntie K for the first time (on her birthday!!)

We also took him to a our friend's wedding when he was 18 days old!

October

My mother in law and sister in law hosted another baby shower for us! Again we got spoiled!!! Thanks to everyone who came :)

Shawn and I celebrated our 1st anniversary on October 16th. It was our first day away from Aiden. My mom watched him for about 6 hours as we went out and purchased new couches for our living room and enjoyed a delicious meal together at a small restaurant just outside of our town. It was nice to get away, but I did miss the little man! (Aiden also started smiling on our anniversary!)

Cheers to many more anniversaries babe :)

Another amazing man in life (my step-dad) turned 50! My mom hosted a 60's themed party for him.

It was also Aiden's first Halloween!! So of course I had to do a mini photo shoot with him :) Here is one picture from it!

November

Shawn put a float in our town's Santa Clause parade, so Aiden and I got to ride along in the tractor! We had so much fun!

We also got our first official family pictures!

December

Aiden rolled over!!! He also used his exercauser and Jolly Jumper for the first time!! We enjoyed our first Christmas with the little man! We were crazy busy but we made sure to take in every second.

So as I sit here with my husband watching movies, drinking that wine from my step-brother's wedding and eating M&M meats Oriental pack (the first time ever we have stayed home alone for New Year's Eve!) I wish you nothing but the best for 2012!! Happy New Year :)