Christmas 2009

Opening stockings in front of our new fireplace:


Christmas morning at our place. Her favourite gift was a tie between her flashlight:


And Barbie Cinderella:


Our favourite present this year (sorry it's not a great shot):


Sorry didn't take many shots, but here is one from my parents':


Opening gifts at my parents':


Opening gifts at the Smiths:


Chris and Sam at the Smiths:


Christmas has come and gone - and gone quickly! One thing I discovered this year is holidays are definitely a lot different when you have a newborn, especially a nursing one.

On Christmas Day, I woke up with a lot of pain and was afraid I would end up at the walk-in or emergency, but thankfully with the help of my many baby books, I was able to "unclog" the problem. Definitely not a problem I hope to have reoccur! Unfortunately we missed church but I was able to catch up on some sleep and we had a quiet morning with the girls opening a few gifts. We also were able to enjoy our new electric fireplace which was our gift to each other this year - our first fireplace ever - we love it!

Christmas evening we spent at my parents' with the family and it was a little crazy, but there was no formal dinner which made it a little more relaxed. I missed quite a bit of the festivities and gift openings as I was feeding Meagan and then had to deal with a huge diaper mess which took about 1/2 hour to clean up. Not fun.

Sunday we headed out to White Rock for Christmas with the Smiths. Kaitlyn really enjoyed it and the family get-together should have been called the Kaitlyn show, although Meagan got her fair share of attention too.

Ryan is back to work after Christmas but has a long weekend again this weekend which is so nice. Hopefully we will get everything organized and the downstairs ready for the kids playroom. Looks like we've lined up some free furniture from Ryan's co-worker, just have to find out how to get it here and we will be set.

I am off to have another cup of coffee. And watching the snow fall :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and the Lord's blessings to you in 2010!

Gingerbread Fun!

We decided to start a new tradition this year - gingerbread houses with the girls. Of course this year, Meagan is a little young to participate, but next year should be interesting!











Kaitlyn crashed from her sugar high shortly after and took a nice nap on the couch :)

Couple Photos...

Something Kaitlyn would never do as a baby. I just put Meagan in there awake and she fell asleep. No rocking, swaying, bouncing, Alan Jackson music (yeah, ask me about that one...). Just fell asleep on her own. What a wonderful thing.



And of course Kaitlyn had to get in on the picture taking fun. Meagan briefly opened her eyes to find out what was happening and then went right back to sleep.

Kaitlyn's Christmas Program

Kaitlyn's preschool put on a short Christmas program this week. The teacher sent home the songs with the kids a few weeks ago and everytime I would try to get Kaitlyn to practice, she would shush me and tell me not to sing. So I really hoped they were learning at school, because she was not learning at home. They had rehearsal in the morning and I stayed and watched - Kaitlyn knew most of the songs but was at first bewildered by the kid singing behind her - that kid just yelled the words and did not sing, and for the first while Kaitlyn just turned around and stared at him.

At the program itself, she had a hard time letting me leave and sit down and wanted to sit with us, she kept saying. So I was a little afraid she wouldn't sing at all and would have some stage fright. So the kids went up there and were each given a jingle bell, and I realized I forgot to tell her teacher Kaitlyn already told me at home she wanted a red bell and not a green one. Too late. She got a green one. For the first few songs, she looked very ripped off and about to cry. But then she started to sing and do all the actions - it was such a relief, but for the first few songs I had a really hard time just sitting there and knowing why she was upset and not doing anything about it. But I didn't want to be "that parent" who ran up there, grabbed a red jingle bell out of another kid's hands and gave it to my kid. But I was tempted...

Anyway, it was a great evening for the kids, and a success in the end :) Sorry the photos are not the best, but the lighting wasn't great in there.

Kaitlyn walking in:


The kids singing:

Baptism

Baptism for Meagan was December 6th and went very well. Kaitlyn was in church again and as long as she had her roll of candies in hand and was sitting beside Oma, she was fine. Meagan was great too - I'm sure it helped that I bathed her right before church which knocks her out for a few hours. My Mom held Meagan, and Ryan's Mom came out for the service as well, which was really nice. Some aunts and uncles came out and we were very happy to share the day with family and friends.

After, we headed to Mom and Dad's to celebrate some birthdays in the family, which was a bit of a gong show as it always is when we all get together, but the kids love it (when they're getting along).

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures on the day of baptism. With all the craziness, I just didn't think about it. Here are a couple from the day though:

Meagan in her baptism dress:



Some bonding time with Dad:

Girls and Santa

Saturday Ryan had to attend a course for work in Surrey, so I decided to try and take the girls to Guildford Mall for a little while and promised Kaitlyn she could see Santa. Our Santa in town is not nearly as extravagant as Guildford's Santa with the big castle and reindeer hanging from the ceiling, and Kaitlyn was pretty excited when we got there. Unfortunately, the camera was having computer issues and we had to wait quite a long time to see Santa, and the longer it took, the more petrified Kaitlyn became. She did not even want to sit by him by the time it was her turn and became very shy. We still managed to get a picture with Santa and the girls but could not get Kaitlyn to give us much of a smile.



I'll post an entry about baptism later :)

Meagan - 2 weeks, 1 day old

Today I weighed Meagan at the Health Unit. I am a little more nervous about her weight gain than I was with Kaitlyn as I was able to top up Kaitlyn with formula due to her low birth weight. But with Meagan, the doctor has given me permission to top her up, but every time we do, she spits up - and not just a little, the entire feed. So I am exclusively nursing Meagan, hence the nervousness since you can't measure how much she is actually taking in.

Today she is 7 lb, 13.5 oz. When she was born, she was 6 lb, 14 oz and when we left the hospital she was 6 lb, 8 oz, so I guess she is doing well with nursing.

She is a little stuffed up, but overall, a content baby so far. The stuffy nose made for more awake time last night than I would like, but I am hoping this cold of hers clears quickly and we can get on some sort of nighttime schedule soon.

Here is a picture from the photo session my sister, Andrea, did the other day. Hopefully I'll be able to share more soon :)