Happenings

Tegan got her ballet recital costume.  It's so cute.

 The kids had a day off school last week, so we went skating

 and bowling.  Tegan was the champion on our team.

 Still loving these girlies.

 Kub Car Rally.  Jamin's scout truck won most futuristic.

 Here's a picture of Neil's car coming in 1st!

 Tegan had to make a leprechaun trap for school.  This is what she wanted to do.  It's a rainbow slide.

I had this crazy idea to do a twin playdate at my house.  It was so cute!  This was my attempt to get them all in a picture.  I thought if I put them all in the theatre room I could have them look at the screen and get them all in.  Note to self... lighting is terrible in the theatre room for pictures.

 It got warm for a few days.  Most of the snow melted and I was able to go for a run outside.

Matthew had an optometry conference last weekend this is us at the Human Rights museum.   It was very nice.  I took this picture while the band was playing, "I Can See Clearly Now"  Lol.  And we were eating right next to the "Sight Unseen" exhibit.  It is an exhibit with photographs taken by people that are blind.  It was interesting.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't know why these pictures want to be upside down, but I can let it go.  Lol.  I love doing my kids valentines.  This year I listened to pinterest and wasted a whole day melting crayons.  (Note to self: if I am crazy enough to do this again, buy more heart cup things to melt the crayons and buy a couple of boxes of crayons and in enough time so I can let the kids unwrap them all.)  I figured I would use all their broken crayons around the house, but still had to go buy a new box and cut them all up.  It's worth it, though, right?

 My cute little valentines.  I love how they always hold hands.

I am looking at these pictures trying to remember who is who.  I'm pretty sure this is Arielle smiling.

And this one is Lillie smiling

And there is the reason why they were smiling.  They love their big brother.

Moments

Life is full of moments.  I love to capture them when I can.

 because I know that sometimes we may never get to have them again.

This day we are celebrating Gordon's birthday.  He would have been 10 years old.  It has been 3 years since he passed away.  Such a big part of our family gone in an instant.  

 Sometimes I go to catch the moment like these cute dresses, but they don't think it is a good idea right then.  That's when I abandon hopes of a perfect picture.

 Other times, they are just so sweet

 And then your three year old wants you to take a picture of him holding the babies hands.  How can you pass that up?

 Or they are being so nice to each other.  Need to record that memory.  =)

 Sometimes, my 13 year old comes up with really cute ideas.  

 Or you know that they will outgrow this adorable dress far too soon.

 A moment when they see each other and start to chat in their own language.

 Then a day must be documented as it is the day that the cousin's mom is in the hospital having a baby.

 They are so excited and practice holding a baby for the arrival of their new sister.

 Sometimes I need to shop for my 13 year old who wears grown up clothes and happens to be my babysitter, so I have to bring all the kids along.  It's nice when no one else is in the store and they don't yell at me for my kids to go under the doors.  

 Every once in a while I even make it into a picture

 Sometimes they make such cute outfits at the store, that they must be purchased for a visit with Santa.

 And this one too.  

 Some first giggles.

 And then there is Pinterest.  I saw a picture like this with one baby and thought for sure it would be even cuter with two.  I was right.

Our life is not perfect and we sure make a ton of mistakes and we have our share of heartache, but it is full of moments.  Beautiful moments and hard moments, but mostly we try to remember the good ones.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year full of beautiful moments.

A Double Birth Story

This story started perhaps sooner than this, but I'll start on July 1st.  I spent a fantastic Canada day with my children.  We went to a historical site, to a festival with bouncers and a magic show, out to dinner, and ended with an enjoyable time watching fireworks.  My husband was with my oldest at a campout outside of the country.  On July 2nd I had a doctor appointment.  My doctor looked at the results from my last fetal assessment.  After a few moments, my doctor said I needed to pack and go to the hospital that day.  My babies were not due till August 20th.  I had placenta previa, so my doctor said I needed to be at the hospital in case I went into labor as it would be extremely dangerous for me and the babies if I did.  She said I would have a scheduled c-section at around 36 weeks if I made it that far.  I said that is a bad idea.  I had 4 children at home that just ended school.  I had just finished working and my daycare lady was on holidays and my husband wasn't in town and I could not get ahold of him as he had his phone stollen on the trip.  My sister in-law was watching my kids so I could go to my doctor appointment.  I cried all the way there and told her the news.  She agreed to watch the kids until I worked things out.  I gave my kids hugs, told them I loved them and left to get my things in order.  I made several phone calls working out where my kids would be and packed some things, did a little grocery shopping, and my mother in-law took me to the hospital and dropped me off.  My c-section was scheduled for July 27th.  At first I could walk around and even go outside, but then they said that was too dangerous without someone with me.  So I mostly stayed around my room.  I learned how to crochet some things on Youtube and practiced making some purses, outfits for the girls - dresses, headbands, shoes.  It felt strange to be in the hospital and other than being uncomfortable, felt healthy.  They checked the babies heart beats regularly and I started to get very itchy.  I found out I had cholestasis of pregnancy.  With a medication, the itchiness became bearable.  Visitors were highlights of any day and something to look forward to.  The days moved slowly, but finally the 27th came.  Matthew and my Mom were with me.  I walked downstairs to the labor and delivery floor.  They only allowed one family member in with me, so while they prepped me, Matthew changed into scrubs.  The anesthesiologist came in with a student.  The student attempted to put an IV in.  He was unsuccessful and was digging around in my skin.  I asked that the anesthesiologist do it and made sure he was not administering the epidural.  He made me nervous.  The anesthesiologist got the IV in quick and easily.  Matthew came in.  I was laying down and could not lift my legs.  I was numb.  The epidural worked.  They cut me open and took one baby out fairly quickly.  The second baby was more challenging as she was transverse.  I was thinking this is easy.  I couldn't believe how quickly the babies came out of me.  They looked big and healthy.  The first, Lillie, was 6 pounds, 14 ounces and the second, Arielle, was 7 pounds, 1 ounce.  They were perfect, beautiful babies.  Matthew took a couple pictures of the babies, then looked at the ground and saw the pool of my blood.  I lost a lot of blood, about a litre.  The nurses were going to hand the babies to Matthew but he said he was going to pass out.  They hurried him out of the room, but not quite quick enough.  He passed out.  They stitched me up.  I was starting to have a difficult time breathing.  It hurt to breathe.  They told me I was ready to go into the recovery room, but my husband was recovering in my bed so they needed to find me another one.  Once they got me into the recovery room, I had some issues with clots coming out of me.  They needed to push them out and it hurt like crazy.  I lost a lot more blood, but I was fortunate to not need a blood transfusion.  Finally I got to go to a room.  I had visited the NICU during my time at the hospital, but my babies did not need to go there.  They came into the room with me.  I couldn't sit up at all.  My muscles were cut through.  They asked me if I had someone staying with me as they did not help with the babies.  I couldn't believe it, but my Mom agreed to stay to help.  The next two nights, my husband stayed with me.  It was crazy.  These beautiful little girls needed to eat and be changed and held and I was a mess.  I could barely move.  After 3 nights, I was sent home.  My parents stayed for a month, taking a baby at night.  After being home for a week and a half, my incision started to stink and didn't look very good.  I had to go back to the hospital.  My incision had to be reopened and drained.  It was really gross.   I had to stay there for three more days without the babies.  I wanted to get back home to help my parents as it was very difficult for them at night.  Fortunately, I was able to get home care to come to my house and take care of my wound, so I was able to go home.  Now they are 3 months old.  They are smiling and such happy sweet little girls.  They are a lot of work, but so enjoyable.  So grateful for all the help we have received from family and friends.  These girls are truly gifts from God and bring smiles and joy anywhere I go.  Not an easy road, but so worth it.  Love these little girls.  

Arielle Charity and Lillie Faith

July 27, 2015

In this picture, they are 4 days old.

I made their outfits during my stay at the hospital.

Lisa's 4 rules to Potty Training a 2 year old

Recently potty trained my fifth child.  I think I may have finally gotten the hang of it.  Here are my rules for potty training a child who has never gone on the potty… ever.  Of course, I know all kids are different.  This seems to work for my kids.  At least for the last two.  First three were miserable experiences.  Hopefully I can relieve someone from that stress.

#1 Have a day set aside where the only thing to do is have a potty party.

Potty party includes
1. New potty
2. A hard floor
3. Balloons
4. Juice boxes and milk and maybe even a water bottle.
5. Child friendly Potty movies from youtube
6. A book (to keep from going insane from potty movies)  - you want to stay close to your child to catch them going
7. Paper towels
8. cleaner
9. Long shirt for child – older brother’s t-shirt works great(No pants the first day)

Tell your child about the potty party the day before, and get them excited.

#2  An accident is never a big deal.  It’s just an accident.  Clean it up and tell your child it’s ok, next time try going in the potty.

#3  Making it in the potty is a big deal.  Get excited.  Smile, say, “Good job!”and give high fives.  Then take it to the toilet to dump and let them flush.

#4 Once you’ve started, there is no turning back.  No more diapers. … except at night.  I know lots of people train at night at the same time.  We use pull-ups at night for a while.  However, before this day he had never worn a pull-up, so it is still a little different.

Oh, and the pants lesson comes on day 2.

This Fisher Price potty is the perfect size, cute, and easy to clean.  I got it from Walmart.

Life

So people keep asking me how work is going and I really love it.  There are some challenges, but for the most part, it has been great for me.  I am starting to see patients now, and they are so fun to work with.  I am seeing all different ages from 2 to 14.  All with different kinds of vision disorders.  It has been really exciting learning and growing in this area.  It is nice to be able to talk to my husband if I have any questions.  I am impressed with all that he knows and I love how passionate he is about helping people.  It is interesting how once you start to learn about something you realize how little you know and I keep learning new things every day.
I have really enjoyed summer.  Next week school starts again.  I wish summer could last forever.  I am not sure I am ready for "real" life to start up again.  I signed my kids up for their extracurricular activities this week.  I often find it difficult to balance, but I think our schedule will work just fine this year.
My Neil turned seven years old.  I love that kid.  He is such a happy and sensitive soul.  It makes my heart ache a little to be approaching the time that he will have lived longer than his older brother... September 24rd.  That is the day.  The day that Neil will be older than Gordon ever was.
Sometimes I feel like I have come so far, and life has kind of moved on.  Like we are in our lives now and things are the way they should be.  Other days, I feel that raw emotion like it was yesterday.  Most of the time I think we are ok.  We do fun things together.  We laugh.  We smile.  We sing. We dance.  And other times we cry.  Although, we don't cry very much.
Our cat died.  I think a fox in the neiborhood got in a fight with him.  A friend found him in our front yard.  Tegan was the only one that was visibly a little sad.  I think after all that has happened, perhaps to them losing a cat is nothing.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Running and Nature

I love to run.  It makes my body feel happy.  I am generally a treadmill runner, but when the weather and time allows, I would much rather run outside.  I really appreciate God's creations and have a beautiful place to see some of them.

It is hard to completely appreciate what I see when I run in a picture, but sometimes I like to try to capture the beauty to help me remember. 

This day was so incredible.  There was tons of animal life along the river.  I saw lots of baby geese too.  They were adorable.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but that is a big bird in that tree.  I'm pretty sure it is a Golden Eagle.

 Running completely destresses my body.  I feel so good afterwards and accomplished.  Sometimes I wish the weather was always like this, so I could run out there all the time, but then maybe I wouldn't appreciate it as much.