Our Christmas Present

This year Adam and I decided not to buy each other Christmas presents, but instead take the money and buy ourselves a Camcorder. With the help of lots of gift cards and cheques, we were able to purchase this Sony camcorder.

We decided to go top of the line - HD, 120 GB hard drive, 10 mega pixel still camera.

So far we have not had much opportunity to use it - but I know it will get lots of use over the years documenting the kids as they grow.

Chocolate

This girl LOVES chocolate. Surprise, surprise - knowing her father. Her favourite activity all December was the advent calendar.

Here is a series of pictures showing what she can do with a Lindt chocolate - and yes - the whole thing goes in at once.

Christmas 2008

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Our computer went to he hospital and had to have major surgery. I went through computer withdrawal over the holidays but I am happy to report the computer and I have made a full recovery!

Now that we are back in business, I have a few things to post.

Christmas this year was great!

We started our festivities on Christmas Eve at our house. The Nadeau family was all in attendance as we had a traditional Nadeau Christmas. When I was a child on Christmas Eve we always had Faspa – this is a Mennonite word – not sure exactly what it means – but for us it was essentially cold food appetizers for dinner – never eaten at the table – but instead we opened gifts as we ate.

We had a wonderful time, Jackie learned the art of opening gifts – she also made a great “Santa” handing out gifts to everyone. It was nice to spend some quality time with everyone and it did not go too late since on Christmas morning we packed everything up and headed to Adam’s Mom’s place.

Amy and her boyfriend Scott

Christmas in Canmore was delayed by a day – since Adam’s sister was not able to arrive until late afternoon on the 25th, we all decided to do Christmas morning on the 26th – but we had Christmas dinner on the 25th still.

Canmore was great – Adam’s brother and his wife came, I have not seen them since our wedding. We ate lots, drank a bit (a bit for me anyway since I am still breast feeding), talked tons and relaxed even more. Adam got a chance to go skiing, Jackie got a chance to know her Aunts and Uncle even better and spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma and Grandpa showed us they still have the knack to get a fussy infant to sleep (thank you again!)

Jackie cleaned up on gifts this year – a super huge thank you to everyone!

Overall Christmas this year was a resounding success – the best part was that for Adam and I we feel like our family is now complete – it was great to be able to look around and know we are all here.

This little wooden train is a toy Great Grandpa (Eric's Dad) send to Eric for the grand children to play with. This was a toy bought for Eric when he was 4. Jackie loved it - she pulled it all over the house and Brutis usually followed.

Grandpa - or Papa as she is calling him was her favourite person on this trip. Thye had a great time playing together.

Our Christmas History

Looking back over the past few years at Christmas time – things have changed every year for us.

2002 – Both single at Christmas time – did not know each other
2003 – Living together
2004 – Engaged
2005 – Married
2006 – Pregnant with Jackie & Brutis in attendance
2007 – Jackie & Brutis in attendance
2008 – Jackie, Anderson & Brutis in attendance

2009 – There better not be anyone else attending.

Adam and I are very happy, we feel like our family is complete (please note, this post will be deleted and everything denied if we have an ‘oops’ in the future). We are enjoying our 2 children and looking forward to many Christmas’ together in the future.

Sleeping Beauties

Laughing

I knew I would love my children, but no one told me I would laugh so much.

Jackie makes me laugh at least once a day.

Her favourite thing to do right now, is to see how many places maxi pads / panty lines can be placed. I have come upstairs and find them stuck to doors and walls – this weekend she came down stairs sporting this look.

Yes we both laughed very hard.

Anna's Christmas Party

As many of you know, we have the most amazing day home provider in the entire world. Her name is Anna, and she has become a very important and cherished person in our lives.

Every year she puts on a Christmas party at her house, she invites not just her current children and their parents, but also all her past children and their parents too. She must cook for days because we get to all enjoy her home made Hungarian food and desserts.

Then there is Santa – she has someone (usually one of the dads) dress up as Santa and she has a gift for every child (she even had a gift for Anderson!)

As I said – she is amazing – we all love her. It was great to meet some of her past children and their parents – and neat to see them have their own little reunions with each other. You know you have a good dayhome when parents with an 11 and 9 year old are there, still coming to her parties and staying connected with a woman that played such an important role in their children’s lives.

Here are a few pictures from the night:


Jackie getting her present from Santa - this year she is not a fan of the man in red - okay - actually terrified of him.


Anderson - being held by Mary - mother of Jorja and Luke - two children at Anna's with Jackie

Anna, Santa and all the children

Random Photos

The Baby-hawk

Anderson - 6 weeks - Hair done my Adam

Adam the hair dresser strikes again. Click Here to see what Adam did with Jackie’s hair when she was approx. 4 weeks old.

The Computer

Jackie has a new toy – I apologize in advance if she somehow manages to accidentally email anyone.

Christmas Cards

As some of you know I enjoy making cards, and I pride myself in all the attention to detail – the more complex, the more fun they are to make and send out. But due to recent developments (i.e. Anderson arriving) and me not being anywhere near as organized as I planned on being; I had plans of having the baby announcement cards, thank you cards and Christmas cards all done before Anderson was born – well only pieces of the thank you cards and baby announcement cards were actually done, Christmas cards were not even started.

But I really wanted to send out a card this year – so I cheated – I am so sorry to all my craft friends and everyone that looks forward to a home made card – but you will have to do with the store bought kind and wait until next year for your home made one.

They are going in the mail today (I know a bit late, but they will arrive to most before Christmas, everyone else, just after), so keep an eye out.

We had Dee Ann over again for our photo shoot – this one proved to be much more challenging than the last one. We wanted a picture with not only an infant and a toddler – but also one with Brutis. Here is the one we choose – but since Brutis is right on the edge, when it prints out – it cuts him in half – so he is unfortunately missing from the photo you all will receive in the mail.

The Dog House

Want a good laugh? This is the funniest little video ever!

Men - pay attention - it has to do with Christmas gifts for your wife......

Click on the link to watch:

http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/video.aspx

On Sunday we set up the Christmas tree – a little late for me (I like to have it up right at the beginning of Christmas), but we figured we would wait a week – I knew Jackie would be enthralled with the ornaments, and since last week was our first week alone – I thought one less hurdle to tackle on the first week.

Well, we were right Jackie loves the tree, of course I have to keep some of my favourite ornaments in the box this year due to them not being child safe, but she enjoyed helping me decorate.

I started a tradition last year, every year I am going to buy the kids an ornament for the tree, here are the pictures of this years new ornaments.

Pink Work - Blue Work

Adam and I have many aspects of work divided into pink and blue work categories – like for example – when we are camping – Pink work involves turning on the fridge and furnace when we fist arrive; blue work involves things like emptying the septic tanks.
Here are home – blue work and pink work are not so easily defined – like laundry – can be both pink and blue; same with cleaning the bathrooms. But when it comes to things in the yard – until now – they have always been blue – mowing the lawn and shovelling snow – that is until yesterday.

I surprised Adam and did some of the snow shovelling. For those of you that have been to our house – you know this is a big undertaking – if you have not – we have a corner lot – and the whole corner has sidewalk – the length of the property’s sidewalk is also extra wide – making it extra fun for shovelling lots of super heavy snow.

Well, Adam was so surprised I offered to do some of the shovelling – he just had to take a few pictures – I am blogging this to document I can actually do some physical labour….

SNOW!!

On Sunday Calgary was “blessed” with 16 cm of snow! I am not a snow fan. I do not like the cold; I do not participate in winter sports. Skating – my feet always get cold – I have been told so many “tricks” to prevent this predicament – but nothing works – ever. Skiing – again there is the cold factor – but I also fell and hurt my knee when I was skiing in grade 7 – a problem that still affects me occasionally – so since I would like to continue walking, I have chosen not to continue to invest time into this sport.

I am very much looking forward to a few years from now when Adam can take the kids for the day and together they can enjoy winter sports – and I can enjoy a quiet day at home, reading a book and drinking coffee.

Well – with all the snow Calgary got – Adam took Jackie out for her first ever chance to play in the snow. They both got all bundled up – and headed out to the great white backyard. I snapped a few pictures of the two of them – together they built a snow slide – which Jackie enjoyed thoroughly.

As much as I hate most winter sports – I do however enjoy tobogganing – very much looking forward to another first with her on that one – I know she will LOVE it!

One Month

I really can't believe I am writing a post already that Anderson is a month old. This has been the fastest month of my life - quite the difference since the first month with Jackie I believe was the slowest month of my life.

Not too much has changed since I last posted an update - Anderson is growing lots - I look at him and think how big he is already (we are going to the doctor's on Tuesday, so we should have an updated weight then).

Last week I was on my own (After my Mom came and helped for a week - Adam's Mom did the same). Jackie has been doing quite well - I knew that it would take us being alone for her to understand and realize she is not going to get everything right away, and sometimes she does not come first.

I would have to say, she has adjusted quite well to me and Anderson - it is the Daddy and Anderson aspect we are still working on.

Since she is a Daddy's girl, she still is having issues when Adam does not pay enough attention to her - I am sure in a few more weeks she will have gotten over it.

Sleep - right now we have a decent routine going on - Anderson's fussy time is in the evening - for this I am so thankful - if he was fussy during the middle of the day - it would be just me - but this way Jackie is often in bed already and then Adam and I can tag team on the fussy baby.

I tend to go to bed nice and early - I try to get there no later than 9pm - then Adam stays up - gives Anderson a bottle - and then puts him down usually around 11 - then I take all the feedings in the night.

Since we are also blessed with Jackie that gets up at 6am - Adam gets up with her, and allows me to sleep in (weekdays until 7, weekends a bit longer).

Anderson is a wonderful little baby - he is a good sleeper - and likes to nap during the day. We have been very lucky - I know lots of people who do not get a "dream" child on the second.

Pictures from our Photo Shoot

Here are a few more photos from our photo shoot with Dee Ann. Enjoy!

Pictures

Talking on the Phone

Jacqueline's vocabulary has improved dramatically in the past month. She is now putting 2 words together and this girl can talk.

The other day Adam called us at home - I passed her the phone right away to day hi to Daddy - well, I never got the phone back - she spoke to him for at least solid 5 minutes. I tried to convince her to give me the phone back, but nope - she sat in her chair and told him all the current gossip.

Her favourite words right now are "Pretty Lights" - all the Christmas lights - she gets very excited - this weekend we are planning on setting up the Christmas tree - should be interesting....

Update

Well, it has been a bit since I gave an update, so here goes.

Things are going well - Adam has been back at work for a week, and last week my Mom came in for the week to help out. She was a great help not only with the kids, but cleaning, cooking and stocking our freezer with meals.

Anderson is doing quite well - he is growing quickly, he is almost out grown his newborn sleepers and we are already talking about changing him to size 1 diapers.

I really can't believe he is 2 1/2 week already - looking back to this time with Jacqueline I remember it taking so long to get to this point.

Jackie - she is starting to adjust - however I don't think she is going to fully adjust until we are on our own (Adam's Mom Diana is coming in for this week). She is the greatest little helper, she takes all the diapers to the garbage, always wanting to give Anderson his soother or anything else she finds that is his.

She calls him Baby Ane - I know Anderson is a hard name for her to say - but we are not calling him Andy - so Baby Ane it will be for a while.

I am doing great! I feel great! On my recovery with Jacqueline I ended up with a blood infection and it did not get discovered until she was 3 weeks old - so my recovery was much longer last time - this time, we have been out for walks, and I feel much more like myself (something that took much longer to come back after Jackie was born).

Everyone I knew that had had more than one child told me that the adjustment on the second was so much easier than on the first - and they were so right.

Breast feeding - As many of you know I did not breast feed Jackie, and I was not sure what I was going to do with Anderson - but I gave it a try and it has so far turned out great. Most of the time he is a good little eater - and we are doing well. I did however have to get myself a small breast pump - so far I have only had one glass of wine and starting to have the craving for a few more.....

Photo Shoot

Dee Ann sent me a few sneak peak pictures from today's photo shoot - I thought I would share a few - I LOVE the pictures of Jackie - I just wish we had taken the time to clean her face and comb her hair - but I am sure more of you know just how hard it is to get a toddler to do what you want them to do - especially when it comes to photos.

Open Eyes

This morning we had a baby photo shoot with my friend Dee Ann; although this photo is not the greatest - Adam snapped it over her shoulder - at least we got some open eyes finally.

Anderson has beautiful deep blue eyes - right now, this is my favourite feature on him.

Check Dee Ann's blog for more photos and back here for more once we get them back - trust me, hers are much better than ours.