Some New Pics of Our Littlest Girl

So, my newest little girl is 8 days old today! Wow. Seems like it was only yesterday that she was born...;). She is doing really great...eating every 2 1/2- 3 hours, and sleeping well in between. I am still feeling good, but have pushed myself a little much in the last few days, so I am really trying to take it easy as much as possible. But, it is hard when I see what needs to be done around me, to just sit on the couch and veg. Take this morning, for instance. We had planned to go out and get the last of our shopping/groceries done and then head to Kier's school for his 'holiday celebration thing' at his school, but after washing the kitchen and living room floors, cleaning the main bathroom and doing two loads of laundry, I was done for. Rob, in a very loving way, said 'you look awful. we're not going anywhere.' So, I decided to blog and then maybe put on some makeup (makeup? makeup? what is this makeup you speak of?). I'm sure my face will break out from not recognizing what is being put on it, but I think it's best for all involved if I try to put some color back into my face...even if it is solely with the help of Cover Girl. So, enjoy these latest pics of Cait and the kids...more to follow.

Aren't they the cutest kids you've ever seen? (aside from your own, of course).

I love this pic of Cait and Daddy...she had just had her first bath-which she didn't exactly enjoy-but she stopped crying as soon as Daddy wrapped her up in this towel. And then she looked too cute, I just had to take a picture of Daddy's little bug. (his nickname for her ;).

Our New Baby Girl!!!

Well, as most of you have heard by now, we just had another baby girl, Monday at 11:35pm. Her name is Cait Isabel Stanley, and she weighs 7 lbs, and is 19 inches long. Cait is the Irish spelling of the name Kate and Isabel is after my grandmother. She is so cute and sweet and we are so happy to finally have her here! I'll post more details soon, but for now, here's some pics! Enjoy! Here's one we took the night before I went in to be induced...my boy and girl spending time with their new sister for the last time via my belly. And here's one of Rob and I just an hour before we met our newest baby girl!! (and just moments before the smile was completely wiped off my face...ouch!!!)

Here's Cait Isabel Stanley, just seconds after joining us here on the outside! It was so good to finally hold her! I'm sure you can see the relief on my face. :)

Santa Claus Parade Photo Frenzy

So, we went to the Milton Santa Claus Parade a couple of weeks ago. And, after several weeks without it, we finally had our camera back in our possession...and went a little camera crazy. I just downloaded the pics from the first half hour spent at the parade to our computer, and there were 65 pictures! Gotta love the digital cameras!

So, here's me and my little goofball. Sometimes, she reminds me so much of myself, it's scary.




And then I remember, I'm a pretty funny girl...so, it's not all bad. ;)
Here's one of the kids waiting with anticipation
for the parade to begin. It was definately a 'down
home' parade...there was everything from a guy
dressed up in a cheap Scooby-Doo suit, to a sixty
something woman, with a whole lotta makeup
dressed in a teeny tiny Mrs. Claus suit. Yikes!













And, here we are...all five of us! Pretty exciting that we will finally meet our new baby in just a few days! Yeah! :)

And, here is my girl with her daddy...yep, there he is...wrapped around her finger. It was so sad the other night when he had said goodbye to them as they were going to bed, 'cause he had to go to a meeting and then was flying out early the next morning. She cried and cried, but calmed down when he said he would call her on the phone while he was gone. Well, he left for his meeting, the kids are in bed, and I go upstairs to get something, and she comes out of her room, barely holding back tears, and politely says, "I would like to call my daddy on the phone now, please." My heart just about broke. So, after a little more crying and consoling, she went back to bed, with the knowledge that daddy would call her when she woke up the next day. And he did! Daddy....the hero. We miss you.

Crazy Times

(Please note: the following post is long and pictureless and a little boring, but thought this was the best way to keep you all updated on what's been going on...so, make a cup of tea before reading...this one's a doosey!)

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated. It's definately been an interesting couple of weeks. I've definately been 'nesting' for the past few weeks (for those of you not familiar with this cheesy 'pregnancy' term, this means I've been going crazy reorganizing and cleaning with no end in sight). Almost every room/cupboard/closet in my house has been gutted and reorganized...and believe me...it needed it! I got rid of 3 1/2 bags of clothes and shoes from our bedroom closet and dresser alone. It's amazing the ugly, completely out of style clothes I've held onto for years...I think I kept trying to convince myself that they would eventually come back into style. Let's just say...they haven't. We even painted my upstairs hallway, with the help of my wonderful sister Dawn. It was so due to be painted and looks sooo much better now!

But, the only downside to this whole nesting thing is that I am about 90% of the way finished with all the tasks I wanted to do, and now...I'm exhausted and don't want to do anything else. Except, the things that are left are things like going through my baby clothes from my other two, washing and folding and putting them away for this one, packing my bag/baby bag and, oh ya, finishing my Christmas shopping and beginning wrapping my gifts. So, perhaps not the best planning as far as what I got done when, but what can you do.

So, found out on Friday that we are booked to get induced ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! Yeah! December 11th. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that we will have the baby on that day, due to lots of different reasons, but at least we know that the countdown is on. I'm a little nervous to get induced, just because I never have been before and I'm not sure what to expect. Except pain. And lots of it.

And now to add to the anticipation/nervousness of the arrival of our baby, we received some news about Rob's dad on Friday and are waiting to see what's gonna happen over the next few weeks. I hesitated to post about this, and will only post a few details, but wanted to let you guys know and figured this was the fastest way to do so. Anyway, Rob's dad is in the hospital in Saint John and due to diabetic complications, is not doing well at all. So, Rob is flying out first thing Wednesday morning to spend most of the week with him and flying back Saturday night, in time for church on Sunday morning and to have the baby on Monday. Crazy times. We're not sure if our plans for Christmas will be changed yet or not (my whole family is arriving here for Christmas this year)...we're just gonna wait until Rob gets down to NB and sees his dad and talks to the doctors face to face. But, if you think of us, we definately would appreciate some prayers, especially for Rob's time with his dad.

Well, I apologize for the long, pictureless post, but still working on getting our camera to work and not having much luck. Love ya girls!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's almost over, but just wanted to send a shout out to all you Americans...and Canadians married to Americans...to have a great Thanksgiving!!

Amy, it sounds like you guys are in for a fun-filled day with your friends, with lots of food and games...sure hope you have a great time!

Kris, I'm glad you were able to at least get half of the day off to celebrate with Jay. It's too bad that you guys weren't able to make it to the States, but I'm sure you found lots of fun ways to celebrate! ;)

Love you both! Let me know how your days went...maybe even post some pics on your blogs! That'd be fun!

Talk to you soon!

Who's More Excited?

So, here are a few pics that Rob took of me and the kids from our trip to the Toronto Zoo this summer. As I was looking at them, I noticed that my smile was probably the biggest one in the picture. It's amazing at how much joy you can receive just from watching your kids experience something exciting for the first time. In the first two pictures, Rory and I are watching the monkeys go crazy on the other side of the glass. It was so fun watching her imitate what they were doing, and even more fun when one of them kept coming up to where she was and dance around. She could hardly contain herself!! She kept asking if she could go in with the monkeys. (we decided against it). ;)

This last picture was when we were standing in front of a huge aquarium full of hundreds of different fish. The kids just stared at this huge expanse of fish, and then Kier asked 'can we put this in our room?' And then Rory quickly asked, 'Can I go in there?' Can you imagine if we didn't believe in saying no to our kids?

A Hectic Week

First of all, let me start out by saying I truly love my life. I have three beautiful kids (you should see the ultrasound pics of our newest one...pretty cute;), an amazing husband, a great church, great friends, and many, many more things I am so thankful for.

But, one thing that drives me crazy, is when I'm talking to someone, asking how they are doing, and their answer always seems to be...'busy.' Because the longer I am alive, and the more we have going on in our life, the more I realize that we are becoming busier and busier, with no slowing down in sight.

And then I realize that I can have the tendency to be that person who, when asked how their doing, answers 'oh...really busy.'

So, I have started making the effort to find other ways to describe what is going on in our life. And the word for this week is hectic. Between birthdays (rob and kier's b-day is Saturday), meetings, doctor & midwife appt's, christmas planning and shopping and many other 'little' things, it's just a hectic week.

And the fact that I am carrying around 25 extra pounds, all of which is hanging off the front of my body, may add slightly to the fact that this week feels hectic.

So, all that to say, this has been a pretty boring post. I will post again soon with some fun pics of the kids. My camera's in the shop, so we have been using a disposable camera, and have yet to get the film developed, but will try to make this blog much more interesting in the days and weeks to come.

Have a great and non-hectic week! :)

Saturdays

I have many love/hate relationships in my life. I love chocolate...but I hate how it looks on my hips. I hate exercising...but I love how good I feel when I've had a great workout. And up until lately, I've hated Saturdays. The reason was that since Rob's main responsibility is speaking on Sunday, he is busy most of the day and evening on Saturdays preparing for Sunday morning. We used to take an entire day off earlier in the week, but with the busyness that comes with starting a church from scratch, that just hasn't happened in a few months. Which brings me back to hating Saturdays...until recently.

Although Rob still has to work most of the day, the last couple of Saturdays have consisted of me just hanging out with the kids, as they paint, color and draw for hours. My sis Dawn has a laptop, so while they paint their ninth picture of the day, I've been able to also get some 'work' done. By work, I mean Christmas planning/present ideas, getting ready for baby, and just spending some time planning some craft/present ideas for me to do with the kids. I've started listening to Christmas music and am looking forward to Christmas this year probably more than any other year.

So now, although I wish Rob was with us during these lazy Saturdays, I love spending these last few weeks before christmas with my two amazing kids...as we wait for our new baby to join us out here for all the fun.

A Few Pics of My Kids

This is a cute version of how I feel this morning. :)

We were on our way home from one of our camping trips this summer, and we weren't in the car five minutes before she gave in and passed out. Rob says she looks the most like me when she's sleeping...although, I think she's probably cuter.

And this is Rory during one of our many trips to our favorite park here, Lowville Park. It's only a 15 minute drive from our place, and it has a small creek running through it, where the kids can play and catch fish and other little creatures.

And there's a pic of Kier playing in the creek at Lowville. So handsome. :)

Je t'aime, Sarah...

Mon ami, Sarah...je t'aime, aussi. Tu est un filles fantastique! Je suis tres happy that tu has un blog maintenant. Maintenant, je can practice mon francais et mon anglais skills. How am je doing?

Anyway, enough of all that 'franglais'...just wanted to let Sarah and the world know, that I love her too! (see comment on my first post) Hope you had a good night out and that you saved some $$ for our big trip to Value Village tomorrow. Sure hope you will find some more 'nice' maternity style clothes for me again this time.

Bon nuit!

My First Post

So, here is my first post on my new blog. I decided to start using eblogger because I liked the look of their blogs better, and quite honestly, was hoping that now Amy can start posting comments on this blog. :) Love ya Ame! And you too Marie! And Sarah!

So, what's new in our house? Well, I am still pregnant. I'm at 33 weeks, and totally feeling like it. Not sleeping great (still), getting bigger by the minute, and anxious to meet our newest little one. I have my next appointment with the OB in a week, where I suspect we will decide whether to induce or not. At this point (especially after my last midwife appt.), I am definately leaning towards getting induced. The way the midwife put it was that my risks would be higher to not get induced than to get induced...due to the cholostasis. After thinking and praying about that over the last week, I think I agree with her. (rob too.) I just don't want to rush into any decisions though, especially because, selfishly, I would love to have this baby two whole weeks before Christmas. So, we won't make any final decisions until we hear what the OB has to say next week. Exciting times.

I was out birthday/Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon (kier and rob's b-day is on the 18th), and although I didn't buy much, I was definately feeling the stress of trying to stick within a tight budget. Sometimes I actually find it freeing to work within a budget, but realized yesterday that the budget we made for Christmas, for example, didn't include a budget for 'other stuff.' And by 'other stuff' I mean all the stuff that falls outside of the stuff for us individually, the kids and friends & family. Like, I was at WalMart and saw a Christmas cookie cutter set for $4...not a bad price, and I have wanted one for the past couple Christmases, but after I bought it, I realized I wasn't sure whose budget it should come out of...and then realized, there will probably be more things like that pop up, and I haven't organized things to be able to buy them as they come up. Not earth-shattering stuff, but definately a setback to my attempt to be responsible and organized this year.

Well, must go and feed the kiddies lunch. Hope to hear from you all soon!