Parade Day

Yesterday was the Girl Guide/Scout Parade in Hamilton. We dropped Morgan off at the church so that she could go on the bus, and we drove downtown to pick-up Grandma. We then walked down to watch the parade.


Here are Daddy and Morgan at the church before she got on the bus.






Here is Morgan’s Spark unit; I can’t pick her out in this picture though.






Can you find her in this one????





After the parade, the girls went for a picnic. Grandma, Paige, Ella and I walked down to pick her up at the end of the day.

Here’s the gruesome twosome:







And the three musketeers:






While Morgan was at the picnic in the afternoon we went with Grandma to get flowers, so my plan for today is to plant providing that everyone cooperates. :)

For Auntie Sarah

The Easter Bunny (yes I realize how long ago that was) brought the girls some Polly Pocket stuff, and since Auntie Sarah played with it as a child she wanted to see how it has changed:


Here's Daddy putting the house together with the girls.


Here's the house:


And here is all the stuff.

Out of the mouths of babes.....

Wow! It's been ages since I've been able to sit down to post. I have absolutely no time these days. I haven't figured out yet how to type while nursing the baby, so no blogging. She is sleeping in her playpen at the moment though so I am hoping for a few minutes to update.

We went to see the paediatrician last Friday. While we were in the waiting room Paige in her biggest possible voice said: "Mama, is this the grumpy doctor???" Mama replied that no it wasn't the grumpy doctor to which Paige said: "But Mummy, you said she was mean." I could have died!!! Looks like I need to watch what I am saying when I think that little ears aren't listening!!!

The appointment went well though, and the doctor wasn't grumpy or mean, actually she was almost nice to me, and is taking me seriously now. Ella weighed 10 lbs 1 oz!!!! She's getting so big! The doctor said that she was going to call the plastic surgeon to see if she could get some action. Another thing that she mentioned was that she wondered why they weren't planning to do an MRI in the first place. Now I've been calling the surgeon's office every week, not getting anywhere. Her assistant says that she has Ella's papers on her desk and calls the booking department every couple of days..... The other thing was to try and get the appointment with the geneticist booked, which still hasn't happened. Well today I came home from getting Morgan from school to a message on the machine from the surgeon's office. When I called back, her assistant said that the paediatrician had phoned to consult, and that the consensus is that Ella is to have an MRI, and that they would be calling me directly to book but that it could take months. Five minutes later the phone rang and it was the paediatrician herself (which was very awesome of her) phoning to let me know that she had spoken to the actual radiologist and that the appointment would be made within the next month and that I should hear in a couple of weeks; if I don't I am to call her. FINALLY SOME ACTION!!!!!! I know that there is no real emergency, but I would really like to know what we are dealing with.

Morgan and Paige are awesome. They are really enjoying the nice weather and playing outside. Our annual street party was last weekend and they had a great time, especially with the fireworks.

I know that there is more I should be writing about but I am too tired to think straight, hopefully it won't be so long before I get a chance at the computer again.

Morgan's godfather became a Dad for the third time this morning. Welcome to the world!!! Megan Julianna was born at 12:23am (same time as Paige- cool eh?), and weighed 9 lbs 1 oz. Mom and baby doing well reportedly!!! Congratulations you guys, and welcome to the three girl club!!! xxoo

Crazy Life

Life over the past month has been insane to say the least. Everyone in this house (except Ella thankfully) has had an upper respiratory infection of some sort all with high fevers. I got everyone else through it, and thought that I had gotten off scott free until I got sick a little over a week ago. I'm feeling much better now, but still tired and coughing. Although the tiredness could just be due to the three children that reside in our house. :)

Now that the weather has finally warmed up, Morgan and Paige have been spending most of their time outside playing, which is a wonderful thing! Poor Paigie was so worn out tonight that she put herself to bed after her bath while I was bathing Ella, poor muffin. Morgan is having a bit of a difficult week. She got herself grounded from t.v. and playing on the playground at school before and after class due to some very rude behaviour last weekend while we were visiting friends. She actually hasn't asked to watch t.v., but the playground at school is much more difficult especially since Paige can play on it. Drastic times..... Hopefully the lesson will get through this time.

Ella is growing like a weed, and is such a happy baby. She is always grinning (those wonderful gummy grins that make your heart melt), and is very strong. I really have to watch when I am holding her that I always have a hand near her head, not to support it, but because she flings herself backwards and has almost landed on the floor a couple of times. Nothing new on the medical front, although now that we are outside so much I really have to watch her eye. I am playing phone tag with the plastic surgeon's two offices trying to get an answer as to when her CT scan is going to be booked. I would really like to know what we're dealing with.

I have pictures sitting on the camera that I need to upload when I get a second, but those seem to be few and far between these days. This is the first time I've actually sat down today.

Darling Fury is off to the vet with Maggie for needles on Thursday. Fingers and toes crossed for him, he's getting up there in age, and I have a couple of concerns about his health. I'm hoping its nothing and that he is in great shape. The trick with Maggie will be to keep her in that morning...little monster always runs out under the dogs legs.

Alright that's all for now, pictures will go up soon.

xoxo to all,
Tired Mama

Oh Happy Day!

Little Miss Ella Bean slept through the night last night, I can't believe it. She is the first to sleep all night at such an early age. I am not naive enough to think for one second that it will last, but I am so happy that it happened.

Also today I hung my first load of laundry out to dry, spring is in the air. Okay so I'm a bit strange, but it is the little things......

On another note this virus has taken over our house. Morgan and Paige are still not better, although Morgan did make it back to school yesterday after missing three days last week. Dad is now down with it, and home from work. Keeping my fingers crossed that Ella and I keep fighting it.

xxoo to all, HAPPY SPRING!!!!!

Maddison and Ella

Here is a picture of Maddison holding Ella, almost a month ago now!!!! Wow, where is the time going, I'll have to take some new pics because she is growing like a weed. The only problem is I have to get new batteries for the camera, they aren't holding a charge anymore, and I can only take about 5 pictures before the batteries die!!!!!

Cinderella pictures

Cinderella reading a story to the girls:

Princess Ella with Cinderella:


Princess Paige with Cinderella:


Princess Morgan with Cinderella:


Morgan getting her makeup done:


Paige getting her makeup done:


The girls had a wonderful time at the party, and thought Cinderella was awesome (she really was by the way, she sang, played games, and told them a story as well as doing their makeup). Paige has decided that Cinderella needs to come to her birthday party (which she is already in the process of planning).........

Quick Note

Just back from the doctor. Ella weighs 7 lbs 10 oz (little piggy). Doctor was nicer today, although not what I would call warm, she didn't get my hackles up like last time. Ella's chromosomal blood all came back fine as did the other blood test for a virus that I can't pronounce (the one you get from cats). The next thing she wants to do is set up an appointment with a geneticist to see what they have to say. It will probably be the doctor I saw when I had that in depth ultrasound at Mac. Other than that Ella looks great, and I go back in a month. Still waiting for an appointment for the scan. As for her eye, the doctor said to use the ointment instead of tape since her skin is getting irritated.
Before I forget: today was report card day. Morgan is doing really,really well; just some issues with printing and fine motor skills; which really comes as no surprise. Just something we have to keep working on. Other than that she is really doing well!!!!!!!
Off to make dinner. Pictures later.
:)

Update...

Well, Last week went much as the week before! More colds, and more lice….I was beginning to reach the end of my tether, because in the midst of all of that chaos, little Miss Ella Bean hit her six week growth spurt and wanted to nurse constantly.
We did however, all survive!!!! Yesterday was Maddison’s sixth birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDISON), and on Sunday she had her party. It was a princess party, and Cinderella was there!!!!!! I have some awesome pictures of the girls that I will post as soon as I get a minute to download them to my computer, and then upload them to the blog.
This afternoon we are off to the paediatrician, so I will have an update on Ella to post as well.
Two positives: I think we are winning the lice battle (I hope) using tea tree oil and Paige is continuing to be awesome with the potty and is completely trained during the day!!!! HOORAY!!
I’m off for a quick cup of tea; I’ll get those pictures up soon.
xxoo

Of doctors, potties, and life!

Last week was quite the week!

Paige had a horrible cold (actually she still has it, and the rest of us are fighting it), and was extremely miserable. But in the midst of her cold; she has potty trained herself, is wearing “big girl panties” and just a pull-up at night. What a star!!!!!

Ella had a busy week as well. We saw the plastic surgeon on Monday. She is a really nice lady, which was a relief after my great dislike for the paediatrician that we have to see. She told me that Ella’s ear and facial palsy are related, and probably occurred during development. She couldn’t really tell me exactly what is going on though. Ella needs a CT scan to see exactly what is going on. The discouraging thing was that she doesn’t think that it is something that will resolve itself, and that Ella will require surgery when she is older. Also I have to tape her eye shut when she is sleeping so that she doesn’t do any damage to that eye. The only problem is that the tape is really irritating her skin. Any suggestions???? It has to be taped though; she can’t have a patch because the eye-lid itself has to be shut so that her eye doesn’t dry out. So the next step is to wait for a call from the hospital with her appointment. We saw the family doctor on Friday, and Ella weighed 6 lbs 15 oz!!!!! Little piggy is growing very nicely. Also this weekend for the first time Ella looked at me with real recognition, and grinned at me. I totally melted.

In the midst of colds, potty training, doctors appointments, and just plain life; Miss Morgan came home from school with head lice. Now this is a bullet that we have been dodging ever since she started school last year, as the school is full of it. From what I’ve heard, 40% of the school is infested. What a pain!!! Morgan was an absolute star through the whole thing!!!! She is also being such a big help to me with the little ones.

Other than that, I am feeling much better physically, almost back to normal I’d say. I’m just trying to figure out a new routine; and learning to deal with the fact that I can’t get as much done as I used to. Actually I’m doing pretty well with that, as long as everyone is clean, fed and have clean clothes to wear we’re doing well. The vacuuming can wait. I’m hoping maybe the collie will figure out how to use it, since she is the biggest contributor of hair!!!

Well I’m off. It is a beautiful sunny spring morning, and we are off to a slow relaxed start which is kind of nice. Daddy is out of town this week, so it is just us girls. I’ll try to take some pictures of the girls this week.

Xoxo to all.

Quiet Sunday

Just a quick note to say that Morgan and Paige absolutely loved Curious George, and they cannot wait to go to their next movie.
Today for the first time, they had a play date with Devin and Tasha on their own. I dropped them off this morning, and picked them up this afternoon. They had a great time, and Kev and I had some quiet time to ourselves with Miss Ella. We also got some groceries done; which was great. Not something we can do with all three kids at the moment, and I haven’t gone since Ella was born because my incision hasn’t healed enough yet to be hauling groceries around. Many thanks to M and M for taking the girls and giving us a little break. It was much appreciated.
New pictures are up on Flickr now, and I’ll post soon about Ella’s appointment with the pediatric plastic surgeon.
Back to school tomorrow; although I don’t know if Morgan will make it, she wasn’t feeling well towards the end of the day today (actually Paige wasn’t either), and they were both running low-grade fevers so who knows…….

Where is the time going?

I can hardly believe it, but little Miss Ella Bean was a month old on Thursday. I have no idea where the time is going, but it sure is flying by. I know that I said I would post photos to flickr, but I haven't had a second, this is the first time I've gone near the blog since my last post, and I have new ones now as well, and I really will try to get them up as soon as I can.This past week was March Break, so Morgan was home. We had a great week, but very busy with lots of visiting. The girls were all awesome. As I write this Morgan and Paige are with Daddy for their first movie. They went to see Curious George. I must admit I'm quite jealous; I was hoping to take them to their first big screen movie. They were so excited to go by themselves with Daddy though, and I am sure they are having an amazing time!!!!

Last Friday was Morgan and Maddison's dance recital. You can see it here:

Video Sharing at DropShots.com

Paige did a show of her own:


Video Sharing at DropShots.com
I'll post pictures later, someone has woken up and would like to be fed. Ella has her appointment with the pediatric plastic surgeon on Monday, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Pictures as promised

Here are pictures of the girls. I have lots more, and will post them to flickr, so you can check them out there. xxoo


Big Sister Paige!!!


Daddy and Paige doing a puzzle.


The big sister t-shirts that Ashton made with the girls!!!! :)

Daddy with his three girls.

Now that's a lot of girls!!!!

A huge THANK YOU

to everyone who has sent cards, baby gifts, best wishes. You'll all be getting cards some day when I have a second to myself, but in the mean time I wanted to let you all know how much your love and best wishes mean to us.

Extra, extra special thanks to Grandma for watching the kids while we were in the hospital, Lynn for all your help throughout the last nine months, Auntie Catherine for that first week home, and Miranda for stocking my freezer!!!!!!

You are all awesome, and we love you!!!

xxoo

Ella Grace

At long last I would like to introduce the latest member of our family. Ella Grace was born on February 16, 2006 at 2:58 am. She was very tiny weighing in at only 5 lbs 5 oz, and was born via emergency c-section. She is healthy though and growing like a weed. We were at the family doctors this afternoon, and she weighed 5 lbs 11 oz, so is growing very nicely now that she is on the outside. It turns out that there was a hole in her placenta which is most likely why she was not growing well in utero. I wonder how long the hole was there because they saw blood in my very first ultrasound way back in August, and she was already measuring small by the end of September, so who knows.
Ella has some nerve damage in her face, and is missing an earlobe, so we are being followed by a pediatrician to monitor that. Our family doctor thinks that it will repair itself (the nerve damage), and thought he noticed some improvement already. She did pass her hearing screen in the hospital in both ears with flying colours though, so the inner workings of her ear are fine. The doctors just want to follow her closely because of all of those issues combined.
Morgan and Paige are so excited that their baby is finally here, and love her to bits. I have lots of pictures to post which I will try to do this weekend. Morgan and Ella share the exact same birth weight, and were both born on a Thursday. How cool is that?
Auntie Catherine came the day I got home from the hospital, and was with us for that first week home. She was an amazing help to me, and Morgan and Paige adore having her here. Thank You Auntie Catherine for all of your help to me, and for spoiling all of us so much. You made that first week so much easier for me. Also thank you to Catherine for making the new banner for the blog!!! You rock!
It will be interesting to see how the shift from two children to three goes. This past week was our first one on our own, so we are still finding our groove. Morgan and Paige are transitioning quite well, although both are having a hard time and are manifesting it in different ways. I'm sure I'll be writing all about it over the next few months.

Here she is hot off the press, maybe an hour old. I love how alert she is. As I said I have lots of pictures that I will try to post this weekend.

Hell hath no fury like........

a woman at the end of pregnancy.


I'd just like to apologize to everyone for my moodiness, and lack of communication over the last week or so. That goes to my husband and children especially.

I think pregnant woman should be allowed to hibernate like bears for the last few weeks of their pregnancies!!!!!!!

Anyways, love to all, and I should be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Don't worry, everyone will hear as soon as there is any news.

xxoo

More of Christmas 2005

Paigie Pie with her new microphone that came in her stocking.
Grandma and her three grandchildren.
Our pretty Christmas tree.
Maggie cat in the tree!



I'll post the rest of the pictures on Flickr, just click the pictures on the right to see them.

Gingerbread House

Well I figure it's time to start posting some pictures from Christmas, since there isn't all that much time before the baby comes, and we all know how good I am at procrastinating!! Here are the girls with the gingerbread house that they made on Christmas Eve with Auntie Liane.
 

Technical Difficulties

Okay guys, I am in need of computer help. I use Netscape as my browser, and it is displaying this new template perfectly, except that my counter at the bottom of the page isn't showing, even though the code is there. I went to see how the new template looks in Explorer, and all of my sidebar stuff is at the bottom, although my counter is showing.

Any advice would be great.

New Look

Well, it was time for a change. The pink was cute for awhile, especially when you consider the fact that this blog is about little girls, but it was starting to drive me crazy!!!!! So we're going for a bit of a more sophisticated look to appease the hormonally challenged mother of the little girls previously mentioned. Let me know what you think.

Time constraints

Okay, I know that I was supposed to write a post about Morgan's bowling party, but somehow I seem to have gotten sidetracked (I can't imagine how...). So here's what I've done instead, I uploaded a whole bunch of photo's to flickr. All you have to do is click on any of the photos in the flickr badge or on the title of this post, and it will take you straight to the page.

I'll try to post Christmas photos before the baby comes...... speaking of which I had my 34 week appointment last week (I can't believe how quickly the time is flying), and all is well. Baby is head down and looking good apparently. I go back on the 24th and every week after that until baby makes his/her appearance. It's really hard to imagine that in six weeks or less there will be another little person in our lives. I'll keep everyone posted.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year to all our family and friends. Much love, and best wishes for the coming year.
xxoo
The Doodlebugz

Technical difficulties

I've been trying to upload photos from Morgan's bowling party, but BLOGGER seems to be on crack tonight, and it just isn't working. My hormonal self is getting very frustrated, so I will try again tomorrow when I've had some rest.

The party went very well, although I was very unimpressed with the bowling alley this year. I booked the party well over a month ago, and they neglected to tell me that they no longer had a party room upstairs. Consequently we were squished downstairs right beside another party that was booked at the same time as us. Our party was booked for 1pm, and they didn't even get the kids bowling until well after 1:30pm which had me quite cross, but that is mostly due to my pregnant state, and lack of sleep. The kids had a ball (I hope), and didn't mind at all. I know our guys had a great time. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pics tomorrow.

At home Birthday Dinner

Here is Miss Morgan with her cake after she blew out her candles.
Opening presents: these books were from Auntie Catherine. Thank You!!!!

Miss Paige's nose was quite out of joint over the whole birthday thing, so we found her something to open. It was a prize from Devin's birthday party that we hadn't opened yet. Godmother Miranda saves the day!!!!


All in all it was a very good evening. We ate pizza with Grandma and Jared, and ate cake and ice cream. The kids had a great time!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday Dear Morgan!!!!!! It's hard to believe that you are five years old today, it seems like just yesterday that you were born!!!!
We had a great and very busy day, I will post pictures tomorrow when I am less tired!!!!
Love to all. xxoo

28 week appointment

Just a quick update on the pregnancy. I had my 28 week appointment this afternoon. Paige came with me, and really liked hearing the baby's heart beat, which was 152. Everything looks good except that my hernia that I had repaired in order to have Paige (it caused distress when I was carrying Morgan) looks as though it may be poking through a bit. Fingers and toes that it doesn't get any worse. Other than that, everything is perfect!

Sparks Enrollment

Thursday night was Morgan's enrollment at Sparks. When a new Spark is enrolled, they are presented to the leaders by a second year Spark. This meant that it was Maddison that presented Morgan, which was very cool!!!!

The gruesome twosome!!!! For two kids who fight like cats and dogs, they sure love each other!!!!
Morgan and Maddison coming through the rainbow, after Morgan said her promise and officially became a Spark.

Gotta love the germs that come home from school!

Poor little Miss Paigie Pie has been down with her first bout of the stomach flu. She woke up with it during the wee hours of Thursday morning. Friday she was much much better although still not eating. This morning she woke up overly cranky, and things went downhill from there. Poor little muffin, hopefully she feels better tomorrow, and can start eating again. She is loving jello though, and it seems to be staying down. She has been living on gingerale, and crackers!!!!!
A huge ThankYou to Lynn for all of your help on Thursday taking Morgan to school, and for baking the cookies for Sparks, you're a great friend!

Visit with the Aunties

Kevin got home from his week of training in Elmira on Friday night. The girls were so excited to see him. I felt really bad though because I figured that he wouldn't be home until late, so we went to Miranda's for dinner. As I was leaving her house around 7pm or so my cell rang, and this kind of sad voice said "where are you, I've been home for an hour!". Of course by the time I got home, the girls were fast asleep!!! The Aunties, and cousin Elizabeth came for a lovely visit on Saturday. Thank you for the pizza lunch!! The girls had such a good time entertaining Elizabeth, and are still talking about it. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures though. Auntie Christine did though, so once she emails them to me, I will post them. My foolish cold is back again, so I am trying to rest, and drink lots of fluids, I am getting quite cross about the whole thing.

Morgan's Turkey

This Turkey was made at school by Morgan.

Paige's Turkey

Paige made this Turkey as her craft at library before Thanksgiving. 

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Kev and the girls on his 32nd Birthday!

Dance Class

Morgan and Maddison at dance class.

 

Deep in conversation

Here are Paigie and Ashton deep in conversation while Morgan and Maddison are at dance class.

A Girl and her Dog!!

Last month, Morgan and I took Cookie to Toronto to visit with her family. Everybody had a great time, and I got some really good pictures.

This is Morgan and Cookie with her breeder Laura Colton.
Here are three generations: on the far left is Cookie, in the middle is Bliss (Cookie's daughter), and on the far right is Breezy (Cookie's mother).
Here is another picture of Breezy.
Morgan in the dog house, and Cookie (in front) with her son Paulie.
This is Cookie's other son Tonka.

Ultrasound

Wednesday was my fourth ultrasound for this pregnancy. They have been watching me quite carefully because of a low-lying placenta among other things, and because my OB knows that I am one of the biggest worriers that he has ever met! He was very confident that every was fine, but also knew that I was in need of some extra reassurance. Well the ultrasound went very well, and the baby looks great. I can't believe how fast the baby is growing!
The last picture that I posted were from August, so here are the ones from September, and this week:


This picture was from September.


This one was taken this week, and it really looks like there is a little person in there!!


This one is my favourite, you can really see the baby's face. Well most of us can (right Daddy???? :) ) Morgan was able to see the baby's face right away.

Update

Okay, so I haven't been too good at keeping things up to date. I will try to catch up on everything this week. I have quite a few pictures to post, but will do it in my next post. School is going very well for Morgan, and she can now count up to 30 en francais!!!! Morgan has also started Sparks, and is really enjoying it. Miss Paigie is growing like a weed. She was a bit cross when Morgan started school this year and she didn't, but now seems to be enjoying the quiet afternoons at home. Also we attend a story time at the library. The pregnancy has been challenging so far, mainly I think because this time there are two other little people who need me as well. I go for my fourth ultrasound this afternoon, and will update later. They are keeping a very close eye on me this time, but all seems to be well. We celebrated Kevin's birthday on the 3rd of October, and the birth of our niece Ilysa Rose Linton on the 4th of October. Welcome to the world little one!! More later when I hook the camera up to the computer. Love to all.

First Day of School

Morgan had her first day of school last Thursday. It went very well, and she was very excited about her new teacher, and her new classroom. Half the class went on Thursday, and the other half of the class went on Friday, so she will find out who else is in her class tomorrow.
Here are some pictures from her first day:


Morgan and Paige at home before we left for school.



Morgan and Maddison on the playground at school before they went in; they are in different classes this year.

We're all still alive.....really!!!!

I know I haven't posted in ages, but we are all still alive. I've been so tired by the time evening rolls around, and the kids are tucked safely in their beds, that I haven't had a chance to post anything. Last week we had a great visit from Auntie Catherine. I finally got the photos transferred from the camera, onto my computer so I will start posting the rest of the England pictures asap!! I see the doctor on Friday, and will update you all on that soon. Morgan starts school in one week, and cannot wait to go to Mme. Quait's class to learn french!!!! Other than that all is well! xxoo

Ultrasound photo

I couldn't get the picture very clear, but here it is:





I actually have two pictures, but I can't seem to edit the other one at all, and it is way too blurry to post. This one came out pretty well, and if you look closely you can see arms and legs!!!

ANNOUNCING.......

Well it's been another crazy week, and I still haven't had time to get those pictures posted. I'm going to get to it soon though because there are some great ones from our last week in England. On another note, we have some news for everyone. We are pleased, and very surprised to announce that our family will be growing by one this February. Morgan and Paige will have a new brother or sister. I had an ultrasound last week which showed that the baby looks great, and that I am due on the 18th of February. Once I figure out how to post the pictures, I will. I can't scan them apparently because it ruins the picture. I'll try to take a picture of it with the digital camera. Love to all!!!!

We're back.....

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we are now home safely after a very long flight. Morgan has announce to everyone that the flight took 28 hours and was very boring; poor kid!!! I have lots of new photos to post, which I will do once we have settled back into a routine, and have recovered from our jet lag!!! Until then, love to everyone!