10 Years

I slept through the actual event though dreamed of it. I woke up to horror in the real world. It played out like a movie, but CNN doesn't play movies. I went to my sister's house where my poor newly 4 yr old nephew thought it was his fault because it was his birthday (it took several years to have a happy birthday again). We watched in disbelief of what was unfolding in front of us.

Even here in Canada, all government buildings were evacuated just in case the next plane came here. My then-fiance worked as a janitor in one of those buildings and his boss would not let them leave. Threatened to fire them if they did. I was livid. Thankfully he made it home safely unlike so many others.

This morning I watched the "live" footage of that day with Brianna. It was like seeing a movie I've seen before with someone who's never seen it. Through her questions and comments, all I could say was "keep watching". I watched in as much awe and silence as I did 10 years ago.

In my thoughts are the people who lost their lives that day and the many since who have lost their lives fighting in the subsequent war.

Olivia's 2nd Birthday!

My baby girl turned 2 today! I can't believe it! And not in the normal "where have 2 years gone" sense either. More than how can she be 2 if she's the same size Isaac and Brianna we're at only their first birthdays?!

*Again Note: There's a few years missing where we lost our entire hard drive. Also, pardon the pics of pics* *2nd note, yes, all 3 of my birth children really were born within 2 weeks of each other lol*

My favorite newborn pic of her

This is awesome! She didn't like the camera lady "tickling" her with the toy, the next photo (5 seconds later) is of a giant smile lol

Mama and Olivia

Hair cake!

Airmail!!!

Dumped in a snowbank

Classic sketti shot

Cool dude!

Happy Birthday!

Isaac's 12 Birthday!

Ok, so it was yesterday, but I was gone all day and didn't have the energy to post at midnight!

12 years ago my first born and only birth son was born. After 84 hours (yes that's hours) of labour, a screaming 8lb 10oz baby made his way into the world.

*Again Note: There's a few years missing where we lost our entire harddrive. Also, pardon the pics of pics*

First day home from the hospital

Classic Sketti shot

1st Birthday

Meeting Brianna for the first time!

Decorated for Christmas!

One of our favorite pics

Go Sens Go!

First day of Kindergarten

My favorite pic of the 2 of us

First Autograph!

Indiana Jones

First time meeting Olivia!

Isaac chose Baritone for Music class

Happy 12th Birthday!

Brianna's 9th Birthday!!!

Today my oldest girl turns 9. Here are some of my favorite pictures of her *Note: There's a few years missing where we lost our entire harddrive. Also, pardon the pics of pics*

Olivia's 1st Birthday Party!

So I'm a week late posting this *blush*

It was a great party! Several of Lee's family came (except his parents) including all of his grandparents. Olivia actually did very well with all the new people. Lee's uncle Steven (who Olivia's never met) was actually able to pic her up and she didn't freak out!

We just visited with everyone for a while before present time. Olivia was very interested in them. She got some little fake flowers as decoration on a gift that she was madly in love with that almost outshined all the other gifts lol She tried to run away with several gifts as if someone was gonna take them from her lol

I changed her into the first birthday outfit (the same overall shorts and onsies that Isaac and Brianna wore on their first birthday) for cake. I made her a butterfly shaped smash cake and a matching butterfly cake for the big cake. She was totally weirded out by the smash cake and while she'd eat the cake off my fingers, she didn't want to touch it herself! We put her in the pool after which she thought was great until she tripped and landed face first in the water. Then she had enough.

I changed her into dry clothes and we visited a little more until she needed to go for a nap. It was a long day for her as she fell right to sleep!

Happy 11th Birthday Isaac!!!

Isaac's actual birthday was yesterday (the 16th) and we had a little party for him today!

As soon as he came in he wanted cake lol I made the cake he wants every year, white cake with blue icing. I wrote his name in green as I always do too. Unfortunately the kids were so impatient to eat it, I didn't get a before picture.

First we did gifts. The book he got, he got as another birthday gift but I told him to just take it to the book store and exchange it for the other one he was looking for. He was super excited for the Lego set Grandma got him cause he had been looking for that one. Brianna bought him the Zhu Zhu pet Nugget that he wanted and we also got him a little lego type dump truck. He set to building the Lego set while I got commissioned to build the dump truck.

I made the children eat lunch before cake (the mean mommy that I am lol). Isaac had to make sure I brought enough candles for his cake (cause of course I'm gonna forget that he's 11). Once we sang Happy Birthday and Isaac blew out the candles we dug in. I made Olivia little bitty cupcakes from leftover batter and she wasn't too impressed. Hopefully she does better with her birthday cake!

Got loads of pics including a good one of all 3 of them and my annual "how tall are Isaac and Brianna" pic.

Slight Break in the Heat

Instead of it being 45C, it's 35-40C. Not much, but something. I've taken to taking cold showers every afternoon at the peak heat. Poor Olivia's been running around and sleeping in nothing but a onsie. Brianna's in the pool for hours a day. Lee's finally getting some relief at work. As of tomorrow he's allowed to wear shorts to work! YAY! I'd die if I had to wear jeans like he always has.

Isaac's birthday is coming up on Friday and Olivia's in Monday. We're having a big birthday visit this weekend. That reminds me... I need blue icing dye for his cake! We've had some RSVPs for Olivia's birthday, but Lee's still worried most of his family won't show up.

Olivia's been sick. She just got over Roseola and a fever of 105F and now she's got some kind of stomach bug, poor baby. She's not really eating, but thankfully she's still drinking/nursing a lot. Brianna's got some random cough but nothing else.

Brianna's 8th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Brianna!

Her birthday was this past Monday and we had her party on Sunday. She had a blast! We had a great turn out of her friends and her cousins, Kyle and Tanya, were finally able to make it since they now live in town!

Sunday was the start of a massive heat wave in the area so we set up the pool for the kids. Brianna's guests weren't even here yet and she was asking to go in it! As soon as lunch was done we set them loose. Lee thought up this great scheme that me and mom would "plot" with the kids to get them to throw Lee in the pool. The kids thought this was a wonderful idea and of course Lee pretended to know nothing about it.

Brianna wanted a Littlest Pet Shop cake this year so I bought one of the sets that come with a bunch of accessories and made up a little scene on her cake. She thought it was great!

She was so happy with her gifts. Her favorites were some craft sets from her friend Lyric, the Zhu Zhu baby that Auntie Lisa got her, the baby skateboard Lee and I bought and the *real* baseball and bat from Grandma.