St. Patty's!

Happy St. Patty's Day!  We had originally wanted our newest little leprechaun to join our family today..we scheduled our induction for today (YES, even though our doctor would be out of town). Well the little guy had a different idea. So instead of being at the hospital, I got to attempt being a crafty mom.

I wanted to make the day fun for the kids and have a Green day.  I started with Green french toast.  I know the picture doesn't really show how green they were.  I originally wanted to cut them into shamrock shapes, but couldn't find a cutter :(  As a matter of fact, I could find anything that was St. Patrick's Day.  I traveled to 4 different stores one day and 3 another, but found nothing....not one shirt, necklace, decoration, NOTHING.  I guess that is what I get for shopping the week of.

 

 So Gary went to the grocery store and found a few necklaces and hair accessories (finally) luckily we bought Finn a shirt months ago!  So here is a cute picture of my kiddos sporting their Green.

And you can't forget the new little guy. Had to take a picture of him since he actually had a themed shirt on.

And what a McCutie he is!!

We ended the day making green cupcakes and frosting!  What a delicious day.  We bought some corned beef for dinner, but since Gary had hockey, we celebrated the real food part on Saturday.  It was my first time eating corned beef, and it was pretty good!

Introducing.....

Finnegan James

Born

March 5, 2011 at 12:11pm

6lbs 15 oz

20 inches

It is hard to believe that after 9 hard months he is finally here.  This pregnancy has been the hardest by far.  Sick for over 20 weeks, diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, contracting from 32 weeks and a baby sitting so low for weeks it hurt to walk...but yet I survived and he was born healthy and happy at 37.5 weeks.

Here is his first photo!

And My.... how I grew!

And his BIG brother loving him from the start.

Everyone knows I switch doctors with this pregnancy to have my favorite doctor, Dr. Ponder, deliver me. Not to mention I wanted to share this joy with all my friends at work.  Well, at about my 34 week appointment she informed me that she would be out of town the week before my due date.  WHAT!!! I can't believe I would switch docs to have her deliver me, just to find that she wont even be here.  I can say I was more than a little disappointed!  We were hoping for a St. Patty's Day induction.  We decided to schedule it anyway and have one of her partners deliver us :(

With all the contracting I was doing early on I was certain I wouldn't make it that far anyway...I needed to have this baby before she left.

Well I hit my 37 week mark and was feeling pretty confident that the next week was the week.  I worked my 3 shifts that week and oh yes, the dreaded On-Call shift that Thursday night.  When I got off shift that morning I was contracting every 5 minutes (and not the most comfortable). I went to my appointment  after work and was assured I would NOT make it to my induction date...YEAH!!!

I went home still contracting took a nap and woke up a few hours later still contracting.  I thought this is it.  Boy was I wrong.  A few hours later it all stopped in time for a good nights sleep.

7:35 am Saturday morning I woke up to the the strongest contraction ever.  Then again less than 5 minutes. Within an hour, I knew it was time.  We took the kids over to Gary's parents and headed to the hospital.  We checked in around 9 am...and the rest is history!

Here I am...Active labor trying to get my stubborn boy to flip around to face the right way!  And if you are asking No, I had no epidural..so I was free to move around!

3 long hellish hours later we welcomed baby Finn to our family!

Love at first sight!

Boy isn't he the cutest!

The proudest big sisters!

Keegan took a little convincing.  He was excited to hear we were having the baby.  When he came to the hospital the excitement was over.  I am pretty sure he was expecting a little boy his size to play with.  But rest assured, he loves him now :)

Going home.  Isn't the shirt perfect. I keep hearing how much he looks like Gary.

And occasionally he has his eyes open.  It just happens when all the visitors are gone!

My 3 BOYS!!!

This is MY family.  I love them all.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is so fun.  I remember growing up and every year trying to come up with a design for my Valentine box.  20 years ago, I didn't feel so creative.  Now that I am a somewhat crafty mom I couldn't wait to come up with some kind of cool boxes for the kids.

I preschool all they did was decorate a BIG white envelope for their Valentines.  Which I guess is OK by me since there are only 10 kids in the class.  Besides it was a great art project for Keegan and he was so proud of his work.

The Elementary School on the other hand was a little disappointing.  When Shantel was in Kindergarten we decorated a box for her ( and crafty me came up with the castle..I thought it was cute and original).  Well this year, Shantels class decorated their own boxes for their art days.  So we had to take in an empty shoe box a few weeks before their Valentine's party so they could decorate it at school.  Talk about boring.  Although if you know me and how much I have been complaining about this homework and that project, you would think I would be jumping for joy at the thought of one less thing I had to do. And yes, I am happy it is one less stress I had to deal with, but isn't that kinda what it is all about?

 Here is Shantel with her handcrafted Valentine box...very festive!

Kallie's class had the right idea...once again Kindergarten :)

I asked Kallie what kind of box she wanted to make.  Gave her all kinds of cool ideas, from castles to butterflies and she insisted on a pink box with valentine stickers.  Yes..my girly girl wanted a plain PINK box with stickers.  How do you argue with a 5 year old with her mind made up...you DON"T!  So I went to the craft store, bought some pink paper and stickers and she went to town.  I can't even tell you how excited she was for her plain pink box.  I did pull out my cricut to cut some hearts and her name out.

Let me tell how you how funny this girl is.  As you can see..her name is written in fancy writing..semi cursive looking.  Well she insisted that it didn't spell Kallie right.  She told me the L's looked like E's and no one would know that was her Valentine box.  I assured her that is very princess like writing and YES, they would know it was her box. She kept insisting "no, that says K-A-E-E-I-E" she would tell me. I asked her if she wanted me to change it for her.  She said no ( after much convincing) but asked if I would come to her party and tell her class that those were the letter L so they didn't make fun of her.  I really didn't think that a simple font would cause so much drama in the Kindergarten world.  After her party I asked if her friends knew it said Kallie....surprise surprise..they all knew it was her box. (although who knows what kind of stink she made at school!)

 Here are the girls reading all their special valentines!

Where Did the Time Go?

My Baby Boy is 4!

 Happy Birthday Keegan! 

I can't believe it has been 4 years since this little man surprised this family.  Where did the time go?  I swear he went from a baby... to a talking toddler... to a big boy over night.  I guess I only have his older sisters to blame.  He is such a bright boy, it's no wonder he wanted to grow up fast so he could play with his sisters.

He got to celebrate his birthday his first day back from winter break at school.

Since his birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, we kept it simple and made double chocolate brownies to celebrate.  Mmmm were they good. 

His birthday being after Christmas, when you asked him what he wanted for his birthday he couldn't give us an answer.  What do you get a boy who just got everything?? 

4 Wonderful years with a very sweet boy.  It is amazing how different boys are from girls.  They play different and they LOVE their moms.  He is the sweetest thing and we are excited to be giving him a brother.  He is going to be the best big brother.

Here is his ultrasound picture.  He was our "Surprise" from day one all the way until the end when he came out a boy!  And what a great surprise he was!

Wow..he used to be so small.

How did he go from looking like this ^

To looking like this >

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is such a magical time of year.  Yes, it is busy in our home (not just with Christmas but the birthdays the week before and week after!)  We really enjoy all the celebration. 

Christmas Morning!

The kids were so excited to open presents.  It was hard to get pictures of them all.  I was the mean mom and made them open one present at a time.  I just couldn't miss out of their excited faces.

And EXCITED faces they had.  This is what makes Christmas so magical!

Look at the excitement and magic in their eyes!

This year we kept asking the kids what they wanted.  The lists when on and on.  Esp. for Keegan who wanted everything he saw on TV. 

Kallie asked for her "Fur-Real Puppy" and of course at the very last minute told Santa she wanted an American Doll.  Well Santa answered her call (kinda) and got her the doll.  Her name is even Callie!

The only thing that stayed consistent on Keegans wish list was a Batman and Spiderman Wii game.

Among the Stinky the Garbage Truck and BigFoot.

All Shantel wanted and asked and asked for was a DS.  Can you guess by her face, what she was opening?

Lemieux was even a good dog and got a present from the big guy.  He couldn't wait to sink his teeth into his new toys!

The girls played their DS's all day and into the night.  Do you think they even knew I was there?

Oh yeah, a quick look up for a pictures.

It was the first Christmas I have had totally OFF without worrying I might have to work since I started in the health care field.  It was so nice to be able to enjoy my family not in Zombie mode! 

And what is Christmas without a quick family photo!

Yes, all 6 of us!

And we can't end it all without a picture of the aftermath!

Here is what the house looked like the morning after Christmas....

This is after 4 bags of trash has been taken out and another 3 are not visible!

8 years already?

8 years ago I became a mother.  Everyone one gives you advice, but no one can tell you the adventure that really takes place in raising a child.  It has been one wild ride.  8 years and a lot of laughing and tears (on both our parts)!  I can't believe she is so big...well not big in the sense of tall

(my girls still squeezes into size 5)!

For her birthday she gave me a list of things she wanted to do for her party, and it changed every other day.  I convinced her to go with a party at home so she could invite MORE friends.  10 friends later we had an awesome girly birthday bash at home.

 10 girls and 2 siblings later the house was full of giggles and screams.

This is the crew that ran wild through the house!  All innocent can't you tell?

For her party we decorated GIANT cupcakes with colored frosting and sprinkles of every color.

Then we played a fun game of blindfolded chapstick.  Each girl took a chapstick and applied it to their neighbor..BLINDFOLDED.  What a funny sight to watch.  The girls had chapstick from their necks to their foreheads.

 Then came time to play musical nail polish.  Pass the nail polish around until the music stops..whoever the lucky...or unlucky person was holding that color was out and got to keep that color.  The colors green and yellow went flying across the room...can't imagine why those colors weren't wanted :)

Then came the opening of the presents.  WOW! what a fun scene..girls fighting over who was to be first as well as last.  She got everything from petshops, to art stuff.  What a great bunch of friends she has.  Then came more running wild through the house until it was time to go home.  It was so fun to put faces with names and meet some parents.

 Cousin Ella and Shantel

Shantel's other lifelong bud Abbie.

Happy Birthday Shantel