Rachel's Big Girl Bedroom

Rachel's new room is almost done. I just have to finish putting the fringe on the big mirror and then once the mirror is hung above the dresser, the room will be complete. Well, until she moves out of the crib once and for all I guess. Then we'll rearrange things again but as far as decorating goes, we're done and Rachel definitely approves.

She likes to 'water' the flowers with her watering can.

In the centre of each flower, there is a mirror and then we found some fluffy fringe and put it around the edges of the mirrors so they wouldn't be sharp.

The one flower is hidden by the bed but we think Rachel will like to look through the headboard and see herself that way :)

Hmmm...I still need to change the handles on this dresser. I bought them before Christmas but I don't remember where I put them. It was in a spot I would remember...lol

We put these shelves up a few weeks ago - they are situated above her crib right now. I bought a shadow box and put her 'Big Sister' t-shirt in there along with a picture of Natalie & Rachel. I figured since Natalie won't be wearing the t-shirt, it should be a special keepsake. And it matches the decor in her room perfectly (butterfly on the shirt).

More mirrors for Rachel to adore herself in :) Oh - and the fancy garbage pail, too! I just bought a simple garbage pail at Ikea and then added some fun fringe.

Simply adorable.

She wanted to be covered up with her blanket and then she was all smiles for the camera

A big smooch G'night...

The weekend in pictures...

Weekly cow picture - 14 weeks old

Rachel & I were so excited when the wagon arrived, we opened the box up in the foyer. Rachel was a wonderful little helper!

After the wagon was put together, Grandad took Rachel for a walk in it in the backyard.

Rachel was so excited - I wish I would have captured that first moment on video - she was squealing with delight.

This picture of Rachel just makes me laugh. She had to wear her hat in the house and yes, she insists she put it on herself; hence the way it's sitting on her head. She was checking out some goods she received in the mail from The Wiggles!

Daddy was washing my vehicle on Sunday morning so Rachel wanted to go outside and help.

Don't you just love the rubber boots with the jogging suit? :)

"Look Mommy, I got the spot Daddy missed!"

She needed to take a little rest after all that cleaning! I ended up putting mittens on her and a blanket over her legs since it was so chilly outside (this was around 8:30 in the morning) and then we went for a quick walk.

Rachel LOVES Dorothy the Dinosaur from The Wiggles. She's puckering up to give Dorothy a kiss. By the way, this towel goes with Rachel EVERYWHERE right now.

Grandad & Natalie were having quite the conversation.Meanwhile, Grandma & Rachel were waiting for the bus. Rachel is telling Grandma to be quiet. You can't see it in the picture but Grandma was rocking one of Rachel's dolls in the carseat.

Natalie is such a happy baby! This picture was taken just after she woke up this morning. All I did was get her dressed and then plopped her in the chair to take her picture.

Of course when the camera is out, Rachel has to be a part of the pictures, too. She's not looking too impressed in this picture though...she saves her smiles for special moments!

Since everyone comments on Natalie's cheeks, I thought I'd get a close up of them :)

Busy week...long week...emotional week...

I really don't even know where to begin with this post because it's been a LONG week. On Monday morning, a close friend of mine lost her boyfriend. He was 26 years old and he died of a heart attack. That's not right! I shouldn't be watching my friend go through this at such a young age. I ordered flowers for her on Monday because I heard she was actually at home for a little while that day and I wanted her to know I was thinking of her. The flower shop was great - they delivered the flowers within half an hour of me placing the order.

Ron discovered on Tuesday that he blew a brake line in his pick up truck so we obviously had to go get that fixed. Add to this that his work truck was broken into the night before and had to have a window replaced. The girls & I headed over to International to pick him up after work (around 4) and then we had to head back to the shop to get his pick up truck....and THEN head over to his cousin's shop to drop the pick up truck off to get fixed. London isn't a HUGE city but it is big enough that traffic at rush hour SUCKS...not to mention the stupid pot holes. You would think with the amount of property tax we pay (it would honestly make you sick), we would have the best roads in the world!!!! Anyway, by the time we did all of this running around, we didn't get home until 6pm. The girls were a little cranky...and rightfully so. If I had to sit in a car for 2 hours, I would be too! Oh wait - I DID...and I WAS! :)

I went to Toronto for the day on Wednesday with a friend and we saw Dirty Dancing. I really enjoyed it; not sure if it was the show I enjoyed or the fact that I was out of the house for a day. Please don't get me wrong - I love my girls with all my heart but I was ready for a 'Me' day. Stopped at Ikea on the way home and picked up some stuff for the girls. Oma spent the day with Rachel & Natalie and thankfully they were both angels. That's my one fear when I'm away from the girls - I'm not worried about the care they are in...I just worry that they'll have an 'off' day and the people who are watching them will never want to babysit again! ha ha Anyway, Oma had a good day with the girls and I'm sure they enjoyed spending time with her.

Thursday I didn't do much during the day other than take the girls for our morning walk in the wagon (I LOVE the wagon!!!) since Ron had my vehicle. We dropped the girls off at my parents on Thursday night (after we invited ourselves for dinner - ha ha) and then Ron & I headed over to the funeral home. As much as I hate going to funeral homes (as I'm sure everyone does), I realize that it's the right thing to do. It was rough but I knew Friday would be worse. We didn't stay long at the funeral home so we were probably gone for a total of 25 minutes. When we got back to my parents, we could hear Natalie screaming before we even got close to the door. My first thought was 'uh oh....should have brought the bouncy chair'. My parents were obviously not bothered by Natalie screaming but it made me feel bad. Here they are helping us out and yet Natalie screamed 90% of the time we were gone. Good thing she's cute :)

Ron's truck still wasn't ready on Thursday night so he asked his groundsman to pick him up on Friday morning so I could have a vehicle to go to the funeral. The back up plan was to use my Mom's car and have her come over here instead of me dropping the girls off. Wouldn't you know it that Rachel was STILL sleeping at 11:55am and I needed to leave by noon. I packed up the car (including the bouncy chair), packed Natalie up in her carseat and then went to wake Rachel up. God love her - she was sawing logs. I rubbed her back a little bit and called her name a few times. She finally woke up and I literally just lugged her downstairs, threw her coat & shoes on and we were on our way. Thank goodness she's an easy going kid! When I got to my parents, I pretty much just dumped everything off, kissed the girls and I was on my way to the funeral. I got there around 12:15 and the parking lot was almost full (the funeral didn't start until 1). It ended up being such a large funeral that they had to set up another room in the funeral home and pipe the sound in. It was a beautiful service and there was not a dry eye in the house. A few of us went to the reception afterwards so I actually got a chance to talk to Aimee for awhile. I know she has a tough road ahead of her and I reminded her that I have a couple of little ones here who would love to give her cuddles when she needs them.

Today was another busy day...finishing Rachel's room. Sort of. We're getting there but it's not completely done yet. We painted the flowers on the wall so hopefully this week we can finish the room! We went to Rona and purchased the railing for our deck that we built 4 years ago :) We couldn't decide what we wanted to do with the railing so that's why it never got done. I'm excited to get the deck done and get rid of the 'temporary' stairs that we built for our party (also 4 years ago lol).

At any rate, I'm exhausted after such a long and emotional week. Please keep my friend Aimee in your thoughts & prayers...along with her boyfriend's family.

Natalie's 3 month pictures

I finally found some time to scan Natalie's 3 month pictures that were taken last week. The first one is my favourite...

We had a very productive weekend. Our new patio furniture is finally assembled and on the deck, along with the new swing! We spent a lot of time playing with Rachel while Natalie sat in the stroller enjoying the nice weather.

Our wagon arrived on Monday morning. I was super impressed with that considering I just ordered it Friday afternoon. I started putting it together yesterday and then my Dad came over to help me finish it off. Once it was assembled, we took Rachel for a walk in it. She LOVES it! This morning I took both girls for a walk in the wagon. It's perfect because we can put Natalie in her carseat and then Rachel still has lots of room to stretch out. What's even better is that I can get some exercise out of this deal :) I took some pictures yesterday but they are on the laptop and I'm using the desktop since I had to scan Natalie's pictures. I'll save the wagon pictures for another day.

I'm off to Toronto tomorrow to see Dirty Dancing with my friend Linda. Oma is going to hang out with the girls; hopefully the weather is nice and it doesn't rain. Anyway, I'm very excited to be going to Toronto for the day tomorrow - it will be a nice 'change' and I've heard the play is really good.

Have a great evening!

Natalie is 3 months old today!

Wow! Was it really 3 months ago when I was holding Natalie as a newborn? It just doesn't seem possible. How sad that I'm already 25% through my maternity leave...only 9 more months to go!

Rachel was very excited to be wearing a different shirt today! lol Natalie looks like a weight lifter or something with the way she's sitting.
"Come on, Nat - dance with me!"

I remember a lot of people telling me that when the 2nd baby arrives, you don't get as many gifts. I don't really believe that to be true. I guess in a way, it is true because you don't have all of the shower gifts but the 'Welcome baby' gifts are still coming in. I have sent out over 60 Thank You notes this time around; not bad for a 2nd baby! I'm happy that Natalie's baby book will have a big list of gifts as well :)

My Mom's friend, Marlene, sent over a quilt for Natalie yesterday. It is just gorgeous!! I think she did an amazing job...she is so talented!

The back of the quilt is all yellow with this little patch that says 'Natalie Alexandra Jan 18, 2008'

Here is a picture of the quilt she made for Rachel's first birthday (Rachel sleeps with it every day & night)

Rachel Olivia Aug 12/07 1 yr old

Have a great weekend!!!!

Enjoying the awesome weather

We had a busy morning today. We went to have Natalie's 3 months pictures taken and then we went out for breakfast with Nancee (the photographer). I can't wait to get Natalie's pictures back because the one just melts my heart. I will be sure to scan them and post them here when I get a chance.

Here are the girls first thing this morning...well, 8:30 is first thing in the morning for them since they usually sleep until 8. And yes, I know Rachel is wearing that darn shirt again...it's probably my fault because I let her pick her own clothes in the morning. I think I may 'hide' this shirt the next time I do laundry but if you saw how excited she gets when she sees it hanging in her closet, you would let her wear it all the time, too :)

We took advantage of the beautiful weather here this afternoon. It was 21 degrees and not too windy. Usually our subdivision is super windy but today it was 'normal' :) I couldn't decide on which pictures to post so here are a bunch....

Rachel started out by pushing her doll stroller around our street

Back and forth. Around the circle. Back and forth.

She even put the visor down because I had Natalie's visor down.

Time to take the car for a spin.

She drove it down to the end of our street but then decided to push it around the court.

The doll stroller actually blew out of the garage and ended up by our walkway to the front door.

Next on Rachel's list of things to do was push Natalie around the court.

Back to pushing her doll.

Then it was time to just run around the court by herself.

I wish I had captured this on video because she picked her doll up out of the stroller and was saying 'shhh' to her and then it was time to change her 'Elmo' (diaper)...

Oh ya...right on the curb...

Fold this and then fold that and Voila!

The doll felt so much better afer the quick diaper change on the road :)

It was great to play outside this afternoon. We were out there for just over 2 hours. Natalie slept most of the time so Rachel & I spent lots of time together. I love this age; she's so much fun!! My parents came over for dinner tonight so while I was feeding Natalie, my Dad was playing with Rachel in our backyard. I think she's going to enjoy the slide a lot more this year. Last year she didn't really care for it. When Ron got home, he put Rachel's swing up again and she was thrilled to pieces to be able to swing in her own backyard again (we've been going to the park since the swing was in the shed and probably had a spider on it! lol).

Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day so I hope we can play some more since it's supposed to rain on the weekend :( We are heading up to Clinton when Ron gets home from work so we can celebrate with Oma & Cha Cha because the closing date of Oma's house is tomorrow. YAHOO!!! It's been a long haul so we definitely need to celebrate!