Photo books

I love to create scrapbooks and have made a few photo books as Christmas gifts, so decided to make the kid's each one. After reading another great blog I decided to go one step further and make them one for each year and then give them to them when they get older. I finished both of their first year books and am excited to get them! Here is Kaiden's first year book and Here is Avarie's. I was of course emotional making them but also very much enjoyed reflecting over their first year of life.

And party we did!

Avarie's birthday party was everything I had dreamed of. We were surrounded by love and joy and she had a great time! She received some beautiful gifts and loved digging into her cake! I had so much fun planning the party and creating the decorations and picking out strawberry shortcake items :)

Birthday Girl

I have said it before and I will say it again..where did this past year go!!?? I just cannot believe our Princess is 1. Yesterday was the anniversary of her beautiful entrance into our world. February 24th, 2011 at 1:32am she slide into my arms and my heart. My first glance at her beautiful face I will never forget. She was the baby girl I had been dreaming of;  to complete our family and join her big brother as my precious hearts walking outside of my body. She took me in with her beautiful sparkling blue eyes and immediately nursed like a champ.  I couldn't get over how much she looked like her big brother and was so overwhelmed with emotion and kept saying "I can't believe she is finally here". I couldn't wait for her to meet her big brother because I knew that he will be the one she will look up to and knowing my son; knew he will forever protect her. Kaiden proudly held her and kissed her and ever since has loved her from his toes. The year was an amazing journey that we will always treasure. I took moments and tried to bottle them up in my heart and memory as I knew it would fly by as it did with Kaiden. Although I am sad that my children are growing so fast, I am loving watching them grow and explore and learn. I look forward to so many moments in their lives and can not wait to share these moments with them and their father. To our baby girl, love is not a big enough word for what we feel for you and your brother. You are everything that I have dreamt of and I will forever thank you for the joy and love that you have brought to our family. I wish for you that you grow surrounded by love and joy and that all of your dreams come true as mine have. A few pictures of our girl's first moments in this world:

Tomorrow is Avarie's birthday party so I am off to bake and create and decorate! Pictures to come!
Here is a photo of Av and Kaiden checking out her birthday gift from us:

We're back!

I am back after a frustrating week of no internet and many frustrating calls to our internet provider! Anyway moving on, we are back online! What a busy two weeks it has been! I returned to work last week and despite a few tears (on my part) it has been good. I love my job as well as my co-workers so that makes the transition back easier! My kids love their sitter which also helps. Kaiden couldn't wait to go play with his friends and Av is adjusting very well. Our girl is taking steps and has started standing without pulling herself up on anything so spends a great deal of the time just standing up and waiting for us to clap and cheer! Kaiden had a Kindergarten assessment done a month ago and we received the results this week and he did a wonderful job and is all set to go in the fall (cannot believe it!).  We also celebrated Valentine's together as a family and had some treats and Kaiden made us some beautiful Valentine's at preschool. Here are some shots of my Valentines.

Back to work

Well the day has arrived..I return to work tomorrow. It is hard to put into words the different emotions I am feeling today and I am sure all moms know exactly what I am talking about. I will say that I am fortunate in so many ways such as having an excellent friend and neighbour that is taking my kids. My kids are great with people and did very well on the trial day. I am also very lucky to have a job that I love and coworkers that I love which helps the idea of going back. I also do not take for granted that I have two beautiful children that I was able to enjoy for an entire year. How lucky we are in Canada that we have the opportunity to spend an entire year off work with our children. Many countries are not that fortunate. I also know many who long for this opportunity and believe me I am so grateful that I have been blessed not once but twice. I am also lucky to be in a position to return part-time so that I will be able to spend part of the time with my children too. Oh how I wish you could freeze time just for a little while as it just flys by. I look forward to so many future moments with my kids but I sure wish they would slow down on the growing! Now that I have gotten emotional it is time to unplug and dive into baking! Kaiden has a Valentine's party at preschool tomorrow so we have cupcakes to make and Valentine's to print! Here is a photo of my beautiful Valentines!