Play time!!!

For the past few days, I took Yann out for some play time in the snow in our front yard and deck. Because of my little baby, I couldn't really go too far out of the house. However, Yann had fun and kept asking to go out all the time. It definitely felt like it was spring out. Looking forward to do this every day, and have some one on one time with my big boy.

Get to know me!!!!

After talking to a friend today, I realised that there's a lot of things people don't know about me. So here's a getting to know me questionnaire I found on the internet. No big secret will be revealed, lol.

1. What is your favorite color? Blue.
2. Which family member do you most resemble? My dad.
3. Which family member are you more like? My mom.
4. What is your favorite thing about your mom? Her strength.
5. What was some good advices your father gave you? Be respectful, Be open minded, Always work hard, Learn from others, LOVE your siblings, Learn to serve/help.
6. What is your warmest birthday memory? My dad organised a birthday party for my grandma and I when I turned 22. He wrapped our gifts (money) in leaves and beautiful flowers, and made it look like a bracelet. My favorite birthday ever.
7. Do you like to dance? Sure do!
8. Do you prefer bath or shower? Shower.
9. What is you favorite TV shows? Lately, I like Walking dead, Revolution, Duke Dynasty.
10. What word describes you the best? In Canada: shy. In Tahiti: goof ball (not even kidding!)
11. What is your favorite item of clothing? Shorts.
12. What was your favorite food when you were a child? Ma'a tinito, a chinese dish from Tahiti
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cocoa krispies (from back home) and corn flakes.
14. What flavor ice cream do you prefer? Chocolate (used to be coffee ice cream).
15. What is one of your favorite quotes? Carpe Diem. Always has since I was young.
16. What’s your favorite indoor/outdoor activity? Relax and watch TV/Going to the beach and swim, paddle.... In Canada: camping.
17. What chore do you absolutely hate doing? Laundry
18. What is your favorite time of day/day of the week/month of the year? 5pm/Friday/December
19. What is your greatest accomplishment? My marriage, and my babies.
20. What’s your least favorite mode of transportation? Airplanes
21. What sound do you love? The sound of the waves crashing on the beach and so on. 
22. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad but it turned out to be for the best? Not that I can think of.
23. What was one of the best parties you’ve ever been to? Family parties in Tahiti.
24. What was the last movie, TV show or book that made you cry or tear up? 17 Miracles.
25. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? Leave my Family.
26. What was the last experience that made you a stronger person? Losing a lot of my mobility when I was 20 years old/ having a chronic disease.
27. What did you do growing up that got you into trouble? Too many to name but here's a couple: Backed up in the front entrance doors of a store with my parents car (luckily, I knew the owners, lol). Driving without a driver's license. Taking a bike that had no breaks, and riding it down a steep hill. I ended up in a hospital for a month with a hole in my knee, and had to have a skin graft.
28. When was the last time you had an amazing meal? Last week!
29. What’s the best/worst gift you’ve ever given/received? Best received: tickest to come to Canada from Marc... and of course being given the gift of Motherhood.
30. What do you miss most about being a kid? Not worrying about anything. 
31. What is your first memory of being really excited? Going to Disney Land.
32. What was the first thing you bought with your own money? An expensive pen for my Dad.
33. When was the last time you were nervous? Picking my brother up at the airport. I wasn't sure if he had made it or not.
34. What is something you learned in the last week? That I probably won't have any more children.
35. What story does your family always tell about you? All the stories that are a result of my stubbornness.
36. At what age did you become an adult? Ha, is that a trick question?
37. If you could go anywhere in the World, where would it be and who would it be with? Tuscany, Italy. And with Marc.

Tahiti!!!

This year, we are planning our first big family vacation with the boys. I am really EXCITED to know that I will be home with the people I love the most.

I realise that packing two small children for such a long trip will be quite an experience but I am ready to take on the challenge. It will be worth the hassle. Beside, Marc will be with me.

We wanted to go down for Christmas but with all the craziness that takes place in the airport during the holidays, we decided to change our plan BUT one thing is sure is that we are definitely going this year.

Both my parents, and siblings are excited about seeing us (well, they're mostly excited about seeing the boys). By the time we get there, it would have been two years since I have last seen them. A LOT has changed since then. I now have two handsome little boys, and my older brother has a beautiful little girl. I cannot wait to see her.

For 12 years, my parents only had one grandchild and in the past couple years they went from 1 grand baby to 4. They are LOVING it even though they haven't met my boys yet.

My nephew and niece <3 p="">

Yann's new bedroom!!!

Well, Yann moved into his bedroom the Monday before Marc was born. We bought him a new crib, dresser and bookshelf the week before, and his dad put all the furniture together on that same Monday he moved into his new room.

We went to Ikea and bought the curtains, dressers, picture frames, rug, door mat and round numbered baskets (which inspired me for the colors) there. I LOVE IKEA!!! I can spend hours in that store. And I LOVE their frozen yogurt (a.k.a ice cream to me :)). We bought the crib at Walmart (it was the less expensive one and it converts into a toddler bed), and bought the bookshelf at home depot.

I had a lot of fun doing his bedroom. I love the colors. I added a button on each curtain tie backs, and am hoping to find bigger buttons to sew where the curtain taps are at the top. The picture frames have colorful papers in it but no 'real' pictures yet. I do like them that way though.

I still have to add pictures of Yann

and us in those little frames I got from grandma.

 That door mat caught my eye

in one of the aisle in IKEA :)

 Yann comes in his room throughout the day

to play with his toys. He loves the rocking horse his grandpa made him.

Marc Hereiti!

My second baby is over a week old now. We were really excited and happy to finally meet him. Despite the fact that my C-section was delayed for 4 hours, everything else went well. I am grateful to have such great doctors, who did everything they could possibly do so I didn't have to wait longer than that. Grateful for the nurses who came to work just for my surgery. Because of the delay, I had a hard time eating food once I was able too. It hurt really badly, and I, for the first time, had to ask for pain killers.

Little Marc Hereiti (which means little love in Tahitian) was born at 8:11 pm and weighed only 6 LBS. He is putting back on weight steadily. He is a pretty quiet baby most of the time, and usually sleeps pretty good at night. WE love him, and cannot believe how he is already starting to change.

I catch myself staring at him a lot during the day, and cannot help noticing how he sometimes looks like Yann when he was a baby. I feel bless to have my boys, and of course cannot help wondering if I ever will have a little girl.

I cannot wait to see Marc grow bigger, and do all the things Yann did. Cannot wait to see him interact, and play with his big brother.

Wearing the outfit his big brother wore

when he came home from the hospital over a year ago :) 

Updates!

It's been almost a week since I got out of the hospital.

I got to see my doctor on Monday. He prescribed me some antibiotics to help heal my bad cough and sinus infection. I am still having troubles breathing but am able to manage going through the day without tiring myself up. The contractions have finally stopped, thank goodness. It is giving my back a nice break. I have lost 5 Lbs in less than a week which is not good, so I try my best to feed my unborn baby boy.

Because of my respiratory problems, Doctor Naude decided to move the C-section to a week later than what we have planned on. Instead of having my baby on the 12th, I will have him on the 19th of February (not the 14th, yihaa!!!). The hospital called me yesterday to confirm the date.

I am truly hoping that I'll feel better by the end of this week. It is tiring to be sick, and even more tiring when your son is sick too.

A time in the hospital.

Yesterday afternoon, I got admitted to the hospital. I have been sick for a few days then early Wednesday morning around 1:30 am, I started vomiting and having a lot of tightening which later turned into contractions. I tried to sleep as much as I can and see if the contractions will eventually go away but by 2 pm, things were getting worse and I was having difficulties breathing, so Marc took me to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, I was sent to the maternity ward were I under went a lot of testing, poking and some uncomfortable exams. For hours and hours, the doctor and especially the nurses kept monitoring the contractions and kept me hydrated (had an IV), to help with the contractions/tightening. Hours of being on monitors, and bags of IV juice later, still the contractions wouldn't go away. Then around 9:15 pm, we had the result back from a test I did early in the evening which was a welcome breeze to the doctor, Marc and I. It was negative meaning I didn't have to be shift to Edmonton to have my baby. Remember I am 34 weeks pregnant, and they can't deliver a 34 week baby in the Lloyd hospital. The result was really comforting even though the contractions didn't stop at all. They moved me to a private room, took me off the monitor and just kept an eye on me while I was resting (well trying to rest). The last contractions I had was at 5 am this morning. I went back on the monitor at 8 am and was out of the hospital at 9:15 am.

I am feeling better today! My goal for now is just to rest, watch movies, and play with my boy.

Thank you Indie and Dan for looking after Yann. You know where to find babysitters when you need one, and IF or WHEN you need anything, we are just a few houses down.

Thank you Kari for being such a caring friend. Big thank you to my husband who's always there when I need him without ever failing.

Feeling so grateful for good nurses, doctors and friends.

Baby #2's bedroom

One thing I like about our house is that all the bedrooms are on the same level. On Monday, I decided to move the furnitures in Yann's old bedroom to make it look somewhat fresh and new for our new baby. I wanted to make it his own and not just keep it the way it was with his older brother. I wanted to spend the same amount of time on his room than I did when we were expecting Yann. We thought it was best to move Yann in the bigger room since he is the oldest.

Here's some pics of the newly refresh room. We kept all the furniture for him and have to get a new crib for Yann. (Yann still uses this bedroom for now)

Welcome banner I made for my new baby.

 I moved the dresser on the opposite wall,

the crib is now by the door which makes it more spacious in the middle of the room.

I found these letters randomly on google,

and LOVED them. So, I decided to use the whole alphabet for the baby's room.

 The bookshelf is now by the door.

I found a Dr Seuss's book for $5 at winners and since it has the letters on the front cover,

I decided to showcase it.

 The ABC

(first word starts with a, then second with b and last word with c)

banners I made. The words say Love, Kiss, Cuddle in French.

Birthday Party!!!

Grandma and grandpa came for the boys' birthday party yesterday. Grandma made a wagon wheel pasta salad, guacamole, the traditional Bennett's birthday salad (fruit salad), and brought some ice wafers to use them as hay bale in the tractor's trailers.

Marc wanted to eat tasty burgers from M&M, so that's what we had with fries, veggies, strawberries. I made chocolate cupcakes with yellow icing on. Like I said in my previous post, our theme was John Deere.

Seeing the reactions on grandma, grandpa, Marc and Yann's faces made me feel so good. The guilt was gone about not giving them a bigger party with our friends. Marc loved everything, and said that this was the greatest birthday he ever had. Yann played with his balloons, and hung out most of the day with his grandma. He wasn't feeling too great since he has a cold, is teething and had 4 shots.

We all had a GOOD time. We sang the birthday song for Yann, and just enjoyed the fact that he is part of our lives. I am so grateful for grandma and grandpa who came earlier. Grandpa did some work in the bathroom. so Marc doesn't have to work after dinner. Grandma brought a bunch of food so I didn't have to make a lot on my own. She also washed the dishes after we were done. She is always so helpful when she comes to visit.

I was tired, and having lots of pain by the end of the day BUT I really loved seeing how happy Marc was to not only have a nice party but also seeing how happy he is to share the same birthday with his son. I love my birthday boys.

Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration, and thank you dollar store.

Rocking his party tonight onesie,

and eating his hair brush.

 Curtain made of streamers and some of the crafts

I made using constructions papers,

cardstock, my laptop and printer, etc...

 Center piece. The cupcakes and the toppers I made.

 Personalized cups.

 The banners I made. Sorry for bad pictures.

 Marc ready to go out and

barbecue his favorite burgers.

 My boys!

Grandma brought the tractor and trailers

that used to be Marc's when he was little boy. Now they belong to Yann :).

 My birthday boys!!!

 Opening presents!

 Thank you grandma and grandpa for the AWESOME present!!!

My birthday boys!!!

Marc and Yann's birthday is finally here!!!

It was supposed to be a day of celebration with family and friends to share it with BUT the past month and a half, things have been crazy at home with the bathroom renovations, getting Yann's new bedroom all set up and change things a bit in our soon to be here, bundle of joy's room. Needless to say, I have had a lot of frustrating days, and overwhelming ones just thinking about everything that needs to be done before we welcome a new baby in our home. To top it of, I am dealing with major back pains, insomnia (which keeps me up until 3 in the morning), and other health issues that just makes me feel so guilty not to be able to give Marc and Yann a great birthday party.

Although Marc has been really sweet and wonderful about it, I know how much He would have like to have a nice and special birthday party with his son. So, for the past couple days, I have used my insomnia to my advantage and spent countless hours making crafts to make their birthday a special one even if we are not having friends over. I made banners, and other simple things just to show them how much I love them and how important they are to me. I used a few things I already had, and bought a few more at the dollar store.  I also used my laptop and printer a lot. I was happy to craft away in the peace and quietness of the night while the boys were sleeping, even when I felt exhausted. I couldn't bear the guilt and had to do something.
I put up the last decorations tonight while the boys were in bed and can't wait to see how they react (especially Marc).

I love my birthday boys!!!

This year's theme is John Deere, since they both like tractors :))). Will put pictures of it all, tomorrow after the little party.

2012: A year in review!!!!

A year has ended and a new one is starting!!! 2012 has been an awesome year for our little family.

January: We welcomed our little boy. It was definitely the best day of our lives and a good way to start a new year. To top it of, our son and his dad share the same birth date.

February: We were blessed to have 2 baby showers to celebrate the arrival of our son.

March: Realising how crazy yet enjoyable parenthood is.

April: Marc received an award for Top Apprentice in the Province of Alberta, and coming out first of his class in College.
        Bought the air plane tickets for my brothers to come visit us.

May: Celebrated my first ever MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

June: My brother arrived in Canada and stayed for 4 months. GREAT time!!! Marc celebrated his first ever FATHER'S DAY!!!

July: Enjoy a fun filled summer going places to places with my brother. LOTS of camping!!! Found out we were having another baby.

August: Celebrated my 33rd birthday!!!!

September: My brother's last month with us. It was definitely a sad month for me. I just wanted him to stay with us.

October: Found out I was having a boy again!!!!

November: Decided to renovate our upstairs bathroom. Started it!

December: AWESOME month!!!! We celebrated our 10th anniversary. Yann had his first Christmas ever.

2012 was a GREAT year. We were TREMENDOUSLY blessed as a couple, and as a family.