Updates!

Well, where should I start?

My sons are growing like crazy. Yann is a year and a half now, and Marc will be 6 months old in a couple weeks. I am definitely a really busy (sometimes a tad bit crazy) mother of two. However, now that we have a well established routine, it doesn't seem so crazy any more. My boys and I do pretty much everything together. Banking, grocery shopping, appointments and so on. They are usually super awesome when we have to do those things, so I never have to stress about having to deal with tantrums and screaming and all... yet!. We go for walks or to the park/playgrounds pretty much daily. If it's not Bud Miller, we go to the nearby playgrounds in our neighborhood. I really enjoy it, and so do they.

Marc is getting better at seating, and has been eating solid food for the past couple months now. We are waiting for their passports to show up so we can get our tickets for our trip to Tahiti this year. We tell Yann almost daily that we are going to visit his grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins soon. And that we will be flying in an airplane (or 2). He recognizes them now thanks to pictures, and skype. The other day we were skyping with my mom and my siblings. After a couple hours of talking, we had to say goodbye, so Yann came and called my mom then waved good bye to her and sent her kisses. It was the cutest thing ever. I think I saw tears running down my mom's cheeks. I cannot wait to go back home.

Yann is officially in nursery now. I just leave him there and off I go. He gets excited about going there, and usually ignores me as soon as he is in the room. I love my boys and couldn't ask for better sons.

Marc and I are still working on our house. We like working together, and making our house feel and look like we want it too. We still LOVE each other like crazy ;). Most of the time, we both have one child to tend to, so it can be really challenging to have an "US" time but we make sure we do. One thing we do pretty much daily is sending each other love notes via email. Sounds lame but we LOVE it!

Last Sunday, I was set apart as one of the new Relief Society's teacher. Looking forward to serve in this calling, and to get to know the 'new' sisters in the branch.

Lately, I've been feeling pretty GREAT!. I've never felt so active, so healthy and so happy with myself and the decisions I have made a few months ago (3 to be exact). More about that in my next post. It's 1:16 am, I better go to bed.

My baby.

Getting excited!

Friday morning, I am taking my boys to the photographer to have their passports' pictures done. I am so excited about it. This means that soon we will be doing their passports, and once that's done, we will be getting our tickets for our trip to Tahiti. I think about our trip daily. I want to be home with my family so badly.

I cannot wait to get our tickets and know when we leave so I can write it down in my calendar. I miss my homeland tremendously. I hope one day, Marc, the boys and I will be able to go back and live there. Unless my sons decide that they would rather stay in Canada. There's NO WAY I am leaving them behind, lol!

TAHITI, HERE WE COME!!!

My children!

My boys are growing... every night, when they are finally both sleeping, I take a time to reflect on the day we had together and the things they did. I get amazed at how they seem to be growing so fast, even my little M is growing and is at the fun stage where he is just full of giggles, smiles and is grabbing onto things.

My big boy is going to be 17 months in a few days, that is just crazy. Not long ago he was just a baby.

I think my sons are crazily HANDSOME (ha ha, biased I know). Marc is becoming cuter and cuter every day and so is his older brother. I love how you can tell they are brothers but they have their own kind of facial features. They look alike but not quite alike if that makes any sense. Now that I have two children, I get asked a lot if there are any differences between the two of them. Fortunately, yes there are! I don't want them to be identical. That would be way too boring!!!

Yann: He is quite a little character! He acts so differently in public than he does at home. People think that he is so serious all the time but that isn't really the case. He is a pretty smart boy (biased again)! His vocabulary is growing every day in both French and English, and his understanding of both languages is amazing too. He is a really independent little boy. When he wants something on the table or counter, he goes and gets it without my help. When he is thirsty or hungry, he usually asks for it. I downloaded a couple apps in French and English on the Ipad for him to play and learn. He knows how to start them on his own, and how to get out of them and pick something else when he is bored playing one of the games. He knows how to play the music on the Ipad too. There's one album he likes, and always looks for it, and play the song over and over. Impressive? I would say so. BUT he doesn't get to be on the Ipad all the time. He spends 10 minutes on in the morning and sometimes 10 minutes before bedtime. GOING OUTSIDE is still his favorite thing to do. Wherever there's dirt, you will find him. Saying "go walk" and "go outside" are now like official hymns at our house. We hear them daily. I could probably go on and on talking about him but I won't. He is just a wonderful and smart little boy who can be a really cranky pants and can fuss like nobody's business, ha ha.

Marc: My little Marc is a SWEET baby, unless he is hungry (he can hold a screaming note longer than Pavarotti). He has the cutest little giggles ever. He doesn't like being in the swing and prefers the exersaucer. Before he turned 2, he started sleeping through the night and is still a great sleeper (knock on wood). He still eats a lot and is really good at burping now. Just like his brother was/is, Marc sleeps pretty much anywhere and is better at self soothing himself than Yann was. I love my little boy as much as I love my big boy. I enjoy the little one on one time we get together where I can just enjoy the baby he is.

My boys are so precious to me. I LOVE them so deeply and so unconditionally. It is NOT all rainbow and sunshine every day. We have our really GOOD days and our really not so good days but I wouldn't have it any other way. I think we need the bad days as much as the good days.

I'm back!

I'm back on the blogging world!!! I am happy to have my laptop back and be able to check on  my friends blogs, and the other ones I follow. Shortest post of the day!

Welcome to the minivan mom's club!

Yes, it's official! We just bought a minivan yesterday. I am now part of the minvan mom club, lol. At first, I didn't really want it but when we went, and test drove it a week ago, I kind of fell in love with it. I'm excited about the amount of space we have in our vehicle. It will be so much fun to go to IKEA now, haha. No need to worry about trying to fit a dresser in a small car. We are just waiting for the AB safety to be done tomorrow before getting our new ride (new to us) back home.

Our Toyota Sienna.

Hereiti!

My little Marc will be 7 weeks tomorrow.

Today, his dad took him to see our family doctor for his monthly check up. He now weighs 10 Lbs 11.5 oz and mesures 21.97 inches. We are both amazed at how much he has grown since the day he was born. He has a minor ear infection, so the doctor prescribed some antibiotics.

He doesn't sleep as good as he did when he first came home. He wakes up every 3 hours or so to eat. He smiles more now. All in all, he is doing good. He is so stinking cute too.

Yann's first Easter egg hunt!

Well, we had a GREAT time watching our little boy hunting for eggs with his cousin Alyson. He got the hang of it really fast. His dad helped him carry his basket while they went around the house looking for some chocolatey treats. It was a bit crazy with all the people that were there, but we all had smiles on our faces just watching those two children having fun, and getting excited about small little chocolate eggs. Grandma brought and hid some eggs. And Marc did the same with the ones we bought. We hid some of Yann's favorite snacks in those big plastic eggs they sell at the store. We didn't want him to just eat a bunch of chocolates. Marc and I are pretty flexible when it comes to letting our son try different things. However, when it comes to junk or sugary things, we make sure it never gets out of hand.

Next year should be even more FUN watching our boys hunting for some delicious treats. We'll make it even more fun by hiding eggs in the yard (unless we have mountains of snow every where or maybe we'll hide it in the snow).

He found 2 eggs in the car seat

(Notice daddy clapping his hands?

He did that every time Yann found some treats).

 Clapping again. More eggs were found

in the elephant's ears.

 Yann and Alyson with their loot.

Marc's baby blessing!

My little Marc had his baby blessing today. We had family members come all the way from Lethbridge, Taber and Edmonton to celebrate with us, this special event. Even Marc's good friend Dyson came. After sacrament meeting, we left so that the ones that travelled from southern Alberta could leave at a decent time. It's always so moving to witness the blessing of a child, even when it is not your own.

Today, I was especially moved when he was 'officially' named. I always wonder why people seem so appalled every time we tell them what our son's name is, as if there was something wrong about naming him after his father. We didn't run out of name to choose from.

Marc was the first name both Marc and I felt strongly about when we found out we were having another boy. A few weeks before our son was born, a couple other names came to my husband's mind BUT when he thought about it again, he strongly felt that it wasn't right. And when our baby was finally born, we knew his name had to be Marc Hereiti.

About Hereiti. I always wanted to give one of my children this name. I loved it ever since I was younger. When the doctor said that he only weighted 6 LBS, I knew that it was meant for him to be called Hereiti (little love in English). I truly felt that when his dad said his names during the blessing, it was what our Heavenly Father wanted us to call our baby. To us, it is really special even though for some, it seems like it is laughable. At the end of the day, we really don't care, lol. We love our son, and are proud to call him Marc Hereiti Bennett.

Marc and his sons. He just LOVES being with them.

In this photo, he is playing with Yann while trying to cuddle with little M.

Family Day!!!!

Today being good Friday and all, we decided to enjoy the beautiful weather as a family, and spend more time outside than inside our house.

We went out to run some errands first, then came back home and grabbed some lunch, and back outside again. We loaded the trunk with the boys' strollers and off we went to the park. After walking around the park, we went to the play ground so Yann can enjoy some time in the swing. Yann had so much fun playing, walking and touching trees. He loves trees for some reasons. After the park, we treated ourselves with some good food.

 By the time we got home, it was almost 7:30 pm or so. We had so much fun and cannot wait to have more fun family time or hopefully, we can do this with our friends too.

Here's to a GREAT year, a lot of fun, and many many many hours of outdoors activities. Summer can't come soon enough. Looking forward to go camping!!!

My Big Boy Yann!!

Yann is almost 15 months old! It's true what 'they' say, time does go by really fast.

Yann is such a sweet little boy. Yes, he sometimes gets really grumpy but over all, he is a sweet, fun, hilarious at times, and smart child. We love how independent he is, and can occupy himself doing whatever he feels like. He walks around the house, and gets into closets, cupboards, and anything he is not supposed too with ease. He knows and says a lot of words in both French and English. He always responds to what we ask him to do, in both languages which we love and are grateful for. In the past few months, he has wowed us with his ability to learn and remember things really fast. Although he LOVES and is CRAZY about his dad, at the end of the day, he always looks for me, and still wants his momma snuggles before he is down for the night.

Lately, he has figured out how to put his or our shoes on. He now sleeps in his day/toddler bed. He fell twice, the same day we took the rail down, but now he sleeps in without falling. We are glad we did this! When he wakes up at night (which is rare now), he just gets off his bed, then comes looking for us. He is a pro at climbing in and getting off our bed on his own.

He loves his brother. Every time I go get little Marc in his bedroom and bring him in the living room, Yann just comes running towards me, and ask (making gestures) to hold him. He loves giving his brother kisses throughout the day.

Taking baths is one of his favorite things to do. He always ask for a bain ( which means bath in French). If we don't understand what he is trying to say/ask/tell us, he would just take our hands, and show us what he wants.

In all, our baby is growing. We LOVE him dearly. He is our miracle baby, and forever will be.

Always gets into the stove drawer, and pulls out mitts

or cookie sheets, etc...

likes to seat, stand in either baskets, or boxes

 and even his small plastic tool box...

giving kisses to his brother...

his big boy bed.

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.