Getting Ready for Christmas!

We actually kicked of our holiday spirit the eve of Evan's birthday by visiting the HO HO Exhibition. It was lots of fun hanging out with our friends Amy, David and their girls Kenzie and Livi. The kids got their pics with Santa and we enjoyed checking out all the fun Christmas exhibits.

 He was so intrigued by Santa!

 No crying babies .... we got a pretty awesome pic with Santa this season!

Now please note that there will never be anything Christmas related put up in our house until AFTER Evan's birthday! So after Thanksgiving, we got ready to decorate. J set everything up and I sat back watched from the couch and took pics

 Evan napped

 and the three of them worked hard

 Once the kids went to bed, I rearranged :)

and Evan had fun checking out the tree

 and yes, he thought it was a ball so he kept taking the ornaments off and throwing them!

watching daddy put up the outside lights

Daddy fed this little Santa snacks

 and while he did I got the sweetest pic ever! Look at those sweet chubby cheeks!

and the kids loved the tree so much they wanted pics in front of it just about every night!

 Ria (5), Evan (1), Javan (8)

December is going to be a super fun month!
~V

Evan: ONE year (12mth update) + WBV

This pretty sums up Evan at 12mths :)

Evan is so much fun - he babbles a lot and tries to have conversations with us and is just really very playful and oh so sweet.

{click on pic to read more}

We had Evan's well visit this morning. 

 He was practicing his baby yoga while he waited on Dr. C!

 Dr. C is pretty happy about his progress. Evan is a little peanut but he is right on track with adjusted age and his weight and height are on the regular growth charts now (7.8kg / 17.2lbs - 3% for weight and 71cm / 28in - 3% for height)

~V

Thanksgiving 2014

Last year we all spent most of Thanksgiving in three different places (me in a lonely hospital room, Evan in the NICU and Jermaine, Javan and Ria at home trying to get the house in order for Evan and me to come home!). I missed the thanksgiving meal from the hospital cos I was in the NICU with Evan during lunch hours and when J and the kids finally made it to visit with us, we had a Cracker Barrel thanksgiving (yuck) in my room. The highlight of our day was getting our first ever family of five picture. That memory is so vivid to me and its something I will cherish forever.

Fast forward to this year .... Javan asked me if I would cook a feast to make up for last year:) And that I did. I loved being in my kitchen, hearing my kids laugh and play and all morning while I cooked. We had a wonderful time together. Just the five of us. My babies are perfectly healthy and happy and my family was all together. It was perfect! I couldnt be more thankful :)

 Our turkey weighed twice as much as Evan did when he was born!

What a difference a year makes!

~V

Happy FIRST Birthday Evan!

One whole year ... in a flash. I mean it seriously how in the world does that happen???

Jermaine and I couldn't help but reminisce about how quickly everything unfolded on the eve of Evan's birthday. We got my maternity and fall family pics done that morning.

You can see those here: Maternity / Fall 2013 Family Pics

and then we got to working on the nursery. Here's a recap of that day's events: Evan's birth story part 1 and Evan's birth story part 2.

It was such a whirlwind of a day and now it's just plain surreal that our teeny tiny little baby

is ONE today .... (and I realize I never did share his newborn pics. I will do that with his one year pics cos we just loved them!)

Last night as I sat rocking my sweet 11mth old, I felt thankful and blessed.

It's been nothing short of wonderful having this little guy in our lives. So to celebrate him today is such a treat. Yes I am weepy cos our baby is growing up (every mama is and surprisingly J felt this way too) but I am also excited to watch him grow and evolve into this amazing little person I know he is going to be.

We started out this birthday with a trip to school. Every Monday I help in Ria's class and Evan tags along. He slept the whole time we were there ...

 and woke up just as I was getting him into the car when we left! Perfect!!!

We got home, changed into birthday clothes and ate lunch. He loved the balloons on his high chair.

 It was such a beautiful day outside that we spent some time playing in the grass and enjoying the sunshine

 he was so curious about everything around him. He's wearing Javan's 3-6m jeans by the way!

After dinner we went outside again ... you can't have such wonderful weather in November and stay indoors!

 SO much love for these three ... my biggest accomplishments for sure!

 Call me biased but is he not just beautiful :)

 And then it was time for a little family birthday celebration.

As you can see he loved it. He would start smiling and clapping when would sing happy birthday to him :)

Clearly this was the best way to kick of Thanksgiving week for us ...  celebrating this ONEderful year we have enjoyed with our Evan. He has made our family so much sweeter and we are just madly in love with our baby boy! 

Happy first birthday Evan. Mummy, Daddy, Javan and Ria are so very proud of you. We love you so much and pray many blessings over you. We are so excited to watch you grow and look forward to all the sweet and fun memories we will make together.

~V