Happy 1st Birthday Stella!

Today we went to a friends 1st birthday party! It was a wonderful time, with beautiful weather and great friends!

Makayla and Stella

Stella's big sister Odessa

First Trip To The Zoo

Clint is home and my friend Mandy is up here visiting from Phoenix so we decided to take the girls to the zoo! It was Makayla's first trip to the zoo today, I actually forgot my camera at home, but luckily I had my phone to take a picture of the little monkey we found there!


Makayla didn't really take much notice of the animals, basically only the ones that she could see (that came up close to us), such as the monkeys who came up to the glass or the elephant who was actually outside taking a bath. Other than that she didn't really care....oh well, we still had fun!

Favorite Photo Friday

Makayla and Brooklyn

Makayla and Brooklyn just hanging out tonight; the size difference is crazy as they are only 11 days apart!

First "Ice Cream Cone" or Frozen Yogurt In This Case...

Happy 1st Fathers Day Daddy!

Father's Day was two days ago and Clint was away at work, he will be home on Thursday, so that's nice! We got to talk him today and wish him a Happy 1st Father's Day, but it would have been nice to see him! I came across this poem and thought it was cute!

My daddy is the greatest;
The best dad there ever was.
He always brings me lots of joy;
He’s my very own Santa Claus.

My daddy can do anything;
He’s smart as smart can be.
I love to walk and hold his hand
To show he belongs to me.

I love my daddy!


On Father's Day Makayla and I spent the day over at my Dads - Grandpa Dave! We just hung out at his house and ordered in Wok Box for supper! My little bro even came up too!

My beautiful girl!

Makayla, Grandpa Dave and Uncle Michael

Today there was a Father's Day brunch at Grandpa Raymond's home so we went there to visit! Lunch was delicious and I think Grandpa was happy to see Makayla too!

Me, Makayla, Grandpa Raymond and Grandma Linda
Makayla kept pulling Grandpa's ear

Grandpa Raymond, his favorite nurse Tammy and Makayla

More Baby Geese and Ducks

Today we went for a walk over to the duck pond and fed the birds! The mother goose was hissing at us (which is normal), but then she actually starting chasing us!!!

Constipated....Again!

My poor baby girl is constipated again; it has only been two weeks since she was in the hospital. I have been doing what the Doctors suggested; no oatmeal, increasing fluids and giving high fibre fruits and veggies. Makayla was doing really well for the first week or so, pooping pretty well every day and progressively getting "softer". Well this week has been the complete opposite; she hasn't gone in four days. Two days ago she had two tiny, rock hard, rabbit pellets. Oh great...just what the Doctor told me to watch out for as that is the first sign of constipation.

This morning she was acting just like she was before I ended up taking her in last time; cranky, pushing trying to go. I took her diaper off and lo and behold there is poop once again "stuck"! The hospital had sent us home with some lube in case this happened again. I used it and encouraged my monkey to push it out. I won't get into details, cause it's nasty, but let's just say I "helped" her get a rather large, rock hard piece out. Tonight, again, she was pushing and whining, so I did it again; another large hard piece. I am really hoping that tomorrow she can have a normal bowel movement!

Oh the things that I NEVER would have imagined doing almost seem "normal" once I became a mother. What can I say I love it! Ummmm...being a Mom, not "helping" Makayla poop...just to clarify. Hahaha...

Visiting Friends and Makayla's First Time in a Jolly Jumper

One of my girlfriends from Phoenix is down here visiting for three weeks and staying at her parents house, so we made our way over for a visit!

Makayla wasn't so sure about the tiny chihuahua running around

Blossom showing me her ducky

Makayla and Emily

Emily

Emily trying to back into the dog kennel...so cute!

Makayla has a jumperoo which is a stationary jumper, today she enjoyed her first time in a real jolly jumper, and she LOVED it!! At first she wasn't so sure of what to do, but it literally took her a minute to figure it out and then she was jumping for close to an hour!

This is fun!

Yay

Woo Hoo!

Favorite Photo Friday

"I'm Kind Of A Big Deal Around Here"

Babies, Babies and more Babies!

We went for a walk tonight; I figured we should go for a walk to the "duck pond" to see if there were any babies around tonight. There were so many and they aren't afraid of people at all, so you can walk right up to them! Makayla was squealing she was so excited!

All over the path and in the water!

Baby ducks are so tiny and cute!

Baby geese, cute, but not as cute as the ducks!

Geese all tuckered out!

Time to go home!

Saying Goodbye

Today we attended my (step)grandpas funeral, he is my step-moms dad. I will admit that I was never really close to him, if I were to walk up to him he probably wouldn't even know who I was. Makayla never did get to meet him, her great-grandpa, it really is a shame. Now that I think of it I should have made more of an effort and should have taken Makayla out to meet him. I can't go back in time now...

Waiting Another Month...

So Makayla went to the Doctor today to see about this weight loss situation. Her Doc doesn't seem to be worried, he said to feed her as much fruits and veggies as she wants, cut out or back on the oatmeal because of her constipation, keep trying forumla, continue breastfeeding and we will weigh her again in a month. Ok...well according to the scale at the Doctors office and the scale at the Health Clinic she weighs different too, so who knows which to follow, one is digital and one isn't.

A Little Scare!

Last night it was really nice out, minus the mosquitoes! We went for a walk around the community, stopped at Mac's for a drink and then headed home. Around midnight or so Makayla was getting a bit cranky so I decided to make her a bottle and see if she would go to sleep. As she sat playing in the corner of the couch and I was in the kitchen she decided that it would be a good idea to fling herself forward...then onto the floor. I saw the entire thing happen, it was only about 4 seconds and there she was going head first, feet in the air off the couch! She didn't cry. I ran over and she lay there face down not moving and not making a sound. I scooped her up and as soon as I turned her towards my chest she SCREAMED!!! Good, at least she was alive!!! I checked her over and couldn't see any bumps or scratches, gave her the bottle and she was fine! Afterwards she went straight to bed and fell asleep! I think my heart actually stopped for a few seconds!! Lesson learned...no more sitting on the couch alone!

Then in the middle of the night I could hear her crying in her crib, it wasn't a normal "I need my soother" or "I'm hungry" cry, so I ran in there....well she had turned herself onto her tummy and had her legs out the slots all the way up to her crotch and she was stuck! My poor little monkey! I pulled her out and put her onto her back; then he cry changed to the "I'm hungry" cry, so I fed her and back to bed she went.

Now this has me thinking, they say to not use bumper pads on cribs because it can lead to suffocation, well having her legs stuck between the bars probably isn't any better....your thoughts?

Trade Show = Big Disappointment

In my community there is a gated park area with club house, beach, lake and many other amenities. They had "arranged" for home based businesses in our community to set up a trade show type thing there yesterday.

When I first signed up for it, the girl who was arranging it had sent out an email stating that if the weather was crappy (raining) that we would be moved indoors. This got me thinking "we would be moved indoors", so where the heck was she planning on us being set up. I emailed her back asking this exact question, also to see if this would be advertised and was it going to be open to the public. She replied and said that we would be setting up in the parking lot, apparently there was a community garage sale also going on that day and that would be advertised, so there would be many passer bye-rs, also it would be open to the public. I therefore turned around and advertised for it on Kijiji and Facebook.

We were told in the original email that we should be down there at 9:15am to set up, as the show would be starting at 10am and going until 4pm. I arrived down there at 9:15am just to find out that it was not going to be in the parking lot, but instead it was going to be inside the park under a big white tent. We all had to carry our things across the park over to the tent (no one brought carts since we were told it would be in the parking lot). The tent had just been set up the day before and with all the rain we had received the last few days and with all the stomping around inside the tent was a mud puddle!!! We instantly asked for the girl that had arranged it; of course she wasn't there....she was running late! She finally arrived about 20mins later and told us to just set up along the sidewalks instead of in the muck!

It was soooo windy and we came to an agreement that we didn't (couldn't) want to set up outside on the walkway because first off our products would blow away but we also all had papers and pamphlets. I talked with the girl who arranged it and said according to the email that she had sent us we would be moved indoors due to weather (rain) and that this is just as bad as rain...or at least to us it was. She then turned around and said that we had three options - set up on the sidewalks, in the tent or leave!!! She was not friendly at all!! I tried to reiterate to her that the email she sent us said we could be moved indoors...she then told me that there was a private booking for inside the club house that was booked eons ago!! Um...ok, so what if it was raining...retard!!!

Finally someone suggested that they would run home and see if hey had some big tarps that we could lay down under the tent!! Oh...Hmmmm maybe they have some there the girl said. She would go and check; it was now 10am! You have to remember that we were suppose to be there at 9:15am to set up!! Oh and by the way you would think they would have tables and chairs out and ready for us...nope! They then had the audacity to ask us to help bring them outside! Low and behold she came back out with tarps!!

We finally laid down the tarps, got out the tables and chairs and we were able to set up, by only 10:30am! Now anyone who knows anything about organizing a trade show (especially with only 12 business') knows there should only be one of each type of business. Well lets see, there was me with my Graffiti, 2 photographers, Pampered Chef, 3 beauty products (Beauticontrol, Arbonne and Avon), Silpada Jewelry, Investors Group, Stampin' Up, some kind of clothing and a lady whom teaches kids to paint.

Well on to the rest of this UNORGANIZED day; it ended up not being open to the public! People were coming to the gate and not being let in. One lady outside said that she had heard it on the radio...when we asked the girl she said it was not on any radios...hmmmmm strange! As I had mentioned it was rather windy so I think that was deterring people from coming as it wasn't very busy at all. The girl organizing (hahahaha) said we would easily have 100-150 people, we maybe had 30. I was talking to the Silpada girl, she only sold one $5 cleaning cloth, I only sold one $30 piece, and Beauticontrol sold one $50 hand scrub and booked one party. I am not sure of the others, but I am sure it was just as uneventful for them.

At 1pm one of the photographers packed up and left, I guess she had enough. By 2pm Investors Group, Avon and Arbonne were all leaving....at 3pm the girl came and said they needed us to leave because they NEEDED our tables for the function booked indoors. For the love of God, she has no idea what she is doing....I finally packed it in at 3:20pm with the other two who stuck it out - Beauticontrol and Pampered Chef.

Well the only good thing about this entire day was that some people took home my business card, so hopefully they will order, also it didn't cost me anything (other than an entire wasted Saturday), but I can tell you that if I had paid for my table I would be raising hell and getting my money back!! Oh and Makayla got to spend the day with her two Grandmas; so at least they had fun!!

I had pre-ordered a bunch of these for Father's Day, now I am out of pocket almost $200...hopefully I can sell them!

Hey, at least my table looked awesome!

Quick Road Trip = Meeting Long Lost Family

Yesterday my Mom, Makayla and I went to meet my Auntie (who was also adopted out) for the first time ever! It was really an amazing experience! To be honest before I met my "Aunt & Uncle" (still weird) I was unsure of what we were going to talk about, or if we would get along, or would we have anything in common. Well...it is really kind of strange because we got on so well and it feels like we have known each other forever!! My Aunt and I do have something in common, we are both artistic and very creative! We only met one of the "twin sisters", hopefully soon we can meet the other one too!

We arrived at their house around 3pm, did introductions and visited a bit. Around 5pm we decided that we would go to the Cheesecake Cafe and hopefully beat the rush hour traffic and the dinner time diners. We had an awesome meal and of course cheesecake, with great conversation...Makayla was the center of attention, my sweet little monkey!! My Aunt and Uncle were so kind to pick up the tab for dinner, what a nice surprise! We went back home and looked through family pictures on each side, it was so neat seeing how the twins grew up, see the adoptive family and their other siblings. We compared my Moms and my Aunts adoption papers and we are still unsure if they had the same Father...it is unclear; it would be so neat if they did!

We stayed up chatting, laughing and looking through pictures until 2:30am! The funny thing is, it didn't seem that late, and the time just really flew by! I guess that old saying is true "time flies when you are having fun"! We got up around 9:30am this morning, had coffee, visited, ate breakfast, visited, got ready and left to come home around 3pm. We were sent home with some really wonderful and unexpected gifts! Lets just say Makayla was spoiled, and so were we!

Well, I am off to bed now, but I just wanted to share about our amazing time meeting my Aunt & Uncle!! I can't wait until we get together again!! Next time maybe I will meet my other Aunt & Uncle and maybe some of my cousins too!

Mom, Makayla, Auntie

Uncle, Makayla, Auntie, Mom

One of their two cats, Makayla loved him!

Me, Makayla, Auntie

I rained the entire 3 hour drive there, and almost the entire way home, this was just before getting home we had a very nasty cloud above us!