Emmanuel's 4th Birthday.

Emmanuel turned 4 on October 17th. I can't believe how fast the last 4 years have gone. I still remember the day he was born and the many sleepless days, weeks, months following.

We had a party with friends from our church, it kind of got out of hand and turned into 26 people in our home. 14 of those people were kids. This year defiantly made me look forward to next year where we will invite a couple boys from his kindergarten class ( AHHHH Kindergarten, that is a whole other post).

All in All the party was a blast, Emmanuel had a Lightening McQueen birthday cake and homemade pizza (8 pizzas).
He received great gifts, manly from the cars movie and is seeming older already. One gift from Evan and I was a bicycle helmet so now Emmanuel is allowed to ride his bike on the side walk. I write this post with a lump in my throat and watery eyes thinking about yesterday when I took him to ride outside. Me having to run after him to keep up. He was gone and there was no looking back ( until he couldn't turn with out help :) ).
I will end this post with one last sentence ad many pictures, my first born is growing up.

* Having problem posting pictures, will try again later.

Life

Our life this past month in a nut shell is birthday, broken bones and cleaning.

First things first, about 2 weeks ago, Micah was running in our friends living room when she slipped and fell into a window sill. I was out for supper at the time when Evan called me frantically on the phone. When I returned to our friend house I found my daughter looking like this,

The picture doesn't show everything, but Micah's nose was instantly swollen and turning color, she couldn't breath through her nose and was crying uncontrollably. Evan and I rushed her into the Red Deer hospital. By the time we got there her nose was huge and starting to look like a banana.
We left the hospital 2 hours later with a daughter full of pain medication and a freshly broken nose. The doctor said it was only crooked because of the swelling and they didn't need to set her nose. Here are a couple pictures of the next couple days.

Day 2, swelling is going down, her nose is getting straighter and the bruising is getting darker.

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

After this point things have been progressively getting better. I will have more posts later today or tomorrow about the rest of out life.

Micah's Appointment

I was wrong my last post, Micah's appointment was with her new pediatrician and not the ophthalmologist. Micah has her appointment with the eye doctor in a couple weeks.
The moment the Dr. walked into the room I fell in love with her. The doctor is in her upper forties super upbeat and very caring (qualities that are hard to find in a Calgary Doctor). It was nice to have a fresh opinion of Micah and it was the first Doctor that told us that Micah's crying many not be due to something physically wrong with her it may just be her temperament.
We were sent for more blood work to rule some different things out and also a x-ray of her hips. This doctor is the first one to take me seriously about Micah's odd running gait. Micah's left hip seizes up when she runs, it makes her look like she is running side ways and leaning forward. It is incredibly cute, the doctor was having a hard time not laughing. She was also the first doctor to make Micah run and watch what is going on.
All in all it was a great appointment.

Well, I have to start baking, Evan and I are having about 20 people here on Sunday for Thanks giving and I work Friday night as well as a 12 hr shift on Saturday.

Stay at home Mom

I was reading Carissa's Blog today and it really hit home for me. I have a working Mom for the last straight year. At one point I was working nights at Tim Horton's on weekends, delivering papers and babysitting 2 days a week as well as caring for my home and children. This lasted for about 2 weeks and the burn out happened. I have been at Smuggler's Inn for just about a year and have loved every minute of it. Last weekend I handed in my official 2 week notice letter, and I have mixed feelings. I would love to stay but the commute is to long especially in rush hour and to this day the kids aren't dealing well with me working. Micah screams while I am at work and Emmanuel acts up the entire day after I get off. I only worked Fridays and Saturdays so Emmanuel would always act up on Sunday.
At this point I need to do what is best for my family, if I don't work Saturdays then Evan can work them making triple the money I would make and then he would be home in the evenings.
Seems like a no brainer decision, to my heart not a easy executed plan. At home I cook , clean, run errrands and take care of the kids with little to no affirmation or thanks. At work you are constantly being affirmed, thanks for doing this, thanks for doing that, etc. It is really nice to feel needed and wanted, I know I am needed and wanted at home but no one verbally tells you that.
Anyway, I am happy about my decision to go back to being a stay at home mom and it will be SO nice to have Evan home in the evenings, I feel like we are on the road to start feeling like a family again. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings.

On a completely different note Micah has one of her specialist appointments tomorrow morning, this one is with an pediatric ophthalmologist. I will post info when when we return from the doctors office.