Another Belated Birthday Greeting

Makayla, Happy Third Birthday!  I can hardly believe that it's been three years already.  You are growing like a weed and we love you so much - although we could do without your tantrums!!  This last year has been amazing as we welcomed your brother into our family.  It is so much fun to watch the two of you together.  You speak so well and I love having conversations with you.  You know your colours, your numbers, you're starting to learn letters and I love that you speak Spanish!  I hope that we can continue to grow that in you (thanks to Dora the Explorer!).  This past week we started working on potty training and you have been a rock star!  We are excited to have you go to preschool in September and I look forward to this summer with you as we explore more outdoors and as we play with some friends!  You are a joy and we love you!!!  Can't wait to see what this next year holds!!!

Best birthday present - a helium Dora balloon!  It lasted for two weeks!!!

Epic Parenting Fail: thought I had enough batteries in the camera to get us through the day... take out the camera to take photos at dinner only to realize the battery was dead!  Had to use the blackberry to take a few photos!

Happy (Belated) Birthday Little Man!!!

Wow, where has the year gone?  I can hardly believe that our little guy has turned ONE!  Here's the link to his arrival but I realized that I never wrote any details about how he came into our lives (I did however mention that the second child does get a little left in the dust!).

So, one year ago (well actually a little more than that), Taylor Philip Yee joined our family on May 14, 2010.  His due date was May 21, 2010.  Phil was working in Grande Cache and was working his last set before he had a few weeks off.  He had just finished working a week of overnight shifts and slept for a few hours and then made the drive to Edmonton.  He was home in the afternoon of the 13th.  My mom was arriving on the 15th and so we knew we had lots of time!  I went to one of my final dr appointments that morning and found out that things were already underway.  I had been having contractions off and on for the past few days and after that appointment they totally picked up.  I knew that it was going to be soon, I just wasn't prepared for how soon.

We had a bunch of friends on stand by and some great people who had offered to help out even watching Makayla if this baby came before my mom got to town.  When Phil came home that afternoon I told him what was going on.  I had made plans to meet a friend for coffee, so I went out with her, all while crossing my legs and making sure this baby didn't come any sooner than we were ready for!  By dinner time that night I was starting to get a little uneasy, feeling that tonight just might be the night.  I remember tucking Makayla into bed that night thinking that things were about to be so different and I remember saying to her, "See you in the morning" (I was just NOT ready for this baby - Phil had just got home and my mom wasn't going to be there for another day, but I knew that I wasn't going to be seeing her in the morning).  As we were going to bed my contractions were five minutes apart and so we called the family down the street who babysat for Makayla very often.  We called them just to give them a heads up that we may be calling them sooner than later.  Around 3 am I woke up and had some crazy contractions.  I rolled over, told Phil to get up, it was time to go (I have never seen him move so fast!!).  He made the call to our friends and I puttered around trying to get myself ready to go.  By the time they arrived and I was ready to go it was getting close to 3:30 am.  We got to the hospital, checked in and got all hooked up.  I was in a waiting area with monitors and what not for a little while.  They moved me to a delivery room and things picked up.

The nurse was getting everything ready, the doctor was called and on the way and I was doing everything I could to not use any drugs.  I got some of that lovely gas that got me pretty loopy and poor Phil just wanted to sleep!  I was feeling the urge to push and told the nurse.  They checked me again, called the dr again and started to get things ready a little faster.  The doctor arrived, she broke my water and a few pushes later the little man was here!  6:33 am he arrived!  Weighed in at 8lbs 1oz.  And of course it's been love ever since!

It's hard to believe that it's been over a year now!  You've grown to be so big and such a fun little guy.  You are adventurous and daring.  You are determined and you let nothing stand in your way.  You want everything your big sister has, even if you can't have it.  You love to laugh and you LOVE to eat!  You are a great addition to our family and I feel complete!  We love you very much and can't imagine our life without you!  We can't wait to see what you will grow up to become!  Happy Birthday Little Man!

The BIG 3-0...

So today is my birthday, the big 30 and I'm not too sure how I feel about the whole thing. This is a big milestone in one's life and i have been in denial about it for the past year. When I was younger I always dreamed about what life would be like. But for some reason, I never got passed the age of 25 in those dreams. In my mind it went something like this: finish high school, finish college, get married right after and start a family. And that's about as far as it got. And that's not how it has turned out! The only thing in that timeline that actually happened at the right time was graduating high school! After that I went on to college, but got married before I finished, worked a few years, went back to school to finish, got a "real" job then had kids. I'm not disappointed, and I'm not really sure why I have these feelings of denial. I should be embracing the fact that I am turning 30. Danica sure has the right idea and I so wish that I could embrace it like her! So, now that I am 30 I will learn to embrace it and where I am in life and be thankful for all that I have and all that I have had the opportunity to do - cause I have had a chance to do a lot of awesome things in the past 30 years!

So, here's to being another year older and another year wiser, right?

Happy Chinese New Year!

On Sunday we "celebrated" Chinese New Year. Well, we celebrated in the sense that Makayla got to dress up for church and everyone thought she was just sooo cute! I have to admit, she was pretty cute. Next Sunday we will probably dress her up again as we have a big church banquet to celebrate - Chinese people like to celebrate for about a week!!

Celebrations

Well, we are happy to say that Phil has completed his training in Saskatoon and now gets to go to work! We are thrilled that he is done and eventhough he will be leaving us again, we know that it is only for a few days at a time and he is now in the same province and time zone as us! We are thrilled that this part of the journey is over and now we get to move on to the next part of the journey.

We are also excited to celebrate Phil's birthday this weekend! I won't reveal his age, but he is older than me!!! What an exciting weekend of celebrations!

Congrats Phil on all your accomplishments! We are so proud of you!