We are so lucky.....

....to have such a wonderful group of friends. I've always known that we have great friends, but they just keep amazing me. With the birth of Marin, our friends have gone well above and beyond to help us out, support us, and just plain be amazing friends to our entire family.

Yesterday our friend Laurie showed up with a MASSIVE lasagna, caesar salad, garlic bread and brownies. An entire meal, plus tons of leftovers for us! Angie had us over for a fantastic dinner on Tuesday, and then packaged up all the leftovers which fed us for the next two days. Michelle came over on Thursday with an entire Shepherd's pie and cookies. This is on top of the wonderful and thoughtful gifts they have given us, plus continuing offers to help with the kids. And it doesn't stop there - the rest of our friends have been incredibly wonderful and supportive through all of this.

I am constantly amazed at the generosity and sheer thoughtfulness of our friends, and am always so thankful to have friends who have become like family to us. A HUGE thank-you goes out to all of our friends. We couldn't do this without you!!

"I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship."
-- Pietro Aretino (1537)

Cutest picture EVER!

Miss. Marin is doing amazingly well. She's already surpassed her birth weight, and is now weighing a whopping 7lbs 15.5 oz. She seems to have adjusted to life at home, and is quite content (at this stage!) to be carted around to her siblings activities in the car seat.

Miss. Shannon is also adjusting beautifully to having a new baby sister in the house. More importantly, Shannon has become obsessed with Marin's car seat. She loves hopping in and out of it, and playing with the buckles. I caught her in action the other day and managed to capture (what I think is) the cutest picture ever!! Enjoy!



Now all we have to do is make sure Marin isn't IN the seat when Shannon is monkeying around!!! ;-)

Thanks Nanna & Nannu

On Monday my parents left after spending a week and a half with us. They were such a HUGE help, and I'm not sure we could have survived the last few days of the pregnancy and the first few days at home without them. The kids had an absolute BLAST with them, and were very sad to see them go (as was I!). They keep asking when Nanna and Nannu are coming back again.

Here are some pictures from the visit:
One of my all-time favourite pictures of my Dad and Shannon:


My Mom, Quinn, Shannon and Dad:


Shannon saw my Dad working on his laptop, and went and got hers and sat down on the couch next to him - it was too cute!!


Nanna snuggling with Marin:


So thanks again to Nanna and Nannu - we love you!

Da boys....

Last week I took the boys in for their 6 and 4 year pictures. Once again we managed to get some great shots!!

The two little men:


I love this one - I think it's very 'artsy':


Our 6 year old:


Our 4 year old:


A funny back story to this. We were at McDonald's for lunch before the shoot and I noticed that both boys were in desperate need of haircuts. Soooo... 20 minutes before our appointment I ran them over to the hairdresser. After they cut their hair, the stylist asked them what colour hair gel they wanted. My initial reaction was "Hell no!" but the I just said "what the heck!" So Aidan choose green gel (which you can't really see) and Quinn chose orange (which only magnified the red in his hair). Very festive colours considering it was St Paddy's Day!!!

Introducing.....

Marin Andrea Benz James!!!

After waiting until one day past her due date (guess she didn't want to be a St. Paddy's Day girl!), Miss Marin entered the world at 1:37p.m. on March 18. All in all the labour was pretty fast (started at 6:00 a.m., we were admitted by 10:30, and she arrived at 1:37), but the lack of drugs made it a memorable affair!!

She weighed in at a whopping 7lbs 8oz, which for our kids is ENORMOUS!! She's fairly long as well, measuring 20.5 inches. Of course she is just perfect and beautiful in every way, and now that we're back home we're trying to settle in with four little ones. The 'big' kids are quite taken with her, and keep asking: "Where's Marin?"

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Wait! I want to go back in!


With the gang:


Sleeping Beauty:


Ready to go home:

Happy Birthday Quinn!

Four years ago today, our little Quinnster entered the world. It's hard to believe that Quinn is four, but our Mr. Personality won't let you forget it! He had a great day, starting with a cooking class, followed by opening and playing with a gift from Aidan (a bubble blower), finished off with a dinner of chicken nuggets, ribs, and fries (his favourites!) and not one, but two transformers cakes!

Opening Aidan's present:


Swinging with Aidan in front of the bubble blower:


The amazingly fantastic HOMEMADE Transformers cakes (note the extreme sarcasm here!!):


All in all, a pretty great day for our newest four year old!!

The somewhat finished product!

After much delay, here are some pictures of they boys' room. We haven't hung anything on the walls yet, or gotten an area rug, but the furniture is in place, the bedding is there and the boys absolutely LOVE their new room!!

The bookshelf (sorry for all the junk on the top two shelves - we're still finishing things up!):


Quinn's bed:


Aidan's bed:


The room from the doorway:

Ode to Quinn

Our Quinn sometimes gets short-changed being the second child. It doesn't mean that our fiesty little guy can't make his presence known though!

On Monday, Aunti Kare took Quinn out for the afternoon for some bonding time. They went to a "Build a Bear" type place where Quinn decided on a white dog, dressed in a Karate outfit, with Rollerblads. He decided to name his creation: "Tootie" (can you tell the child has entered the wonderful phase where he is preoccupied with bodily functions?!?!) and just loves him to death. Case in point, I went into his room on Monday night to find him fast asleep..... with Tootie on his head!!!


Yesterday he was focused on tracing his name (in preparation for Big Boy School in the fall) and I had to take a picture because it was just too cute to see him working so hard! (of course, I forgot to upload said picture to this computer so I'll have to post it later!)

Tadah!!!

We interrupt this broadcast.......

To say: Way to GO!!! A HUGE congratulations go out to our nephew Adam who won the Lambton County Chess tournament!! (grade 4 division)

We couldn't be prouder, and are hoping he can pass on his Chess skills to us (especially to me, since I am clueless about chess!)

AWESOME JOB Adam!!!

Happy (early) Birthday Quinn!

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Quinn and his friends. His birthday isn't until next week, but I wanted to make sure our little guy got a party and felt special since his birthday is so close to the baby's due date. He had a blast with his little buddies, and it was so cute to watch them run around like mad-men and play and celebrate his special day. It's hard to believe our little guy is turning 4!!!

I have to admit, I was a bit lax on the picture taking, but here are a few shots:




The furniture for the boys bedroom arrived on Friday night and it looks AWESOME!!! The room is so close to being done, and Chris assures me that we'll have everything set-up and the boys officially in it tonight. I'll post pictures once everything is in place and looking spectacular, but for now I have to plug our friend Randy's side business, Lasalle Woodworks, as he did such a great job on the beds and bookshelf! Soooo.... you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see the finished product! (I know, I'm such a tease!!!)

In other news, we continue to wait for this baby to arrive. Aidan and Quinn are getting very anxious about when this child is going to join us, and keep asking: "Mummy, when will the baby be born?" THAT, my friends, is the million dollar question!!! For now, I continue to work and take care of the little monkeys and we 'patiently' wait for baby number four to come into the light.

Speaking of coming into the light, my friend Laura sent me this yesterday and I thought it was hysterical:
" Notification Alert:

Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, oil,
as well as current market conditions, The Light at the End of the Tunnel
has been turned off.

We apologize for the inconvenience"

All your friends.....

OK - this cracked me up!!

Which is worse? Blue Paint or Baby Powder?

Those of you that have known us a while will no doubt remember the 'blue paint' episode. For those of you that missed it, here is a recap: Aidan and his friend (also named Aidan) were playing in the basement at a friend's house. All was well, and I went down to tell them that we were leaving in 5 minutes. When I got downstairs, this is what I found:

My Aidan is the one with his shirt on:


They told us they were trying to create a 'masterpiece':


Well this weekend I was over at this same friend's house and Quinn and Clark (the younger brother of the other Aidan) were upstairs playing. Angie and I were in the basement with the babies when suddenly my Aidan comes running downstairs and says: "Mummy, the little guys are throwing baby powder all over the place!" Angie and I ran upstairs to discover that Quinn and Clark had dumped out an ENTIRE bottle of baby powder and spread it all over the upstairs hall, Clark's bedroom, and anywhere else the powder could settle. They said they were trying to make 'booby traps' so that the grown-ups couldn't get in.

Sigh.... clearly the 'making a mess' gene has been passed from big to little brothers. Unfortunately we were too busy cleaning it up and keeping the babies out of the powder to get pictures this time around! Thankfully Angie has the disposition of a saint and said: "well, I needed to clean up here anyways!"