Playdate and Photos

I hosted a play date yesterday with some Chelsea moms and a couple stragglers from Barrhaven (hehehe just kidding girls). It was a fun filled morning of babies and goodies and fun was had by all! Including Madison who basically slept through the entire thing! I prepared some yummy Chocolate Coconut Bars, which didn't exactly turn out like they were supposed to, but were delicious none the less. Here is the recipe for those who asked for it - it is super easy!:

Chocolate-Coconut Bars
Makes 20

* 3 cups finely ground cookies (12 ounces), such as graham crackers or chocolate wafers, or a combination
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
* 1 cup pecan pieces
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
* 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
* 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly splash a 15-by-10-inch rimmed baking sheet evenly with water, then line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir together cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter until combined. Evenly press onto bottom and up sides of prepared baking sheet. Bake, rotating halfway through, until firm, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool, about 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkle cooled crust evenly with pecans and chocolate. Pour condensed milk over the top, spreading to cover completely (do not let it drip over the edges). Sprinkle with coconut.
4. Bake until coconut is toasted, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Trim edges, if desired, and cut into equal-size bars.

Tip: Before you pour the condensed milk over the top, place can in hot/boiling water for a few minutes to warm it up and it will pour better. I didn't do this so it didn't exactly "pour", so it came out clumpy.

The most relaxed mom of twins I've ever seen!

Cute little Selina

Loved Ava's onsie!

Andrew and his little dimple.

Cohen gives me the cutest smile!

Quinn tries to get Andrew to wake up. Trouble maker :)

The gang of babies! (I love how Meaghan is the only one looking
straight at the camera smiling - what a star!)

Once everyone left, I set up for my afternoon photo shoot with Jemelee, Lee and baby Hogan. Hogan was 15 days old and super cooperative! Here are a couple random sneek peaks, visit my blog later on for more shots from the session:

Our Daughter is Born!

She arrived on Thursday August 20th, at 5:23 after (thankfully) a few short hours of labour. Luckily we were smarter this time and decided to go to the hospital a little earlier! Contractions started at 5:00 am, but subsided around 7:00 am, so I thought it was a false start at first. But around noon, they started back up again, light, manageable, but still regular - every 6 min or so. Around 1:30 - 2:00 pm, they were getting slightly closer together - 5 min 30 sec, and a little stronger, so Eric suggested that we head into the hospital. Of course I thought - too early, but I'll entertain him and we'll go and they'll tell us to go home. We arrived at the hospital at about 3:00 pm, and sitting at the triage desk was Heather, the nurse we had when we delivered Abigail - who in fact was the person who delivered her, because our Dr was not exactly in the room when she came out... we had fun catching up chatting while they monitored me. The resident came in and checked me to see how far along I was, and to every ones surprise, I was between 7-8 cm. So I was admitted at about 3:45, and as soon as we went to the L & D room, it really started to pick up. The Dr came, broke my water around 5:15, and then came Madison Elizabeth, at 5:23 cord wrapped around her neck -twice. But thankfully the Dr had it all under control and she was fine. Here are her first few images from the hospital: