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:

Time is flying by...but enjoying it!

I can't believe how fast the time seems to fly by! One day just seems to speed into the next and the next... Madison is growing before my eyes, the girls are getting bigger and bigger by the minute and I seem to have so much on my plate (all fun stuff mind you), and I never get any of it done because I get distracted by more stuff!! But regardless, I'm happy, feeling good and enjoying ever minute of being home with Madison, enjoying the girls humour and sparky personalities, enjoying my photo shoots and the challenges of starting a new business with little time to do it in :), and definitely enjoying this amazing fall weather!

Two weeks Today

Madison turned two weeks old today. It's always amazing how fast time flies, already two weeks since I was in labour! She continues to be a fantastic baby. We hang out at home, go for walks with Bender and is so calm all the time. I can take her out shopping and she won't really wake up for 2 hours, it's crazy! So much different from Gillian. Gillian and Abigail continue to LOVE their new sister and fight over who is going to hold her. I've found Abigail only once with Madison in her arms and her saying "look mommy I can carry her"! Even though they love her, I think they are feeling the change in the household with 3 now, and the sudden absence of mommy time with the new baby. I need to feed her and change her and all the while it's taking away from their time with me. It makes me sad, but it's the new reality, and once Madison grows up a little things will even out again!

I'm also happy to report the alarm trick has worked the past two mornings, they both didn't get up until the music started playing. I really think it's more because they are so exhausted (both physically and emotionally) that they need to sleep! Let's hope that it continues like this!

Here are a few photos to share:

Madison - cross eyed newborn cuteness! Aren't they just so funny
at this stage?

Gillian getting up to no good at 7:00 am

Abby needs hair intervention - time to visit a salon,
mommy's haircuts don't work anymore!

Some more visual fun...

Just a quick post tonight.. heading off to bed. It was a beautiful day and I had fun with flowers and textures!

Nutty Weekend

So this weekend was a weekend I don't need to re-live. It rained the entire time, the kids were NUTS - like "Where can I return them" nuts. I love them to death, of course would never return them for real ( ha!), but really, I think I was having another nice postpartum hormone flush, because I was basically in tears all morning Sunday. Very little sleep for two nights adds to that too... Then we are having a terrible time the the girls and sleeping. Gillian is up EVERY night at one point, usually 1:30 am screaming and lost, and needs to be straightened out in bed and re-tucked in. It wakes Abby up, so she starts to cry and so on. Then Gillian is up and yelling at the baby gate at the door EVERY morning between 4:30 - 5:00 am. This of course wakes Abby up, who joins her in her chorus of "let me out, I want milk!!". Madison, the newborn is almost sleeping better than those two at this point which is sad. So I went out on Saturday, and bought an alarm clock for the girls room. New rule is that they aren't allowed to come out until 6:00 am. Right now that means lots of screaming between 5:00 and 6:00 am, but we need to stick to our guns and be consistent for them to start to understand. When they do, be it in a week or in a month, the time will change to 6:30. Gillian, has more trouble understanding the concept, but we just need to keep repeating ourselves for her to get it.

As for the baby, she is an angel! So far so good, at 11 days old she is a wonderful little baby! (I'm knocking on wood right now...) She feeds really really well, and perhaps I feel it's so good because I had such trouble with Gillian (I think she was tongue tied enough to cause problems) , so the fact that I'm not in excruciating pain from sores and blocked ducts is a miracle! She sleeps well, seems to be rather consistent, and only cries when she is read to eat. But hey, it all may change at any moment, so I'm really enjoying it and making sure I don't take it for granted!

Abigail LOVES her new baby sister - can't get enough of her!

Gillian, looking very tired, stops for the camera!

Abby is very proud to hold her (luckily she didn't pee!)

Nana loves to hold Madison also!

Thankfully it's Monday, kids are at daycare so that gives me a little time to recoup from the weekend and hopefully plan a better weekend to come. It really is my fault for not organizing things for us to do, and on a rainy weekend it's deadly! I slept pretty well last night, don't ask me the stats as I don't remember how long/how often I was up. All I know is that I feel relatively rested and ready to face the day!

First Photo Shoot!

I set up the studio yesterday, and set out today to do Madison's first photo shoot! She was a little difficult to get to sleep, took a good couple of hours to get her asleep enough to pose her, and still she resisted in her slumber. Still I got some really cute shots and hope to get a few more tomorrow, if I have the energy! It's tough work being the Mom and the photographer all at once!

Here are the highlights so far:

Thought I'd try a little texture on these two and loved how they turned out!

I just love little feet!!

Sisters

Sisters, originally uploaded by Christine - AbbyG.

Just a quick post of this photo I took of the three girls. I think this is the beginning of an amazing relationship between the three! I can't wait to see what life has in store for them... fun, heartache, mischievousness, and adventure!