Category: Kristen

2011- a year in photos

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January

We visited Lou Gardens, played outside at the park a lot and celebrated our sweet little Jay Bird’s 1st Birthday.

Februrary

We decorated a bunch of cookies, reorganized the kitchen and we harvested a large crop of carets and beets from the garden.

March

Jay really started walking on his own, we picked a ton of Strawberries and made Jam, hosted the crawfish boil and found out we were expecting our second kiddo!

April

We frequented the zoo, picked and ate a ton of strawberries, we played outside with the water table frequently, hunted for Easter Eggs, finger painted for the first time and got to tell our family that we were expecting again.

May

Jay started coloring a lot, we played outside in the hose frequently, we celebrated Mother’s Day by playing outside in the kiddie pool, picked and ate peaches off of our tree in the backyard, Jay started swim lessons and he had his first haircut.

June

We played outside in the rain, I hosted a bridal shower for Nicole and we spent a week at the Beach with Jamie’s family.

July

We went to cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a, we visited Mom and Ed at their condo in south Florida, we celebrated our 5th Anniversary, Jay discovered cars, we celebrated my 29 birthday and announced that we were having another little boy!

August

We took our first trip to the splash pad, Jay’s obsession with cars grew, he began using utensils on his own and Jay completed his Infant Survival Swimming Course.

September

We flew to Canada to celebrate my Grandma’s 85th birthday, Jamie and I survived a very long plane ride with a toddler who wouldn’t nap, we made considerable progress with putting together Jay’s big boy room and Dolce got really sick and had to have major surgery.

October

Jamie celebrated his 31st birthday, we took a rode trip to North Carolina to celebrate Jamie’s sisters wedding, we carved pumpkins, Jay took his first pony ride, went trick-or-treating and Jay decorated cookies for the first time.

November

We finished up a few projects around the house in preparation for our second little one to arrive and we welcomed Charlie into our family 10 days earlier than we had expected!!

December

We adjusted to being a family of four, Jay slept in a big boy bed for the first time, we decorated our house for Christmas (which included a tree with only lights on it), and celebrated the holidays with lots of family and friends.

a favorite

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Life has been busy lately and honestly there are a ton of photos of our little family of four that I would like to post; however, until I can find a spare second here is a glimpse of what the really good moments look like at our place.

2011 the end

Published on by kristenperreault1 Comment

As each year comes to a close, I usually end up regretting the the things I didn’t get to finish, wondering where the time went and making grand plans regarding the new year. Not today, not this year. This year I won’t make promises I can’t keep or “resolutions” because it is what you do at new years. Instead, I will take a more gentle approach and create a list (it wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t a list) of hopes, hopes for the new year…

I hope to cherish the present and to not worry about what has yet to come.
I hope to trust more in God’s plan.
I hope to be good to my family, and to be the kind of friend my friends are to me.
I hope to enjoy the small moments with my small children who won’t be that way for long.
I hope to appreciate the moments I get with my husband and to constantly remind myself how lucky I am to have found him.

a self portrait of me and the three most important people in my life

Happy New Year everyone, here’s to a wonderful 2012!

cheese

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I will admit this isn’t a stellar photo of myself. I am sporting a nice case of bed head and am still in my jammies but I think that the two adorable boys and the husband foot (it makes me laugh that he didn’t move it for the photo) all but make up for my short comings… I love that all of my boys are in this photo, that my big boy posses for them with an adorable “cheese” face and that my squishy is well, squishy.

Happy Friday to you.

we got our tree!!

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We got our tree, we got our tree!!!

Yesterday Jamie, the boys and I headed out to pick up our Christmas tree. This is pretty much one of my favorite days of the year- I LOVE getting our tree! It’s outside waiting to be brought in after it falls a little- can’t wait until it’s in the house and strung with lights :)

helping Daddy to carry the tree

what Charlie did during the tree hunting
family of four- CRAZY isn't it??

2 weeks…

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Charlie,

Two weeks ago Thursday you surprised everyone by coming 10 days early.  You were ready to be in the world and weren’t going to wait on anyone; not even for your Mama to pack her hospital bag.  In hind sight, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.  Your Daddy did a great job of packing everything that we needed while we were at the hospital (he sent me photos from his phone to make sure that he had everything right) AND I have already had two precious weeks with you- what more could I ask for?

I am over the moon for you little man; you are precious beyond words and continue to take my breath away daily.  As I write this you are snuggled in on my lap and along with the soft Christmas music I can hear your tiny baby snores… bliss.  Wrapped in two blankets and bundled in your southern miss hat you snooze and I am amazed that you are mine and that I get to be your Mama.  It has taken a while for us to get to know you; you are so different from your brother and so alike at the same time.  You love to be snuggled up, the cozier the better- hence the two blankets, but you don’t want to be swaddled tightly like your brother did.   You like to have one or both arms out of your blanket and near your head (this is a Daddy pose little one and I think it was passed down from Pepere).  Your cry is louder than Jay’s was and you make these brief little hiccup noises and grunt a bunch where Jay sounded more like a pterodactyl when he was your age.  You are a great eater, nursing almost every two hours during the day and less so at night (I thank you for this) and growing like a bad weed.  You weighed in at 8lbs 12oz when we were at the doctor today, having gained 14oz in 2 weeks- wow, little one, wow!  You have a round little face that I recognize from my baby pictures, soft squishy lips and the same button nose as your brother- you are cute, I mean really cute :)

Being a family of four has taken adjusting to.  It hasn’t been a smooth process and we are nowhere near over the adjustment period but we are continuing to work out the kinks as we go and taking it one day at a time.  Jay was a bit jealous when we first came home from the hospital and mostly chose to ignore your existence but he is warming up to you daily.  He refers to you as ‘baby Charlie’ (I really need to get that on video- it’s precious), brings us a paci when you are crying and hugs and kisses you from time to time- although the hugs are more like head locks at this point.  We are working on the concept of being gentle with him- I promise; hopefully it will catch on soon. I can’t wait to see how your relationship will continue to grow and I hope that you will become fast friends.

I can’t cuddle you enough and don’t want to blink because I am afraid that when I do I will open my eyes and you will be a toddler (it happened with Jay- I swear) and I don’t want to miss a minute of this tiny squishy phase.  But at the same time, I love seeing you grow and change before my eyes, what a miracle.  I can’t wait to see what your personality is going to be like and already can’t imagine all that you are going to do with your life.  I have big dreams for you little man, big dreams indeed…

I love you more with each passing day and am so excited to see what tomorrow will bring.  Thanks for coming early to meet us, I love you.

Love,

Mama

p.s. Your two week stats from the doctors visit today are as follows, you know for posterity’s sake…

8lbs 12oz, 21 inches long- and both are in the 50 percentile- but anyone that has been able to cuddle you knows that there is nothing average about you ;)

a sneak peak from Charlie's "newborn shoot"- precious, isn't he?? more to come soon :)

the lists can wait…

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Lately I have been quite concerned with checking things off of a “to do” list.  With the holidays fast approaching, a new baby’s arrival pending (or at least it was) the white board on the fridge and lists (yes that is multiple) on my iPhone have been a revolving door of things to do.  Prepare some meals for when baby arrives, stock pantry and toiletry cabinet, purchase  Christmas gifts, work on the handmade gifts we are giving this year, do the laundry, clean the house, steam clean the carpets, finish photos- personal and otherwise and this isn’t even the half of it…  The lists went on and on and when I or Jamie checked something off I was able to add another two or three things to replace it.  To say the least it began causing me stress, I would check the lists before bed and make adjustments before my head could “shut off” for the evening and sleep.  I would worry that I wouldn’t be able to get it all done and felt guilty when I didn’t end up accomplishing much during the day. Heck, I even stopped taking as many photographs of our day to day because I didn’t need (want) to add any more photos to the to be edited stack…

It has taken me a while to realize it (and I am not sure that I have fully grasped the concept yet) however I am surely working on it but those kinds of lists won’t ever end and they are not what is important.  There will always be laundry to do, a house to clean, another project to be added to the to do list; what will end is the time when my children are small, a time when they want me to be there and need only my undivided attention.

Charlie came 10 days early surprising all of us and catching me with an unfinished list.  Since he has arrived I have been forced to slow down, to let my list go unfinished and to focus on what really maters… my family.  My time with Jay is more limited now so I am trying to be more deliberate about it and trying not to multitask while he is around.  I am spending extra time reading stories, playing with cars, stopping to really listen when he talks to me or wants to show me something, helping when he asks in his sweet little voice “help me Mommy, help me”, and grabbing the extra hug or kiss when he slows down long enough to give them.  I am trying to just sit back and enjoy all of the time I am getting with Charlie- to cuddle him, shower him with kisses, to enjoy the 3am and 4am feedings, to marvel at just how tiny and perfect he is.  I am trying to appreciate (outwardly) all that Jamie does for me and the boys and sneak time for the two of us whenever possible.  I am making an effort to pick up my camera and shoot until my heart’s content because even if I don’t get to editing all of the photos I have taken, I will some day and regardless of when I get to them I will be grateful that I took them- that I captured the tiny baby smiles or a little boy engrossed in his “fast cars”.  I will want to remember those moments, the ones that only last for the blink of an eye.  So while realistically my to do lists won’t be vanishing any time soon, I am not consumed by them anymore and I have started to add to do’s of another variety… like go to to the park, play cars and cuddle in the hammock ;)

And because all posts are better with a few photos, here’s a few of our little Charlie…