I fell in a hole...it hurt!

This is the hole in the floor of the addition basement for the sump pump. It's been there since Jon started building 3 1/2 years ago. I've always been careful to NOT fall in the hole. Yesterday as I tried to quickly finish up the painting while the boys were resting and Abbs was at school, I stepped a little too far...

My right thigh took the brunt of it.... I cried....it really hurt.  The swelling has gone down today and I can walk without wincing (for the most part).  You know that I had to take a picture though... I really love the blues and purples :)  Abby was so sweet yesterday and brought me a cushion on a foot stool.  Jude just asked me why I fell in a hole....  ummm... good question!

Jon's going to cover it tonight....

Future MTO Structural Engineer like Daddy...

...he just needs to do a bit more growing...

Sibling Cuteness

I love how these 3 are becoming friends, although getting the picture of their boots nearly didn't happen because Abby didn't want to sit by Jordan and Jude didn't want to be in the middle... it's not exactly the shot I wanted, but I had to take what I could get!

I love how Jordan tries to keep up with the big kids. On foot Jude is still faster than Jordan. On a bike however, it's pretty close. Jude plays it safe and doesn't like going too fast, or down hills, or under bridges, or.... Jordy on the other hand may get nervous, but rides like the wind! He loves riding his bike and was waiting at the back door at 8 am the other morning with his rubber boots on, ready to go "bike riding" (biking in circles on the deck).

Sister & Brother

Can't you just feel the love?!

Because Abby was home on Thursday with the chicken pox, the kids have been together every day for nearly a week. This afternoon while we were outside playing Jude said, out of the blue, "Abby's the best girl in the whole world. I miss her." How sweet is that? A bit of an aside... last evening I went up to tell the boys to settle down, again, Jude was in his bed wearing every pair of his clean underwear. Thankfully there was only 4 clean pairs of unders in his drawer. Trying really hard not to laugh, I asked him why he was wearing so many pairs of unders. He told me quite matter of factly that his "bum was cold"... I guess in his nearly 4-year old mind, putting on 4 extra pairs of unders was easier than finding some jammies!

An Easter Tradition...

Easter is as difficult for us as the anniversary of Jonah's death. Jonah passed away on Good Friday. Because it was a holiday, they could not perform the autopsy and we could not make the final arrangements for the boys until Tuesday. My sisters and our mothers arrived shortly after Jonah passed away and so were able to say "good-bye". They stayed in Ottawa with us for a couple of days and then returned to NB. Until Jonah passed away, nearly every waking moment had been spent at the hospital, learning about the boys' care & spending time by their sides. After Jonah joined Josh in their Heavenly home and our family returned to NB, we were at a loss... how could we possibly pass the time in Ottawa until all the arrangements could be made after Easter? Everywhere we went we saw happy parents with happy, chubby, healthy babies...babies the reminded us that we would never see our little Josh and Jonah grow up. People were going about their lives and yet we felt stuck. Even at Ronald McDonald House, where we continued to stay, parents still had their children.

We decided that we just needed to escape. We went out for supper and then to a movie. For the duration of the movie, it almost felt "normal". It was when the credits appeared at the end of the movie that an enormous wave of reality washed over both me and Jon. I was no longer pregnant with our twins. Josh was gone. Jonah was gone. We were childless parents.

Every Easter (and sometimes throughout the year) we watch The Core...
the movie that we watched on Easter weekend 7 years ago...
trying to make time pass faster...
trying to help us escape...
& forget our pain...
if only for a couple hours.

As the credits roll we remember how we felt that first time...

Easter in Quarantine

Our kids received the varicella vaccine (for chicken pox) during their regular immunization schedule. When they were all exposed to chicken pox, I didn't think much of it. They were vaccinated. Then after Abby's bath on Tuesday (after being at school all day) I noticed spots on her back, one leg and one arm. After a quick call to the after-hours nurse for our clinic we learned that 10% of children who received the vaccine can still get chicken pox, just much less severe. Our kids are in that 10%. Jude's spots appeared on Saturday morning. Jordan had a couple spots shortly before Abby that I didn't really attribute to chicken pox, that we now figure were chicken pox.

So, our previous Easter plans were abandoned and we went to Plan B... playing outside, biking at Boulevard Lake a couple times, walking and watching the deer at Mission Marsh, taking a trip to the US border to pick up playground accessories for the kids' play structure, watching Alvin & the Chipmucks & searching for hidden eggs in the backyard (our original plan was to do an egg hunt with friends at their home. Even with Abby quarantined, the boys were still going to go with Jon or me. With Jude also under quarantine, Plan B involved me going to Walmart on Saturday to find plastic eggs to fill for our own egg hunt...Walmart on the Saturday before Easter ressembles Walmart on Christmas Eve...really NOT where I wanted to be!). Overall, it was a great weekend (aside from the Walmart madness). The kids were a little sad to not be able to play with other kids (at the playground, at church or at the brunch/egg hunt) but staying busy & active was a good distraction!

Sidetracked...