Sisters

I had to post these 2 pictures to show how much my 2 girls looked a like at birth.

Kaitlyn

Serina

The biggest difference between them is that Serina has more hair then Kaitlyn did.

Serina Haley has arrived!

Well, our newest member of our family has finally made her arrival. Serina Haley Forbes was born on July 27th, 2009 at 12:27am. She weighed 6 lbs 1 oz. A lot like her sister she didn't take to the contractions well. Pretty much as soon as they hooked me up to the monitors they noticed that her heart rate was dropping too low for their liking. They watched that very closely and my Doctor even started making arrangements for a section because he thought that was what was going to happen. He decided to break my water to see if that would help and in 6 minutes I went from 5 to 10 cm and she was out. It all happened so fast. The first thing that Todd and I said was how much she looks like Kaitlyn. It isn't going to be hard to tell that they are sisters.

Kaitlyn and Serina meeting for the first time.

Such a proud Big Sister. She sure loves Serina.

Proud Daddy...

Look at all that wild hair.

Renos Update

The floor and the trim has finally been put into place and I love the result. It's hard to believe how a little facelift can make a space look so much better. Todd and Dale really did a great job with the renovations and should be really proud. Everytime I look at it and see how nice it looks I then don't want to look at the rest of the basement. LOL. Someday we will get the the rest.

I think this section is my favorite transformation. It was so ugly before.

The only thing left is to put up the ceramic tile backsplash around the counter top.

Update on Renos - After painting

We are sailing right along with the renos in the basement. We have finished most of the painting. There are just a few touch ups that have to be done like the ceiling (I may have hit it in a few places) and the door frames and window frames. As you can see in these pictures Todd is in the middle of painting the cabinet doors. We will be ready to start putting the flooring down on Thursday and probably the trim on the weekend. If this goes as planned then we will be done with one week to spare. Our goal was to get this all done before my parents arrived and it should be done. The next pictures I will post of this will be when it is finished.

Reno update

The renos are coming along great. These are some pictures of the area after the boys got the drywall up. They really did a great job. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Here are a few pictures that were taken once the primer was on the walls and the ceiling was painted. It's looking better already.

After the demos

So I am pretty excited about the renos that we are doing. Todd and Dale did the demos tonight and I can tell that it is going to look awesome when it is done. The only thing left for them to take down before they can start putting up the drywall is the trim and the rest of the flooring.

This is where the wall used to be to enter the "suite". It is so open now.

I love how it looks without the upper cabinets. I couldn't use them anyways.

The inside view of where the wall used to be with the door.

Hopefully they will be able to start putting the drywall up by the weekend. Once all that part is done, we will do all the painting before the flooring gets put down. I can't wait to see the end result.

Basement Renos

As most of you know, we have recently purchased our first house. I know that I haven't posted any pictures of it yet but I am working on that. We haven't gotten it all straightened out yet.

About a week after we moved in we had water in the basement and discovered a crack in the foundation. In order to find it Todd and some friends had to rip out part of a wall and some flooring. Because of this we have been forced to do some renos that we didn't expect to do already.

The damage was all done in an area known as the suite. The previous owners had an illegal suite in the basement. At first we were just going to replace the flooring and do some painting but then we discussed it and thought why would we spend the money to do this only to have to do it again down the road when we would want to do the whole reno.

So in the "suite" we are knocking out a wall so that it isn't closed in, tearing out the upper cabinets (that were put in crooked), putting up drywall over the panel board, painting and laying new flooring. Depending on how much this is all going to cost we may also look into replacing the counter top since it is in 2 pieces and not matched up evenly. It looks like the "suite was put together in a hurry.

Here are the before pictures....

The wall with the door to enter the "suite". This is the wall that is being knocked out.

The kitchen of the "suite". The top cabinets are coming down.

This wall is going to stay there.

The dining room space. We are going to be putting some exercise equipment in this space.

The door to the living room space. We will be using this as an office/spare bedroom.

This shows the door to the bedroom, which we will be using as a spare bedroom, and the door to leave the "suite".

An inside view of the wall that will partially be knocked down.

New Baby Forbes

Yes it's true. Todd and I are expecting our second baby and couldn't be happier. We had a little bit of a struggle this time but it has finally turned out for the best.

I am now 12 weeks along and feeling great! I went this morning for my first ultrasound so that we could find out when my due date is and it has been set at July 18th. These are the pictures of the baby that we were given while we were there.

He said that the heartbeat was 156 BPM (beats per minute) which is excellent and that the baby is somewhere aound 2" long. Still so little. When I got home from work tonight I showed Kaitlyn the pictures and she loved them. She is so excited about becoming a big sister. She tells everyone.

Just like Daddy

When in Calgary last weekend Todd bought a 100 lb punching bag to use within an exercise rountine and Kaitlyn just thought this was great. Once Daddy was done with his turn she wanted to try. We put the wraps on her hands and she went to it. It was so cute to watch her playing on it. She was even trying to punch it. Her favorite though was sitting on it like it was a horse.

Superman!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend in Calgary

We decided to go to Calgary to visit my sister and her family for Thanksgiving this year. It's a long drive but it's worth it. We don't get together enough. With the kids getting older we want them to be able to see each other more.

We wanted to get some Christmas shopping done as well as take the kids to the Calgary Zoo. Kaitlyn and Gregory really had a great time together. Almost every night they would chase each other in circles around the kitchen. By the end of it they were ready to go to bed.

Kaitlyn, Ashlyn and Gregory. This one was taken for Nanny and Poppy. They wanted a nice picture of the 3 kids together.

Gregory has a set of drums that Kaitlyn just loves. Everytime we go there to visit she has to play them non-stop. Maybe we will have to ask Santa for some drums for Christmas.