Lauren's Birthday tea party

Today we had Lauren's birthday tea party, and she was showered with gifts, but most importantly love from family and friends! She was so lucky, she received so many wonderful gifts! So many people love her! We decided to do a small tea part this year and save the big party for next year when she goes to school, and she was delighted with her little party...
 

Here's her pictures...
 

 

With her Tinkerbell cake

 

 

 

Opening her presents

 

 

 

 

 

with Uncle Gary

 

 

Our little family

 

 

Blowing out Candles with Grandma Rose, with a little help from big brother

 

 

Being silly with Nanna

 

 

Cuddles with Grandad

 

 

Little princess with Mommy and Daddy

 

 

We had a lovely lunch and she finished up the day with a bike ride! Before falling asleep as soon as her little head hit the pillow! It's tough being four!
 

We love you Lauren...

 

 

So another year has passed and we look forward to watching her grow during her fourth year and enjoying each special moment with our little princess!

Happy fourth birthday Lauren

Trip to sea life centre

Last weekend Derek and I took the kids to the sea life centre in Bray to see the fish. They really enjoyed the tour. They saw lots of cool fish and got to touch a starfish! Lauren was fascinated with the sting rays which she kept calling "pancake fish" and Dylan loved the starfish! They were so good!

 

Afterwards we got them some souvenirs, and we went for a walk on the prom and the kids ran on the beach. We finished up with dinner in our favourite restaurant, the kids had a really lovely day! They were delighted to be home with Daddy again after our trip to Waterford, they missed him very much..... He missed them too! He was delighted bringing them around the sea life centre! It's good to all be under the same roof again after our trip!

 

Some of our favourtie parts of the trip...
 

 

 

Lauren's favourite bit, watching " The pancake fish"

 

 

 

Dylan's favourtie bit... touching the starfish...
 

 

 

I'm so glad they had a nice day! Love seeing their smiling faces having fun...

Radom ramblings

So my post is a random photo drop today! Life has been so so busy around here I can hardly get a second to catch my breath! So life lately......

 

We got new storage for what will be the 'children's room' when we move Lauren and Dylan into the same room when we get our au pair in the summer. Derek and I have been organising things around here to set up for her.
 

So we had a little trip to IKEA for these storage units... Love them!
 

 

Lauren's toys are in the right storage unit and Dylan's are on the left. It is such a great idea and we have so much more space in the room, our next purchase for the room will be bunk beds.

 

 

Derek got tickets to the opening game of the Gaelic football season, and he and Dylan had a boys night together at the match. Looking at this face, I think it's clear they had a good time! They had excellent seats!
 

 

On girls night looked kind of like this.... When you are almost four it's tough to stay awake past 8:30pm, and sometimes this happens...
 

 

Here she is before she crashed!
 

 

The kids had their mid-term from school this week, so I took them on the train down to Waterford to visit my parents for a few days. They were so good on the train, and they really enjoyed their mini holiday! Aren't they so cute? They did miss Daddy though.

 

Lauren is obsessed with taking her photos with me, she climbs up and says 'Daddy take a picture,' so cute, I hope she will always be this compliant. Dylan used to love photos, now he runs a mile when he sees the camera, or takes the pictures whilst sulking!

Here's Lauren's latest addition to her Mommy and Me photo collection...
 

 

so much going on around here, but it's been a fun time...

Weekend news

It has been cold and snowy around here over the last week! Derek took Dylan up to play on the mountains in the snow. I kept Lauren home with me since she hasn't fully recovered from her stay in hospital and unfortunately she's caught the sniffles this week... poor pet isn't having a great January!

 

Here are the beautiful views on the mountain that we live beside. And some pics of Dylan all bundled up enjoying the snow.

 

 

 

 This weekend we took the kids to see parental guidance, they really enjoyed it and it's great that we can all go to see a movie together again. They are at a really great age. I loved the movie too!

 

Afterwards we went into the shopping centre where there was a little train going around the winter village, which the kids had a turn on.

 

Today we had Dylan's school mass, and Dylan was chosen to take part in the offertory procession, we brought up the gifts of bread and wine. He did a really great job, we were so proud of him! He also knew all of the prayers he's been learning off by heart, he was great!

 

So we are now all snuggled up about to have dinner. It's so cold outside that there is nowhere I'd rather be than snuggled up beside our cosy fire. Dylan is watching a movie, and Lauren is playing with some apps I downloaded to help her learn her letters and numbers, she LOVES them. They are also great because they are teaching her to pinch and grasp on the screen to manipulate sizes. So I love that she is playing but also learning! It's been a really relaxing weekend! I'm off to watch a movie with my little boy!

A sick princess

The last five days have been harrowing, our poor little princess has been in and out of hospital for the first time. It started with a tummy bug, but it just didn't let up. Lauren was being sick constantly. We got so worried we took her to the hospital on Friday morning, her temp was dangerously high at 39.7 and her blood sugars were very low at 2.9. They took her and stripped her down and put a fan on her, within minutes they had given her 3 suppositories to bring down the temperature. Then they gave her 5mls of fluid every 5 minutes. After two hours her temp had come down 2 degrees, and her blood sugar levels had come up. They checked her urine which was fine, then they did a chest x-ray to eliminate pneumonia, as her temperature was so high this was a possibility. We had the x-ray and Lauren was so distressed, it was so awful watching her have these procedures done and seeing her so upset. The chest x-ray was OK, there was some areas of concern which the doctor thought could be from an old infection ( she had two chest infections before Christmas) so they wanted to start her on an antibiotic.

 

They discharged us home to continue with this protocol, which we did for the whole day. Her temperature just kept on spiking, despite using the two different medications they had told us to use. The sickness was just not letting up, as soon as she would take in any fluids she wont be sick almost instantly. Her lips were chapped and her eyes were black, and she was so pale and listless. We were so worried we called the children's A&E ward back for advice, we knew they would tell us to bring her back in. While Derek was on the phone I was getting a bag ready. It was 1:00am and we were back in casualty again. We were seen within minutes, Lauren's temperature was much better and while her blood sugar levels were still low, they were better than earlier. She was clearly dehydrated and so they got her into a bed straight away. I was so glad I brought her blanket and pillow as we were to spend the whole night in this room. I sent Derek home with Dylan while I stayed.

 

They put in a IV into her arm and and gave her medication for her sickness, and they monitored her temp. They also took a blood sample. Her pulse was also high, so they were going to go ahead and give her some fluids through her IV, only the nurse managed to pull out the IV while she was accessing it. They decided they didn't want to put it back in and distress her any further, so we had to syringe the fluids of a quarter cup every 15 minutes. This was a re hydration solution, and Lauren was so good at taking it, I said to the nurse that I would prefer her to have the fluids intravenously, but she said it was the same solution and it was just important to get it into her. So I set my timer to go off every 15-20 mins and gave her the fluids religiously. Eventually the medication for the sickness started to work,  and we got all the fluids into her for the first time that day. By 5:45 am her colour got better. Her blood results came back perfect, just showing that she was dehydrated which we already knew. They let me take her home about 6:00 am. She was absolutely shattered, as was Mommy. We got home at 7:00am and she slept until 3:00 pm in the afternoon, and then intermittently throughout the day.

 

Today she walked into our room for the first time in days, but she is still incredibly weak and listless today, she is eating little bits, but only barely drinking (which is worrying) but the doctor said as long as she isn't being sick, then whatever fluids we get in is good. I am really hoping and praying that she has a little bit more strength tomorrow. My heart is broken seeing her like this, I just want to see her running around playing and fighting with her brother again. I've never seen her so sick and I would do anything to make her well again;. My poor brave little princess, we have just been so unbelievably worried about  her.

 

Here is my little lamb on Saturday night, I took a picture to send to Derek's phone, so that he could see for himself how much better she was doing. He was asking for constant updates, and I wanted to show him that her general colour had improved since he was so worried.

 

 

Get better soon our precious daughter, Mommy, Daddy and Dylan want you to be back to your old self again.

 

~ We Love you ~

Added note: we just got back home from A&E again, Lauren wasn't drinking well
and became quite listless and weak so our doctor told us to take take her back in for fluids. We took her in and they gave her fluids and observation. She's much better now: when she came home she had some toast, and some sips of her drink and she's just fallen asleep again. I really hope she continues to improve. These have been a long five days.

Dundrum on Ice 2013

Today was our annual after Christmas visit to Dundrum on ice! This year Dylan stayed on his skates almost ALL the time! Last year he spent most of the hour skating, but fell over quite a bit! But this year he was doing so well! he's gotten really good at skating! Sooo proud of him! Here are our trips from 2012 and 2011
 

We thought Lauren would be old enough to skate, but she really didnt want to. So my friend took the two little ones to the toy shop to get them a little treat! Lauren loved watching the skating but still wouldn't give it a go! Maybe next year.

The kids had a great day today my neighbour watched them this morning while I worked. She took them to the cinema, so I treated them to lunch- well the kids had ice cream! So they were lucky kiddies today....

Here's Lauren today having fun!


 

All set!
 

 

Love this photo of him
 

 

Dylan skating
 

 

We had a slight mishap with our ice cream today, so I promised Lauren I'd get her a new one on the way home.... I think she liked it!
 Lucky girl...


 

I had this... So I had a lucky day too...
 

 

We really enjoyed our trip, as we do every year. To us it rounds off Christmas, and signifies the end of the festivities. I'm really looking forward to the year to come. We have some big family milestones coming up!

Christmas 2012

This Christmas was really amazing, we have been so blessed. It was really magical to share this Christmas with my family, and my brother is finally home from his travels! We really had a great time, and Santa was so good to us all! The children got so many beautiful outfits and toys they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Lauren was so excited,  but she was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Dylan found it hard to go to sleep, and he woke up every hour during the night. I finally caved at 6:00am and we headed downstairs to see what we got!

On our way down to see what Santa brought

Santa made a terrible mess! He brought magic snow from the North Pole and walked it all over the house!

Santa brought Dylan and Lauren lovely new bikes

Our little elf playing with his new gift from Santa

Our little reindeer opening her gifts

I was very lucky to get lovely gifts too! I got a new Pandora leather bracelet and charms and a beautiful new DKNY watch, I also got lots of other stocking fillers! My parents spoiled me rotten too! I was very blessed to get such lovely gifts! We got Daddy lovely gifts too though, so he was surprised and happy!

The best gift of all was spending quality time with all of my family. After we had seen what Santa brought and we had all exchanged gifts, we headed down to my Parents house for dinner, and to spend a few nights there. Before dinner we had our family photos, my brothers hadn't arrived yet, and I forgot to get other photos with them.

Our Family

Our beautiful children

Three Generations

 My Mom, My daughter and I

Daddy and his babies

My Mum and Dad with their Grandbabies

My beautiful children with me

 

Our princess

Our little Prince opening MORE presents

 

My parent's gorgeous tree (a bit blurry)

Look at these beautiful monogrammed robes we got for the kids.... LOVE them

 It was a really special Christmas, and it meant so much to my parents to have us all together for the day. It was the best Christmas I can remember. The children are staying on with my parents until Saturday.

We went out to dinner and watched a movie it was heaven! On Friday we went shopping and out for dinner again! I've really enjoyed some time for just us, but I can't wait for the kiddies to come home again!

When they got home, we had to go out and try out our great new bikes...

This is Lauren's first grown up bike, and about Dylan's third! It is amazing how fast they grow. It was really great weather and we all enjoyed the fresh air. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and we are going to take the kids to the fireworks display in Dunlaoghaire at 6:00 pm, and we are having friends over to dinner on New Year's Day. This has been an amazing end to the year.

Christmas 2012 was amazing...