Where we began..."the originals"

We had a perfectly hectic weekend, in which we got to spend time with "the originals." (Part 3 of this post coming next week) Brandon, Evelyn, and Meryl all had a traumatic and challenging start to their very precious lives. Each baby spending time in the NICU literally along side Hazel. She had friendships brewing long before she knew what that might mean. More importantly, at the time, we parents all had each other to lean on. You can read more about those times in my older post and here.

We have since maintained a friendship. We truly enjoy watching our kids grow together. Holly and Shaun were ever so gracious hosts that opened their homes to us. It was a very refreshing and welcome change from the dining room at the RMH. A place where we used to sit, eat treats late at night and dream about taking our little babes home. At their home, we sat and reminisced about old times in the NICU. We marveled about how wonderful our children are doing now, how far we have all come and mostly how grateful we are to have our little miracles and a new friendship to nurture.

Thank you so much to Holly and Shaun for having us for a visit and opening your lives up to us. Meryl and Evelyn are absolutely gorgeous. We look forward to many more memories made in the years to come.

Holly and Shaun live on a beautiful piece of property that just screams relaxation.

Drinking wine out of this handcrafted mug, made it taste all the more sweet.

It's a blurry picture, but oh...so...funny!!!

No this is not Matt. This is Shaun and sweet Meryl.

Some of us growing much faster than others, Brandon is now 25 lbs. Little baby was born at 31 weeks. His mother was hospitalized at 21 weeks because her water broke. Little bugger held on for dear life and is now growing and thriving, and then some. The whole family is doing wonderfully.

They were kind enough to have us over for delicious lasagna and house our 5 crazy kids. I think the pictures speak for themselves. Thanks so much for your hospitality, Amy and Eric!!!

Evelyn, is LITERALLY always into something. She always has this look of "what else can I do" on her face. I LOVE her!!!!!

What an amazing sight, all our kids playing together. Our dreams came true!!

One of my favourite moments was waking up in the morning with enough time to grab a coffee and sit on the floor of the girls bedroom. I can't tell you what it meant to me to be able to just sit and watch and soak in their strength. They are so big and so strong and so happy, I need to be around this always. I crave this.

My tiny hero's.

I also was able to catch this moment with my iphone...LOVE!!! She is in total control of these 2 grown-up hearts. Powerful little girl eh?