kate's first 4 letter word

Well anyone who knows Cody and I well, even not so well, knows it was just a matter of time until our talkative toddler picked up her first four letter word. The time has come and the word is sh*t. She loves it. She just knows it's bad. I've been trying to tell her the word is shirt but she's no dummy. Luckily she has only been saying it right after we let it slip but with 2 stressful little ones, it seems to slip a lot. That and her Pappa still thinks it's funny, so he let's it slip more readily.

Our baby girl - one step closer to being sent home from friends' houses for having a potty mouth. Mommy and Pappa are sorry!

Hope things are less sh*tty where you are and that this blog doesn't overly offend. aj

bye bye grandma & grandpa

With every hello unfortunately comes a good bye and it came all too soon. Grandma Sherri and Grandpa George flew home this past Friday and as always I - and now Kate - miss them already.  Kate became fast friends with Grandma and even faster friends with Grandpa this trip and it was the hardest good bye yet. Kate was so smitten with Grandpa George I hated seeing her lose her friend. We had a great visit and the weather turned for the better and were able to get out and explore a bit. Highlights:

Elliott's first visit to the ocean and the beach that I'm sure will bring countless good times to the babies. That's Kate in the back before she decided to go for one last swim for the season.

Grandma and Kate snuggles.

Kate with Grandpa George aka her Elephant whom she willingly allowed carry her for miles when we visited Hopewell Rocks.

In other news I thought I would share a couple photos of our hikers who somewhat safely made it home from their adventure. Not sure if they loved their 50 km hike, as I heard mention that convicts should be forced to do it. They faced and overcame becoming lost on km 9, a day and night of steady downpour, steep inclines and harder declines and oh they tried to outrun the tides coming in and nearly lost as the waves crashed them against sheer rock. I hate to think that 4 beautiful babies could have fast lost their Papas to the ocean. Well at least it made for good stories. 

Uncle Paul - look closely as he is actually soaked up to his neck due to the previously mentioned tidal meeting. Also note only one hiking pole made it.

Papa looking tough but not overly thrilled.

Happy Autumn to all and a huge congratulations to my friend Diane who gave birth last week to a healthy and beautiful second son Misha! All the best Jaegers as you get used to your new family. xox aj

hello grandma & grandpa

Grandma Sherri and now Grandpa George have arrived safely and are being put to work.  Kate is thrilled to have all the great playmates.

Here is Grandpa only moments after arriving last night.

Grandma and Elliott.

Grandpa and Elliott.

Baking a cake earlier this week.

We have for the most part been staying close to home. Kate has been teething and has been a little moody and the weather has been pretty rainy. The weather is supposed to be clear for the next couple of days so we're going to try to show Grandpa some of the sights before they head off to Nova Scotia on Monday.

In other news Cody and Uncle Paul have checked in from the Fundy Trail a couple of times. Cody reports that the hike is tough, all steep ups and downs. They are about 26 kms in now so they're committed. I wish them good luck and good knees as they finish up.  Kate misses her Pappa and we want to see him soon.

Kisses to all (but mostly to Elli). aj

welcome relief

I'm happy to report our week of 30+ degrees seems to have finally broken with yesterday's arrival of Hurricane Earl. The Hurricane didn't amount to much here but now that it has come and gone hopefully our family can get some good rest.

Cody has been off this week but with the weather and him putting out his back day 1 we didn't get to do much. A couple days at the water park and a clean garage and basement is what we do have to show for it. Oh and Elliott got to meet his cousins Carter and Lydia, Uncle Paul, Meem and Pap yesterday as we braved the storm and headed to the island. We had a great day, I would have said perfect if Kate had not woken 45 minutes from home and screamed for at least 25 of those minutes.

Here's a hodge podge of photos from the last week and a bit:

Tummy time.

A side view.

Kate helping Grandma Janice feed some formula to Elliott.

The water park with Pappa. 

Elliott enjoying or sleeping through today's bath.

In other news, this Friday my Mom arrives and then a week later my Dad comes for their second week. I can't wait. I know Cody can't wait either because he and our brother in law Paul are abandoning us to do the Fundy Trail hike for 4 days. I just can't wait for Cody to go so he can start talking about something else for awhile.

Hope all is well with all of our friends and family all over this great land. xox aj

5 years, 4 houses, 3 dogs, 2 kids & 12 motor vehicles later

Cody informed me this morning that today marks 5 years of us being together as a couple. I don't know what was more surprising the fact that Cody knew this or thinking about how much we have been through/purchased/made in the last 5 years. It seems that Kate and Elliott are the only things that have actually stuck.

We are doing better and better each day as a family.  Kate is slowly but surely adjusting to the huge addition to our threesome and Elliott too is filling out and adjusting to day versus night. He still is eating every 1.5 - 2 hours during the night so I'm feeling pretty numb. But I am happier and happier with our new, complete family. Speaking of the family I thought I would share a couple more photos of the duo/trio...

Early days.

Kate saying hello. 

Our girlie girl in all her finery.

My sleeping beauty.

Last night - I think Elliott is feeling settled in his new water-free surroundings.

This morning - our girl getting ready for daycare (which she seems to adore). She screamed and cried when I picked her up this afternoon.

Happy anniversary baby. I love you and can hardly imagine where we will be in 5 more years. Probably getting 2 kids ready for school - I know you can't wait to shop for school supplies. I personally hope we will be on car #13 - something other than a mini van! XOXO to all.

move over betty draper

You need not explain who or what Betty Draper is to any fan of Mad Men but to everyone else Betty is a beautiful, high maintenance lady of leisure with clothes and hair. Despite all her tom boy tendencies Kate has a lot of Betty bits as well. Last night Aunty Candace was here and Kate strutted her best stuff for her - specifically a fantastic tutu and head piece from our great friend Becky. Kate honestly becomes a different little girl when she's in the tutu. We love it.

For the record the true Betty would never be caught dead actually doing anything in the kitchen.

 She refused to drop the container lid to give me a perfect shot.

 This morning Kate got ready for day care with the addition of a hat then turned to her brother with her second hat - who previous to then had been sadly under accessorized. We're just thankful that she's sharing.

Here's our beautiful boy today staring at his new owl.

Have a great day everyone! Aimee

elliott nathaniel jorgensen

We are so happy to finally introduce our beautiful baby boy - Elliott Nathaniel Jorgensen to the world. I know people really just want to see him so I'm going to try to keep this short.

I had an unusual and very erratic labour - spells of hours with no contractions. After 24 hours of this I suggested to Cody on Saturday at 5am (following one strong painful contraction) that we go to the hospital and at least get checked out. It turned out that I was in active labour and 5 cm dilated - so was admitted. 7 hours later, Elliott was born at 12:22 pm August 14th, 2010.

Our second labour was a delight in comparison to Kate's. My water did break naturally this time and there was a rumour that I would have to go epidural free but thankfully my labour didn't progress at all in the time following the water breaking and the anaesthesiologist showing up. So with a completely frozen lower half I was able to push that not so little man out in a series of 6 sets along with my love Cody and my sister Rhonda (who saw the whole event and had 3 spare hours before catching her flight home to Calgary). I hope I said good bye and thank you so much for everything.

8 pounds, 4 ounces, 20 inches long. He sounds pretty big but really is so tiny and skinny. I think he's identical to Kate with just a little shorter hair. He's gorgeous and we all are completely smitten - even Kate. Well I think Kate actually likes his stuff more than him. She especially loves rocking like crazy in his bouncy chair with her puppy.

So here's our Elliott (with 2 Ts):

The weigh in.

Hello Elliott.

The proud Pappa.

My boys in blue.

Trying out the soother in our sucking-obsessed boy's mouth. I think he looks just like Kate here.

Grandma Donna says hello.

Our little girl doesn't look so little anymore. Especially with her new Pappa hair do.

Kate in Elliott's chair last night.

Well I have had some very long nights and about 10 hours sleep since I think Thursday evening so I apologize for the delay in this blog and some over due phone calls. Elliott seems to be very mouth obsessed and wants to be nursing at all times (no exaggeration) or he wakes very agitated. It's been a lot tougher than with Kate. So that's my focus for the next days - working on getting him down without me. And hopefully with the hours and days he can just learn to relax more.

In the meantime all our love.
The bigger better Jorgensen Sandwich - Cody, Aimee, Kate & Elliott