Here’s just a few photos of our little guy at 3 days and 6 days!

Justin and I want to give a big shout out to the nurses and doctors at the Guelph Genereal Hospital.  They were so amazing during our stay there.  We also want to thank so many of you for your lovely comments and for loving Eli already…

1. to divide up “treats” that we buy while grocery shopping or my mouth will never see its existence.  (2 for you, 2 for me… I KNOW, it’s pathetic!)

2. if he’s given chocolates or cookies at work for “the two of us”… I probably won’t find out about it until that kind person asks me “how’d you like my cookies?”.  Then I usually have to lie to cover up his cookie-eating-eagerness.  (you’ll be glad to know that his coworkers now require him to bring some home for me… it’s a big joke!)

3. don’t mess around with HIS watermelon. If there’s any fruit that he loves more than grapes, it’s watermelon.  We bought one the other day and he ate at least 3 quarters of it.  Last night I told him that I wanted to eat the last bit so this morning before leaving for work, he kindly reminded me “Mel I hope you will eat that watermelon today…” NO PRESSURE!!!!! ha!

In his defense… I don’t always share.  I like to, most of the time, but when it comes to my “chocolate eruption” or “chocolate explosion” cake obsession, I absolutely hate sharing!  And for your information you can find this deliciousness at William’s or Boston Pizza

IN OTHER NEWS, our “little” watermelon is still growing, even at 39 weeks!  Yikes… how big is this boy gonna be?!  Here’s a photo of me taken by Justin a few weeks ago!

If you’ve been wondering where all the photos are, well… I’ve been taking a break until our boy is born.  Then you can expect to see a lot more of him until I start my weddings in July  Also, we’ve been busy with our new branding… SOON our new BLOGSITE will be up and running.  We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on!

On another note… Last Saturday, Chris & Christine had their baby girl Leah Joy Vienna (isn’t that a great name?!) and I can tell that even since meeting her something inside of me got really excited for Eli.

Here’s a few pics of baby Leah Joy whose not even a day old!

More of Leah to come soon…

I had many people questioning why I wanted to throw the party or why I’d want to even know the sex of our baby.  ”Keep it a surprise!” they said.  But… there’s something in me that really wanted to know and to prepare.  And so we asked some of our friends and family to join us for a GENDER REVEAL party on Saturday.  There were a few steps that had to be taken to keep it a secret (mostly from ourselves).  Here’s what we did:

Step 1: At 19 weeks, I had an ultrasound and the technician sent the important information to my midwife.

Step 2: My midwife put the gender of the baby in a SEALED envelope.  (It was so hard not to look in the envelope… but I knew it would ruin the whole surprise!)

Step 3: I then gave the sealed envelope to Diane Tavares from Have Your Cake and Eat it Too.  Her job was the most important… she had to make a FABULOUS cake, and the icing INSIDE the cake would be the colour of the gender of our baby (pink or blue).

Step 4: We invited all of our amazing friends and family.  But no big deal if you couldn’t make it, because Justin setup a LIVE feed which streamed during the night so that our far away friends and family could be part of the surprise too!

Step 5: PARTY TIME!!  Everyone who was invited came dressed in blue or pink, depending if they thought we were having a girl or a boy.  Justin & I both thought we were having a boy… so we dressed in blue!  (I’m still shocked that we were right!)

Step 6: CUT THE CAKE

We had the best night ever.  We didn’t know whether it would be as exciting as we had hoped… but it was.  And everyone who was there made it so special for us!  THANKS AGAIN!  Here are some photos of the night:

The main event: Our CAKE!

Ustreaming LIVE to friends all over including my sister Amy in Australia!

The ICING was BLUE!!!!! It was such an amazing moment

Justin & I just minutes after finding out we were having a BOY!

Photobooth FUN times…

My crazy dad and lovely mom (drove all the way from Timmins to find out with us!!)

Here’s a familiar face… Christine & I holding our baby colours.

Me and some lovely ladies… and I’m the only one who’s actually preggo!

Suggestion:  If you’re wanting to find out the sex of your baby, but would still LOVE to make it special…. Consider having one of these parties.  SO FUN!

Call me sappy (or maybe it’s the hormones from the pregnancy! ha!), but every time I see a montage of medal deserving clips to the tune of “I Believe”, or see an athlete succeed in the sport they’ve been training in — SO many emotions well-up inside!!!  I think it’s the fact that the medals they’re collecting for themselves are a part of our Canadian heritage as well.  And it’s also the inspiration these athletes give because they are so EXCELLENT in their sport. This is their thing.  This is what they’ll be known for.  It makes me think of what I will be known for…

Anyway, this afternoon as I spent the day on my computer in front of the TV watching the ladies’ snowboard cross qualifications through to the GOLD medal winnings of Maëlle Ricker… I couldn’t help myself but yell ALOUD.  Mr. Reu freaked a little, I may have shocked myself as well but I couldn’t help it!  I have a hunch that as these Olympic days continue, my Canadian PRIDE may get out of control

GO CANADA GO!

#1 Simple Pleasure of the week: I can’t get enough of Cherry Blossoms… I don’t know another soul who likes these as much as I do… but I don’t care.  (I’ve eaten 4 this week!!)

Are there any other Cherry Blossom lovers out there?  I. love. cherries.

#2 Simple Pleasure of the week: Malcolm Gladwell’s book “BLINK”.  I loved  Outliers so much that I asked for his other two books for Christmas.

Tell me you’ve read his stuff.  If you haven’t… I’ll let you in on a secret.  It’s shameful for me to share.  I feel like people judge me when I tell them.  So I hate saying it… I don’t like to read.  Almost ever.  I mean, I read my Bible… and blogs…………. but other than that, I have a hard time sitting down with a book to read.  BUT if you give me something by Malcolm Gladwell or Donald Miller, I’m usually loving my life (because I’m actually reading).

#3 Simple Pleasure of the week:  And with this, I digress  Thanks to my lovely mother who showed me how to play Bubble Pop on her phone.  I quickly found a similar app for my iphone and I’m hooked.  I’m laughing out loud thinking about last week when my mom was visiting and wanted to go to Square One.  So Justin and I went with her… except I didn’t shop at all.  I was like a total guy, sitting outside the stores on the nearest bench and playing Bubble Pop.  My mom (and Justin) were stunned at my lack of shopping interest.  They wanted to have a Bubble Pop intervention for me… but I didn’t want anything to do with that

So I guess I have no complaints for this week.  I mean, really, I don’t think I’m allowed to complain… It’s been good.   There’s obviously a lot going on in the world and so I sit here and I just feel blessed wondering what can be done for some of those Haitians who will never have the chance to experience some of our simple pleasures.

But amazingly enough, I’ve been overwhelmed at how people are coming together to give…. generously.  AWESOME.  I love it.

I hope you have a pleasing weekend enjoying some of your simple pleasures

Mel

I’m proud to say that he did it all himself with no help from me.  We had such a great time… It had been awhile since I had a party because my birthday is pretty close to Christmas which means most people are either all partied out or busy with other things. Of course all you December babies know how it feels… right?! But this year I think Justin felt bad for me since I’ve been so MIGHTY SICK with this little baby growing inside of me!

Anyway, I had to share a few photos that he took of me, my sweet cake, and some of my silly friends  ENJOY!

Soooo there’s this woman, Diane, who goes to my church and she makes these amazing cakes.

I don’t think she’s been doing it long…but MAN DOES THIS CAKE ROCK or WHAT?!!!

Yep, it’s true, I’m 27…

When most of the people had left… it was pretty late and Justin & Nathan dragged us all to the studio to take some of the silliest photos I’ve ever seen of my friends.

(Here’s hoping they’re still my friends after they see that I’ve posted these

Gotta love Value Village!

Nathan & Jenn

Sooooooo funny & yucky… Sarah found some old tissues in the pockets of these old shorts!!! LOL!!

THANKS hun for all of the effort that you put into my birthday!  Love you!

When we decided to take a trip to Italy to celebrate 5 years of marital bliss, we were excited…. but didn’t realize that we wouldn’t have time to plan more than our bed & breakfast for the first 3 nights (and even that was a friends’ last minute suggestion)!  Weeks leading to our trip, I started fretting a bit about not having any plans (I love to plan!) when we arrived to Venice.  But the busyness of wedding season didn’t stop, and it wasn’t until I was on the plane that I started reading about what we would actually do when we got there.

So as you watch this video and look at these photos… think: unexpected, impromptu, surprise!  Because almost everything we saw and did was exactly that for us!

One of our first photos we took in the little town of Chioggia (aka “mini Venice”)

Our B&B in Chioggia… 5 levels.  We stayed on the bottom floor and ate breakfast on the top floor!

Gino, the homeowner, made sure we knew there were 72 steps to the top.  The view was amazing!

Oh Venice… how I love getting “lost” in all of your random streets and alleys.

The BEST pasta I had on our whole trip… fagotini!  YUMMY!

Totally loved being serenaded by the accordionists while eating fagotini… SO Italy

walking or boating… your two choices of transportation!

Justin snapped this photo, early in the morning, of a grocer bringing in the produce for the day!

love this!!

My FAVOURITE photo of the trip

Yes we HAD to experience the GONDOLA.  Here’s our gondolier:

Not everyone takes the short boat ride to the near island of Murano (where they make all of the glass that you buy in Venice), but it was SO worth it!

I thought I’d be bored at the OPERA… but NOPE it was so amazing especially since they were all dressed in the baroque style garb.

Now to ROMA… Our first stop: The Spanish Steps.

There were only a few tourists.

This is where we ran into Nigel Lythgoe… but before we could talk to him or take his picture, he walked into this shoe store!!

Rome at night = AWESOME!  We slept in many days because we loved the cool and lively nights!

St. Peter’s Basilica

The famous Coliseum

Ancient Rome… this is where the saying “all roads lead to Rome” comes from.  We’re right in the center!

LOL!!! One afternoon, we were sitting on a bench, reading and resting, then suddenly we were surrounded by hundreds of Vespas and a wedding party!

I guess I can’t get away from wedding photography

Here are some more night shots, including the Fountain of Trevi:

and the Coliseum again…

Picture this: It’s the end of a long day of walking and we were so tired.  We were trying to find the Metro… and let’s be honest – I was GRUMPY… Until I found this random bakery.

We actually walked by it, but then my nose caught the smell of pastries and I took a few steps back to see stairs leading down to this bakery in the basement of a building. All I could think was THANK YOU GOD!

On our last day in Rome, we headed to the 2nd largest museum in the world: The Vatican Museum!

The Last Supper

This is actually worth more than gold!

The Sistine Chapel = no cameras, no video cameras, no talking, no falling…

Justin disobeyed and took this shot of The Sistine Ceiling. And I’m so glad he did!

This is the middle scene where God infuses his soul into man (creation) being the most famous (and very small) part of the ceiling.

Painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512.  Brilliant.

The End.

And today that inspiring man is 27!!

I thought it would be fitting to start his day off with Mickey Mouse pancakes… just to remind him that he’s NEVER too old to be young at heart

Happy Birthday Love!

Now onto the last post: RWANDA!!! It was very hard for me to choose which photos to post because we spent just as much time in Rwanda as we did in Kenya… and it has a special place in my heart.  In my mind, because of the genocide, I thought the country would be more rundown, the people downcast… but that was so far from the truth.  There was such hope in the people, and the cities and villages were so beautifully clean and well taken care of (and there were NO POTHOLES).

Our first view at the country

Another welcoming dance party broke out at the church when we arrived… this lady was doing the coolest noise with her tongue!

The view from where we were staying in Kigali “Centre D’acceuil”.

I spent half the time in Kigali teaching some music seminars… the other half was spent in Gitarama at the orphanage site.

Once again, we were welcomed with music, dancing, and drama!

some beautiful orphans

my lovely mother

this is what you call A GRATEFUL SMILE.  Even when it is just a sticker on your hand!

The orphanage and my mom doing what she does best… painting.

We had a big celebration for the opening of the orphanage and hundreds of people showed up… You can see them heading our way in this photo.

View from the orphanage

a beautiful girl in desperate need of some shoes!

A few hours before this next photo was taken, I handed my journal over to my sister Amy and asked her if she remembered the words to a song that I had written. YES I had forgotten my own lyrics.

I just had a feeling that they were going to ask me to play/sing… and I was right.  Thanks to Amy, I wasn’t a complete failure

We worked alongside the locals

Back in Kigali… we taught them some basic english.

Here’s mom distributing some of the donations we had received

here’s Amy “mowing the lawn”!!!!! I should say “plucking one grass out at a time”!!!!!

I’m very grateful for this man who was with me all week long.  As I spoke at the seminars, he watched my camera gear and was SO kind to me!!

Here he is with his wife.

At the end of our trip… we headed to the genocide memorial in Kigali.  No photos allowed inside of course, but here’s a few from the grounds.

this flame never goes out in remembrance of all who were slaughtered and killed

As I mentioned before.  All the photos from my AFRICA POSTS are available on the website for purchase. Every penny will go to our upcoming Zambia trip.

I hope y’all have an amazing weekend!!  I’m spending my weekend with 2000 teenagers, then heading to B.C. for a few shoots.

I’ll be posting those photos later next week!

Mel