Antoine in France

Antoine spent two months in France and had a blast going to school, spending time with my nieces, meeting distant cousins.... My parents took him many places and spoiled him!

 

Antoine made friends at school right away and had no problem adjusting to French school... One of the highlights were a field trip to a safari zoo and a visit to a neighboring farm.

 

It is so fun to have cousins to play with... from riding a pony to water-skying and sailing a boat, going to school carnivals, and pretending to cross the jungle... 

 Antoine and Maelis had a great time too at the beach, picking up crabs and climbing boulders

 

It was time to come home after 2 months of fun and Antoine flew back on his own!

 

A hobby for Victor...

 Over the last few months, Victor loves gathering things of the same category... Here are a few samples that I caught... He is such a darling toddler... =)

Celebrations!

First smiles...

 

Dean and Michele's wedding

Mark and I (and Cibelle of course!) flew to Mineapolis, then drove to Iowa to attend our friend Dean's wedding. It was wonderful to meet everyone and spend time with Dean!

 

Victor makes a new friend...

While we were spending the evening at the DeWitts from our ward, Victor was so excited to go meet their horses... As they were not close to the gate, he attracted them with some weeds and was very successful... He loved every minute he spent with his new friend and cannot wait until he can get on her...

Pure sweetness...

Introducing our princess...

A slow and long labor (almost 24 hours) but she finally came out at 12:03 am on May 3! A waterbirth with my amazing team consisting of Mark, Maman and Peggy... without whom I would not have been able to do it!!

 First day: our boys meet Cibelle and fell in love with her right away... even Antoine who was claiming to everyone that he did not want a sister... Love at first sight =)

My first photo shoot...

Cibelle has quite a voice... She performed right at birth, crying for the first 40 minutes of her life and since then, she has let us know when she does not like something... even during her baby blessing she cried so loud that we barely heard what Mark was saying... Below during her 2-week well check while she got her footprint. =)

 On Mother's day... 2 weeks old

Barely 3 weeks and already so alert and focussed...

 Daddy's little princess...

 On our way to the airport where we sent Antoine with my parents for a French adventure of 2 months!

While we are waiting...

The day before my due date... but I still waited  another 10 days before meeting our ladybug!

Can you tell I am so excited that we are having a GIRL! And I have not taken pictures of her closet!! 

Love flowers and bows!

Easter Week...

One of Adam's projects in 3rd grade

Adam had to present a famous person from world history and he picked Christopher Columbus... He had to write an essay summarizing the life of the hero and prepare for a oral presentation with question and answer, dress up as his hero and make a puppet...

The boys meet their fans...

Baby shower for our LADYBUG!

Spectacular decorations...

Look at all this...

Exquisite food...

So many details to please my eyes...

Great company... (some of our guests...)

and lots of adorable gifts (here are just a few of them!)
What a shower of love!
Thank you, thank you!!!

Practicing...

I asked a friend of mine if I could use her baby as my guinea pig to practice taking pictures with my new 50 mm lens.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

Snow, snow, snow...

We have had our fill of snow this year... It started back in early December but we got many days of freezing cold or snow in January! I feel like the boys spent the month of January home instead of at  school! The worst was that we did not even get that much snow each time but it was so cold that it would freeze overnight and leave the roads and sidewalks too slippery to let the children go to school or at least not at the regular time (they got quite a few days with 2-hour delays!)

Here are a couple of shots from the most snow fall we got early February... Mark spent a couple of hours shoveling alone since I was not in a position to help him out...

The boys have been spending hours playing in the snow for days since the snow got piled up quite a bit in the grassy areas...

I stayed home with Victor since I cannot fit in any snow gear anymore and also because I thought it was so cold out there.