Giles Adventures

Just a few months behind

2008-07-22T22:29:00.003-06:00

Well apparently we are terrible at keeping this blog up to date. It has been so long since our last post that it took me 45 minutes to figure out my sign in credentials. Our lives have been quite busy over the past few months. I am about a week or two from becoming a second year apprentice. Shar is busy chasing after Xander while he tries to get into mischief. He is really good at playing hide and seek. So far he has crawled out our doggie door and down the three steps onto our deck, he has also crawled up the stairs and hid in our bedroom. My mom says he is taking after me as I hid on her all the time. We are impatiently awaiting Shelby's flight to come in she gets here at midnight tonight with Shar's mom. We are excited to see her play with Xander aas she hasn't seen him since Christmas. I plan to be a little better at posting on this as I know there are still people who check in on it once in a while. I will hopefully load some more recent pictures soon!!

-Lamont

It's been a while...

2007-11-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry to take so long to update our blog I promise I will be better from here on in. Life with a new baby has been very busy. It seems people are always coming and there are lots of people for Xander to meet, plus all the appointments and such. I am glad there is less to do now that Xander is getting older. Xander is eight weeks old now and doing great he weighs 14.5 lbs which means he has put on 6lbs since he was born. Xander sleeps great at least 8 hours straight every night. So we couldn't be happier. Xander is a very happy baby who loves people which is great. The only hard thing is that he has had a stuffy nose since he was born which can be a problem every now and again but I really can't complain.

One of the best parts of bringing Xander home is watching his cousins react to him. When Carson first held Xander he was in such awe and when Xander made a little noise Carson says "Is that his voice?" The funniest though was Brady, Brady kept calling Xander Boston which is his other cousin (Ashley's son) who is four month's older. When Brady got home he asked Cherelle (his mom) "how come Sharlee has Boston now?" Cherelle had to explain to him that Xander was a new baby that had come out of my tummy. Bradley loves Xander she called him Ba-Xander before he was born now she calls him La-Xander. It's pretty cute.

Lamont has been at his new job (Falco Electric) for just over two months now and he is loving it. Things are great there he likes the guys he works with and they like him. As for me I am loving being a Mom. I love waking up every morning and spending time with my little man. I love watching him discover the world around him.

Sorry it took so long to update I promise I will be better!
-Shar

He's finally here and I am finally updating this...

2007-09-20T00:03:00.000-06:00

Xander was born today (well technically yesterday Sep 19th)! Yes we picked the name Xander after all those baby name polls we stuck with the one we liked best. He was 8lbs 5.1 oz's. Sharlee braved her way through the labour naturally (no pain killers). Xander is healthy and strong. The labour was fairly quick. Her water broke at 3:35pm and by 4:05pm Sharlee was holding him in her arms. In fact her water didn't break until she was fully dialated. Since as many of you calgarians know there is a severe shortage of nurses in this city. I got to help the nurse hold one Sharlee's legs and watched the whole delivery lucky for me I am not squemish at all. Xander has quite a voice already in fact I think he suprised himself by how much noise he could make. The first couple of times he cryed he jumped. I am looking forward to the adventure that raising Xander will be! He will be a large blessing in our lives. Enjoy the pictures!!
-Lamont

One busy summer

2007-07-23T09:24:00.000-06:00

We have had a crazy busy summer, with Danielles wedding, I have been in school and working, Shelby is here. Just trying to keep up is a full time job so this blog has been neglected. I will post all the goings on in the near future.

-Lamont

A busy week with the boys!!

2007-06-09T17:30:00.000-06:00

So for the past week we have been watching Carson and Brady while Ken and Cherelle are in Scotland. It has been a long hard week for both of us. Both of them don't sleep through the night and usually wake up at 3 or 4 am crying about a nightmare. It takes a lot of patience to take care of them as they fight each other for attention. We have had alot of fun though. Sharlee took them to the spray park 3 times and they love it. I took them to the museum of the Regiments yesterday. They loved seeing all the tanks and the airplane. The only problem was that inside the museum they have alarms on all the exihbits and it was really hard to keep the boys from touching everything. The last time I was there my brother set off an alarm by leaning too close to an exhibit. Lucky for us no alarms were sounded. At the end of walking through the museum one of the veterens working there gave each of the boys a tatoo to put on later. They loved that too.

-Lamont

Here are the pictures!

2007-05-17T21:22:00.000-06:00

A new baby boy!

2007-05-14T09:38:00.000-06:00

On May 11 Ashley had her baby. So congratulation to Ashley, Darcy and Bradley on the new addition to your family. Boston Walton Jensen was born at 12:20 in the morning and weighed 7 lbs and 4 oz. He is a very calm and relaxed little boy. Bradley is so happy to be a big sister and Ashley and Darcy as happy to be home with their son! Bradley sleep at our house Friday night and she kept telling Lamont and I "You know Baby Boston is out now, yeah he's out now". Bradley always makes me laugh. We were happy to have her stay with us. On Saturday we went over to the Jensen's to meet baby Boston. He is such a sweetheart. I have to say holding him made me that much more excited for our baby to arrive. Lamont and I we super excited that Boston was a boy because he will be just four months older than our baby boy so they will be good friends. Boston is a very cute little boy. I will post some pictures tonight.

Lamont and I have been pretty busy as of late. We are still slowly unpacking and organizing our house, which is taking longer than I hoped it would. I have Shelby's room mostly done (again I will post pictures later) I haven't started on the baby's room yet though. I have been having fun looking at paint colors and planning out how I want the house to look. Lamont has been busy with school. He is enjoying his classes so far, some days he says are a little boring if he already knows the material. I am doing much better in the last few weeks, I am continuing to get bigger and bigger. I guess we have one very healthy little boy. He is definitely a active little boy, he's kicking constantly! Lamont felt the kicks for the first time on Saturday. I was excited that Lamont finally got to feel them. I am 21 weeks now so just over half way and I can't wait.

Sorry for the lack of pictures I will post some tonight!

Boy oh Boy!!

2007-04-30T17:49:00.000-06:00

In case you couldn't tell by the title we are having a boy!! Sharlee went for her 18 week ultra sound last week and the first thing the tech. asked is if we wanted to find out gender. We have been discussing this for some time but finally decided two days prior that it would be easier to prepare for his arival. I think he would be mad if we showed up to the hospital with pink clothes. A lot has happened with us in the last few weeks. We spent the whole last weekend moving. We moved to Edgemont and we are in 17th ward. It will be great to goto a ward I grew up in and we both know so many people. We moved into Ross and Nichole Melchins old place as they just bought a house and the low rent coupled with size of the place was to good to turn down. It was a crazy weekend of moving the Melchins out and us in. I started school today. I am taking the Electrician pre-employment program at SAIT. It seems to be a well structured program, when I finish I will have completed all the academic portion of the first year of apprenticing. So i get to be a second year until I complete both my first and second years worth of hours. Which works out to 3000 hours or 19.5 months if I don't work any overtime. Anyhow here is a picture of the baby from Sharlee's 4D ultrasound.
-Lamont

(His nose is in the middle)

My Lovely Baby Bump

2007-03-30T11:33:00.000-06:00

First of all I would like to thank everyone for all the advice on my Braxton hicks and everything it is much appreciated! So this week we went for my monthly checkup and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. I was pretty excited to hear it! In my pregnancy book it says the baby's heart beat will sounds like horses hoof's. My book was right! It definitely makes the pregnancy seem real and the morning sickness worth while! I also asked the doctor about my Braxton hicks, as it turns out it's not Braxton hicks it's ligament pain! Dr. Bhatla says it's fine and not to worry so I feel better about that. I can handle the pain as long as I know why I have it. The stress of wondering if there was something wrong with me or worse the baby was hard on me. So after talking to the doctor I am feeling a lot better!

So as of late I have been sporting this lovely baby bump which is fun and all, but I am only three months along. I know everyone is different but my mom and sister didn't show till at least five months, so why am I showing so early. My mother-in-law says she began showing really early because of the short distance between the top of her hip bone and the bottom of her ribs, she has about an inch. She asked me if it could be the same with me... nope I have about four inches. I just don't know why I am showing so early. I already have strangers asking me when I am due, when I tell them September I often get surprised looks. One lady asked me if I was having twins. If any one has any thoughts on why I am showing so early I would love to hear them. Only four weeks until the next ultrasound!!
-Sharlee

A few surprises

2007-03-21T10:16:00.000-06:00

It seems like every couple of days I get a new surprise in my pregnancy. A week ago I woke up with a baby bump which seems funny to me because I haven't put on weight, in fact I have lost weight. This wasn't to bad of a surprise maybe it will help people understand why I am constantly eating soda crackers and downing ginger ale. The next surprise was a lot less fun. Braxton hicks! For those of you who are lucky enough not to know what braxton hicks are, they are basically contractions they can range from a slight pain/pressure sensation to all out pains just like a contraction. Yesterday afternoon I have them for about the third time now, but this time they lasted longer and were more uncomfortable the before. They scared me at first I was worried I was going to lose the baby or something was wrong I called Ashley who said "nope you're fine the baby is fine, just relax or be sorry". I guess I didn't relax enough because later that evening I was very sorry. I was in more pain that I expected. I was reading in my pregnancy books to see what I could learn about Braxton hicks all that my one book said is that they occur in the last few weeks of pregnancy and are painless. This is not true I am 13 weeks and I get them and trust me they are not painless. So who knows what new surprises I will get in the near future. I am super excited to go for an ultrasound in a few weeks and I just can't wait to feel the baby move. Hopefully the next few surprises will be good ones.

-Sharlee

The Home and Garden Show

2007-03-02T15:12:00.001-07:00

So last night Lamont and I went to the Home and Garden show. It was a let down. Earlier this week we found a two for one coupon in the Herald so we grabbed that and decided we would go. I was hoping for more of an interior design show I guess. It was mostly hot tubs, gardening and outdoor home stuff (new roofing, doors and windows). When you rent none of this is much help. The best booth there was The Home Depot, apparently they have a new service where they will send an interior designer to your home free of charge to help you plan any changes you want to make. What a good idea! There we a couple of draws worth entering (the yellow pages booth) but nothing to exciting. When we left I said to Lamont well it was worth the admission cost just to chat with Candi, so I'm happy.

Baby Names

2007-03-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

It is time for round two of the baby names election!
The results of the first was:

Baby Boys Names
Total votes 30

Xander `Zander` (15) for 50% of the votes
Gryphon (3) for 10% of the votes
Rhys or Reese (12) for 40% of the votes

Baby Girls Names
Total votes 38

Talia (17) for 45% of the votes
Cadance (8) for 21% of the votes
Ella (13) for 34% of the votes

Thanks to all those who voted, please vote again in round 2

An added dose of Reality!!

2007-02-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have heard seeing is believing, getting to see the baby for the first time really makes things more real. Sharlee had her first ultrasound today, to confirm the date. I came along to watch, it was really cool! I could see the baby swimming laps. No wonder Sharlee is nauseous!! Sharlee is 10 weeks 2 days along, or the baby is the size of a plum for those who prefer fruit dating. Its heart is beating at 168 bpm which we are told is normal. The picture we got wasn't the best view, in fact Sharlee didn't even get to see the best view. Getting to actually see the baby at this point added a whole new perspective and as the title says "An added dose of reality!!"
-Lamont

As Lamont said we went for our ultrasound this morning, we got there 5 mins early but still had to wait about 20 mins before we got in, which was hard for me. Once I got in and the tech starting the ultrasound I was very excited but she said nothing. At first I was worried that there was a problem with the baby or worse she couldn't find it. Little did I know she found it right away and was just taking measurements and such. Lamont knew too because he could see everything. Finally the tech told us the baby's heart rate was good. I was so relieved to hear that our baby is healthy. Lamont said that our baby is very active, that sounds about right to me! I just wish I could feel it, but soon enough I guess. I am sad that I saw so little and Lamont got to see so much. Lamont said he saw the baby's hands and fingers. After going today I am excited to go for our 18 week 4D ultrasound. They also gave me my due date which is Sept 24. 10 weeks down only 30 more to go.

Nala, The Happiest dog ever!!

2007-02-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

I can't say I have seen many dogs smile, but our dog Nala had a huge grin on her face when we decided to give her a big bone. We cut up a roast that had a huge bone in the middle, and I cooked it up and gave it to her. She loved it!! She even let me take a picture of her with it and she even smiled. She has been chewing on it for about an hour and a half non stop.

-Lamont

Baby name Election

2007-02-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

I have added a poll with names we have come up with so far... Please pick your favorite boys and girls name and click vote. You can see the results by clicking the results link. Please leave a comment indicating that you have voted. We look forward to seeing the votes. Enjoy

-Lamont

The pursuit of the perfect name

2007-02-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

Lamont and I have had a fun time discussing names for the baby thus far. We also enjoy getting input from our family and friends. I think the most entertaining names have come from Carson my five year old nephew. Carson says if it's a girl we should name the baby a flower name like "Rose" or "Daisy" if it's a boy we should give him a race car name like "Race Car" or "On your mark, Get set, Go". Lamont has put a poll of our favorite names, so everyone can vote on the names you like best.

I can't believe in seven and a half months I will be a mom to a brand new little baby. I have to say I am very excited and just can't wait, maybe that's because I have not been feeling well. (Any tips on reducing morning sickness?) At least at the end of the nausea I will get a wonderful little baby!

-Sharlee

Rice Rice Baby

2007-01-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

So approximately 3 weeks ago Sharlee came running into the bedroom, and shoved this white stick in my face. It was Fri morning and I was still asleep and I woke up to this stick with a plus sign on it! I was totally out of it so the first thing I asked is what does the + sign mean? Sharlee squealed in excitement and said, "Were gonna have a baby!!" I was still struggling to wake up so needless to say my reaction wasn't the best. According to a website we read it says in week 6 and 7 that your baby is the size of a grain of rice! Sharlee had her first appointment with the doctor today, it went well and was just a question and answer session. I came so I could meet Dr. Bhatla who was not at all what I pictured. He was really nice and very helpful.
I am excited to have a baby with Sharlee, I know this is the right time if there is such a thing, I look forward to teaching it all I can. We have already thought up a couple of names but those are to remain a secret for now!

-Lamont

The Truth about Ketchup

2007-01-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know Sharlee really well, know that she loves to eat ketchup with a side of just about anything. When we first got married we were eating supper one night and I told here no more ketchup. (I was just kidding and wanted her to try other dipping sauce but she took it seriously) She didn't eat ketchup on anything at home for the next 8 months!! I hadn't realized she had taken me seriously, until one night we were having fry's and chicken strips for dinner and she didn't get out the ketchup. I asked her why and she told me that I had said a long time ago she wasn't allowed ketchup. Of course I found this hillarious.

-Lamont

Our History

2007-01-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

For those of you we have lost touch with, we decided it would be a good idea to tell the story of how we met, etc, etc!

It all started on a boat!! We blame Ross and Nikki Melchin for our happiness! It was the summer of 2005 and the four of us went to Little Bow for the day. We spent the day on the water enjoying each others company and the girls enjoyed watching Ross and I wipe out a few dozen times wake boarding. After alot of convincing we got the girls to go tubing. But they made us be nice and not make them fall in. Shortly after this weekend Ross and Nikki started dating. We remained friends throughout the summer, and on Sep 29th 2005 I finally convinced Sharlee that we should date. Four months later I asked Sharlee to marry me. (The funny part was the ring hadn't even gotten here yet. So we used a cheap plastic ring that I ended up breaking!!) Four months after that (and a lot of stress) well actually May 24th 2006 we were sealed together in the Cardston Temple. We went to Fairmont BC for our honeymoon, and we brought my daughter Shelby along with us for the first few days. Shelby was so excited when we got married the first thing she asked Sharlee is if she can call her mom!!

Since then we have been living in South Calgary, Sharlee is managing The Scrapbook Sally store and I am working for the Alberta Government. I am planing on attending SAIT for the Electrician pre-employment course which lets me challenge my first year apprenticeship so I can start out as a second year apprentice.

-Lamont

I agree with everything Lamont said. I just thought we should add the whole reasons we have started this blog. We are currently serving in the nursery with Jon and Jen Gilchrist. Last Sunday Jon told us we should start a blog so here it is! As a side note I want to say Lamont was right dating him was a good idea!

-Sharlee