Halloween 2009!!

Well this has been an eventful start to the school year and that's putting it lightly! Between crazy sicknesses and my nutso work schedule and Ted's shoulder and Shakeel's injury, Jake's struggle with starting school, their extra curricular activities, Ted rearranging the ENTIRE house, not to mention the regular every day stuff that comes along with having kiddos, we are exhausted!!

BUT, not too exhausted to have some fun on Halloween!! Ted always goes all out with the pumpkins and this year was no different (even though we SOOOO didn't have the time for it!). He did gorgeous jack-o-laterns but left them inside... we can downstairs the day before Halloween and they had all melted and molded into a pile of rotting mush on the table!! Poor Ted. He was heartbroken!! :(

So off he went on Halloween morning and bought all new pumpkins are carved all of them fresh to display for the evening (and we weren't even home!!) LOL! Gotta love him! If nothing else, he is one dedicated and FUN loving daddy!

I decided to get in to the spirit of things myself and went out and got Ted and I costumes to wear for the evening of trick or treating. We had a blast!! Here's some photos!!





I was some sort of witchy ghouly thing. :)




Ted was a grim reaper of sorts. :)



And my beautiful kiddos went as Violet and Dash, the kids from the Incredibles. :)

My New Prop

I got a new prop yesterday and am soooo excited to use it!!! So, while Ash was at school, me and Jake had a little fun!!! :)
And then when Ash came home she had to give it a try... my little moody girl.




This is Jake's blanky... he's had it since he was born. :)

Update on Shakeel

Something crazy happened last night... Shakeel flipped a switch! He's doing much better!!! He's content and not in as much pain and feeling much better! He is still having language issues... he can't understand complex questions coming in and he can't get out answers sometimes, he has to really search and think hard and still can't get them sometimes. But he's going to get therapy and they're hoping it will all come back.

He gets to go out on a daypass today!!!! He's leaving the hospital and can even stay over night at his grandparents if all goes well!!!! YEY!!!!!!!

I'm so relieved... I can't even tell you!
Thanks again for all your care and concern!

Shakeel

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted... and honestly, there hasn't been much to post about... just every day stuff: wake up, take kids to school/activities, come home, work, eat dinner, work some more, go to bed.

Unfortunately I have something to post about now.

My little brother Shakeel was in a terrible accident Monday night at around 5:45pm. There's a rope swing that goes over a gully behind their house and Shakeel was swinging on it (like he does every day) and lost his grip and fell about 50 feet on to rocks and logs. He was taken by ambulance to Abbotsford Regional Hospital. He was unconscious and not breathing. They stabilized him and intubated him and helivac'd him to Children's Hospital in Vancouver where he is now.

That first night was awful. We knew he hit his head bad and that he had a massive contusion on the back of his skull. We also knew that he broke his arm in two places. It was so scary to say the least... and nobody was saying anything. After about an hour and a half of them working on him in the ER at Children's, they took him for a CT scan and then moved him to the I.C.U. The CT was very positive. There wasn't as much swelling on the brain as they had originally thought.

They left him heavily sedated and on the breathing machine till morning, even though he woke up a couple times during the night VERY agitated and aggressive. Tuesday morning, they reduced the sedation and took him off the breathing tube and he did great. He started to wake up, but only for 20 second spurts and couldn't really say anything.... but he did smile at me Tuesday night and said my name.

Wednesday morning, they moved him to the Neuro Ward at Children's and that's where he is now. He's much more alert now, staying awake for a few hours at a time but definitely sort of in and out the whole time. He's also very upset and very confused. He asks the same questions over and over so it seems his short term memory has been affected. The part of his brain with the damage is the language part and it's pretty obvious. He's having difficulty getting out what he's trying to say and when he does he has weird ways of saying things. He's also having difficulty pronouncing words and forgets a lot. He remembers faces but doesn't know the year or how old he is.

As of this morning, there wasn't really any change. He was awake a lot of the night quite agitated and wanting to go home. His arm is giving him quite a bit of pain and asks us "Where can we throw this thing?" "It's done" and " Here, take it" all referring to his arm/cast. We're hoping over the next few days things will improve. Every day has gotten better so far so I'm sure it will continue to do so!

The docs will come in and reassess him on the weekend to see when/if he can go home. He will probably need language therapy to get back to where he was but they seem optimistic.

I am keeping regular updates on my Facebook at www.facebook.com/lucylime.jillian so you can check them out there. Email me if you'd like at jilliankirby@shaw.ca .

Thanks to all of you who have already expressed your care and concern and your offers of help. It is appreciated more than you know!!!

**Edited to add a couple photos I just found on my computer of Shakeel playing around with my photobooth in my office! Miss him so much right now. Can't wait to have my old Shakeel back.

And it happened.....

My baby started school this week. Jake went to his very first class of preschool and I just couldn't be prouder of him. As great as Ash did when she went to school, she had a friend in her class and STILL cried for 6 months straight when we dropped her off.

Jake walked in... shy, reserved, but so sure of himself. He found something to do and while he wanted to make sure we were coming back to get him, he was amazing. He didn't cry, he didn't wine... he just played and enjoyed himself. I can't believe how well he did... I seriously was having panic attacks thinking about it. I just didn't think Jake was ready. I mean he's always had Ash to pave the way for him... to make the friends... to start the games... to tell him what when and how to do things. But he did great so the teachers say!! YEY JAKE!!!

Mommy didn't do so well.... I was brave, I did great that way.... but.... I. Forgot. My. Camera. (I'm hanging my head in shame right now).... what a typical youngest child thing to do. Crap.

But I did do a "First Day of School" shoot before class at home and I did have my camera phone so here's a few shots!

Ash's First Day of Kindergarten!!!

Today was the day... 09/09/09... Ash's first day of Kindergarten! I'm the parent of a school aged child... she's in the school system... a part of a wonderful school actually.

I'm not gonna go on and on about how I can't believe we're here already (which I can't!) but more so, I'm going to rave today about how wonderfully she did. I remember the first day of preschool... she was such a shy child... so insecure in a way. She cried every day for what seemed like 6 months straight.

Today, she walked in there, with wonderful confidence, only knowing two other little girls and did so great. I'm so proud of her. She was so excited for this day to come and I know she's going to have an amazing year... by all accounts, her teacher is just the best in the district. I'm excited! And sad. But mostly excited! Here's how the day went:


We started out by having a quick little photoshoot to document how very cute she looked! LOL Ash was NOT impressed... this is definitely a forced smile! ;)



And because we were so eager to go, we were VERY early. This is Ash in the truck checking out the time "Is it time to go in now?" "How about now?" "Now???"




And when it finally was time to go in, she bolted to the school! LOL



This is Ash's "Mom, you're embarrassing me with your freakin' camera" look. HAHAH!!!


We've moved Ash from her Preschool school to a new school in Murrayville this year. I was nervous taking her from her friends but luckily, she has two little twin sister girlfriends that are in the same class as her. Nothing like a little back-up!


Time to go in!



As soon as she walked in, she headed straight to the table with all the name cards. She grabbed this one and was not at all happy that her teacher spelt her name wrong!!!! It's a-s-h-l-e-I-G-H!! SHEESH!! Get it right already!


All in all, it was a great morning and while I had butterflies the whole time she was in class, I'm also super stoked to start getting involved in the school. This is going to be fun!

My Auntie Kelly

Just got home from our annual Bull Family Reunion... and man did we have a good time... but that's saved for another post!

Today my Auntie Kelly came over for a few pointers. She'll be shooting her first wedding next weekend and is a little nervous (I know she'll do great!).... yes, I come from a family of photographers... most my aunts, and quite a few of my cousins too! So, yep, you guessed it... we headed out to my field. The lighting wasn't as great as we hoped thanks to the grey clouds that were rolling in, but I took the opportunity to take some shots of my Aunt and her Larry.