Weekly Updates (January)

Spending our last few days with Dad before we loose him to school again.

Fort Louis- climbing rocks and exploring.

Our morning walks never get old. I love being able to get up every morning and go for a walk with my kidos. That one of the plus' of living in the Caribbean. This winter weather is awesome. We found these boards on our walk one morning so we grabbed them for a craft to do that day. They had lots of fun painting there boards. Then we hung them on our tree outside in our yard.

I've had a few friends ask about our winters here on St Maarten, so i thought i would give in more detail what out winters are like. It cools down in December and warms up end up march beginning of April. Cooled down temp is 30'C each day but still feels like 35 and can cool down to 25 at night. I have really noticed it feeling cooler. I don't feel like going to the beach as much and at night I have to put a light blanket on, usually we just have a sheet. I never thought I would say this feels cool but it does. In the winter season here it rains more, at least once a day and there is usually a good breeze.

We had to have a ER visit with Lacey.... On Friday Lacey had a high fever all day and wouldn't go down with out Tylenol or Advil. I thought it was just due to teething. So we took it easy and watched movies. But early evening Lacey started to have a good wraspy cough, to me it kinda sounded like croup. Friday night was a rough long night for Lacey, she still had a fever and would just cry even when i was holding her and rocking her. I knew something wasn't right as she usually isn't this fussy with teething. Saturday we took it easy again. Lincoln was going crazy not going out and doing any thing. Josh was at school all day studying as he had a exam to study for that was on Monday. Lacey only slept for an hour in the afternoon, which isn't normal for Lacey, usually its 2 hours. when she woke up she was having trouble breathing and was whizzy.  Living with Asthma I was concerned for Lacey as you could tell she was struggling to breath. I really didn't want her to have to deal with Asthma like I have to. All doctor clinics on the island are walk in but are only open from 9-12 on Saturday's. so to the ER we went. I didn't want to take Lincoln as its not a fun place to wait and I didn't want him to caught anything at the hospital. So I messaged Josh and he came home to watch Lincoln and try to still study.  Josh meet us in the parking lot, Lacey and I got in th car and I told lincoln he was going home with Josh. Lincoln began to cry. As Josh was walking home with Lincoln, Lincoln said "I just want to help Lacey". Lincoln loves his sister and it was even hard on him to see Lacey cry constantly. He tried so hard to help her by bring her her soother, banker and puppy and would tell her to be happy but nothing was helping.... So Lacey and I were off, I was actually dreading going. I want to help Lacey but health care just isn't the same here... It was a good experience. The ER waiting room is tiny (the size of my kitchen). So I walk in and there is no front desk or signs on what to do so I ask the security guard, to see where I check in. You have to ring a bell then a nurse comes out. The nurse came out and asked if I had a insurance card I said no I'm paying cash, she passed me and went on to the next person, then I handed her Lacey's past port and said again I'm paying cash ($50 for ER visits). She got her registered. Then another nurse came out who was doing assestments and took some one in to get assessed who arrived after us. That second nurse came back out and I stepped forward and said Lacey hasn't been assessed yet so he took her in. This whole time Lacey was screaming her head off. A local lady asked me if she was teething, really?!? if she was just teething I wouldn't be here, no she's have trouble breathing. I just found I had to be very forward since I didn't have coverage (30 mins). They assessed her and took her immediately back since she was having shortness of breath. Love the triage system. Saw another nurse right away and they gave her something for her fever. Then we got a student doctor from AUC. He questioned us on her condition then came back in with the doctor.... We were in and out of the hospital in 2 hours, which wasn't to bad. Lacey was diagnosed with a viral chest infection. The doctor said it was sitting right on her lungs causing her to wheeze. I was so happy to hear it wasn't Asthma. If we wouldn't have left it he said it would have got a lot worse. So we got her prescription for a steroid, antibiotics and another medication for her fever..... Now to find a pharmacy to get the drugs. Found out no pharmacy is open Saturday afternoon, by now it was 5pm but luckily mullet bay Pharmacy is open from 9-1 and 6-9 due to its locations near a lot of resorts. So we got her meds that night which i was glad. As I wasted to start treating her as soon as possible.  Saturday night was a bit better night. Lacey was slowly on the med, she stayed at home with dad from church. She hates taking her meds.

Lincoln loves art time after lunch when Lacey is napping. Here we are painting with his cars.

At 16 months Lacey got another tooth, top right one, thats to the right of her two center teeth.

lincoln's drawing he did at church one Sunday.

This is Lincoln's drawing of his body. this sunday we learned that Heavenly father had a body like us.

At church we learned a little about the mission that covers St Maarten. The mission is called the West indies mission (caribbean islands) covers 12 nations, has 8 currencies, 4 langues (english, french, dutch and spanish)  also with other dialogues

We've been working on Lincoln's name with him.

I've been making some learning games for him. This one is match the octopus. You have to match the correct colour head with the legs.

Here's another game where you have to arrange the dinosaurs from smallest to biggest or vs verse.

I've also made Lincoln as weather chart. He loves it. He changes it multiple times a day.

Lincoln also has a HOT and COLD game when he has to arrange these cards on a Hot section and a Cold section. Lincoln says the wind (breeze) here on St. Maarten isn't hot or cold.

Valentine's crafts

Lacey loves being included and doing crafts too.

Painting with the end of a lettuce head. Lincoln thought it was pretty neat to be painting with a lettuce.

Making monsters with different shapes. Lincoln is getting very creative. While Lincoln made he's monsters he was face timing with my mom's day home kids. He loves keeping in touch with his friends back in Canada.

Lincoln relaxing one sunday afternoon.

These are a collection of Lincoln's pictures he took all by him self with his own camera that Nana Harker got him last year. He has recently become more interested in taking his own pictures like mommy does.

The kids having a snack break on the boardwalk.

Lincoln playing with his bottle caps with his cars.

Lincoln having some pool fun with his friend Liam.

Here's the Steve Jobs yacht that he had designed. We call it the iBoat, but its actual name is Venus. It was docked here on the island of St Maarten in October when my dad and brother were here and we have seen it this last week again. Josh was pretty surprised to see it when we drove by.

Fun night at the Carousel with some of Josh's classmates.

            

Back To The Normal Life

Josh's Christmas break went way too fast. December went by way too fast. But I'm glad we were able to capture a tonne of pictures to remember our visitors and the great time we had.... now that the grandparents left and Aunt Sara, we had 3 DAYS LEFT until Josh is back in school. We enjoyed the last 3 days with Dad home. We ran around the island getting this ready for Josh's classes to start ( textbook coiled), and hit the beach a few more times.

Today is today. Back to lonely looonnnnggggg days. I’m glad to be back into more of a routine for the kids. The hardest part is when the kids both cry when Josh left the first morning back. Lincoln cried for 15 mins and I'm his mom and I wasn’t good enough. He’s had a very tough morning with lots of tears. Luckly Josh doesn’t have full classes until the next day so we went and visited him. Josh is going into his 3rd term out of 5 terms. With 3 1/2 weeks with family visiting us here on St. Maarten, now our house is feeling pretty empty/ lonely here. Less then a year and we will be back home for a bit... With our family here you probably noticed blog posts stopped, so now I have some catching up to do. I guess thats what going to keep me busy at nights.

Lincoln has been into collection soda caps (beer caps). He finds them anywhere here, at the beach and in the parking lot at the Chinese corner store and everywhere in between. Lincoln has quite the collection.....

So I thought it would be fun to make a craft out of them. We had beads and hemp... So we had everything to make a necklace out of his collection. Lincoln loves his soda cap necklaces.

Lincoln even sent some home with Nana & Papa's so they would remember him. I think they turned out pretty good. We love fun crafts that don't cost anything. As someone gave us the hemp and beads when they left the island.

My Lacey Lou has had a tough time with teething this past bit. Teeth are popping out everywhere. Good thing daddy was home and around over Christmas break to help with her, Lacey just wanted to be held.... When Lacey is teething she still loves her food for the most part but one night she wouldn't eat so we made this sad girl a Pina Colada.

It was a great idea, it made this sad girl into a very happy girl. And she drank a whole Pina Colada... Lacey and Lincoln get so excited these days when we tell them we are going to make Pina Colada's. They love helping put everything in the blender. Males it fun for everyone.

----Here's a update on the kids ---

Lacey at 15 months: (she's 16 months now, we are just behind with the blogging)

- Lacey got her 4th one year molar in.

- Lacey is sure trying to talk more, she says ho ho ho, santa, fishes, boat, up... She has been saying dad for a while but now she is saying dada instead.

- Lacey is one stubborn little girl who has a mind of her own. But we love her so much. She just knows how to test her mom. She still thinks she is just as big as Lincoln and can do everything  that he does. She knows how to have fun, she is one tough cookie, always moving and very busy, scream, laugh and be a goofy.

Lincoln at 3 1/2 years old:

-Lincoln is still a easy going little boy. He knows how to enjoy life. He is always looking out for others. Loves tones of hugs and attention, but who doesn't. He loves trains, plans, tractors and hugging his sister.

- Lincoln has a thing about smells, He notices every little smell good or bad. This week he said to Lacey "Lace you are stinking me out!".

Fun beach pictures, these two love each other.

And this is what our January looks like... We are loving the weather in the winter months.

I love spending my days with my two munchkins. I love them more then I would ever imagine. I could ask for my life to be any other way. I love being a mom. My days are filled be joy, challenges, blessings,  craziness, fun, business, adventurous, rewarding, worthwhile and all this makes my life happy.

Fort Louis

Here's a few more pictures of Fort Louis in a little more detail. Overlooking Marigot Bay and with views across to Anguilla, Fort Louis was built in 1789 by the people of Marigot. The primary purpose of the fort was to defend the warehouses at Marigot port, where produce such as salt, coffee, sugar cane and rum was stored. Subsequently abandoned, Fort Louis fell into ruins. The fort was restored in the 19th Century but abandoned a second time. During this period the fort also witnessed struggles between the French and the English. Since 1993, restoration and redevelopment works have been undertaken. 

Bilingual information panels provide visitors with a cultural history of the site.

Fort Louis is on the French side and it's about a 10 minute drive or so from our house.

Fort Louis is location at the top of this hill in this picture above.

Here's an airel view of Fort Louis.

Getting to the Fort is a bit interesting you have to go throughout a back alley then through a church parking lot up a hill a bit, then park at the hospital parking lot. Then you have to take a 5 minute hit or so up these steep stairs. There are breathtaking views over Marigot, Simpson Bay Lagoon, Simpson Bay, Anguilla, the Terres Basses and Baie Nettlé when you get to the top.