Year end.

We have been busy the last few weeks with our little turtle (slowly growing with purpose). He now looks at you when you talk to him, he also somewhat sucks his thumb, he also has more 'awake' time, which is great and a curse at 5 in the morning but overall he sleeps for 4 hours+ every night. Kaleb got a nice chariot for christmas and we use it almost daily and take walks around town.

Thank you so much for all the presents that were sent for him and the cards. Again we have added pictures (click on Kaleb Michael Bourgeois in the pictures link). Tomorrow we might be brave and go for a short hike in the mountains.

Kaleb Michael Bourgeois

Good morning. As I am writting this a whole week (almost to the minute) has gone by since Kaleb was born December 4th at 10:44 AM. We are in the wonderful (and tiring) proces of figuring out how to meet every need of our baby boy. He sleeps, he eats, he burps and he poops his pants (down to his toes this morning). Sounds simple yet he has managed to bring us to tears both of joy and of exhaustion however, he smiles and grins once he finishes a good feed and that is what makes it all worth it. Slowly we are getting a handle on things, yesterday we had our routine doctor visit which was our first outing, then we got brave and went to the store to pick up a garbage pail (for his poop filled diapers). Excitement enough for new parents. This morning I took him and Sky for a walk, Sky also seems very fond of him. Life is getting back on track.

Enjoy the pictures, I will be adding more to this link so check again for daily updates. Kaleb Michael Bourgeois Photos (proud parent alert, lots and lots of photos).


Mathieu, Stacey and Kaleb

A labour of love.

At 10:44AM December 4th 2009, Kaleb Michael Bourgeois was born. Here is the story of our journey to bring him to this world.

Over the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy, we made frequent trips to the doctors office and the hospital because my blood pressure was getting high. We had many recommendation to induce the labor early because of hypertension caused by pregnancy. But Mathieu and I decided to give our baby the best chance to come to this world naturally and as safely as possible. Close to the due date, we had an ultrasound to see how the little guy was doing in there. He was measured at 10lbs 9oz. From there we decided that it was time to go the hospital and induce the labour.

On Thursday December 3rd we were admitted to the labour and delivery unit (Unit 51) of the Foothills Medical Centre, where they used medication called Oxytocin to make me go into labour. Mathieu and I laboured all day and all through the night, he was an incredible support to me, standing by my bed for 20 hours. He helped with every step of the way. We also asked a good friend of ours (Deborah Bobrow) who has tremendous experience as a midwife and labour/delivery nurse to spend time with us during the labour and help us stay relaxed and focused.

Through the night we had challenges, at 3AM the baby heart rate started dipping a bit low on occasion. A couple of epidurals and an aminionic infusions where done to protect the baby and get me ready if a emergency C-section was required to get him out fast. I was also having difficulty finding the balance for my pain. The doctors and nurses where very caring and kind thrue it all. After spending 6 hours at 9cm and experiencing every part of labour including transition, we agreed with the doctors and nurses that it was time to go the operating room and get the baby out safely via C-section. Within an hour, we heard the first cries of our beautiful baby boy and we met our son, Kaleb.

We were filled with joy but our challenge wasn't over yet. Later that day, I had a post partum hemorrhage and lost a lot of blood. I stayed a couple extra days in the hospital where the nurses and Mathieu by my side, helped me recover. We came home on Monday December 7 th and introduced or dog Sky to the new member of the family. From here our world will change, we are on the journey of learning how to become parents. The basic tasks are to feed our baby, keep him warm, and provide love. So far, it has been a complete roller coaster ride of ups and downs but we are so happy to be on the ride and are growing as people every step of the way.

A special thank you to Donelle, Jackie and Karina, 3 wonderful nurses who made this journey a wonderfull human experience for all 3 of us.

Stacey

Wedding Album

Click here to view this photo book larger

Baby's getting close to his big entrance (or exit!)!

Mat and I spent the afternoon at Babies R Us yesterday, what a zoo! Anyway we started up a baby registry there. We have quite a few things already, and were thinking that if people are wondering 'what do they need' then this list may help. The nice thing is that there are stores all over Canada and on line. We just don't want people spending their hard earned $$ on things we already have... and we do have a couple of things that we think would make life with a newborn a bit smoother.

Stacey is waiting patiently, Mathieu is being a true saint to put up with her in these final days... The baby is apparently in good position to make his entrance into the world, and has dropped into the pelvis. He moves around like a WWF superstar, Stacey feels like he is rearranging her internal organs hourly.

We started up a 'due date pool', please email us if you'd like to place your bets! The winner (s) and baby will split the proceeds, with the baby's portion going into an RESP account.

Wish us luck and we'll let you all know when he makes his grand entrance into this world.

Stacey and Mathieu

Parenting first step - Reorganize your life

The last two weeks have been busy with house re-organization in anticipation for the arrival in early December. I painted the room, change table and night stand. Stacey got the clothes and other necessities ready. Finally on thankgiving monday, all the pieces are in place. Check out the photos.

Baby Classes

We took a Bradley Method birthing class taught by Deb Munro over July, August, and September. Our classmates were Robin and Kirk, Mitch and Sloane, and Michelle and Lindsay. For more pictures, click here

Our Honeymoon

Here are some pictures from our honeymoon we took. We visited Tofino for a few days, then on to Naniamo where Mathieu was the captain and Stacey was the Admiral of a 30 ft sailboat named 'Serenity' for 6 days. To see the pictures, click here

Waterton Camping August 2009

Here are a few pictures of our relaxing time in Waterton National Park after our wedding. We took a few days to kick our feet up and recover from the wedding festivities. We practiced calling eachother 'husband' and 'wife' and had a great time! Stacey tried her new fishing rod out and was out-fished by Mathieu 2:1!!!

Wedding Pictures

Hello,

First off, thanks to everybody that could make it to our wedding and our thoughts were with those that couldn't make it.

We had remarkable luck with the weather, our ceremony was awesome, even the wind cooperated and made Stacey's dress float in the wind. The rain and thunder waited till we were all sitting for supper and then stopped to allow our few guests to drive home safely that night. A really memorable day.

We have finally looked at the pictures we currently have and picked a dozen that we really liked. Click HERE to see the photos. Once we get our 'official' photos from our photographer we will post our bestest.

Cheers

Mathieu

2009, the year of Big News

Well this year has been quite a year.

First the engagement and the wedding and just 5 days after the wedding, I did my final exam to be certified as an Alberta Land Surveyor. This has been my work in progress for the last 5 years. It is quite an accomplishment to have finally finished this and on August 7th I stood in front of a judge and swore my oath of office. This certification now provides me with countless opportunities in Alberta and in every province in the country.

And now on to the biggest news of our lives. In early December 2009 , we are expecting a new addition to our family. That's right we are pregnant with a (99% confirmed) baby boy. Over the last few months Stacey has been working extra hard and is carrying our baby. She did very well in the first trimester and we are now in the 5th month of pregnancy. All the ultrasound have proved to be positive and we are preparing for the arrival by taking baby classes and reading all sorts of literature. We have allready received wonderful gifts from our family and have found all our basic necessities at discount prices thanks to neighborhood garage sales.

Here is a little picture of our newest addition, we think he has his dad's nose...

Mathieu's wild bachelor party

Well the wedding is a week from now and I decided to get a few of my friends and celebrate my upcoming wedding in my style. Myself, Dan (my best man), Jeremy, Ken, Dave and Christian hauled ourselves up to the Neil Colgan hut for a night. The Neil Colgan hut is a mountain hut that is maintained by the Alpine club of Canada and people can sleep there and climb the surrounding mountains and return to the cozy hut. This particular hut is actually the highest permanent habitable structure in Canada and sits high above Morraine Lake (the lake on the back of the old 20$ bills) in Banff National Park. In our case we just got up to the hut, ate our faces off, drank a bottle of fine scotch that Ken hauled up, drank 15 cups of coffee the next morning and made our way back down for a nice cool dip in Morraine lake. A nice weekend in the mountains with my good friends, my kind of party. Photos

Mathieu

Viva la Long Weekend

We have been busy with various wedding preparations. Last weekend we made it up to NumTiJah Lodge and finalized all the preparations. Our friend Christian and Justyna both came with us and helped us scope out some wedding photo spots. Sky and Jack also were part of the group and we all went for a hike to Helen Lake on saturday. A very nice hike to an alpine meadow, highly recommended and close to the lodge. I dipped my fly in the lake but with no luck. Jack had a staredown contest with a hoary marmot, the marmot won.

Another wedding preparation is the honeymoon. I have been busy with sailing courses so that we can charter our own boat out of Nanaimo. I completed a Basic Cruising course and challenged the coastal navigation exam and passed with flying colours. I have also been busy training my crew. We went to Glenmore reservoir on Canada day and rented a small dinghy, Stacey had a good time, despite the rumble of thunder in the distance. We stayed close to shore.

Stacey went home to Saskatoon for the graduation ceremony of both her nieces Ivy and Anna. She spent a few days a the cabin and enjoyed her mom's garden.

That's it for now, check out some pictures at http://picasaweb.google.ca/Bourgeois.Mathieu/June2009?feat=directlink

And happy Canada day!!!
Mathieu and Stacey

May Long Weekend BC style

On the May long weekend we headed to Fairmont British Columbia for some camping in the cramper and maybe soak in a few natural hotsprings. We headed out early afternoon on Friday and 4 hours later we pulled in to 1 of 2 campsites left at Alces Lake.



After a short nights sleep not thanks to rowdy neighbours we went to Lussier Hot spring which was minutes from our campsite. We hit that hotspring early in the morning to avoid the crowds that would rush here due to the long weekend. It was fairly quite except for a few other people. This was Mathieu's first natural hotspring experience and he was fairly satisfied. Afterwards we drove to Top of the world provincial park (red line on the picture). Our first objective was Ram Creek hotspring but we found out that the road was blocked. If you look at the map above you can apparently short cut from the red line to Ram creek hotspring via a logging road but that road is now not passable.

Once at top of the world park, which was a very bumpy 50km, we headed of for a hike. We quickly encountered snow and decided to take a brake on the nearby creek bank. We had lunch and played with Sky by tossing rocks in the creek, that game never gets old.

The next day, we drove the long way around and went to Ram Creek hotspring. We first hit Premier lake Park, which was quite the contrast from our Alces lake campground. This park was definatly premier camping, there was even pavement. We did a nice hike around the park which included three lakes, Yankee, Canuck and Turtle lake (green line). Caught 2 rainbow trouts, saw 12 or more turtles and took a swim with the dog. After all this fun we drove up to Ram Creek hotspring (pinkish line) which was a long and stressfull drive with the camper up a very long and steep logging road. The camper survived and we made it to the hotspring. That night we didn't bother going to a campground, we just pulled on camper off in a nice little meadow and called it home for the night.

The final day, we started back home with a quick stop to Fairmont hotspring. Fairmont hotspring is a resort hotspring with a pool that gets filled by the hotspring. In order to keep the pool hot, they have to keep pumping the hotspring water in and the excess water need to go somewhere. That somewhere is just on the side of the pool, out of the tourist view but a short walk gets you to this amazing little waterfall with a deep natural pool were you can bathe in hotspring water in a little more quiet setting. That was the highlight of the trip. After a nice dip, we hit the trail to go home and was greeted by a prairie snowstorm. Gotta love Alberta.

Oh, Stacey took some really cool pictures.

Later

Mathieu and Stacey

You can teach a dog new tricks

Over the last few weeks i've been trying to get in biking shape in preparation for a bike race. Jeremy and I are doing an 8 hour race at Canada Olympic park at the end of May. He's been egging me on that I need to get on my bike at least a few times before the race. So today, I got home from work and decided to go for a bike ride down 12 mile coulee which is a nice trail minutes from our door step. I also had to get the dog out for some exercise so I decided to try her out on the trail. I patiently walked/biked up to the begining of the trail with her on a leash, then once on the trail I let her off leash and crossed my fingers. You see, Sky, our wonderful dog, is not the most reliable off leash and also not the most hyperactive/energetic dog in the world. She would much rather walk at a casual pace with her nose to the ground than to chase me as I fly down the trail on my bike.

Well I was surprised to say the least, she ran behind me all the way down the single track trail. I kept stopping once in a while to let her catch up, get a treat and take a drink from the creek. Once at the bottom she even went and chased a few ducks just to live up to her breed. On the way back up she wasn't as fast but she still followed with a big smile on her face. I guess I found a new biking buddy.

Mathieu

PS: The bike ride made me forget about the accident she had in the house today.

Tracking class

Winter is now done so we decided to give tracking class a go once more. We started doing tracking with Sky last fall and had been to a few group session. Now for those who don't know, tracking is done by giving your dog a smell from an article of clothing from a 'victim'. The 'victim' goes off and hides in the woods and stays put. Now the dog is told to 'search' and then you simply follow your dog to the 'victim'. Easier said than done but we haven't been to class since last October and Sky is a little out of practice.

Tracking class today was in the Canmore dog park. There was quite a large group so Franz (the instructor) decided to do a group search which involved 3 victims each spread out along a single track. Sky was definatly the slowest to get to the first victim but once she found the first person, something seemed to click and she started really picking up the pace and eventually found all 3. I was pretty impressed. After the class was done, we practice with having Stacey as a 'victim'. Talk about a difference, Sky was running full speed to find Stacey and would actually follow Stacey's track in her exact foot steps. See our May album for photos of tracking class.

We spent the rest of the day around Canmore and went shopping for a wedding ring for Mathieu at Rudi Peet Goldsmith. Rudi came recommended by friends of ours and he does amazing work. He does really unique jewelery http://www.rudipeetgoldsmith.ca/index.html and he really took the time to find out exactly what we wanted and even did a wax mold of Mathieu's ring and it looks awesome. Can't wait to see it in the flesh.

Mathieut

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here, we've been enjoying the outside world again. Stacey has a new camera and we went for a walk last friday and played around with her new toy. The crocus' are out and Sky was being silly so there was tons of photo op's. Check out our picasa site HERE. We also headed out on Sunday and hiked up McConnell Ridge in K-country and got some wet feet. Unfortunatly its still wet and muddy in the mountains but it was still t-shirt weather.

Later
Mathieu

Location scouting

We visited Num Ti Jah Lodge for our wedding planning. Stacey filmed this little panorama for all to enjoy. Its going to be an awesome location for our wedding. There is also pictures on our Picassa web album Num Ti Jah Visit

Later
Mathieu

We're engaged!!!!

Mathieu and Stacey at Elk Pass in Kananaskis Country on Sunday Feb 1st.... Mat popped the question on bended knee on a sunny warm day of skiing!

Holiday fun

We both spent some time with our families during the holiday. Here are some photos http://picasaweb.google.ca/Bourgeois.Mathieu/HolidayFiesta?feat=directlink



And this weekend we went ice climbing in Banff.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/Bourgeois.Mathieu/SkySFirstDayIceClimbing?feat=directlink




Hope everyone had fun holidays and a happy new year.



Mathieu and Stacey