The Chadwick's Online

Time for another long overdue update.

We now know the gender of Baby #2. Nicholas is going to have a baby sister on October 14th (C-Section Date). 3D Ultrasound Photos can be found here.

Speaking of Nicholas, he’s good as always and has just started to crawl. Little wobbly so far but he’s slowly getting the hang of it.

Not much else to add on the child front.

One thing we’ve learned since the last update is that sometimes life requires you to have infinite amounts of patience. Time and time again we have roadblocks put up in our paths and we patiently have to wait for things to change before we can make any attempt to get around, over, under or even go through said roadblock.

Examples would include my job hunt and trying to get our house ready to sell.

So far nothing new to report as summer is typically slower for employers to be asking for new employees. I’ve also recently (today) made some changes to my resume in hopes that will help. Time will tell.

As for the house… Well we wanted that listed a month and a half ago but ran into nothing but problems getting our skylight replaced and the light-well beneath it repainted. We’ve just accepted a quote from the third company too be involved and we hope this will finally bee done by the end of next week.

Then all we have to do is tidy up, uncluttered a bit and then get it listed. After that we just have to be patient in our house hunt and hope that someone will like our place enough to make an offer.

Will have more to add soon I hope.

In the meantime…

Peace!

Well past time for an update don’t you think?

But first a note on our vacation videos. Some of them have been processed and are uploading as we speak. The rest will be done and uploaded over the next several days. I’ll update the blog when they are all up.

So since our return from vacation, Nicole got a new job and was then let go (things weren’t working out) a mere two and a half weeks later so she’s know doing sub work for another day care facility that is giving her lots of shifts.

I have been hunting for a job since we got back and so far I’ve not had any luck though I’ve been applying for a number of them, including a few that would be great jobs to have. Not to worried about things yet and will continue the hunt.

Now aside from that, we have another change that is pretty much common knowledge at this point and that is, Nicole is expecting again and we will be welcoming our second child towards the end of the October. We’re really excited by this turn of events and will let you all know what we’re having (boy or girl) once we find out. For the record, we’re sure it’s a girl and want it to be so but we’ll be happy no matter what.

So that brings us to the next change, we have decided for a couple of big reasons (one on an emotional level and due to the upcoming addition to the family) that our current house isn’t large enough for our growing family and the future.

With that in mind we are currently making some small improvements to the house so it can go up on the market by the end of May. We will then begin searching for a larger house in the same area (we like Murrayville)

So job, no job, job hunt, addition to family and a new home.

The other major change occurred when we were on vacation. At that time we decided to become members of the Disney Vacation Club. The Disney Vacation Club is (for lack of a better way of putting it) a glorified timeshare run by the Disney Company. We are members until 2060 and can use our club points to pay for accommodations at the Disney Resorts and about 400 other hotels / resorts around the world. We’re planning on using this years points (which we had to bank as we had already gone on vacation) and next years points to spend a week in a 2 bedroom villa at the Grand Californian Resort and Spa at the Disneyland Resort next May (jobs permitting). (The villas include a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. This means we can cook our own food and save money on the expensive restaurants and pack lighter as we can do laundry.)

We can bank a years points and borrow a years points to use up to three years of points at one time. This will allow for a two week trip to Walt Disney World Resort when the kids are older.

Lots of fun stuff planned.

So, I think that’s it for now. Back later as time allows.

Peace!

We’re home after a nice long and enjoyable vacation.

Not really much to add as I think the photos speak for themselves.

Speaking of which, here is the last set from Dan’s Dad, from Nicole and from Nicole’s brother Stuart.

Dan’s job hunt begins on Tuesday. Should be able to update you all on the meeting we had at Disneyland soon as well sometime later this week.

Oh… One other thing, our vacation video will take some time but we’ll update when we can.

Till then….

Peace…

Just another update.

Hit the San Diego Wildlife Park yesterday after we left Disneyland. Didn’t do a whole lot today though my Dad, Stuart and I did check out the San Diego Automotive Museum and the Flight and Space Museum in Balboa Park. Killed a couple of hours.

Tomorrow we’re hitting Seaworld.

Photos can be found here (Nicole), here (my Dad), here (Stuart) and here (Pat).

Internet connection is very slow here sadly.

Should have another update tomorrow.

Peace.

Bit overdue for an update by the looks of things.

Since the last update we’ve been having fun at the Disneyland Resort.

It has been crowded. Very crowded but it has been a great deal of fun.

We got busy doing stuff in Downtown Disney that we didn’t really do a whole lot in the actual theme parks till yesterday and today.

Finally got to ride on some of the rides we missed on our honeymoon. Such as the Nemo Subs (almost did it Thursday but as we were the next in line I reminded everyone we had to be somewhere at a specific time so we left and did it this morning), The Haunted Mansion (my favorite ride at Disneyland) and Pirates of the Caribbean (we were the very first riders on it today).

We also did the Jungle Cruise, Astro Blasters and Star Tours. The only ride at California Adventure we managed was Soarin Over California. Nicholas got to go on the Winnie the Pooh Adventure and the carousel.

We’ve come to the conclusion that a three day park hopper ticket simply isn’t enough to see or do everything. We’ve taken steps to ensure future visits will be much easier but we will discuss that in another blog once we have returned home.

Tonight is our last night in the Disneyland Hotel. We head down to San Diego for the final 5 nights of our trip.

Here is some photos from the past 3 days and here is some photos Dan’s father took when we were still at Universal.

Peace!

The air was so dry in the area around Universal that my throat has been sore and scratchy since yesterday. With my recent bout of strep not that far behind me I’m doing my best to keep it no more than sore and scratchy. Picked up some lozenges to help with that today from the West Hollywood Target store where we were lucky to ride the elevator up from the parkade with Catherine O’Hara.

It was my Mom who first recognized her and after we got of the elevator she (my Mom) asked if any of us recognized her. I did but it wasn’t until I saw her profile as she started her shopping that I recognized her for who she was. I named her and then had to proceed to explain to everyone (except my Mom) who she was. SCTV or better yet “the Mom from the first two Home Alone movies”

All of this occurred after we spent a couple of hours at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum at the Hollywood & Highland Center. While we enjoyed the tour we felt it was very expensive for what we saw and the vibes we were getting from the people in the shopping center really turned us off. I ended up in a fairly foul mood and couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.

After we were done at Target we had lunch at Pasta Pomodoro, a great Italian place. We then headed south on the 101 and the I5 for Disneyland Resort which is where we are now. We’ve had dinner but that’s about it.

Photos from today can be found here.

We will be hitting the parks tomorrow.

More tomorrow evening.

Peace.

Good evening.

A quick update as it is getting late and we have to get ready to check out tomorrow for the trip down to Disneyland where we will be spending the next four nights.

We spent the day at Universal and had a great day.

I ended up video recording about 70% of the back-lot tour but I won’t be posting that until we get back home.

All in all a good day.

Photos from today can be found here.

Till later….

Peace.

Good evening all.

A quick update as we are well into our vacation to Southern California at this point.

Everyone is well. Nicholas had a hard night in the SeaTac hotel near the airport and kept waking every hour or two and just would not stay down. He handled the flight down to San Diego as well as can be expected though his ears were hurting badly during the decent but we got through it.

By the time we landed, got our bags, and got our rented vehicles (no thanks to the slowest Hertz Rental Employee I have ever seen) we decided we need dinner before we braved the two hour plus drive up the I5 to the 101 and eventually the Hilton here at Universal.

We stopped for a bit at the very hotel we will spend 5 nights in next week as I knew there was a restaurant in it and I knew it was very close to the airport.

Once we ate (and damn was it good) we headed up the I5. We actually ran into traffic which surprised us as it was a Sunday night. But we did eventually arrive and got ourselves checked in. This is a great hotel. We have a nice view of Universal Theme Park (which we are going to tomorrow.)

We ordered room service for breakfast this morning and then headed out to a nearby Target to pick up a few things (we were so wiped by yesterdays travel that our original plans for today will now happen tomorrow) and then we came back and had a late lunch.

I needed to chill out for a while so I stayed in the hotel while Nicole, Nicholas and my Dad headed to the Hollywood and Highland Center (home of the Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Madam Tussauds Wax Museum and the Kodak Theater (home of the Oscars) to check it out and get some pictures. Part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame runs in front of this place as well.

Speaking of pictures, you can find today’s here.

We’re heading to Universal after trying the breakfast buffet tomorrow. Should have another update tomorrow evening along with some more pictures.

Till then…

Peace!

Greetings.

Been a bit busy as of late and getting behind on my updating.

We’ve got plans to replace the current way of doing photos and videos on our blog so we won’t be adding anymore until this has been setup (most likely after our vacation). The quality and length of the videos won’t really change much but they will be relocated so that they are with our photos. The quality of the photos however will improve massively. To give you a sneak peek please check this gallery out at the new location Blodel Conservatory.

Once we’ve “renovated” the existing stuff, all of the links in other blog updates will be changed to match the new location (which is located here: Chadwicks Photo / Video Galleries). The sidebar links on the right hand side of the blog will be removed aside from a general page with links to the various galleries at the new location. (Note: This has now been completed.)

Aside from that we’re keeping busy. I’m nearing completion of my course and have accepted a contract position with my former employer to help them out and to earn a bit of extra cash until I go back to work full time (March I’m hoping.)

Not much else to add so I’ll leave you all in the usual manner.

Peace!

Hi everyone.

Before we get to our year in review just a quick note about more pictures of Nicholas:

Nicholas – December 2009

Nicholas – Canadian Baby Photographers

In addition to the new picture we are also pleased to announce our new Video Gallery which is where we’ll be loading our family videos as we do them.  Chadwicks Video Gallery.

So 2009 ended up being a fairly tough year in some respects but it was balanced out by many positive things.

Nicole’s grandmother passed in April but we were joined by Nicholas in August.

We listed our condo in April and it didn’t sell until October but we moved into a house and paid off the mortgage on the condo.

We nearly lost Nicole during child birth but she recovered fully and we have a healthy baby boy.

So it was a year of bad things that had a positive thing to balance it out. But I think the entire world was having one of those years.

The year ended with an excellent Christmas. For the first time in 15 or so years my parents and my brother and I celebrated Christmas together (with the welcome addition of Nicole, her Mom, Pat and her brother, Stuart. Not to mention it was Nicholas’ fiirst Christmas.)

On the professional front after nearly 16 years I saw an opportunity to begin down the career change path so I decided to leave WPS. Hunt for a new job will start in March 2010 (but that is for next year).

Most of the big event are covered in detail in the blog. We hope to do a better job for next years “Year in Review”.

Our next round of updates will probably occur in the second half of February during our vacation.

Till then we wish everyone a great 2010. Stay safe.

Peace.

Dan, Nicole and Nicholas

Greetings and Salutations everyone.

Time for a quick update.

First, new photos of Nicholas taken over the past three months can be found here.

As you can see it has been sometime since the last update. To put it mildly we’ve been busy.

The biggest news since Nicholas was born was my decision to leave WPS after nearly 16 years. I left on good terms and have wished them all the best.

The reason behind this decision are fairly straight forward in that I had an opportunity to finish the Business Management course that I was taking and more importantly to spend some time off from work to spend with Nicole and Nicholas. With my old job no longer being a satisfying daily activity and with chances for a promotion very slim I came to the conclusion that it was time to move on so I did.

Come March of 2010 I hope to have my course completed so that I can peruse further eduction to allow my entry into the commercial property management industry. So we’ll see how that goes.

We traded in our 2006 Hyundai Sonata for a 2007 Ford Taurus. Unfortunately as I was the primary driver of the Sonata I was uncomfortable driving it after 20 minutes as the car was not really designed for someone my size. I am very happy with the Taurus though.

That’s it for now. Further updates will be coming as we have time.

Till then, Peace.

Howdy folks.

Yes, we’re overdue for an update.

This isn’t it.

What this is, is a test. You see we purchased a new HD Handycam today and this is the very first recording from it. It’s also the very first recording of Nicholas.

Can’t promise we’ll do lots of video but it’s something we may try from time to time.

Anyways, here is the first video.

Full update soon. We’ve been busy.

Greetings all, Dan here.

Most of you are aware of this but our son Nicholas Frank Chadwick was born at 5:22 on August 16th, 2009. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was about 21 inches long.

It’s taken us awhile to upload some photos and update the blog. The photos can be found here.

The reason behind this is we just brought Nicole and Nicholas home yesterday. Nearly a full week after Nicole went into labour. Many of you know the reasons why already, the rest of you are going to find out by reading onwards.

Last Saturday we were waiting to head got up at 6:00 in the morning so we could call the hospital about getting Nicole induced into labour as at that point Nicholas was 11 days overdue. Langley Memorial’s Maternity Ward was very busy that morning and they did not have the nursing staff available to monitor her at the time so we were told to call back at 11:30. When we didwe found that they still couldn’t take her in and that they would call when they could. Hour or so later they called and told us to come in after lunch.

We arrived and they started the induction process while monitoring Nicholas and Nicole. After a couple of hours we were told we could leave and come back in six hours for a second application. So we went to Ricky’s for dinner.

Once we returned to the hospital it was decided that Nicole’s contractions were to close together to risk a second round of the induction jelly so they admitted her and started her on oxytocin at about 11:30 Saturday night. At this point I discovered that I wouldn’t be getting much sleep due to the type of sleeping arrangements and my bad back. So I dosed from time to time and watched TV while Nicole tried to get some sleep. All along she was being monitored by a nurse.

Things progressed so that by 4:30 am Nicole was 4 cm dilated and well into active labour. Half an hour later she was 9 cm dilated. At this point we call our parent’s as both mothers wanted to be there for the delivery. Neither arrived on time as Nicholas was born a mere 22 minutes later by the same nurse that had stayed by Nicole all night.

Nicholas came out as healthy as could be and is very cute. He was not the problem however.

Because of the speed of the birth and because this was Nichole’s first child her cervix and birth canal did not stretch enough as needed and Nicole was torn up inside very badly and was loosing blood fast. The on call doctor tried to stitch things up as best she could be was unable to get the bleeding to stop so she called in the on call gynecologist who after a couple of minutes decided that there was simply no way to finish the job while Nicole was awake and made the call to move her into an OR so that they may finish the job.

Now at this point we knew it was serious but we weren’t convinced it was life threatening. I was exhausted and there was nothing to be done by me waiting at the hospital so I came home to catch a few winks. I was called back in about two and half hours later and was updated on the situation. Nicole had to have 4 units of blood transfused as she had lost so much. They nearly lost her and we were told that she might not make it. At one point they even indicated that they might have to transfer her to another, bigger, hospital to get the job done.

Fortunately they got the job done and Nicole spent the next 24 plus hours in the ICU. I was able to visit her a couple of times and each time I did she looked better and stronger. Nicholas was only allowed down to the ICU once during that period and was formula fed for those first few hours as Nicole was unable to breast feed. I spent the night upstairs in the maternity ward with him getting a crash course in feeding, burping and diaper changing. I was unable to get any sleep that night either. Watched alot of Discovery Channel though.

After the initial 24 hours or so had passed Nicole was moved back up to the maternity ward but was confined to her bed for several days. For the next week, her mother Pat would spell me during the day so I could get some much needed sleep and I would stay at the hospital at night to change diapers, keep Nicole company and pass him over to her for regular breast feedings. I personally want to thank Pat for her help. I don’t know what I would have done without it. I also want to thank those of you who offered your assistance though we ended up not needing it and thanks to my parent’s for the moral support as always.

Nicole was finally able to get out of bed on Wednesday, was much stronger on Thursday and was finally discharged on Friday morning. Before we returned home we went to Ricky’s Restaurant for breakfast bring the whole event full circle.

Mother and son are healthy and home safely. (Nicole is well on the mend.)

We cannot thank the doctor’s and nurses at Langley Memorial Hospital (specifically the Maternity Ward and ICU) enough for their great care. They saved Nicole’s life and helped Pat and I care for Nicholas when Nicole was unable to get out of bed. They aren’t paid enough for what they do and there isn’t enough of them. Shame on Fraser Health Authority and the Provincial and Federal Governments for allowing that to happen.

Since Nicole and I got married we have been blessed by many things. Our son, our marriage, our honeymoon, our new home (Photos of that to be added in the future), our family and our friends have been unbelievable to us since we met in 2007. We do not take any of it for granted and our thankful for it everyday.

Further events in the next month or so will be discussed on this blog after they occur. Until then, with much love, we end this in our usual way.

Peace!

Howdy folks.

Just a quick update.

We’re still alive and I’m still working on this thing. Ran into some issues with the photo galleries I’m trying to set up and that’s slowed me down some.

Next post will be most likely after Nicholas is born which should be any day now.

Till then….

Peace!

Well after months of discussion Nicole and I have finally set up our own domain for our blog.

It’s going to take some time to get used to this whole thing as I’m not hugely familiar with some of the options available to me through WordPress and GoDaddy.com hosting but I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.

One of the major purposes of this new domain is to consolidate our photos from Picassa and our old blog from Blogger into one location. And yes this does mean the archives from both will be on here sooner rather than later.

Till then, have patience and we’ll get there.