Friday, January 17, 2020

hello!

hey there! Thanks for stumbling across this space. Plans are in the works to update and rebrand this webpage in the near future, but you can get ALL the updates on Evanna and our family over on Instagram (@kierrairvine), followed by Evanna's medical Facebook Page (The Irvine Family // Evanna's Special Heart).
Click HERE to follow along on Instagram, and HERE for our Facebook page.



Sunday, December 15, 2019

Last minute personal gifts with London Drugs


While it may appear that I am a very organized individual, I actually have several people (ie. Nick and our amazing homecare nurses) constantly giving me reminders on what tasks require my immediate attention. When it comes to Christmas, Evanna and Bennett are my priority… which means I tend to scramble last minute for gifts (let alone personal) for Nick, our immediate family, friends and even the homecare nurses.

I’ve been known to be one of those people who literally buys a gift on the way to a birthday party... and basically both giving and receiving gifts is NOT one of my love languages (unless it involves a gift card lol). That said, I know in particular (because it’s been requested on numerous occasions), many of our family members like our parents and grandparents specifically ask for printed photos of the kids – and have recently found several photo options at the London Drugs Photolab that can be ordered with just 24hrs notice! I decided to do a Photo Mug for Nick’s mom (though, Nick implied that he’s thinking of keeping it for himself), and a handful of Single Page Calendars to gift all the grandparents and great-grandparents. I also decided to print off a few of my favourite personal photos from this past, and thought these 39¢ square photos were so cute (make sure to add the border for increased adorable factor)! Every single item I ordered was ready for me to pick up exactly 24 hours, and I even received a little convenient text alerting to me when my order was completed and ready for pick up! 
In the future, I did have my eye on this Express Photo Book that is also available in 24hrs, and may keep that in mind for a future quick gift. 


Anyways, if you're like me, and still shopping for a few last minute Christmas gifts with a personal touch to it, make sure to check out London Drugs' Photolab, and rest assured you can show up to Christmas dinner with a great gift for that special friend or family member. For more information and holiday ordering cutoffs, please clink this link/here for more information.


This sponsored blogpost was done in partnership with London Drugs, but contains opinions + thoughts that are completely my own.

Friday, July 12, 2019

moments at home

So wayyy back in March (I know…), Jordana of Jordana Baker Photography came to our house for the morning and essentially hung out with our family while taking photos of us in our element. I just absolutely love how nothing is staged and kind of shows what our life it really like behind our closed doors (though if you ask me... our door is more of a revolving door respectively speaking). The pictures are truly a depiction of our family dynamics right now – from Nick mostly in the kitchen, to Bennett basically being his little shadow and wanting to do everything his daddy is doing (his standing frame/learning tower was definitely a great investment and turned out to be the perfect birthday/Christmas gift last year). While Evanna is often found playing in the living room, her new found independence has caused her to be more social and want to participate in what the rest of us are doing over in the kitchen. So more often than not, she is also coming over into the kitchen and in the most adorable way, demanding that we pay attention to her (which we are happy to oblige). 

Our life is far from picture perfect, and yes, it does indeed possess many challenges that come with a medically fragile child. But we’ve accepted these circumstances a very long time ago and choose to find happiness in that. My life has more purpose that it ever has before, and while we've continued to experience many hard moments, it’s been filled with just as many blessings too.

While I’ve neglected to share these photos until now (more just due to pure procrastination and laziness), taking a moment to relive this day is exactly what I need right now. These images were taken during a calm and steady time and Evanna was just doing SO WELL both medically and developmentally. 
I’ve been kind of glossing over details in regards to Evanna’s postop recovery from her April California open heart surgery, and while we understood there would be some temporary regression, I guess I underestimated just how hard it would hit her… only to be magnified by the rhino/pneumonia episode that hit her last month when she was already in such a vulnerable position health wise. Truthfully life has been a bit of a whirlwind since April, and I’m just ready to get back to this place of health and stableness, as I wasn’t prepared for this to overtake our entire summer too. I know we’ll get there again, but just have to once again be patient with the process.



xo The Irvine Family