Christmas 2009

For the last few years my parents have wanted pictures of the kids to make into their christmas cards to send to people. They usually add a scripture to the front. 2 years ago was Esther dressed as an angel looking at a baby in a manger, last year was the 2 girls looking at a nativity scene (Eliza was actually chewing on one of the sheep) and this is this years attempt - Esther as Mary, Eliza as the Angel Gabriel! It was a nightmare to take and I still can't believe we got a half decent one, Eliza did not want to be in a picture at all and just kept shouting 'no, no, no!' She really knows what she wants that one. I never get round to sending Christmas cards so please accept this as my Christmas Greetings! Now to get the decorations up...

Out of the mouths of babes...

Whilst we were waiting at the doctors for my vaccine, we had to wait in a room with everyone else who was having it too. It was really quiet apart from my 2 kids running around and there were loads of men waiting, one with a long beard - Eliza kept pointing and saying 'Jesus, Jesus'! I don't think he heard but I was cracking up!

Vaccinated!

I had the swine flu vaccine today. I had decided to have it then when I got to the doctors I almost chickened out - it took me an hour at the doctors to finally get it! Hopefully the doctors know what they are talking about and I will be fine! SO thanks for all those who gave advice!

To get or not to get...

I'm booked in to get my swine flu vaccination on Friday. My mum is really against me having it and I know quite a few people who tell me I shouldn't get it but I was going to get it anyway since the statistic says pregnant women are 10 times more likely to end up in Intensive Care if they get it. Anyone got an opinion either way?

Well at least she didn't lie...

The girls were in the kitchen today and I was elsewhere - I heard Eliza start to cry, really cry so I went through and asked Esther what had happened and she said 'I slapped her'!!! I was stuck between being really cross but slighty amused at how she had just come out with her crime like it was certainly a normal thing to do. I think we haven't been out enough today and the kids were going a bit stir crazy. On the positive side I got a lot done and our tiles for our kitchen floor arrived! Now I just have to find somewhere to stash them until January...

The big 3-0!

On Saturday I made it to the ripe old age of 30! We came up to spend the weekend at my parents and were there until today when we finally made it home a day late. Ben got ill on the Friday and has been ill ever since. He is a bit better today - enough to drive us back home - but there is just no cure for man flu is there?? ha ha, good job he doesn't read this!
So my big day consisted of homemade waffles a-la-mama for breakfast, my best friend Rachel came over to spend the day, we went out to some nice local village for a walk around and played some games in the afternoon. In the evening I was supposed to be going out to a super nice restaurant for dinner with Ben but ended up at some restaurant with Rachel instead since Ben felt too bad to go out! It was a good day though despite Ben being under the weather.
We went out to the seaside whilst we were up there and to some great parks, I finished off my Christmas shopping for Ben, Esther and Eliza too - I've never been so prepared - I just need to figure out where to hide all the stuff!!
Esther especially was sad to come home! I had to list off all the great things we would be doing in the next few weeks that we couldn't do if we stayed up at Grandma and Grandpa's house and that made her feel better.
So all in all, 30 is actually a great number and it kinda feels nice to be there (not sure I'll feel the same way at 40...).

It's a ....

GIRL!!! We had our scan today - well I had the scan by myself - Ben couldn't go and kids aren't allowed so it was actually pretty nice and relaxed to be there by myself! Ben has always said we will have all girls and so far he is 100% accurate! Now to choose a name!

Need.....more......sleeeeeeeppppp............

Eliza decided it would be fun to be awake between the hours of 1 and 5am. She was keeping everyone awake with her crying and then everyone awake with her jabbering when we brought her into our bed. She is usually really good at going straight back down if she cries in the night, just has a cuddle and she is fine but for some reason she was crying louder than ever last night. Esther was crying because Eliza was crying so much so at about 3.30am I sent Ben to sleep in Esther's bed and brought both girls into our bed. I thought Ben could then get some sleep at least and maybe us girls could all sleep in a bit without being disturbed. I was sure Eliza had worn herself out with all that crying but no she was rolling around jabbering till at least 5am. My patience had worn very, very, very thin by then and it was hard to not scream 'beeeeeee qquuuiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeetttttt!'. Then she woke us up at 7.30! The cheek of it! Luckily it's our 'take it easy' day when we don't 'need' to be anywhere and I am planning on taking full advantage of that fact!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day by the way!

The pumpkins!

When Ben's brother and sis-in-law came to visit we had a pumpkin carving competition though no-one has been crowned yet. The first one is Matt's, he also carved the word 'Beware' in the back but I forgot to take a picture of it: Here is Ben's Storm Trooper, it looked really great, especially from a distance:

This is Esther's - she drew the face then Uncle Dan carved it out for her:

This is Kerri's fab haunted house:

Finally this is my poorly vomitting pumpkin:

Pretty good selection eh?

Halloween

We had a 'trunk or treat' activity at church for Halloween (basically you decorate your car boot and the kids come round and collect sweets from each car!). This is the benefits of having a ward with plenty of Americans! All my English friends had no clue what I was on about when I told them what we were doing! We decorated our boot as a fishing stop and had a big blue blanket decorated with fish, seaweed etc and we had fishing rods for the kids to fish for their treat. My brother-in-law Daniel was hidden in the boot dishing out the goodies! We took our neighbours little girl and all the kids seemed to have a great - who wouldn't with a bucket full of treats! Esther was Pippi Longstocking and you can probably tell her outfit was very basic and whipped up in about 20 minutes (including cutting my finger with a pair of scissors, I nearly cut a chunk off but it is healing pretty well!) Eliza is a little witch - she wore some dress up clothes we already had.The 3 kids ready to go!Eliza was very happy with her outfit!
When we got back from the church activity our neighbours took Esther out trick or treating around our little estate. They came back early than expected after both the girls were scared by some people dressed up in one of the houses. Esther then was scared and couldn't sleep for quite a while and ended up spending the entire time in our bed. Lesson learnt for next year -stick with the church activity and have done! No scary trick or treating! I should have know better to be honest, she was always scared of the people who came round trick or treating previous years. Nevermind!

The cake...in detail!!

Here she is! The cake fresh from the oven - I was amazed it came out all in one piece! So I started decorating the cake just like the picture that came with the tin and when I had just got a bit further on Ben reckoned it would look better if the icing with smooth so smooth it became!!! If only he had suggested it in the first place it would have saved me a lot of time!

I didn't know what to do with her face and arms so I just left her as Barbie with a great tan.

It tasted good and the kids liked it so all in all a success!

Dramas of a 4 year old

Esther has had quite the day today. I washed her piggy whilst she was at playgroup, that set her off in tears for at least 45 minutes. Later she 'patted' Eliza on the head with one of her play shoes so I took them away for a while. More tears. Then at bath time I washed her hair first instead of Eliza. Too much to handle - 'This is my worst time in my life. First you washed my piggy and I liked it dirty and now you washed my hair and I didn't want it washed!' I suppose it's good to know that her life hasn't been any worse than that!!

I just noticed this is my 100th post!!