The Chapman Family

4 Years Old!

2011-10-02T15:27:00.007+01:00

A few days after the party it was Abby's birthday. Again it was a week day so David was at work, this meant that the day should have been a normal one! However, half way through the morning we realised that David had all the keys to the house and as per usual he had locked the door. I couldn't get hold of him so we just had to get on with the day and hope for the best. Maureen came over to take my mum out for coffee so she had to climb out the dining room window! It was quite a sight to see :)

Since it was Abby's birthday she picked the meals so for lunch we had Mac and Cheese. I don't remember now if it was before or after lunch but Rachael came round to see if we wanted to go to the park with her, Lewis, Libby and Leo but I explained the problems about being locked in! So she offered to take the girls so they also climbed out the window and climbed back in later.

While my mum was out for coffee they went by the school and picked up a set of keys from David. Once she was home Abby and her Grannie had fun doing a sticker book together while the younger sisters took naps. Once David was home we opened, cards and presents. Her birthday dinner choice was fajitas followed by ice-cream and fruit.

Abby got a pop-up paddling pool, pots and pans set, playmobil, book and a cut and make baguette set. I think she had a fun day.

Abigail Faith is polite, loving, very compassionate, sooo intelligent and helpful. She loves bible class and learning. Abby is learning to write letters and numbers and she is even beginning to read. Her smile can light up your day and her laugh is infectious. Often times she will do or say something and will just cracker herself up. A lot of her day now is spent role playing rather than specific toys. She can dress herself and helps with her sisters coats and shoes, helps out in the kitchen and enjoys taking on more and more responsibilities. Her favourite - colour is red, food mac and cheese or spaghetti, TV shows; Dora, Everything's Rosie, Octonauts, Nina and the Neurons, Treat ice cream and chocolate, anything sparkly and girly and to be involved in everything! Dislikes - cooked carrots, loud noises, to see people upset.

Abigail you are growing up so fast and we love the beautiful girl that we see in you. You are dear to our hearts and we will always love you.

Birthday Lunch

2 peas in a pod!

Excited for presents

Playmobil fun, fun , fun

Her sister helped open the boxes

Sleeping in the paddling pool

Playing together

Newborn

One Year old

Two Years Old

Three Years Old

Four Years Old

Girls party

2011-09-24T23:24:00.004+01:00

With the girls birthdays only being a week apart in June we combined their parties on the Saturday in between the actual birthdays.

Of course it was Dora and Diego themed So we had plates, cups, napkins with the theme. The menu was pizza, potato smiles and stars, fruits and cake.

The guest list: Grannie, Uncle John Anthony, Auntie Kristen, Brennan, Jonathan, Russell, Rachael, Lewis, Libby, Leo, JR, Dashia, Gideon, Naomi, Grandpa Michael, Grandma Maureen, Rachel, Emily, Uncle Nathan, Aunt Stacey and Kellan.

It was a bit showery and windy but we had a fun day. Firstly as people started to arrive I was told to come to the door to help with something......... When I looked out I was surprised to see Nathan, Stacey and Kellan! Although Abby wanted to invite them we told her that they wouldn't be able to come all this way for the party. They had planned this trip back and kept it a surprise so it was wonderful to have them here and be able to share our celebrations with them. It was especially great for them to meet AJ and Aleah and it was wonderful to see Kellan again as when they left he was a toddler and now he is a little boy!

The kids played, we ate, had cake went to the park and field just outside our house and then let the girls open some presents. We were having so much fun that we ended up eat leftover pizza for dinner! The girls had a terrific day and we are so thankful to our friends and family for making the day special.

ONE of the worst cousins shot

The best picture of the cousins

Anna Jane Grace is 2 Years Old

2011-08-25T00:24:00.004+01:00

Anna Jane's birthday is the first between the girls so we decorated with some balloons and banners. We had it all decorated for when she got up in the morning. It was a relatively normal morning. I let her pick what she wanted for lunch so we had grilled cheese, pickles and fruit. Shortly following lunch it was nap time and we planned to give her cards and presents afterwards so that David would be home. Unfortunately almost all of the presents we bought her did not make it that day. She did have a few to open though from her Grannie and Abby. Grannie gave her a new book and a playmobil set and Abby gave her a Diego magnet book. She woke a bit earlier than usual and David hadn't gotten home yet so I distracted them upstairs till he arrived. We headed into the livingroom where her cards and presents were laid out on a chair. She had fun opening them and was glad to have some new toys that were hers! Her dinner choice was lasagna and peppers/salad which we all enjoyed followed by watermelon. Since we were going to have cake later on the party day I didn't want to have it over again and again so we had ice cream and I put a candle and mini sparkler in it. Anna Jane just though that was the greatest thing ever. The next day the other gifts arrived so we did another present opening. She loved her new toys. We gave her a small doll pram which she called a “pramer” and Aleah gave her a set of pompoms.

Our baby is 2! She is incredible, so funny she makes us laugh all the time with her expressions, statements and actions. She is so creative and imaginative, she will hold her hands up by her face and wiggle her little fingers, then say “claws, snap you up”. Loves playing with Dora toys, dolls, playmobil, kitchens, bouncing, but most of all she loves books. She will cuddle up with you and a book every chance she gets. Her special toy is Bunny and she snuggles with him to sleep and on car journey's. Her favourite - colour is blue, fruit is watermelon, vegetable broccoli/corn/green beans/pickles/peppers (pretty much anything vegetable actually), TV show Dora and Diego, treat cake and chocolate. Dislikes – chicken (unless hidden in her food) :) having to leave the play park. She is adventurous and brave while being loving and generous. She adores her sisters and often almost kills them with kindness or tackle cuddles!

Physically she has light brown hair and green/blue eyes. She is wearing 2-3 year old clothes and size 6 shoes, still has 4 back molars to come through and has a cute smile.

We are so proud of her and love her more than we can say. She is such a blessing to our family.

Anna Jane Grace we love you, happy 2^nd birthday.

Birth

One Year
Picture to follow, once we find it!

Two Years

Busy month

2011-08-23T21:09:00.002+01:00

June is always a busy month for us as the beginning of the month is our anniversary and the end of the month is two of the girls birthdays. It is also the wind up to the school summer holidays.

As usual our anniversary was upon us before we knew it and as we were hosting 2 campaigners again this year we had a low key celebration. We fed the girls some leftovers for dinner and once they were in bed we ordered Chinese and watched Blindside, an amazing movie which I recommend everyone watching. It was a relaxing evening and it was nice to take a break from the kitchen. That was our 6th Anniversary. As per usual we didn't think about taking pictures.

May's highlights

2011-08-15T15:27:00.006+01:00

May found us in Stirling again as David was preaching in East Kilbride one of the Sunday's and it was easier and quicker to get there from my mum's house. We had a great Sunday with our brothers and sisters in E.K. The girls got to see their cousins as it was JA's birthday and so they came down so we could celebrate it together.

Dressed and ready for Church

Aleah has a new trick. Sitting up in her bouncer chair

CHOCOLATE! Every one's favourite

Choc Chip Cookies fresh from the oven, yum

Making funny faces

This is how we always look

Meal times are getting a messy affair

Aleah loves her station

Since our fence blew down it broke my washing line and once the fence was fixed I was so excited to be able to hang out washing again. So I had a DIY day and put up the new line as well as putting a new bolt and hook on the gate all by myself. I must admit to feeling a bit proud!

First ice cream experience.

Trying to get a nice shot of the girls. This was the best we got.

I was working so hard to get Aleah to smile, her sisters were cracking up. This picture makes me smile. I love Aleah's Elvis!

Almost perfect but AJ was fast losing interest.

Our Birthdays and Easter

2011-08-05T11:47:00.010+01:00

David's birthday was in February and mine is in March. We celebrated David's birthday twice, once while visiting family at the start of the month and then again on his birthday when we were home.

For my birthday it started as a normal day - kids, meals, laundry, cleaning. Then while I was upstairs dealing with clothes and laundry I thought "wouldn't it be funny if I looked out the window and saw my mum coming in" and guess what, I did! David had arrange it as a surprise. Not only my mum but Kristen and the boys, JA would meet us at the Red House for dinner later. We had a reasonable meal considering we had 5 small children with us. Upon returning home we had a wonderful mars cheese cake made by Kristen.

This year we have tried to make sure that we are all together as much as possible for any family occasions since these are the first ones without Dad.

Easter came around and we decided to do our egg hunt on Saturday so we could pick the time of day and be relaxed with it. The girls had great fun finding the eggs and other treats that we hid around the garden even though half our fence was lying on the ground as the wind had snapped the posts a few weeks before. They had just found the last treat when it started to rain so it was perfect timing. Then on the Sunday we had a wonderful Sunday lunch at the home of Michael and Maureen. Their kids and grand kids were there so it was a full house and with 3 young babies they all took turns napping in the pram. After lunch and play time the kids all had another egg hunt. So all in all it was a fun Easter. Also over the Easter break we had JA, Kristen and the boys came to stay for a “sleep over” and as always we had a great time together.

The last big event was David's return to work after the Easter break. It wasn't too bad and I counted down the last 8 weeks before the summer break.

Oh, I guess there was one more event before the summer. David had a couple of days off to take so we used one so he could have a long weekend. We headed down to stay with my mum again as David was preaching at East Kilbride. During our time down it was JA's birthday so again we all gathered for support and to celebrate his day.

Of course I have included more pictures of the girls.

Okay, I loaded the pictures backwards but there is far to many to change it so the first pictures are actually towards the end of the time.

Relaxing in front of the TV after a busy day.

Playing in the field outside the front of our house

At Aden Park

Picnic time

This kid is such a hoot!

The girls all love each other so much

Fun with Lewis and Libby on Easter Sunday

Emily and Aleah

Girls finding Easter surprises

Egg Hunt

1st "solid" food, baby rice

Good Hair Day

I went to get her for her bath and found this....

AJ called me over and told me she had drawn a tree!

Cutie pie

Face painting from the grand opening of the new park

We put new flooring in the dining room and since all the furniture was out we emptied the ball pit balls into the room and latterly put up their tents and tunnel.

Sick day. We were all ill and had very sore throats so I gave the girls lolly pops to keep their throats moist. They never usually have them.

Watching a movie on our sick day

Cousin Brennan's 5th Birthday party

When we eat strawberries we do strawberry tongues!

I walked in to see this........

At the Red House for my birthday dinner

Abby's first washing up experience

Having cupcakes at the indoor playroom

Our smiley Aleah

Chocolate girl!

"Cheeeeeeeese"

Princesses

Valleys and Mountains in February

2011-08-01T22:10:00.012+01:00

Following the Christmas holidays David took his 2 weeks paternity leave in January. He returned to work mid January and was back for a few weeks when our first "Valley" hit.

David was really struggling and was signed off work for stress. The "Mountain" came in that I had help at home with the kids and we were able to make a trip down to visit my mum in February. We also took a day trip to Aberdeen with the kids. Since it was still winter we went to Union Square mall and had fun looking round the shops, having snacks and the kids went on a few of the ride-ons.

While we were there Abby noticed those bungee trampolines and insisted that she wanted to have a turn. We didn't think she would be old enough as there was an age restriction but after queuing for ages we discovered that the age limit was 3 years. She is usually really scared by things like that but was adamant that she wanted to do it, we checked with her several times as it was non refundable, finally it was her turn and she went on and loved it. She wanted to keep going back on. We ate at Pizza Hut, since kids eat free!, and all headed home that night very tired.

These were just little things to try and brighten a difficult time. I too was advised to start my anti-depressants again as a precaution. Aleah was diagnosed with silent reflux and started on medicine for that. So it was a difficult time.

At the end of the month we celebrated my Grandad's 91st birthday and came back to mums for that. We had a lunch out at one of our family's favourite restaurants and then back to the house for presents and cake. It was a good day and John Anthony and his family were there also. We always enjoy being together although it was very strange to not have my dad with us. It is at times like these that it is more of a struggle dealing with the loss.

Spider slide in Stirling Mall

Abby had a bad fall but was healed with plasters and photos.

Dada and his girls on his birthday

Playdough cakes that she made

AJ loves her Chocolate. This is how it usually ends

A little craft time

Our smiley girl

Love this picture even though its fuzzy

January 2011: New Park

2011-07-26T22:55:00.004+01:00

After we got home from being away for Christmas and New Year we had a Christmas package waiting for us at home. The girls got these hair bows which they always love.

The other exciting development this month was that the play park right beside our house was usable. It is not completely finished as you can see there is a lot of landscaping to finish but the kids could finally swing!

Its a great park. The girls love it.

One picture

2011-06-21T22:46:00.005+01:00

Here is one picture just to let you see how the girls are doing. It was taken in May.

More to follow

2011-06-21T22:42:00.002+01:00

It has been too long since we posted but I am afraid that you will have to wait a bit longer. Summer Vacation starts in 2 weeks and I plan on updating then. Just hang in there, know that we are well just busy, busy, busy.

Christmas 2010 pictures

2011-03-25T21:11:00.009Z

Table set Christmas Eve, ready for the big meal

Christmas Morning, before the kids descend

Trying to keep the kids amused while waiting for Great Grandad

Finally present time!

Stockings first

I think she was REALLY excited about something

It must have been the apple

A new housecoat

Apple break

Doctor coat from her sisters

Ice-cream set from her sisters

Playmobil House from Grannie

AJ's playmobil house

Shared gift (Dora of course)

"Rescue pack, comin to the rescue"

New dresses from Great Grandma and Grandad

Beautiful picture, Face of an angel?

Great Grannie meeting her ninth great grandchild

3 Cuties

AJ's first corn on the cob experience

Story time

Lots of cuddling

More cuddling

Second Christmas. The kids got nano bugs for Christmas

They are so cool

Little Miss Christmas

Christmas 2010

2011-03-22T23:36:00.003Z

Okay so I know this is very late in coming but life with 3 kids is crazy and it has taken me awhile to be able to process it all. In the run up to Christmas David's Dad came over from AZ to be with us. He was with us about a week before we loaded up headed to my Mum's place for Christmas and New Year. It was quite a stressful journey, with two excited, young kids and a 3 week old! The weather made the journey all the more difficult; the snow was unbelievable. The other problem was that I started to feel unwell on the road down and for most of the journey I was fevered. After feel unwell the next day, not being able to swallow saliva and noticing some nasty looking stuff at the back of my throat, I thought it best to see a doctor. So, on Christmas Eve, I saw a GP and was given antibiotics for tonsillitis. Thankfully they worked quickly and I was on the road to recovery, so I could enjoy all the Christmas fair!

David's brother Daniel joined us on Christmas eve. The girls were so excited, mostly Abby, with AJ feeding off of her sister's excitement. They went to bed without much trouble and they didn't wake up too early on Christmas day. Some of us, however, didn't get much sleep at all after playing Santa and preparing food for Christmas dinner. After having some breakfast and waiting for Great Grandad to be picked up, we headed into the living room. Abby went straight for the nearest present, which was not hers. As usual we started with stockings. Both girls were most excited about the apple and orange at the bottom. AJ couldn't wait and started eating her apple immediately. She got very upset if she couldn't find it. While they looked at their stuff the adults took turns doing their stockings. Then the real fun began as the girls started opening gifts. Abby was just excited to unwrap and wanted to go from one gift to the next. AJ struggled to keep up. They really loved all their gifts. Abby's big gift was a balance bike and AJ got a Diego Mega Blocks set. Aleah is going to get a special Teddy bear, when we find “the one”. I got a wormery compost unit and David a Kindle.

Then it was up to mum and me to cook Christmas dinner. I had always been really excited at the prospect of doing this but as the time drew near I became more nervous. If it hadn't been for my mum being there to help I don't think I could have done it. Even if I say so myself, it all turned out delicious and only 45 mins later than we had planned!

As much as we all enjoyed our Christmas, with the joy that young children bring, it must be said that it was the hardest Christmas that I/we have ever experienced. The reason being, of course, that my dad was not with us having died in October. What made it particularly difficult was the joy that my dad had at Christmas; he just loved it. Not just the gifts but the time spent together, the foods and treats, “candle light suppers” (family joke), movies, the Queen's Speech and extra-special meals around the table. He loved all of it, with one exception; putting lights on the Christmas tree! :) My dad loved all “holidays” and liked to make each one special – Rolling eggs down Arthurs Seat, making costumes, carving pumpkins. He became like a kid again and made the magic of each holiday shine for me. My dad always cooked the Christmas and boxing day dinners. The one thing I never really appreciated until I had to do it was the timing and preparations that it involves. I am so thankful that several years ago my dad wrote detailed instructions on making Christmas dinner for the guys (in the HOPE that they would carry on the tradition of the man cooking these meals). There was just a constant feeling of something missing, of not being complete. I know my mum felt the same. I could see it in her eyes. It pains me still to think of that. I always thought it corny when they would say things in movies like “you made their eyes come alive again” or “you brought the sparkle/laughter back to their eyes” but now I only hope and pray that the same will be true for my mum someday. My brother and his family spent Christmas in the States with his in-laws. We had a hard time without them there, but we got through it.

After an exhausting day we were all glad to get to bed that night. Daniel travelled home on Christmas day and David's dad left to return home on the 27^th.

New Year was a quiet affair. Mum went out to the Church hogmany party but we stayed at her house to put the kids to bed. She came home before the bells and we had crackers, cheese, etc.. We saw in the new year together and watched the fireworks at Stirling Castle from the upstairs hall window. JA and family arrived home a couple of days later and we had a second Christmas with them. Which meant another late night and more excitement as the kids awoke to another morning of presents. We also had a repeat Christmas dinner, although it was just leftover turkey this time. The kids as always loved being together and were even more excited to have their Grannie with them. They all love their Grannie so much. We look forward to all being together again soon and I hope that Christmases get easier and the sparkle comes back to them.

I will put the pictures and videos in a separate post as this one is long enough!

Welcome Aleah Hope

2011-01-02T22:58:00.007Z

Okay so I know she is already 5 weeks old today but I am a bit behind with the blogging.

So I was due 10th December but one snowy night............

Best go back to the beginning. From about 37 weeks I started contracting on and off and then I started to have some show since I had a midwife appointment in a week or so I didn't bother speaking to any midwife. David had a parents night on the Thursday so Kirsten came through to spend the day with me and she and the boys stayed the night. They went home on the Friday with plans to return on the Sunday afternoon, we were going to watch the boys for them on Sunday night. Monday rolled around and I had my appointment so JA and Kristen watched the kids so David and I could both go. My check up was good but after telling my midwife about the contraction, show and based on my history (early, fast labours) she gave me an internal. I was about 3-4 cms dilated and the head was VERY well down. Based on that information, JA and family stayed with us for an extra night until my mum could come up, she was going to be up on Wednesday for Thanksgiving so came a day early. My mum had planned to leave us on the Thursday or Friday but our heavy snow arrived and she ended up being stuck with us. All the time I was contracting on and off but they never got regular or intense so the week went on. We made it to Saturday night with no baby still, the snow was falling and driving was getting worse and worse but all seemed calm so we went to bed..........

Something woke me from my sleep between 3 - 3:30 am. The next thing I feel a flow of fluid, I realise either my waters broke or I wet myself. I wake David up and tell him and send him to call the hospital while I tell mum we are underway and get myself some dry clothes to wear. So far I have not felt much in the way of contractions. We head out the door and by the time we get to the car I have a a few strong contractions. With all the snow it took a minute or 2 to get the car out of our street my contractions getting worse all the way there. We make it and I get checked over, it was probably close to 4 am by the time the midwife examined me and I was about 5 cms dilated. The contractions continued and at 5 am our baby was born and David told me we had a little girl. So my 3rd labour was about 1 hour 30 mins give or take. I only used my TENS machine so had a natural labour and delivery and again I say to any and all they are fantastic certainly worth using in labour.

She was born Sunday 28th November 2010, 0500 hrs, our heaviest baby at 7lbs 4oz.

It took us several days to decide on her name and spelling but we finally agreed on Aleah Hope Chapman. She is beautiful and her sisters love her.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-30T23:57:00.002Z

For thanksgiving this year we were thankful just to be able to be together! There were 2 things conspiring against us. Firstly the big snow hit a day or 2 before the 25th making any travelling either impossible or very slow and dangerous. Secondly I was a ticking time bomb having been checked by the midwife earlier in the week and told that I was already 3-4 cms dilated and contracting on and off the whole week.

Despite all these things we headed off on Thursday to Aberdeen to gather at Russell, Rachael, Lewis and Libby house. John A, Kristen, Brennan, Jonty and mum were invited also. We all contributed to the meal which was magnificent but in my pregnant state I was not able to eat as much as I wanted to! The kids had fun playing together but, as is always the case, they were tired out. I had some strong contractions and we almost thought the evening would end with a trip to the hospital, but everything settled and we decided it was safe to travel home. We didn't get to stay as long as we wanted, the time past so quickly and the weather was against us so we headed for home. It was a slow journey home and we put the kids straight into their PJ's and into bed when we got home.

I am sorry to say that we did not take any pictures of our night. I don't remember if we forgot the camera or were just to lazy to get it out but this will have to be a picture less post.

Tribute

2010-12-29T21:57:00.007Z

As most of you know my dad died on October 6th. He had been living with cancer for about 4 years and had done extremely well during most of that time. In the early part of this year he began to suffer from lymphodema in one of his legs and by the end of the spring it had begun to affect his other leg. It got to the point that the entire lower half of this body was swollen. This caused him considerable discomfort and greatly reduced his mobility which in turn led to muscle wastage. There was nothing that could be done medically to alleviate the problem. Though the weakening of his body seemed a slow process the end of his life on earth came quickly. He was bedridden on the Tuesday (5th) and died on the Wednesday. This occurred in the final week before David was due his 2 week October break which meant that when we arrived in Stirling on that Wednesday we were able to stay for almost 3 weeks. My brother and his family were also able to be with us for about the same time. The funeral took place on the Saturday (9th) and it was beautiful, a real celebration of his life and the victory he gained in going to be with the Lord. We were amazed at the number of people that attended the funeral and reception and we were so thankful for their support. The congregation at Stirling held a service/tribute to my Dad on the Sunday, which was again very thoughtful and appreciated. We would also like to mention and thank Mitch, Isobel, Dick and Anne. Their help and friendship made this difficult time more bearable.

We also celebrated my Mum's birthday on the Sunday (10th); we had a meal together at a restaurant and later the kids helped to decorate a birthday cake for her.

After things had calmed down we decided we all needed a fun, family distraction and so planned a day out to the Sea Life aquarium at Loch Lomond. We ALL went - Grandad, Mum, JA, Kristen, Brennan, Jonty, David, Me, Abby and AJ. It was a great outing and though the kids were exhausted we made lots of fun memories and had some retail therapy in the gift shop.

Mum's birthday

Our family outing

All the family are doing reasonably well despite it being an obviously difficult time. We are happy for my Dad knowing he had made it home and claimed his reward but we also feel the loss of a great Christian gentleman, husband, father and grandfather. There are times when it still doesn't seem real and I wonder where he is or when he will walk through the door. So many times I think I will just call him and seek some wisdom on a task or problem, only to remember that fountain of knowledge is no longer there. Dad I love you and know I will see you again someday.

Video's

2010-09-20T21:55:00.003+01:00

Here is a video of AJ and Abby

Abby driving

More video's soon......

Our Summer

2010-09-07T15:05:00.007+01:00

Well, what else did we do with our summer?

We visited my parents twice while David was off. The first time we went down we did a lot of running around. The highlight for Abby was her first train ride. We took the train to Glasgow for the day. It was exhausting - a pushchair, 2 toddlers, nappy bag, backpack, and a pregnant belly! Abby loved it. We thought she would be a bit afraid on the underground but she loved how fast it went. We explored one of the museums for a while and had lunch there before heading back to Grannie and Grandads house. Abby and I also attended my one of my Aunts 60th Birthday party. Abby had a blast staying up late and dancing the night away.

We also spent a lot of time visiting my brother and his family in Aberdeen. Abby LOVES her cousins and AJ enjoys seeing all the "big" kids playing, she is already at the point where she is desperate to join in. We stayed with them on 2 different occasions. The 2nd time was so that we could all take turns attending a lecture series organised by Aberdeen CoC given by John Clayton. Kristen, David and I took turns staying at home with the kids. We all enjoyed some kid free time.

We got a few of those wee jobs done around the house. We went out to a park or two. Mostly we just enjoyed all being together.

The other big activity we got to do was a trip to the Safari Park near my parents home. Other than fighting away the swarms of wasps that were everywhere the kids had fun and we were all exhausted from a fun filled day.

On the train.....

Dancing the night away....

We borrowed their cousins rain jackets as the girls did not have any at the time

Just having fun acting goofy...

At one of our favourite parks.....

Plant the little seeds.......

All in a row.....

Cover them up....

and God will make them grow......

I'll try and up load some video soon but it always takes so long.

4th July BBQ (Still catching up)

2010-08-29T22:10:00.003+01:00

We had a great time at the 4th of July BBQ. We were invited once again to Russell and Rachael's to celebrate with them. Since the 4th was a Sunday the BBQ was on the Saturday. As always there was good food and fellowship. The girls looked adorable in their patriotic dresses and the day was dry with some sunshine.

After several attempts to get a cute picture of the girls we gave up and this was the best we could do.

We had bought and filled a pinata for Abby's birthday and then forgot to use it at her party so we took it with us to the BBQ. The kids had a great time trying to break it and the adults stood back and enjoyed the show.

We tried to get a picture of all the dual national kids. Again tired kids and photography sessions just don't mix. Here are the 2 best shots we got.

Can't wait until next year....

Our Anniversary

2010-08-10T21:35:00.004+01:00

This really should have come before the girls birthday's but since we didn't get to celebrate it till a few weeks ago I guess this order is better.

There is not a lot to say about it, even though it was our 5th anniversary. We could not celebrate at the time as not only were we babysitter less but we were in the middle of a campaign. So we decided to postpone it until a more convenient time.

Time marched on and we finally went out for dinner together a few weeks ago. We have decided that our funds for anniversary gifts would go towards getting a patio in our garden.

Well all that remains is to share with you that these 5 years have been the best of my life. They have gone by so quickly but just as quickly my love has sored for my wonderful husband. I can not begin to tell you how thankful I am that God brought this godly man into my life. He is never too busy to do anything for me from getting me a drink or snack to bending over backwards to help me with the girls. He is great with our children and loves spending time with them. Despite the fact that he doesn't share my need to have a clean and tidy house he does his best to help me. His thoughtfulness amazes me daily. I would say that compared to some we have had a reasonably smooth 5 years, we went into our marriage with our eyes open, having prepared as much as you can through books and premarital counselling, I don't think we would have done so well had it not been for that preparation. I can't imagine two more compatible people, even in our differences we seem to compliment each other beautiful. Everyday I grow more proud of the man that my husband has and is becoming. He is the man of my dreams but better yet the man of my prayers! David Rodney Chapman in front of those reading this - I LOVE YOU!

Abby's Birthday

2010-08-08T22:22:00.008+01:00

At last I am getting to Abby's birthday. Okay so it was over a month ago - I'm pregnant with number 3 so I think I deserve a break :)

We celebrated the weekend after AJ's party. We had family and friends for a small party over a lunch time. Abby picked the party foods - Hotdogs, jam sandwiches, cream cheese sandwiches, crisps, chocolate. I decided that we should also have sausages and some grown up sandwiches as well as some fruit. She picked the paper plates and other tableware, red and some ladybirds (red has become her favourite colour). We decided that instead of having a big cake we would do cupcakes which you will see in the pictures. After the food the kids enjoyed playing and Abby opened her gifts (again we kept a few back for her actual birthday). It was a fun day and we had good weather so the kids spent some time in the garden. She really enjoyed her day.

So what is 3 year old Abby up to:
She communicates beautifully, almost too well
She can count up to about 40 but can get to 100 with a few prompts
She loves books and colouring and does a great job at tracing over letters, numbers, shapes, etc.
She loves being in the garden and taking walks. Loves to try and help with the gardening.
Sill loves parks and the beach
Wants to ride the Ferris wheel at Aberdeen fun beach
Loves baking and cooking
Loves crafting about anything I can think of to do
Loves to spend time with her family
Is great at sharing
Can dress and undress herself from the waste down
Eats well and a wide variety of foods
Favourite CD's Steven Curtis Chapman - Beauty will rise and Cindy Lauper - Seven deadly sins
Loves all things Dora and Diego
Watches on TV - Something Special, Me Too and I can cook
Only movies she has seen Mary Poppins and Ice Age
Has an amazing memory
Has a great knowledge of the beginning of the Bible - Adam and Eve through to Jacob. We are in the midst of Joseph at the moment.
Has a basic understanding of death/heaven
Loves to make AJ laugh
Is a wonderful helper
Usually sleeps great at night and still enjoys a quiet time every day
Has just informed us she wants to be a Doctor!
Has become little Miss Independent, wanting to do everything for herself
Is quite skilled in using a knife as well as her fork
Has good manners, most of the time
Loves singing
Can be trusted to amuse herself without getting into trouble
This list is endless so I will have to stop there. Needless to say we are SO PROUD of our girl and her achievements.

Abigail Faith:

Birth

One Year

Two Years

Big THREE
Party time. Enjoying the food

The Cupcakes - they are supposed to look like ice-cream cones.

Small cake so we could blow out the candles and have a cake fountain (like a small roman candle firework)
Blow....
AJ's reaction when she thought she wasn't getting a cupcake

That's better

Great faces...

Opening presents

Dora fairy dress up

Her first costume

Balloon fights (only boys)

If only I knew you could propagate them in this way!

Relaxing at the end of the day

Updates

2010-08-08T15:36:00.002+01:00

We interrupt these attempted updates to bring you, well another update :)

We had our 20 week scan a week or so ago and since we have family who are wanting to see the pictures I thought I had better just get them on here.

They scan went well and it was noted how much of a camera ham this baby is. Everything looks good we were able to see the 4 chambers of the heart working away. We saw the baby yawning and swallowing. Kicking like mad, which I am now feeling and David has also felt some movements. All measurements and organs are as they should be and the placenta is in a good location. It is always amazing to get a glimpse of all the activity that is going on in there, hidden from our eyes. Enjoy the pictures.

Forgot

2010-08-01T15:35:00.003+01:00

At AJ's party we made a painting for her. We did a similar idea for Abby's 1st birthday. Here is how it turned out.

AJ's First Birthday

2010-07-21T22:38:00.006+01:00

I know this is a very late post but I am trying to catch up on all the important events of the last month or so. We begin with Anna Jane's birthday.

We can't believe that she is one year old already. After a very difficult start due to reflux disease she finally settled down into a sweet and happy baby. We celebrated with family a few days before her actual birthday. Nothing to fancy just pizza and cake. She enjoyed opening her gifts and cards and was blessed with many great things.

She can take steps on her own but needs to hold a finger for confidence. Her vocabulary amazes us daily and has come out of nowhere. She can say:

Hi, toe, two, ten, quack, boo, Abby, dada/daddy, yummy, crawl, up, animal, bear, ball, baby, kick, clock, mama/mummy

She loves cuddles and being with her family. She gets so excited when she see the phone and repeats over and over "Hiya, hiya, hiya....." She has recently started to talk to people on the TV and seems puzzled when they don't reply to her cheery "HIYA". She still takes 2 naps a day and usually sleeps well through the night with her bunny and paci. Generally sleeping 11-12 hours. She loves fruit and will generally at least try any food put in front of her. She has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth and can eat about anything with them! She does a great job regulating her own intake. She loves music and dances at the slightest hint of a beat. Claps when ever anyone does a good job. Loves watching any animals when we are out walking. Has a great laugh and can make the cheekiest faces. She is very sociable unless tired. She doesn't like getting her teeth brushed or her nappy/diaper changed. She is a girl of extremes and can be happy and giggling one moment and suddenly erupt into a scream fest. She is a comedian and keeps us all laughing. AJ we love you, Happy 1st Birthday!

Anna Jane Grace

One of her big presents

The cake

We kept a few gifts back for her actual birthday.

Garden

2010-07-21T21:13:00.008+01:00

I have been meaning to post for quite some time about the garden that Abby and I have been working on. We started in the autumn of last year digging out a flower bed in which we put a few plants and lots of bulbs. Unfortunately the winter was so hard last year that most of the plants did not make it through. However, the first of our bulbs to show up was the snowdrops, followed by large white crocuses, small, multiple headed daffodil's, snakes heads and finally bright red tulips. It was a beautiful display. Abby and I also planted some vegetable and flower seeds. We planted basil, courgette, french beans, carrots and salad leaves. We had a great crop of salad leaves and I still am amazed at how wonderful FRESH leaves taste compared to even the freshest leaves from the stores. We are still waiting on the carrots and the courgettes are coming, they have been very slow. The french beans have not been (no pun intended) so successful but I noticed a couple of beans on the very sorry looking plants. The basil has been fine and is such a strong flavour. I am hoping to do a bigger veg patch next year but we will see if I have time. We are also planning to put in a patio and more plants in the flower bed.

Some old BIG NEWS!

2010-07-20T14:58:00.003+01:00

Okay as most of you who are on FB will already know, God has sent us a surprise blessing! Yes we are already expecting child number three. We had talked about having more children but had certainly not intended to have another one this quickly. We found out after taking a pregnancy test in April. We told our immediate family after a few weeks but waited until after our 12 week scan to make the official announcement. We are due 10th December. When this one arrives Abby will be almost 3.5 years and AJ will be 17 months. It will be crazy and we are now looking at double buggy options. Bedrooms are not a problem, we had thought the girls would share when they got bigger anyway. That way we can keep our guest room, which we will need for all those willing helpers to come stay when this one arrives! Please pray for a healthy, happy, contented baby who sleeps and eats well and has NO reflux. I know it is asking a lot but I will have 3 children under 4 and need all the help I can get. Everything is going well in the pregnancy so far. I am due my 20 weeks scan a week tomorrow and have another midwife visit a week or 2 after that. I am passed the nausea and the tiredness has eased as much as it can when your growing and carrying a human being 24/7! This pregnancy has been a lot easier than the last 2 were. We are both thankful for that. We will keep you all updated on this wee one.

The picture is the 12 week scan. It is not as clear as our other ones but this baby was soooooo active during the whole scan!

April

2010-05-30T15:09:00.009+01:00

April was a busy but good month. It started with a visit from Abby's favourite cousins. We found them all on there little perches with books.

Reading a story together

Anna Jane finally progressed to a forward facing seat, since Abby was getting to big for her seat we bought her a new one and moved AJ to Abby's old one. I think AJ was glad and it has made travelling much easier.

This was our new Easter clothes for Easter Sunday. It took a while to get any pictures that would work! Here are the cream of the crop.

Courtesy of my parents we had a family holiday at Findhorn. We stayed in one of the eco houses. It was very comfortable and spacious. While we were there it was Brennan's birthday. The family all came to the holiday house to celebrate. Kristen planned a wonderful fun filled day for the kids. First on the cards was an Easter egg hunt.

Not quite sure what she was to do.

She caught on quick.

After the egg hunt the kids had their first pinata experience. They loved it. Abby started laughing so hard she could not stand up! It took some hitting but we finally got the goodies.

After we went inside the kids got to get more treats from the egg hunt.

Later we had presents and cake time. We enjoyed great food all day and everyone had a great time.

We bought a pocket kite while we were there. It took us a while to get it airborne but we enjoyed it. Abby wasn't that impressed, how times have changed.

Needless to say we visited LOTS of parks during our holiday.

On the way home we stopped in Cullen for ice-cream.

The week before we left on holiday we started potty training Abby, She did amazing. We were and are so proud of her. Just after we got back she completed her potty chart. She was basically potty trained within 2 weeks. We still have the odd accident but it is usually when she is having fun and doesn't want to stop. We keep telling her that it will all be there when she gets back. She is even mostly dry at night, although we haven't been brave enough to use pants at night yet.

So AJ was taking a nap and Abby was playing around, I was looking out the back window surveying our estate (ie back garden) and when I turned round I thought were has Abby gone? I was sure she had not left the room as the door was closed.

Then I saw some movement.....

.....Finally found her hiding place.

I had matching hats made for us. Here are the girls modeling theirs. I know, I know adorable

Here are all of us with our hats

We planted bulbs last Autumn and here is Abby showing the daffodils that are about to open.

We went down for a weekend visit to Grannie and Grandad's before they left for the US. The girls LOVED Grannie's new gliding chair.

Here we are heading for a walk to the local park.

Well I hope you enjoyed more of the catchup.

More random pics from Jan till March

2010-05-20T15:34:00.010+01:00

January 2010

Having a cuddle on the couch

Abby and I started doing some crafts together in the afternoon, while Anna Jane was taking her nap. It made a huge difference to her to have some one on one time.

Aren't they cute?!

Beginning to play together, whew :)

Wearing their big sister, little sister t-shirts

February 2010

They both love smoothie ice poles

Tea party with Dora's and Taggie Bear

First tandem swing

Dada's birthday!

We had a cake celebration at my parents a bit earlier. The kids made the cake.

March 2010

Working on her laptop with Grandad

Abby loves to write numbers and letters and she does a GREAT job.

They love being in the ball pit. Thanks to Uncle JA and Auntie Kristen for the gift.

Abby took these pictures all by herself. I was very impressed.

Just because they are too cute

More photos

2010-03-24T00:10:00.003Z

More Christmas fun 2009.

Some of the promised photo's

2010-03-22T20:41:00.009Z

OCTOBER

Abby moved into her big girl bed. She was so excited for her big girl room.

Comfort cuddle from Dada

Sweet outfit

Not too impressed with the bumbo

Halloween time. I love the faces Anna Jane was making

Abby went through a line everything up phase. Her she is trying to decide what snack to have.

NOVEMBER

Thanksgiving gift

Enjoying a cup of hot chocolate

One of the may cold that hit us this year

DECEMBER

Baking some Christmas treats

S'more bars

Christmas morning.

She was given a Dora outfit from her Great Grandma and Grandad, she loves it.

Too much

2010-03-21T14:43:00.004Z

WOW! where does the time go. I have been wanting to do a better job at updating this blog and especially keeping track of what the girls are up to. Obviously I have been doing a lousy job with both. I will try to hit some of the highlights, or lowlights!

October - One of the big issues that we have had to deal with is that I am suffering with postnatal depression. I was diagnosed in October last year and I am now much improved.
December - We had a great Christmas with my family. JA, Kristen and their boys as well as our family spent the holidays with my parents at their home. There was not much space and it took about 3 days to open all the gifts (I am not exaggerating!) We all hated to get back to our "normal" lives.

February - we celebrated David's birthday. We had a early celebration when we were, again, with my family so that David could attend a men's day. We had another small celebration at home on his birthday. Then at the end of February we were back with my family again as my Grandad turned 90! We had a great time together, as always.

This month we have been just as busy. The girls had a tummy bug and were vomiting, mostly over David! The washing machine was never empty and the whole house smelled of vomit and poop. I got a little bit of the bug as well but was not sick like the girls were. In the middle of the month we all got together in Aberdeen to not only celebrate my birthday and mothers day but an early celebration for my dad's birthday as well. After Church we went to the Homemade Hamburger restaurant for lunch (they were having a mothers eat free for mothers day). My dad had the great idea of the men taking the kids home for naps/quiet time and the 3 ladies got to look around the mall and have a coffee. Needless to say we had a blast and all got at least one new top. Then it was back to JA and Kristen's house were we had nibbles and birthday cake as well as presents. We got home and put the kids straight to bed, they were so tired.

Now that you have an idea of what we have been up to lets focus in on the girls.......

Abby is amazing! She is the best big sister in the world and loves to make her sister laugh. She helps me set the table for dinner and can get snacks for herself and Anna Jane if I ask her. She is also learning how to write letters and numbers and spends a great deal of her time doing this. Often times when I call her name I hear a sweet little reply from the other room "Yes, mama?". If I do something for her or even a few times after dinner she will often say "sanks mama". Other things that we are hearing a lot right now - "What were you saying just now?". When she is lying in her bed if she wants as to cuddle with her she says "come here you mama/dada" with laughter in her voice and arms outstretched. She loves to sing little songs and learns them so fast. At the moment the one that cracks us up is when see sings "IIIIII like you very much, IIIII like your style" but the style part is in a completely different key to the rest :)

Anna Jane is so sweet and loves her sister more than anyone else in the world. She is 9 months now! Over the last few months she has learned to sit by herself, she has her first tooth, she eats almost anything you give her and loves it when she gets to eat the same as her big sis. She loves to be on her feet and wants to be able to follow her sister everywhere, the unfortunate thing is that means we have to walk bent over with her hanging on our fingers. Her reflux is really settling down now and we are down to 1-2 breastfeeds a day. She sleeps pretty well most nights, about 11-12 hours, and her naps are okay but they can vary a lot in length. She goes into her cot awake and gets herself off to sleep. One of our issues is trying to deal with her extremely short temper! She loves music/noise and can bust a move when the mood takes her.

That is all for now as it is late, late, late! I will post pictures of the last few months soon. Here is one to make sure you come back for more....

Snowman

2010-01-07T21:19:00.006Z

I am abandoning the idea of catch up for now to bring you our news of today. David Has had almost an extra week off work as the weather has been so bad, there was so much snow! We finally managed to get out in it all together for about an hour and a half. We had a blast and built our first family snowman which should win an award, if I do say so myself. Enjoy the pictures.

Abby had a blast despite having a cold.

David made a great start to the family snowman

After a LOT of hard work.......

This was about the only thing Abby did to help

Meanwhile....... This is how AJ spent the time. She was well bundled up since she has a cold too.

We made the big snowballs out in the park area by our house then rolled them into our back garden to build the snowman.

Here we are putting on the finishing touches. We used so much snow to finish him off.

David thinks it looks more like a snowlady than a snow man! Maybe we should just call it a snow person :)

Promise

2009-12-11T11:21:00.001Z

Sorry I will post soon. Over the holidays.

Over 3 months

2009-10-13T22:08:00.006+01:00

Things have been a bit crazy and so I have not been able to blog as much as I had planned too. So what has been happening. I'll let the pictures tell the stories.

Anna Jane loves to be on her feet and because she is very small she can take her own weight. I can already tell she is going to be advanced, just like her big sister. She babbles away almost constantly and watches everything that is going on. She is constantly trying to sit up on her own. She loves to smile and usually sleeps well at night.

She loves her big sister and watches her all the time. She is constantly trying to catch her eye with smiles.

When ever Abby sees one of Anna Jane's passies lying around she usually grabs it up and uses it. I think it is because she sees Anna Jane with one all the time so she thinks she should have one too.

We got out the Bumbo seat for Anna Jane to use as she is almost at that stage, most of the time it is hijacked by Abby. I can't believe that she can still fit in it.

Abby is going through a reading phase right now and spends most of every day with her books and magazines. Her must read books are Dogger, Dora's Potty Book, Big Sister Dora and her Dora explorer Little Library.

As much as Anna Jane LOVES Abby, Abby also LOVES her. She can't wait until she is old enough to play with and she is always so excited when they get to do things together.

On a sad note Pappy and Uncle Daniel moved back to Yuma at the start of October. I know that the girls will miss seeing Pappy and Uncle Daniel. We hope that we will see them as much as possible.

Abby is absolutely in love with Dora the Explorer at the moment. She wants to watch her all the time and loves anything with Dora on it. She can spot Dora at 50 paces! So we got her her own backpack! It is so cute and she takes her books and a few toys with her when we go out.

Abby's hair is finally growing long enough to do things with. We tried bunches and they looked adorable. She has the most beautiful hair with soft ringlets, I hope that doesn't change.

We went to visit JA, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan for a day. Aunt Kristen had bought the kids a special treat. Gingerbread butterflies.

We had a momentous event - Anna Jane's first laugh! She was a bit camera shy but I got a bit of it on the camera.

Short clip

2009-09-03T19:43:00.003+01:00

This is a short clip of one of the games the cousins played on their overnight stay. It was called round the neighbourhood and involved them running round our downstairs with mobile phones. This was towards the end of the game, they had been running faster, at least as fast as Jonathan could go!

Some Photos

2009-09-01T14:53:00.003+01:00

They are not in any order, I'm just glad to get the time to post them!

Story Time. Aunt Kristen with 3 of the 4 kids.
I love the intensity of Abby and Brennan's face in this picture it is just a shame you can't see Jonathan.

We got Abby a kids garden set so she could help mama make a flower bed.
Looking for wiggly woos (worms - its a song)

Anna Jane enjoying her playmat.

Great Grandad Renwick who is 89 years old!

Playing in Great Grandad's garden. I wanted a picture of this as I have fond memories of playing in this garden.

Visiting Great Grannie Wilson. 4 Generations of women.
Anna Jane's first swing

Sweet picture with Uncle Chad and Aunt Sarah, who are expecting their own wee bundle next spring.
Hope you enjoyed these, hopefully more soon.

2 Months - Life goes on

2009-08-23T16:09:00.008+01:00

Excuse the lack of posting but we have been having a really trying time dealing with Anna Janes reflux, I'll get to that in a minute. Firstly Anna Jane is 2 months old! where did that time go? I guess when you are dealing with a screaming baby and little sleep, time accelerates. Her development already amazes us. We are finally being rewarded with smiles and other expressions and she is a lot more verbal than Abigail was at the same age. She is enjoying periods of wakefulness on the playmat where she is already bating at her swinging toys. She is not too keen on being in seated positions (Bouncer chair, car seat, propped on pillows) but she does like lying out in her bed. She has always done a reasonable job at night, usually waking to feed just once, getting her back to sleep can be difficult sometimes. However, before we could get to that point we had a struggle. She has been continuing on the Carobel and for a while we also began giving her infant Gaviscon, this seemed to help for a time but then the unsettled screaming began again and the vomiting was as bad as ever. We finally started pushing for something else to try and after a very difficult week and a terrible weekend we started this past week with Adult Gaviscon. So far it seems to be helping but it is early days, She is still vomiting but it does not seem to cause her as much pain as before. We have had a really good week with her and in fact had 3 nights where she slept from between 10:30/11:30 until 8:30 am! She has just had her first round of vaccinations and will get more in about a months time.

Abigail is doing well considering we seem to be entering the terrible twos as well as coping with a baby sister and tiredness. She has not been sleeping as well lately and will lying awake for a few hours at night before falling asleep. She has done this before but not for such a prolonged period. At first I was putting it down to her schedule being disrupted (she is very much a creature of habit), then I thought is could be due to her back molars beginning to push through, then I wondered if it was from not getting out as much as we had been in previous weeks. Now I am wondering if it is due to her nap in the afternoon being too long but it is hard to wake her when you are finally enjoying a few minutes peace and are too tired to get up. We are having some real obedience issues with her at the moment. However, she can be so funny. She loves to dance around to her music with her duster in hand. She has some fantastic turns of phrase - We wash our clothes with "soap, beweach and snofner", when she is pretending to talk on a phone because there is no voice on the other side she says "he's not talking today". We have been working on manors, we have always insisted on please, thank you, excuse me but now we are expanding to may I have ...... please. She is doing well but we get "I may have ......... please". She is so sweet with Anna Jane always putting her passie/soother/dummy in if she cries. and she is always interested in her if she is awake. Some very exciting news is that Abby has done 2 pee pee's and one small poop in the potty over the last few days. We have not officially started potty training yet but are laying some of the ground work. She has a Dora potty book and we bought a trainer seat that goes on top of the toilet seat. Basically she knows what the potty is for and if she asks to use it we put her on it. I am not sure when we will actually start we will see, we have enough to deal with at the moment.

Abby has something to say - eeeeeeeeeeeee tgf cvzxfrxffxfxfrdddddddddddddddggíójjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffr>ssfgx\agwtwsxtdcr5555xd\sawwv dssd dergfeegd3cgfc vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvxf3<br>

Other news - we had David's cousin Sarah and her husband Chad from Oregon with us for the first week in August. We had the best visit with them and enjoyed every minute. Abby loved her Uncle Chad and they were a great help to us in dealing with Anna Jane during one of her worst weeks. Sarah did all of the cooking and everything was delicious including the baking that was to die for. I don't think they will ever know how much we loved having them with us or how much we appreciate all they did for us. They were a great encouragement to us during a difficult time and we want to say a huge public "THANK YOU!" to them.

We had a terrific visit with John Anthony, Kristen and their boys on Thursday/Friday. Brennan and Abby had a great time playing together. They seemed to form a wee book club and pretended to read books together and it looked like they were discussing them. They played cars and ran laps around our house while pretending to talk on mobile phones. Not to mention the fun of bouncing on our big bed! We grown ups got time talk on Thursday night when the kids were in bed. We got to talking and before we knew it 4am had rolled around! We were tired the next day but we were so glad we had the time together. I have photos and video of the events but I will post some of them later (there is a reason for this - to be disclosed later).

One of the items that I had wanted to post on but never got the time was that we have switched to washable/reusable nappies/diapers for the girls. I had a woman who came to the house and was able to talk me through the nappy choices that are out there and show me some of the products. We bought a brand called lollipop and are not finding them any worse than disposables.
We have had a few leaks, in Abby's case it was because we forgot to change her more often than with the disposables and with Anna Jane we are not sure why it is happening yet. We hope it will save us from the huge financial drain that disposables are. We actually only got them for Anna Jane but Abby was so excited about them that she started wearing them too. Here are the girls sporting their new nappies....

That is about all I can think of, it is so difficult to remember when you don't get the chance to update regularly.

I was going to upload and post more pictures and video along with this but I have not had time and as it has taken me 3 days to get this far I will just post it as is. Pictures later.

Crazy times

2009-07-27T16:17:00.004+01:00

Okay there are so many things I keep meaning to post on but things have been going from bad to worse in our house, I'll explain all that later.

We can't believe that our tiny wee baby is getting bigger already ready. She is just over a month old and we are amazed at how heavy she feels. When she was last weighed almost 2 weeks ago she was up to 7lbs 9oz, we hope to have her weighed on Friday when the Health Visitor (HV) comes back out. She spends a little time most days looking around and has extremely developed neck muscles, holding her head up reasonably steady so she can see what is going on. She seems very inquisitive. However, now for the trouble - since she was born she has always spat up milk very frequently. It was thought that it was probably because she was taking to much milk from the breast or taking it too fast. From the start of last week she was getting progressively more unsettled. On Wednesday and Thursday she basically never slept all day and would scream for hours (that terrible high pitched scream that you know means they are sore somewhere, we put it down to colic. The HV came out on Friday and after hearing what was going on diagnosed reflux, which means that the muscles at the op of her stomach are not constricting tight enough and her milk and stomach acid keep coming up her throat. As anyone who has vomited in their life knows, that burns! Which means that she has been in pain for weeks, worsening as the inflammation in her throat has gotten more severe. That was the hardest part for me, knowing that she has been in pain and worse yet knowing there was nothing I could or did do. She ordered a prescription for something called Carobel (a thickening agent) which was to be added to her milk and given before her feeds. Our HV said that it might help and we might see improvement immediately or it might take up to 48 hours depending how severe the inflammation is. We started her on the Carobel that evening. It is very difficult since I am having to express milk everytime I feed her so that we have some to mix it up with. It also means that instead of taking 20 minutes to feed AJ it takes almost a hour. We have persevered and on Sunday evening we began to notice improvement. She is still unsettled at times and is still being sick but it is not as bad when it does happen.

Abby is doing pretty well considering that her world has just been turned upside down. She seems extremely tired despite sleeping 12 hours a night and taking a 2 hour nap. We think that she is having disturbed sleep (due to crying baby) and we are not getting out and about like we used to so she is probably getting lethargic from inactivity. She is really sweet with her sister and today tried to share a ball with her. She seems excited to have join in what she is doing.

More news another time. Here are some pictures.

Quick photo shoot

2009-07-12T23:06:00.003+01:00

We decided to take some family shots and here is what we got. Not professional or arty but some nice ones.

I wish I could remember what she was saying to me. I feel this is a glimpse into teenage years!

Sweet pic with the proud grandparents

Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters!

First bath at home.

Abby's 2nd Birthday

2009-07-11T15:32:00.011+01:00

I know it is late but as those of you with new baby's know it is hard to get the time. So I will post Abby's birthday as if it had just happened, ignoring the fact that is was a week or so ago.

Our Abby turned two! We can't believe it has been 2 years since we welcomed Abigail Faith into the world. She is the reason we began our blog and the very first post was to share her birth story. It is amazing to see how much she has changed and grown over the last 2 years.

Here she was just a few hours old..

Our beautiful girl on her first birthday last year

Our grown up 2 year old

We didn't really get to celebrate her first birthday so we wanted to do something small but special for her second birthday. We decided to have an early afternoon party and invited Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and a few friends. There were 11 Adults (Grannie, Grandad, Pappy, Uncle JA, Aunt Kristen, Russell, Rachael, Grandpa Michael, Grandma Maureen and of course Mama and Dada) and 6 children (Brennan, Johnathan, Lewis, Libby, Abby and Anna Jane). We had the best weather that we could have hoped for, it was sunny and warm with not much wind. I suppose we should start at the beginning of the day. We went in together to get her up and wish her a happy birthday, she was very excited. We had blown up several balloons for her birthday and when she came down stairs she ran into the livngroom to see her happy birthday balloons. After playing with them for a few minutes she had breakfast and got into her party dress. Since we planned on having the kids play in the garden we had her unveil some of her birthday presents (they were outside toys) before everyone arrived.

Once she had welcomed her guests we got her changed into play clothes filled her brand new sand/water table and let all the kids out into the garden. They all had a blast playing with the water table, see saw, trampoline, and ride on toy. It was such a nice day that they had their birthday lunch as a birthday picnic lunch. Of course there was birthday cake to follow and though the party was supposed to end at 1pm it was between 2 and 3 pm when most people left. After Abby's nap she opened a few more presents to end the day.

Abby and Lewis at the water table

Brennan and Jonathan on the ride on motorbike

Jonathan at the water table

Big boy fun (Brennan, Lewis and Russell)

Cousins enjoying the water

A bracelet from Pappy

Gift from Uncle JA, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan. She plays with it all the time and loves it.

It was a great day, everyone seemed to enjoy it and it went as well as toddlers parties can go. Anna Jane was very well behaved and just ate and slept allowing her sister to be the center of attention on her big day.

We hope all our future parties go so well.

New Arrival!!!!

2009-06-22T00:47:00.007+01:00

Hi everyone. It's that time again; that once every blue moon event when I write a post instead of Deborah! A very quick announcement for everyone. We became parents again in the early hours of June 21st 2009. We have been blessed with another little girl; Anna Jane Grace Chapman was born at 2:51am in the Cottage Hospital in Peterhead. Her birth weight was 6lb 10oz, and mother and baby are doing great. Just to clarify, though we are not hyphenating, her first name is "Anna Jane", so Jane is not a middle name.

Deborah's waters broke at 1:30am, just as we were about to retire after an evening of painting in the nursery (hence, this was the only night all week that we were NOT prepared for going to the hospital) so I guess that made for a 1 hour 20 minute labour. While this was even shorter than when Abigail was born, we live 5 minutes from the hospital, so we had plenty of time to get there after "Auntie Rachel" Gaunt came to babysit the fast-asleep Abigail. Deborah's Mum is here and her Dad will travel up tomorrow, so I will likely finish out the last two weeks of work before the summer holidays and will then take my two weeks paternity leave in August as originally planned. Deborah is tired but doing a fantastic job as always, and is planning to come home tomorrow afternoon. We covet your prayers as we begin another chapter in our life as a family, praying especially that Anna Jane will grow in strength, stature and eventually faith.

And now the part you've all been waiting for.... pictures!

Anna Jane Grace Chapman: about 40 minutes old

As I discovered last time: babies come with hats!!

(West Wing fans chuckle!)

The new line-up for the Chapman Family!

Abigail, painting Anna Jane's room, blissfully unaware of what she would awaken to the next morning!!

P.S. Before anyone says it, Dad is already aware of the awful fact; two weddings!

Summer day Video's

2009-06-02T22:10:00.008+01:00

Here are some of the clips that we took.

She had already fallen on her butt earlier.

That will have to be all for now as I am exhausted. I will do a few more pictures later.

Great summer day

2009-06-02T20:52:00.006+01:00

We had the best day ever! David was off school Monday and better yet the weather was set to be hot and Sunny. We arranged to meet up with JA, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan at Cruden Bay beach late morning. The kids seemed a bit reluctant to take their shoes off at first but once they saw that we were doing it and getting to paddle and splash in the water they both couldn't wait to get their shoes off and join in. Though the water was cold it was impossible to get them out. Abby was running into the waves and then back out and in again, at one point we had to stop her from running in above her waist! Of course the inevitable happened when she ran in lost her balance and sat down in the water, she laughed and was ready to go again. Later she was running in and fell forwards onto her hands and knees. So she was well and truly soaked! I could not believe that I did not think to take a change of clothes - thankfully the beach is only 15 minutes drive from our house. We also saw a starfish in the water which was really cool. We ended up staying longer than we planned and after a quick stop by the house to get dried and changed we all went to McDonalds for lunch. Our plan then was to head to Aiden Park and again, though the kids were tired they enjoyed playing on swings, slides and see saws. Again we were reluctant to leave but eventually headed for home. We had thought about having a BBQ but it was so late in the day that we just grabbed a quick bite and had to say goodbye as bedtimes loomed. Here are just a few of the pictures and I will post the videos in another post so that I can get these on now and not have to wait on video.

The Beach

The Park

Trying to get a cute cousins in the daisy's picture

I think this one is about the best

This one cracked me up, their expressions are great!

On the way home, what a day!

Big mama, belly shots

2009-05-31T23:44:00.002+01:00

I finally took some belly shots. I am 34 weeks and 3 days (about 8 months). I am so glad to be nearly there. I can't wait to meet this little one and see what kind of big sister Abby will be. I am also ready to share some of the burden of caring for this wee one :)

Mama's Shoes

2009-05-31T21:39:00.005+01:00

I was sitting on the couch working on the computer when I happened to turn around and see this.......

#

Trying to tie the decorative bows :)

What fun

David took some video.

This was the first time she has tried walking in big shoes!

Ceilidh

2009-05-24T15:08:00.006+01:00

I may or may not have mentioned that we have a Harding Campaign group here. They arrived last Monday and yesterday there was a ceilidh night at the Church building. We decided that even though it wasn't starting until close to Abby's bedtime we would go along and see how well she would last. We did not stay till the end as it was not going to finish till 11pm but we did get to stay until about 9:30pm. It was a great night that started out with a meal of stovies and desserts before moving to Scottish dancing and some fun games. We weren't sure what Abby would make of all the noise and commotion but I will let the video clips speak for themselves.

These pictures were taken before we went out. Just look as our wee Scottish lass!

Two cuties

At the Ceilidh

And now for the video's.........

More pictures of the rest of the night later.

Video Clips and stories

2009-05-21T14:53:00.006+01:00

So a week ago on Wednesday we sat down to dinner before heading out to bible class. Abby, who had been fine all day, suddenly decided that she did not want her dinner and looked extremely pale. She sat on her Dada's knee for the rest of dinner time just looking miserable. Her colour did not look good but we managed to get her to eat some fruit while she watched praise baby from the couch. We decided that she was not well enough to go out an we worried that she was coming down with something serious. Within about an hour the following took place as you can see from the video clips........

This was Abby's Christmas present from her Grannie and Grandad. It is supposed to be for up to age 3 and they were told that it would not topple over! If they could see it now......

I am sure I blogged before about the fact that since she was 17 months she has been counting to 10. We have been working on more numbers and she now counts to 15. Although sometimes she gets confused and calls it fiveteen, hee hee.

She love to pray and hear prayers and will often take moments through the day to say the following prayer: "Dear God, Thank you for my food, thank you for my family, thank you for my everybody, Amen". She also knows that God made various animals, sun, moon and stars, etc.

She has most of her books memorized and will often sit re sighting them, the same with lots of rhymes and songs. She will even recall many of the books that we get at the library.

I can't think of any of the other things I was going to update you all on so here is where this post will end. Sorry for the abrupt end.

Pictures of our house

2009-05-19T15:07:00.011+01:00

I finally got most of the house clean and tidy enough to take some pictures. I still need to take pictures in Abby's room but she was napping at the time so I could not get any, also I didn't take any of David's office as it is a mess, thankfully I can just shut the door and forget about it and I also still need to take some of the small bedroom as it is in the middle of being converted into the nursery so I will wait until then. Here are the rest enjoy them.

We painted and put down new flooring

Electric shower over the bath.

Kitchen. Looks out over the front garden. We haven't done anything in here.

Back door which we tend to use all the time as it is closer to where the cars park.

Looking from dining room into back entrance way.

Standing at bottom of the stairs looking at door to front porch

Standing at door to front porch looking into hall. Dining room straight ahead. Stairs up to bedrooms, Bathroom and David's office.

Standing at dining room door looking into hall

Dining room. Again we have not made any changes in here. Looks over back garden.

Small hatch links with kitchen. We recently took the doors off as the weather is warmer. One day I would like to make the kitchen and dining room more open plan. (I can but dream).

The table and most of the chairs were left by the previous owners - what a blessing.

Again we have not decorated in here yet. It will probably be the last room to be done.

Living room. Not changed it either but it will be done soon I hope. Runs the width of the house with doors at each end.

Downstairs WC. Painted and floored with leftovers from bathroom.

Our bedroom. We just painted and got a new chest of drawers. Looks over front garden.

Photo update

2009-05-16T23:09:00.003+01:00

There has been so much happening but I really don't have time to go into everything as we are expecting a campaign group to arrive on Monday and we (I at least) am frantic trying to get the house ready. Here are some of our latest photos and I will post some video and stories soon.

Abby and Ted on "See Saw"

She is making this screwed up face a lot lately

We have had great weather lately so have had lots of picnic lunches in the garden. One day we decided to have a picnic dinner in the front garden and the following 2 pictures are of Abby eating some ice from her cup!

We have not gotten her a new sun hat as her others are too small so I let her use one of mine. Hence it is too big :)

David enjoying some sun after our Dinner.

Laughing at trying to get a nice Mama and Abby shot

That's better

Trying to put on Dada's shoes

Success!

Abby found one of my eye masks and decided it made a better necklace.

More New Shoes!

2009-05-04T21:42:00.005+01:00

As I said we took Abby on Saturday to get new shoes. Her old ones were beginning to feel a bit tight and I did not want to repeat what happened last time.
Off we went though I could tell already she was in no mood for shoes shopping never mind foot measuring! All we heard was "Abby don't want new shoes!" We got to the shop and managed with the help of a performing circus to get ONE foot measured, we gave up on the second foot but the woman, who is possibly the best children's shoes attendant ever, checked the other one just by feeling it through her old shoes. She then brought out boxes and boxes of the most beautiful shoes but not even sparkles, flowers or colours would make Abby try any on! Somehow we managed to get her to sit down and quickly put the green pair that I liked on her feet. She walked in them a bit, we again through a miracle managed to take them off to change the insole and get them back on. She took another walk in the store and I told her to look in the mirror that was all it took....After admiring herself those were the shoes! Her Dada asked if she wanted to put her old shoes back on "NO!" came the quick reply and we were all happy, (except Dada who begrudges the cost of kids shoes). With her being unwell (see previous post) I took these pics on Sunday.

Aren't they fab!

The face of a girl with new shoes :)

I love the colours

Strike a pose

I'm so excited

Invalid

2009-05-04T21:06:00.002+01:00

Sorry I know that my posting has not been as regular the 3 main reasons for this are that I strongly dislike the way this new computer up loads my pictures, that I joined facebook and all to often allow it to suck the life out of me and I'M PREGNANT (ie tired, hormonal and aching from head to toe).

So what has been happening....Well, I guess the first post I should have done was that on Saturday we got Abby new shoes (more on that later) but I didn't get photo's until Sunday evening due to Abby having some kind of 48 hour virus. On Saturday we noticed that she was extremely tired, she slept 13 and half hours Friday night, she did not wake until 10:30 AM but amazingly she was still ready for a nap in the afternoon. I am sure she would have slept for over 2 hours but after 1hr 30 mins we decided to wake her worried that she would not sleep that night. When we got her up we notice that she was burning up and still very tired. She sat on my lap and cuddled for the next 2 hours (virtually unheard of!). She was off her food and went to sleep easily on Saturday night. Sunday David had been asked to preach in Buckie which would have meant being away all day and getting home late. We decided to see what the morning would bring and decided what to do about that then. Sunday after we let her sleep as late as we could and still make it to Buckie we went in to check on her. She was again lethargic and hot and drank a cup of water before we had even changed her nappy/diaper. We decided that David would have to go to Buckie on his own, meaning that he would be away for more than 10 hours leaving a very pregnant wife and sick child at home! I am pleased to say that we all survived the day. Abby spent the first 3 - 4 hours as you see in the pictures watching praise baby and reading DVD's. In the afternoon she looked at some books and played a little with her tea set before going for a 2 hr 30 min nap. When she got up from that she seemed a bit brighter and had a bit of energy so after nibbling on some food we went into the garden at her request before heading in for bath and bed time. This morning she was pretty much back to her old self play wise although she still did not have much appetite and tired quickly. Thankfully David was off work today which made up for him being away all day Sunday.

Baking Days

2009-04-24T21:47:00.004+01:00

Abby and Mama had their first baking day yesterday (it was rainy and windy outside). I did not have a kid apron for her so I put one of those half aprons on her (adult size). She looked so cute and loved it. She really seemed to enjoy it, adding stuff to the bowl and mixing. Yesterday we made cookies from a kit she was given at Christmas and today we made chocolate chip cookies. It was great to see her have so much fun with it all. I will have to make it a regular feature. I am sure that her Dada won't complain as he gets to share in the rewards!

Adding some water

Mixing the dough before rolling

Holding the shape she cut out

Enjoying the fruits of her labour

They taste great!

Chocolate chip cookie day

Are we having fun?!

While Mama finished of the oven stuff and clear up Dada and Abby played a new game with all the empty drinks bottles we have that are waiting to be recycled. Ten bottle bowling. It was great she would through the ball the first time but if any of the bottles were left standing she would take the ball and run up to them and knock them down instead of throwing the ball like the first time.

Easter 2009

2009-04-21T15:53:00.005+01:00

We didn't do anything to special for Easter weekend but on the Sunday we let Abby get into some treats that her Grannie and Grandad left for her and her Mimi and Pappy sent for her. In the afternoon we had her first egg hunt in the living room. She found and collected the eggs like she had done it before! I think like her mama and Dada she can smell out chocolate!

In the Morning......

In the Afternoon.............

Day at the Park

2009-04-14T01:00:00.005+01:00

Hi folks. It's been a long, long time since I posted anything here. Deborah does a great job of keeping you all up to date, so I generally leave her to it. But, I she's been encouraging me to write something, updating you all on what I'm doing. I'll try to do that later this week.
Today saw me do a few things for the first time in quite a while. We went out, together, as a family to a country in the sunshine! Abigail got to play on a big swing (a big deal, as our local big swing is "broke", and the little swing in the garden is now too small to be exciting, or so it seems!). And got my camera out and took pictures. Easy now!

So, I think this picture sums up it all up. In the park, on the swing, a picture taken by Dada.

P.S. If the colours in the picture look a little funny, it's just because I did something else for the first time in many moons; took a picture with overly-harsh lighting and made it look (IMHO) a little more pleasant on the eye.

P.P.S. What happened to my baby??? How can she be looking so grown up?!?!?

Cute pictures and another busy weekend

2009-03-24T15:39:00.003Z

This was the first and only time I have managed to get a bobble in Abby's hair! I was so excited but she has never been keen on the idea since.

She has also been quiet amused by putting her hats on and off. There has been a couple of occasions that she has decided to run around the house with her hat on. This was the look that she opted for just before bath time.

This rain hat was from her Grannie. She loved wearing it and looking at herself in mirrors. I will have to attach a ribbon to it because even the slightest breeze sent it flying off her head.

Here's the wee coat to match her hat. She loves being told that she is pretty, but what girl doesn't!

At the weekend we travelled to my parents house on Friday late afternoon, it was my dad's birthday, JA, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan were there too. On Saturday we had a slow start to the day but had hoped to go out to the park with the kids as it was a beautiful spring day. Unfortunately Abby ended up with an extremely sore tummy which eventually "cleared" itself by mid afternoon. That evening we had a family party to attend as my Great Aunt celebrated her 80th birthday. Sunday was Mothers day so again was a full day which included a trip to a garden center were I got a border spade for my gift. Yes, I am excited as I enjoy gardening and we don't have garden tools. We headed home Sunday evening so David could be back for work and had a very late night. We are all very tired after such a busy weekend. Here is a picture of Abby with her cousin Brennan enjoying breakfast at Grannies breakfast bar.

That's all for now folks!

30 Years!

2009-03-17T22:44:00.002Z

Saturday saw the coming of another year for me, taking me to a grand total of 30! I can't believe that I am in my 30's (where did the time go?). I was so excited that it was on a Saturday, don't you love Saturday birthdays? Unfortunately we were not able to do quite all that we had planned for the day as my parents could not make it up to celebrate and Abby ended up getting a bad cold on the Friday so we ended up just doing part of what we wanted. We headed to Aberdeen fun beach early afternoon and met up with JA, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan. Then we decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant for a birthday lunch, we had a fantastic server who really made it a great experience. When we finally finished our meal a couple of hours later we headed out to walk along the beach area. We finished off by driving a short way and taking the kids to a park for a wee while before going our separate ways, by which time it was evening. Originally we were going to stay with JA and K Saturday night but we decided that it would be better for Abby to be in her own bed and not share her cold germs. I am very excited and a bit nervous by my gift from my sweet husband. When he is off work for spring break he has booked us a hotel for a night and arranged babysitting. I am excited as it will be the first child free night I will have had in almost 2 years! But I am also nervous as Abby has never gone to bed without mama being there (from necessity rather than choice)! I am also excited as I plan on getting gardening tools with my birthday money. We have never had our own garden before and I am so excited with the weather improving to get out there and get our garden in shape.

I know it is hard to believe but we don't have a single picture from my birthday. With all the changing of plans and dealing with a sick child it never entered our heads to pick up a camera! Thankfully my sister-in-law had a camera at the restaurant but we will have to wait until she sends them to me before we can post any.

I have some great pictures of Abby to post but it will have to wait as I am really tired and heading to bed for the night. I will try to do them soon.

David's birthday, Laptop, valentines and catch up

2009-03-03T14:36:00.007Z

Okay so I know that David's birthday was almost a month ago but here is some of the few pictures that we had time to take. As most of you will know from a previous post his birthday was the Monday following that crazy weekend when John Anthony and family returned home to find a broken boiler. So David's birthday was a bit all over the place. We had a finger food meal on Sunday evening for his birthday and once the kids were in bed we had a special Chocolate chip cookie cake from Costco - it was delicious! Then he opened a few wee gifts and we relaxed for a short while.

The CCCC was called David's! How funny!

What a blaze

Short but sweet...

We had got a new laptop when we were engaged and a year or so ago David got an old laptop that his dad was getting rid of. He used that one for work however as it was quite old when we got it, it did not take long before there were problems with it. As David realise on his laptop for work we knew we would have to replace it. So we decided to use some Christmas money, his birthday money and some of my birthday money (yet to come) and buy a new one. We found a nice 12" Advent with good specs on ebay. It was refurbished but had a 3 month guarantee so we put in a best offer and it was accepted. It is a great size not being too small but small enough to keep out the way. I am typing on it right now! I was going to take a picture to put on but hey I'm pregnant and quiet honestly can't be bothered right now! That is also why I haven't been blogging as much as we were getting to grips with the new laptop and getting it set up.

For valentines day we did not have any babysitters so we fed Abby at the usual time and put her to bed sharp and then we enjoyed our dinner and watched Fireproof (JA and Kristen gave to David for Christmas, it is not out here). We really enjoyed it and like many others highly recommend it. So it was a nice evening.

We have had a busy time lately. Two weekends ago we had David's grandparents from Glasgow up from the Friday evening to Monday afternoon as his Grandpa was preaching here over the weekend. Then this weekend just past we went down to stay with my parents as the Church there was putting on a short marriage seminar. It was really good to be able to attend even if we didn't get to hear every word due to a 20 month old! We travelled down on Friday late afternoon and came home on Sunday night. It was fun as JA, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan were there too. It was a tight squeeze in my parents house but we managed.

The rest of this month is also set to be busy for us. This weekend David's parents are coming for a visit and the following weekend is my birthday. The weekend after that we might go back down to my parents as it is my great Aunts 80th birthday party. The weekend after will be a potluck Sunday and can you believe it we will then be into April. The spring break for David starts on the 3rd of April for 2 weeks during which time I really want to get our bedroom painted and start on some sorting and cleaning in preparation for our new arrival in the summer.

I will do a separate post with pictures later.

Dad update

2009-02-21T22:23:00.002Z

Here is the latest news that my dad has sent out. Again I am just posting his email as he words everything better than I could. Again I will try to keep you up to date as we have more news. Thank you to all those who posted comments on the last dad post and at the moment we just long for your prayers.

Dear family & friends,

Thank you for your encouragement and your prayers. I wish you could see the messages we receive. They are filled with courage, comfort and wisdom. Being part of God’s family makes such a difference. We even receive e-mails from our Sunset School of Preaching class of 1975. The years make no difference. It is marvellous to hear from all of you and we really appreciate it. We had another meeting with my oncologist at the end of January and we asked a lot of questions. He talks about more chemo because the cancer spots are not located in one place. However second line chemo would not be as effective as first time and the side effects from this particular chemo (Irinotecan) are generally worse. He also tells us this treatment would not be curative. Indeed when we questioned him he said the statistical average for life extension from it was only 6-8 weeks. We have to think carefully about that. He also recommended we leave it for a while because the side effects reduce quality of life and currently I feel very well. Therefore we have decided not to take treatment just now. He did say that I have already exceeded the average life expectancy for this type of cancer. I have asked for a second opinion so that we can hear what another oncologist has to say before we make the next big decisions. Right now I am doing well physically. The battle with cancer is often more mental and emotional. That’s where we are just now. Again, we ask for your prayers. Thank you.

God bless.

John & Irene

20 week scan

2009-02-18T22:50:00.003Z

I know that there is other stuff I need to blog but I just wanted to get these pictures up so family could see. We had our 20 week scan today. David got time off work to go which was great. Everything looks as it should, the actual images on the screen where so clear that we were able to see each individual toe. It was amazing, the sonographer was really great and explained everything that we were looking at. I am afriad that the pictures below are not great as they are pictures of pictures but it was the best I could do. Other posts to look out for soon ....... David's birthday, update on my dad, new laptop and of course more of Abby.

Profile of head with hands at the chin.

Full body profile showing the spine. The baby was stretching out.

Another profile of head. You can just make out the wee nose.

All through the scan the baby was thrashing about and kicking his/her legs. At the moment baby is breech but there is still lots of time and room to move. It is very late so more posts later.

What a weekend!

2009-02-12T14:34:00.007Z

We have had a very fun filled but hectic weekend. John A, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan arrived back from their trip to the USA. They spent some time with my parents before returning home on Friday afternoon to find a very cold house. Their central heating boiler had broken down - So they repacked some bags and along with my parents came up to our house in the hope of getting it fixed on Monday or Tuesday. So our house just managed to accommodate 6 adults and 3 kids! At the same time we still had our Christmas tree up since we were going to have a second Christmas with them when they got back. So on Saturday evening we went out to dinner as part of our Christmas celebration, on Sunday evening we had a finger food dinner party to celebrate David's birthday (which was on the Monday). JA and family went back down to their house on Tuesday evening. My parents left on Wednesday afternoon. It was just as well they all came as it turned out to be one of the coldest few days we have had this year with regular snow falls. The best part was that on Sunday afternoon we got our Christmas tree down! I could not believe how much space we had, it had been up so long I had forgotten what it was like to have room. Though there were so many of us in the house we seemed to have enough room and we had some great fun. The kids all coped great and seemed to have fun with all the attention from grandparents and aunts and uncles.

My sweet wee nephew, Jonathan.

Cousin bubble fun - Jonathan, Brennan and Abby

Sweet cuddles with Grannie

Dada's forest fire, I mean birthday cake. (I'll post more on David's birthday later)

Story time.

Out in the snow.

Tips and a Wiggle

2009-01-30T22:05:00.004Z

Calling all parents.......

We are at the stage of beginning to think about potty training. I am not sure that Abby is ready just yet and with a baby on the way I am not sure the time is right but I am trying to gather information and at least start taking about "the potty" and what it is used for. It would be great to not have the cost of nappies/diapers (we have taught Abby both terms) for much longer and I am considering cloth nappies for our newest arrival. Anyway enough tangents........ My post is to ask any of you that have been there and done that for tips, advice, signals that it is the right time and how you go about starting. Also tips for cleaning up those wee (pun intended) and not so wee accidents.

I also thought I would include more pictures and a special video. She is just so cute it is hard to resist! I also have to say that I was so proud of her this morning. I was brushing her hair (yes she finally has some) and when she thought it was time for me to stop she said "no ta". This was the first time that she used her manors unprompted, except when she says "plea" (please) to get something she wants! There is hope yet!

She likes to flick through my "In the eye of the storm" book.

Taking her babies out for a walk.

Abby's Chair

Colouring is such fun

Artist at work

By special request a video of the WIGGLE!

Who's cute?

2009-01-20T14:23:00.003Z

I had my first midwife appointment on Sunday afternoon. Everything seems to be as is should and we got to hear the heart beat. I am booked in to deliver at Peterhead maternity unit but as it is a small unit with only midwives if there are any complications I will have to go to Aberdeen. My parents came up to watch Abby while we were at the appointment. They left on Monday after we HAD to go to the shoe store..........................

Okay, so I am going to admit to one of those guilty terrible parent moments! We got Abby new shoes in mid September and they were great, now I know they say get kids feet checked every 6-8 weeks but there really seemed no need her shoes still fit fine. Then a couple of weeks ago it suddenly seemed as if we were cramming her feet into the shoes. We kept try to find a time to go but life always got in the way. Finally a few days ago she started walking funny in her shoes so we knew that we HAD to go. The last time her feet were a size 3 but the shoes she fit were a 2 1/2. This time she was a 4 1/2! No wonder she was walking funny her toes must have been curled under her feet. I felt terrible but I have to say in my defence her feet don't seem to grow that quick then they seem to sprout over night.

Cuddles with mama

New shoes!

She was given a snow suit at Christmas and it was so cold today I thought she should wear it while we went on our wee walk. Cozy!

Brag

2009-01-13T14:33:00.007Z

It has been implied that we do not brag about our wee "sweet pie" (as she likes to call herself) enough so here I go...........

Since she was about a year old she has been able to count up to 6 and up to 10 with some help. Since about Christmas she has been counting to 10 all by herself and can recognise the numbers 1-10 (she was able to do that since she was about 9 months).

For Christmas she got the Fisher Price ABC animal zoo and can already name almost every animal. I think there is only about 2 that she is not sure of. Her favourite is the "nigh-gale" (Nightingale) and she loves the sound that the Ostrich makes and always tries to make the "ooooo ooooo" sound while wiggling her shoulders front to back.

If it is cold (ie getting in and out the bath) she says cold and then makes a brrr brrr type noise while wrapping her arms around her and shaking her body.

So far she is great at sharing but often misses out because of it. She will share with another child who does not return the favour and runs off with the toys Abby was playing with. I just hope that it does not put her off sharing.

For most of the time she behaves very well. I was so proud of her yesterday. I took a wee walk to a local wool mill outlet shop and Abby behaved beautifully she listened well and was obedient. The worse thing that I had to do was refold a sweater a few times that she kept picking up. Then later that night I was drying and brushing my hair and she was playing with balls that her Dada had brought up stairs to keep her busy. I had no idea if he had brought up the basket to put them in so I called for Abigail who dutifully came and I asked if the basket for the balls was upstairs, the best I was hoping for was that if it was she would bring it to me to see. When she didn't return with it I thought, it either wasn't there or she had no idea what I wanted. Once I had finished I went to see which of the possible answers it was................. to my complete surprise she had put the ball that she had been holding into the basket (she always helps to tidy her toys after much asking). I was amazed that she had connected the fact that I was asking about the basket so I could tell her to put the ball away! She also had upstairs a small bucket that we keep some of her little people in. I asked her to put the rest of the balls into the basket and then put the little people into the bucket, as I was going to get something, thinking that upon my return I would have to repeat the instructions at least 3 more times before they were completed. Yet again I was stunned to find that in the short space of time it had taken my to do my task she had finished what I had asked her! What a star! She got big cuddles and praise for a wonderful day.

I was proud again today when we took our trip to the local library (we have to go regularly because she loves books so much she gets bored with the same ones. This way she gets new books to read without us having to go bankrupt buying books and building a library to house them!). A few of the mothers in the village go on a Tuesday morning as it is coffee morning and while their kids (about the same age as Abby) were running all over the place throwing books and pull things off the shelves Abby was happy to stand about and play with the toys that are provided or look at some of the kids books or dance to the music they had playing. At one point she even asked me if she could play with the beads (one of those tables with the wiggly wires and wooden beads on them). Okay not in so many words but she did say "See beads" to which I replied "Okay, you can go play with the beads". And she did! There were times that as the other children tore past her she would have an almost shocked look on her face and I wondered if she new that their behaviour was wrong!

Here is wee pictures, she often puts things on her head and calls it a hat. Don't worry it was a clean one!

Prayers

2009-01-06T20:51:00.002Z

I am sorry to have to blog bad news but we really need your prayers. As most of you know my dad has been undergoing various treatments for cancer for a couple of years now. We thought after some surgery that everything was under control and taken care of. However, after a few months and scans my dad had a negative report, below is the email that he sent out which explains it better than I could.

Dear family & friends

The result of my PET scan done in December was not as good as we had hoped. It showed that the cancer has returned. Two years ago the primary was in the colon with secondaries in the liver. There are still two secondaries on the liver (one we knew about that showed up on a CT Scan and MRI Scan) and four more specks have shown up in my abdomen. My oncologist said that PET scans have improved so much that two years ago these would not even have showed so they are very small specks. That means we have some time before we have to make our next decisions. Right now I am feeling good and able to do everything. My oncologist’s opinion is that he cannot cure this and in view of side-effects of a second lot of chemotherapy we postpone any treatment. According to him it would be a matter of managing symptoms and controlling pain. We are thinking about all of this carefully before we meet with him later this month to give him my decision. I am finding it very hard right now as after surgery things were looking good. It has taken me a few days before I could even write this but we wanted you to know. We need your encouragement more than ever and again we ask for your prayers.

With our love & appreciation and best regards for 2009.

John & Irene

Again I am sorry for the bad news. We will keep you updated as things progress.

New Year!

2009-01-03T15:08:00.002Z

Over Christmas Abby loved saying "Mea Chri" to everyone.

We have been working on Happy New Year but so far have only managed to get.......
"Neu ear"

Not bad for a start I guess.
I do have video of Christmas but the files are to big to download so I will have to do something about that before I can post them.

Happy neu ear to you all!