Around Lewis

For those of you crying out for more pictures of lewis I thought I might steal, I mean borrow, some of the ones my dad took as he was out and about. I hope very soon to be able to put some of David's on here but enjoy these anyway. Some are of the Standing Stones at Callanish which is the village just next to ours.

Grandparents visit

My parents came up for a visit this past week. Abigail took some adjusting to the extra people in the house but she soon began to look for them and they were a great help to us. David had a long weekend off school so, with the grandparents babysitting, we even managed to get about 4 hours of totally baby free time! It was great though we never know what to do with ourselves it happens so rarely. An update on my dad is as follows: he had a CT scan on February 7^th. Following his 28th chemo treatment. On February 1st he had an MRI scan scheduled. His oncologist, Prof. Cassidy and Prof. O’Dwyer, the surgeon, want to investigate the possibility of liver surgery to remove the two visible tumours that remain on his liver. Whilst we are a little apprehensive, it is a mark of great progress that he has reached this point. At first with multiple tumours on the scans, surgery was totally ruled out. In the meantime, he is doing fine and he feels well. We found out once they had returned home that he has a consultantion on March 3rd with the surgeon.
Here are some pictures of their time this past week.

Tooth number 2!

Well, as of Monday this week Abigail got her second tooth. Here are some pictures of Abigail being her usual cute self. There are also some of David and Abigail on his first birthday as a daddy!

Lewis Snow

Well as promised here are some pictures of Lewis. To be exact the view from our Kitchen and Livingroom windows. They like the wording are not up to David's standards but I took them just as you would look out our windows. It was also the day that we had our first proper snow (2nd February). We had a couple of inches and it stayed around for the whole day. However by the time we went to bed it had already started to rain and by morning you would have never known it had been snowing.

These 1st 3 are looking out our larger kitchen window.









This one is out our small kitchen window (by the sink)






This one is out our utility room window





The next 3 are our the livingroom window (it is a bay window)

1st Tooth

Well as you might have guessed from the title Abby's first tooth popped through the gum on January 13th. She was 6 and half months old. We are very excited as the teething process has been going on since she was about 2 months old! She has only had the tooth for a few weeks but already puts it to good use eating just about anything you give her! It seems to have helped ease some of her teething pain which is a relief for us. She is very good at hiding the tooth so we don't have a picture yet but we will keep trying.

Our Christmas

Well I am not as eloquent as David but I will do my best to update you all about the end of 2007 beginning of 2008. Our Christmas Holidays began on the 22nd of December with a 9-10 hour drive (and Ferry) from our wee Island home to the small village of Kenmore where we had rented the "Old Police House" for our family to spend Christmas together. There were my Parents, John Anthony, Kristen, Brennan, Nathan, Stacey, Kellan and my Grandad, as well as David, Abigail and me of course. We were also blessed with a visit from David's parents and Daniel on the evening of Christmas day through until the Thursday morning. The house was amazing. The main living areas were open plan which made it easy for us all to be together even if some were cooking or preparing baby meals. We all had our own bedrooms and there were 3 bathrooms. It was a small village so it was nice to get out and walk about. There was a carolling service outside the village hotel on Christmas eve that we all went to. We enjoyed trips to Aberfieldy to get our shopping at the small co-op there. Mostly we enjoyed spending time together playing games, watching a few movies and sharing meals. We left the house on the 29th and travelled to Stirling via Perth Leisure Center for Abigail's first swim. She had a blast and enjoyed every minute, she seems to be a real water baby. We also spent some time in Aberdeen with John Anthony, Kristen, Brennan, Nathan, Stacey and Kellan. It was great to be around Christian family at the same stage in life as ourselves. We miss that a lot! We had a very quiet New Year at my parents home in Stirling. Just the 3 of us for most of the night then my parents came home later for the bells. We then spent some time in Glasgow with David's family before having to head back home. Though Abigail coped very well all the changes and travel began to take it's toll on her and we tried to keep things low key in Glasgow. The journey back home was smooth and quick and we all settled back in quickly as David returned to teaching the next day. We are as busy as ever with David dealing with prelim exams and we are beginning to look at what will come next for us as David's probationary year draws to a close this summer, the same day as Abigail's 1st birthday. We are looking to return to the mainland but do not know where yet it is all going to depend on where the teaching jobs are and which one David can get. Of course Abigail and our home take up all my time. We are looking forward to visits from family and friends as it helps to break up our time here. We are planning to be back on the mainland for the easter break (1st of April for 2 weeks) but do not plan on doing much travelling around as we all require some much needed rest and relaxation. We will welcome all who want to visit us while we are down. Here are some pictures of our Hols. Enjoy.....