Friday, 5 August 2011

Our Birthdays and Easter

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







Monday, 1 August 2011

Valleys and Mountains in February

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




Tuesday, 26 July 2011

January 2011: New Park

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.

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

One picture

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