Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Casanova

Merry Christmas everybody - we hope that you had a wonderful, happy day filled with family, food and fun! Robin and I learnt a few good lessons this year:
1. It is VERY important not to over feed a sick child on milk in the middle of the night (even if he asks for it) as the cleaning up from the consequences at 1:30am is not that much fun!
2. The reason you have to start opening presents at the crack of dawn is because each present opened needs to be played with immediately, before opening another. We had six hours (I kid you not) of opening presents, and we still have four under the tree unopened as we ran out of time!
3. No matter how prepared you think you are when it comes to the food, things can always go wrong (we went to friends for lunch where we had a great mac and cheese as the planned roast got thrown in the bin as the meat had gone off!). For my contribution (which was the starters and desert), I thought that I was 100% prepared, but I still managed to spend about 3 hours in the kitchen???

All in all though it was a lovely day and the kids really enjoyed themselves (Daniel is not well, but managed to sleep while we were out and so we were able to eat lunch uninterupted which was a treat). Ben enjoyed himself a lot to - especially when he cuddled up to Sammy in the cupboard (thanks lisa! :) you have started a trend). And she was enjoying it as much as he was I think :)

Lots of love to you all
Merry Christmas

Saturday, December 13, 2008

What a Big Night

Tonight is the first night that the boys are sleeping in the same room together!!!! and so far so good. I have had such a mental block about it - as their sleeping patterns are so different, but it has to be done sooner rather than later. And it didn't even take that long to get them settled - but lets not count chickens hey?? :) We have been really busy over the last little while. A visit to Santa on Monday in Mullingar (which is an hour outside of Dublin). It was fantastic! Beautiful grounds, old ruins, a wonderful forest walk and of course Santa. We were out visiting our old neighbours to this week and their new baby which was wonderful - I really do miss Lusk so much! And today we had a lovely time, visiting the new Hamleys Toy store in Dundrum. The boys loved it and so did we. They had snow and a bubble machine at the door, people dressed up as toys helping with demonstrating the toys and toys all over the place for the boys to play with. And to top that a lunch out at Nando's!! Yes, Nando's is here - but it's a little different here as it's not just a take-away, but a restaurant to. And a really nice one at that. We had fun, the boys had fun - it was great.
Daniel is just getting so wonderfully cheeky and smiley - there are a few photo's I just couldn't leave out. The one with chocolate all over his face, was the result of one small biscut :).... Ben is changing and growing so much... All we get these days is "why? why?. why?" and "no, but" as an answer to every request that I make. It is worryingly similar to vicky pollard's catch phrase in little britain! will have to get this out of him :).... Enjoy the photo's....




Sunday, December 07, 2008

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas!!

We are SO SO SO excited for tomorrow - I'm taking the boys to see Santa, in the midlands at a country house where he has apparently set up his ice palace in Ireland! Will be taking a lot of photo's to bore you all with tomorrow :). But it's been a busy weekend here - Ben went to rugby with his Dad on Saturday to see Leinster play and I took him to Imaginosity (Children's Museum) today AND we got our tree up this morning. As I write this I'm watching the beautiful twinkly lights - what is it about a christmas tree that instantly cheers you up. I'm really excited for the holidays now. Here are a few photo's of the weekend:













All Happy its Christmas












Our Tree












I do like my spikey hair













Seeing my weight in water at Children's Museum










Delighted! I cracked the code in the bank vault

Saturday, November 29, 2008

She's a Shy One

So, I went for my second 4D scan today - as with the last one, she was hiding and we couldn't get any good ones really - and today was the same! She literally turned away from us as soon as the scanner was put on my tummy. Of course she's going to be beautiful, she's ours :), but model material, I don't think so :).... Anyway here are the three best.






























Also, I had to add these two - Daniel is already enjoying the Christmas Spirit and Ben is freezing at the Leinster game against the Gwent Dragons on Saturday Night. We didn't stay for the whole game as I can't tell you how cold it was. Even wrapped up it was bitter and too much for the boys, and if I'm honest, me to :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

I Love Winter

It's not raining!!!! We are having the best time ever now because it's not that wet - not like summer was anyway. We've just come back from the park and we had such a lovely afternoon. The kids ran around, played pirates, kicked balls and most of all jumped in muddy puddles - which was I think for them the highlight (not so much for me as I didn't pack a second change of clothes and they got sopping - will know for next time).... I forgot how lovely it is to be out in the brisk air, enjoying all the colors of autumn (the leaves are still golden and only just falling off the trees so autumn in my book)... Here are the pics for you to enjoy to :)...

































































Saturday, November 08, 2008

The Scan

We had the scan this morning and disappointingly we didn't get any good pictures of her at all because she was snuggled in to me and not to keen on being photographed. Plus, while she was calm, happy and seemingly asleep, the boys went balistic! daniel screamed his head off because he couldn't come to me and Ben screamed because he didn't like me being scanned - so Robin really had his hands full! The woman who did the scan was fantastic and tried everything to get the baby to move, including letting me go for a walk, but nothing. So, she's asked me to come back again (assuring me at no extra cost!!!) and I have another booked for the 29th November... I'm going on my own this time and hopefully our baby girl will want to pose.... And we double checked - definately a girl :)... So the result is only one half way decent picture (and she looks very similar to the one we have of ben). Also - I've included a pic of my new stroller, the Phil and Ted VIBE... I am DELIGHTED with it... And I'm sure that it's going to make life easier with the three!










Our little girl













My Vibe

Thursday, November 06, 2008















So, again I'm a little late in the posting - but Happy Halloween everyone! The boys had a great time... Ben was a dragon and Daniel a Lion (which I just loved)... Ben "got" trick or treating this year and couldn't believe his luck! He asked to go again every day since :) Also, he quite enjoyed carving the pumpkins and so I think the whole thing was a big hit. Now with Halloween over, can you believe that I'm starting to plan christmas! It'll be quiet this year, but I really want to start establishing christmas traditions, which so far I've decided will consist of baking decorations (thank you Nigella) and making our own christmas wrapping paper. Also - I want the boys to make their presents for their friends - I just have to come up with something decent and within the capabilities of a 3 year old and a 17 months old (not at all a challenge). But Ben is doing really well at the moment too - baking biscuts, making thank you cards and painting ... Since coming back from SA we've been very productive! :)

Monday, October 20, 2008

A few more photo's from SA










Us out for dinner as a family









Daniels' Christening









Ben's birthday cake









At the party












Ben's first pony ride - on a smiling horse!

So, that was the quickest four weeks ever... I can't believe that we are back home in Dublin now and our South African Holiday behind us. We had a lovely time, and it was exactly what I had hoped it would be, spending time with family. I don't know when we'll be back and so this trip was really special.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

It's A.....






Girl!!!!! Just a quick post to let you all know that we are expecting a little girl on the 20th February... A little sooner than we thought too:) Here are her first pics...

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Our SA Trip




























The reason I've been out of touch is that we've been out of touch the last little while is that we've been visiting everyone is South Africa... And let me just say this Cape Town was ridiculously COLD!!!!!!! I was expecting some sun - not the same type of horrid weather we have in Dublin!... Thankfully JHB and Pretoria have performed better and we are enjoying lovely sunshine here. The boys are loving being with the family and we have had just a great time with everybody. Jason and Lisa are a big hit here as they have lizards and a cat which I have found are just kid magnets.
Ben's birthday is planned for tomorrow - at a party venue with pony rides and jumping castles and party games - so I'm sure that he's going to have a ball. After months of telling me how much he wants a Barney Birthday he changed his mind about two weeks ago and now wants a Super Ben birthday... which means the cake and the theme had to change. The great thing about being here is that I don't have to do anything! The cake was ordered and the venue do the food, so all we have to do is show up... I will write more about our holiday when I get home, but here are some photo's to keep you up to date...


The story with this photo is that at Roy and Beth's house Ben made cookies for the first time... here he is taking them out of the oven and they were hot, hot, hot!!!! Also, the whole night he decided he was baker ben and that's all he'd answer to.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

I'm Back!


I'm sorry that it's been three months since I've posted anything at all... I can't even say that it's been a busy time.... All I can say is that it's taken me this long to have anything real to write about - we've had REALLY bad weather here the last few weeks. It's been a challenge to get the boys out and about, people have been away on holiday (the lucky ones anyway) and I found out that we're expecting again!!! :) This has taken some time sinking in, and while both bob and I are delighted as we always knew there would be a no.3 we didn't think that it would be this soon :) Oh well, they'll be great company for each other. Ben and Daniel are getting on so well now, and play really nicely together, and it didn't take that long to get there. Daniel has been at a difficult phase of learning to walk, learning to get up and down stairs, learning, learning, learning. Needless to say that he has fallen off his feet, down the stairs, off the tables, chairs, couches, slides and anything else he can climb up. He is a bit of a daredevil. His favourite game is jumping off the couch. He is amazing though - a week after taking his first steps he was kicking a ball. He can hit and kick now with the best of them. He is also fantastic talking - he has about 50 words now and is starting to string a few together - "Bye Bye Daddy", and "I go there" are the most clear, his comprehension is fantastic to - can take instruction so well... not bad for 14 months - and I know, I'm making him sound like a little genius - but he is: REALLY :)

Anyway, enough of that - here are a few photo's of the family :)


Daniell getting his ball from under Ben's bed




My coy boy