Potty Head!

What a week we've had! Daniel started creche today, and things went really well - but it's only day one. The teacher for his class is really good and she managed to keep him calm when I left which was no mean feat. I have realised in the past week or so that he really needs to mix with kids his own age on a regular basis. Also, he's bored at home with me and Rachel when he's not getting the same attention he's used to. This boredom has led him to get into everything at home and subsequently a lot of trouble. Take for instance yesterday when he found the potty ring inset, which he decided would look good on his head - he then pulled down and got the thing stuck around his neck. This was really funny until mom and I realised that getting it off was not so simple and we had a real problem on our hands. It took about 30 mins of struggling until we oiled his head and the ring and pulled! Thank goodness it slid off. Rachel is still the model child - sleeping so very well, feeding well and just an angel. I am really loving her and her being with us makes me feel like our family is complete.

Anyway, here are a few recent pics:

Please be patient - we have a technical problem!

Hi everyone, sorry that the posts have been so few and far between... but we really are struggling with our camera's at the moment. I won't even go into the details - but it has been difficult over the past few weeks. Not to mention getting to grips with dealing with three children under four. The result is that Daniel will be starting creche two mornings a week from next week! I think this will be beneficial for all concerned, and especially him as he is now very bored at home with me and my attention is taken up with Rachel... Otherwise, Rachel is just a little gem, honestly we could not have gotten any luckier with her. She is sleeping very well at night, and while not through (who could expect that at three and a half weeks!) she's only waking at two and about four thirty to be fed... She has a very happy disposition so far to, and yesterday when mom got back from visiting friends down the country Rachel's whole face smiled when she saw her... It was quite something to see, as I have thought she'd been smiling, but yesterday there was no doubt. Also, the public health nurse was here yesterday and I can announce that Rachel is now a whopping 5kgs!! Showing she has no problems feeding! :) Here are a few of the latest pics of us this morning :)

Welcome Baby Rachel

Well, only 2 hours passed her Irish due date - Rachel Fisher made her grand entrance! All went so well with her delivery, but as most of you know, I had to spend two days in hospital which I was hoping to avoid. It is really nice to be home now though and to start settling down with everyone at home. She is just a lovely baby - when born looked exactely like Ben. But she's changed already. As you all can see - and as the paediatrician delicately put it, she's not petite! But as with all our children, we build them strong and at 9.1 pounds she's no exception. She's feeding really well, and seems more settled when there is chaos and mayhem (aka Ben and Daniel) around her. As long as the lights are on and there is noise everywhere she sleeps - once everyone is in bed and things calm down she's as wide awake! I will write more in the coming days... so keep checking :)

Snow Day Number Two

We have seen snow in Ireland like I have never seen it in nine years over these last two days - the boys are having a ball!!! Unfortunately, bob's car didn't start today and we had to pick him up from work... Which took us over two hours, for a trip that normally takes about 15 mins. The traffic was crazy!! I couldn't resist posting these picks to show you how much fun we've had :)















Our snowman on the green










My supercool boys (they fight over that hat, can you believe)












Loving the snow

Snow Day

Well, I was expecting some weather this morning when we woke up because for almost the last week we've had quite bad storms, but I did not expect to find it snowing! Everything was covered, white and lovely. We had so much snow that a snowman miraculously appeared on the green outside our house. The boys are very excited, and ben can't wait to go skiing :) (definately my child)... It's been snowing solidly now for about three hours now, and I'm loving it.

We've been so busy these last few weeks - the cars (both of them) had to be fixed, and all of a sudden I realised that the baby is due in less than four weeks!! I am ashamed to admit, but it took me completly by surprise... and so I've been quite frantic getting her room ready... I've wanted to keep it very simple and not use to much pink, but somehow, when everything was put together - it's PINK! Oh well, she's the only girl we're going to have so why not?? :) We've kept the walls simple though - and when she's born I want to put up her name on the wall with her date of birth....














I took these two photo's because the one on the right was taken at 7:30 this morning and the other one was taken at ten - so you can see how much snow has fallen.














Not the best shot of her room, but the best I can do with the camera I have...

A Huggle...

I can't let time carrying on passing without documenting this beautiful and wonderful word... With the pregnancy progressing and the weather being the way it has been this last little while I don't have any photo's of the boys since Christmas - and while I feel I can neglect that for a little while I cannot not explain a huggle. Daniel has decided that he wants neither a "hug" nor a "cuddle" - but rather "a huggle". And nothing gives me more joy than hearing "Huggle Mommy??" when I pick him up in the morning, or "Mommy Huggle!" after his bath (which is his little ritual after bathing since as long as I can remember). He is coming on so well with his communication - "Tankyou Ben", "Me Dance", "Daddy Sleeping??", "I go there", "Share, me share" - oh yes and has got the concept of humor as will laugh heartily at anything he lables "funny!".... This is not even to mention his repetoire of songs which are to numerous to list...

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

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....

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

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 :)

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 :)...

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