Garden

The first dry day of the holidays meant that it was time to cause utter devastation in the garden. Emmaleigh really got stuck in. Aimee played with her friends while saying that she was working and Daniel sat in the house the whole day with a selectionof electronic devinces. We were out all day and I don't think that he even realised that we were not in the house.

The biggest task of the day was to remove the decking outside of the conservatiory door.

A sledgehammer swing and crowbar later and it was well on its way.

Within 2 hours it was gone and the garden opened up massively.

Fun Week!

Wow what a week, Monday, other than Valentines, was parents evening. With 3 lots of teachersto see in one evening it is always abit of a logistical nightmare. This year I was lucky and managed to get appointments one after the other. I was feeling very happy with myself for getting done in 30 mins and allowing myslf some time to get ready for our romantic meal!

So how have the kids done. Well Danny teachers said he is an absolute joy and the love having him in their class. He's always well behaved and very thoughtful. He's doing really well and had speeded up with his writing. Aimees teacher said that she too was doing well. She's getting her head down and her writing is beautiful.Emmaleighs teacher is new and then has been off most of the time as he had a very nasty leg brake. Quite litterally all he said was "shes doing really well, no problems" So very pleased with the kids.

I had alot of PTA stuff on last week too so I was at the school quite a bit. Wednesday was the school disco which we have down to a fine art now. The kids were a real help actually. I was suprised at how well they behaved. We had just all got home when Chris got a call from the Elders asking if he could take them to their appointment as the car they were in had broken down. Chris then spent the rest of the evening helping them.

Friday we were at the hospital for Dannys scan. He did really well. He was so brave having his injection and then just lay very still watching Ben 10 wile they took all the pictures they needed. We just have to wait now for the doctor to get back to us now. We stopped off at Sainburys on the way back to school for "treats" He chose a MoshiMonsters magazine and hasn't stopped talking about it since!

These are just some pictures from the other week when the kids were going stir crazy in the house so I insisted Chris took them to the park to burn off some energy. I have never seen so much mud in all my life!

I love this one of Hollie.

This os the only one of Aimee smiling. She spent the whole time moaning and having a face like this!

Dannys little find!

Emmaleigh enjoying herself. She loves being outside making up adventures.

Valentines

A friend gave me this bike for Abbs and she loves it. When we got back from nursery I took her for a ride up and down the street. I say ride, I pushed her up the hill whilst pushing Hollie in the pushchair and the she was too scared to go down hill, not a steep hill I might add untill I explained that that was the best bit about riding bikes-going downhill!!

So what else has been happening, well Danny had a dry night last night so is feeling very proud of himself today. We also had parents evening last night and we are happy to report that all the children are doing great. According to their teachers they are all wonderful children who are a pleasure to teach! Well done kids.

Chris and I also got to go out last night for a romantic meal. Yes I know, a rarity so we decided to treat ourselves and went to the quayside in Newcastle. Theres a seafood restaurant there that we've been wanting to go to for ages. Chris had quite possible the biggest mussels I have ever seen and I had the most scrumptious scollop's. We then couldn't resist and shared a whole lobster. We've never had it before and it was delicious. Yesterday was a good day. Right time to get these wonderful kids into bed quickly!

Sleepovers, farewells, shopping and jobs.

With the new year I have the renewed vigour to keep up to date with our blog. I really want to make it into a book this year so NO GAPS!!! We shall see!

I'm still recovering from last weekend, it's been quite eventful. Firstly Emmaleigh had a friend sleepover on Friday night which didn't quite go to plan. I think she found our tribe a little too much to handle and ended up going home earlier in the morning than originally planned.

This was a little blessing in disguise as we needed to get the house ready for the Burgess family who were staying with us on saturday night before heading off the start their new life in Cambridge. They hadn't been in the ward long but we had become quite good friends and was a little sad to see them go.

Sunday was also our ward conference and just for a change we had Church in the afternoon which was quite an experience. I can imagine a lie in being great but to be honnest it was a bit of a nightmare with the kids as they were just plain tired. That said I think you would be pushed to find any 3 hour slot in the day that dosen't overlap naps or meals. It was a nice conference and I now have a new calling. I'm a ward missionary, which is completey different but I'm looking forward to it.
This is a picture of our downstairs cupboard, soon to be toilet!!! Why is this in here do you ask, well just when I was settling down to relax I get a call from my brother asking if I got the message that he was coming Monday morning to board and skim it-NO would be the answer to that question so I quickly had to finish clearing it out.
Serene came along for the ride with Jon and brought the boys with her so Abbs got a day off nursery so she could play with Austin. After sorting out a few things, like disableing the alarm which started to go off when I cut the wires! (In my defence I did think it was already disabled and as I had already removed the control panel drastic measures were required!) We took the kids for a McDs for dinner then some serious retail therapy was on the cards. Armed with my £100 Next voucher I needed some new jeans as I was still wearing my maternity ones, and was not dissapointed.

Quickly nipped back to get the kids from school, tea at the Board Inn (2 meals for £5.50!!) then home to swap the kids with Chris, do tea for him and Jon, who was still working away, bless him, and get my things together for my PTA meeting. Quite a weekend. I'm still recovering a week later. Very happy with the progress of the toilet, we may even get it finished in time for potty training Hollie! It was really nice to spend some girlie time with Serene too, she came with me to get the kids from school so she was able to meet some of my friends which was nice.

Oh, Danny had his scan last week too. Appently he still has an abnormal amount of fluid on his kidneys, a problem that he had as a baby, although what this actually means I have no idea. We'll just have to wait and find out.