Happy EARLY 2ND Birthday to Amelia Jane!!

Born on July 24th in the afternoon almost two weeks early; as you can imagine, she came unexpectedly! So here is a pic the day after she was born but not 24 hours old yet.

And us smiling ...lol boy do I look washed out!!

Yes she already had a birthday with her cousins and aunts/uncles and grandparents/great grandparents but I thought I would make her an "official" birthday cake...and so here is the end result...

She really likes Old Macdonald and all his animals so I bought a second hand little peoples barn with animals and sounds usually costs around £26 I got it for about £11 (includes shipping) so not bad eh? So while she was napping I did this:

Got her up lighted candles and daddy brought her in to see and this is what she looked like!

"Mommy...what is this??"

Loosing up...

And finally a big smile!!

Daddy showing her how to blow out the candles (he blew one out)

And she blew the last one.

I must admit it was a good experience even though I spent twice the amount of time decorating the cake!! But Amy really likes her toy shes been at it for almost an hour now!!! :) LOL, I'm already tiring of the Old Macdonald song though... :)

Tomorrow is the wedding already!! AHH! So, must iron some shirts for Jett cut his hair and give baths to my two kiddos. Next post should be wedding pics!! :)

our silly daughter :)

During worship this morning, when we were singing Amelia decided she would sing too. For awhile she was singing nicely and then all of a sudden she looked on the wall and started singing: "Joefus and Caralyn...Denna and Duelia....and Care!" Translation: "Joseph and Carolyn, Jenna and Julia and Claire!" On our wall are pictures of family members and for some reason she likes to point out Joseph and Carolyn the most.

Another funny thing about Amy is that when she sees "middle age or older" people walking down the street (or the man especially across from us) she says "Oma!!" or "Opa!"

When getting the phone (which she isn't allowed to do) she always says Hello Oma...or Hello Opa...or Hello Terry!

In her ever growing vocabulary she says the following...

"copies" for coffee?!
"Arannes" for Aaron (it always is in the plural...)
"woses" for Roses
"powers" for Flowers
"chairs" for chair again plural!
"car keat" for car seat
"backet" for basket
"a pik ki chew" for a picture
"piepice" for pacifier

and so on...

It is sad that every morning she has to run to the dining room and yell out "Hiya Potty!" And every time she sits on it she is telling herself "Good girl! Yeeeaaaah!" Later on I find her telling Dolly to go potty and then it is Louie her monkey...oh dear.

Why is it when your asking your child a question and she answers with the last two or so words that you said? Mommy: Amelia where is your book? Amy: Your book Mommy: Go get your book Amelia. Amy: Book Mala! I guess it is pointless to ask a 2 year old questions right? ;)

And last of all a picture of our family minus me. Aaron is still smiley as ever!

And again since Amy was looking the other way (the the above pic is better of Mr. Aaron)

Should be very thankful for my family!

What my week looked like

I suppose I've only posted pictures and videos this week rather then me rambling away what has been happening here. Hmm, well maybe you find that a *good* thing since our "everyday" stuff isn't really all that exciting... Exciting is the wrong word how about hectic? A little bit chaotic? Stressful? Certainly it wasn't all bad...but still here goes my week:

Monday...Microwave is broken (happened last week)...Throw load of wash on - hang it up outside and throw another load on. Wash TONS of dishes from Sabbath since we had a visitor (Wylie boy) and try to tydy up house. Amelia starts to have *lots* of accidents (yeah where did all our work go??) so a lot of cleaning floors etc. Read a few pages in a Vaccine book. Make supper...etc etc and before bed throw on another load of wash.

Tuesday...Hang washing outside and throw on yet another load of wash. Groceries came today so put those up. Yet another rough day of accidents from Miss Amy Jane...ho hum. Read more in the Vaccine book. Tydy toys up...tydy house up FOLD laundry and put away...supper...and lol yet another load thrown in the wash before bed.

Wednesday...got up *very* tired after a rough night with Amelia...ugh!!! Hung up the wash again...cleaned bathroom and dusted the house, FOLD more laundry and put away and again tydied up dining room/kitchen (toys everywhere) Today wasn't very good concerning Amy's accidents...ach well. Again made supper. Was entirely exhausted so I ended up staying home from the Prayer meeting...Mom called.

Thursday...Oh I can't remember...uhm? Got new microwave and new phone!! Set up both. I vaccumed (oh I give up on spelling that). Amelia started doing better today! Tydied...oh it is never ending! Ok...I got the sewing machine out again and Sewed (Last week I sewed 2 bibs for Amy but why does she call them "bam"?) this week was all about sewing inserts into tops I have (nearly finished!!). Gave Amy a bath.

Friday...Realized the sewer thingy is backing up...... :S And all the sewer peoples are busy at a Tescos (?!) ok not all but still we haven't gotten it looked at yet...it is pretty bad I must admit. Uhm, I again got up late this morning because again Amelia was being a bad girl at night. Made a nicer supper tonight (although I can't say it was *that* great). Vaccumed the dining/kitchen again and tydied again and again. Folded diapers. Realized that Jett is going to be away Sat-Monday to Northern Ireland! :( Well, it isn't a sad thing of course, just sad for me because I'm left behind with the kids.

Oh and this of course doesn't tell you all the things done for Jett, and the bathing and diapering of the kids and all the other 1000's of things that fill up a day/week. But those details would get very very boring much like the above...

And of course I've been busy with her :)

Comments

Yes, I finally fixed something I didn't realize! The setting to my comments thingy which only accepted certain people's comments...it should be now that "anybody" can post a comment but will need to be approved first (keeps Spam out).

Ok...had to give you these! Isn't he a cutie?? :)

And such a HUGE smile!! I don't think it could get bigger! Yes he likes his baths!

Signing

I know some of you might think "why are you teaching her sign language?" my answer is I'm not! I don't know sign language myself, but I have a DVD that has some common signs around the house, and I was thinking why not let her know some? It doesn't hurt. I think kids like actions with songs/words. So here I am showing you some of the signs she tries to do. I think it is rather cute. Obviously she doesn't do them perfectly. Anyways here is a bit of Amelia signing...

Money!

This is one of my favourite things to see in our family - Jett playing with Amelia (or Aaron). Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did filming it! Have a good weekend!

Our visit to Scone Palace

At long last our day out came and went...and here are the pictures to prove it. :)

A view of the palace.

What welcomed us before we got to the top of the hill where the palace is.

Jett thought it was neat how we were "all set to go" with a double stroller and all.

The entrance (and no I have none of the inside...no pics allowed inside)

The chapel, and a replica of the Stone of Scone.

They had a playground there and Amy liked the swings.

This one was caged up...by the way there were quite a number of these peacocks around the entrance of the palace gates and in the far back there were a couple too.

I like this pic... :)

They had chickens and a couple of donkeys here...Amy liked it *very* much.

Again

Another peacock showing us his beauty.

Another view of the palace from a different angle.

Lots of greenery...it was very refreshing for us.

I like this kind of scene...kind of romantic in a way maybe?

And this is a douglas fir thought I got a fairly neat shot! :)

And thats it. And now my kiddos are awake so I need to run!

my thought this afternoon

I have laundry on the line. The sky (er...clouds) decided they weren't clean enough.

Some old pictures and new...

"Terry" As Amelia says. :)

"Dawn" or rather John...

Heehee spaghetti sauce :)

"Let me open this door for you."

The first couple of weeks that we were in Perth I made a cake with Amelia...well...I left her for a wee bit and came back to find this...so I got my camera and said, "Say hi to the camera Amelia!"

And this is her saying "Hi Camera!"

I had to laugh. :)

And here, (Yes Care it is what you see!) is my brand new sewing machine at no cost to me! Many thanks to the lady who sent this to us! I'm quite tickled as you can imagine (well that is if you like to sew). I've already used it several times this week...it is very nice!
And the reason for my lack of posting is...
Oh. Sorry, yes, I'm trying to potty train. Let me just say I wish I waited till she was 2 or a wee bit later - I've done this for 4-5 days now and really am not seeing any progress. Or maybe I feel so tired and worn out that I'm just not seeing any...ho hum. Exactly HOW DO YOU POTTY TRAIN? It is too bad that kids don't come with instruction manuals...my life would be a whole lot easier (lol). Soo I'm off to finally get some things done. Next post should be about our trip to Scone Palace (Monday). :) Hope everyone had an excellent Canada Day and July the 4th!

Perth Manse

Just a quick post need to get kids in to bed for nap!

Here is a view from the manse looking left.

A few streets back and you get this view.

This one is unrelated to the above 2 pictures.

"Mom, didn't you know towels are good for you? There full of fiber (sp)!"

This is the outside front of the manse...yellow is not my colour but oh well. :)

This is a view still in front just passed the stone wall, this is our flower garden that we've been working on quite a bit...what do you think? Wish I took a "before" pic!

A view looking towards the road on an angle though not straight on... you can see my impatiens first, and then a couple of geraniums and another plant I don't know the name of.

Ok, so here is what you would see first thing entering the door...our living room.

As you look left you can kind of see the dining room and off the dining room is the kitchen.

Jett's study.

The spare room or the "Rose Room" as I should call it (the carpet has roses on it).

Ok, back to the dining room and then you make a right and you enter the...

Kitchen, yes it is smallish but big enough and I think nicer then a gallery style kitchen. I still don't know how to fully work that oven... :S

And thats all I have of the inside so far...I dont have a pic of our room (Aaron was sleeping at the time, nor of the bathroom (lol I don't know if you really need to see that...but it is different due to the black colour in it...). Will post later but things are catching up on me...ahh! And it is a gorgeous day here!!

Wanted: A Sewing Machine in good working condition

Uhm...does anybody have a sewing machine (in the UK that is) who might be willing to part with it for 2 years? ;) Long shot I know, but I'm starting to feel the urge to...sew!! :) Please leave comments or even suggestions on where to find one...(thats not going to cost me lost of these £££). Off to sip tea. :)

the speed of broadband :)

I like broadband. You can do things in half the time (saving you time) then with dialup. Yes, we have broadband.

This week has been going pretty awful I must admit. Rainy days...cold weather, no dryer and a whole lot of laundry strewn everywhere trying to dry...not to mention going to the doctor and getting antibiotics for more than one infection (yes it's for me), I tried to bake a cake yesterday and oh boy...I think the oven setting was on grill or something...yep I have one messy oven to clean now. Seems like some cold/sore throat virus is lingering a wee bit here too but thankfully it isn't too bad (nights are still peaceful in other words). But the sun is coming out today though it rained a bit this morning so maybe it will be a nice weekend? Lets hope!

On the brighter side of things, I have photos to share...none of this place yet, but soon :)

This is my family excluding the inlaws and Aaron. From L-R: Jackie, Ben (holding Kenneth), Mom, Me (holding Amy) Jay (who is holding Savannah).

Not sure what Mom was laughing at here, but here is Jay holding Aaron.

And, oh, we are backing up! Claire, Amy, and Julia.

My Dad and Ben. This was taken at Moody Gardens, Galveston.

Amelia looking at the many fishies with Opa.

Check back later (ahh, I mean a 24-48hrs from now) for more updates (maybe!).

a little bit of gardening goes a long way

Wow its been a week already?? Yikes, I thought it was only a couple of days...where does the time go?

Okay, so I'm still here and its 5pm...usually the time I start thinking about "cooking" the food I prepped a few minutes ago. I don't need to worry about it for another 15-30 minutes though. Let us see how fast I can type out this weeks events....

OK.

I can't remember half the things I did and Aaron isn't letting me either. My day usually consist of a load of laundry (mondays 3 loads), hanging that outside if weather permits, dishes, meals, diapers (oh and twice the amount now with cloth!!)...uhm, oh yes I did do some new things.

Gardening! You know Jett and myself DISLIKE gardening...never liked picking weeds...and what are we doing for fun right now?? Picking weeds!! I can't believe it! I'm actually enjoying having a wee bit of flower gardens to work on. We have nearly the front all weeded and wow does it ever look better! They were growing a weed garden it seemed ;) before we came. Now I want to plant some flowers in it to make it colourful - Jett mentioned doing that monday yippie! :) So that is one thing newish.

Potty training. No I haven't started but...I've attempted to prep her for it and even had some success with her on the big potty! I have yet to buy her her own...another task for Monday. Oh...and she misses her DVD that we left at my mom-in-laws...do you think you could mail that to us pretty please? I also have got Amelia into colouring and she really enjoys that...we tried painting once, but really it is for outside!!! I also can say that Amy can count to 3! "Flower" is pronounced more like "bower" and all her "f"s are kind of nonexistent well there may be a few words she does sort of say the f in them...pretty funny when she says "pork" for "fork"! She is also realizing that dresses are "pretty" and "cute" but it is only directed to the clothing rather then herself...if only it will stay that way.

Aaron is...well still the smiley Aaron. I've started giving him a wee bit of rice cereal but I've decided not to wean until almost 6 months unless he starts getting hungrier. I'm also trying to get him off his 3rd nap but that is proving to be more difficult then I thought.

Jett is busy. :) I didn't have to tell you that now did I? He is studying Hebrew. I think its August 1st that he takes the Hebrew exam...hmm, I suppose I need to write that on my calendar. And of course with taking the services here it leaves him very little time for much else. But I got smart (ok not really...)! I sat him down and discussed that we need a planned outing for at least two days during our stay here in Perth. So...not this monday but the next I think and we're supposed to go see/do something.

Yesterday we went off to Edinburgh for a chiro. visit, get mail, and we stopped at the Dickies flat for dinner (the boys were out but Cath and Rachel B were present which was very nice!). Wow, I didn't know Edinburgh was so beautiful in the summer!

The following is a pic of Amelia and Matthew taking a bubble bath! That was so much fun to watch!



Ok I need to run...way too much time taken up on here! Broadband is on the way though. :)

I'm lagging behind...

in everything. I can't seem to keep up with the house, laundry, baths, diaper changes, finances etc oh the list goes on! Whoever came up with the "washing, ironing, food, etc" (wife for short) part didn't realize that the "etc" meant a whole whole lot more than the first three!

Well...I took the plunge :) I tried on a one size motherease diaper on Aaron...and surprisingly he fits it "very" well for a 4 month old! I think Amelia was just so small at 4-5 months that the diaper just swallowed her. He looks cute I must add! I was able to buy three more covers and some diapers as well, the covers are cute they will beat any disposable diaper designs anyday!

You'll have to excuse my one-photo-at-a-time, but it is the best I can do with dialup. We found out that talktalk is available in Harris! Soo, I'll be able to post better then (2 1/2 months time). So here is a picture of myself and Amy, my Oma, Jackie, and Jeremy (Jay) holding Aaron. I'm jumping ahead I apologize, but I figured Care might like to see this one. I'll admit my shock at seeing Oma...I can't believe she lost 30 lbs during her sickness.

Sorry for the shorter (I suppose) post must be getting dinner on!

back in Scotland

We are back in Scotland (Perth to be exact) and are suffering from jet lag (yes, still). I think it is worse coming back then going to. But anyways, I think the kids are the ones getting used to the time change before we are.

Jett has the presbytery exam tomorrow, so I’ll be by myself for awhile tomorrow calls, emails and texts are welcome (just kidding).

We currently only have dialup so I’m afraid my time on the internet is greatly reduced…that’s not a bad thing though. I’m finding plenty of time cleaning and handwashing dishes! I’m back into cloth diapering with Amy (it would be hectic to do that on a trip) but I’m seeing how she is showing more and more signs of being ready to potty train…eek.

Hmm, I believe this manse has no freezer. The no dryer part I can deal with, but how do you live without a freezer? How long does meat stay fresh? We’ll be here for the next 2 and ½ months and then we move to Northton (Harris).

So I tried to take “a lot” of pictures from the trip, but I really didn’t manage a whole whole lot due to the lack of memory space on the camera…but I got quite a nice number of them…now, my dear sister in laws, and Sam have some pictures that I want please email them to me! Now to upload them using dialup is another thing…it takes forever, maybe I’ll *try* one at a time for now. Do look at my sister's and Sam's blog for more pictures.

Short Update

Yes, I haven't blogged in a long time but most of you will understand since we're on our vacation. Our stay in Texas is coming swiftly to an end. I'm kind of confused as to where the time has all gone! First week was the communion season, the second was kind of a catching up week after the communion, the third was a big visiting week, and our last week is much of the same. Friday we head off to Canada for a short 5 or 6 days? And then head back to the UK. Aaron's visa came in well ahead of time, so we are set to go (again). Myself, and Amelia caught pretty much a bad cold, except Amelia showed more signs of being sick (a fever that climbed as high as 103.7!) Anyways we are (I hope) on the mend...unless Jett comes down with it! I suppose I'll need to fill in on details of the trip here, but for now, I need to run!

packing, moving, and getting rearended by another car...

Well, maybe a quick post...we'll see. I get so long very quickly!

Okay, so Jett first was thinking of making one trip on Monday to Perth...now it is likely two trips (hmm, I need to downsize again I think). One today and one on Monday. So...yes, were busy. But nothing like packing an entire house so it isn't as hard as one might imagine. I actually only have odds and ends now to pack up, and Jett's clothes which I'm leaving for the last. So not too bad really seeing how I've procrastinated quite badly this past week! :) Monday I need to spend a good deal of the time cleaning this place up...maybe I'll get to some of it today (I should try!!). So, today Pack and first trip to Perth, Sabbath hopefully some rest, Monday remainder of packing, laundry, a GOOD cleaning to the flat, and second trip to Perth...oh and finalize all the packing stuff for Texas somewhere in there too. Tuesday we fly out for Texas...yikes, and we have to leave how early for the airport?? :S

So, as you can see by the title yes, our car was rearended by someone. The trunk doesn't "click" shut but still usable. The bumper looks awful though but anyways nothing is perfect. Definitely trying to us during a time when we "need" this car to move stuff up to Perth, but Jett thinks that the car is still fine for moving stuff up so I'm relieved about that. I wasn't happy that both kids were in the car at the time (of course Jett too) but I can't change that. Anyways, so thats the car. :S

Both kids are sweetly sleeping just now, so I really ought to make a big effort to pack lots! This probably will be my last post...unless I get something on here Monday. But if not bye bye for now, and maybe I'll post when we are in Texas...well, maybe! :) Bye for now.