Big School!!!!

Here she is, in her messy room, in her big school uniform. She will also have black or grey tights and black shoes, but thats it for decision. How lovely to wake up every morning and not fight about what she will wear, because thats what we have been doing for the past 2 years. She is so fiercly independent and doesn't like being told what to wear, add to that her wierd fashion sense and that would explain some of her amazing outfits in the past few months. I have also somehow managed to convince her that she is not allowed to wear her hair down because that is the school rule with uniforms. So I will be able to do her hair cute more days than just Sundays now too! So hopefully her scruffy days are over and my mornings will be alot more carefree! I live in hope.

Visits, Easter, birthdays, and other general silliness!

Hank, Leah and Sam arrived the 24th of March and it has been all systems go until they left the 14th of April missing the complete shut down of British air space for ever since and its Monday night and still not a single commercial flight in or out of England. We had such an absolute blast with our family. The kids loved it and hated it. Its funny how kids are slaves to routine and these kids really missed theirs. At times when we were on a train or in the car or he was strapped in his push chair Ollie would say, "I want to go to Inglenook". That's the name of his nursery. So they are glad to return to their schedule and some normalcy, but are still missing their Baby Sam. Here is Oliver in all his silly splendor sitting in the window flying like Superman. Oh the stories I can tell about his ultimate temper tantrums in public places because of Spiderman. He wants a Spiderman muscle costume so bad sometimes it is impossible to control himself. He was running as fast as he could in the mall again and again to return to the toy store and look at the costume. Hanks said it was funny because his face when he first saw it wasn't even happy just worried because he knew what I was going to say when he demanded it. I think I have convinced him that Santa Claus knows he wants it and if he is a very good boy maybe he will bring it to him. Its amazing how many little boys you see wandering around in Spiderman suits when you really don't want to. It makes for some fun times with Ollie!

Can you see home much chocolate Oliver has crammed into his little mouth. It was his favorite word for days after Easter. The Easter bunny doesn't bring baskets in England only GIGANTIC chocolate eggs and lots of cream eggs, oh and mini-eggs too. All Cadbury of course... Though I do prefer a nice Lindt Lindor egg myself!

This was a relatively miserable rainy day, but the misery stopped with the weather and the fun began with Nanny and Grandad meeting Hank, Leah, and Sam, touring some beautiful country homes, and eating a lovely country pub meal. So the best story from this day goes like this... Mommy tells Katya and Ollie to be careful and not fall in the mud because they don't have a change of clothes and they will be muddy all day then...then Mommy goes and fall in the mud and has to walk around all day with muddy trousers.

Katya and Ollie sent to slave in the coal mines of the Black Country(notice Oliver hasn't left Spiderman out of the fun).

Happy Birthday to Katya. I can't believe she is 4! She had 4 Ladybird (Ladybug for the Americans) cupcakes and lots of other silly cupcakes made by all of us. Can you see the Blonde Wario cupcake designed by Uncle Hanky!

Grandma Marty thanks for the awesome Monkey gears set! She thinks its so cool!

Oliver riding on top of the Black Country Fair London Bus.

Katya driving the Titanic before it sunk. She is such sweet and kind girl!

Here are the cousins in their warm jammies playing together. They love each other so much. Ollie still asks every morning where Hanky, Leah, and Baby Sam are.

This is a lovely little seaside town on the south coast of England called Christchurch.

Katya and Oliver looking very American in their super cute Easter outfits from Grandma Marty. Katya loves her dress and everyone says Ollie looks like a mini golfer. I am so thankful for the kindness of my mom!

It was a beautiful, but freezing cold windy day at Stonehenge, but we soldiered on!

Here we are on top of the Liverpool Cathedral Bell tower, 330 feet above Liverpool. Martin got sudden vertigo and I had to carry Ollie up the stairs because he was afraid he would drop him!

These are my favourite pictures at the Liverpool Tate Museum. Katya designed these photos herself. She saw this bench and was OBSESSED with it. She wanted to lay on her side and have her picture taken and then she wanted daddy to do it too and hide behind him. I love her little girl skinny jeans! Hand me downs from her hip cousin Teigan!

Ollie's 2nd Birthday...Hooray!

Thank you Nanny and Grandad for the star present. Oliver and his big sister Katya LOVE this gift. Its a big indoor toy, but this time of year when there isn't too much outdoor play possible it is wonderful. They really use their imagination too. I asked Oliver where he was driving to yesterday and without a second thought he said " to Disneyland". Of course where else would you go if you had such a cool foot pedal car?

Here is the dude himself! I love this picture because this is really what he looks like right now. He is such a generally happy chappy. Ok so he does like to scream on public transport, Oh and he does frequently wake up at 4:30 am repeatedly uttering the phrase, "I don't like to go to bed.", in a happy sweet voice in my ear as I try to get him to go back to sleep in bed with us. That is actually sweet just not at 4:30 am.

Ollie, Katya, and Teigan opening the cool legos from Gramma and Bampa! Katya's eagerness to help Ollie open his gifts faster reminds of a story I once heard about a big sister that couldn't control herself and had to "help" her younger brothers and sisters open their presents faster. I don't know who that big sister could have been? Any ideas?

"Superman", sung in a sweet raspy voice. He is truly a boy

How are their eyes so blue? I'm pretty sure Oliver is telling Katya something very important in this picture. I just don't know what!

I was impressed with my Superman cake and Spiderman cupcakes, but not as impressed as Ollie and Katya. Ok so the cupcakes are more pink than they are red, but no matter how much food colouring I added they stayed pink. So I couldn't have a pink "S" for Superman so I used the tube of writing icing and filled it in that way. It took a REALLY long time, but it was worth it!

Happy Birthday my big boy!

Unusually cold...

Snow suits are courtesty of Callum and Teigan. They kept them warm and dry and they played outside for nearly an hour. Last year Katya lasted a grand total of about 10 minutes in the cold!

Hey its a lot for us!

I added a little Christmas. Here is Katya with her Giant Castle puzzle from Grandma, she loves it and we do it at least once a day!

Stocking Carnage , also admire the "mation", as Ollie calls them, jammas!!

Spider man helicopter need I say more. Also cute Thomas jammies that he got on Christmas Eve!

This little video sums up Katya and Ollie's excitement with Katya's ministry of silly walks scissor run into the fresh snow and Ollie's "WEEEE" as he walks down the path! This was their first release into the white stuff so it is genuine excitement!

Blog Neglect!

A long long overdue update. The story of why we have been so out of it is at the end of the pictures.
Innkeeper #3 grooving in the hay!

She's a natural!

Oliver being very serious about his stage debut!

Katya with Innkeeper 1 and 2

Oliver with the angels.

Katya getting a present from Santa! She had her face painted and when they asked what she wanted to be she said "a pink leopard of course".

Can you see the little boy excitement on his sweet face?

Waiting in anticipation for the arrival of the man...

I think pictures says it all, a little too much chocolate!

Decorating fairy cakes with Daddy and Nanny!

Christmas Shopping with Noddy and Makka Pakka

All bundled up, Oliver is sporting his mega black eye!

We have had a pretty eventful last two months. We have made 5 trips to the emergency room at the children's hospital with Oliver! He has been diagnosed with asthma and 4 of those trips were for oxygen and nebeulizer treatments. Twice they hospitalized him for 3 days. The extra trip was to get his face glued together after he ran straight into the edge of the coffee table. The brits say, "he's been in the wars". It seems we finally have treatment on a daily basis that is helping and he hasn't been in the hospital for almost 3 weeks. We are aiming for a hospital free Christmas. I guess this is my explanation for being sparse on the updates.

The kids have, amidst the insanity, been to see Santa and starred in their nursery school nativity play as a Shepherd and Innkeeper #3. You might not have known, but apparently there were 3 innkeepers and they all wore pink outfits, also the boy shepherds seem to be pretty in purple and pink! Hope the pictures make you as happy as me. Oliver is ENAMOURED with Christmas. He loves the decorations, Santa Claus, the Nativities, you name it he is so happy with it. I think being 2 at Christmas is amazing I wish I could remember it!

The Smartest

I know every mom thinks her child is the smartest in the world, but Katya really might be ; )
She can now write her name all by herself. I am so impressed. She is getting more and more confident. Sometimes the letters are in the wrong order, but she gets it right most of the time!


All her own doing, except the example name written by me!

She signed this card for Ollie that they helped her make at nursery!

She even tried Ollie's name! Plus you got to love his hair and the fact that he is apparently suffering from gangrene!

Halloween Party Fun!

We have been meeting up with some other moms from our ward on Friday mornings, so we decided to host a Halloween party. Teigan came to sleep over Thursday night and we had so much fun getting things ready. This lot is such a bunch of characters. It amazes me how little 2 and 3 year olds can already have such distinct personalities!


Eating the vegetable kitty!! Can you believe that the little girl sitting next to Katya is only 2?!

The carved pumpkin madness! In the garage with the light off. Good thing Martin is a quick thinker, I couldn't work out how to show them off properly to the kids in the middle of the day!

Teigan, Poppy, Katya, Ollie, and Eliza

Martin helping Joel to carve his pumpkin. Joel is so cute and such a little individual. He kept poking me in tummy to get my attention the whole day!

Teigan and Katya posing as witch princesses.

Oliver looks like he has a bad case of acne, it is supposed to be a pirate beard. Here he is a witch pirate. He wasn't really into dressing up! He mostly just wanted to wear his pirate wellie boots.

The proud creators of the scary vegetable cat! I would like to take credit for the creativity behind it, but alas I found it online!

Hello Vegetable Crudite Cat with a hummus head!

Teigand and Katya assembling the critter!

Oliver mostly chewed up pieces of veg and then spit them out, he didn't really want to eat them, but they looked so pretty and he knows you're supposed to eat them. Yes, Hank, he still has his dummy in his mouth. He doesn't need it, I need him to have it! Someone gave me a really good idea to cure him of it though. Collect all your dummies, I think we have 5 on the go now, and have your child put them into a build-a-bear stuffed toy themselves and they will have a "dummy toy" to sleep with. I am worried Ollie would find a way to tear through to his beloved "ummie" if he knew it was actually inside. I promise we will be done with dummies before Hank, Leah, and Sammy come to visit, you can hold me to it!