Tyler's Bday

Well how horrible am I? I never posted a proper post to my sweet big girl.

Tyler was born in the wee hours of January 22, 1996.......

She was our first baby and we were sooo excited. She made us wait 11 days for her arrival and even then she made us wait all day for her to come out - something like 14 hours!

But now I wouldn't even know what to do without her - she is smart, funny, responsible, such a good girl. She's my best friend - I can always count on her. My how she is growing - 13 - it all goes so fast from here.

She had a party on Thursday - her real birthday - we didn't have school on Friday so it was perfect - 9 girls came over for a sleepover - we had a mini party - individualized - homemade individual pizzas, giant individual birthday cupcakes, triple chocolate brownies brought to school, crepes for breakfast - I was so tired of cooking!!! But they had fun - she missed her hometown friends terribly but she has made really nice new friends from here, the US, Canada, and all over. What a great experience! Happy Birthday Baby!

Wacky Wednesdays

Now that school is back we started dance for Tyler - that has thrown my schedule into a tizzy. Granted it is nothing like the wackiness we experienced at home - dancing 5 days a week - 8.5 - 9 hours a week and it would take 30 mins to get there - had 3 carpools....makes me dizzy reliving it!

But here the kids aren't doing nearly as many activities, but the ones they are doing all seem to land on one day - yes Wednesday.... here's a look at my day after school and it doesn't include dinner or homework....

3:45 - Ty & Lucas come home
4:45 - Pick up boys from Cub Scouts (every other week) OR
6:00 - Once a month - Boys - Faith in God at church OR
7:00 - Once a month - Boys - Cub Scout Pack Meeting - but wait gets better...
5:30 6:30 Tyler dance
7:30-9 - Tyler YW

All this and without baseball, soccer or football!!! Oh my!

We love visitors

Our friends Judy, Stuart, Alex & Cameron from CA came to visit us. It wasn't planned and they were just stopping through because Stuart's father passed away so they came here for family but we're so glad they could make time to come and see us even if it was short. We had plans to go out to dinner - I had arranged for Mary Poppins to come babysit the kids so it worked out really well. Judy brought us a great care package of goldfish, bath & body works & Robeez for Tristan!

(Boys and their toys...)

It seems like there is pretty much either Italian or Indian here - unless you want fish & chips or minced pies.

We had a nice weekend though just running Tyler to dance mostly and visiting with our friends. It has warmed up a little so the boys washed the cars to get all that wonderful salt off. Today was lots of rain and the LOUDEST thunder I've heard in my life!

The kids are all doing well - we got Tyler back into dancing, the boys are doing cubs and clubs at school and Lucas just goes with the flow. I went to Baby Gap the other day and cashed in on their 75% off sale - Tristan got some sweet outfits - lucky girl!

16 Years

(At Mike's 40th Surprise Party in July)

My how fast time flies - 16 years ago Mike & I were sealed in the Oakland Temple. It seems like a lifetime ago and yet seems like it was just yesterday. Here we are 16 years and 5 kids later - what an adventure. This year is low key - other anniversaries we've gone to Hawaii, Mexico on a cruise, Lake Tahoe, this year we're just going to dinner.

I wrote all the mushy stuff on Mike's birthday - he asked me this morning if I'd do it all over again...in a heartbeat (but in a different dress)

I love you Mike



This is a frozen cobweb from last week when it was -4 or so - it was so beautiful - I've never seen cobwebs frozen over like that! Have a great weekend!

More Holiday Pictures

Tristan is smiling already

There's another place to visit by our house called Painshill Park - it is a great visitor's area with lots of land and an old buildings (castle-like of course). Lot's of open space for the kids to run about as well. We went to visit while still on holiday but they were closing - we'll have to go back another day. Cman loves to take pictures.

Another fun place near our house is Garson's Farm - during the summer and fall you can pick your own fruits and vegetables but it was cold when we went so we just went shopping. Lucas found a microphone to practice his guitar hero songs - he was rockin' out to Twisted Sister I think...

Tristan's first Christmas

Weekend & SNOW DAY!

We had a fun weekend - we live very close to Hampton Court - the Winter diggs of Henry VIII - he'd ride down the Thames on the royal barge and come celebrate down here - it was dang cold - you could see why the royals needed so many footmen about too keep the fires stoked!


All of my "Other Boleyn Girl" reading has come in handy here - along with all of my Jane Austen - at least I know where places are! Hampton Court is much larger than I realized so luckily we purchased a family season pass so we can come back to explore - they even have a weekend in March to come and cook in their vast kitchens with the huge hearths - they also have an outdoor ice skating rink right now and a merry-go-round and Sugar Floss (Cotton Candy)



Later Saturday night we had our friends the Hamberlin's over for dinner. We introduced them to Wii Fit - I have some great video footage of Mark doing the Hoolahoop catch! I'm saving that for a future bargaining chip.



We also taught them the Left, Right, Center game - we didn't plan well though because we didn't have enough coins so we played with playing cards instead - however, the two littlest ones (Emma & Lucas) ending up winning!



You can't see them as well as we intended but cutie patutie Tristan has on fashion tights - the ones with that look like Mary Janes - however she also slept through church so no one got to see her fabulous outfit - oh well - there's always next week.

Today was the first day back to school - we woke up to snow!! I'm a Calfornia Girl - so weird to send the kids out to school in the snow (thank heaven school wasn't closed!) They all loved it - you wouldn't know it, but these pictures were taken at 7:45 whilst we waited for the bus to come to the house. Mike couldn't get out of the drive way in his car - luckily mine is 4-wheel drive so he ended up taking my car.
Sadly my car sits outside - we only have a one car garage if you can believe it!


The kids had a good day - it snowed all morning - Mike tried to buy salt on the way home - but their pint sized psuedo Home Depots sold out within 15 mins after they opened - we'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

We have had a busy month - my mom came out first to come see Tristan - I can't believe she is 6 weeks old now! It goes so very fast!

Mike's parents joined in on the fun and both sets (well my dad was at home working :( ) of grandparents were here so we had the baby's blessing and Ian's Baptism.

My mom left and Mike's parents were here for another week - my mother in law ended up falling one night and dislocated her shoulder!! It happened at midnight and Mike had to take her to the A&E - we're legend now here for going to the A&E (ER) 3 times within our first 3 months staying here! They had to stay until 5AM and Mike had to go to work still. On top of that my FIL caught a cold and so we stayed in.

They went home on the 19th and then Louise, Max & Sophia arrived on the 21st to celebrate Christmas. We had a really good time. New Year's was much quieter - Cman went to a friend's house (they are from Lafayette!) and the rest of us made homemade pizza and had ginger ale. It was sad not watching "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years" but we watched Sir Elton instead - pretty sedate in comparison.

We've cleaned up our Christmas decorations which few we had and organized some things I couldn't get to before the baby was born so our house looks much more organized! Louise told me once that her Japanese mom always said you should try to have a clean house upon the new year to bring forth good luck (or atleast an organized house) for the new year! So I've hedged my bets and our house looked great!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Gosh where has the month gone? It has been so crazy busy here - I've forgotten how much time a newborn takes - we've had a wonderful holiday with friends - hope you all have had a wonderful day! We miss our family and home friends but it has been a new experience to be here...Merry Christmas!!

Baptism, Blessing & Pinewood Derby

We had a very busy weekend. The boys had their first English pinewood derby - very different than at home in that it seemed more dad's tinkered with the cars than at home - there were some great designs out there - but extremely unlikely 10 year olds and younger did the work "by themselves". Ian came in 4th and Chandler I'm not sure but they had a good time! There are TONS of boys in our Den so it was a very long day.

After we had Ian's baptism - he had a HUGE turn out! There were about 50 people there! I had made a lite dinner - it was like Jesus with the loaves of bread & fish - I was worried but we had plenty of food. We had to do everything - not like at home where the stake plans it all for you - it was really nice - Tyler gave a talk along with my FIL, and the kids along with our friends the Hamberlin kids sang I Am A Child of God. It turned out great - the only thing missing were The Smiths.....


Sunday we blessed Tristan - first time in ages I got my mom to come and stay at church with us. it turned out so nice - I found this beautiful blessing gown at a shop that was closing down in town - it's all raw silk and tulle -

My mom left yesterday then I took my in-laws to a "mall" - we actually have a few here - and did some Christmas shopping. Now just trying to get things done. Tristan is sleeping pretty well - she gets up around 12:30, 1AM and then maybe squeaks around 3:30 then she's out till about 6am.... she is so sweet - you really do forget the pain that you carried around for MONTHS and those last 3 hours of labor ugh! But what a prize!!

Happy 2 Weeks

Time goes by so fast! The baby is growing so fast it is amazing - she has been really sweet - she sleeps pretty well - but you know the first week or two it's all about the sleep, eating & pooping. We are in full swing with the grandparent visits. My mom is still here until Monday and my in-laws arrived last Tuesday.

I send the grands to London for the day on Wednesday - they got to take the double decker bus and see all the major sights from the bus. Then on Thursday I took them on a Holiday Home Tour through the women's club to see people's decorations. That was a very fun day. Yesterday we made the trek to Costco - it takes about 50 mins to get there so I don't go very often. Then we raced back to watch Cman in a mini-concert - he's been playing the clarinet now for about a month and is already in the orchestra - I'm so glad they welcome kids at any point here - it is very nice. They have about 40 kids in their orchestra for 4&5th grade. It was terrific.

Today we're getting ready for Ian's baptism. Oh, and the Pinewood derby so I should have some really great pictures coming in the next couple days - I'll post more of the baby too - she is so sweet!! Happy Saturday!