Look Who's TWO!

Once again, along with Christmas we were able to celebrate another special day in our family, Nathanael's second birthday. We celebrated after dinner with both sets of Grandmas and Grandpas. He loved tearing into more presents. The other kids think it is no fair that he gets to have his birthday on Christmas and get even more presents. I don't think it is something to be jealous of. He doesn't get anything the rest of the year. Bummer! Since he is still young and doesn't have much of an opinion, what we have been doing, by having a birthday party on Christmas night, works well for us. When/if he starts to get bothered by his birthday on Christmas, we will change things.

I just love this little pose!

Tearing into some pressies!

Enjoying the first licks of his birthday cake. He was adorable trying to blow out his candles. He tried, tried and tried but finally gave up. He just looked up at me as if to say, "this is too much work."

We are so blessed to celebrate another year of Nathanael's life. It was also neat to be able to celebrate it, along with Christmas with the rest of our families.

Leah's Lingo

I found the girls playing in their room this morning.

Leah says to me, "I'm playing I just had a tiny baby and I am in bed."

I look over at her and she is tucked right into bed with her baby doll tucked into the baby bed pulled right up to the side of her bed. Gee, can you tell we have brought a few babies home from the hospital? BTW, Anna was ironing baby clothes at the time. Girls are so fun and they play so differently than boys.

Grandma and Aunt Laura's Visit

Just a few highlights from our visit with Grandma F and Aunt Laura. We visited Warwick Castle on the first Saturday of their time here. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera that day. We had a great time and especially enjoyed our dinner at Nando's in Coventry.

The above photo was taken at Burghley House. We spent the day there walking, picnicing and playing in the water at the Garden of Surprise.
Mom, Laura and Nathanael enjoying our day out to Cambridge while the rest of the kids were at Holli's. We had lunch at the Slug and Lettuce (a chain restaurant/pub in England). Thanks again, Holli!

Mom and Laura 0n the bus in Cambridge

Our day out to Stamford on Cason's birthday. These pictures are of us stopping at Bean's for our hot chocolate and milkshakes.

Mom, Laura, Andrew, Cason and Nathanael (sleeping) on a bridge in Stamford.

Mom and Laura by the train at Kings Cross in London for our girls weekend.

Me and Laura in front of a monument at Kensington Palace.

Me and Mom on a bench at the Cath Kidston store in Covent Gardens. Such a lovely store. It was hard to make final decisions. I did come away with a really nice bag and matching wallet.

Mom and Laura in front of an English phone booth.

The kids and grandma being silly on their last night here.

All of us (minus Steve) before they left bright and early the next morning. We had such a great time with them and are so happy they were able to make it to visit us one last time.

Cason Turns Eight!

This stylish dude turned eight way back on August 21 (see how behind I am.) Cason was able to have a bigger birthday party than usual as grandma and Aunt Laura were here visiting. We once again gave him the option for what he wanted to do for his birthday dinner go out or eat in his favorite food. He chose to eat in. He wanted grilled chicken with Peri-Peri sauce from Nando's. So that is what we did. We ended the meal with a confetti cake with homemade butter cream frosting. He was thrilled.

His birthday was on Friday. For the day, we took grandma and Aunt Laura into Stamford to the market. We did a bit of shopping, had lunch and then stopped off at Bean's (the best little coffee shop) for milkshakes for the kids, hot chocolate for mommy and Aunt Laura and coffee for grandma. After our little treat, we had to make a secret stop for a surprise for Cason. We headed to the music store where we bought Cason his birthday present - a 3/4 size red,acoustic guitar. He was so surprised. He left the store carrying his guitar in his case all the way to the car as proud as can be. He had asked for an electric guitar for his birthday, but mom and dad wanted him to learn on acoustic first and thankfully the man at the music store agreed.

Everyone waiting for birthday cake.

The happy birthday boy and two proud sisters.

Cason with his remote control Hummer from Grandma and Grandpa S.

Cason with his very own personalized picture from Grandma F.

Blowing out the candles.

Cason, we hope you had a great birthday. We love you so much. You are such a hard worker and a great helper. We hope you have fun learning how to play your new guitar. Love you, honey!

Lost Teeth

Two weeks ago, Tristan lost his first tooth. The kids spent the day at my friend Holli's while my mom, sister, Nate and I went to Cambridge for the day. While he was at Holli's, he pulled his first tooth. Tristan didn't tell anyone and Holli saw later in the day that he had lost it. She asked him why he didn't tell anyone. He said he didn't want her to take his tooth. He kept it tucked safely in his pocket all day. He was very excited to put it under his pillow that night and even wrote the tooth fairy a note asking how big she was. He got a nice note in reply saying she was about 12 inches. He went around all day asking people how big they thought the tooth fairy was and then telling them the correct size. I love six year olds!

Three days after that he lost his second tooth. This time he wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking if he could keep his tooth. She gladly left his money and his tooth.

A Bit Behind

Sorry, I am a bit behind in my blogging. My sister and mom we over visiting for 12 days and we have been busy getting things sorted for our trip back to the US next week. We will be in the US for two weeks. We look forward to our time there, but know it will be a very busy time.

I will try to slip in a few blogs here and there when I get a chance before then.

London

We've been wanting to get the kids back down to London so on Saturday, August 1, we headed down on the train. Our first stop was the Tower of London. Above is a picture of Steve with the kids in front of it. One of our first stops once inside the Tower was to get some lunch. We are all in better moods when we have full tummies. Then we were off to see the Tower.

Mommy and Nathanel eating fish and chips for lunch.

Leah at lunch.

Cason at lunch.

After we finished lunch, we headed outside only to find a sword fight going on. This is a picture of us watching the fight.

Andrew in front of a very old castle wall.

Leah happily riding on daddy's back.

Steve and the kids with the Tower Bridge in the background.

A very nice, American gentleman offered to take our picture. I think it came out pretty well.

Mommy and most of the kids with a guard in the background.

Nathanael watching the guard.

We have to admit, the Tower of London was not our favorite castle (we like Windsor and Edinburgh Castles much better). We did however really like seeing the English Crown Jewels. It was incredible seeing videos and pictures of Queen Elizabeth's corination and then seeing the amazing jewels.

Cason on the Tube (the underground).

Tristan on the Tube.

Dad and Andrew on the Tube.

Our next stop was Hamley's, a huge toy store. I think we may have been a little nuts to take our kids there, since it is such an incredibly busy store. It wasn't too bad and we even got out of there without buying anything. We did buy the kids a small item back at the Tower of London earlier, so they didn't even ask at Hamley's.

Leah in front of the lift(elevator) doors in Hamley's .

Annaliese feeding Nate some ice cream at Nandos (a delicious Portuguese chicken restaurant)

Nate after eating a bite of ice cream. I think he may have had a brain freeze.

Cheesing it up for the camera.

Annaliese eating her ice cream.

Picture of us in Piccadilly Circus before catching the tube back to the train station.

Patiently waiting to jump on the tube.

Enjoying some guy time on the train ride back to Peterborough.