On a PoSiTiVe NoTe

Summa time. 5 Reasons I heart England:
1. This place is GREEN CITY. Imagine what the Garden of Eden would be like...this is it only with a little bit more toil than they had to do for our lifestyle.
2. I heard a piper piping his bagpipe this past week. It was across the street from the pre-school, in a field with horses roaming. Do you have this by your pre-school?
3. The air I breathe in is clean and I feel it is doing my body good. It also smells sweet right now due to the quantity of flowers and grass about. In Phx I sometimes wished I could go inside a sterile environment like Bubble Boy so that I could breathe clean air.
4. The earth cools off on summer evenings here. After a gorgeous day of sunshine, when we've had our fill of UV rays, it gets cool and fresh which seems very natural unlike the hot oven like nights of urban heat I was used to.
5. I am very happy my children elocute properly at least sometimes now: wa-ter instead of wa-der, hate-ed instead of hade-ed, and my all time favourite: impor-tant instead of impor-unt.

We started to sew!

Ainsley finishing off her PJs at home


Ainsley and Sage both made some pyjama bottoms with the YW. They had a sleepover and this was in preparation for it. It was fun, a project with a goal and they both had fun working on it and going to the sleepover. Ainsley was able to find out how to work our machine, and I found the handbook when I cleared off my ironing board. We found some good instructional videos on YouTube. So wooo hooo! We can let the sewing begin. We found a fabric warehouse in Cowely close by and thought of beginner level projects for both Ainsley and Sage. We decided on some soft fabrics to make some blankets. Also bought some cute plaid to sew more pyjama bottoms. We will post the results! I love Easter Break:)

Charlotte Turns Three

Big sister after opening the gifts in the morning. Ainsley had fun planning. C is chewing one of the gifts. Gum is wonderful to a three year old. I later had to scrape it off my dishes after lunch... it melted in the hot water:)
Pure delight preparing to take dolly for a test drive.
Showing some love to Auntie Gwen after opening her gift
This is where she recognises her new trike that Saxon brings in.



Saxon held the matches patiently waiting to light the candles.



Charlotte Iona had a birthday this past week. I must say this child is super girl. She can do everything for herself in her minds eye, the trouble happens when we don't support her assumptions. It sometimes takes every ounce of wit inside of my slow functioning brain to induce cooperation for simple things such as wearing clean clothes that match. Even when two choices are presented, she has a specific purple skirt and a specific shirt that was worn two times already that she believes she must wear or the sky will fall. Really it is my ear drums that are falling out or failing because she has wonderfully strong vocal chords and equally healthy arms that swiftly remove clothing I flailingly attempt to force on when my schedule is no longer to schedule. Fortunately the milestone of birthday number three has arrived, and now we can see the distant frustrating behaviour disappearing every hour she is three! She was delighted to find she was showered with lots of cards and gifts. Her sisters wrapped some gifts for her to open in the morning. We then went to our local park bringing some ice lollies as a treat. They ended up being very strange, they were just not the right texture to feel like you were eating a Popsicle. They had gelatin in them. I was going to throw mine away still in the package but my nice pal Simon said he would slurp mine up for me. We spent the afternoon there playing soccer, frisbee and on the park equipment. Charlotte copies most things Saxon does and because he took off his shoes and socks to run up and yes down the big slide standing up, so did she. I made a few grunting noises and held out my arms in case she slipped, because I am a good mom like that. The big birthday surprise was a 'new bike' as she calls it. She later had her first mega owie as Saxon had hijacked the new bike and she tried chasing him down and ended up with a bleeding knee. Saxon has since been forbidden to get on the trike.

Dunstaple Downs

A yummy end to our hike.
Being a family is so FUN!
Sister love.
A recently furrowed field shows off what I love about England.
We go together like rama lama lama kadinky dinky do! or something like that.
Saxon kindly lent his Spidey Hat for Dad's chilled ears
We headed out for the top of that hill in the distance.
The hair tells you it is very windy here.
Do you see a glider somewhere here? nice clouds any way, I have always loved puffy clouds
These are a few of my children in the distance.. First thing when we got there they ran down this hill.
Our family are on Easter Break from school. We have been soooo chilled out and have enjoyed staying home without a schedule. On Wednesday we tore ourselves out of bed to go to the orthodontist. After ten years of wearing my plastic over the teeth retainer I had a simple small wire cemented to a few of my bottom teeth that morning, why did I not think of that nine years ago??? Ainsely had her wire changed. When we got home I felt like celebrating my new found freedom from my old retainer and we took off to a place called Dunstable Downs. It was a beautiful scenic place that is very high up. We saw many people flying kites, and we saw both glider planes, and hang gliders. The wind was so strong in places it could hold us up when we lent into it. We looked around at all of the kites being crashed and flown, then we went for a stroll, then turned around and followed a path out to the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful green land. We made it back to the visitor's ctr and ate some hot chips before heading home.

AfTeR gEttiNg EaRs PiErCeD

Visiting Friends Up North

Charlotte having a go
my hero
Carl cookin' oatcakes (bacon, cheese, mushrooms and even baked beans heated under the grill on an oatcake which is a healthy version of a crepe in my opinion, and nicely rolled up with some brown sauce...I am sooo hungry now!)

playin' games
Lil Liza



We took off for a weekend with friends. We had a fun drive up north Friday evening to stay at Carl and Sarah's house in the midlands (Shropshire I think). Simon had a wee migrane so hit the hay but woke up later when C+S got back from their date so we could all have a chat. It was our anniversary weekend and we enjoyed a lovely Indian take away to celebrate with our mates. I loved seeing Sarah's house (I want to be like her in the artsy-creative-talented dept.) and getting together with them as it had been a few years. They are lovely. Carl cooked oat cakes for us in the morning and were simply fabulous hosts to our family. We attended church with them and I was overcome with emotion after we walked into the meeting and sat down, they had already begun to sing the opening hymn and I started to sing as I walked in because it was a familiar song. After we sat down I felt this choking emotion swelling in my throat and tears were running down my face, I turned to Simon and was laughing at myself because I really had no idea why that would suddenly happen. I quickly realised it was the wonderful saints singing around me, the members in that ward were so into singing, it was loud, and the Spirit of God was a powerful force coming into my ears and penetrating my heart. I was so grateful to them. Each time we sang it happened again. It was such a gift to me to feel that. We had to drive back home Sunday as the older girls had a New Beginnings meeting in our ward. While we were there we did some fun shopping at a huge discount mall. We felt like we were at home in America with so many sales and cute things. The girls liked the Claire's shop, I liked the Pumpkin Patch, and Animal outlets. We all liked many many discounted items and came home with some goodies. It was an alternative to our walk in the rain... the girls were quite satisfied with the trade in activities, the boys...well, they would rather clean a house I think than go shopping.

Sage is a YOUNG WOMAN.

Before.....
Our dearest second daughter Sage has just had a birthday and a very important one at that. Turning twelve means that Sage is considered a Young Woman at church and gets to do fun things with girls aged 12-18 once a week and also attends a class with her age group on Sundays. AND.....She was able to FINALLY get her ears pierced. We went to Claire's at the mall and a strange man looking like he was trying to stay fifteen long past fifteen was the one who did the piercing. She was very nervous but determined. We were going to choose birthstones for the studs but we didn't see any birthstone studs so I told her to choose the ones she liked best. We both liked the flower diamond looking ones. Here are some photos of her around her birthday. She is a beautiful girl and I enjoy her company. She has recently started to love to cook and has decided to cook dinner on Monday evenings to help me out while I am going to school. What a sweetie. Her favourite foods to make are cakes and sweet things:) A girl after my own heart. (if you want to really see her new ears then click on the photo and it should upload a large photo:) Sage is always found with a book in hand. She cannot get enough Stephanie Meyer and rereads all of the Twilight series and The Host as she has been collecting them again since we moved here. The first time she read them they were either library books or lent from friends apart from the first one which she got for Christmas in 2008. She has remained a devout fan and I am happy to see her so into something. Ainsley gets to have a free ride as she has Sage read aloud to her. They stay up much too late but what a great reason to stay up, reading with your sister, or simply reading.



After.

Second Honeymoon but MUCH better

My impending anniversary meant I was able to make last minute plans to go away with Simon when he had a business trip to Solihull. The rents stayed at our house looking after the children and we had an amazing time together. Before we left I kept pausing in the middle of my house wondering what else I needed to do before I could leave. It showed an obvious lack of experience in this area. This is the beginning of me taking more time for myself this year. I say let's do that once a month...pleeeeeease. I realised later it had been nearly 8 years since we had gone away alone. Perhaps having children grow up has its upside-a euphoric feeling when alone in a hotel with husband. Relaxation took on a new meaning.

Snow Play at East Common

I saw this play area on the common where Ainsley goes for cello lessons. We took her to her lesson to make up for Monday when the roads were not gritted yet and we didn't go anywhere. Simon and I stopped in the town and got subs from Subway for a lunchtime surprise and after eating I drove all of the kids here to play. This is just under a mile from our house. Sage and Ainsley are making plans to ride their bikes back here soon. It felt so good to go out after being in with coughing people all weekend. I had all of my paperwork for my Nursing course finished and I was free to par-tay! So we did some snow play.



Notice anything different? Ainsley has braces on her teeth now. She is very happy to have treatment started. The sooner to a perfect smile, and they don't have to do extractions like in the olden days....she is going to have a neat looking contraption soon to wear instead called a block. She thought she would have to wait a year for braces so I am serious when I say she is happy about getting them last week.

She does have mittens that match her coat....she is two though and changed her mind about what would be best. After living in a warm climate it has been a challenge to teach her the need for such things. She was out in her pajamas and slippers the first day it snowed. She did learn how fingers can hurt when they get cold and hence the agreement to wear these mittens.







Saxon was reluctant for photos at first.



The smiles say it all.


Bronwyn and Ainsley getting ready. Ainsley had her first bad hair dye experience last week, but it looks decent even though it is not the look she was going for. The colour came out ginger instead of blonde and only seems to have coloured the roots...but it looks almost natural at times. Maybe I won't have to spend money to fix it after all...

This part of England is not accustomed to much snow. We had nearly six inches by our house over the course of two days. School was canceled and that meant more playtime! Sage and Charlotte are here posing where you get onto the zip line. Charlotte got whacked a couple of times by the return trips before we figured it wasn't a good place for a small person to stand.