The Kids

These are photos from this morning and a few from around Valentine's Day. Alf used the IKEA chest of drawers box this morning to make a rocket. He did a fab job, coming up with the idea of attaching the pegs and then doing them all by himself. I can certainly remember a time when he couldn't use a peg and would ask me to do them for him all the time so that's a cool development and as I explained to him, will help with his writing when he's in big school...all that fine motor control.
He makes a ridiculous amount of noise around Josephine and heaven help her, she usually rewards him with a goofy grin, so he persists. We really need her to learn to ignore him so we can calm him down a bit sometimes, but I don't see that happening any time soon. She adores him.
Alf is with his Dad in Standlake visiting his cousins and grandparents for the day. Josephine is asleep in her car seat in the hallway and I have just woken up from a nap on the couch, in my coat! It suddenly got cold again today here.

Josephine's Baptism

We celebrated Josephine's Baptism this weekend. Our church is having renovations so we first went to Mass at St. Bernard's in the school hall. After Mass, we processed over to the church to be the first to use the font in its new location. Josephine handled all of it like a pro and was only a little bit sick on her gown which is over 100 years old. Her brother and cousins were understandably excited and enjoying each other's company. We were blessed to have Bert's parents and his brother Tom and two children, Edie and Henry with us, along with good friends, Eloise and Neels and baby Neil and Rachael and Patrick. Josephine's local Godmother, Sara was also present with her husband, Joe and two children, Hope and Noah.
Everyone came back across the street to our house for some of Eloise's awesome coffee cake...what does she put in that to make it sooo good??? and then later on we had a lunch of beef stew and veg followed by Rachaels' superbly moist chocolate cake. The rugby came on and some of us watched that whilst the kids trashed Alf's room (see photos). It was one of the best days we've had so far in our new house. It made me think yet again how lucky we are to have such incredible friends and family nearby. Nevertheless, my family and our friends back home were on our minds as always on these special occasions, particularly the other Godparents: my sister, Danielle and brother, Michael and oldest friend, Katie.

More snow

Lots of snow last wednesday, most we've seen in Bristol. Very exciting but causing problems on the roads, which meant bert could not make it to work on wednesday morning.

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year. We went to Mass on Christmas eve and spent Christmas morning at home opening presents and eating pancakes. It was a bit cold as the boiler had packed up. It's fine now after the tech came out and wiggled some wires?? The Rover also died on Christmas eve and after an alternator was replaced is still struggling a bit in the cold so we'll wait and see about that one. Anyway, we travelled up to North Wales Christmas day and spent time with Bert's parents and siblings. Alf's cousins arrived a few days later.
Joesphine is doing really well in spite of a very stuffy nose. She obviuosly wasn't too disturbed by all the Christmas carrying on. Alf is reaching the end of his ability to cope without structure, and we are all looking forward to a return to routine tomorrow. Happy New Year!