Making jam

Making jam/preserves has been on my personal 'to do' list for a long time. It has always been very intimidating and I keep putting it off thinking that I'll learn how to do it one day. Well, yesterday was the day! Two days and lots of strawberries later, I have jam and I must say it is pretty tasty! I'm not sure I sealed the jars correctly so I'll probably be gifting these jars but hopefully next time I can make it to put away and use throughout the year.

Halloween Party

The zoo

My cute little monkey and giraffe.

Daniel is very popular with the ladies. Maybe it is his long neck.

Doing the Halloween cake walk

Eating my winnings from the cake walk.. yummo!

Story time.

Good morning world!

Hmmm.. not so sure about taking pictures so early in the morning mom.

Molly is starting to wake up... Daniel is ready to eat whatever he can grab.

Molly is awake and smiling! Daniel has given up on getting any food and has moved onto the blanket.

Teacakes

My latest baking project. English Teacakes! They have dates and raisins inside and are so yummy! I have the best cookbook, it is called "Afternoon Tea" and it has every British tea recipe you could imagine along with guidelines on how to have proper British teas at different times of the day. It also goes into detailed descriptions on how to jam/preserve which is going to be one of my next projects. A fun bit of info, I got the cookbook from a place called the Burghley House which is like 20 minutes from where we live. This house is one of the locations where Pride and Prejudice was shot (Kiera Knightly version). It is Lady Deburg's house and just down the road from us. So neat! Stay tuned for more yummy stuff from this book!


The Burghley House.. Yes, we are proud residents :)

Blackberry time of year!

Daniel

I had a request from Nini for more pictures of Daniel. So, yesterday during diaper changing time I snapped a few. I will try to get better ones in the next couple of days but here ya go for now!

Grandpa Mushrush's visit

Grandpa Mushrush, Bryon's dad, flew back with the kids and I from the States to help us on the plane and then visited with us for awhile here in the UK. He was able to spend part of his visit on the French Rivera, he visited France, Monaco and Italy which was beautiful! Here are some of the pictures from his visit.

Molly's UK Birthday Party

Cheesing for pictures with her cake

The lunch spread

The cake!

Last year she didn't care anything for the cake, but this year.. She ate 2.5 pieces!

For everyone who has not met the infamous Lily.. Here she is! Molly's adorable little red headed British friend :)

It had rained every day, literally, the two weeks before the party. Then, on the morning of the party, the sun came out and stayed out all day! So the kids got to play outside for the first time in forever and it was great!

Good idea Grandpa, but Daniel doesn't seem quite on board. Molly, however, was ready to give him the 'heave ho' down the slide so that she could have her turn.

Grandpa Mushrush and Daniel

Daniel with his little girlfriend, Bella.

Birthday party prep

Molly has really started enjoying cooking/baking with me. This particular day we were baking the bread for the sandwiches we served at her birthday party. Nini (Bryon's mom), brought her an apron and rolling pin so she really feels like she is taking part rather than just watching me do everything.

More pictures from the States

Here we go again!

It has started all over again. Daniel has become a crazy jumping machine just like Molly. We put him in this for the first time a couple of days ago just to see if he could do it and now he jumps and jumps and doesn't want to stop. The difference between him and Molly is that he has already maxed out the height in the jumper whereas Molly had not maxed it out until she was like 8 months. I'm sure there will be more crazy jumping videos to come in the near future.

Molly's NC Birthday Party

While we were in NC, my parent's threw Molly a fantastic Dora birthday party. My cousins, Kristen and Melissa, were both able to come with their kids and my sisters and their families were also there. We had an amazing time and my parents really went all out, so, thank you thank you thank you for a fantastic birthday party. We made lots of memories that we cherish so much especially being so far away from home. We love you all!

Nana, professional party organizer and her elves Mary and Casey

Mawmaw and Grandma watching all of the commotion going on around them.

Ayden and Molly spent so much time together and become great friends. They went to bed each night giving hugs and were the first thing they each saw in the morning.

Grill master Grandpa and hoola hoop master Chris

Aunt Liddy snuggling with Daniel. She did a lot of that. :)
Molly and Luke at the party. Luke looks a big uneasy with all of this affection.

What a great sight.
Awesome Dora cupcakes.

Me and little man.