Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wales part one

Car is packed, kids are warm and we're off to Wales for Thanksgiving!

Our home away from home for the week. Ty Twt in Welsh, not sure what that means but it was an adorable cottage with a bedroom, sitting room, bathroom and full kitchen. The bedroom had a superking bed which had all of us piled in more than once :)

View from our cottage


The road to our cabin. Let me tell you this was frightening in the snow and dark! There is a little sign on the entrance to the road that says 2nd farm, umm.. and the GPS kept saying turn onto road, no name and no directional markers.. We were definitely out in the middle of no where and it was GREAT!!!

Every baby has to have their 'eating the steering wheel' picture.. this is Daniels :)

Day One: We visited Pembroke Castle. Ranked as one of the top ten castles to visit in Europe, it was the site where King Henry the VII was born. There was also a cave in the bottom which dates back to caveman days. Very neat experience.

My favorite part of this picture is Molly's cup strapped in my back pack. I didn't realize it was there until the day was over and we had tons of pictures.. greatttttt

Another castle we visited, Carew Castle, at dusk.. absolutely beautiful.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Friday

What we did this Friday.. Pizza picnic in the den while watching Rudolph.. a little bit of heaven

Monday, November 15, 2010

Blog closed Friday!

I am closing my blog to private on Friday. If you have not sent me your address please do by Friday so you can continue to view the blog. Last chance! My email is haleymushrush@hotmail.com

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Our Veterans Day

Thank you to all the men and women who have bravely served our country in the Armed Forces. Yesterday was Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in the UK. In England, every store gives out poppy pens to wear on Remembrance Day in honor of the fallen soldiers. We had the day off yesterday and enjoyed some quality family time. These are some of the pics I took yesterday.

We have had the most horrific weather this week. Wind gusts that have knocked everything over and lots of rain and freezing temperatures. And it really hasn't let up at all. So, this morning, the howling suddenly stopped for an hour or so and we walked outside to this magnificent site. I can just see our Creator's mighty finger drawing this and saying, My beloved children I remember my promise to you.

Part one of the Christmas tree is done! Tree is up, skirt is on, lights are lit!!

This is the first year Molly has really understood what Christmas is about. She is just soaking it in. We have been talking about what happens at Christmas and last night before bed, she said, Mommy, Santa come to bring presents because Baby Jesus is born. Oh yes, I cried at that one.

Daniel, snooping in the goods

Ohhh, look at that one, give it to me!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Winter has arrived

The title of this post is depressing even to me, a person who adores snow and the cold Christmas season. However, in the UK, it is SOOOO expensive to heat your house. We have electric heaters in the kids rooms and the living room, just trying to hold out before turning on heat. Unfortunately, it has dropped below 32F every day this week so we are going to have to turn the heat on. We got this little car seat cover for Daniel which has worked great on the cold rainy days. I think he looks adorable in it! And thanks to my mom for the thermal underwear and new winter gear.. coats, scarves, gloves, hats.. And before I get comments with warm temperatures being rubbed into my face...I don't even want to know the weather in NC or VA, so sisters, keep it to yourselves :)



Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Frizz

This is the frizz ball hairdo I see every morning. Many mornings it is muchhh worse than this but this is on an average day. I think I'm going to have a time managing these curls when she gets older. I don't want to use any products on it yet because she's so young so I usually end up putting it in a pony tail or sticking a bow in it which works fine for now. Curly haired people, any tips?

New Food for the day.....The food you see in her bowl is a very popular British breakfast "cereal" called Weetabix. I don't think we have anything like them in the States. They are rectangular individually cut portions of a very densly compacted whole grain cereal. You pour milk over it and it soaks the milk up like a sponge and softens the cereal. Then you just break it off with your spoon and eat it. It has very little flavor so sometimes we put honey on it.

Monday, November 8, 2010

When daddy's gone....

Bryon was gone last week to Germany so the kids and I stayed busy.. here are a couple of things we did to amuse ourselves :)


Made Bryon's birthday cake! It is a Victorian Sponge Cake made the old fashioned way with an old English recipe. Turned out yummy! The British people make a great butter cream filling that they use for lots of deserts and I layered that with my homemade strawberry jam.

Oh yes.. we went to mommy's beauty shop. Did our nails, hair, jewelry, clothes and shoes.. Molly is so much fun now that she is getting older. Kinda like having a mini me to hang out with. What was Daniel doing you may ask.. the answer would be jumping in his jumper like a mad man.. his favorite activity.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Tent

We made a tent this past week that we crawl into for story time. It isn't fancy as you can see but Molly loves it. When we pull the door down it hooks to Daniels jumper and he goes crazy being under it. Hours of fun for all.

This box doorway was Bryon's idea. Makes it a little more exciting to crawl into the tent.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

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.




Thursday, October 28, 2010

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.