Fluffy chicks!

Samuel always enjoys watching the various birds when we are in the garden, and fairly often of late I've noticed he's been either watching or pointing out a seagull sat on our roof, or sometimes the chimney pot. Well, the same seagull has been seen quite a number of times now flying down to the garden and landing in our paddling pool for a drink. I even saw it having a lovely bath in there the other day. It's really fun to watch.

Well some days ago, Michael was figuring it was thinking of nesting up there, then that night he noticed that it already had been, and could just see the head and beak of a fluffy grey chick! Rachel and Hannah have 3 windows in their room, which is in the roof, and the corner of one of those windows is the perfect place to watch the chimney pots from for sign of the chick. They've since discovered that the top of the back garden is an even better place. Yesterday I ate my lunch sat at the top of the back garden watching 3 quite big chicks moving around between the chimney pots. They just have their down feathers still, but stretch out their stubby wings as though to fly.

We can often hear the chicks excitedly/hungrily calling for food when one of the parents flies back from a journey out. I'll post a picture when/if I can get one onto the computer - a digital SLR is what I need (long term wish)!

BOO!!

Well we've been hiding for ages it seems. Not deliberately, just extremely busy. There's no real available time to put things on here normally anyway, but less than normal. As I said to Michael's Mum recently, I haven't been able to justify spending the bit of time needed to add to this recently, but at the same time, I've realised again how unsettling it is not to be doing it. Much like when I don't manage to write in my journal for ages (I suppose it's a little bit of a family journal for us, but also the best kind of communication we are able to have with family and friends. I have 5 people I am trying to write e-mails or regular letters to, and have been trying to for a couple of months at least, but there's never a moment to do it it would seem. So I figure that doing something here will probably help me feel better, share at least some fairly recent photos with all of you, and I'll be communicating with somebody again (if anyone looks that is!) and recording something too, even if it isn't in my journal. :o)

Another problem I've had for most of Samuel's short life now, is our camera not working. It won't stay charged even for one photo most of the time, and despite needing to invest some time to investigate why exactly that is (is it the battery charger, batteries or camera failing?), and it being important to me to have some good photos of him and everybody else in the family as they grow, the right time never presents itself. Luckily Michael and I each have a mobile phone now, with camera, albeit not very good ones, so that is where all pictures are being taken right now and have been for at least a couple of months. So the pictures are pretty grainy, but they're all we have. I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Here's a few from our "Not Back to School Picnic" just over two months ago (you could call it a celebration of "home" education), including one of Samuel the first time I put him in a swing. He was delighted, and giggled so much, but I never can catch that in a photo. I hope I'll manage to remember it without. :o)







More of Samuel in a swing, this time after going to a home-ed sports group. There's a park nearby, and as we rarely make it to playgrounds here with none properly nearby, and with Peter sitting through games of football, basketball and tennis but being too young to join in with everyone else, we make a stop at the park afterwards so he gets to play too. Rachel and Hannah, are of course playing at being a horse and jockey in the one of all four girls at that park. Somehow Peter never made it into a picture, but that's probably becasue he doesn't stay still long enough to get one of him (it's not always for want of trying!)






Swings again!! Peter was trapped twice in this park though, so you can see him too! Sarah was working out what trees were growing within the playground here, and doing a tally of how many of each kind there were. While she was busy studying the trees, Rebekah, Peter and Samuel had a lovely time playing in a park again! In fact, after such a long break from going to any playgrounds, and then quite a few in not such a long time, Peter is most days now telling me which park he wants to go to. He has the funniest 3-year old ways of describing them to me though, and I invariably can't quite work it out! We notice such different things at each place, me being 30 years older than him, that our descriptions don't usually match up too well, and it really does take some investigative work to understand!







Here's a dressed up little Samuel. Rachel was holding Samuel while Michael and I were both unable to, and when we looked again, she had him all dressed up, and he was totally happy with it too. :o) That was about a month ago. Yet again, he has grown through the next size of clothes, and those don't fit him anymore. At nearly 6 months old now, he's wearing 9-12 month clothes. He's a big, heavy baby, but so beautiful with it. :o)



Here's a cuddle with Rebekah. Rebekah is still going through a highly panicky/fearful stage and being with Samuel is one of the things that calms her just beautifully. She loves him dearly. One other great thing is a homeopathic remedy, and sometimes having her feet rubbed with massage oil helps too. I did a homeopathy course one morning a week for three weeks in October, which has started me off with being able to use homeopathic remedies at home without seeing a homeopath. There is a homeopath that has a clinic at our local Children's Centre every other week at the moment, so we are able to see her for some things, but first aid / acute things we're able to do at home with great success. It's been a real blessing for us.



To finish, a few fun sleeping pictures of Samuel. He is such a fun boy. He loves to feed, and play - always reaching out for things, and of course EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. He likes to sit or stand up with help, and most of all be carried, but wherever he is he rarely keeps still. Peter loves him a lot and loves to come and find him in our bed each morning, and spend sometime there with him wherever possible before the day really starts. Samuel hasn't been very happy the last few days - extra clingy and needy, crying more and not being settled at all at night (if Mummy's not there it's time to scream and scream until she is!) I think it's probably the teething going up a level, so hopefully will calm back down again soon. Here are those sleepy pictures:

Two months ago (at 3 1/2 months old)...



One month ago (at 4 1/2 months old) - playing sleeping lions... :o)




There is so much for quite a while now that hasn't even been made mention of on here. Things like our holiday, a special visit to the temple, a craft stall we ran in the summer, or anything else that we've been up to really!

We've also been having an extended clear out and move around. Five out of eight of us now sleep in a different place in the house! We've been weaving, tangling up our fingers, reading, going places, studying (that's Michael), doing church things, and generally living life. We also had a sweet new cousin/niece join our family, as my brother and his wife recently had a little girl called Elodie join their family. When I manage to, I'll add bits here and there, so keep looking. :o)

Samuel's Blessing

Well, this weekend has been a busy but joyful one. Yesterday, as the day before, we were working hard trying to achieve a few things around the house and garden as well as clear up a bit and prepare food for extra people being here today. We got a lot done before our Mums and my Dad arrived, but were very grateful for the extra help to do some jobs that would have taken so long on our own. It was fantastic to see the children LOVING helping out with everyone around - a happy work party. They saw what fun it can be even just doing jobs together (partly because you're doing it together) possibly for the first time. It was exhausting for all of the adults a least, but felt great.

Today it was lovely first of all to get to church in plenty of time - that has only happened on rare occasions since being here. I think the difference was that the children were eager to be there. We had no objections to getting dressed, or helping out, or leaving the house - amazing! Just Michael and I doing our normal silly trick of taking it in turns popping back into the house for one more thing we forgot about, before we could finally leave. Our parents were laughing at us too this morning - it does get more ridiculous when we've driven down the road a bit before remembering something important though! Luckily none of that today. :o)



It was really lovely to have Granma, Gramps, Nanny, David, Rachael, Edan, Elijah, Tom and also my auntie Carol (Dad's sister) there at church with us today for Samuel's blessing. It was a wonderful blessing, and a great sacrament meeting too. It was also great to see other family members enjoying some cuddles with Samuel through church. Even when he's not with me though I can still hear his little noises that he seems to make all the time whether awake or asleep. He's a calm baby, but not exactly quiet. Those noises are beautiful! I went to the young women class alone today as Samuel was enjoying other cuddles while he slept.



Carol went to visit a friend after sacrament meeting was over and we'd detained her a little for a picture, but came back to our house later on. It was great to enjoy having here there with us and talking about various things through the afternoon. The cousins enjoyed playing together, admittedly with a few more balls than would normally appear on a Sunday afternoon. :o) Sarah and Edan seemed especially giggly and playful. It was lovely seeing them all together. The food was yummy too - thanks to Michael and our Mums.




Peter trying to teach Carol how to play catch.




Dad, Tom, Michael and David all helped to bless Samuel today.

All gathered to watch Tom leave on his motorbike.











Sister and brother (looking quite a bit like their parents as we remember them!)

All of the cousins.






We thoroughly enjoyed the company and the beautiful feeling that was around today, and hope that everyone else did too - thank you all for making the effort!

Of Bumps and Bubbles - the follow-up to Easter

Thanks Kylie and Debbie for your comments - you might want to look at my replies in the last post.

Well, that funny collection of things that the children found as their treasure for the egg hunt really did have a purpose, which they were very excited about when they realised what it was. They opened a joint present between them after that which explained all - in leiu of chocolate eggs or whatever! Sarah has struggled with the idea of Easter because of the big deal everyone makes about chocolate eggs, how many they have, etc., so there certainly needed to be something to make it a bit more fun! They didn't get to try it out until two days later though, on the Wednesday.

First let me explain something else...

While I was putting out the treasure hunt on Monday, the back windscreen of the car decided to explode!!! I heard the crash, and various things the children said like,"What happened?", and "How will you go to Coventry tomorrow now the car is broken?!" I was aware SOMETHING had happened, but decided not to investigate until I was finished as we were so late in the day already. I was glad I didn't, as it had given me time to quietly absorb all I was hearing and seeing, and feel sure that whatever needed to happen was best. How wonderful to take that in my stride!

Peter had picked up and thrown a small screwdriver while they were all out in the front of the house with Michael, which had hit the bottom right corner of the windscreen and bounced off. Then a whole minute or so later the glass suddenly exploded in the top left corner of the windscreen and shattered right across it! The two pictures I took of it were among the ones that didn't upload to the computer properly, so I can see them, but you can't! It was quite impressive shattering with a nice huge hole! It made for an interesting evening, as nothing was open, car insurance lines included, and it was clearly going to impact on the next day. We felt it best in the end anyway that Michael would be around the following day so that we could do anything that was needed for Peter's head if he wasn't alright by then. He was, but it still felt needed, and that it would work out somehow.

Michael was meant to be sorting out things in our house in Coventry, the sale of which was completing on the Thursday. He'd been there the previous week, and we'd planned for him to go on the Tuesday and Wednesday of this last week. So it all had to be done on Wednesday instead. It took a long time on the Wednesday to do what was needed, and with help from my Dad and a LOT of help from Michael's brother Tom, it was finally done. Michael and Tom didn't arrive back in Brighton though until early morning, so slept until morning before unloading Tom's van and he was back on his way again - a big thanks to Tom!

While they were busy doing all of that in Coventry on the Wednesday, we were also very busy here. Then having done as many jobs as we had the energy for, we decided it was time to try out the Easter gift. So here it is...

The Bubble Thing!





All of those ingredients together made for an interesting bubble mixture. It wasn't at all the best weather for making big bubbles, especially as it was starting to cool down by that point in the late afternoon. Knowing that though, everyone did pretty well, once we got the hang of it.











Everyone had a go, Peter with assistance as he couldn't manage it on his own. They often popped quite quickly, but some lasted fairly well. It will be fun to try again in warmer weather, or after it rain is meant to be good too, both because of the moisture in the air.

Hannah became the entertainer after a while. She really got the hang of it and was producing bubbles for a while for everyone else to watch and/or pop!













The audience showing their appreciation from up on the balcony!