Disney trip.

Last week we went to Disneyland in California with the entire family. We had lots of fun, lots of food and as usual Lucy provided us with lots of smiles. Although she spent most of the time in the pushchair she did manage to ride on Pirates of the Carribean, Pooh's honey pot and the Nemo submarine...thing. Anyway she didn't much like being in a submarine and let everyone know about it.
We had breakfast at Goofys kitchen and got to meet some fury friends. She also enjoyed her first encounter with Minnie Mouse very much.
We were a bit noervous about Lucy's first flying experience but she slept the whole time..luck girl!

We can't wait to take her back..but not for a few years.

Rubber face!

A new nickname for Luiana...rubberface!
Shes at this funny stage where her face looks and feels like rubber. When she smiles you can tug on her cheeks and they're stiff..wierd!. She keeps growing and making us laugh as always. Everyday she brings so much joy into our lives..it's still very surreal. We are so very happy and blessed to have her.

Armageddon..strikes again!

We've just got over the snow situation which I have to say was getting to be a bit annoying actually..when all of a sudden we had torrential rain pour which melted all the snow in the mountains and subsequently severely flooded a few hundred square miles of valley...where we happen to live! Luckily our house is on a hill and we were able to enjoy the new waterfront view.It all happened at work and even though we knew it was on its way I was stupid?loyal enough to go into work...but unfirtunatel by the time I git off there was no way I could actually get home.Thats right the pretty little white, God fearing city of Duvall had become an island. I had to spend the night away from the ladies.

4 months old!

Lucy is months old!. She's getting so big and has started to laugh out loud. She's a little serious in these pictures. I think she's sick of winter..she's alot like her Dad!
We've started adding rice cereal to her milk and she is very happy about that. Sleeping 10 hrs at night once again.
She's very excited for for when Nanny and Grandad come and visit in February!

Ethans Birthday

Ethan turned 8 today and woke up very excited. He has been asking for a pet for ages and since we don't really do animals here due to the asthma and eczema we got him a "fur real" pet chimp. He loves it, has dressed it in one of his t-shirts and treats it like a baby. He is looking forward to his baptism tomorrow now.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was an exciting day with wrapping paper flying and squeals of delight. Rich and I spent ages undoing those annoying twisty fastenings that lock toys into their boxes and clearing up mountains of paper and boxes. We had a great relaxing day at home playing with all the kids new toys and eating lots of chocolate, yum!

Lucianas first Christmas!

Lucianas first ever Christmas was snowy....how lucky can you get?

Now she'll expect it to be like this every year,

We stayed a few days at Grandmas house to guard the presents.

In one of the pictures Lucy waves a clinched fist at me as I approached the tree as if to say "don't even think about it!"

She's been hilarious this whole week. She's growing so fast and we cannot figure out why she smiles and laughs so much. Not that we mind.

Lucy got toys and more clothes from Santa. She has been enjoying the abundance of English premier league soccer on t.v. She seems to enjoy watching it. I don't know if its the colors on the screen and the noise of the crowd or if she genuinely apprecietes the best sport on earth!...probably.

As for the snow...well its started to melt but the roads around here are still pretty bad. Vickie is irritated because she can't go running still. The snow is beautiful but it really slows life down.

We're looking foreward to the new year. Lots of projects and soon a big change for me with work...I'll keep you posted on that! Very exciting year ahead!

The beloved Montero!

Just wanted to give out a big shout to my beloved Mitsubishi Montero . He has been amazing in this snow situation we've been having. We've been able to get around and even managed to drive up our street which had been closed off by the city of Duvall. Outstanding machine I have to say!

Winter blast!

Its official..we will be having a white Christmas. As you can all see it dumped down yesterday and the forecast has more flurries for this week. Its beautiful but I can't get to work..which is a bad thing. Its also freezing cold so nothings going to melt anytime soon. The car is currently stuck and so tonight hopefully a couple of friends are coming over to help us move it.

Unfortunately we were smart enough to buy a house on a steep hill and its a little difficult getting down it in conditions like these.

White Christmas..maybe?

Its beautifaul outside our frontdoor right now as you can all see. We really hope it stays. Lucys first Christmas fast approaches and we think it would be cool if it stayed like this....not that she'd appreciate it. Its all a bit icy though and a bit tricky driving down the hill.

If you're wondering what the eye patch is all about..well I just had another cornea transplant today..and this time I was awake for the whole thing..wild! Hopefully when it heals and I have the stitches taken out I'll be able to see properly. Vick and Lucy are looking after me though and making sure I don't lift anything too heavy.

3 months old.!

We just took these pictures yesterday. Luciana loves taking baths. She spends about 15 mins every night splashing around. We think it helps her sleep well at night. It must be working because we put her down at 8pm and unfortunately we don't see her till 6 the next morning.

As you can see Lucy is smiling....again. She's a very happy baby. She always has lots of smiles especially when she wakes up. In this pictuer she is showing her delight with the new camo outfit.

Tonight Mum went out with some friends so Lucy and I stayed at home. While I cleaned the kitchen Lucy watched Fox soccer report and sky sports news...she does seem to like watching football..mainly highlights.

More of the remodel.

My great attempt at tiling. Once you get into the groove it's quite easy. You can see my underpants quite nicely but what you can't see is the sweat dripping from my face and nose...it was slightly hot that day.

Vick..what a trooper. 81/2 months pregnant but managed top help out right up until the day of delivery. She was amazing!

Whats a house project without Bob, a face mask and a saw. As always the Boo-bi was legendary with his cutting precision.

Dave and his "D-WALT" made easy work of drilling down the ....base board wood under lay stuff...you know the stuff that goes under the tile!

Note the fan....drying out the famous flood from 2 days previous.

The remodel.

Behold the mayhem!... we started in the kitchen.you can't see it in the pictures but it was pretty filthy and dated.it really needed priming and painting and we ripped up the chess floorboard too. The wood floors in the dining room came up as well and we ended up tiling throughout.Alot of work!

We also sanded and primed all the existing cupboards and painted them and replaced all the door knobs and hinges.

Then with a little help from Ryan we tiled the countertops and put trip around them. I've never tiled before but after a while it was quite easy.

We also painted the walls and got rid of the red paint...looked like a slaughterhouse.

We bought new kitchen appliances and everyone knows about my experience with the plumbing of the dishwasher. Yes the whole place was covered in an inch of water....nightmare. Oh well.

You can see the kitchen taking shape in these pictures. The tile on the countertops pretty much transformes the whole thing and at this point we couldn't wait to get the whole thing finished. But as you can see it all turned out well in the end. Thanks to our friends and family who all helped us so much. We never would have got it all done.

Thanks to Boo-bi and Dave for the crash course in tiling in 90 degrees weather and for bringing the tools to do it..coz lets face it..I'm not exactly a collector of such items...but I'm working on it.

Thanks to the family for moving us in, painting,organizing the garage(Janeen) putting up lights in the garage (Bob) and just for everyines willingness to help us get settled in time fo Luciana to arrive. We realise that this blog update is overdue but here it is anyway...thanks everyone!