Finally scrapbooked our snowy pictures

We really were blessed with wonderful snow on our Easter trip to the temple in Preston. We only had an hours drive up to the lake district where the snow had fallen heavily. I was so impressed with how clear the roads were. If we had been in Weston-super-Mare the town would have come to a complete standstill after that much snow. However we never get snow due to our warmer sea breezes.

The boys thought it was all just magical, they had the best time ever, and didn't mind the length of time it had taken to get there from home - 'Only 7 hours! Wow we've got to do this again!'. So glad we took Jason's sledge, it was really great, even had a go on it myself. It's big enough to fit about 3 people on so we had lots of combinations of people riding on it. Grandpa had found us the most wonderful little hilly spot which was just perfect for getting a bit of speed on the sledge. Several times Jason and Richie had to stand in the way of the sledge to get it to stop and ended up wiping out because it was going too fast.

There really is nothing like snow for creating magical times - everyone becomes childlike again and it makes everything look wonderful (that is until it starts to melt). Tayler had been praying for snow over Christmas, we explained that Heavenly Father would answer his prayers if he could and if it was best for everyone. Tayler patiently continued to pray, even though it didn't snow at Christmas, he wasn't disappointed, he just kept on praying. Well his prayers were defiantly answered and he was able to say again 'Snow is my favourite and my best!' from our favourite Charlie and Lola book!

A trip to Wales

Yesterday we traveled over to Wales to visit the National History Museum. My boys had a great time, but we really missed Jason who had to work. It just wasn't quite the same without him and he would have loved looking at all the old buildings. It was a perfect place to visit with eleven children as the majority of the museum was outdoors and they could run around as much as they liked. The boys particularly enjoyed the Celtic round houses with the armour hanging on the walls, and any little farm house with a fire burning as they could take the opportunity to warm up.

I was amazed at how close Cardiff and Wales really are - we can see them from the beach, but it only takes half an hour to drive there. I'm sure we'll be going back soon. I asked Tayler at the end of the day if he had had a good time, he said he was a little disappointed as he thought we were actually going to see whales and have an opportunity to go on a boat and take pictures of them. Funny little man! They did have a great time with family and friends. I was really grateful to the older boys who looked after the younger ones - Jonathan, Tom and Eli did a great job.

Little Benji the Beales dog was great at helping Tayler to walk long distances he wouldn't usually walk. Jason and I are seriously thinking about a dog now, maybe not just yet, it's a serious commitment and the boys need to be old enough to handle the responsibility. Plus I'm allergic, we'll have to find a dog I don't sneeze around. It's a definite possibility for the future, I was so impressed with how Tayler's walking improved, well done Benji!

I'm pretty miffed...

It's the first time I've failed to transfer pictures from my camera. I took so many nice ones of our family holiday to Nottingham, and they're all gone. Humph! That'll teach me to do things in a rush and not double check myself. Well, gone are the pictures in the park, and the boys at the national space centre, and all the pictures of my family wearing tiaras to watch 'Enchanted'. All's not lost because we still have the memories, just would have been nice to have a couple of pictures to go with them.

We really did have a fun time with Grannie and Grandpa (mum and dad) in Nottingham. The boys love being with family and feel very at home. We loved our little trips, had the yummiest food, and had a wonderful relaxing time. All in all a great holiday.

Our favourite quote from the holiday was from Tayler. Here's the background so you'll understand how funny he was. Firstly we discovered 'nits' in Jarom's hair at the beginning of the holidays. He sits next to a girl at school and unfortunately he just keeps picking them up. Thanks to the nitty gritty comb they don't tend to hang around for to long. Secondly Grannie had to go for her Chemo and so Grandpa gave her a Priesthood blessing to help calm her fears. So Tayler walks into the bedroom whilst Grannie is having her blessing, assesses the situation and then walks out and declares loudly to me - "I guess even Grannie's get nits!". This is even more hilarious when you realise that poor Grannie doesn't actually have any hair right now due to her chemo treatment. We were laughing for days! Thanks for keeping us entertained Tayler, you are certainly a joy to our lives. Only Tayler could have us laughing that much about things that would usually have us in tears.

Our latest project...

I've been desperate to move the boys into a larger room for months. Last week Jason and I decorated the room and bought new furniture. The boys love it. They had been saying for a while that they wanted to move back to the old little house. I felt it may have been that they weren't quite feeling at home. Their room was one of the nicest in the house when we moved in it had new carpets and had only just been decorated. But two heavy winters had caused a leak in the roof and we needed to remove a sink from the room. Both things led to quite a lot of mess.

They boys had two rooms - a play room and a bed room. The play room was the larger of the two and despite it's terrible decor it was also always messy - the boys never put anything away because they could close the door on the mess. So I felt we could better use the space by making the playroom their new bedroom and their old bedroom could become the spare room and the wardrobes better utilised for storage.

We're all really pleased with how it turned out. the boys especially. They seem happier and more content and for now at least they're keeping things tidy. The furniture is great - from IKEA the rug also. The wardrobe looks like something from the Chronicles of Narnia. I think the still needs pictures on the walls - nice black and white photographs of the boys. I'm looking forward to that little project. But we'll wait till there's enough money in the budget!

Our Easter

We've been doing some DIY here at home, so the blogging has take a backseat. So I'm now catching up on Easter. We had such a great holiday up in Preston as a family. It was lovely to be all together - Grannie & Grandpa, Kate, Rich & Chessie. It was so wonderful to be in the temple. Everyone pitched in to look after the boys and they had a great time, which meant I felt ok about leaving them to go do some temple work. Ezekial is completely right about temple work it's definatly healing and refreshing, I came home with such a renewed feeling for life. It was wonderful.