Picture a Christmas!

Preparation starts on Christmas Eve - it's traditional for Jason and Jarom to prepare the vegetables, they do a great job, and I'm so glad it's one less thing for me to do. In the evening we attend the carol concert at church, and then it's home to bed. We try to get the boys into bed at a reasonable time so that they can get a good night's sleep - also so that we can get all the gifts placed by the tree.

In the morning when the children wake, they can open their little stocking gifts. This year - Sponge Bob sponges, mini lynx kits & Toy Story wash mits, plus the usual chocolates. Then it's down to the tree to see the gifts there, but these aren't to be opened until we are all dressed and ready for the day. We read the story of the nativity, and say a prayer. Then the craziness begins! This year there where gifts for 3 families by the tree!

Tayler was the first to open a gift - a towel with his swimming badges sawn on. We are all so proud of him this year. Then treats of - Lego & guitars were unwrapped. The boys all enjoyed a jamming session with uncle Timmy, even little Ashleigh joined in and danced along. After dinner and a little nap it was time to say goodbye and bid our guests farewell. We really do love being all together - we laugh and cry and love each other, and look forward to when we will all be together again - just a week to go, and we'll be wishing each other a Happy New Year!

Our little man turns 2...

I couldn't not share the events of Nathaniel's birthday. He woke early, (he's been doing that a lot lately) and opened his gifts - Thomas Lego and a Scooter. He loved his scooter and rode it all day long, up and down the office and kitchen. Later in the afternoon we invited some of Nathaniel's friends over for a cowboy style party - cowboy hats and bandannas - cool! We invited Ashleigh, Rebecca, Alannah & Brooke, Noah, Elijah & Issac. Due to the weather and not everyone could come, but it was so nice to spend time those who were able to make it. We had yummy cake & yoghurt, fruit, sausages & pizza for tea. Nathaniel seemed to have a lovely time, it was so nice to share his birthday with friends and family.

Dreaming of a white Christmas?

I guess it's going to be a white Christmas here in Weston-super-Mare, we have been caught heavily by this year's big freeze. My boys are loving it - they could stay out in it all day. I am less enthusiastic. My big worry - will Asda be able to deliver my Christmas food shop? If not I'll have to face the queues at Sainsbury's. In theory this wouldn't be too terrible, I have most of my food stored in the freezer, it's just the last minute fruit, vegetables, milk & bread I need to get, and the little bits for Nathaniel's Birthday party. Unfortunatly, this could turn into a nightmare - I'd have to get Jason to drive me (I HATE driving in the snow), so we'd have to take Nathaniel and possibly the other boys - oh, no! I'll just have to phone Asda and plead with them to deliver!

My boys have made the most amazing snow fort ever! And with the amount of snow that has fallen in the last few hours that baby is only going to get bigger! It's so great to see them working together and enjoying being outside. I'm so glad they're not transfixed by their electrical games & the TV! I guess, (despite the shopping) I'm also saying hooray for snow!

Probably the best mince pie recipe in the world ...

Several years ago my dear mummy gave me the very best mince pie recipe. It was given to her by a dear friend, and our Christmas's just wouldn't be the same without it. I have to confess that the first time I made them it took me all day, and I swore I would never make them again! How ridiculous to make mince pies that take all day when I can simple buy them from Sainsbury's! My mum would patiently reply that they taste so much better, and that they were worth it. She was right, as always. The taste, the smell, the crumbly almond pastry - yum, yum - seriously addictive.

So when Mummy got poorly and I started to host Christmas I knew I would have to take over the mince pie duties. I made them to please Mum, and now even though she's not here I still make them in her memory. I have actually grown to love making them - and yes they still take me all day to make.

This year they actually took me two days. I always make a massive batch - umm, I lost count at 7 dozen. Some of them will be given to the sisters I visiting teach, and some to our neighbours, Jarom and Jason have already eaten way to many. I really want to save them for Christmas week, so I've frozen the rest.

Speaking of gifts. We really enjoyed the Christmas devotional on Sunday, and Jason and I especially liked this version of 'What shall we give the the babe in the Manger?', just beautiful. I hope you enjoy it too.

Winter wonderland...

I can't remember a time when I have ever seen such an amazing frost. We woke yesterday to an icy frosting that covered just about everything. It stayed all day because the temperature didn't rise above -3. I also don't think it has ever stayed so cold for so long.

My boys are so upset that it has only snowed once. They would have stayed out all night in that snow if they had known. Jarom loves it so much. It's nice to see him so excited. This was our conversation yesterday. 'Mum, it's sooo not fair. Why doesn't Heavenly Father send us snow, when he sends it to so many other people?' My response - 'Unfortunately Jarom, today Heavenly Father is answering my prayers and the prayers of everyone else who doesn't want it to snow. Sorry.'

I am, unlike my oldest boy, not a big lover of snow. I love to look at it when it's freshly fallen, there's probably nothing more beautiful. But unfortunately it makes me feel so trapped and scared. I hate traveling in it, and I simply can't cope with the cold - it makes me grumpy. So I apologise to my boy, but I will continue to pray for it not to snow! The beautiful frost can stay though, as long as the roads and paths don't get icy.

Wishing you a very ...

We've been a little busy here, and I'm sorry for not blogging last week. I had a client's photograph's to edit and Christmas gifts & cards to wrap and post abroad to my family. I have also tried to do more home baking, in an aid to reduce the unhealthy processed foods we eat, so I've been baking cakes, muffins and biscuits. My boys have really loved it, but they actually seem to eat so much more, I'm not sure I can keep up!

We decorated our home for Christmas. I love keeping it simple with lots of little things around the home.

Christmas Wreaths - I love these!

Our woolly stockings - we hang them here, in anticipation, because we don't have a fireplace and we keep our tree outdoors.

Just love this cute little print out, I got it from eighteen25, a really great crafty blog I love to check in on.

Our Advent train. Full of Christmas songs to sing together and nativity scriptures to read each day.

Our Tree! We managed to keep it alive all year long!

I just love Poinsettias, they remind me of my Mum, she would always have one in the home over Christmas, and she was such a genius with plants she could keep it looking good all year long. Note : they are super poisonous so I keep it well our of the reach of the boys!

My favourite Christmas decorations. Jason bought the nativity set for me a couple of years ago, the wreath usually sits on our front door, but I think it looks really pretty here, and this picture is my all time favourite. I like so many of Liz Lemon Swindle's paintings, but this one is my favourite it is entitled 'Be it unto me'. Looking at these beautiful images each day really helps me to focus on a more Christ-centred Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving...

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving. We started with a special family home evening a few weeks ago where we introduced a little gratitude project - a poster where we record all the things we're grateful for. The inspiration came from an idea by Becky Higgins. The boys really enjoyed leaving little notes and thoughts on the board. It was really fun reading them to. We decided to celebrate thanksgiving this year because of a special talk given at General Conference. It is really true that -

"We have all experienced times when our focus is on what we lack rather than on our blessings. Said the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”"

Sometimes we can all focus a little too much on the things we don't have, I know I have. But right now focusing on by blessings has really filled me with a sense of gratitude.

So what better way to recognise our gratitude then with a thanksgiving dinner with family & friends. We had - Turkey, corn muffins, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sausage meat & cranberry stuffing, maple carrots & parsnips, green beans, and Rootbeer- Yummy, yum, yum!

After dinner we sat together and watched 'Elf', our all time favourite Christmas movie. It's true that thanksgiving is a wonderful way to welcome the start of the Christmas season. We certainly all felt the spirit of thanks and of giving and those little happy stomach tingling feels which means Christmas is on the way. This is definitely a tradition that we will continue as a family we all had such a wonderful evening together.

Life returns to a new normal...

I'm so glad it's finished. I hated the mess and not seeing my husband for a week whilst he worked on this project for me, but it's mostly over now. There are a few things to tweek, but it is a functioning office again. I wish it looked a little prettier, but it is clean and tidy and everything has a home. It is so inspiring to have a clean & tidy place to work. And boy do I have a lot to do. See that basket in the corner? That's full of just half the Christmas projects I have set myself to do, never mind the business to run, the pictures to take and edit, and the other family chores. I not moaning, honestly, just grateful for a lovely space to work in.

Did I mention we've started our count down to Christmas? I am really looking forward to it this year. Each time I watch the Christmas TV commercials I get all excited. Despite what has been said about cruelty to animals, John Lewis have produced a lovely advert this year, it's my favourite, and I just love the music by Ellie Goulding.

Cozy Kid...

This week Nathaniel and I picked up a cute new hat, gloves & mitten set from Sainsburys. Don't you just love mittens? He chose them himself, he is into trains right now, so of course he chose the Thomas set. When we got home and tried them on properly he decided he didn't like them after-all. Typical. It's tough, my boy is just going to have to learn to like them especially as the weather has really turned cold this week and it's carnival tomorrow evening.

So this week is looking like it's going to be really busy - Monday - Carnival, Tuesday - Young Women's activity at church, Wednesday - Relief Society Activity at church, Thursday - Gym Induction (Yep, my wonderful Husband has paid for me to join the gym!), Friday - Night off (Hooray), Saturday - 2 x Photography Sessions. Not to mention - the office & loft makeover Jason has taken the week off for, and a whole bunch of appointments and activities for the boys. I'm apologising in advance if I don't get around to blogging much over the next week or so, but be prepared for a mammoth post when things settle down. I actually love being busy, my life feels so fulfilled and I'm actually really thankful.

I'll leave you with this weeks Mormon Message, I really love this one, and it ties in so well with a family home evening we had last Monday where we challenged the family to be more grateful for the blessings around us. Enjoy!

Thumbs up!

So my little man loves to do 'thumbs up' right now, Grandpa taught him how. He does it to say goodbye, when he's happy, or wants to show that he's buddies with you. He also does it when he breaks free of your hand in John Lewis and tears through the store at break neck speed whilst waving hello to everyone he passes - it's funny now, but so not funny at the time!

Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to have his picture taken, so he settled himself down, crossed his legs and adjusted his position for a couple of snaps. When we asked him for a smile, he suddenly got all moody, we see this face a lot around here at the moment.

This boy really is incredibly funny. The little things he does and says - yep all those jabbering sentences are suddenly starting to make sense. It's so much fun to watch him grow into a little man, I'm loving every minute of him.

My Wimpy Kids ...

Today, this arrived in the post!

Not due for general release until tomorrow, it arrived a day early!

My boys were cartwheeling with excitement!

Jarom & Tayler are huge 'Wimpy Kid' fans - they love these books and have gradually collected the whole set. This latest addition to the collection was their must have item. I was supposed to save it for Christmas, but couldn't resist giving it to them early.

I've read some of the books myself, and they are hilariously funny. I highly recommend the do-it-yourself diary, it's great for getting your children into journal writing.

So my lucky boys have this book to enjoy. Yes they've been fighting over it, and have to take turns, just like playing with the wii, I love that!

Jarom has almost finished, he's been reading non-stop whilst Tayler went out for his swimming lesson, Tayler will soon have it all to himself.

This week's to do's...

1. Taking pictures of our beautiful tree. It's almost the end of the autumn season and our little tree has lost most of it's leaves, but there were a few left in order to take a picture. We bought our tree two years ago when we had all the work done on the house, it's a Mountain Ash and the variety is call 'Joseph Rock'. So our little 'Joseph' has only grow a foot in the last two years, and the summer was hot so he didn't do too well, we had to water him a lot and felt like we were going to loose him on a few occasions. But he pulled through, and this Autumn we had the most beautiful display of deep red leaves - don't you just love Autumn.
2. The usual washing, ironing & house cleaning.
3. Visiting Teaching - Wednesday & Friday.
4. Organising the next YW personal progress night at church for the girls.
5. Making Christmas gifts for my sisters.
6. Writing the annual Christmas letter.
7. Buying more Christmas gifts.
8. Working on my photography business.

Sometimes I really wish I could clone myself, there's so much to do and seriously not enough time to do it in!

Halloween Weekend Recap...

(Left to Right & Top to Bottom)

1. The very hungry caterpillar waiting for guests to arrive.

2. We all love our halloween decorations. They have all been taken down now, and packed away in their box, ready for next year.

3. Cute little Peppa.

4. Really scary!

5. The most amazing pumpkin. This was made as a gift for our party by my good friend, thank you so much, we all loved it!

6. Trick or treat - one of them was a chocolate covered onion, but which one?

7. Our very own magic show! Wow, I've not laughed that hard for a long time. Uncle Timmy is amazing.

8. Hot toasted marshmallows & S'mores! Our favourite part of the Halloween party. Jason is so good to set it up for us.

9. Witchy Magician's assistant Kateos Far-ranty!

It was wonderful to be able to open our home to friends and family for our party. Everyone dressed up and really made an effort. We also had some really yummy treats to eat.

We always really enjoy our Autumn/Halloween celebration. It's so good to do it in our own way. Nothing scary and nothing gross, but everything family orientated and about making memories and having fun. Really looking forward to next year!

A very happy 60th Birthday!

On Monday we got together as a family to celebrate Mum's 60th birthday. We couldn't let such an important day pass without recognising it in a small way even though Mum wasn't with us. We had a nice lunch - one of Mum's great soup recipes, Leak & Pea, with some delicious fresh bread. Then for desert I made Mum's amazing Nottingham Ginger Cake. It's been a while since making it, but boy did it taste good! Just perfect for all the ginger lovers in our family (Jason ate about half of it), and great for all the expectant mothers (ginger helps with sickness). We then took some flowers and a balloon over to Mum's grave. It's so peaceful there. The boys thought it would be fun to release Mum's balloon.

Thought it would be fun to post Mum's Recipe for you to try too.

225g/8oz Plain Flour

3 to 4 level teaspoons ground ginger

1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

125g/4oz butter

125g/4oz brown sugar

225g/8oz golden syrup

150ml milk

1 egg

1. Line a 7 inch square high-sided cake tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Sieve the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda together into a mixing bowl.

3. Melt the butter with the sugar, syrup and milk over a low heat, stirring all the time. Cool a little.

4. Beat the egg.

5. Add the liquid ingredients with the egg to the dry ingredients. Mix well then beat for 5 minutes.

6. Pour into prepared tin & spread evenly.

7. Cook in a cool oven, 150 degrees C, Gas 2, for about an hour until it is springy and leaving the sides of the tin.

8. When cooked turn out carefully, remove the paper and store in an airtight tin for a few days to let it become sticky.

We didn't have time for that last part the cake was devoured within the first 24 hours, and it still tasted great. Wonder what it would be like to leave it for a few days? Would it taste even better?

School admissions

The time has finally come to choose a secondary school for Jarom. I've been waiting and worrying about this for the last 11 years. When we first moved to Weston-super-mare I must admit the local secondary schools did not have a great reputation. They could hardly be any worse then the inner city Nottingham secondary school I attended, but of course you always want better for your children. I must also say that despite my secondary school not being the best academic achiever, I did love my time there - wonderful teachers & friends.

So the time has come to 'choose' with Jarom. I say 'choose', we have looked into this very carefully and Jarom may not have a choice at all even his catchment area school is highly over-subscribed. But to appease us and make us feel as though we might have a choice our local education authority allow us 3 school preferences. There are only 3 schools that we could choose due to transportation factors - one is our designated catchment school, one equal in distance and one a much further train ride away.

So over the last month we have visited each of the three schools several times, both for their open evenings and for guided tours. We have been very impressed with each of the schools we have visited. I feel so grateful to know that despite our choices or preferences Jarom will get a good education at any one of these schools. What a relief. We then had the difficult task of placing our choices in order of preference. These sheets really helped us organise our thoughts. Finally after thoughtfully considering each one, and praying about it we finally made our choice.

1. Priory Community school
2. Backwell School
3. Worle Community school

Priory seemed to out-shine the others on so many levels. It's learning environment appears to be superb, academic standards are constantly on the rise. They are a special status school for technology, Jarom could take GCSE's in engineering, he loves the thought of that. The school is close - a bike ride, walk, or even bus trip away.

So those are our choices, and this morning I submitted Jarom's application via the internet.

I am so glad it's done.

Sunday Afternoon ...

I do love to get the camera out on a Sunday afternoon, many of my previous posts are a testament to that. So here are today's pictures, how grateful I am for the Sabbath. We all slow down and enjoy just being with each other. Today's Sunday involved - Boys, pancake mix and chocolate spread!

I must mention that my pancake mix (thank you Costco) is a really great food storage item. There's no need for milk or eggs or any other ingredients - just add water! I love that. If we have an emergency in our home, and we just have to rely on the food in our cupboards we could survive at least a week on pancake mix, and of course our other food storage must have item - chocolate spread!

Views from today

Today is a busy mummy day. Rushed off my feet looking after everyone, but I needed a little time to myself, so I got out the camera. Here are my views from today -

1. Autumn is here and I love to decorate my home to celebrate the season.
2. Lunch - very uninspiring today, but Nathaniel ate all of his, which is quite a miracle. I did have to cut all the crusts off though.
3. Bullets - my home is covered in these little pieces of foam - it's so easy to shoot them out, but impossible it seems to pick up!
4. My boy is sick today. Poor Tayler. He always gets sick. So no school for him today, and the sick bowl as his constant companion. Jarom is also suffering with a heavy cold today. On the up side at least I didn't have to do the school run.
5. My washer and dryer - what would I do without them?
6. I've washed my hands so many times today, I couldn't possibly count how many. My hands are so rough and chapped, this is a life saver today.
7. I still haven't looked at my lesson for sunday - must get round to it.
8. These arrived this week - they're the cutest little business cards ever!
9. My side of the bed - I can hear it calling me!

Over the weekend...

We had a really busy weekend as a family, but a fun one. We had dear friends come to stay, and we so enjoyed their company. It was great to have some girls around the house, and I thought my boys were really well behaved and played with the girls so well. We went for walks and ate good food, we also enjoyed good music too - almost too much fun to cram into one weekend. The crowning event was a Saturday evening get together for former residents of Nottingham who have moved to Weston-super-Mare all 21 of us to be precise - so glad the children ate in the garden, I have large kitchen table, but not that large!

The rest of this week has been spent organising church activities. I have really enjoyed sharing thing week - flower arranging (of sorts) on Tuesday and photography last night. For more details on what I shared during my photography class see my photography blog, the link is above.

Lego creations

Every Tuesday Tayler goes to lego club with his best friend James. The boys have such a great time, and I feel so grateful for good teachers who give up their lunch time for my boy to enjoy his favourite hobby. Lego really is his first love. James came over for tea last night and the boys busied themselves making more lego creations, I promised I would take a picture for them. So here you go boys - does your army have a name or special mission? I hope that rebel leader knows there's a storm trooper making a sneaky attack up the ladder!

Just me and you...

Today we went to the park - just me and you. I took photos of you and you ran and held my hand and enjoyed throwing the leaves. You were such a good boy as you waited for mummy to get the camera ready, you held on tight till we shouted - 'ready, steady - throw!' When I asked you if you wanted to go and play on the swings you shook your head and pointed to where you had been running earlier and said 'run?', I let you walk holding my hand instead. It was so much fun being with you today, you are such a special boy and I love you oh so much. You are such a blessing in my life, just like your big brothers. Thank you again for playing with me in the park.

An invitation...

We'd love to invite everyone, but our home just wouldn't be able to fit you all in, this year it's just family. But we can't wait, this is one party we all really enjoy. So - Beale's, Hayes's, Plumridge's, Mays's & Farrant's - fancy coming to our little party?

There'll be - apple bobbing, donut game eating, chocolate gorilla racing, mummy making, hotdog munching fun! We hope you can make it. Dress-up is a must, but nothing too gruesome or scary. For a few ideas Nathaniel is going as - the very hungry caterpillar, Jason as - Captain Jack Sparrow, Me - Little Miss Muffet, my boys - well, they haven't decided yet.

If you can bring a desert, something halloween themed if possible, that would be wonderful. I know Nanny is making a scary bakewell tart - yummie!

Jason would also love his family to gather for a family photograph in the afternoon in Ashcombe park - without scary costumes!

I think it's going to be a great day.

What happens when you let your little ones take the pictures?

This happens! Nathaniel really loves to use the camera, not my really expensive super-duper pro camera, but our little hand held Pentax camera. It's about 5 years old now, the tech is outdated and so I'm not that precious about what happens with it. I'd much prefer that Nathaniel develop a love of picture taking. So it gets bashed about, chucked down the stairs and slobbered on, but he loves it.

These are the pictures of our recent trip to Puxton Park our local hang out on a weekday morning. We get there super early so that we have the place to ourselves then run around enjoying spending time with each other and experiencing the thrills of all the big slides. So a couple of the pictures were taken whilst on the slides and some whilst playing in the toddler area, I think they demonstrate my boys growing skill with the camera - ha, ha.

I actually think they are really fun pictures, maybe even important. They document an important part of our lives together. I hope Nathaniel looks back on them and thinks... 'my mum was cool, she spent time with me and we had so much fun together!'

Conference weekend as a family

It's our annual conference & weekend family photo shoot. This year we had the privilege of using the new pro camera, and boy, can I tell the difference. Just need to practice a little more with it, I'm feeling a little out of my depth again.

But there's nothing better then having the sweetest little niece to photograph, she is such a cutie, and having 'Mr Bun' on hand was a great comforter - thanks to grandpa.

Now looking forward to the third session of conference. We've really enjoyed listening and the boys have particularly enjoyed sweets and taking notes on the ipad.

Bonkers part 2

Here are a few of the 'less artsy' pictures I took on Sunday.

I love Nathaniel's pose - that's his 'ready, steady, go' pose - and then he's off at lightning speed to cause trouble somewhere! Isn't the bandstand great? I took some photographs for a friend here a few weeks ago, I'll be posting pictures on my photography blog soon.

Nathaniel does not look impressed with Daddy planting a big one on Jarom. I'm sure Jarom is pretty mortified too - he's 'too big for it now, and ow Dad, not in public!'

I love this shot of Tayler, he was just loving all the conkers he found, nice!

A big pile on. The boys thought I was nuts getting them to do this. It actually doesn't make for a great picture, but the boys got to have fun and squish Jase in the process - great!

Photo sessions with mum have never been so good!

Bonkers for conkers!

Last week it was blackberries and this week it's conkers. I love this time of year.

Yesterday's Sunday walk to us to Ashcombe Park. We discovered a whole new side to it too, a quieter, more picturesque side. Isn't it pretty? Jason was worried we may have missed all the good conkers this year, so we chose to go to our local park to check out if there were any left.

We discovered a few lone trees at the bottom of the park that no one had bothered with, and with them found the biggest horde of conkers my boys had ever seen (Jason included). They went crazy for them. They gathered the biggest pile they could and then carted them all home. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and making special creations out of out new found treasures. I post more pictures tomorrow, but for now I'll leave you with the serene park scenes.

This week I have been ... Visiting Teaching ...

This week I have spent some time with my friends visiting teaching. I am so grateful for this programme in the church, it's so great to get together and just talk. I have been so super busy over the last few weeks, I really had to struggle to find the time, but it was definitely just what I needed, to spend time with people I really love and admire.

So the message to teach to each other this month was about our responsibility to teach the rising generation. It was a good message. I have pondered it and thought about what I shared, and feel disappointed that my heart wasn't in it. So I'm doing a 'do-over' and sharing my thoughts with you.

I switched on my computer this morning to find a talk Jason had been reading by Elder Robert D. Hales, he had been using it to prepare his training lesson for the church youth leaders this evening. I thought I would read it through for my early morning study this morning. I was impressed with something he said in relation to teaching our children -

"There is no substitute for seeing the gospel lived in our daily lives. The stripling warriors did not have to wonder what their parents believed. They said, “We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (see Alma 56:47–48). Do our children know what we know?"

This is the message I wanted to share whilst visiting teaching. It reminded me of a recent church message that I really enjoyed watching, hope you enjoy it too.

Autumn is in the air...

We all love the Autumn season in our home. We love the cosy feeling of evenings together, celebrating Jarom's birthday, Halloween treats, Christmas just around the corner and blackberry picking. Ummm blackberry picking. We went up to our favourite spot on Sand Point to collect berries again this weekend and gathered a good crop. Nanny has said she will make them into a crumble for us, yummy, she makes the best crumbles. How wonderful it feels to go on a walk and harvest the scummiest treat, for free. I love the free bit. My weekly shopping budget is taking a huge hammering at the moment, I just don't seem to have enough money to feed my 5 hungry men, so free food sounds great to me.

My challenge to you is to go blackberry picking too, enjoy the sweetness of free food. Leave a comment if you do, and let me know what delicious yumminess you make with your berries.

Who knew brushing your teeth could be so much fun?

He does look like he's having fun doesn't he. On this particular morning he really was. He was singing and dancing and loving brushing this teeth. Usually it's a different story...

He's grumpy and yells like I'm attempting to torture him. I have to pin him down and scrub quickly so that I make the most of what little time we have before he makes himself really upset. He likes the taste of the toothpaste which is good, I guess, but he just wants to suck it off the brush, so again, I have to make a quick dash attempt to clean as many little teeth as possible before he sucks all the toothpaste away. This is not good dental hygiene. Lets hope all the brushing is worth it because tomorrow Nathaniel has his first trip to ... the dentist.

What have we been up to over the last week?

You've probably been wondering where we've been. Sorry about the lack of blogging. We've been extra busy this week.

Nathaniel has been - playing, enjoying spending time with his grandpa, watching cbbies, and playing in the garden (when it hasn't been raining).

Tayler has been - enjoying being back at school, playing with his friend and going round for dinner, swimming at his swimming lesson.

Jarom has - gone off to Kilve, bet he's having the time of his life!

I have been investing a lot of time and energy in the usual motherly duties and also putting in extra time establishing my photography business. I am now officially registered, insured and just about ready to go. Click on the link to my business blog site if you'd like to see what I've been up to.

Jason has been wonderful this week - going to work, making all the lunches in the morning, proof reading all my contracts and price lists, going to church meetings etc.

And why, after all that, have I posted a picture of my son picking his nose? No other reason but the fact I thought it was funny and light hearted, and we all need that after such a busy week.

Pictures at sunset

Our last few days before heading back to school have been really busy. We've crammed in the activities right to the very last minute. On Tuesday my Auntie (My Dad's Sister) came to visit from Bournemouth, and we had a lovely few days together. We took the boys to Puxton Park on Wednesday and in the evening headed down to the beach to snap a few pictures.

It was nice treat for Tayler staying up a little later to enjoy his last night of freedom before school.

Jarom chose to stay home and discuss Birthday presents with Grandpa and uncle Tim. These are my first pictures using evening sunlight. I'm not overly impressed myself, not sure what all the fuss is about really. The look of these pictures has been really key this season. I guess Tayler's face says it all. I much prefer beautifully defused woodland light - umm, lovely! Anyway, it was nice being out in the evening with the camera in hand.

So my boys are back at school, and they gave their first day back experience 8 out of 10. Not bad! I'm really pleased that they had such a good time. Let's just hope it lasts.

Today my boy made lunch... for all of us!

I was so proud of my boy for helping me with the shopping and then making lunch, I thought it deserved a blog post. This boy certainly is growing up fast, and quickly approaching teenage-hood. His 11th Birthday will be in a few weeks and guess what? He wants a guitar. First skateboards, now guitars, what next?

This picture was taken in Bristol yesterday at the docks. We had a lot of fun there as a family, and would love to go back again soon. I have a promise to keep to Tayler that he can go and see the 3D shark movie. There was certainly a lot of atmosphere and lots of families enjoying the sights, the steam train and the fountains. We'd highly recommend it.