Christmas 2008

I am way behind with my blog posting. I am missing the Christmas post, my birthday post, and a post about 2008. I guess that happens with a newborn and three older kids in the house. So heres a brief account of the most amazing Christmas ever!

So Christmas Eve was our first with 4 stockings. Annabelle helped Emily hang up her stocking (not that Emily really knew anything about it) and Barney enthusiastically left out the mince pie, and carrot for Santa and Rudolf. It took Barney hours to get to sleep. He kept getting up to look out of the window, peeping for Santa. But the plus side of this was that he didn't wake up until 9am, so we had a nice lazy start to Christmas day.

Christmas Day itself was quite relaxing as we didn't have to make a dinner this year. Mum had invited the entire family round to hers, so we spent the morning lounging around in our PJ's whilst the kids opened their presents. (I spent much of the morning nursing Emiy too!)

The bigger kids both received a new mobile phone for Christmas along with various new clothes, hair accessories, sweets, chocolate and general teenage stuff. Annabelle enhanced her Nightwish collection with DVD of their music, patches to sew onto her jeans, and Nightwish stickers to decorate her room with. Jimmie received Lost series 2 and 3, and hasn't come out of his bedroom for days since as he is glued to the telly. Emily got a few little stocking fillers which Barney eagerly opened for her. Barneys most exciting present was a Gameboy, which has hardly left his hands since.

Christmas Dinner at Mums was divine! She cooked for 14 of us! The turkey was not just a turkey... it was a duck inside a turkey inside a goose... and it was mouth wateringly good. She spent something like 12 hours cooking it and was up to tend to it during the night, much like a newborn!

Dishing up time was a mammoth task and involved help from almost everybody. The adults all sat at the main table, the big kids sat up at the breakfast bar, and the little kids had a wee table of their own. Emily kindly slept through dinner time, just long enough for me to horse down my food before she needed nursing again. The food was just delicious (Thanks Mum!) and the company was the best.

Mum had a Christmas tree in her huge living room that was actually bigger than my house. It was massive. It doesn't look all that big in this photo because it's such a huge room. But it was a sight to behold. And underneath it were the most amazing hampers for each family that Mum must have spent weeks putting together. Our hamper was filled to overflowing with lots of different types of home made fudge, a huge box of home made truffles, home made spicy nuts and lots of other delights too. Dan was extremely taken with the big new saucepan that was included, and he hasn't come out of our kitchen since.


After every Christmas comes my birthday, and I am now another year older. This year we planned a quiet day, as I'm not yet recovered from my C-section, and am feeding Emily what seems every 5 minutes anyway.

Barney woke me up in the morning by bringing all my presents up to the bedroom. Traditionally we always open birthday presents on my big bed. Barney was even more excited than me and handed me each present, watching with enjoyment at every one I opened. They gave me a new HIM t-shirt, the new Dawn French book 'Dear Fatty', enough bath stuff to keep me clean for an eternity, and lots of other things too.

In the afternoon the midwife made her final visit to our house to discharge us from her care. At the end of her visit people started turning up at the house and I realised Dan had invited people round for my birthday, as a little surprise. He's so cute like that. So we had a nice lunch with family and friends and I got more prezzies! Barney helped me blow out the candles on my cake. Not quite sure why I had a big '2' candle on my cake though!

On that note, I must go, as Emily is awakening for yet another feed.

Food to make you dribble

(photo of Barney, myself, and my Mum - taken 15th September 2008)

It's been a busy few weeks since the kids went back to school. Little Barney is really enjoying school so far. He looks forward to going in every day, although he couldn't go today as he has caught a cold. (One of the vices of going to school!) He only goes until midday for the first few weeks, but he still comes home exhausted from all the playing. I'm so relieved that he's settling in nicely, and that he's not crying or begging not to go. It makes life so much easier.

Annabelle has settled into high school just as if she'd always been there. She never has many stories to tell when she gets home. She just does her homework and gets on with it.

One of my highlights from last week was a morning I spent playing in our big bed with little Barney. I was having a lazy day, it was the weekend, and as usual Barney crawled into my bed for some 'Mummy Snuggles'. The best part of the day is mummy snuggle time. But on Saturday we spent all morning in bed together, chatting, playing, talking about the baby and school. We were laying on our backs staring at the ceiling when Barney remembered looking at the stars together in the deserts of America. Every day he mentions something from our big trip. So we lay on our backs and stared at the ceiling, pretending it was the night sky. Barney started to name ceiling paint spots after the planets. He's been reading a book lately about space and the planets and is learning the names and sizes of each planet in our solar system. So the light in the middle of the ceiling became the moon, the light switch was Jupiter, and various paint spots became different planets, stars, and comets. But intent on being correct, Barney had to get his space book to make sure the big paint spots were named after big planets, and the little ones after little planets. We had such a lovely time together.

The 3d baby scan, or bonding scan (see post below this one) has really helped the whole family to bond with our little unborn baby girl. But none more than Barney. Before the scan he would say to me 'I don't like babies, they are gross, I'm not going to cuddle it' etc. But since seeing Emily on the baby scan and watching the DVD at home with me a few times he has totally changed his feelings on the matter. He took the baby scan photos to school to show his teacher and the class, telling them 'this is my baby sister Emily Rosie'. I picked him up from school the day after the scan and instead of running to give me a hug, he ran to my tummy, flung his arms around my bump and declared "I'm sure I will love you baby Emily". Now and then he comes up to my bump and has a little chat with it, telling the baby how beautiful he is, and what a good big brother he will be. It almost has me in tears.

Jimmie hasn't been well the last few days, suffering from a fever and headaches, so I kept him off school today, along with Barney. The spent most of the day playing Pirates of the Caribbean together, with no sign of looking ill. But it was lovely to see Jimmie (13) being so patient with his little brother and teaching him everything he knows.

Yesterday poor Jimmie missed out on a trip to my Mum's house for dinner because he wasn't well, and boy what a dinner he missed! There's nothing like your Mum's home cooking, but this food was so divine that Dan and I were dribbling the entire way home just remembering how delicious it had been! Roast leg of lamb, steak & Guinness pie, roast potatoes, asparagus, pak choi, green beans, lamb gravy, mmmmmmmmm (I'm dribbling again) - all followed by a big strawberry pie. I ate enough for three people and Dan wasn't far behind me. Even little Barney managed a big plate of food through his sniffles. We weren't totally cruel though, we took a doggy bag of food home for Jimmie to heat up. He was pleased. We all watched the 3d baby scan projected up onto Mums living room wall like a cinema screen! It was great to see it in such detail. I could watch it over and over again anyway.

I'm sure I have a heap more I could blog about but I can't think at the moment. There's so many times I intend to write a post but I just run out of steam and don't have the energy. The BP tablets I'm on make me sleep far too much, and I'm constantly extremely tired. I thought I did so well at Mums yesterday , then I remembered I'd forgotten to take my medication, so that's why I had energy! Today though I did finally get a few things done. Lots of sheet changing, washing of clothes, ironing etc. But I also finally managed to fix the drawers in my bedroom which were falling apart.

The wedding of Hannah and David, 28/11/2007

It's Sunday morning and I'm finally getting a moment to write about Wednesdays wedding. The biggest event of the year for our families. And what an amazing day it was! I think it was the loveliest wedding I've ever been to. Hannah put so much work into organising it, along with the help of various other people, especially Mum.

Barney and I spent Tuesday helping to decorate the reception hall, which was held in Castlewellan Castle. I thought Barney would be a nuisance for that day but he was absolutely great. He made friends with the chair delivery man, and the Castles caretaker. He put the rings on the napkins and helped scatter love heart shaped sequins over the tables.

Wednesday morning started early in our house. Everyone had to shower, including my sister Maddi and her partner Tom. Then Maddi, myself and Annabelle headed to the hairdressers. From there Maddi and I went to Mums house to help the bride get ready. The morning went relatively stress free, although Mum nearly had an anuerism at one point when she couldn't find the bridesmaids necklaces. At one horrifying moment, I got red lipstick on Hannah's wedding dress, and nearly died there and then, but we managed to get it off with babywipes.

Photos of us getting ready at Mums house.

We drove like royalty in two wedding cars to the church in Killinchy. Hannah and Mum in one car, followed by the three bridesmaids. At the church we were met by Dad, the flower girls (Annabelle & Jenny's three girls) and the Page Boys (Jimmy and Barney). They all looked adorable, the boys in their suits, and the girls in their tiaras. Dan looked amazing too in his suit which matched the grooms, as he was groomsman. I don't think our family has ever looked quite so smart before!

The flower girls started the procession, two by two, down the ilse, scattering rose petals, to the tune of Song Bird played on a harp and flute. They were followed by the two page boys. Then Hannah and Dad made their entrance, followed by Maddi and I, and last but not least Jenny.

The service in the church was held by David's Father who is a minister there. Dan also did a short talk in the church, and us bridesmaids & Mum sang a song - Come What May from Moulin Rouge.

The service was lovely, and we all had a tear in our eyes as we watched the happy couple make thier vows and share their rings. They looked so adorably happy together.

After the wedding there was a mini reception held in the church hall, before heading to Castlewellan Castle for photos and the reception.

Hannah & David leave the church as husband and wife, Cutting the cake at the mini reception, and Barney & I looking smart at the mini reception.

We stopped at the Lake in Castlwellan forest park for photos with the wedding photographer. None of us had ever been so cold before and we all got completely windswept. But the photos will be amazing.

Inside the castle we had a mammoth photo session, and I'm pretty sure the photos look like something from an OK magazine shoot.

Then finally, after all the photos were taken it was time for the reception. The hall looked gorgeous, and the food provided by the Castle was absolutely divine! I was only sorry I couldn't eat very much, squashed into that dress. We had the usual speeches, including a very funny slideshow of Davids life, by the best man (his brother). And then a bit of a disco session.

The day ended with the bride and groom leaving the Castle through an archway of sparklers, which looked very pretty indeed.

First pic from the wedding

We left our camera at the wedding so I only have one photo until this afternoon. But here it is, my sisters and I in the wedding car, Hannah's bridesmaids. What a beautiful day it was. I will write more when I get the photos.

(edit - you can now view all the photos on my facebook by clicking here)

Hannah's Hen Party

Its only a week and a half until the big day for my littlest sister Hannah and her fiance David. David's stag do will be held on Saturday, but this Saturday we celebrated Hannahs Hen Party, and what a day it was. It started with a day spa session at a Turkish Bath. This was awesome. There were 9 of us girls and we spent the day relaxing, nibbling, chatting, whilst also getting the Turkish bath and massage sessions.

After the spa session we drove to the Odyssey in Belfast where we dressed Hannah up in hen gear and tied 10 helium balloons to her. We then gave her 20 forfeits to chose from and every time she completed a forfeit we removed a balloon from her. The poor girl had to go bowling in this getup, and then on to a Spanish restaurant! But I think we made it memorable for her at least. You can see all of the photos by clicking here.

After the meal we all went back to Mums house for a slumber party and facial session. But not before driving Hannah round Belfast and Downpatrick, with balloons out the car windows, in convoy, beeping, hooting and shouting the whole way round. We got lots of cheers and commiseration's along the way!

Family Lookalikes

There's been a few emails buzzing around the family this week. I thought I'd post them on my blog and see what y'all think. We are going to go into the look-a-like business. LOL. Well, not me, I'm unique. But my Grandad and my sister.

Does anyone else think my Grandad looks like Jude Law?

My Grandad, age 20

Jude Law

And my sister J. I've always thought she looks like Helen Baxendale, but now I find out that my other sisters also thought the same!

Can you tell which one is my sister and which is the famous actress???

This one definitely has a J look about it. She gives this scary look quite a lot.