Birthdays, Houses, and Winter colds

It seems I've forgotten my blog over the past couple of months - didn't even post *anything* last month. So here's a bit of a catch-up post, with plenty of photos, as always!

It seems we've had colds all winter. :-/ Deborah & Clement have been coughing for over 3 weeks now and last night Deborah got rather worse - coughing all night and being sick with the strain of it. I took them to the GP this morning and both are now on antibiotics. Hoping and praying they get better soon. It's not nice to see Deborah so poorly. She had a temp of 39C this afternoon, but thankfully it's not been up again that high since and she's sleeping peacefully.

Benjamin just turned 5 the other day. It's hard to believe I've now got a 5yo and a 6yo! :) They grow up so quickly. Last week for at our fortnightly homeschool group we decided to have a group birthday, as there were *3* children all having their 5th birthday within a week of each other! Benjamin & Jonathan were born on the same day, and Rebekah was born a few days before them. I think all the children really enjoyed it.

The three 5 year olds! :)


Sitting in a circle to play games


Deborah

Deborah and Anna Marie (Heidi's little girl)


Abigail and her wee friend Autumn


Then on Saturday Benjamin had a birthday again! ;-) Well, he got his presents and birthday cake then. I think he felt special getting to celebrate on 2 occasions!"


Abigail got a princess dress as a present, as she really wants to be a real princess! ;-)


Clement got some mini hamsters :)


Benjamin got lots & lots of books, and Lego too - one happy boy! :) And already buried in a book too!

"Can I be a princess too?" says Deborah


A happy face as he looks at his cake - love the smile!


Close up of the cake - very quick and simple when you use toys to decorate it! ;-)


Blowing out candles!

In other news, last week we purchased a house in Edderton - a small village not very far away. We're hoping to let it out as a self catering holiday house!! :-) Here's a pic of the front:

It has 2 large bedrooms upstairs (the triple windows on either side), and a sitting/dining room is the larger window downstairs, with bathroom at the front (small window) and kitchen behind. Small front garden, with decent size back garden. And best of all, a *lovely* view across the street:

this was taken on a cloudy day, and in winter. Will be lovely & green in the summer! :) But hills all around and open field just across the road. And in this field, is the ancient Edderton standing stone!! :-) I posted photos of it on my blog last July, when we took the kids to see it. Never thought we'd be buying a house just across the road from it! So yeah, we're starting work getting it ready to be a holiday house. We hope to get carpet & laminate floors in it first (fitters coming to measure it tomorrow), and then we can start furnishing it, etc. I'm looking forward to the project - I think it will be fun! :) Of course, baby is due in only just over 11 weeks ;-) so not sure how much energy I'll have. But hopefully the sooner we start, the sooner we can have it ready to let out!

And now a few random photos from Jan-Feb, mostly Deborah, I think!


Helping mummy unload the dishwasher! :)




Playing with vintage Fisher Price Little People. She loves this set - much better than the modern/current ones.

Wearing mummy's apron - thanks to Abigail putting it on her! ;-)


Peek-a-boo

Always climbing - see that leg going through the railings?? Anything she sees her brothers do, she has to try and copy!


Sharing a book in a bucket


My little darling


"Ironing"


Making sure it's done properly! ;-)

Winter without much snow

So far this winter seems to have a *lot* less snow than recent years, which is a nice change! :-) In fact, after 3 winters in a row with several inches of snow at the end of the year/beginning of the next, it was really nice to have non-minus temperatures! Around the end of December we had a lovely sunny day and decided to go for a drive. We went along a very remote track in Sutherland (quite a few miles long) which wasn't maintained/gritted in the winter - something that would have been *impossible* (not to mention dangerous!) to do at this time of year for the past few years. But the roads were ice-free, which was great.

View across Loch Fleet, which we stopped at when we went for a drive.


Peter and children at Loch Fleet, though the smallest ones are ignoring the camera! ;-)


"Reading" about the wildlife found there


Some sheep heading off together, across the road from the loch.


Clement sitting on a bench, looking cold!


Also across the road from Loch Fleet, Skelbo Castle, which is a ruined 14th century keep.


We saw *lots* of seals in the loch too. Pity my camera is a bit rubbish at capturing something like this!


My big smallest girl - she's *such* a lot of fun! :-)


She still loves her dollies and enjoys pushing them round the house too.


Benjamin with a lovely smile - to make up for the face he did in the photo below (on purpose too, of course!).


All 4 together, though as said above, Benjamin thought it would be nice to pull a crazy face! :-/


My little maid! ;-)


The real worker in my kitchen - yes, a dishwasher!! :-D I didn't think I had room for one (as we had a 2nd fridge freezer in the only "spare" floor space). But Peter realised if we had an extra raised surface/worktop in the corner of the kitchen, we could put the smaller fridge freezer on top and the dishwasher under it! So, within hours of his bright idea, I had already ordered a new dishwasher! ;-) It arrived about 10 days later (middle of December) and has really made a difference in my life. It's so nice to be able to make all the dirty dishes "vanish" in just a few minutes.


We have had a bit of snow, but not much. Deborah enjoys watching the snow fall out the window and this was her first time to walk around in it. :-)


The very cheeky Clement!


They get up to all sorts of stuff together - but are great friends too!


Abigail dressed as Hello Kitty!


Relaxing with a book - yes, she prefers books for older children/adults. The more words and less pictures, the better - literally!


Playing dress-up with her big sister


I did say he was cheeky! ;-) He also can't seem to keep his hands out of *anything* (which can be a problem :-/). On this occasion it was cute and not a disaster! He brought some cows to visit me while I was peeling veg for soup.


My lovely wee girl!


Sisters playing together - they have a lot of fun!


Dressing up again!


Probably about the most snow we've had this winter - so far, at least!


My girls and their dolls!

Pregnancy, birthdays, and autism!

Meet baby #5 - at 12 weeks 3 days:

Yes, there's a lovely little baby growing inside! I'm now around 14.5 weeks along (which means I've taken rather too long to blog about this, since my scan was 2 weeks ago!) but life is always busy. I would have hoped the pregnancy sickness would have passed by now, like it did with my other 4 pregnancies. But I'm still feeling awfully sick - from when I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night. :-/ Thankfully I manage to keep most of my food down - if I'm careful with what I eat!

Nearly a month ago, my dear Abigail turned 6 years old. (Yes, that means I'm rather behind with blogging!) She had her best friend Rebekah over for the day, much to her delight. :)


Presents and balloons!


Seems she thought she was a princess! ;-) Abigail likes to make her own crowns.


I'd only got back from Texas a few days before her birthday, so it was just a simple cake she got!


Deborah loves to colour pictures!


This is actually a photo from Texas - Deborah stole Uncle Gerrit's hat! ;-)


Here she is - proof of the crime! :-)


Oops, looks like another picture of a crime in action! Deborah in the middle, with cousins Brooklyn and Shona - and yes, about to whack Brooklyn in the head it seems!


The lovely view from the beach house my brother Nat rented while we were in Texas.


One last photo from Texas! Our hire car - a Chevy HHR, which Benjamin *really* liked! :) He said I had to take a photo of it so his daddy could see what it looked like.


Abigail and "Buzz Lightyear" (Benjamin) playing paperdolls.


Benjamin and his pyramid he made out of Lego! :-) He decided one afternoon that he wanted to build a pyramid and told me to find a photo of one on the internet. We soon found one and he very quickly put this together.

Speaking of Benjamin, we've just about reached the end of the process for his ASD diagnosis. We started it in March/April and finally found out last month the conclusion they reached. They've said he has High Functioning Autism (aka Aspergers syndrome), which is exactly the conclusion I reached nearly 2 years ago! :-) I think some parents feel their world has fallen apart and have to come to terms with a diagnosis of Autism. But for us, we already knew it and it is reassuring that the professionals agree with what we thought already. I would like to learn as much as I can about sensory processing issues, as it really plays a big part in the struggles an autistic child has with the world around him. Two books I'm currently reading and highly recommend are:

The Out-Of-Sync Child (http://www.amazon.co.uk/-Sync-Child-Carol-Stock-Kranowitz/dp/0399531653/)

and

Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism: Different Sensory Experiences - Different Perceptual Worlds (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sensory-Perceptual-Issues-Autism-Experiences/dp/1843101661/)

The first book is written in a very easy to read/parent friendly style and explains everything really well. The second book is a bit more technical (and probably assumes a basic knowledge of autism and termonology) but I've found it really good and learned a lot from it - probably one of the best books I've read on the subject.

Here's Deborah looking very cute! She's walking now - since about 2 weeks ago and seems like she already wants to run! They grow up soooo quickly!


Here's the amazing play house that my very clever husband started building while I was in Texas last month! It's all finished now and really fantastic. I think the kids will have a lot of fun in it, though perhaps it's a bit cold today with the snow we've got on the ground!


One last photo - I love kids in winter pjs! :-) They look very cosy. But of course, winter usually means colds and right now Clement has a nasty croupy cough. :-( Deborah has had a cold for a couple of weeks now, but thankfully no cough. But Clement is all wheezy today and couldn't even sleep through his nap. I hate to think how he'll be tonight.

OK, must get busy around here!