Rachel's Ramblings: October 2013

Another photo laden blog post, as always these days! Anyone seeing my blog now would be surprised that it used to be more words than pictures! ;-) But now the photos capture what is happening, as I seem to have little time to say it with words! :-) First off, photos from Deborah's birthday, which was earlier this month. She was very excited to finally be 3 years old - she thinks it's very grown up. In fact, she's often saying things about being nearly a teenager! :-P No idea where she got that from! lol Or that she's almost 7 (as she wishes she was bigger than Abigail). But to no longer be "only 2" was very exciting for her, that's for sure!

Opening presents!

Pleased with her "Baby Jake" doll

Though I think the toy shopping trolley was (and still is) the most popular of her presents! :-)

Her favourite "Big Kitty" having a ride.

Her big brothers got some new Lego

And Abigail got some felt and a sewing book, and had already made a needle case before having breakfast!

Elijah got a toy broom (tho I think he might prefer the full size one best), but he's looking cute here with it - like he's paddling in a boat!

He loves to climb in these plastic buckets, and then I'll hear him saying "help me out" when he thinks he's going to crash trying to get out! :-) He talks SO much and says anything he feels like saying - which is usually quite a lot! He likes to copy words and phrases which he thinks sound interesting.

The birthday girl and her cake! I think she was quite pleased with it.

With her best friend Miriam. :-)

I should have known Deborah wouldn't appreciate having "Happy Birthday" sung (just how Benjamin feels about it), but I wasn't thinking. [bad mum] :-( She just had to cover her ears, close her eyes and tune it out - total sensory overload. Poor wee girl! Her friend blew the candles out for her ;-) and whilst Deborah usually notices *everything* that happens, it wasn't until that evening (or the next day!) that she realised that she hadn't blown out her candles - the singing was that much *too much*.


The cat that the cake was based on - not perfect or identical, but I was happy enough! :-) But thanks to Google for being able to find a outline picture of a cat that was similar (I did spend a lot of time searching through images!) and then it was simple enough to use royal icing to make a flood fill decoration.

Then during the October school holidays we decided to pop over to Ness to see Leah! :-) Of course, it's not exactly popping over when the ferry across the minch takes nearly 3 hours! On this occasion we didn't book the ferry in time (and it was busy with schools being out) so we ended up having to go via Skye and the Uig to Tarbert ferry. The ferry crossing is only half as long, but it takes ages to get there. However, it was an amazingly beautiful day for a drive across Scotland - constant sunshine and it was lovely. The photo above is Lochcarron from across the loch.

Kyle of Lochalsh along the way

Mountains in Skye

Sunrise in Ness - I so love this place! :-)

"Hooray" says Elijah (one of his favourite phrases - always said with hands up in the air like this! :-P I love the look of Preston here - maybe he's thinking "We don't eat breakfast like that!" :-D LOL

Our first day in Lewis was amazing weather too, so we decided to make the most of it and visit the Carloway Broch and Callanish stones that morning.

Beautiful views along the way

The broch!

Looking back down as we head towards the broch

Girls walking

Soooo peaceful!

Getting closer

And here at last

Abigail in one of the passages

Peter and Benjamin up high

Cute Preston :-)

Darling Brooklyn

My biggest girl and me

I like the unusual shape of this stone at Callanish

The stones! Abigail has been wanting to go here ever since we learned about Stonehenge in history a couple of years ago! :-) Of course, nothing in size like the other, but still pretty impressive!

Yep, pretty tall! :-)

And you can see the height is still impressive, even with my 6ft tall husband next to one! ;-)

Elijah & Peter

Boys will climb - or at least mine will!

Abigail found a stone of similar size to herself

And one a bit bigger! ;-)

Boxes are great for putting cousins in! ;-)

Leah, me, Dawn and Anne :-)

All 8 children are actually here in this photo - pretty impressive! lol

Minus my smallest 2 now

They did lots of building with Lego

Everyone loves Lego

Me, Dawn and Anne

All the children except Elijah

Me & Peter

So hopefully this blog is going to publish OK with all these photos! I don't think there's anything much else to say. We've just had a lovely week with Leah and her children over with us. They're staying in our holiday house in Edderton but spending the daytime with us. The kids all have so much fun playing together and it's wonderful to be able to spend time with my sister and her lovely children. (Yes, they really are lovely kids! :-) ) They've been here since Monday and are heading back tomorrow - we're going to miss them! But at least (for now) they're only back in Lewis, so hopefully we'll get to see them again before too long.

Oh, before I forget, I meant to include a link to some photos from my brother Nathanael's wedding! He got married to his lovely bride Esther earlier this month. It was very disappointing to not be able to go over for the wedding, :-( but these photos are just amazing! It looks like it was a very special day and these photos really capture their joy & happiness! http://www.bendthelightblog.com/nathanael-esthers-wedding-portraits/

It seems I forgot to post anything in September, after all my catch up posts the previous month! :-P I guess I was busy - early in the month we went over to Ness (in the Isle of Lewis) to stay with my sister Leah and her family. Caleb is studying there for the next several months, so visiting them is our chance for the kids to finally spend time with their cousins & Aunty Leah and Uncle Caleb. So we spent a few nights with them and had a lovely time. I've got lots of photos from our time there, further down this post. Then we had to hurry back home that week as we had guests coming to stay at the house in Edderton, so had to be here to get that ready, and it was occupied for a further 2 weeks after they left a week later - so a busy month, which is good! :-)

First a few photos from the past week or so - nothing out of the ordinary - just kids around the house!

I *love* this photo - and the boys in it, of course! :-)

"Lego!" says Elijah - yes, they ALL love Lego. And their sweaters rather match the bricks too! lol

Brothers!

This little guy (ok, middle guy) is always building something new - and smiling too!

Looking a bit dazed here - but always with a book in hand! :-)

Waffles for breakfast - Elijah's favourite!

Feeling short, I think!

My rather wild flowers, outside the front door. I wasn't sure anything was going to grow very well in this once rubble pile, but these flowers surprised me! Very pleased with my £1 box of "shake and rake" mixed flower seeds - it filled the window boxes on the playhouse, grew all these flowers here - and more! :-)

"Shoo - go away" says Elijah to a fly (or some other flying insect he found on the window).

So yeah, now the photos from our trip to Ness last month. I've already posted these on Facebook and Google+, so perhaps most of my friends/family have already seen them, but finally they're here on my blog!

Kids having fun in the play area on the ferry. It was great they could run around like this, since the crossing takes about 3 hours!

Breakfast with cousins! :-)

The view from Leah's back door - yes, the Atlantic Ocean!

Preston & Elijah had *such* fun together - P is exactly 4 months older than Elijah.

Abigail & Shona in the garden

Colouring pictures

It turns out, *both* these wee guys are obsessed with switches - so they hung out together turning switches on & off! LOL

Elijah being blown away - love it! :-)

Elijah came through and saw Preston sitting in the floor, so he sat down beside him and stretched his legs out just the same! :)

Anne's son C holding Elijah

My 5 and Anne's 4 - ignore the crazy faces some of mine are making!! :-P

Anne and I

Elijah got lots of cuddles that afternoon! :-)

Clement & Shona were debating how you say the letter Z (Zee as an American or Zed as the British say) - they both had very strongly held opinions - so funny!