quick update

last week was half term :o)

We started rather fantastically on Sunday with a trip to the Gruffalo :o) If you haven't read it - then do!! After the Gruffalo, which the girls totally loved we had lunch and a play at Fun shack. Izzy bounced so well on the trampoline this time!

During the week, Nick and I were both at work so the girls were either at home with a working parent (and the server hacker meant that the day Nick had planned to spend having fun with the girls was spent doing computer stuff :o( ) or at holiday club. They had fun with their friends though and then on Friday Caitlin went to spend the weekend with her Nanna and Grandad. She went down the mine with Grandad at the National Coal Mining Museum and to Cannon Hall (again!!) to look for baby lambs being born. Unfortuantely she didn't see any but still had a
wonderful time. Mum's taken pictures which I'll post when she sends them through.

Meanwhile Izzy and Nick and I had a nice weekend at home, we went to Pizza Express, booked birthday parties for the girls, bought new shoes (Izzy's now a size 10!) and played in the garden with the rabbit and guinea pigs :o)

That's most of the news really - other than our sponsor child through PLAN international has now turned 18 so we were sent details of a new sponsor child - a little boy in Zimbabwe. He's 4 weeks younger than Caitlin which is actually really nice because Caitlin can better relate to the differences in her life and his. He's called Joseph and I've just sent him a football as a "hello" gift! I'm more au fait with what girls like but I'm sure I can't go wrong with a football! ;o)

Other than that, life continues to be crazily hectic with work - both Nick and I are rushed off our feet but really - better that than not, so we're not complaining!

Big hugs to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxx

update on email status

Hey again

This is where having a techy for a hubby is great - he's managed to forward my emails from nik@nikkijoyce.co.uk to a new google mail address. So, if you use that address, I'll still get it OR you can be the first to use my new google mail address speechynikki@googlemail.com :o)

Much love!

Nikkixoxoxox

hackers are not nice people :o(

Hey all

Just had a call from Nick. His server that hosts his website, the BLAST website and various other websites was hacked at some point by mindless, nasty, thieving idiots who put one of those things on that emails people to say that their paypal account needs checking and please reply with account details etc etc (phishing right!). Fortunately, I think people these days are too wise to fall for that nonsense but someone managed to chase the root of the problem back to Nick's server.

The server is now off line whilst they investigate who hacked it and try to track that person down. In the meantime, our websites are all off...I seem to still be getting email to my nik@nikkijoyce.co.uk address but I don't know if it will keep working.

So, if you need us - we can still get on the internet so leave a comment here, message me via facebook or use my work address nikki.joyce@nhs.net

Love

Nikkixx

blog-iversary :o)

Hey all

Izzy just wanted me to go back through all the blog entries & look at the photos - fortunate as it turns out as it is exactly 1 year ago today that I posted our first blog :o)

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's day yesterday :o)

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxox

note to self - nobody's last words are ever "I wish I'd spent more time at work"!!

Hello lovely people - I know - where have I been - no blogs!

I'll try and catch you all up a bit on what we're up to - first though, if you haven't already done so, check out the photo link cos I won't put too many photos on here :o)

I'll work backwards to Christmas I think - that makes most sense.

First then - congratulations to Melissa and Jonathon on the safe arrival of baby Noah. For those of you who've read my earlier blogs, they found out quite early on that the baby had trisomy 13, a chromsomal syndrome with (usually) many challenges and difficulties. Noah arrived at the weekend and, thank God, has come home today. I only have a little news for now but for those of you who did keep them in your prayers - thankyou - he's a little miracle.

What's the big news in the Joyce household then?! Both girls are continuing to do well at school and have lots of friends :o) I'll post a couple of recent pictures of them shortly! Izzy is starting to read some words and can write her own name and count to - well, almost 100!! Caitlin is continuing to be a maths genius. Caitlin has now got her girl's brigade uniform and she looks very cool in it :o) I'll try and post a picture of that soon when I upload it from my phone :o) She's loving Girl's brigade and has made lots of new friends there. Izzy has been told that she can start too :o) She decided not to cos she didn't know people and was a bit nervous but now has made firm friends with a little girl called Abbie who's just 4 weeks older than her and goes to her sunday school group too. Abbie goes to Girl's brigade - so how long do you think it will be before Izzy decides that she maybe IS big enough after all ;o)

2 weeks back we went to Center parks for the weekend with our fab neighbours and good friends the Riordans :o) We had such fun :o) We swam, relaxed and enjoyed walking in the fresh air. Izzy had her first pony ride and totally loved it :o) She was so confident and didn't even need me to hold her :o) Izzy now asks on a daily basis when we're going back and "can we live at Center parks"?!?!?! :o)

New Year this year was great fun :o) My Mum and Dad joined us along with Ros, Phil and the boys as usual - such a joy to have a house big enough to hold so many guests :o) Caitlin and Joe were supposed to be asleep but, as they were still awake at 11:40pm, Ros and I decided they might as well come down so they saw the New Year in for the first time :o) It was really special! Caitlin was flapping her hands and rubbing her head in excitement! She's so wonderfully enthusiastic about things :o) After midnight, a bunch of neighbours also came in! It was crazy! Ros, Mum and I had cleared up in the kitchen but then, suddenly, what appeared to be a chemical lab appeared on the counter as Nick pulled out all the spirits and mixers and started creating some wild and wacky concoctions - needless to say, I didn't try them!

Nick's birthday was lovely too :o) We were somewhat partied out by then so it was a quiet one. I bought him a game playing chair which rumbles and has speakers in it.. that accompanied by Call of Duty 4 on the PS3 has basically kept him occupied ever since! He keeps crashing in bed at 2am having been trapped on a vital mission!!!! Boys and their toys eh?!

Christmas was brilliant. We had Anne, Jim, Nige and Rich up and had a lovely time :o) Not too hectic - just good food, good wine, good company and a wonderful visit from Santa :o) The girls loved all their presents and got just what they wanted - they're still enjoying all of them, this year, everything has been well used! The girls did really well in the Nativity at the Tab too :o)

My birthday was also daft fun - cos I decided we should have a barbecue! I've never had one before for my birthday - no kidding!! So, I sent Nick out (heheheheheheheee) to barbecue food and invited lots of friends and neighbours in and we had a really fun night :o)

As well as a barbecue, I also went out for the evening to a Teppanyaki restaurant in Hartlepool with Ros and Phil - here's some photos of that evening! It was great fun - and didn't the chef do an accurate job with my age ;o)

In between Christmas and New Year we held an engagement party for Lauren and Brent which turned out really well :o) It was lovely for us to meet some people that we'd heard about but never met before and everyone got on so well! The night finished with a big SingStar competition between 2 teams - Nick heading one team and me the other. Nick's team did a lot better than my team - but then, boys are more competitive!!! ;o)

I think that's all for what we've been up to. Coming up soon are the girl's birthdays :o) They've decided what kind of parties they want and their joint present is going to be some play equipment for the garden. At the moment, they've got a toddler set which Caitlin can now almost step over! Despite that, they played on it all last summer so we want to get something that they can have more fun with this year :o)

Lauren's back for a visit in April also - the girls miss her a lot and every so often Izzy will ask when she's back. They've coped well without having her in the house but they're excited to see more of her in the summer :o)

My job at the moment is crazy busy - hence the title for this blog.... I need to remember that work is not the only thing in life and if there isn't enough time to get it all done - then it doesn't get done. I've volunteered to help out with Sunday School (Razmatazz) at church - so that should keep me out of trouble at the weekend!!

Oh, we're going to see the Gruffalo live this weekend in Sunderland :o) The girls don't know yet ;o)

There you go - I'll just go and fetch a few pics for you and say "bye for now"

Lots of love

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxx