few more pics.....

the view from Abbotsbury church across the hills - ancient Benedictine church built in the 1400s...

This is St Nicholas Church itself - gorgeous old church - we had a struggle to get Nanna in but she was determined so we shoved, hoicked and pushed and got her in ;o)

sheep for you Lauren.....;o) gorgeous fat faced old fashioned sheep!

Mum n Nanna taking photos in Abbotsbury :o)

xxx

enjoying our hols

well, Nanna, Mum and I are fully enjoying the sun in Dorset!! We've been to a swannery, wandered around Weymouth and been to a subtropical garden :o) Tomorrow, mum and I plan a little trip to Dorchester whilst Nanna gets a few more crosswords done and then we're all on a trip to the nearby village of Abbotsbury which has an amazing old Benedictine church and the ruins of an ancient monastery as well as several tea shops, art shops, antique shops and gorgeous old thatched cottages ;o) More stories and pics as the week goes on.........

love to you all

Nikki xoxooxoxoxxxxx

kittens

quick post just to say that there are lots of gorgeous kitten pics on Muffin's blog at Anson Road - check them out!!

http://www.ansonroad.co.uk/cats/pixiebob26/

enjoy ;o)

Nikki xxx

weddings and kittens

Well, first up, here are the kittens at 4 days old!! All thriving!! There are almost certainly 3 girls and 2 boys.  1 of the boys and 2 of the girls are very similar sizes then there's a much bigger boy (called Dave!!) and a much smaller girl.  We were a bit worried about the little girl on day 3 because she didn't put on much weight but it was just a one day blip and she's continuted to grow proportionally well from then.  3 of them now have their eyes open - SOOOoooo adorable.....I'll blog pics in a couple of days when they all have their eyes open ;o)

So, the kittens arrived on Sunday of last week.  On the Friday, it was our friends Robbie and Helen's wedding day - and the sun shone brightly for them :o)  It was a gorgeous day and Helen looked totally stunning - Izzy said she looked like a "fairy princess"!!  Helen had asked Caitlin and Izzy to give out the confetti as we came out of church and they were so chuffed to hold their baskets and give out hand made cones of dried rose petals - they looked adorable.  Robbie looked good too - all of the men in the party were in kilts as Robbie is Scottish and they looked great together.  

Here's a few pics - Nick took a picture of me and my work mates in the grounds of Headlam Hall - beautiful setting for a wedding.....

We brushed up ok?!!!

The beautiful bride Helen - very relaxed and chilled all day!

Robbie loves the girls and the feeling is mutual!

2 little confetti girls

....giving out confetti at the church door.....

On the Saturday after the wedding day, Nick went to Mauritius and Caitlin, Izzy and I went for a barbeque at Helen's parents house which was a really nice way to finish the wedding weekend - it gave Helen and Robbie chance to catch up with friends and family and look at the pics without the formality of the church and reception - top idea!!  

Nick got back from Mauritius yesterday looking all tanned - grrrrr - especially as the weather here has taken a turn for the colder and greyer :o( oh well, we had 10 days of amazing weather so a bit of rain was due!!  Good for my garden ;o)

Mum and Dad came for dinner and stayed over on Saturday night and I cooked a pretty yummy 3 course meal which Bergny also enjoyed - I think the English cuisine served here is working out for her!!

I've also joined the gym and managed to go 4 times already - needs must!!! I need to get in shape so I must go to the gym ;o) The girls had their first swimming lesson at the gym on Saturday afternoon - it was a trauma!!! Izzy is as neurotic and anxious as her Mum and, with the pool being 120cm and her being 115cm, the fear of drowning turned her into a Klingon!!  Sue, the ex army swimming teacher, stood for no nonsense and sent me away whilst trying to encourage a wailing Izzy to stop clinging to her neck....hmmmmmmm.....think this is going to be fun!  Next lesson, Saturday afternoon at 4:30pm again!

Think that's it - many bugs are going round at the moment, none of which are yet swine flu although I get daily updates from the NHS so I'll warn you all when its spreading further ;o)

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxx

new arrivals

This will just be a quickie cos, as you'll understand in a mo, I'm quite busy......

First tho, meet our new fab Icelandic aupair Bergny :o) We seem to have settled on "Becky" as the preferred pronounciation as no-one in the house (except me) can roll their "r"s....and I'm a failure as a speech therapist cos I can't teach them!!!  Bergny has settled in really well, the girls are full of cuddles for her and she's very easy going and fun to be with so we're all happy that she's here :o)

Nick is (again) in Mauritius.......

.....and he missed the exciting event of the year - Muffin's 5 kittens safely arrived this evening!! Muffin was amazing!! Smallest is 104g, largest is 117g and Mum and babies are all doing fine..... :o)

Here they are, I haven't taken many pics cos I didn't want to disturb them but there will be loads more I'm sure over the next few weeks ;o)

So, back off to sort out Muffin and make sure she's clean and comfortable again :o)

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxx

ps time to wet the babies heads as well I think ;o)

update

Hi all

Just to say as an update to my previous post that Roger passed away last night. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Liz and their family.

xxxx

Caitlin's birthday, Easter and Center Parks....

So where did we leave off....oh yes, Caitlin's henna party!!

Well, we had 3 friends to stay and one of them, Tejdeep, brought with her henna and beautiful Indian outfits kindly provided by her Mum. I asked my friend Helen to help me with the henna as she's excellent at cake icing using a piping bag and I thought that may be a transferable skill!! The girls were very impressed with her so I guess it worked :o) Check out the pics!....

In the morning, Caitlin opened her presents with her friends also there...







After Caitlin's birthday we were down at Nick's Mum and Dad as usual for Easter :o) For some reason this year, we ended up playing Texas Hold'em Poker most of Easter Sunday - only in fun of course but it did look funny! Great example for the kids eh??!?? We had lovely food and were particularly happy that Ian and Kay and the boys could join us and especially to see Kay doing so well :o)











As well as fun at home, Anne and I took the girls into Milton Keynes and enjoyed the Easter activities outside John Lewis :o) Caitlin also got her hair randomly curled by a lady at a stall selling ceramic curling irons - it looked beautiful.....but we didn't buy any! ;o)





At the end of Easter someone was a bit tired in the back of the car......;o)



On the Friday at the end of the Easter holidays, I threw a surprise bridal shower for my good friend Helen :o) It was a pampered chef party and all the guests were gathered early with their cars hidden so when Helen and Robbie arrived for "dinner" she had no idea!! Helen is well known for being unsurprisable so I scored major points for totally surprising her ;o) Having never been to a bridal shower before even, I had to grill Lauren on how to work it but it turned out brilliantly and we all loved the pampered chef products and are also keen to bring bridal showers across the pond for ALL brides - heheheheheheee



After the bridal shower weekend, Nick went out to Mauritius to video Laurence Llewelyn Bowen who has redesigned the already stunning wedding packages at Beachcomber - it sounded like he had an interesting time out there!

Nick legged it back home on the Friday, repacked and then Nick and I set off to Slaley Hall, a gorgeous hotel in Northumberland, with our best friends Ros and Phil. Thanks to lovely grandparents who looked after our kids! ;o) Mum and Dad had the girls for the weekend and cooked us a gorgeous sunday roast when we went to pick them up. Dad ran a half marathon that weekend and got under 1 hour 40 minutes - he's still superman!

The following weekend was the first bank holiday weekend of May and we paid our annual trip to the Preston Park Spring fair on the Saturday. The girls got their faces painted by a fairy - cute huh??!



On bank holiday monday we went to Beamish with Lauren and Brent. It was really cold but stayed dry and we had lots of fun in the old town, the sweet shop and the old bank - here are Lauren and Brent in the vault!



Then last Friday, Lauren and I set off to the Lakes for our long weekend of relaxation and fun :o)
We had horse riding on Saturday.....ouch!! I had a FAT horse and my thighs burned afterwards!



Here we are (with new haircuts!) off to the chinese on sunday night!



Here we are enjoying archery on Sunday morning.....that was fab! Lauren and I were up against a couple and their son - we had a lesson first then at the end of the hour, had to score up our shots. The Dad and I both scored 32 so it was onto the tie breaker - I shot my arrow - and he scored the same so we had to take another turn.....this time my arrow landed right on the bullseye and the Dad couldn't beat me so YAY for girl power!!! I AM Robin Hood!!!! ;o)



Here are a few final shots of us enjoying the scenery, the ducks (with very cute ducklings - and rabbits too!) and me enjoying making Lauren try alcohol!!! Its one of my favourite hobbies - getting Lauren to sip wine etc and then watching her face - heheheheeee - this was a mojito which for someone who doesn't like alcohol was pretty gross!!!!

I'm sure Lauren will post more pictures too if you check out her blog :o) (link off my profile)

The weekend was slightly affected by news from home that our wonderful Pastor Roger had been rushed into hospital in Edinburgh where he was staying with his son. Roger was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of months back and was struggling to regain health. We then heard that tests were being done and then that he had end stage pancreatic cancer and wasn't expected to live for many more days. As I write, he is still in hospital and we all hope and pray that he won't be suffering for much longer. Lauren and I were glad to be together when we got the news as he's a special person to both of us and was the minister who baptised Lauren 3 years back so it was good that we could support each other.

The last bit of news is that we're almost 100% certain that Muffin is pregnant - there are pictures and updates on her blog on the ansonroad website - the link is also on my profile.

Upcoming for us is that Bergny (our new aupair) arrives on 25th May and Caitlin is currently doing national tests at school and at the end of year 5 is already gaining grades that she should only just be getting at the end of year 6 :o) We're very proud of her - does that mean she doesn't need to go to school next year ;o) Izzy is now reading and writing all by herself too - we really are blessed by 2 amazing daughters!

I think that's everything up to date - hope you are all enjoying the Spring :o)

Love to all

Nikki

I know I owe a birthday post but......

haven't got time right now however just wanted to say....

WOO-HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow a weekend of chilled out blissness starts when Lauren and I abandon our men and our homes and disappear off to the Lakes for 4 days of relaxing............

SOOOOoooooo can't wait!!

;o)

I will try and do Caitlin's birthday blog tonight - Nick got me a new computer (in readiness for Sims 3 which comes out next month - bless him!) and we've been setting it up and copying across files etc etc for the last couple of weeks.  I finally got all my pics copied across and Picasa up and working and my camera software installed on Monday so I'm ready to blog again properly :o)  I can blog text from this laptop but all my pics are on the desktop....

Caitlin got my previous pc for the play room as hers was very temperamental and old and kept dying mid-game or mid-word document and mine was a very stable little set up so she's also delighted cos the internet stays on and she can play Sims 2 on her "new" computer!  Great to have Nick who stripped the computers down, re-installed them and got them working beautifully - what a star!

So, I will try and blog later but for now

WOO-HOO again and love to all!

:oD

xxxxxxx