2 little ballerinas.....

hello all!

Well, Nick's STILL away - he had a lovely time in Mauritius and is now in Cyprus - enjoying cloudless blue skies, 35degree temps and foam parties.....and he calls it work?!?!?!!!!! Actually, he knows this trip isn't REALLY work! Don't you all think he should blog one of these trips??! If you do - email and tell him so, nick@enigmafx.co.uk heheheheheheeee!!!

Renee has arrived and seems to be settling in well - the girls like her very much which is good news! She's a dance teacher and already has been encouraging the girls to dance - take a look!

I really hope this video works - its been uploading for the last 90mins?!?!?!?!!!!!!!......

make that 2 hours.........

make that 2.5hours - and I've picked the girls up from school and its STILL going!!

....maybe 5 hours now......still going?!....its only about 1minute long.......

now 6 hours......

Ok, I've given up with that after 9 hours!!!! Have some pics instead ;o)

After all that waiting it's now the next morning and I have to go and do cleaning and ironing so I'll just have to blog more later - and I will try again to get the video on!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxxx

ps - think I've just managed to sort out the video issue.....let's try eh?!......TRIUMPH!! Enjoy :o)

where does the time go??!

Phew....... I'd like life just to SLOW down a bit!! Wow! Mind, I discovered on a leadership course today that one of my "drivers" is to "hurry up" and apparently I wouldn't be satisfied if every minute wasn't jam packed.....I'd love to try it tho!

So, where did I last leave you....oh yes....

Weekend before last, Nick's Mum and Dad came up and Caitlin and I went to see Girl's Aloud in Newcastle! Girl's Aloud was great - it was Caitlin's first concert and she coped very well - both with the noise and the lateness! Here we are in our pink sparkly girls aloud hats and also a couple of photos from the show! We travelled with our neighbour Anna from 2 doors up the road who was taking Meg who lives next door. We'd booked tickets separately and were on opposite sides of the arena but we thought we'd be environmentally friendly and go in one car! The show was particularly poignant as Cheryl from Girl's Aloud who is from Newcastle has had a particularly tricky year so every time she sang she was cheered and she made a little speech and got quite tearful so it was quite a special show. They sang amazingly, looked incredible (if a bit too skinny!) and did a couple of covers including Salt and Pepa's "Push it"! That's one of my fave songs and they did it justice so I leaped around like a mad thing - Caitlin wasn't so impressed cos she didn't know the original! I'd recommend them if you want a good poppy night out! It was 11pm before we got into the car and 11:30pm before we escaped the car park queues so it was well after midnight before we got home - Caitlin fell asleep about 5 minutes after we left the car park ;o)

Sunday morning was church and then we met up with Nick and his parents at TGI Fridays for Mum's early birthday lunch. She'd never been to TGIs before so it was a really nice treat! The food was yummy and then Nick set up the waitresses to come and sing "Happy Birthday" with the proviso that they really embarassed his mum! So, they bought cake and shouted "attention everyone" and got the whole restaurant to clap!!!! It was so funny! They then sang a funny happy birthday song starting with the words "I don't know but I've been told, my friend here is getting old"!!!!!! SOOOOOooooooo funny!!!!! Mum LOVED it! Here she is with her cake - usually she's not a sweet fan but hot chocolate fudge cake went down REALLY well ;o)

Aside from that, as it was a bank holiday weekend and, AMAZINGLY, sunny we got a whole heap done in the garden. A big team effort with Nick's parents digging borders, Nick putting up trellis for climbers and me digging and planting so THANKYOU to everyone cos we got so much done and the garden is really taking shape :o)

Talking of the garden, we had amazing sunshine a couple of weeks ago - here are the girls enjoying the sun and the sprinkler!

For those avid blog readers amongst you, you'll recall that we got a new tent last year - then it rained and rained and rained all summer so we didn't use it! In the hopes of better weather this summer, we gave the tent a test run in the garden and its ENORMOUS!! Here it is with Nick and Jobe from next door standing in the PORCH

here are a few more pics to give you an idea of the scale of the tent - 4 bedrooms so even Nick and I can have separate rooms!!!! The girls LOVED their rooms!

Nick's parents stayed til Tuesday morning then Nick looked after the girls in the afternoon as it was half term last week :o) I got my new phone on Tuesday (Sony Ericsson K850i - I'd highly recommend it!!) and I've taken a few photos but need to install it on my pc so those will have to be added later!

On Wednesday Nick set off for Mauritius - he's arrived safe and sound and is enjoying the sun - and working hard! I took Caitlin, Izzy and Gaby next door up to Newcastle to Centre for Life for the day and we had a wonderful time :o)

On Thursday, after a bit more gardening, we went to my Mum and Dad's for a few days. We saw Mum at work and went to - guess where..... Cannon Hall!!! More animals ;o) Actually, this time we had lots of fun in the museum and the park for a change :o) We stayed with Mum and Dad till Saturday - thanks for having us - we had a great time! I also bought a Tom Tom whilst we were there - no excuse for ever being lost now!

Sunday morning was church - my little group are really starting to be very comfortable with me now and share their worries, concerns and what's been going on which is fab. We had a really good discussion about the Holy Spirit - which is actually NOT an easy topic to explain to 7/8 year olds!!! They did really well with it though and, I hope, took something away from my explanations!

Since then, we've been shopping and getting ready for Renee's arrival tomorrow evening - we're all very excited, her room's ready and at 6pm tomorrow we get to meet our new addition for the summer!

I think that's all for now - hope the sun has shone wherever you are this last week and I'll blog again soon :o)

Love and hugs

Nikki xxxoxoxoxoxxx

long time no blog......

I'm sure you're all fed up with my excuses as to quite WHY I haven't blogged for ages....so I won't bore you with them all again ;o)

What have we been up to well.....

Caitlin went on an activity weekend to Robinwood with 24 classmates and had an amazing time, conquering fears and trying amazing activities like caving, rock climbing, the giant swing and the PIRANHA pool.....;o) They all had an amazing time and gave us a presentation on it last night - complete with a song - words written by Caitlin, music by Nick and performed by all 25 of them :o) Really great! Caitlin also auditioned for the Pied Piper of Hamelin production in school - and found out this week that she's been cast in the starring role as Pied Piper :o) She has solos to sing and a LOT of lines to learn!! Very proud of her :o) Here she is looking way too old and grown up!!

Izzy is learning to read - she recognises about half the letters of the alphabet now!! She can recognise all the numbers from 1-10 (and maybe a few more!), cut out beautifully, do the most complex jigsaws and do amazing things on the trampoline! She's also extremely funny!!!! She can count to 10 in Spanish and French - and hopefully she'll get chance to really improve her French this summer - she's certainly very keen! Here's our graceful Izzy, in a wedding dress, sprawled on the floor ;o)

Nick's off to Mauritius on Wednesday - I can hear you all feeling so sorry for him, having to go to Mauritius AGAIN ;o) He's away for about 10 days, back for 3 days then off to Cyprus for 2 weeks including a few nights off in Aia Napa - that sounds messy!! During this "working" trip he will be filming a Greek Cypriot friend's wedding - which sounds like an amazing affair lasting several days!!!! Lucky him!!

I'm STILL just working........;o) but me and Caitlin are going to see Girl's Aloud on Saturday night which we're both VERY excited about :o) We're all still having fun at church and in Razmatazz and my little sunday school group are great! Caitlin performed with her Girl's Brigade last Sunday at church - they had a chant of all of the books of the old Testament in order - and they all got it spot on, in time and with no mistakes :o) The only problem is that all the time Caitlin practised at home, it got stuck in my head and I kept walking around saying it!!

Last exciting thing is that our new aupair Renee arrives on Tuesday 3rd June :o) She's here for the summer til the end of August - Renee's also Canadian but French Canadian this time so the girls are looking forward to learning a bit of French and I'm looking forward to practising my VERY rusty French!! Hopefully she won't laugh at me TOO much!! Renee teaches dance and is just finishing up at Uni training to be a teacher so we hope she'll have a wonderful summer with the girls dancing, playing and putting on shows! We've warned her that the girls like imaginary play ;o) heheheeee - hope she likes dressing up! We're all excited to meet her - and she's already been in touch with Lauren so hopefully she knows what she's letting herself in for!!!!!! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers for a good flight over and an easy transfer in Heathrow!

Think that's all for now!

Love and hugs

Nikki xoxoxoxoxox

prayer request for a good friend

Hello blog readers

Just a quick request....one of my good friend's from work, Sarah, lost her Dad last night. He was killed by a car whilst walking through his village. The car was driven by a family friend. Sarah's also 7 months pregnant.

Please could you keep Sarah, her Mum and her brother and sisters in your thoughts and prayers over the next week. Also the lad driving the car and his family. Particularly can you keep Sarah's little baby in your prayers as she's worried that the shock and distress might cause the baby difficulties.

Thanks all - really hits home how you can't take anyone for granted.

Much love

Nikki xxxxoxoxoxoxxxx

you are now leaving Birthday Central........

Hey all!

I know its been a while since I blogged - unfortunately it takes a bout of tonsilitis to slow me up and make time for blogging! :o( Nearly better now tho....

Well, its just been non-stop birthdays round here! All the photos are on the webalbum so I'll just put a few in here!

Izzy's 4th birthday was lots of fun :o) She got fab presents and had a brilliant time! We discovered that Izzy doesn't like to be sang at!!! ;o) She found that most unsettling! So, what did we get up to for Izzy's birthday?! Well, we went swimming at Splash with Gaby from next door on her birthday morning. Auntie Ros, Uncle Phil and Joe and Finn stayed the night so were with her to open her presents and after Splash, we went to TGI Friday's for dinner - and discovered that Izzy HATES when lots of over excited people sing at her!!! So funny!! ;o)

2 weeks after her birthday she had a party at Crazy Corner, her favourite soft play venue near us :o) We had 20 guests and they were all super well behaved and it was such a nice party :o)

The day after Izzy's party, Caitlin had her bowling party. It was just over a week before her party but we wanted it in term time :o) That was fun - particularly the bit where Nick encouraged them all to let the helium out of the balloons and inhale.....I've taken a few bits of video which I'll try to add to this later!

Then for Caitlin's actual birthday, she had 3 friends, Tejdeep, Charlotte and Aimee stay over on the Monday night for a big sleepover in the cinema room! They're all really nice girls - but man can they talk! Finally, at 12:40am I had to suggest that if I heard any more talking, there would never be another sleepover!!! So, they slept - until 6am?!?!?!!!! They all stayed to watch Caitlin open her birthday presents and then were picked up by their parents. Caitlin had a fab day!

Their main present this year was a shared present which we picked up last saturday - a new trampoline!! :o) Its so cool and big enough for adults to bounce on too! As you might spot from the pics, its not your typical trampoline.....well, we just don't DO typical!!! Its called a Springfree trampoline and avoids the dangers of feet getting trapped in the springs (even with the pads over cos little feet can just slide under!) by having flexible rods under the mat and an enclosure that is fully attached to the side of the mat. No way to slip off, get trapped or anything.... the only danger is Nick thinking he's still 21 and doing handsprings to his feet on the trampoline and damaging his shoulder...... I'm saying nothing!!!

The girls are now on their spring holidays - 2 weeks off. Nick's Mum and Dad came up on Caitlin's birthday and looked after the girls for us on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I spent with them then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, they've been at holiday club. Today, they're having the BEST time cos Lauren's back in England for 3 weeks staying with her future in-laws!!! :o) They were SOOOOooooo happy to see her! Izzy just squeezed her and Caitlin just shouted Lauren Lauren Lauren and hugged her :o) It was a very special moment! I've been over to see Lauren and Brent's new house - such a perfect first home - 3 bedrooms, separate dining room and a lovely back garden :o) They're working on the decorating etc now ready for them to move in after they get married.

This summer we've been lucky enough to find another aupair to look after the girls through the holidays :o) Another Canadian.....well, the last one was no trouble! ;o) Renee is joining us at the beginning of June and will stay till the end of August. She's almost qualified as a teacher, teaches dance and is French Canadian so speaks French fluently as well as English! We're looking forward to a summer of dancing and speaking French ;o) Hopefully it will give me a chance to brush up on my French too - its quite miserable really cos I finished school pretty competent and now.... pretty rubbish! The girls loved being able to stay at home last summer with Lauren and play in the garden, see their friends, play with their toys, ride their bikes etc etc and we hope they will have a similarly lovely summer with a new friend :o)

I'll leave you with a couple of pics from today - and also a pic of Muffin the huge! We're lovin that cat! Such a character :o)

Love to all

Nikkixxxxoxoxoxoxoxxxxx

Race for Life and Muffin

Hello bloggy friends ;o)

As you might notice from the not-so-subtle box on the right, I'm doing Race for Life again this year - this time with Ros :o) Please feel free to check out my page and donate if you feel so inclined :o) Last year I did super well and got £125 - many thanks to all my sponsors! Can we beat that this year?????!!!! Its for a truly excellent cause! Ros and I are back to training - went well on Monday and we're running again tomorrow and I'll try to get another session in at the weekend. As always, I'm the problem person cos Nick goes away and I'm stuck in the house.....maybe I need a treadmill?! ;o)

You may also have gathered that we have a new addition - delightful Muffin has joined the Joyce family! She's a Pixie Bob which (allegedly) is a breed that originated in the mating of a bob cat and a domestic cat in North America. They've only been an official pedigree breed since 1989 and there are very few breeders in the UK. If you check out the link to Muffin's blog on the right (I didn't set it up by the way! Gertrud, the breeder, has blogs for all her kittens!!!!) then you can also have a look at some of Muffin's friends that she left behind in London. Muffin will (hopefully) have kittens later in the year with Toby. If you have a look under the boy cats on the anson road website you'll find him quickly. He's a big gorgeous cat!!

The only problem with cats is the cat litter - I'm sat on the Mac in the kitchen and Muffin has just poo-ed in the litter tray next to my seat..... scuse me 1 moment ;o).....

Ok, sorted again! Phew!!!!

Nick's away at the moment and we're on the run up to Izzy's birthday on Saturday :o)

there's lots more to blog including mine and Nick's weekend away in London collecting Muffin whilst the girls stayed with Nanny and Grandad plus some general bits and bobs but I think I'll have to save it for a mega blog after Izzy's birthday!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxox

Noah Jonathon Neufeld

Just to let my blog readers know that little Noah passed away last Thursday night.

All our love and prayers go to Jonathon and Melissa and also to the rest of the Neufeld family.

xxxx

Mother's Day :o)

Today is Mother's Day!!!

I was greeted this morning by Caitlin bringing me tea in bed :o) Bless her, I taught her to make tea 2 weeks ago and she keeps bringing us tea in bed now! I love daughters!!!!! Mum and Dad were also here so they got tea in bed too!

The girls then sang a wonderful "Mother's Day" song that Caitlin learned at school last year and taught Izzy to sing this year - quite brought a tear to my eye. Caitlin had also made me the most gorgeous card and did an acrostic poem where each line started with the letters of "MOTHERS DAY" - another teary moment cos my special big girl had put so much thought and effort into it and expressed the most gorgeous sentiments :o) So, I certainly felt like the most special Mummy on earth this morning and I know I'm truly blessed by these wonderful little girls.

Anyway, to all Mums everywhere - happy Mother's Day. I know how special my Mum and Mum-in-law are to me - their love, support and encouragement know no limits - and I am always grateful for them in my life. Much love to all Mums :o)

Big hugs

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxxx

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

wow - its been nearly 3 weeks - oops!

Hello all

Sorry - its been HECTIC round here over the last couple of weeks - Nick's been doing a massive job in Sunderland so he's been away a lot, my work has been chaotic and the girls have been busy little bees at school and church!! That and trying to squeeze in Christmas preparations of course!

Well, 1st december Ros and I had our annual Christmas shopping trip to Leeds and stayed with my parents. The chucks were Soooo cute - poor little scraggy things! They're plumping up though and learning to peck and scrape for food like proper hens - amazingly they've only ever eaten poultry mash so are clueless how to eat proper hen food - they're starting to peck now though but I guess it must be so confusing for them. 1 year in a tiny wire box with hens above, below and to the side (hence the feather loss - stress and hens above weeing on them :o( ) then free roaming, free range, high quality food and affection!!

The shopping trip also went well, Mum, Ros and I shopped til we dropped and managed to find some really unique presents for some people and a few bargains too :o) FAB!

The girls are both performing in the church nativity on my birthday morning :o) Caitlin is an innkeeper and Izzy (with the beginners group aged 3-5) is singing "away in the manger" - that'll be a tear jerker eh?!?! So, they're both rehearsing for that every Sunday morning.

Last night was Caitlin's school Christmas performance and I was the proudest Mummy in the room :o) Caitlin was the only one with a radio mic cos she had this beautiful solo - how proud was I to watch my beautiful girl up on stage in front of a full hall and just opening her mouth to let this gorgeous pure voice out :o) She was awesome! Her voice was so strong and pitch perfect and she sings so unselfconsciously without really knowing quite how incredible it is!! Her head teacher waited for me at the end just to tell me how amazed he was when she started to sing cos it just comes out so effortlessly :o) and her teacher from last year, Mr Shildrick, just kept on and on saying how amazing she is. I'm so happy for her, cos she's in a school where her talents are recognised and encouraged and she feels supported by all the teachers - and they think she's as special as I do :o)

Think that's about all for now - hope you are all doing really well with your Christmas preparations - and remember, no stressing, Christmas is about so much more than the presents and the dinner - and whatever's not done won't matter on the day ;o)

Love to you all and God bless

Ho ho ho

Nikki xxoxoxoxx

Saving chucks....

Morning all :o)

Just thought I'd share with you what my parents are up to this week :o)

Mum and Dad have a gorgeous 3hundred year old cottage in Yorkshire with a big garden. At the bottom of the garden they keep chickens - happy, free roaming chucks :o)

A couple of weeks ago, my Mum found out about a place that rescues battery hens. At 1 year old these poor birds are culled cos they don't lay enough any more. At this point, they've spent a year cooped in a tiny battery cage, with weakened legs and their feathers all pulled out from the stress. No wonder they stop laying eh?

This place rescues the hens before the farmer kills them by buying them off the farmer for 50p a bird. People can then buy the rescue hens for the same 50p (tho, of course, most people spend more in order to support the charity).

Last weekend, Mum and Dad bought their first group of battery hens. As you can see, they're in a bit of a state when they arrive - they look ready plucked :o(

Their legs are really weak so they just kind of sit in the coop and Mum and Dad have given them this small run area to build up strength. Here's a close up of how one looks.....

poor little thing :o(

One of the hens however, is getting stronger and healthier and has now made it for a walk in the wider chicken area :o) here she is....

in about a month, they'll all be as healthy as her :o)

well - just thought I'd share that one with you cos I thought it was a wonderful thing to do! Many of the battery hens DO go on to lay again when they've recovered - but they lay like a normal hen should do, 2 or 3 times a week NOT 2 or 3 times a day as they're forced to in the battery farms. Even if they don't ever lay again, they'll have a happy retirement at the bottom of my parent's garden :o)

Love to all

Nikki xxoxoxoxooxoxoxxx

news from Snotsville...

Yep, you guessed it - the winter snotty grotties have hit again this weekend!

Poor little Iz, having only just had one bug when we were in the Seychelles, has pulled another stonker this weekend :o( Rotten cough, streaming eyes, raging temperature, sleepless nights.... started Friday evening and she was still very hot at 1am this morning. Since then she's cooled down and is now just gunky! Fingers crossed she'll be ok for school tomorrow - but we'll see how she sleeps tonight.

Aside from that, Nick and I are still busy busy busy at work - I was down in London on Thursday presenting at a national conference and Nick's away doing team development workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday. Around that, Caitlin's still loving Girls Brigade on a Thursday night and they are still having lots of fun playing with Gaby and Jess on the street :o)

Next Friday is the annual Christmas shopping pilgrimage to Leeds where Ros and I went to University ;o) Its an annual event for us to break the back of the shopping, spend a night with my mum and dad and leave hubbies and kids behind :o) For the last 2 years, my Mum has also joined in the shopping exhibition and is now one of the gang :o) So that's both exciting and very necessary cos I'm so NOT on top of the shopping this year!

One Christmas related thing was achieved today - the Christmas cake is currently in the oven and the smells on nutmeg and fruit and brandy are permeating every corner of the house - mmmmmmmmmmm ;o)

Think that's really it for now - just a quick one but I'll try and update more in the week.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoooxxxxx

news from the Joyces

Hello all

Well, Nick went away to Mauritius 10 days ago and arrives back at 10am this morning :o) He's had a busy week involving filming each of the 7 resorts (I think its 7!!) in Mauritius so not the usual "fun in the sun" (he'll kill me for saying that! He usually does work, but he also has some fun and free time with a bunch of travel agents - this time was just work!!).

So, Caitlin, Izzy and I have had 10 days on our own!

Bit of an update before that - Wednesday 7th November we had a bunch of very important visitors to the SLT dept. There's a national review of services for children with speech, language and communication needs and the politician leading it came to see how we managed our service, cos we're a bit different and don't have waiting lists and see pretty much everybody :o) He brought with him the chief executive of our professional body, the chief exec of the main voluntary charity for children with speech and language difficulties (AFASIC) and the SLT advisor to the Dept of Health - wow!! I bought a new suit for the occasion ;o) It went really well, they asked some really tough questions and, at the start of the day, simply didn't believe that we were able to do what we said we did! Still, I'd convinced them by the end of the day and I think we impressed them so that was cool - just exhausting! Its hard work having to be on your toes and give clever answers all day!!!!!!!! ;o)

Thursday 8th November, Caitlin started at Girl's Brigade at the Tab - which she totally loves! Its run by Helen (Lauren's good friend) and Caitlin loves her so that was a bonus. Caitlin went again this week - a logistical challenge cos it finishes at 7:45pm when Izzy's in bed and Nick wasn't here - but our lovely next door neighbour Jan came and sat with Izzy whilst I picked Caitlin up..... then she sat with me and we had a lovely evening of chat and some wine ;o)

Rewind then - I picked the girls up from school at 3:15pm the Friday that Nick left and we went to stay with Mum and Dad for the night. On the Saturday, we went to Cannon Hall (again!). I think this blog is full of Cannon Hall pics but we LOVE that place so much and always have great fun! Here's a few pics for you :o)

Saturday night, my friends Paula and Sam from work came to stay with Sam's 2 little girls Chloe and Emily (aged 4 and 3) so that was fun too.

Sunday was remembrance day and Paula and Sam stayed til 11:30am so we could watch the remembrance ceremony and do the 2 minutes silence together - even little Iz and Emily managed it!

Then - back to work! The girls have been really good all week and tried hard to be ready on time every morning. Caitlin went into school with all the Arabic stuff we brought back from Dubai on Friday and dressed up in her dish dash and did a presentation on Dubai which the teachers told me was fab :o) Its been a REALLY hectic week tho cos getting them home and having tea and keeping the house tidy and playing with them and doing their homework and the washing AND full time work (oh and shopping and feeding myself!!) - so I basically did all that and went to bed each day!! Sorry to people who phoned me after 9pm (or at all really cos I keep missing calls)! Izzy's also back in the habit of waking at 3ish in the night again so I've tried to go to bed early to compensate!!

Friday night this week, Ros and Joe and Finn came to stay and then for most of yesterday we had Jobe and Gaby from next door round playing on the Wii and doing our new High School Musical Sing Star!! (oh Lauren - you're going to LOVE that!!!!!!!)

That's about it I think - just off for breakfast then off to get Nick! YAY!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to see him and the girls are excited too!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxx