been MIA

sorry that there have been no posts from us here at #23! we are without internet for the time being, switched provider and won't be set up until the new year. so i am here at my friends house and taking advantage of the time!!
so we are away to belfast on the 21st and there until the 2nd! i know that i have forgotten to mention that my mom is flying over on boxing day into belfast international and then flying home again on new year's day!! we can't wait to have her with us! yippee =)
well i am going to go and enjoy the company here. will maybe try to write over the holidays while at the in-laws, but they are on dial-up and its so slow!!

so MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!!

oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree

these were from our youth group last night (well these are different ones as i forgot to take a photo last night!
we also had pumpkin chessecake! well, let me just tell you! it was almost ruined!! i put it, uncovered from the fridge to a bag to transfer to the stocks house. micah or andy (i'm not sure yet as no one has confessed yet) put micah's shoes into this bag. yeah...on top of the cheesecake! it was only when we were almost there that micah was trying to get into the bag that i took it away to hold in my lap when i looked in! i could not believe my eyes!!!! my wonderful looking pumplin cheesecake had a pair of dirty smelly trainers on top of it! i almost cried! and was in a foul mood for about 15 minutes! but then got over it, scraped off the top bit and smoothed out what was left it was okay!! but boy, i never want to do that again!

and here we all are, in front of avril's christmas tree!!
WMF (west midlands fellowship)

all is quiet

i sit here with a quiet noah on my lap, andys in the shower and micah is either upstairs with daddy or playin quietly elsewhere....wait! playing quietly? micah? oh dear! better go find him:




ok, so i did lots of baking yesterday and left the powdered sugar on the kitchen counter! never though midget would even think of getting into it!!! he's covered, our floor was covered, the table, the door and the wall! what was he doing? he mimicked throwing it at the wall for us, so we'll just assume thats what he was doing!! oh dear! what fun =) just happy its only sugar and not anything worse!! *note to self* do not leave ANYTHING on the kitchen counter!!!!

quiet time

so now that i have the place to myself, i have been able to do some scrapping! i haven't done any in awhile...atleast digitally =) so here is what i did today.
this is from a sketch over at pencil lines by jennie leon. the papers and everything i used is by thao cosgrove over at scrapgirls.



also earlier i was able to make cupcakes!! i haven't made them in ages...but found this cool cupcake blog and have been inspired!
i made chocolate cupcakes and i was going to make a mint buttercream icing, but didn't have enough powdered sugar, so for the mean time i made a delicious peanutbutter filling!! oh my, it is soooo good!!! so i need to make another batch of the cupcakes as they were like soooo easy to make, and use the rest of the filling for them, while my original batch, well 15 of them i'll make the mint frosting for them! i am arranging them in the shape of a christmas tree as the final display, so the icing will be green and i bought the little candied hershey kisses that i'll decorate with to look like coloured lights!!! well, i hope so anyway!
i'll post the finished photos on saturday!!!

good night!

what a day!

andy's cousin dan drove up last night from london, to spend the night here before the 2 of them flew out this morning from the bham airport... poor guys were up at 5 (i think -- i was alseep for atleast a wee bit longer!!). thankfully, all went well this morning and they arrived safely in dublin and simon (my BIL) picked them up and then back up to belfast.
andy said that the funeral went well with a good message! will have to ask again as i didn't listen to andy's explanation very well!

the boys have been mostly good for me today!! micah is feeling a little bit better, but still not eating lots like normal! and he woke up from his nap miserable! he would not stop crying, so i just said ok! we are going for a walk! so once out the door, he was fine! so annoying though as nothing is noticably wrong, and he couldn't/wouldn't tell me anything!

we got back close to 5, had dinner, than a small nap (*i* had a small nap!!) while watching 'cars' and then off for a 'big splash' (aka. a bath) and then bed time! that's when things got out of hand!! i hate it! both boys at once and neither wanted to sleep for me!! micah was ok, stayed in bed with lights off but keep calling for me, especially whenever noah cried. i put noah down 2x when asleep and he woke up like 5-10 minutes later, and i put him down 2x when awake. the first time he layed there with out crying, the other crying. tried the 'controlled crying' thing, and on the 3rd time that i went in a picked him up, he fell asleep in my arms anyway! so i put him down i guess for the 3x asleep and he finally stayed asleep. then when i finally got to go back and check on micah he was sleeping!! hurray =)

just a small update from the weekend

i wanted to share some photos from saturday! it was a blustery day, but we braved it and went down to stow-on-the-wold, down in the cotswolds! its a beautiful little village and fun to visit! we took our new friend kim with us. she is from malaysia and studying here in birmingham and coming to our gospel hall! she hasn't been around much so we took her to see a bit of the countryside!

so the day we were there, santa was coming! they were having their christmas fayre and santa grotto! they were serving mulled wine everywhere...it was funny! micah wasn't very impressed with santa (nor was i), but we paid the £2 to see him and receive a gift anyway as it went to a charity i think! but micah wouldn't even walk in, i had to carry him and then he wouldn't take the gift! oh well! i have a good photo from last year of him with santa!


we were so tired that night and it was already 6 by the time we got home that we decided to get a take away. so we went to an indian place and i got a chicken malaya (i think it was called..mild spice wiht pinapples) and andy got something a bit spicier with onions and peppers. he got a peshwari nan bread and i had a plain one. the peshwari one has honey and maybe almonds and is very nice!

and heres a pic on micah and noah side by side as micah watches bob the builder!!

feverish

not long after i posted yesterday, micah woke up from his nap and unusual for him, wasn't fussy, but very cuddly AND he didn't want the cookie i had bought for him!! strange! we put in cars and sat watching that for a bit while i fed noah, and he sat right next to me and started to lay down at one point. i reached for a blanket and laid it over him, when yikes! he started throwing up!! yuck!

so i had to quickly get up, put noah down somewhere other than the couch and keep micah's hands away from the yuck! poor boy! its so awful to watch a child throw up when they don't understand whats going on!!!

so we changed into jammies and cleaned up the couch, threw his clothes and the blankets into the wash and layed back down on the couch and finished watching cars. he was really good and laid there for about an hour, then decided he felt slightly better and played on his bike in the kitchen and what not.

he was a bit feverish and thankfully fell asleep around 6:15 in his daddy's arms! and he slept till almost 7:30 this morning! i woke him once to change his diaper and give him a big of calpol and a drink. i hate sick children!! yuck...just praying noah doesn't come down with the same!!

this morning he's still a tiny bit feverish, but he's had a cracker and a cookie and lots of juice (watered down). don't think we'll be going out today!

a cold and windy day!

today we missed noah doctors appointment as we weren't ready in time to catch the bus and get there by 9:50! oh why oh why did i agree to such an early appointment?? crazy me! so we went out around quarter past 11 to go to sainsbury's (the grocery store) as i am being ambitious and baking desserts for our youth group on friday night! pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate cupcakes! all from scratch! we'll see what happens!
anyway, going out we waited for the bus for oh round about 45 minutes! then when it came there was no room for our double stroller! great! so i treated myself and micah to chips and a sausage from the chippy! yummy and it was nice and hot too=)
heres a pick from when we got home!

happy december

can you believe that it is december already?? oh my gosh, where did november go? thankfully i can say i have almost all of the presents bought...just need to purchase some tins of chocolates or biscuits for some others!! oh and get something for andy!! he he =)

i purchased a little seat for noah yesterday called a baby pod! its like the bumbo seats if you have ever seen them and they are so cool =) heres a few photos of noah in his!!




in other news, andy's grandfather passed away yesterday morning. so we're waiting to hear when the funeral is and if we'll all be able to fly over.

this is a photo of a photo that we had done at olan mills! i am too lazy to get the scanner out!