christmas crackers

my mandy friend asked about the crowns we all have on it the photo from christmas dinner. so, none of us really knew what the tradition is except that you always have christmas crackers at christmas time with a paper crown in it and a joke and a wee little gift that usually gets thrown away. its fun and just the tradition!
here is a link to the history of the christmas crackers. enjoy =)

christmas cheer

we arrived in belfast monday night in time for dinner. it was a nice and uneventful trip over!! tuesday karen, luke and zach came over for lunch. here's jonah and zach together!

in the afternoon we went into belfast to do some shopping. it was nice with all the christmas lights and we checked out the new victoria square. very nice indeed!

wednesday we had lunch with paul,erin, rose and aiden mullan...


aiden and jonah, (daddy's cousins' son) and only a day apart.

micah and noah opening their new car garage and all the family at the end of christmas dinner.


jonah's new crib toy:


noah opening his presents and jonah enjoying mommy's slippers!

paul, karen, luke and zach.

zach, 7 months on the 29th and jonah 6.5 months on boxing day.

#23 thru 2008 - Highlights of the Year

Here are a collection of the blog highlights from this past year.

Click on the links and enjoy the recollections.

January- What a Start:

The Adventures of Sudo Cream

February - Ups and Downs:

Boys at Malvern Hills & Micah's Eye

March - Not Much to Report:

This and That

April - Relaxing Break:

West Wales at Easter

May - Nephews Arrive:

Kilian Lane & Zach McCauley

June - Jonah Edward:

Number 3 - Is this the end?

July - Continuing:

Photography & Evangelism

August - Best Memories:

USA, Teeth & Motorbikes

September - Back into Routine:

Home School

October - Half Term:

Work & Play

November - Stateside:

Sadness & Happiness

December - The Present:

Perking Up/Winding Down

As we look back we can truly say 'Ebenezer - hitherto hath the Lord helped us'. As we look forward, 'Great is thy faithfulness'.

It only suffices for all of us at #23,

Andy, Janelle, Micah, Noah & Jonah,

to thank you for your interest & comments,

and to wish you all a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

photo dump =)

here is one of me...since there aren't usually any, here is one just for you all!





of course i get these after we did our christmas card! oh well... aren't they adorable? cheecky monkeys definitely =)


in other news, micah been great at helping me make all the christmas goodies! 7 loaves of pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cupcakes =) i still need to bake some snickerdoodle cookies too. and possible a pumpkin cheesecake, but i am not sure about that one!

jonah talking

the coughing you hear is from noah who is sitting next to jonah. i think jonah does a fake cough at one point =)

here is noah bowling. we went bowling for my birthday back in november! the boys really loved it and i think andy and i forgot how much we enjoy it too!!

jonah, 6 months

(here are some photos from my mobile!)
jonah in reindeer hat (click here to see noah in the hat 2 years ago!) ((i think i'll have to recreate that photo tomorrow or sometime soon!)

micah's new peter pan outfit (woolworth's is closing down, everything on sale!)

and micah and jonah playing =)

fast update before heading to bed...

jonah weighed in at 15lbs 7oz. that's 1lb 1oz gain in 4ish weeks! so he is doing well. still just above the 9th percentile. noah was around 18lbs at 6 months and micah maybe the same if not a little bit less. micah dropped down below the 9th percentile around this age.

i started my baking today. lots to do over the next few days! have to be done by friday=) my friend hannah was out for the day yesterday in bridgenorth in shropshire and found "americalicious". a little shop that sold everything american and they had big tins of pumpkin! she texted to see if i wanted any and ofcourse i said yes! so i have 2 big tins and still have 4 small tins left. i have to save some for ireland too!!

this week i think i am just making pumpkin muffins, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodle cookies and maybe some pumpkin bread too. hopefully andy will make some wheaten bread as well!

i'm off to bed now =)

so...

it's almost christmas!! hooray =) i took noah and jonah to the doctors on friday. noah hasn't ever gotten over his last cold and wednesday he just wasn't himself. quite quiet and stayed in his stroller not really wanting to get out as usual. thursday he was the same and a bit warm and just wanted to lay on the couch with a blanket. that night i noticed a lump on his neck. so friday i called for an appointment. along with jonah who has gotten our coughs and splutters. so the doctor diagnosed a double ear infection in noah and single ear infection for jonah. so amoxicilan or whatever, here we are!
its our first ear infections hopefully the last!
jonah reaches 6 months yesterday so last week we started on some fruits! yummy. apples and banana so far. we tried a bit of carrots and parsnips and potato. i need to get some babyrice to mix with some of it though, i think! but going well! he gets so excited though when he sees the spoon! i'll go on tuesday to get him weighed and measured for the official stuff!

he likes his toes too =)
oh and jonah can get himself out of his bumbo chair!! OMG, what is that all about? so now when i put him in i *have* to put the tray on!! he is a smiley baby though with his 2 bottom teeth! i have a few little video clips from my mobile that i need to download soon. speaking of which, micah and noah have taken over my mobile phones camera! noah especially loves to take photos, problem is that he doesn't know how to go back to take another and he ends of sending photo messages to everyone! andy one day has like 8 messages!! expensive for me!! yikes!



this is the last week of work of andy for the year! love that sound =) he has a busy-ish week with the christmas party, a class trip to a buddhist center, a musicical afternoon and finally the nativity play that he wrote for his year 5. friday evening is our carol service at church as well. monday the 22nd we leave for belfast via ferry. hopefully the trip will be a bit better than last time! (we got stuck in dublin rush hour for like 2 hours!!) we will be in belfast for christmas and coming home new years day. should be a load of fun!!

i'm back!

not that i went anywhere, i just wasn't getting on here to blog! to busy with facebook and online christmas shopping =) but here i am and hoping i can think of loads to tell you all!
so first, this is how thanksgiving looked for us and 12 others! so good and we totally enjoyed leftover for the next 2 days too! i had them watch charlie brown's thanksgiving so they could see what its all about!!

on the sunday after having turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches =) we went to the botanical gardens with peter and becky who are getting married in april and took some photos so that they can get some photos for their parents for christmas. it was dark all too quickly but we got a few.

some time last week or the week before, noah got a real shiner of a bruise while chasing micah! it looked like it dented his check, i was a bit scared i'd have to make a run to the A&E but he calmed down and it soon showed its ugly colours and all was ok!

last saturday we had out sunday school christmas party, went to pick up a rainforest jumperoo that i won on ebay and the boys picked up a christmas tree for us! so it was a busy day but nice to have the tree up and looking beautiful!

and i'll let you see our christmas cards for this year! i am extremely pleased with them if i do say so myself =)

actually i'll only show this one....he he