sickness

my poor wee noah is sick! yesterday evening, after not eating hardly anything at dinner, threw up his milk (yes, all over me and him and the floor)... then threw up around 3 and had diareha (ha ha, have no clue at the moment as to how to spell it *it is after midnight*). then was up at 6ish and a wee bit dirty too. so we went through 3 pairs of jammies and 3 changes of sheets! yuck =(

today he's eaten some cheerio's, biscuits, weetabix with yohurt, a little bit of milk in late morning and early evening. some fruit and some yogurt. and a cracker or 2. BUT lots of water! he's slept loads 3-4 naps today but thankfully, no more yucky poo or vomit! he's bee a wee bit feverish, so has had some calpol....and is now sleeping, and hopefully back to going through the night!

a cool new action =)

micah in tennessee =)

these are some *actions* that i found for photoshop. i looked up *free photoshop actions* and found quite a few pages for it. these 2 were the more *fun* actions =)
andy, micah and i at the baltimore harbor

melissa, kelly, sara and i at milligan, tennessee

stratford

so jonny, the boys and i braved stratford yesterday! we had a few 5 minute blizzards sunday and then 2 light snow flurries on monday! there was a wee bit of snow left on the ground from sunday, but it was so sunny yesterday morning that it was all melting away!

but it was a beautiful day so we thought why not!! so we had a great time, an uneventful journey and still beautiful weather! one of the first stops was near shakespeare's birthplace, i pulled out my camera to take a photo and nothing happened! my battery was dead!! i couldn't believe it..but then i could as we have had it for a week and hadn't charged the battery once since we got it!

oh well... i'll leave you with a photo taken from last summer =)

happy mother's day

ok, so its only mother's day here in the UK, maybe elsewhere, but i know its not in the states! but that's ok! it's ok to have 2 mother's days isn't it??? we do deserve it you know =)

here are some photos from yesterday, so happy st patrick's day as well!

we went out to lunch yesterday with our friend jonny who is over from belfast for a few days! we love our visits from jonny! jonny was andy's groomsmen at our wedding =)

this restaurant had a great childrens play area, though it was in its own room, and children had to be supervised. so you have to i guess split your time between the play area and the dinner area!

but as you can see it was a blast! micah loved it =)

boys will be boys...

i just got these photos back. they are from our film camera taken over the last 2 months i think.
are they precious?! and do you see those eyes?? are they not gorgeous?


here they are playing around with the duster! they were just chuckling away!

here is our snow photos! we really had some snow =) and i am so happy that we actually captured the snow falling! I WANT SOME MORE!

the ides of march

so today's been a great day! we went to solihull with sheila =) i like solihull! and though i didn't get to go to as many places as i would have liked, it was fun and the boys were very well behaved! we went to a park afterwards for lunch and micah enjoyed feeding the duck, geese and swans at the pond!
this photo is from just before dinner...they were having a ball, doing...whatever! don't know 'what' they were doing exactly, but they were sure laughing away!! so cute!

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA! i miss you and hope that all is well for you there in thailand =)

p.p.s. noah has ALL 4 top teeth coming in! all at once and with no complaints =) just a bit of chewing action going on!

an interesting day...

so i went to bed last night at 10 something...much earlier than normal! plus i fell asleep while putting micah to bed!
this morning we had a funeral to go to. i thought i should go and i would just have to see what happened with the boys. so since it was at 11, i thought i'd be able to get home by 1 as i wasn't going to the burial. i took the single stroller as i knew that noah would sleep on the way and hopefully through part of the service... we took the 18 bus which is generally not stroller friendly, so when it came i had to fold down the stroller and carry noah. not too much problems, got to sainsbury's and walked down to the hall. micah did very well, though he lags behind and it takes ages, it was all good.
micah sat nicely for the 15 minutes before it started and then the first 15 minutes or so that was the singing and the prayer, then noah woke up so we went and sat in the side hall and micah and noah just played about. so they were good and it was stress free. i stayed back to change noah and have a cup of tea with hannah and baby samuel and we finally left at half 12 maybe? i didn't look at the time.
i decided to take the train (for micah's sake) to the next stop and get the bus home from there. no problems again, until the bus came! micah DID NOT want to get on that bus! he wanted to keep walking and i had to literally drag him onto the bus, while holding noah and the stroller! not fun! he cried and cried and cried! he wouldn't sit with me and cried in the corner on the FLOOR, and believe it or not, cried himself to SLEEP!! great! thanks for the peace and quiet, but what was i going to do when it was time to get off?? i had this vision of me getting off with noah and the stroller and the bus driver carrying on with micah asleep still on the floor!!!!
THANKFULLY, that didn't happen and another lady picked micah up off the floor and brought put him into the stroller for me! jeez, that was interesting!

birthday over!

yesterday was andy's birthday! we had a good start to the day with a cooked breakfast. i had offered to bake something for andy to take into school, which is the norm here. on your birthday you bring in something for everyone else!! but he was set on making a fruit salad to take it! so we cut up some bananas, apples, oranges, grapes and strawberries and had a huge fruit salad! well it was a hit as he brought home an almost empty container....i think the day before was someone elses birthday and today is another, so he was thinking something healthy to compensate for the dounuts and cakes being brought in!

micah, noah and i went for a walk late morning to the park. micah had a nice time playing on everything he could! we even tried some new stuff, that he is really to small for, but with just a teeny bit of help, he managed! i took loads of photos as it was a gorgeous day! after lunch was naptime and i managed to get dinner made. then when micah woke up we made and baked the cake! it was fun and micah was a big help =)

then before dinner micah and noah were playing out back when daddy came home! they love it when he gets home and usually he just gets bombarded by them! so they played for a little bit then came in for dinner. so we sat down to beef topped manicotti and a loaf of tear away garlic bread. it was really good!

the cake was just a plain cake with jam inbetween the 2 layers then a coconut buttercream icing. i think it had a bit too much coconut, but it was nice. i'm so terrible at making cakes though! they always look terrible but taste great!!!

we did it!

yes!! i bought us a canon eos 400D!!! hip hip hurray!! i am way way way excited!!! so i have 3 weeks to learn the ins and outs, atleast the most important ones and then we're off to shoot a wedding!! i can't wait!

now all we need is a laptop and hopefully the newest photoshop CS3 (creative suite). and then maybe an A3 printer =) all in good time eh?

here are 4 photos, non-edited!! can't wait to play some more =)

found this

found this photo in one of the numerous folders of photos that we have on our computer...



and i made it into this



and am totally in love with it!

pencil lines

here is the latest sketch from pencil lines. this is a great site....when you are feeling uncreative in your scrapbooking, they have a new sketch every sunday. from different scrapbookers/artists out there and it is so refreshing! i have only done 2 actually, but i am going to be going backwards from #22 this one, and do others that i like!!



credits go to thao cosgroves friendship collection@ scrapgirls and designer digitals for the quote

what a beautiful day!

today has been the most gorgeous day of the year so far! it was sunny all day, not even a spot of rain! lovely white fluffy clouds and the sun was even warm. so in the afternoon, the boys and i took the bus first to the grocery store to buy a few things, then we walked to the park. it is a park that brings back lots of memories! it is just across the street from where andy lived while at uni. and just a few minutes walk from the house where i lived when i was a student here in birmingham.

i remember going there with calem on valentine's day ('99) and swinging away, talking what we wanted to do in life, relationships, reminiscing and everything else!

i remember going with andy and jonny late one night as i forgot my keys to get into springdale (the house i lived in, which was also the college) and andy and jonny had walked me home that night. so we sat on a bench and talked, well i asked questions about there meeting (ie. there place of worship).

as you walk down the street (gibbins rd), along the sidewalk are crocuses...beautiful, gorgeous flowers of purple, yellow and white. i so vividly remember seeing them for the first time, walking to sainsbury's with my new roommate triin and gill, who was the secretary at springdale. we were going to have lunch at the cafe in sainsbury's.....

waving

noah started waving today! it was cute! i was chatting with my mom over yahoo messenger with our webcams on (but not talking just watching) and noah was kinda waving to her! he gets his hand up in the air and he watches his hand and almost waves at himself as his palm is facing his face! lol =) i'll have to try and get a photo...maybe with the webcam! haven't figured out how to do that yet!

the boys are both fine, runny noses, especially micah, but good none-the-less! we were about to go on a walk around 2, but micah fell asleep! then i put noah down and now, they are still sleeping! and its quarter to 4! yikes =)

so really i need to go and make dinner. am making chicken fingers for micah and noah. well, it was going to be just for noah, but it sounds good enough for micah too! you dip them in the crunched up cornflakes for the coating and drizzle butter over them before baking!

in other news, its my sister-in-laws birthday today! so happy birthday esther!

the weekend

we had a nice weekend with andy's sister joanne! we love when she comes to visit us =) doesn't noah look like a little boy now and not our little baby?? he's 9 months today!! WOW!

Check out my Slide Show!

i guess i should put on here that these are photos from a wedding that i photographed in the summer of '03. it was probably one of my best as everything just went perfect that day!! hope you enjoy and let me know ok?

janelle's saturday with no children

i guess since andy (DH) wrote about his adventures, then i'll have to write about mine! i do have to say that is was wonderful to have the day to myself, without carrying a diaper bag or pushing a stroller! it was lovely!

so we started off at the bullring. shannon had been briefly last year when she came to visit and namo had been a few year ago as he use to live in birmingham. but apparently, namo is a HUGE shopper and was the one that was doing all the buying =) we went into selfridges which is one of the main attractions. here's a photo of the outside of the building!

it really is an interesting building! but the shopping atleast clothes wise is just all 'fashion' oriented and not at all to my taste! but their food hall is another thing! that is my place =) lots of american food, cereals and cake mixes, aunt jemima's, marshmallow fluff, goober jelly, oreo cookies and the likes!! there is also a krispy kreme's and a yo sushi sushi bar! yummy =)




we walked over to the mailbox, another shopping place. this one is high class as well with very very expensive shops like harvey nichols where a skirt per se costs like £150! yikes! but its cool to walk through. at the back lies all the restaurants and bars and hotel and spa, which all sit on the canal! it really is nice! so we ate at the red pepper which was really nice then walked along the canals to the symphony hall.

we eventually thought about going home for a bit before going out for dinner. so we started walking towards the bus stop when for whatever reason, i suddenly remembered that i didn't have my house keys! yikes! they are usually kept in the diaper bag...which was convienently with andy. yep. fun. so we thought we could maybe go see a movie then out to dinner then maybe andy would be on his way home. well there were no movies at that particular time and none that shannon and namo hadn't seen. so our 2nd option was to go on towards home and to the hall (our church) where there are a spare set of our house keys (we done this before!) so one of the ladies from church lent us her hall key to get our house key then actually drove us home! so very nice. oh did i mention that it was raining as well? yeah. we were soaked!

so we did go out around 8 for a balti (indian/bangledeshi food) and it was so so so so good! and then we got home 15 minutes after andy and the boys! so all in all? it was a great, entertaining day!

Welsh Adventure

This is my first blog here, since Nelly added me as a contributor - yes I am the DH (as I am known to all scrapbooking enthusiasts apparently) - so I'll begin by saying a big HELLO to all our readers across the world.

So Janelle packed me a few bags, explained which bottles were for lunch and which for dinner, and probably a few other instructions as well, and sent me on my merry way to Wales with Micah and Noah.

Both boys fell asleep initially and I thought I would get a good run before they woke, however I needed to stop for petrol (gas) and Micah woke in a foul mood. So I had to lift him out of the car and try filling the car up whilst holding him - not too bad. I got him a packet of his favourite (chocolate stars) to cheer him up a bit.

Back in the car we got underway. Half way down the M5, I began to think of the day ahead, wondering what I would need, and hoping Janelle had packed everything. It was then that I asked myself why I hadn't listened more carefully to the long list of instructions. Typical husband I know, so when I next stopped at Junction 8 services (to look up an atlas to check directions - I refuse to get a SatNav) I messaged janelle just to check the instructions on food.

A little further on I pulled off the M50 into the market town of Newent, as I knew there was a christian bookstore there. I got both boys out - Micah was in a better mood by now, and enjoyed the freedom. Noah had woken too. I quickly found a suitable book to give to my cousin Owain and paid. Then decided to go for a walk along a lake just to give Micah some more free time before it was back into the car. The path was a bit muddy in places but not too bad. Didn't think that Micah would want to run through the muddiest parts, so his shoes and the bottom of his jeans were plastered. We turned back fairly quickly and I endeavoured to clean him up somewhat.

It was by now 1.30, and it never crossed my mind to give them lunch. I gave them a biscuit each as we got back on the road and Micah also had half a banana.

The boys were fine the rest of the journey and we got to the environs of Abertillery at around 2.30. Stopped at Asda to buy a sandwich for Micah and myself. There wasn't anything really child friendly, so Micah didn't eat much at all. Noah scoffed down his food and we got moving again just after 3.

Both boys fell asleep as we headed down the valley to the church in Risca where the baptism was going to be held, and Noah slept through half the service which was great.Micah woke but was super. He played with his cars but then found the pews more interesting, climbing over and sliding under. He was completely taken up with the big splash, when Owain was actually getting baptised, and afterward found a room full of toys. It had 3 rocking horses in it so he was in heaven. He didn't even want to come out for a biscuit!!! I took some sausages and a sandwich to him and set it on a seat. Later I went in and he had moved the food to a small high chair he had found and was himself sitting in it.

Noah on the otherhand was passed around all the women there, and some men too, and enjoyed all the attention. I was complimented on my bravery in bringing 2 young children on my own, so I enjoyed the attention too.

Later we went back to my cousin's place, and watch the second half of the Ireland v England rugby game. Ireland were superb and whipped England good and proper 43 to 13, so I was in a great mood. Before we left we saw the start of the Wales v France game, so Micah came away cheering for Wales, saying 'Wales, win game'. Sadly they didn't and so France are top of the championship table and Ireland have to settle for second place for now, but there's still 2 games to go, so we hope.

The bell has rung, so I'll go now. The way home was without incident and both boys slept through most of it.

a dreary day

i know, i've already posted today, but i wanted to note it down that noah and micah fell asleep at the same time today and i have atleast an hour of peace and quiet ahead of me! yippee =) so i have my cup of tea (earl grey and vanilla...yummy!) and am going to spend 20-30 minutes reading my blogs then i'll finish the laundry!

TGIF

so not much happening this past week here at #23! besides the little things like...i am tired oh so tired of wiping snotty noses! micah does his own, the nice 'sleeve to nose then across the cheek'wipe! thats been fun! noah has it as well, but he has a lot of catarrah as well. so he keeps coughing that up then gagging on it...yea, its great!

wednesday night was a terrible sleeping night for him (and us), but last night was fine! he just woke up once which is normal for him! hopefully some day he'll be sleeping through....yea, some day! micah's been sleeping awesome. only once this week did he wake and make his way into our bed! i don't even remember it, he goes to andy's side of the bed and then when i wake up, there he is!!

we have some friend coming this weekend. well, my friend and her boyfriend for us to meet for the first time! shannon was my roommate (1 of 3) my 3rd year at milligan. she moved to london last year to be close to her boyfriend! very brave of her!!!

andy is probably going down to abertillery, wales tomorrow with micah and noah. owain, andy's cousin is being baptised!! and they haven't met noah i don't think! so it should be a good weekend!

hope you all have a good weekend too!!

Check out my Slide Show!

wow!

our pancakes were yummy!!! good ol' avril melted down some cadbury's chocolate and had some fresh strawberries and then some cornish ice cream and the aunt jemima's maple syrup and oh-me-oh-my!!! scrumptious!!!

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i have another photo from simon and esther's wedding, but its of our little family!

Happy Pancake Day!!!

i hope everyone is having a fantastic day and that you will all enjoy some pancakes tonight!! i know we will! i went to selfridges and bought some aunt jemima pancake mix and syrup...yup, imported costing $10!!! yikes =)

photo for esther and simon

so i'm going back through photos to edit them in photoshop. especially wedding ones, although the problem is that i don't have very many on the computer since we have been using mostly film. we have a scanner, though at the moment, we've lost the cd that it came with so it is not being recognized! oops. am really wanting a new scanner that you can also scan negatives it as i have loads and loads from my travelling days! it would so awesome to see what is on them.

you see in college in my photography classes, we did it old school! ha ha... darkroom, chemicals, time and lots of patience! i totally miss it and would love love love to have a darkroom! we did try a few times and have the chemicals, trays, and a very old russian enlarger that was truly old, but cheap =) so using our bathroom and little closet under the stairs to try, i did a few prints, but nothing really worthy!

so anyway, i pulled up some photos from simon and esther's wedding (my brother-in-law) and his beautiful wife! i unofficially took photos at their wedding to get some candid shots and stuff..which wasn't very easy as andy was the best man and busy and i had micah, a then 13 month old in tow!!

so here is the original:


and here is what i have created...what do you think?


besides being in a grungy style frame, its a bit more punchier in colour. i love this 'new' thing i have learned and have used on most of the recent photos. i have a few more techniques to try though!! its so fun!

this is the orignal photo


in sepia

and as a special =) aren't they cute?

wishing for more snow!

here we are again (i know the photo is already posted back on the 9th when we had the snow). i have the photo as a screen saver and micah loves it! sometimes when we pull into our driveway, he says, "where's snow?" its so cute!
credits for the LO: white grungy look around border-katie pertiet@designer digitals, alph-tonya doherty at scrapgirls, stars and words from thao at scrapgirls and the star like overlay is from a collection called ethan's hope at scrapgirls.

here are some layouts with the sweden photos

this is using vintage flowers from shabby princess and the picture border is kpertiet at designer digitals. (the first one from the other day was the same shabby princess.)


this is also from shabby princess called amour and the swirlies are from designer digitals as well as well as the scalloped photo edges! hope you like them! i am loving being in photoshop and learning so much! thanks to jessica sprague who shares photoshop secrets every friday! sometimes for the photos themselves and other times for the actual scrapbooking! its awesome. i am really wanting to learn more and more for our new(ish) photography business!

my choice out of the 2 pics below.

i couldn't decide at first, but the more i looked, i liked something out of both of them so i basically combinded them and this is the result!

i just found...

ugh! i just found 2 full unused toilet paper rolls IN the toilet downstairs! ugh! how gross!! i'm assuming micah, but there was no TP in that bathroom earlier, and we had been running upstairs to that bathroom, always forgetting to bring a roll down. then i finally got a roll and went in and voila! there are 2! oh well...

yesterday we went to visit some friends up near wolverhampton. andy went to uni with calum and i knew him then too. he is now married and they have a 5 month old who was born on micah's 2nd birthday. we hadn't seen them since september so it was nice to see them again! kian has gotten big and has these huge blue eyes! he's lovely...and though i didn't take any photos, i will hopefully be taking some family portraits for them soon!

as for family news...we took the boys to the baby clinic to weigh in. micah at almost 2 and 1/2 is 28lbs and 2feet 9inches, i think. he is talking away, sentences getting a bit longer, as in 3 words sometimes 4. still running, riding his bike, playing with his numerous cars that mimi keeps supplying and not so much playing with his trains. they are a hit and miss at the moment!
noah weighed in at 20lbs and i'm not sure at the moment what his height is. noah is gotten the crawling down, moving faster and into everything. he is pulling himself up to standing position in his cot and on the couch and wherever he can. loves to eat and is eating very well. chicken, courgettes and grapes is a favourite at the moment.

now which version do you like better? please help me decide!

half term

this week has been half term for schools here in the midlands. its been so nice to have andy at home with me and the boys! also starting this past saturday has been a series of meeting down in redditch taken by colin roberts. he's been speaking on the book of Amos. so andy went down on saturday and monday nights and i went on tuesday night and will hopefully go tonight as well. andy and i take it in turns since the boys came along. i was out sunday night at our gospel meeting and andy was speaking last night at our ministy meeting (speaking on Lamentations) and he'll speak again on that in 2 weeks time.

also on monday we had a little party for the sunday school children. we had originally planned to go up to the lickey hills by train, but since all the snow and then the rain, it was a bit too wet for that! so we held it at the hall and it was a good time. we had 14 children (including micah) and then 8 adults. we got fish and chips or sausages and chips for lunch and had a great time. andy chose games that would correspond in some way to Bible stories and so was able to chat a bit in between each game and ask questions! first was noah and the ark and we played port and stourboard. then the tower of babel and we had to build a tower out of paper and each person was given a word in a different language and that was all we were able to say!! one story was about abram and sarah and how sarah laughed when the angels said that sarah would concieve in her old age, so we were paired up and had to make the other laugh without laughing ourselves...and so on.

afterwards andy and i took the boys downtown and walked along the canal. but then it started raining! so we found shelter in the symphony hall! tuesday we went down to worcester to meet up with our friend lois who also happens to be andys' brothers' wife's little sister(did you get that?)! we came home, ate dinner then lois and i went down to redditch.

wednesday us and lois went into birmingham again but this time to the art gallery. it was nice as neither andy or i had been in quite a few years! and lois had never been. micah was really well behaved and seemed to enjoy himself.

now today is thursday and andy and i have been planning... we have been thinking on and off the past few years about starting up a wedding photography business. since 2002 i have been the photographer for 10 weddings with my 11th one coming at the end of next month. so far things have just passed on to friends and others by word of mouth. we've done no advertising or anything. but we've enjoyed it. but we've come to the point where if we are to continue then we would like to step it up a notch. new equipment to be able to offer a better service to our customers, but that needs money of which we don't have. so if we start up our business and make it official, then we have funding and can further it along....we hope!