~2008 in review~

This time of year, I always seem to think back over the year and remember all the things we have or have not done during the year. We really had a busy 2008! It was our first full year living in the UK and a busy one at that! We took a few day trips around England visiting....Ely, Bury St. Edmunds, Norwich, Cambridge, the Wash, Castle Rising Castle, Audley End House, Stonehenge....and just hanging out in the local villages around us. We took three big trips..we made it to Edinburgh Scotland, Dublin Ireland and Brugge Belgium. We took the Eurotunnel and drove through France.
Rob went down range for 4 months and the girls and I had a great adventure of taking a military hop from here to the states...with stops in Gander Canada, Brunswick Maine and Virginia Beach Virginia.
While the girls and I were staying with my parents (Memom and Papa) in North Carolina, we saw many family members and friends. We also took a road trip from North Carolina~South Carolina~Georgia~Alabama~Mississippi~Louisiana~final stop Dallas, Texas .
We were not able to visit with any of Rob's family but were able to call and talk to them a few times and we welcomed two new babies to the family...Alyssa born in April and Leo born in November...one for each of Rob's sisters!!
Meghan started Kindergarten this year and lost 4 teeth and counting! Jenna continued preschool this year at Busy Bees.
Rob started guitar lessons and is bikeless for a while. He sold his DRZ and is waiting to buy a new bike in 2009!
We have all been blessed with good health and happiness this year and we look forward to more adventures, trips and fun times in the upcoming year!!
Happy New Year!!!

Little Donkey

I forgot to post a video from Jenna's school program with the kids singing Little Donkey. Very cute song!!

~~~12 days of Christmas~~~

The girls and I have been listening to Christmas songs all month on our ride to and from school (and any other time we are in the car). First off....it takes 6 Rudolph songs to get to Meghan's school. Second, Meghan's version of the 12 days of Christmas......Five golden rings, four calling birds, three pinches, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.....
Jenna sings, but not a loud as Meghan:) And Jenna doesn't ask to listen to the same song over and over...yet.
It's really hard to not laugh when the girls say and do so many cute and silly things.
After Church on Sunday I took the girls to the grocery store and as we were getting back in the car, I stated.."Jenna, honey, you need to try and buckle yourself up..." Jenna states, "I will do it when I'm 16..."!!

Life in England

Living outside the US is really an experience and one I'm really enjoying. Life really is different and it's interesting to see what other's countries do as "normal" behavior.
I'm going to first start by explaining the "travelers"...aka gypies. There are groups of travlers that set up "camp" in any open field and stay put intil the government kicks them off. When I say set up camp anywhere...I mean that. When they set up camp on someone's land, the land owner has to have help by the govt to get them to move..... They also will tie their horses up on a chain (like some people do for dogs) and then they leave a bucket of water for them. We have a camp right behind our housing area, so we have had horses living near us since we moved in...well the other night when I was taking a friend's girls home, there was a horse walking/running all around my neighborhood. And no, there wasn't a rider. It isn't one of the friendly horses, so I slowly drove past it and luckily it was not around when I returned a few hours later. If you are smart and know the "rules" with travlers...you don't call the police on them.....you don't want to get on their bad side.
Wednesday afternoon I was driving the girls home from school when traffic slowed down...thinking they set up signal lights for road repair, I slowed down and planned to wait a while....well it wasn't for road repair....there was just a bale of hay the size of a car in the road...
We do live in the country and it smells really bad some days like cow poo and the roads are narrow and not in good condition..but over all it's fun and interesting to live here!! I will try and take some pictures to post soon!!

Jenna's school program

Jenna's school, Busy Bees had the 20th annual Carol Service and Nativity today. St. John's Church goes to the nursery school once a month for religious education. Jenna's school is a montessori school and it is awesome. For the ones who haven't heard....her school has a farm with animals, veggies, swimming pool, organic alpaca wool shop and much more. I pay NOTHING for her to go too!!! She goes 5 mornings a week for free...thank you to the British government's high taxes. All 3 and 4 year olds in this country are eligible and why not take advantage of the early start with school.

So I was off the main topic for a little bit......I wanted to share a video and some pictures of the program from today. The little girl beside Jenna is one of her best buddies, Allison.

....don't forget to turn off the music on my page, so you can hear the kids talking and singing.

Enjoy:)

Funny things the girls say

My girls say some of the funniest things. I guess all kids actually say them, we just have to pay attention!
Today when we were leaving the house to pick up Meghan from school Jenna says...."the real Santa is fat". There was no conversation leading up to this comment. I just laughed and said "really"!!
This evening coming home from ballet...
I said "you two can go upstairs and change while I start dinner"...
Meghan states.."but Mom I want a grownup upstairs with us"
Me..."Dad can go up stairs with you"
Meghan...."how do you know he is one?".....
Me......"because he is a Dad"...

Breakfast with Santa

Craft station

Yummy pancakes!

This morning we went and ate pancakes with Santa, played a few games, made some crafts and told Santa what we wanted for Christmas. The girls didn't want to sit on Santa's lap until they saw the elves were giving out gifts!

J..E..L..L..O

Since Meghan has started Kindergarten, jello has been a topic of conversation. I normally ask her as we are walking to the car after school...."Hey Meg, What did you eat for lunch today?". I already know what was on the menu but I want to see if she actually ate what was on the menu....and she normally will only tell me what she ate, not what they tried to get her to eat!
The first few weeks she kept telling Jenna about the jelly....and she liked it and would explain the colors and flavors to Jenna.
As I jump around with this post.....I ate jello all the time as a kid. I remember all the different flavors and when we got sick Mom always made us extra! For whatever reason, I had never made it for my girls.
So a week or so back Meghan asked if we could have jello at the house, just like the kind she eats at school. Sure!!! I made some orange jello today and they ate the whole box....just the two of them.
I never thought jello would be so popular!!!! Next up....Strawberry!!!