Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, We came home last night at midnight. What a week! Where do I start? First off, no photos in this post because the camera is in Connecticut (more on that later) so I hope Isla doesn't start walking this week because I won't be able to take a photo of her first steps! I'll recap our trip. We left for NYC on March 21 driving our van. We couldn't have asked for better driving conditions for which we are VERY thankful since last week was a severe weather week throughout the mid-west States. It was a bit windy, OK very windy, and I was concerned about the ugly roof box blowing off but Colin assured me it wasn't going anywhere. Still, I made him tighten it up as I had visions of my pillow and his suit blowing down I-80! Nebraska and Iowa are the longest states, they just don't end. Pennsylvania we LOVED and if I could've stayed there I would. It has loads of trees, green grass, just beautiful, I felt right at home. We arrived in NYC on Wednesday

Dear Diary, We've arrived! The sirens are blaring, the people are busy rushing down the streets, hotdog vendors on every street corner so yeah, it must be New York...... and it only took us four days to get here!!! We arrived yesterday afternoon and Colin quickly got stuck into work but Isla and I have dandered around and did a little shopping. We're on our own until Saturday when Colin, Nancy and Bob will join us so I'll get some pics then, if not tomorrow. The forecasters are predicting good weather tomorrow and I plan on taking Isla to the Central Park zoo. I'll post more a bit later on but just wanted to let you all know we arrived safe and sound.

Dear Diary, WHY do cats have to sleep on countertops? Do they know no boundaries?

Dear Diary, Our happy girl is 13 months today AND she started standing on her own today. YAY Isla! She has stood in the past but today she started doing it on her own without assistance from Colin or I. If it's like when she started crawling, she'll be standing all the time this week and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) she'll be walking before too long. When she becomes more confident, I'll post a photo.

Dear Diary, To quote from Sproost.com : Your personal style is a mix of 3 specific styles: 40% Wine Country Style 40% Nantucket Style 20% Classic Wine Country Style Tuscan sun, here we come! The Wine Country style reflects the feelings evoked by the seaside regions of Europe such as the South of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. The style manages to be both refined and casual, such that you can mix beautiful antiques with more rustic wrought iron or wood and the result is both sophisticated and cozy. Furniture is large and comfortable, colors are bright and cheery, and regardless of the color palette the spaces almost always feel warm. You can easily translate the style into the perfect family environment but you can just as easily emphasize the more formal pieces and make your room the perfect adult getaway.

Dear Diary, We are driving to NYC on Saturday.... with Isla... Are we crazy travelling 1800 miles with a 13 month old? Probably but for a good reason. Colin has a convention at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan for a couple of days. He has loads of stuff, aka. computers, terminals and even our TV, so we decided to drive and make it a mini-family-vacation. At least I hope its a vacation, we'll have to see about that. Another thing, after the convention Colin has to come back to Denver to meet a client and I'll stay on the east coast. While he is away Isla and I will be staying with Nancy and Bob in Hartford who graciously offered to put up with us for a few days. By way of history, Nancy was Colin's mom's pen-pal for over 50 years - they were like sisters. Colin will fly to Hartford late Tuesday night to meet up with us and then we drive back to Denver and should arrive back home on Saturday at the latest... Phew, nothing in our lives is straight-forward

Dear Diary, Yesterday showed Isla's rare naughty side, the other side of Isla is her cute side. In case you forgot how cute she is..... At this point, the closest to standing unaided so far She can only move backwards!!!! The easiest way to get off And this is the closest to walking on her own Snacktime!

Dear Diary, Even though she isn't walking yet, she still manages to live up to her nickname, "Monkey". It's better illustrated in photos... Under the laptop table and all those tempting cables - check out the grin, silly girl! These two pics represent plant dirt... she ate it, just like her mother used to do. What you don't see is the dirt in her mouth I had to scoop out..... Guess what this is? It's my shoulder, with teeth marks. She bit me on Wednesday when we were practicing standing... I don't think it's the start of a biter, I think it's the result of molars coming through and a short attention span.

Dear Diary, A few weeks we had our family portrait and Isla's first birthday portrait taken. It's a bit shameful but since Isla has been born, we have never had a professional family portrait taken. We figured it was about time now that our life is calming down a bit. We LOVE them, they turned out so well. I was going to wait until we received the CD with the edited photos on it but hey, I'm impatient and couldn't wait to share them with you all. Below is the link to all 201 of them. Isla has a big scratch on her nose but that will be edited out along with other things that we've requested - these are just the proofs. Enjoy - Precious Poses - enter the website - click on Proofing (top right corner) - Password is Isla and that will take you to our photos. We are getting a CD with 20 photos on it. I'll post some of them when we have it, hopefully next week if not earlier.

Dear Diary, My present from Uncle Alan and Auntie Clare arrived today, almost a month since it left Northern Ireland. I think the boat must have got lost. Anyway, the present was nice, but it doesn't taste very good.... 'Til next time, Isla

Dear Diary, As I mentioned in yesterdays post, my furry lovelies have not made it to the blog lately. This leads me to a day in the life of Pearl and Dixie... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7:15 - wake up 7:16 - Where's breakfast? 8:00 - run around and a have a "moment" then beat up my sister. 8:30 - wow, that was alot of running and we're tired, time for a nap. 9:00 - we love the sun, time to work on the tan. 11:30 - stomach is growling, maybe time for a treat, or two, or three, whatever we can get. 12:00 - time for some fresh air, living in an apt. is tough, no grass = no bugs, how boring. 1:00 - yawnnn, been up for hours, no wonder I'm exhausted.... 5:00 - stomach is growling again, where's dinner? finally... 5:25 - I'm thirsty, please turn the tap on... 6:00 - He's home, let's play! 6:10 - catnip, YAY! 7:00 - What a busy day, I can't keep my eyes open, better go to bed - see you in the morning!

Dear Diary, First, thank you for the birthday wishes in the blog comments and on FB. In case you were wondering, I'm officially mid-30's... Also, without sounding too cryptic, we are in the middle of a visa drama. I can't say too much right now but we would grateful if you could pray that we get the visa's we need to stay here and in the alternative if it's not meant to be, He shows the way. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more about this in the near future. We haven't posted too many pics of the little lady since her birthday so here you go, Isla, 12.5 months: Don't worry, she's still adorable and happy. These were taken tonight quickly before she went to bed so nothing too great, just a few updates for her Opa and Oma (and everyone else of course). She was up at 8:30 this morning, really, she was! I'm glad she woke up when she did because we would've been late for church this morning and we had to make a side and main course for t

Dear Diary, Today is Heather's birthday, she is ** today... Do you think I would get home if I told you? Anyway I just wanted to say 'Happy Birthday' dear... It has been a difficult year for us all, but I know through God's grace that we will be sustained through it all.. May ou LORD bless you today and forever in his sight and his covenant. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo 'Til next time, Colin.

Dear Diary, Yesterday our darling girl endured the needle not once, not twice but SEVEN times... She's had immunizations in Northern Ireland, Canada and now America and it seems each country has a slightly different vaccination schedule. For instance, MMR is given at 15 months in the UK but 12 months here in America so she got that one yesterday. It took them a while to figure out what she needed but she is now up-to-date to the American schedule and rather than carry three vaccination cards, we have just one. She also had her first flu shot and the chicken pox vaccination. She has to go back in a month for a second Hep A shot and the second flu shot (only the first innoculation requires two jabs) if they are still handing them out at that time. I hope so because flu season lasts into May in this part of the country. She's been REALLY good. No fevers or fussing during the day, just a bit of difficulty getting into a deep sleep at night. She cried frequently during