A Stuttering Start to the New Year!

2011 didn't start quite as we imagined it would!!

Mark's sister Amy had a detour on her journey back to the UK on January 1st ... her first flight was delayed so much ... that the second one had already left Atlanta before the first one had landed!! Thankfully there was an alternative flight the same day with some space ... going to Heathrow rather than Gatwick ... so she got back only a few hours later than planned even if it was to the other side of London!!

Abigail's bottom molars made their entrance into the world in the week after Christmas ... and she was miserable and a bit cranky for about 3 weeks in total ... including not sleeping well during the day or going to bed easily at night ... something we've NEVER had a problem with before (I know we've been very lucky as lots of you don't have such good sleepers ... thankfully we're back on track again!!) She had her moments of happiness though in amongst the crankiness ... below the cheeky girl was 'reading' Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' ... it's never too early to start on the classics!!

Mark went into the hangar on Monday 3rd January having enjoyed a week off between Christmas and New Year ... and only made it into work for one day! He came home that night concerned that his back which had had him out of action in August was not feeling right ... and when he got up on the Tuesday morning was even more worried!! Being Mark, he was determined to go into work ... so got up and left home as usual, only to return half an hour later admitting that once he got to the hangar he couldn't actually get out of the car ... oops! He then spent the next week and a half shuffling around, lying down or at the chiropractors and not much more, with a herniated disc. Thankfully it only had him out of action for half the time it did five months ago ... but unfortunately for Jenny it coincided with Abigail's 'bleurgh' patch too!

Jenny and Abigail took time to enjoy some of the continuing snow this month ... Abigail was really pleased with her new snow trousers (a christmas pressie from Auntie Jojo and Uncle Matt in Canada!!) ... and is always quick to get all her layers on when there's a chance of going out in the fluffy white stuff ... whether feeling miserable or not!

Since the last blog entry some of you have commented to us that 'snow angels' were something new to you ... so we thought we'd add some more silly photos of those ... in the first you can see Abigail is slowly working her way across the garden, one snow angel at a time (or as we heard last week ... creating a 'choir' of snow angels!!!) ... and in the second ... the beached whale, who's coat won't do up, joining her in the fun!!

Although Mark was stiff and sore ... we did convince him to join us for some fun in the snow the day before he went back into the hangar ... although a lot of the time he was just laid out in the snow!! ... Spot the cheeky face of Abigail ...

That photo was taken just after she'd attacked her Daddy and covered him in snow (below!) ... and she was obviously feeling very pleased with herself and taking full advantage of the fact that he wasn't fully mobile at the time!!

While most people round here are counting the days til spring ... you can see we're loving every minute of the snow and trying to make the most of enjoying it all! If we can't go out and play in it ... we stay inside and make tents, build assault courses around the living room ... and of course get painting (still a favourite pastime)!!!

Once Mark and Abigail were back to normal ... Jenny had a few days of feeling really rough ... just some lovely pregnancy yuckiness and probably exhaustion from the craziness of looking after the other two ... thankfully it only lasted a couple of days and we're pleased to say this last week all three of us have had a much more routine time!!!

On the home front things haven't all been rosy either ... Jenny's Nan, who Abigail has renamed 'Grammy' unfortunately had a bad fall at the beginning of the year too and has been recovering in hospital ... it's at times like this that we would like to be at home to visit her in person ... although she looks happy in the photo below she was in a lot of pain at the time and has been given at least a 12 week recovery time!

As things haven't been wonderful we've been looking at the smaller things in life to perk us up over the last couple of weeks! Mark's tried to use some of his time out of the hangar to catch up with his studies having been a bit behind a couple of months ago. He has now caught up and with 14 weeks to go until Bubble is due, he has 14 tests left ... so instead of taking one every ten days from now on, is aiming to take one each week and be done with them in time for the sleepless nights!!!

Other New Year amusements in our household have been the fact that the American's have finally woken up and started selling 'new' Crunchy Nut Cornflakes ... Jenny's favourite cereal for years back at home ... each packet comes with a money off coupon if you buy more ... which we're definitely taking advantage of!! As you can see there is one very happy Mummy and one little girl who think's her mum might be slowly loosing it!!

Something that really tickled us just this morning at the supermarket was a brand of bread we'd never noticed before ... so much so that even though we didn't need any bread we bought a loaf just so we could take a photo of it!!!!!!!! Whoever thought this would be a good name to call their brand of bread certainly hasn't lived in the UK ... even if they're trying to convince the world to 'Say Beembo' (see top right of the photo below!!!!)

As you can see we're taking the rough with the smooth ... and are glad for the time being that everything has evened out again!