Cousinpalooza

Hi gang! Well, here we all are in jolly old england. The weather has been really nice lately. Yesterday we walked into town in the afternoon looked around and then headed home. It was fishn'chips tuesday so Daddy picked up dinner! I love fishn'chip tuesday b3ecause I dont' have to cook! Tonight was bathnight and this is the result... too cute for words! We love Jacob Barry George Wingfield...oh and his Mommy is ok too

ahhh bimbling

This weekend, Sara met the infamous Fil. He lead us on a very.... exciting? bimble. It was a gorgeous day.. the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing and it was crisp. We ambled out with Jakers on Sara's back, Madigan on my back and Michael pushing Maeve in the all terrain buggy. Neil and Fil were left to carry their own sorry hides altho we did offer Neil a ride in the stroller! Well we walked and talked and had lots of fun until... duh duh duhhhhhhh our bimble home was obstructed by a 'creek' that has grown substantially thanks to all the rain. Fil lead us bravely to where there should have been some sort of bridge or safe crossing. Sadly, this was not to be. Much head scratching and plan making brought us to the new plan. New plan was to climb over crumbling fence surrounded by briars! Awesome you say? Why yes.. as Jakers and Maeve were asleep. I wish I had taken pictures of us unstrapping sleeping children, passing them over briar fence, then hauling our buns over with Fil to guide us/balance us across. Then of course there was the stroller.. ahh the joy.. Michael, Neil and Fil all took one for the team getting muddy and soggy to get that darned thing across! Merrily we sloshed through several farmer's penned in fields, scaled a few more fences and finally made it to the bridge to cross the torrent that was the creek! Home again home again jiggety jigg where many beers we did swigget swig.. well, the adults not the children!






Pics are from our day saturday wandering around Leamington Spa. I am aware that I put a less than flattering picture of myself on the blog with my eyes closed and looking very 'retired' as Borat would say, but pics of all of us as a fam are few and far between! I put the last one of Madigan in there to prove she isn't carried all the time!!!!

Big ups to our bloggmosphere

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of postings! We are all having so much fun we can't be bothered to be trolling the internet! The babies have stopped tag team crying! Sara and I always laugh because Madigan calls Jakers "baby".. he is only 4 months younger than her. Jakers calls Madigan 'baby' too so it all works out in the wash!
Danica, we love the snow writing! We loved the pics of baby Saige and Makadoodlenut! Love the halloween pics of the Bon but Uncle Jaycie should post more often! We LOOOVe all the aulstralian pics of Auntie Row and Uncle Tig. Mom has even wowed us with some postings! Our great friends Anna, Athea and Haidyn all look gorgeous and we love to read about their comings and goings. Not too far North of my Nanaimo kinfolk is a sweet little girl named Mhari, she is getting so big and we always read her adventures! Even further North is our sweet baby Charli. She is getting SOOOO big. Over on the sunny (HA)shine coast reside our clever pals Abbie, Emma and Magster. Maeve particularily liked the princess birthday party. Because I love Maeve, I censored the birthday cake pics Deb! We try to check Auntie Erin's blog but she doesn't update as much.. I'm sure she'll post now that she has been outed as a lagging blogger! We have to check up on our much loved Doucette boys at least once a day, we can't live without our Ronan and Liam. So all y'all out there blogging your lil tushies off we love it and thank you so much for letting the girls and I see you on a regular basis.. or semi regular! We love you all and keep on bloggin!

Sorry no pic today.. the cam is in use! We are currently trying to catch Madigan on vid with her awesome word du jour!

First post since Auntie's arrival

Here they are!!! INtroducing Auntie Sara and baby Jakers!


we love them and are SOOOOOOOO happy they are here! Now if the babies would stop tag team crying!

shake your dragon tail

Ok, well the crowds have it.. mooooore video!




Extremely irritating voice warning. My apologies

shanghaid in shanghai!

Swiper no swipin'! I totally robbed my Mom of these gem pics. Classic Maeve on the bus being quite gorgeous and Madigan who is also gorgeous, seemingly thrilled about books! We are all having fun round here still. I got to sleep in! Well, I was up at 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9! My Mom managed the girls for the last 3 hour naps! I am beat! Tomorrow I have a dentist appt and my Mama is going to watch the girls. I think I am going to see if I can get some sort of massage booked in too. I think I need a team of Swedish folk to pound all the aches out of my body! We are releasing my Mom back to the wilds of Canada on friday. She will be taking the train into London Solo. She will also be sightseeing all of London by her little ole self! I feel like a jerk for sending her off into London on her own, but we can't make it in with her this time! I wonder if she'll bring the roasting pan with her!!! I am very proud of my Mom for wanting to do it all for herself, if our positions were reversed I'm not sure I'd want to! We found a really great tour system here called Hop Off Hop On. Its an open air double decker bus that goes to all of the touristy sights. You can spend 5 mins at each or hours really. www.citysightseeing.co.uk It is pretty cool and if you come to visit us we might force you on one!

Happier times

Vintage Madigan pic today. Poor thing, got jabs in both legs. Boo.. She did really well and the nurse was both stunned and thrilled that Madigan still nurses. She said we were doing excellent and that it was great to see an older baby who still nurses. Needless to say, I was a little chuffed! So nice to have someone think I'm doing the right thing for a change!!! Everyone else here seems to think I"m a moron for letting my youngest a)go without a harness b)feed herself c) get down and walk around only occasionally snacking on the odd cigarette butt! I shouldn't complain as both Maeve and Madigan have now sampled cigarette butts. Most of the people around here feel that it is completely natural to lure their child into a push chair (stroller) with sugar dipped marshmallow whips.. even when the child says NO!!! Anyway, things could be worse than ciggy butts... Anna always has a story to put my gripes in perspective!!
Today Mom cracked out the maple syrup, brown sugar, butter and all the things that make wickid cinnamon buns. Maeve also got to participate. The buns are great but not the same.. boo.. but trust me, I'll eat almost all 50 of them myself! Tomorrow we are going to wait and see what the weather is like but I think we'll be heading in to Jephson Gardens and showing GrammaLuvvy the Baths that made Leamington the Spa it is today!

Hatton Farm take 2

Well we did it. We finally got out to Hatton farm again. The good news'ish is that I brought my camera. Ok, well honestly I forgot my camera but I did manage to have batteries in my camera phone! Mom has HUNDREDS of pics of the girls. Check her blog later. It was funny, Madigan who normally demands to walk, would NOT walk in the petting zoo area. Don't be alarmed, the animals to be petted were all safely gated off from the children! They were as safe from her as she was from then. She insisted on being carried. Maeve however, blasted past all goats, ponies, bunnies, baby chicks and piglets to the guinea pig village. It is pretty cute, albeit a lot smelly.. hundreds maybe even a thousand guinea pigs live at hatton farm. Madigan was also enamoured of the stinky little monsters. The bouncey castle was probably the most exciting for our day. Oh wait, we did get too much of a glimpse of nature. Mating donkeys anyone? All is good and well here. My mom is keeping Maeve at home today and Madigan and I are going to spend the day together. Well, until 3:30 when she will be rudely jabbed by the nurse at the medical center. boo.. oh well, I'm looking forward to some time with my baby!

Hola Primas

Much love to our favorite girlies!

surprise

Some guy named Bill

Stratford-On-Avon. Birthplace of William Shakespeare. Some guy, blah blah. What is really cool are scones and clotted cream, tea and tarot card readings! Today we took Mom to Stratford on the train. NIce place, lots of walking, window shopping. Hard to explain but really fun! Maeve found the biggest christmas stocking EVER! Madigan enjoyed walking on the cobblestoned streets. Mom and I enjoyed jacket potatoes and proper tea with scones! We saw a shop called "Fudgetastic" I decided we'll have to take Sara there when she arrives in 2.. yes thats right 2 weeks with our baby jakers!

Can't wait.

Oh ya, sorry to the random dude whose soul I totally stole by taking his picture without his permission. If anyone knows him or can identify him please send my apologies!

Bump'nBounce

Here are yesterday's pics of the bump'n'bounce. Fun was had, balls were thrown, slides were slid. For almost all parts and purposes a wonderful time. Oh, except for the 3 1/2 year old who, shrieked, fed Madigan, bossed my mother around and capped off a wonderful bump'n'bounce session by saying, "F@$% that" to his mother who for the FIRST time in an hour did something about his behaviour! Ahhhhh England!!

Oh, and to all mom's co workers. I'll get the pic of her and the roaster before she leaves.

So thanksgiving has been and gone but I'd really like to tell everyone what I am most thankful for. My family. I love each and every one of you and I am so lucky to have you in my life. Even if you are all far away! We talk about everyone, and in a good way not gossipy way every day! I am so lucky that Erin has already been to visit, my Mom is here now and Sara is going to be here on the 21 of Nov with baby jakers. I am so incredibly lucky that I have people that love us so much they are willing to spend thousands of dollars to fly thousands of miles to just be with us. Even though we are far away you are all such a huge part of our lives. So, for my big famdamily, I am thankful!

Presents!

hallo everyone! We are doing well here. GrammaLuvvy seems to be having fun! I got to sleep in until 9:30 this am! What a treat!! Poor GrammaLuvvy has to bunk up with Madigan! Fortunately Madigan only gets up once a night at 4am to nurse! Unfortunately Grammaluvvy cannot nurse so that means I have to! hahah So today we took GL on her very first PINK double decker bus! We didn't do too much tho, just wandered around town and took the girls to a place called "Bump'n'Bounce" It was pretty cool, would have been cooler if I could have dropped them off and had someone else watch her while I had a coffee.. Oh well, a girl can dream!!! Gramma luvvy was suckered into getting Maeve a cinderella barbie! Note Danica and I never had barbies when we were little! Harumph! Madigan got a toy too because we are nothing if not equal! Maeve of course now loves Madigan's more than hers!! ahha well, michael has just gotten home from work and I better get dinner on the table!

love to all,

you may notice in one pic that is my new living room pose, oh ya i'm rockin' it!

She's here

Well the eagle has landed. My mom made it safe and sound on the big big plane! We surprised my mom by meeting her at Marylebone Station. We are going to attempt to upload that choice bit of vid onto youtube sometime soon. Today I am taking Maeve into town for a date whilst leaving Madigan and my Mom to their own devices! Last night Michael and I went with some friends to see Borat! Too funny, not for the feint of stomach! It was verrrry nIIIIICe!~ I'll get some pictures to you soon this is just a quick post before I grab Maeve and run for the bus! We are meeting a new Mommy friend and her daughters Olivia and Emily. Should be fun!

2 more sleeps

Here you are my eldest brother whom I love! Hope everyone is tip top. We are trying to absorb all things british and annoying so that when my mom gets here she'll have an understanding of what we are working with. When we pick her up I'll greet her with a, "You allright Mum?" and then have the girls courtsey as is the custom here. Michael will of course barely look up from his paper and utter a very british, "Harumph". For the duration of my mom's visit we will never, no not ever make a statement. In true british form we will only ask questions... ie, Michael, "are we out of toilet roll?" Vashti, "are we?"...we will only drink tea and the girls will have to pick up smoking in the next day or so to have my mom fully convinced we have turned truly british! Unfortunately the girls wont be able to call her GrammaLuvvy but some shade of Gran on Nan. Tally hoe, chop chop and sally forth I say!

Crumbles the kitten

On an earlier post there were ramblings of 2 ballerina kittens... well, here is one of them.... Jason, hope you are happy n ow! This particular photo was brought to you by the very "amusing" Mr Fil OConnor. I think he only took the pic to document how many crumbs he could look at before reaching over and dusting of his buddy Madigan! After brushing off said crumbs I laughed.. good lord man.. the crumbs are nothing.. the snot, drool, poop and food are the things that need immediate wiping! Sort of a triage system for schmeg stuck to one's adorable children.. thanks to Fil for the pic





caviar, cigarettes, well versed in etiquette