Homecoming 2009

- 6 out of 6 cousins -

My little sister Missy recently visited Scotland with her family for 10 days, it was great to see them and watch the cousins interacting together. Here's a few pictures to remind us of our happy times together.

- 5 out of 6 cousins all in a row -

- Preston, Joe, Fin and Dave riding the canons at Stirling Castle -

- A line of cousins at Stirling castle -

- Addison looking after Mhairi's teeth -

- A rare cuddle with Addison -

- Addison trying out Mhairi's glasses for size -

- Missy, mum and me in our dining room -

Twister

Last Sunday we never made it to church because the road was too snowy so instead we finally got round to writing some of our Christmas thank you cards and playing twister. We had a great time, no injuries (although I'm not convinced Dave was trying very hard) and we all ended up with smiles on our faces. I was glad of my yoga stretches which I used to do each week!

- Joe -

- Fin -

- Mhairi (must have her mothers flexibility) -

- Me -

- Dave -

Update

I've been putting this off because we've had so much on in the last few months that I really don't know where to start. Instead of having to think too much I've decided to post some pictures.

Dave out on a very wet hike with the Beavers early in October. He set up and now runs Beaver scouts in the village after being disappointed at the lack of activities for Joe in the village.

Mhairi showing off our lovely autumn colours on the trees around our home.

Autumn, my favourite time of year, I love the variations of colours in the trees.

We had a wee walk near Falkland in the October holidays with my mum. It was drizzling rain and everyone was getting fed up but Dave was determined to get to a secret location which "will be worth it" and it truly was.

We had a lovely visit Linlithgow Palace in the October holidays with the Black family and then went back to their place and had some yummy food and a nice chat/play.

Joe and Fin hiding from dad.

A rare picture of Joe and Fin smiling while in each others company!

Grandma & Grandad on a nice walk at Blughasary.

Finlay & I invited our good friends Rachel and Tamsin for a walk and picnic up the hill on a sunny day in October. Tamsin is one of Fin's best friends.

Mhairi and her friends Elena and Meghan guising at Hallowe'en.

Joe, Fin and some other Ullapool guisers on Hallowe'en night. Our favourite costume was the two girls on the right joined together in a t-shirt, apparently they needed a few days apart after spending the night invading one anothers private space!

Finlay and his friend Culann sledging in the garden in November.

Mhairi, Fin and Erin after sand duning at Gruniard Bay in December.

Mhairi in front of the Christmas tree.

Christmas morning.

Playing in the smow at Grandma's house on a snow ski.

Sparkling

I love it when the frost is so hard that it makes everything glisten. I often think it would make a nice picture but either I don't have my camera or am in too much of a hurry to stop and take the picture but before 2008 was over I finally managed to get round to it.

Nit-tastic

Today I found about 20 live head lice on Fin's head and about the same number of unhatched eggs, it was disgusting. I have no idea how long they've been there or how they got there I just know it was one of those horrible jobs I hope I never have to do again. The health visitor popped round with a supply of nit combs and tried to make me feel better by telling me that they only live in clean hair...it didn't make me feel any better. I've spent the day scratching and even after the thorough check with the fine tooth comb Dave couldn't find anything but I'm still not convinced. I checked Dave, Mhairi and Joe and they're all clear too so I'm hoping that I managed to get them all out of Fin's hair and that'll be the end of it. Yukky Doo as Fin would say.

Fin catches Chicken Pox

Fin's had a few spots on his body for a few days now which finally started to multiply this morning and we're thrilled to announce that he has finally managed to catch chicken pox. So far he's been a great patient although he only had a few spots this morning and has gone to bed with a lot more tonight. Over the weekend I regularly asked Dave to check if Fin had any more spots other than the 4 we already knew about and he made up a wee rhyme about it which goes like this...
We're looking for his chicken pox, we don't know if he's got 'em
But one thing that we're sure of is he's got a squishy bottom!

I'll post a picture when i get one.

Zzzzzzzzzz

Today at church our branch had the annual children's primary presentation. Fin doesn't rate sitting down and so it's often difficult to keep him interested enough to participate but I was eager to enjoy it as a parent rather than being in charge. He started off entertaining us in a different way than we'd expected by picking his nose and eating it, and they managed to get him to say a few of his lines and hold up a few pictures before he'd had enough and sat down in his seat and fell asleep! I wish I'd had our camera with me to take a picture but at least it's one that'll stick out in my memory.

Spoil sports...

Mhairi had her first experience of being "in the world but not of the world" this weekend. A few years ago Ullapool had their first music festival called Loopallu (Ullapool backwards) which has grown larger each year. So far we have resisted going along as we don't think it's appropriate to take the kids seeing as everyone I've seen was either buying or carrying lots of alcohol and being the Aberdonian that I am we're too tight to pay £100 for tickets. Most of Mhairi's class mates were going along this weekend and one of their mum's offered to take Mhairi along with her as kids under 12 go free. I said I'd consider it and let her know but after discussing it with Dave we decided not to let her go. She was a little disappointed but somehow we managed to talk her into a family dvd and some Hagen Daz instead. Hopefully when she goes to school tomorrow and her class mates still have their Loopallu wrist bands on she won't hate us too much.

Fiddler

Mhairi was offered fiddle lessons this year now that she's in primary 5 so was thrilled to be able to finally get to take a fiddle home today. Her homework for the week is to play the D string nicely, amazingly she manages very well considering she's had very little practice...the test will come when she starts having to play the A string! I don't know how my parents ever coped with my older sister learning the violin and me learning the cello.

Summer 08

The nichts are fair drawin in, and the only remaining vestiges of summer are the midges and ticks, which hopefully soon will go the way of the warm days and late sunsets. We never got away this summer but still managed to somehow spend more than we would have if we'd gone on holiday. Oh well! Now we're paying for it with strict budget cuts and frugal living, so we're feeling a bit poor. Never mind all that though, here are some of the highlights of our summer in pictures.

The last month of summer term we had Zoë and her friend Monica staying with us and attending Ullapool High School. Not sure what they made of school in Scotland, but we loved having them around even if they did slink off to Perth every weekend, foiling our dreams of free babysitting. Thanks guys.

We thought we had a few years left before the kids started going in for wild hairdos, but Mhairi got started at the school sports day at the end of term.

Finlay mastered his two wheeler at the start of the hols and has rarely been off it since.

The outdoor pursuit of the summer was swimming in the river near home. Here's me having a wee jump. Note the weird convex warping effects the g-force seems to have on my abdomen.

I managed to get out once or twice on the mountain bike. Joe looks much better than me though.

After 8 years in Ullapool, everyone except me (Dave) finally made it on to the ferry to Lewis. Grandma, Grandad, Auntie Jockie and Rowan came too. It was atmospherically dreich.

We did get away camping once for a few days, just down the coast at Gairloch. It's always nice to camp right on the beach and we got the new canoe out a few times. This picture's a good one because it almost looks like Christine knows what she's doing.

There were several walks up the hill at the back of the house. This one obviously took its toll on Joe and Christine.

My pal Jeff came over for a whirlwind tour of Scotland and to see a Man Utd game at Old Trafford. The game was rubbish, but Scotland's glory made up for the disappointment that is Engerland.

It was nice to have a visit from Uncle Cobb at the end of August, but a little worrying to see him turning back to the old ways, albeit in a funky Kajagoogoo stylee.

Joe won 5 gold medals at the Beaver Scouts Olympics. As Beaver leader, I had to restrain all the fatherly-pride celebrations till we got home.

The other day we had a wee explore of the caves at Rhue.

A walk wi' the bairns

Yesterday we took advantage of the sunny weather and took the kids up Stac Pollaidh for the first time. We all made it up as far as was safe and were thrilled when they reached the top.

It's 613m (2008 ft) high needless to say we are proud of them walking all the way unaided with the exception of Fin who was only carried about 1/3 of the way. We played lots of games and sang lots of songs to distract them from their weariness and they excelled. Dave and I forgot to put the suncream on so we all ended up with a little too much sun but it's nice to have a rosy complexion right?