Family time in Houston Town

So we got on a plane and flew to Texas!

It was a short trip to see Daddy and the family. There was lots of singing and playing 'I Spy', as well as competitions that only Alice could win. Justin had a hard time letting go of that.

off we went to dinner...

even 3 year olds have dogs in their handbags

walking with davey

cheers goiyz!

'do you want any? er no thanks, not in my current state. they look delicious though. (puke)'

oi oi! who's this cute fella? (beads courtesy of alice)

We headed over to Kemah down on the Galveston coast for the day. There are rides, restaurants and millions of mosquitos! Oh did they have a party with my flesh. I'm just glad they saw ME as special.

alice has a couple babies that came with us. today they were in the buggy but sometimes they're in her tummy. she doesn't always know how they get in there.

here's alice on the high speed getaway train! actually it wasn't really high speed OR a getaway train, but there were bandits that tried to take charge and kidnap everyone.

the babes

lunchtime with davey

time for more explorations...way up high!

this cute fella again!pirates?!

windswept

this was on the plane home. both boys were very uncooperative models! i had to fire them instantly.

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

Apparently this is the Hepburn family's brownie recipe. So I thought 'oooh fancy!' and wanted to try it out. It's the simplest and quickest brownie recipe I've tried so far! The results are delicious.

ingredients

1 stick boodah
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tspn vanilla
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tspn salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)






1. Melt together 1 stick butter and 2 squares unsweetened chocolate and take the saucepan off the heat.
2. Stir in 1 cup sugar, add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and beat the mixture well.

3. Stir in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. (In the original recipe, 1 cup chopped walnuts is added here as well.)
4. Bake the brownies in a buttered and floured 8-inch-square pan at 325°F for about 40 minutes.

This was the only bit of mess I made!

If you want to smarten up your act you can put a square of brownie on a plate with a little blob of créme fraîche and a scattering of shaved chocolate.

There aren't any left in our house!

Make this now people!

It's Raining!

It's been a while since I've entered anything on here but I do have good excuses, I promise!

I had been saving for a DSLR since my birthday in June. J-man & I were asked to run video & camera at a local church's production of Godspell which boosted those savings quite nicely! I picked it up back in August and have been figuring it out ever since.



Then there's the reason why it's taken so long to figure it out...my brain is mush! It's mush because all its energy is going to building a person!

WE'RE PREGNANT!

I'm almost through the first trimester which is a BLESSING let me tell you! I just about wanted to give up on everything and sleep for England. I just feel so ill all the time. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll get that super energy boost that all the prego ladies talk about. I dream about those days!


It's all very exciting!

P.S. The reason I titled this 'Raining' is because it really is raining down here! And has been for the past week. The next week will be rain every day too. Am I back in England for real?

Waking the Dead

Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive by John Eldredge


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has changed my life. The underlying theme and goal of Eldridge is for us to 'think' with our hearts. The heart is the central engine of our lives as human beings. It's the part of all humans the enemy attacks first and then continues to on a consistent basis. Eldridge backs up his theories with quotes from the bible and paragraphs from sources such as: G.K. Chesterton, A.W. Tozer, William Gurnall, George Herbert, George MacDonald and many more. It makes for a more appealing read.

As well as a book it is also a guide/step-by-step on how to guard your heart, heal hurts that keep you back and how to let more of God in. God wants us to have so much fullness! He has so much to fill our hearts with. Yet we are unable to receive because our hearts are covered with 'scars' such as people-hurts, disappointment, lies we believe about ourselves etc.
There is also a rather all encompassing prayer you can pray everyday (quite long though!). I shall probably keep this one on hand to reference back to.

Fun with the Out-of-Towners

Cristina, my good friend from Pensacola days, and Lindsay came to visit Atlanta this weekend as their husbands work down here, off and on. We took the opportunity to hang out and go to the Imagine It Children's museum right by Centennial Olympic Park.

Let me say that simply being there watching everything you lose weight - I think I lost ten pounds in two hours! It's a crazy place FOR SURE, but goodness do the kids love it. Makes it all worthwhile.

here is lindsay's baby lily, all smiles as per usual

not-so-baby Mia squirming to be released from her chair! 'can i come too? please?!'

'ok, i'll sit here with the balls which i can barely hold with my tiny pudgey fingers...'

'so many! which should i hold first...? how about i juggle! wheeeeee!'

'what's this here contraption? i must get on it!'

team work! go girls!

'alrighty there folks, this here be my tractaw'

'you wanna ride?!'

'i'm in charge here'

portion control by chloe

some tasty green plastic

what has happened to the standard of our drivers these days? isn't the point to be able to see over the dashboard?

the girls were not impressed by his 'women drivers are rubbish' speech

'hello mummy?! see my hand is raised! doing the right thing here! ANSWER ME!'

i got the baby! i got the baby!

evan took a portrait shot of himself, he grabbed the camera from me and just fired away! he's like a month old!

i must go lay down now. children are very busy people.