We braved the cold today in order to head outside and plant some daffodil bulbs which we'd been given for Christmas (thanks Auntie Mavis & Uncle John!) It was a full-team effort, with holes being dug everywhere!
All the bulbs were planted safely, but we may have been a bit late to enjoy them this Spring. Hopefully they'll stay nice and warm until 2010, though!
We also found a few new 'pets' while we were planting!
Not wanting to do things by halves, Ruth managed to find the biggest Christmas cracker ever, this year! Nanny and Grumpy, Auntie Jan, Uncle Mike, James and Bethan joined us for Christmas dinner, and you can see we needed a lot of help to pull the cracker! We were worried that there was going to be a huge explosion when it popped!
After all the work of pulling the cracker, we had loads of delicious grub to keep us going for the rest of the day!
Uncle Tim, Auntie Abby, Chloe and Anya came to Cardiff just before Christmas to celebrate together. There was lots of games, presents, yummy food and silly photos!
Will, though, still hasn't worked out the difference between crackers that you eat and crackers that you pull!
Tom appeared in his school Christmas concert this year as one of Little Bo Peep's naughty sheep.
Here he is returning back to the pen after being caught and told off!
It wasn't just Santa that Hannah and Thomas were waiting for this year. We were waiting for a new sofa to be delivered in December, and had already scrapped our old sofa to make room, so we had a week or so of sitting around on deck chairs in the house. It was like being at the beach!
As Hannah and Thomas discovered, if you have to sit on deck chairs, then you may as well make them as comfortable as possible!
Try as hard as he might, Will hasn't yet mastered the art of hanging Christmas decorations on the tree!
His technique of simply dropping the bauble onto the branch, just doesn't seem to work. He's very good at pulling the decorations off the tree, though...
Grandma and Grandad gave us a fantastic present this month, by offering to have Hannah, Thomas and Will to stay for a weekend, while Ruth and I went away for some much needed peace and quiet!
We didn't need to be asked twice, so we jumped in the car and headed off to a beautiful little cottage near Hereford. And, we spent pretty much the whole weekend stuffing our faces with food that we didn't have to share with the kids - nice chocolates, delicious biscuits, chinese takeaway...!
We did get some exercise, though, in the form of a freezing cold walk along part of Hay Bluff. The views were terrific...
...but it looks like Ruth is feeling the cold!
We ended our walk with a drive into Abergavenny to find a warm coffee-shop, with more delicious cakes!
The cottage where we stayed had some beautiful views, too!
Don't feel too sorry for the children, though. They had a fantastic time at Grandma's, and even had pancakes for breakfast on one of the days!
We've been decorating the front room this week, while Hannah and Thomas have been in school, so that they don't try and 'help'! Unfortunately, Will isn't in school yet, and he was pleased to give us his advice and show us how it was done!
For some strange reason, known only to them, Hannah, Thomas and Will have taken to drinking their morning milk on seats looking out of the patio doors into the garden!
Perhaps they're dreaming of a Summer, when they might actually get a chance to play in the garden...
We decided to make the most of a sunny Autumn day, and Hannah's new bike-riding skills, and take the bikes for a ride around Margam Park.
Will hasn't got a bike, yet, so he wanted to ride the donkeys instead!
After realising that the donkeys were more likely to eat him than let him ride them, Will decided to make do with getting around on his hands-and-knees, instead.
We're all big fans of toy cars in our house - especially Tom and Will, who love playing with the toy garage.
Will always likes to do his King Kong impression, though, and try to attack the helicopters landing on the garage roof!
After a hard first day in school, there's nothing like relaxing with the Nintendo DS on a 'Daddy Beanbag'!
It was Thomas' first day at school today, and he looked very smart in his new school uniform.
Exciting stuff, but Thomas is glad that he's got his big sister to look after him.
On probably the sunniest day of the summer, we headed down to Cardiff Bay to walk and ride along the Barrage. Hannah put her new-found 'who needs stabilisers?' cycling skills to good use, and whizzed past (and through!) hundreds of people.
Thomas wasn't far behind, either, with his litte wheels going like the clappers.
Will got a chance to travel by Uncle Tim's Taxi today, but was making sure that he held on for dear life!
I hope Uncle Tim managed to get all the snot out of his hair... nice!
Will enjoyed himself at Techniquest today. Our cat, Ebby, is very grateful that bolts of electricity don't really zap out of Will's hands normally!
Undeniable proof that it is impossible to take a photo of five children, one of them aged one, where every single child is facing the camera, sitting up straight and smiling naturally.
Hannah and Chloe looking the part, in whatever crazy adventure they're off on now...
But, surely pirates never used to brandish light-sabres!?!
Have you ever seen such a look of suspicion on a one-year old's face?
I don't know what he saw, as he whizzed around on a train at Heath Park, but it certainly grabbed his attention!
Thomas is going Spiderman crazy at the moment, despite the fact that he's never actually ever seen a comic / film / tv programme / book with Spiderman in it! Nothing like a bit of peer-pressure!
So, you can imagine how much all of his spider-senses were tingling when he opened a late birthday present from Uncle Tim, Auntie Abby, Chloe and Anya (who were visiting Cardiff) and found this fantastic costume!
I guess that makes him a web-developer, like his Dad!
It hasn't been hot enough this summer to fill the paddling pool with water, but we've had lots of fun by filling it with plastic balls!
The only problem is that the day invariably ends with 300 small plastic balls scattered around the garden! We'll still be finding them under bushes next January!
There's a worm at the bottom of our garden, and his name is Wiggly Woo!
I promise that we didn't eat him, though!
It was Grumpy's turn to celebrate his birthday today. Hannah and Thomas (with encouragement from Will) made a card for him, which starred three of his favourite grandchildren.
Meanwhile, Will took the opportunity of Grumpy's birthday party to have some cuddles with Auntie Jan.
It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Will was born. It's flown by!
So, on his first birthday, Will was given clear instructions on how to set about opening your presents...
He also enjoyed eating one of Nanny's speciality fruit salads...
And he definitely didn't want to share his first ever birthday cake with anyone!
Three children, growing up way too quickly for their own (and their parents') good!
This is Will's sign language for "All gone!", which is used when something that he's been eating has all been finished up.
It's also used when he's decided that the something he's been eating shouldn't be eaten anymore, and he tries to trick us into taking his plate away and giving him something else!
