Easter and St. George's day

Luke enjoyed searching for plastic eggs, which we had hidden around the living room. We bought him a trike and some sand toys too. I feel sorry for him that his birthday is so close to Christmas. So we thought Easter is a nice time to get him a few bits for the summer.

We've been taking his sand toys down to the sand box in our community's play area, and Luke has been learning to share. It's lovely to watch kids play together.

I also decided to make a tradition of taking photos with the English flag, on St. George's day. I did this last year as well and I think we'll do it every year. I know it seems like I do a lot of 'English' holidays, but I promise I am going to do July 4th too, in fact I am already planning their outfits!

And the last piece of wonderful news is that the semester is over, and Trev is finished with classes for a whole month :-) yippeeee!!

Football!

To me, football means soccer. It's a game I grew up with. There was always a soccer ball in the back garden to idly kick around with siblings. My brothers took it to the next level and played in the park on a daily basis. My uncles were excellent players. We saw games on television, and live of course. David Beckham was a household name, and the boys had posters of their favourite players on their bedroom walls. To a Brit, it really is 'the beautiful game'.

Trev knows how cool it is, too, because he served his mission in England. And Luke is learning...

Here's Luke about this time last year, at 4 months-

And the next two pictures were taken last week. He LOVES kicking the ball!

Our English Christmas

We flew to England for Christmas. This was my first time being home for two years, and our first trip as a family. We were really excited! The flights went quite smoothly, and Luke was as good as gold.

Walking around my home village, in the typical wet English weather! It sounds funny, but I was hoping for rain, after being in the Utah desert for a couple of years, you do miss it!

We met our nephew, Nathan, for the first time. He's even cuter than he looks in the photos, and just adorable. Luke enjoyed stroking his cousin's head :-)

Here's Nathan on Christmas morning. What a sweetie!

We enjoyed a lovely mum-cooked Christmas dinner of turkey and all the extras. It was delicious! I wish I could have eaten more but the heartburn is getting me big time this pregnancy.

Of course, everyone made a big fuss of Luke, much to his delight :-) I loved watching him interact with my family. He really is quite a friendly and confident little boy most of the time. I know that he had lots of fun and hope that he will retain some kind of memory of them all, at least until he sees them again.

We had a wonderful trip and the only problem was that the time went too quickly. We hope we can go back soon!

London!

Many of you know that Trev, Luke and I had the wonderful opportunity of travelling to England for Christmas. (I'm getting to my Christmas post, I promise!) Anyway, a few days before Christmas, my mum and John offered to take us to London for the day, along with my sister Sophie. I've been to London quite a few times before, but never as a 'tourist'! It was actually very fun to go round taking pictures of all the buildings and landmarks. They really are beautiful and historic and I should have taken more notice of them in the past.



Here's us in front of Big Ben (the clock tower), which adjoins the Houses of Parliament.



Us on a bridge spanning the Thames river (the main river upon which London is built) In the background you can see the London Eye, which is a very tall ferris wheel type ride. I think it's about 450 ft tall, and is designed for the purpose of observing London.

We were treated to a ride on it, by mum and John (thanks!). They looked after Luke while we had a 30 minute date :-) Each capsule holds up to 32 people, but we had just 4 in ours. Lucky!

Trev got double rides that day, as a pursuaded him that it was time for Luke to have his first carousel ride...

After hours of walking around, and navigating the London underground train system, we were ready to sit down and relax (while mum, John and Sophie continued shopping- I have to admire their stamina!) We all decided to go to Harrods, a massive, upmarket department store. After studying the map of its 5 floors, Trev and I selected a family friendly cafe, and went for a bite to eat. We quicky discovered, however, that the prices were a little higher than anticipated, so we bought a couple of fruit smoothies instead!

Altogether we had a brilliant day, and created some more lovely memories. That is what we were hoping for in our trip to England.

Luke is one!

Luke turned one on December 22nd. We had a small celebration for the event. He seemed puzzled, awe-struck and happy with his cake! My mum found some candles which burn with flames that are the same colour as the wax, so we used all 6 colours for effect.

Luke has grasped the concept of opening gifts, and it was fun to watch him open presents from his grandparents, aunties and uncles. He received several books, a snail toy, shoes, bath toys and money.

Happy birthday Luke! We've loved having you for this past year. You are already getting so big and every day you surprise us with how clever you are. We are proud and happy to be your parents xx

Remember, remember...

Trev and I keep meaning to sit down and decide what we want our family 'traditions' to be. Of course, some will evolve over time, but each of us came to our marriage having been raised in families with fun and wholesome traditions. We would like to continue some of these in our own family. One thing we have decided is that, no matter where we are living, we will try to help our kids have a sense of both American and English culture.

Today is a day of celebration in England. It is 'Bonfire Night' or 'Guy Fawkes'. On November 5th, every year, families in England gather for bonfires and fireworks, baked potatoes, hot dogs and toffee (amongst other things!) Back in the day (maybe the 1600s, I'm not sure...) a man named Guy Fawkes, along with his co-conspirators, was going to blow up the houses of parliament. But he was caught and burnt at stake, hence this wonderful celebration!

Anyway, we did our little celebration today, even though we couldn't get any fireworks. Luke seemed perfectly happy with his little glow sticks!

Bonfire night has been and gone,

But thoughts of it still linger-

I held a firework in my hand,

Has anybody seen my finger?