December 2009

Early December saw visits to Manchester to see baby Iris with her brothers, 15 year old Ruud and 6 year olds Thierry and Jayden. I also got to see Thierry as the Narrator in his school play.

We spent a quiet Christmas Day visiting my mum, Nanny Iris who was unfortunately too poorly to realise we were there. The highlight of the day was skyping with Belinda and her family.

Then a much livelier Boxing Day with Chris and Maki and their boys. We enjoyed seeing them and watching the boys opening parcels and playing. 5 year old Chisato loved his robot money box (which actually counts how much money you have put in) and 18 month old Michika had us in stitches with his funny faces.

Our Christmas visit to Manchester on Sunday 27th meant that

we got to spend a few days with Lawrence, Damaris, baby Iris
and the boys. Our dogs enjoyed the visit and made friends with

their new Pug Millie. They all got on so well and looked really

cute sleeping together.

The good time we had was somewhat overshadowed by what we found on our return home. Water was pouring through the ceiling upstairs and the carpet was awash!!! It took ages to sort and the new year started with us still on the clean up and then dealing with the insurance company.

Nanny Iris has made a slowly recovery from her chest infection but is still frail.

We have lots of lovely photos from December, some we have taken ourselves and some posted by our family. We cherish them all. This photo of Jayden and baby Iris sums up December for us .... a loving family is so important.

Iris Mary Fo

Iris Mary Fo was born on

23rd November and

weighed 5 lbs 14 oz.

Family time

In November we had a wonderful visit from Belinda and her lovely family. They spent 12 days with us and enjoyed time with family and friends as well as fitting in a trip to London, a visit to a spa and a night in a luxury hotel. It was good to finally meet our new grandson Reef and as always we enjoyed the time with Lily.

Welcome back Jayden

We haven't seen our six year old grandson Jayden for nearly two years. In October he went to live with Lawrence and so now we are able to see him again. In the first few weeks with Lawrence he has lost 13 pounds which is fantastic and he is enjoying beeing with them all. Thierry spends every other weekend with Lawrence so the boys get to hang out together.

Arthur's niece

We enjoyed having Arthur's niece visit us and the dogs have missed all the extra attention since she went home.

Bank holiday weekend

Chisato came to stay for the long weekend. He had a great time.

Walking the dogs, playing hide and seek with Lady at the park and enjoying the play park.

Painting, playdough, sweeping the leaves in the garden and then time to relax. Then of course there was baking rock cakes, making jelly and the special desserts like the banana split.

Weekend with our grandsons

Big brother, Chisato was very anxiouos to help
one year old Michika open his belated birthday present.













Michika preferred to play
with nanny's shoes.

Reef Ambrose Esser

I left Florida on 13th August and our newest grandson, Reef decided to arrive 3 weeks early on 14th August!!!

So welcome to Reef. We can't wait to be able to get back there to meet him in person.

He weighed in at 7 and 1/2 pounds.

Lily is now a very proud big sister.

Happy 6 Year olds

I travelled to Florida with Thierry to celebrate his and Lily's 6th birthdays. We had a fantastic time thanks to Belinda and Kelly's generosity, good weather and two very entertaining children. Poor Arthur had to stay at home with the dogs.

Our little helper

Since we arrived home from Florida we have had a quiet time, especially as Arthur hasn't been so well. We have pottered around in the garden and kept it tidy so that we can enjoy seeing the plants in bloom and the birds using the bird bath and bird box.

Chisato loves helping us water the plants and then his reward is one of my home baked cakes.

More photos from last few days

Playing in the pool

Lily's nails

Last post from Fort Lauderdale

This is the last post this vist. Although we were here for 5 weeks the last few days have gone by so fast. Here are some photos from our last week.

On Friday Belinda dropped us off and we enjoyed an early morning walk on the beach whilst we waited for the shopping mall to open. Our main purchase was a book about birds in Florida ... now we know what kind of bird it is that Stella has caught! She must think she is a cat as she catches and kills at least one bird a day.




Saturday was a girl's trip to the Nail Parlour. I have never had such nice nails so I think no housework for a while so that they last. :) Lily had light blue with a sparkly white pattern ... the toes have lasted longer than the finger nails.

Roadtrip

Having picked a basketful of Mangoes we set off to take them to Arthur's nephew, Courtney who lives near Tampa. The drive takes just over 4 hours so Belinda packed a cooler with drinks and a bag with snacks and we left about 3 pm Lily played with her DS, read and sung until finally giving into a nap on Grandad's arm. Once she woke it was I Spy and other games for the rest of the journey.

We had a great weekend visiting with Courtney, his wife Leslene and their youngest son Michael. Lily became Michael's shadow for the weekend. We were joined for some of the time by Courtney's brother and sister, Mark and Shirley, and their mum, Arthur's sister Olga. It was good to catch up with everyone and there was a lot of reminiscing going on.

We left there at 3 pm Sunday for the drive home. At one stop along the way we were joined by birds who came down to share the McDonald's fries.

Arthur, the dog whisperer